When our little brings a Huge Grin!

Five months ago I told you that we feared for the life of seven-year-old Cai Rang who has severe hydrocephalus. I also said, "sometimes the medical problems are just too big." Two months later I told you that the build up of fluid meant he could no longer hold up his head and that it would be a challenge to transport him from Xining to Beijing, where he could get specialised attention.

The whereabouts of Cai Rang's parents are unknown, so he lives with guardians.  Some time ago his guardians refused modern medical help and elected to go with traditional Tibetan medicine. The hydrocephalus got steadily worse.

Since telling you about Cai Rang and asking you to pray, we've consulted doctors in Qinghai, Beijing and Hong Kong, all of whom were kind enough to give their time pro bono to study Cai Rang's MRI's. The consensus was that the risk of life threatening complications from surgery outweighed the possible benefits. Their advice was, "Let the child enjoy the life he has."

We were very sad, but we wanted to do what little we could to improve Cai Rang's quality of life, so we gave him a brand new wheel chair.  I don't know if you've seen the 1989 Academy Award winning movie My Left Foot, about Christy Brown, an Irish poet and painter. In the movie he suffers cerebral palsy, so he's wheeled around his working class neighbourhood in a home made push cart.  Well, Cai Rang's reaction was reminiscent of that movie.

When he was placed in the wheelchair and pushed around, a huge grin spread across Cai Rang's face.  He is obviously very happy. No longer will he be confined to one spot on the floor or on the bed.

A wheelchair is a small act of kindness, but it has brought a significant improvement not only to Cai Rang's quality of life, but also to the life of his guardians, who no longer have to lift him off the floor.

Sometimes, we get frustrated because we're only able to give a little or do a little, but to someone who has nothing, even our little may mean a great deal.  The Bible says: As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. I think this also means that we should have faith that even our little deeds of kindness will be blest by God who knows our hearts.

God bless you,
Siew Mei