God Moves Mountians

Ariel Molina may not be a name you are familiar with, but around here he's a bit famous. In August of 2008, Ariel Molina was the first pediatric patient to receive a kidney transplant in Honduras. For those of you who have not seen the Honduran medical system, a transplant in itself is a miracle! But it seems that God intends for Ariel to keep the kidney that his mother selflessly gave him, because today God moved mountains.

In the government hospitals of Honduras, the health system is set up where patients can receive their medications for free... though as with everything, there seems to be a catch. The catch is that the hospital must have medicine to provide medicine. It's simple enough. The government hospital orders it's meds based on volume of treatment... and of course, based on cost. Lucky for Ariel, he is famous. Being the first pediatric transplant gets you some perks, such as the expensive, life saving meds that keep your body from rejecting your donated kidney.

Ariel's recovery has been amazing. Mission Lazarus has been with him every step of the way, and not even once has his body tried to reject his mother's kidney. Ariel has been the model patient. All subsequent kidney transplants are now being measured to Ariel's idyllic progress.

Today Ariel's perfect model for kidney transplant recovery was put in serious danger. The hospital ran out of his special med. No one knows why, or maybe they just aren't telling, but either way, it happened. The medication that keeps Ariel's body from rejecting the lovingly donated kidney is nowhere to be found. Believe me, I would know. I had our awesome secretary on the phone all day calling every medication distributor and major pharmacy in Honduras and Guatemala. After a day of frustration I allowed myself to consider what I wouldn't even think of earlier in the day... Exactly what would happen if Ariel missed a dose? How bad would it be? How many doses could he miss before we started to see the signs and symptoms of kidney rejection? It seemed that there was no way to get our hands on this medication. The entire medical community of Honduras was looking for it, and no one had it.

It was in that moment that God started to move the mountains, you know, just a bit at first, so I would take notice. He dropped an idea in my head. What a simple-minded food I had been! It wasn't exactly true you see, I knew the med wasn't really "nowhere to be found." I knew where the med was, but how could I get it to Honduras, and so fast? And just like that, the mountains were moving. After a few emails and phone calls and many willing participants playing their part in God's perfectly orchestrated, earth shaking mountain move, things aligned exactly into place. Within an hour or two an awesome pharmacist in Houston had located, purchased and donated 60 days worth of this life saving treatment and then cashed in some skymiles so that a fellow brother could get on a plane tomorrow morning and bring Ariel the medication direct from the US. Talk about door to door service!

Ariel's health is no longer in danger, a mother's gift has not be lost, and God has shown us, once again, that there is nothing too great for our God.

"Great is the Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit." Psalm 147:5