Merry Christmas Maxime!

We had a major victory this week! Maxime, a 21-year-old young man, pictured to the right was accepted at a major medical century for heart surgery. He needs a new heart valve as the one God gave him was ravaged by rheumatic fever.

Maxime has been to the States once before, a few years ago to have his valve surgically repaired. He now needs an artificial valve put in--they are appropriately called-St. Jude's valves--one that will last him the rest of his life.

Maxime lives near LesCayes, a bumpy, six hour ride away. His brother brought him to Port-au-Prince several weeks ago and John examined him. Maxime ended up staying with us for a night and it was quite memorable. During the rainy season, the water pours from the sky, and in the case of this night, it poured in our room too--right onto my pillow. A leaky roof was nothing new to Maxime, though. His leaky heart is much more concerning.

Hopefully, it will not be leaking for much longer. We are in the process of gathering all of the paperwork and plan to have Maxime on a plane for the States before Christmas.