The Story of Jesus Alberto

In July 2005 a team of one thousand young people from the USA spent a week building 25 houses in Jesus Alberto’s neighbourhood.  They discovered this brave little boy and decided to that a difference needed to be made in his life.

He was eight years old at the time and has an inherited condition called Hirshsprung Disease.  This is a condition that causes his colon not to function properly.  About four years ago he almost died from this disease because it caused an intestinal blockage.  He had emergency surgery and was supposed to return to have another operation soon after, to have his condition corrected permanently.

Unfortunately, because his parents are poor they could not afford to pay for the second operation and he was left carrying a colostomy bag attached to his body.  Over time his colon came out of his body more and more at the incision for the colostomy and he ended up with an approximately eight inch long part of his colon hanging outside his stomach, in a clear plastic bag.  Despite this, he kept such an amazing attitude; running around like any normal kid as if nothing was wrong.

Photos were taken and emailed out to anyone who may be able to contribute to Jesus Alberto’s surgeries and he was taken to see the surgeon who performed the initial operation.  Because his condition had been left for so long and he had the added complication of his colon being partially exposed, he needed to have two more surgeries to correct the problem; the first to correct the internal problem which started it all and the second to return his colon to the inside of his wee body.
Enough money was contributed by people around the world for both of the surgeries, as well as a new house for his family.

Eighteen months after his condition was initially discovered, Jesus Alberto is now healing well and able to live just like the other kids in the neighbourhood.  His family have a new home, which replaced the makeshift, spider-infested shack they were living in.  His Dad has also voluntarily put himself into a Christian alcohol rehab programme and is progressing.  And all because a whole lot of people decided to play a small part in making a difference in the life of one little boy.

Marissa’s Story

I saw some amazing things throughout the week; like a guy’s wrist healed right in front of my eyes. Here’s the story on that. Baja Bob and our group had just got done ministering to a group of people and this guy walks up and starts showing Bob his hand; his wrist was clearly broken. We had a nurse in our group he gets off the roof and walks over and says that the man needs medical attention, his wrist is broken. It had a lot of swelling and it just looked bad.

In the meantime while we were trying to find a first aid kit, this lady from New Zealand walks up and puts her hand on it and just starts pray to the Lord, asking him to heal this guy’s wrist. She prayed for a few minutes. She asked him, “Is your arm warm?” He said, “No, I just feel something inside it moving.” (We thought WHAT???) She waited a minute and then took her hand off.

There was no sign that his wrist had been hurt at all; the swelling had gone down and the bone was in line. The nurse looked at it in disbelief. Then I will never forget the words that she said. She looked at me and Mark (someone from my team) and she said, “God showed you this for a reason.” It gives me chills thinking about it.