Rainbow ask Ozarkers to change a life

Agency hopes residents will donate to help Nicaraguans with medical needs.

by Linda Leicht

December 24, 2006 -- When Luke Nixon saw the tiny 2-year-old boy in the Rainbow Network clinic in Nicaragua last July, he saw a way he could perform a miracle.

The boy had been born with club feet.

"He had never walked, and he never would," said Nixon, the father of eight. "I realized at that point, there's not a lot of things in this world that one person can do, but I knew that I could help this little kid."

Nixon donated the money needed for the boy's surgery.

"I got an e-mail a couple weeks ago showing the little boy actually walking," he said. "That was a neat Christmas present for me."

Change a life

Rainbow Network is offering others an opportunity to learn what one person can do to change someone's life through the Springfield-based compassion agency's special-needs program.

Eight-year-old Jose Angel Martinez fell a year ago, injuring his head. Since then, he has suffered migraine headaches and convulsions, sometimes as often as three times a day.

The doctors are not sure whether his symptoms are from secondary cerebral damage or parasite illness. All they need are some medical tests — such as axial computerized tomography, electroencephalogram and a neurological evaluation — to determine the proper treatment.

Jose's family lives in a dirt-floor shack with a metal roof, wood pole walls, no electricity and no latrine. His parents work during the coffee-cutting season.

The $500 needed to get the medical tests for Jose is more than the family will ever be able to afford.

Jose is one of 137 people with special medical needs in Rainbow Network.

There is tiny Amir Garcia Urbina, whose chronic eye infections have damaged his tear ducts so badly he can no longer tolerate sunlight and is in danger of going blind. Or 7-year-old Tania Sanchez, who has a ruptured internal umbilical cord that causes her pain and complicates digestion.

Marvin Granados Loza has three children. He provided for them, his wife and his elderly parents until he was shot by robbers a few months ago. Complications from the initial surgery have made it impossible for him to work.

Fausto Perez Sevilla has supported his wife and three children by working in the coffee harvest, but he is losing his vision to a cataract and glaucoma. Surgery and medication could preserve his vision so he can work when the coffee season begins early next year.

As good as it gets

A group from National Avenue Christian Church went to Nicaragua to help build houses, but they saw a little girl who was blind from cataracts due to severe vitamin B deficiency.

"We reached in our pockets and fixed that one," said their pastor, Roger Ray.

A year later, Ray was able to show his church a picture of a smiling 7-year-old girl with shining eyes.

It reminded him of the Bible story of John the Baptist sending his disciples to Jesus to ask whether he was the awaited savior. Jesus' answer was to report what they witnessed — the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk.

"This is just being part of Jesus' ministry," said Ray. "This is as good as it gets."

The employees at Nixon and Lindstrom saw the results of Nixon's donation and decided to do the same. They were able to pay for the surgery of an 11-year-old girl with a stomach ulcer.

"It's relatively small amounts of money for us here," said Nixon. "When it's something that can be as dramatic as a little girl getting to eat again or a little boy getting to walk, you've got to do it."