Monday, December 10, 2012

More Updates From One New Heart

Here is the latest update from Hank Dannecker of the Jerusalem-based One New Heart, a Christian organization dedicated to providing free heart surgery to Palestinian children, who suffer from a higher than normal rate of congenital heart defects. The surgery is provided pro bono by Israeli doctors in Israeli hospitals, primarily Wolfson Hospital, which specializes in heart surgery. This update introduces us to Hank's latest sponsored children.

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Dear Friends and Family,

Below is the review by SACH's journalist of this past week's visit with three children who have had heart surgeries in the past 10 years.


Dear Colleagues,


Hope everyone's doing well!

Yesterday, I traveled with Hank (1 New Heart) and his translator (who is excellent),
to 3 homes around the Nablus area, and it couldn't have gone better.

We left at 5:30am, and returned to Jerusalem around 6:15pm.

Although it was a long day, it was very enjoyable and rewarding. We found three children is the perfect number to see in one day.

The families were very excited to share, and to answer all the questions, and were not shy to comment further. They all were extremely welcoming,
and expressed how thankful they are to us (SACH & 1 New Heart).

I was able to get some great quotes from them, about how much they appreciated the help, and how welcome they felt by the Israelis at Wolfson.

Actually, all the families said they felt more welcome there, at Wolfson with SACH, than they did in their own local hospitals, and all said
that their experience couldn't have been better.

So all very positive feedback!

It is very valuable to visit these families. They appreciate the visit, they enjoy showing off their healthy child, and it's very important for others to see as well.
Not one of the children has limitations after the surgery, and not one of them is needing to take medication.

I've got some great photos of the children in their homes, and have some with family.

In any case, the experience was very positive, for them and for us, and I am very interested in making this a weekly venture, and Hank expressed the same.

I will be sending the interviews and photos within the next couple of days.

I hope that we can make this happen again next week!

Thank you, and have a relaxing Shabbat,

Meredith


First interview on left and the oldest man in the village with Hrayr, our Armenian interpreter who is fluent in seven languages and has been a good friend of ours since 1995.
Inline image 1Inline image 2Inline image 3Inline image 4Inline image 5Inline image 6

Our last child just above lives on Mt. Ebal, the mountain where God told the Israelites to pronounce the curses; the second picture to the right is the opposing Mt. Gerizim, the place to pronounce the blessings.

As always there is plenty more to these stories - like the last family are bee keepers and gave us gifts of some of the best honey we have ever eaten.;)


Blessings as you walk with us,
--

Hank Dannecker Jr.
1 New Heart

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If you would like to help support a project that is truly changing Arab attitudes about Christians and Jews one family at a time, please see their link on this site under, "Worthy of our support".


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