Ling Ling Gets Well!

 

 

In September 2007, Cindy Reynolds, Erinn Copeland and Fred and Scheryn Pratt traveled to Linjiang. On this trip they visited a rural one room, very crude school house where they talked with a teacher and her three students. While there, they discovered that one of the students, seven year old Tian, Ling Ling, had been born with a heart defect that needed correction. Her family had been told that she would not live past the age of 15 if she did not receive the corrective surgery. However, the cost of the surgery was enormous and her family just could not afford it. They lived with the fact that one day their precious daughter would die at a very young age. Ling, Ling had grown so weak that her parents carried her everywhere. Her lips and fingernails had a distinct blue color when she tried to exert herself. Her parents had given up hope of their daughter ever leading a normal life.

After hearing this story, our US office administrator, Tammy Pardo, contacted an organization in the US that she was familiar with. The organization, Love Without Boundaries, (LWB) has a program that provides heart surgeries for orphaned Chinese children. She called in hopes to gain some information on how to find a doctor that would be able to help Ling, Ling. What happened instead was a miracle. LWB listened to Ling, Ling’s story and said that they could help us if we could fund the surgery. They even obtained a fee reduction for us through the surgical programs they have in place in China. Fred and Scheryn Pratt, who had met Ling, Ling in her little school house, immediately said that they wanted to help. They blessed Threshold with the funds to provide for not only Ling, Ling’s surgery, but enough money to provide for her parents to travel with her to the city of Hangzhou (near Shanghai) and stay there for weeks while she had the surgery and recovered.

Thank you all who prayed for Ling, Ling and her family. Ling, Ling did so well with the surgery that she was back in Linjiang sooner than anyone thought would be possible. Below is a photo of Ling, Ling and her father. She and her father climbed the 3 flights of stairs to our ministry office to come visit and give thanks. Weeks before, Ling Ling could not walk without feeling ill. Today, her heart is healed and her parents can rest at ease knowing that they will have their little girl for a long, long time!

 

 

 

	This is a photo of Ling Ling taken the day that we met her at her school. Her coloring was poor due to her heart condition. She had become so weak that her parents had to carry her wherever she went.
Just weeks after her corrective heart surgery, Ling Ling and her father climbed the three flights of stairs that lead to Threshold's office and apartment in Linjiang. This truly was a miracle. Before the surgery she could not walk anywhere without her lips and fingernails turning blue due to such poor blood circulation. She has now been blessed with good health!

 

 

This is where Ling Ling attends school. Look at the photo closely. You will notice the "floor heater" which is a pit, dug into the dirt floor, with an old half cut barrel covering it. Wood is burned to keep the classroom warm. The walls are covered in soot because of poor ventilation. Of course, the children and teacher breathe this unclean air as the fire burns during the winter months. The teacher stands on a platform made of bricks and a piece of plywood. Our director in China, Liu, Haiyan is seen here giving the students a lesson.