I was thinking about the best way to explain Children’s Heart Project, so I asked Saraa and Oji, our two veterans, to tell me a story about someone who had touched their hearts. This is what they had to say:

Baljka was 16 years old when Mongolian doctors told him he had six months to live. He was admitted to the hospital in 2006 with a cleft mitral valve (a split in one of the valves in the heart) and what doctors thought was a very serious heart infection called endocarditis. Baljka also had a bad infection in his leg from a dog bite. When Saraa and Oji met him, Baljka was in a Mongolian hospital, feeling sick and hopeless.

One of the Mongolian doctors who works closely with Children’s Heart Project referred Baljka to us as a last effort to help him. Every fall since 2005, Children’s Heart Project has worked in conjunction with another organization called For Hearts and Souls (FHAS), and spends one week “mending broken hearts” and one week “searching for broken hearts.” It was during one of those “searching” weeks in 2007 that Baljka was introduced to Children’s Heart Project and FHAS. The young man quietly entered the hearts of everyone involved and motivated people to figure out how to help him.

In the spring of 2008, Baljka traveled to San Antonio, Texas, with his mother, a translator, and another boy who needed heart surgery and his mother. During their stay in San Antonio, not only was Baljka’s heart healed, but his life was transformed! Baljka and his mother accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. They stayed with a Christian host family who took them to church and introduced them to the love of God. Baljka had never known the love of a father. His host dad helped Baljka to see how a Heavenly Father loves his children. During his stay, Baljka formed long-lasting friendships with his host family and Choijko, the other Mongolian boy who had also come for life-saving surgery.

Baljka is currently finishing his last year of high school and thinking about a future that he used to think was impossible. He wants to go to a university. He is an independent, bright, active young man with many possibilities ahead of him.

Before the surgery, Baljka was unable to keep up with his peers and had difficulty making friends. After his return, he now has many friends and regularly sees Choijko.

After children return from the States, we officially follow up with them after one month, three months, six months, and a year. Saraa said each time she visits Baljka and his mother she sees a light that wasn’t there before and has seen how much Baljka has grown in his faith.

Children’s Heart Project continues to provide opportunities for children like Baljka to have a new life, physically and spiritually. Many times the children who go to the U.S. for surgery are too young to fully understand what is happening, and in such cases, our ministry is primarily to the parents and other family members. And every time a life is transformed, in the words of Saraa, “it’s a miracle.”