During the summer of 1985, I completed the required seminary classes in Clinical Pastoral Education at the Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock.
I was thrilled to read about the generosity of David and Cathy Evans and Gary and Hope George and their donation of 37 acres of land in Springdale where the satellite of Children's Hospital will be built. The site is catty-corner to the Arvest Ballpark. The location is only 25 minutes away from our home in Bella Vista versus the 3 ½ hour trip to Little Rock.
Since so many people from outside Arkansas have moved into this area, it occurred to me that you may not know the history and the continuing mission of this nationally- and internationally-acclaimed hospital.
In 1912, several doctors and other health professionals created the Children's Home Society with the mission of providing medical care to any child. They had an earned distrust of Arkansas politics, including the Legislature that was attempting to dictate which children could or could not receive medical treatment. Therefore, they went about raising money to build a private hospital.
A few years ago I returned to "Children's," where I joined the family of a teenage girl that was in desperate need of a heart transplant. We all had been praying that she would receive a donor heart.
Nine years before that day, I had sat with another family in San Antonio at a heart transplant facility. Time ran out on that member of my congregation because for more than a year no donor heart was available.
Therefore that day in Little Rock, I was filled with multiple anxieties until I once again walked through the doors of "Children's." I instantly knew I was in a scared and holy place. I knew in my soul that all would be well in that place where every day bodies, souls and minds are healed.
Today that teenager is a young woman attending college with a donor heart and is doing well. She is alive because of the sacrificial decision of an organ donor's family and an amazing team of medical professionals.
During my training at the Children's Hospital I saw similar sacrifices made by the families of children that had died but, in their deepest grief gave of their children's organs for transplanting into other children in desperate need.
Not all the miracles at the Arkansas Children's Hospital are performed by the medical teams. Parents reach down deep in their souls and say yes when their minds say no.
A great healing and spiritual place is about to be built in our part of God's Kingdom. Let us all received this gift with joy and sacrifice.
However, let's not wait for a new building to be built. All transplant hospitals need organ donors. I am an organ donor and you can be one as well.
Say your prayers, talk to your family, your physician and then proudly have placed on your medical records and your driver's license --organ donor. I believe it is a Godly thing to do.
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Parks is the former rector of St. Theodore's Episcopal Church in Bella Vista. He can be reached by email to [email protected].
Religion on 08/26/2015