Hilde Vlaminckx wrote to us about a boy called Paul (not quite his real name, but similar). Some 12 years ago his mother brought him as a new-born baby from her distant village. He was unable to empty his bowels and his abdomen was very swollen. We diagnosed Hirschsprung’s disease, where the nerves to part of the terminal bowel have not developed normally. We operated on him, giving him a colostomy to relieve the obstruction. When he was 3 we sent him to a paediatric surgeon in Antananarivo who was able to remove the diseased part of the bowel and join things up again. Now he has finished his primary schooling and his mother decided to put him in secondary school in Mandritsara. There are many children from the villages who live in Mandritsara in term time in order to attend secondary school.
When Paul and his mother arrived in Mandritsara for him to start secondary school, Hilde asked him, among other things, where he was going to church. He said he wanted to go to the Baptist church! Sunday school starts at 8 am. On the first Sunday, Paul arrived at Hilde’s house at 5.30 am to go with her! On the second Sunday he was there at 6 am! Now he goes on his own.