St. Stephen's Mission Club welcomes Luis

Story and photos by Denise Bobak
Grand Island Dispatch, April 15, 2005

Students in St. Stephen’s Mission Club recently had a chance to visit with Luis Felipe Gomez Penate of Palenque, Chiapas in Mexico. The students have prayed and worked to help people there. A Stella Niagara Medical Mission team went to Chiapas to serve the needy in that community. While there, they met Luis who was born with his bladder outside his body, requiring special surgery. Luis and his mother came to Western New York for his surgery and are staying with a Lewiston family. Buffalo Women and Children’s Hospital performed the surgery successfully.

The people of Western New York love to give in many ways, and recently had the opportunity to meet one who is being helped by their willingness to share.

One of the Stella Niagara Medical Mission teams went to Palenque, Chiapas in Mexico to serve the poor in that needy community. They met a boy, Luis Felipe Gomez Penate, who was born with his bladder outside his body, requiring special surgery.

The Mission team made arrangements with a Buffalo area surgeon and anesthesiologist who volunteered to perform the surgery April 6, and Kaleida Health will donate 100 percent of the cost of his stay at Buffalo Women and Children's Hospital. Luis had a 13-hour surgery that corrected all problems and he is recovering very successfully.

Luis and his mother, Margarita, are being hosted by a Lewiston family, who have opened the doors of their home. While they were waiting for final surgery arrangements to be made, they have had the opportunity to experience our unique Western New York sites.

The St. Stephens School Mission Club has been working to send much-needed vitamins to those in need through the Stella Niagara Medical Mission. Sister Beth, and St. Stephen’s teachers, Mrs. Samplinski and Miss Fusco, arranged for Luis and his mother to come to St Stephen School to meet the children there, and give the children a chance to speak directly to someone for whom they have prayed and worked in the Mission Club. With Sister Beth as interpreter, the children asked many questions and learned a lot about this special boy and life in Mexico.