While new shoes can last for years, a new smile lasts a lifetime! The corrective surgeries for children with cleft lips or palates are truly lifechanging. It is not uncommon for parents and families in developing countries to abandon their little ones because of these kinds of facial disfigurements and consequent health issues.

One mission partner explained, “We often need to work with the parents to convince them that it is best for their children to get the surgery.” Some of the parents think “fate” made the child that way and to change it would be to “tempt fate” or “offend the gods.”

Thanks to friends of LIFE, reconstruction surgeries are paid for, a wonderful gift to some of the poorest families in the world. A child, once disfigured and ostracized, is now given a new chance to succeed in life, and we thank God for dedicated missionaries and medical personnel who help put smiles on their precious faces!