Phillip Matthews wasn’t supposed to survive.

For reasons doctors still can’t explain, he was born kicking and screaming. After 25 surgeries to repair his cleft lip, cleft palate, and the part of his brain that didn’t fully develop, he became the inspiration to help children around the world.

His parents say his story is remarkable because he was born in America.

They say if he had been born in parts of India or Africa, he could have faced exploitation or other serious dangers. So now, they dedicate their lives to helping children who don’t have the same opportunities.

“We did a lot of soul searching,” father Santhosh Matthews said. “Why was Phillip born to us?”

Santhosh and Susan Matthews found their answer in a story from the Bible.

“John Chapter 9 says Jesus and his disciples were walking. A blind man was seated there,” Santhosh said.

The story continues when the disciple asks, “Who sinned that this man was born blind?” The answer: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned. This happened so the works of God may be displayed in him.”

“It’s kind of a weird answer, but to us, the answer to why he was born that way was in that verse,” Santhosh said.

They realized this was bigger than them. The Matthews took their story and started Love Without Reason, a non-profit that seeks out children with facial differences in Africa and India and provides life-changing surgeries to help improve their future.

“We found out that children with facial differences, because of their appearance, can become especially vulnerable to exploitation and unsafe situations,” Santhosh said.

So, they raise money for medical missions to perform these surgeries for a fraction of what they’d cost in the United States. A cleft lip surgery averages $1,000; it’s about $1,500 to repair a cleft palate.

Phillip and their other two kids, Sara and Caleb, go with them.

“We go to the rural parts of the countries and find these children that are often beyond the reach of medical care,” Santhosh said. “Children with facial differences are not only viewed differently, but in many developing communities they are also excluded from classrooms.”

Many times the surgeries have to be done within a year and a half or the child may lose the opportunity to develop normal speech.

Susan left her job of 20 years as a nurse practitioner to do this full time. She wondered if she had made the right decision until she met one mother in India.

“Her mother started crying and she was like, ‘Why did this happen to me? Why did God do this to me?’ Immediately I heard in my spirit. You asked these questions 14 years ago. You know what to tell her. Tell her,” Susan said.

Susan could speak the language, so she asked to hold the baby and said this: “This is not your fault. Nobody should blame Mom for this. Look at my son. He’s going to do great things. Your son is going to do great things.”

Susan says she realized at that moment she had made the right decision.

“Because we lived through it, we can look at those parents and say this is not the end of the road,” she said.

The Matthews recruit doctors from all over the world to perform the surgeries in each child’s home country. These medical missions take place on a weekly basis.

Source:  11Alive