Help Mike get two new hips

What This Fundraiser is All About:

Both of Mike\'s hips are rapidly disintegrating. At the beginning of this year, he began noticing some discomfort in his right leg. Now, he can\'t walk without a cane. There are times when he can barely walk at all and the pain is nearly unbearable... and those are the good days.

After close to a year of X-rays, tests and painkillers, Mike has been diagnosed with ideopathic avascular necrosis, and his doctors have told him he needs to have his right hip replaced immediately, and he\'ll need his left hip replaced within a year. But, as the pastor of a small home-based church, Mike\'s income only affords him a limited amount of insurance, and his out-of-pocket expense to have the surgery done here in Michigan would be $40,000... per hip. $80,000 would be astronomical for anyone, but with Mike\'s limited income, it places the surgery in the realm of impossible.

However, after many weeks of painstaking research, Mike has found that he can have the surgery overseas at an internationally accredited, highly respected facility in New Delhi, India, for a fraction of the cost. Mike has carefully researched the facility, and they provide excellent care using state-of-the-art methods and technology. He would receive no better care if he were able to have the surgery performed locally.

Mike will need to travel to India twice to have each hip replaced. He will have the surgery in his right hip first, and will be in India for approximately 3 weeks, which will include a 1-week hospital stay followed by 2 weeks of post-release follow-up and a physical therapy plan. He\'ll return to the U.S. for physical therapy and continued follow-up with his doctors here. Several months later, after he has fully recovered from his first surgery, he will return to have the left hip replaced.

The entire cost for both surgeries, including all hospital costs, round-trip airfare for both Mike and his wife Phil, hotel accommodations for Phil during Mike\'s hospital stay and for both during his post-release follow-up, and all other travel expenses is $25,000.

Mike\'s friends and loved ones are trying to raise the funds to make these surgeries possible for Mike. He lives in constant pain and soon won\'t be able to walk at all. Mike is 49. That leaves a lot of life ahead of him to endure the level of pain he is currently experiencing... and it gets worse with each passing day.

Mike is usually not on this side of the fundraising. He\'s usually the one leading the effort to help someone in need make a house payment, pay off a car, get a vehicle fixed, replace a broken appliance, or provide for some other need. But this time he\'s the one in need, and those of us who know and love him want to do whatever it takes to provide him with the means to get these much-needed surgeries.

We ask for your prayers and any donation that you can contribute.

God bless.