Brian Kelso, pastor of Christ Covenant Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Southwest Ranches, Florida (near Fort Lauderdale) lost parts of both feet to malaria after spending months doing earthquake relief in Haiti, but he’s returning to the country in January to launch an orphanage.

Longtime missionary Brian Kelso will return to Haiti in January, this time like thousands of people who survived a 7.0 tremor there — as an amputee.

The Weston pastor spent months this year in Haiti doing earthquake relief, and it nearly cost him his life. After two months in the hospital, 40 hours in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, Kelso lost half his right foot and the toes on his left. His right foot is now a size 4.

“A mosquito and I had a rendezvous,” he explains.

The Presbyterian missionary who dedicated the last decade, and a bulk of 2010, to charity work in Haiti contracted malaria. His body slid into sepsis. His organs shut down; his ears, knees and feet turned black.

But this isn’t a guy who gives up. The Christ Covenant Church pastor will go back to Haiti for the Jan. 19 ground-breaking of a new orphanage for a village ripped by despair.

“The little bit that I went through truly can’t compare to the suffering people in Haiti go through every day,” Kelso said. “Are you kidding me? They don’t have water, opportunities, food, medical care. I was on my deathbed, but look at the medical care available to me.

“In the grand scheme of things, it’s not a big deal.”

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com:80/2010/12/27/1990872/his-life-saved-broward-pastor.html#ixzz19QYWZXdn

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