ONE GIRL'S THANKSGIVING STORY FROM DESPAIR TO HOPE.Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer NORTH HILLS - Yulce Daelangi will sit down today for her first American First American may refer to:
tr.v. dis·fig·ured, dis·fig·ur·ing, dis·fig·ures To mar or spoil the appearance or shape of; deform. [Middle English disfiguren, from Old French desfigurer in an oil lamp explosion. ``God blessed me,'' said Yulce (pronounced Yul-che), through a translator, a smile spreading across a face being reconstructed by a team of San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. doctors. ``I'm happy.'' How a burn-scarred teen from Indonesia came to be transformed by American medicine is a testament to the Internet, satellite TV and a cross- cultural, international relief effort. It also includes the generosity of missionaries, two Valley churches, a North Hills family from Indonesia, the Children's Burn Foundation and Grossman Burn Center at Sherman Oaks Hospital Sherman Oaks Hopital (SOH) is an 153 bed acute care facility in Sherman Oaks, California, USA and is home of world renowned the Grossman Burn Center. SOH is owned and operated by Prime Healthcare Services, Inc. . Some say it means the power of dreams Power of Dreams were a Dublin-based pop/rock band, built around Craig and Keith Walker. They released their critically acclaimed EP "A Little Piece of God" on Keith Cullen's Setanta Records in 1989. . The power of prayer. And the power of one tough little girl and a mom who refused to let her go. ``Yulce is a symbol to all of us - that God is good,'' said Carl Cady, U.S. director for International Friends of Compassion, a medical missionary team in Indonesia that led the effort to save her. ``He answers the desperate prayers of little girls. He will move Heaven and Earth to answer this kind of prayer.'' It was in the fall of 2002 when Yulce, living with her family in a bamboo hut on the remote island of Halmahera, poured kerosene kerosene or kerosine, colorless, thin mineral oil whose density is between 0.75 and 0.85 grams per cubic centimeter. A mixture of hydrocarbons, it is commonly obtained in the fractional distillation of petroleum as the portion boiling off into a lit oil lamp, which blew up. The explosion ignited her face and torso, inflicting third-degree burns third-degree burns npl → brûlures fpl au troisième degré third-degree burns third npl → Verbrennungen pl dritten Grades on her face, neck, chest and upper arms. In excruciating pain, and without medical treatment, Yulce lay in bed for six months. As scars took hold, her face melted into her chest. Her lower lip The lower lip covers the anterior body of the mandible. It is lowered by the Depressor labii inferioris muscle. See also
vanished. Her ears disappeared. And her arms fused to her side. With her lower eyelids eyelids, n.pl a moveable fold of thin skin over the eye. The orbicularis oculi muscle and the oculomotor nerve control the opening and closing of the eyelid. drawn down, she could not close her eyes. Her mouth agape agape In the New Testament, the fatherly love of God for humans and their reciprocal love for God. The term extends to the love of one's fellow humans. The Church Fathers used the Greek term to designate both a rite using bread and wine and a meal of fellowship that included , she could barely swallow or eat. Neighbors told her mother, ``Your daughter is dead, put her outside.'' Children teased her until she refused to leave her hut. ``I kept praying and I kept praying,'' said her mother, Nice Bara, 31, a Christian in a land of mostly Muslims. ``I can picture my daughter the way she was before the fire,'' she said through a translator. Bara had a dream, she said. She was walking down a long road that narrowed to the width of a thread. She prayed. The road widened. In front of her stood a big white house filled with flowers - and a healthy baby. ``I knew that my daughter would be OK,'' she said, ``that if you have faith and believe in God, she will be well.'' Yulce's road to America was launched by an IFC (Internet Foundation Classes) A class library from Netscape that provides an application framework and graphical user interface (GUI) routines for Java programmers. IFC was later made part of the Java Foundation Classes (JFC). See JFC, AFC and AWT. See also ICF. Australian missionary living in her village. The missionary contacted Cady, who remembered a satellite TV special on Zubaida, a severely burned victim from Afghanistan whose face was reconstructed by specialists at the Grossman Burn Center at Sherman Oaks Hospital. Cady scoured the Internet for doctors who could help Yulce and eventually contacted Dr. Peter Grossman. He agreed to furnish a team of five doctors paid for by a $300,000 grant from the Children's Burn Foundation of Sherman Oaks. What they needed was a host family willing to put up Yulce and her mom for a year - the time needed to conduct more than a dozen complex surgeries. While riding his bicycle in Woodland Hills, Grossman spotted Gereja Bethel Bethel, in the Bible Bethel (bĕth`əl) [Heb.,=house of God]. 1 Ancient city of central Palestine, the modern Baytin, the West Bank, N of Jerusalem. Indonesian Church, whose 100-member congregation agreed to provide meals, clothing, transportation and translation services. The Setiagis, an Indonesian family who attend both Bethel and Shepherd of the Hills Church in Porter Ranch, agreed to host Yulce and her mother. Shepherd's Missions Department agreed to pay the $400-a-month rent. And today, Bara and her daughter live in a big white house in North Hills. ``When I saw her at the airport, I put my face down, I didn't think I could look,'' said Andoko Setiagi, their host since last August. ``Now, it's a lot better.'' Yulce, who has undergone five surgeries, can hold her head high, use her arms and control her new lower lip. Her zest has returned. She loves Saturday cartoons. She loves to dance. She loves Disneyland and Universal Studios. But more than anything, she loves learning English, math and the lessons she could never get at home. ``I like school, and it's not too hard,'' Yulce said. She even joked with her mom once, saying: ``You can go home and I'll stay here.'' Today, she will sit down to a Thanksgiving dinner The centerpiece of contemporary Thanksgiving in the United States is a large meal, starring a large roasted turkey. All of the dishes in the traditional American version of Thanksgiving Dinner are made from foods native to North America, according to tradition the Pilgrims received these at Gereja Bethel, pondering a great American turkey. Used to an Indonesian diet of fried chicken Fried chicken is chicken which is dipped in a breading mixture and then deep fried, pan fried or pressure fried. The breading seals in the juices but also absorbs the fat of the fryer, which is sometimes seen as unhealthy. and fish, she isn't sure she'll like it. ``She's miraculous. It's remarkable, she's a very tough little girl,'' said Bambang Sutrisno, 33, of Winnetka, a Bethel member who tutors Yulce three times a week. ``She keeps going, going, going. ``I would love her to try some turkey, and cranberries, too.'' Each year, more than 200,000 people die around the world from burns, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the Children's Burn Foundation. In the U.S., fires are the third leading cause of death among young children. Eighty percent of all burn injuries and deaths are preventable. ``She's given new meaning to the word outreach,'' former state Assemblywoman Barbara Friedman, executive director of the Children's Burn Foundation, said of Yulce's recovery. ``The catastrophic nature of her burns, it's our mission. ``People want to help.'' Pastor Biworo Adinata of Gereja Bethel said it's about the privilege of serving God. While children from his church have befriended Yulce, others have volunteered to tutor her each week. ``This, to me, is a miracle,'' Adinata said. ``I looked at her picture, before the surgery, and it made me cry. Right now I look at her, she's got her arms, her lips, her cheeks, I give thanks to God.'' Adinata said his church is so moved that it will start an outreach program to help Yulce's impoverished village. Pastor Eugene Richardson, head of the Missions Department at Shepherd of the Hills, said Yulce can handle pain better than anyone he's ever seen. ``She has a great spirit. Our biggest challenge is that she doesn't become Westernized west·ern·ize tr.v. west·ern·ized, west·ern·iz·ing, west·ern·iz·es To convert to the customs of Western civilization. west - with her visit to Disneyland, her exposure to television and electricity - before she goes back to the jungles in Indonesia.'' Grossman said his goal is to restore Yulce's face, neck and arms - and self-confidence. He wants her to go to school, to learn to read, to thrive through education. After Christmas, she'll undergo one more surgery and skin graft skin graft Autologous, donated, or surrogate skin removed from one site to cover surfaces on another region with 3rd-degree burns or traumatic tissue loss. See Split-thickness graft. Cf Artificial skin, 'Spray-on' skin. . In time, doctors will work to reconstruct her badly scarred chest. ``I found a little girl beneath the scars,'' Grossman said. ``I feel certain that, when we're done, we'll have a very pretty - and happy - young lady.'' Dana Bartholomew, (818) 713-3730 dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- color) Two years ago, Yulce Daelangi was badly burned when a kerosene lamp exploded. Now the 13-year-old girl is being transformed thanks to a host of caring people. (2) Yulce Daelangi, left, dances with her mother, Nice Bara, in the North Hills living room of Herna and Andoko Setiagi, their hosts since last August. Yulce, 13, said she loves learning English, math and the lessons she could never get at home. Michael Owen
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