A Birthday to Remember

Though Haiti is often full of hard work and heartbreaking stories, sometimes we have a lot of fun too.  Today I wanted to write a quick blog on a fun event that occurred this week.

Most of you have read about my special boy Wadley.  Wadley has had anything but an easy life, especially for only being 12 years old.  In a short recount, Wadley lost his family in a truck accident, lived with an abusive aunt, and was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy last year.  As we get closer and closer, I cherish the times that he opens up to me about his past, even though it also breaks my heart.  A few months ago I asked Wadley about his birthday.  He said that he did not know when it was because no one ever told him his birthday.  At the end of every year, he would just say he was a year older.  Well, this did not work for me.   Everyone deserves a birthday, and everyone deserves a big party!

Last Friday turned out to be a pretty good day for Wadley.  It started off with no school.  He spent the morning playing with his friends (while I secretly worked on party decorations).  Every Friday afternoon he and I go to outreach therapy together.  After therapy, I sent him to play with his friends, and then the real work started.  Autumn, the occupational therapist, Carlos, the physical therapist, and myself started decorating one of the rooms.  Wadley’s favorite colors are blue and yellow, so all the decorations were blue and yellow! (Thanks mom for sending those in!)

Next, all of the children who live in the Miriam Center (the special needs home) came in to get ready.  They were so excited.  We passed out hats for everyone to get them in the spirit.  Then it was time to bring Wadley in.  I went to tell him we needed him for something, and he walked into his first surprise birthday party!

It took him a little bit to figure out what was going on, but once he did, he was the life of the party.  There was cake, a photo booth, and lots of dancing.  Everyone had so much fun! Mom had sent down sunglasses for everyone, and they were a huge hit.  I have enjoyed watching these sunglasses make their rounds through the campus the last couple of days.  The other night a security guard was wearing a pair, and I saw a couple pairs at church yesterday!

I had to laugh preparing for the party about how you make do with what you have in Haiti.  I wrapped Wadley’s presents in Christmas wrapping paper and pink duct tape, but it worked!

While Wadley has many friends in the Miriam Center, he also has many friends in the boy’s orphanage.  I wanted to be able to include them too, so Wadley made a list of some of his best friends.  These friends were all invited to a movie night complete with juice, snacks, and a goodie bag!  They all showed up all dressed up and excited. 

All in all, I am so thankful to have been able to give Wadley a day for himself.  I explained to him after it was all over how now he can say that October 30^th is his birthday.  Though I cannot change his past, I can do my best to make his present life all that it can be.  It is an amazing thought that even our best birthday parties in this life are a mere glimpse into the parties we will have in Heaven.  I hope and pray that everyone reading this will be in attendance of Wadley’s heavenly birthdays, when those days come.  I know I am looking forward to them. 

Blessings and Lessons (Part 2)

Part 2!  Something I love about surgery weeks is all the new people that they bring to campus.  While this opens a huge door for ministry, I also found this week that these patients provide huge blessings and lessons. 

One of the patients who came for eye surgery really impacted me.  I was sitting inside the surgery wing, and a Haitian man came in and said “Can you help me? There is a lady outside who is really sick.”  I went out to find this lady sitting there who was missing one leg from the knee down.  She proceeded to take off her shoe from her other foot and not only was she missing all of her toes, but the area was grossly infected and rotting.  I kept asking, “Wait, you are here for eye surgery?  Are you sure you are here for the eye team?”  With a smile on her face, she kept saying that yes she was here for the eye surgery, but she had diabetes and this kept happening to her foot.  I got one of the doctors to come examine her.  He said that she could still have her eye surgery, but she would need to start a week’s worth of iv antibiotics and then also have surgery with the orthopedic team.  She was from several hours away, so this meant she would have to stay on campus.  When we explained this to her, she just said, “okay that’s fine” with a smile on her face.  Ultimately the decision was mad that she could not have the eye surgery, but she still stayed waiting for the orthopedic team.  Every day she would sit at the front of campus and greet everyone who came and went.  She never asked me for anything, but she was so appreciative when I would give her a little money to get some food.  I knew that staying for what ended up being two weeks was not in her plans.  After the first day, she would hug me every time she saw me and call me her best friend. 

The orthopedic team arrived, and she was able to have her first surgery on the first day.  There happened to be a prosthetics team in Port-de-Paix during this same week.  The day following her surgery, she walked on the foot she had operated on to find a motorcycle and went all the way to Port-de-Paix (about an hour).  She went to Port-de-Paix every day for a week, after that including the day she had her second surgery (during which more bone was removed and the wound was closed).  We all thought that when she went back after her second operation she would get her new leg; however, when she got there, she was told she could not get a leg because her knee was too contracted.  It was worked out for her to come back in January to meet with another team.  When she was telling me the whole story, I was heartbroken for her.  She did not get her eye surgery, she had more of her one foot removed, and she did not get a prosthetic leg after all those painful trips to Port-de-Paix!  My face must have given away that I was upset because she looked at me with her ever present smile and said, “It is okay friend.  I am happy because now I will see you again when I come back.”  I am so inspired by the joy that was always evident on her face no matter what the circumstance.  

Since most of the orthopedic cases were major surgeries, most of the patients had to stay for several days.  I loved getting to know some of the patients throughout the days that they were here.  One family really stood out to me.  The lady’s name is Meprilla.  She is 83 years old, and she broke her hip over a month before the team got here.  I found out about her because her grandson is in our orphanage.  He took me to see her a few weeks before the team arrived, and I remember wondering if she would make it until the team arrived.  She was lying there crying in pain.  She had her surgery on the first day, and she ended up being one of the most difficult patients of the week.  She never listened, she tried to bite and pinch the nurses, and she just caused a lot of problems.  Her son demonstrated so much love and patience throughout this whole process though.  He never left her side even as she tried to bite him.  He never gave up trying to feed her even when she would spit food back at him.  After her surgery, her dressing had to be changed.  As she screamed in pain, her son left the room , went outside, and broke down in tears.  I heard him screaming and weeping.  These are not common emotions in the Haitian culture, and I realized that he loved his mother so much that he felt all of her pain.  It was breaking him to see how hurt she was.  Though I had not met him during my visit, I have no doubt that he has had those feelings for the last month as she was lying there with a broken hip.  I feel as if this man gave me a little glimpse into how God felt as He watched his son on the cross.  Here is a picture of Meprilla’s son and her grandson (who lives in our orphanage).  Please pray for Meprilla (and her family) as she still has a long way to go and is still in a lot of pain. 

While the two weeks were full of many victories, there were also hard times.  There were a couple incidents when I did not know if the patients were going to live.  There were times where we saw signs of neglect and abuse in children’s lives.  There was a time when a mother tried to abandon her child.  There was a time when a simple cyst was actually a brain aneurism.  There was an emergency case that came in of a girl who was hit by a truck and had an open leg fracture. 

During the difficult moments, I clung to the things that I am thankful for.  I am thankful that the man we met in La Baie was able to come for surgery.  I am thankful that I was able to spend more time with him and minister to him.  Please keep him in your prayers as his leg is now infected.  Pray for complete healing.  

I am also thankful for a surgeon that allowed me to scrub in and assist in one of the surgeries.  This was such a fun experience for me, but it also gave me a better glimpse into why the patients felt the way that they did after surgery. 

I am thankful for Tammy, a nurse from Lexington, who was willing to bring in a wheelchair for Wadley.  Though he does not need it now, it is such a relief to know it will be here when the time comes.  I am so thankful for her dedication in getting the wheelchair here, and her instant love for Wadley.  

I am thankful for the two surgery teams.  They loved their patients unconditionally.  Some of them were yelled at.  Some of them were cursed at.  Some of them had poop flung at them, but they never lost their Christian testimony.  They gave up their time and money to come here and serve the Haitian people.  One of my favorite stories from the eye team was a story one of the doctors shared.  He was one of the last stops in the eye clinic, so the patients had already interacted with many Americans by the time they got to him.  The doctor said that by the time one of the patients had reached him the man said, “I want what all of you have!!”  This doctor was able to lead this man to Christ because of the Christ-like love that everyone had demonstrated.  What an example of how we should live everyday: a light shining from us that is so great that people want what we have.  

Searching for Donkeys (Part 1)

PART 1! These last two weeks have been so full that it’s going to take two blogs to write about all that has gone on.  Here’s a start to how God has worked these last two weeks. 

Every week day morning is started off with Haitian staff devotions.  I cannot think of a better way to start a work day than with prayer, singing, and a short message.  Every day a different department is assigned to lead the devotions.  A few weeks ago it was my turn to share, and I chose to share a devotion about 1 Samuel 9.  In this chapter, Saul was sent out to search for some missing donkeys.  I explained how this was not in Saul’s original plans for his day.  While this was probably an annoying task, he had no idea what God had in store for this search.  This search took him much longer and farther than he had planned on going until he ended up in the town that Samuel lived in.  1 Samuel 9:15-16 reveals that God had told Samuel to anoint the man coming from the land of Benjamin as king.  That would be Saul!! God used missing donkeys to anoint Saul as ruler over the Israelites!

Wow! God has made the truths of this devotion so apparent in our lives these past couple of weeks.  Two weeks ago the eye surgery team arrived.  We had planned that they would use our one working anesthesia machine.  (We have been praying for the acquisition of a second machine.) However, when the team arrived, we were informed that now this anesthesia machine was not working either.  This was a major hiccup in our plan and a bit of an annoyance.  Not knowing what else to do, we went out looking for donkeys (or anesthesia machines) at a hospital about 30 minutes away, but God also had much more in store for us.  While there, we were introduced to an anesthesia machine technician.  This is a job pretty much unheard of in Haiti.  Over the last month, I have asked many organizations if they knew of anyone who could fix medical machinery.  Even places in the nation’s capital, Port-au-Prince, did not know of anyone.  The fact that this man was trained to fix medical machinery AND was way up in the Northwest zone, OUR zone, of Haiti could only be a God thing.  He was able to come fix both of our machines and countless other machines on campus (plus they gave us an anesthesia machine to borrow while ours were being fixed)!  While I was originally upset that we were having to search for donkeys, I am so thankful for this now. 

While sometimes we have to search for donkeys, sometimes God sends them to us.  The day before the eye surgery team arrived, we also had an unexpected visitor arrive on campus.  The director of the Haitian National Police (along with all his body guards) showed up and informed us that he would be having surgery the next day.  This turned into chaos as we tried to quickly prepare a place suitable for him to stay.  While we were all a bit frazzled by this, God once again had bigger plans.  When the team arrived the next day, they had a lot of problems with customs.  Customs took all of their bags with medical supplies and said that they could not bring them into the country.  Since this meant that the Haitian National Police Director would not be able to get his surgery, he quickly started making phone calls to get the supplies released from customs.  Without his help, we would not have been able to get the bags released, and the surgery week would not have been possible.  Only God could have used something potentially dangerous to bring glory to Himself. 

The last two weeks of surgery were insanely busy.  The eye surgery team saw nearly 800 people in the eye clinic and completed about 80 surgeries!  The day that they left, an orthopedic surgery team arrived.  This team was able to complete 22 major orthopedic cases and 30 minor procedures.  One thing that I loved watching during the busyness was how much the Haitian staff stepped up.  They stepped into roles that needed filled whether that was welcoming visitors, organizing the large amounts of people on campus, or simply praying for others.  I found one of the ladies who works in the orphanage in the surgery wing one day.  I was wondering what she was doing until I heard her going up to people and asking, “Do you know Jesus?  Have you accepted him as your Savior?  Do you have a church to go to?”  I am so thankful for a staff that wants to pour into the spiritual needs of the community as much as we do.  Another example of service I saw was one of the night security guards leading a blind elderly lady to where she was supposed to sit.  I asked him why he was doing that, and he said, “She looks like my grandmother.  I just wanted to help her out a little.”  Even though he was probably ready to go home and go to bed, he stopped to help this lady first. 

All in all, I am so thankful for the last two weeks.  I am thankful for God sending us searching for donkeys.  I am thankful for God sending us unexpected donkeys.  I am thankful for the surgery teams and all they accomplished.  I am thankful for the Haitian staff and how they demonstrated Jesus.  I am thankful for the individual patients that impacted my life.  Be watching in a couple days for part 2 which will go more into details about these patients!!

Lessons Learned: The Good, The Bad, and The Funny

Sometimes when I think about my life now all I can do is laugh.  It is so different than anything I could have imagined.  It is even different than what I imagined when I knew I was moving here.  Some of the differences are good, like I would have never imagined having Wadley in my life.  Some of the differences are hard, like seeing the reality of the health situation first hand.  Some of the differences are just funny.  I never would have imagined myself so excited about hosting a campus de-worming day.  I never would have imagined myself bucketing water to my house so I could bathe.  I never would have imagined myself attempting to organize a depot that seems to be filled with rats and spiders.  I never would have imagined myself a constant home of choice for ringworm. 

I am so thankful for the good differences and how they are impacting my life personally.  The funny differences I both hate and love.  However, I am thankful for the opportunity to learn how to adjust to things that might not exactly be what I had in mind.  While God is teaching me both about myself and the world through all of the differences, it is the hard differences that have stood out to me this week.  He has been teaching me that I don’t always have to know what to say or what to do.  I’m not expected to know what to say when someone shares with me about a recent rape, or when a child dies, or when everything in the world seems to be going wrong for a family.  That’s not my job.  My job is to listen to the Holy Spirit as He communicates what God wants me to say in the situation.  Romans 8 promises that the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness.  So often I am weak.  I don’t know what to do or what to say; but in those moments, God becomes our strength. 

I love so many parts of this country; but at the same time, I hate so many parts of this country.  It isn’t the heat or the lack of conveniences that I hate.  It is the injustice, the corruption, the abuse that I hate.  It is the fact that children and adults are dying of curable diseases that I hate.  It is the fear that voodoo holds over the entire population (Christian and non-Christian) that I hate.  It is the darkness of the wretched country that I hate.  Though I love this country with my whole heart, my heart breaks for it every single day. 

So often I find myself coming back to Habakkuk’s complaint in Habakkuk 1.  “How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?  Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save?  Why do you make me look at injustice?  Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?  Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds.  Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails.  The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.” 

While I so often pray this complaint, I also find myself holding onto the promise God made Habakkuk.  “Look at the nations and watch and be utterly amazed.  For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.”  This promise is what helps me get through the horrors that are a part of every day life here.  When I feel helpless because of the things I am confronted with, God is going to become the strength in the midst of my weakness.  I don’t have to know what to do or what to say in every situation; I just have to rely on God’s strength.  I truly believe that God will move Haiti’s mountains for Him.  As I hold on to His promise, I will do my part in working towards the day that I am utterly amazed. 

The Other Side of the Island

As I was coming up on three months in Haiti, I needed to get my passport stamped since a Haitian visa is only good for three months.  This meant a trip to the Dominican Republic.  The journey to the Dominican started off with a moto (like a small American motorcycle) ride to the big river, followed by a moto ride to Borgne, which took about 2 hours.  My moto was packed with the driver, Northwest’s travel coordinator, Caitlin, and a Haitian male nurse.  And don’t forget our bags! Once we got to Borgne, we got into a packed van to get to Cap-Haitien.  This took about another three hours.  

Once in Cap-Haitien, we met our friends Heather and Papito.  Heather and Papito used to work in the Miriam center, but now they have started a ministry/school for special needs children in Terrier Rouge, a town close to Cap-Haitien.  We all went to a restaurant in Cap-Haitien.  The restaurant was a reminder of how different parts of the same country can be.  The menu had things such as hamburgers and pizza, which are much different than our typical rice and beans, chicken, or spaghetti.  There were about the same number of Americans in the restaurant as Haitians.  This was also odd considering the closest Americans to our Saint Louis compound are about an hour away.  After lunch, we made a quick stop at Heather and Papito’s house, and then we drove for another hour to the border.  

Even when you first cross the border, the difference between Haiti and the Dominican are obvious.  Where there are rocky dirt roads in Haiti, there are paved roads in the Dominican.  Where there are crumbling makeshift buildings in Haiti, there are nice little shops along the streets in the Dominican.  

There seems to have always been a conflict between the Dominican and Haiti.  However, this summer that conflict got particularly violent.  The Dominican started mass deportations and increased the violence against not only Haitian people, but people of Haitian descent.  This means if you look Haitian or even if you speak Spanish (the official language of the Dominican) with a little Haitian accent, you are at risk for deportation.  This summer deported man ended up at the Mayor’s office in Saint Louis.  His mother had moved to the Dominican when she was pregnant with him.  He was born in the Dominican, always lived in the Dominican, and only spoke Spanish.  However, he was deported merely because of his heritage.

We saw a piece of this conflict first hand when we took a three-hour bus ride from the border to Santiago.  Upon entering every town along the way, we were stopped and an officer got on the bus.  The way these officers treated the Haitians on our bus was atrocious.  Every Haitian was required to show all of their paperwork, and they were often questioned beyond their paperwork.  We saw paperwork be ripped and thrown away, and we saw our Haitian brothers and sisters be completely degraded.  During the whole ride, as an obviously white, non-Haitian, I was only asked once to show my passport, and even then just waving it in the air was enough for the officer. 

Though the trip there was long and hard to see how the Haitians were treated, our trip to the Dominican was very nice.  Santiago was just like an American city.  There were roads, traffic lights, grocery stores, American restaurants, and all kinds of things that are not in Haiti.  We were able to get some much needed rest and relaxation.  We were able to do some shopping and get supplies that are hard to find or expensive in Haiti.  We were able to eat good food such as TGIF, Wendys, Sweet Frog, and a couple others.  

While I truly enjoyed my time in the Dominican, it both broke my heart and reassured me.  It broke my heart to see how the Haitians were treated there.  It broke my heart to know that I was on the same island, but things were so different.  How can life be like that in the Dominican, but how it is Haiti on the same island?  Don’t get me wrong, there are poor places in the Dominican.  However, in Haiti, there are not poor places.  Everywhere is poor, and occasionally there is a place that is wealthy.  This trip was reassuring because it reassured me that I am in the place that God wants me to be; a place that needs so much help; a place that needs God.  It also reassured me that I am going to be okay in Haiti.  I enjoyed having conveniences such as air conditioning, good food, hot showers, etc. while I was in the Dominican, but God does not call us to a life of comfort.  I would be lying if I said I didn’t miss air conditioning when I wake up drenched with sweat at 2 a.m., but this trip made me realize that I’m fine without those comforts.  God gives us what we need to do what He calls us to do.  God doesn’t ask us to do the easy things.  Think about what He did for us.  That was definitely not an easy thing.  God promises that, “my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  God may not always remove our difficulties, but He does always give us the appropriate amount of grace sufficient for each circumstance.  He gives us what we need when we need it.  Through this, not only are we strengthened, but more importantly He is glorified. 

That Still Small Voice

Wow.  It has been quite a while since I have last blogged.  It is easy to get caught up in the busyness of all that goes on around here.  Between the special needs home, the orphanage, the elderly home, the clinic, the birthing center, the nutrition program, and so much more there is always something to do around here.  Something that God has been teaching me is to listen for that still small voice in the midst of the busyness.  It is often the things that we don’t think we have the time for, or are not in our immediate plan that God uses to impact or bless us the most. 

A couple weeks ago I went to our campus in the Mole to do my health evaluations on the Mole and another community in the area.  My time was spent going around the communities to visit people and places such as water sources, clinics, midwives, nurses, and different families.  One afternoon my translator (and dear friend), Lunes, and I were on the way to visit a midwife in community.  We left later than we wanted, and her house was farther than we wanted to go.  On the way there, a little special needs boy caught my attention.  He had the most beautiful smile.  I spent a little bit of time talking with him and then continued on my way.  As we continued walking, I heard that still small voice.  I told Lunes that we needed to stop at their house on the way back.  When we stopped at the house, the children were eating unripen breadfruit.  Lunes took one look at it and pulled out his wallet to give them money to get something better to eat.  This was such an example of Haitians serving other Haitians, and something that really impacted me.  We spent time with the family that day, and were able to spend time the next couple of days praying with them and loving on the children.  One day we were able to go to the market and pick out a bunch of groceries for the family.  The last thing we picked up was a few pieces of candy for all of the kids.  They were so excited for this!  As much as I hope that we were a little blessing for this family, I know they were a big blessing for both me and Lunes.  

      John-Wisley, the special needs boy                  Me and John-Wisley's family         

Another example of this happened last Friday.  We have an outreach program for families with special needs children to come and receive physical therapy, occupational therapy, and encouragement once a week.  There are roughly 45 families that come throughout the week for outreach.  I have been going to outreach every Friday with my friend Wadley, so I have gotten to know a couple of these families.  They are such an inspiration!  Raising a special needs child anywhere is hard, but it is so hard here, where special needs children are seen as a voodoo curse.  In a country where it is common for special needs children to be abandoned, it is so encouraging to watch these mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, or siblings loving on these children and taking an active role in their therapy.  Last Friday, we had a family bingo day.  The lady I was sitting beside had a daughter with down syndrome.  The lady either could not read or could not see, so she was struggling with bingo.  After every number was called, she would ask me if she had the number on her card.  I would help show her if she had the number so she could put the marker on the card.  Eventually she won a round, and I have never seen someone more excited to scream BINGO.  Though I enjoyed watching her yell this, I enjoyed watching her give her prize of a bag of cookies to daughter even more.  Her daughter was so excited, and I know the mother was so excited to be able to give her daughter a treat.  As she was leaving later in the day, she came back to find me and give me a hug.  She just kept saying “thank you so much.  God bless you.  I will be praying for you.”  What a response for me doing something as simple as helping her put markers on a bingo card.  Though I had not intended to help this lady during family bingo day, I was so blessed by it.  Though I did not come to Haiti with the intention of spending my Friday afternoons in outreach, I would not have it any other way.  I am so thankful for the friendships that are growing there. 

Wadley after winning a round of Bingo!

One of the families all dressed up for Bingo

                                          

Listening for that still small voice is something I am struggling with every day; however, these two examples have shown me how rewarding it can be to do something that was not in your initial plans.  It may be something as simple as stopping to talk to someone when you were intending to go somewhere, or it could be a bigger change.  Though it is easy to get lost in busyness, it is in these moments that God’s presence is revealed. 

My Time With Blue Grass

It is about time that I blog about everything that went on when Mom and Mark were here.  The ten days were extremely busy, exhausting, fun, encouraging, and so much more.  I loved having the Blue Grass team here.  It was so fun to serve along side Mom and Mark.  I also loved watching the team love on the people that I love. 

 

My beautiful Haitian family with part of my American family

 

The week and a half with them started out a bit different.  I actually left campus the day after the team got to campus.  We had another team that was traveling to their neighbors project communities, and I was able to tag along with them.  While I am in Haiti, I will be traveling to all of our neighbors project communities to do a health evaluation on them.  It is the hope that we will be able to identify their biggest needs and start working towards ways of meeting these needs.  I was able to travel to Beauchamp and Mayette and meet with the pastors in these communities.  This was such an affirmation to me that I am doing what I need to do.  The first question I asked  (before I really explained who I was or what I was wanting to do) was “what do you think that the biggest problem is in your community?”  In both of these communities, the pastors said that their biggest problem was health. Both of these communities are currently fighting cholera and high childhood mortality rates, but there is no clinic or health facility within a two hour walk of them.  I was particularly inspired by the pastor in Beauchamp.  Pastor Luke shared with me both the physical struggles and the spiritual struggles of life in Beauchamp.  The physical struggles included the fact that the closest water source  is a two and a half hour walk (one way) away and the local school closed down.  However, it was the spiritual struggles that Pastor Luke was passionate about.   He said that in the last survey, 275 habitats were identified in Beauchamp.  He also said that he tried to count how many witch doctors were in Beauchamp, and he had to stop counting at 42 because it was so discouraging.  Beauchamp is a spiritual battlefield, but I was inspired by Pastor Luke’s passion for this community. 

 Mayette, Haiti

After a couple days, I left Beauchamp for La Baie.  It was quite an adventure to get there.  My interpreter, the moto driver, and I all climbed onto the motorcycle with our bags and left.  The ride was up and down these little rocky dirt paths.  I knew it was not a good sign when my interpreter kept saying “this isn’t safe!”  We may have gone the wrong direction twice, but we made it!  Though the trip was an adventure, it was so cool to be able to pass by these remote villages and see what everyday life looked like there.  Blue Grass met me in La Baie, and they never stopped.  The first thing that we did was grocery ministry.  The group had bought groceries while they were in Saint Louis, and we started hiking up the mountain with the groceries and a creole Bible for each house.  There were a couple houses that we knew that we wanted to go to, and we were able to stop at them.  We once again stopped by the house that the mother had died.  The daughter shared with us that it has been very hard for her since her mom died because she really misses her.  I pray that our devotion brought her a little peace and that the Bible that was left will continue to bring the family peace.  While we were walking with the bags, I told the group that we would go to whatever houses we felt like God led us to for the remaining grocery bags.  We nearly passed one house, and Mark said that he felt like we should stop there.  Mom told him to speak up, so he hollered at the group to stop.  We walked up this hill to the house.  The man who lived there had a nasty wound on his leg.  He had had it for a long time, but he could not get it to go away.  Mom was able to talk to him about it some, and the next day she brought him everything he could need to take care of it and clean it.  She went through how he should clean and wrap it, and he was very responsive and thankful.  It was so neat to watch her in her element.  The main thing that we wanted to do in La Baie was a two day sports camp.  We gave out wrist bands so that we could keep track of how many people were there.  The camp must have been pretty good because this little boy made his own bracelet so that he could come!

He got to stay :) 

We learned a lot the first day of sports camp and were able to make the second day run great.  I loved watching the integration between the boys in our orphanage and the community.  It was also such a good opportunity for us to open our doors to the community since we hosted the camp on the mission’s property.  Everyone at the camp not only got to play sports and do different activities, but each day they were also able to hear a devotion and be prayed over.  That was our ultimate purpose.  We were also able to do a VBS for the children who could not attend our sports camp, which was so much fun!  At La Baie, I was also able to do my community evaluation there.  Mom was able to join me for this, and I am very thankful for that.  We went through the questions with the campus director, and then we were able to hike to another town to meet with a lady who runs a clinic there.  This adventure started out a little discouraging because I wanted to see the water source, but no one knew where it was.  We then got to the clinic, but it was closed.  I felt like it had been a bit of a wasted trip, but then someone said they thought they knew where the lady lived.  We walked to her house and were able to interview her there.  At the end, we asked her about the water source.  It ended up being right behind her house, and she took us to see it!  The group was also able to spend a lot of time with the orphan boys.  They loved on them, and played hard.  There were many soccer games, hugs, laughs, and love. 

 

Blue Grass with the orphan boys

After returning from La Baie, there was still a lot of ministry to do!  We were able to do the bracelet boy bible study and once again pray over each boy individually.  Every afternoon before and after La Baie, the group would visit different bracelet boys’ houses.  At their houses, we were able to meet their family, pray over them and their needs, and give them a Creole Bible.  I loved watching the group invest even deeper into the bracelet boys’ lives, and I loved watching the boys respond to that.  Leah was actually able to visit Frankis’s house and pray over his family.  Frankis is the boy that she had been praying over for the last year through the prayer ministry we started last year. 

Leah with Frankis's family

The team was able to go to Ansefalour to do a VBS and pray over the voodoo monument.  That is a huge opportunity to be lights in the midst of darkness.  We were also able to take the Miriam Center kids to the beach.  This was so fun to participate in.  For the last two years, I had been trying to get our team to go on a trip with them, but it never worked out.  I am so glad it was able to work out this time.  The ride there might have been the best part though!  It is hard enough to hold yourself on a tap tap, but it is even harder when you have kids on your lap!

 

Mom with John Kerry and me with Wadly

There were so many more things that the group was able to do from going to House of Hope to visiting families, to hanging out with the gran moun (elderly people) and orphans.  I am so thankful for their acts of service and sacrifices that they made in order to get here.  I am also thankful that I was able to join their group and serve along side of them.  Thank you for your prayers while they were here, and for your continual prayers after they leave.  

Surgery Week

Last week I blogged a little about Haitian church, but I did not really go into anything about my time here.  It has been a longer adjustment than I thought, but I have loved my time here so far.  I love seeing positive changes in the way things are working on campus.  There is a new room for the Miriam Center, which was much needed.  I am so excited to see how God uses that room to bring visibility to some of the children who are often left out this summer.  It has also been so good to reconnect with old friends and make some new ones.  It adds so much to the relationship when you are able to say that you are staying longer than the typical ten days. 

 An "old friend," Jacob

A new friend, Wadly

For the past week or so, we have had a surgery team here.  It has been pretty cool to watch them in action.  I have spent a lot of time in the surgery wing trying to help make sure things are running smoothly.  I have found that my time there has been filled with extremes on both ends.  There are happy moments when the surgeons are able to change people’s lives.  After one of the surgeries, the man who was operated on said “Thank you so much.  Now I can go to church, I can go to the market, I can go to town.” One small operation was able to completely change his life.  However, there are also difficult times.  One boy came in for a surgery and the doctors found a mass.  They think that it could be cancerous, and they are taking it back for biopsies in the States.  We were able to find a place that could treat him if it is cancer; however, that place is in Port-au-Prince.  He lives on Tortuga Island.  If it is cancer, it is likely that he will not be able to get the treatment that he needs.  Though this has been and could be really hard, I am so thankful that we were able to build a connection with this family.  I have really enjoyed getting to know Pastor St. Verdi, the pastor of the mission church more this week.  He has such a heart for this community, and he has really demonstrated that heart.  He has prayed with every patient prior to them going into surgery and is planning follow up visits to check in on some of them.  Not only does this build a connection between the church and the patients, but it has also been an opportunity to share the peace that our Lord and Savior brings. 

As I was doing my quiet time this morning, I asked God to remind my why I am in Haiti.  Wow, what a reminder he gave me.  This morning I went into surgery wing, and the first patient was a little boy whose fifth birthday was today.  As he went back, Pastor St. Verdi went to pray with his grandmother who had brought him.  I noticed that she was crying, and something told me that I needed to try to comfort her a little.  I sat with her and hugged her, patted her back, and tried to bring a little sliver of comfort as the surgery went on.  (Surgery is a very scary thing for Haitians, as it is not common/typically does not have high success rates.)  I went to check on the boy, and I came out and told her that the surgery was finished and he did very good.  She immediately started saying “Thank you Jesus.  Thank you Savior.”  As we walked arm in arm to see her grandson, she was singing praises the whole time.  As we were sitting with the boy, she started to share with me their story.  She said that the boy’s father told her he would kill her if anything happened to his boy.  She told us how the boy’s mother left the father, so the father did bad things to the boy to try to make the mother suffer.  She said that she tried to take care of the boy, but she could not send him to school or anything.  She then asked if the mission could take the boy.  The love that this grandmother has for her grandson is extremely evident.  I cannot imagine what it took for her to get to the point of asking someone else to take her grandson.  I knew that taking the boy was not the answer, so I went to get Pastor St. Verdi.  He was also impacted by their story, so we went to talk to the people in charge of Northwest’s programs.  Long story short, we were able to get him into a program and registered for school next year!  His grandmother told him that today was the best birthday for him because he will be able to go to school next year.  It was so awesome to play a little part in this, and it was definitely that moment I had asked God for.  At northwest, we say that we are about people not projects.  This was a perfect example of this. 

Me, Rolson, and his grandmother before we registered for school

 

Overall, though there have been hard things to see this week, I am so thankful for the relationships that have been built and the lives that have been changed for the better.  I am looking forward to more of these as this next week is also full of surgery.  Thank you so much for all of your prayers, support, and encouragement.  I cannot wait to see what all God does while I am here.  He has already been evident in so many ways.