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!!