T in Haiti

10 Years In Haiti

2011-09-04T11:05:00.000-07:00

Here is a photo of me with my pastor's family in September of 2001, on my last Sunday at Community Christian Church before I moved to Haiti. I moved here on September 4, 2001, and had no idea that I would still be here 10 years later. Here is a list of some of the highlights and low points of the past decade. I'll leave it up to the reader to determine which are which:

-waving goodbye to my nephew Lukey at the airport and trying to control my sobs on the plane
-watching the 911 attacks on cable t.v. in the CSI guesthouse living room
-wondering why it hurt to move my eyes, my head, my entire body...then finding out it was dengue fever and I wasn't going to get better for a couple of weeks
-laying on my cot the first night in Seguin, in my damp sleeping bag, thinking "what have I gotten myself into?"
-laying blocks for the walls of my apartment on Christmas day
-meeting Margarethe for the first time and thinking she was so skinny I better do some bloodwork on her before we hired her
-clearing out the rat eaten meds and starting a new pharmacy room
-falling down the stairs of death...repeatedly
-learning to master a stick shift in stop and go traffic on steep roads (I apologize to all the walls and vehicles I gently rolled back on)
-rushing Jean Dony to the hospital to get him treatment for his burned body, while trying to dodge people dressed like bulls and other beasts (it was Mardi Gras)
-delivering my first infant (Idamanthe is a beautiful nine year old now)
-delivering two babies in two different houses at the same time (that involved a lot of running)
-trying to set up the internet (that sentence doesn't convey how much time, effort, and agony went into that process)
-delivering a baby in the back of the pickup, while trying to keep Margarethe from having her baby in the front of the pickup
-living with Chelsea and Jean Dony in a haitian home for two weeks (cooking on a charcoal stove is hard)
-telling Lifrane to stop knocking on my door for cookies (this happened nearly every day for six and a half years)
-teaching my first Sunday school lesson in Creole
-leading my first group of students in a baptism class, and then watching them get baptized
-wrapping 500 presents for school kids on Christmas eve, while listening to Christmas music in Spanish on the only radio signal Seguin received
-watching movies at night to hear people talk to me in English
-asking for a blanket when it was 90 degrees out (malaria makes you do funny things)
-working with Danny and Leann
-saying goodbye to Danny and Leann
-delivering Jabez
-saying goodbye to Jabez
-working with all my wonderful interns
-watching all my wonderful interns go back home
-hiking to Margarethe's mother's house (it's not too far, they said. they lied.)
-watching a witch doctor tell a pregnant lady to put a pot on her head and eat an egg, shell and all
-driving Kenscoff road and getting knocked off course by a boy with a herd of sheep
-walking Kenscoff road and getting schooled by a woman twice my age
-driving a hemorrhaging patient in my brand new truck to four different hospitals before finding her help
-delivering two non-breathing, nearly pulseless twins
-visiting with those twins and their mother a year later, and watching them crawl and smile and play
-praying with Margarethe and her family when the loneliness started taking its toll on me
-waking up each Tuesday thinking "ugh. it's dental day"
-staring at a broken generator. again, and again, and again.
-crying out "Jezi, sove nou!!" as I floated down a river in my truck with a haitian man named Chrisnet and a cat named Blackbeard
-riding on the top of a bus, the back of a dump truck, the bench of a taptap, the spare tire of a mack truck, the book rack of a motorcycle, and the bony back of an emaciated horse (to name a few)
-making the decision to leave Seguin, praying for guidance, and receiving an email from Jim and Sandy asking me to come to Christianville
-meeting an American missionary optometrist and thinking "he's cute, but quiet"
-saying goodbye to all my friends in Seguin
-preaching devotions at the Christianville clinic and seeing patients respond to the gospel
-getting engaged under a waterfall in Jacmel
-flying back to Christianville in a helicopter after our honeymoon
-meeting my baby girl for the first time and thinking "I didn't know I could love something this much"
-surviving the earthquake on January 12, 2010 and still attempting to survive all its aftermath
-sleeping under an avocado tree
-having church outside
-learning how to live indoors again without panicking
-giving birth to my baby boy and thinking "he's absolutely perfect"
-starting up a Sunday school program at church and busting out the ol' felt board again

And that pretty much brings us up to today. Some people have told me that I should write a book about my time here in Haiti. But I tell them, "I don't know the end yet." I felt God called me to Haiti 10 years ago, and I came with the intention to stay until He called me somewhere else. He hasn't called me anywhere else yet, so I'll keep serving Him here, one day (or decade) at a time.

BOONS!

2011-07-27T13:36:00.000-07:00

The youth from my church family at Community Christian Church in Tamarac, Florida came to visit Christianville this month. They were a great team. They helped with construction on the new medical clinic, they did various odd jobs for the other ministries here, they worshipped with other teams that were here, and they brought the other missionaries and me some goodies and some encouragement. I am always glad when teams from my home church come to visit, and it was really nice to get to know these youth. Some of them were just wee little kids that I saw in children's church or at VBS when I left for Haiti 10 years ago, so it was great to chat with them and see where God is leading them now.

During the week that the youth were here, another team decided to blow up water balloons to use for their VBS ministry project. The balloons sat in a container and taunted Nora all week. We would walk past them and her eyes would get big and she would shout "BOONS!", but I wouldn't let her play with them. However, the team that planned on using the balloons must not have had time to incorporate them into their VBS and ended up leaving without using them. So there they sat, tempting us. On one of the last days that the Community youth were here, Rita, our interim guesthouse coordinator, suggested a use for the balloons that everyone got excited about. Rita's plan was to have the youth line up on the patio on Monday morning, during Christianville's bi-monthly distribution of food for the elderly. Then, as each elderly person came to receive their food, they would be instructed to throw a water balloon at the team before leaving. I was skeptical about the plan. I really didn't think those old folks would be up for it. I thought they might be too shy. Our pastor of outreach, Mr. Laguerre, was surprised at the plan, too. But he duly translated Rita's wishes to the elderly folks. The people that you would think would have the objections --the youth-- thought it was a great idea and lined up like great sports for the abuse.

At first, the elderly people were hesitant to throw the balloons. But after the first few threw the balloons and saw the good reactions of the teenagers, the whole crowd got excited and the rest of the recipients of the food had no qualms about lobbing, tossing, throwing or out-right fast pitching the balloons at the young people. Nora stood by the container of balloons shouting "Boons!" and smiling.

As I was watching the whole affair, looking at the happy faces of the old folks and the haitians gathered around, I began to reflect on a book I just read, called "When Helping Hurts". The book talks about different methods of helping poor people that can actually hurt everyone involved, because those methods encourage a paternalistic attitude in the giver and a feeling of powerlessness in the recipient. The book suggests several ways to avoid this pitfall, one of which is to never do anything for someone that they can do on their own. Well, the elderly people in Christianville's feeding program have troubles finding the resources to feed themselves adequately, and the government lacks programs for these people, so I believe the elderly feeding program is a good and necessary one. It does, however, make people feel a bit powerless, when they have to rely on a mission or an agency for handouts. So, while it wasn't a suggested method in "When Helping Hurts", I think the 'balloon exercise' was a great way to put just a tiny bit of power back into the hands of those elderly men and women. For just a few moments, while they were getting their free food, the recipients were able to give something back: a little water, a little fun, and a lot of smiles.

Bearing Fruit

2011-06-10T12:06:00.001-07:00

This blog post is dedicated to Phil and Myriam Raber, the optometrist and dentist who lived in our house in the mid nineties and planted a dozen fruit-bearing trees all over the yard. While they lived in the house, the trees were young and didn't produce fruit, so they never enjoyed the fruit of their labor. By the time we moved into the "eye doc house" 15 years later, however, the trees were raining down fruit. We get pummeled by avocados in the fall, and oranges and grapefruit in the winter. The spring brings us hundreds of mangoes. There are coconut trees that give year-round joy to Rezimond, the teenager who washes our truck each week and gets a bonus coconut when he finishes. Just the other day, I picked cherries for Mme Eugene to take home for juicing, picked a papaya off a tree for a smoothie, and pulled a few plantains off the tree near the laundry line to use for supper. Every time I enjoy the fruit in our yard, I think of how little effort it took me, and how much effort Phil and Myriam put into it, and I thank them in my heart.

This reminds me of a passage in John chapter 4, verses 34 to 38. Jesus is talking to his disciples and tells them to look at the fields, because they are ready for harvest. He reminds them that they did not sow, but they are going to reap. "For in this the saying is true: One sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors." Every Tuesday, I prepare and give a short devotional to our patients who are waiting to be seen at the clinic. At the end of the gospel presentation, I ask anyone who would like to respond to the message of salvation to raise their hand. Very rarely, someone will respond. But more often than not, and especially in the past couple of months, the audience just sits there silently. Sometimes, I find myself getting discouraged and having a hard time finding the motivation to preach each Tuesday, when so few people respond. But then I remember this Scripture, and I remember Phil and Myriam Raber. Some people plant, and others sow. Perhaps at the clinic lately, I am a planter. People may not be ready to respond every day, but they still need to hear the good news that Jesus came and died to take away their sins. And hopefully, one day, after hearing the message several times, they will open their hearts and someone will get the chance to "reap"... to lead them to the Lord. I thank God I'm part of the process.

Mother's Day

2011-05-23T10:05:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I celebrated my second mother's day as a mom. As any of you who have had small children can relate, it wasn't my dream day. The children are not old enough to say "happy mother's day" or give me gifts, but they are old enough to throw fits, need punishment, push my buttons, and make me want to crawl out of my skin (or at least out of the house for a few solitary hours). But a few days ago I got an unexpected present for mother's day, just a few weeks late. The kids and I were playing on the back porch and heard an accordion and some men's voices singing nearby. This isn't a rare experience here in Christianville, because the men's choir at church often rehearses in the afternoons. But on this particular day I felt that the kids needed to get out of the house and, since they both like music, we decided to walk over to see the men's choir practice. Normally they practice in the empty lot that used to be the eye clinic, but we found them this day in the school yard, sitting in one of the transitional classrooms. When the men saw us standing there, watching them from the doorway, they stopped practicing their individual parts and decided to put on a show for us. Fanfan, the dental assistant/accordian player/choir director, led the men in a mother's day song that they had been practicing for Haitian Mother's Day, which comes a few weeks later than ours. The men sang of their love for their moms. Nora clapped and Titus smiled, and the men sang on. Nora stopped clapping when the men drew the song to a close with a verse that said, "You are my mother, you have the right to punish me, so go ahead and spank me." I don't think she approved of that verse. I thought it sounded pretty practical, though.

A Visit to Seguin

2011-05-19T08:58:00.000-07:00

After three years off the mountain, I decided to go back and visit again with all my friends in Seguin. There is an agriculturalist that works here at Christianville, and he was interested in visiting Seguin with me and possibly feeding the school children in the HCO school, so Ryan and I, Nora and Titus, along with Edsel (the agricultural expert) and Jimmy (a friend) took a long ride up to Seguin a couple weekends ago. I made the mistake of taking the Fond Jean Noel route up the mountain, because I knew it would have a good view, but I had no idea how horrible the route had gotten. It took us quite a bit longer to get up there than I had expected. Once we arrived, everyone in the local area came to see us. It was great to see everyone again. Margarethe made us some food, and we sat in Christnet's home and chatted awhile. Then we visited with everyone in the yard. Nora played with the kids, and Titus cried because of the cold and all the strangers.

I was able to visit with Papa Alexandre, the local voodoo priest, for awhile. He is going blind and not very healthy. I talked to him about accepting Jesus as his Savior, but he is convinced that he is a good enough person to make it to heaven on his own merit.

We were able to visit with Marie Lourdes and her newborn babies. She is still very weak and anemic, and her babies are small and having some troubles growing. Doctor Clayton is back on the mountain now, though, so she is in good hands and hopefully she and the children will get healthy and strong quickly.

As our visit came to a close, I sat on the porch and chatted with Margarethe while Nora played with the local kids. At one point, I noticed that she was sitting down with six other kids, and that four of those six were children that I had delivered. If anyone would have told me that one day I'd be sitting on the porch, talking to Margarethe like any other day, but watching my own child play with the kids, I'd have told them they were nuts. God is good. He blesses us much more than we deserve.

When it came time to leave, I felt a tremendous sadness come upon me. I miss Seguin. It feels like home. I miss my neighbors and my friends. I also feel the burden of the poverty and great needs that are ever present there. I am thankful for Kyle Martin and Clayton Bell, who helped Seguin this past year by reopening the clinic. I am hopeful that the new Haitian doctor that HCO has found will keep the clinic running well. And I'm thankful for Margarethe, who continues to stick it out in Seguin, despite all the hardships she faces there.

Marie Lourdes update

2011-05-01T12:58:00.000-07:00

Happy News!

Marie Lourdes Auguste and her husband Emmanuel welcomed their family's newest two additions to the world on Thursday, April 28th. They are Manoucheka and Calipson Auguste, each weighing a little more than four pounds.

their little girl, Manoucheka

and Calipson, their little boy

Marie Lourdes was barely 8 months along in her pregnancy, and began bleeding. She needed a transfusion before the doctors would perform a C-section to deliver the children. Qasim sent word to Marie Lourdes' friends and adoptive family back in Seguin (she is an orphan who has no family of her own), and they all came up with excuses not to come and give blood. So in the end it was Qasim, Maslen (Bubba), Yves (TiBra), and Eli (PeeWee) who were the heroes that went to the hospital to donate blood. Thank you, Qasim, for showing unselfish love. Thanks also go out to Maslen, Yves, and Eli, who overlooked the stigma and horror stories about giving blood that are common in Haiti, and volunteered anyway.

Marie Lourdes is recuperating slowly from her surgery, and doing her best to get some rest, while breastfeeding and taking care of the two wee-ones. She is expected to be discharged from St. Michel hospital tomorrow. The babies are breathing well and feeding well, despite their small size. Please pray for Marie Lourdes, Emmanuel, the new babies, and the rest of the family that waits at home. They have a long road of recuperation and growth ahead of them.

Marie Lourdes and Easter

2011-04-22T05:14:00.000-07:00

Last year at about this same time, I got a surprise visit from my Seguin friends, Marie Lourdes and Emmanuel. It was the day before Easter, and they came to get medical attention for Marie Lourdes, who suffers from a lot of health problems. They stayed a couple of days and got some tests done and some medicine. This past year, we've worked with Kyle and Dr. Jim and come up with what we thought were some solutions to Marie Lourdes' health problems. But, as things often turn out here in Haiti, our plans didn't shape up as we'd expected them to. Marie Lourdes got pregnant with twins. So, once again, it's Easter time, and this year, instead of a visit, I got a phone call from Emmanuel. "Marie Lourdes pa bon, mis". (Marie Lourdes isn't good). After asking about the situation, I found out that Emmanuel took Marie Lourdes to the hospital in Jacmel because of some pregnancy related issues. Danny went to visit Marie Lourdes and passed me around on the phone to her and the doctor (it's really good to have him back in Haiti and free!) It appears that she will have a c-section soon. This isn't great news, since the twins aren't due for at least another month. Please pray for Marie Lourdes, Emmanuel, their unborn twins, and their six children on the mountain that are awaiting their return.

Too Old to Blog?

2011-04-12T08:57:00.000-07:00

Has it really been three months since I've blogged? Many people accuse me of being a "bad blogger", and I admit it, I am. My sister has a theory behind this. She says that I'm too old to correctly blog. I missed the window of good bloggage by a couple of years. This might be very true. For instance, I had no idea that if a person doesn't blog once every couple of weeks, people get tired of looking at the site and will stop following the blog. Hmmm. So I guess once every three or four months is probably bad, then. Interesting. Once again, I'm resolving to blog more often. We'll see if I'm able to stick to that.

I'm trying to remember what happened in our lives these past three months. Titus got bigger and started thinking about rolling over, every once in a while. Nora didn't gain any weight, but she grew up into a little girl who uses words and likes winnie the pooh and hangs out with the kids in the neighborhood when they come to wash the car or pick mangoes from the trees. Ryan and I got sick and had to cancel a long-awaited trip to Seguin at the end of March. I am hoping to reschedule and make it up there before our trip to the States this summer. It seems there's always something keeping us from visiting friends in Seguin. Thankfully, my Seguin friends have come to visit me recently. Margarethe spent a few days at our house during Mardi Gras. She brought her three kids and her sister, as well as a bunch of produce and a live chicken. She asked me whether I would like to cook it or if I wanted her to. It was a joke, though, since she knows what live chicken tastes like when I butcher and cook it (a little like jerky, but not as moist). She and her sister made us a great haitian meal. We had a good time talking and catching up, although I had an emergency at the clinic come up which kept me running and cut down on our "girl time". Her kids enjoyed the gadgets and toys at our house. The swings, blocks, and dvd player were their favorites. Sonson will be nine years old this summer. Craziness! My sister is right... I'm OLD! He is growing up into a great kid, and Joseph is really fun to have around, as well. Margarethe's little girl, Marie Phara, is talking and potty trained. I tried to get Eleanor to learn some skills from her, but I don't think it worked. The same weekend that Margarethe visited, we also got a visit from Chrisnet and his wife. They and their four girls are doing well. Chrisnet's wife, Dieula, needed some reading glasses so Ryan hooked her up with some. I can't believe Chrisnet still thinks of me as a friend, after I nearly ended his life in a watery grave in the river all those years ago, but forgiveness is his specialty.

The formula fund is alive and working well in Seguin. A haitian man named Qasim is in charge of it, and administering it well. I would post some pictures of the kids on the program, except that Qasim's flashdrive has too many viruses and crashed my computer last time I tried to download some pictures from it! There are two girls here in Christianville that I see regularly who have benefited from the formula we give out at the clinic here. One is a little Down's Syndrome girl who was found under a bridge in Carrefour at four months old. She is now 2 and has just learned to walk, which made her caregivers so happy. The other is a little girl born the same week as my Nora, named Isabella. I don't ever see her in the clinic anymore, because she's too healthy. I see her in church, though, and I can tell from the noise and disruptions she makes that she is doing just fine!

The boys in the Jacmel Boy's Home are hanging in there. They have gone through a hard year with many changes and stressors, including Danny's imprisonment. They were overjoyed, like the rest of us, to see him freed. They are doing well in school and we are able to see them every month or so. I think even Jackie will be taller than me soon.

For those of you who stuck with this blog, despite its disuse, I thank you. And maybe I'll even post something new next week....

Thoughts on Grace on the Anniversary of the Quake

2011-01-13T07:54:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had the privilege of giving a devotional message to our patients, on the anniversary of the quake. I felt the best message would be one on grace. "Are we alive today because we are better people than those who died last year in the quake?", I asked my patients. They all agreed that was false. So why were we spared? I have no answer for that one, except God's grace. An undeserved gift. And it's that same grace that will usher Daphne and other christians who were killed in the quake into heaven's eternal peace. Salvation, just like life, is an undeserved gift. All that is required of us to find that gift is to accept it. Accept that Christ's work, His death and resurrection, is all that was necessary to atone us. That's hard for a person who likes to be in control, like me. Often, I would rather be given a list of do's and dont's, and told that if I stick to the list, and am a good enough person, I could be spared traumatic death in natural disasters and would never suffer horrible tragedies or hardships in my life and would die peacefully in my bed as a very old woman and would then be ushered into heaven, all based on the fact that I was so good. But that's not how it works, and if I think about it for any length of time, I'm glad it doesn't work that way. Because if it did, I would find that I was never quite good enough, or never certain of my good/bad status, and always fearful of what would happen to me and what my eternal destination would be. Instead, there is grace. God's grace that says, "Even if you don't deserve this, I'll give it to you. Just trust in the goodness of my Son." He is good, indeed. Thank you, Lord, for your undeserved grace that saved us in the quake, and saves our souls for eternity.

Titus and the Holidays

2010-12-30T18:08:00.000-08:00

Ryan, Eleanor and I have been in the States for the past couple of months getting ready for the arrival of our newest family member, Titus Christopher Price. He was born November 6th, weighing in at 8 pounds 12 ounces. He is healthy and growing and teaching us all how to think outside the box regarding sleep. We've had a great visit here in the States with friends and family and now we are eager to introduce Titus to his Haiti home. We head back to Haiti next week, and are praying for an uneventful trip. No earthquakes or riots, please!
Here are some photos from our Stateside holiday trip:

Still Making a Difference

2010-10-19T10:08:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered if what you do makes a difference? I have many friends who have given to the ministry here in Haiti over the past nine years. Some have come and given of their time and heart and talents. Others have not been able to visit, but have given of their resources to help people they have never even met. I want to give a few stories today of differences that are being made in Haitians' lives as a result of these generous people, even years after their gifts were given.

The first story is of Ronise and Berlinda. In 2007, I was blessed to have several wonderful people intern with me on the mountain in Seguin. These people stayed with me through thick and thin. They laughed with me and cried alongside me during all the ups and downs of life on the mountain. One day, they met some orphans with me. Ronise and Berlinda are two little girls who used to live in a place called Kapotye. Their father was gone, their mother was dead, and they were left to fend for themselves in their home until a neighbor found them and took them in. The neighbor found us, many months later, and with tears in her eyes told us of how she was no longer able to take care of the orphans but loved them and wanted to see them put in a safe place with good food and education. I made some calls, and we found a place for the sisters in the HOPE center for girls (through CSI ministries in Croix des Bouquets). My intern friends helped me transport the lonely, hungry, frightened girls to the orphanage. Here are pictures from that trip.

My interns have long since left Haiti, but their help with Ronise and Berlinda has had lasting effects. The girls are thriving in their new home. Tim and Toby Banks run the HOPE Center for girls and Ronise and Berlinda have fit in really well there. I was able to visit Tim and Toby a few weeks ago, and got to see how the sisters were adjusting. When we arrived, Ronise was at a ballet lesson in Port au Prince. Apparently, she shows signs of becoming quite a dancer. She also can put more calories away in one sitting than a grown man. She has been known to eat all the food on her plate, plus the leftovers on everyone else's plates. Berlinda has thick dark hair now, compared to the sparse orange hair she had when we met her in 2007. She is called the "little policewoman" by her house parents, because she loves to remember the infractions of all her sisters and playmates and then recite them in detail to her caregivers. Here are some photos of the girls now:

The second story I'd like to tell is the story of a truck. Not the green truck that I drove into a raging river just weeks after purchase in October of 2005, but a white Ford Ranger which replaced the flooded truck and has served me and the people of Haiti well since 2006. After Hurricane Rita and I destroyed the green truck, my church in South Florida (Community Christian Church) along with two of my friends from PA school were willing to believe in me again and donate large sums of money for me to purchase a new truck. The little white Ford Ranger was baptized in blood within one month of purchase, as I was transporting a hemorrhaging woman to the hospital (with the help of a couple dedicated interns). The woman lived, and so did several other sick and injured patients who were able to get to the hospital with the help of the little white truck. It forded the river well for a couple years, and then when I got married and moved to Christianville, it became a family vehicle, transporting my husband and daughter and I to Port and back for supplies, eye clinic medicines, and trips to see friends. But the little white truck hasn't given up it's days as a life-saver. Just last month, we had a seriously ill patient at the clinic. I was busy seeing other patients, Jim and Sandy were busy in Port au Prince with a team, and the vehicles usually used to transport sick patients to the hospital were occupied. So I called my gracious husband and asked if he would be willing to take the patient to General Hospital in Port au Prince with our truck. He did, and the white truck once again sped happily down the road with its cargo of sick people inside.

This blog is dedicated to all of my supporters, both those who have come to visit me and lend a hand and a heart to the work in Haiti, and to those who have given of their resources so the ministry can continue saving and touching lives. THANK YOU, and GOD BLESS YOU! What you give to the Lord and to Haiti will not return void.

Time to Follow Him

2010-08-01T12:40:00.001-07:00

Time to Follow Him

A few weeks ago, I gave a devotion at the clinic about Today being the day of salvation. I explained that each week, we see at least one patient who has a terminal illness, and we have to give them the bad news that they have a disease that will most likely end their life. I asked the patients listening to the devotion to think about that possibility, and to think about the life that comes after this life is over, and where they want to spend it. Then I urged them not to delay in making a decision for Christ. Later that day, I saw a patient with advanced symptoms of AIDS. I sent her for an HIV test, which was positive, and I gave her the news that she may very well have a disease for which there is no cure. She took this news silently, and as I was counseling her on which steps to take next, I asked her if she was a Christian. She said no. I asked if she had given any consideration to becoming a Christian, and her reply blew me away. She said, “You know, the thing about being a Christian is, you have to have time. And I have no time. I am a single mom and I work every day to feed my kids, and I just don’t have time to become a Christian and serve God.” After my initial shock, I continued counseling with her and urged her to make time for God and for Christ in her life. She left to go get her medicines and some follow up confirmatory testing at another clinic, and I haven’t seen her since.
That evening, I thought about her “plight”. Often, I find myself making excuses for the poor because I know their lives are harder than mine. When employees are late to work, I remember how hard it is to cook breakfast on an open flame, get water from a distance source for bathing, and walk through mud or find public transit. When friends take things that I’ve left in my yard without asking me, I try to remember that in this culture if you’re not using it, people think it’s public property. So in this woman’s case, I tried to put myself in her position and see if I could justify what she was saying, about Christianity taking up her valuable time. I agreed with her on one point… it does take time to serve Christ, if you are going to be serious about it. Waking up before the kids get up to have private prayer time, going to church on Sunday and any other days of the week when special programs come up, responding to God’s urgings to help others instead of relax or play or get your own things done. Yes, it takes time to serve the Living God and the Savior of your soul. But isn’t it worth it? Didn’t He take time for us (Phil.2:5-11)? On the other hand, I’m not a single mom. I don’t know how hard it is to raise children without the help of a spouse. I’m not poor. I don’t know the agony of putting my kids to bed hungry. But I know many poor Christians, some of whom are single parents. I know an unmarried Haitian girl named Bethany, who has a small child that she supports, while at the same time finishing high school, taking care of other nieces and nephews, singing in choir, praying morning, noon and night, and worshipping God every Sunday. I knew a single woman who turned down two jobs in a country with 70% unemployment because she refused to disobey God and sleep with the boss when he told her that was all she had to do to get hired. I see many people who have lost jobs and homes and parents and children in the earthquake who still come to church every Sunday to worship God with all their might. And so, in the final analysis, I decided that this woman’s excuse was not valid, not at all.
Whether rich or poor, there are always excuses not to accept God’s gift of eternal life through Christ. “I’m too busy. I’ve got too many other commitments right now. It’s just not a good time for me. I couldn’t give it my all right now” and the list goes on. But in the end they are all just excuses, and won’t hold water on the day of judgment, when every one of us will have to give an account to our Maker of what we did with the life that He gave us and the gift of His Son that He offered us. The day after I met my HIV positive patient who didn’t have time for God, I had another terminally ill patient come into my office. She was dying of lung cancer, and I had to give her the bad news. After we cried together a bit, I asked her if she was a Christian. She said no. I asked her if anything was stopping her from giving her life to Christ now. She said, “Nothing”. She wanted to pray and accept Christ and begin going to church and serving Him. So we prayed together. I have the feeling I’ll see this woman again some day, even if she doesn’t live to keep her return appointment, because she understood the importance of accepting Christ… not tomorrow or when it’s convenient or when she had more time, but Today.

Nora's One, and the New Baby is a Boy

2010-07-12T18:30:00.000-07:00

Nora turned one year old today! We flew back into Haiti yesterday after a few weeks of visiting with family and attending Ryan's sister Lauren's wedding. We were glad for an uneventful trip home this time. Our last trip home included an earthquake 20 minutes after we reached our house. So this time, when we came home to the smell of rotten meat because our fridge/freezer had run out of propane, we couldn't grumble too much. We'll take a messy clean-up over an earthquake anyday. Today, Nora enjoyed a lazy day around the house and then a trip into Port au Prince for some groceries. She likes trips into Port because of the air-conditioned car ride on bumpy roads that rock her to sleep. We also got her a teddy bear cake and a candle. She liked the candle, and took a few bites of the cake before deciding it was time for bed.
While we were in the states, we had a few doctor's appointments to keep. Nora needed her vaccinations, and I needed to see the OB doctor. Both visits went more wonderfully than we thought they would. At the OB doctor, we were given the opportunity to look at the baby on ultrasound. As I sat in the air-conditioned room with a big screen in front of me, displaying the ultrasound pictures, and a huge fancy ultrasound machine humming beside me, I got a little sad. I was feeling sorry for Jim, the doctor that I work with in Haiti. He has a small portable ultrasound machine which is currently on its last leg, and he spends half of his day bending over it in the heat of our tin-roofed clinic-that-is-really-a-school building. I wish he had the pleasure of working with a machine that gives incredible images and is serviced by representatives of the manufacturer whenever anything goes wrong. Oh, well. When you don't have big and fancy, then small and glitchy gets the job done, and saves lives in the process. At any rate, while I was in the sonography suite, feeling sorry for Jim, my sad mood didn't last long, because the technician told me that we are having a baby boy. He is due the first week of November. Yes, for those of you that are keeping track, Ryan and I are expecting our second baby one month after our second anniversary. What can we say? Life moves quickly here in Haiti, and God is good.

A New Normal

2010-04-14T06:52:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been three months since the earthquake, and we are still working towards finding a new kind of normal for our lives here in Haiti. We have been living and sleeping back in our house for two months now, and we hardly ever get tremors that send us jumping out of bed anymore. Both the medical and the eye clinics are working out of a school building that wasn't damaged in the quake, and it is going fairly well. The school kids are back in their uniforms, making blessed noise during the day, going to classes in big army tents set up in the soccer field. Nora is growing, cruising around on the furniture, and totally oblivious to the fact that there was a life-changing event a few months past. Her newest adventure is food. She has discovered that she loves it, and we love watching her eat it.
Our Haitian friends are also getting their lives back on track as best they can. Through generous Stateside donations we've been able to help several of them rebuild their homes, plant their fields and set up sturdier temporary housing. Marie Lourdes and Emmanuel came to visit us over Easter weekend, and we have been trying to get Marie Lourdes some medical help for her illness. It was fun to have them here and remember the old days in Seguin. They tried to fill us in on all the local news.
Even though we have found new places to shop, new places to work, and new places to relax, there are still many things about the pre-earthquake days that I miss. Some days I miss them more than others. Here is a list of some of the things that I wish we still had here with us:

-Daphne. Her smile, her shy ways, her voice singing along to english praise and worship tapes, her hatred of tarantulas and roaches, her eagerness to learn crochet, her friendliness, her help around the house. We can't replace you, Daphne, and we miss you.

-CSI guesthouse on Delmas 62. Greg and Cathie are still in the guesthouse business and have relocated, but I'll always miss the house on Delmas 62. It was the first place I lived when I moved to Haiti, and it always felt like home to me.

-Caribbean Supermarket. You just can't find another grocery store in Port au Prince with grated cheese, bags of chocolate bars, lightly salted peanuts and lime tortilla chips. It still brings a shiver down my spine every time I remember that Ryan and Nora and I were blissfully shopping there three hours before it fell to the ground, trapping hundreds inside.

-The front porch at the old clinic. Preaching devotions just isn't the same now that all our patients are spread out in the front yard of the school, with a loud generator in the background and screaming school children rushing to class. I never thought I'd say this, but we need a megaphone!

-The Eye Clinic. I miss seeing my husband go to work every day at his own clinic. My heart hurts for him as he and his employees sweat like they're in a sauna in his classroom with plastic sheets on the windows. The sheets are to block the sun for better exams, but they block any breeze that comes through, too. It is hard to see them not be able to make glasses yet, also. I know it's frustrating for them and their patients.

There, I vented and it feels good. But I don't want to end on a sad note. There are so many things to be grateful for. First and foremost that we are all safe and healthy. I'm thankful that David and Evelyn came back to stay with us for a few months. I'm thankful for our house. I'm thankful that diesel and propane and food never became scarce, like we thought they might. I'm thankful that each Sunday more and more people keep answering God's call to salvation and giving their lives over to Him. And I'm thankful that God put us in Haiti for such a time as this.

The Day of The Thing

2010-02-03T11:17:00.001-08:00

Updates on life in haiti since the quake: We are still sleeping outside in a tent. It's nice and cozy (a little too cozy for great sleep, but at least it's dry and mosquito free). There are a group of engineers here doing assessments on the buildings, and they will suggest to us what we need to do to make our house safe to sleep in again. We spend time in our home in the evenings and even get to watch some tv, so that helps us feel more normal. And we are thankful that we do have a home to retreat to, as many missionaries here have lost their homes, along with many haitians in our area. I've been performing a very unofficial census among my patients, asking them if they've lost their homes and lost loved ones, and it seems that about 80 percent of them have lost their homes, and almost 90 percent have lost at least one loved one. My patients don't often refer to it as "January 12th" or as "the day of the earthquake"... most of the time they say "The day of the thing". I don't know if that's because they don't understand what happened that day, or because not naming it makes it less scary.
We are very thankful to Community Christian Church for the shipment of non-perishables and tents and tarps that they sent our way. We are still looking for more tents and tarps to distribute, although right now shipping things here has become very tricky. Once we figure out a good way to get goods in again, we'll let everyone know how to help. When the first shipment of tents and tarps came in, we went to some of our employees' yards and erected some tents. It was fun, and also very encouraging to see that many of them had already made some temporary shelter of some kind. Many were just out of sheets and sticks, but others had scavanged through the debris and built little shacks out of wooden doors and frames and tin. There are many tent cities going up all over this area, and many families are building what are referred to in haiti as "kay pay"... houses built out of sticks, fronds, corn husks, or sugar cane bundles. In seguin a lot of people live in kay pay made out of corn husks. Here in leogane, there isn't much corn but there is an abundance of sugar cane, so the kay pays are going up with sugar cane walls. A haitian friend who grew up in this area and is back for a visit told us that 30 years ago, most of the people out here lived in sugar cane kay pays. So I guess life is reverting back to the way it was a long time ago. I'm sure it's hard for these families, who have worked so hard to build nice cement houses, to go back to living in stick shacks. They don't seem to be too discouraged, though.
In general, the spirit of the haitian people around us is hopeful. They believe they'll rebuild their homes, somehow. Many are finding work by clearing roads of debris or tearing down buildings. The market places are still bustling with local produce. Our employees still give big smiles of greeting when they pass us by. The church pews are full every sunday and the congregation sings just as loud, if not louder, than they did before the "day of the thing".

Life in the midst of death

2010-01-20T08:54:00.000-08:00

Through all the horror stories of the past couple of days, a few joyous moments shine through to help us keep pressing on. The night of the earthquake, a woman gave birth to a tiny baby boy right in front of the Christianville gate. His cries during that horrendous night helped us remember that life goes on. The next day, two other babies were born at Christianville. One was delivered by Amy and Evelyn, the other was delivered by Jenn. All three of those ladies had been longing to deliver a baby, and they finally got their wish! The babies are healthy and have no idea of the chaos surrounding them.

Another joyous thing we are seeing in the midst of this tragedy is an increased response to the gospel. At church on Sunday, there were at least 7 visitors who made decisions for Christ. At clinic on Monday, another woman was saved. Pastors in our community are going around to the various "tent cities" and preaching the gospel. They are reporting many people coming to know the Lord just this past week. Please pray that these new believers will take their faith seriously, be discipled, and become strong Christians. Pray that God can use this earthquake to shake Haiti away from voodoo and towards the living and all-powerful God of creation.

As far as we know

2010-01-18T13:11:00.000-08:00

For those of you who are wondering about friends you have made here in Haiti, here is a list of people we know who survived, did not survive, and those whose status is still not known:

Survivors:
Seguin boys in the Jacmel boys home
Danny and Leann (and all the Jacmel missionaries)
Greg and Cathie (and all the CSI missionaries)
Sue Witt and her orphans
All the employees of the eye clinic and their immediate families
All the employees of the dental clinic
All of the clinic employees
All the orphans at Val's orphanage
Most Christianville employees including pastors (see exceptions below)

Pastor Roro, Pastor Gerard, Toto (?)
Margarethe

Sony

Bubba

Mikey

Margarethe's family

Christnet's family
Pastor Johnny
Roger, from Seguin (who personally came to visit me here in christianville this week and told me all in seguin were doing pretty well)

Passed away:
Daphne

I will try to update the list and we get more information. Thank you for your continued prayers.

Earthquake update

2010-01-14T16:01:00.000-08:00

I've received a lot of messages on facebook and email about the situation here and how people can help, so here's an update for all of you. Thank you so much for your concern and prayers.

The earthquake hit about 20 minutes after we drove into our driveway (we had arrived in port that same day and went grocery shopping before heading home). I was walking in the road on my way to the clinic when the earthquake began. Ryan was outside in our driveway, and Eleanor was outside in the hands of Connie Nichols. We all struggled to keep our balance during the quake, which seemed to last forever. When the tremors subsided, I saw that the first floor of the apartments of Jim, Sandy and Jen (the apartment complex where I used to live) had collapsed. I ran to the clinic to see if they were there, then ran back when we realized they were inside. As I came back, I saw Jim and Sandy in the road, covered with dust. They had escaped through a new hole in the side of their house. Jen was safe also. Ryan came running up, and we walked back to find Nora together. At this point we had no idea of the magnitude of what was happening. We heard that there was a person at the guesthouse who was injured. I had some supplies in my bag from donations that Sherry Donovan had given me stateside, so I pulled those out and began working on the patient. I foolishly thought that she might be the only one injured. Soon after we began working on her, a steady stream of people began flowing into the yard. Some were injured and others were just homeless and scared. We separated the groups and began working on the injured. A group of people went back to the clinic and braved the gases and dust and cracks in the wall to get a truckload of supplies and bring them to our triage area near the guesthouse. Others set up lights, because darkness was fast falling. As we looked through the crowd and began treating wounds, the extent of the injuries astounded us. As soon as we thought we saw the worst case, another patient even more injured would come along. Many had severed and mangled limbs, many had serious head wounds, one woman was paralyzed from the waist down, the majority of the people who came had at least one broken limb. One woman was in labor and delivered in the driveway. Two other women came the next day and delivered their babies without complications. Several people were dead on arrival, and many more were so severely injured that we were confident they would die within a few days. Jim and I felt helpless at times in the face of such grave injuries and such limited supplies. We worked until about 5 am, and then tried to sleep for about half an hour. Then the injured came again, en masse.
We set up shop at the church, which was still standing, although it had some concerning cracks in its outer walls. Sandy and Nannie triaged the masses of people who came to the church for help, choosing about 40 of them. The rest were left to find help elsewhere, if possible. Jim and I, with the help of the team, sutured people and splinted fractures. Jim performed some amputations. Jen delivered a baby in a pew. A woman died of blood loss as she was lying in front of the altar. Almost everyone had a story of a loved one that was lost. Evelyn and Connie watched Nora for me so I could work. Ryan was busy attending to our house, which suffered flood damage. Throughout the day, small tremors kept our nerves on end, and as we were finishing up our last few patients, a large tremor rocked the building and sent us all running out the door. The building stood, but we finished up our last patients in the yard.
Today was a day of regrouping for the missionaries. We are basically out of medical supplies, so opening up a clinic today was useless. We focused on contacting loved ones, taking pictures, getting possessions out of destroyed houses. The eye clinic is not able to be opened because of stuctural unsoundness, so we don't know the extent of the damage there. The medical clinic is not too stable as it is. Our house is livable. None of us are sleeping inside at this point. There are too many tremors still. We have our mattresses in the open air, and Nora is comfortable in her pack n play with her mosquito net.
We learned of the death of our housekeeper, Daphne, this morning. She was only in her early 20s. We haven't heard from any of our other haitian friends in Port or Seguin. The Jacmel boys are safe.
God is good. We have heard of many people who want to come help, and at this point we are strongly urging no one to come. We don't have access to enough food or fuel to support more people here. If you would like to help, please send donations to Commuity Christian Church, 10001 W. Commercial Blvd, Tamarac, FL 33351 and designate it for "Earthquake".
Thank you for your prayers. Please pray for no rain at night, since everyone in this part of the country is sleeping outside. Pray for order to replace chaos, and calm to come to our hearts and the hearts of the haitians.

Marie Lourdes

2009-12-22T16:44:00.001-08:00

Hello prayer warriors. I just wanted to ask you all to please pray for Marie Lourdes. Many of you know her... she was my neighbor right next to the clinic in Seguin. She and Emmanuel (the guy who used to be janitor at the clinic) have six children... two girls and four boys. Just recently Emmanuel called me and asked for help, because Marie Lourdes was so sick he was afraid she was dying. I forwarded some funds to him and told him to get to the hospital in Jacmel with her (it was about the time I was flying back to the states for Christmas, so I couldn't help out at our clinic). He brought her down to St. Michel hospital in Jacmel (horrible place, but the only hospital he could get to), and she is in critical condition there. I believe it is her ulcer and other digestive issues, but she is very near death. Danny is visiting her in the hospital and giving us updates on her condition. She left all six children in the mountains to fend for themselves (including her nine month old daughter). Please pray for her health and healing. Pray for the doctors to care and be wise in her treatment. Pray for her children, and for Emmanuel, who often is lost without her to help him make decisions. Thank you, and Merry Christmas!

On the Lighter Side

2009-11-09T09:35:00.000-08:00

Most of my blogs are long and somewhat depressing, so I thought I'd switch things up a bit and tell a lighter story this month.
I was standing in front of a crowd of our patients last Tuesday, about ready to share the gospel message with them during our daily devotional time. As I opened my Bible to begin reading, I was interrupted by a commotion in the clinic's front yard. A little put off, I turned to see what was going on. There was a man trying to coax his donkey out of our courtyard. He was hitting it and pulling it and the donkey was being, well, mule-headed. Finally, after the patients and I had stared at him for a minute or two, he managed to pull the beast out into the street. I turned back to the passage that I had planned on sharing with the crowd, which was Psalm 32:9. "Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you." I had prayed earlier that morning that God would send His Spirit ahead of me to prepare the hearts of the patients to receive His Word, but I had not expected Him to provide me with a sermon illustration, too!

Beng A Mother In Haiti

2009-10-17T14:22:00.001-07:00

I may be a mother now, and live in Haiti, but that doesn't mean I know what it feels like to be a Haitian mother. I have some patients who are Haitian mothers and have stories that are indicative of how hard it is to raise children in this country. Here are their stories.

The first story is of a woman who gave birth to her daughter, Isadora, just one month after I had Eleanor. She came to see me because she could no longer breast feed. She had severe post partum cardiomyopathy, a disease which is much more common in the third world and involves heart failure after giving birth. Researchers don't yet know exactly why it is more common in poor countries, but believe malnutrition may be a contributing factor. Her legs were swollen, she wasn't able to breathe well, her milk was coming out as clear as water, and she was too weak to hold her underweight child. We put Isadora on the formula fund, and put her mom on medicines to help her heart get stronger. Unfortunately, two weeks ago, I learned that Isadora's mother passed away, just 12 hours before her next appointment at the clinic. Isadora is not doing very well, either. A friend of her mother is raising her, and trying her best to give her bottles correctly, but she was not boiling the water for the formula properly, and Isadora has not been gaining weight. I gave her caretaker some instructions on how to better treat the water that she puts in the bottles, and I hope to see a healthier baby next week. Thank you to all of you who donate to this ministry, so that we are able to purchase formula for babies like Isadora.

The second mother I'd like to tell you about is a young woman who came to me with her 1 year old son. She came to see me because she had a very bad skin condition. I knew that the condition was more likely in HIV positive people, so I sent her to the laboratory for a test, and it was positive, as I had suspected. When I gave her the bad news that she was most likely infected with HIV, she did not seem surprised. She hung her head and told me about how hard it was to raise a son when the father was out of the picture. She said that she was humiliated by the way she was living, but that she couldn't bear to see her son go hungry, so she had been taking money for sex. She sat there crying as her son grabbed her by her sore arm and squirmed around for food. I asked her if she was going to church, and she said that she was attending a church, but couldn't talk to the pastor about her problems because he didn't approve of the way she was living. I asked her if she wanted to repent and turn her life over the Lord, and she said "I believe in the sacrifice Jesus made for my sins, but I can't accept Him until I get my life straightened out". I reminded her that Jesus died for us while we were yet sinners, and that if she would repent and come to Him, He would accept her just as she is, and help her to turn her life around, in His strength, not her own. She wanted to pray, so we prayed together for Christ to enter her heart and help her live differently. I pray that God will show her a way to provide for her son without compromising herself. I pray also for the pastor and members of the church where she is attending to accept her and help disciple her, instead of spurning her.

The third story of motherhood here in Haiti that I'd like to share involves a bridge in a city called Carrefour. It is a busy, dirty suburb of Port au Prince, not too far from Christianville. The bridge is well-known as a "dumping ground" for abandoned children. Several women, feeling that they have no other recourse, dump their babies over this bridge into the riverbed below from time to time. I have a patient who came to me one day with a small baby girl. She was a sweet little 2 month old baby with Down's syndrome and a precious smile. The woman showed me the baby and a vaccination card. She wanted to know how old the baby was and if the baby had any problems. The woman said that she had been passing by that bridge in Carrefour and found this girl, abandoned there, with her vaccination card next to her. We believe that the mother of the child must have gone to get her daughter vaccinated, been told that her child was mentally retarded, and decided that the burden of a special child was too much for her, so she abandoned her at the bridge. The woman who brought the little girl in to see me was just a bystander who decided that she had love in her heart for this little one and wanted to take on the difficult task of raising a child in Haiti. I told the woman that the child was most likely about two months old, and had Down's Syndrome, which would mean that she would develop more slowly than other children. I warned her that the child might never talk, and would most likely require attention well into adulthood. She accepted this and remained committed to raising this little girl. We put the baby on the formula fund, and she is doing amazingly well. Here is a picture of this precious girl now and the brave woman who took on motherhood in this difficult place.

Deliveries

2009-08-04T16:17:00.000-07:00

Eleanor Nancy Price came to join my family on July 12, 2009 at 2:33am. It turns out being a mother is a lot more wonderful than I thought it could ever be. It was quite a process, though, and throughout the whole affair I couldn't help comparing my experiences to those of the haitian women that I helped with labor and delivery in the mountains. Specifically, I kept comparing what was happening to me with what happened to my best haitian friend. Here is a point by point summary of the differences in our labor and delivery experiences.

-I had my baby one week late and was induced. She had hers five weeks early.

-I took a tour of the hospital where I was going to deliver about three weeks beforehand. She travelled to three different hospitals while she was in active labor before she found one that offered incubators and oxygen for premature infants.

-My husband and sister and I had to weave around a few orange cones in construction zones on our way to the hospital. My haitian friend had to pause on her journey to the hospital to wait for another woman to give birth in the bed of the truck she was travelling in.

-I was allowed to have my husband, my sister, and my mother present with me during my labor. My haitian friend was not allowed to have anyone in the room with her, and labored alone.

-The nursing staff at the hospital where I delivered checked on me every few hours and continually monitored my progress on their computers. My haitian friend didn't receive any nursing care. I found her at one in the morning, screaming, alone, with her IV materials lying beside the bed, still unopened. I had to wake the nurse up to tell her the patient was ready to deliver.

-I received an epidural and only felt intense labor pains for about four hours. My friend didn't even receive tylenol and labored in extreme pain for more than twelve hours.

-I received an episiotomy that was performed under anesthesia and was repaired immediately. My friend received an episiotomy without anesthesia and was repaired 14 hours later, when a doctor finally saw her.

-My baby was greeted by a team of pediatric specialists and taken to a special care nursery to help her breath better. Much later, she was given her first bath. My friend's baby was taken to her bedside and expected to sleep and survive the night, even though he was struggling for every breath he took. When I insisted that the nurse send him to the nursery for oxygen, she told me "if you think he needs it, you take him." I did, and the nurses in the pediatric ward spent precious time washing him off before they gave him the oxygen and medicine he needed to live.

In the end, we both survived, and so did our babies. Mine was labeled a "traumatic birth" by the medical personnel at the hospital. My friends' experience was considered normal to above average by the medical community in haiti. I guess "traumatic" and "normal" are relative terms. I don't know if I deserved all the specialized care and medicine that I got, but I know that my haitian friend and her son deserved more than what they received. The whole experience has just solidified my resolve to provide truly good medical care for as many people in Haiti as I can. They deserve the best.

Sharing the Good News, Breaking the Bad News

2009-05-17T10:31:00.000-07:00

Medicine on the mission field is an interesting profession. The frustrations of practicing good medicine in the third world can be overwhelming, and the day to day struggles of working with a staff that is culturally very different can bog anyone down. However, the hardest thing about medicine, on the mission field or at home, is telling a patient that their illness is terminal. This is especially hard in Haiti, where doctors usually don’t tell their patients any bad news, but always hold out to them a little hope. Haitians are hope-filled people, and cling to any chance that they might get better. So, when I tell a patient, “you have cancer that is incurable” or “you have end-stage heart failure”, I often get a blank stare in response, or words of denial. Some patients cry, others ask ‘what else can we do?’ Sometimes there are a few more things that can be done, but many times we have exhausted the medical possibilities by the time we give them the bad news. Breaking bad news like this can be very draining, especially if it happens on a regular basis. However, thank the Lord, breaking the bad news isn’t the end of the story at a mission clinic like ours.

Sick people tend to think about the future. Very sick people tend to think about death and life afterwards. That’s what is so great about working in medicine as a missionary. The people we come into contact with are ripe for hearing good news. They want to hear that there is hope- in this life and in the next. When I worked in Seguin, we had a local preacher come and share the gospel with our patients three days each week. Here at Christianville, the staff of the clinic takes turns sharing the gospel each morning. So I get to share the good news every Tuesday morning. Two weeks ago, I talked about my river experience, and explained how I called on the Lord in my time of need, and He was there to rescue me. I explained to my patients that He heard my voice because He knows me… because I walk with him daily. I urged them not to wait until they were in the middle of the river to cry out to God, but to call on Him today, and start their relationship with Him. Two people responded to the message that day. Sandy was able to pray with them to receive Christ. Another day, several weeks ago, Marie (our pharmacy tech) was preaching to the patients. A young man responded to the gospel message. Sandy prayed with him to receive Christ. Later on, I saw him in my exam room and gave him an HIV test, because of a suspicious rash he had. The test came back positive, so I counseled him. I found out he had accepted Christ that morning, because he was worried about his future after death, and wanted to get his heart right with God. Even though I had to break the bad news about HIV to him, I was able to share with him in the joy of finding life eternal. We see people coming to Christ each week at the clinic, and that is what medical missions is all about.

Last week, an old man was carried into my exam room by his crying family members. He had had a stroke, and was very weak on his right side. He could not say more than a couple words, and they were very slurred. I gave him some medicine to help prevent another stroke, and gave him the bad news that usually the damage done during a stroke is permanent, with very little that medicine can do to improve it. I gave him physical therapy tips along with medicine, and sent him on his way. Today at church, an old man got up to give a testimony of God’s goodness. He looked remarkably familiar to me. He said that he had been carried into the clinic this past week. I didn’t think it could have been the same man, though, because this old man in church was holding the microphone with his right hand, was walking without a limp, and was speaking clearly and without difficulty. But as he told his story, it became clear that it was indeed the same man. God had healed him. And he gave his testimony to the church, not to give glory to the clinic or the doctors, but to God alone, the great Physician, who healed his body. I’m glad that in this instance, the ‘bad news’ I gave him and his family was turned into a testimony to the whole church congregation of the good news that God is alive and powerful, and heals our infirmities.

Several years ago, when I was first entering college and debating what type of missionary I wanted to be, my choices were Bible translation, business administration, or medicine. While I’m sure God could have used me in any of those areas, I’m glad He led me into medicine.

My Community

2009-03-19T14:22:00.000-07:00

Eight years ago, when I announced to my church in Florida that I would be leaving for full-time service overseas, I never imagined what I was getting myself into. I knew I would have to face lonely times, disease, danger, a foreign language and culture, and fund-raising, but I wasn’t sure to what extent God would test me in each of these areas. And of everything on that list, fundraising was the thing that really made me tremble. I dreaded it. So it came as a total surprise and complete relief when the ministry team at my church (Community Christian Church in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, called me in for a “talk” just a few short weeks after my announcement. They expressed to me their desire to support me fully, as a living link missionary of their congregation. I was overwhelmed with a feeling of relief (no begging!), with a feeling of unworthiness (how could God or any church love me that much?), and with a feeling of responsibility (I’ve got to make them proud!)

Over the years, Community has come to my aid again and again. Not just with their faithful financial support, but with advice, wise counsel, encouragement, rides to the airport and places to stay while stateside, and even a new truck when I destroyed the one they bought me in the river. Each summer, the kids in VBS raise funds for the kids here in Haiti who need formula or money for the hospital. Many of the kids at Community still greet me with a hug and a “hello miss Teresa” each time I come home to visit. The kids even showered my exam room with valentines this year. I couldn’t ask for a better sending church. There was one thing that was lacking, though. A team to come visit me. I wanted the church to see the work here in Haiti. It seemed that each year they would plan something, a coup d’etat or a food riot or some other civil unrest would upset the plans and cause a cancellation. But finally, this year, the time was right. The teams were planned, the flights were purchased, and two teams from my sending church arrived! Each team spent one week here, and it was wonderful to have them. Both teams jumped right into helping out wherever needed. Christianville has had some pretty finicky teams come and visit over the years, but Community Christian Church was not one of them. They were voted “Most Easy-Going Team” of the year by our guest house coordinators, in fact. They worked on construction, evangelism, teaching, upkeep (painting and cleaning and organizing and counting meds) and they even washed my dog. Some of my favorite memories of their visit are of Carla Behrenberg, perched on luggage, enjoying the sights of Port au Prince from the bed of the truck, and Terry Harding signing with a hearing-impaired girl here who hadn’t had a real conversation with anyone in years. I also thoroughly enjoyed the storytimes we shared each night. It was great to get to know everyone so much better.

I thank God every day for His provision for me. Only He knew what a blessing He was leading me to 12 years ago when I chose Community Christian Church out of the phone book and spent my first Sunday there. I couldn't have guessed that it would lead to such a faithful and meaningful relationship. Thank You, Lord, for Community!

Paco

2009-02-15T09:56:00.000-08:00

A little announcement for everyone who's been here to haiti and met our inherited dog, Paco (A.K.A. Stanky Dangle)..... he just passed away yesterday morning. He was about 10 or 11 years old, we think. He had been struggling with a hematoma on his ear, which looked like it was getting better. Then two days ago he stopped eating, and yesterday he went over to our gate, laid in the sun, and passed on. Ryan and I were in Jacmel when it happened, so Doug and some good friends on the team (Mike and Kurt) buried Paco in our side yard. He will be remembered for his friendly nature, his morning howls with the church bell, the strange nubbin on his chest, his sneaky way of getting in the guest house just to be near people, and his fear of thunderstorms. We'll miss you, Paco.

IT'S A GIRL!

2009-02-10T17:32:00.001-08:00

We had an ultrasound today, and the baby girl is fine and due the first week of july.

Hospitals in Haiti---and Some News

2009-01-06T09:42:00.000-08:00

It's been five months, so I figure it's time for a new blog! I wouldn't want to overload any of you with news of Haiti and myself by writing too often, you know? Actually, life's just been super busy with wedding, medical and optometry mission conferences, work, new house, new marriage, and holiday visits to the stateside folks. But now I've finally found a couple of minutes and a high speed internet connection, so I'm taking this opportunity to update my much-neglected blog.

The topic of this blog is Haitian Hospitals, because they've been on my mind a lot lately. For personal and professional reasons. As you all know, health care in Haiti is a funny thing. And I mean funny in the tragic sense of the word, of course. I was very happy to move to Christianville and I've been overwhelmed at how much nicer it is to practice medicine in a facility with a full lab, xray capabilities, and ultrasound. It makes diagnosis 100 times easier than it was in Seguin. However, there remains one frustration. Seguin was two hours from any hospital, and Christianville is only five minutes from one, and about one hour from dozens of others. So I thought that moving here would eliminate some of my hospital frustrations, but it turns out they are only magnified by working so close to civilization. Why? Because whether you are five hours or five minutes from sub-par hospitals doesn't change the fact that they stink. There are a few exceptions to this rule: a Doctors without Borders hospital for pregnant women (but they only take the very sickest cases and turn all others away), a free Catholic hospital for children under 13 (but they are often full and have to turn patients away), and a Harvard funded episcopalian hospital (that is four hours away by bus for our patients). Besides these hospitals, we shudder each time we have to refer a patient for hospital care. Here are some examples from patients of mine.

In October I saw a woman who had been bleeding for more than one year straight. It was like she stepped out of the biblical story where the woman with the "issue of blood" came and touched Jesus' robe. Only I couldn't offer her Jesus' robe. I did pray for her, and sent her to a hospital for treatment. She had a hematocrit of 7 (normal is 36 and anyone with a count under 10 should probably not be alive... definitely should not be standing in my exam room having a conversation with me). All this woman needed was several blood transfusions and a hysterectomy. I sent her to the hospital, and the next time I saw her was two months later. She had a hematocrit of 13 (still very dangerously low), and had a tissue sample in a cup in her hands. She said the hospital had given her one unit of blood, made her lay in bed for weeks, and then taken a biopsy and sent her on her way to go get it analyzed and bring back the results (a process which could take weeks in Haiti). She was still actively bleeding. I gave her more iron, sent her on her way to go get the biopsy analyzed, and tried not to bang my head against the wall.

Another patient of mine was a young man whose wife brought him in. He could barely stand up and was complaining of a huge headache. I examined him and found neurologic deficits. Jim came and looked at him and saw a cranial nerve palsy. We sent him to Ryan to have his eyes examined and Ryan found cranial nerve problems as well. All this led us to believe he had a mass or bleed in his head. He needed a CT scan right away. Sandy gave him the money to go get one done, and he came back the next day with the results. There was a large amount of blood pooling in his brain. He had had an aneurysm that burst, most likely. He needed immediate surgery. We called a neurologist, who told us to send him and his wife (they were both very pleasant people and appreciative of everything we did for them) to the hospital. The neurologist said he would meet them there. Perhaps he did, but if he did meet them there, he did nothing during his visit to help them. The man died that night. His distraught wife came to cry on Sandy's shoulder the next day. Perhaps this man would have died in the States as well, but at least an attempt would have been made to save his life. In Haiti, he was just left to die in his hospital bed.

Perhaps you all remember me telling the story of the pregnant woman in Seguin who gave birth to twins and then started to hemorrhage. It was 10 at night. I had no pitocin. I needed to get her to a hospital. She bled all night long in my truck as I went from one hospital to the next looking for help. Four hospitals and 8 hours later, I finally found help for her. That is the state of hospitals in Haiti. Why am I telling these depressing stories, and why do we have a Hospital Fund, if this is what the patients get? Well, many times patients do get the help they need... it's just not as fast or as neat as we are used to in America. Patients do need CT scans and surgeries to remove cancer or repair ruptured bowels or broken bones, and the Hospital Fund helps make that happen. It's just frustrating for us to send our patients out, knowing that they won't get timely care, but praying that they will get the care they need before it's too late. Please pray with us for our very sick patients. Pray that they will receive mercy at the hospitals that they are sent to, and prompt treatment. Pray that we will have wisdom to choose the right hospital for each different case.

Now for the personal side to these stories. I've been thinking a lot about hospitals in haiti, because I may need to use one this year. It turns out that the honeymoon that Ryan and I took in the Dominican was not only relaxing and wonderful, but also reproductive. We got pregnant! I'm due in early July. It would be easiest for us to stay in Haiti to have the baby, but knowing all that I know about hospitals in Haiti, we have decided to try to come stateside for the birth. We won't be moving permanently back to the States. We'll still live and work in Haiti after the baby is born, but we are currently planning on coming to Minneapolis in June (or May) to prepare for the birth of the wee-one. Please pray for us as we decide when the best time for our trip home would be. Timing is everything, and only God knows when this little one is coming.

Happy New Year!

CHRISTIANVILLE

2008-08-26T06:14:00.000-07:00

I've been waiting for awhile to do a blog on Christianville because I was hoping to have some pictures to include with the write-up. But my camera broke and so I decided to write this anyway. I'm sure you all know that I've been working in a place called Christianville full-time since June. There is a clinic on the Christianville property that is run by Haiti Health Ministries. The staff includes two haitian doctors, two haitian nurses, a haitian pharmacy worker, two haitian laboratory techs, and three other haitians on support staff. There are also two american nurses, an american administrator, an american doctor, and me! If it sounds like more people than I used to work with, IT IS, and I'm excited about it. It is so great to not have to do every job myself, but instead to stick to what I'm good at. Which is seeing patients. Together we see about 120 people every day. We are capable of providing many services to our patients which other clinics can't offer, including x-ray, ultrasound, and lab tests. Dr. Jim and his wife Sandy have worked hard to equip the clinic with every item necessary to provide the highest quality medical care possible for our haitian patients.
One thing that I love about the work in Christianville is that we all work together to share the gospel with our patients. Leading people to the Lord and plugging them in to the local churches for growth is our goal. Each morning one of the staff, whether haitian or american, preaches the gospel to our patients who wait in a covered porch in the courtyard to be seen. Our patients are presented with an invitation to accept the gift of Christ's saving grace each morning. We all take turns preaching the daily devotion. If there are patients who are interested in receiving the Lord as Savior, Sandy prays individually with them while we begin to see patients. Then they are provided with discipleship materials and encouraged to attend a Bible-believing church near their home. While in the exam rooms, Jim and I pray with patients as the opportunity arises.
My favorite part of working at Christianville is the team aspect. I missed that and longed for it while I was in Seguin. Here is a patient story that demonstrates the way we like to work as a team in the clinic, while keeping our main focus to share the love of the Lord: A man walked into my office with a very large belly and yellow eyes. He was only in his early fifties, and he did not know the Lord. After I gave him a physical exam and Stacey gave him a chest x-ray and Jim gave him an abdominal ultrasound, we diagnosed him with liver cancer that had spread to his lungs. I talked to him about his spiritual condition and I gave him the bad news about his physical condition. He admitted that he did not know the Lord and was not ready to meet his Maker. I laid him on an exam table to remove some fluid from his abdomen to make him more comfortable. While the fluid was being drained, I called Sandy into the room to continue talking to him about the gospel while I went next door to see more patients. He accepted the Lord while Sandy prayed for him. He came into the clinic a few more times for follow up visits, and I encouraged him to read the Bible and go to church if he physically could. Then we didn't see him anymore. I'm sure he passed away, and I'm hopeful that we will see him one day in heaven, whole and healthy and joyful.
Thank you for all your prayers and all your support. Haiti is currently being hit by a category 1 hurricane. I'm in the States to prepare for my upcoming wedding, so I'm not sure how much damage is being done by the hurricane. Please pray for those who have dwellings that are less than adequate to hold up during this storm.

Jabez

2008-06-26T05:53:00.000-07:00

If only I could kiss your lips and breathe life into you, like that first day we met.

May 5, 2005

But it wasn’t me who gave you the breath of life that day, was it? God ordained that day for you to live. His Spirit flowed into you, and you opened your eyes and gasped and cried.

If only we could have kissed your lips and breathed life back into you, that day you died.

June 17, 2008

But it wasn’t us who had the power to save you, was it? God ordained that day for you to die. His Spirit called yours home, and you closed your eyes, and we gasped and cried.

The day you were born and the day you died… those days stand out in our memories. But the days in between, those are the ones that really count; the days that you lived, and laughed and made us love you, and changed us all.

The News

2008-06-03T16:46:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it seems I have to work hard to come up with things to write on this blog. Life can get in a rut and not change for awhile, which makes coming up with new blog material a challenge. This, however, is not one of those times. I actually have had so much change happening in the last few weeks, that I’m not sure where to start. So, I’ll start with the part that all of you know already. I have been planning on leaving Seguin and moving to Christianville, Haiti for the past several months, and two weeks ago I made that transition final. I had family and friends here to help me move out of Seguin, which made the move easier. It was still a heart-breaking thing for me. It’s weird that a heart can hurt, and yet be at peace at the same time. But that is what I felt. Extreme sadness, and extreme peace. I know leaving was the right thing to do, and that now was the right time to do it. My neighbors cried and we hugged and had our moments of sharing tears and old memories. Even now as I type, I don’t like to think about the look on their faces as we said goodbye, because it makes me so sad. But I know it was the correct thing to do, and that God’s direction and guidance was in it. I know, too, that there must have been a lot of people praying for me during those last few days, because I could feel the powerful peace that only God can give. Thank you to all of you who remembered me and the people of Seguin this past month, and prayed for us as we separated. I know I won’t ever forget them, and still plan on helping them whenever and however I can.

So, now for the other change in my life. This change also had an effect on my heart, but it was a little different than the leaving-Seguin-effect. I say a little different, because instead of breaking my heart, it filled it to overflowing with joy. And underneath that, I could feel the same peace that I felt as I left Seguin. The peace that only comes from being in the will of God. Last Saturday, under a waterfall in Jacmel, I got engaged to a man named Ryan Price. I have known him since October of 2007, when I first visited Christianville. He is an optometrist from Alabama who moved here right after he graduated and has been living and working full-time here in Christianville since September. He heard God call him, and he followed. And I’m so glad he did. We have been dating since March, and plan on getting married in October of this year. The details of the actual wedding day are still fuzzy, but as soon as we know more, we’ll let you all know! When Ryan asked me to marry him, we were at a place called Basin Bleu with a bunch of our friends. So there was an audience there to witness the engagement and take pictures of it. Here are some of the photos from that day.

Food Riots

2008-04-17T05:12:00.000-07:00

Several people have emailed me, asking how the food riots have affected me and Seguin, so I thought I should blog about it. Last week there were some riots here. Lots, actually. My mom was visiting me, and we were staying at a hotel north of Port for the weekend. On Monday, when we checked out of the hotel, we heard rumblings that there might be riots starting up, so we asked around before we headed into Port to buy meds. The people we asked said that everything in Port was quiet and good, so we went. And they were right... everything in Port was quiet and just like normal. We got all our med shopping done, and then it was time to leave Port and head to Christianville for the night. That's when things got interesting. When we got to Carrefour (the first big suburb outside of Port... built on a garbage dump and always a hot spot for riots), we noticed that no cars or trucks were moving along the road. There were several big trucks parked on the side of the road, waiting. I figured they were waiting for five o clock to roll around, because that's generally when the rioters get hungry and go home for the night. So we pulled off to the side and waited with them. At around 4 or 4:30, a police car loaded with officers with big guns pulled onto the road ahead of us, and all the big trucks that had been waiting revved up their engines and followed the police. So did several other cars and trucks. So, we decided to join the caravan, thinking there's safety in numbers (and big guns). We got about a mile down the road, and arrived at our first road block. There were many, many drunk, hostile-looking men standing in a line across the road, slowing the progress of our caravan. While we were watching these angry men, a rock flew out of nowhere and hit my truck, about six inches below the window on the passenger's side, where my mom was sitting. It made us both jump, but did no other damage. The men in the road let us through with just a few angry shouts and hands hitting our car. Then we just followed all the other drivers who had made it through the blockade. The cops with their guns stopped driving after awhile and turned back, leaving us on our own. Thankfully, though, we didn't encounter any more active blockades. There was plenty of evidence of previous ones, however. Every couple of miles we drove through areas with black scars on the road from tires that had burned there, and huge amounts of shattered glass. In some places, people were out in the road with brooms, sweeping up the glass as non-chalantly as if it were leaves in fall.
When we arrived in Christianville, we decided that we would spend the night, and then leave for Seguin very early the next morning, before the rioters got going. That plan was thwarted, though. I had a flat tire from all the glass in the road, and in the time it took me to fix it, the rioters got started and blocked our way out. The next day, we attempted to go to Seguin again, but had the same luck. Looking back, I know it was God's protection that kept us from travelling on those days. On Saturday the riots ended, my mom flew home, and then on Monday I drove back to Seguin. I saw evidence of last week's road blocks every couple of miles, even along the mountain roads. When Aristid was ousted, which was the last time road blocks were put up, they didn't make it to the mountains.... it was isolated to the cities and major roads. I guess this time it is different, since it is about food costs, and the mountain poor people are hit hardest by that. Unfortunately, it's not usually the hungriest that are out in the streets rioting, but instead the young, bored and unemployed.
Seguin was affected by the riots in a few ways. A large truck carrying rice and other provisions was looted on its way up the mountain. Many women here in seguin had their goods stolen, and are now in worse shape than before. There were also rumors that one of our local christian youth were involved in the looting, which made me so sad to hear.
So, now that the prime minister is gone and the price of rice is supposedly going to be lower, the people are somewhat appeased, and the riots have stopped. Please pray for peace here.

Psalm 32:7 You are my hiding place. You will protect me from trouble, and surround me with songs of deliverance.

Announcing Changes

2008-03-11T05:25:00.000-07:00

This is a very sad letter for me to write, but also an exciting one. As most of you know, I’ve been working in Seguin for the past six years. The majority of that time I have spent alone on the mountain, struggling through the daily demands of meeting the medical and spiritual needs of very poor people over the entire mountain range. I love helping the poor and destitute, and can’t imagine spending my life any other way. However, I’ve come to learn over the past few years that serving in a solitary setting, without a team of co-workers on site to help bear the burdens is too much for one person (this person, at any rate) to endure for extended periods of time. I’ve seen warning signs of “burn out” become more frequent over the past few months, and this year I began to ask God to show me what He would have me do and where He would have me serve. I asked Him to give me a team of people to work with, so I wouldn’t have to be alone. The more that I prayed and sought counsel, the more I began to realize that it was time to move on to another area of ministry.

About this same time, I received an invitation from friends of mine (Jim and Sandy Wilkins) who work in Christianville, Haiti. They emailed me and told me of their need for another American medical practitioner to come work with them in their busy clinic. I decided to visit their clinic and work there for two weeks, to test the waters and see if perhaps this was where God was next leading me. My two weeks in Christianville were very exciting and seemed to be a great fit. After more prayer and discussions with my pastor and family and friends, I decided that a move to Christianville was the answer to my prayers. Christianville is a community about one hour west of Port au Prince. Jim and Sandy run a non-profit organization called Haiti Health Ministries, and they are in charge of a very busy clinic in Christianville. Jim is a doctor, and Sandy is a nurse administrator. There are also three other American missionaries on or near the compound. Three Haitian doctors also work at the clinic. Jim, Sandy, and other workers at the clinic take turns preaching the gospel to the patients every morning and have seen many people come to Christ over the past couple years. I will be working in the clinic, seeing patients and doing procedures, much like I was doing on the mountain. I will hopefully be able to work with and train neighborhood midwives, and will also be able to teach health education to the hundreds of children who attend school in Christianville. There are opportunities and housing at Christianville for teams to visit, and opportunities for interns to come and spend time with me in the clinic as well. If you have any questions or concerns, you could email me, or go to the Haiti Health Ministries website at www.haitihealthministries.org

Now, for the question that I know is on everyone’s mind…. What about Seguin? My biggest fear in moving to another area of Haiti was that my patients in Seguin would be neglected after I left. During a meeting that I attended with Mac Burberry and Roro Eustache, two leaders of Haitian Christian Outreach, I expressed my desire to move to another location, and my desire to see the clinic in Seguin continue to prosper and be used by God to reach the poor and lost. Mac and Roro were very supportive of me, and very understanding. They expressed that they are committed to the work in Seguin, and plan on doing everything possible to keep the clinic in Seguin running. We would love to see Margarethe continue to work there, and Roro has already begun looking for a Haitian doctor to come up and help Margarethe see patients several days each week. Both Mac and I would like to make it clear that in no way am I leaving Seguin because of any disagreements with Haitian Christian Outreach. It is a very amicable parting, and Mac, Roro and I all plan on helping each other any way we can to see the gospel preached in Haiti. If you have any questions for Mac or Haitian Christian Outreach, please email him at mac@haitianchristian.org. Haitian Christian Outreach will continue to buy formula for children in the mountains who have no mothers, so for those of you who are currently giving towards the Formula Fund, please consider transferring your donations to Haitian Christian outreach by June of 2008. HCO will also help to hospitalize patients who are in need, and will also continue to raise money for salaries for the clinic employees and medicines for the patients. That is to say, if you are now giving regularly to the people of Seguin, please don’t stop. Just change the name and destination of the check! Make the checks payable to Haitian Christian Outreach and send them to P.O. Box 1052, Mahomet, IL 61853

All of these changes are going to slowly begin in January of 2008. I am currently splitting my time between Seguin and Christianville, and by June of 2008 I plan to be full time in Christianville. My hope is that I will continue to visit Seguin often and maintain contact with my friends there. Please email me if you have any questions and concerns. And please remember to pray for the people of Seguin… they are worried about the changes.

Thank you all for your understanding, and for your love for the people of Seguin.

Tony Visits the Poor

2008-02-24T13:08:00.000-08:00

There is a boy up here on the mountain named Tony. He is one of five or six siblings, and his father is gone. Tony’s house burned down a couple years ago, and he and his family have struggled to rebuild their lives after the loss of almost all their possessions. Just as things were looking up, Tony’s mother suffered a massive stroke. She is paralyzed and can no longer provide for her family by taking long walks to Port au Prince to sell produce from their garden. Still, the family struggles on and the older boys try to provide for their younger siblings.

A few days ago Tony knocked on my door and explained to me that he had been going from house to house in an area called Lagade, telling people about Jesus and praying with them. As he was on his walk, he came upon several poor people. Those were his words. “Poor people…very bad off”. When he said this, I gave him a strange look and thought to myself, “and you’re not one of them?” He seemed very touched by the “poor” people that he had met, and he insisted that I take a walk with him one day, and take my camera, and write down their stories so that I could tell my friends about them. I was interested to see what kind of person Tony would label as poor, since I labeled him as one of the poorest people I know. So I said yes, and last Tuesday we took off on a drive and a hike.

The first woman we met was in her late twenties or early thirties, but looked ten years older. She was very skinny, clothed in what appeared to be her only dress and sweater, which were ripped and soiled. She was squatting on the ground, nursing a baby who was also clothed in a ripped, dirty shirt. I couldn’t imagine that the milk the child was getting was more than a drop or two. As we began to talk with the woman, another child ran up behind her, screaming. She was perhaps four or five years old, but looked like a scrawny two year old. When she saw us, she figured the “white man” had come to eat her, and she went running off barefooted and bare-bottomed into the fields. I asked the woman to tell me her story, and, with a vacant expression on her face and no inflection in her voice, she told me that her husband had died last year… she didn’t remember exactly when. He had had a cough. He left her a field, but she couldn’t afford the seeds to plant anything in it. She lived with her three children and her mother in the cornstalk house nearby. We took a look at the house, and could see that even for a cornstalk house, it was meager. The dimensions were about five feet by five feet, the stalks of corn that made up the walls were thinning and rotten, letting in what I can only imagine is a great quantity of rain and wind, and there was nothing inside… no pots or pans or clothes or bedding. One shirt hung out to dry in the yard. That was the only possession I could see that she owned, besides what she wore. I have no idea what she eats or how she cooks it, but from the looks of her and her children, eating is something that only happens every other day or so. After listening to her tell her story, we took pictures of her and the house, gave her some beans and clothes, told her we would try to help, and prayed for her. As we walked away, I wondered if I had the emotional energy to visit another of Tony’s “poor” people.

The second woman we met lived in a house that looked much better than the last house we’d seen. It had a thatch roof and wooden slats for walls. When Tony called “hello”, a short elderly woman with a high voice and a hand-sewn blue dress groped her way out the door. Her left eye was sunken and damaged, and her right eye had a huge cataract, so she was blind. She ordered a neighbor to go get chairs for us to sit on, and she told us her story. She has no children or husband to care for her. Sometimes neighbors come and get her and lead her to church (she converted to Christianity just a short while ago), and sometimes they cook food for her so she can eat. She is often hungry, and often cold. When I told her that she might be able to see again if she went to Jacmel and had cataract surgery, she said, “well, there is no one to take me and no money to pay for it.” I determined inwardly to help make the surgery possible, but gave her no promises that day. We prayed with her and moved on to our next home visit.

The third house we were scheduled to see was about a forty minute walk from the road, according to Tony (which meant about an hour walk for me). Just as we were starting to walk, the woman we were going to see came trotting down the road to meet us. Tony reproached her for not staying at home to wait for our visit, but I was secretly glad we could avoid the walk. I didn’t get to see her current house, but I did stand with her in a field and listen to her story. Her name is Marie, and she is in her forties. She didn’t look me in the eye as she spoke, but looked off into space with a set expression that made me think she was trying hard to hold back tears. She is the mother of six children. Her husband is a polygamist, and has another wife besides her. He splits his time between his two families, and takes very little care of her or her children. She accepted Christ a few years ago, and goes to church every Sunday. Three of her children live at home with her. The older three children she had to give away, because she couldn’t afford to feed them. They live as child slaves in Port au Prince and Jacmel. Last week, her cornstalk house caught on fire, and burned to the ground. Her children escaped, but everything they owned was lost in the fire. She seemed most distressed by the fact that she had no blankets to guard against the cold mountain nights, and no pots or pans to cook with. We prayed with her, told her we would try to help, and went home.

It was a solemn ride home. Ginnie, the American nurse who was with me during this hike, seemed shocked and pensive. She said that the children she saw give new meaning to the term “failure to thrive”. I felt a weight on my shoulders during our drive home… the familiar “weight of poverty” that often plagues me here. Tony, however, seemed to be very happy. He was hopeful that these hurting people could be helped. He left to walk home with a lighter step, and a promise to “show me more poor people” when I had the time. A small, selfish part of me hopes that I never find the time, because the burden is so huge.

I plan on using funds that my supporters give each month to help these three people, and I will keep you posted on their progress. Please pray that God would touch their hearts with hope.

Blessings

2008-01-23T19:06:00.001-08:00

Just thought I'd take a moment and count my blessings... I was off the mountain for a week, and just got back up here on Monday. I never know what to expect when i come back, so I was dreading my return up here. I brought the generator back up with me, after Larry took a look at it and rigged it to work. Once I finished seeing the patients that were waiting for Margarethe and me, I hooked the generator up and it ran like a charm. My water tanks were empty, so I primed the water pump and pumped water. Then I got on the phone with Starband, my internet provider, and figured out what was wrong with my satellite. So, in one day I had electricity, water and internet. It was great. The only problem was that I pumped all the water out of my cistern and into my tanks, so my cistern was almost dry, and that had me worried. I don't have time to go for water runs every day, and it hasn't been raining. But that worry was taken care of yesterday. I was busy pulling teeth and delivering a baby (boy, by the way... of course), when we heard a car approach. It was Bob and Roro, and they were here to visit and prepare the place for a february Raincatchers team. They painted the roof, and cleaned the cistern out, and hauled water from another cistern into the one at the clinic. It was wonderful to have help and company. God is good.

back in haiti-part two

2008-01-16T15:44:00.001-08:00

yikes... so i'm apparently having difficulties with this new blog technology. at any rate, here is the rest of the story that i tried to blog yesterday:

so, by the time i brought margarethe's orphaned puppies up to my house and bathed them, i heard noises coming from the room where the girl was having the baby. so i ran in there, and arrived just in time to see a wriggling baby boy in the grandma's hands, down by the woman's feet. I cut the cord and rubbed him till he started breathing, and then wrapped him up and took care of mom. Later, mom and baby went home just fine, and i continued to take care of the puppies for a few more days. They really liked the formula i was feeding them. After a couple days, margarethe came and got them and brought them to her house. Then a few more days after that, she told me that one of her bigger dogs, Shera, had eaten one of the puppies who came too close to her enclosure. So, the moral of the story is twofold. One, don't give your patient a drug that speeds up labor, and then go putz with puppies. Two, it really is a dog eat dog world. Who knew?

Back in Haiti

2008-01-14T16:01:00.000-08:00

I'm back in Haiti after a month and a half in the States, and it's been a harder transition this time than it normally is. My time spent with my family was great. I got to enjoy plenty of quality time with Lukey and Ella and Kate, my amazing nephew and nieces. Family time was precious, and there were always so many people to talk to and things to do, that it was kind of a shock to get back to the mountain and be alone once again. It didn't help that mid-week my generator broke down, and my internet decided not to work, either. It always feels more isolated when communication with my friends and family back home is cut off. I had a minor melt down on wednesday, and called my missionary friends in Jacmel. Danny and Larry came up that same day, and Drex sent a battery with them. They helped get my generator running again, which was amazing. Then they headed back down the mountain. That was a five or six hour round trip for them, and in a questionably functional vehicle, as well. God has given me great friends here in Haiti, let me tell you! I couldn't be here without them.
A rather funny story happened when I first got back to the mountain last Sunday. I was a little tired from driving and moving back in, so i took a nap (shocker!). When i woke up, I heard a knocking on my door. It was Emmanuel, my neighbor and janitor, telling me that there was a woman in labor. So, I took her in and set her up in the back room on the dental chair. She and her mother spent the night, and there was no real progress made on her labor all night. In the morning, I woke up to the sounds of what I thought were lots of obnoxious birds out in the neighbors' yard. I asked Emmanuel about it, and he said that the sounds were actually coming from four newborn puppies in Margarethe's yard. Their mother had gone off and died, and they were roaming around in the fields, crying and looking for food. I felt bad because Margarethe has been wanting puppies for a long time, and she wasn't home yet to take care of them, so I decided to go down and rescue them. But first, I checked on the pregnant woman. She was still not making good progress, so I put her on a pitocin IV drip, and then went down to gather up the puppies. That was probably not a good way to order my activities that morning, on retrospect. By the time I got back with the puppies

Modeline

2007-12-07T13:04:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos of Modeline, the girl with the cataract that Holy Spirit Parish school in Grand Rapids, MI is going to sponsor. i'll send more pics of her if february (hopefully) after the surgery is complete.

oops

2007-12-03T08:47:00.001-08:00

to all of you who got my latest update and had troubles reading all of it, here is it again, in full form.

2007-12-03T08:42:00.001-08:00

Fall 2007 Update

2007-12-03T08:35:00.000-08:00

Hi! I decided in this update that I would make a bullet point list of things that have been happening lately, to give you a quick glance at life here for the past couple months. Then I will include a more detailed story about one particular patient, for those who have the time and want to read on.
So, the quick summary:

-I’ve had company up here on the mountain for the past six months straight. Jessica Kellogg has been up here keeping me company, helping out in the lab and clinic, and being a great friend the entire time. I’ve also had many other friends and relatives come and visit over the last couple of months. It has totally spoiled me and now I’m dreading being alone again up here in the early part of next year.

-Another class of sixth graders graduated and moved on to high school in the bigger cities of Haiti. Gregory Vil was one of them, and so was Benitho Antoine.

-The formula fund is still doing well, and has had some graduates recently… little 15 month olds that no longer need the milk and are now thriving. Thank you to all who help make that possible for these kids!

-My sister-in-law Angie came to visit me and taught me some new obstetrical techniques (she is an OB doctor). It was amazing having her here and learning from her.

-The hospital fund helped four people this month. One was a little girl who was dying of dehydration. The other was an elderly man in acute heart failure. The third was a teenage boy at our school who fell from a coconut tree, injured his abdomen, and needed surgery. The fourth was a 3 year old boy with acute tetanus. Thank you so much to all of you who give these people the chance to receive the medical care that they would otherwise be denied.

-The recent tropical storm (Noel) wreaked havoc in southern Haiti, and destroyed the roads leading up to Seguin. Large trucks are not able to traverse the road and get to Seguin with needed supplies, so the people on the mountain are struggling to find food to eat and charcoal to cook the food on. The river also is wide and rocky and hard to cross now. Please pray that the roads are fixed quickly.

-The clinic continues to be busy, with almost 20,000 patients on file. Last Monday was a pretty typical Monday for us, so I think I’ll describe it briefly for you all, to give you a better idea of what we do day to day. We saw 71 patients, with Margarethe doing the vital signs, me doing the patient consultations and procedures, Jessica helping with procedures and running the lab, and Losamene and Nadine working in the pharmacy. Of the 71 patients that we saw, one of them was in preterm labor and gave birth to a tiny but healthy 4 pound little boy. One of them had pneumonia and needed IV antibiotics, one of them was having a severe asthma attack and needed a nebulizer treatment, two of them had advanced cancer. Another one had urinary retention from an enlarged prostate. Two toddlers were so dehydrated from diarrhea that they were near death. One little girl needed an abscess drained, and one 17 year old girl was diagnosed with pregnancy and HIV. That’s a pretty typical Monday for us.

And now, here’s a story for all of you who want to keep reading!

The story of Esther, Haiti style

In the month of September, I had two visitors with me here in Seguin: Jessica and Heather. Both are veterans to Haiti and have been here many times before (thankfully). One day in clinic, Heather was taking vital signs and told me that there was a child with the “death stare” waiting to be seen. I walked into the room, and saw Esther. She is an eight month old child on our formula program, because her mother died shortly after she was born. Her grandmother brings her in each month for more formula. For the past several months, Esther has not been doing well. She has been losing weight and not developing as she should. She only weighs seven pounds. Each month we counsel her grandmother on how to feed her, but we have suspected for awhile that she is not being fed appropriately, for some reason or another. On this particular day, Esther was nearly in a coma. She was staring into space but not looking at anything, and was not very responsive to us or her grandmother. We tried for a long time to put an IV in her, but she was too dehydrated and we couldn’t access a vein. So, I put the IV fluid under her skin, to give her some hydration that way, and we decided to take her to Jacmel for more care.

When we arrived in Jacmel, the hospital did not have a pediatrician on site, so they had to contact one who was working nearby. He was rather rude to me on the phone, and refused to come see Esther or admit her without being paid up front. So, we decided to take Esther with us to the orphanage that we were babysitting that weekend for friends who needed a break. We brought Esther and her grandmother to the orphanage, and our friends (Danny and Leann Pye) set up a crib for Esther in their living room. Then they left for a brief sanity vacation, and we watched Esther night and day for the next three days. The children at the orphanage watched over her as well with heart-breaking concern. At first Esther seemed to be doing better, taking fluids and medicines by mouth, and began to urinate. But by the second evening, she was failing once again. We washed her and put her in new clothes, kept the mosquitoes off her, and prayed. Her grandmother didn’t stop praying the entire weekend. Unfortunately, on the morning of our third day in Jacmel, Esther breathed her last little breath and went to be with her Creator. Her eight months of life had been an uphill battle, and she was finally at rest. Esther’s grandmother covered her with a blanket and we delivered them home to their area of the mountains. The grandmother’s sad little stifled sobs in the back of our truck on the way home broke our hearts. We knew she would be weeping loudly in the Haitian grief tradition if she wasn’t alone in a car with Americans. She walked sadly away, and we drove the rest of the way home. That night, Heather, Jessica and I were in a funk. We had just spent the entire weekend caring for a little baby who didn’t make it. Where was her chance in life? Why did God choose to take her so soon? Could we have done anything more for her? Those were the questions racing through our heads.

Then, just before supper time, a knock came on our door. It was a patient of mine with her two twin boys. The boys were born almost one year ago, here at the clinic. They were both in breech position, and both born not breathing. The second born needed CPR for five minutes after birth before he finally started breathing on his own. At the time, I was not convinced that he would live very long, or that he would have full mental capacity…. But his grandmother had faith that God would give them two healthy babies, and she was right. The boys and their mother showed up at my door that day, after Esther’s death, and their reason for coming was just “to spend time here”. They brought a ton of fresh fruit and veggies that we cooked into a stew and ate together. They stayed the night, playing and chatting with us. The boys are both developing at a perfectly normal rate, with no problems whatsoever. They are so healthy and full of life. It was great for Heather and Jess and I to sit on the floor, playing and laughing with them, and enjoying life after such a hard weekend. I truly believe God sent them to our door that night to remind us that He is ultimately in control of everything. I’m glad that Jesus conquered the grave and that one day death will be vanquished. But until then, I’ll cling to the knowledge that God is in control, even in the sad moments, and that He knows best.

Thank you for taking time to read Esther’s story. Please pray for her grandmother and extended family during their time of grief. Below is a picture of Wankil and Wanso, the two twin boys, and of Esther.