God is gathering His church in Haiti!

I wanted to share with you just a few of the amazing things God has been doing in Haiti since the earthquake. Mardi Gras is a national holiday in Haiti and was supposed to commence last Tuesday. This festival is held annually and celebrates Hait's deep roots in voodoo and devil worship. There are normally voodoo drums sounding many nights before, in preparation for this event. This year however, there were no drums to be heard. Mardi Gras was cancelled and in its place was an all-day march of 50,000+ Christians praying, praising, and eproclaiming the name of Jesus Christ throughout the streets of Cap Haitian! I cannot even explain what a huge deal this is. It would be like canceling Christmas or the 4th of July in the US. The Holy Spirit is moving in miraculous ways! To add to that, the previous Friday-Sunday, Haiti announced 3 days of fasting and prayer for their country. Church services were being held everywhere and many late into the night. God is calling His people to Himself!

Another testimony of the mighty things God is accomplishing through the disaster in Haiti, takes place in a town of Port-au-prince called Diquini. OMS has sent teams there to do mobile clinics and evangelize. Three weeks ago, Julie went there with one of these teams, and during their time there they saw between 500-600 come to know Christ in that area. However, there wasn't a church for them to meet in or anyone to disciple these people. There was a young guy who was there working with Julie's team as an evangelist. His name is Junior and he is a first year student at OMS's seminary in Cap Haitian. Afer he returned from Port-au-prince with the team, he really felt God calling him to go back and plant a church there in Diquini. Missionaries here in Cap Haitian had also been praying that God would open the door for a church to be planted there, and for someone to rise up and lead these new believers. Prayers were answered quickly as Junior is now back in Diquini being trained to start a church there. Three people came forward from the community, and they are also being trained to be leaders in this church. I met and went to church with Junior last Sunday. It was so encouraging to see how Junior's passion and love for God have brought him to this place and are continuing to guide is every step. God is going to use this man in great ways to further His kingdom!

Pictures!

Julie and I hiked to a church on Sunday with most of the OMS missionaries who live on our compound. It was a beautiful hike, and here are a few pictures from that day:

On the way up

~Coupe Davide~

The people of the church had prepared lunch for us after the service.

The wet truck ride home. The guy next to me is Junior, and the man next to him is Bob. Bob is a pastor and was at cross-training with me. He is in Haiti for 2 weeks teaching at the seminary.

I started language training today with a Haitian girl named Mari Rose. I have class Monday-Friday from 2-4. I am so excited to finally start working toward being able to communicate and understand the Haitian people. Tonight I shared about my life in Kate's level 3 english class and then answered some of the questions that the students had. It was good practice for them and nice for me to get to meet some new people.

Here are just a few more pictures of where I'm staying and I will try to post a link next time to a photo album so I can show more of my pictures.

My house

These are both of the clinic

I am ever grateful for the support and encouragement from you all, it is such a privilege to be apart of what God is doing in Haiti! I ask for your continued prayers for me personally and also for this country, as greater things are yet to come!

A bit of "Haitian happiness"

Unfortunately Julie and I got to experience first-hand the effects of what the people here call "Haitian happiness." And then some. We both got some sort of virus, Julie first, then me soon after. Knocked us out for a few days each, but we praise God for our friends and family back home who have been consistantly going to battle for us in prayer, and we've both pretty much fully recovered. It poured all night last night and the rain is continuing to fall today. It is nice for the temperature change, but the roads are being flooded, as well is people's homes. There is just no infrastructure here and the town is not prepared to handle the rain properly. When I figure out how to upload pictures, I will try to give you a visual of what I mean.
Julie, Kate, me and a couple other ladies went grocery shopping on Saturday. We went to a store that is smaller than a 7-11 and with limited variety, so it didn't take us very long to find what we needed. Food there is fairly expensive so we were modest with our choices. We found everything we needed minus fresh fruits and vegetables. Instead of buying them in the store, we give money to our housekeeper to go into town and buy those for us because she can get a much better price than we ever could. After we were done shopping, we ate at the only "fast-food" restaurant in Cap Haitian called Lakay which means my house. I had a chicken sandwich and fries, which was excellent. Julie and I took our leftovers home, but decided to give them to some boys who were at our car asking for money on the way out. They went across the street, sat down, and immediately ate what we gave them.
Julie and I are meeting with our field director today to get any questions that we have answered and discuss when and with whom I will start language training. I hope it is right away, as it was really difficult to talk to my patients at the Milo hospital and give them instructions on what I wanted them to do. I was able to work at the Milo hospital on Monday, taking x-rays all day. We saw patients with every kind of imaginable device screwed into their bodies, holding their bones in place. I had never seen anything like it. But most seemed to be healing just fine and it was really nice to be able to finally feel like I knew what I was doing...for the most part ;) I don't think I will get a chance to go back there anytime soon, so I may not be able to take another x-ray for awhile. Please continue praying for where God would have me serve until the machine is up and running again. I am praying for patience and was recently reminded that God will renew our strength as we wait on Him, Isaiah 40:31. Thank you all again for your prayers, they are definitely being felt! May God pour out His blessings on you this week :)

First day at the clinic

Today was the first day at the Bethesda Medical Clinic. The clinic is on the compound where I live and is only a 2 minute walk from my house. I went with the team of nurses who is here for a week to chapel and devotions at the clinic at 8 before they opened. They introduced the team and then me separately and told everyone that I would be there for a year. All of the Haitian women were so excited and said that there were many single men here for me to marry hahaha :) It was really nice to have a laugh with everyone. We all then had a tour of the clinic from Prudence who is the head nurse. I found out that the x-ray machine is installed but not yet working. There are still some electrical problems that need to be looked at by someone trained to fix these types of machines. Anyone know someone who could come for a week and take a look at it? ;) Also, they have an ultrasound machine that does work...I just have no idea how to use one or what I would be looking at. One of the nurses who came for a week and I turned it on and tried to see if we could get a fetal heart rate of a young woman's baby to see if it was still alive. We really didn't know what we were looking at but we didn't detect any sign of a heart beat. The machine is quite nice, I only wish I was trained to use it effectively :/ After that, pastor Dan who had been taking the x-rays when they had had a working machine(2 years ago), helped me deep clean and attempt to organize the room. The room really hasn't been used in the passed 2 years so we had our work cut out for us. I was so thankful he knew a little English so we could somewhat communicate, as I know no Creole at this point. We made some progress and are able to at least move around and get to the film developer in the other room. At the end of the day we got to see the dental clinic which is right near Bethesda. There is so much to take in and learn. I haven't started language training yet but I hope to soon. Everyone is very friendly and welcoming but I would love to be able to communicate with them in their language. It is windy tonight, looks like it may rain. The birds here are very talkative, they make it hard to sleep passed 5 or so. It is their winter here so the weather has been very nice. The compound has huge trees that keep it well-shaded. I live with an older woman named Kate who teaches language at the school and Julie who is my age and she also works in the clinic as a physical therapist. Julie is still in Port but will be back on friday. Please pray for her safety and well-being while she's there. Please also be praying for someone who knows how to work on x-ray machines to come look at the one we have here soon. Also for me as I am going to start to try and learn ultrasound as best I can. I believe I start language class next week so please be praying that God would grant me supernatural ability to pick it up quickly. He is my rock and I will continue to cling to Him for my strength and peace. Thank you all so much for the many ways in which you have been, and are, supporting me. I would not be here without you. It is time for dinner now, rice and beans, meat and vegetable mix, fresh squeezed grapefruit juice, and cookies :) Until next time, all for Him!
Hannah