Working x-ray, hurray!

I’d like to thank every one of you who have been praying about our x-ray department at Bethesda Medical Clinic and let you know that the Lord has answered our prayers! Two weeks ago we got in a shipment of a portable x-ray tube head and an automatic processor. Denise Pearson, a lady I have been emailing back and forth with since I got here, sent them along with film, cassettes, and developing chemicals. Denise and her husband Kevin arrived on the 21st to help us get everything up and running. Before they arrived, Bud who is a missionary here and does maintenance work, mounted the tube head on our already existing machine. I got the room all cleaned up and cleared out, we had some tables built for the processor, and mounted the bucky machine on the wall. When they came Thursday, all we had to do was get the processor working and we were ready to start taking x-rays and testing out techniques. Praise the Lord, at about 5 that night we had everything working as it should and took a beautiful picture of Kevin’s hand.The next day I took a picture of Julie’s back that’s been hurting her for years and it came out great! We made an announcement on Radio 4VEH on Saturday and a few of the surrounding churches announced it on Sunday as well. The workload has been slow, but we are optimistic that once word gets out things will pick up. Our clinic charges much less than anyone else here and we are hoping that when people realize that, they will start coming here for their exams instead.

Julie and I are still working at Milot Mondays and Wednesdays. They have been discharging patients who came from Port au Prince every month and there is only about 80 people left in the tents. Things have slowed down noticeably and it allows us more time to sit and visit with the patients. We have made many good friends with the patients, translators, and others who work there and really enjoy going out there. However, now that things are slowing down there and the x-ray machine is working at our clinic, I’m not sure how much longer we will be going out there on a regular basis. We know our time there was only for a season, and although we are going to be sad not to be seeing these people as often, I feel this season may be coming to a close fairly soon.

I recently visited the dental clinic on our compound because I lost one of my fillings after biting into a cashew. I was nervous and not sure what to expect. When I got there, there was a line of people outside the door and I went to go put my name in at the front desk. Right away they took me back, made me a chart, and within 2 minutes I was in the dentist chair getting numbed up. I prayed I would be able to withstand whatever came next, but was pleasantly surprised that the whole procedure was relatively painless and quick. It feels great and it was a huge answer to prayer that the solution was so convenient and immediate.

I also recently visited Dr. Rodney at the clinic with an ingrown toenail on my left big toe. I had had it for awhile and thought that it would just go away. But it didn’t and was starting to get really sore. Dr. Rodney did an operation on it Friday, cut out half of my nail, and finished off with a few stitches. I had the same operation a couple years ago, and I was nervous going into it this time as I remembered that it wasn't much fun. Julie came with me for support and distraction, and everything went really well. Between Dr. Rodney's jokes and Julie's teasing I didn't have much time to worry about anything besides defending myself so that kept my mind off of what was going on pretty well. I’m going to have to stay off of it for awhile and keep it covered to make sure it doesn’t get infected, but no amputation was needed and it's already healing nicely. We have recently discovered a star fruit tree out behind our house that has hundreds of ripe fruit waiting to be eaten. We have been picking some every day and bringing bagfuls of them to share with everyone at the clinic. Most of the Haitians have never heard of them, let alone ever eaton one. They seem to be a big hit and we love having free fresh fruit at our fingertips :) I am so thankful that the Lord is beginning this “new” phase of my time here in Haiti and answering our prayers about the x-ray machine. I am daily encouraged by how tangibly God is working here and proving His faithfulness over and over and over again.

“Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.”
Psalm 115:1