Milot update

A lot has changed since I last wrote about what has been going on out at Milot Hospital. We are still going out there to work twice a week, Monday and Wednesday. The tent hospital, which when they first opened it after the earthquake had about 400 patients, is now down to around 40 patients. Most of them are amputees who have their prosthetics and are still there getting physical therapy. There are a couple patients who are still waiting to have surgery to remove their external fixators before they can leave. There are not as many teams of medical personnel coming in anymore, and not as frequent. Altogether, it is a lot quieter and it gives us more time to sit and talk with patients and get to know them better. It has really been encouraging to see the physical, emotional, and spiritual change/growth in the patients since we first started working out there. The overall moral is much better and everyone has become like family to one other. From time to time the pain of all they've lost brings about discouragement, sadness, and feelings of hopelessness...but there are always people around them who have gone through similar things to try to help support and lift them up.


Adorable little Judeline. She left about 3 weeks ago to go back to Port.

Margaret is a double amputee and Julie is working with her to help build core strength and get ready for her prosthetic legs.
Getting ready for a dance party!

This is Olguine and she has a nonunion fracture in her right tibia The dr. re-broke it so they would be able to lengthen her tibia with this device you see here called a ilizarov frame(what they call it in the UK). I have been xraying her on Monday every week since she got it on, and she is still at Milot waiting for it to heal enough so she can get it removed. It is looking much better and should be ready to come off in September.
Exercise class!
The row of tentsDove just left last week to go back home to Port.
Yveline's sister Nadege Jackson is a 14 year old boy who came into the clinic a few weeks ago after he had a seizure and fell into a fire. He was just approved last week to be transferred to Boston in the states for ongoing treatment. While he was in Milot they did a few skin grafts from his thighs to his chest and arm, but he is going to needs months and months of daily physical therapy and rehabilitation. He will have a much better chance of having a better recovery and of
getting the help he needs to relax the skin around his right eye so that it will pull back enough for
him to be able to see again out of it.

Joseph is a 20 year old double amputee from Port who is still staying in Milot and walking daily by himself with either this cane or a crutch. He has worked harder than any other patient and has put so much effort into strengthening his body to be able to walk on his own. It is really amazing to see how far he has come in the past few months, and what a great attitude he has in the midst of the circumstances.

Two week old baby boy named Jeffrey. He is really one of the most beautiful babies I have ever seen. Every day I am there I am able to sit and hold him for awhile. Most of the time he just sleeps, but we caught him one day with his eyes open.

This is Yveline. She lost her husband and her 2 children in the earthquake. Her physical injuries(along with the unfathomable emotional pain) were a right humeral head fracture and olecrenon fracture. When I first met her in Milot, she was really depressed and many times I saw her she would be crying or just looking really down. She is a Christian, and the transformation she's gone through since she first came has been huge. She has made some friends and her right arm is healing well. She still has good and bad times and it is going to take her awhile to completely grieve and heal from her loss. Also some of her stress and worry was attributed the the fact that she didn't know what she was going to do after she left the hospital. She didn't want to go back to Port because she said it would remind her too much of her family and just as well because she didn't have a house to go back to anyways. Her sister who was in Milot for awhile is going to live in the Dominican and Yveline doesn't have a visa to go live with her there. Juile had an idea to ask and see if we could use some money from OMS's disaster relief account to help her find a house for the next year, try and start some sort of business or way to make money, and just help her get on her feet again. Dave said that he thought it was a great idea and exactly what that relief money was there for. She has been going to a church in Milot and has made friends there, so she had told us before that if she could choose, she would like to stay in Milot. We were both excited to tell her that all of our prayers had been answered and the Lord had provided a way for her to stay in Milot and have a chance to begin rebuilding her life there. She is still checking on houses and prices, but the money is there for her when she decides.

I'm not sure how much longer Julie and I are going to be needed out there, but we feel that God has had us there for such a time as this, to hopefully be a good example of the love of Jesus to these people with our actions and through our prayers. If you would be praying for these people that I've mentioned and the many more that I haven't, for their return journey back to their "homes" in Port. Pray for them emotionally as they go back for the first time since the earthquake, physically as they try to adapt with their new body parts and/or ones that wont ever be like they were before, and spiritually that they will continue to cling to God for their strength, peace, and joy.

Day of VBS

I had the opportunity to participate in putting on a day of vacation bible school with a short-term team that was here a couple weeks ago. It was a team of about 20 from the youth group of Greenwood Community Church in Indiana. We split up the group, I went with one team to a church in Cap in the zone called Komfor, and Julie went with the other group to a place called La Flou. We gathered together in the morning around 8 with the pastors of the churches and translators who were coming with us. Dave Graffenberger gave us some details, we prayed together for the day, and then were on our way. In the van on the way there, my team informed me of what they had planned for the day, and also mentioned that none of them had ever done a VBS before, let alone in Haiti. Needless to say we were all a bit unsure of how the day was going to turn out, and I know for me I was just praying and trusting God that He would use us to accomplish His will that day.

We met the pastor there and followed to the upstairs room of their church. We were greeted by around 175 pairs of eyes, all of them seated and awaiting patiently our arrival. It was about 15 degrees hotter upstairs, and not a lot of fresh air was being circulated through the room. There were chairs set up at the front of the room on the stage, so we set our stuff down and went to take our seats. The pastor came and greeted the students, introduced our team, and prayed for the day. Then he turned it over to us, and Tom who was the leader of the team and a worship pastor at their church in Greenwood, got up with Joab our translator, and explained what we were going to be doing that day. He did a really great job getting things started and taking the leadership role for day, even though he had never done VBS before. He was flexible, loved to make the kids laugh, and wasn't afraid to get out of his comfort zone and let God use him.

We started off by doing a little funny skit and then sang 4 different songs with hand motions, trying to teach the kids the words in English along the way. Next was a craft, demonstrated by some of the kids on the team. We braided bracelets with different colored string and it was quite a hit with the children...although it took us over an hour because all of us ended up braiding the kids' for them. After we finished with those, one of the Haitian women told a bible story with a picture book. It was a story from 2 Kings chapter 4 about the prophet Elisha and how he prophesied to a Shunammite woman who didn't have a son, that the Lord would give her one. Then later in the story her son died and the Lord, through His servant Elisha, raised her son from the dead. The woman reading the story really emphasized to the children the awe and magnitude of these miracles, and how great the God that we serve is.

We then had 2 of the young kids from the team give their testimonies, which were both very relevant to the age group of the children. After that we passed out pictures to color, along with crayons. We had the kids color until it was about time for lunch at 1:30. OMS paid for food and drinks for all of the kids in the VBS, as well as the women who prepared the meal. Once we served all of the kids and they finished eating, we let the kids go and told them we would see them again the next day.

We were all really pleased with how well things went that day, especially given the fact that before we started we had an idea of what we were going to do, but no clue as to how it was going to work out. I didn't go with the group the next day, as I was working in the clinic. But the next day team joined the missionaries during our weekly prayer meeting and reported back that in the church where I was the day before, they had 215 or so kids and 28 of them accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior that day. The other place had 150 kids(50 more than the day before) and 27 of those children asked Jesus into their hearts to be their Lord and Savior. We then had a great time together of thanking and praising the Lord for how He had worked through this VBS and expanded His Kingdom as a result. We spent time praying for those kids who made that commitment, that their faith would grow and take root deep into their hearts and that their lives would forever be a testimony to the love and grace of Jesus. I was humbly reminded that our own ways apart from God's could never compare or be as fruitful and if we allow Him, He will work through us despite our weaknesses and imperfections. I know for me that is such wonderful news! I am full of so many shortcomings and imperfections and weaknesses. Therefore I take great comfort in knowing that there is nothing I can do in-and-of myself to be effective for the kingdom, except surrender my agenda and will completely to the Lord's. For when I am weak, then He is strong.

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps."
Proverbs 16:9