Tuesday, 16 March 2010
Below is our report of our brief trip to Jeremie, Haiti. It’s a long one. Read as much as you want. The pictures are nice, too.
First off, we want to thank God for this experience. Honestly, we were not too excited about going on this trip. But now we are glad we did. It was very encouraging to see God moving in many different areas. Up until the last few days prior to our departure, our airline was not flying into Haiti. However, just in time, God opened the door for us to go. And His working was evident throughout the trip.
Thank you to those who responded to our last-minute prayer requests. Our travel went rather smoothly, our ministry was productive, our communication was effective (thanks to our missionary-pastor translator), and yes, God did rock our worlds.
I had never imagined that driving to the Guatemalan airport, flying to Miami, taking a taxi to Fort Lauderdale, flying from Fort Lauderdale to Port-au-Prince, and then taking a propeller plane to Jeremie, treating almost 500 people over the course of four or five days, sleeping on concrete on a deflated mat, bouncing over roads worse than those here in Guatemala, dealing with a lot of humid heat, and then traveling back the way we came would be encouraging and refreshing. But it was because it was combined with the fresh excitement of short-term missionaries, the fellowship and wisdom of other long-term missionaries, the witnessing of the baptism and profession of Christ of a dozen new Haitian believers, lots of good quality sleep (when the sun goes down, you go down), and the fulfillment of a good day’s work. Encouraging and refreshing.
Now we are back in Guatemala and our clinics start again tomorrow. Honestly, it feels like going back to work after a great vacation. Back to the routine. No glitter. Very little “new” experience. We can actually talk to the local people again. 100 emails which I’m slowly getting through. But that’s the life of a long-term missionary and every Christian: Serving Him faithfully one day at a time wherever you are.
I pray that we would lock into the vision God has for us right here and right now. And that we would be able to use what we gained from our experience in Haiti here in Guatemala for His glory.
DATES: 5 March--15 March 2010
LOCATION: Jeremie, Haiti and the surrounding areas
PURPOSE: To glorify God through service to the local people and to support the long-term missionaries.
PROJECTS:
Building projects--to place rafters on a school/church
to place a solar power source in a local church
Medical project--to do pilot clinics in order to treat patients and assess the health needs of the local people.
RESULTS:
Building projects--Rafters and solar power source placed.
Medical project--Approximately 486 patients directly served.
Additional medicines left with local churches and schools to treat basic common problems.
Common problems and health needs roughly assessed.
MEDICAL CLINIC STATISICS AND AWARDS
MOST COMMON PROBLEMS (roughly in this order): Head/body aches, stomach acid problems (gastritis), fever (although very few actual fevers), weakness/fainting, parasitic worms, high blood pressure, skin infections and infestations (scabies), and respiratory infections. Also, two documented cases of malaria.
MOST SEVERE CASES: Three patients were carried in on stretchers. One was identified as having malaria. One appeared to have some type of progressive neurological condition (possibly multiple sclerosis) and could not walk for the past couple of months. Another appeared to have a severe abdominal problem. As you can expect, we could do very little to support these patients. We treated the malaria, gave antibiotics to the lady with the abdominal problem, and couldn’t do much for the man with the neurological problem.
Another young man drove a spike completely through his foot which we were able to clean out, partially suture, and treat with antibiotics and pain medicines.
CUTEST GIRL PATIENT: Yellow Bow Girl
CUTEST BOY PATIENT: Purse Boy
MOST DIFFICULT PATIENT: Medicine Spitting Girl.
See the picture album below for an embellishment.
We took a lot of pictures but not as many as normal since there were several people on the trip taking thousands of pictures and lots of video. I’ll link to these, when they are posted.
The following is the report of the missionary-pastor and our translator Dave Stockland regarding the remote project:
3/13/2010
Hey Glory! I'm back...we arrived back here last evening in time for supper...tired, sweaty (smelly), hungry...and SO VERY HAPPY! The roof project and the medical mission were a huge success. First...they had not heard we had a doctor with us...he opened up shop and nobody there...that lasted about one hour...the word got out and he had hundreds waiting in line to see him. He treated many maladies and saw some to severe to help with the limited amount of equipment we could carry. I forget the numbers but I think in the 2 1/2 days he saw about 500 people. Next...the roof project was so very difficult and I understood the discouragement of our team when they saw the lumber we were supposed to use...not a straight 2 x 4 in the bunch. Let me put it this way...if we were building a large merry-go-around they would have fit perfectly...smile. The group worked tirelessly cutting, splicing, thinking, measuring, trying and retrying what they could do to make it work. At one point it got so frustrating they just stopped and called a prayer meeting for God's wisdom...and after that...WOW...did the work every go smoothly! Lots of happy Americans (and Haitians) when the final rafter was in place!
We were served delicious Haitian food and supplemented with the granola bars and other things we brought. I always like it when we have a few teenagers in the group because they always bring lots of treats! We prepared sleeping areas with tarps in case of rain but slept under the stars...no rain for three days. Speaking of rain...we were delayed three days in going up to this project because of rain. If it had rained the day we were to leave, there is no way we could have made it over the road...THE LORD WAS SO GOOD TO US...which brings me to my verse for today...Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only does wondrous things...Ps 72:18!
God bless you all and thanks so much for your prayers,
Dave
Below is our report of our brief trip to Jeremie, Haiti. It’s a long one. Read as much as you want. The pictures are nice, too.
First off, we want to thank God for this experience. Honestly, we were not too excited about going on this trip. But now we are glad we did. It was very encouraging to see God moving in many different areas. Up until the last few days prior to our departure, our airline was not flying into Haiti. However, just in time, God opened the door for us to go. And His working was evident throughout the trip.
Thank you to those who responded to our last-minute prayer requests. Our travel went rather smoothly, our ministry was productive, our communication was effective (thanks to our missionary-pastor translator), and yes, God did rock our worlds.
I had never imagined that driving to the Guatemalan airport, flying to Miami, taking a taxi to Fort Lauderdale, flying from Fort Lauderdale to Port-au-Prince, and then taking a propeller plane to Jeremie, treating almost 500 people over the course of four or five days, sleeping on concrete on a deflated mat, bouncing over roads worse than those here in Guatemala, dealing with a lot of humid heat, and then traveling back the way we came would be encouraging and refreshing. But it was because it was combined with the fresh excitement of short-term missionaries, the fellowship and wisdom of other long-term missionaries, the witnessing of the baptism and profession of Christ of a dozen new Haitian believers, lots of good quality sleep (when the sun goes down, you go down), and the fulfillment of a good day’s work. Encouraging and refreshing.
Now we are back in Guatemala and our clinics start again tomorrow. Honestly, it feels like going back to work after a great vacation. Back to the routine. No glitter. Very little “new” experience. We can actually talk to the local people again. 100 emails which I’m slowly getting through. But that’s the life of a long-term missionary and every Christian: Serving Him faithfully one day at a time wherever you are.
I pray that we would lock into the vision God has for us right here and right now. And that we would be able to use what we gained from our experience in Haiti here in Guatemala for His glory.
DATES: 5 March--15 March 2010
LOCATION: Jeremie, Haiti and the surrounding areas
PURPOSE: To glorify God through service to the local people and to support the long-term missionaries.
PROJECTS:
Building projects--to place rafters on a school/church
to place a solar power source in a local church
Medical project--to do pilot clinics in order to treat patients and assess the health needs of the local people.
RESULTS:
Building projects--Rafters and solar power source placed.
Medical project--Approximately 486 patients directly served.
Additional medicines left with local churches and schools to treat basic common problems.
Common problems and health needs roughly assessed.
MEDICAL CLINIC STATISICS AND AWARDS
MOST COMMON PROBLEMS (roughly in this order): Head/body aches, stomach acid problems (gastritis), fever (although very few actual fevers), weakness/fainting, parasitic worms, high blood pressure, skin infections and infestations (scabies), and respiratory infections. Also, two documented cases of malaria.
MOST SEVERE CASES: Three patients were carried in on stretchers. One was identified as having malaria. One appeared to have some type of progressive neurological condition (possibly multiple sclerosis) and could not walk for the past couple of months. Another appeared to have a severe abdominal problem. As you can expect, we could do very little to support these patients. We treated the malaria, gave antibiotics to the lady with the abdominal problem, and couldn’t do much for the man with the neurological problem.
Another young man drove a spike completely through his foot which we were able to clean out, partially suture, and treat with antibiotics and pain medicines.
CUTEST GIRL PATIENT: Yellow Bow Girl
CUTEST BOY PATIENT: Purse Boy
MOST DIFFICULT PATIENT: Medicine Spitting Girl.
See the picture album below for an embellishment.
We took a lot of pictures but not as many as normal since there were several people on the trip taking thousands of pictures and lots of video. I’ll link to these, when they are posted.
The following is the report of the missionary-pastor and our translator Dave Stockland regarding the remote project:
3/13/2010
Hey Glory! I'm back...we arrived back here last evening in time for supper...tired, sweaty (smelly), hungry...and SO VERY HAPPY! The roof project and the medical mission were a huge success. First...they had not heard we had a doctor with us...he opened up shop and nobody there...that lasted about one hour...the word got out and he had hundreds waiting in line to see him. He treated many maladies and saw some to severe to help with the limited amount of equipment we could carry. I forget the numbers but I think in the 2 1/2 days he saw about 500 people. Next...the roof project was so very difficult and I understood the discouragement of our team when they saw the lumber we were supposed to use...not a straight 2 x 4 in the bunch. Let me put it this way...if we were building a large merry-go-around they would have fit perfectly...smile. The group worked tirelessly cutting, splicing, thinking, measuring, trying and retrying what they could do to make it work. At one point it got so frustrating they just stopped and called a prayer meeting for God's wisdom...and after that...WOW...did the work every go smoothly! Lots of happy Americans (and Haitians) when the final rafter was in place!
We were served delicious Haitian food and supplemented with the granola bars and other things we brought. I always like it when we have a few teenagers in the group because they always bring lots of treats! We prepared sleeping areas with tarps in case of rain but slept under the stars...no rain for three days. Speaking of rain...we were delayed three days in going up to this project because of rain. If it had rained the day we were to leave, there is no way we could have made it over the road...THE LORD WAS SO GOOD TO US...which brings me to my verse for today...Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only does wondrous things...Ps 72:18!
God bless you all and thanks so much for your prayers,
Dave