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Join us in praying for these dear ones..

Precious Ones

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Home.....

My friends!

Whew, home sweet home! I will write some more meaningful things in a couple of days as I reflect back. For now, I thought you might enjoy a gallery of the kids. This is why I love to go to Peru! Enoy...

Whew

Hi friends!

We are here in Lima now. We have left the jungle, and also left part of ourselves there. We are all changed people, that is a good thing.

We went to bless others but as God would have it, we have been blessed by them.Unless you have done something like this it is hard to imagine how you fall in love with people who really are at first complete strangers! They do not remain that way for long.

These people could teach all of us a lesson on life. They taught us unconditional love, unending gratitude, and the power of a hug, smile, even a kiss on the cheek from a grubby, beautiful child.
There is not many things sweeter than that!

We pray the team left the fragrance of Christ behind. There were some significant transformations and amazing people put in our paths to be loved and accepted.

The final day we went to the compound that is being transformed into an orphanage. What a day that was. People were gracious, walked for miles, and did not want to leave. WE had to walk a bit from the road to the location and many of them walked us out to board the bus.

AND, the day before, we were provided the PHARMACIST we needed! Some young man named Michael, who finished pharmacy school two weeks before, came around from some other team, I think, and we put him to work and he said he could not believe how he would do anything else but serving in this way! We told him his path was put into place to connect with ours long ago. Many people prayed for him to come along and there he was...Should not surprise when we are dealing with the Creator of the universe! But we were all in awe, once again..

We are having an R & R in Lima today. Anxious to head home Saturday (I think today is Friday!)

Thank you for following us. John does have some amazing pictures that I will have to add when we get home as access to internet is minimal and it takes too long, and we have been so busy we could not do that. But it will give all of you something to look forward to!

When you see these pictures, you will see what I mean about the beauty of the children!

Fondly,

Christine

Seeing the finish line...

Hello friends,

This has been a most unusual trip. While our team work is going well, our team mates have had rough times spiritually and emotionally. But God is close to the broken hearted and promises to restore us!

We continue to pour ourseelves out as a fragrant offering. We are daily restored to do it all over again! There have been many wonderful stories..I will share one I experienced.

Sabino

The first day of our teaching seminar, a man walked in with an eagerness to learn. Somehow I noticed him and felt there was something special about him. Throughout the day, I would smile and encourage his work and be sure to make contact with him.

As the days progressed, we felt a bonding in the Lord. The third day, he wanted to tell me that my smile made him happy. I shared with him that I felt that God would be using him mightily for the children of the Amazon and I prayed for God to bless him in a big way.

Fourth and final day, we prepared a graduation ceremony for all the partcpants. Also, we had all the groups come up and present lesson to the team. We were now the students! Wow, they did a fabulous job. When Sabino got up there with his team, he electrified the room with his presence and passion!

Afterwards, he called me over to him. With a translator, he began to speak to me in a way so sincere it made me weep. With tears in his eyes he told me a number of things but the one most important was this...
Because of your obvious love for children, you have inspired me to keep your love in my heart to commit to bringing children to the King! He said I have been a touch of heaven to him and he will carry that in his heart in all his does with children. Remembering my love and kindness...

Then he gave me a most beautiful bracelet. I learned that two years ago he was deep in bad stuff. God has transformed this mans life for eternity. Now, he will go out and make a difference in lives of children. WOW..

I have tucked that moment in my heart where it will stay forever!

Tomorrow we go as a whole team out to the jungle, with the bugs and mud, to work at an orphage. We are all looking forward to that! We commit to bringing joy, fun, laughter, love and zillions of smooches!

Thank you for reading this. Continue to pray please for our safety and health.

The finish line for this mission is in sight!

Christine

At Last!

First of all, I am sorry it has taken this long. There is no service of either internet or phone in our hotel.

The medical team is having great success. They are seeing over 100 pàtients a day. The dentist is seeing over 20 a day. The eye doctor saw 52 people! They are in a church so the facility is very nice for them. They are blessing people and being blessed..

The childrens seminar in the morning is going quite well. We have 16 different churches represented who are learning how to teach children. We do feel they have the hearts to do this and we are privileged to be serving God in this way.

The afternoon session with the children out in a shanty town is another story. Whew, they are quite unruly- There are over 100 of them each day. They are not bad kids, just not very disciplined. Their living conditions are very sad. But they do not know the difference. While the program is not going exactly as planned. The laughter and smiles could not be louder! They are having a great time and we decided that is what it is all about. Not our plans, but His plans! His plan is for us to play, hug, kiss their cheeks, give them piggy back rides, until we drop! We are teaching them about God´s love and showing them even more loudly! Again, a privilege to be here.

The children´s team is dead tired, but giving their all each day.

We are all well and getting along well, another blessing from God.

Tomorrow, Sunday, we are going to church and then take a boat ride on the Amazon. It is our day of rest, and do we need it...

This is being written from an internet cafe next to our hotel!

Happy Father´s Day tomorrow to my daddy whom I love with all my heart!

Thank you for the prayers that are being lifted up. We feel them and need them.

There were NO problems getting any of the meds through customs as we pretended we did not understand what they were saying and kind of pushed our way through!!

Love to all of you and see you here again..

Christine

Packing for Peru!

Yes, we are off for another trip. This time to the Amazon region of Peru. We have a team of 16 people going along. We will be offering medical care, dental care, eye glass clinic, training seminar for children/youth leaders and children's programs..

We are excited as each trip is different, each person we come across will be just as special as the ones in the past!

We have a number of first timers along! How fun it will be to watch how their lives will change! How can it not? We have good news that will change their lives, we are looking forward to telling them all about it!

Thank you for following us again! Leave comments when you can, we love to read them and know you are following us!

We leave in a few days!

Israel 478.JPG

Click here to view these pictures larger

You are My All in All

Home!

After 23 hours of travel, we are home and our bed felt so fluffy!

Reflecting on the last ten days is a rich experience for me. You see, it is amazing to me that God would send us half way across the globe to share love and kindness to people who were starving for it! The beauty of this is that we could not have done that unless we were filled with His love to start with. There are those who do not get this, why do we do things like this? Easy answer, because we are blessed and God asks us to bless others!

It was a divine setup from the very beginning. Mothers witnessed a stranger loving on her kids, caring about her kids, and taking time to value them. I pray I role modeled a new way for them. It is a difficult life in the West Bank, in Palestine. People are harsh, angry and vengeful. They witnessed a group of people who were gentle, kind and loving. May His fragrance linger....

The group of "boarders" who I was privileged to be with every night have changed my life! I pray I had an influence on theirs for all eternity! It was all about that for me! I will look for ways to continue this relationship while here at home.

Allow a few days to continue to process things more, I will be back.

Thank you for reading this and sharing in this journey, you are special also to even care about this.

With love,

Christine

Surreal!

Our day started off like always, many people,many children looking at us wanting help and attention.

The doctors are seeing many people, but there is not many significant illnesses..however, many emotional problems. Much depression, many symptoms as a result of depression, etc.

We are being watched VERY closely, by many types of officials.

Funny story.. The Mayor of the town provided a lovely lunch to all of us. Then, he wanted to see some of us and I was one of the ones to go! OK, here I am with my "mission" clothes on, dirty, a heart painted on my cheek, dirty tennis shoes, sitting in a mahogany lined Mayors office! I wanted to pinch myself. But, he wanted to thank us for the work on behalf of his people, and a few of us got a chance to speak about our experiences.

We were able to tell him why we were there and what our hopes were for the people in his town...It was a super opportunity for us to "shine" for His kingdom! Yes!!

A young man from there gave his heart to Christ. The problems began as he took his new Bible and was sharing his story! Well.........it was not accepted, at all, by his people..Security was tightened and threats were made if he showed up..! What a sad thing as he was freed from his bondage and wanted to share!

Be thankful we live in a country with freedom to worship our God!

On our way home.........

Check These Out!

Here is an example of the beautiful handiwork from the girls at Talitha Kumi! Each are stunning and special!

State of our "work".....

Hello everyone,

Sorry we have been sooo very busy, and tired, that I did not update until now.

We were very blessed to enter the WB without any problems at the checkpoint! Yea!

Our facility is nice. There is plenty of room for all the personnel we have brought. The outside area has a beautiful garden where it will be nice to have the children for the stories, games and crafts..

The last two evenings we have had the precious privilege of loving deeply on the 28 Boarders who live here where we are staying! It is an absolute joy to pour the love of God into these lives. I did not ever imagine that I would have been back here again. But, since I have been given another chance to influence their lives for His kingdom, I will leave nothing out in any of my talks, interaction or prayers for them! They do not want our time to end, they do not want to go to bed, and they do not sleep! Same here! It is a most unique time!

The people in the clinic seem to be typical for this region. Sad, depressed and agitated too! The children seem quite disruptive. They are handled roughly and sternly. So, that is how they treat each other. So, when we are loving and kind to them they stare in disbelief! Sad, but this is why we are here. We want to show them they are valued and they matter. We want them to know there is more to life than their current status!

Interesting situation today. There was some chaos and crowd control problems after lunch. After things seemed to quiet a bit, the people sitting and waiting for their appointment still seemed agitated, I went and setup a corner and started pulling out color pages! I thought it would be good for the kids who were waiting for their parents. Guess what? The agitated adults came over and wanted to color! Soon, they were calm, laughing and enjoying coloring! Hallelujah! I will implement that each day now. It was a blessing in disguise!

We are all healthy just very tired! The weather is warm here, warmer than we expected, but that is ok!

Thank all of you for your prayers, thoughts and concerns!

May you be at peace!

Christine

Masada.....

What a day! Today we went to Masada which is in the Judean desert! It is the last fortress that the Israelites held and is an amazing fortress! The area is desolate! We overlooked into the area of Sodom and Gomorrah. We saw the Dead Sea from the top as well.

The Dead Sea surprised all of us with the size, it was huge! Not sure why we thought it would be small, but there you go! Never too young to learn something!

We saw also caves, everywhere. Most likely the caves where David was and cut off a piece of Saul's robe! Really!

We spent time at the Red Sea where some of the team members floated! What a hoot! NO, we did not. We did not have suits and I am not sure I would have gone in there if you paid me! Quite salty and muddy! Our teammates had fun though...

It is time now to focus on the work ahead of us! We are anxious, on edge and excited all at the same time!

Pray for continued health and endurance as we potentially could be serving hundreds of people where we are going!

Our team is beautifully united, just like a family. We are here for each other, and in this for a common purpose. We want every person we come in contact with to feel cared about! That is why we are here!

We are going into darkness, we will put on the armor, lean on your prayers, and trust the Light will shine through our smiles, in our touches, and through our deeds!

Join us! Thank you as you are as much a part of the team as we are! We just happen to be here physicially! We could not do it without you!

We are all healthy and still eating well. Oh yes, we all sore calves!!! The is a city of stairs, everywhere!

Love to all you! Be kind to one another....

Jerusalem!

What a beautiful place the city is. What an amazing feeling to walk where Jesus walked. We went to the Garden Tomb, Garden of Gethsemane, walked the Via De La Rosa (Stations of the cross)..Quite an awesome feeling to be here.

It is hot! We walked for hours all over the city and tomorrow will go to the Dead Sea, Masada, and Hezekiah's tunnel (I am passing on going in that one!)

We are worn out! Not a good thing as our work starts Monday!

We are all well, having a good time with each other and anxious to get started on why we came.

So, not only are there 1,000 flyers, but also two radio stations talking about us coming!!

We will need all the strength and energy that only someone Mighty can give us!

Thank you for your continued prayers and support we feel it all!

Christine

PS We were all so tired by the time we went to the garden tomb that four - five of the team fell asleep while the woman was talking!! How embarrassing! Guess who almost fell off the bench, you got it!

GREETINGS FROM GALILEE!

What a beautiful day we have had. We visited all over the area of Tiberius, Sea of Galilee. It is a beautiful, warm day. We saw Capernahum, Peter's House, Mount of Beatitudes, and had baptisms in the Jordan! Quite a full exciting day.

Our team is enjoying getting reacquainted for some, meeting each other for the new members. There are 10 returning from last year. It has been a sweet reunion!

We have a hired bus driver for our time here, with a small private bus. We are moved by being in the very places where Jesus performed His miracles. If you think about it, it is a miracle that God has called 15 of us here, to show His precious love.

We will go into Jerusalem tomorrow and stay there until Sunday!

Then our work begins...

We have been told from the people in the area where we will be working, that they have distributed over 1,000 flyers about us coming Monday! They have even been to the mosques, telling them of the medical clinic, physical therapy clinic, eye glass clinic, and children's ministry! Wow, may God give us His strength!

That will be for now, leave me comments so I can hear from you!

Love and God's blessings on all of you!

Christine

Note from our leader.....

This is quite interesting I think.....

If you want to know where we will be you can go to 2 Chronicles 11 - the village where we will be was once called “Adoraim”. Adoriam was one of the cities fortified by Rehoboam, son of Solomon, to protect Jerusalem over 1,500 years ago. This is a time when the nation was divided and many were worshipping false gods. There were also many who set their hearts on seeking the Lord and serving Him turned away from the worship of false Gods. Please pray that the people of this city will turn away from false religion of Islam to worship Jesus and this city will become fortified with the love and presence of the Living God.

OK......here we go!

John and I want to thank all of you for your calls, emails, posts and general wonderful comments for our trip!

We are very excited. We know that we have done all we can to prepare and now the rest is up to the One who has called us to go.

Thank you for following us. We pray that you too will be changed from this trip, if only by reading this! Open your hearts, minds and ears to see what He has in store for you! Promise you will not be disappointed!

May His peace be upon each of you as you go about your day!

Christine

PACKING!!

Finally, the time has come to put all the craft supplies, medicines, candy, and oh yes, clothes in the suitcase and pray it makes the weight limit. We will be bringing between the two of us, 200 lbs of things for the people! A couple of pounds will be clothes, but mostly medicines and fun things for the people and children in the West Bank!

We are beyond excited! We are ready to get going on what God has called us to do.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support. We do feel the blanket around us and know it will continue, day in and day out!

We leave Wednesday and will arrive Thursday evening! There is a 10 hour time difference between our home and where we will be. Just enough to totally goof you up...

Be good to one another! Will see you back here soon,

Christine

ONE WEEK!

Hi "followers"!

One week from today we will be traveling to our destination in Israel. There is a team of 16 people ready and raring to go! The first few days we will be visiting sites in the area to get acclimated, and have some time to connect to each other. I am going to try and attach our prayer calendar, somehow, on the blog if you desire to support us in this way!

We will have internet access while there so I look forward to posting as often as I can. Who knows, you may even have some pictures to look at hot off the press!

Our team will be doing 1) Medical 2) Physical Therapy 3) Eyeglass and 4) Childrens Ministries..We will be in the West Bank area for this time of serving!

As the blog progresses, please make comments! If you cannot figure out how, ask some techie friend or kid! They know how!

Thank you for your interest, again!

Christine

Next Trip!

Hi friends,

I think you might be interested in following along with us on our next trip. We leave April 14 to return to the West Bank, Israel. We will once again be doing medical and children's work for the dear people in that area. Plans have been in the works and I know that people will want to join us in praying for all the details, the people, and the health and safety of our team.

I will keep you updated as things progress. I will also report from the Land once we get underway. We are excited to return.

If you have not been able to leave a comment and wish to, I think you do it through google maybe. Persevere until you figure it out as your comments will be very appreciated as we go on this journey, together..

Enjoy the sunshine!

God Bless all of you

Christine

I'M BACK!

Hi Followers!

I wanted to thank you for your faithfulness in following this blog, asking about John, and still caring about Haiti.

John is back to work and coping a bit better now.

We are both planning on leaving in about a month to go to the West Bank in Isreal to serve the Palestinian population with medical care and ministry to the children.

I will be using this blog to journal that for now. I hope that will be interesting to you to come along on this journey with us!

Let me know if it sounds interesting or not...

Be blessed

Christine

GREAT NEWS!

Haiti Update: This weekend is Carnival, a time of revelry, satanic worship, and voodoo rituals. It has been CANCELLED and instead,a National Weekend of Prayer, Fasting, Mourning has been declared! Hallelujah! You prayer warriors, come alongside our family of God this weekend and join them!

ENJOY!

HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE THEM?

Scroll down to the Gallery post also....

DO NOT FORGET....

More Wonderful Photos

Please pray for these precious ones!

Eye Opener.....

Thoughts on Haiti

Having just returned from a medical relief effort, I cannot get my mind off of Haiti. The experience continues to haunt me, brings tears to my eyes and overwhelms me with emotion. At the same time I feel anger for the unnecessary suffering and misery that this country has dealt its people. The common man in Haiti, has a life expectancy of 50 yrs, and an average daily wage of $2, when he can find a job. Although he has nothing, he still manages to walk with pride and exude friendliness and kindness. (This is true in the countryside and smaller cities, as I was not in a large urban area.)The children are beautiful, friendly and innocent. The women work hard trying to scratch out a subsistence living. The people are clean, although they are ridden with malnutrition, congenital and acquired health issues. It is not money for which they occasionally hold out their hands, but for food. And when you hand them a sandwich, a small snack, or a bag of trail mix, the smile of gratitude, makes you wish you had more in your back pack to give.

The economy seems to be one based on bartering. Charcoal, the primary cooking fuel and the manufacture of which may have contributed to the devastating deforestation of the county, is traded for rice. Sugar cane is traded for beans and a chicken or pig or goat for something else, and on, and on. The ubiquitous burning of charcoal leaves a haze of irritating smoke over the populated areas, that is largely responsible for the chronic complaints of cough, asthma and burning eyes.

Anger? Yes, for it is hard for an American to comprehend a country without any sense of organization or infrastructure. Chaos and inefficiency rule. There is no running water, unless you count the river, which is full of people bathing, doing their laundry, digging sand, dumping garbage, etc. Even the hospital has no water! Can you imagine a hospital without the basics of water? There is no electricity, unless you have a solar panel, or diesel and a generator. Even with these, the power is turned off around 5 PM. This includes public facilities such as the airport and hospital. Voluntary surgeons are ready to work through the night to save lives and limbs, but are told to leave at 5 PM, and the power shut down.

There is no organization and the country smacks you with total chaos. Nothing runs as expected or according to any sense of planning. There seems to be no interest in public welfare or the suffering that is universal, rather than occasional. I presume there are some people who have better living conditions than average. But these “well-to-do” do not seem to have any interest in helping the masses of needy around them. Indeed, in my shallow experience, they seemed to be clearly more interested in themselves than their countryman.

Imagine a hospital filled with people suffering with fractured limbs as well as mind boggling medical issues, covered with flies, and lying in darkened, warm, humid rooms without ventilation. They are tended primarily by their family, who are responsible for feeding them, cleaning them, emptying the bucket under their bed and chasing the flies from them. When you walk by, they look at you with hope and expectancy for any sense of relief. Your training tells you what to do, but your efforts are impeded by locked supplies, resistant nursing staff and hospital administration.

Although there are many foreigners trying to deliver aide to this population, their efforts are met with incomprehensible delays and hurdles from those in charge, who do not seem to mind the suffering around them. Oh, the massive relief effort has provided food and masses of medical supplies. However these supplies are not available to the medial teams, and relief efforts. These desperately needed supplies are warehoused and locked away, by customs or hospital officials. To access them, you need to run from one authority to another wasting precious time and energy at the expense of suffering and death. The UN and the US military try to assist, but remember they are there to help in a sovereign country and have very limited authority to act. Many religious organizations have made significant strides in their attempts to serve the people, and move them into the 21^st century. But their efforts are not enough by themselves, and require country leadership.

It has been hard to have experienced this without developing a mixture of love, sadness, frustration and anger. Haiti is a “country” without any semblance of structure. Perhaps this devastating earthquake is a moment, not to start rebuilding, but to build a country from scratch, with a new economy, educational efforts, public health, and perhaps a whole new social culture. This will require a totally unselfish political and engineering leadership, which hopefully can arise from the ashes that now cover this country.

Gallery

Nothing Is Easy!

Finally, he is home....We are going to debrief for a day or so. He is catching up on reading accounts in the papers that are just adding another layer to an already complex situation in Haiti.

He is in good spirits and good health. I thank God for that.

I thank all of you for your care about Haiti and the "team"...Let's not forget them and continue to see how we can help, in some way!

Stay tuned......I know there will be more pictures and maybe even a tale or two straight from the "horses mouth!"

Love to you all.....

YEA!

John and team are on a flight heading west as I type..

The blog is not ending here. I appreciate all those who have been interested in this journey to Haiti and back. There will be more stories and even trips, I am sure.

I also hope you caught a glimpse of why we do what we do when we go to all these foreign lands doing medical care and working with children. We do it because we have love for His people and more importantly, we have a story to tell them. The story of One who died for them and rose again. This is truth that brings hope and purpose to all who believe. If you have been thinking about it, or wondering about it, and would like to talk personally with me or John, we would love it! Just ask us. We would love to tell you why we do what we do! It would be a privilege.

God bless your day everyone and stay tuned. I know John will have some outstanding pictures that I can post, after he rests some.

UGH!

I hear the team did not make it out of Haiti in time to make a Florida flight. I have not heard from John, yet, but am not expecting him home tonight..

Yes, I am moping a bit but it might be ok since they will get a good nights sleep in a hotel in Florida and even a good dinner! Rested and ready to make the final leg of the trip tomorrow! I hope:)

Making His Way Home!

John is trying to get home today. Pray that all will go well. He is ready to come home. He needs a break physically and mentally. He will most likely be coming back a different person. How can you not be when you have seen, heard and even smelled what he has. God will bless him for the sacrifice he has made. I know he touched lives there. That is why he went, to do what he could. This is what it means to show the love of God to your neighbor.

While he has been away, I have been blessed by all the emails, comments, calls, etc praising what John is doing. Now, if you feel like it, share those sentiments directly to him. I know he has no idea how all of you have been following this, praying, and just being an encouragement behind the scene. A most important part!

I thank you so very much, and I know John will too. Here is his email if you want to drop him a line. jalafata@aol.com

Have a meaningful day!

Truth regarding Haiti today

Some more thoughts – Friday, January 29, 2010.

I don’t think I wrote much about my first impression upon entry into the Hinche hospital last Sunday. It was really beyond belief for us – even after visiting the hospital in Peru. The large room full of beds, a ward, was full of patients, many of whom had legs attached to a rope and plastic bottle full of sand acting as their traction device. In the US, we have 5 lb weights. They are attached by a plaster cast to the foot here, and this tends to irritate the skin.

In the US this traction is usually overnight, with surgery scheduled the following AM. Here most will be in traction for 6+ wks, until their fracture stabilizes. They did not have the rods necessary for fracture stabilization, nor the sterile conditions to make such repair feasible. Unfortunately this also exposes the patients to a very high rate of pulmonary embolization. One patient actually did suffer such an occurrence with threat to his life later that night. Fortunately, he received emergent Rx from the Americans and has survived.

The rooms are dark. During the day, they are poorly lit. And at night, there is usually only one small fluorescent bulb lighting the whole ward.

Patients receive their primary nursing care from their family, who attend to them at the bedside constantly. They feed them, clean them, clothe them. The family brings in their food. There are buckets at the bedside for toileting, and the family empties them. I’m afraid to inquire where, but saw one just dumping the contents in the hospital courtyard!

There are only a few windows, and of course no screens. Therefore, the patients are covered with flies! Their wounds are so covered as well. The family, when attentive, brushes the flies away.

I couldn’t comfortably take any photos in there. As a physician the patients look at me hopefully, and the last thing I could do would be to take out a camera and memorialize their misery. Some of them had compound fractures, with the bone tearing through their skin. These do require surgery, and it should be done urgently. As I have said earlier, their surgery is unnecessarily delayed. In one instance this resulted in the patient become septic. She went to emergency surgery by our team and had her left leg amputated, and her right one sliced open for drainage. She did survive and our team was able to further debride her wounds before their departure.

In one corner of the pediatric ward, there was a child with 40 burns. He was crying and he had a crowd of people around him. At first I thought they were chanting, then realized they were praying and signing. This occurred frequently around patients in the hospital.

Another child was in traction – he had broken both hips. He lost his family with the exception of his grandmother in Hinche. Before they left, our team was able to place him in a spica cast. There was another child, with broken hip, who are required and received a spica cast from our team.

One poor fellow was crushed in the quake, and had his spine severed around T10. He is a quadriplegic. I heard today, the one of the hospital ships had offered to take him. But the hospital administrator denied this request. I don’t know what they will do with him.

The country is going to be in great need for prosthetics, crutches, walkers and wheelchairs. I have previously told you, the only survivors among those injured, were with limb fractures. Anything more serious resulted in a quick death.

Amongst the trauma victims are a large patient component of incredibly bad disease which usually populate the hospital. It seems that many patients are anemic with Hemoglobins in the range of 8. Normal is greater than 12. One woman’s was 3.7. She was given two units of blood, but the one was wasted by poor nursing attention.

The patients often had IV’s as at home, but often they are empty, not running, and/or infiltrated. Their urinary catheter bags are usually lying on the bedside. The correct location is hanging from the bedrail below the patient.

The three operating rooms or course also have flies. They and well and the rest of the hospital communicate with the outside. And they have outside window, although they were closed. With the exception of the OR, the hospital has old wooden floors, which of course are hard to keep clean, and perhaps impossible to sterilize.

As I walked through these wards day to day, the patients would watch and look at you hopefully and expectantly. I felt bad that I was not necessarily going to their bed, and especially bad that I couldn’t talk to them.

I will be interested to see what the world press is reporting about this catastrophe. Certainly I now have an appreciation regarding the difficulty and lack of efficiency in the world response.

John

Long note tonight~

Friday, January 29, 2010

Last night before sunset, and with the rising full moon, we drove to the back of our grounds. Just behind an enterprising Haitian bought some land, dug two large ditches and damned them. They fill in the rainy season, and stay full throughout the winter. From them he raises Tilapia, for food and fertilizer, and around them he has a large field of food, which is watered from these lakes. This is the type of activity that is needed in this county for revival.

After lunch the clinic here got very busy, and we worked it until 5 PM.

As you might expect there are many minor and major health conditions besides the recent trauma. Some of the trauma patients are returning for wound checks and dressing changes. I saw a woman with a very advanced breast CA, another with a breast lump. I have seen end stage congestive heart failure in young people. The average life expectancy is around 45. HTN is very common, and usually untreated. Malnutrition, fungal skin conditions, scabies, HIV, Malaria, Typhoid and many unknowns round out the selection. Sadly there are many congenital and developmental abnormalities. Before he left Dr. Combs showed me a 12 yr old girl with hydrocephalus. I have never seen anything like it. Somehow she has done well mentally.

Many are just hungry! This may be a growing problem due to disruptions in food supplies through Port au Prince. You may actually know more of this than me, as I have looked at no news. The Haitian Endowment Fund is driving to the Dominical Republic tomorrow to try to get a large truckload of rice and beans through to resume their feeding program.

The population continues to drift up in this direction as well as north and away from Port au Prince.

I’m tired after today. This evening is again cool, with a full moon. There was chanting over the walls this AM. It is an interesting mixture of sites and sounds and smells.

John

From Christine: I am wondering if it is better that they are not listening to the horrible news we hear or not..jury is out on that. I am thinking how difficult it will be though to make it from the Dominican Republic with the food, given the mobs...They are not aware of that I fear..

Imagine a beautiful, full moon shining on such sadness, devastation and yes, hope! The chanting he is hearing is from the poor people caught up in Voodoo! Pray that they will be delivered from the bondage of these practices, and the sounds of our team singing worship songs to the only true God will drown out the chanting and bring the chanters to their knees before Him, where he lovingly waits..

Thank you for all of you reading this, praying for them, thinking how you can help, just being there for everyone involved.

PRECIOUS!

"Love one another as I have loved you....I have loved you with an everlasting love.." God

Miracles Continue In Haiti

John called me tonight and told me of a couple of miracles that occurred today. He said there are miracles happening, everywhere, everyday.

Two he told me about I thought I would share..At the clinic on the compound, they ran out of worm medicine. They decided to then go into the village to do medical care. While they were gone, an army helicopter dropped off 1,000 pounds of medicine, guess what the majority of it was? You're right! Worm medicine! They were speechless at the magnitude of the Power of God!

Second miracle was that a group of physicians who had been at a state hospital, wandered over to the compound where suddenly a huge influx of patients came in and their expertise were desperately needed! God knew what was needed and, once again, provided!

Join with me in thanking Him for His love for these people!

These Are Real Men Too!

These two precious men decided their "mission" for the day was to go to the children to love on them, laugh with them, and try to get them to forget for a brief moment their reality..

My Man!

God bless you John and this precious family..

Love these eyes.......

More Images......

Beautiful

I had asked John before he left to get me a face of Haiti. I vote for this dear one. I wonder what her thoughts are....May God bless her and keep her all the days of her life.....

His Promises

"He leads me beside the still waters. He restores our souls and leads us in His paths"

WE BELIEVE HIS WORD......

"And they shall rebuild the old ruins, They shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations..... Instead of your shame you shall have a double honor, and instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double; Everlasting joy shall be theirs." Isaiah 61:4 & 7

"Be still and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the Earth."God has His eye on every detail.