January Update
The new year found our team on the beautiful island of Île-à-Vache in Haiti. I flew back from my furlough on New Year’s Day and met the rest of them in Les Cayes before we headed to the island. We spent four lovely days in Île-à-Vache, enjoying the sun, sea, and good food.
We returned to the mission on Saturday and Sunday was missionary church at Don and Karole Weaver’s place. While we were still up at church someone knocked on Don’s gate and said there was a lady in labor down at our clinic. So, we headed down and found the pregnant lady who had called us as well as another woman who had her baby on the trail on the way to the clinic. The lady still in labor delivered her baby about an hour after we arrived.
Monday was a Haitian holiday so we remained closed and spent the day finishing up inventory and cleaning at the clinic. Tuesday was our first day open for the year. It was so good to see all the clinic staff after having been gone on my furlough and then the vacation. Wednesday around noon a woman having a COPD exacerbation needed to be transported to Fond-a-Blancs hospital. Danny, Emmanuel (a neighbor), and I did the run and retuned around 8 PM. We had a little time before we delivered a baby at 10 PM that night.
On Thursday, Sylvia went to Ti Goave to spend a week working on a project and Abby Meyer came up to fill in for her. That afternoon Loveda, Fre Nores, Abby, and I went to visit an elderly man. We did a health check up for him, gave him medications and some food, and Fre Nores prayed for him.
The next Wednesday, James & Autumn and their boys headed to Florida for the auction. That Friday we had a big day at clinic. We saw 214 patients! Our staff worked very hard and pitched in wherever needed. We planned to spend that weekend with Derek & Becca Yoder at CWM in Fond-Arabie. We decided to go down with the afternoon Ti Goave run. We piled a total of 10 people into the Land Cruiser, with me riding on the top. I had an amazing view, but sitting was difficult the next few days.
We had a lovely weekend with Derek & Becca. I loved getting to know them better. We played games, ate good food, went walking and got to see their mission’s clinic, school, and church.
The next Saturday was very exciting for me as my brother Clark came to Haiti for a ten day visit. He jumped right in helping at the clinic and getting up at night for gate knocks. James and Autumn retuned from Florida that Monday. The ten days my brother was here went so fast, we were kept busy at the clinic with a lot of stitch jobs. We counted that we had placed 68 stitches in 6 days!
Although we weren’t ready for it , Monday rolled around and found us saying our goodbyes to our dear Sylvia and my brother Clark. Loveda, Danny and I drove them down to Ti Goave this past Monday evening so they could catch their Tuesday morning flight. The three of us arrived back at the mission around 9:30 PM to find a lady in labor at our clinic. It was a struggle to stay awake, but we made it through and baby and mom were settled and we arrived back at the mission a little after midnight.
We have had a lot going on these past few weeks and would appreciate your prayers for our current team. Pray that we would have the physical and mental strength to keep on serving and loving those around us well, even while we are short-staffed. Please pray that more staff would be available to come down. Thank you all for your interest and prayers, may God bless you.