Two Left Feet

Verse of the Day: “Anyone who speaks should speak with words from God.  Anyone who serves should serve with the strength that God gives so that in everything God will be praised.” 1 Peter 4:11

Dancing for joy like I've got 2 left feet ;-)

Today was another mish-moshed day where we did a little bit of everything but also spent a lot of time on the bus taking in an outsiders view of what life is like day in and day out for them.  These sights of daily life represent only a portion of the hardship that is going on. The mountain clinic that I spoke about the first day was where we started because this was a new area for us and follow-up was needed on the medicines prescribed earlier in the week.  

Hopital L’Eglise de Dieu Reforme

It was a shorter day though so we were able to spend some time visiting Hopital L’Eglise de Dieu Reforme, the hospital I spoke about yesterday.  It is an amazing setup that started as a very basic clinic in 1995.  It was awesome to hear how the community was behind this as well and worked on fundraising to contribute—they raised $65.  The goal is for this to be a completely self-sustaining hospital.  It is currently employed by an all-Haitian staff and the cost is nominal compared to what they would be paying in the city hospitals.  For example it costs US$2.50 to be seen by a doctor and includes any prescriptions given and with their prosthetics lab they provide above and below-knee prostheses for US$17!  The doctors and nurses that serve here also make a sacrifice because their salary is not as high as they could receive in the city hospitals.  This hospital has a pediatrics unit that sees about 80 kids/day, a wound care room, internal medicine, an xray machine complete with equipment to develop the films, a prosthetics lab, two OR rooms, a dentist, an eyeglasses room, and I’m sure I’m missing a few things.  They even team up local broadcasting companies that record in their space to share the gospel.  There unfortunately is no real cardiology anywhere in Haiti, but their next huge goal is to open an ER to allow for 24 hour care availability.  They currently have all the commitments from the staff and space set aside to do it but are waiting on God’s timing for the funding to get it operating.  They have seen over 150,000 patients since first getting started in 1995.  It was such a blessing to see Kathy & Mark’s passion for this people and the ways they are seeking to come alongside and provide avenues for meeting those needs in a way that is not just a “hand-out”, employs and equips local medical staff, and is a source of providing follow-up care.  We wished we could have stayed longer but had to get out before they closed down one of the roads for a protest.

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing having some quality time and laughter with all of our translators.  They have been an enormous blessing to us this week and it is evident that they have a passion for helping their own people as well.  Most of them have come from orphanages or missions themselves and are a band of brothers that stay connected.  Even though they have a lot of fun with each other and put a lot of smiles on our faces, their struggles are very real—life is tough down here.  It was a real blessing to get to meet each and every one of them and a privilege to have them as a part of our team!

Praying over our amazing translators