“May the God of all peace, strengthen and stablish you...” Amazing to me that this was the verse of the day! It’s very appropriate!
Today is Sunday, and we are preparing for church and medical clinic #5. We will be going to church at a recent church plant “New Life Baptist Church” in Maribol. We were supposed to be leaving the mission house at 6:30am., but ya know....Haitian time! We left around 7:15am, with a bunch of us on motorcycles and a bunch riding in the truck. This church is kinda back in the direction of the medical clinic from yesterday, so much of the route was familiar. It was about a 45 minute drive one some fairly decent roads, and then some not so much!
We arrived at the church building around 8:00am., and people were already gathering for the church service. We saw that the people in the church had made makeshift walls with curtains and tablecloths for our clinic. Church started around 8:30am. Some of us sang special music for which we had practiced for all week...well, not really! We practiced once before church! Some of us went outside to help with children’s church. There were a lot of children and adults at children’s church. Ashley’s sister, Gina, taught the junior church lesson and she did a great job. In some ways, kids are kids no matter where they are in the world! We sang, Ashley and Gina did a lesson, and we gave them a snack. The snack felt kinda like the widows oil. I had grabbed some animal crackers and a package of twizzlers before leaving the mission house. We knew that there wouldn’t be enough twizzlers to go around, so we tore them in half. I wasn’t sure if we’d have enough animal crackers for everyone to have one, but there was enough! After their small snack, we played some games with the kids. The Haitian kids picked up really quickly on “Red Light, Green Light”, and that went well, until the cow in the church yard starting getting riled up and looked like it was ready to charge! But by then, church was almost over and it was time for the clinic.
It was a crazy afternoon! We really aren’t sure how many people we saw today, but it was a lot! The doors to the church building had to be locked so that more and more people couldn’t keep cramming into the building. We just didn’t have the resources or time to see everyone. Hannah and Pastor Falde do a good job though of walking through the crowd to be sure to try to catch the ones that really need help. Hannah was kept busy today as she was answering a bunch of questions and helping wherever she was needed, which was about everywhere!
Moriah had a patient that had been in a motorcycle accident on January 3rd. He had a huge chunk of skin and flesh missing from below his knee. It was pus-filled and infected looking, and Moriah had to clean it out. Hannah was busy with 500 things, so I offered to help Moriah. First Moriah had to get off all the gunk and nastiness (yes, those are very technical nursing terms, I’m aware!) It must have been incredibly painful for the man, but he endured it. I thought at one point in time, I might faint so I put my head down before it happened. I managed to not faint, but probably only because I put my head down first. I’m not entirely sure it was the sight of the knee as it might also have had to do with the fact that I was hungry and hot! Anyways, I survived! Moriah did the hard work anyways! The wound was cleaned and bandaged, and if the man keeps it clean, he will probably heal up nicely with only a huge scar as a reminder.
Hannah saw several people that need to have hernia surgeries, so some of them might be coming down the mountain with us tomorrow. Parakaleo will help pay for those surgeries as that is part of the mission of Parakaleo. We wrapped up the clinic around 2:30pm, and started the ride back.
I’m pretty sure the motorcycle drivers were having a race to see who would get back to the mission house first! Moriah and I rode on a motorcycle together both yesterday and today. I’ve enjoyed talking to her about many things during the times we weren’t desperately trying to hang on for dear life! We had one small incident on the way back to the mission house today. Our driver attempted a steep hill, and then motorcycle started sliding backwards down the the hill. Soon the motorcycle was tipping over, so Moriah kinda hopped/slid off. I had one leg on the ground and one on the motorcycle. All I could think about was how heavy the motorcycle would be if it fell over! Thankfully the motorcycle behind us stopped and came running to help us. And life goes on! We got back on and continued on our way.
One of the highlights from today was going visiting with Hannah, Emelie, Garett, Moriah and Becca. We went to visit a dear old lady in the church here in Seguin. She was so happy to see us come. We sang together, and Moriah prayed with her in Creole. The ceiling of the lady’s house was so low that Garett was not able to stand up straight! After our visit with Madame, we went to see if we could find the baby Sexy Love. The good news about a name like that is that you can’t hide! We found some people that took us to see Sexy Love. Sexy Love is looking so much healthier on her skin condition, and her skin is healing nicely. She is such a cute baby! While we were all so tired, it was so nice to go visiting. It was a special memory for me and a highlight for today.
Hannah, Moriah and I sorted through all the medications that were left after today’s clinics. We packed up several bags to give to Dr. John, and we packed some stuff away for next year. It’s hard to believe that another year of clinic is wrapping up! I am so thankful that Garett and I had the opportunity to be a part of this trip.
The burn baby returned one last time tonight, and she is healing! She looks so much better than she did two nights ago, and we are so thankful for God’s healing touch. This little girl comes from an extremely poor home, so we are hoping that we will be able to find someway to help this family.
Tomorrow we head off down the mountain. The dump truck is supposed to be here by 7:00am., so that’ll be another early morning to get packed up and ready to go. I am so far from being packed up, but at this point in time it’s “throw it all in and zip it up”!
We saw over 1300 people this week, 76 professions of faith, and five clinics. To God be the Glory!
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