Meals on Wheels Haiti Style

When we moved to Haiti in 2009 we believed that God was calling us to live by a different model of ministry.  We truly believed that God has a deep love for His Haitian children and a plan to lift them out of their despair and into lives of freedom through knowledge of His love.  We believed that if God has a plan to do work then He Himself had the means to fund that work.  We believed that if we would be faithful to throw ourselves completely into finding what God wanted to do and then spent our time in that, then He would send the money to do it.  I did not want to spend several months each year doing fund raising when instead we could be rescueing babies and taking care of the sick and dying.  I was totally unsure how it would all work out but truly believed God would provide the funds. 

In July 2010 the river in Montrouis flooded due to many factors including a poorly designed bridge and extensive deforrestation.  The flood washed away many homes in our fishing village leaving dozens of single moms and their kids homeless.  Tents were provided but that was almost a year ago and the tents have been destroyed.  We felt God wanted us to reach out to these desperate women and give them hope.We had a friend that agreed to help us rent homes for 18 of the women.  But we did not want to stop there.  Paying for someone's house as a handout is more detrimental in the long run than helpful.  So instead we decided to start a program for these women to reach out to their own community. 

Joy has a heart for the elderly and widows and we were already taking fish to many widows in our area on a weekly basis.  But Joy had a desire to start a "Meals on Wheels" Haiti style- the food will all be delivered by foot but Meals on Foot did not sound as good.  So we are now taking the 18 single moms that are the outcasts from their society.  Many have multiple children from multiple men.  All are uneducated and fundamentally illiterate.  Most have been raped and abused.  We want to help them become active participants in changing their community and their lives.  We want them to know that God has a better plan for them and that although they have never believed it, they are valuable and lovable and loved.In order to be in our housing program the women had to agree to several conditions.  First of all they have to come to weekly Life Lesson classes.  These classes involve life skills training like hygeine and mothering skills.  It also involves Bible study that teaches them abstinance and the true value of their body and their lives.  In addition to the classes the women agree to work in our feeding program.  They will come three days per week to prepare and deliver the hot meals to the elderly shut-ins.  They will also be taking clean water and vitamins.  We are training them to look for signs of illness and to spend time with the client.  Our goal is to help them understand the principle of investing their lives in others.The first two days they work each week will go towards paying for their house we rented.  The third day they will get paid and taught how to mange the money. 

The program will feed about 150 hot meals per week and employ the 18 single moms.  We pray that in the long run the effects will change many families and help many to come to know the love of Christ.  I did not know how we would pay to fund the program but we went ahead and started renting all the houses.  This past week a man we met while here in Haiti called and said he and his wife really wanted to find a program they could get involved with.  I emailed him the outline of Meals on Wheels and he called me tonight and said they had all the expenses covered and would start sending a check every month to cover all the costs.  God had a plan.  He chose by grace to reveal it to us.  We started it by faith.  And He provided the funding.  In the words of Hannible from The A Team, "I just love it when a plan comes together!"

What is an Orphanage?

It's been a while...over a month...since our last post.  It has been quite a month and lots of things have taken place and I apologize for not keeping people updated.  Here is an update of what's happening in our little piece of Caribbean paradise. (I unashamedly embedded my kids pictures in the text without any obvious reason except for the fact that I am an excessively proud daddy...)

Jacy Klaire on her 9th Birthday

When we first moved here I was naively under the false impression that an orphanage is where orphans live.  I am not sure how I came to that crazy conclusion.  Possibly the NAME of the place!  But in Haiti, sad to say, an orphanage is NOT typically filled with orphans.  It turns out that the much more common definition of orphanage is a great way for self serving Haitians and other foreign nationals to earn a very good living exploiting children whose parents are very alive but are happy to let someone else raise their children and use them as a fund raising tool through the internet and even in person.

Jaxon in a rare calm moment

A typical orphanage in Haiti is when someone, usually a "pastor", decides to take in a bunch of local kids to live at least part time- when the white people come to town- in a facility that they have that looks really sad and really needs someone to come along and just help those poor, dirty, naked, malnourished, little orphans that this loving but under funded pastor has graciously taken in.  It's all a scam.  A very devious, evil, manipulative scam.  I don't want to sound jaded...even though I am...because jaded is not one of the fruits of the spirit listed in the Bible.  However, it is a total reality for us because DAILY I have people that try to give us children to raise for them so that they won't have to and they have been programmed to think that way because of so many corrupt child exploiters that have built a horrible system here over the last 50 years.  And of course, who are the victims?  The duped white people that come and give their money to a con man?  No way!  The victims, as always, are the kids.  They are abused, kept "pitiful" looking, and even worse, taught how the 'system' works.  Most girls raised in these homes are raped by age 13.  Many of the kids get sick from preventable diseases and very few ever go to school.  They are the oppressed poor that do not have a voice of their own.  And now, we are in the middle of this whole deal because we have a facility to minister to kids too.  So what are we doing about it?

Sissy Joe in her Luau outfit for Jacy's Birthday

First of all, we have investigated the situation extensively.  We discoverered that hundreds of thousands of dollars flow through these homes every year and end up in the hands of crooks and not as food in the bellies of starving children.  So we decided to form a special kind of home called a creche.  A creche is a home specifically for children that are available for adoption.  At first, I arrogantly said we would take in NOTHING but orphans.  No kids who had parents at all.  Any parent that brought us kids to take, I would proudly explain to them how God had given them that child and that I would help them raise the child but I would not take the child into our home.  Then we had one of those children get kidnapped.  Then another one died.  So that caused me to reevaluate my stance.  Then there was Justice.  She had a mother that abandoned her and a 65 year old alcoholic father.  Now she is ours.  Even more at home was the fact that our very own adopted children, Judah, Josie, and Jaxon all have parents but they were taken from them due to an inability of the parent to provide for the children.  So we got wise counsel from licensing board here in Haiti along with others and redefined what type of children we would take into our home through the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

Judah is not having a 'happy' day

Through that process God has blessed Celebration Children's Home so much.  We now have 16 children living at the home.  Many are true orphans.  Others were abandoned.  Still others like 2 little 2 year old girls we have recently taken in, are from mothers that have experienced one type of tragedy or another and now simply cannot or will not take care of the children.  BUT, in order for us to take the child, the parents have to go with us to the government office and sign over all rights to us and acknowledge that the children are eligible for adoption.  That eliminates many people who come and want us to simply raise their kids for them.  The kids we take have officially been given away by any family that is existing.  It is a heart breaking scene every time.  More so for us than the family usually.  I take a child into my arms that have often NEVER had a man hold them.  Many have never even had a mother show them genuine affection.  After just a couple of days you can begin to see sunshine replace the cloudy shadow that seemed to penetrate so deeply into the neglected children.  We love it and count it an honor and blessing to be able to be the rescuer on Jesus' behalf for these babies and children.

Luke is an amazing teenage missionary.  He has taught me so much.

Our plan is to be able to get these children adopted without charging orphanage fees.  Other creches in Haiti if they have legitimately adoptable children they often charge at least $12,000 - 15,000 USD for orphanage fees per child being adopted.  Our plan is to allow donors to continue to pay to keep the Mission running and adoptive parents pay the legal fees and government fees for the adoption but nothing directly to us.  We are in the process of Justice being adopted and are working with another missionary that is working on adopting 4 children and that will give us more exact understanding of the whole process.  In the mean time, we are enjoying investing in the little ones we have.  We also support a couple of different orphanages from St. Marc to Montrouis that are not legit but the kids need food, and clothes, and school.  And we get to try to change the system one step at a time.  We constantly get calls from groups that came to Haiti and gave thousands of dollars to an orphanage here only to find out later it was a shell and now the people are disenfranchised and disappointed.  But that is why we are here.  To be light in darkness.  To be a voice for the abused, helpless, weak, and oppressed.  We don't get angry- too often-or frustrated- excessively, instead, we become more and more determined.  We pray for more diligence.  More patience.  More wisdom.  More insight.  And more opportunity to see people set free from the bondage of deciet and manipulation.

We have had some amazing teams come down to help us lately.  I can't tell you how encouraged we have been.  God is really covering us with blessing.  We are planning to go to the Dominican Republic next week in our bus with the family and our leadership staff.  We want to check out possible places to get some boats for our fishing ministry as well as other supplies.  We are also going to do a leadership retreat and let my family have a couple of days of refreshment.  I will let you know how that goes.  Joy could use it and so could her husband.

Cocobe' (Co-co'-bay)

Cocobe' in Haiti is the word given to anyone who is crippled or handicapped.  It is a word of contempt in most cases lacking any connotation of compassion.  In a culture where resources are so limited and life is already so fragile, very little compassion is reserved for those that are viewed as a waste of resources.  Why use up food, time, energy, and resources for a life that is not going to make any difference?  Even good intentioned, moral people have this mindset most of the time.  But Kevin was able to break down that wall in many of the lives he encountered in his short time here.

We were given Kevin as a last resort after he lost his mom in the Earthquake in January 2010.  He came to live with us in August and he brought much joy and  readjustment of priorities into our lives.  The lady that found him after the earthquake could not care for him and he weighed just 13 pounds at age 3 when we got him.  He had severe cerebral palsy and could not do anything for himself, but he had a smile that beamed and melted hearts.

Kevin managed to win over the hearts of all of our Haitian staff as well as any visiting missionaries that came to visit.  He would just hang there on my arm and smile ear to ear as we would go about our work around the mission.  I understand more than ever that every life is precious.  Every person is a perfectly planned out piece in the mechanism of God's creation.  Even though Kevin passed away today, I know his life made a difference.  I know it did for a fact because it made a difference in me.

I have never felt like I could care for a special needs child.  I never thought I had the patience or compassion. But I learned that God loves to use the least likely of techniques to change the things in us that need changing. As I helped build a coffin today to hold my little buddy and then washed and arranged his body before Joy and I dressed him for his burial, I could sense in my heart that God had done a work in me to help me love in a broader way and appreciate the sacredness of this fragile life we are given.

We buried Kevin today just 3 weeks after burying little Callie.  It has only been 2 months since Daphne died in my arms in the same hospital where Kevin died.  It is strange how death has such a profound affect on our view of life.

Joy reminded me as we were acting as funeral directors and dressing Kevin for his funeral, that children are a "gift" from the Lord.  When we got Kevin he did not have a name.  They never named him because his life did not seem to have a reason.  But I praise God for the "gift" He gave us in little Kevin.  I praise Him because it helps me appreciate the "gift" of all of our other kids- both Haitian and American.  I pray that I never get to where I can let another day go by without TRULY cherishing my family and friends and the ones God has given us to minister to.  Most of our lives are not as short as Kevin's but one day we will be just as gone as he is right now.  I am reading a book right now that I recommend called "Outlive Your Life" by Max Lucado.  I pray I can outlive my life in such a way that somewhere, in some way, some one can say that God used me to change something in them the same way that God used Kevin to change something in me.

For God So Loved the World that He Gave...

Things have been rather complicated as of late.  We moved to Haiti 7 months before the earthquake.  We lived in a little apartment on top of a small orphanage.  After the quake we moved from there to a place we found that we could rent from a Frenchman for one year.  During that year God blessed and we were able to start a children's home and all of the other projects you can read about on this blog.  But then that year ended and the Frenchman did not want to renew the lease.  That left us home hunting again.

The place we left was a resort-like property on the water where we were able to enjoy the beauty of the Caribbean.  But it was very high maintenance and I had to spend lots of time and money generating electricity, pumping water, and fixing problems.  All of which had to be done after spending the day caring for the needs of the mission and the people we were ministering to.  So as we learned we would have to move we knew God would open a door for us...but as is often the case, it was not  until the last minute that it opened.

We looked and looked for a house that could accommodate a family of 8 and be secure and safe for the family during times of me being on the road or out late.  We also needed to be close to the mission and the fishing village.  As I was getting tired of looking for houses, Joy recommended that we go to the local hotels and ask if they had apartments or other properties to rent.  I hesitated as I thought that it would be too expensive even if they did have something.  So Joy took the initiative and called a friend that worked at one of the hotels and got us an appointment with the manager.  Long story short, we were able to work out a deal where I will serve as their eye doctor and our teams will stay there if they need a hotel, in exchange they let us rent the one 3 room apartment that they have that just so happens became available for the first time in three years.  So although we all 8 live in under 600 square feet, we love our new home.  It is safe, secure, and Joy has people there that speak English!

We have already been able to meet people from Germany, Bermuda, and several other missions as well as making connections that have allowed us to transport a patient via helicopter to PaP, hopefully provide a source of water for the Mission, and a connection with Samaritan's Purse to get OCC shoe boxes for our 1500 kids in Pastor Cesar's schools for next year...all in our first week at the new place.  God is so good!

We were at the mission Monday and little 5 month old Callie had a fever.  We started medication and thought she was doing okay.  Tuesday night she took a turn for the worse and died at 4 am Wednesday.  We do not know if she was suffering from an infection related to her mother's death a month ago or some other type of infection.  It was a painful loss of such a precious little child.  Mirlande was holding her as she died and so she is struggling with the reality of the loss.  It is still hard to believe she is gone.

So much more is going on with the orphanage, teams that are working with us, the fishing ministry which is really taking off, and a couple of new programs for women, and a building project to get the families out of tents by the river.  I will try to blog on each of those opportunities in the days to come.

John 3:16 is probably the most quoted verse in the Bible.  It says "For God so loved that world that He gave..."  What did God give?  If He has an unlimited supply of EVERYTHING, what could He give that would be a sacrifice?  The only thing He could possibly give that would be sacrificial to demonstrate His love for the world was Himself.  Anything else would have been simply giving out of His abundance but not a sacrifice.  Who did He give himself to?  The world.  So God demonstrated His love by giving Himself to the world.  He is our supreme example.  We are ALL called to do the same thing.  ALL of us.  We are not called to give a token out of our abundance.  We are called to give ourselves...to the world.  But that only comes when we- the same way God does- love the world.   And how do we as selfish, fearful, lazy, comfort seeking, pleasure driven creatures come to a place in our lives where we are willing to give OURSELVES to a sinful, stinky, deceitful, ungrateful, hateful world?    


I think there is only one way that can happen.  We have to get to KNOW God.  As we get to know God deeper intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, and physically we begin to love Him more.  It is inevitable.  As we get to know a God that is the manifestation of love- God is love 1 John 4:8- we don't have to work up a churchy presentation of love.  We can't help but develop a deeper love for God.  It is the natural response of knowing "love".  As we know Him, we love Him.  As we love Him we develop a burning desire to demonstrate our love TO Him.

As we begin that process we often feel that religious activity can actually express our love to Him.  We often try to come up with ways to express our love out of true and righteous motives.  But eventually through continuing to seek Him, we find that His example in the most quoted verse of the Bible is the only way for us to truly show Him we love Him.  We must give ourselves.  And who do we literally give ourselves to?  The World.  It is the only way for us to show God we love Him.  Our love for the world is birthed in our desire to show God our love for Him.  It is all God's plan.  Why is it so hard for us to see that God so loved the world that He gave...Himself...so that we would give ourselves...to the world...so we can care for the poor, meet the needs of the orphans, be a voice for the oppressed, and a light in darkness so that the world will know God so loves them.  By doing so, we find the try meaning of faith, love, hope, life, and eternity.  So in the end we are the ones that truly receive the end product of God's love for the world.  What an awesome God to allow us to be such an integral part of His plan for His world.

We are all in that plan somewhere.  We start off as the recipient of someone else's understanding of God and their desire to love Him so they share love with us.  Then we progress to the place where we are working through the religious facade of what love for God looks like.  And finally we get to where we understand that to know God, means to love God, and a desire to give ourselves WHOLLY to His world and we spend the rest of our lives on earth trying to learn what that looks like for us individually.  In the process, God saves us, and redeems us, and matures us.  Where are you today?

One Year Post-Quake

One year has come and gone since the devastating earthquake of January 12, 2010.  Today was a day of remembrance throughout the country.  I don't want to remember the days after the quake but I do want to remember the hundreds of thousands of people that lost family and friends.  It is a sad situation to see how little progress has taken place in the rebuilding process.  Hundreds of thousands of people...yes people...not just Haitians...not just 'refugees'...not just poverty stricken masses...they are people...with hearts, and needs, and emotions, and psychological scars, and fears, and dreams, and heart aches...and they are living in tents made of year old tarps and they are waiting for the government to come to their aid...the Haitian government.  Sit and think for a minute that your only source of hope is for one of the most incompetent and corrupt governments in the world to come to meet your most basic of needs.  So that is where we come in.  We have the chance to offer them true hope.  Hope in eternity as well as hope for today and tomorrow.  The crazy thing for us now is that because of this past year many of these 'people' have become friends of our family.  We have seen babies born in the refugee camps and others die.  We don't know what the next year holds but we pray we can see deliverance from bondage for many of the people that we know.  We have the chance to give mommies hope that their baby will be able to get medicine when they are sick.  We are able to give hard working fisherman hope that they will be able to send their kids to school so that they can have a better opportunity for providing for their families.  We are able to help elderly women see to sort their own beans again for the first time in years.  We are able to help hundreds of kids believe that someone actually sees them.  And we are able to help dying souls believe that once it is time for them to "cross over" they can actually enter into eternity with peace by having a relationship with the one true God.

It has not been an easy year since the quake for anyone but we are grateful for the progress God has given us in the ministry of many lives here.  We believe we were here for a reason and that God has a plan for us bigger than ourselves.  Thanks to all of you back home who make it possible for us to keep on course here.  Thanks for your prayers and your on going support.

(I have to link you to a blog for a friend that visited last week.  He is the running back for Texas Tech and came down to work here the day after their Cotton Bowl game.  He is an amazing photographer and took some pictures that are just awesome and he is helping with our child sponsorship program. He also took the picture at the beginning of this blog.  Here is the link to his blog.  Thanks so much Baron Batch!)

www.baronbatch.blogspot.com

Beyond 2010

What a year 2010 turned out to be for our family.  I can't believe it has been almost a year since the January 12th earthquake.  It seems like just yesterday when I think of the experiences of the weeks following the disaster but yet in a way it seems like years have passed.  It seems strange that everything we have seen happen here has all taken place in just one year.  It was a year that we got to really see people at their darkest moments and most desperate.  But at the same time I feel that I personally grew more in 2010 than in any other year of my life.  I have learned so much about myself and about the things in life that really matter.  I don't have time to share all of those lessons here and much of it is too personal to publish.  I know that the things I have learned are just part of God continueing to prepare us to be used to meet people's needs as we invest ourselves in others.

Here's a breif update of what's been going on lately:

 "I'll NEVER go to Haiti...I can tell you that right now"- Logan commented through tear filled eyes days before we moved here in 2009.  He felt he was losing his mom and his family.  He did not see how it could be part of a 'good' plan from God.  In December he made his first trip back since he was here the day of the earthquake.  He spent 3 weeks helping with projects and getting to know his little Haitian sister Justice.  It was a sweet time and a gift to Joy through the holidays.

Cool Hand Luke-  "What we have here...is a failure...to communicate..."  I love that movie...and Luke has proven that is not a problem for him.  He is already learning the language well and loves helping the guys in the fishing ministry and working at the mission.  He is home schooling with Jacy Klaire and doing well.  He is truly a missionary in every sense of the word.

 Escaline - or Callie as we call her- lost her mom to an infection 2 months after her birth.  She was left with a father along with 7 other children. The father was unable to care for her and brought her down the mountain for us to take.  She is doing great and is one of the sweetest little angels you have ever seen.

 For Christmas we took the family and our guys to Saut d'eau falls.  A sacred site to catholics and voodooists.  It is a huge cascading water fall that makes you forget you are in the desolate country of Haiti.  Here you see Luke and Wesner at the foot of one of the falls.

 Street services with our bus have become one of our primary ways of interacting with the community.  We pull the bus up to a spot beside the road and hang a sheet of plywood on the back rack.  We open the handicap ramp and roll out 2- 400 watt speakers and set up a projector and show videos and worship songs and have services.  This picture is of us showing the Jesus Film in Creole at a refugee camp of people displaced from the quake.  It was a fun time with a team from Joy's home town of Maiden, NC.  Thanks pastor Jonathan for all the help you guys were to us. 

 We have been working at The Mission to make a parking lot.  Here is Luke and the guys spreading gravel.

 Fidelo showed up at the mission in very serious condition.  He had gone to a hospital 8 days earlier with an eye infection but the hospital just gave him a drop and sent him away.  By the time he came to us he could not talk or see and could barely stand up.  He had a very high fever with neurological symptoms.  And as you see a more than slightly swollen right eye.  I took him immediately to a little mission hospital where we could start I.V. antibiotics.   After a couple of days the neurological symptoms began to subside and his fever was down.  This picture is after a week.  The eye is still an issue but we were able to save his life.

 Michelet is one of our fisherman and Dedette helps us in processessing the fish.  Their mom is very sick and near death so Joy and I were going to visit her with a group visiting from Operation Hope out of Lubbock, TX.  As we were going through the village by the river, Joy came upon a naked baby covered in sores and flies and gnats.  Open wounds and scabies covered most of her body.  The mother was near by but she was not in much better condition and could not open her eyes due to a horrible eye infection.  Joy picked up the baby and took her to the mission to clean and medicate her.  We also took the mother to the eye clinic and started her on medication as well.  As we were returning, the mother begged us to take the baby and let her live with us.  We tried to tell the mom we could not take it and so we returned them home.  In the trip back home as I talked to the mom, I learned she was not mentally able to understand.  We found family members and discovered the girl was first pregnant at 13 and this is her third child and she is 18 years old.  She is not mentally competant and does not know who the father is for 2 of the children.  No family is able to take the children in so they live in a shack on the dirt floor with a mother that is mentally unable to care for them.  After having the entire family and practically everyone in the village tell us that the mother truly can't care for them and wants to give them up, we took little Jefnica and her 4 year old sister Gatina to live at the mission.  That was just 3 days ago and they are doing great.  I went to visit the mom today and her family and they are so thankful for us being able to help them.  If we ever move back to the states, someone needs to give Joy an honorary social workers license.  She spends much of her day in that role!

 The day we discharged Fidelo from the hospital we were going to visit some women in a village that had tried to get us to take their 4 children.  We wanted to see how they were living and if the mothers were able to care for the babies if we helped them with food and supplies.  As we drove up we saw that an accident had occured.  A far too frequent event since the new road has been finished.  As we were parking the bus we saw one of the girls we were going to visit running up the road with a pillow.  She ran to me and told me that her mom had just been ran over.  We rushed to the scene and found the mother conscious but with injuries to her head and lower body.  We loaded her into the bus and took her to the mission hospital.  We assisted in getting her calf sown up and her other injuries 'briefly' checked and then took her to The Mission to take care of her for a few days.  She is doing better now and the picture above is from Tuesday this week when we took her back to her house.  We also decided not to take the babies fom that village but we are going to help teach the girls to be mothers and care for their babies without having more.

 Kitleen went into hidding after she refused to give her babies to the man that had tried to bribe her.  We originally heard she had given in and let him have them.  Later we discovered she could not do it at the last minute but was afraid of what he might do.  Her twins were Joy's first babies that Joy helped to rescue.  Today I went to visit them in their new house.  The little boy is still struggling.  He is 14 months old and still has no teeth, can't sit or talk, and weighs barely 10 pounds.  We are going to start him on a program available for malnourished children and see if we can't get him on track.  The mom is pregnant again and lives with her 18 year old sister who has a 3 month old baby too. 

Whenever I get to feeling like things are overwhelming or too tough God sends me a reminder that things could be worse.  We came by after this bus ran off of the road in a bad place on the way from St. Marc.  God is always there and we are grateful to be used to touch so many lives.  It seems lately that God is just putting us in the right place at the right time to be a tool to rescue people from dire situations.  We are grateful.  Although we have seen some lost, we rejoice for the ones we get to have a part in their deliverance.  We look forward to 2011.  Earthquakes, colera, riots, hurricanes, and dead friends were not on our radar as we entered 2010.  But neither were-

Kristi and Krista- Colleen's twins that Joy found dying of malnutrition

Kitreen's Twins that Joy also rescued

Niaca and Kimberly- sisters we found in a tent village and now live in the mission

Jean Moi- orphan living on the beach

Jean Patrick- orphan who's parents were murdered

Justice- our baby we are adopting that was abandoned at 3 weeks

Kobe- handicapped teenage orphan that was a street kid

Adelson- street kid orphan

Wilna- nearly blind orphan that had never been to school and now is top of her class

Kevin- Cerebral palsey 3 year old orphan that was going to be thrown into the sea

Michelet- handicapped 3 year old orphan with megalocephally that is finally being taught to sit up and speak

Jefnica and Gatina- sisters found in the fishing village

Callie- 2 month old baby from the mountains whose mother died of complications from birth

All of the ones we have been able to help with dire medical needs

The fisherman in our group that now have an income and are changing the economic landscape of Montrouis

The one's like Nabal, and Charles, and Louis, and Mireille that have accepted Christ and received the hope He offers.

You see the circumstances were only used to teach us that the only things that really matter are people.  Our highlights from 2010 are the people that we got to invest our lives into.  In return, they have enriched our lives in ways we never would have dreamed.  God has shown us that people are our inheritance in the promised land and we are grateful for such revelation. 

A Good Plan

Logan- our oldest- got to town yesterday.  After the rigors of getting him here and fighting customs to get our some boxes through- which didn't happen- I had a rare day of rest planned. We were going to spend today with Logan and the kids.  I thought maybe we could load up the car and take a picnic on an abandoned beach about 15 minutes down the road.  What a fun time...

I got a call early to say that Daphne, the sweet 20 year old that was blinded from diabetes, (click here to read about her)  had gotten sicker through the night so I decided to go and get her to take her to the hospital.  As I pulled our of our gate I was met by a guy that told me that a lady that was living in the refugee camp from the earthquake was pregnant but was having trouble with the delivery because of high blood pressure and no medication at the little clinic next door.  She did not have the $60 usd to pay to have the baby at the hospital.  I went and checked on her and decided to take her to the hospital with me too.

Daphne was sick for a couple of days and then her blood sugar was elevated and we could not get it back down.  We gave her an IV of fluids yesterday for dehydration and I had Alexandra, a nurse friend, come and spend the day with her and she was looking better last night.  But when I got to the mission this morning she was non-responsive.  I picked her up and put her in the car with the lady having the baby and headed to the hospital.

Once at the hospital we got Daphne in a little room. I paid the fees for the room and the IV and fluids and a nurse tried for 30 minutes to start an IV.  She finally called another nurse and she seemed to get the IV started and we got Madame Charles settled in the delivery room and paid them the $60 usd to deliver the baby.

I worked my way back through the crowd to Daphne's room and the IV was going good.  Robins was there with me and things seemed okay.  The nurse left the room to go find the doctor and all of a sudden I realized Daphne stopped breathing.  I checked and she had no pulse.  There were no machines hooked to her to beep or flat line or anything it was just like things were in slow motion.  I started mouth to mouth and chest compressions.  As I gave the breaths, the putrid air that had built up in her lungs during the infection was exhaled into my mouth and I nearly vomitted.  I regained my composure and continued the breaths and compressions while Robins called for the doctor or someone to come.  I cried out to God for Him to save her.  Still no pulse.  After several minutes the doctor showed up and stopped me from trying to continue to revive her.  It was too late.  She was gone.  Just like that.  I stood there with the taste of death on my lips.  I have grown accustomed to the smell of death, but this was the first time for me to taste it.  It was worse than I would have imagined.  I have spent all day washing my face and trying to get rid of the smell and taste...I read that you don't smell in your sleep, I will be glad to pillow my head tonight.

I had to call Daphne's mom and the people at the clinic that helped us find her originally and tell them the news.  I would have to put her in the car and take her to Port au Prince to a morgue and meet with the family.  We would be responsible for the funeral and burial. 

I ran by our house to get some cash for the trip and the preparations.  As we were pulling out of our drive way, we met pastor Remy.  He was walking with a man and carrying a baby all dressed up and wrapped in a towel.  I stopped and got out and greeted them.  The baby's mom died last week and the 2 month old was too much for the dad to handle along with the other 7 kids in the family.  He had asked if we could take the baby.  They were coming to drop her off.  I told pastor the situation and sent him on to the house to meet with Joy.  We continued on to PaP.

We met the mother and the representative from the funeral home on a side road in PaP.  The mother came to me screaming and wailing.  She said she wanted to see her baby.  As the morgue workers put her into the body bag I pulled back the sheet and let the mother see her face.  She was hysterical as I just held her and tried to comfort her by reminding her that God's child had died too.  I did not know what else to say.  A large crowd gathered to gawk at the spectacle.  Not a fun time.

After the mom got back in her car and left, we finished up with the morgue representatives and started the planning for the funeral.  They are anticipating riots starting Monday night following re-release of the re-recount of the election results so we want to have the funeral before then.  Hopefully Saturday.

We left the morgue representatives and headed to customs to try to convince them to give us our Christmas gifts for the kids- ours kids and at the mission- and Christmas tree we had shipped in.  I did not agree with the fees the customs agent told me I had to pay but I was too tired to fight about it.  I once swore under my breath that I hated this country.  I regretted saying it because Wesner and Robbins were there.  I tried to take it back by saying it was the government and the injustice that I hate.  But I actually don't know what all it is that I hate.  I learned today that I hate the taste of death.  I hate corruption that oppresses the poor and helpless.  But I am sure there are some things that I hate that God would have me to love and some things that I love that God would have me to hate.  I just have to pray He reveals to me which is which. 

God was good and we were able to get everything out of customs without having to pay TOO much more than it was worth.  Then we headed back to Montrouis.

As we entered Montrouis we went by the refugee camp to check on Madame Charles and her baby.  She had a boy.  It was easy to tell  it was a boy because of the pink blanket and pink flannel gown and pink booties he was wearing.  Baby and mother are fine.  He's beautiful.  Lying in a hut in a temporary refugee camp surrounded by desperate people that were eager to beg me to bring them more fish this week, he was blessed to be alive.  He is blessed because He has a future.  It may not be what we as American's would call a future but Jeremiah says God has a plan for ALL of our lives and that it is a good plan.  I don't see how Daphne growing up in Cite Soleil- hell on earth- then going blind at 19 and dying at 20 is a good plan.  But I trust God is good.  I am glad I got to know her.  I am glad I got to help her for a few short months and that she died in a hospital not in a shack in a slum and being buried in a dump.  I miss her already but she had asked God to forgive her of her sins and be her savior.  She can see again tonight.  She is not sick.  She is not lying in bed crying with pain in her legs.  She is seeing Jesus- and that is a good plan!