Busy Day at Saint Marc!

I'm going to jump ahead to the end to say: IT IS RAINING!! It has been so hot this week and the air has been so still. We are thankful for the mist and the breeze. We spent the day at St. Marc and saw over 100 children for their school physicals. We also had the opportunity to see several follow ups from last week and they are looking great! We feel so blessed that God has provided for our students! We continue to pray for the kids we have seen and for those that we will be seeing in the coming week. Today we had the opportunity to take sutures out of a pre-schooler's eyebrow. He told Nick: "You do me wrong, you are not my friend, I am all finished." over and over again...at the top of his lungs. After Jameson, Nick, Devin, and Pam held him down and took the sutures out he calmed down in Emily's arms. His mama came and told us that she thought the sutures were disolvable. We are so glad that we had the opportunity to take them out, because they were not dissolvable sutures and it is possible that they still would have been there in February when the next team came. After a long day of physicals, half of our team went to Pierre Payan Hospital to take a tour. We saw the Operating Rooms, the Maternity Ward, and the In-Patient Ward. We all found ourselves humbled by what can be done here in Haiti. We were amazed to learn that they have very few post-operative infections. We are so thankful for the missionaries who live in Haiti and the teams that come in and provide for this population. We were reminded today that 50% of Haiti practices Voodoo which was a driving force for us to continue to serve these people and tell every child "Jezi renmen ou" (Jesus Loves You). Today was Maude's (our fabulous cook) birthday! The team celebrated with her by making a card (Thanks Rachel) and baking her a banana bread/cake (Thanks Sabine and Heather). She was so surprised and it made us all smile. We are so appreciative of her and were glad to be able to celebrate with her! Alison and Emily spent the morning wandering the school finding children who still needed their school pictures taken. By the end I would say that they were finding kids with ease! The students love when their cards have their pictures on them. They come up and point to the picture so that you know it is them! Kem decided not to do hemoglobins today because the kids didn't like her yesterday! To make up for the kiddos at Chardene thinking she was evil for poking their fingers, she spent the day doing snap chat filters with the kids.  Shari took over the unfortunate job of poking fingers and checking hemoglobins. After Kathy checked their feet, they would scoot over to play with the snap chat filters before getting their vision screened! Kathe spent her day assessing and cleaning ears. She also had the opportunity to hold down our screaming kid with the sutures; that was a team effort. Jeff continued to do height and weight with the kids. They get so excited to come up and give him a high five and stand nice and tall when it's time to get their height. The kids LOVE Papa Jeff. Rene decided not to check feet today ;) She felt her talents would be better used to collect kids from their classes since she knows where they belong and she doesn't need a translator! Joey and Rachel were busy all day! They always finds something to do! Jameson and Nick have been forgetting to initial their charts and so Joey came up with the idea to give them each a different colored pen. Now we just need to remember that Jameson is blue and Nick is purple! When Deb is not crying about not having an iPhone or the ability to "air bomb", she is becoming a pro at flushing ears.
Overall, it has been a great day! We are enjoying the music coming from the kitchen as Kitchen Karaoke is in full swing while we watch the storm brew over the ocean! God truly is a wonderful creator and we can't help but to see the beauty in his work! Thank you all for your love, support, and prayers!

Busy, busy day!!

We spent the day today at Chardene seeing only a few grades, expecting to be out by 2:00, but had a few surprises that extended the day.  We saw a sweet boy with a sore on his forearm which he said was the result of a curse put on him by a voodoo doctor and it would never heal.  With lots of encouragement from everyone, he was able to take his antibiotic, and he fully understood the directions for washing and dressing his arm each day.  We all then laid hands on him and prayed aloud for his healing.  Expecting God's hand to show in this in a big way.

We returned to the mission compound around 3:45.  The MP staff had planned and organized a dinner for those of us who sponsor a MP student.  They and their families were invited to come to eat and spend some time with their sponsor.  It was so memorable and special to have time to speak with them (through translators) and learn more about them.  We took a group photo and were so grateful for the time we had together and a wonderful meal provided by our cook, Maude.  

This evening we successfully talked Deb into telling her whitewater rafting story.  No one can tell it like she can and we were all laughing hysterically.  She also gave her testimony about how she came to be involved with MP.  We all love her very much and are so thankful for her work in this ministry.

We awoke this morning to no electricity, but Heather saved the day with her French press coffee pot.  Praying for electricity tomorrow morning.

Missing our families at home, but enjoying our time with our family in Christ, serving, laughing, sleeping, and sweating together in Haiti.

As always: a HOT day at LaHatte!

What a bumpy ride we had on our way to LaHatte this morning! BUT, we made it safely to the top! Upon arrival, the translators took our team members on a tour of the community while some started to set up the sations for the physicals.

The smiles, laughter, and games of the students just melted our hearts. A couple of kids got some new sponsors :) We could not believe how healthy the kids looked. We were able to have stations to check feet, vision, hemoglobin, flush ears, visit the nurses and physicians and pick up any needed medications at the "famasi". With having three providers (Jameson, Nick and Devin), we were able to see all of the kids!

Our first day went incredibly smooth and we are having such an amazing time serving together and watching how God is using each of us. It is such a blessing to have a team with such big hearts that are willing to just jump wherever needed.

Once we returned to the mission, a bunch of us hurried down to take a swim in the ocean and enjoy the beautiful sunshine before the early onset of nighttime. After a delicious dinner, we all engaged in worship, fellowhsip and devotion before Jeff treated us with CHOCOLATE. YUM!

We are excited for tomorrow's adventure and cannot wait to see what God has in store.

Saturday/Sunday

Saturday/Sunday

Saturday we said good-bye to part of the Week 1 team. We hated to see them go, but are left with great memories that were made during last week. The 10 of us left at the Mission Center for the weekend spent the day doing laundry, relaxing, and swimming in the ocean. The evening was spent in playing cards and having a nice time of fellowship.

Sunday we enjoyed worshiping at Lanzac. Our little friend, Ricardo, made his rounds in the church and sat with us, enjoying the attention we were giving him. The photos in this post were ones that he took on Rene's phone during church. He certainly has an eye for photography. ;) After lunch, we spent several hours putting hygiene bags together in assembly line fashion. Several enjoyed a swim in the ocean again.

Our new team members arrived safely around 6 PM with smiles and excitement. We enjoyed the traditional Haitian spaghetti welcome meal together. We are looking forward to going to LaHatte tomorrow with our new team. Keep praying for us- we appreciate each and every one of them!

Final day for week 1!

It's hard to believe, but week one has come to an end. We spent our day at Saint Marc, and were so encouraged by not only how healthy the students looked, but how well behaved they were for us. It really shows how the students have become accustomed to their yearly school physicals. It's not a surprise for them anymore- they know what to expect and we are gaining their trust more each time we are here.
It was a busy day, but we got a lot done by seeing the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th graders, as well as some kids who needed immediate attention. When we came back tonight, Vanessa had some more students waiting for her to do hearing evaluations on them. We are so grateful for the long hours she is willing to put in and for her desire to make sure our students hear the Word of God.
Tonight we wrapped up our week together by doing shopping from the vendors, spending time worshiping and reflecting on our week, and then of course playing Fizz-bo.
Us that are staying longer are sad to see the wonderful one-weekers go home tomorrow, but are anxious for the next group to arrive. Please pray for travel mercies for the teams coming & going, for their airport drivers, and for us back here in Haiti as we re-charge our batteries and prepare for another busy week.

Long day at Chardene!

Whew! We had a LONG day at Chardene. Poor Vanessa is still working with kids while I write. She has been going since this morning, working dilligently, to make sure that our students are able to hear God's word! We are so lucky to have an audiologist with us this week! As she works, the fisherman who have been out in the ocean every night this week, start their work. We went out last night and they showed us their catch. They catch these little fish that look like sardines but they call them Pickett. We have no idea what they use them for and our creole made it difficult for us to figure it out. From what we understand, they take them to market. According to our translators, "strangers" buy them. We don't know if that means foreigners? We know that they don't eat them. It was a really cool experience!
Heather and Sabine led us in song almost the entire ride to Chardene. We made a pit stop at Pierre Payan Hospital to check on our referrals from yesterday. This morning was a little rough at first, we moved our ear wash station 3 times before we had our set up just right. Poor Deb dropped the water pick the third time she moved it and we all had to take a deep breath before the first kid came through. Once the first class arrived, things were smooth sailing. With three providers the children moved through the lines quickly and there were breaks between patients for the first time this week. The littles were NOT happy about getting their ears cleaned or their hemoglobin checked, but after several renditions of "Jesus loves me" in Creole, they were all smiles!
Jeff took over height and weight and did an incredible job of organizing screaming children. Our Community Agents continue to improve and have become an indispensible part of our team. Marcia has found her calling with checking feet and has it down to a science. With Olivia's help they had the opportunity to check the feet of every child who came for their physical. With their trusty wipes they even had the opportunity to clean many of our students feet. What a humbling experience.
Johanna was busier than usual with 3 providers prescribing meds, though she didn't have as many crazy doses as Devin, Nick, and Jameson become more familiar with the dosing options that we have available. Of course, things become easier as the week is wrapping up. It was nice to have Jameson today as there was another set of eyes to look at all of the crazy skin issues that we aren't used to seeing in the States.
Rene continues to impress us all as she is able to get the kids from their classes without the help of the translators. Julie helped organize the children through the audiology station. It has been a struggle to find a quiet place to evaluate our students ability to hear. Kelly continued to be versatile as she switched between nurse assessments, ear cleaning and vision throughout the day, jumping in whenever needed. Emily continues to provide some of the most detailed notes ever, which has been unbelievably helpful for the providers.
As the week winds to a close, with only one more day of clinic, we are so thankul for the opportunity to work with eachother. We are sad that the week is coming to an end but so excited for the next team to continue the work that we have started.