And lived to tell

Blog by Rick Radcliff

A few days ago our team took a 5 mile round-trip walk to Lake Trou Caiman (see below).   After some tough days of dealing with all the oppressive heat, the roller coaster of emotions, and the difficult extreme situations at each of the medical clinics during each day, many of us headed out to see something beautiful and peaceful to recharge and reset ourselves.  In the photo you can see our great friend and mission trip superstar Dr. Deanna Reinoso out in the water with some local boys from Chambrun who tagged along with us.

Only Deanna (out of the 15 of us that walked down there) would brave what is likely some very unsafe water at various levels.  There are surely microscopic organisms, bacteria, and potentially American crocodiles which inhabit some of the lakes in Haiti (but were weren’t certain if they are in this one).  Deanna was born in Colombia in South American to heroic missionary parents and actually lived amongst piranhas, anacondas, and (I’m not kidding) blowdart shooting natives as a child.  Some unclean water isn’t going to deter Deanna (that’s another full blog).

When our son Trey (19) watched Deanna walk out into the water, he said he thought it looked like someone was going to get baptized.  Like a baptism is symbolic of a saved life (or soul) our team was literally saving lives this past week.

In the photo below, we see my wife Kitty holding a special needs child as Deanna is kneeling on the rocks attending to the child.  This child was in fine condition on this day, but our team and Deanna probably literally saved the lives of 2-4 individuals.  On one day as I was working in our rural version of a pharmacy I observed Deanna pleading and begging for a mother to continue to nurse her child.  Deanna had given the baby (who came in very weak) some formula that we had brought with us, and then implored the mother to breast feed.  In Haiti mothers are often told that if they are sick or the child is sick or weak that breast feeding can be harmful to either the mom or child.  Deanna was telling her to breast feed or your baby is going to die. 

[Note:   This photo also depicts exactly how our mobile medical clinics work.  There are usually 4 folding chairs on rocks at each station under a circus tent pre-established by NVM.  In this photo, Annie (in blue) is the provider at this station (Annie is an ICU nurse from Riley). Next to her is a Haitian interpreter which we have at each station.  Next to him are the patients.  Deanna would often roam from one station to the next as needed for her expertise with children.]

When you go on a short-term mission trip you know you’re doing the right thing.  You hope you’re making a tangible difference — a lot of times the different seems subjective.  On these trips with the medical team we have, you know that God is working mightily through this ministry and our team in a fairly unprecedented way (Pastor Pierre setting that standard).  We have other team members like Deanna who have been equally gifted and called by God —

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon (them), he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor…He has sent me to recover the sight for the blind, to release the oppressed” (Luke 4).

Last Day in Haiti

By Ken Klotz

So much happened this trip.  It has been a great week here in Haiti with such an awesome team!  Today we started out at 7:00 AM in the Chambrun Clinic as Dr. Edmond was not going to come in until late today.  Several of us from our team went there to serve until we left later in the AM to go to the IDP camp in Lycee.  We even had Shelli Elliott, world’s smartest pharmacist, serving with us.  Marshall, Deanna, and I all saw patients at the clinic this AM that were heartbreaking.  A little boy that Deanna saw had Norwegian scabies in his groin area that had gotten infected and he had gas gangrene who we shipped out to the hospital in a taptap following a dose of antibiotics.  Marshall saw an elderly patient with severe hypertension who had a stroke this morning.  And I saw a patient with a probable intra-abdominal malignancy, possibly pancreatic cancer who had lost so much weight his clothes that once fit him well were now hanging on him.  Like all prior mission trips to Haiti as in other third world countries it is so frustrating to see conditions for which the diagnostic and therapeutic options are so limited.  That coupled with the delays in seeking care due to lack of available health care services and the lack of health literacy of the local people bring us conditions that are far more severe than we would otherwise see in the US.  We then do what we can to help them with what God has given us to work with.  This leads to God given creative approaches and solutions and by pooling the gifts and experience of our team members.  But most of all we pray and our dependence on God deepens.   At the IDP camp today we saw a young lady who fainted in line from dehydration and infection as happened to another lady earlier this week.  The young Haitian lady today was suffering from dehydration and infection and had not eaten in 5 days as her companion said that her boyfriend beats her and would not give her anything to eat for the past 5 days.  She also had her three kids including an 8 month old who were also ill.  Deanna and I saw them together with awesome nursing care provided by Krista and Kacie and others from our team who assisted in treating them.  The young lady was much improved with some IV fluids and antibiotics but our team was very frustrated to think of her going home to that abusive relationship and wondering if the boyfriend would take their medications and sell them.  A friend of the lady offered to help make sure they would be OK and be able to take their medications but there were no available resources in the camp or in the community that could assist this lady and her children to protect them and remove them from this abusive relationship.  As many of you know there are countless other young women and children here in Haiti in a similar situation.  Thank God for NVM and the other Christian organizations, missionaries, and teams from around the world who serve here and show the love of Christ to the Haitian people and are working to improve their lives and to seek to break the cycle of poverty and despair.  There have been so many God moments this week many of which our team members have shared with each other but many of which we hold inside and are continuing to process and pray about.  God is so good!  I know others like Diane and I would never even be here in Haiti if it were not for our loving and great God who has put on the hearts of our team a desire to serve in this very difficult environment to help those in need for the glory of Christ.  We come home tomorrow, God willing, but forever changed by what God has taught us here and with more open eyes and hearts to those in need around us, even closer to our Lord, and even more looking for the opportunities each day where we can stand up and say: “Here I am Lord, send me”.

Ken

In the Midst of Disparity

Blog by Austin Guevara

Our week is nearly completed here in Haiti, and it’s been nothing but a constant stream of “God moments.”  We ought to call this “God time.”  As I’ve discussed with my good buddy Austin Clemens, a week seems impossibly long for us to have been here; it’s gone by so quickly.  Yet simultaneously, it feels as though we’ve always been here.  Tomorrow will dawn with uneasy bitter-sweet feelings.  We’re ready to return, but it’s heartbreaking to leave this place we now call home.

My greatest personal character alteration has been my realization that I have nothing to complain about in my life.  I realize the insignificance of all my menial complaints and qualms.  What is a bit of tiredness throughout the day compared to the life of poverty and hunger lived by so many?  And what really bugs me is that the hundreds of people that we’ve seen in our short time here are a minuscule representation of all those living in similar conditions, not only in Haiti, but all over the world.

Earlier in the week, a discussion fell towards the feeling of guilt and anger accompanied with the return home.  Clinton said that when he returned home last year, he kept asking himself, “What gives us the right to live this way when there are others in such disparity?”  What makes me feel most guilty is that I keep wishing I could be home, where I have all my clean clothes, private room, and private bathroom.  Personally, I never could stand the whole “processing” and “debriefing” that accompanies missions  trips, and I really regret that now.  There’s going to be a lot to mull over after this experience.

Our group leaders encouraged us to take “mental snapshots,” of things we’ve seen this week.  I have far too many to remember them all. It’s unspeakably heartening to look into the eyes of a child here, to see their immaculate, brilliant smile, and see how they’re undaunted by the suffocating atmosphere of despair.  There’s hope in Haiti, and now hope in my heart.

Austin Guevara