Haiti Team #6 is heading out next week! we will be distributing wheelchairs through Free Wheelchair Mission and providing medical and dental care to families affected by the earthquake.

We continued on with another busy day of medical and dental and also helped to construct some new tents in the nearby tent city.  The community came togother to build, even the children.   All were so eager to have a job and a purpose.   The people from the church and those that helped translate and support us here are wonderful and we hope to see them again.  They prayed for us to be blessed so that we may continue to be a blessing to them… Something familiar for Mariner’s members ;  )  Today was bittersweet knowing we would be leaving so soon after making so many wonderful connections with these truly amazing people.  Please continue to pray for us and the people of Haiti.      

We’ve got an early early trip to Dominican Republic tomorrow where we will debrief for a day before heading home.

Definitely a day to replace electrolytes!  It was hot and we were busy!  The medical team saw about 130 patients and the dental team pulled 54 teeth.  No matter the number of patients Dr. Justice served he made sure everyone received a proper welcome and gave his full attention to them.  Theresa, RN, was able to provide some well needed pain control to a patient with a severe abcess from a infected tooth that Elise (Dental Assistant) pulled out.  There is no doubt that this person would have become very ill.  Chris has also been right by Elise’s side pulling teeth as Linda assisted both of them.  Jane, RN, was running around playing pharmacist while Shereen,RN, was getting the evil eye from all the intramuscular injections given to the little ones.  Lindsey also helped in medical while planning the logistics for the day.  Due to the high numbers we agreed to come back again tomorrow to see some of the overflow.   One thing is for sure- these people need some love and many came just to be “seen” and loved on.  Our Physical Therapist, Rachel, had a very grateful patient…  A young woman had her pelvis broken in 3 places from being buried under rubble from the earthquake and left today with a great smile now that she has hope of improving with all the new exercises and stretches she learned.  Barbara was continuing to pray with and for the visitors while Ravi was testing people for reading glasses.  Julie, who organized all the arts and crafts, was making new friends while Stacey came up with some creative teaching ideas and had kids teach kids!  Kathryn was all about the kids and created lots of laughter.  Another highlight.. It was Barbara’s birthday and Madame Pastor (Pastor Joseph’s wife) welcomed us again with a huge table literally full of food, settings for 16 people, and balloons, streamers, and a cake.  We ended the day singing “Happy Birthday” in French and English!  Tomorrow we will be going to do some construction and tent repair.  Once again we will be reminded how blessed we all are.

One memorable story was a 5-year old who walked into the clinic by himself. When we asked about his parents he said that they are no more, and that he stays with his aunt. He came with some severe skin infection on his legs. We were able to treat him and pray for him, and were so glad he had the courage to come in for treatment.

Today was the first day of the vision care team. Though literacy rates are low in Leogane, we were able to fit a number of elderly folks with reading glasses so they can read more comfortably. The picture here is Pastor Samuel with two sisters both sporting their new reading glasses. We thought the woman on the right looked a bit like Whoopi Goldberg with her new glasses on.

We again closed out the day with a fabulous dinner at Pastor Joseph’s house. We told them that we’re eating better here than we do at home in California!

Today the weather was great!  Tomas (AKA Hurricane Tomas) didn’t end up being much more than a large storm and we missed it before we even got here.  Just a little muddy.  The humidity is extremely high and let’s just say… a bit different than living in California. However, the reality of the situation is hard to accept and evidence of the quake is everywhere.  Still months later with an almost absent infrastructure and corrupt government these lovely people are making very slow progress.  It is hard to see light at the end of the tunnel.

The worship center that Mariner’s funded was up and in full swing with over 700 members in attendance!  We spent the day with Pastor Samuel’s church and were energized by their enthusiastic worship and graciously welcomed and thanked for our service.  We had a successful medical clinic treating old and young and were able to remedy even our wonderful translators that had very bad bacterial infections- you would have never known they had high fevers with their beautiful smiles.  The dental clinic resolved the constant pain and infection now that the teeth have been pulled. Thank God for anesthetics! Our background for the day was filled with the children’s voices singing praises while coloring using the brought art supplies.  Many kisses on the cheek and hugs given!

We ended the day with the most amazing meal at Pastor Joseph’s home.  They cooked for the 14 of us but they prepared enough for a small army and set a table fit for a king!  .  The blessing of all this… Pastor Joseph says that more people are seeing the light through God.  More are turning to faith.  I guess it’s true. All things work together for the good of them that love the Lord and are called according to His purpose.  Blesssings and Adventure from Haiti!

Greetings from Carrefour Port-au-Prince Haiti.  We just wanted to give you a quick update that we arrived without any problems.  Our flights went great and we arrived here to blue skies, they had rain last night, but it was warm and clear this afternoon.  We spent the afternoon touring the city and a drive up to Bouteillie, the big mountain overlooking the city.  We are getting ready for dinner, our debrief and packing up for our first clinic tomorrow.  Please continue to hold all of us in your prayers, they are felt.  Until tomorrow BONSWA !!!!

Our last day in Haiti was a humungous success, starting out by surrounding the church within the tent city and all of its people . We prayed for their well-being and to continue God’s spirit within the community.  We headed into the church and set up and were able to see all of the patients waiting. Today when we prayed with the people in small groups they were asked the accept Jesus Christ into their hearts and some did, as well as many people who asked us to pray for their souls.

Brooke was able to try something other than VBS today and be a pharmacist with Brad.  They were a calm, cool and collected team and Brooke learned the ropes very quickly.  Megan was patient and wonderful with everyone. She was able to see more today than the previous three days (she saw almost one-hundred people)!

Our fearless dental team consisted of Dr. Lloyd, his assistant hygienist John and there are now many clean beautiful smiles thanks to Diana and Dina. Between the two of them back breakingly cleaned while their patients lay on top of a make shift 4 foot plank table.

Melanie and Diana had a great time singing and doing crafts in the morning with the children.

David did a great job in triage and Heidi was in her groove helping and praying wherever it was needed, and she even gave a few messages.

Terry kept things running smoothly and was there for all of us as well as playing for hours with the children outside.

Lindsey kept the triage team on point open communication with Meagan, which allowed all of the patients to be seen.

Brent was perfect at tying up all of the loose ends.

Alarm is set for 4:45am to head off to the Dominican Republic!

Goodnight y’all (as Dina would say)!

The trip has gone by so quickly, we can’t believe it’s Friday already!

Once we arrived to our destination in Carrefour, half of our team went to Pastor Joseph’s house to divide over a thousand pounds of food for 250 local families. We left the food at Pastor Joseph’s house so that he can distribute it to the most needy families.

The rest of our team started our medical and dental clinic within the tent city. We were greeted by hundreds of smiling faces at Pastor Joseph’s church, Church of God Pentecostal by Faith. Dr. Lloyd and the dental team (Diana and John) pulled over 50 teeth from ailing mouths and performed cleanings on dozens more. Dr. Megan, “Pharmacist” Brad, and triage “nurses” Heidi and Dina (with the help of interpreters Osbert and Emmanuel) saw over 75 medical patients today and treated skin infections, pneumonia, dehydration, and simple aches and pains. We were able to give out reading glasses and personal hygiene kits. Terry and translator Gustav prayed for each patient.

Brooke, David, Melanie, and Brent led Vacation Bible Study for the children after many of them arrived home from school. (Most of the Haitian children recently returned to school for the first time after the earthquake.) They made mirror frames and played duck, duck, goose. The sounds of the children giggling resounded throughout the entire tent city. Lindsey was her usual cool, calm, and collected self and made sure the day ran smoothly.

The team arrived safely yesterday in Haiti. We started the day off by visiting Operation Blessing, a non profit that several of our teams have worked with, who gave us about 350 pounds of beans, rice, powdered milk and sugar to distribute to the people in the tent cities. We also drove through Port au Prince and the surrounding areas to get a feel for the vast devastation here.

Wednesday

Playing with the kids was tons of fun! Brad, David, and I (Brooke) helped the kids decorate small tin pots and plant seeds for flowers to grow. Our interpreter, Gardy, read Isaiah 61:10-11 and Hosea 10:12 and talked about how we are like the seed God has planted for beautiful flowers to grow. We then decorated Styrofoam mirror frames with stickers, colored, and played with bubbles, jump ropes, soccer balls, and beach balls. My favorite part came at the end of the day when we were all exhausted. The young girls simply wanted to sit with me in the shade, hold my hand, play with my hair, and teach me English songs that they knew. They tried to teach me songs in Creole, as well, but the language is so difficult it was hard to comprehend. I was amazed at the strength and resilience of these kids, many of who lost friends and family members. It was difficult for me to hear that they only eat one meal a day (dinner) and have to purchase water (even to bathe). Consequently, most of them are starving and thirsty, and yet, they were still full of smiles and joy, jumping at the chance to play.

Believe it or not, the dental clinic was a big success today! The reason why I say that is because most Americans tend to avoid the dentist at all cost but these people were in so much pain that they all waited several hours in the hot sun to willingly have their teeth pulled. The makeshift clinic consisted of two wood tables for people to lie on, a cement block for them to use to step up onto the table, and one communal spit bucket. The patients ranged from about 12 years old to 75 years old and their chief complaint was toothache. Our dentist on the trip, Dr. Lloyd Sisson, was amazingly caring and gentle with each patient and worked hard despite the heat, the limited light and a skeleton set of tools to work with. Dr. Lloyd did most of the extracting with Melanie and Dina as his tireless assistants who took turns assisting Dr. Lloyd with extractions and saw their own patients for teeth cleaning. However, we need to give a shout-out to Melanie because she performed one of extractions all by herself and did a great job! To maximize the number of people seen and treated, Dina set up small dental clinics to teach people the benefits and techniques of regular brushing and flossing. All in all, about 20 teeth were pulled, 16 patients had their teeth cleaned and examined and about 45 patients learned how to brush and floss in the dental clinics. Everyone was sent home with their own toothbrush and toothpaste.

The medical side of the clinic went smoothly as well. Dr Megan saw over 80 patients today. We had patients that ranged in age from newborn babies to a sweet 100 year old man. Many people waited up to 5 hours in the hot sun just to see the Dr. We had a great pharmacy team with Brad, John and Brent who keep the medicine coming. While Diana and Heidi were the best triage nurses around. After seeing the Dr. all the patients were prayed with/for and as they left they all received a hygiene kit.

Tomorrow is another full day of medical and dental clinics! More stories to come!

“Benny swat a nail!” That’s our phonic version of “Praise the Lord’ in Creole. Thank you for your continued prayers. Yesterday we traveled to the remote village, Leogan, the hardest hit area where approximately 92% of the homes were destroyed.  On route, traffic caused us a near three hour delay (you may want to ask a team member how our drivers maneuvered our two vans going reverse and helped save us time).  Once we arrived and set up the clinic, 137 dear souls were treated and 75 children were introduced to paint art. That’s right – the children didn’t know what to do at first with a small brush, water and paint pallet. But kids learn quickly! Today we returned to Carrefour (where we were Sunday). The medical team treated 206 residents of tent city, while 150 children participated in crafts. On both days, each person who saw a doctor was prayed for. In meeting with people, and hearing their stories, we have come to learn much about the spiritual battles the people of Haiti encounter as a result of the earthquake.  Many families are thrust into close proximity – living in tent cities make privacy is obsolete, raising the noise level to new heights.  So where can peace be found?  Tonight we are reminded of our morning devotional centered on Matt 7:24-27; there are two foundations one can build a house on, and only one will remain standing when storms come. Pray with us for the families struggling in tent cities – and their need for a solid foundation and peace.