Sunday, November 11, 2018

Haiti - November, 2018 - Team 2

November 11, 2018

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!












November 12, 2018

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 stations 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, fellowship 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.











November 13, 2018

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.










November 14, 2018

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 dissoluble. We are so glad that we had the opportunity to take them out, because they were not dissoluble 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 hemoglobin 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 hemoglobin. 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!








November 16, 2018

What better way to end another week of clinic than a beautiful hike to Degeance? I'm always amazed at the beauty of the landscape; a sunny sky with majestic mountains surrounding acres of banana fields. Friendly passers-by greet you with a hearty "Bonjou!" while walking or riding on a donkey.  Each member of our team arrived successfully to the top of the mountain, and soon we began to interact with the students, teachers, and community agents at Degeance. Immediately our team began to witness smiling, chanting, clapping, and dancing (in addition to an intense game of soccer using a tennis ball). It's always amazing to me to see the joy the children have.

Today our team tackled physicals for preschool through second grade! The children were so cooperative, making our job a breeze.  In clinic we were able to treat several infections, cleanse and dress wounds, and provide reassurance and encouragement to all of the students who were healthy. Deb spent the morning with us at the school, then made her way back to the mission center to continue her amazing work training the community agents. The Ultra Blanc took a motorcycle all the way back to the mission center. I'm always impressed by how adventurous Deb is! Those of us leaving tomorrow said "See ya later!" to our interpreters, many of whom have been so helpful and a pleasure to get to know. The week has flown by and our team has worked well together. It's impossible for me to mention all the ways in which each person has contributed to our team. From Heather and Sabine making fabulous lunches, to Joey and Rachel helping the providers with prescription dosing, to Emily the Real Estate Agent taking over the enormous task of flushing out ears so that Emily the Nurse could eat, members of our team have seen a need and tended to it. I'm thankful to serve with so many people who are so focused on the goal of ensuring Mission Possible students are healthy that they are willing to jump into any task in which they see a need. It was truly a great way to end our week!

-- Jameson












November 17, 2018

Today was a day full of prayer and traveling. Our week 2 team left early this morning and made it safely to the airport. They are now in the States enjoying all of the air conditioning they want. ;) Our final team just made it safely to the mission center and entertained us with stories as they ate their Haitian spaghetti! Those of us who have been here all day spent a lot of time in prayer and worship as we waited to hear how our team members coming & going were doing. Please continue to pray for us as we finish seeing students this week and for the country of Haiti.


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