A wild week

This month has been crazy and we are finally in our house!!

 Carpenters have been building kitchen cupboards for us and they are almost done. They do very good work and all from scratch but take a long long time!  

Those of you who have been here to Mission of Hope and stayed in the guest house (that is now our house) are going to flip when you see it now! It is fantastic. The "rat" room is now rat free and is Teagan's bedroom!

Praise God that we are getting settled and that we were able to handle the first month and a half in limbo

Our work here has been good. Laurens has been busy getting to know his team of workers and moving into his office. He finds that he does not have a lot of time to sit in an office however...as he has been supervising work projects that have been going on around the mission. He is starting to organize how to make things more efficient however it has been difficult for him as he has had to be at the house a lot. This week a team of well drillers came and set up a drill that will be used to try and hit water in early January. The mission has been unable to hit water before but this team "guarantees" that they will hit!! We will all be praying for this in early january as it will be a huge blessing to the mission. They will also be able to drill in the villages that do not have wells in the future if this works. Yea!

I (Cheryl) almost have an office in the hospital (did I mention slow but good?) which I am really looking forward to so I am not carting around pieces of paper, clipboards and my computer (that is also needed at home) everywhere I go on an ATV! :) I am really enjoying my patient treatment days which are Monday and Fri mornings (stretching into afternoons til 3pm as more people hear I am here). I am affectionately called "the bone doctor" by people who have heard I am here at this hospital. One man who had fantastic recovery after his treatment, brought back 7 people the next day!!

Praise God for the ministry of health care that I am able to provide to my patients

Thurs. of last week we were fortunate to be able to fly to Port -de -Paix in the north of Haiti to visit another christian mission there. We had learned that this mission runs a great surgical ward out of their little hospital with North American surgeons. The surgeons were in action last week and this is why we went. Laurens accompanied me in order to look at their site and operations as well. It was an amazing experience,let me tell you about it:

First we flew on a little 19 seater plane (my barf bag close at hand) over all the towns and villages that run along the coast from here to the North of the island. It was amazing as it flys low enough to see all the towns. We were able to see all the devastation from the past hurricanes from above. It was quite a sight to see where the rivers ran over and we could see the mud that went out to the sea for up to ~2 miles!

After we arrived in Port de Paix, it was like a different world. They have trees!!! We do not have many trees at all where we are due to deforestation (like most of Haiti) but this area still had some trees. It was quite a sight for us as we got a little hint of what this beautiful island used to look like. As we drove from Port de Paix  along the road to St. Louis du Nord, our destination, it was very different from here.

They have lots of buildings that still retain their colonial look and almost every building was painted! For those of you who have been here, you know how different that must look. Here most towns have a lot of run down concrete buildings that are definitely not painted! There were even some big beautiful houses. Don't get me wrong, it was still Haiti and very needy but just very different than here. 

Our experience at the hospital was great and we learned a lot about setting up a surgical ward and what kind of professionals we will need on board and what equipment. In the future, I would like to have our hospital be able to provide surgical services with quality as I have already seen too many problems from patients that need surgery and can not afford to do so.

In one day, we accomplished many things such as: 

Talked with the lab tech in charge of lab and pharmacy 

Learned how they run their outpatient clinic on a regular basis

Assisted orthopedic surgery! The highlight for Cheryl. (Removal of a massive Giant cell tumor that had destroyed a patient's distal ulna) 

Assisted minor surgery removal of a lipoma

Attended 2 births

Coached a woman in labour

Toured their future O.R. and OB/GYN units

Discussed the birthing unit with the North American midwife

Met with the anesthesiologist who started their surgical program

Learned about the successful operations of their OR

Travelled to Baie du Moustique (over a river that was almost to high to pass) to view a rural mission complex and back (Laurens)

Talked at length with surgeons and staff

This was a tremendous sharing experience of 2 missions working together for Christ. We learned a lot, made some friends and were exhausted by the time we returned.

Please praise God for an amazing learning experience and pray that we will use the knowledge wisely

The kids are doing great and are starting to be a lot more settled now that we are in our own house. They have discovered Box no 2 which is the box we packed some toys, bored games and surprises in. That has been their favorite. School is going well for them and we have a meeting with their teacher Diana this week to discuss how things are going. They are starting to learn a little Creole.  I learned this today when someone asked Bridgely, "Koma ou rele" (that is, "what is your name?) today and he answered," Bridgely". 

Praise God that the kids are adjusting well

We will also be starting our Meeting House home church tomorrow night with the other missionaries on board here. We are very excited to start this. 

Something that burdens us at the moment is this. The medical ministry here is running on "God Fumes" right now! There is not enough money for some basic medications and essential lab testing. We have recently put out a challenge to all Doctors to sponsor the hospital for a day at $1000/day. Please spread the word to your MD, DC's etc. and contact us for more information.

Please pray for general medical ministry operations funding and also that God will bring forth major donors for hospital completion funding

It is way past my Haitian bedtime..

God Bless