Canada, friends and tragedy

Well, as always it has been an interesting few weeks and I am finally able to put it all down on paper. You know when you just feel like things are good and on track and progressing and then BOOM you get hit with more? Well that is how the last few weeks have been like. 

I (Cheryl) was able to fly home 

for a quick business trip this month. Although it was for taxes (blech!

!) and FREEZING it was a great week. Great things are happening at North Ridge Family Chiropractic (my business at home) and I was really pleased with my staff. I was so glad to see so many of you at church on Sunday and throughout my week at the office. I was able to see my good friend Tree's new baby and be a part of my niece's 1st birthday party! I was able to reconnect with friends and family and go shopping for all the things that we can't get here in Haiti! Much to the kids dismay, I also got to have HOT SHOWERS ALL WEEK!!!!! It was amazing. 

On my way back, I brought with me 4 friends from Canada whom we spent an awes

ome week with. They have now since gone home and we miss them already. It was really great to have friends from home here for a bit. It was however a smack back into Haiti reality......

One of my friends is a paramedic with Halton EMS. He had come to work in the hospital with me. I had just finished telling him that although trauma happens here all the time, we probably wouldn't see much of it in our clinic as people know we do not yet have the ER open. 

No sooner had I just finished telling him that, we heard a great  commotion  outside the building.  There was a trauma case that had just came in on the back of a tap tap. A man had slammed into the back of a tap tap off his motorcycle. He had a serious head injury it appeared and his scalp and ear were torn off. Our team quickly got him ready to send him off to a bigger hospital and off he went on the floor of the tap tap with a bunch of excited Haitians. (How I wished we had an ambulance to transport him properly). All of this is "business" in health care but what made this unique (and what made a lot of our nurses not nearly as calm

as they should be) is the fact that the man on the motorcycle lying hurt in the back of the tap tap was Pastor Andre one of our partner Pastors from the mountains. Here you can see a picture of some of his kids and his church were we hold mobile clinics. 

As we all watched Pastor Andre go, I was reminded that life is a gift and I was reminded that tragedy for us here is not a distant thing and that we are going to keep seeing it over and over again. 

Which brings me to the next morning. The following morning I woke up with our guests and started to get breakfast ready. I knew that Laurens had to run an errand that morning so he was not there. We had not yet seen Grant (the paramedic) and assumed he was sleeping in. My friend Angelica and I started cooking the breakfast and I went to get something at the guest house. What I heard on my way there stopped me in my tracks. I overheard the conversation that seemed unreal. Ed Hughes had died traumatically. Laurens and Grant were on the scene.

For those of you that do not know Ed, he was Canadian and ran an orphanage around the corner from us. All of his kids go to our school and we go there often. All our teams visit Ed's. (He is the one on the right in this picture). 

Ed Hughes has been through a lot in his life. He has an amazing story of transformation. Ed originally came to Haiti and was going to open a night club. As he was starting to set up shop, he was struck by all the hungry kids that came to beg at his gate every day. He started feeding them. 

His story continues from there........he became a Christian, opened an orphanage and feeds 100's of kids everyday. He has been kidnapped and he has been shot. He has lost his right arm. This past week, he died as he fell off a ladder and landed with his head hitting the concrete floor below. The orphanage kids were there. Now we are in the throws of working out the details of his funeral with the family and this will be our second funeral in 6 months. 

Through all of this we have a true realization of the character being built in all of us. Romans 5: 3-5 says this,"We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance builds strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love." Without the Hope that God has given us, I don't know how people can deal with death and suffering and come out OK on the other end. This is a strength of character being built that we are truly amazed and thankful for. Romans 5:2 says,"Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory." This is how we feel.

I believe God has placed us here not only to do the work of this mission but to also show all of you that there are places in this world were death is real and frequent and people can not always depend on themselves. They have no other choice but to sink, or depend on God. I pray that you chose God.

Bridgely's birthday

Yesterday was Bridgely’s birthday. He turned 7!! We can’t believe that he is 7 already, or that we have been here for half a year!

We had a great time yesterday. Bridgely first got to make cookies in school. Then we had a family time in the afternoon where we baked cakes and ate Jello. In the evening we had a little party with some of his friends from the Hope House orphanage where we stuffed our faces with pizza (we found the Domino’s pizza, the only international chain restaurant in Haiti......sweet sweet pizza) ate cake and watched a movie. It was a great birthday and I thank God for sending Bridgely some friends to share that with.
Enjoy the pics!

Mountain villages, a sweet boy and home sweet home

Ok, So you know the more busy we are, the less we write right?

This month has been our busiest month so far. I (Cheryl) have had a ton of medical teams come and Laurens has had many teams helping out with construction of the new orphanage and post hurricane homes. 

My parents came for a visit and got a taste of what Haiti is like. They saw everything from a homeless shelter, to orphanges to a nice Chinese food restaurant. They will sleep well when they get home I think!

This past month, I have taken teams on mobile medical clinics all over this area of Haiti. The highlight was that we have recently completed a 2 day clinic in an area in the rural mountains called Turpin. We saw 850 patients in 2 days, shared the Jesus film on the outside of the church wall, slept under the stars, listened to the donkeys roosters and goats, shared the Gospel, saw extreme poverty and

 realized that these people have something that most of us in Canada never have.....a simplicity to life, a hardiness beyond measure, an ability to deal with tragedy and move on, a hope and faith so strong.... so intense that we were moved to tears.

Now, let me tell you about a little about a boy named Brunell Jules. Brunell (13 who looks 9) fell of his horse in November of this year. After that, he had difficulty moving his left arm and leg. The right side of his face would not function normally. Since Brunell had no other option, life went on, until our Canadian construction team came to Haiti. Brunell like many other boys hung out at the construction site watching the "blan" build houses and other Haitian men working with them. One of our Canadian team girls Maggie noticed Brunell's condition and brought it to my attention. Brunell lives with his mother in a tin and mud/thatch shack with 5 other brothers and sisters. 2 other children in his family have died. He does not know his father....he has never been there. His mother, wethered well beyond her years, is weary, has no work and can barely provide one meal a day for the family. Brunell's older brother Jeff (16 who looks 12) is the "man" of the house.

After God placing Brunell in our path I assessed him and arranged to have him seen at our clinic by a visiting neurosurgeon...(a neurosurgeon just happened to be coming that week!!) By the grace of the Canadian sponsors, we completed the CT scan on his brain that shows that he suffered from an intracranial bleed when he fell off the horse. We are looking into whether we can do anything further to help him.

Let me tell you the best part of this story. Through this experience Brunell (who's mom did not come to the CT appt) was able to see the city, get a ride on an automatic hospital bed, play with automatic windows in the truck, enjoy a big Patte (good Haitian food) and show me his house. We taked about God, invited him to church and told him it does not matter if he has church clothes or not, that God accepts him for who he is.

Here is a boy who has taught me a lot. He has NOTHING, he has no dad, he has a mom who is giving up on life, he has lost 2 siblings and one nephew. He has minimal food and clothes and he sleeps with 7 in one room and one bed. Despite all this, he has the best smile (and can't stop smiling), he has a wonderment for life, he is kind and courteous and can throw a mean baseball with his good hand. Now he has loving sponsors for his medical care in Canada, and one Canadian Doctor (me) who is determined to show him what life is really about.

Please pray that Brunell and Jeff show up to church and that we can nurture this relationship.

Thank you God for the things you teach us every day.

One other great thing this week is that I will be coming home for one week for a business trip. (March 10th to 17th) Even though I am NOT looking forward to the cold or all the work I have to do (does anyone have a warm sweater or two???!!); I am very much looking forward to seeing some family, a bunch of friends, my church family and patients and staff I work with. I will be at church at The Meeting House on Sun March 15th and I hope to see a lot of you there!

Please pray also for Laurens as he juggles the van der Mark monkeys and work this week.

p.s. Happy Birthday Julia