Change and God's Faithfulness

The last couple weeks at our little clinic have been filled with change. And there is more just ahead. The months of November and December are bringing quite a bit of staff change here, which is both difficult and good at the same time. So far, James and Katie Erdley left for home on November 16^th, at the end of their term. Ben Lapp arrived here November 1^st to begin preparing to fill James's spot. Ben has been doing great and adjusting well. There is another girl coming this week to fill Katie's spot, and then another girl coming in early December to fill the vacancy from my upcoming departure... incidentally this is the last blog post I will make here! That fills my heart with sadness and many mixed emotions. But back to the staff... Autumn Stauffer who was here for 3 months earlier this year and then returned to the States for a while due to health reasons, is returning as well, in early December. So currently, there is much shifting around and flexibility of filling in the cracks and doing what needs to be done to help things go smoothly right now. We were blessed to have Whitney Smith, a former staff member and head nurse, return to help us out for this month of November. It was a life-saver for us and help beyond measure to have her here faithfully pitching in and lifting the load. We had a lot of rain this month... it had us getting creative trying to dry laundry and stuff, but it made for some very short or non-existent clinic days... which was a welcome break. At the moment we are seeing some sunny days again...and large clinic days. But God is just very faithful and is supplying all our needs! An answered prayer since last time I wrote is the trail/road between our location and Ti-Guave... it has been repaired and even some larger vehicles have been able to get through now, so that is definitely a praise report. Please pray that throughout all the changes at clinic currently and in the month ahead, that God would just continue to give the needed strength and grace. Pray for the new ones that they would learn and adjust fast, and for Kayla our head nurse (by the end of December she will be the only American staff member at clinic who's been here longer than a few months) that she'll have abundant grace and wisdom as she continues to hold the course here and works with a new team. We know... that our God is faithful, and that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever... and we rest in that.

One morning at clinic, the staff were in a jolly, picture-taking mood. This is Madame Daniel (a cleaning lady) and Zitha (one of the pharmacists).

Then a few others had to get in the picture... Madame Leger (the other Haitian pharmacist), and Kadet, one of our gate guards.

We had a very sad case appear at clinic early one Sunday morning... a local young man who we know very well and who had been caught stealing, was brought to clinic. The story was that he had run from the authorities and fell in a wooded area, giving him some serious cuts and trauma to his face. He had a lot of bleeding in his mouth, scrapes and cuts in a few other places, a broken jaw, and was hurting all over... could barely walk, and barely talk. This was a young man that we knew had stolen from us, and broken in to the clinic... and here we were, bandaging his wounds as he was in custody and on his way to jail. In a quiet moment outside the clinic as he waiting to be transported to Ti-Guave, and we had just finished bandaging him up as best we could.... he asked me to pray for him, among his parting words. Would you all please join us in prayer for Dennison, this young man? He has heard much truth and I pray these difficult circumstances in his life will cause him to seek Jesus as the true help and fulfillment he seeks. I won't post a picture here of how he looked that morning, in respect to the people who dislike graphic pictures of injuries....but please just pray for Dennison with us that God could reach him through this.

Another kind of disturbing moment we recently had at clinic was when a large snake (very rare for Haiti and our area) was discovered one evening when we went to check on patients staying in our hospital. The creature was draped over the shelves where we keep all the patient charts, and thankfully James swept the area with his light before just walking over to the shelves. After some back-up help was called, and a machete appeared, the boys made quick work of him.... and we all shivered and sighed. =P It was a bit unnerving, making us wonder if there would be more, but so far we haven't seen any of his kin.

This is Ben, currently the newest staff member.

This sweet couple braved the rain one day and came for their blood pressure program rendezvous together.

One afternoon I went to clinic to put a bandage on a small wound that looked like it might only take a bandaid or something slightly bigger. As I cleaned the wound I noticed a small piece of straw in the one corner of it. When it didn't brush off I got a small tweezers and tugged a bit. When that didn't work I got a bigger tweezers and pulled a little harder. To my surprise the tiny piece of straw got bigger, and bigger, and out came a piece of cornstalk a few inches long! The 9 year old boy claimed he had gotten the wound from a fall 8 days before and didn't know there was anything in his leg. So.... that was a fun and satisfying conclusion. ;-P

This is a sweet baby born at home, to one of the ladies who followed our prenatal program during her pregnancy. Always a delight to see healthy moms and babies after a healthy pregnancy and birth.

Now I must bid my farewell, to this blog and you, its readers. Soon...too soon... I'll be leaving this beautiful place and its people. Thank you for enduring the long blog posts and sometimes gruesome pictures. ;) Please keep praying for Haiti, this clinic, the staff, these patients... all the people affected by the work here. Prayer is powerful, and we depend on it more than you know. And thank you, again.

-Mis Sharon