More Than We Can Think!

So we are on the plane enroute to Haiti. Finally time to sit and reflect on the last 8 weeks. Our verse for the day and the trip is Ephesians 3:20-21 “ Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. AMEN This trip is totally beyond anything that we could think or comprehend.



As usual Cindy and I started working on this trip several months ago. One of the great difficulties is the flight arrangements. This year was the most difficult. We started looking at flight options back in early November and just kept running into road blocks and obstacles. A friend of ours who flies a private charter approached us in November and said that he had been burdened to ask the owner of the plane to consider flying us down to Haiti. He said that he would pursue it but not to get our hopes up. About this time we discovered that I needed spine surgery again so things went into slow motion.



God was gracious and allowed me to have the surgery very quickly and with no complications. To God’s glory that told me that I could probably resume running March 1st. I have been running for over 4 weeks with no problems. So mid December we went back into planning mode. At this time we had not heard back on the charter and were working on the assumption that we would be flying commercial. As we progressed into early January things became even more difficult with the flights. On January 3rd I told Cindy that at the team meeting we would tell the team to really pray and that it would require the Lord’s intervention for us to go. Late that night Caleb texted me and said that the private charter was still an option. He requested that I send an email the following morning. So Sunday the 4th I sent an email to the owner of the plane explaining what we do in Haiti and why we go. Late that day we met with the team and filled them in. We told them that we needed to clarify flight arrangements by January 12th or we would not be going. On Thursday that week Caleb called and wanted to know if I wanted the good news. Upon receiving our email on Wednesday the plane owner immediately said we can do that and have their family foundation sponsor it. ROUND TRIP. Our God is amazing, I am not sure why I continue not to trust. There are several other stories by team members about how God worked amazingly to get them here and we will let them share them as the week goes on.

Saturday, February13, 2013 Beach Day

The day started with a beautiful sunrise, which I was awake for, and alert enough to capture on film!

We had our usual breakfast, then hopped on the tap tap for a 90 minute jounce and jostle to the resort. Club Indigo is a beautiful resort, with a large clean beach, and a HUGE fresh water swimming pool. We were able to rest and relax, then had a wonderful Haitian lunch before we left for the ride

"home". A few have mild sunburns today, but all are well. I'm adding a couple of photos for YOU to enjoy too.

We got back in time for dinner and another gorgeous sunset! I can't tell you how much I love watching the sun set here. It is ALWAYS beautiful, and so calming after a busy day.

On a positive note for the snowstorm related delay.....we were able to get Glenn, Leah, Patti, and Casey are headed out to Atlanta today and will be connecting to Buffalo late tomorrow evening. The rest of us are scheduled Monday afternoon to JFK and into Buffalo LATE Monday or early Tues. AM.

Today the rest of us are cleaning the dorms and doing some laundry to serve the staff. It's a very hot day today so we will be working up a good sweat!! That will make the cool showers feel really good later!

 

Cindy for the ABC team                                                                                                                       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 4 of clinics.

Part of my devotions this morning were in Psalms 30:8b-9  "Give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say 'Who is the Lord?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God. This verse sums up the way most of us feel after visiting Haiti this week and for some of us in past trips. We have so much while others have so little.

Today was our final clinic day. We went to another new-to-our group area called Thomazeau(sp?). This is the village where our driver Herbie is from. We had an uneventful day, and saw around 130 patients. No emergencies, no surgeries, just the more usual complaints. We all felt the day ended too soon.

 It was HOT today, but at the moment a cooling rain is falling. (It's never rained on any of our other February trips.) It brings to mind the song Healing Rain.

As we were leaving Thomazeau, we had a cute situation with Cassedy. She had been mobbed by the school children who were being dismissed at that time. We were loading the tap tap, and Heather was getting on when someone asked her if she was going to rescue her daughter so she could leave too. Heather asked "Where is she?" (s she had just walked past her!) We all pointed and she casually extracted Cassedy from her fan club and loaded her safely on board. A picture IS worth a thousand words in this case, so I'm saving my fingers. Check out the picture!! :) (By the way Cassedy had on a pink shirt on today.)

Where's Cassedy?

 

 

A final thought for tonight. We learn a lot from our translators. They are hard working people who are proud of their country, and are excited when you show an interest in learning even a little bit of their language. (Haitian Creole) I myself have learned several new words this week, and hope to be able to hold on to them for next time. Another picture that includes our translators is below. We've had a great week. I think we just might stay.

 

 

 

Cindy for team ABC                                                                                                                                 

Good Evening (morning or afternoon, whatever time it is you find yourself reading this)!  Let me just start off by saying this is my first time writing a blog so bare with me and I hope you find it interesting!  This is mine (Casey) and my mom's (Patti) first trip to Haiti and the weeks leading up to our departure we were racked with concerns from safety/sickness to how exactly function in the clinics.  Now three days into our adventure all we can say is "what were we worried about?"  Our group of tweleve were almost instantly like family.  Everyone is here to help each other in anyway needed.  Even our translators have become part of our ABC family.  The NVM staff, the locals everyone greets you with a smile, a wave, and a bonjour!

Patty, doing a dressing on a large abcess we drained.

Today (Wednesday), we were blessed with being able to go to a brand new clinic site that NVM had not yet been to.  The site was a village high up in the mountains called Fon Cheval.   As we drove our tap tap to the village all I could think about was a portion from the passage of scripture that Tim had us read earlier in the week from Psalms 8 "Lord our Lord how majestic is Your name in all the earth..."  No other word(s) could describe what we were seeing...majestic!  It is a lesson for us to know that the Lord is with us everywhere, from the comfort of our homes in the States to the dusty villages in Haiti.  We appreciate your prayers and support and we cannot wait to see you all and tell our stories and show our pictures!

Casey in the village

 Casey for the ABC team






Part 2 for Wednesday, another guest blogger.

Another guest blogger and another first timer. I'm Glenn Hann, a husband, father of 5 beautiful children and a Nurse Practitioner. I know Tim through our employer and was invited to come along for the ride. I had a hard time leaving my family, but now three days in, I have no doubt that it was God's will. My heart had been blessed on multiple levels. I wasn't able to attend church on Sunday, but my interpretor, Rock (a 19 year old Haitian), gave me a great sermon yesterday. He told me that I was sharing hope with the people of Haiti with my work. As sort of an evangelistic person by nature, I didn't understand what he meant. I was doing medical work. I wasn't sharing the gospel directly, though I have learned Bon je ben a ou which means "God bless you". Rock told me the Haitians see it differently. He told me, "They see you, a man who has come many miles to help me, they see your smile and hear your kind words. You make them feel special, you give them hope." He went on and said, "It's not the people who give money, it's the people who come." He closed with, "Jesus never gave anyone any money. He loved them. And because he loved them, they listened to his gospel."


Triplets, A miracle in Haiti.

It's so easy for me in the United States. I have a good job. I could not shop for food for 3 weeks and I'd still have something to eat in my house. My bed is soft, my shower is warm, and my kids kick a soccer ball on grass, not dusty dirt. The ease with which I live presents a challenge. My challenge is to remember to have compassion. It says in the gospel accounts, "Jesus saw them and he had compassion". What will you have when you see them? You might not have the opportunity to see Haitians in Haiti...though if you do, then you should really do it....but you have the opportunity to have compassion on that single mom or dad, or the grandparents raising their grandchild, or the teen whose lost their way. We all fall short....we all need compassion.
I'll close with this little story. Our first day out just before we left a member of the construction crew that is here this week said to me, "Go do a miracle today." I smiled and said something off the cuff that really wasn't that profound in an effort to be funny. Thinking back I wished I said, "The miracle has already been done, I'm just going to go and tell people about it." God uses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise....I praise Him for also using me.



The Beauty of a Haitian Sunset



Clinic day one is complete. We saw well over 100 people today, in Onaville, all in controlled chaos. We treated a couple of really hard to witness cases. Teh first was a 14 year old girl with a very large tumor growing out of her side. we presume it to be cancerous due to the odor involved. She has had 2 previous to this removed and has been told they will not remove this one. It is about the size of a grapefruit, and had a surface texture similar to the surface of cauliflower. She described the pain level as an 8 on a 1-10 scale., but never flinched as she was being treated, even thought the dressing over the area was stuck tight. These Haitian people are tough. This girl has no parents and is cared for by ehr aunt.

The second was a 12 year old girl with a large external dental abcess, about th esize of a quarter. Again, a tough little girl. Dan injected the site with lidocaine, and then made a small incision to drain a large amount of pus. She needs a toooth extraction, but we are not sure when or if that can be arranged right now. We will be back on Onaville tomorrow and she will be back to be follwed up.

The rest of the people we saw today were treated for fairly routine complaints.

Our new people had a crash course in feeling helpless and overwhelmed. It takes some getting used to, and some may find that it just will not get any easier to bear.

As usual, we saw lots of cute babies and little kids, which makes the hard stuff a little easier to handle.

We are restocking our bins in preparation for tomorrow, and ask for prayer for wisdom in treating our patients. Also for prayer for good sleep, s many of us did not sleep well last night. We are all feeling well.

Cindy for team ABC

WE MADE IT

Yes we are in Haiti. Sorry no pictures today as we have been too busy to download any. We left Avoca at 6 on Friday evening and arrived in Buffalo about 8. When we got up at 3:30 we discovered 10 inches of fresh snow. We were able to get everyone to the airport by 4:30 and checked in with no problems. Unfortunately Delta could not get the ground crew in Buffalo to come open up the door to the jet way until 45 minutes after our scheduled departure time. By the time they got the plane ready and deiced we were 2 hours late departing. We landed in NYC as our plane for Haiti was departing and there were no more flights to Haiti for the day. Delta was great and put us up at a Double Tree for the night. We were able to get some rest and spend some time getting to know the other members of the team better.

This morning we were up at 5 and at the airport by 6. We moved thru ticketing and security with no issues and our gate was right next to security so we were all in and at the gate well before 7. Our flight down was very uneventful. I did get to watch a movie that I have been wanting to see for a couple of months. We were amazed at the changes we found at the airport. It was as modern as anything in the states. It normally takes us 2 hours to clear immigration, get our luggage and then go thru customs. We were 30 minutes today doing all three. Praise God they didn't even give our luggage a second look when it went thru customs. The only casulaty was a couple of applesauce cups. We were actually out of the airport before they got there to get us.We arrived safely at camp and have spent the afternoon and evening getting unpacked and getting organized for tomorrow. That means a lot of pills to count and bag. Everyone has been great about helping out.

Cindy and I are enjoying sitting on the roof under a clear Haitian sky writing this to you. We are once again amazed at how blessed we are to be here and are excited about what the week has in store. We have already made tenative plans to return in October. There is so much more we could tell you but we will try to write some more tomorrow and hopefully include some pictures.

Tim and Cindy for team ABC.

Are we Ready?

Today is Wednesday January 30th. In a little over 48 hours we will leave for Buffalo to once again begin our journey to Haiti. We are spending Friday night in Buffalo then flight out at 6am on Saturday. We stop at JFK then have a direct flight in Port Au Prince. In many wways this has been the hardest trip to prepare for. Our lives have seemed very chaotic for the past 2 months and as recently as 3 weeks ago we were questioning if we should be going. One of our concerns is that we never want to go for our own satisfaction but to make sure it is what God wants. Someone asked me recently what does God want? I had to really think about that and then question myself if I am willing to give Him what he wants which is everything. Maybe we have been holding on a little to tight lately and He had to once again demonstrate to us that He is in control and that things go much better and make more sense when we realize that and allow Him to be.

On my early morning run with Missy this morning we had a conversation about what it means to be humble. Again a question that makes you think. We have always known that our trips to Haiti were a privilege but I am also beginning to see them as a responsibility. First it is our response to God's call. There are so many people that have entrusted us to be their hands and feet in Haiti that it really is overwhelming. People who donate money, prayer, pedialyte, formula, cough syrup and dresses just to name a few. Also the kids who donated spools of thread and pray so faithfully for us. To each of you thank you. As we embark on this journey once again know that we are humbled to be representing you as God's servants to the least of these. Please see link below for our theme song for this trip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U64bongHqYU