The Hospital Quintet singing "It is Well"

These five great young people are affiliated with the Marchand-Dessalines Hospital. All five were deeply touched by the January earthquake. Here they are, singing "It is Well" to us:

Farewell Haiti

The video is of the congregation singing "A Mighty Fortress is Our God." We loved it!
Saying "good-bye" - after saying farewell to Dan and DeeDee, we left Dessalines with Fred and Jacqlin. We spent the night at a hotel on the way to PAP.

Fred and Chris - happy for WI-FI

Parc Chretien school - 32 years later

The FOHO where 4 FMs lost their lives.

The above several pictures are common sites in PAP - earthquake rubble.

Tent cities everywhere - this one is by the airport

Processing Haiti

We.are.home. Last night, we asked ourselves what stood out to us during this experience.
Chris: I am amazed at how primitive Haiti still is. No changes after 30+ years EXCEPT more people. I am also amazed and saddened by the destruction of the earthquake.

Greg: I am moved by the children and baby situation in Haiti. Just too many stories of "Restevecs" (orphaned children who are taken in, and raised as slaves to that family) and babies who need formula but can't get it because of the expense.

We are posting some random pictures we would've liked to have posted down there, but didn't due to Internet issues. We'll enter another post with pictures of Port-au-Prince and our last day in Haiti.

Greg, T'moshe', Yoti, Wilson - Greg gave Yoti a tile cutter. 

Maybe he can get some work.

The rural clinic

Pharmacie' storage area

Patients waiting for the clinic to open - we spoke and sang to them.

Chris at the orphanage, lovin' on whiney Josee'

(happy only if she was held)

Kitchen action

Our walk from the hospital back to our house

Greg next to a handmade door. He liked the hand made joints.

(He didn't make it!)

Tent city outside Port-au-Prince - one of many....

Looking toward the hospital from our house

Courtyard of the hospital

Greg outside the church after Sunday morning worship

Our apt. living room

Our dining room (we didn't eat here)

We had a wonderful place to stay.

A Tap-tap (taxi) with a load. Check out the wheelbarrow.

When you go out out on the road in Haiti, you need to pray for God's protection.

The bigger you are on the road, the more power you have. 

If you're a pedestrian, you have the least power.

A family heading home after church.

Public transportation in PAP.

Our last full day in Dessalines

Thank you to all who have followed this blog. You have no idea what it means for us to have you read our stories. For one thing, we won't feel like we have to talk so much about this experience even though we'll want to and maybe need to. It's been written and you have read it. It was your choice to do so. You didn't have to! That is such a gift to us. It also shows us that there are those who care about what Christ is doing in Haiti. By reading this, you have made the declaration that you have been here with us!  

Greg worked on making new screens for the intern's house today. Chris went to the hospital to do an assessment of dental equipment. Pretty minimal. (see the photo of the dental chair!) We are emailing the pictures to supporters of the hospital. No doubt, there is a Canadian or American dentist somewhere that has upgraded their dental equipment and office and would just love to donate the old stuff to Haiti. Last week, before the dr. team left, the surgeon, Mark, with Dr. Ron assisting, drained an abdominal abcess from a woman who had given birth a few weeks earlier. She was very sick and she was the lady who we mentioned earlier in the blog whose family had come to wait for her to die. She is still alive, but still very sick. Chris prayed with her today and feels compelled to assist in giving the family (without them knowing) money toward her hospital stay. It is beyond their means and they also have no food. Our interpreter friend, Hyrance, gave the husband some food yesterday. Now we have to figure out how much it is. She's been there for 19 days. The husband wants to go to the voodoo witchdoctor. Maybe we'll have to put conditions on the gift! OK, bummer, we just found out her hospital stay could be $700 American money. How do they even do that? That seems cheap for 19 days in the hospital, but when her family's income is probably at $3.00 a day, that's an impossible amount of money. The missionaries here work with them as much as they can.

We just made the decision this evening to leave Dess at noon and then leave PAP the following morning. We'll get a little tour of Port before we leave. We've wanted to and not wanted to see FOHO and other earthquake destruction. 

Again thank you for reading our stories! We'll continue to update with more pictures once we're stateside and have no bandwidth issues! Maybe we can even post a video or two!

We were blessed to fellowship with the second team from Texas, consisting of three women (2 nurses and a counselor) who came to share their love and compassion with the Haitian people in Dessalines. Robbie, Vivian and Betty were a joy to be with. They inspired us with their desire to serve the people and the pastors in any way they could. Even if their plans changed, they were up for whatever direction the Lord led. Our new friends left on Easter Sunday morning before we went to church. 

Vivian, Betty, and Robbie, with Tilohm, our gatekeeper.

Resurrection Sunday! He lives!

Because of a deeper understanding of the truth, reality and hope of the resurrection (thanks to our pastors for getting us to read NT Wright's "Surprised by Hope"), we are so grateful for that as we have worshipped Jesus here in Haiti this Easter. This truth and hope is THE ONE THING which binds us together as believers all over the world! Christ in us, our Hope of glory! It is this truth which sets us free from the things that keep us enslaved here on earth. It is this truth which gives us light in the darkness. It is this truth which conquers death, gives us life eternal and gives us hope as we await the resurrection of OUR bodies. Because of Jesus, we are one with Him, our brother, in the resurrection.

There are a couple of stories we want to journal because they're just good to get down. Remember the town Chris was in a couple of days ago - Karfouje'? Well, that same afternoon after we left, a murder happened right in front of the church we were at. When the earthquake happened, you'll remember reading about the prisons falling in and prisoners fleeing. Well, many of these prisoners fled into the countryside. One of those prisoners was hiding out in Karfouje' along with another very evil man - an albino man who had already committed acts of violence. Some altercation took place, one of the men put his girlfriend in front of him to shield himself and the other man shot a gun. The bullet went through her and then to the other man. They were both killed. The people are so afraid because that murderer is hiding out in their village. Such fear and so little security in these places.

The other story is related to a question I asked of a pastor down here after we had prayed for a barren pastor and his wife to have a child. I asked, "why don't Haitian couples adopt the Haitian orphans?" He said something about wanting a child of their womb and how important that is to them. Later, I talked to Fred, our Canadian friend who is with us here, and he said it is very cultural to want a child of their blood. Typically, if they must take a Haitian orphan in to care for - a relative or someone else - that child will become a slave to that family. It is a pervasive evil that takes place. From their earliest days as a child, they serve the family that takes care of them. There is a book called Restavec which tells the story of a man who was raised like this. It's recommended reading for those who come to Haiti.

Our Easter church service in a nutshell:

Began at 8:30 - we crowded into a small wooden pew where our backs and knees were touching either people or wood at the same time. And all the way through, 2 little girls in front of us, turned around and held Chris' hands and rubbed her arms thru the whole service. (see picture) See below the list of service items - not in this order!

3 choirs

3 offerings - men, women and the poor

1 drama

2 baby dedications

4 junior members brought into the church (those under age 16)

16 full members brought into the church, all requiring a handshake from every member of the congregation (300+ people)

congregational singing all the way through

communion

sermon

...and the blancs (us) had to go up front and speak greetings - Chris delivering a small Easter message thru an interpreter and Greg saying 3 words: Bon Jour, Merci Seignour (no interpreter!)

Over at 11:50

Chris was blessed to have on her right side, a young lady named Chemelda who borrowed a Creole hymnbook so she could sing along with her. This story is a great way to get ready to start winding down this blog. Chemelda is from Dessalines but was in Port-au-Prince going to school at the time of the earthquake. Greg has been working with her brother-in-law, Wilson, the maintenance man at the hospital. She had taken a test twice at her school and failed it both times. She was feeling quite gloomy about this fact and was sitting up on the roof of the FOHO building, reading or something. The quake started and she had the guidance of the Lord to jump from that roof (which collapsed and killed four people) onto the roof of the old FOHO building which did not collapse. When that roof was shaking, she then jumped off that onto the top of a car. She made her way back to Dessalines. Today, we watched Chemelda praise the Lord in worship. She KNOWS God spared her life, not only because of her life being spared there, but also because she was supposed to be in school that afternoon, and because of the test failure, was not. The school collapsed and killed the students. She could've died there, too. Perhaps the resurrection has new meaning for Chemelda this Easter.

The neighborhood

This was just a hang-out-at-home day for Chris. Greg and Fred and their two guys were working on the house for the interns. The painting was wrapped up on the inside and a tile counter top was worked on. Just a few more details and then it will be very interesting to see who gets to tell the interns they are moving out of the big place. We took pictures of our neighborhood and took Dan and DeeDee down to the house that Greg and Fred have been working on. The Rah-Rah Bands are constant today and will be at their peak tomorrow. We were under the impression they would be done by Easter. Nope. Easter is the high day for the enemy. Makes sense, doesn't it? It will be interesting to see/hear how they compete with our morning worship service. 

Last night we watched "August Rush" at Dan and DeeDee's and tonight we'll have a meeting, hang out and prepare to have them head out in the morning with the team of ladies, back to Port-au-Prince. We wanted to get outta here tomorrow afternoon, like go to the beach or something, but the car left with us isn't reliable and the Rah-Rah Bands are too dangerous. D&DD will return Monday afternoon and we'll get ready to head out on Tuesday. Our time here is winding down. Frankly, we can now count the hours. Enjoy the pictures of Greg and Fred and the house, of our neighbor's pigs and piglets, and a beautiful view from the roof of our house. Today we can see the far-off mountains. We woke up to 78 degrees! It was heavenly!

Missionary Moment

From Greg:

It's not a tarantula, but it's a very cool spider. No, there are no lions, tigers, zebras or giraffes in Haiti.



However, there ARE huts, goats, pigs, and very big spiders!

We decided not to go to the tent city today, which turned out to not be a tent city, so we're glad we didn't go! The missionaries, Dan and DeeDee Snyder, have returned from Port-au-Prince and told us their earthquake story tonight. We may talk about it later, but do not feel free to post it.

Because the top picture is blurry, we wanted to show you a clear picture as well....isn't he something?  I really measured him with a tape measure and he was close to 3.75 inches. Obviously, Chris was not the photographer.