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Last week I returned to North Carolina from a trip to Haiti together with Mark, Kristin and Will.
It was awesome to see our orphans back after more than one year. They are growing up so fast and the oldest ones are starting to become young adults who are eager to get on into the world. The little ones still steal your heart as they cling to you at any time of the day. Mark did a great job taking pictures as you will be able to see in the picture section. Paulius, the leader, was doing well and we had a very constructive meeting with the entire board. Among other things we talked about the future of the older orphans, improvements to the fish ponds and the agricultural fields, and the possibilities for teams to visit more often. One of the great projects we talked about for a long time is the idea to buy a large piece of land in the St. Raphael area. The board will come with a proposal soon so that we can apply for the necessary grants. The idea is that the fields will produce enough food not only for the orphanage but also for the feeding centers. That would than allow us to use our funding for education, healthcare and future housing for the kids that are going to leave in the next few years.
On Monday we visited the Calbassier community to do a medical clinic. In all we saw over 250 children and adults. Most of them we were able to help with worm medications and vitamins or iron tablets. Many of them also were in need of skin ointments to treat minor infections. It was a great blessing to pray for each and every one of them. My heart almost broke when Kristin brought me a woman with a two and a half year old boy with Down syndrome. The little boy weighed not much more than ten pounds and he sat patiently in my lap while I was trying to find words to explain to the mother why her little boy would never be “normal”.
I just was speechless, I hope Jesus will explain it to her.
It is so easy to become upset with the world outside Haiti which does not care about this suffering but I know that is not the answer. I also know there are people like you who do care and who enable me to do this work on behalf of them. I thank you from the bottom of my heart that you make this happen. We cannot all be the hands of Jesus but we are together in the body of Christ. Now I have to cry again.
Please make it a priority to pray for these brothers and sisters. Upon our departure the village leader wanted to speak with me and he told me that in the last three weeks they had buried five of their children. His words were” We are all gone die if we don’t get help”, so please pray for them.
A moment of pride came when I saw our orphans work together in the “pharmacy”. That was God’s plan at work, something I talked about in church on Sunday. (Read Jeremiah 1:5)
The other days of the week we worked hard on getting the irrigation system build for the fields we already own. We are installing a ram pump system that allows water to be pumped up from the fish ponds to the cistern 90 ft higher up. We got most of it in but will have to go back in January to finish up. If you are interested in a week like that let me know we still have some spots open.
It was Will and Kristin’s first time but I know their hearts were touched. Will studied Creole with Barry every day and the last day Barry gave him his study book. On the back of it was a logo showing the outline of two hands grasping each other. Barry had made one of the hands black and wrote his name above it. Above the other he had put Will’s name. That’s just one of those little moments when words won’t do. I know Will won’t forget.
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