04 Feb Haiti Report: Saturday, Sunday, Monday

The Haiti team from Canada is back, almost. They got stuck in Miami Tuesday night, but today, Wednesday, will continue back to Ontario.

Follow the link to read Joan Sider’s account of their final three days in Haiti. And don’t miss the song at the end, written to the tune of “This is the Day” to recap the entire trip.

Saturday

I have concluded that what used to be roosters waking us early, is now the dogs’ doing. They were at it again–even up where we were staying in the north.

Our breakfast was mango, watermelon, scrambled eggs, delicious bread, and fresh squeezed orange juice and coffee. Following that we took a few photos in the very pleasant surroundings of this hotel. Then off to Camp Mary for our final team ministries. Each went very well and we have a great feeling of satisfaction tonight.

Driving home, we made one stop so Pastor Oliam Richard could buy chicken and turkey. What we didn’t know was that these animals were going to be live ones. The four hens went under Pastor’s seat and the turkey was in the step well of the bus. That’s a new experience for sure.

Another stop was at Hope Mission to see if we could get Neil Cudney talking with their leaders. Unfortunately, since it was Saturday, no one was around. We did meet the cooks, though, of another Canadian team. This was part of the group that John Fraser organizes. They were as pleased to meet us as we were to meet them.

I think it would be safe to say over the course of our time here that:

• we ministered to about 500 children.
• 550 were seen in the clinic.
• Each person seen in the clinic was prayed with following their time with the doctors.
• 11 quilts were made and given away, with #12 being readied for the women who have cooked for us here at Port au Prince. Audrey will teach them on Monday and then one of them will have the quilt.
• Neil taught almost 100 pastors and leaders.

Neil also came representing Christian Horizons, and I believe he feels it will be possible to have this organization get connected with Haiti.

The team allowed me to come and take pictures. I have averaged 150 pics per day. No, I won’t be making you see all of them–but the team members will have a copy of all of mine plus what each individual has taken, too. I’ve also tried to keep you up to date with what we’ve been doing for your prayerful support. Having brought along my own computer has really been a blessings since each day’s end, I can download that day’s worth of pics.

I will be taking these last couple of days’ pictures with Kara-Lynn’s camera–mine seems to have given up. I knew that a new camera would soon have to happen, but I was hoping it wouldn’t fail me until this trip was over.

We currently are having a water problem in our bathrooms here in PauP. One even has leaked into one of the bedrooms. Great plumbers we aren’t!

We just completed our team debriefing while eating a 1 kg chocolate bar brought along by one of the team members. We discussed how money that was sent with us would be used. We will give you an accounting when it is all accomplished. The rice program and feeding project has been well supported. These are ongoing project needs of course.

We mentioned in our meeting how grateful we are for each of you. May God bless you for standing with us–don’t stop! We’re not home yet. We will be coming from 90 F temperatures to cold ones there.

Neil will speak tomorrow morning at Pastor Wilbur’s church in Croix des Bouquet, and I will do tomorrow night in City Soleil. The evening church is one we haven’t been able to meet in since 2003, so it will be interesting after all this time to see how it is functioning again.

Sunday

We had a great day today.

It began with a breakfast–a kind of stew and bread was available, too.

We left for church at 7:30 a.m. Of course, the people had been there from about 7:00 a.m. We attended Pastor Wilbur’s Croix des Bouquet church. They have a lively, enthusiastic group of worshippers, and as time passed, more and more people came. They have their sound system set as loud as possible so people in surrounding community hear the service starting, and then they come. I estimate that we began with about 75 and grew to over 150.

Interpreter Michelle and Audrey gave their testimonies, and Sarah and Kelly sang. One of their songs is “Trading My Sorrows.” With each singing, they’ve sounded more and more like the Haitian worshippers. The people have appreciated their singing in Creole. I take my hat off to them both for the fine job they’ve been doing. There were some guests from Paris, friends of Pastor Wilbur’s, who brought greetings. Then Neil preached a powerful sermon.

I think we arrived back here around 11:30. Lunch was soon after–and yes, the chickens bought yesterday was the “Swiss Chalet” meal.

The afternoon was spent doing a variety of things. Some slept, Audrey taught the ladies who have been cooking for us how to do the tie quilt (which they had done in just over an hour’s time), I worked on my teaching for church later, and later, visited the store where George is located.

George is the man who had been attacked on his way home. A machete had been used on him. He had been cut across the back of his head, across the front of his face and lost both eyes, and many of his fingers are gone when he attempted to protect his face from further harm. It is a miracle that he is alive.

As he crawled out of the ditch where he had been left, someone “happened” to drive by and get him to a hospital. He is grateful for life–and his attitude is extraordinary. We shared with him that God obviously has his hand on him. I thought from Jeff’s meeting George last year, that he was a Christian–but I don’t believe that is the case. We shared with him a while and then prayed that he would come to know God in his life.

We left for church at 4:00–church is early so people can get home before dark. The City Soleil church, worked on last year by the construction men, is now back open for services. We have not been there for a service since 2004. It was wonderful–the best place we could have been for our final Haitian service in my opinion.

The music was wonderful–a young lady soloist, a choir led by a male director, a women’s group led by Dr. Ludlum, Pastor Baptista’s daughters and wife, and finally a guest group who came for the service. All the numbers were in parts and very expressive. They too have a sound system, and while it was loud, didn’t distort the sound in any way. I probably felt most at home there–but then, I’m not into overly loud like maybe others enjoy.

We didn’t get out of the service until after dark–it was probably the long winded speaker–me! Sarah shared her testimony, and Kelly and Sarah provided music too. We all felt that this church was very responsive to all that we did. I know they were with me as I spoke. Michelle is an excellent interpreter and tries for the same expressions as the speaker. I’m really impressed with his ability.

One thing that saddened us was the news that Michelle, the bus driver from last year, received the news that his cousin had just been killed in a bus accident–I think he was hit as he was coming home from work. We gathered around him for prayer and gave him some travel money to go to Cayes if he wished. He was grateful for our prayers and I would ask you, too, to remember his family.

When we arrived home, we had a light supper–corn meal porridge–it is delicious. It has a kind of black licorice flavouring–anise is the name of the flavouring. Anyway, several of us intend to get some tomorrow when we go shopping. We ended with watermelon. That is a treat for all of us.

After that, people did a variety of things and most went to bed earlier than usual.

This is not going to get sent out tonight I’m afraid, since we have no power. Who knows when you will receive it. It could be first thing in the morning or much later in the day.

We will soon be home, and I think we will like the cold for a minute or so before wishing we were back here in the warmth. It has been consistently 90+ F since we’ve been here.

Bless each of you for your continuing interest in us.

Monday

Well, I just was able to send out report #10–the power came back just a few minutes ago.

We’re hoping that our Canadian groundhogs are correct about the prediction of winter soon to be over. We are not going to believe our American cousins.

The guys were particularly happy to finally hear a score from the Super Bowl game a few minutes ago. We couldn’t watch the game–for some reason this Mac can’t get live viewing. Anybody have an idea how, without having to pay for it? I’m pleased to say that there was no one really upset that we couldn’t watch the game.

As I write this last day’s report–I’m listening to a group sing accompanied by a young man who just received his guitar, compliments of Alan Neff. He is making good use of it already. There are a group outside chatting close by, and then Audrey is in the office with me working on the final quilt for the kitchen ladies–she is a seamstress and her name is Andremene. Together, these two women are sewing like crazy.

Now for today’s report. It was a full day and we came home hot and tired–but rejoicing over all that we did.

Let’s start with breakfast first. We had spaghetti with wieners cut up along with the usual bread.

We didn’t seem to be in a big hurry to get going and so took the opportunity to look at the crafts brought to the house by one of the City Soleil church members. Some of you could be the recipients of what was purchased–I’d better say no more.

We went to Hope Mission first this morning. Neil Cudney was wanting to talk about the work of Christian Horizons with the administrator there. He came out of his time with them very excited–enthusiastic–on top of the world! Neil, Pastor Richard and Mark (can’t remember the administrator’s last name) are having an early breakfast meeting near the airport tomorrow morning to continue their discussions.

We have learned of “Haiti One” begun by Hope Mission I think–it is an attempt to coordinate all the Christian mission organizations in Haiti in order to better help and provide needed resources to one another. UBs have benefitted already–and we haven’t made application yet.

We needed 2 wheelchairs, one for a young 17-year-old lady with cerebral palsy. Her mother or grandmother–we couldn’t tell for sure which–carried her to the clinic. She will get one of these chairs. The other will go to the lady who suffered a stroke and came to the clinic in a wheelbarrow at Camp Mary. We had intended to try and find at least one wheelchair to purchase and came away with 2 at no cost. God is good.

Haiti One seems like a great thing–an idea that we’ve had for a long time since there are a lot of works here in Haiti. Part of tomorrow’s breakfast meeting will be about Haiti One.

While Neil was in the office talking to Mission of Hope’s personnel, the rest of us were getting a tour of the now opened clinic. Last year when we were here, there were clinics held when a doctor was available to come. Now it is running every day, seeing approximately 60 to 75 patients a day, because they have a fulltime doctor. She happens to be from Oakville. She gave us a tour of the place and also took us to the site where the beginning of a permanent hospital will be.

There is a team at Hope Mission from John Fraser’s Brethren in Christ church. We enjoyed meeting with them briefly.

The orphanage at the Mission has 42 children. The school has almost 1400 children. They feed 30,000 children daily in several other areas as well as this location. Isn’t that amazing?

The clinic is supplied with what they need mostly from donations brought with the teams that frequently go there. I believe Amy, the group coordinator, said they have a group coming every week from now to July. A few items have to be bought in Haiti.

They charge the patients the equivalent of about $US 1.50 and a dispensing fee of about 25 cents. If the patient returns for another visit and subsequent visits, they are charged half the initial amount. They feel that by paying, even a small amount, they will be more serious about their medications and not just go out and sell them on the street. We saw a chap today, a street vendor, with all kinds of medications for sale. It is a little alarming, since people could be taking something that could cause potential harm.

We saw Rachel, Nicole’s friend, and gave her a big hug from Canada. Her parents are visiting right now so she is pretty happy. She reminds me so much of my great niece, Elizabeth.

Leaving Mission of Hope (got out of there much quicker than we got in. I don’t know what the hold up was exactly–maybe gate guards exerting their authority) we went and got some material for Audrey’s final quilt (which will be done in the morning before we leave), and then picked up a lady who could help us buy cake for the farewell party. Pastor Richard requested her help since he isn’t much into buying cakes.

We spent a long time getting to the bakery. We even had to back out of a very small, narrow street when we found we could proceed no further due to terrible holes in the road and a continuing narrowing of the road itself. Our driver Benedict is an excellent driver. Several times we were giving him 3 cheers for his excellent skill.

Next we went to the supermarket to make some purchases to take home. Things like coffee and vanilla are popular items. Also, I think I said we wanted to get that porridge we liked so well. We were successful–but I’m not sure any of us know how to make it. So we are trying to get the cooks to write it down for us.

Lastly, as if we hadn’t packed enough into our day, we stopped one more time at the Delmas Church to see how much work had gotten done over the time we’ve been here. This is where Jeff and Ron worked very hard alongside of the men for two days. Good progress is being made, but as usual, the work can only happen when there are funds.

Just for your information, there are 4 meetings per week at the church–the two Sunday services, Bible study on another night, and worship leading and prayer on another. Pastor is doing a good job of training lay leadership in that church and it is evident when you worship with them. There is Sunday school also on Sunday before morning service.

When we got home, a turkey supper was waiting for us–yes, Tom Turkey, the one we bought yesterday provided dinner. It was very good. We had yams, plantain, french fries, and spicy coleslaw, along with the turkey. Freshly squeezed juice generally comes at supper and breakfast.

Very soon after that, the complete Haitian team joined us, along with the police commissioner and his wife, for a farewell party. We enjoyed fellowship with them and enjoyed the cakes (3) purchased earlier. We closed with prayer and the singing of “How Great Thou Art.”

Audrey likes to write a ending song about the team. This year it was to the tune of “This Is The Day.” Here are the lyrics:

This is the team for two-o-nine
Which the Lord has made, all eleven Thine.
Team number six to aid Haiti
And to bond with them and to grow in Thee.
For medical, Dr. Cliford’s cool
With Doc Ludlum from medical school.
Margie, Sarah, the nursing team
Triage Ron, Scherly

Without Kelly, dispensary
Would in mis’ry be would in mis’ry be.
Dear pray-er Don could hardly wait
For his shift to end just to meet a friend.
Wilfred translates to complete this place
O what a team medical has been
Hundreds of sick could take their pick
And be seen so quick.

Children were taught, bubble gum sought
Led by Kara-Lynn, Evena, Elissa.
Motorcycles, big baseball caps
Sunglasses too. made the adults drool.
Neil and Edner led the pastors’ class
They were the best, yes they passed the test.
Good Benedict kept the bus stick
Moving up and down.

Michelle was there to drive the bus
And helper Michelle did translations well.
Audrey worked too stitching those quilts
For the ladies’ class–who were full of sass.
Jeff handy man who did all he can
To make the team run smooth as a dream.
Joan was the chief beyond belief
Who led the team well.

Pastor Richard had all the cards
And he planned so well as we all could tell.
We thank him now, thank God as well
For his leadership and his fellowship.
And so we wish to end two-o-nine
And thank our God for keeping us safe.
This is the year that we learned to place
All in God’s strong hands.

I think that about does it and so on this note, I’ll say goodnight. Thanks again for your backing of us on this mission. If you read this tonight yet, please pray for journeying mercies as we travel home tomorrow.

Joan
(the privileged group leader)