A Good Day to be Born

Madam Jean-Robert, her new son and nurse Jenn Rogan who delivered the baby

Today is Saturday, March 20, 2010. I wanted to write this down while still fresh in my mind and thought I would share God’s blessings with you. At times it is difficult to believe I have the privilege to be a part of all this.
2:30 AM – I receive a phone call from my friend Frank. He tells me the wife of his brother’s friend is having contractions. I wake up Jenn, the nurse at our clinic, and we start out to pick up this woman and drive her to the hospital. After driving twenty minutes (about 3 miles) we come to a stream that can’t be crossed due to a large truck that’s stuck in mud, abandoned and blocking the way. After crossing the stream by foot and walking about a half mile, we meet the woman and her husband walking towards us. It turns out the woman is Madam Jean-Robert, one of the women that works in our guest house, and we all begin walking back to the pick-up. Before we make it back, the baby arrives.
4:05 AM – There’s a light drizzle. I’m sitting in the middle of a muddy country road playing backrest for a woman that just delivered a healthy baby boy. Jenn is tending to the baby, cutting/cleaning the cord and checking the mom. I’m sitting there thinking, “If this were happening in the States, we would all be going nuts!” But everyone is taking it all in stride and I’m overwhelmed with how calm and peaceful it all is. (Of course, I’m not the one that just had a baby!)
6:00 AM – We all walked to the pick-up, Jenn carrying the baby, and drove to a Doctors Without Borders camp in Leagone. We were told mother and baby are doing fine, they would monitor both and we could come back to pick them up in about six hours. As we drive back to our house, the clouds have cleared, the sky is getting lighter and becoming bright blue. I’m thinking, “It’s a pretty good day to be born”. I’m also reminded how difficult day-to-day life is for the Haitian people, even on their birthday!
Now this is not a typical morning for me, but in Haiti, everyday does bring an adventure and this was a good one! So often we go out feeling ill prepared and unqualified to do something. Yet time and time again, God has His hand on the situation and blesses us in our feeble attempts. God is so good and worthy of our praise!
Ed

Life Goes On

Here are some photos from Port au Prince. The building above is the Palace (like our White House). So much destruction there! It's hard to imagine how they will ever rebuild. Thousands are living in tent cities in any open area where people can put together temporary shelters - even on the medium of the roads!

Yet, amazingly the Haitan people go on. Vendors are back out on the streets, stores that were not destroyed are starting to reopen and one of the commerical airlines has resumed flights into Port au Prince.

Below are some photos of the food, tent and tarp distributions we've had at Christianville. As you can see there are many in need. To date we have givn out literally tons of food, over 1000 tarps and dozens of tents to people in the surrounding communities.

School has not resumed yet. We have to wait for the Haitian government to give us the OK to reopen. Since the med clinic is using the remaining school buildings (we lost our high school and kindergarten buildings) we will have school in tents. We have been able to get some large Army-style tents that should hold quite a few kids. Still, we may need to hold classes in split sessions, some kids coming in the morning and some in the afternoon.

We are getting ready to go back to the States for our annual Board meeting and some R & R, visiting family and friends. We're looking forward to being away from the aftershocks that make you hold your breath, wondering if its another "big one". We're all sleeping inside again but most of us are not in our own homes. Several of the missionaries are living in the guest house because their homes were destroyed. We're staying in the home of our former guest house coordinators who have gone back to the US. Our house is not safe to live in till some repairs are done.

Residences are pretty far down on the rebuild list. Our first priority will be to repair the church (we are currently having services outside). Then we will start to work on the clinics and schools. Thankfully many construction teams have already signed up to come down and help us rebuild. Their willingness to serve is really a blessing!