Eastern Kentucky Comes to Haiti

After months of preparation we were very excited to bring God's love to the children of Haiti. We knew that God was going to do great things when our 8 hour flight down turned into 14 hours. We FINALLY made it to Children's lifeline and have been working hard ever since. So far, we have visited 4 orphanages and helped at a feeding station, where we assisted in feeding almost 500 children. So far we have told the story of the creation and of Noah. Two things have really impacted us so far. The first real experience we had with children of Haiti was being greeted by a class full of preschool children singing This is The Day That the Lord has Made. It was so beautiful to hear children so small be able to sing about rejoicing in the Lord and truly mean it. One of the orphanages that we visited also serenaded us with one of our all time favorites, Oh How I Love Jesus, in English. It was so beautiful to hear the love for Jesus in the way that the children sang.It was definitely something we will carry with us forever.
The other thing that has really stuck with us so far is the shoes that the children in the orphanages wear. We take shoes for granted because even if we do not have very much money, we can always find shoes to wear that match. One little girl today that simply broke my heart had on two sandals that were not only mismatched but were also two left shoes. It is so humbling to think about how much we have that we take for granted and these children have so little and are so very thankful.

Bees at Lifeline

We now have bees at Lifeline!  We will be able to package the honey and sell it.  For now we are eating it!  Yum!   We have planted MANY more trees that will provide more pollen for our bees.

Our "Bee Man"- Cayil with Minold (who also has bees at his house) and Marcson with the bee frames.

Smoke to put the bees to sleep.

Bee boxes in our back field.

Cayil tearing cardboard to burn for the bee smoker.

The Least of These

Ministry to the sick

 This woman lost her baby and tested positive for TB so we took her to a TB center where she will receive treatment until she is well enough to go home. 

 This girl came to us with a very bad rash on her leg.

 The rash was not cleared so we took her to a dermatologist and hope the new medication will work.

 This young boy was hit in the face with a rock while playing with friends.  We cleaned him up and took him to get stitches. 

Baby Kevens was sick today but he tested negative for Malaria which we are now able to test for at our clinic lab.

The Longest Day

We woke to rain on the tin roof and thunder rumbling in the distance.  It was 3 am and we gathered our gear, meds, and selves to load into three trucks for the two hour drive down the mountain and the ferry below to return to the mainland of Haiti.  The past three days have been spent on the island of La Gonave, in the town of Mapou.  Pastor Benny Guerrier and his wife, Dominique, hosted our group for three evenings.  The village is remote and life is challenging, particularly with respect to water.  They were gracious hosts and skillfully managed the logistics of organizing the church for two days of clinics.  We saw over 400 people in those two days and touched the lives of young children and elderly alike with malnutrition and infection, young pregnant women,and older folks with hypertension and other chronic illness.  Lack of access to clean water and inadequate nutrition are some of the biggest challenges facing this community.  Pastor Benny is working to bring these resources to his community through education, harvesting and storing rainwater and spreading his faith and message of hope to the village of his birth.

The sunrise was enjoyed on the dock of the daily 7am ferry on our return to the main island of Haiti.  After a beautiful journey back, we had a quick cleanup, checked in with families and friends at home and were off to Escole Congreganiste St. Francis de Sales for a full day of clinic for local school children, both sick and well, and many parents.  General health education, infection, malnutrition, the stress headache of a 10 year old boy brought on by the continued uncertainties of life post earthquake and the common maladies of adults were all part of the day's experience.

Tomorrow we rise early to provide services for the children of a Govaines orphanage Children's Lifeline has served for several years and check in on the progress seen in the care of these beautiful, hopeful  young people.

Staff Meeting

We had a successful 4th "All Staff" meeting.  Previous month's Employee of the month: Joseph, the gateman; Fresnel a Barbancourt teacher; Anite, a canteen cook and this month: Jean Renel, a maintenance man. Pictures to come!

Baby Goats!!!

Our pregnant goat, Janet gave birth to three healthy kids April 13th!  We lost one of the babies two days later because the mama rejected it.  Then a week later, April 20th, our other female goat, Judy gave birth!  She was pregnant as well when we bought her!  We had not known this and had been trying to breed her.  We started to think she must be pregnant now but had no idea its been so long.  What a surprise to find out she had been just as pregnant as Janet when we bought her!   We hadn't payed for a pregnant goat but that's what we got.  We are so excited for the goat milk program and to see how already God is multiplying our efforts.  The mama's have not had enough nutrition throughout their pregnancy for us to be able to milk them and have milk for their babies.  We even had to bottle feed Judy's smallest baby so she would not reject it until she was producing enough milk and he was strong enough to fight for it.  We have planted the back field with goat friendly foliage and have just completed goat milk booklets on the nutrition of goats milk and tips for raising goats for better milk production.  We just purchased materials to build a fence for the goats.  Right now they stay in the chicken coop at night to protect the kids from dogs.

Our first kids: Chocolat and Rire 

Fritz and Cayil's daughter Witleen

Janet with Candice and the kids of Cayil, our animal caretaker.

Judy with her kids: Clovs and Yona

Eye Clinic

Just returned from the eye clinic in Montrouis where we took 10 patients from our village.  One patient, a young lady that bakes bread here at Lifeline, has very bad cataracts but is on the list for surgery in two weeks!  The doctor said we caught it just in time and surgery should be a success.  Praise God!

Four patients, siblings, had the same condition and were given steroid drops and a follow-up appointment, two patients were given glasses, two only needed drops and one was pronounced completely blind.  Please pray for him as he has only been blind a few months and is very distraught.  The doctor said only a miracle could give him sight again as his nerves have atrophied.

Pictures at "New Vision" eye clinic and orphanage in Montrouis:

Article By Candice