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Clinic news from Oriani, Haiti
Sometimes it seems the clinic is almost a life of it’s own, something that we are a part of instead of the clinic being something we are doing. It never ceases to impress me how well things are working and how God’s presence is seen and felt. It humbles and inspires me. We are nothing and HE is everything. So very many people pass through the doors, each with a need or a story to tell. The following experiences are just a sample from yesterday morning…
The former devil possessed young man named Delson (I wrote about him earlier) came in just to say hi to us. He was clear in his mind and as I visited with him he says he remembers nothing of his former possession experience. I asked him if he remembered coming to the clinic a couple months ago and he said he remembered just a little. When I asked what part he remembers he said he remembered us asking him if he was wanting to be free and if he wanted Jesus instead of the devil. God answered those prayers and he really is free from the tormenting possessing spirit that controlled him, gave him superhuman strength and made him speak in other tongues. When he was asked if he never carried a magic bottle around anymore, or if he had a red devil-handkerchief, or if he had powders in his house, he replied emphatically NO NO NO to everything. Said he left it all and had cleaned house.
And then there was the CUTE little girl who had fallen into the large cooking pot, burning severely her leg and buttocks and her arm up to the elbow. The skin came off her arm like a glove. Leaving fingernail holes in the “glove”. She came back in for her 5th dressing change yesterday and it is so amazing how it has grown back without infection or anything. Thanks to antibiotics and faithful dressing changes. This charming little 4 yr old girl will be healed to the honor and glory of God, but what made me choke up and almost cry… is the fact that she is growing up in a very ungodly home that is filthy, depraved, immoral and demonic. About as bad as it comes. Pray for Wandaika and her mom and dad.
And then there was the child (around 10 yrs old) that had TB in her lymph glands in the neck. Painful and horrible open lesions that erupt. This is the first time she came to the clinic. The grandparents brought her and said that the sores were because the mom had nursed her with “bad milk” when she was a baby. We are going to help them get on treatment at the CSI tuberculosis clinic 3 hrs away.
Another case that took attention all day was a lady that came in that was pretty badly hit with cholera. We don’t have a Cholera treatment center here anymore and we really shouldn’t infect our clinic with this disease, so we laid her on a cot outside and dealt with her out there. After drinking lots of ORS she had enough fluids that we finally could get a vein and get some IV going. Her sis had cholera the other day at our clinic too. I caught the husband tying a red cord with matchsticks around her neck as a devil charm. I pulled his hand away and told him this clinic didn’t serve the devil and if he wanted help here he couldn’t do that. He listened. What struck me again is the fear and ignorance of some of these people. They need teaching. They need Jesus. One precious moment was the time Jeetan (our Haitian nurse) had a baby come in with a devil charm tied around the stomach. She grabbed a scissors with a flourish and quickly said to the mother… “I cut this cord off in the name of Jesus”. SNIP! And into the garbage it went.
A man was sitting on the bench waiting to be seen by the nurses and then he just passed out and slid onto the floor. I heard the people with him say that he hadn’t eaten for a couple days and that’s why he went “indispose’ ” (unconscious). He also had a very high fever.
That was all yesterday, and then there was the other 80 people of the day with their many varied problems.
We want to put out a plea for a nurse who wants to come to Haiti to work in the clinic. Please help us find one. The Haitian Mission board (to whom I am answerable to) encouraged usto find nurse from our Church if possible. I urge any nurse who has a conviction for this great work to prayerfully consider it. The work is very rewarding. You will likely go beyond your “comfort zone” at times, but you will realise that every effort made to help people here is a positive, even if it is beyond our scope of practice. These people often have no other place to turn to. Our main health care workers, Dr Ozias, Nurse Heather Isaac, and Nurse Jeetan are doing awesome in their work, but we all feel that God so often has to help us understand how to help people, and then we trust Him to fill in our gaps.
I see the calendar says it’s almost November and if there is anybody that feels to top up their year 2013 donations, we urge you to consider the clinic and the needs here. I hear God has again blessed many areas “back home” with good harvests and successful businesses. We thank God for that and for your help. If you need info on who and where to send money, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We can arrange donation receipts too.
Our family spent a few weeks back in Ontario in Sept. It was busy getting our things arranged to be gone to Haiti for another year, but it was also refreshing. But now we are happy to be back here with our dear Haitian friends and church that we love. Pray for us. We feel needy at times. I recently was reminded by the Holy Spirit to never let our “program” “our duties” even the “clinic responsibilities” to ever blind my eyes to the person, the individual soul, that God puts in my path each day. Pray for our church here too. We have an adversary, who is as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And he is trying to bring division and problems between brethren here too. It seems like position and honor are highly sought after in this culture. Pride is terrible thing.
God bless you all K. T. and family
