Sept 12, 2012
We have been constantly amazed by the way God has been opening doors, and working, and providing for us here. The clinic has been running very well lately and is steadily getting busier and busier. We love being here and everyday is a gift from God. We feel blessed to have good clinic workers, and that things run so smoothly. We love the people here and admire them so much. There is something so incredibly beautiful about these people and their strength of character that is an inspiration just to watch them and interact with them. Many times I marvel at the emotional, spiritual, and physical beauty of the simple (yet incredibly complex) package of a mountain woman with a baby in her arms. It’s like... WOW!
There are so many things to write about and tell you that I feel inadequate. Actually... we feel inadequate many times here. We can treat and heal many of this community’s sicknesses and problems, but the social and emotional problems we run into are almost beyond us at times. Like how should we council a teenage mother (a rape victim) who brings a baby to us and wants us to take it because her father hates the child so much that he threw him on the ground and tried to kill him by stomping? How do we comfort a church sister who one week finds out she is HIV positive (likely from the dentist who has pulled 4 of her teeth in the last yr and doesn’t bother to use new needles, grrrrrr!!!!), and then the next week comes to the clinic all battered up because her former boyfriend tries to kill her for not coming back to him? How do we comfort parents who take their sick baby to the witchdoctor and then the next day she dies from the potions and ignorance of the wicked charlatan? To show these people love and point them to a loving and caring Jesus is the best answer we have for them. Prayer is a wonderful thing. For example... Monday was an extremely busy day where I was running hither and yon... to keep the clinic flowing smoothly, the workers building the new clinic, Minister Nason was up for several visits in the area that he felt I should be in on, and then sooo many others needing my attention and help all day long too, that I was running all day trying to keep ahead of the Mack truck on my tail. I was stressed to the max. Then as darkness was coming and yet another man standing in our yard asking us to come visit his wife who had a new baby... I felt I had had about enough. But I told Candace “lets go!” So we walked across several hills to his house. His name is Dewdew. He is 25 and his wife is 20, they have 3 children. His 6x11ft house was barely standing on the edge of a cliff. The tropical storm Isaac from 2 weeks ago had taken his whole roof off so it is now covered with a holey tarp (not holy). The mud packed rock walls had softened in the 14 inch rain and 70 mph wind and one wall had fallen into the house... landing on the bed the four of them were hiding under. As we went into the darkness of the place we were honoured to realise that they were inviting us here to “name the baby”, and bless their home with a prayer. I told them the Bible story of Daniel, his steadfastness in prayer to God which resulted in him being thrown to the lions, and then how the angel protected him. I then pronounced his name to be “Daniel”. We prayed together, leaving encouragement for them to come to the clinic for treatment for several of their family’s issues, and I left there feeling like my stressful day was changed into a happy blessing.
Our nurse Heather, from Alberta, has been doing an awesome job, and she cheerfully goes thru her days duties. She’s been here 5 months and she is learning the Creole language fairly well. She has a full time translator at work yet. She and Ozias are very busy stitching wounds, dealing with burns, diagnosing all kinds of normal and strange illnesses, doing prenatal classes, delivering babies, etc. The clinic is open 5 days a week but often there is things to do on the other 2 days if we are around. About the only way to give Heather a break is to send/take her away for a day or so. Recently a newborn came in with a knee bent backwards. Just like this link... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1297692/Blue-Peter-doctor-fixed-newborns-twisted-leg-sticky-tape-wood.html . Heather is trying the Ponseti style treatment to correct it. I told her that if this works like we think it will... her whole time here in Haiti would have been worth it on this child alone, preventing the child from being a cripple the rest of her life! Honestly, there would have likely been no other place the family could have, or would have, ever gone to for help. I could tell you lots of stories! We really could use an ultrasound machine. If anybody knows of a good machine available, please let me know.
Our ambulance has been a great service to this community. We try to get patient’s families to cover most of the gas money for a 6-8 hour round trip to a hospital and back. That has worked well for the most part. We feel very blessed and are very grateful to Jeff Hageman for providing the vehicle and also for providing a mechanic who comes around on a maintenance and repair schedule. This mechanic is John, an American living and missionarying in the DR. John and his lovely Dominican wife just spent a few days with us doing some servicing on the 1982 Pinzgauer Ambulance. It’s in tiptop shape again.
We as a family went back to Ontario for 2 weeks in Aug. We enjoyed meeting friends and family again and stocking up on a few things. We were unable to take our 2 yr old foster daughter Ketli to Canada with us so we were very happy to get back to her happy little self again. She is such little heater in our house. Helps keep our house warm and filled with love. The night we got back to Haiti was the night Storm Isaac hit Haiti. Alot of houses are damaged, and gardens too. The wind blew 50-80 mph for most of the night. We spent a week cleaning up our trees and yard, but we had no house damage. We are happy to tell you that our son Cam (13yrs, in 8th grade) was baptised here 2 weeks ago together with 7 Haitians. Christina, Cam and Chase are all back in school as of today. Our new school teacher Sallie Minninger is from Wisconsin and is a real winner. She has been with us less than 2 weeks and is already a good fit in our family. Missionaries Dallas and Linda Koehn have spent their year here and are now gone back to Kansas. We miss them and the mission house is empty, which is very sad. We also miss our oldest son Trev (almost 20yrs old - YIKES!!!) who is living and working in United Center KS for the time being. Nurse Heather is living with us now and with Miss Sallie and our son Zack (soon 18) and the Chadek CSI youth boys often here, our table is often surrounded by happy laughing youth. Right now Sam Willhite from Walnut Hill Florida is also with us for a week or so, helping out on the new clinic.
The church here is in serious need of a full time missionary leader. The congregation is courageous and in good spiritual health overall, but this is a large congregation already and there are challenges in their relatively new Christian lives that they need a pastor to help us with. We don’t always understand Gods will or why there is no one to fill the spot as of yet.
Our new clinic is almost done the construction phase. The rock front is being jointed and the exterior is being painted. There is still lots to do... floor tile, interior paint, plumbing, electrical, counters and shelving etc, before we can move in. We (or I should say ‘this community” ) has been incredibly blessed by generous funders that have taken this project into their hearts and out of their wallets. There has been other times too where it is amazing how God provides... like the day we had a child who needed a surgery that would cost 500 dollars. A couple hours later I got an email from a stranger back home. They said their child had died and they had 500 dollars left in the memorial fund, and that they wanted to donate it to our clinic to help some child. THAT was a God moment. Thank You!
Today I was impressed with this verse from Joshua 22:5. But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the Lord charged you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul. Key word for me was “cleave”. Am I “cleaving unto Him”? I need to, I want to. And I want to walk in all His ways. Pray for us that we can do just that.
Love to you all, and may you have a fabulous day.
Keith Toews
Administrator- Confidence Health Center
Oriani, Haiti
(011) 509-3783-9058
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