It's almost impossible to believe that one year ago this week we were brought a 4 pound 10 day old little girl that was so sick we wondered if she'd live. After many sleepless nights, numerous visits with the doctor, various treatments, and many cans of baby formula Dieula (or Lala as we call her) turned 1 years old on the weekend. She has been a blessing to us from day one, and it has been a joy to have her here with us at the HOH. After being treated for her initial illnesses, Dieula has really done well, and has turned out to be a very intelligent, funny and enjoyable little girl. Her mother died when she was 7 days old, her father tried to do his best for 3 days before he brought her to us, sick, starving and desperately in need of medical attention. Now a year later she is walking, almost talking (her favorite word to try and say is "Spot" our 5 month old puppy whom she loves dearly. Spot just seems to enjoy licking her face and knocking her off her feet whenever he is nearby-I can't quite figure out why she loves him so much!), and has learned to communicate using sign language (please, thankyou, goodbye, bravo, sorry), thanks to some advice from various friends to try and teach her. We are so used to having extremely sick and malnourished children and toddlers here, that it has been fun to have one who was ready to teach things like that.
We enjoyed our last group of visitors, and have no others coming in the immediate future. We are busy getting ready for my (Jenny's) departure for the US/Canada the end of April. We are working on materials for me to take along, and also working on getting Linda and one of our boys (St. Germain) more comfortable on the computers so we can keep in touch while I am gone. Please pray for us as we essentially have only 4 weeks to pull everything together. All of our students are busy writing exams this week. and would appreciate your prayers as well.
We admitted a 4 year old boy this past week named Sonley. He is extremely ill, we hope with TB in his lymph glands, but we suspect it is worse than that (possibly cancer). We are keeping his mom here with him since he is not doing too good. He has showed some improvement during his stay here, so we continue to pray and ask you to pray as well that he would continue to heal. They have taken a biopsy of his glands to send to PAP, so until we get that back we won't know exactly what he has. If it isn't TB, there's nothing that can be done for him in Haiti, so please pray that we'd get the results soon, and that he would continue to get better. We also admitted a young girl named Magdalene, who has TB in her lymph glands as well. Please pray for her continued recovery. All the other children we admitted last week seem to be doing ok.
Daphny Love's mouth is getting better and better each day. She can now fit in 10 tongue depressors lying on top of each other which is just great improvement from what she could do when she came here (getting one in was a tough job). She is talking more and able to eat with her teeth now. She's had a tough adjustment period here, she didn't want to be here, but seems to be coming out of that stage now and is making friends with the other girls her age. Thank you for your prayers for her.
We continue to thank God for all of you who read this and pray for us regularly. We appreciate you support in this way very much.
Monday, March 27, 2006
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Hope for Daphny Love
What a busy and yet very good week we had with the dental team here. We were able to help a lot of people in the dental clinic, and were so thankful for the team that came. The team was made up of some dentists and some other helpers from Seattle, and then there were also a number of students from the University of Nevada Las Vegas who are studying Dental Medicine. They were all a blessing to us, as we saw how they really came down here to serve as many people as they could. They worked hard, and many people benefited from their service.
We were able to admit a beautiful 14 year old girl named Daphny Love this past week at the HOH. She had originally came to the hospital clinic, and then was sent up to see the dentists. We aren't sure exactly how her problems started, but when she got here, she hadn't opened her mouth at all in 15 months. She had major infections going on in her mouth, and the dentists ended up pulling 7 of her teeth. Since she came she's been on antibiotics, and we are slowly starting to work on getting her to open her mouth up a bit more each day. We have already worked up to getting 5 tongue depressors in at one time. That may not sound like much, but it is progress! Please pray for Daphny Love, that her mouth would get better, and that she'd have a good attitude while being here. She did not want to stay here, but accepted it in the end so we could help her. She comes from a very good and strong Christian family, so it was hard for her to stay. Pray that she would have a good time here, make friends and grow in her walk with the Lord during her time here.
We admitted quite a few small children very sick with malnutrition this past week as well. One of these little ones, three year old Daphna passed away yesterday. We spent the entire morning doing all we could to save her. We were just in the process of getting blood to give her, and she passed away. Please pray for the others that we had come in, that they would respond well to the treatment here, and get back on a healthy track. Their names are: Lucvens, Jamesly, Youdna, and Guerda.
We are looking forward to having Jeb and Gail Bland visit us this week. They are coming from PA. They will be her for a couple of days, helping with various projects. They are the last team we have scheduled this spring. I will soon begin all the preparations I have to make for my trip to the States and Canada this coming May/June. We'd really appreciate your prayers for wisdom in decisions we need to make. For health and strength to do the many things we have to do before I leave.
Thank you all for your prayers on our behalf. Please continue to pray for God's provision of our needs, for spiritual growth on all our part, and for the students as they continue to study and prepare for upcoming exams.
We were able to admit a beautiful 14 year old girl named Daphny Love this past week at the HOH. She had originally came to the hospital clinic, and then was sent up to see the dentists. We aren't sure exactly how her problems started, but when she got here, she hadn't opened her mouth at all in 15 months. She had major infections going on in her mouth, and the dentists ended up pulling 7 of her teeth. Since she came she's been on antibiotics, and we are slowly starting to work on getting her to open her mouth up a bit more each day. We have already worked up to getting 5 tongue depressors in at one time. That may not sound like much, but it is progress! Please pray for Daphny Love, that her mouth would get better, and that she'd have a good attitude while being here. She did not want to stay here, but accepted it in the end so we could help her. She comes from a very good and strong Christian family, so it was hard for her to stay. Pray that she would have a good time here, make friends and grow in her walk with the Lord during her time here.
We admitted quite a few small children very sick with malnutrition this past week as well. One of these little ones, three year old Daphna passed away yesterday. We spent the entire morning doing all we could to save her. We were just in the process of getting blood to give her, and she passed away. Please pray for the others that we had come in, that they would respond well to the treatment here, and get back on a healthy track. Their names are: Lucvens, Jamesly, Youdna, and Guerda.
We are looking forward to having Jeb and Gail Bland visit us this week. They are coming from PA. They will be her for a couple of days, helping with various projects. They are the last team we have scheduled this spring. I will soon begin all the preparations I have to make for my trip to the States and Canada this coming May/June. We'd really appreciate your prayers for wisdom in decisions we need to make. For health and strength to do the many things we have to do before I leave.
Thank you all for your prayers on our behalf. Please continue to pray for God's provision of our needs, for spiritual growth on all our part, and for the students as they continue to study and prepare for upcoming exams.
Saturday, March 04, 2006
It's a zoo!
Hello to Everyone! It has been quite the week, and we are busy preparing for another one just like it. The kids were all home from school this past week, making the house seem like quite a zoo. They just always seem to find ways of keeping us on our toes, and usually laughing, like when some of the girls dressed 11 month old Dieula up in long fake hair they tied to her head. She was so proud, she walked around the whole HOH stopping in every room that had people in it and stomped her foot on the ground to get everyone's attention, demanding they admire her new look. We are always so grateful all of the young people here take such good care of the children and babies, making them feel special.
Linda and my trip to Port-au-Prince went well. God was really watching out for us, as it wasn't until after we got there that we found out Linda's Doctor had closed his clinic for the week (after giving us an appointment for Monday morning--go figure). We searched several other places that did the type of test that she needed done, and finally found one who could do it. Amazingly enough, that Doctor wasn't really working that day either (it was Mardi Gras week, so there were Carnival festivities going on everywhere), but had left something at the office and had come by to pick it up. We got there at the same time, and she was more than willing to do the test for us. Praise God, because if she hadn't we'd have had to stay in PAP until Thursday, and we didn't want to have to do that. In the end Linda's tests all turned out normal, so she is finally off of our Surgeon's radar screen for an operation, for now at least. We are thankful for that. Please pray that she would continue to regain full health, as her foot still gives trouble from time to time.
When we arrived back on Tuesday, we found some of the young people in the midst of planning and pulling off 2 days of recreational activity at the HOH. They had all kinds of games, movies, programs planned, and worked very hard to give all of the children here a wonderful two days of fun and relaxation. It is so nice to see the older young people being able to completely plan and pull off something like that themselves. Linda and I were able to just sit back and enjoy the fact that everyone was having a great time.
We also arrived back to find that there had been some type of power surge at some point while we were gone, and both of our inverter systems have stopped working properly. It's kinda funny actually, the inverter system that works one half of the HOH (including my house) won't give any power while the generator is running, but as soon as they turn off the generator we have power. The other half that's on the other inverter (including Linda's house) only has power when the generator is running, the rest of the time there's no electricity...so, things take a bit of juggling to decide where to do things, which room will have electricity at what time, but hopefully we'll get it all sorted out soon. The one inverter in my house will have to go to PAP to get fixed. We are checking things on the other one to see what needs to be done. Please pray we can fix this problem relatively quickly as we do so much here that requires the use of these things that God has given us.
Today we have a group of 11 visitors coming in, most of them dentists coming from the Seattle area to do a dental clinic here at the HOH, and also at Passe Catabois, a small village about 30 miles west of here. It will be a busy week as we help them all get moved around to where they need to be, and also help them with running the clinic. You could pray for physical strength for Linda and I, and also that we would reflect our Lord in all that we do. Please continue to pray for our young people, some who are really struggling in certain areas, that they would be open to the transforming power of God at work in their lives, and wouldn't fight it. Pray that they would grow in wisdom and knowledge, and strive to glorify the Lord in all that they do.
We appreciate you all, our faithful prayer warriors. "The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you, and be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance on you, and give you peace!" (Numbers 6:24-26)
Linda and my trip to Port-au-Prince went well. God was really watching out for us, as it wasn't until after we got there that we found out Linda's Doctor had closed his clinic for the week (after giving us an appointment for Monday morning--go figure). We searched several other places that did the type of test that she needed done, and finally found one who could do it. Amazingly enough, that Doctor wasn't really working that day either (it was Mardi Gras week, so there were Carnival festivities going on everywhere), but had left something at the office and had come by to pick it up. We got there at the same time, and she was more than willing to do the test for us. Praise God, because if she hadn't we'd have had to stay in PAP until Thursday, and we didn't want to have to do that. In the end Linda's tests all turned out normal, so she is finally off of our Surgeon's radar screen for an operation, for now at least. We are thankful for that. Please pray that she would continue to regain full health, as her foot still gives trouble from time to time.
When we arrived back on Tuesday, we found some of the young people in the midst of planning and pulling off 2 days of recreational activity at the HOH. They had all kinds of games, movies, programs planned, and worked very hard to give all of the children here a wonderful two days of fun and relaxation. It is so nice to see the older young people being able to completely plan and pull off something like that themselves. Linda and I were able to just sit back and enjoy the fact that everyone was having a great time.
We also arrived back to find that there had been some type of power surge at some point while we were gone, and both of our inverter systems have stopped working properly. It's kinda funny actually, the inverter system that works one half of the HOH (including my house) won't give any power while the generator is running, but as soon as they turn off the generator we have power. The other half that's on the other inverter (including Linda's house) only has power when the generator is running, the rest of the time there's no electricity...so, things take a bit of juggling to decide where to do things, which room will have electricity at what time, but hopefully we'll get it all sorted out soon. The one inverter in my house will have to go to PAP to get fixed. We are checking things on the other one to see what needs to be done. Please pray we can fix this problem relatively quickly as we do so much here that requires the use of these things that God has given us.
Today we have a group of 11 visitors coming in, most of them dentists coming from the Seattle area to do a dental clinic here at the HOH, and also at Passe Catabois, a small village about 30 miles west of here. It will be a busy week as we help them all get moved around to where they need to be, and also help them with running the clinic. You could pray for physical strength for Linda and I, and also that we would reflect our Lord in all that we do. Please continue to pray for our young people, some who are really struggling in certain areas, that they would be open to the transforming power of God at work in their lives, and wouldn't fight it. Pray that they would grow in wisdom and knowledge, and strive to glorify the Lord in all that they do.
We appreciate you all, our faithful prayer warriors. "The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you, and be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance on you, and give you peace!" (Numbers 6:24-26)
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