Life in the Clinic

The clinic is a very busy and challenging place these days. Since the earthquake, the population in Titanyen has gone from about 4000 to about 9000 or so and the road into town has more and more 'permanent' communities springing up. This has resulted in more patients every day and more burns. Right now we have 5 severe burns, 4 adults and one child, along with quite a few smaller burns. We are currently treating 4 patients that are epileptics and were burned because they had a seizure and fell into the fire or cooking pot. We are going through many supplies daily and we are so thankful for the Lord's provision in keeping up with all we need, so we can continue to provide care to all those who come.

This little girl is Rosemi. She is 3 years old and burned her back and bottom falling into the cooking pot several weeks ago. She is thankfully healing quickly as her burns were mostly 2nd degree.

Rosemi soaking before we debride her burned bottom

Getting her dressing put on with her mom at her side. She is thankfully very cooperative with us.

Rosemi after treatment with her new 'pillowcase' dress made by a wonderful lady, Carol, from Colorado. These dresses are very easy to get off and on and are great for our burned girls.  We have them in several different sizes and the girls and their mothers are happy to get them.










Thankfully, the Lord always provides the help we need at the clinic. Mme. Frank has worked with me for 7 years now and is a great help. Carrie Todd and her husband Barrett and family are here with us for 3 months to ascertain God's call for them and experience living and working with us here at Global. Please pray for them as they head home in December and seek the Lord for confirmation if they should return permanently. Carrie is a home health aide and has been a great help in the clinic. Her 12-year old daughter Abby has also enjoyed coming to help us.

Carrie Todd,  Mme. Frank, and Sheryl 

Weekend Barnabas

Things are exciting and busy on the compound these days. We are having youth come almost every Saturday afternoon from 3-6 pm for what we are calling Weekend Barnabas as part of our GO Camp Barnabas for worship, teaching, groups games, and sports. This past Sunday, we did a Sunday program for Titanyen youth since it was youth Sunday at our church. We expected about 200 youth and were very surprised when 350 showed up! Another youth group in Titanyen had asked to come and they brought about 60 and we had expected about 150 from our own youth, but everyone invited friends. It was standing room only in the chapel!! It ended with a competitive soccer match between the two churches-lots of fun.

 Our camp director Romil Rene is doing a great job of getting things up and running and he has put in place a committee of 5 solid men to head up the programs. The program is growing so quickly that we will have to slow down the numbers some until we get more leaders in place and the program developed more to accommodate all who want to come. There is no shortage of youth that want to participate! We are in the process of starting to develop a website for the camps. It will be in both English and French, so it will take some time to put it together.

We have a film crew here with us this week that have generously donated their time to come and put together a video of all the programs that Global Outreach Haiti is involved with. They filmed the youth program on Sunday, then the feeding program, burn clinic, and conference center yesterday. They are in the schools today and will also be filming the well-drilling and well repair. We plan to be able to use this as we speak in churches and also to send to churches and ministries that are bringing teams down here or want more information on our ministries here. We are very blessed to have them!

Chris is continuing teaching biblestudy at Titanyen and will be there again this evening to teach. It is one of his highlights to do that. The clinic is staying busy, but not overwhelming and that is a praise also.

Josh is counting down his time here in Haiti. He will be leaving for the States permanently the end of June. He is very involved in many facets of ministry here with us and we will miss him greatly when he leaves. He is our computer tech, our sound man, web designer, worship leader, photographer, interpreter, feeding program assistant, ect., ect., He is planning on doing his senior year in Colorado and then heading to college. Please pray for all of us as we are starting the transition of all that. On an exciting note, our middle son Jordan will graduate from Fort Lewis college the end of this month with a degree in Exercise science. He will be coming to visit us in May after graduation and we are very excited to see him here. Pray for him too as he seeks God's guidance for his future. He very much wants to develop soccer programs for kids and youth-we will see what God has in store. Our oldest son Jonathan and his wife Molly are in the process of an domestic adoption with a christian agency in Georgia. All their paperwork is in and they are in the waiting process to be chosen as parents.We are very excited about the prospect of possibly becoming grandparents in the near future. Pray for this adoption that the Lord will lead in the baby to be placed with them.

 Lots happening with us these days personally and in ministry. We are so thankful  to the Lord as He leads and guides.

Camp Barnabas Youth Camp

Youth Camp Update

We spent some wonderful and crazy 5 days with almost 200 older christian youth over Carnival working with youth groups from churches throughout Haiti. This is a conference that has been happening here for some years, but this is the first year that we as GO partnered with them and worked together on planning and directing the conference. 

Before the camp started, we had to put the basketball hoops up and then we placed two large lights, so people can play after dark and also for security. It was very popular during the camp. We still need to paint the court and place all the lines.

The first night of camp, all the campers circled the chapel to pray for the days ahead and for the Lord to bless their time.

               
                    Praise and worship was a highlight of the camp, especially in the evening service.

Devotions started early every morning before breakfast and then there would be several teaching sessions. The morning would usually close with bible drills between the churches-very competitive.

Chris teaching one of the morning sessions-kids were attentive and he really enjoyed speaking to them. 

 Sunday morning was a special worship service lead by the youth and some leaders. It was a very blessed time with several groups singing special music and interpretive dance with the praise songs.

 Every afternoon (except Sunday) was game time and this was both fun and challenging as Haitians do not know how to play group games, but they learned quickly and and were very competitive. They especially loved the belly bumpers. They also had a soccer tournament between several of the churches.

Josh was able to talk them into all getting together for a group picture. We didn't get them all there, but most are in this picture.

It was an exciting and tiring 5 days. We pray that as these youth go to their homes all over Haiti that they will take the things they learned back to their churches and communities. We also learned things about how we can improve and maximize the time we have during camp.

Change is in the Air

Yesterday, the helicopter for Samaritan's Purse (S.P.) left our compound for the last time. After two years of hosting S.P., they have left our conference center and we now have it back to take up where we left off when the earthquake hit. They still have a small staff living and working at the bottom of our property, but the majority of their staff moved over to their base in the South of Haiti. Their operation has changed from relief to sustainable projects.

Our first conference starts back up next Monday and we are busy refurbishing the conference kitchen and getting it ready to go. It was very heavily used for the last two years, serving over 500 meals/day at the height of the relief effort, so it needed an overhaul. The conference is a Leadership Training conference for pastors and lay-leaders in the churches. This is the same conference that was taking place at the time of the earthquake. We were on day 2 of 5, when the earthquake hit and everything was suspended, so now we are starting again and starting over with the same conference and prayerfully many of the same people.  We are very excited to get back to conferences and we are also gearing up for youth camps.

Our first returning youth camp will start February 17th and bring in about 230 youth during the Carnival and Madi Gras celebrations.  Schools are closed here during that time and the goal is to get these kids away from the raucous parties that happen this time of year and instead focus on their walk with the Lord. The theme this year is Jeremiah 29:11 and we pray that these kids will feel that they DO have a hope and a future in this country when they follow the Lord. We still have work to do to get the camp ready. The site of the helicopter hanger is actually our basketball court and we now have to take down the hanger building, fill holes and redo the floor, and get the poles and hoops up and ready to go. We may not have it all finished, but want to have it usable when they arrive.

We have hired our very first employee for the camps, a Haitian youth director named Romil who has such a heart for evangelism and discipleship. He speaks English well and we feel he will be a good fit for what we want to accomplish. Chris is in process of changing a small S.P. staff house next to our house into a temporary camp office where he and Romil  can work on plans for camps. We are excited for all these changes and ask for your prayers as we move forward with these ministries.