We have switched!

We are doing great in town.  It is so nice to be here.  I got in the pool with the boys this afternoon.  It was great. They will not let me forget my promise to them to get in that pool everyday.  I have been trying to relax.  It has been hard so far.  I am a multitasker.   So it is difficult to just sit down and watch a movie, or just sit.   But tonight I am going to make myself do it.  This week is for me and I had better use it right!  Praying for Lori and dad this week.  Thanking God for the wonderful Livesay family that have made this possible for us.  They will be a big help to Lori this week.  The will get to see lots of things and experience a week of clinic.  God bless them!  Keverly- Trey asked me if he had school tomorrow?  How funny is that!  They miss their teacher!  More later…

Leaving

Our bags are packed and tomorrow we are heading out.  We are going to be spending a week in Port-au-Prince.  We will be staying at a friends house while they in turn come out to our place.  It is going to be a great week.  I am hoping they can see more of our work and what goes on here day to day.  I am hoping that I can relax and forget about everything for a few days.  I have made a pack with the boys that I WILL swim at least once everyday.   Enoch and I are looking forward to spending some time together  with NO ONE around.  That will be different.

I leave Lori, dad and Keverly behind with the responsibilities of everything.  I am trying not to think about that cause I will feel really guilty.   Leaving 70  a lot of kids behind is hard.  I feel greatly responsible for them and their care.  But I have a good staff that loves them as much as I do.  So I must go.  I will be taking pictures of the week and hope to share them with you when I get back.  This is Lori’s board that she write stuff on she need to get done eachday.  Do you think she is going to miss me or what? 

.

Did you know Lori and I have only been apart for a few years of our lives.  We even roomed together in college.  We would not be here without each other.  IT IS ONLY A WEEK SIS!

Psalm 51:11-13 (The Message)

 ^7-15 Soak me in your laundry and I’ll come out clean,
      scrub me and I’ll have a snow-white life.
   Tune me in to foot-tapping songs,
      set these once-broken bones to dancing.
   Don’t look too close for blemishes,
      give me a clean bill of health.
   God, make a fresh start in me,
      shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
   Don’t throw me out with the trash,
      or fail to breathe holiness in me.
   Bring me back from gray exile,
      put a fresh wind in my sails!
   Give me a job teaching rebels your ways
      so the lost can find their way home.
   Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God,
      and I’ll sing anthems to your life-giving ways.
   Unbutton my lips, dear God;
      I’ll let loose with your praise

Laugh, happy, joy, joy

A very special video make by Lori.  We do have fun and enjoy life in this beautiful country that we love.  We are lifers.

Psalm 150 (The Message)

  ^1-6 Hallelujah! Praise God in his holy house of worship,
      praise him under the open skies;
   Praise him for his acts of power,
      praise him for his magnificent greatness;
   Praise with a blast on the trumpet,
      praise by strumming soft strings;
   Praise him with castanets and dance,
      praise him with banjo and flute;
   Praise him with cymbals and a big bass drum,
      praise him with fiddles and mandolin.
   Let every living, breathing creature praise God!
      Hallelujah!

Their Story

Lori and I have been walking almost everyday with the kids. Finding trails that we have never been on.  Walking and not knowing where we are going to end up at.  It is fun!  Lori had a idea to find some widows to go visit, pray with and encourage.  We ask around to see who we could find.  Several people told us about a house we needed to go visit.  So we went expecting a widow but found two that were in love.  When we arrived the couple were cooking dinner inside the house.  The man can not hear very well which was very annoying to the lady.  She kept repeating everything to him in a loud voice.  He was very excited that we had come to his house.  The both brought chairs out for us to sit on.  I love, love, love, the elderly here.  They have been  through so much and have worked hard to just survive.  The first thing I notice, was of course, his shoes.  I never asked why he had two different ones on.  That is normal here. If ones gets bad you might throw it away but you keep the other one and wear it until it is finished.

These  two have been together their whole lives.  They love each other.  The have only this little house that is falling apart that is their own.  It is a two room house made with woven stick and mud.  The back room is used as a kitchen, and the front room has a bed and the clothes.

They have several children together.  They are grown and most do not live close.  Several are not living good lives and that is upsetting to them. They do what they can to get by and survive.  They wanted to share a story with us.  Last year the husband become very sick.  He was so sick that he layed in bed for many days.  His wife did not know what to do.  She asked those in the church to come and pray for him.  Several people came and prayed for him and his wife.  He spend two whole days in a coma.  He did not know anything that was going on.  He was not “awake”  and he could not talk.  Now he was not in a hospital, in a nice bed, on life support or anything like that.  He was laying on the dirt floor of his home.  After two days he woke up.  Sat right up and wondered what was going on.  He gradually got better and could walk around.  He told his wife that he wanted to thank God for giving him life when he was surely almost dead.  So he decided that they should get married.  They had lived together all these years and never made it official. 

Since he was still weak he could not walk to the church.  He had the pastor come to their house.  He put on his suit (in the picture below) and they were married under the tree in front of their house.  Even since then he says he has been feeling stronger and better.  He went inside and got the married certificate so we could see it for ourselves.  He was so proud of it.  He asks us if we could give him a developed picture of them sitting in front of their house.  They are now receiving a food box each week from RHFH.  They do not need a fancy house or “things” to make them happy, they just need each other.

Love

There story coming up soon!

Growing Old Together

Author: Fay Shaw Kinsey

My, the years are flying by
I cannot slow them down;
What really makes them pleasant
Is the fact that you're around.

You're the bridge to happiness,
The only one I know;
Your love is all I live for,
I could never let you go.

Growing old is not so bad
When it comes to push or shove,
As long as you're beside me
We will always be in love.

The years have been so kind to you
And so well you've done your part;
The proof is in the 'pudding'
By the love that's in your heart.

Years have come and years have gone
And still you make me sigh;
It's true that we'll grow older
But our love will never die

Funny, Funny

I was looking on the internet today and reading about old time missionaries.  Wondering if I am normal or maybe abnormal.  Found this and thought it was funny.  It made me laugh.  Come on laugh with me a little. 

10 Ways to avoid becoming a missionary

A tongue-in-cheek look at some sure-fire ways to avoid becoming a missionary

1. Ignore Jesus’ request in John 4:35 that we take a long hard look at the fields. Seeing the needs of people can be depressing and very unsettling. It could lead to genuine missionary concern.
   (John 4:35 “Do you not say, `Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.”
2. Focus your energies on socially legitimate targets. Go after a bigger salary. Focus on getting a job promotion, a bigger home, a more luxurious car, or future financial security. Along the way, run up some big credit card debts.
3. Get married to somebody who thinks the “Great Commission” is what your employer gives you after you make a big sale. After marriage, embrace the socially accepted norms of settling down, establishing a respectable career trajectory and raising a picture-perfect family.
4. Stay away from missionaries. Their testimonies can be disturbing. The situations they describe will distract you from embracing whole-heartedly the materialistic lifestyle of your home country.
5. If you happen to think about missions, restrict your attention to countries where it’s impossible to openly do missionary work. Think only about North Korea, Saudi Arabia, China and other closed countries. Forget the vast areas of our globe open to missionaries. Never, never listen to talk about creative access countries.
6. Think how bad a missionary you would be based on your own past failures. It is unreasonable to expect you will ever be any better. Don’t even think about Moses, David, Jonah, Peter or Mark, all of whom overcame failures.
7. Always imagine missionaries as talented, super-spiritual people who stand on lofty pedestals. Maintaining this image of missionaries will heighten your own sense of inadequacy. Convincing yourself that God does not use ordinary people as missionaries will smother any guilt you may feel about refusing to even listen for a call from God.
8. Agree with the people who tell you that you are indispensable where you are. Listen when they tell you that your local church or home country can’t do without you.
9. Worry incessantly about money.
10. If you still feel you must go, go out right away without any preparation or training. You’ll soon be home again and no one can ever blame you for not trying!

Medika mamba..how it works..and how YOU can get involved!

How we met

I first met Randy and Pat Mortensen last year right before the big flood in Cazale.  Randy and Pat are the directors of  World Wide Village.  Troy L. had planned a trip  to come visit RHFH with them.  At that time the roads were terrible.  They slid all through the mud to get here on the slick road.    I gave them a tour of the RC and we talked about many things.  At that time, we had a row of  kids in beds.  They all had kwashiorkor and were all very sick.  There was one little girl, Soline, that really touched them in a special way.  She was severly malnourished and needed some extra care to recover (thanks Jeanne)  Here she is below. We talked about many things that day, but the most important was talking about starting a medika mamba program in the RC.  They committed, on the spot, enough funds to provide the peanutbutter for 10 children.  Once we started with those 10 then we would  regroup and see what we all thought about the results.  I was so excited that day.  We had a new hope in helping the kids and I had two new really great friends.

While they were pulling out the driveway, the rains were starting and the flood was coming.  Before there visit,  the road had been impassable for several days.  After the flood it was impassable for months.  All I know is God’s timing is perfect.  He got them here and they saw a need and decided to meet that need.  I love that ….you see what needs to be done and you just do it.  Troy has been working hard since then to get the program started and get the actual peanut butter here to Cazale.  Believe me it is not an easy process.   You just cannot go to a place and buy it.  It takes time to get it.   So we started the program at the beginning of May. 

How it works

Each child has to be weighed and measured in height each week.  For the child to be admitted onto the program they have to fall below a certain level of standard set up by the World Health Organization.  If they have any degree of kwashiorkor, they can be admitted.  Once admitted we fill out a chart.  On this chart, we keep records on them each week.  There is a scale to follow by their weight/height to tell you how much weight they should be gaining each week.  The first week ,they are treated with an antibiotic.  The second week ,they are dewormed.  They can just eat the peanut butter and nothing else (still drinking  fluids) and still gain weight.

Once you have the weight of the child, you go to a chart provided to you.  This tells you how much PB to give each child per day.  So, for example, a child that weighs 5kg (11 pounds) would need to eat 7 tablespoons per day.  A child weighing 12kg (26 1/4 pounds) would need to eat 17 tablespoons per day.   We have come up with a system that works for us.  Each child has a bowl with their name on it.  The ladies work on feeding the child throughout the day.  They start at 7am and finish around 8pm.  Depending on the amount they have to eat and how much they like it, it can take 8 to 10 feedings per day to get the full amount eaten.

The ladies wash the bowls out each night and take them to Keverly.  She then fills them up with the right amount of PB for the next day.

The kids are not fed inside the RC.  We tried this for a few days.  But image having 10 kids that get to eat and a lot of others that don’t get to.  It makes for a lot of crying for the others.

The peanut butter is made with peanuts from Haiti, milk, oil, vitamins and minerals.  It is not  as creamy or thick as most peanut butter that you buy in jars.

The Results

I have been working in Haiti for 14 years now. I have seen many, many products that promote that they work for malnourished kids.  Some of them do, some of them don’t.  This is my own personal opinion-this is the best.  So many times the products might sound good but the kids do not like the taste.  Medika mamba has a great sweet taste that the kids love.  It works, really works.  Most children should reach there goal weight within 8 weeks.  Unbelievable…yes, it does sound like it.  But it is true. 

This is Horlando.  He is 2 years old.  When he started the program on May 2nd he weighed 8.8kg (19 pounds 4 ounces) on May 23 he weighed 10.6kg (23 pounds 4 ounces).  These stats are wonderful, but the picture is the proof.   Amazing!

How you can help

Tara L. is going to run 26.2 miles.  Two people are willing to donate a matching grant of $5200.  Tara is looking for people to sponsor her per mile for a marathon she is running in October.  If she can get sponsors for $5200 then the matching grant and donation made on her behalf will total $10,400!  These funds will be used to purchase more Medika Mamba.  This, I am telling you will save lives.  Head over to their blog and to read more details and more info about donations. 

Some of the kids on the program now

 

Kids that could have benifited from medika mamba

We want to thank World Wide Village, Randy and Pat Mortensen , Troy and Tara Livesay for making this project a reality in Cazale.  Nou renmen ou anpil!

Semi trailer update

I wanted to give you an update on the funds for the semi container.  So far there has been 5696.24 raised!  We are over half way there!  Let me know if you are interested in donating for this urgent need.  As stated before there are many pallets coming in on this container that are full of medicine.  This medication is given out to the patients that walk many hours to get to the clinic.  These pallets were purchased at a greatly reduced price.  We are all excited about this container arrived in the next few months. 

licia@realhopeforhaiti.org

New children..

Shakira is 10 months old and weighs 14 pounds.  Her mother went away for the weekend a few months ago and decided that she did not want to breastfeed her anymore.  She has a bad case of Kwashiorkor.  Her feet are so tight they look like they are going to pop.  Her arms and legs are full of fluids.  Even her cheeks.  I will try to get some pictures as she begins to lose this “water weight”

This is Judith.  She stuck her hand into a pot of hot water that was sitting on the ground.  Her father carried her down the mountains for many hours.  Right now the farmers are planting beans, corn and other produce.  It would take him a whole day to walk down to the clinic and then walk back up.  He would not be able to plant his garden.  He, his wife and other children would not be able to eat much in the months to come. The RC is a place where she can stay and get her dressing changes done each day, and not have to make a difficult many hour hike to the clinic.  It will help her whole family because her father will be able to continue to plant his crops, and his wife will be able to sell produce.

This is Clemene.  She is 14 months old.   This is the first time she has had kwashiorkor she is not chubby, she is swollen with fluids.  Her body is shutting down and dying.  She needs a high protein balanced diet to recover.

This is Philorge.  She is an older sister to Iliane.  She is 5 years old and weighs 26 pounds.  This is her second time with kwashiorkor.

This is Bathelmy.  He is 3 years old and weighs 19 pounds. 

These feet belong to Chrismond. He and his mother traveled to the clinic last week.  The slept in town and got up early to get in line to get a ticket to enter into the clinic.  He asked for some water and drank it and died shortly after.  The staff went out to give out numbers to be seen at 6am and his mom was still standing in line with her dead son.  Imagine…what a sad day.  We brought them in and bathe him and got the papers and casket done.  He was a bout 3 years old and was suffering from kwashiorkor.

 

This is Examene. She was in the RC in 2008.  Her dad is the one that had his lips cut off several years ago.  She is 3 years old and weighs 17 pounds.  She seems in a state of shock and will not really make eye contact with anyone.  She is very malnourished.

This is Loner (what a sad name).  He is 5 days old and weighs 4 pounds.  The black eye is birth trauma.  The mother bleed to death after he was born. 

“Is not the commission of our Lord still binding upon us? Can we not do more than now we are doing?” — William Carey

Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell; I wish to run a rescue mission within a yard of hell.” — C.T. Studd ( my mom’s favorite)

Going home

  These children returned home to their families this week.

 Djouly can in a few months ago at 15 pounds.  He is going home at 20 pounds.

This is Lovencia.  She has been in the RC since the middle of Jan.  She weighed 13 pounds then.  Going home at 19 pounds.

 Remember Judalie?  She was 24 months old and weighted 10 pounds 8 ounces and had kwashiorkor.  Here she is going home at 15 pounds.  She is eating well and off of infant formula. 

 This is Isaac.  He was 12 pounds back in Dec 08.  Going home this week at 20 pounds. 

 

Psalm 118:21-29 (The Message)

 ^21-25 Thank you for responding to me;
      you’ve truly become my salvation!
   The stone the masons discarded as flawed
      is now the capstone!
   This is God’s work.
      We rub our eyes—we can hardly believe it!
   This is the very day God acted—
      let’s celebrate and be festive!
   Salvation now, God. Salvation now!
      Oh yes, God—a free and full life!

 ^26-29 Blessed are you who enter in God’s name—
      from God’s house we bless you!
   God is God,
      he has bathed us in light.
   Festoon the shrine with garlands,
      hang colored banners above the altar!
   You’re my God, and I thank you.
      O my God, I lift high your praise.
   Thank God—he’s so good.
      His love never quits!