New Children in the RC

This is Marlene.  She is 5 years old and weighs 14 pounds.   Five years old and 14 pounds.  She has four living siblings and one that has died of diar.  She is very sick and malnourished.

 

 Celinta is three months old and weighs 8 pounds.  He mother was out in the gardens planting and fell over and died.  He father needs to continue working to provide food for the other children in the family.  She will be with us for several months.

 This is Rose-Ester.  She is 21 months old and weighs 17 pounds.  She has kwashiorkor.  She has two living siblings and one that has died.

This is Jeanne.  She is almost three years old and weighs 21 pounds.  She has kwashiorkor.  She has three siblings that are alive.  She has SIX siblings that has died over the years.  Several have died from kwashiorkor and the other of fever and diar.

This is Fednelson.  He is 16 months old and weighs 22 pounds.  Dad not in the picture and mom died last year.  His aunt (in the picture) had been trying to take care of him.  This is his first time with kwashiorkor. 

This is Carlens.  He is 3 months old and weighs 8 pounds.  He has a huge, huge, huge abcess on the back of his head.  It has left a large hole down to his skull.  He needs daily dressing changes.  he mother lives about 1 hour away and wanted to leave him here to get daily dressing changes.

Corn Update

The Community Development Group has been doing “garden calls” this week.  They are checking to see how the corn is growing and getting pictures.  We wanted to share some of the progress with you.

 

 

 

 

  

 

  

 

 

The corn is growing and so many farmers are thankful!

Jenny

This little girl was abandoned yesterday in the clinic yard.  She was found laying in the muddy water by where patients wait to be seen.  Everyone said the lady with her said she was going outside to buy her some food.  She never returned.  The lady with her called her “Jenny”.  She looks at us when we call her this.  She is unable to stand or walk.  She can sit if she is leaning up against something. 

When a child is left like this, we call the local judge.  The responsibility is on the mayor of our section.  The mayor’s office is in the next major town.  So our local judge always comes and helps us with these cases.  He lives close and comes 24/7 whenever we need him—free of charge.  Since we have had this happen before we know what we need to do.  First we have to take a picture of the child just like we found them.  We are not suppose to touch them until the judge arrives.  He makes papers and then talks with those that were a witness or saw the child before they called us.  When I called him I told him we had to pick her up as she was laying in the mud and he was okay with that.

Jenny is doing well today in her new pillowcase dress.  She is eating, laughing and enjoying life in the RC.  We will post her picture around and see if we can find someone who knows of her family.  If we cannot find anyone we will try to place her in a orphange.

James 1:26-27 (The Message)

 ^26-27Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.

Medika Mamba

Graduates from May

Jn Redmond

                19 pounds                                             22 pounds

Dorchelle 

lowest weight 16 pounds

going home weight 19 pounds

Kervenson

beginning weight with kwashiorkor 25 pounds

lowest weight 19 pounds

 going home weight 22 1/2 pounds

Robenson

                12 pounds                                                20.4 pounds

Washny

starting at 23 pounds   lowest weight 19     current weight 21

Yon sou ri (A smile)

It takes a lot of work from the face to let out a smile, but just think what good smiling can bring to the most important muscle of the body… the heart.  ~Author Unknown

Most smiles are started by another smile.  ~Author Unknown

A friendly look, a kindly smile, one good act, and life’s worthwhile.  ~Author Unknown

Smile – sunshine is good for your teeth.  ~Author Unknown

A laugh is a smile that bursts.  ~Mary H. Waldrip

Everyone smiles in the same language.  ~Author Unknown

People seldom notice old clothes if you wear a big smile.  ~Lee Mildon

Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn’t know you left open.  ~John Barrymore

Wednesday

• Dad is returning to Haiti today after finishing up his trip in the USA
• We have admitted 4 new children this week.
• John and Noel Piper were here yesterday visiting RHFH we had a lovely time.
• Jess will be here with us until the middle of August
• It is raining —the corn is growing—we and the farmers are thankful!
• We will be having lots of visitors from now through August
• A story about a lady from the Cazale area click here   then click on stream episode to listen
• Anna will be leaving in July   Post coming up about a new teacher soon!  Her mom and sister will be visiting RHFH soon.  Yeah!
• We took a day off on Monday and went to the beach.  It was a WONDERFUL, RELAXING DAY for all of us!
• We have raised to date $280.00 for the Betor Vehicle Fund.
• Still lots of unpacking to do from the two semi containers

5,4,3,2 or 1?

Have you ever had plans for the day and they did not work out?  So was a day for me last week.  We had planned a 5 mile walk (Anna, Lori I and the boys)  we were going to take the boys bikes so they could ride while we walked.  When we were getting ready to walk out of the gate a bad cut came in.   Lori had to sew it up, then someone called and needed us to look something up on the internet for them.(A person needing a number of a guest house in Port).  5 miles became a  long  dream.  Maybe 4?  So we took off up the mountains.  Going quickly so that we could get a good walk in.  We took the camera in case we saw someone planting corn (the corn we gave out a few weeks ago)(because everyone likes to see pictures).  We did and Anna got some great pictures.  While she was doing that there was a man running across a field to get to us.  He was yelling our names or blanc, can’t remember which so we stopped to talk to him.  He explained to us that there was a lady that needed some help.  His exact words were “li pa mange sel pou 5 jou”  translated “she has not eaten salt for 5 days”.  What might that mean you ask?  That means she has not had a meal like rice, or corn or anything with salt it in for 5 days. It also does not mean she has been eating a bunch of sweet stuff.  It really means she has had no meals for 5 days.  I told the man we were walking and he could tell the lady to come see me the next morning and I would try to help her.  I was still hoping for the 4 mile walk.  So he said okay and then I felt like a loser for telling her to come tomorrow.  She needed to eat a meal.    Duh…our walk did not seem so important anymore.  So I asked where she lived and he said he would take us there.  It was close.

This lady, we will call Rosemene, had lived in the mountains above Cazale.  There was a dispute over land and her brother destroyed her house and told her to get out.  She moved down to Cazale where she has children.  She went to her child’s house and there was no place for her to stay and not enough food for her to eat.  Now I know her daughter and her daughter would have let her stay, but  Rosemene did not want to take away from her daughter and grand children.  So she went and began sleeping out on the ground in a field.  The farmer, that ran across the field to talk to us, wanted to help her.  He had built the little shelter in the picture above.  This shelter is in the middle of the land he is farming.  He was going to use it to stay in and get some shade during the day time.  But he saw Rosemene and told her she could sleep inside.  He told us several times “if she dies I cannot bury her, I just am trying to help her and I do not have much”.  Anna and Lori went down to the house to see it and see what she needed. (There was a steep hill so I could not get there)

Her needs are great –this is it.  What you see in the picture is all she has.  A few clothes and a roof over her head, which is a borrowed roof.  The 5 mile walk did not seem so important anymore.  She came down to the clinic that evening with us.  We got her a hot plate of food.  We gave her enough food to cook for a week.  We told her we would not forget her and we would help.  Housing is hard to find since the earthquake.  But I have to believe that this week God will make a place available for her.  There will be a spare room that comes up for rent.  I have to believe that and I will begin checking today. 

I do not tell you stories like those of Yolande or Rosemene to make you feel bad.  I tell you them so you know how so many people in the “real world” live.  Most of us do not live in the real world.  I tell you so that you can know and experience what we do each and ever day.  I tell you so you can be moved.  I tell you so that God can take someone like Yolande and Rosemene and use them to change you(and me).  Not you change them.  Yes they need help.  But many times we need “help” too.  We need  our priorities in line to what God would have them to be.  We need to “feel” what others are struggling with and reach out to them.  We need to hunger after the things that God wants us to do.  We need to “do” and “give” as God would direct us to.  I do not think I will ever know what it means to “pa manje sel pou 5 jou”.  But I can do something to help one person.  If I am willing,  if you are willing, God will use us to make changes, sometimes life changing for others.  A plate of food, or a rented house will help them, it will change things for them.  But adding the Love of Jesus with this plate of food or rent money might just bring about a change in where they will be spending eternity.  And that is what it is all about for me.  I want to encourage all of you to ask God what you can do for others.  Maybe some of you want to help Rosemene.  Maybe God will show you someone in your neighborhood, church or family that needs a special touch today.  Be open to letting him move you.  Step out today and make a difference.

Container pictures upbacking

Still unpaking boxes from the semi container. 

diapers….

lots of bumbo seats and toys……

toddler beds…….

water pump…..

lots of buckets…….

shoes……

shampoo, lotion and conditioner………

cloth diapers…….

Thanks again to everyone!

Update on Yolande

Remember Yolande?  You can read her post here.     

UPDATE: After she admitted her daughter to the RC she went back to her house where she had been a slave child.  They told her she needed to leave they did not have a place for her there anymore.  Nice people huh?  She was walking in the village not knowing what to do.  A lady that we know, who recently accepted Christ, asked her where she was going.  She had known of her when she lived in the village a few years back.  She invited her to move in with her in her small two room stick house.  She has been feeding her and letting her sleep there.  I called for Yolande to come see me last Friday.  We sat down and had a great talk.  I told her that I wrote to some friends about her life and the you had responded.  There was $600US donated for her.  I had just rented two large rooms in a house in the village to place some others that were in need of housing.  She will be moving into one of the rooms.  The money donated will be used to buy her a bed, table, and other items to get started.  Her biggest concern was her little boy (pictured below).  She had left him with some extended family of the father in another village.  She was worried about him.  I called the lady here in Cazale that was giving her housing and food. I asked her what she thought.  She was very happy that we were going to help Yolande and asked if she could go with her to pick up her son.  RHFH gave her taxi money to go.  When they arrived he was sitting on the ground in the dirt, with no clothes on.  He was screaming and crying.  He was asking for food.  She got her son and brought him back to the village naked, hungry and confused, but happy to be together with him again.  Tomorrow she will be moving into her new room.  She is beyond excited about this new chapter in her life.  She is very thankful to each of you for thinking of her.  It seems hard for her to accept this unconditional love from strangers.  But she is changed.  She is loved.  She feels Jesus.  That is what it is all about.  Several other people have asked what they can do to help.  I want her to get settled in to her new home.  Her daughter will remain in the RC for a few more weeks.  We will then begin to think about what she wants to do.  If she wants to start a small business I would like to help her with that, or if she would like to work in the RC I would be willing to hire her there as well.  We will be able to find all the clothing, shoes and toys they need from all the items donated from the semi trailer.  A good friend from Markleville, donated lots of household items that came on the semi trailer.  So we are covered on plates, bowls, cups and silverware.   So what she is needing is other kitchen items.  Pots, pans, wash basins, cooking stove, knives etc.  I estimate we can get these items for around $100.00US.  She will also be needing some help with food expenses for a few months.  An amount of $60 to $80US per month would be a great help to her.  Please email me at licia@realhopeforhaiti.org if you would like to help.  

  

Psalm 146:2-4 (The Message)

Psalm 146:3-9

    Hallelujah! O my soul, praise God!
   All my life long I’ll praise God,
      singing songs to my God as long as I live.

 ^3-9 Don’t put your life in the hands of experts
      who know nothing of life, of salvation life.
   Mere humans don’t have what it takes;
      when they die, their projects die with them.
   Instead, get help from the God of Jacob,
      put your hope in God and know real blessing!
   God made sky and soil,
      sea and all the fish in it.
   He always does what he says—
      he defends the wronged,
      he feeds the hungry.
   God frees prisoners—
      he gives sight to the blind,
      he lifts up the fallen.
   God loves good people, protects strangers,
      takes the side of orphans and widows,
      but makes short work of the wicked.

UPDATE:
One person has comitted to sending Yolande $20 each month. Another person has comitted $300 for the next 6 months for her.  Another person is sending $40.  There has been a few other one time donations to cover all her cost.  She is set for the next 6 months!  THANKS SO MUCH TO EVERYONE!

Update on Corn seeds

 We are still giving out corn to the local people in Cazale and the surrounding communities.  We should finish up this week sometime.  We are beginning to see the fruits of their labor in the fields.  The community Development Group is taking giving out the seeds serious.  Various members are visiting farmers and checking up to see how the crops are growing.  It has been encouraging to see them planting and to see the joy on their faces when the seed begins to sprout in the ground and push through the hard dirt.  They see that it is growing and that gives them hope of a good crop.  Would each of you join us in prayer that we would begin to see rain.  It is the 18th of May (Happy Flag Day Haiti!)  and we have yet to see much rain in our area.  The farmers are getting concerned.

   

 

  

 

 Photo credits to Charlie and Anna.  You guys rock! 

Psalm 126:4-6 (The Message)

 ^4-6 And now, God, do it again—
      bring rains to our drought-stricken lives
   So those who planted their crops in despair
      will shout hurrahs at the harvest,
   So those who went off with heavy hearts
      will come home laughing, with armloads of blessing.