March 14, 2010

Posted by Drs. Brenda and Richard

By the end of the days here, I (Brenda) am mentally, physically, and emotionally drained; at the same time, I feel a sense of peace and contentment that I have done the work God called me to do. Richard (as most of you know) just keeps going and going like the EverReady bunny! But even he has to go slower because of the heat.

We went to church this morning – hey all of you out there who get restless when your preacher goes past his 20 minute allotted time – just think of our service this morning. We arrived at 9:30 a.m. and worshipped until about 1:00 p.m. (We all were prepared with water and me with a few gummy bears hidden in my purse!)

But what a service – there were so many blessings it’s hard to describe. What was amazing to me is to see the people praise God so joyfully, they sang a song that said “God’s grace is sufficient.” And this is after many of them have suffered through the death of family and friends, the loss of their homes and most of their material possessions. They are living in tents; some do not have any shelter at all – yet they rejoice in the Lord. It reminds us of the passage in Habakkuk which says,

Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls—
Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. (Habakkuk 3:17-18)

One difficult time today was meeting with Mechou, the mother of Michaela, the little girl with the badly infected club foot who is now at the University of Miami hospital tent at the Haiti airport. The doctors had told Mechou that Michaela’s leg needed to be amputated below the knee and she really had not comprehended this information. She was told to return to the hospital this afternoon to meet with the doctors and sign a consent for surgery tomorrow. We met with Mechou and explained the situation and told her that we wanted to help in any way possible-with rehabilitation, etc. She was worried that we would make promises and then disappear. However, we assured her we would do everything we could to help Michaela. Aaron and 2 other team members then accompanied Mechou to the hospital, visited with Michaela and met with the doctors. The foot is not salvageable and if it is not amputated, the infection will spread, eventually getting into Michaela’s bloodstream, leading to death. Mechou signed the consent and Michaela is scheduled for an amputation tomorrow.

The amazing thing is that the doctor who will do the surgery is a pediatric orthopedic surgeon from Nashville, TN, one who specializes in club feet. Is that a miracle from God or what? He also offered the hope that it might be possible to do corrective surgery on Michaela’s other foot to avoid her becoming a double amputee. But right now, we simply don’t know what the future holds for her.

Please pray for her and her family; the mother is a widow and has 4 other children; like most people here, she is living outside under a tarp. We also are going to try to help her during this process. We thank all of you who made it possible for our team to be here; we know our encounter with Michaela is not an accident and that God has a plan for her. Thank you for being a part of that plan.

The rest of the team today went to the tent village and gave out everything else that we had left – diapers, milk, clothes, food, flip-flops, candy, etc. Some had a few close calls, as people crowded around trying to get anything they could. But for the most part, everything went smoothly. Again, we thank all of you – it is because of all our supporters that God has brought into our lives that we are able to help the people here in Haiti, not only physically, but spiritually as we share the hope of Christ.

We love you – God bless each of you for your wonderful hearts to serve.

We leave in the morning at 7:00 a.m. so pray for our safe journey.

Richard and Brenda and the Helping Hands team.