Proverbs 16:3
Hi! It is an
exciting morning in our yard this morning. The school children made Haitian
flags and then had an assembly, where the teachers had them marching around the
yard singing the Haitian national anthem and patriotic songs. Each May 18 is
Fete Drapeau (Flag Day). We celebrated
it a day early! It is good for the children
and teachers to have pride for their country and to celebrate their fight for independence
from slavery into a nation. Pray for Haiti, that the country would develop and
improve. We can provide a helping hand but it is the Haitian people who will
need to make the changes.
This week,
the community health workers from International Child Care/Grace Children’s
Hospital, made a couple of visits to our school program here at Coram Deo. The first
visit was to talk with the students about cholera and to remind them on how to
prevent and treat cholera. May is the month of rain and we have been getting
some good downpours. Cases of cholera usually increase during rainstorms as the
bacteria are spread by flooding rivers and ground water.
The second
visit of the week was a mobile lab testing day. One of the school shelters was
used as a laboratory. The students and patients who were waiting to be treated
by Ed all took blood tests checking for HIV and Syphilis. One of our students, Dadelene
Vincent tested positive for syphilis. Syphilis is a sexually transmitted
disease. Untreated it can eventually
lead to death. Ed treated her with antibiotics. Dadelene is a young adult who
is also deaf. We were concerned about
how she got syphilis and sent a copy of the lab results home to her family. Her
aunt came to talk with us this morning. Handicapped people are sometimes
sexually abused here in Haiti. Dadelene’s family is poor and lives in the
countryside. A few years ago she decided on her own that she didn’t want to
live the rural life anymore and ran away to Port-au-Prince. Her aunt, who lives
in our neighbourhood walked through the La Piste refuge camp where a large
number of deaf people live searching for Dadelene. It was through seeing a photo that a deaf
person led her to where Dadelene was staying. Dadelene then moved in with her
aunt’s family and enrolled into our school program here at Coram Deo. Her aunt
told us about her problems dealing with her. Dadelene is rebelling and not
listening to her aunt and sneaks out. This is how she probably got syphilis. We
are going to contact Pastor Leny, who is a Philippine missionary here in Haiti.
He has a church and a deaf ministry. Pray for Dadelene, that she learns how to
live. Pray too for the community health workers who are visiting the schools in
the area doing these mobile lab clinics. We are thankful that Dadelene’s
syphilis was treated.
Raymond
Saintoute, a 28-year-old man was injured in a motorcycle accident on December
24, 2011. He was brought to the Medicines Sans Frontieres trauma hospital with
a displaced/fractured hip. The doctors there told him that they couldn’t help
him and didn’t have the specialized equipment and supplies needed for a
surgery. He then spent the next 10 months getting around using crutches. He was
unable to put any weight on his damaged leg. We brought him to see the Cure International
team working at the Adventist Hospital in Carrefour and they willingly agreed
to do his surgery. In December 2012, almost to the day – 1 year later, Raymond
finally got the surgery needed to repair and put into place his hip. His
repaired hip was held in place with steel pins and an external fixator. He has
lived the last 5 months with this steel appliance sticking out of him. Last
week he had another surgery to remove the external fixator. He now is heading
into a long physiotherapy process for his hip and leg. He needs to learn to
walk again. Pray for Raymond as he endures the sometimes painful physiotherapy
sessions. He told me that he would have courage to endure the pain . His desire
is to be able to walk again without the assistance of crutches. We give the
Lord thanks for the medical personnel of Cure International and Adventist
Hospital who have surgically repaired Raymond’s’ broken/displaced hip.
Last week we
sponsored Pastor Pierre and 20 other church workers/pastors to attend the 3
days of Timothy Leadership Training Seminars (May 8-10) held at the Christian Reformed Ministry
Centre. We housed 12 of them here at Coram Deo each evening. They slept on cots and mattresses under the
outside school shelters. It worked out well. Each morning we brought them over
to the Ministry Centre and picked them up in the afternoon. The last time the
Timothy Leadership Seminars were held was in October 2012, just as Hurricane
Sandy was starting to hit Haiti. The Kenscoff church workers had to walk
through the mountains in stormy weather that time. This time it wasn’t a
hurricane storm but a Lavalas (translated as flood) storm/manifestation as
thousands of people accompanied Jean Bertrand Aristide from his appearance at
the court to answer questions about the Jean Dominique murder case. Jean
Dominique was a journalist who was assassinated while Aristide was president.
Aristide lives in the Tabarre area, and where the ministry centre is located is
on the route that he would travel. As a result traffic was minimal in the area
as a lot of people kept off the streets that day because of uncertainty. We
were happy that we had quiet streets to travel on!
Our truck, Kimosabee, is getting old and the truck is
making some new noises. Poor old Kimosabee is sick again and not able to carry
us around until we find a mechanic to fix him. Ysmaille has lent us one of his
vehicles to pick up our handicapped teacher and for our errands while Kimosabee
is under the weather. We are thankful that we were able to pay our payroll for
the month of March. We are a couple of months behind because of funding
problems. The repair costs in the past with the truck have affected our ability
to pay our employees. I am not going to get Kimosabee fixed again, until the
payroll and our teacher’s tuition is paid. This week more funds were deposited
into our bank account and I will be paying the April payroll next week. Thank
you for your prayers and support. Please continue to pray for funding, that our
programs here can continue to thrive and grow. Pray too for the farmers, that
their crops would grow well and that they will reap a good harvest. We received
a good suggestion in testing the soil quality and we will be pursuing that. It
will be interesting to find out how fertile the soil is in the Kenscoff area.
Have a blessed
weekend and a “bon fete drapeau”!
Karen
Bultje, Coram Deo
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