Saturday, November 19, 2016

Coram Deo Haiti Update - November 10, 2016

CORAM DEO HAITI UPDATE – NOVEMBER 10, 2016
“And Asa cried out to the Lord his God, and said, “Lord, it is nothing for You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power; help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on You …                              ( 2  Chronicles 14:11 )

November 11th is Remembrance Day, a time to remember those who fought for freedom. Like Asa soldiers went into the fray with a prayer and we remember each year on that day the lives that were lost for our country’s freedom.

In Haiti people are struggling against the effects of Hurricane Matthew and an active rainy season. This is their battle. The Southern region of the country was heavily damaged by the hurricane and this past weekend heavy rains fell on the Northern region causing massive flooding. Here in Port-au-Prince we are being spared from the flooding problems of the northern and southern regions of the country.

Jn. Eddy went with his family to the Lasuz, Jeremie area to find out how his grandmother was doing after the passage of the hurricane. They found her alive but her home was destroyed, along with the homes of other members of Jn. Eddy’s family. When the storm hit Jn. Eddy’s grandmother was inside her home and the winds were hitting her home. She knew her home could not withstand the winds and ran outside. She crouched under an orange tree and spent the night. In the morning people found her alive. She had survived the storm but the storm took her strength and she could not walk. People carried her to shelter at a church. Jn. Eddy’s grandmother is an elderly lady and I believe that it was by God’s strength that she survived the hurricane. God is using many missionary teams and humanitarian aid workers to bring relief to the people of the South and now the Northern regions of Haiti. Please pray for the ongoing aid efforts.

We are thankful for surgical teams that come to Haiti. Last week a team from the LEAP Foundation came to Hopital Espoir to do plastic surgeries. Lauren Pierre had surgery a year ago to construct a nose (she was born without bone cartilage). Now she looks like her twin sisterJ  The team did a follow-up evaluation and will keep monitoring her as she grows. As she gets older she will require further surgery. Dr. Hobar, a plastic surgeon founded LEAP Foundation and surgical teams have travelled to 22 countries performing cleft lip/palette and other plastic surgeries. Over the last 25 years they have performed 9,240 surgeries around the world. We are thankful that Lauren Pierre is one of those patients J Please keep the efforts of the LEAP Foundation in prayer.

Julie Chavanne is a young baby who was born with shoulder problems.  Her mother brought her to see Dr. Karen and her medical team when they held a clinic here at Coram Deo. We brought her to Adventist Hospital. A Touching Hands Project Team from the United States was there to do orthopaedic surgeries. The staff evaluated her arm and constructed a special brace for her to wear. They also showed the mother exercises for her to do to improve arm/shoulder mobility. She will have to return in February for a follow-up visit. The mother was excited to show me her daughter’s arm brace and is hopeful that her baby’s arm problem will be solved. Please pray for healing for Julie’s arm and also for the work of the Touching Hands Project.  The Touching Hands Project sends hand surgeons, nurses and hand therapist teams to different countries around the world. Pray also for the personnel at Adventist Hospital. They have an excellent orthopaedic clinic. They have a free clubbed foot treatment program,  and this is where we send parents who come to us for assistance in seeking treatment for their child’s foot deformities.

Nerline Jean and her mother came down from Foret –de-Pin (located near the Dominican border) for seizure medication. Nerline had a shunt placed in her brain a few years ago to treat her hydrocephalus. Her mother does a good job at looking after her. We brought her over to Bernard Mevs Hospital to see a doctor and he wrote another prescription for phenobarbital.  After staying here for a few days we brought her to the bus station in Croix-des-Bouquets for her return trip to Foret-de-Pins. Please pray for Nerline and that her shunt stays free of infection.

On Monday a mother brought her teen-aged son to seek medical care. Gwyn and Meredith saw her. Joseph had a large abscess under his jaw. He was started on antibiotics and we brought him over to Hopital La Paix for a surgical consult. This morning he had surgery to drain the abscess. He will need to return to the hospital for follow-up visits. Pray for healing for Joseph. We are thankful that Gwyn and Meredith can help here at Coram Deo, serving and praying with people in the community who are seeking medical care.

There are a lot of fevers, colds, and coughs going around. A few of us here at Coram Deo have been sick with these symptoms. Some of our students are not at school this week due to illness. Please pray for those who are sick. Sometimes the poor can’t afford to buy medicine to treat a fever and further complications occur.

We are thankful that Love A Child held a missionary distribution of Feed My Starving Children Manna Packs. We received 36 cases of manna J this past week. The food is nutritious and tastes good too J Love A Child has been very active in the post-hurricane relief effort assisting many people in Haiti. Please keep their work in prayer.

Sometimes life in Haiti can be frustrating. Our back neighbour is the Delmas 31 street market and a couple of the market people are using an abandoned yard next to us to make charcoal. It is usually a 3 day process with a lot of smoke. We tried talking with them and after 3 days there is now no more smoke smell.  Hopefully they don’t find any more wood to use for making more charcoal. It is illegal to make charcoal in the city but the by-law enforcement is not done well J

The solenoid on Kimosabe Jr. (Ford Ranger) stopped working while I was parked at the Christian Reformed Missions Centre. We had just brought a truck-load of pastors and church workers for the Timothy Leadership Training Seminars being held from November 9-11. The truck wouldn’t start and we had to find a mechanic. The mechanic hotwired with a direct connection to the battery and we made it back home but when I turned the key in the ignition to the off position and removed the key  the engine kept running J I asked Amos what we were going to do now and how do we turn Kimosabe Jr. off and Amos went to find the mechanic. The mechanic disconnected the wire and the engine stopped. We bought a new solenoid and now Kimosabe starts and stops when we want it to J
Pray for the Timothy Leadership Training Seminars that are being held this week. We brought 19 people from the Port-au-Prince, Cite Soleil, Kenscoff, and Leogane regions. The out-of-town people that we brought are sleeping at the Christian Reformed Missions Centre and we are bringing meals to them twice a day. We are thankful to Christian Reformed Missions, that the people we sponsor can sleep there. Please pray for their efforts.

With all the problems that occur in Haiti the following poem applies:

“When nothing whereon to lean remains,
When strongholds crumble to dust;
When nothing is sure but that God still reigns,
That is just the time to trust.
‘Tis better to walk by faith than sight,
In this path of yours and mine;
And the pitch-black night, when there’s no outer lights
Is the time for faith to shine.”

That is all the news for today. Have a blessed week-end J

Karen Bultje,
Coram Deo


For donations please send to:

Mission of T.E.A.R.S
Suite 504, 50 Gervais Drive
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M3C 1Z3


*Please note on the name of the cheque that it is for “Coram Deo”

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