“For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.” Ecclesiastes 12:14
Hi! This week was a busy week with the medical program. We now have the papers from the hospital in the United States for both Chrisno Jeudi and John Charles. Now we are awaiting a visa appointment in order for these babies to go to the United States for hydrocephalus surgery. I visited Chrisno Jeudi this week and he has recovered from his illness and is back to his spunky self again. Pray that these babies stay healthy and that we are able to get a medical visa for them.
Angelo Lafortune’s aunt called me from the United States this week. She told me about the results of Angelo’s MRI. The brain tumor has shown no sign of returning which is good news but the MRI shows that he has experienced bleeding in the brain probably due to a fall while in Haiti. As a result he will need to stay a couple more months in the United States for follow-up and possibly need to undergo another brain surgery. Keep him in prayer as the doctors decide how best to treat him.
We are working on the paperwork for Daphka, a 4-year-old girl with an orthopedic problem who has been accepted in the United States for surgery. We have had to redo her birth certificate, as the original birth certificate that the mother provided was a false one prepared by racketeers. To correct this takes time. We were able to redo the birth certificate and now are waiting for further paperwork before applying for her passport. The government officials have been helpful in speeding up paperwork time in order to help with medical cases.
We also made a couple of visits to a new area I haven’t visited yet in order to meet with Iliodor Noel. He is now strong and healthy after almost dying from infection. He is the young man whose leg was rotting from untreated gangrene for 3 months that we helped get an amputation at General Hospital. He is now getting used to living as an above the knee amputee. The stump has healed well and we are starting the process of getting him registered at Healing Hands with the hope of getting a prosthesis. Iliodor lives in the Malpasse area, which is by the Dominican Republic border with Haiti. When we got there he was waiting for us. I thought he lived in the area where we parked. When I asked him where he lived he pointed to the other side of the lake. There is a road on the other side of the lake leading to the village but we would have had to drive into the Dominican Republic first and go around. He got across though on one of the community sailboats. I asked him the name of his village and he answered Port Glace. I don’t know why it is named this because “glace” is the French/Creole word for ice! Iliodor is a friendly guy and after we helped him he wants to help other people find help as well. He had told us about a hydrocephalus baby living in his village. I asked him where the mother and her baby were and he asked to borrow my cell phone. He called someone who lived across the lake and told them to send the boat. There was a good breeze blowing so this Haitian sailboat made good time crossing the lake. As it got close to our side of the lake it was traveling fast. There was a rowboat setting out and it was in the path of this sailboat. I think Haitian maritime laws are the same as the laws on the road. On the road the larger trucks force their way and sometimes you have to swerve off the road to get out of their path. The same was true for this poor rowboat. The sailboat driver yelled out to the rowboat driver to get out of the way and the rower really pulled on his oars to move his boat. I took a photo because the boat was nearing shore. One of the passengers in the rowboat was a little anxious and was preparing to abandon ship. I was able to capture this moment on the photo and you can see it on the blogsite. There was no collision and the sailboat arrived with no problem. The baby is doing well and is only 4 months old. The baby is the youngest of 5 children. The second visit that we made on Friday we encountered 2 new medical cases. Iliodor knew of a couple of other people who had handicapped children and had them come and meet us for Friday morning. One man had his 15-month-old daughter with him. I asked the man where he came from and he pointed behind him and said that he lived on the other side of the mountain that was behind us. The girl has cerebral palsy and needs physiotherapy but I had to tell the father that he lived too far away from Healing Hands in order to get physiotherapy. A mother with a young boy with a severe orthopedic problem in both legs was there with her son. Hopefully we can find a hospital to help him in the United States. Pray for the handicapped who live in Haiti and also for more missionaries to come and help the handicapped.
A father came to our house this week with his 12-year-old son. Jameson has never been to school and is very malnourished. He has a form of malnutrition called kwashiorkor, which causes swelling. His voice was weak and it was an effort to walk. He is now in the Missionary of Charities Hospice getting care for his malnutrition. Pray for Jameson and other children like him.
Another of the handicapped children that was kicked out of a local school came with her mother to the house this week. Judite Pelican’s mother told me that her daughter begged her to come see me. Judite is also suffering from malnutrition. Her hair is orange and she is thin. I told her mother to send her here every morning during the week and she could then eat breakfast and lunch here as well as participate in the tutoring sessions that Samuel Marcelin and Jn. Eddy Alexandre are holding for the children.
This week we picked up a donation of Feed My Starving Children rice meals provided by Love a Child as being part of the ODEOS organization of orphanages. It was a 2-month supply so we have lots of food not only for us but also those in need in the community. We give the Lord thanks for this food.
I saw Reginald Jules in front of our gate on Monday and greeted him. Reginald is the boy who I saw begging in front of One Stop last week. That evening Manu told me that Reginald had asked him if he could come and help to make briquettes. I told Manu to tell him it was okay to come and help but forgot to tell the older guys this. The next morning I left early and when I came back I noticed that Reginald was still waiting outside the gate. He came inside and started to make briquettes. He has come by every morning and is usually here around 6:30 am and leaves in the late afternoon. I am glad that Reginald made the choice to make briquettes rather than begging on the streets. The boys have fun and sometimes fights making the briquettes but it keeps them busy and active.
Jean Anderson Jeudi and his mother came to the house this week. She told me about her son’s recent kidnap experience. Anderson is about 12 years old and is deaf. We had helped him for several years attend a deaf school in Bon Repos. The mother works at a factory and Anderson would keep himself busy helping out neighbors and walking around the community. A couple of weeks ago kidnappers grabbed him. All his mother knew was that he was missing. For the last couple of weeks she had been praying and searching for him. A police report was filed but the police had no leads. The kidnappers eventually released him by the television station on the corner of Delmas 33 and main Delmas. He communicated with us by showing with his hands what he went through and the kidnappers did not treat him well. He was beaten, bitten, choked, cut with a razor and bound during his ordeal. When he prayed they beat him. The kidnappers were not very bright. They did all these things to him to get him to show them his mothers phone number on their cell phone. A deaf person who cannot talk has no use for a cell phone and Anderson didn’t know his mothers’ number. He also has learning problems as well and doesn’t even know his numbers. Even if these kidnappers are never found God knows who they are and will deal with them in His time. The kidnapping of children is becoming more common. According to a report that the UN released covering the time period of January to July 2008, 68 children have been kidnapped so far this year. 35% of all victims of kidnapping are children. For all of 2007, 80 children were kidnapped.
Jean Anderson is now staying here temporarily at Coram Deo. His mother is scared to let him walk around and he is too. Now I need to learn some sign language in order to communicate with him. Pray for Anderson and his mother.
That’s all the news for today. Have a good weekend!
Karen Bultje, Coram Deo
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