John Espoir - Centre Rehabilitation

I was talking with my sister today about John and physiotherapy. Now that we have an empty living room we want to achieve the dream I had when I first moved into this house in the year 2000. We are going to establish the CENTRE DE REHABILITATION DE JOHN ESPOIR. In this way John will continue to live on helping others with their handicaps. As much as John loved music we are going to decorate the living room in bright murals. Espoir means hope and we want to give hope to the people in Haiti. Please keep this dream in prayer. It can be done :)

Repainting The Living Room

Ken and Andrea moved out their clinic on Saturday. The guys here gave them a helping hand at loading the material onto their truck and helping them unload it at their new site. We wish them well.  It wasn't until a couple of years after the earthquake that Ed Amos needed a place to hold his medical clinics. My dream ever since moving into the house where we have been since 2000 was to have a place where physiotherapy could be done. Not many missions work with the handicapped and this was an area where we wanted to help in. I found a place right near the corner of Delmas 31 where the tap-taps stop and where there is a motorcycle taxi stand. This makes it easy for handicapped people to get to our house. The living room is a good size and was sort of being used as only a living room and storage area. After the earthquake and seeing that Ed was without a clinic site I thought that maybe God was leading us to host a medical clinic. Ed stayed a couple of years and then Ken took the clinic over. The clinic grew and we tried to accommodate the growth as well as running the school program. The front bedroom became the pharmacy room :) We were blessed with a container and then the other bedroom in the house served as a depot. This left us able to use the kitchen and my bedroom. We were feeling cramped and the clinic was cramped too. Now the clinic has moved out, and we have one bedroom for storage and one bedroom for guests. The guys painted the new living room from the clinic white color to the same colour as the rest of the house on Saturday :) They had a lot of fun.  Please keep this room in prayer. I still haven't given up on my dream of having a site for physiotherapy :) Pray too for Ken and Andrea as they set up their new location.

Ottawa Visitors

 

Thursday we had a visit from Jeffrey Nault and his team from the Ottawa, Ontario region of Canada. We love having visitors. Years ago there was a plea made in Canada on television stations for a translator to help my sister Tanya do translating for John's paperwork. Jeffrey Nault and his wife used to work at Grace Children's Hospital in the 1970's. They moved back to Canada and when he saw the news he contacted my sister to help John. Jeffrey Nault and his wife still lead teams to Haiti. He visited us a couple of years ago and told us of his story with John. It is neat how John has brought so many people together. His team visited us and brought us some gifts and supplies. Some of their gifts were something that only Canadians could appreciate - things like Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leaf sandals! We are going to have to find some special children worthy of wearing these Canadian sandals :) One of the team members works in a hospital in the recovery room. Doctors and staff put a suitcase of medical supplies together to bring to us. This gift comes at the right time. Ken and Andrea's clinic moved out on Saturday to another location and we will be needing to source our own medical supplies in the future. One of the team members came with his ukulele and Manu joined him in playing music. They played well together and knew many songs! Another of the team members first language growing up was French as she lived in Quebec. She was able to greet and talk with our school students. The team prepared care packages of supplies that can be handed out to the mothers that come here to stay for hydrocephalus and plastic surgeries. That same day we handed out some of these care bags to mothers that came in from the Southern part of Haiti to see the Smile Network team that is doing surgeries at Bernard Mevs Hospital. Thank you to our Ottawa area friends and we hope to see you again on your next visit to Haiti :) We give the Lord thanks for visitors who come and help out here in Haiti.

 

 

Jeffrey Nault Ottawa Area Mission Team - Ukele/Guitar

Thursday morning, Jeff Nault came with a team from the Ottawa, Ontario area. One of the team members came with his ukulele and he played some music with Manu playing the guitar. They played well. We look forward to the next visit that this team makes to Haiti :) Below is a video of one of the songs that they played.

Cleft Lip Out-Of-Town House Guests

On Thursday we said good bye to Jeff. Friday we picked up a few families from Bernard Mevs Hospital who come from out of town. The guys are giving up their beds for these cleft lip and palette babies and their mothers. Now the guys can sleep up in the bunkhouse :) Starting on Monday the Smile Network medical team from Minneapolis starts doing surgeries and changing faces :) Some of these children are having follow-up surgery to repair the cleft palates. One woman who is pictured in the photos came with her 3 children. Her middle child has a cleft lip. She comes from the Port Salut area. Please keep all of these mothers and children in prayer.

Wilkens Jean - Cleft Lip Adult

Wilkens Jean is a 22-year-old man who has lived his entire life with a cleft lip. He comes from the Saut D'Eau area of Haiti. We picked him up from the hospital yesterday afternoon. He is here by himself. He is the oldest person in the group of out of town patients who are staying here waiting for surgery that will start next week. He will be operated on Thursday. Please keep him in prayer. People will no longer be making fun of his face and staring at him to see how he can eat.

Smile Network - Cleft Lip/Palette Surgeries

A Smile Network team from Minneapolis, Minnesota is here in Haiti and will be doing cleft lip, palette surgeries next week. Currently we have 4 mothers and their children staying here at Coram Deo awaiting the surgery. Starting Monday afternoon our food service team will be bringing food to the hospital twice a day. We have a special cleft palate visitor staying at our house. He is a young man who has lived since birth with a cleft lip. He will be a recipient next week of a changed face and surgery. It is sad that people have to live their lives with a cleft lip that can be easily repaired. Please keep all the patients in prayer who will be receiving this surgery by the Smile Network team. Below are a couple of videos about this organization.