Flash Back/Splash Back

I don’t remember if I have shared this yet, but the US armed forces are here on a humanitarian mission. Apparently it is an annual event, but it is the first time that they have been to the northwest region of Haiti. The will go to several (I think 8) countries in the Caribbean and South America. Haiti was the first this year. The USS Iwo Jima is off the coast of Port au Paix. About 45 minutes west of us. They are doing health screenings on shore, and taking some of the patients on our waiting list out to the ship for surgery. The Seabee’s are on our compound doing construction projects, including creating a men’s and a woman’s restroom in our surgical ward. 2 commodes and 2 shower stalls each. That will help greatly with getting patients ready for surgery and taking care of them after.


Their being here has reminded me a lot of my time in the Navy. For those who don’t know, I trained as a surgical tech in the Navy and spent 9 ½ years serving. I was particularly reminded today of my time on the USS America. Lori and I were folding linens and I remembered the other surgical tech and I doing what we called “The Sheet Dance” (a little embarrassing I know, but I do have a point to make). Then all of a sudden, I recalled a great deal of my time on the America. I was the senior tech of 2, so I was in charge of the operating room. When we weren’t busy there we worked in the ER or sick call, or helped out the supply department.

Have I mentioned what Lori and I are doing in Haiti these days? We will be coordinating the surgery teams and the operating rooms. To do so we have to organize the supply system. The only time we are not doing those things are when one of the short term or full time missionaries is sick and needs taken care of. They come to us and we handle it if we can or ask one of the Haitian doctors for help if we need to.

The more Lori and I think about our pasts, the more we realize how long God has been preparing us for this very season of our lives. And He reminds me of that at just the right times too. I’d like to tell you that everything has gone smoothly our first month here, however I can tell you that it’s nothing I haven’t seen before, and nothing God can’t handle.

“The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world”. 1st John 4:4

Our Typical Day in Haiti...Warning, this is a long boring read

I just realized that I have not really shared much about what Lori and I are doing in Haiti.


A typical day starts at 6:15 in the morning. Unless there is a group of short term missionaries leaving that day, than it starts between 3:15 and 4:15, depending on when they need to catch their flights. We get up and say good bye to them then go back to bed until 6:15. We start by walking Cinnamon. She has been kind enough to decide that the garbage dump is a good place to, well, dump. That way we don’t have to clean up after her.

Morning Devotions are ate 6:45 followed by breakfast at 7:00. 8:00 or so we start our day, but the generators don’t start until 9:00. We have been spending most of our time sorting through supplies for outdated or damaged material. There is a lot of it. We have been blessed for years with many donated medical supplies. Unfortunately, with nobody medical here full time, there has never been a first in first out supply system. Things in the bottom of storage been have been here for years, collecting mold and mildew, or the expiration dates passes while items on top which don’t expire for years are used when short term teams come in to do surgery. My group has done it too. When the short term team I led got here we had one day to get ready for full OR schedules, so when we found something we could use we quit looking for other items that should have been used first. We have been getting a lot of help from short term missionaries (especially when they find out the medical facilities are air conditioned).

Lunch is at 12:00. All are meals are prepared by Haitians employed by the mission. Lunch is my favorite because it’s something Haitian. Beans and rice mostly but they prepare different sauces every day. Today was actually Haitian spaghetti which is spaghetti with little sauce and hotdogs. Not very Haitian, but I like it.

After lunch it is back to sorting through the supply room until 4:00ish. Now I know that SOUNDS boring and tedious, and it really is. It is also necessary, and once we get it done we will be able to maintain a much more efficient system and when the surgical teams come in things should go very smoothly and we won’t have as many supplies that need thrown out.

4:00 we go back to our room to read the bible and catch up on email, blogs etc. 6:00 is diner, which is something American made with canned meat. We actually eat well here considering the supply issues of getting most of it from the states. Chicken we get locally, and we get a lot of that. We are supposed to be setting up a hydroponics plant soon to grow fresh fruits and vegetables. Looking forward to that.

Evening devotions are at 7:00. After that is time with each other or watching a movie with other missionaries, or group bible studies.

Bed by 9:00 or 10:00.

Doesn’t sound like much work for God’s Kingdom. Currently we are sowing seeds for later harvesting. The real work comes when we start seeing surgical teams come in.

Throughout the day we also take care of any staff or short term missionaries that need help. Mostly dehydration or “Montezuma’s Revenge”. Got to keep them healthy because they are out doing VBS or sports camps. There is always people here doing outreach projects, and we keep them going when they get sick.

I knew I would be stretch here, but....

I knew we would be stretched becoming missionaries to Haiti. I knew we would have to do without things we had become accustomed to, and do things we had never done before. We planned for some of those things. We bought battery operated fans for the hot nights with no air conditioning. We bought Lori’s Nook because we knew we would have trouble finding books. We shipped Cinnamon’s dog food so she wouldn’t have to settle for Haitian dog food if there even is such a thing. Some things would stretch us that we couldn’t prepare for, like leading VBS or evangelizing.

While I have never been stretch quite like I was today, even though we saw it coming and did what we could to prepare. I still wasn’t ready for the stress of what I was called to do today. It was probably the scariest thing I’ve done on the mission field, or anywhere else for that matter. I cut my wife’s hair. I’ve never cut hair in my life. Not even my own. Her beautician let me watch her the last two times she cut it and talked me through what she was doing. I guess we could have bought a wig and practiced first, but my first time cutting hair was on my wife as she’s telling me how difficult her hair is to cut for a skilled beautician. I don’t know what we were thinking when we planned this part of our time here. I could only imagine God up in Heaven telling Peter to “Get the popcorn, this is going to be funny”.

Everything worked out though, glory to God. I chickened out on her bangs and made her do her own in a mirror, but we got through the rest, and I think she is beautiful!!!!

An “Unfortunate Incident”

I had a wonderful opportunity today to go out to a local church about 20 minutes from here with a doctor who is only here because of an “unfortunate incident” at the mission he was supposed to go to in Port au Prince. They were unable to take the team and asked if they could come to NWHCM. He has been to many third world countries doing this very thing, and he was very good at it. He had people with him from his group and a couple nurses that just happened to be here, lots of medical supplies already divided into little zip lock baggies so non-medical people could hand them out after the nurse or doctor decided what they needed. They also had several bags full of cloths to be given out to everybody as well. What a blessing he was to that small community. How much more respect will the pastor who set the clinic up get from the people he serves.


Though we were not able to keep count of the patients seen, I would think a fair guess would be about 200-250. Most really didn’t need much if anything, other than to know that someone cared about them. I think that is the most important thing we can do here, give hope. A good number had some small complaints that back in America you could have just gotten a bottle of Motrin at Wal-Mart and been fine. Some we found to have needed antibiotics or blood pressure medicine, and we could help them and hope that they follow-up with the clinic for more blood pressure medicine. If they don’t they don’t, but at least for today, they know somebody cared.

July 9 update

God has such a great sense of humor. I was all prepared to post a note an hour ago, but my internet link was acting up. Now the internet is working and I can’t find the post I saved. Wondering if I’m Supposed to be doing something else right now, but I can’t think of anything. God has been guiding this journey for a long time. I was thinking today how different it looks from what I expected, but when God’s in control I’m just along for the ride. When I’m in control God just laughs at me and comes along to protect me.


Things are moving faster than I thought they would and it’s mostly due to great help from the short term missionaries. Lori and keep getting distracted by sick missionaries. That’s a blessing too though because we get to talk with them and learn about their lives, and seem genuinely interested in our lives and God’s/our plans and hopes for the medical department here.

We are adjusting very well to life here in Haiti. Cinnamon too as you can see.

Thanks so much for all your love and support. We are trying to be God’s hands and feet, but it is you, the body of Christ that make us move.

July 5th update

Things are going well the first couple days. We arrived Friday early afternoon with only a few minor glitches. We were delighted to find that we were getting a room instead of living in our tent. We like the tent because it is cooler at night than the rooms, but the room has it’s own bathroom. The fans we brought do a good job keeping us cool at night when the power goes out, and not having to walk to the common restrooms in the middle of the night is well worth having to rely on fans for a breeze.


We spent the rest of Friday and most of Saturday moving in and getting acclimated to the weather. I’m thinking that will take another couple days (NOT). Sunday was church services and rest. Today we hit it hard. Lots of new supplies to find a place for and cleaning. That should take us another couple days and then we are going to organize the supply rooms.

We were told when we got here that the US Navy was going to be sending a surgical team on a humanitarian mission the end of the month which was putting a time crunch on us. We met with them today and it now appears that they want to fly the patients to a naval ship off the coast to do the surgeries and only need us to supply the patients and help with the logistics. Lori and I have asked if the surgical team could use some help and we might fly out to the ship and help with the surgery.

Cinnamon is adjusting well to her new home. She knows the way to our room when we say we are going home, and she is not starving for attention with 110 people plus staff on campus.

Thanks for your continued prayers and support. Love to all.