Thank You Indiana and Canada Mission Team!!

We were so blessed at Mountain Top Ministries to share a week with an amazing group of people! Most of the team travelled from Indiana and Canada. The group was supposed to arrive together, but a snowstorm caused a slight delay. The Indiana group ended up overnighting in Miami due to weather conditions. Since only part of the team arrived, but there were over 20 patients sleeping up at the clinic waiting for it to open the next day (and another 100+ patients expected to arrive in the morning), we did what we could to open the clinic with just part of a team.

Joan (an amazing missionary that has come to help homeschool our kids) had arrived that week and filled in with the pharmacy, our oldest son Joseph was also visiting and filled in with triage, Julia came up and helped with scabies and triage, and David was in the pharmacy in between teaching classes at the school. They were all thankful to serve and always enjoy working in the clinic.

The team walked up the mountain while the truck went to the airport to gather the rest of the team. It was a beautiful day and everyone did a great job hiking up the mountain. It is not a small accomplishment. It really is a tough walk! We saw the cutest little goat with her baby on the way up. The first day went good and by early afternoon the rest of the team arrived with most of the supplies. A checked bag was MIA which is not such an uncommon occurrence. It actually never made it to Haiti until after the team left the following week.

One of the team members is an artist and was able to paint a mural on the wall that will be a teaching tool about clean water and other health related concerns. It shows the mountains and how the river runs down the mountain, but up above there are many things going on that you do not see such as animals in the water, people bathing in the water, etc. This should be a good tool to help educate on the fact that just because something looks clean does not mean that it is clean. Even Dr. O (from Canada) helped paint during our lunch break. I'll try to attach a completed picture later. It is really impressive!

We are so thankful for all the help upstairs organizing inventory. The team brought in many donations of much needed supplies for the pharmacy. The upstairs is looking better and better each day as we continue to plug away finding a place for everything and making that place clearly marked. We now have labels (for the most part) that are color coded so that team members can find medications easier. Our printer went down for a while, but the ministry was finally able to buy a new printer. This is also not a small thing in Haiti. Replacing things is always a challenge. We also have velcro on the shelves and the back of the labels. The problem we were having was that things would get moved around due to space and what the label or shelf says would no longer be what was actually there. Peeling off labels or painting what we written on the shelves was challenging. Unfortunately we ran out of velcro as well as the little clear badge holders to place the labels in, but we hope to get more on the next team. The simple things are often almost impossible to come by in Haiti.

The clothing closet is also looking great. An amazing team member did an incredible job organizing the clothing and labeling divider rings in between the various sizes. We're in need of more hangers, but we now have a very good system in place. Thank you Fern and all the other team members that helped with the clothing closet!

It was so fun to work together, pray together, and minister to the people of Haiti together. What I love about teams like this is seeing people from different backgrounds and different parts of the country coming together for a common purpose of loving the Lord and serving others.  The whole team sang in front of the church on Sunday.

The kids all loved to visit with the team members. At the end of the week, the team signed a pink soccer ball for Naomi and the girls and gave some other soccer balls to the boys. Naomi absolutely LOVES anything that is pink!! One soccer ball unfortunately has already hit our razor wire that goes around our house, but the others are still in good shape. The pink one thankfully survived! 

We miss the team already, but are thankful to have met new friends and look forward to seeing the team members again someday!

End of the Daniel Fast

Every January we do the Daniel fast. I think we started this about 10 year ago. Sometimes we fast for 21 days and sometimes for 45 or more. We do a modified fast (mostly no caffeine, meat, sugar, cheese/butter/dairy, oils/fats). The intent is for us to develop a closer relationship with the Lord and let go of distractions and unnecessary pleasures in life. Of course, this is easier said then done when we are all dreaming about sugar, but each and every year the Lord opens our eyes in new ways during the fast. One year it was revealed to me that I needed to give up caffeine entirely. It was obvious that I had an addiction because at each Daniel fast I would have an incredible headache the first week. So, one year I simply did not go back to caffeine and was completely off of caffeine for 2 or 3 years. I have since gone back to caffeine in small amounts, but I don't need caffeine and in fact would prefer decaf over regular coffee.

This year, the Daniel fast takes a whole new meaning since we now live in Haiti. Some things are easier to give up like cheese or dairy products because they aren't really readily available in Haiti anyway. Other things are more challenging like sugar and oil/fats because it seems like they put sugar and oil in just about every dish and it tastes really good, so we've developed a taste for oil in things. Some of our main staples are flour, sugar, and lard to make bread, pancakes, biscuits, etc.

This year we've focused our fast on prayer. We've become more deliberate in prayer before action. It seems too often when we come to what appears to be a dead end, we are then left with the thought, "Well, all we can do now is pray" instead of really dedicating time to pray without ceasing before we even come to the end of our rope.

The fast is coming to an end this week and Joseph (our oldest son) arrives on Monday. Everyone is excited for the coming week (both to see Joseph and to eat cookies). Apparently an amazing family we know is sending chocolate bars in for the kids. Thank you Cook family! I probably shouldn't have mentioned it to the kids because they've been talking about it for 3 weeks now.

We also have another medical team arriving on Tuesday. We appreciate all those that are praying for us back in Oregon, the USA and around the world for that matter. We miss New Song (our home church) and we miss all our friends, but we are so thankful that the Lord has brought us here to Haiti to serve.

Thank you Chicago Medical Team!

This past week we had an amazing medical team predominantly from the Chicago area. The Little by Little team arrived to serve at Mountain Top Ministries last Monday and just left today for the states. It was an amazing week and we are so thankful for what the team was able to accomplish. The kids and I were able to spend time the previous week preparing for the team with inventory as well as organizing and Ron was able to finish up the construction changes that were made in the clinic. We now have the ability to operate seven or even eight stations with the additional room created in the clinic.

Although during the week I spent a great deal of time upstairs with the help of many incredible team members doing inventory and organizing, I did run downstairs to the main clinic periodically throughout the day. The team really was running like clockwork. We have now established an educational time before each clinic where team members provide more in depth education regarding the cause and effects of high blood pressure.

Some of the team members were also able to go to the K-3rd grade classrooms and provide fluoride treatments for the children. This is a much needed service to the population.

Another blessing personally to our family was that our son Billy's nephew was able to be seen at the clinic. Little Darwin was born with six fingers on each hand, which seems to be a relatively common occurrence in Haiti. Some of our children from Haiti have had the same condition. With Darwin, his extra fingers were barely attached, so one of the amazing doctors was able to remove one of the fingers relatively easily. I came in to assist and put pressure on the hand after the additional finger was removed. The family will return for the next clinic in a week for follow up care. If everything looks good, the next team may be able to remove the extra finger on the other hand.

We now begin the process of getting ready for the next team. We are so thankful for the dedication of so many team members each month that come to serve with Mountain Top Ministry to help the people of Haiti through building projects, education, evangelism, as well as much needed medical care.