Cry of Alexa

Miracles still happen!!!  Today, we were in the clinic when Alexa and her family walked in.  We were hoping not to see her, because we wanted her to go to the hospital yesterday.  The family didn't have the means to get there, so they went to a doctor that was closer to their home. The doctor tried to find a vein that he could get an IV in.  As the family tells me, he turned to walk out of the room telling them he couldn't find a place to put an IV but he would be back soon.  Her godmother and cousin told me they sat in the room with her as the doctor walked out.  When he left, Alexa, the little girl we had just seen hours before that could barely grimace in pain and talked very little, raised her hands and began to sing a hymn.  According to the family, what they witnessed next is the miracle.  The doctor returned to the room, looked at Alexa, and said he saw a vein in her neck he thought he could put an IV in.  It was successful. Just minutes before, he was certain he could. BUT GOD!!! I honestly believe this was because so many of you were praying for her!!!!

This little girl cried out to her Creator, and he provided.

When she returned today, she had much more strength. We occasionally saw her eyes, and she spoke very clearly to us.  As I laid her down, and covered her wounds with warm cloths, she said to me "I need to pee pee."  That was the happiest I've ever been to hear a kid say those words.  She later told me, "raise me up." She actually told us that several times! She also told us she was ready to leave and she wanted to go to her house.  She put up a slight fight today.

When her family was telling me this story, she sang the song for us!  When we were all done, she asked us for a sucker. I asked her what color she thought she wanted and she immediately responded "RED."

Little Alexa is not out of the woods yet. Please continue to pray for her.  It's very important that we and her family keep her hydrated over the next several weeks.  It doesn't take long for someone burned this severely, to dehydrate.  However, we will praise the Lord for the life that we saw in her today, and pray for him to continue to intervene and heal this child.



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A New Brother

Last week, I was joking around with  one of our Gran Moun (elderly) in our feeding program.  I tease them each week on who's misbehaving.  It's an ongoing joke between all of us but it brings lots of laughs in the clinic as they wait for their weekly medications.  Last week, one of the men that I tease the most was raging mad.  He was screaming at a young lady that was there and threatening her.  When I confronted him, I asked why he was so mad.  He said she was being disrespectful to him but that she was also not respecting the clinic and the things that we had done for her family.

He told her that he wasn't going to fight her in the clinic because he had respect for us, but he would find her in the village.  Once I had him calmed down and laughing again, I asked him if he knew what her problem was.  He said yes, "she doesn't have respect."  I went on to explain to him that her real problem was her heart.  She didn't respect us because she didn't know Jesus.  I told him we needed to pray for her to become a Christian, not to threaten her.  I went on to say that if we were Christians, we would not be threatening her anyways.  I asked if he was a Christian.  He said "not yet."  When I asked him what he was waiting on, he told me he didn't have a Bible.  I shared with him for a while and promised I would try to find a Kreyol Bible.  He told me he would find me at church on Sunday.

I sent a good friend of mine with money to the market to buy a Bible.  When he brought it back, Sharron volunteered to go through and highlight some Scriptures from a pamphlet that we have.  He didn't come to church, but he came for food and medicine today.  I asked him where he was, and he said he went to another place but not church.  Upon further investigation, I found out that he had gone to a place where Voodoo is practiced.  It's a very dark place and well known for Voodoo.  I asked him to come back to the other room so Sharron and I could talk with him.  Sharron walked him through the Scriptures, explaining each verse, and asking him to repeat what they meant.  He listened and engaged very well.  At the end, we asked if he wanted to pray to accept Christ.  He said yes and immediately dropped to his knees.  WOW!!!!

After he prayed we explained that he couldn't practice Voodoo and Christianity together.  That if this was the life he wanted, he had to walk in the Lord.  He agreed to do so.  I asked him if he knew why I was so happy, and he said "because I prayed to accept the Savior."  I agreed with him.  As he left the clinic, I yelled out the door, "Why are you smiling?"  He responded, "because I have Jesus in my heart!!!!"  We are working on getting him connected with a Haitian pastor to disciple him but that was a great start to a CRAZY Monday.

I praise the Lord for years of Judy and Sheryl showing him the love of Christ;  I praise the Lord for a relationship with this man that would open the door for such conversations, and I praise the Lord for Sharron being able to speak the language I haven't mastered so eloquently to lead him to the Lord.

It's Our Turn

We have been able to take several teams into the homes of our elderly individuals that we give food to on Monday mornings.  We have a feeding program for them and some are home bound and send family to pick up food.  This has truly been a blessing.  It is pure joy to see the faces of the individuals as they invite us into their homes.  For the most part, Haiti cares for the elderly much better than people in the US.  There are no nursing homes or in home care for these individuals.  They are fully at the mercies of God and their family and close friends.  I have been in the homes of a man that rents one room and lives alone, a woman that is blessed to live with family, and a woman that is 104, her daughter, granddaughter, the daughter-in-law of her daughter, and 3 great grandchildren also lives in the house.  The men have either died or run off to be with other women.  All of them so happy to just have someone come visit, talk, sing, and pray with them.

My heart is heavy for them because they have so little yet they have so much, but it breaks for the elderly in the US too.  I long for the next time I sit with my Granny and hold her hand.  The next time I can feed her ice cream and reflect on the solid foundation her, Pa, and Grandma Dean laid out before me and the faith that each of them had.  Granny can't talk, she sleeps most of the time, and she doesn't know who I am. But I know who she is.  So many people say they don't want to remember the elderly in their current state or the person doesn't know if we are there or not.  Each of these may be true, but when Granny opens her eyes and communicates with a smile, I know she knows someone is there and someone cares.

Please don't forget the widowed and elderly.  One day we will be that person and I pray that no one thinks these things about us and leaves us abandoned.  I encourage each of you to fight the battle of age with your family and friends.  Stay by their sides, and visit someone that needs love.  They've done so much for each of us, they have so much to teach us (even if it isn't with words), and now it's our turn to love on them.

James 1:27

Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.