Dear Ones,

I am back in Haiti after our friend’s bypass surgery in Toronto

Having been here last just last week, I knew that we were totally out of antibiotics. Nobody in Haiti has any that we can find, either. Even the suppliers that we try to buy them from are out of stock. The World Health Organization is stretched to its limits with the floods in other parts of the world, too. (As Christians who live with modern medicine, we never think how devastating the great tribulation will be, with one disease after another coming upon men… and all the medicine used up.)

Health Partners International of Canada helped us this week, by putting together two big boxes full of antibiotics, and just gave them to me freely. I brought them with me as my luggage. Some of it was Cipro, but there were also some very precious bottles of Doxycycline.

Follow up:

In my flight here, was a stop in Montreal airport. I had a couple of hours to spare, so was wandering around through the duty-free shop at 8:00 am. Three shop employees were speaking to each other and pointing at me. I had no idea why. They all three came over to talk to me about how I braid my hair. It was so sweet. They were all guessing about how long it might be, when they noticed the crosses on my t-shirt. I explained that I work in Haiti as a missionary.

One of the ladies in the store burst into a long story and the other two left immediately. The sales-clerk had me by the arm, telling me about her friend’s young daughter who worked in Haiti with the U.N. She died on Friday.

The young lady, only 29 years old, had done much volunteer work. It was her dream to study international politics and humanitarian aid, which she did quite successfully. Just four years ago, she was able to come to Haiti as an employee of the United Nations. Her girl-friend was coming for a holiday in the Dominican Republic a couple of weeks ago, and so she took some holiday time and joined her. On the last day of their holiday in the Dominican Republic, the girls were by an SUV while crossing a street. One girl is still in a coma, and the daughter of the sales-lady’s friend was killed.

They had a funeral with UN workers from around the world who knew the girl. It was comforting to her mother that her young daughter had a reputation for doing good. But the saleslady was truly concerned for the mother of the dead girl’s safety. She was grieving bitterly. The lady explained to me that in their culture, the ashes are taken to a river and dispersed so that there is nothing left… everything returns back to the earth. But the young woman’s younger sister is crying and not permitting the ashes to leave her bedroom, clinging to them and crying despondently. The mother also is desperately grieving.

I asked if I could pray for the saleslady and her friend. After all, it was early and there was no one at all in the shop but the other workers, who were very much keeping things private for us. But our saleslady did not want me to pray. She said they had their own religion. The girl had been good. Everything was as it should be. In my heart, I sensed that there was some fear that if the saleslady or the family of the girl believed the Gospel, they would have to come face to face with good works not being enough. And they did not want to face that. I spoke to her about a loving God. She said, yes, there was good karma for those who do good.

I walked away wondering how I could have ministered to her any better. I will continue to pray for the Lord to send the right person into the lives of these people, and their community, who can reach them with His great, powerful, tender love. The lady I was speaking to, just could not see it. She could see good works, good paycheques, good and influential friends, and good reputation. But none of those things can give the young woman her life back. It is a hopeless sort of life, living without our very personal, very much involved, very loving Saviour.

And so, inwardly praying about the darkness that this family and their friends were dealing with, I carried on in my journey to Haiti. I arrived here late in the afternoon, too late to catch the little commuter plane up to the north. I stayed in a hotel in Port au Prince.

Before the earthquake, the only obviously non-Haitian people at hotels were missionaries. We would all sit around at the restaurant tables in the open air restaurant of any hotel, laptops before us, and exchange greetings and tales of our missionary experiences. It was always so very friendly.

On Tuesday, I took my laptop, as usual, to the open air restaurant, with my empty water bottle, and sat down to work. I said hello to each in the restaurant, the only place where there was internet access. But no one answered back. They just all looked like stressed out people, smoking or drinking beer, typing furiously away at their work. They had the same grey, dull lack of hope that I sensed in the eyes of the sales lady.

Since the earthquake, the eyes of the world have been turned toward Haiti. But the hyper-secularism of the workers has no hope in it. Even the workers themselves are only bringing their own despair and darkness with them… Those who are greedy for riches welcome them for what they will give, but then find their hands are still empty of hope.

O, but praise God we have a Saviour! What a wonderful God He is!

Everywhere I go, here, there are wonderful testimonies of what the Lord is doing among those who call upon Him!

Yesterday, Johny and I went over to the Birthing Center to see the new babies and their mothers, and to worship with them. There were many young mothers there, with babies receiving their immunizations. Johny played guitar, and we sang hymns. We read from Deuteronomy 11:18-21. The Lord admonishes us to write His Word on our hearts, and teach them to our children, that our days and the days of our children will be multiplied. It was a blessed time of worship.

When we finally left them, we met up with Dennis and Lorrie who were just back from the prison. Every Thursday, Melonnie goes to the federal prison in Port de Paix and has a worship and teaching time with the prisoners. I told you about how we are feeding them. Since Dennis and Lorrie have gone to live in Haiti, they go once a month to see the prisoners for clinic. This time, they found some prisoners who had some very advanced illnesses which looked like syphilis, which had been treated with the wrong medicine and had gotten much worse. These prisoners’ lives were at stake. Also, there were some there who were extremely ill with other diseases.

Dennis, Lorrie, and Melonnie laid hands on the sick ones, and prayed for them. Dennis came home giving glory to God that because of the suitcase of antibiotics, they had exactly the right medicine to give the sick prisoners. God is so very good. Dennis was telling me that he kept thinking about the Good Samaritan. The Good Samaritan was good because he stopped to help the wounded man. But, he also poured oil on his wounds, and supplied for his care. Yesterday, because of some special gifts from the Lord, we had the ‘oil’ to ‘pour’ on the wounds of these sick prisoners. Our God is so very good.

I am so thankful for the prayer of faith… for the life of faith.

Sometimes, in Haiti, it is easy to become discouraged that I do not know if anything I am doing is important, or even worth the doing. And then, I get out my Bible in the morning, and read out loud how much the Lord is involved with what we do. Psalm 35:27-28 has been really speaking to me over the last couple of days:

“Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant. And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long. “

We worship a God who takes pleasure in what we do working out right. He even cares if a man in prison gets good medicine for his diseases. And, He makes us sing songs of praise everywhere we go.

He is so very good.

p.s. It rained hard all night. Very hard. And though my tent was set in a shallow sea of rainwater up on the roof, I was dry inside. Even the winds that always come up at sunrise did not harm the tent. O, how good our God is! Thank you for praying about even the smallest things! In His great love, Tina