Why we are here . . .

Today we received a letter from one of our patients and I want to share it with you. This young man spoke English very well but some of the English in the letter is incorrect but you can see his heart . . .

Dear Doctors, all the members of the mission Halos,
Today I take this delightful pleasure in other to thank you over so much because the surgery that I will never forget in my life. It's been so long. I mean about seven years I couldn't find absolutely any people to wait on me with this sickness I'm talking about my hernia. But, God always knows what he does, and he finally sends you for me in other that you heal me. Right now I feel divinely fine because of you, as stated one of you, Cydney, "you won't remember the surgery". It is true what she said, that I only felt bad after the surgery during the night and I couldn't walk because of the anesthesia, immediately it goes away. I feel so good like you. And today, I can say that I am not sick anymore. I only get the scar where you cut me. But I am sick of thanking you for everything. I mean your attention, appreciation, and so on.

Unfortunately, I cannot thank you as I should do it, but in the easiest way I am telling you "thank you over so much my doctors and I do love you for everything." Specially, I wanted to thank doctors Mike, Jack and Cydney. Don't get jealous please because I love all of you, you be my siblings and let me congratulate you for this mixture Haitian and American together you accomplish your missions. Oh, that's great. Like you enhance my love for you.

Indeed I wanted to thank you but I can't afford to thank you as I should.Please pray for safe travels tomorrow for the team. It has been a pleasure for me to see the lives of these team members changed for Christ!

God Stories

Meet Charles Tcheney (pictured below). We met him during one of our clinics and his lower extremeties were very week and he could not walk or crawl. Halos has provided for this child's physical therapy over the last year or so. Praise God with us that he is walking today!!!

In this post, I wanted to take some time to tell you about some of the people God sent us.
Our very first hernia case was an older gentleman. Everything went very well and he was so full of joy after the surgery he was praising God left and right! This is always our prayer, that God gets the glory, not us. The young man who had the last hernia surgery of this day was accompanied by his girlfriend and they had just had a baby 3 months ago. Marriage was discussed and rings were made of tape for them both and an unofficial wedding was performed! Unfortunately, a lot of local anesthesia was necessary for the procedure and his right leg did not work for several hours. Praise God, the feeling came back later that evening and all is well with him. We were asked to evaluate a young man with some sort of cancer that was now protruding from his shoulder and skin. It looked and smelled awful. One of our physicians took a look to see if there was anything we could do, but it appeared that this young man is terminal. Prayers were said over him, please continue to keep him in your prayers, too, as he prepares to meet Jesus face to face.
We took one of our patients with us to Archaie for hernia surgery in the morning. The procedure was performed first thing and then he had to wait all day for the ride home on a hard bench. He did not complain all day. The joy on every person's face was a reflection of Christ our Savior. Please praise God that his love was revealed to our patients and to us!
On the last day, we had a young man who seemed so nervous to have a small mass removed from his arm. We talked with him during the procedure to take his mind off things. He revealed that he has a girlfriend named Stephanie who is 19. After we were done, we told him to say "hello" to Stephanie for us. At this time he told us that Stephanie was in the hospital as her parents did not agree with their relationship and so she drank battery acid. Michel told us that this is common in Haiti. Please pray for these kids.The VBS team has become very attached to the children of the orphanage and the children of the staff at Three Angels. Please pray for all as they say their good-byes today.It is crazy hot here! Yesterday it was 91 degrees (felt like 102) and today it is to be 98 (feels like 110)! Please pray for us. Thunderstorms are predicted for today. Please pray that the rain holds off until tonight!

A Short Work Day

There was a mix-up with our transportation for this morning and the VBS team had to leave at 6:15 am instead of 8 am. The team members were troupers about this. Since they left so early, it was decided that they could return earlier for lunch and swimming at the guesthouse. It was a good day to do so because it is the hottest day so far!

The kids in VBS enjoyed the glue during crafts. They were gluing their bags to the table, and eating the glue, etc. Hey! Just like in the U.S. The kids enjoyed playing the "Wolf Game" and enjoy anything that involves running around. One of their favorite things is the Veggie Tales video. Pat and Kendra helped the kids make some drawstring bags today while Katie took charge of all the music and has been singing songs from Annie all afternoon. Christina and Lexie were in charge of snacks, watermelon is a hit! Megan played games with the kids.

The medical team made their last trek to Archaie with 4 members riding in the back of our luggage truck on the way there. Cydney was ready to shave prep and start IV's and find time to call the U.S. on one of our translator's phone (just pretending, that is)! As soon as Connie said it was okay and Tom had the instruments sterilized, it was time for the patient to make the long walk down the hall to the OR. The patient was positioned and prepped by Chris while Matt prepared the sedation. In walked Kyle and Mike to get their sterile duds on and perform the surgery. Once the surgery was over, the patient was wheeled on the cart back to post-op where Derb was waiting to slap on the monitors for the recovery. Jamie and Kate were occasional OR observers and official sandwich artists. I have been the official chicken with the head cut off this week and I so enjoyed it!!!

Many people on the team feel that they have been blessed more than they have been a blessing. Tomorrow the medical team will unpack the medical supplies we brought back from the hospital and repack what we need to bring home. There is one more morning of VBS. We plan to leave Three Angels at noon for a drive up to the mountains for a visit of a fort and stop off for some ice cream! Thank you for your prayers . . . keep it up!

Surgery Day 2

Hi everyone this is Cydney blogging for the medical team. Today was another fun ride to Arcahai. Very fast! The day started off slow because three of our cases could not get a ride to the hospital. Very sad. But fortunate for us there were plenty of other Haitians that did show up. For our slow morning the air conditioner in the O.R. worked great, at one point we were all just hanging out in there trying to stay cool, but then for our very busy afternoon the generator went down and the O.R. was 100 degrees. Matt, Connie, Chris, Kyle, Dr. Jack, Dr. Mike and Kate H. were all troopers, they stayed in the O.R. despite the sweltering heat and rocked. Tom was kept busy with autoclaving the instruments. Deb was everywhere with the OR schedule and Jamie did an excellent job holding a 3 year old down as Dr. Mike removed her extra toe. We saw hernias, lipomas, and hydroceles and extra digits today. Lynda and Kate were fortunate enough to be able to drain a couple of hydroceles by themselves and Kyle was able to suture and hold retractors. Even with all of these exciting events the most exciting was when our first hernia patient this morning just kept saying "merci, merci, merci" and said that God had come today! It was truely awsome. So there is my story! Stay tuned for tomorrow's fun filled stories.Yo yo, this is Katie blogging for the VBS team. Today we learned "Why God Made Us Special". The kids were super cute, as usual, and eager to learn, play, and love everyone around them. Lexi and Christina took over games and did a really good job. Christina roughed the kids up with some football and Lexi took on painting fingernails. The boys looked especially cute with nail polish. Pat helped the kids with crafts again and today they made necklaces out of beads and crosses. She also helped the orphanage staff handwash two tubs of laundry later in the afternoon. Kendra applied her "food and consumer package goods marketing" major today in the snack area with some awesome peanut butter sandwiches and bananas. Katie manned the TV station, showing the Veggie Tales Movie "Bob's Vacation". Megan was all around running the show, leading prayer, and singing Father Abraham. The Monfils helped keep track of the kids, each of them picking a group to stay with and made sure that the kids were all there and accounted for from station to station. Overall it was a very successful VBS day. Tomorrow we will be having a big birthday party for all of the July birthdays at the orphanage so today we prepared by making a TON of funfetti cupcakes. Other than that our afternoon was spent holding babies, getting peed on, and some of us even got our hair braided. =) Tomorrow we will excited to see what God has in store. Bon Nuit (Good Night)!Everyone is doing well. Please pray for continued safe travels for the medical team and for the patients we will serve. Please pray that the air conditioner is working tomorrow. Pray that VBS goes well tomorrow, too. God bless your night.

Generator Problems

It seems that the problem of the morning today was generators . . . both for the medical team and the VBS team! But, we overcame in both situations.
Bondye a bon! (God is good!) These were the words from our first patient who had his hernia repaired. What a blessing to hear him praise our Lord and Savior for this. We just love to be use by Him in this way. We arrived early in Archaie this morning and found the generator to not be working. That means no surgery . . . however, we are dealing with some of the most resourceful people! We got a smaller generator going so we could run the light in the OR and some other essential machines, but no air conditioner. The first stop for the patients was with Cydney for a shave prep, IV, and antibiotics. Then on to the OR I have to say that Mike, Jack, Connie, Chris, Matt and Kyle were amazing to me. They worked in a 100 degree room with their hats, gloves, shoe covers, and gowns on. I never heard a complaint. By the time we got to our last patient of the day, the big generator was fixed and they were able to complete the last case without being totally drenched in sweat. Then they came to the post-op to be recovered by Jamie and Deb. Kate was everywhere helping where she could. For never doing this before, everything went great! God was doing great things. Thanks for your prayers.Hello from Team VBS and Colleen Monfils! Exciting things happened at Three Angels today... Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber visited the children of Angel House in the morning. VBS began and the kids had a wonderful time! There were a few glitches at first as city power turned off and the children arrived. However, the Lord blessed us with the ability to improvise. Instead of using our CD player and DVD/TV, we enjoyed singing songs and reading stories. The children rotated through stations with the teachers of Three Angels Christian Academy as well as the orphanage nannies making photo frames, playing games and learning about Dave and the Giant Pickle - aka: David and Goliath. After the generator was finally working, we were able to watch the Veggie Tales video, and the children walked away learning that "little guys can do big things too!"

The VBS team spent the afternoon painting around Three Angels. The building is being spruced up and getting a new coat of blue trim! Thank you, God, for sending us that extra breeze today as we painted in the sun. ;-)

Please continue to pray that the Holy Spirit moves in Haiti!