A Heavy and Rejoicing Heart

Today my day ends with a heavy and rejoicing heart. We saw around 500 patients today and it was probably the most emotional. We received a 14 month old baby who was unconcious and barely breathing. Her grandmother brought her in. All of the doctors from a children's hospital in the USA got right to work. The baby was extremely dehydrated and hypoglycemic. It took about 10 attempts all over the baby's body to find a vein to put an IV in. She was so dehydrated it made it almost impossible to find one, at one point she began seizing. Myself and another woman just began praying, singing and declaring life into this baby. Finally the IV went in and they pumped fluids and sugar into her body. Right away her breathing eased and she opened her eyes and began looking around. We sent her off in an ambulance to another hospital with supplies that will help her to recover.

We also saw a woman today who we thought we might have to amputate her finger. After consultation with her and her cousin she consented to it being removed if it was necessary. In surgery the doctor found that the wound was actually doing very well and that if she was in the States she could easily get a skin graft and recover well. But being in Haiti, it is unclear what her aftercare and follow-up would be and ultimately she would lose the finger anyway. It was a tough call to make, but the decision made was to send her to a hospital ship off-shore to see if she could get the care she needs. When the woman woke up she was surprised to see her finger still there. She began to tell us how thankful she and all of the people are that we are there. They can tell that we really care about them. The head police chief of the entire city actually came to us and asked us if we would replicate what we have there to all of the police stations in the city because he sees that we really care about the people and he wants that for the entire city. What an amazing testimony of God's heart flowing through us for these people.



Two nights ago, in the tent city next to us, refugees began worshiping and singing praise songs for hours. Around 11pm about 50 people started walking through the street singing a song in Kreyol(the local language). Some doctors were on the roof watching and listening when a woman they had never seen before and haven't seen since came up the stairs and translated what they were saying. "Satan you will not defeat us, you will not defeat us this way." The resillience of the Hatian people is absolutely amazing. We have translators come to help is everyday with a huge smile on their face while at the same time they had lost their home and family members in the earthquake. At the end of each day we make sure to send them home with food, water, and clothing. I heard the UN is starting a program to hire 100,000 Haitians to help clear the rubble from the city. We already saw people begin to work and even stoplights were functioning today. Haiti is moving forward and looking to the Lord on High for their hope and future.



Today was my last day at the clinic. Tomorrow I'll be driving back over to the Dominican Republic, and Saturday morning I fly out. Im still looking for a ride from San Francisco to Redding, otherwise I'll be paying $200 to rent a car for 4hrs. Let me know if you or someone you know could help me out.



Keep on praying. This weekend a whole new batch of doctors are arriving. A few of the doctors with us have been passing some kind of virus around and are taken out for a day while on an IV. Pray for strength, health, and peace for everyone here; doctors, Hatians, everyone.



Thanks for praying and taking the time to read.

Bless you,
Janet

Location:Port au Prince, Haiti

A Wild Day

Today was an interesting and busy day. We saw about 600 patients. We started off the morning with the police carrying in a man who was shot in the butt and the bullet went all the way through. The bullet missed his femur and no major arteries were hit. Then American soldiers showed up to say hi with a horde of Hatians following. NBC showed up to film and interview us, CNN came yesterday, you can look for me on the news. Our volunteers that are helping us translate and regulate people traffic started asking for medicines for themselves and sneaking medicine to people, we nipped that quickly. It was ineresting to say the least.




Post-Op



Surgical Ward
We are still seeing patients that were yet to get medical treatment since the earthquake. One 19 year old girl came in with a broken foot, we had to send her to the hospital because it had already began healing in the wrong place. We are also seeing a lot of people with skin allergies because the water they are using to wash themselves is dirty gutter/basin water. We don't have any skin cream for it. We've been administering a lot of anti-parasite medication. Im finding that many children and teenagers are coming in with stomach pain, not sleeping at night, and have no appetite. After asking the regular questions I've found that these symptoms are from post traumatic stress. There is no medicine we have for that, so I've been praying with most of them. Jesus is the ultimate comforter who will be with them even in the night.






This evening I am staying at an orphanage. I was able to play with some of the orphans with developmental disabilities. A little boy named Samuel with a really, really big head(literally) introduced me to all of his friends and taught me some French and how to properly pronounce names. They are well taken care of. They have also been running a clinic and a team from Bethel church (where I go to school) were there working. It is such a small world to meet people you know from other parts of the world in a place like Haiti. It has been amazing to see how unified the doctors and aid workers are in just helping the people of Haiti.

Keep praying for supplies and people to get to where it is most needed. Also keep praying for the people of Haiti as PTSD starts to set in.





Thanks for all your prayers!
Love,
Janet

Location:Port au Prince, Haiti

Beauty In Their Faces

This place looks like a war zone. I think I have some kind of idea of what it must have looked like to be in New York City right after 9/11.

On the drive into the city we drove past two dead men. One of the guys with us said that it was probably a fight that broke out and the men were shot. It was sobering to see. I haven't seen any other dead, they have done well to clear bodies from the city so people don't get sick.



These last few days have been intense. Yesterday and today, the medical clinic I've been working with has seen around a thousand patients. Complaints range from a cough and itchy eyes from the dust in the air to full-on amputations. We have a setup consisting of an ER station where minor wounds and illnesses are taken care of, deep wounds and more serious sicknesses we take inside the police headquarters building to clean and treat, we have a pediatrics station in the building along with a surgical ward and post op room. It is pretty amazing what has been put together. We've had many teams of doctors and nurses coming through. God has been so faithful in providing people, medical supplies, food, and water. The doctors coming through who have been to actual hospitals in the city said the supplies we have are better than the hospitals.



Each morning I've had the opportunity to go onto the roof of the police headquarters and worship and pray over the city. The capitol building you see on the news that has been destroyed is across the street from us. This country is actually quite beautiful, this whole island is. We drove from the DR to Haiti and I was amazed by the beauty of the towering mountains, limestone cliffs, and papaya and banana tree groves. It was absolutely gorgeous.


Today I connected with some of the people dircting the flow of people coming in with YWAM Haiti. Hopefully I can help them out in creating a system that people can get plugged into to help supply medical clinics, mobile clinics, refugee cams, and hosting teams coming through. Right now a few people are doing a ton of work and they really need help to carry the weight of running all of the relief efforts. These people are amazing, but Im noticing each new day they start off a little more tired. There is so much need administratively at this point, we need people to come for a more long term commitment (3-6 months or longer) to help out with facilitating relief teams, and supply distribution. Keep praying for those who have already been here doing the work of many.

Bless you for taking the time to read. Im personnally doing great. Im used to roughing it eventhough I have about 50 mosquito bites (don't worry Im taking malaria medicine). Love you and thanks for your support.



If you would like to give to help cover my costs, click the Paypal link on the left. Anything I receive above my personal costs will go towards YWAM Haiti relief efforts. Thanks for everything!

Janet

Location:Port au Prince, Haiti

On My Way to Haiti

Well I'm here and I'm ready. It's 5:50am and I'm about to hop on a YWAM bus over to Haiti. My flights here were as smooth as can be and I was even given a bag full of leftover crackers and cheese from the stewardess to take to the staff here at the Ywam DR base. I arrived last night at 11pm and was able to see my good friends John Gillespie and Jeremy Bardwell as they fly home this morning. They were on the first bus in from Ywam DR after the earthquake hit. It was great to catch up and also to hear what is happening in Haiti. Before heading to sleep for a few hours they prayed for me to have heaven's perspective. I'll be working in Port au Prince with teams from Ywam Tyler Texas and Ywam Relief. I've got my duffle bag full of medical bandages and granola bars and I'm excited for what's ahead. My heart is to give and serve with everything I have. Jesus loves these people and I am priveleged to be His hands and feet in the midst of this devestation. Pray for safe travels, wisdom, faith, and heaven's perspective!

Love,
Janet

Haiti Burning on My Heart

This last week, my heart has been set aflame for Haiti. Since the 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti last Tuesday, there has been a growing hunger to do something. I am getting to a point where I can no longer just read the reports and see the pictures of the people suffering in Haiti and not do something. I was praying to God to have mercy on Haiti. I even got to a point where I told God that if He wanted to teleport me to Haiti in my sleep so I could help people, I’d be willing. Last night I was up at midnight praying till 4am, and my heart was racing to do something. I felt like God asked me the question, “How much is one life worth?” As I pondered this question, thoughts of how there are so many of us who want to go to Haiti to help, but don’t have the money or the time. It struck me when God asked the question again, that even just one life would be worth going down to Haiti for a week where I would have to take the next year to pay it off on my credit card. One life would be worth not showering for a week. One life would be worth missing school for a week. One life would be worth missing a little sleep. One life would be worth taking the criticism of people saying this was crazy. It would still be worth it. One life is worth it all. One life is worth my own. So I’m going.

Right now I'm working on getting contacts who are already on the ground there. I would fly out Friday night (the 22nd) and return the following Saturday (the 30th). I'll land in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and hop on a bus over to Port au Prince, Haiti. I'm ready to do whatever it takes to help; distribute food and water, medical attention, move bodies, hug somebody, pray for people. I'm sure my EMT skills will come in handy and also some of the water purification tips I learned in YWAM. I'm going to take some medical supplies down and also power bars or something to distribute. All I have to give is myself for these people. The video above I hope inspires you to do something, either give or go.

If you'd like to give, on the left is the Paypal link that you can give into. Thanks for all your prayers, gifts and encouragement!

Janet