Po Plume Christmas Party (Batey 41)

We celebrated the end of the semester with a Christamas Party in Batey 41.

Side note, after being here a year and a half I finally found out the
name the Haitian community uses, and will try to start referring to it
as Po Plume, of course I am not sure how to spell it, but I think Pó
Plúm or something similar with crazy accented vowels. I work on that,
and hopefully in another year, I can get the spelling right. But Po
Plume gets the sounds right, at least what my ears understand.

The Christams Party included watching The Jesus Film, handing out
report cards, singing, gifts for the students and guests, a lunch of
chicken, goat, beans and rice, and piklis (spicy cabbage salad). We
had two visitors for the Haitian government, which is a huge step in
the right direction of getting the school recongized by the department
of education, and this coming year they are working with us to get
birth certificates for all the kids and national identification cards
for all the adults.

I think the pictures say a lot more than I can and I am gong to try to
post some videos of the singing.

See the full gallery on Posterous

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Rwanda, Cousins, and Computers

Isaac Serene Hank omenmrs.xcf Download this file

October 8th I have an amazing opportunity to visit Kigali, Rwanda.  We are implementing an electronic medical record system for the clinic in Jimaní to support and enhance our medical outreach and help us effectively target needs as well as collect health information for our community and specifically maintaining health information on all the kids in our school programs.  This program will support our collaboration with International Children's Heart Foundation as we work with an informal network of clinics throughout Haiti and the Dominican Republic to identify and treat pediatric cardiology cases.  I am very excited about this program. After a lot of research I identified OpenMRS as the medical records program that will meet our needs.  OpenMRS is an open-source project supported by a community of implementers and developers from all over the world working in some of the leading areas of prevention and treatment.  The potential this program has to support our mission and vision for the health care aspect of our ministry is huge.

I have been working bit by bit at implementing the program, and a few weeks ago received an e-mail that this years Implementers Conference is being held in Kigali, Rwanda.  The government of Rwanda started using OpenMRS as a national health records system to be implemented in all public hospitals and clinics.  So, in addition to seeing how OpenMRS is implemented in other settings, I will be able to attend training classes and learn from key programmers and developers in the OpenMRS community.

Rwanda has a personal interest as well.  For close to two  years, my cousin Isaac and his wife Serena and their son Henry have been serving as the administrators of an orphanage just 30 minutes outside of Kigali.  So, I am going to be able to spend a few days with them on either end of the conference and see the orphanage they have been a part of just as they come to the end of their two-year commitment to this ministry.

Please pray for:

Safe Travel

Melissa, Mom, and Dad as they hold down the fort

That my brain can take-in and retain everything I need to learn

This is longest I've been away, so please pray for separation anxiety on both sides of the world

Also, health and safety for my family while I'm gone, well always, but we have a history of health issues while I'm away (Maicol had his appendix out when I was on a two-day camping trip, and we thought Kate was having galbladder issues when I was on a three-day trip to Santiago)

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July Team - a belated updated

To say I'm behind in posting is a huge understatement.  I need to go back and look how many posts have started with that or a similar statement.  A lot has been going on, and I don't want to miss keeping you in the loop on the great things that are happening, but it seems that every time I sit down at the computer with the good intentions of posting an update something comes up.  If it isn't due to technical difficulties such as internet connectivity or not being able to find the picture I wanted to post, then someone walks up to talk or a child starts crying, screaming, arguing, or needing/wanting something.  We were in the States visiting Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina, and North Carolina back mid-June to mid-July.  It was a good time that was a mix of relaxation, reconnecting, meeting new people, and sharing what we had been up to.  It had been 12 months since we had been in the States, and we enjoyed every minute of it.  When we got back home, Mom and Dad, the kids, and staff had prepared a welcome home party for us.  After a full day of travel that started at 5 AM and finally ended just after 9 PM it was a great surprise.

Three days later, we had a short-term team come and work along side us for a week.  It was a group from St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Largo, Florida.  It was a first foreign mission trip for most of the team, and the first team sent out from that church.  It was great to come back and hit the ground running with them.  Being able to see our lives through new eyes is one of the great things of working with short-term teams, and I was quickly reminded of all the many blessings we see in our lives on a daily basis and the joy we have in serving here.  We also got to see a long-time friend from our college years.  Kelly Hueble and her daughter Elya joined the team from Florida, meeting them in Miami and spending the week with us.  Not only have we known Kelly and her husband Jamie since college, they've been supporters of our ministry for the full 4 years we've served in the Dominican Republic.  I'm going to try and get back to a good idea I had once, and do a spotlight on our supporters, and give a better introduction of this family, my college spades nemesises (nemesi?) Jamie and Kelly. 

The main focus of the week was working with the Mennonite Church's Vacation Bible School, but we also had many other community ministry activities in the Batey community, our local neighborhood, and plenty to do around our campus.  The evenings were full of great worship lead by the team members during nightly devotions.  They even got up earlier than we scheduled for extra morning devotions.  Kate and Maicol were excited to join them in the activities and made fast friends with many of the team members.  We've recently heard from some of them, and they are already wanting to come back and work with us this November.

A few things I hope post about soon:

• July Team
• Batey 41 Border Crossing Update
• Batey 41 School Starting
• Cloisi and Evelyn
• Our Jimaní Pre-School Program
• The New School Year - Batey 41, Pre-school, and our kids
• Upcoming Visiting Prosthetist
• Rwanda

John

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Name that tune.

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Everybody Sing Along

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If You Give A Pig a Bath

You go to jail!  It's against the law!

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Success in the DR - Loudjenka's follow up story

The following e-mail is the e-mail I received from Amy, the nurse working with Children of the Promise that provided initial care for Loudjenka, and accompanied the family to Santiago:

I am back in Cap Haitian and am writing this email with a heart full of thanks and praise! 

I'll try to keep this brief. Here is a summary of our trip to the DR.

• We got across both borders without any difficulty. It felt like God softened the hearts of each person that stopped us before letting us pass. 
• Chance and Renee were waiting for us on the Dominican side.
• The paperwork with the authorization was waiting in the office on the Dominican side. We were stopped at many check points on the road to Santiago. Each time we showed the authorized papers we were waved ahead.
• When we arrived at the hospital I stumbled into a group of what seemed to be American Rotary club members in the hospital lobby listening to a presentation from some ICHF people. It was perfect! Dr. Ramirez was even standing in the group answering questions. 
• I approached them after their presentation. They'd been waiting for Loudjenca and ushered us upstairs where they were just finishing an echo on another child. One of the cardiologists immediately started her echo. 
• We were told that the hole in Loudjenca's heart had begun to close on its own. She did not need surgery. I heard the news first in English, then in Spanish, then in Creole. It was a great moment. 
• Loudjenca's parents were ecstatic. Loudjenca's mom shared that her exact prayer had been "Jesus, when we get to the hospital let us hear that surgery is not necessary." ....an answered prayer. 
• Loudjenca's parents were able to voice their other concerns to Dr. Ramirez regarding Loudjenca's breathing. He ordered a chest xray and blood work. 
• These tests were completed immediately. Loudjenca's lungs were clear. Everything looked good in her labs.
• All the nurses, doctors, med students, etc were incredibly caring and helpful.
• We were told to have Loudjenca return for a follow-up echo at one year of age. (She will have a passport by then!)
• We all stayed at a hotel near the bus station. Loudjenca and family left for Haiti Saturday morning and arrived in Cap without any problems.
• Jenn and I stayed an extra night in Santiago and took the express bus to the border. We arrived at COTP via bus and moto this afternoon. We had a great day as well. 
• Jenn and I couldn't help feeling extremely blessed by this whole experience. God worked out all the little details for our arrival at the Children's Hospital knowing all along that we would be met with the most wonderful news. Praise Him for his mercy. 

Thank you for all of your efforts. 

Amy

Loudjenka's parents now have the peace that their daughter's condition is not life-threatening, a confirmation they could not have received with the limited capabilites in Haiti.  Their faith in God is strengthened and they know they have an extended family supporting them.  

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