October 5, 2011

The second dental team arrived at Pierre Payen on Saturday.  They are from Indiana and Pennsylvania.  Some of this group were also here a year ago in June with our team,  Dr. Byron, Judy, Jen and Denise.  Dr Ken, on his first trip, is a dentist and a handyman.  He has already repaired the gas stove, so the cooks love him. On Sunday part of the group goes to the church at Pierre Payen and the rest go to the mountain church of Gregoire, the sister church of the Indiana crew.   Betty, who is almost 70 puts everyone else to shame as she climbs the mountain like the energizer bunny! Later we visit Cannan orphanage and see the beautiful children there.  In the middle of the week Ken and Edgard go to the market on the street, not a store, to get some produce.  While they were bargaining for a watermelon, a motorscooter hit an older women.  She was knocked down and the scooter went skidding across the road.  She picked herself up, dusted herself off, picked up the things she was carrying and went on down the road.  These people are tough, they have to be, life here is tough.  You see the toughness at the dental clinic where they endure procedures, that would have gone to oral surgeons in the US, without a peep. Each day has gotten progressively busier at the clinic.  People are turned away but the dentist and hygienists stand nine plus hours a day with only a short break for lunch.  Many of the team have to step out of their comfort zone, like Mary who is a veterinarian and is now trying to assist anywhere she is needed. Each day you see the exhaustion on their faces, the strain in their back, the swollen ankles but you also see the love show through in the smiles and the prayers that they share with the Haitians.  The last day we finish up at 1:00 so they can relax and enjoy the beauty of Haiti and dinner at Club Indigo.  As the last of the team is carrying over equipment, a family enters carrying a young lady who is in extreme pain.  She has had a tubal pregnancy that has ruptured and she is bleeding to death.  A nurse who works at a local orphanage has some of he children at the dental clinic.  She rushes them home and returns to help.  Donna comes to the hospital to assist also.  They rush her into the operating room.  She has lost so much blood that her hemoglobin is at 2.5 but they have no blood to give her.  Carol, Dr.Byron's wife has prayed that morning that God would help her see opportunities to serve.  She knows that she has O positive blood and asks if anyone else does.  Edgard and I both do and are willing to donate. By the time we reach the operating room Carol is already on the gurney next to the patient.  They are extracting syringes of blood from Carol and putting it right into the patient.

 After four or five times they have Carol get up, I lay down on the gurney and they repeat the process. At first the nurse thinks she is rejecting the blood when she begins to shake but after they cover her with a blanket she calms down and her blood pressure begins to climb.  We check on her later that night and she is doing well but the doctor says she would have died without the blood.  We are thankful that Carol had her eyes and ears open to God's leading so we could be where he wanted us when he wanted us.  Too often we are so busy with the clutter of life that he can't get our attention.  Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.  Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths.   May we all be seeking his direction and his plans for our lives.