I think I might be in the wrong "field" sometimes?

I really needed this devotional the other day when it came over my phone. I was just thinking about the stress and how difficult something in my life has been lately and here it was. With Jesus things should be light if we are where he wants us to be. Not a burden. Not that things are going to be easy all the time I understand that. Maybe Im not in the right yolk at all and trying to do it on my own? Maybe Im in the wrong "field", there are so many I see in front of me sometimes. Praying that God shows me where Im supposed to be and/or the burden or stress will lighten, or to make me rely on Him to help me more and I am not doing things on my own. So confusing sometimes! Anyways here it is (maybe someone else needs to hear it today)


Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV) 28"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."


Has life worn you out? Tired of trying to get it all done? Tired of trying to please God, feed your family, help a friend, and take care of the million little demanding details that life can be full of? Go to Jesus! He will give you rest. Take His yoke upon you and learn from Him.
Yokes are usually for a tandem pair of oxen. Younger oxen would often plow with the older experienced ones. Imagine yoking up with Jesus. Talk about experience! He went through it all without sin. He can teach you how to plow through life. Yoked to Him, you will learn from Him. He is gentle and humble in heart. No better qualities could you find in a teacher. He won't get on your case because you didn't get it right the first time. He gently instructs and directs. Learning from Him is a place of rest for your soul. That means your thoughts, emotions, and impending decisions can all rest in His perfect instruction.
Yoked together with Jesus you will see that God has it all under control. He teaches us to trust in the Father and act at His leading. When we do that, everything comes out best in the long run. We can trust in His wonderful knowledge about all things and His power to do anything. That makes the yoke feel light and the load we pull easy. He plowed this path before us and broke up the soil we could never have pulled the plow through. Now we pull the plow through the furrow that He already plowed for us. Just stay in the yoke with Him. Don't go trying to plow another field in another yoke. You'll find that without Him, you can do nothing. The yoke will be unbearably heavy and the burden unmovable. Which yoke are you under? Which burden are you pulling?

Steph

Still Smiling

This week has been very uneventful for me. I have slipped back into work, laundry, dinner, dishes, homework and tv. Though sleeping has been difficult and memories are always there. I try to remember their smiles. The Haitian people are still smiling! It amazes me still. They live in extreme poverty even if you have a job you still dont have much. We are so spoiled here and I dont want to forget that. Thankfully I get a wake up call every time I go. There is much work to be done. More than ever before.

Hands That Heal did 6 medical kids last year. We are gearing up for possibly trying to do 50 this year. The needs will be huge. The medical visa process is currently on hold. Nobody comming out. We do not know how long this will last.

NVM has teams ongoing through May. I will be busy ordering meds and supplies for some of the teams. I welcome the work. It gives me things to do to help from here.

Tomorrow night I am going to a meeting at St.Vincent's Hospital where I work. It will be all doctors and medical personell. I will be sharing about NVM and what we saw in the 2 weeks that I was there as well as our upcomming trip needs. St.Vincent has sent 2 teams already and they will be sharing as well. I hope it is a good time of networking for supplies and volunteers.

Praying for my friends in Haiti,

Steph

More Photos

Ponpdlo is one of my favorite people in Haiti. His wife is having a baby next month. They are sleeping on the ground with too many cracks in their house. He is excited for me to see his baby when I return.

Many signs around for help, or "we need food".

The helicopter that took our patients to the hospital near the airport.

Haitian boy watching the airplanes from an IDP camp.

Vending on the road.

What amazed me too was the normal activites that continued. People have to live and go on in the midst of chaos. God's Spirit was quite evident to our team the entire time. It was difficult to logistically place, feed and sleep the amount of people we had there but we did it and it all worked. Not that we didnt have moments of frustrations by any means but we did faithfully turn to God to make decision and keep Him first even before the medical care. We prayed with many many people in the clinic. We are praying that through the medical care that seeds were sewn that God can continue to water and the fruit of all our service will be evident in Heaven someday. HE continues to be our main focus.

Other Random Things from the Trip

We saw military planes galore.

Boy with Lymphedema caused from parasites in the lymph system.

Waiting on the road.

Man walking his donkey.

Pastor Pierre's brother Joab. He was sitting alone with a far away look for a while. I wondered what he was thinking.

Cutie in the clinic. He wasnt too sure about this blond lady!

Grafitti wall we pass every day.

Tim RN taking out stitches in the clinic.

Our last morning we went to Chambrun for about an hour or so to tell everyone goodbye and get the next team going in the clinic. These boys were juggling rocks. It was a great day. We had sung worship songs prior to going out there with the translators and all prayed together as a group. I cried of course:) It is always bittersweet leaving. I love it there so much. Two weeks was a long time to be gone and I missed my boys (which I enclude Tom in when I say that). I had gotten sick right before we left too so I was ready, or as ready as I ever am. One of our translators Junior is an amazing guy. He was the one that had consoled me in front of the Presidential Palace and said to be strong. He walked us as far as he could at the airport and I said to him when we were all hugging him goodbye for him to listen to his own words and be strong now. He said "I can tell a part of you is Haitian, it is evident in you". I truly feel that when I am there. Everyone in Chambrun knows me know. Others on our trip said they would be standing with Haitians and when I would come into sight they would all start saying "Stephanie, Stephanie!" Even most I dont recognize anymore seem to know me. It is quite and honor and I am humbled that God has allowed me to be in such a position. They know I am there to help them and that makes me so happy.

Tom and the boys did amazing while I was gone. Im so proud of them. Tom has been extremly supportive. We prayed for our families back home everynight in out group prayers. I couldnt do this without my family and I thank God for them.

I plan to go back in April.

Steph

Cutest Little Man

This little guy also had no food for 8 days. He was suffering from malnutrition but in the form of Marismus. He was skin and bones literally. He sucked down the pedialyte like a little bird too. He was very lucky to be flown to a hospital for treatment as well. The difficult part is that we have had no word about any of out patients that we sent out. He was so alert and looked just like a little man. He had a very bad case of pneumonia too. I pray he is doing well.

Flamanda

Flamanda is doing very well with her mom back in Chambrun. Her head has only gone down a tiny bit from when I saw her a month ago but she seemed still better. She smiled at her mom and let me hold her 2 Sunday's in a row at church the entire service with out crying. Her mom came to see me most every day while I was there. I'm thrilled at her progress!

People of the IDP Camp

Images from the first IDP camp I went too. We did a food distribution that day too. The little guy in the last pic was so cute. He walked around all afternoon with his little bag of rice. They were grateful to say the least for the medical care and the rice. We got to tour this camp and walk through the tents. People were cooking, sitting and talking, kids were playing. The one little guy had a kite he had made from a plastic bag. Most of the kids make their toys from garbage. The string was even made from the bag. They were very gracious to let us walk around in their misery. It was slightly uncomfortable to see. Imagine someone touring your home on your worst day ever. They delighted in us playing with their kids and taking photos of them. The kids of course loved it.

I saw in the middle of the camp as we were walking a woman bathing her husband. I had never seen this practice before. She had a lg bucket of soapy water just out in the open. He had on just a pair of sm shorts. She was washing him. There is NO privacy there at all. They didnt have much before, now there is none.

Everyone has lost a family member there. We talked to one family that had 5 children die in their house. The mother sat in a daze with a baby on her lap and her husband next to her. They said their kids were "good, strong children" and now they are gone. They were praying for God to provide them a house and a school for the kids left to be able to go to. It was so so sad. We prayed with them.

Not something any of us will forget.

Steph

Mobile Clinic

It was quite interesting running a clinic out of our little bus. We had a full pharmacy in the back, 2 providers in the bus and several outside seeing patients. Inside the bus we put on a cast, worked on old wounds and saw the sicker of the patients. It actually worked quite well. The people were so happy to have help come to them. We passed by every day the first camp that had been visited. Many would wave and cheer when they saw our little blue bus drive by each day.

Steph

We Called Her Bethany

This was the first really sick patient we had in Chambrun the first day. We couldnt understand her grandmother's pronunciation of her name but it was close to Bethany so that was what we called her. Her grandmother brought her to us posing as her mother. Her mom acutally was outside under a tree waiting. She was 16 and scared to death. They had no food since the earthquake and Bethany had nothing to eat for 8 days. Her body was swelling with malnutrition called Kwashikor. Her skin was splitting and sloughing off her body. She was somewhat alert. We washed her wounds and dressed them. We fed her pedialyte from a syringe which she sucked down like a little bird. She clamped down on the syringe with her teeth because she didnt want us to take it away from her to refil it. Being the first day of clinic we had not been connected yet to the helicopter service. We had to send them home with money for Tap Tap and pedialyte. The next day we had the helicopter in place. We sent people to find them because she had not shown up at the clinic like she was supposed to. They came back to report she had died.

While we were waiting for them another very sick baby came in. She went in Bethany's place on the helicopter and was able to make it to a hospital.

In our efforts to save her another was able to be saved. God works in amazing ways.

Steph

Jerica our Piti Piti Baby

This is Jerica. She was the tiny premature baby on our last trip that we sent to Children of the Promise for help. She returned to Chambrun after a month with the beginnings of Hydrocephaly. She is so pretty. I think she may be blind too. She eats well now but her head is growing very fast. I do not know if we will attempt a medical visa for her. The process for medical visas is on hold right now anyways. Living where she does would not support a shunt and she is too small right now for the ETV procedure. I hate not doing anything for her right now. Her fontanell is very tense and her eyes are sundowning already. Her head will grow to massive proportions like Flamandas did. Her mom saught me out right away. She was saved and attends church at NVM after we helped Jerica. My last day I was there she came again and someone ran after me as I was leaving saying a woman with a tiny baby wanted me. I figured it was her. I was thrilled that she was the last baby I saw that day. I gave her some more formula and a hug. That was all I could do. It is hard to leave sometimes.
Steph

So Many Stories

JEAN

I am going to start with Jean because I have had several people ask about him. Jean is one of Pastor Pierres workers that I see every time I am in Haiti. He is like a haitian brother to me. He has Epilepsy. Through Hands That Heal we were able to get him a CT scan and medicine that is not available in Haiti. Since he has been on the medicine for approx 3 months he has been seizure free! He is soooo happy. I talked to him about it this trip. He had the biggest smile, it was great. Jean is very quiet and reserved. I had to beg him to smile for this picture. He showed me a picture of his 1 yr old daughter and introduced me to his sister last week. It is amazing what a simple pill can do for someone to change their whole life. He lived with terrible seizures for 25 yrs and now can function and not be afraid to be alone.

What a blessing to be a part of that for me. God is so good!

Steph

Tent Cities or IDP Camps

Growing daily.

Rubble

The amt of rubble is amazing. The closer you get into town the worse it gets. I did not take my camera with me downtown. We stood infront of the Presidential Palace and I cried for the first time on the trip. I had been there so many times before and many Haitians were standing around. Our translators were with us and I just thought of how they must feel. One of them gave me a hug and said "You need to stay strong" which I though was ironic. He was consoling me. The jail, the tax building, the Justice dept, the cathedral, and the Palace are all in a 3 block radius and all destroyed. It is undescribable what it looks like, smells like and feels like. In the middle of all this is a tent city and people going about business. Some sifting through rubble, some sitting on their rubble. I watched a man jump into a dumpster and sift through it getting all the clothing out and he put it in a pile. He tried on a shirt that was way to big for him so he took it off and left the pile neatly seperated from the garbage for the next person to go through. How heartwreching.

How they will ever dispose of all the rubble is big issue. There is not enough room in the city for all the displaced people so they will begin to move them to outer places around the city like the new place going in near Chambrun.