Haiti Updates

Update 2/26/10

Our home clinic is now set up as an orderly walk in clinic! Last night and this morning Katrina and I had to give our day’s agenda completely in the Lord’s hand, with ½ of our staff leaving for Goinieve on short notice and Quisqueya unable to give us any staff for the day, we were left with 3 nurses and 2 paramedics for everything. Yet when something is way too big for yourself, that’s when you know you have to give it to the Lord. Because we had no idea how to work it out. “Watch me work.” He said. And I did!

Last night I sent 4 staff to the Diquini Hospital for night shift. Today Home clinic saw 101 patients with our wonderful new Haitian Dr. and a nurse seeing patients. Mobile clinic treated ~255 patients with our faster new system teaching groups of those with the same problems, along with ministry. We have a daily English class for our translators taught by our Haitian teacher, Ruth. The construction team started demolition on Louise’s partially fallen house (that Katrina and I have been precariously sleeping on). Yung Goddi’s (young men of God) had teaching at 5am, gave their tithe to two families, prayed for the families and the sick, and got their community basketball hoop up. The Dutch group has one of the two structures finished at Patrick’s house. Wes and Heidi are back safely in the States and he is ok. We have some exciting new leads for receiving tents, tarps, and supplies through World Vision and actually a possibility of access to land for a post-discharge hospital!! God gave us the amazing favor I prayed for in speaking with the officials. PLEASE PRAY for favorand He WILL bring it to fruition!! By amazing FAITH we run! Everyone asks us for tents, daily, hourly. I know a large family with a baby due sleeping in the open rain. One of many.

It didn’t rain! God answered our prayers last night. When those women and boys saw me this morning they said (in Creole) “Sabrina! It didn’t rain last night!”  “I know! God heard our prayers!” I answered.

IF YOU WANT TO COME to Haiti we have need for teams for children’s ministry in the camps, and also for a specific group of deaf children. We want to take teams in to hold teachings, Bible lessons, puppet shows, health teachings and anything else. Rescue Haiti’s Children (facebook it) Orphanage has a need for teachers, house mom’s, and helpers for short and long periods. You can contact them directly through facebook or through John Leininger, director (210)325-5539. Please tell him you came through Haiti Family Ministries. You may also reach Doug Phillips at sonofhoward@me.com We are also thinking of hosting Marriage Classes, as well as teams specifically for Ministry. Please contact John Stultzfus if you want to schedule a trip here jj510off@yahoo.com

In addition to the above day’s events, we took a man to the Red Cross, picked up improving Baby Allen and mom from the MSF nutrition center, met with the director of MSF Orthopedic center, passed out coloring pages and crayons to children (trying unsuccessfully to teach them not to grab, yell, and be generally ungrateful), played basketball/soccer, gave an IV to an elderly bedridden man, and much more.

When God carries your endeavors, you can soar in the midst of impossibilities!!
–
In His Grace,
Sabrina Zehr, CNM, ARNP
Medical Director of Haiti Family Ministries

It’s amazing how different a day can be. Working from dawn till dusk without hardly a second pause. I think today I had at least 3 people continuously waiting on me needing me for something. I saw about 6 pregnant women for prenatal visits in our home clinic. Katrina took the Mobile team out to give out treatment packets for those they taught and triaged yesterday then taught, preached, prayed, and ministered at a different spot. They saw 225 people at the second spot! Good news, we found a Haitian doctor who will now come help every day at home clinic. Bad news, Quisqueya has no one to send me tomorrow. We have so much we could do, and not the people to do it. This morning 5 of us walked to see a 76 yr. old man who has been very ill since the quake. I want to go back daily, I don’t know how because I have a zillion things to do tomorrow. We have one of the church members who lost his leg staying here with his wife for the night on a cot. Rodney will take him to Goinieve tomorrow.

We found out that Wes had a mild heart attack, major dehydration, and a Shigella infection that turned septic. The last I hear he was doing well and planned to fly home with Heidi soon. Praise the Lord!!

Godwin and the guys taught the group of boys about tithing and faith this morning at 5am. Tonight they went around praying for families and are using their tithe to support some families.

The long-termers of us are planning on a trip to the beach tomorrow. I need to leave for a real break.

One of my pregnant women is in early labor tonight. We’ll see what happens!

Seth- you can add to the needs list on the website: English Bibiles, Creole Bibles, ziploc bags all sizes, powdered milk to give out, 3×5 cards, bar soap, prenatal vitamins, iron,

–
In His Grace,
Sabrina Zehr, CNM, ARNP
Medical Director of Haiti Family Ministries

Hello everyone, thanks for all of your prayers. God is awesome. My time in lancaster PA is coming to end for now. MAY BE… I hope i can fly to haiti tomorrow night. I heard spirit airline is canceling flights to haiti but i haven’t heard anything for my flight. ANYWAY.

As some of you know, thing are still going great in Carrefour; keep praying for our staff. I have been enjoying my time here with the kids, Kendra and Ministry school every night. What a blessing… In the last two weeks every night i thought one chapter in the book of Acts. I love the works of God.

Now I will head back to haiti tomorrow night. When i get there one of my priority will be to look for a place for our family and Rodney’s family, not sure what or where that would be. Pray that Jesus will provided a place  to rent or buy. I will be going to Gonaives to be with the church and also start having sunday morning services. Not sure where, but the streets sounds great.

While Mom and Dad comes state side for a couple of weeks. This is what you can pray with me. I am asking father to sent me a couple guys or a couple that would work with us. I ask God to sent to us those people that love haiti and it’s people to minister to them. Now, may it’s you… You never know. This email i will share with you got me so excited and thinking. How would you answer to the call?  I figured i would share this with you all. This is Lloyd and Darlene’s recent email to us really good.

“Their has been a birth. Their have been long and hard labor pains. But Father says I am pleased with the parents.

Their has been a Birth of a new thing that is greater and larger then any persons ability to finance.

It is about people that have been waiting and groaning for years for God to bring this birth.

It involves more people then you can imagine it is the kind of birth that is going to grip many other people’s hearts. It’s the kind of birth that is going to cause more people to die. , (physically, financially, their own dreams, visions and anything else that will hinder God from having his way)

The Father is very jealous of this Birth

Lloyd, He has asked you and your family (specifically You Lloyd) to be the Father of this Baby. To handle and take care of by the Anointing and the Unction and Power of the Holy Ghost. To move in the supernatural and not in the natural. You will not be overwhelmed with this great responsibility of raising this child. God will surround you with Wisdom, Grace, and Mercy. And people to assist you.

He will give you wisdom to know what to involve in and what not to be involved in.

He will give you Grace to walk thru the darkest of valleys in people’s lives.

He will sustain you, He will hold you up, He will, He will, He will.

Do not be afraid to take this young child and run with it. Feed it, teach it, and walk with this child.

Do not hold back because of people, but because of people move forward.

Darlene, be the Mother God is asking you to be. God says you have been a great Mother, But He is taking you to the next level, a level you may not understand now, but as you put one foot in the water the waters will part for you.

Father is saying all the years of loneliness, and feelings of being forsaken, have never gone unnoticed, Father is saying I have always been their (their in that little house in Haiti) and says I Am still their.

He is changing the landscape of your family, And He is asking from all of you. Will you change your plans for mind?

At HOME in the Father’s LOVE!

Well, will I change my plans? oh YES, i got no other plans now but his. All the plans i had for this year and the future went to the ground. They are dust now. I don’t know what else to do but follow Jesus’ plans. So may God is asking you the same question this year would you give up you plans for mine? So may be you and I are in the same boat. Nice… ….     At least Jesus is in control you and i can be at peace and let him be in control. That’s it for now need to go print some more songbooks.

For Haitifamily Ministries,

Ricardo Francois

Work on Patrick’s house is going very well. They got some walls up and are making more progress every day. We got 3 more guys to help work construction today. We gave Patrick a hard hat and a tool belt that he walks around with full of tools. He loves it.

Yesterday we all took a necessary day off for the Sabbath. Well, I still treated a couple people and organized some of the medical supplies with Heidi and Elsbeth. A group of 6 “bla’s” (and Godwin- American born Haitian) went to the beach. I stayed home and actually had a chance to sit and talk with Mom and Dad Smoker with Rodney and Lillian about the hardships of serving here. One thing rings true, “The poor you will always have with you.” There will always be another person you can help. But what we want is a change of hearts. Rodney shared how he took young boys along with him wherever he went to watch his life and character, to raise them up, and duplicate himself. He encouraged me to do the same with some girls. I’ve heard this before from our youth pastor at Restoration. There are many clinics, we don’t want to be just one more.

Godwin is doing something precisely like this. They have a group of 12 boys, ages 15-23 that hang out together in a decked out tent at Dave’s former house. They look up to Godwin and he is teaching them basics of Christian life. It’s kinda like a Christian gang. They call themselves the “Yung Goddies” (as in little followers of God.) and they have a hand sign. Godwin got the community basketball hoop fixed for them and buys them food. They met on Sunday for a church Bible study. Now that’s what we want to see. That is awesome.

Mom and Dad Smoker, Lillian & Jeremiah, and Lareesa left to Goinieve. Lillian was doing a little better before she left. Wes is still on the Comfort ship. Heidi has had extreme frustration in communicating about his status. He had a heart attack and is on a ventilator now, but stable. She should be able to get a boat out there tomorrow.
Today I got a whole team from Quisqueya, a Christian organization that can send me teams for the day, enough to run our Home Clinic extremely well! It is SO great! We got two benches and a rather orderly system and most of the supplies we need. I got a chance to talk with them ahead of time about our focus and they are taking the time to give good care to each person and pray with them. We had two people on ministry praying with those waiting in line. Thank you Jesus!

I took a 3 month old baby the size of a preemie to a nutrition center I found out about. I’ve known this baby for a month and have gone to see him and his mother often. Hopefully they can help him.
There’s so much more that happens between the lines. I was pretty discouraged yesterday about what we’re doing, if this is the right thing and where we go from here. But today is new! I love Lloyd and Darlene, they are the best encouragement we could ever have.
Blessings! Keep it strong. Be content in what is right now, even if you see the vision of what should be.

–
In His Grace,
Sabrina Zehr, CNM, ARNP
Medical Director of Haiti Family Ministries

PLEASE PRAY FOR WES!! He had was sick all day and they took him to the hospital this evening for a temperature of 105.7 is what I heard. Pray against malaria, dengue, and everything else!! Wes has taught us deep Biblical truths in our devotionals and was teaching a study to Haitians everyday. He is a spiritual elder in our camp. Pray for healing!

So much in only 2 days. I don’t even know if I remember it all. Our clinics have been extremely swamped. All my medical staff has/is leaving. Yesterday and today I had to help work the home clinic all day for the first time in a while. Please pray for issues with our translators to get eased. Something Papa Smoker said yesterday rings so true, you have to sew a lot of seed in Haiti. You have to sew a lot of seed when the soil is poor. Just now one of the translators lied to my face trying to get me to pay him for today. I want to believe the best of everyone, but when that happens, man.

We are realizing more everyday that Haiti Family Ministries is not just about helping the people of Haiti. It’s also about the volunteers who come to us. One of the guys said in the car just now, “God has worked on me a lot since I’ve come here. And He’s still working on me….when I get back no one’s gonna know who I am.” That’s awesome.

There was a lot of frustration today in our camp. Today I had I couldn’t send out a mobile clinic for lack of staff and we had to cut our home clinic short for exhaustion and frustration for Heidi, Elsbeth, and I.

We have been distributing a lot of food and supply packets. At the marine mass distribution of food women line up for nearly a mile waiting all day with their card and receive a 50lb bag of rice. It’s not a perfect system. They only give to women, some families have 4 women and others have a father who’s wife was killed and he has 4 children. Some get the rice and sell it. Others say, “i’m not going to stand in line all day and fight for my food. I am a Christian, so I come to you.”

We need doctors!

There’s rumors of us few left here going to the beach for a break on Sunday…! wow, would that be amazing.

–
In His Grace,
Sabrina Zehr, CNM, ARNP
Medical Director of Haiti Family Ministries

Do you have questions about the children who are coming from Haiti.  Would you like to adopt or help take care of one of some of the children who are coming?  Watch the video above for more information.

As we get more, we will let you know.  You may leave a comment at the bottom of this post to be on the list for more info.

Today Lindsay and I returned after a lovely leisurely morning at the Labady’s with more food over 2 days than we eat in a week. All I do there is eat, sleep, and make numerous online/phone connections. We got to tour the University of Miami hospital at the airport and I connected with some of the head personnel. They need a place to send patients for post-op and other medical care after discharge. The same need as the Red Cross, the Comfort, Diquini Hospital, and everywhere else. I’m wondering where we fit in here. We have a full hospital tent with 50 cots available to us (eventually, after we get through the political red tape) to us on crates in Goinieve, and teams that want to come, but no place to put it. Lord, if this is your will, provide the place, provide the connections, the funding, and the way.

Our home and mobile clinic’s ran busy again today. The mobile clinic was a little slower with only 56 patients seen. Our “ministry team” for mobile clinic is a one man team right now, but going very well. Clint prayed over everyone in line at the mobile clinic, and grabbed a translator if he had a word for someone. That is what I want to see more of. Ministry, healing, power of the Holy Spirit. Today I talked to the team about our focus on medicine or the power of God. The test is if the next day the patient is better, where do we put the glory, in the drug or Jesus Christ?

The construction team worked on Patrick’s house, demolition. This afternoon a group of 9 “blah’s” (the haitain term white people) drove in a 5 seater tracker on the bumpiest, most crowded roads you can imagine, back up to the location where the 65 children from the Maria Montessouri school are. It is actually a school. After the earthquake all the parents left their children with the owner. Some children are orphans. We passed out care packages to all the kids put together by school children in Sarasota, FL. It was a blast. The kids jumped and squealed! Some asked for a second, or wanted something different…but most were really grateful and delighted. It was fun.

Mom and Dad Smoker are here for a few days. I’m sitting up at Louise’s house. They have a TV on!! Can you believe that. Geez, there goes our camping peace

Dad Smoker says “We just got back from Goinieve, they’re doing very well. They’re weeks ahead (in healing) because the Father has allowed them to be in the “spiritual hospital.” There is laughter in the camp. We’re so grateful for all the people that are here following God’s call on their life whether it be long or short.” (oh and he added, “thank you for sending Sabrina, you can put that….thank you for sending Lindsay, thank you for everyone.”

–
In His Grace,
Sabrina Zehr, CNM, ARNP
Medical Director of Haiti Family Ministries

I am sitting here after waking up from a nice quiet nape. Man it’s quiet here… I am thinking of all that is happening in carrefour haiti. All the noise and everything. Man i miss it. After being there for 4 weeks i didn’t know i was that tired. I can sleep and sleep. Pray for strength for Rodney, Sabrina, Lloyd, Darlene, Katrina, the nurses, Sean, and everyone that is taking part physically over there. Pray for our haitian team that GOD will keep them strong and refresh them with his spirit when they sleep. Most of them don’t have a  place they could go for a brake like us. Pray also that they could start seeing what is happening in carrefour is theirs. Father is giving them a chance to serve their community. I believe father is doing new things with his church in haiti and he wants haitians to be vital players. So pray that their eyes would open to see their place. I don’t like the idea of them seeing it has a outsider coming to help thing. It is their thing, we are being obedient to father by coming a long side of them to help them run with what he has for them. Once again i just share a little part of my heart here.  I’m gratefull to be with my family. The kids are great. Thanks for all prayers, please don’t stop. I heard someone said that: the earthquake news in haiti is fainting on the news, but not in our heart and prayers. They are still thousands of people in need of basic necessities. God is at work there, we are just at the beginning of it. I am exited when i thing about it now…

Since I came here i can not stop thinking about haiti. I can’t wait to get back there. Pray that Father will open a door so i could find a place to rent or buy to bring my family there. It’s amazing when you are walking in his purpose and will. As of now his will for us is to be in haiti with his people and that makes it a hard to be here when i think of how much needed we are over there. But everything has a season, for now i need to be with my family here for a bit. And i won’t forget the pace myself has father leads the way.

Thanks to all who are praying…

Ricardo Francois

Today went wonderful! Each day that goes on we get more of a system with out teams and the run of this Haiti Family Ministries camp. Posted on a beautifully hand crafted cardboard sign by our very own Dwayne Geib proclaims our camp rules:
1. Jesus is Lord
2. Morning Prayer/Devotions/singing at 7am
3. Daily Medical debriefing at 3pm
4. Do not let anyone in the gate not a part of our camp or unapproved by Rodney/Ricardo…
5. and something else i forget…..
We also have a beautiful wooden sign for the Home Medical Clinic hours. So official!

Katrina came back, yay! She’s leading the mobile teams to take a relief off my shoulders, and is my missed friend. Her, Lindsay and I kinda separate from all the Americans up here in Louise’s place in the evenings. Last night we had some nice time together on the roof, even though I was wishing they would stop talking so I could sleep No really, it’s good. Nothing beats sleeping out under the stars when your completely exhausted from serving people and working for the Lord all day, lying next to good friends, and with actually a descent layer of padding between you and the cement roof.
The sky was so orange this morning.  I’m awoke feeling amazingly better.

Joy is something you cannot create, force, or conjure up. You either have it or you don’t, by the gift of God, the Spirit’s fruit. And I awoke full of it. Nothing had changed about my situation, except my joy. “Why Lord?” I asked. “Because you asked!” He said. Our home clinic saw 110 (documented) patients today, with a total of 241 (documented) since the 5th. Our Mobile Clinic saw 53 (i think that can’t be right, seems to small) today and a total of 344 total documented since the 5th. We got in 2 doctors, a midwife, and a counselor yesterday and today. 9 of my medical staff is at Diquini Hospital right now. I went to an orphanage to document the names etc of 65 children with pictures and needs to connect them with sponsors. Their building collapsed, right after all the children ran out, and their previous sponsor was killed in the quake. They’re all sleeping in a small paved place in the community on the hill with little of anything. I gave him our last tarp and all that bedding I was sleeping on. We’ve given them a good amount of food as well.

People are starting to feel better here. We have one Haitian friend who still feels bad, Sondra. Please pray for her. Pray for us to get SCABIES MEDICATION!!! Tomorrow! I’m trying everything. Everyone  has scabies (in the tent cities).
God is good. Joy is too.  I love you all!
-Sabrina