Weddings and Babies

 I was encouraged this week by our reading in Streams in the Desert. 

“He draws close to me in order to mature my wisdom, deepen my peace, increase my courage, and supplement my power. All this He does so that through the very experience that is so painful and distressing to me, I will be of greater use to others….I grow under the load” Alexander Smellie.”

“if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Mark 8:34

As always Babies and Weddings bring about changes. Monday I jumped into the car to pick up Talente for clinic and was informed she was in Labor.  Later that day she had a beautiful baby girl.
Honestly, I had been anxious about the day I had to work in clinic without her.  I’m learning the language quickly. I still was afraid I didn’t have enough for the in depth assessments and teaching needed to give quality care to patients. 

It turned out to be a very busy day at the clinic. Claire Moines, Rose, Joslyn and I united with Christ saw everyone’s needs taken care of. I shouldn’t have worried. I should have known that as always Christ gives sufficient strength and wisdom in needed time.

JohnSony and Claire

 Clinic started right at 9am sharp. Claire had the numbers cards handed out and the patients sitting in order on the benches. Then she said the normal prayer before starting to see patients.  Claire, trained as the equivalent of a nurse’s aid, is very quiet and meticulous. Today she took charge. With Talente being gone I was blown away by how Claire took leadership in organizing the patients, vital signs, and assisting with monitory needs.  The first 10 patients were return visits and were easy to get updates on. Rose, who normally works in the Pharmacy, came at 10am and helped with translation for the new patients.  Joslyn enlisted two of the teenage girls to help in the pharmacy.  Everything ran like a well-oiled machine. I can only attribute the success of the day to Christ’s sovereign grace.

One prayer item for the Clinic: Currently we document patient’s visits in a spiral notebook. Then we make out a notecard for them to bring on their return visit. This needs to change. I am working with Marla on a documentation system. We keep coming back around to the fact it would be good for the clinic to get a laptop with Microsoft Access. If we are able to purchase one before I leave in December, I would be able to do the hard part of setting it up. I would also be able to train Claire, Rose, and Talente how to use a computer.

Saturday Emmanuel and Rachelle were married. As Doris put is “I have never been so happy for a couple in my entire life.” Rachelle is a triplet and grew up here at EGO.  She still lives here and is the director of EGO’s school.  Now that she is married she will live off campus with her husband, but will be here often working. This will be a big change for the kids who are used to having her around 24/7.

Emmanueal has his own business as an English professor.  This is his second marriage as he lost his first wife and two daughters in the earthquake two years ago. The wedding was at a hotel in Gonaives, and was relatively simple in Haitian terms. The fun part was that is was an EGO reunion of sorts. Doris never stopped smiling, she is so proud of her kids!

I had brought my camera and at first was timid about imposing by taking pictures. Emmanuel saw my camera and suddenly I found myself to be the official wedding photographer! During the ceremony I was careful to stay out of viewpoints of the guests. That is until they were exchanging rings and suddenly 10 other Haitians were on stage crowding to get the best picture.  Doris not intimidated, by anything, dove right in for her picture.

Afterwards, they had a beautiful array of Haitian delicacies
This picture is for Pastor Steve!