About three days ago!?! Really?

If I here those words again I am going to scream!!! Every patient I have seen over the past 4 days has told me the same thing, their problem started 3 days ago... all of them!

We had a busy day and the clinic. Not sure how many patients came through, but I am guessing 120-130. I seen 46 myself with some pretty serious cases. I had a beautiful little 8 year old girl come in that may have typhoid fever and some other issues. The Haitian doc sent her home against everyones wishes. We are Praying that she gets well soon. I had a young man come in with everything on his right side swollen. He got transferred to the hospital before we closed up shop.

I had a little boy come in today whose name was Christ. Thought that was interesting.

I lady that was 52 came in and as always, I had to ask if she was pregnant or breast feeding before I could give her the anti-worm pill. She laughed out loud and said no she was to old and I said so was Sarah. She got a good laugh out of it and then took her pill.

When I went in to the cafeteria this morning everyone was waiting on me and sung Happy Birthday to me at breakfast. I got a little teary eyed thinking that even though we have only known each other for 5 or 6 days, we all have a special friendship now. The Chaplain let me Pray us off this morning and then he said a special Pray for me. Once we got to the clinic we had another Prayer before we started seeing patients. One of the nurses mentioned it was my Birthday so they wanted me to bless the day.

One of the Haitian SP workers came in and said he didn't have anything to give me but he would like to buy me a Coke. I gave him a little hung and told him I had a new friend and that was better than any soft drink money could buy. Most of the Haitian staff here are very humble and Godly people.

Once we got cleaned up this afternoon we went in to the cafeteria again and had hamburgers for supper. They had a HUGE chocolate cake with vanila icing on it. When I got outside to the picnic shelter they had set up a table with ballons for me and a little bag full of goodies from Haiti and a card signed by the staff.

Looks like I will be spending another day back here at the compound tomorrow. I need to finish putting together the ambulance and the equipment before I leave Saturday. A bunch of us medical people are going out to a resturant tomorrow night to eat. It is the first time SP has ever let a group of volunteers go out like that. I hope it is worth it!

The air down here.

I had a great day of touring and restocking. This was my "day off" I got this week. I started off with the normal breakfast with the clinic team. We had our "mini" devotion and sent the team off to start their day. I got to sit in on the morning staff devotions for the first time. It was very good. The Chaplain is from Charlotte and is very energetic. We sang a song that was in both English and creole.

I was informed last night that I may possible have a seat in the helicopter for this mornings flight to Jackson beach, but wouldn't know until closer to time for us to leave. I was told at 0830 that we would be leaving in 15 minutes and I had a seat. I had my camera ready and took a ton of pictures of Haiti from the air. JAX is the Samaritan's Purse owned compound across the bay from where we are staying. It was a resort and SP bought it after the earthquake. It is small but very nice with its own helipad for the chopper. The flights were about 20 minutes each way and very pleasant. I got to see the epicenter of the earthquake from last year. I didn't have anything to compare it to before the quake so I couldn't see the damage that much.

Once we returned John and I started going through each jump bag that is carried on the SP vehicles here. They are to be used in case we run up on a wreck or something. It is a small trauma bag pretty much. The first bag I got had a EpiPen trainer in it. For those of you in the medical field, now is the time to laugh. For those who haven't a clue what that is, don't worry about it. It took us about 4 hours to put together 8 bags.

Between the bags we ate lunch and headed out to my old stomping grounds, Bercy Cholera Clinic (CTC). Ah the smell of cholera and Clorox! It was amazing how much that place had changed. It is ran by Haitian doctors and nurses and supplied by SP. They had taken down about 7 or 8 of the 14 tents and made the area smaller. Two of my old tents were still there and being used. I just sat in total awe at where the clinic has gone in the last 8 months. They had 56 patients there and nothing major going on. 56 patients now compared to 10 when I left.

On the way back John and I discussed how much good has come from what SP has done and even more good has come from the Christians back in North America (he is Canadian). I couldn't imagine what Haiti would have been like with out the Prayers and support each person has given.

Once we returned to the compound, we finished up the bags and discussed what I was going to do to the Toyota Land Cruiser Friday. That will be the new "ambulance" for the base it looks like. I am going to stock bags just like what I use back home and possibly train some of the staff on thinking outside the box when it comes to scene calls. Most of the nurses are not used to working outside the med center so it will be interesting to see what input they have on everything (they are all women so I know I will get feedback).

Looks like I will not have my birthday off like planned. I will have to go back to the general clinic and work tomorrow because most of the staff is going to take the orphanage down the street out to the beach. Since I am not a beach person, I was inclined to work. The medical staff we sent off this morning just got back and said it was another busy day and it looks like they may be on a roll for a record week for patients.

I know I said I would probably not come back here, but there may be a slight chance that I come back for a training session for the staff. I was asked if I could teach some of the nurses basic first aid like the EMT's do on the field. If this is something they truley want, I would come back I guess. At least it would be in an air conditioned tent!!

Where's da modesty?!?!? Day 2.

I learned today not to ask to many questions. Every time I asked where something hurt they were very quick to whip something out and show me! There is no modesty here at all in Haiti. I noticed it some the last time here, but now, boy I am getting shocked every time I turn around.

We seen a total of 153 patients at the clinic today, I seen 55 myself. I had the best compliment today from a Haitian. He said "you must be a Preacher" I answered yes I am why? He said "I could see it in your smile when you talk to people". I was on cloud nine after that. He said that while the Billy Graham Chaplain and I was working on a woman that kept saying she would accept Christ next Thursday. She had I daughter I will tell you about later in this post. She finally accepted him and her friend as well.

So I have seen 105 patients in two days and given out about 90 mebendazol pills. For those of you who do not know what that is, it is an anti-worm medication. About 80% of the people I have seen have worms. The other thing that most have are the same problems. They all have a headache, epegastric pain (yes they use that word here), fever and abdominal pain. We have been told that the patients spread the word around once they are released and say that such and such is a good way to get so and so medication. Much like the crack heads in the States do. We really don't give out anything that can harm anyone though, so we just play along.

I had a patient whose last name was Jn (like Jean-Claude Van Damme) Baptiste or as I called him, John the Baptist. I thought that was neat and was about the only name I could understand. I got to help the doctor drain and infected finger this afternoon. The patient wasn't sure what she had done, but we squeezed the finger till she passed out to get the infection out. By far the coolest thing I have done here!

I had an 18 month old come in that had burned her left hand in a fire 5 months ago. She was there to be seen for a fever, but I was more concerned about the hand than anything. I got as much info as I could on her so when I get back I am going to try to find an organization that will take her to the States to have it repaired. Right now the fist is clinched and she is unable to open it. Her mom is the one that accepted Christ today instead of next Thursday.

As we were finishing up today a mom came running in to my station holding her 2 year old son. I could tell he wasn't well and when she passed by me I could feel the heat off of him. I checked his temperature twice and got 102.7 each time. We quickly striped him down and packed him in ice. Not really sure what his deal was, but he wasn't doing good at all. The malaria test came back negative so the NP gave him some meds to take home.

Improvise 101: When your butter knife is dirty and you need something to spread peanut butter with in a clinic, use a tongue depressor.

I have the day off from the clinic tomorrow. I was asked to help put a small ambulance together that can be used by the SP staff here to transport trauma patients to hospitals. There are no real ambulances around here and SP is staffed with several nurses that have helped in the past. We are going to turn a Toyota Land Cruiser into a make shift ambulance. The guy doing it has been waiting on me to get here to help because of my back ground in EMS. I thought that was nice of him. We are going to stock a few jump bags to keep on hand and when I get back to the States I am going to try and find an AED that someone would donated to go in it.

Well I am going to find the new doc that got here today and see what he thinks about the tooth I broke earlier today eating chicken wings. Here I was worried I would lose a contact or something and I got a break a tooth. Only me!!

First day at the General Clinic

What an unusually exciting day. We got to the clinic earlier than usual this morning so we got a head start on the almost 100 patients waiting to see us outside the door. After we got set up, me and the new nurse made a quick trip around triage to make sure we didn't have anyone critical outside that needed to be seen inside. We found 2 and the others took a number and waited.

I started off with my few five patients being pretty serious cases. The first lady had an open sore on her right ankle that, once I got eye level with it, it was oozing puss and had a terrible odor to it. You could track her like a deer around the clinic. I got her in to see the doctor first and they sent her on to a hospital. There is a good chance she will loose that foot I think. I had a nice infected spider bite that got lanced open and drained. A lady that was 5 months pregnant had fall, 6 days ago and was bleeding. We had her sent out too because we are not equiped to handle anything like that. I got to talk to an earthquack victim that was just now coming in to have her ankle looked at... 18 months later! She had an amazing story.

The highlight of my day was making a child cry. Now I know that sounds bad but what the mom told me made it hilarious. The little girl, around 2 or so, kept watching me. I walked over and put a sticker on her shirt and talked to her. The little girl took off screaming and crying. The mom told me and the medical director that the girl was scared of the white man. We lost it!!

The low point of the day was working with a true HIV patient. Not that it bothered me working with her, it was seeing how truley bad this dieseas really is. She was 39 years old and the size of a 14 year old. We talked for a few minutes and she left. She was a diabetic and of course I checked her blood sugar. My interperatur was very hesitant about me drawing blood on her, but I insured him that everything was ok. He had never been around anyone with HIV before and wasn't educated enough about it to know what to do around those that have it.

We had what they think is a record number of patients come through, 167. I seen an even 50 myself and the 2 nurses got the rest. The Chaplain was working the crowd of patients behind me and it was a joy being part of that. There were 9 saved and 19 rededicated just at our clinic alone. I hope to get to witness a little more tomorrow because it is slow the rest of the week they said.

Day of rest is over.

Today was a great day to relax and reflect on what I have been called to do here. I found myself talking to other volunteers today that were not a part of the cholera outbreak at its peak. I am considered a "war veteran" to some of the younger medical volunteers (I got the big head when I was referred to as that) and they quickly let me know that I will be working 8a-3p this week and not to expect to see much action. I am ok with that because I have been working on some messages to talk to the patients about. I was told that abortion is one of the reasons that the females come in, and I quickly thought of Psalm 139: 13-16. I hope to not have to use it but I am ready.

We had a great devotion this afternoon here at the compound. I felt right at home when the Chaplain got up and said he was from Alabama and he started reading Matthew 16 out of his King James Version Bible. Before the devotions started I met the other Chaplain and we talked about our experiences in disaster relief and how well the SP Team and the Billy Graham Rapid Response Chaplains work together. I told him about my little lady and how she was thankful for us putting out feet where our knees had been. We both got chill bumps and he wrote it down yelling "that will Preach all day!"

We found out tonight in orientation that there will be 6 of us later this week at the clinic and we may get one day off each. I hope to get Thursday off (my birthday) and take a helicopter ride around to some of the villages and JAX beach compound. I spent about 3 hours this afternoon with the pilot talking about US Disaster, Franklin and medical evacuations. Willie is retired from Coke and is PT with SP now filling in as a pilot for both copters and fixed wing.

I am off to bed. I have to get up at 6am (7am EST) and get ready for day 1.

First Haitian Church Service

I finally got to go to a Haitian church service today. We got there at 10am and they started singing and sang until 11:30! They sang in both creole and english and you could really feel the spirit move in that building. It was a nice church that was open on the sides and was almost shaped like a cross. We sat in the back of the church because the left and right wings were full. We estimated about 500 people there with about 1/4 being missionaries. The Pastor preached out of Luke 16: 19-31 on Lazarus. While I couldn't understand what he said, I think I knew where he was going with the message. Pretty much narrowed it down to what do we need in Hell? I was blessed to have been sitting next to a young boy who didn't have a Bible. I shared mine with him as the Preacher read out loud. The boy couldn't read english but he just wanted to follow along. At the end of the service him and 3 others gave their lives to Christ. It was such a moving experience for me as I knew that we couldn't understand each other, but we all shared the same love for Christ. We serve the same God.

I nice little storm has sit down right on top of us. Here is what The National Hurricane Center has said about it: A TROPICAL WAVE OVER THE CENTRAL CARIBBEAN SEA AND HISPANIOLA IS
PRODUCING A FEW DISORGANIZED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS. SIGNIFICANT
DEVELOPMENT OF THIS SYSTEM IS NOT EXPECTED AS IT MOVES GENERALLY
WESTWARD NEAR 20 MPH AND INTERACTS WITH THE LAND MASSES OF
HISPANIOLA AND CUBA OVER THE NEXT DAY OR TWO.   THIS SYSTEM HAS
A LOW CHANCE...10 PERCENT...OF BECOMING A TROPICAL CYCLONE DURING
THE NEXT 48 HOURS.  LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL AND GUSTY WINDS ARE
POSSIBLE OVER HISPANIOLA...JAMAICA...AND EASTERN CUBA DURING THE
NEXT DAY OR SO.
  

I am pretty sure this is what a category 1 hurricane feels like. 

Well we have a church service here tonight and then a little good bye get together with some of the long term staff that will be leaving tomorrow. Some of the people here either served with me in November or came the week after I left. They have seen a lot of changes over the past 8 months, and to God give the praise.

Made it back

So I have made it back to the G.O. Compound and man it has changed! They have built new things here and it does not look like a bee hive with medical people swarming in and out. Their are only 4 or 5 of us volunteers here to work next week and they are saying it will be very slow compared to my last trip here. One of the nurses I worked with here in November is here again and is going to take me out to my old stomping grounds at Bercy so I can see what it looks like.

As I flew today I got to thinking about how God is going to use me here this coming week. Now that I am here and have talked to others I see that ministry is going to be a HUGE part of what we do. I got kinda excited!

I hate to make this one short, but I have to go make my bed and get some things unpacked. I shouldn't have any trouble posting things this week.

Pray for us!!

Knocking the dust off the ole blog!

I am back! It has been 7 long months since I posted on here and a lot has happened in my life since then. 2 REALLY big things happened that will forever change my life. First of all, back in March I surrendered to the call to preach. This is something I am pretty sure happened while I was in Haiti the first time. I have had the opportunity to preach now many times and have really enjoyed it. I look forward to what the Lord has in store for me in the future with this new path in life he is guiding me down. Second thing is the arrival of my second daughter. Paisley Grace Cole was born on May 30th at Watauga Medical Center. She was a true answered prayer for Maria and I. Abby is one proud big sister.

Back on May 8th I done a little mission trip in my own back yard. Samaritan's Purse was working in Birmingham Alabama doing relief work for the tornado victims. They were overwhelmed with work orders and not enough hands to fill the need. The employees were offered a chance to help and of course I jumped all over it. It was a tough decision because Maria was due in 22 days, but the Lord lead me and of course I followed. That was the best 7 days I had spent with SP. I have never seen the Lord work in so many ways and I came back more blessed than the people we helped I think. When you go to someones house who has lost everything, and you take a moment to Pray for them and they beat you to it and start Praying for you, that says a lot. I was physically drained but spiritually high as a kite. I was told something by a lady who lost everything her and her husband had worked for over their 60 years of marriage. She told me that she was glad to see us put our feet where our knees had been. Those are some strong words if you think about it!

As I prepare myself for my upcoming mission trip to Haiti (I call it Haiti Round 2) I find that it is a chance for me to go back and finish what I started. I know that I went there the last time and was disappointed in myself for not being a witness like I should have. I wise little Irish man told me that I done what I was supposed too. I saved their lives to be saved another day.

I do not foresee myself going back there again after this. I feel in my heart that the work I need to be doing for the Lord needs to be done here in the States. Having a taste of mission work both "far and near" you might say, has let me understand that Gods people have a nitch and I think mine is here. Not to say I would never go back to Haiti or any other foreign country, but I feel more at home with people that understand the way I talk. No one is really talking about this trip like they did the first one. Ever so often someone might mention how hot its going to be and that's about it. Keep me in your Prayers as I prepare for another journey down this walk of faith I am taking.