Tuesday Night In Haiti

A nice quiet week in Haiti. Burton Wood is our only guest this week. He has gotten to work with the Haitian doctors in our hospital's outpatient clinic. Learning first hand about tropical medicine, along with how to see and treat 10 patients an hour! Tomorrow we return to the Shada clinic together to work help with their day clinic. This is the clinic I wrote about last week located in a slum that would remind you of Cite Soleil on a smaller scale. We will then spend Thursday and Friday back at our clinic seeing patients. It was really cool to share in Burton's joy when he found out how well he had done on his MCAT this afternoon. Burton will be a very good doctor.

I received really sad news today about one of the orphans that have kind of found their way under my care. Jean P., "My Little Princess" found me in January and kind of latched on. She is a fifteen year old little girl, the same age as my youngest daughter at home, with an incredibly tragic history. We have been able to get her enrolled in school this Spring, along with helping her support herself by giving her postcards to sell in the American hotels and with food and clothes money when needed. Apparently during my time at home in May the food and money ran out. She resorted to selling her little body in order to buy food. She is now expecting a child. I can't imagine the future in store for this precious child, now becoming a mother way before her time. I do know that God has a plan for her and that He will not fail.

The recognition of His power and purpose are really all that allows things, that make absolutely no sense when viewed from human eyes, to make sense - Or at least to be at some kind of peace with. Much of working in Haiti requires this kind of attitude and faith. Otherwise, a person could go nuts questioning the injustices and human failings.

God is good. He has plans for each one of us. Really our biggest job is to go out and spread His Word and bring Him glory. Oh yeah, and sacrifice all of our stuff to help the poor, forsake our families, and die to ourselves every day. Not a bad price when you consider the reward, spending an eternity marveling at His glory.

In Haiti, you have a lot of time. I spend a lot of it reading books and the Bible. This is what many of them tell me. In reality, this is all a tough concept to grasp - A tough road to walk. Maybe that's why the road is so narrow. Or, perhaps the only way is to really die to myself and let His Spirit consume me.