Jamie Hatleberg from Washington was here in March with a team of nurses and held a medical clinic at the church in Torcelle. This is her experience:
Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,
I want to first start with praising the Lord. He is so good and so faithful. He is the great provider, our deliver, our almighty! He sees things in ways where our human nature cannot. Thank you Lord for your devine spirit!
AND THEN THERE WERE FOUR:
Before going to Haiti there were many obstacles that were presented. I even questioned if our team we should be going. However, once we got their the Lords presence divinetly permeanted through the entire trip and has continued long past our return.
We were suppose to have a Pediatrician four nurses and three support staff going, but through individual circumstances people started dropping like flies. First, the pediatricain could not go then one of the nurses had schedule conflicts. Lastly one of our key nurses the day before leaving had to back out. We latter joked by comparing ourselves to Gideons army. I wondered if this trip was suppose to happen. As I prayed the Lord showed me that it was not the number of people who were going, but it was how we would represent the light of Chirst to each individual person we encountered in Haiti.
Through the entire trip our team was united with one purpose in mind and that was to serve and serve well.
The Lord used our small team of four to shine his light, to pray with patients, to give practically to the people of Haiti with medications and medical teaching. The first two days comprised of preparing for clinic and attending the church that the clinic would be held in. At the end of service colored tickets were handed out, yellow tickets were for Monday, pink for Tuesday and so forth. Monday we began a four day medical clinic in Torsel, about 5 minutes from basecamp at Pastor Blonds Church. Everyday we would load up suitcases filled with medications and supplies and head to pastor Blond church which was built with two by fours, tarps for walls one saying “Burger King” it and a metal roof.
Even though our team was small the Lord used it for his benefit. Susan took hundreds of blood pressures, and ran triage, while Brent was our go to guy for medications and other needs. His boyscout skills were highly used the entire trip.
Zanna and I were truly amazed of the Lord privision in giving each of us devine knowledge, retrieving informaition from what we learned in nursing school, but never had acutually seen. In the four days we saw over 200 patients, including 14 orphans that foursquare sponsors. The Lord used us by giving the people each individualized attention, listening to every need that was put on paper, and praying for patients when the spirit called us to do so. On the fifth day our team went into the tent city located behind the foursquare church. There we met a really sick little boy,he had a runny nose, droopy eyes and a cough. We brought him into his make shift tent and spoke with the mother. She explained he had been sick for several days and was very feverish with a terrible cough. We took his temperture, it was 103 degrees. We immediatly started cooling him down with water and placed a wet hat on his head. The family watched intently, while we explained everything we were doing. I had some gatorade packets in my bag and gave them to ther grandma, she quickly tried to force the child to drink but he was fighting her every step of the way. He started spitting and gaging. I gave the grandma a small medicine plunger and slowly she started giving the child small boluses of liquid. We explained that it was very important to have him drink alot of fluids. Both Zanna and I listened to the childs lungs, they were very raspy with coarse crackles,which sound like pnemonia. At that time we did not have the right medications with us to treat the child, but what we did have was prayer. Our team layed hands on the child and prayed for the Lords healing touch to be upon him. We then explained that another team of medical providers would be back the next day with some antibiotics and childrens tylenol. We took his temperature one last time before going, and sure enough it had dropped to 99.6. The next day the medical team went to see the boy. One of the nurses reevalutated the boy,his lungs were perfectly clear and his temprature was normal. No medications were needed! I truly believe the spirit of God touched this child through prayer and healed his sick body. We serve a miraculous God.
What was most impressive was the relationship pastor Mark had with the people in the tent city. Many Haitians came up to greet him. I sensed there was an amazing level of trust and respect for pastor Mark. The haitian people were genuiely happy to see him. This was further confirmation that the foursquare missoinaries were doing amazing things in that community.
I had the benefit of staying a few extras days once the team left. I can tell you the Lord used those extra four days to open my eyes to what the foursquare family of Haiti is doing, the fruit is so abundant both on a macro and a micro level. My first trip to Haiti was in March of 2010. At that time the church that pastor Gee bulit had been so damaged by the earthquake that it needed to be torn down and rebuilt. This was very diffucult the congregation because they had spent years building the church brick by brick and it was not even finished. However, now they have a beautiful newly built church, that is used during the week as a school serving over a hundred children. There are orphanages being built,wells being dug and classes being taught to women about bead making. In addition, the missionaries are building life long relaitonships with the Haitian leaders and the community, helping them rebuild their lives through the word of God.
Haiti needs our continued prayers, not only praying for their monitary needs, but also they need our prayers of spiritual, pschycological and physical healing. There alot of superstitions and beliefs that hold these beautiful people in bondage, along with the tremendous loss the entire country has exsperienced throught the earthquake. The Lord is the only one that can heal this nation. He uses people of the church to minister, to encourage, to listen and to pray for broken hearted. He is moving in Haiti but there is still alot of work to be done.
Whenever, I mention to people in the USA that I went to Haiti, I get questions like.. Are there signs of progress? Do you think that the country will ever change because Haiti has been a mess for several hundreds of years? Do you think going over there really helps? My answer to these quesitons are, I believe the Lords spirit has never been stronger in Haiti, and when the spirit shows up the miracoulous occurs. We will always have problems in this world because it is broken, we live in a fallen world but through his people we can bring light where there is extreme darkness. I have hope that one day Haiti will be new Haiti, because I see individual Haitians wanting to serve in a way that is fruitful.
Lastly I want to thank John and Debbie Booker and all the other missionaries who are doing the Lords work in Haiti. The Lord is absolutely using the foursquare ministry, bringing people to the Lord and teaching his word along with loving people. Please continue to pray for them and the continue favor they have in the communities around them.
Many Blessings,
Jamie Hatleberg