I appreciate people asking if I can get mail! I would love to get a letter from you! The address is:

This company will then send the letter on to me from Ft. Lauderdale. If you send a package, I pay the weight rate it will cost from Florida to Haiti, so please don’t send big or heavy packages. I think smaller ones would be okay, but please remember it’s rated by weight. Letters are free for me to receive!

If you want to donate money to Canaan Orphanage or the hurricane relief fund, you can visit this website: www.canaanorphanage.org. There you will see the address to send a check to. If you want the money to go directly to the hurricane victims, make that mark on the check. Thanks for your support!

If you want to donate items (canned vegetables, noodles, summer clothes) to Canaan Orphanage you can send those to Miami and they will be shipped in bulk:

If you donate items, please call Sandra at Gull Atlantic first at this number with the list and quantity of items you will be sending. Sandra’s number is: 561-667-1731.

God bless you! Thanks!

Bobi

Wednesday morning I woke up to the most precious kids in the world singing about God’s love. These little orphans are beautiful inside and out! I am excited to befriend them.    I have worked a bit in the medical clinic and started training for the medika mamba project. I am ready to dive in, but other ‘work’ has come up that is a higher priority right now. This type of work cannot be prepared for, this type of work cannot even be expressed in words or portrayed in photos. But I must try to describe it to you because what I have seen over the last 2 days is beyond imagination.

As you know, Haiti has suffered so much recently because of the hurricanes. The orphanage is doing good – our food supply and shelter is all well – so we praise God for that – but just a couple miles down the road lay some of the worst sites I have ever seen IN MY LIFE……

In America, we see the brief news clips of the damage from the hurricanes, but to SEE this in person with my own eyes has left quite an impression on my heart. People are starving. Their is mud in many houses – about 4 to 7 feet high. The stick shacks people lived in at one time that were in the path of the flood waters are non existent. The water people are drinking and bathing in is the dirtiest water I’ve ever seen.

You can smell the decay – we saw a baby girl that had died and her body was stuck in a pile of brush. People said dogs were starting to pick at the body. The police were on there way to take care of this unbelievable site. One of the missionaries turned to me and said, “Bobi, welcome to Haiti.” I cried. I almost couldn’t hold myself together. Guys – this is really happening! I am shocked….

One word I can use to explain the look on people’s faces is: hopeless. It is difficult to know where to begin, in such a mess, but we want to do all we can to help restore hope in their lives, homes, and hearts. Yesterday we bought rice, oil, beans, sugar, flour, corn, soap and toothbrushes to hand out to families. We packed it up today in individual baggies.

Please pray that as the hurricane and tropical storm season is just starting, that God would hold off on allowing the rain to come our way. Pray for the people to have strength during this devastating time. And please pray for us to have wisdom to help them and that in the midst of all the horrible suffering, Jesus would be made known!

If you want to donate money to help us buy more food or eventually to build houses – please shoot me back an email. If you want to read more details and see a few pictures you can visit Elsie’s blog – she is a missionary that has lived here since January. That link is: www.lckornelsen.blogspot.com. Thank you for reading this and I will keep you updated. If you do want to donate you can also shoot me back an email – thanks! We’d appreciate any support you can give. God bless.

Love you all and THANK YOU for your prayers – I’ll be in touch!

The Lord has been so gracious to us here at Canaan. The hurricane rained down over a foot of water, but as we are up on a hill, we have had no major catastrophe. We found out how old all our roofs are and had a lot of leakage, and there are branches down everywhere, but praise God, no lives lost or injured. For us, it was a steady rain, with wind gusts every so often. We will have a major expense repairing the roofs – both the boys dorm and the girls dorm will need to be changed, as well as most of the others.

Sadly, our surrounding areas have not survived so well. The water from the mountains brought down an unusual amount of water, flooding the river and taking with it houses that were in it’s way, on several occasions with the people in it. Even in areas not close to the river, the water coming down from the hills was too much for the houses. People have been coming to us steadily for help – they need money to bury their dead, food, shelter, clothes, anything because everything they have is gone. We’re trying to get together anything that we can. We’ve started getting specific lists of houses, church buildings, schools that are gone or broken or at risk. And this is just in Montrouis area.

Within one mile of us we have 36 houses gone. People are crowding their neighbour and friends’ houses. Beyond that, within a 5 mile radius, including Montrouis, we have tons of houses gone. These are of course just the ones that have come to us with their help requests or lists – I’m sure there’s many more. The list of one suburb alone, Rousseau, says 21 houses (1-9 room buildings) destroyed, 19 damaged (un-livable), at risk over 96 in total. The school there is also damaged. Another suburb, Perrier, 17 destroyed, 19 damaged, at risk 45. We have the names of at least two churches that are at risk. 50 hectars of cultivated fields are gone. A lot of animals like cows, goats, etc, gone. Almost a 1000 fruit trees were washed away. It made a big crevice so that the mountain people can’t come into town. Part of Montrouis, people living on the sections going up the mountains, had to go further up the mountains because of the crevice dividing the two and of course that’s not home.

Then the bridge just on our side of Montrouis: it’s on Highway one, the main road going to all 5 northern Departments of Haiti, all of which have 40 or more provinces. It now cuts all those off from Port au Prince. The force of the waters eroded the ground under the pillar in the water and sunk one side of it, resulting in the whole bridge now tilting downwards in the middle. After the police left the first night, a big truck dared cross further and sunk it even more. They of course have barricaded the road now – the biggest thing on wheels to pass is a wheelbarrow, and they’re being used a lot to haul all the produce into Montrouis, the market being just on the other side. The buses and taptaps drive till the bridge, and the people can walk over. Yesterday, when we went to see, they had a Cat in the river, piling rocks and gravel towards the middles to try to divert the water from the pillar.

Thankfully we happened to have two of our vehicles on the Montrouis side, so we are able to go into Port to get supplies. The problem with that though, is that we don’t have our truck to haul stuff to people in need. We are at a lost what to do with all the requests. Though we have more than a lot of people, you can imagine with so many people here cash flow is always limited. Maybe you have some suggestions on how to help the needy??? Any help you can offer would be appreciated. International relief seems to focus on Gonaives, where the disaster is awful. I’m sure you know that as well as anyone, since that’s been on the news so much. But there are also a lot of people in other areas, with nothing!!!

May God protect us from the coming hurricanes and storms! With the grounds so soaked, even a minor rain can cause further disaster. Please continue to pray for us and Haiti. May the Lord bless you.

Pastor Henri, Sis. Gladys and the Cananaites

On behalf of the entire country of Haiti, we praise God and thank you for your commitment to the Lord’s work here in Canaan, as you are preparing the next generation of children who will be raised-up serving God and changing the face of our country.

We are so blessed by your generosity to provide materials, countless hours of labor and daily coverings of prayer. We are encouraged daily here as we know that the Lord has created a committed, global family that calls Canaan home and is dedicated to the spiritual growth of the Lord’s children that He has stewarded to us for a time.

There are so many praise reports and news updates that we are thrilled to share with you:

1. 30 Canaanites traveled to the US for A.C.E. Convention this year. We had multiple ribbon-winning finalists, were featured on the local news and the Lord provided for Sister Gladys to be professionally trained in Tennessee.

2. As a result of this training, Canaan hosted a all-expense paid training seminar with 36 people from 11 new schools that will be started in Haiti, thanks to John and Melody Kirkland of A.C.E. The training in the U.S. and subsequent training of new leaders in Haiti will change communities and cities, as we raise-up more and more young people every year in knowledge of the Lord and a best-of-class educational experience.

3. We would like to offer a most special thanks to the incredible generosity of Cross International for the transportation and support during Convention, and the loving and selfless hosts throughout Missouri and Minnesota. Your servants’ hearts are renewed examples to us of how to be godly hosts and serve with joy.

4. Canaan hosted 5 U.S. missionaries this summer, along with our beloved long-term missionary nurse, Elsie Kornelsen from Canada.  The team started a Central Haiti Malnutrition Clinic for children under the age of five, using a medicinal peanut butter that is produced in Haiti, identical to the treatment plan that Doctors Without Borders uses in Africa. To date, over 100 children have been treated, prayed over weekly, received small Gospel Bibles in Kreyol and we are witnessing life change in many our of community families. Thanks to the 300+ supporters, donors and praying saints who made this clinic possible through their sacrifices.

5. On Thursday, July 24th, Canaan will once again have clean spring water from our well. For the last few years, we have had to truck in water weekly from the canal and then filter it for drinking. The Nix family, whose son, Will, was here for the malnutrition clinic, provided for the CEO of LifeSource Engineering to visit Canaan and completely overhaul the reverse osmosis filtration system. This is a huge answered prayer and blessing to our Canaan family and visiting missionaries.

6. If you have visited Canaan, you know that our driveway road is in desperate need of repair. After years of rainy season washouts and hard bedrock, we have witnessed our road worsen more and more and cause the deterioration of our vehicles. On July 18th, after months of prayer, diligent letter writing and office visits, the international company responsible for repaving National One Highway began to aggressively repair Canaan’s road in a single day. Pastor Henri sat down with the lead engineer, offered for them to store their vehicles, tractors and guardpost on Canaan’s grounds and before there was even time to ask, the engineer offered to repair the road. Within 30 minutes, the road was being graded and smoothed. We can now actually shift into 2nd gear while driving on the road!   Along with this blessing, we must be good stewards to maintain it.  In order for the newly repaired road not to washout again, we must create a gutter system to divert the rainwater. Canaan will provided all the tools and labor, but are in need of $5,000.00 USD in order to purchase the needed concrete and sand for the gutters. Thank you in advance for helping us preserve and maintain these blessings from the Lord.

7. During the summer, we were able to put a new coat of paint on the main school building (a Caribbean blue base with a sky blue border and white ceilings. The exterior is a beautiful peach color. And we completely reclaimed an older building and yard, creating a playground and area for our new French School. The walls are covered with Goofy, Donald Duck, Tom and Jerry, Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny – the kids love it! The exterior is green and the interior is a nice, bright yellow with red trim.

8. Thanks to multiple contributors in the U.S., Canaan now also has an extended cab Nissan pick-up truck that has been great for fuel saving trips to Port Au Prince’s airport and markets.

9. We have great news about our students at Canaan. Erve is already in the U.S. and will be enrolling in his first year of college in Indiana. And three of the older boys were enrolled in A.C.E. training to be facilitators in the schools. Lastly, one of the older boys was trained in the malnutrition clinic and has a heart to continue serving the community and those children which are starving.

10. We have many missionaries and medical missionaries coming this summer and are so excited for their arrival. Steve Mossburg is bringing a large group at the end of July and then we have another group of teens coming in August. The Lord provides and provides such good things to us.

11. We are in need of missionaries for 3-6 months, longer if you desire, to come and be trained in the A.C.E. program’s curriculum. These people would live at Canaan and work with the children in the school, helping them to reason, read and learn, while encouraging them to push forward in their education and relationship with Jesus.

12. Finally, please be thinking and praying about a grandmother and grandfather to come to Canaan and make it their home for a season. We are praying to find a couple who desires to come and be grandparents to the children of Canaan – they are children who need much love, one-on-one time and mentoring friendships.

We would like to share the following story with you:

A man once set out to the change the world and when he found he couldn't, he decided
to change his country. He couldn't change his country, so he thought maybe he could
change his city. That, also, was too large, but he thought maybe he could change his
neighborhood.  Even that was too daunting. He decided to start just with himself. And
in changing himself, then the change began in his neighborhood. Then his neighbors
changed and they changed the city. The city began changing the region and the region
changed the country. The man realized that to change the world, he must first change himself.

Friends, this is what is happening and will continue to happen in Canaan and Haiti, thanks to your commitment to our country and young people.  You have changed many individuals that are now going out to change communities, which will, in time, change the face of Haiti, for our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

We praise God for the great report we can send out. He provides in such big ways and is always present in the minutest of details. Thank you for sharing in our excitement and goals for the future as we continue building and growing.

Your grateful friends and partners in the Lord’s work. Most sincerely,

Sister Gladys Mecklembourg and Pastor Henri Gaetjens
Canaan Christian School and Community
Augier, Montrouis – Haiti
Canaan1949@yahoo.com

Over the past three years, I feel like God has been showing me something. Something about the daily forks in the road.

This story is about that and I thought I’d share it.

The Journey

Oh, sure, the journey is long, but I’m one of the few that knows it will be worth it – and the length is actually a great way to weed out the ones who don’t really want the prize. I’ve counted the cost and know my rewards are certain. Sure some days seems like I’ll never get there, but that’s just this route’s way of getting rid of those that don’t have the gumption that I do. Too far off, they say, but I’m well prepared and I have it mapped out. And my discipline? My scruples and tactics are impeccable. I have a routine and I stick to it. I don’t let things get me off course. I know where I’m going and what it will take to get there.

I see others along the same path. To be frank, most of them are lack the industry and self-motivation to get halfway there. They didn’t prepare as well as I did and now they’re falling behind. They made bad decision after bad decision. For some, it’s simply a matter of wrecklessness and stupidity. Others seemed like they never stood a chance – they just simply weren’t educated enough on how to get moving, how to build their momentum, how to get to a certain speed where your movement carries you at kinetic rates. They tread along, hoping to make some progress for the day. And don’t get me wrong, I applaud their efforts. But without some kind of intervention, some kind of overhaul to their operations, they’ll never make it. It’s sad, but true and what can be done – they started off this way and they’ll finish this way. As I pass them, I count my lucky stars that I’m not in their company. Their slow pace seems to infect their whole being and cause a general apathy and filth and disillusionment. Anyhow, enough time talking about those who won’t amount to significance; let’s focus on those who are turning the gears and making something for themselves.

The laws? Most think of them as cumbersome and governing. Not me. I see them as proper filters to strain out those irreverent persons that are always jamming the route of the more responsible types who actually have a purpose and reason for being on the roads in the first place. My bumpersticker: I Will Win. A lot of travelers actually think that shoulders of roads are made for taking pictures, nature’s calling and the changing of drivers. I am more than happy to sound my horn and politely call the local authorities to have them ticketed and reprimanded for their flagrant insolence. What in their mind makes them think that it is good and proper to meander down this highway; the very byway that we all are using to get to our own rightful goal – our destination – the prize.

And the pleas that they make. I once saw a carload of teens that thought it necessary to light three flares on the side of the road to signal for help, when certainly one would do. Why be wasteful when you are already found wanting for repairs? Again, foolish. If they would have been better prepared for this journey, they would have made the proper preparations, phoned for help, carried spare parts, signaled by protocol and not their immature improvisation. What am I to do? Stop and help? If I did, I would only be propagating the problem. Then I would encourage, authorize and endorse their unpreparedeness. No, the solution is for them to learn the lessons that they should have learned long ago and I’m not their father or here to rehab their ignorance. My role is not teacher, not repairman, not policeman. I know you’re worried about them. But trust me, I’ve studied these things, read the statistics and even stopped a couple of times during my own training days – someone always helps them. They always get what they need eventually. If everyone slammed on the brakes the second they saw a stopped car, do you know the kind of havoc and traffic we’d create? The stopping and helping would cause more accidents. It’s better to keep to your position, looking forward, not rubbernecking as some are in the habit of and set the cruise control. After all, as the traveling proverb goes, stopping for some will result in a destination of none. And that’s not what my ticket says; my ticket is a final destination, not some half-baked, second place pit stop like some would accept.

And there is great reward in throttling down and maintaining your speed. For when you find yourself in this rhythm, you can almost forget that others are even on the same course and you have the increasing sense of victory as you know there are others dropping off the course at a higher rate the farther you go. It’s actually a bell curve of sorts – a few losers from the get-go, a huge mass of mediocrity and then the elite pursuers of something greater. There are a variety of reasons for the drastic difference between us and them – they didn’t maintain their vehicles, they get distracted, they change courses, they go and visit some old friend along the way, they pull in to do one thing and then decide once their there to do another. Again, foolish – and that’s why I’m now gaining the lead so far beyond these other lesser travelers.

Oh, how they must watch me whiz by and wonder how I keep my rate. They see that my car is always clean, always spinning like a top and always, always making progress. My license plate proves it – you can tell the distance I’ve come just by the sheer absurdity of where my journey started. My dad would be so proud. My friends don’t even bother trying to catch up because it’s a sheer impossibility. Most of them have even stopped calling to find out my status because they’ve realized our spread is too great and my stakes are on a whole other level. Sweet success. This is the result of years of dedication, hard work and determination – anyone could do it, but very, very few do because of the investment…and this investment will pay dividends and large lump sums, you just wait and see.

For days now, I have been speeding along and haven’t even seen another traveler; that means certain success and could possibly mean I’m first, the leader. Could it be? Could it be that I created my own destiny and have arrived? Why shouldn’t I be? Why would it be someone else? Has someone else prepared more than I? Surely not. It should be me. Why, it is me.

And then I saw it. The grand horizon. It was like my own personal eminent domain. It was just like I imagined…wide open spaces, an unblemished parking lot at the end with no other cars right by the sales center (which coincidentally means I won’t get dinged by those buffoons who are so inept at parking and can’t simply open a door without smashing a neighbor’s), and the land….the land went on forever (and everyone knows that land is the only truly limited resource on this earth…now I had my claim staked everywhere and would be fully vested by the time the rest of the dopes made their creeping and crawling way across the finish line). Suckers. Their childrens’ children will be buying land from me. A land baron. Who would have thought? The prize of being first was good enough – but a land baron, this is the piece de resistance.

I surveyed my earnings. I mapped them out. I calculated my long and short term interest rates that I would charge. I made projections for quarters and then quarters of centuries – this was going to be funny money.

They’ll come. And when they do. They’ll pay. In fact, they’ll pay for their tardiness. They’ll pay for being foolish and stopping along the way.

They’ll come.

Soon they’ll be here.

Someday soon.

Someone will come. And, man, I’m going to let that first buyer have it. On second thought, maybe I’ll bait the market by giving him a better rate…after all, he is second. I mean, giving a little grace to the poor sap wouldn’t mean we’re partners or even in the same league – it’s just a gesture of goodwill, a consolation prize. A little offering to the gods, you might say, to say thanks for the business – here’s a little something and don’t spend it all in one place.

He’ll come.

Ok, I’m no idiot. I’ve been here a full year and no business. I’ll go to that shack of a business front to talk to that wanna-be suit and try to get a grasp on the spending trends, population densities and demographics of the area.

“Sorry,” the man said, “But you actually aren’t supposed to have come this far.”

“What in the everliving hell are you talking about. Get me your manager,” I demanded.

“There is no manager. In fact, I’m leaving this post in the morning. This land is actually condemned; it’s an old landfill and was never meant for development. It was a early sell-off marketing strategy by Alphormie, Inc, but they realized the profit was actually in the people who would journey here – not the land development. They never had any plans in developing this land; they saw that all the money was in the pockets of the travelers. So they kept promising great value and high yield returns, while focusing on getting a lot from a little.”

“Alphormie, Inc.? That’s the conglomerate that has my car loan, my insurance, in fact they have a financial subsidiary that I bank with. I’ll just call my agent and get this all squared away. I was guaranteed a fixed rate of return; it’s in writing.”

“I’m sorry to tell you this, friend, but they have gone bankrupt and from the agents up to their principles, they have actually been indicted for fraud and false representation. People have literally lost their life savings and years of their lives while working for a vaporous, non-existent product. They were selling fluff. There was no destination to what they had sold – it was just an idea, some half-baked boardroom idea that never had any payout in the design. In fact, you can keep everything you have acquired from Alphormie, but that’s all you’ll get.”

“I’ll sue for every red cent left in the bank. Not to worry, I’ll switch providers and roll-over my assets.”

“No can do, friend.”

“Mind your tone, intern. Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do.”

“Well, I can tell you this one thing. You won’t be rolling over anything into my company.”

“What do you mean ‘my company’? You don’t mean to tell me that this piddly operation is actually the nearest competition to Alphormie?”

“That’s exactly what I mean. You see, we invest in the journey – not the destination. Our business, too, is the traveler. We are out to help those who were stranded on the roads. Lost in those country towns with no hope of ever getting far. You know those sad lots that never even learned to drive? We actually have a program just for them and give them a surprise bonus of early retirement. Of course, we do have a headquarters, but you won’t find it here. You actually can’t get there by conventional travel – sorry, again. Our motto is, ‘Help the helpless;’ our founder seems to almost have invented the word ‘help.’ By the way, have you not been reading the Times while you traveled?”

“I don’t take the time for the Times. If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been slightly busy journeying these thousands of miles and setting up my portfolio for a little more important things than the Times.”

“I see.”

“You see what?”

“That’s too bad.”

“Why’s that, riddler – can you please just answer me as a service rep should?”

“I could. But I won’t. Because I’m not just the service rep. I’m also the president.”

“You are the president of this outfit?”

“I am.”

“Then maybe you can help me.”

“I could have.”

“You going to make me ask, aren’t you? OK, so you could have, but you can’t anymore?”

“That’s right. You see, our customers are with us for life. We have an incredibly loyal and faithful customer base because of our service and reward system. We can’t ensure safe travel, nice vehicle replacements or even the most coordinated routes. But our drivers never seem to be lacking. In fact, we tend to have the most adventurous and gifted travelers in the nation. So our customer retention is 100%. In fact, the few customers that do switch or quit traveling altogether, always end-up coming back to us. They find, after some weeks or even years of playing the market, they always find that they had the best provider all along. We’d love to see everyone use us for their needs and actually operate as a non-profit because of our benefactor’s generosity, but it’s a free world, right? So it’s their choice, but in the end, everyone realizes WholeHeart is the best carrier….kind of like you’re beginning to see now.”

“WholeHeart, you say?”

“Indeed.”

“You know, my first policy was with WholeHeart…in fact, I never cancelled it. I just tacked on more aggressive options, for retirement, of course.”

“Of course.”

“So maybe you could help me after all.”

“I can and I will, Emit.”

“My reputation proceeds me, I see – so what did you think of my Man of the Year feature in Journey Monthly?”

“I thought it was sad. Emit. Do you recall me asking you about the Times? It’s a periodical, always current and custom-tailored to the driving styles of each person on the road. I asked you if you read it because we have been documenting biography after biography about how WholeHeart is changing the way people drive and giving them far more than just a journey to a destination. Emit, my father is the one who organized and funded this interstate system that you’ve been traveling on. His vision was never for people to just drive the roads and get somewhere. He always wanted it to be a place where people were intersecting with life, seeing the sites along the way, stopping for meals, spending time in the parks with the family – you know, living life. He thought it would be a grand ideal of travelers all working together, helping one another along the way – not an every-man-for-himself mad dash. And in the course of their travels, we operate this helpdesk, a hotline, an ambulance service, a 24 hour question call center, everything you could ever need – that way you don’t have to be an expert on everything and everywhere, which you can’t be, fyi – you just leave that to us – I mean, we did design the routes and should be able to give some pretty good insight, right?”

“Sir, not to interrupt this wonderful moment of company history and reflection for you, but can or can you not help me?”

“Well, here’s the thing. I can help you. And I will help you. You see, once you are a member of WholeHeart you are a part of our organization for life. We realize that we’ve lost touch over the years – that’s only natural, but we never cancel a membership.”

“That’s the first good news in a while. So how do I go about checking my balance of this age-old policy…I have no idea what my account number is.”

“I have all your records right here. We go on a dividend system of goodwill.”

“How do you mean?”

“We monitor and track your goodwill towards other drivers and then pay you on the backend – kind a delayed rewards system – although time and time again our drivers rank highest on all the current polls for Driver Satisfaction, Best in Class Tactical Drivers and the Good Samaritan Awards, all that outside of goodwill – seems to just come with the customers love for the journey.”

“So can you look up mine…I mean, my records…you know, my goodwishes towards other drivers.”

“No, not goodwishes; goodwill. A goodwish doesn’t really do someone any good. For example, a guy is broken down on the side of the road and you roll down your window and don’t even stop to…”

“I get it. What was it called?”

“Goodwill – it’s when you actually do something for someone…surely you’ve at least heard of it.”

“Funny. Yes, I’ve heard of it. Can you please check my goodwill record?”

“I already have – we’ve actually been tracking your progress since you started driving.”

“Great – so what’s my score, my rating, whatever you track?”

“Sad again, Emit. I’m afraid you had many opportunities, but no actual goodwill. You’re in our Friends and Family program so you’ll get to attend our banquet, but it probably won’t be what you expected.”

“Well, even a banquet sounds nice at this point. I’ll even prepare a little speech about my journey and the land I’ve acquired.”

“Emit, there won’t be a speech. This banquet isn’t about you. It’s about goodwill and my dad’s company – he’s actually throwing it in my honor and I’m giving the keynote speech, as well as handing out the Unsung Hero awards. So many of our drivers never really amounted to anything by the standards you might use, but they sure did stockpile the goodwill. You actually passed many of them along the road…some passings in the not most pleasant of manners, might I add. But they’ll forgive you – those days are past and they’re very generous people anyhow.”

“This is all a little much for me to get my arms around. Can I see any of this in writing?”

“Of course – it’s all in the Times.”

“Right, the Times again.”

“Are you tired of hearing about it already? Have you managed not to learn anything this whole time we’ve been talking?”

“Sir, had I known that this company would have been my sole retirement, I would have done more of this goodwill – I would have made it my business – I would have been the best – and I would have told everyone – I would have been your top sales rep. But as you can see I’m in a little bit of pinch, so I’m sorry that I’m not in the best of moods.”

“Unfortunately, it’s not like that, Emit. The journey isn’t round trip; it’s one way and you can’t start over. You chose your path, your speed and your priorities. The Times clearly laid-out all these details and there were plenty of signs along the way. Emit, I know you wish you could go back, but you can’t.”

“But I’ll do more. Just give me one more day – tell you what, give me an hour even. I’ll show you.”

“Emit, your journey is over, but you can still learn to serve and your retirement will still be beautiful, but the journey…it was missed.”

“But what about the time I paid that family’s toll? What about the tip I gave to the drive-thru waitress? What about the pleases and thank-yous at the gas stations?”

“Sure – we took note of them all and they were beautiful gestures of goodwill.”

“All those other travelers…. Some of them were so sad. They didn’t even have a chance – they were just stuck. Others were actually going the wrong way, but I didn’t have time to set them straight.”

Emit crumpled to the floor before the helpdesk and lost himself in tears and the memories of lost opportunities.

Life is short. The Bible compares our days to grass, dew, a mist, and shadows. Our time on this earth is finite – a blink. And our time beyond this earth – infinite.

Our salvation is not about good deeds. Only Jesus provides salvation. But I know that when I breathe my last breath and find myself as a spirit no longer able to do things for others in my Savior’s name, I can’t help but wonder if I will instantly be troubled by the inability to no longer do good things, out of love, out of choice, in a hurting world. Yes, we’ll be in Paradise. But this life, this brief life, was filled with 24 hours a day of opportunities at simple and ingenious gestures of love in Jesus’ name. And I cringe sometimes thinking about the use or misuse of my time. Will it take me getting to Heaven to recognize all the opportunities I had in life? Oh that i might see now as i will see then only a fraction of those opportunities, how my life would change.

“The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, “Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.”

“But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony….”

“He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’

“Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

“ ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

“He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” Luke 16:19-31

And that’s just what Jesus did. He rose from the dead and told us that He is the way to eternal life.

Friend, we only go around once.

‘For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10

God, change my heart and my desires so that I see this life for the things that matter – those things that are on your heart – eternal things and not those that rust, fade and whither away. Let me live a life worth living.

From Haiti with love-

John A. Elmore

Will and I talked about Edine all night and decided that we would talk to the girls (Elsie, Brittan and Stephanie) about trying to find her, first thing in the morning.

When we got to breakfast, I asked them what they were thinking about Edine and they replied that they couldn’t stop thinking about her. Within minutes, we had decided we would go to Saint Marc and try to find her. The problem is that Saint Marc is a huge city and everyone in the Pierre Payen Hospital told us that her condition had worsened so much that her mother had taken her home to die. I can’t imagine her getting worse; she was already so desperate, so fragile, so broken down. But regardless, we all felt we had to go. So we prayed for guidance, for God’s wisdom and for God to save her.

Pastor Henri walked into the Kafeteria and we asked him if we could go to try and find her. He said, “OK, so we’ll go to Saint Marc, but we need to leave very soon.” I asked him if he was sure it would be ok for him to leave, knowing that he had other plans for his day before running into us.

He said, “For me, now that I know about this girl, she is my plan. How can you ask if it’s ok? It’s for this girl’s life that we will go – there are no other plans anymore.”

And with that we loaded up in the truck, with money, formula, a scribbled street and house number on an index card and our pastor. We prayed again on the way and Pastor Henri said that we’ll go to her on one condition – that we will all be of the same mind that the little girl will live because God will save her and we will not doubt.

Sidebar – When we went to Pierre Payen on Friday to check-on her and she wasn’t there, we began to ask all the other mothers and nurses where they had gone and what information they could give us. When they told us the bad news, Stephanie had the idea to ask for her chart. I told her I didn’t even think they kept charts and probably wouldn’t give it to us regardless. However, Brittan sweetly asked them if we could see her chart and they immediately dug through the records to get it for us. Take a minute to think about how unbelievable even this is – they gave four white strangers a little girl’s chart with all of her information and medical history. In fact, they even wrote the address down for us! This alone was a huge opened door by God’s hand. We didn’t realize it at the time, but looking back, finding her would have been an impossibility without the nurses’ giving us the information – Saint Marc is that big.

When we arrived into Saint Marc, we handed Pastor Henri the index card that had her mother’s name, Jean Edith, the neighborhood, a street name and a house number. Once we got to the fringe of the city and near the neighborhood (which was information provided by Maitre Elfabre – a teacher at Canaan…affectionately and phonetically called Metal-Fab), past the U.N. sandbagged checkpoint and armed tower, we stopped to talk to one of thousands of scooter taxi drivers. We asked where Maurepas street was and he said it was the next left (another blessing by God – read on to understand why). So we turned down the street hoping to find #80, but the numbers (which are handpainted in random places on buildings and fences) read with no consistency, rhyme or reason…as we drove along, we saw #52, #49, #91, #28, etc., but no #80, which is what was recorded on Edine’s chart.

Then we came to the end of the street and still no #80. Pastor Henri turned left and said we’d try to find someone else to ask, but had now turned left where the street came to a ‘T’ and were no longer even on Maurepas. He looked to his left and saw an older Haitian gentleman and said, “This is an old Haitian; he will help us” (he said this not commenting on his age, but on his apparent demeanor – he was commenting that he could tell he was the type of Haitian that he remembered from his upbringing – before Haiti had changed so much – when, as he says, you couldn’t stand somewhere five minutes on the street before you would be asked by three people how they could help you). So we pulled over across the flow of traffic to reach him. He asked the man if he knew of Jean Edith, the mother of a sick little girl on Maurepas Street.

The man replied in Kreyol, “This is not that street, but wait here.” He walked away from the truck and we waited for five minutes, wondering if he would even return and what he was up to.

The man came back and said quite a bit in Kreyol. Pastor Henri said a few words back and then rolled up the window.

Pastor Henri then said something I won’t soon forget… “You see, the Holy Spirit led us to that man. There is not even a street called Maurepas, but you know what that man did. He went and found the mom and we are going there now.” We were all silent in the car. We didn’t know if Edine was alive. We were either going to find a very, very sick child – which quite possibly would be too far gone for us to treat – or we were going to find a heartbroken mother who had just lost her child…either way, it was going to be hard and I think we all braced ourselves for the worst…it’s actually not even something we’ve talked about, come to think about it.

We made a u-turn through a mess of scooters and literally didn’t even drive 50 yards before he again pulled to the side of the rode. He pointed to a woman holding a child and said, “Is that her?”

Sadly disappointed, I immediately replied, “No Pastor Henri, that’s not her.” This woman was well groomed, her child was in a cute little dress with a typical Haitian-style headwrap and looked healthy, at least much more healthy than Edine.

Pastor Henri got out of the truck and asked me to come with him. He approached the mother and asked her who she was. He said, “She says that’s who she is – this is her.”

I said, “No, Pastor Henri – this isn’t the child – they’re just telling us that.”

Just then, Brittan walked up and said, “That’s the mom – this is Edine. I can tell it’s her; I remember her.” We immediately got Will and Stephanie and circled around the mother and child in disbelief.

God saved little Edine. There is NO other explanation. She looked like a different child. She could hold her head up, she was drooling, her eyes were clear, she was alert and responsive. We asked how she had gotten better – what in the world had they done for treatment, knowing that they had gone home for a hospice of sorts and had no more medical attention. She said that she had given her some broth and diluted some of the mamba into a water cup.

It was a miracle. And I think back now to praying over Edine at Pierre Payen, thinking she was hours from death. We asked God to save her and he did. He changed this child right before our eyes – on Thursday she had gone home to die and now it was Saturday at 9:30am and she was bright-eyed and hugely improved….so much so, I didn’t recognize her.

We gave the family the remaining money that Bill Nix had given us to use for especially hard cases. And prayed over them in English and Kreyol. The father was there too and was very appreciative. Pastor Henri told them to come to Canaan on Monday morning to visit our clinic.

There, on Monday, little Edine will receive more love and medical attention than even before. Stephanie and Elsie are already planning a treatment plan and how to best take care of her.

There was quite a bit of Kreyol speaking going on and little time for translation, so I asked Pastor Henri as we drove away, “P.H., do they believe in God? Are they Christians?”

His reply was beautiful.

“You see, that is not our problem. What is important is that they know that we came in Jesus’ name. And now they know without a doubt that Jesus brought us to them this morning. So they know that Jesus is doing something for them and this will help them see and have faith.”

God’s fingerprints are all over Edine and her family:

1. Edine isn’t even one of our patients – a nurse came and found Brittan and asked if we could help one of the Pierre Payen Hospital’s patients.

2. She refused the Medika Mamba when we tried to feed her.

3. The nurses and mothers in neighboring beds said that she had gotten so much worse that the mother had given up and gone home so that she could die.

4. Against all logic, we were given her charts and address by the nurse without any questions.

5. We all could not stop thinking about her all week.

6. Pastor Henri changed his plans immediately when he found out about her.

7. We were pointed in the direction of the street that we later found out didn’t even exist.

8. We stopped and talked to an old man on another street and he knew exactly where the mother was.

9. The child was so much better after not even 24 hours that I didn’t even recognize her.

10. Edine’s father is family friends with one of teachers at Canaan…Elmat, which is yet another blessing to keep in touch and for accountability of Edine’s care.

And, if I may, I’m going to share something else that God taught me today through little Edine’s life.

After Jesus was raised from the dead, there were two disciples that He walked along the road with and a woman who went to find Him in the tomb – neither of them recognized Him when they saw Him and talked with Him.

I have always struggled with this – how could they not have recognized Him?

Today, God showed me.

Isaiah prophesies and tells us in chapters 52 and 53 about Jesus and the sacrifice that His life was. And within those two chapters, there is an incredible point that explains so much.

“Just as there were many who were appalled at Him – His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness…” (vs. 14).

The scripture continues to tell us how Jesus was the sacrifice once and for all for man’s sin and that by his wounds we are healed. Read chapter 53 if you haven’t – read it slowly and read it as a promise to you. No man can live a life good enough to spend eternity in the presence of God. But God in His great mercy, offered His Son as a way for us to be covered under grace, by trusting Him to be our Lord and Savior.

We have all read about Jesus’ crucifixion and maybe even seen The Passion. But as I read this verse again, I realize that I have no idea how much Jesus endured for us.

He was disfigured beyond that of any man – marred beyond human likeness.

Meaning you couldn’t even tell He was human because of how badly He was beaten, whipped open, swollen, covered in and blood, with flesh exposed and wounded…

Marred beyond human likeness….beyond human likeness….more so than any other man.

No wonder they didn’t recognize him.

They couldn’t believe it was actually Him who was raised from the dead…because he didn’t look the same. Can you imagine how the image of Him upon the cross, marred beyond human likeness must have been burned into their memories. For three days, that image would have haunted them. Three days with the image of their Lord and best friend, disfigured and murder in plain view.

But now, here was a man – healthy, radiant, full of life, healed, victorious over death.

Just like God did for little Edine.

This is our God:

“the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.” Romans 4:17b

Pastor Henri remarked as we drove away, “You know, God did something special today. He allowed that family to see how much He loves them and gave them their daughter back. And He did this for you to see, too. This is good.”

The bible says that we were dead in our transgressions and sins, but that we are made alive with Christ and it is by grace that we are saved (Ephesians 2).

I know for a fact that I was once dead, it even felt that way at times, and God saved me. He saved me from myself…more than once. It’s what He does and what He desires for each one of us. He wants to set us free from the worries and hurts of this world. He has overcome the world and death – and if we become alive in Christ, then we have nothing left to fear.

Friends, God isn’t just in the business of working miracles here in Haiti, Africa and other places of desperation. He’s doing them in Texas, Missouri and all over. He was doing them before we arrived here and will continue to do them afterwards. And these miracles and ways that we are seeing God is nothing new to Him – but it is new to us. We’re dependent on Him here in ways we haven’t known before. We look to Him when we’d normally be looking to ourselves to fix a problem. And we are seeing our lack of control and inability outside of the hand and will of God. This is good for us to have learned these things and so I’m encouraged to share them with you in hopes that we all might look to God a little more.

We often pray a verse here that Chris Hlavacek once sent to me on a little piece of paper when I was lost in overwhelming hurt…

“We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you.” 2^nd Chronicles 20:12b

God, increase my dependence on you. Give me eyes to see your fingerprints upon my life and others’. And grow my faith – you know I’m just a man, and you know my struggles – please, Lord, set my heart free from the things of this world to know and love you more.

From Haiti with love –

John A. Elmore

God continues to reveal Himself in small and large ways daily, here in Haiti. And I’m blessed to be able to share them with you. I am again at a loss of how to thank you for providing for the means to have opened this clinic, your covering us with prayer and all the encouraging emails from home. This week God has shown Himself to be a Provider, a Healer, a Guardian, Providential, and Giver of wisdom.

It is a very bittersweet time right now because we have just finished our second-to-last week. Time is now starting to move very quickly and the days are full. This was also the eighth week of our malnutrition program and we are starting to see the end goal of what we originally set-out to do –  see the graduation of children from malnourishment to a healthy state.

On Sunday, we took a Tap-Tap down the road to Pierre Payen to Chris and Lesley’s house, the missionaries who operate www.cleanwaterforhaiti.org. There, we had our bi-monthly, regional missionary meeting. Chris played the guitar while we sang worship songs and then I shared a lesson one of my DTS professors taught on this past Spring. We were studying Leviticus and he showed us the connection of how God has been pleased with man’s sacrifices throughout time – earlier by physical offerings and now, in Romans 12, how we are called to offer our bodies as living sacrifices. How we are to use the spiritual gifts God has given us to minister to the Body of Christ and others, via giving of yourself sacrificially – i.e. giving or using of your gift until it hurts and not just enough to check the box, so to say.

On Monday, Scott Baggerly, CEO of LifeSource Engineering, arrived to evaluate and repair the desalinization filter (via reverse osmosis) at Canaan. Will, Pastor Henri and I picked him up and he got to work immediately. He has an incredible amount of theoretical and practical knowledge about the water system and Will and I are now well-versed on how the equipment operates (and further, how to maintain it in the future – something I think we’ll both use to leverage future trips to Canaan, as we’ve told Pastor Henri). Scott was an incredible blessing to all of us. He joined us daily for the devotions in the morning over coffee and tea and loved on all the children from the moment he arrived until he departed. He was constantly sending and receiving emails from his wife, Diane, who manages the LifeSource Engineering office, while she sent schematics, flow ratings and product specifications in order to get things working as soon as possible.

Scott brought many parts with him and after reviewing the equipment, we found that we were in need of a new motor, water pump and low-pressure valve. Thus, he is shipping them to Steve Mossburg in Indiana, who will be bringing the parts down on Wednesday, July 22^nd. Please pray for me and Will to accurately remember everything we are supposed to do in order to install these few remaining parts correctly…we’ll be wiring a motor, connecting some hoses, installing the replacement low-pressure valve and then, God-willing, we’ll be drinking cold, fresh water from Canaan’s well. Thanks again to the initiative and generosity of the Nix family and other donors who have provided for the needed replacement parts.

David Butterfield and Joel and Mandy Busby left on Tuesday at 12:30pm. Their departure had been a longtime coming, but seemed to sneak-up on us so quickly. We finally took a team picture right before they left (we have been so focused on taking pictures of patients, we realized that we hadn’t stopped to take a team photo) and then said some quick goodbyes before Pastor Henri took them to the airport. Those three were such blessings this summer. We would often talk about how not a single one of us had any plans to be in Haiti this summer, but somehow God brought each one of us in a very surprising way. After a quiet morning, Will and I finally talked about what we were both thinking – the day was sad. Sad to see our friends, co-laborers, roommates and family leave. David, Joel and Mandy – thank you all so much – you’ll never understand how much of a blessing you were to me and the people here.

Tuesday and Wednesday were great clinic days. We had very few no-shows and almost without exception all of the children gained weight (and finally, little Vanessa, who has wet-malnutrition and needs to lose weight….lost one kilogram – this is a huge success and answered prayer).

This week, we gained five new patients, via word of mouth from other mothers. This alone is great news because it means that the moms of the community are seeing the treatment working in their children’s lives and have begun to recommend it to others who are in need.

And we also lost six patients this week. However, we lost them because they have graduated from the program! Many of our children came in this week, at their eighth week of being enrolled and had surpassed their graduation weight for a second or third consecutive week. After seeing Success Berlin fluctuate, we have decided to keep children in the program even after they reach their graduation weight. Then, after they remain beyond their graduation weight for two or three weeks, we release them. Their mothers are so proud. They smile in agreement that their children are no longer the same. They say that they now play, laugh, run and have great appetites. You can see a certain pride and excitement in their faces when we tell them that little Pierre Gilles Nelson or any number of the others have graduated. They are proud mothers and share in our joy because they have been the ones administering the medicinal food every day, eight times a day for eight weeks. It’s a lot of work for these mothers and they have been the hand of healing – that’s part of the beauty of this program – it gives the mothers the ability to heal their children. Praise God – it’s a beautiful thing seeing these children come in with energy, with full tummies and filled-out frames. And little Pierre will have cleft-palette surgery this fall thanks to the research and contacts of David and Elsie – who have secured two different organizations to assist his mother in getting his mouth surgically repaired (there is currently a split from his upper lip running all the way across the roof of his mouth). We have been able to see so much life-change.

On Wednesday, we had to communicate to the mothers at Pierre Payen that we would be holding all future clinic days based-out of Canaan. We tried this last week with our translators and it seemed to be very confusing for them. So Elsie came up with a great plan – we would load the mothers and children into our big rig truck (again – think dump truck without the dumping action and slotted sides) and bring them back to Canaan to show them how to get here. So…Wednesday, we finished a quick breakfast, and I got the keys to the big rig from Jamil. I promised to take good care of his truck and I drove us to Pierre Payen. I blared my horn a couple of times at oncoming school buses – Brittan got a kick out of that. Then, after clinic, we loaded up six mothers and children and took them back to Canaan. Needless to say, it was a highpoint of my day, driving a truckload of Haitians like a non-profit Tap-Tap.

My lowpoint was meeting Edine Casseus, a five kilogram 16 month year old girl at Pierre Payen. A nurse came and found Brittan and asked if we could give Edine’s mother some peanut butter. We went and found the most desperate child I’ve seen in all of my time here. Her arms were a bit bigger then the diameter of my thumbs. She was sitting upright, rocking back and forth from a lack of energy and moaning with a dulled, gaping stare. She reminded me of a sick and dying baby bird that had fallen from a nest – her mouth open, with large lifeless eyes, bobbing head and erratic movements. Her skin hung from her bones under her arms and gathered in wrinkles between her legs like brown, deflated balloons. She had an IV in her foot of saline and sat with her mother, who dusted flies from her face with a washcloth that she also used to wipe sweat from her brow. We tried to give her mamba, but she refused it. Children this far gone reject food – it’s so sad and hard to see. I was praying out loud as her mom tried to get any of the peanut butter she could down her throat. I tried also, hoping that just some might make it down her throat to help her blood sugar, but she threw her head about and spit out what little made it in her mouth. Scott noticed that she kept reaching for her little cup, so Brittan put some mamba on the nipple of the cup. She would take it to her mouth and then reject it when she tasted the mamba. We left her mother with two kilograms because she said that the child would eat when the grandmother fed her. The woman beside us in the neighboring bed said the child wasn’t eating because she had an evil spirit. We asked the mother what she normally ate and she told us, to our gross disbelief, that she had never fed her anything – she only has always given her liquids and never has eaten a thing. Brittan and I kneeled beside the mother and Edine and prayed for God to save her.

We went back to Pierre Payen today with Stephanie Sallee, an emergency room nurse from Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, who arrived on Thursday, but Edine wasn’t there. Everything was gone from her bed and the remaining nurse and other mothers said that she had gotten much, much worse and the mother took her home. We suppose took her home to die. They said she kept throwing her head back, which may have been seizures, couldn’t find any way to get an IV in, gave up and went home.

Friends, please pray for little Edine. If she is still alive, we could possibly find her mother in Saint Marc and try to treat her in other ways – feeding tubes, formula, put her in the Saint Marc Hospital, etc. Please pray for us to have wisdom, discernment and guidance – we have their neighborhood and a street and will try to find them tomorrow. And if she didn’t live, maybe we’re just supposed to go to care for the mother and pray with her.

The rest of Wednesday, Will, Scott and I replaced the reverse osmosis membranes and corrected some plumbing on the water system. It was a torrential downpour and we were standing right in the middle of it. We were trying to get enough water pressure to the system, by closing off the other water valves on the property. The valves are set-up to carry that much pressure and so Will and I began playing a Haitian water version of “Whack-A-Mole.” We’d fix one valve and other one twenty yards down the line would blow. We were drenched from the rain and bursting pipes – but it’s a great memory and is now fixed (we think). Brittan has been teaching some of Canaan’s older teens how to play the piano – you can already hear the lessons working as you listen during the church services. She’s also writing the girls notes, holding art classes and loving them very well. One thing I love about Brittan – she’ll always recommend that we take the time to stop and pray. We’ll be in the middle of a problem or trying to arrive at a solution and she’ll say, “Let’s just pray about this right now.” It’s a great lesson for all of us – thank you, Brittan.

On Wednesday night, something else very interesting happened. Pastor Henri probably drives by the clinic at the edge of the property three or four times a day. On Wednesday, as he was driving back in from running an errand with Jamil, he heard the Holy Spirit tell him that the window was broken on the clinic, opposite from his viewpoint. He pulled-in next to the clinic window and saw Elsie and Brittan inside. He asked them if everything was all right and they said of course – they were fine. Jamil said, “Pastor Henri, you’re cuckoo.” Just then, Pastor Henri got out of the truck and approached the window. He tugged on the rebar steel window-bars that secure the clinic, along with tens of thousands of dollars of equipment, medicine and medika mamba. The security bar effortlessly gave way as soon as he pulled on it. The bars had been cut and then put back together so that they couldn’t be detected as broken. Pastor Henri immediately had Pastor Joel and a team of men come to the clinic to repair the cut steel. God knew that someone had broken the bars and was going to steal everything – clean out the clinic – and so He put on Pastor Henri’s heart that the window was broken. He has probably driven by this window a thousand times this summer alone and has never checked it. However, he was sensitive to what God spoke to him and acted on it. God, give us ears to hear your voice – don’t let your whispers get lost in the noise of our lives.

So after dinner, we loaded up in the big rig and went down to the clinic to gather every ounce of medicine, equipment and mamba. We were operating by the light of headlamps and flashlights and once in the clinic, we saw something disturbing. The window screens behind the newly repaired steel had been torn open. The thieves had already come back, found the windows repaired and tried to reach whatever they could throw the screens (you can fit a small hand and arm through the gaps of the steel rebar window guards). We loaded the medicine into duffle bags and boxes. Just then, Scott arrived – he had finished a project with Pastor Henri and walked down the road in the dark to help us. He organized the team to start a human chain to load all 400 kilogram bags of Medika Mamba into the truck.

Allow me to pause a minute to point something out. Scott was there to fix the water. The fact alone that the CEO, himself, came to fix a small water filter at an orphanage in Haiti is testament enough to his faithfulness – any other person would have sent one of the company’s water technicians. He is a very busy man with a business to run, other clients demanding his attention (large clients, might I add), a family back in Florida, a youth group he leads and a youth ministry retreat he’s building – all that to say, he has bigger fish to fry than to help us load up an entire clinic in the middle of the night. Yet, there he was, leading the charge on loading the mamba by flashlight (he also spent the morning with us at Pierre Payen helping with the malnutrition clinic). That’s what God does to a man. Other CEO think the world exists to serve them. A Christian CEO knows he exists to serve the world. Thank you, Lord, for changing our hearts just as you promised you would. We got every single thing of value out of the clinic, placed Kreyol Bibles at the tears of all the window screens, prayed over the building (again, at Brittan’s prompting) and then unloaded all the supplies into the library, safe within the confines of Canaan. Praise God that He speaks to us and near to us, protecting His children from the plans of evil men. That medicine is meant for the sick – not to be sold off and used for who knows what.

That was Wednesday. On Thursday, we drove into Port with Pastor Henri to drop off Scott at the airport. We stood in front of security, held hands and prayed to God, thanking Him for bringing Scott. Then we drove up into the mountains to kill time before Stephanie Sallee’s flight arrived at 3:40pm. Pastor Henri took us up to a place called ‘Burned House’, where a concrete foundation of a Frank Lloyd Wright-ish style hull of a house still remains atop of a mountain. There in the mountains it was strangely cool and we only had about 50 yards visibility at times because we were literally in the clouds. After that, we made our way down and picked-up Stephanie – who brought many toys, treats and medicine for the people of Haiti and Canaan. Stephanie will be here through the rest of our trip – leaving with us on the 26^th. She’s been with Brittan and Elsie in the clinic and already has worked on treating one of the men who is here to learn in Canaan’s school program.

Lastly, today I trained Davide – one of Canaan’s older students – on the Medika Mamba program. He was our translator Wednesday at Pierre Payen and wants to continue to work on the program, under Elsie, when we leave. So today, he and I spent about two hours in training – going over how to take measurements, how to determine if a child should be in the program, how to administer the mamba and medicine, how to keep the medical records and ask the right questions of the mothers. He is a very sharp and courteous mid-twenties young man with a heart to help people and serve. After training, he went and met with Pastor Henri about his plans to work for the malnutrition clinic. Pastor Henri encouraged him and told him he would support him with everything he could – from housing to meals to finishing school to trade school and beyond. He is going to pray about the offer and speak with his parents. It would be great to have a Haitian working in the program, alongside of Elsie – and those two already have a great friendship and appreciation for eachother. Just more great news about how God provides just what we need when we need it.

And one more absolutely amazing thing to report. Canaan’s road is probably the roughest road I’ve ever driven on in my life. It’s a path of large rocks that you bounce over, as you maneuver uphill at no more than 5 miles an hour. Ever since I arrived in late April, there has been a company from the Dominican Republic repairing National One Highway in Haiti. And ever since I met Pastor Henri and Sister Gladys – they have been saying that once the trucks, bulldozers, graders, steam rollers, etc. reach Canaan’s road, they will ask them to come and fix Canaan’s road. I thought this was absolutely absurd. I thought that there was no possible way that an internationally-contracted, Spanish speaking company would ever give one second of thought to repairing a road. But Pastor Henri and Sister Gladys have been praying about it and making efforts whenever they can to meet people as they work, send letters and make phone calls.

Today, as we were leaving for Pierre Payen, this man on the work crew at the bottom of the hill where Canaan’s road meets National One Highway kept trying to hold my hand. It’s actually normal here for men to hold hands in friendship so I just thought this guy was being friendly, but come to find out he was leading me to the lead engineer on this section of the road. Just then, our Spanish-speaking Costan-Rican raised nurse walked-up and engaged in conversation with him. Within two minutes, they were walking up Canaan’s road. And after returning from Pierre Payen, just one hour later, we came upon huge tractors fixing Canaan’s road.

It seems that Pastor Henri had sat down with the engineer and offered him to leave his trucks on Canaan’s property at night so that they would be protected and off the road. The man was very appreciative and before Pastor Henri could even ask, the man said that they could fix Canaan’s road as well. In fact, he mentioned it to Elsie as they walked up the road and then again offered when speaking with Pastor Henri. The engineer immediately called his crew off of the international project they have been contracted to do and began repairing Canaan’s road. Pastor Henri just smiled and said, “Bon, God put it on their heart to fix our road. Ok, praise God. He isn’t a God of incomplete things, but of finished things. So they will finish our road for us because God has given them the idea to do it.” And just like that, God is giving Canaan a new road, while giving the company a safe place to keep their trucks, supplies and even put-up a guard in an empty house that Pastor Henri has offered. I’ll mention one more thing. In order for this road to be good and not wash-out we need desperately to have a drainage ditch on both sides. Canaan can provide the labor to create the ditch, but there is much concrete, rebar and sand to purchase in order to put in two ¼ mile gutters/ditches. The cost of materials will be $5,000.00 USD. If you would be interested in supporting this project, please contact Chris Hlavacek at Christopher@kanakuk.com or visit the PayPal link at www.canaanorphanage.org and then sent a follow-up email to Chris telling him your donation is earmarked for the road. Thank you so much for helping us create this road and be faithful to what God has started – it will help preserve the trucks and improve life at Canaan.

It’s hard to believe this summer is coming to an end – we’ll be leaving a week from tomorrow morning and still have so much to do.

Lastly, please know in your heart that everything you have just read is due to your sacrificial giving and prayers. None of this would be possible without you. So thank you for a new life and hope and healing, from many children and mothers of Haiti – you have blessed them richly.

From Haiti with love

PS – I’m on a terribly slow internet connection – will post pics from the week asap. And little Edine, who you will read about below is ALIVE! God has worked miracles before our eyes. I’ll write about it more tonight when we have a connection again. 

John A. Elmore

This week we had five new patients admitted into the program (2 from Canaan and 3 from Pierre Payen). That makes our total 47 kids outside of Canaan, plus all the kids at Canaan that are getting 6 spoonfuls a day to give them a little boost (the 8 year olds and below)…almost 100 kids all-in-all. We currently have about 270 kilos of Medika Mamba left and that should last us through the end of July. At that point, we’ll restock and Elsie will begin managing the program, while shifting the Pierre Payen kids to be treated at the Canaan clinic.

On Tuesday, I went to Port Au Prince to pick-up our newest team member, Brittan Elimon, a junior high art teacher from Fayetteville, Arkansas. She is a mature, joyful, talented, and kind-hearted individual who is teaching piano lessons, holding art classes and arrived armed with jump ropes, soccer balls, Nerf footballs and more. The kids adore her and she jumped right into the clinic at Pierre Payen on Wednesday, treating her first patient and mother by 10am. When Brittan and I returned from Port Au Prince, we had a late dinner with Pastor Henri, who waited up to meet and greet Brittan. The whole team came down to the Kafeteria to welcome her and briefed us on the day. The other shot is of a gun-mounted, U.N. Jeep in-route from the compound outside of Archayae to Port Au Prince… a common site (we give them thumbs-up and waves to let them know they are appreciated).

From Dave and Joel’s report, Edgarsen (our child who was rushed to the Saint Marc hospital on July 2^nd) was doing well, receiving his medicine and could possibly be

ready for discharge by the end of the week. They have continued to travel nightly to Saint Marc to visit the little fella, make sure all his medical treatments are paid for and take the mom money for food and water. His breathing was improving, he was more alert and even sweating – showing he was coming out of the woods, as far as dehydration goes. Vanessa (our wet malnutrition girl / Kwashikouir) had returned and she had gained another kilogram (about 8% weight gain in a week!). They also reported that another boy came into the clinic with his father. Fathers never come to the clinic – in fact, this is only the second we’ve seen all summer. And the other man we were praying for, Andre (the one in the mountains with the fever) – I doubt I’ll ever see him again, but I know God heard our prayers and either healed him or gave the strength and grace to persevere.

The father saw brought his boy, Kenlen, in for treatment, who was right at a year old. After only a minute of reviewing him, Joel made the call that he would be taken to the hospital ASAP. Pierre Payen is only open from 8am to 12pm – they have to close for cost reductions and the expense of diesel to run the generator (which goes out predictably every Wednesday while we’re there…and I’m sure it goes out every day we’re not there as well). Because it was already mid-afternoon, Joel told the father to meet us at 7:30am the next day and we’d take him to the hospital with us. Kenlen was 2 kilograms below the Severe Malnutrition rating of 3 standard deviations – this is Medika Mamba speak for admit into the hospital ASAP (in fact, that rating makes him the worst case we’ve seen since arriving in Haiti). We are giving an incredible solution to malnutrition, but some children are so far gone that they need more immediate and intensive medical attention – beyond the vitamins and minerals of our 12-week treatment.

So after a quick breakfast, we ran down to meet the father, hoping he would keep his word and return to meet us. Sure enough, he was there with little Kenlen. We rode to the hospital together in a Tap-Tap (Haitian open-air taxi) and Joel immediately called for Dr. George to review Kenlen. They admitted Kenlen immediately, recognizing the need and were thankful that we brought him in. We weren’t sure how they would treat him, but they hadn’t given us an update as of 11am. Elsie volunteered to stay with the child because the father had to go to do some work he had earlier agreed to (jobs are hard to come by and you don’t pass up an opportunity to earn wages, even with a hospitalized child…the mother was no where to be found).

Overall, our day at Pierre Payen proved to be very rewarding – aside from one exception, all the children had gained weight, including the adorable and, now, world-famous Success Berlin. She had gained half a kilogram, which is great, great news. Her step-mom had brought her in and showed more interest than weeks past.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS FOR EDGARSEN, VANESSA AND SUCCESS – THEY ALL HAD GREAT PROGRESS AND THIS IS ALL FROM GOD, WHO HEARS YOUR PRAYERS AND IS SOVEREIGN.

We counted our no-shows and there were four. As I reviewed their charts with Brittan, we started to see some similarities in those that were no longer coming. On average, we usually have some moms that miss a week, but rarely will miss two weeks in a row. These children however had missed 4 weeks or more and only came for their original screening appointment – never again showing up for a second visit. There’s no way to know for sure, but I am afraid that they may have died. If they haven’t already died (and we hope and pray that they will still return), it means that they have likely become even more malnourished from a lack of treatment and are closer and closer every day. We distributed all of our mamba and called it a day. We headed back to Canaan, while leaving Elsie with Kenlen, a good book and a Bible to pass the time. Our plan was to wait on Elsie to arrive back via Tap-Tap – and if we didn’t see her by 6:30pm, we’d take dinner back to the hospital and make another decision on how to proceed.

In the meantime, Joel and David received word that Edgarsen had been discharged from the hospital. They went to go and pay out the remainder of the medical bills and then get them back home to Montrouis. After wrapping up at the hospital, they all caught a Tap-Tap back, which would take them right through Pierre Payen on their way. As they approached the Pierre Payen hospital, they saw Kenlen’s dad and Elsie standing by the road, hailing the Tap-Tap that Dave, Joel, Edgarsen and his mother were on. Kenlen was wrapped up in a blanket in his father’s arms and the dad climbed inside the cab, now sitting beside little Edgarsen and his mother. Joel, David and Elsie were now in the back together. Joel commented to Elsie, “Isn’t that something, we have Edgarsen and Kenlen in a Tap-Tap together – they both made it and are going home.”

Elsie’s response was a blunt shock.

Kenlen had died and the father was carrying his body in his arms, to take him back home. It seems that he was desperately dehydrated, so much so that they couldn’t even find a way to start an IV, after hours of trying. So there they were – two of our patients – riding side-by-side together; one lived and one died. It’s sobering and hard to understand – and it is strangely real, while at the same time seemingly almost untrue. We are so insulated and protected from death in the US that it seems that the only time people die is when it’s completely tragic and unexpected or after months or years of a medical struggle. The pain almost seems normal here, almost expected.

The dad had cried in the hospital with Elsie and now was lost in a blank stare. He had to wait further down the road and hide the child in the blanket – he later would tell us that Tap-Tap drivers would not knowingly let someone bring a dead body on their vehicle. In fact, there are numerous well-used Toyota SUVs, Station Wagons and Mini-Vans that have been designated by their owners as morgue transportation – this shown by the finger-painted words “ambulance/morgue” on the side of the vehicle. The dad arrived later in the day at the Shicoon (Canaan’s shaded common space for the community to visit) and asked to speak with Elsie and Pastor Henri. They met with him and Elsie gave him $30 USD to pay for a small coffin.

And little Edgarsen came in the next day to be enrolled into the program. As young as he is, he’ll never remember or even know what happened to him. He won’t remember how he was on the very brink of life and death. But God saved him and provided for him and did so by your faithful sacrifice. And now we’ll pray with him every week, as he sits in his mother’s arms, that he would one day come to know Jesus as his Lord and Savior. We don’t pray for him to have a big family, to get a great job, to meet a beautiful wife – we pray for him to know his Savior – to know the God that created him and saved him desires to know him.

And that’s all that really matters in this life, isn’t it – and everything else is just details. There is a God that desires to know each one of us – that we would cry out to Him and He would save us – both in this lifetime and the next. And whereas Edgarsen may get distracted by life’s poverty, we may be distracted by life’s excess. Life seems like it’s about so many other things when we’re in the routine of it all. And then you experience the death of a child, a loved one, or a friend and you’re reminded of the brevity of this life and God reminds us of what is temporary and what is eternal.

                                                             *****

It’s now Saturday morning and we are all taking time to read, relax a little and collect our thoughts from the week. And later in the day, when Pastor Henri returns from Port Au Prince (he left early this AM to get a load of meat and ice blocks for the kitchen), we will go and run an errand with a dozen of the boys….which is actually a story worth sharing.

On Thursday morning, as we sat and had coffee with Pastor Henri (undoubtedly one of our favorite things to do), probably 12 of the boys, ranging from 7 to 12, came into the Kafeteria shuffling around as they waited for someone brave from their delegation to speak-up. Pastor Henri asked them what they wanted and someone mumbled, “We’d like to have a pig to take care of.” Pastor Henri began to tell them that if they had a pig, they would have to feed it twice a day, build a home for it, wash it daily and give it fresh water. They eagerly agreed, but their faces fell when Pastor Henri said, “OK, that’s good. But here’s the thing, we can’t get a pig right now. There is no money for a pig. But maybe in two or three months…maybe then there will be money for a pig…we’ll see, OK?” (Will, David, Pastor Henri – affectionately called “PH”, Joel and me at an overlook point of Port Au Prince).

I’m sure we can all remember at least one thing we were dead-set on having as a child and we went to our parents with our best foot-forward and made our request. I know I can remember the excitement of going to the store and picking out a drum set, a new bike, a remote control car, a water gun – all sorts of things that I just “had to have.” But this wasn’t the case for these boys – there wasn’t money for a pig this month and that was that.

As Pastor Henri was telling the boys that they couldn’t have one, Dave, Will and I began shooting glances across the table and tried to hold back grins and amazement. Right after the boys left, we told Pastor Henri that we had just discussed hours earlier that we, as a team, would like to buy a pig for the orphanage. God is so good – he knew what these boys wanted a pig and put it on our hearts to get one. It was literally 9pm the night before that we counted up the money and set it aside to surprise Pastor Henri with a new pig – completely unaware of the boys’ desire to have one.

So later today, we’ll load up in the big truck and go get “Porky” (as little Stephenson has already named him). The boys have been all smiles all morning – they are already beaming with pride and eager to ride with their dad, Pastor Henri, to go in the truck, get a soda from a roadside stand and pick-out their very own pig, just as little boys should be allowed do (Pic of Will, Joel and the boys after bringing home, Porky/Miss Piggy (the boys are still deliberating), our newest family member).

I have tears in my eyes as I write this – God sees these little boys and knew what they wanted – He cares about what they want and not just what they need and is pleased to give them good gifts, just like a Father. God, grow their faith and their knowledge of just how much you love them – and let them see that this gift is from you and not us. The story doesn’t stop there.

I have a dear friend in Missouri who writes me with encouragement weekly, but more importantly covers us in prayer every day. She wrote me Thursday night and told me that she woke up that morning praying that God would allow me to see new things about Him and to see more and more how incredible He is – that I would know His provision and providence more. I was stunned as I read her very specific prayer request about me seeing new things about God that morning – I think she was probably praying that prayer as I sat and listened to 12 boys ask for a pig that our team had already decided to purchase just hours before. Praise you, Lord – and thank you for giving us eyes to see more of you last week.

As for the coming week:

On Monday, we’ll pick up Scott from LifeSource Engineering, who will enable us to have clean water at Canaan.

On Tuesday, we’ll drive to Port Au Prince and drop-off Mandy, Joel and David at the airport. Bittersweet, dear friends.

On Thursday, we’ll drop Scott off at the airport and pick-up Stephanie Sallee, a pediatric nurse from St. Louis – who chose Canaan over all other options as where she would spend her week of vacation from work and grad school, treating the children of central Haiti.

Then, come Saturday, Will and I will have one more week here – leaving on the 26^th.

There’s more to write, but I need to send this out before the power cuts off. We love you all so much and are so thankful for your support and prayers for the children here. You have saved many lives, blessed many families with healthy children and brought hope to the hopeless.

So from over a hundred little children and mothers – thank you’s, smiles and even some occassional, hard-earned hugs.

From Haiti with love-

John A. Elmore

I apologize for not having updated the blog in a week. We have had long, hard-working days at Canaan and have been exhausted at night. In recapping this past week, I’m thrilled to report it has been productive and life-changing for many.

One thing I’ve learned about putting off writing for a week at a time, is that once you finally do have the mental energy to sit down and write, there is so much to cover that it’s very difficult to know where to begin.

A few highpoints that I’m going to detail out:

• VISITOR: Bill Nix, Will’s Dad, made the journey from Montgomery, Alabama, to Montrouis, Haiti, this past week
• WATER: Canaan will have fresh, sweet and clean water flowing from it’s well in a little more than a week
• PATIENT NEWS: Success, Vanessa and a new little boy named Edgarsen
• NEW CANAANITES: As God would have it, there will be up to three more new children that call Canaan home in the next few weeks
• MEDIKA MAMBA TEAM NEWS: Elsie Kornelsen, Canaan’s resident nurse from Costa Rica/Canada, has agreed to continue managing the MM program after July. And other short-term missionaries have plans to come in July, as well

It was an eventful week at Canaan, to say the least. Sunday was Father’s Day in Haiti and the children made all of us Happy Future Father’s Day cards. Joel and Mandy were babysitting little Olivia, the adopted Haitian daughter of a mission couple who run CleanWaterForHaiti.org. And on Tuesday, we loaded up in the big truck and rode to Port Au Prince to pick up Will’s dad, Bill Nix.

WATER AND VISITOR

About two weeks before Bill arrived, we started seeing emails bouncing back and forth between Bill and various organizations in Haiti and the US. When Bill read the blog post about water a few weeks back, he made it his personal goal to ensure that Canaan would never be without water again. He contacted over a dozen organizations, including the U.N., UNICEF, the Baptist Mission Board of Haiti and others to try and find someone who could drill down to the water table on our property, which is at a very low 320 feet. This depth means we’re almost in-line with the sea and thus it makes for very salty water with high mineral content. However, if you can get the salt content reduced, Canaan’s water would actually be similar to a healthy mineral water (it’s been tested in the past by a medical mission team from the US and a missionary who had access to the US Army’s test lab).

After talking to many organizations, none were confident or even hopeful that their equipment could reach the depth we needed and guessed we would most likely end up with yet another well of equally salty water. So Bill began to work another angle. Canaan has had a water filtration system in place that can generate cool, clean drinking water from the existing well. The problem is that the filtration system has had many challenges and mismatched parts installed on it over the years. Needless to say, it hasn’t been in working order for quite some time. We have had parts shipped to Canaan in the past, but the installation guide and specs require a Masters in Mechanical Engineering to read them, let alone install the parts, membranes and direct the input/outputs. So, Bill Nix, being the generous-hearted, problem solver he is, contacted Scott Baggerly of Lifesource Engineering, the president of the company who creates the desalinization filter that Canaan has. After a couple of hours on the phone, they had arrived at a solution. Bill has provided for Scott to fly to Haiti on July 14^th, and the sole mission of his 72 hours in-country trip will be to get the filtration

system up and running (Bill and Teri are covering his hours, travel and the replacement parts he’ll be traveling with). This will single-handedly change the face of Canaan. In fact, Will and I just walked down the hill to help two men load a gigantic 600 gallon water tank into the back of the truck so that we could fill it with drinking water for the week (this water still has to be filtered 5 gallons at a time through bio-sand filters at a rate of 1 gallon/10 minutes).  The tank will take about 3 hours to fill and might last us until Wednesday.  Just to give you a visual, we call this tank the Starbuck’s Cup. It’s a huge white tank with a top just like a Starbuck’s lid (white so that the water content inside won’t get quite as hot) that is 7’ feet tall and probably 16’ in circumference.

This is a huge answered prayer. I can’t tell you how big of a deal this truly is. And I know Bill and Teri will be embarrassed that I’m writing about their involvement, but it’s the biggest blessing to see the Body of Christ at work. Just three months ago, they had not even heard of Canaan – God put something on their heart – an idea that came to their mind – and not even a month later, the water problem, God-willing, will be solved thanks to their time and giving. A huge thanks to Scott, too, who is making a custom trip from his normal schedule just to get Canaan’s water going. Amen.

PATIENT NEWS

Tuesday is our first day of clinic at Canaan. Bill’s flight was delayed four hours and we just barely let him throw his bags in the room before we had him observing, filming and helping in the clinic. We took shifts having a late lunch while seeing patients from 2pm – 6pm.  I stayed up in the cafeteria and had an impromptu meeting with Sister Gladys and Pastor Henri about the Medika Mamba program. They love what is happening through the program and are excited to see it continue. They have been so supportive, helpful and contribute invaluable ideas and methods to line-up with the culture here in Haiti. We live here with the best hosts and examples in the world – they are the most servant-hearted, loving individuals.

As we were meeting, Joel ran up from the clinic and asked if he could please interrupt. I could tell from how he was speaking the request was urgent and after hearing what was going on, we immediately went back inside, and sat down with Pastor Henri and Sister Gladys to ask for their advice and assistance. It seems that a new mother brought in her son, Edgarsen, and he was moments from death. Just from what David and Joel could see the little boy, just under his one year birthday, was severely malnourished, but that was the least of his problems. His body was failing on many counts and he had, as many have commented, a “death stare.” He had a void and vacant expression and would cough and contort to take in breaths. Joel’s request was that the Medika Mamba program take on this child as a patient and get him to the hospital immediately – for fear that he wasn’t going to make it through the night. Pastor Henri and Sister Gladys immediately arranged for our main-man, Jamil, to drive them into Saint Marc with the mother and child. Bill Nix, without hesitation, gave Joel and David money to cover the medical expenses and they were on their way. The hospital immediately took the boy into their care, seeing the same urgency we had, and began an IV, put him on oxygen and started a line-up of tests for as soon as his energy allowed. Joel, David and Jamil stayed with him from 6pm to 11pm, seeing to it that he received chest x-rays, prescriptions for antibiotics and more, urine and blood tests and more. Over the next few days, they would be there every day, taking the mother meals, staying with the child, paying the bills (Haiti operates on pay-as-you-go…meaning nothing happens unless you pay for what is needed at that moment). I’m so proud of David and Joel – everyday they load up in the truck and go one hour north to Saint Marc to make sure Edgarsen is getting all his prescriptions filled, getting his lab results back and making sure the mom is on-track with all his treatments. She has brought her own bedding from home and sleeps/sits beside him on the concrete floor. Amazingly, the total cost for all of the medical care to date is $60.00. Thus far, we know that he has pneumonia and are waiting to hear more. Once the little fella is back in good enough health, he’ll be on a steady diet of some powerful peanut butter. Thank you for your prayers for Edgarsen – he’s your newest saved life.

Additionally, on Wednesday, we decided to take Vanessa to Pierre Payen. Vanessa’s whole body is swollen. From her feet to her cheeks, she is extremely swollen and malnourished – it’s what is called ‘wet-malnutrition.’ She’s been coming for 5 weeks now, and she misses from time to time and goes without mamba. When we ask her mom why they missed their weekly appointment, she says she didn’t come because it looked like it was going to rain. It’s heartbreaking to see this child suffer and come back in worse shape than before because her mom didn’t feel like risking a walk in the rain. Anyhow, due to her lack of progress, we took her along with us to the Pierre Payen hospital to have her reviewed by a doctor. The doctor saw her immediately and reviewed the chart that we keep on her. He was very grateful and impressed by the detailed information we had on her (thanks to MFK’s great training and patient sheets they supply) and said that sure enough, she had Kwashiorkor (wet-malnutrition). He said to keep her on the program and that she will definitely get better. We were so thankful to know we were on the right track with Vanessa and the doctor didn’t charge us one single cent…or Gourde, as they use in Haiti. As Joel talked to Vanessa’s mom, she began to ask, if not beg, for Joel and Mandy to take Vanessa – talking about how she cries at night and how none of her other children are swollen like her. Mandy, who has a compassionate heart of gold and is always on the ball, immediately grabbed Vanessa’s hand and led her out of earshot of the conversation, so that she wouldn’t have to hear her mother beg a stranger to take her away.

Unfortunately, there was more disappointment. At Pierre Payen, 11 of our now 21 patients (total of 41 between Canaan and Pierre Payen) did not show up for their weekly treatment. This sometimes happens if the weather is bad, but it was a perfectly clear day…we have no idea why there was such a big number of no-shows. However, one unlikely mother and daughter did come – Success Berlin. Her mom hardly paid any attention to Joel as he walked her through the weekly check-up and instructions. She had lost two more kilograms, after not having come to the clinic again last week….she is now almost back down to her original weight. This is frustrating and heartbreaking. The sole reason is that her mom refuses to faithfully come and give her daughter the medicinal food. She came in at 12 kilos and now only weighs 13 kilos. Joel was very firm with the mother and at one point, while the mother ignored him and talked to the woman across the room, Joel talked with sweet, little Success and told, “If no one feeds you the mamba, you go to where it’s kept and feed it to yourself. Eat as much as you want. It’s for you and it’s ok to do. Will you do that?” Little Success would smile shyly up at him and nod her head. She understood and hope she’ll come back in next week with weight gain. Thank you for your prayers for these children and all the others – life is hard here. And you’ve provided for these children so that they can live, have a chance in life and one day come to know God.

NEW CANAANITES

Many of you have emailed me about the girl in the yellow hat. We hadn’t seen her since the day at the clinic until early last week. Pastor Henri and I were talking in the Kafeteria, when Elsie came to the door. The mother had returned with her little girl, Magdalee, and was asking yet again for Elsie to take the child. Elsie asked them to wait in the Shicoon (an octagonal shaded meeting place at Canaan) and she would get Pastor Henri. Elsie had talked to Pastor Henri and Sister Gladys about little Magdalee since the first day we met her. They agreed to pray about it and see what happened.

So Pastor Henri and I walked to the Shicoon. Just steps before entering, Pastor Henri and I grabbed hands and prayed for the meeting, that God would guide us and His will be done. We sat down with the mother and Magdalee. She sat politely on her chair, tracing the pattern of her skirt on her knee with her finger…she would pause and look up at me sideways and smile back at me when our eyes met. After a mere ten minutes, Pastor Henri told the mother that all they would need is paperwork from the local judge saying that custody was being transferred to Canaan. The paperwork is usually not something a mother who has no food or bed for her child can afford. Thus, a US family has come forward and is covering the legal documentation for smiling Magdalee, her other sibling and the unborn child, most likely when it’s time.  Pastor Henri sent the mother home with 15 pounds of food to cover their needs until they can transfer the children to Canaan. What an incredible man.

MEDIKA MAMBA TEAM NEWS

As our time to leave approaches (July 15^th for David, Joel and Mandy / Me and Will on July 26^th), we have been praying and searching for new team members to pick-up

where we left off. Last weekend, Elsie and I were talking and she said she would love to continue running the program. She has her daily responsibility of running the clinic and now we have added on 10 more hours a week of malnutrition work – so I didn’t want to assume or even suggest she continues after our departure. However, she really believes in the program and has been an indispensable part of the team – offering much needed medical advice, outside the realms of what we’re able to do with the Medika Mamba. I’m so excited that it’s something she wants to continue working on. As we talked, she said, “I’ve always known that God had something else He was going to have me do when I came down here.” Thank you, Elsie – you’re an answer to prayer, for us, and the many children and mothers you’ll treat.

Other than those things, it’s life as usual at Canaan – many construction projects, painted the inside of two school buildings (materials donated by the Nix family), meetings, children singing and playing soccer, Bible study ever morning at 6:30am (we’ve just finished Esther and are now going through John), joyful Sunday worship, family meals with 100 people, Friday and Saturday night movies and more. And about 4 times a week, I jog the rocky, mountain trail behind Canaan – every time, I take the little Kreyol Bibles with me.

Today as I jogged, I gave them to boys on donkeys returning from market (probably hauled in bananas or plantains), a group of boys (some naked as the day they were born and all barefoot), many mothers and daughters carrying large basins on their heads, men with machetes from working in the field and others resting under the sole shade tree on the trail. I’ve started to stop and pray for them when they agree – I say, “Eske mwe kapab priyay pu ew?” (Can I pray for you?). Almost always they say yes and I put my hand on their shoulder. I pray that God would bless them that day. That they would see a blessing and know that it came from God’s hand, and that He would receive glory and that the person’s faith would grow as a result. I don’t know what happens for the rest of their day after I leave them, but I believe that God is pleased to bless them in little and big ways and hopes that they, His children, will know that the blessing came from Him – if only even a drink of water, or a ride from a passing truck, or a good night’s sleep.

And there was a beat-up truck trying to make its way up and down the trail. The men inside had stopped the truck and their hood was open and they were pulling water out of a little irrigation ditch to put in the radiator (it flows from the springs of the mountain town, Cap’iat…which we are hiking up to on Sunday morning, starting at 6am). I stopped and prayed for the truck and then after I got about 40 yards down the trail from them, a man called to me from the bed of the pick-up. He asked me to pray for him. He was in the back of the truck and kind of hunched over. He spoke English and said that he was sick. He said he had a very bad headache and felt really hot. I put my hand on his head and prayed that God would heal him, again for God to receive the glory and for this man’s faith and trust to grow. As I ran back down the trail, I looked back and saw him pouring water from the ditch over his head…he was really hurting. Friends, his name is Andre – please take 5 seconds and pray for God to heal Andre. Who knows how this could impact his life if he learned that the God of all creation cares specifically about him and wants to help him, even with something like a headache.

You see, here in Haiti, there is no medicine cabinet with an assortment of Advil, Tylenol, Aspirin, Aleve, or whatever else you might need. There is no corner store, no pharmacy, no nothing…this man lives in the mountains. Interesting that he asked me to pray for him about twenty seconds after I passed. Maybe he was debating in his mind….

Will it even do any good to ask him to pray for me?

He’s already halfway down the hill – why bother to call him to come back.

My friends will never let me hear the end of it if I call that blanc to come back and pray for me…and they’ll wonder why I didn’t just ask them.”

Does God actually care about my headache….does He really see my pain?

Or maybe God nudged him and gave him a little opportunity to step out in faith to call to me and ask. A little prompting by His Spirit. And instead of doubting, he’ll called out to me, neglecting all the other possible thoughts listed above.

And you know what I’ve been thinking the whole time today and while I’ve been here….

Why is it so easy for me to pray for people in Haiti?

I’d never stop and pray for people in Dallas when I’m out on a jog…why not? What am I afraid of?

How come I take bibles with me when I jog in Haiti and not the US?

Why am I only a missionary in Haiti and not at home, where people are just as hurting, if not more?

I’m ashamed to admit these things, but I believe God is opening my eyes and changing my heart. He promises in His word that He will change us throughout our whole lives (Philippians 1:6).

A new friend wisely told me the other day that we’re always thinking about the people who are “down and out.” But, he challenged me, what about the people who are “up and out.” And that’s us, in the US, isn’t it? We are up and out – we need to experience and know God just like this Haitian man with a headache, unfortunately driving down the bumpiest road on the whole island. Just because we have the medicine cabinet full of meds, the cars, the careers, the vacation home, the high profile circle of friends, the bills are paid, and the sky is the limit – we still are desperate to know God, maybe even more so because we’re blinded.

Blinded how?

We both have needs that need to be filled – one readily and desperately looks to God, while we alternatively have trained ourselves to meet our own needs and prayer is often the last resort or afterthought, if after exhausting all the options we find something can’t be done. That’s a huge problem – when we are no longer dependent on God, we’ll find that we’ve also forgotten Him.

It’s nothing new – God has been cautioning us against this false pride since man walked the earth. For a good eye-opener, read Deuteronomy 8:10-19. Don’t put this off. I always see verses on things and think I’ll read them later…I never do.

Here it is:

When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.

Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God,

failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day.

Otherwise,

when you eat and are satisfied,

when you build fine houses and settle down,

and when your herds and flocks grow large

and when your silver and gold increase

and all you have is multiplied,

then your heart will become proud

and you will forget the Lord your God…

You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’

But remember the Lord your God,

for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth,

and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.

If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today you will surely be destroyed.

–        Deut 10:10-18 (15 and 16 not included for reduced length).

I don’t write this as condemnation or throwing stones; I write this because I’ve lived it. Reading those verses is like rehashing the last 10 years of my life. I accumulated all I could and sat back to observe it all and thought how great I was….I thought it was all from my own good business sense, hard work and charm. Foolish. I gave all my time and affections to other gods and just like the Word says, my life and everything in it was stripped away and destroyed, seemingly in an instant. It’s been said that God is a gentleman, who waits patiently for our decision, but He will not share the loyalties or praise from His children.

A Down-and-Out Haitian or an Up-and-Out American, put the two lives on God’s scale and we’re exactly the same, because as we are eternal souls, only the eternal things truly matter.

Father, please heal Andre, Edgarsen and us. Heal us for your glory. Change our lives so that people will know you and your power to change, both the down-and-out and the up-and-out. We pray to be dependent on you alone. Amen.

Psalm 115:1

Not to us, O Lord, not to us

But to your name be the glory,

Because of your love and faithfulness.

From Haiti with love,

John A. Elmore (w/ Pastor Henri and Will Nix at a dinner honoring our Haitian Pastor and loved friend)

I am very sorry that there hasn’t been a blog in almost a week. We have been very busy with the clinic work on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. And when we’re not working with the malnourished children, we’re full throttle on other projects around the orphanage (including move tons, yes – tons, of scrap metal, painting multiple buildings inside and out, moving large amounts of rock and gravel and digging trenches for the foundational walls of an upcoming tilapia pond…more on these projects below, if time allows…I’m working against the clock on a 10pm generator deadline).

Now for the news on the malnutrition clinic:

Praise God that we have five new children enrolled in the malnutrition program, bringing our total up to 39 children. These are five children who may not have lived had you all not provided the means to give them this lifesaving treatment of peanut butter and medicine. The mothers found out about the program by word of mouth and desperately needed the treatment. Typically, about 1 out of every 6 children we screen needs the medika mamba, and needs it urgently. The other 5 are in good health, relatively speaking and not severely or even moderately malnourished. Here’s the thing: if they cry, kick and scream while we’re trying to weight them and get their height, they are usually not malnourished. If they are completely agreeable to be held, weighed, moved around on the height board and don’t let out a sound, this most often means they are malnourished. It sounds funny, but you can almost bet that a child who isn’t crying during the screening is going to be admitted into the program. All that being said, we had a few cases of completely lethargic children come through who didn’t even have the energy to cry. And I’m happy to report that in a week, they’re sure to be crying when they get their weekly weight check (seems like an odd thing to hope for, right?) and if we play our cards right, they’ll learn to know that we’re on their side and maybe by week three or four, they might even start smiling at us. Sidebar – there’s something that completely makes my day – when I get on my knees to pray with the moms before they leave, they are always at this time of the appointment holding their child on their lap. The kids never cry when we pray over them. They just sit there, while the moms have their heads bowed, with my arm around them and the child.

So that’s the good news – five new children enrolled and 39 total, after five weeks of operating the clinic in Central Haiti.  And we ask you to pray that this family of mothers and children in the program will continue to grow, as the need is great.

On Tuesday, I looked out from the doorway of Canaan’s clinic. It was about 3:30pm and the normal gathering of stray goats and village children had assembled on the incomplete foundation about 20 yards ahead. There on the bench was someone who caught my eye. She was a precious little girl, about 4 years old, and she wore a bright yellow hat (the kind of hat Paddington Bear wore…kind of a rain or fishing hat). People in Haiti dress-up to go to the clinic or hospital. It’s not unusual at all to see one of our patients in a white lace and satin Sunday-best dress – and this goes for the moms as well.  But, the reason  she stood out is what she did as she was patiently waiting her turn to be seen, while sitting beside her very pregnant mother. As I looked out the door at her, she smiled at me. I don’t think you can fully appreciate a smile the way we do here without having experienced a day at the clinic. Smiles from the mothers are rare, until you have a relationship developed with them. And smiles from the children are even harder to come by. They are shy, weak, embarrassed, unsure what we’re doing with them, and in general probably don’t like a visit to the doctor, just like any other kid. But this little girl and I met eyes and she smiled from underneath her yellow hat. She came in and we screened her. And during the screening, we experienced again the heartbreaking realities of Haiti.

She did not qualify for the Medika Mamba program. She was actually well-nourished and not skinning at all. This was mildly disappointing. Often you find yourself screening a child and you become particularly attached to them. Sometimes it’s be the way they hold on to you when you weigh them, or because they fall asleep in your arms, or because they hold your hand or because they seem to trust you. And when you get attached to these children, you start hoping that they’ll qualify for the program so that you can give them some really great nourishment, bibles and spend time with them every week. However, for every one that doesn’t need the program, there is one that desperately needs it – thus, we stick to the guidelines and some children, like this little girl, aren’t enrolled.

Right about now, you’re probably thinking (if you’re like us), “But can’t you just give her something?” And the answer is yes – indeed. Thanks to the forward-thinkiing, innovative and socially-just mind of Joel Busby! Thanks to Joel, there is something we can give to little boys and girls like this. And we appropriately call it The Busby special. One day, Joel was screening a couple of adorable sisters, three and four years old. They were fine by malnutrition standards, but Joel had an idea. Every kid could stand to use some vitamins, minerals, a little extra protein and calcium and some good ole, all natural peanut butter, right? So he came into the other room, where we were inducting a new patient and asked if it would be all right to give these two sisters one bag each of mamba, just to give them a little boost of nutrients and let them know they were loved and cared for. The answer was a resounding yes by the entire team and we hope that you’ll agree with and support our newest form of preventative treatment: The Busby Special. It’s a kilogram of delicious, nutrient packed peanut butter given to a child who is in a good, nourished state, but probably is so just on a diet of rice and beans. Thus, this is a way to get them some great fats, proteins, calcium, vitamins…and let’s be honest, some really sweet, delicious peanut butter. They leave feeling like we truly treated and cared for them, valued their children, prayed for them and hopefully know it came from God – via your hands – and will in turn grow their faith.

Back to the little girl in the yellow hat – she didn’t qualify, but there was no way she was getting out the door without a Busby Special. We got her a bag while Elsie talked to the mom. Elsie has a gift for asking all the right questions – she’s never satisfied with just a yes or no, she digs and digs to find out the reasons behind things. And that’s when we often are able to get to the root problem, instead of just treating symptoms or remaining completely in the dark. So when I came out with the bag of mamba, Elsie told me that the mom had just asked if we could take the little girl. Elsie said that she wasn’t at liberty to take any children, but that she could schedule an appointment with Pastor Henri if she was serious. She said she didn’t have time and that the child didn’t even have any place to sleep tonight. She said she couldn’t keep her. And she said that there is another younger sibling and Elsie could have her, too. Elsie again repeated the protocol for the orphanage and it was as if this mother’s urgency didn’t allow her to understand. She further stated that we could have the unborn baby that she was carrying as soon as it was delivered. It’s hard enough to stand there and hear a mom say she’d like to leave her child with you….you, being a perfect stranger…and by leave, she meant then…that day…that very minute she was willing and ready to say goodbye to her daughter. She said that she knew she’d have a better life with us.

What’s perhaps even sadder is that you have to understand that this whole exchange is going on in Kreyol, right in front of the little girl. She is hearing and understanding every word her mother is saying. And the answers we give are coming back in a strange language she can’t hear, until it’s translated by our interpreter. I don’t know how you grew up, but I knew security and comfort at every moment of my childhood. And I can’t fathom what that would do to my trust, sense of acceptance, self worth, hope for the future, dreams or heart if I would have walked with my mom one day to a strange place with people a different color than me who spoke a different language and heard my mother in the most matter-of-fact way plead for a stranger to take…right then and there.

And I’m not sure how to keep saying which aspect of this is harder – but here’s yet another: this happens almost every week. And we are only in the clinic two days a week – Elsie faithfully sees the community day-in-and-day-out every single weekday. Who knows how many children have been offered to her. This issue is very common in Haiti and is one of the many reasons why it’s so good that you and your support have enabled us to be here. These families are living on less than $2.00/day. Many of them sleep 8 or more to a house and a house is often a one-room building. So for this mom to say she has no room for her to sleep, no money for food, no desire to keep her child anymore – she’s not doing it out of disinterest in the child; she is doing it because she loves the child enough to give her up if it means a better life. And you can see the apathetic, jaded, pain-numbed emotionless state of these mothers – life is hard here for many. So giving up your child is a gut-wrenching, tear-filled appointment…it’s a matter-of-fact ‘there is no place for this child to sleep’ and I’m desperate and don’t know what to do.

Oh, the blessings we have been given and have always taken for granted.

While Will was painting Disney characters on the new schoolhouse last week, during one of our off-days from clinic, a little boy from Canaan asked, “Will, why am I am a Haitian citizen? And why are you an American citizen?”

It’s a question that had just broken into this ten year old child’s mind and one that I’ve been wrestling with all along since the day I arrived.

It’s such a good question – why am I an American? And why is he a Haitian? And there’s so much more to it. Everything I have and every part of who I am has everything to do with where I was brought up, the family I was born into, the people I have been surrounded by and the opportunities I received. Why wasn’t I born to another family, in another country, of another race and a different religion? I did not choose to be born to my incredible parents. I did not choose to be brought up in a loving home.  I had nothing to do with being born a healthy baby, with ten fingers and ten toes. To be taken to church and told the Gospel since I can remember. I had nothing to do with being born into an area that had great public schools, which gave me a free education and led to my opportunity for more education. Nothing. I had nothing to do with any of this. It just seems like complete chance and happenstance. And it’s really easy for us to accept and not question – being prosperous Americans and all. What beef do I have with God for being born into the world power of nations, at the height of economic and technological growth, with opportunity and entitlement at every turn? None. In fact, I’m so content with my “chance” identity that I was given, or born into, that I rarely, and I mean rarely, ever even think about it.

God tells us why. And it’s sobering.

The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And He is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything,

because He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.

From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth;

and He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.

God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.

For in Him we live and move and have our being…

Therefore, since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone – an image made my man’s design and skill.

In the past, God overlooked such ignorance, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent.

For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed. He has given proof o fthis to all men by raising Him from the dead.

Acts 17:24-31 (and if you have time or the desire to read more on this: Deut. 8:10-19, James 1:17, Psalm 139:13-16, Psalm 8:3-4, Ephesians 1:4-5)

Everything. Everything we have is from God. I am nothing apart from all the blessing He has given me. And it really stirs and startles me to know that to whom much is given, much is expected.

I’ve written this before, but want to put it down again:

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10

Father, please forgive me of my arrogant and prideful heart that ever thinks I had something to do with the blessings of my life. They are from Your hand. And for some reason, only known to your wisdom, you chose to give life to my soul in this time and exact place and with these countless blessings. God, give me the courage to step out of my comforts that I insulate myself with. Help me to see the good works that You prepared in advance for me to do. Do not let me neglect them. Put those good works on my heart and give me the strength, passion and selflessness to see them through – not for my glory, but for Your’s. And, Lord, I thank you for the many souls who gave so much for these children of Haiti and pray and pray for Your work here. We love you, Father, and ask this in Jesus mighty name. Amen.

From Haiti with love-

John A. Elmore

PS – A prayer request – little Success Berlin didn’t show up this week at our Pierre Payen mobile clinic. Please pray she and a girl named Vanessa both return this next week. It’s very important we continue to see them – especially Vanessa, who is in really bad shape. Thank you so much – we love you all.

PPS – I have some more pics I’m trying to upload but the connection isn’t fast enough and keeps timing-out on the upload. Will edit them in over the weekend.