The Orphanage called Canaan

Hey all-

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 16:19-31Luke 16:19-31
English: Good News Bible (1992) - GNB
The Rich Man and Lazarus ¹⁹ “There was once a rich man who dressed in the most expensive clothes and lived in great luxury every day. ²⁰ There was also a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who used to be brought to the rich man's door, ²¹ hoping to eat the bits of food that fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs would come and lick his sores. ²² The poor man died and was carried by the angels to sit beside Abraham at the feast in heaven. The rich man died and was buried, ²³ : . and in Hades, s : hades: The world of the dead. where he was in great pain, he looked up and saw Abraham, far away, with Lazarus at his side. ²⁴ So he called out, ‘Father Abraham! Take pity on me, and send Lazarus to dip his finger in some water and cool off my tongue, because I am in great pain in this fire!’ ²⁵ But Abraham said, ‘Remember, my son, that in your lifetime you were given all the good things, while Lazarus got all the bad things. But now he is enjoying himself here, while you are in pain. ²⁶ Besides all that, there is a deep pit lying between us, so that those who want to cross over from here to you cannot do so, nor can anyone cross over to us from where you are.’ ²⁷ The rich man said, ‘Then I beg you, father Abraham, send Lazarus to my father's house, ²⁸ where I have five brothers. Let him go and warn them so that they, at least, will not come to this place of pain.’ ²⁹ Abraham said, ‘Your brothers have Moses and the prophets to warn them; your brothers should listen to what they say.’ ³⁰ The rich man answered, ‘That is not enough, father Abraham! But if someone were to rise from death and go to them, then they would turn from their sins.’ ³¹ But Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone were to rise from death.’”

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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 2:10Ephesians 2:10
English: Good News Bible (1992) - GNB
10 God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus he has created us for a life of good deeds, which he has already prepared for us to do.

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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

 

 

 

 

 

Dear friends-

 

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