El Higuero Medical Clinic

This morning I headed over to Brother Darren's house to pick him up for a medical clinic that we were going to hold in El Higuero.  Just before I arrived at his house, he called my cell phone and told me that he was not going to be able to make due to the fact that he was feeling very sick.  He has a bad cough, fever and did not get much sleep last night.

Myself, along with Elisabeth, Mary, Jonathan, Pastor Nathan, and Max (a young man from Germany) headed out to El Higuero.  I had taken some books along with my bible thinking that I would have time to study today while the medical clinic was going on, boy was I wrong.  When we arrived myself and Elisabeth tried to get the school set up for the clinic.  The medical group did not arrive till around 11:30am and I ended up being the go between the Dominicans and themMedical group.  Little did they know that I can not really speak spanish yet.  I had the pleasure of handing out the numbers to the Dominicans!  We made up little tickets with numbers on them all the way up to 100.  Let's just say it was like I was handing out dollar bills!  I'm very thankful that Elisabeth and Mary went along.  They did a great job translating and helping out with the clinic.  The doctors were able to see over 125 people today in about 5 hours.  Below are some pictures from today:

People waiting to be seen by the doctors.

Jonathan and I working door patrol.  Making sure only those with tickets come inside.

A little baby girl, who came in towards the end that had a bad infection in her lower lip.

After we were done with the clinic, we went into a poorer part of the town to hand out some bags of chips and some coloring pencils to the children.  This baby boy had worms in his stomach that makes it bloat.

This is the our group that went to help the doctors.  From left to right: Jonathan, myself, Pastor Nathan, Max, Elisabeth Truel, and Mary Truel

One of the homes that the people live in.

A young girl in El Higuero.

The little girl with her grandmother.

Elisabeth with one of the nurses.

Medical Clinic in La Lanza

There was only supposed to be 12-14 in the group.  LOL..There was close to 30 people.

This is a home in one of the Bateys.  The outer building is the kitchen!

Today, Brother Darren and I picked up a group of doctors and headed up to La Lanza.  They held a medical clinic and were able to see many patients.  They originally told us there was only going to be a group of about 12 to 14 people, but when we met there were close to 30 people to help! The group was made up of 4 doctors, several nurses, pharmacists, and translators. Thank the Lord that the bus driver was willing to try to take his bus up the mountain to help transport everyone.  Otherwise, it would have left two trucks to haul all the people, medicine and supplies.  Thankfully, we all made it safely up without any problems.

Part of the group that came to help with the Medical Clinic.

While the doctors were working away, Brother Darren and I went to the bateys to tell the people about the medical clinic.
The truck definitely got a work out today, traveling all over the place!  At one point we had over 25 people in the truck while traveling up the mountain!  Thank the Lord for 4-wheel drive, as it came in handy today.

We also went to pick up a blind man that needed to see a doctor and I got to do some mud riding to get to his house.  Thank you again to all who give to the Lord to make this possible.  Please pray that I will put every dollar that is given right were the Lord wants it.

Bro. Darren directing the troops!

It has been put on our hearts to try to feed some of these children that are up in these mountains.  The Haitian kids have next to nothing and its about the same with many of the Dominican children.  Someone has already donated large bags of rice and beans and now we are looking into obtaining something to cook large amounts at once.  Brother Darren has a contact in North Carolina with a company that makes a cooker that would be perfect for what we are trying to do.  I'm going to try to contact  them to see what they can provide at a good price.  If you think of it, please make this a matter of prayer.  Eventually, we would like to purcahse some land in that area where we can put up some kind of structure to hold Bible lessons and other projects.  Please pray that the Lord's will be done with all of this.  There is much work that can be done in this area.  I will try to keep you all updated on our progress.

A Brother and Sister in the Lord.  The Sister has just had a baby and had an infection.  She had surgery this past week and in Polo and need a ride back to La Lanza.

Bro. Darren and I going out to the Bateys in the mountains to let them know about the medical clinic.

A couple of kids who wanted a ride back to their home.

This is a picture of the Haitians working on coffee beans.  This is future Starbucks coffee (LOL)!!  It all starts with the naked kid! Just kidding about it being future Starbucks coffee, however the coffee grown here in Polo is sold and marketed in the United States by high-end, organic coffee companies. 

I'm a school truck driver now!  There are probably 15 to 20 kids in the back of the truck.  As the Dominicans say, "How many can you fit?  Always one more!"

A boy, and I believe, his grandfather waiting to see the doctors.

A brother from the Haitian church in La Lanza with his children.

A young girl with her baby.  I think she is around 15 years old.

This is the head of a doll on a fence post in front of a house.  They believe that this will keep evil spirits away.  We ended up taking an elderly man from this residence to the clinic.  When I drove him back home they removed the doll's head from the post.  Pray that we will have an opportunity to share the gospel with him and his family soon.

As Brother Darren and I went down the side of the mountain we let everyone know that there was a free medical clinic in La Lanza.  As we came back up the mountain we picked up over 25 people and fit them in our truck.  Thank the Lord for 4-wheel drive.  The truck did a wonderful job hauling all of these people to the clinic.  Most of these people live on the side of the mountain in glorified card board box homes (they are made of wood not card board).

This is Pastor Nathan holding a little girl that went to the Medical Clinic.

This couple with a little girl passed us while we were going down the mountain.  They have to walk about 2 miles to the bottom of the mountain to get their water from a river.  This little girl was a little sweety.

This is a picture of the blind man and his son that we transported up to the medical clinic.  Above is a picture of his home and family.  The man to my left is his son.  His home is in the middle of no were and I thought that might truck was going to get stuck in the mud as I went down the trail to his home, but thank the Lord we made it there and back.  The doctor that he saw at the clinic said that he had a stroke last year and that is what caused him to lose his eye sight.

Thanks again for all of your prayers and support!

Brother Chris and Family

A few pictures from the Medical Clinics

I have been meaning to post some pictures from the two medical clinics that we helped with last week. 

Brother Billy working on a young man's hand that had a bad infection.

A cute little girl, who smiled when I was going to take her picture.

These two pictures are of a little Haitian girl that is going to be seen by the medical personnel and the other picture is of Bro. Darren and Pastor Nathan, they are talking with some Haitian women who want to be seen.  Two brothers came from the States, Bro. Tim and Bro. Billy, to hold clinics for the Haitians up in the They were able to see quite a few patients during their stay.   Lord willing, they'd like to continue visiting to hold more clinics in the near future. mountains.  The Lord allowed the truck to run well and make it up and down the mountains to get the medical team and the translators back and forth.     

 

This is Bro. Darren and Pastor Nathan talking with some Haitian women who came to the clinic.  Most of them were there for their children to be seen.

This is another child that was able to be seen. 

This little boy was happy to receive a piece of candy after he and his siblings were seen.

As I close this up, please keep a mother and her children in prayer.  We believe that they may have TB and the mother has it the worse.  I think she is very young in age and has 2 children, both daughters.  We are going to try and go up there (La Lanza) next Tuesday with another group of doctors that will be in town.  Please pray that her and her children will receive the treatments they need.

In Christ Jesus Our Lord,
Bro. Chris