Things are looking up!!

Hello faithful prayer warriors! Greetings in Jesus' name!

Thank you for all your prayers for us over the past weeks; they have helped immensely as we have battled the epidemic. We have felt the prayers of the saints in so many ways, and have seen the hand of God move in mysterious ways. He has been so good and faithful in healing the sick, saving sinners, and supporting the weak.

Over the last few days, we have had only 2 people in the CTC! It has been so nice to take a break from the business that plagued us weeks ago. We have been able to catch a breather and recoup before anything else happens.

The two people are the individuals we mentioned in the last update: a young girl, and an elderly man. Both are doing very well and should be able to go home soon. The elderly man needs a little longer care, since he is battling an infection; however, things are looking up for him, and we hope for a complete recovery!

The elderly man didn't want to look at the camera for me...
He's quite stubborn! :)

Mis Leda from the clinic has been helping out too.
She has been on shift today.

Here's the little girl...
She was looking a lot perkier than she was the other day!
She actually talked with me a bit when I was there taking pictures.

Thank you again for your support!! Please, continue to pray for the Cholera Epidemic: if it be HIS will, that it would be stayed; but if it continue, that He would draw many souls to Himself through it!

Have a blessed day!

ORS fun & IV crisis...

Hi to you all! 

I am enjoying the opportunity to be here in Haiti this month! Yesterday Meredith Keller and I were on duty from 8am-4pm. We half anticipated a slow,boring sorta of day since the number of patients has been lower lately. We were surprised by a little faster pace! :) 

One of the fun moments of the day was when we were in the main room making our check-up rounds. We had one older gentleman that just came off his IV and he was doing a good job of drinking up the ORS we were giving him. However the man across the room was being rather contrary about drinking his ORS! {And the lady beside him really was
not doing any better!} So we began to jokingly tell him how he will be punished if he does not drink. It quickly turned into a fun competition of who could finish their bottle of rehydration fluid { ORS} first! The room echoed for a while with much applause and peals of laughter! :) It was a relaxing time for staff and patients!

Later in the day we were quite busy admitting one patient when this little boy was carried in, laying limply across his dad's arms, his eyes rolled into his head, and obviously very dehydrated! We found out in short order that he was carried down from the clinic in Basice because the nurses there had tried and failed to find a vein to put an IV in. Faithful Thea was called upon to try her skills of putting in IV's.

After several tries,and some very desperate prayers,the IV did slide into a vein and the fluids began to go through his little body! In 4 hours the difference in his condition was outstanding!!! PTL! He is continuing to heal. The dad, who looked so hopeless before, was very pleased with how fast he was turning around,and asked special permission for a few of his other children to come see how he was improving! 

It is so exiting to see life returning to these sick folks. How much more to see some receiving everlasting life!

                    ~Kirsche Hess ~

Things are slowing down...

     Things are slow right now at the CTC, and I am so thankful for that!  When I came off shift this morning at 8 am we had three patients inside and one in the observation tent.  The old lady spoken about in the previous post is now well and ready to go home.  She should have gone home today, though I am not sure if the people coming for her got here yet.  She lives very far away so they are bringing a donkey to take her home.  The two other patients are men, the one should go home tomorrow, and the other is improving rapidly.  I did hear that a little boy came in today pretty dehydrated, and that Thea got an IV going in him.  

     I am enjoying getting to know the people who just came down.  They have pitched right in both in CTC life and "normal" life.  Since things are slow at the CTC we have time to get to a few other things that have been needing to be done.  Our girls house has needed a thorough cleaning, and we are finally getting around to it.  It has been raining a good deal, so our laundry has been getting a double or triple rinse, not that we mind - until we need dry clothes!  

     Here are a few random pictures you might enjoy.  The moths come every night to the CTC, and most of them are beautiful!  I have never seen so many iridescent colors on moths or butterflies!  The other picture is one of me trying to chop open a coconut.  It didn't work, and I ended up laughing so hard I had to let someone else finish the job!  The juice was really good after we got the thing open!   I'll leave you with a picture of the sunset I saw this evening; I was able to watch the sun go down since I'm off shift for tonight.

     God bless you; and please keep us in your prayers!

For His Glory,

~Virginia

Another day at the CTC...

Well, it's my turn to write a report again. I don't know for sure what to write about as we have not been very busy. As of this morning we had two patients admitted and four in the observation tent.

The last real excitement that we had was the old lady that came in on the stretcher on Tuesday morning. I guess Thea already wrote all about her, for me it was very new because that was the first one that couldn't walk since I came and she was almost dead! Since then there have been two that couldn't walk, so I am getting a little used to it.

Yesterday I had something a little different. Steve was going to Ti-Goave and I knew Thea wanted to go along so I convinced her to go and said I could take care of everything in the CTC. I ended up not being too bored. Around 11:00 a man came in on a horse and he couldn't even walk so I quickly called Michael and he came and helped spray the man down. Then he put the IV in, since I have never done it before. So the rest of the day I was kept busy with keeping the IV bags going and taking care of the old lady that the others have written about. She was wearing a diaper and kept getting up, trying to pull the diaper down and hitting the bucket about halfway through, so there was almost always a mess to clean up, since she was going about every 15 minutes. I can tell you this much, I was tired of cleaning her up by the time 4:00 came around. But over all I enjoyed my day alone there, I even had a patient come in the afternoon, so I put him in the observation tent, got a haitian to take his information, and I gave him his meds. Also, Thea said she enjoyed her day, so I was glad for that.

The other evening I decided that I'd like to drink some coconut milk, so Vickson climbed the tree and threw a few down. I was glad I got to drink some but I can't say I was very impressed! :) 

I think every one is a little tired of trying to stay awake for only 2 or 3 patients! It was kinda funny at midnight, Thea and I came out to find Virginia and Anna fast asleep in the supply room and they didn't even wake up very easy. So we gave them a little bit of a hard time about it, but then we woke up later to find Steve had been out there and we never knew it :) But we sure did have a job this morning when our old lady woke up, she had a thorough mess all over her bed. So we sprayed and wiped her, put her sheet and gown in the bleach water, took her bed outside and gave her a clean one. Then we had to clean the mess off the cot she had, which was quite disgusting, but her family was supposed to be bringing a mule to take her home today, although I haven't been working out there so I'm not sure if they came. It'll be kind of nice to not have to take care of her, but I also think it was a good experience and she was a sweet "grandma", as we called her. 

One exciting thing is that this morning Pastor Suejet was here witnessing to our patients and three of them gave their lives to the Lord! He is such an encouragement to have around here, but he's going to Ti-Goave and we're all going to miss him.

Well, I guess that's a little of what's going on around here. Thanks to all who are praying, may the Lord bless each one!

Serving my Saviour,

       ~Amanda Sensenig~

      As I was preparing to write this article, I had to think quite a bit about what to write. Things have been getting pretty slow in the CTC so there hasn't been a lot happening. We currently only have two patients, one is a 75 year old lady and the other is a 30 year old man who was admitted today. I will talk a little bit about them later. So as I thought about what to write, I couldn't remember anybody giving a description about what actually goes on throughout an entire day and the daily chores that need to be done. I will start with the shift beginning at 8 am and ending at 4 pm. When we arrive at 8 we can usually expect to have at least one patient that is ready to be discharged. We will give the person/s several packets of ORS drink mix with the instructions to put 1 packet in each one of their 1 liter bottles of water that they drink. We also give them a little jar of chlorine to mix with the water that they wash their clothes with as well as a paper that informs them about cholera and how to prevent it.
        Once we have given the discharged patients their instructions we will go into the rooms and have each patient go outside to sit for awhile. This helps to prevent getting pneumonia because they are not able to just lay around while they are getting so many fluids. Once we have gotten them out of their bed, we will change their gown and spray them down if they have soiled themselves. While they are sitting outside we will go through the whole room and clean it out. We start by sweeping it, then mopping, and then we spray down the walls with a certain cholorox solution. After that we will spray and wipe the beds off, change the bed pads and give them new sheets. We try to leave the patients out as long as they want and then help them with their IV bags if they have one and bring them back in. After the rooms are clean and the patients are taken care of, we are normally kept busy with numerous other tasks. These include soaking all material in bleach water for 10 minutes, filling people's ORS jugs, dumping buckets, dosing meds, paper work, and other little cleaning jobs. We also have a lady that comes 6 days a week and does all of the laundry for the entire CTC. This helps us to stay on top of the other responsibilities that can keep us quite busy.
        If a sick person comes to the gate anytime throughout the day, we will give him a 1 liter jug of ORS as well as medication and put him/her into the observation tent where we will monitor their input /output. If they have a lot diarrhea or vomit we will take them to a tent where we take their clothes off, spray them off, put a gown on them and then admit them into the CTC. From there we will continue to monitor their input/output and possibly give them an IV depending on their condition.
       When the crew comes on duty for the 4 pm to 12 am shift, they only have a couple of chores that need to be done. First of all, one of the things that need done is the laundry needs to be brought down from the roof and folded up to be used over again. Around this time is when I also take the buckets of waste out to the dumping hole with Michael Rudolph. When we come back we usually wash all of the waste buckets to keep them clean inside and outside. Also every Tuesday and Friday we spray down the porches in front of our own houses just as an extra precaution.
        The shift working from 12 am to 8 am can be quite boring at times. There have been several times where I have worked that shift and we didn't have many patients and nobody new came in so it made for a really long and boring night. We have several things to do on this shift. One of the things is that we have to refill everybody's hand washing jug. They each have a gallon sized jug with treated water that they use to wash their hands. After this we need to sweep and mop the nurse's room and the porch. We spray down the outside porch and also the area where the patients sit and walk around during the day. We also have to wash everybody's bucket that they use throughout the day.
        The patients that we have now seem to be getting better. The old lady is sitting up a lot more and seems more energetic which is a really good sign. Last night I worked from 12 to 8 and we had quite the time with her. She has been known to take her IV apart so needless to say she can be a handful! She told us she didn't want a diaper on but then she messed herself so we decided to giver her one. After receiving the diaper and shortly thereafter filling it, she decided that she didn't need it on so she took it off herself and threw it off to the side. We had to change her three times and the one time it was so bad that we had to change her bed so we could clean the diarrhea off of it. The man seems to be doing alright. I don't know much about him because I haven't worked with him yet but I wouldn't be surprised if he is discharged soon because he seems to be doing a lot better.
       I also just wanted to thank you all again for all of your prayers! Please remember to pray for healing for the Haitians

Jared Stump

Raisin's and IV's?

"They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Teach me Lord, teach me Lord to wait."

Greetings to all once again,

       Life here at the CTC had been slowing down the last few days and our number of patients was dropping so much that we wondered if we would soon have no one here. This morning I started my shift at midnight. Everything was going like normal with nothing much to do other than dump a few buckets, change a few IV's every couple hours, and try to keep yourself awake. Then at 4:30 I heard a noise outside and voices. I ran to the door just in time to see the crowd part at the gate, and a stretcher pass through. I groaned inside as I caught sight of the lady that was on it, grabbed a pair of gloves and headed out. As they tried to lower the stretcher from their shoulders it tipped sideways and the lady nearly fell completely off. For a minute I thought she would be finished by the fall right there and then when her head would hit the gravel. But her feet were either tied to the stretcher or someone caught them. I don't remember which it was. ~Remember that these stretchers are just made by tying a few branches and twigs together with rope. And you can either lay on that or they can put a chair on top for you to sit on. (Very sturdy!!! Actually not... I know from experience. I think that rated as the worst ride of my life.)~ Anyway she was then successfully settled on the ground and we set to work getting her unstrapped and out of her crumpled position from the fall. Her son carried her back to the bathing room and Amanda sprayed her down while I held her up, after getting the gown over her I carried her in and laid her on a bed and begin looking for a vein. She was ice cold and looked like a raisin. Her fingers, hands and feet were shriveled up and any place you touched the skin just stayed there. I pinched her skin and it stood up about half an inch and didn't go down. She lay with her with her eyes rolled back in her head and her mouth hanging open, her tongue was dried out. She looked so much like the same picture of the man I had seen die in front of my eyes when I had visited another Cholera clinic. It was not a very good feeling.

       I tried twice to get an IV put in her, unsuccessfully. Her blood was more like jelly than anything, and her veins were flat. The first try I blew the vein, the second one started but then it infiltrated. I called Michael Rudolph to come  put the IV in knowing that she needed it in quickly and figuring he could probably still easily get one in about first try without me messing up any more veins. He came out and on second try he succeeded in getting one in her hand, but within just a few minutes of setting the IV it blew and infiltrated so we started over again. Trying to find a vein and get a catheter to stay in. Her daughter was standing there watching the whole time, crying because she was sure her mother was dying. After three or four more tries we finally had one successfully running into her foot. Talk about cheering!!! Praise the Lord!

       We ran 6 IV's into her as fast as we could and this evening when I walked out to see how she was, she looked much better and is with the world again talking and even smiling a little. I think she might be one that will be here a while as she is 75 years old and very weak. Elderly people have a long recovery and more complications.

       We had hardly finished with her when there was another arrival. This was a 14 year old girl that was carried in on her fathers shoulders. They set her out in the observation tent and as soon as I had finished with the other lady I went out to check up on her. She had already had diarrhea and vomited both, in the few minutes that she had been here. I took her out to spray her down and ended up holding her while Amanda sprayed her because she had collapsed. I carried her in and put her on a bed, and then Michael put an IV in her also. Tonight she was cheery, talkative and all smiles when I came out to the CTC. It is such a rewarding feeling to see your patients doing well.


       That is the most recent of happenings at the CTC. Just when you think all is normal and some think maybe even "boring," something is sure to come along and add a few interesting and exciting moments. May each one of you have a blessed day. Serve the Lord with all your heart and be faithful wherever He has you. 
A servant of the King, 
~Thea

A word from the front lines... 13 (Katie Jo Kauffman)

  Working at the CTC has been enjoyable, for the most part. The children make up for whatever else befalls,  I felt as if I received a rather "sudden immersion" method of what nursing can really be made up of. There was one lady who was particularly trying. She was on a cholera bed, which is a high cot with a hole in the center for the incompetent people to use, if they can't get off their bed to use the bucket. Well she was always flipping this way or that way making her gown a frightening wreck, and not really caring about modesty or anything. Thea and I had to clean her up more than once.  That was trying, but in the next room there were two little children, a brother and sister, who were the most darling things, and the little girl even was helpful in getting her clothes and things off, when I needed to clean her up. I felt as if taking care of them was "therapy" for dealing with the other lady, but the lady on the cholera bed always said Thank You, for everything, and that was an encouragement. Even when she left she said Thank you. That really made up for all the personal heartache I endured while providing her with care. :)

 The little boy and little girl's mother, I got a complete charge out of. Yesterday morning she was trying to tell me that her daughter was a mess, and I needed to clean her up. I wasn't getting the point, so she grabbed me by the arm, and took me to the bedside and pointed with my arm. I about laughed out loud, it amused me so. I was rather sad when they left, for I really enjoyed their little family.

 We had another little girl, who, while sitting outside,  took her IV bag down,and set it on the chair beside her. It filled with blood all the way up to the drip chamber!! Needless to say the shift leader was not impressed!! He took the IV out, and thankfully the little girl didn't need it anymore, and he didn't have restart the IV.

  It is my hope and prayer that the people who are treated in the CTC will come away with at least some knowledge of God in their hearts. Even though the majority of the staff cannot speak their language fluently, they can still be a witness  for Christ by their actions and attitudes.

   -Katie Jo Kauffman

A word from the front lines... 12 (Jared Stump)

This is the girl when she came in...

       This past week has been a real stretch for me in many ways. For one, it's a stretch because I am still adjusting to the odd hrs of having to work at all times of the day throughout 3 days. It takes a lot of discipline to go to bed when people are still up having a good time or when it's still daylight out. I never thought that I would be able to work "3'rd shift" at a job until I came down here. I had to work from 12 am to 8 am this morning again and I'm actually starting to enjoy it now. Another one of the little things that stretched me a bit was just plain down changing diapers. I never did like the idea and I really didn't plan on doing it anytime soon. Well....that changed this past week. The girls on my shift kept putting a little pressure on and telling me that I am gonna have to learn sometime so I gave in. I have changed lots of diapers now in the past two days and I can honestly say from experience now...I still don't like it ;) Anyhow besides that, I am still really enjoying the work in the CTC even though I never did have an interest in the medical field. It has definitely helped me to see just how important it is to have some medical experience in a third world country.

Here's Virginia giving the baby ORS

         One of the blessings for me with being at the CTC is seeing that although man can do a lot to help a person's health, it is ultimately up to God to heal a person. Man can only do so much, but we can rely in the fact that even when man is incapable of restoring health to a person that we can go to the Great Physician who healed the sick, made the lame walk, caused the blind to see, made the dead rise, and we can ask him to heal whoever needs healing. One example of this happened yesterday. We got a little girl in the CTC who is about 9 months old. She was very dehydrated and her eyes were sunk in. It seemed that her strength was leaving her by the minute and she was getting a little unresponsive. The three of us on staff as well as the baby's father decided to have a little time of prayer before we tried to put an IV into her. She was so dehydrated and her veins were so small that you could barely find a vein anywhere. After a few failed attempts to put an IV in, we decided to give her a break and just keep trying to put liquids in her mouth with a syringe. Last evening one of the leaders from church came and we all gathered around the baby's bed and prayed and read the Bible.  As the night went on, we made her drink about three syringes worth of fluid every hour. After awhile she started to nurse which was a really good sign and as time went on you could see improvements. She is still not back to total health yet but she is definitely getting better which is an answer to prayer! It's times like these that really help to build our faith. We have been getting quite a few more children under 15 which can make things much more difficult so please continue to lift us up in prayer for wisdom and healing for the patients!

~Jared Stump

Life today... (Virginia Rudolph)

Today was quite the day!  This morning I was on the 12 to 8 am shift, but so many patients came in that I spent most of the day out in the CTC.  There were good things and not so good things that happened.  First of all, there was a little girl who came in lethargic and very weak.  Lisa started an IV, and in 30 min she was sitting up in bed by herself!  It is so wonderful to see that happen!  

Later on, a  Dad and Mom walked in with their little girl.  The bad part was that we had just discharged her yesterday (Sunday afternoon).  Either she was not as well as we thought, or she got reinfected.  The worst part is that we can't get an IV started in her.   She is 9 months old, dehydrated, and has just enough of a layer of fat to hide all her veins.  We tried so hard to start one, and finally decided to just hold her and give her pedialyte constantly.  That's what I did for several hours.  She is basically the same right now, neither worse or better.  Please pray that she would be healed  quickly.  Her dad is terribly worried about her.  Quite a few other patients came in today, and we are at maximum capacity in the building again.  If we get anymore, we will have to put some people in the tent outside.

While all this was going on, part of our team left.  Lisa, Karen, and Lyndon, had to leave today and Steve and Shana took them out to Port.  It is really hard to see them go.  God really blessed us with each person here these first few weeks, and I know those of us left will miss them a lot!  Please pray for us as we have much to do and fewer people to share the load.

For His Glory,

~Virginia

More than a frowning face... (Anita Hege)

 Trying to coax a little 2 year-old to drink 

Did you ever feel like you were on a tread mill--just running and running and seeming to get nowhere? 

 

Work at CTC; sleep; do a few necessary things at home; go to CTC for another shift of dumping buckets, charting, putting in yet another IV; go home for more sleep and so on. . .  Yes it can feel that way at times especially if you don't keep the end goal in mind as you do the many endless, wearying tasks.  On the other hand as I look ahead and see the difference we are making in many lives now and the differences for eternity as we touch not only physical bodies but souls, it's not just an endless task with no purpose. 

 

"The fish tank" 
People sitting in the observation tent to see if they need
admitted or can just be treated and sent home

The last while our numbers at the CTC have been rising.  When I was working the 8am-4pm shift on Friday, it felt like about all I did was admit new patients, give them meds, check on people in the observation area (the fish tank, as we call it) to see if any more needed admitted, etc.  We had the CTC pretty much filled to capacity without putting so many beds in that we couldn't even move!  We moved in a tent right next to the CTC building so that in the case that we'd need it, we could put more beds in there.  So far we've not had to use it.

 

There are so many aspects to our work at the CTC.  There are, of course, the endless tasks that are always present, but then there are also all those faces--some hurting, some sad, some so dehydrated that they're pretty much out of it, some happy.  As I go around giving drinks it's a blessing just to share a smile with a scared 12 year old who appears to have possibly been mistreated and try to reassure him or to gently approach a little 2 year old who wants to cry if the white nurse gets too close. 

Just a few of our patients. 
Notice the sad look on the ladies face. 
The little 11 year-old girl with her was very low, but
after a little work we had the life-saving IV fluid flowing into her.

 

As you think of us, do continue to pray.  Just as Moses needed his hands held up so that the battle was victorious so we need those standing beside us in prayer and holding up our hands.   

 

Thank you all so much for your support for us and love for the people here.  We certainly can't do this alone.  Something like this surely shows me my limitations, but I'm SO thankful for a faithful Heavenly Father! 

 

Just an earthen vessel for the Lord, 

 

~Anita

Cholera and Salvation?!

Today marks the 54th patient that has been hospitalized and treated at the GTH Allegre CTC.
It seems as though time has flown by, I find it very difficult to believe that I have been back in Haiti for over 3 weeks. The cholera epidemic has gone up and down in intensity, but the work load has really been fairly steady. Anytime things lighten up at the CTC, all the work that has backed up at the mission needs attention; and it seems there is always plenty to go around! :-)

But God has been good, faithful as always, and has been supplying our needs. And not only our needs, but He has been working through the cholera epidemic to bring men and women to himself! I believe 6 people have repented from their sins and turned to Jesus- right here in our little CTC!!! So join us in praising the Lord for this, and THANK YOU again and again for your prayers! They really do make a difference! All your involvement, is what keeps us going here.

God bless you all, Steve

Around the Center...

Inside the nurses station... Note the 5 gallon Igloo container, we mix up
bulk ORS in that. Also all the gallons of bleach under the table, bed pads
and boxes of Pedialyte on the shelves, boxed IV fluids in the back, and
lots of misc. stuff. And yes, that is cement in the corner. No, cement is
not used to treat cholera. (This was a storage depot before it was a CTC,
remember??? :)

Jackson, a neighbor and currently hired as one of our night guards...
It is there job to apprehend all would-be approachers to the CTC,
determine what their mission might be, and mist everyone entering
or exiting the area with bleach spray.

Bathroom... For the healthy....

Lots of cleaning and scrubbing to do, the girls are pretty much washing
things day and night. Laundry, buckets, floors- it's a full-time job....

Hanging laundry on top of the depot...

After it is determined that someone needs to be admitted, they are
taken into this building, their clothing taken off, misted with bleach
spray, and have a gown put on. Then they're transferred to the center...

Feeling a Little TOO Good...

I went out last night armed with my camera, to capture a few pictures
on-site in the CTC. I found that most of the patients had improved so
much that they were being quite hilarious, and I could tell right away
that most of them should be packed straight off to their homes in the
morning!!!! :-)

This youngster was quite rebellious at the thought of being photographed,
and became determined to keep his head under cover...

He thought he was successful!!!

But we weren't through with him yet!!! With me on the camera and
several volunteers to run the bed covers, we finally got a good shot...

And this young man was born again during his stay here, and he's been
all smiles ever since. Pastor Sejut testified about the love of Christ to him,
and he accepted Him as Saviour!!! I think he knows that God had a
plan for him in getting cholera.....

During our rompings, this sweet Grandma just smiled and smiled.
It does everyone good to take their minds off of the troubles
around them occasionally...

First word from the front lines...

Well, it's officially upon us. Cholera has come to Les Palmes.

The reality really sank in for me as we checked in our first serious case at the GTH cholera treatment center, or CTC.

Last Friday morning at 6:45, during our furlough time in Wisconsin, I got a call saying that things were looking serious right in our home area here. By Sunday evening, when I arrived back home to Ailegue, there was already a 4-tent CTC set up on a piece of level ground a half-mile from the mission.

We worked on finishing up all the countless details into this afternoon, and in fact are still working at finishing up even as we begin to admit patients. The need is just too great to take the time to get all our ducks in a row before diving in; I'm sure there will be more wrinkles to iron out before we're through. But thankfully, we're "standing on the shoulders of giants," as Sir Isaac Newton famously put it; there have been a lot of people who have walked this way before down here and whom we have relied on heavily for advice. Jeriah Mast from C.A.M. put a lot of effort in already, organising equipment and supplies and bringing them up for us. Pastor Levy has found a group willing to donate supplies to fight the epidemic. Others have given valuable advice, so that we don't have to reinvent the wheel during this whole process but rather can learn from others successes and failures in the cholera battle.

Cholera is an interesting infection. A lot of people get it during a major epidemic, and never realized they had it. Only the ones who have a truly serious attack realize that they in fact have the dreaded disease. And of course, those are the only people we ever see. So it can look pretty scary, "Oh no, I might get cholera and die!!!" Very true; you might also cut your leg off with a chainsaw or tumble off your bicycle in front of a speeding Schwan's truck. Just getting cholera doesn't give you a death sentence; HOWEVER, getting severe cholera and not even having the most basic treatment options available- basic medication, pure water, and oral re hydration supplements- COULD very quickly turn grave. And it is often deadly. Several people from our church have already succumbed to it, and others we know (and many we don't) are suffering right now from the horrible effects of this infection. In an area not far from Ti Guave we learned today that 80 some people died in the past few days, and hundreds are in CTC's. I hope it doesn't strike Ti Guave. That could be very serious.

Right now it would seem that weather certainly isn't cooperating; today drizzled on and off for literally the entire day. (Except for when it flat out poured down...:-) And that obviously isn't helping; cholera thrives in this moist environment, where the water from the clothing people wash and from the people washing themselves, together with human waste, so easily can spread to surrounding areas via the medium of moisture. Pray that God's will be done through even the weather- He's the One in control, and we're grateful for that!!!

The man we checked in this afternoon was 30-something, healthy looking (except for the sunken cheeks that go along with the dehydration); you wouldn't expect to see it in someone like that. Maybe someone really old... Or weak.... Or an infant..... But not a strong man!

None of us are promised tomorrow. Pray for the Haitians, not just that the plague of cholera could be stopped. Don't get me wrong- PLEASE pray for that!!! But pray that those who see would turn to Christ, the Fountain of eternal Life!!!! Being kept safe from cholera is only a small part of the story, to a believing Christian.

And to God.

Steve