The Roller Coaster of Haiti Life

I often describe life in Haiti as a roller coaster.  You can experience the highest of highs and the lowest of lows in the same day.  These last three weeks have been a roller coaster.  One day I watched a child die in the surgery wing.  The same week, the surgeons performed three c-sections and brought three lives into this world in the very same surgery wing.  At the same time that we were celebrating at nutrition program preschool graduation, there was also a funeral for a 9 year old boy.  While we were so excited about so many lives being changed with the surgery team, a good friend tested positive for HIV.  Life here is a roller coaster.

As I sat there watching Job (a boy from the Miriam Center) die, I selfishly prayed that he would be healed.   Then as time went on, I prayed that God would take him quickly because it was painful to watch.  I struggled with why God was not answering either of those prayers.  I was reminded of a lesson that God has been working on in my life.  True faith is not praying and expecting God to do something because you prayed.  True faith is believing that God can do all things and trusting Him to do what is best even if it is painful for us. 

While my heart is still aching over all the hard things that have happened, I do not want to focus on them.  I want to praise God during this storm because so many amazing things have also happened.  These last two weeks we have had a surgery team on campus.  They completed 166 surgeries!  What a victory.  166 people had their lives changed.  This was one of my favorite moments from the two weeks.  Our Haitian doctor’s father had surgery.  One of the nurses spoke English and Spanish.  Dr. Tchoumany speaks Spanish, and his father speaks English.  She went through some of the pre-op instructions speaking both Spanish and English, neither of which are their native languages, but everyone completely understood!

St. Verty

 Pastor St. Verty always amazes me during surgery weeks.  This time he impressed me more than ever though.  The air conditioner broke in the pre-op room, so it got HOT.  St. Verty would stay in there all day so that he could pray with all of the patients before they went back for surgery.  I switched places for him a couple times so he could go on some house visits and do a funeral.  I was never there for more than a couple hours at a time, and I was exhausted by the end of it.  I do not know how he did it all day everyday, but I am so thankful that he did.  You could see the look of relief on a lot of the patients faces after he prayed for them.  

Another big event was the nutrition program preschool graduation! 27 happy and healthy children graduated!  Graduation is a huge event in Haiti, and all of the kids looked so precious!  Every child also has a Marenn (godmother) and Parenn (godfather) who attends the graduation.  I was asked to be Louvens godmother for the event.  It was so fun to pick out a little gift for him and celebrate him.  

 

Me and Louvens

 I have spent the last several months getting to know and love on the nutrition program children and their mothers.  I absolutely loved watching how proud the mothers were of their children.  Here are some of my favorite photos!

I don’t understand why these last three weeks have been such a roller coaster.  I don’t understand why the bad stuff has happened.  I don't understand why some kids die and some kids live.  However, my job is not to understand.  My job is to trust that God knows what He’s doing and to hold out hope for day Revelations 21:4 describes.  “He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”