Nearly nightfall and we are working at putting up large tentage at a destroyed hospital ministry project. The nurse running the operation, a Hatian states that today they treated and/or performed surgery on about 500. We have driven some of the mist devastated neighborhoods imaginable. Chews is wrapping up loose ends and this is day one after a seven hour cross island drive from the DR.
~Carl and Chris for Arise Medical Missions (Haiti)
Seasons change…..
Thursday morning, Feb. 4 God started preparing our exit from Masese. The morning began just a little cooler than the average and I got breakfast for the remaining children at Renee’s house. I couldn’t help but remember our first morning here being greeted early in my bed by the 8 children that called this house their home for a season. In the past weeks we had seen many of them return to their homes – all happy and healthy children. The group of children at the breakast table this morning were all scheduled to be reunited with their families within the next several days leaving only little Nusula, who was well on her way to a total recovery, and Selah Grace who will grow up here. God was beginning the final preparations for the new direction that He is sending Serving His Children and making room for the three severely malnourished children and their families that will be given the opportunity for change here in this house.
Clouds began to roll in as Renee and I make our trip to the government office where we would be given the approval to begin a “memorandum of agreement” with their office so that we could begin accepting referrals from the Malnourishment Ward at the Hospital and begin our new pilot program. By the time we got home the wind was blowing and it was getting darker – only the second time we had seen clouds since our arrival three and a half weeks ago. As we loaded our boxes in our driver, Dowdy’s, freshly cleaned van for our trip to the airport, the raindrops began. It seemed surreal as the van moved through the rain past mile after mile of dirt and brick homes, small businesses trying to thrive and thousands upon thousands of beautiful children carrying water, tending cows, washing clothes and playing with sticks and pieces of trash. A far cry from the thousands of children at home in Virginia who were still sleeping in their warm beds awaiting a breakfast of Fruit Loops and a day off from school watching the snow while playing their video games and chatting on the internet.
After stopping in Mocono to meet Lindsay’s friend, Phyllis, to pick up something to bring home with us, it was Kampala for the next several hours. In my opinion Kampala, the capitol city of Uganda, makes village life about anywhere else seem appealing! It is by far the dirtiest, most unorganized city I’ve ever been in and driving on the roads is an experience as each driver has to determine which of the “traffic suggestions” they are going to follow! We finally landed at “Game” a Ugandan version of Wal Mart to buy lactose free formula for Selah. What a contrast from shopping at the central market in Jinja the day before. This was a brightly lit, air conditioned department store with an amazing amount of American like items ranging from dishes and cleaning products to toys! It was disappointing to taint the memories of the shopping in Jinja; stepping over vegetables and weaving our way around the closely arranged booths in the market looking for the right vegetable or plumbing tool. If I closed my eyes it even sounded and smelled like Wal Mart.
Our last stop in Uganda was in Entebbe at the home of Renee’s friends Ron and Donna. This couple has raised their four children on the mission field in both Kenya and Uganda. Ron is a pilot for AIM Air and has been flying missionaries around Africa for an unprecedented 30 years; we could sit for days and listen to the storied of how they have seen God work in amazing ways. Donna had dinner ready for us and we sat down to a wonderful meal served on real plates and drank cool water out of real glasses! I hadn’t given too much thought to eating at Renee’s house on the multi colored plastic bowls and cups, but it was pretty nice to eat on real china.
Saying good-by to Renee was made easier knowing that we would see her in a few months here in America, but not knowing when I would see beautiful little Selah was harder than I had imagined. Even in just a month she will change and I know that when I see her next, I will be just another white stranger. We passed through the doors of the Entebbe Airport and began the seemingly endless process of checking, scanning and waiting. It was with very mixed feelings that Eileen and I spent our last hours in Africa sitting at a small table in the airport drinking our last Ugandan bottled water.
34 hours after leaving Renee’s home in Jinja we landed in America. Although we knew that Washington was expecting snow, we were still shocked by the sight as our plane landed on American soil. From the balmy equator to blizzard conditions in one day was enough to shock us into reality! We were the last international flight to land in the Dulles Airport and made it through immigration, customs, collected our luggage and were heading out of the parking lot in exactly one hour! As we left DC, happily reunited with our boys (!) the snow came heavier and faster. By the time we hit I-81 we could only see about 30 feet in front of us. Many of the tractor trailers that blew by us we later passed in ditches on the side of the road. We were much relieved to pull into the Hampton Inn in Harrisonburg and shiver our way into a nice warm room. The next morning, after shoveling out our car we trudged on down the road at about 30 mph. and slowly made our way towards Bedford – home! Just 24 hours after landing in DC, we finally pulled into our own driveway. It had taken us as long to get home from the airport as it did to get from Uganda to America!!
~Lauri (US)
Amidst the fumes of the generator, the ruins of collapsed buildings, and the Mosquitos; there is a time of worship at Camp Calvary. As I walk past the pancake of the hospital building, smellling of death still, I am so blessed to have been chosen to serve Him here.
Good night!
~Carl and Chris for Arise Medical Missions (Haiti)
Please do keep Carl and Chris in your prayers. Attached is a picture from their current location. They were both introduced to Camp Calvary, set up behind the destroyed local hospital. They will be sleeping in Pastor Jim’s tent tonight, which is about forty feet from this hospital but safe from further collapse. Chris and Carl will clear ground and erect DIRT tentage on Tuesday. The environment is rather warm and humid. There are about 150 persons living here, displaced, but for now, peaceful.
Genet our daughter is serving with the Army there. She is working but has collected some food for them and they have a package for her too! They will get over to see her in a day or two. They both agree that all of it is sad.
~Gina on behalf of Carl and Chris for Arise Medical Missions (Haiti)
Safe and secure at their first location in Haiti.
Praise you God for traveling mercies.
Kind regards,
~Gina for Arise Medical Missions (US)
Leaving for the Dominican Republic.
Thank you for continued prayer. It is most definitely needed.
~Carl for Arise Medical Missions (Puerto Rico)
Sineage at the airport in Puerto Rico. Waiting for Chris now.
~Carl for Arise Medical Missions (Puerto Rico)
Please keep Carl and Chris in your prayers today as they are both enroute to Haiti by way of the Dominican Republic for advanced preparations for a medical team that will leave next week. We are incredibly grateful to have been granted this opportunity and trust that God will reveal himself this week during their stay there. Lots of travel-related issues to overcome for too many reasons to list. Still, God is faithful and I trust that I’ll be able to provide you with a good update. In fact, Carl has called just now from Puerto Rico to say that Chris is pending arrival there within the hour.
Kindest regards,
~Gina for Arise Medical Missions (US)
It is hard to realize that my time here is coming to a close. I have loved being here and feel that the Lord had me here at the right time for many purposes. In many ways I am not ready to leave, but I will be very glad to get back to Marcus and the boys!
I’m sitting upstairs while Selah sleeps on Renee’s bed listening to the sounds of Masese from the open balcony. The noise here is constant; a mixture of voices, cows, goats, children playing, the breeze off the lake, an occasional sound of a piki, the cutting of firewood, radios blaring and above it all a child’s toy repeating “it’s a small world after all….”. When I leave, the life here will be the same but I will not.
Our week has been unusual. Monday morning we left the house at 6:30 with Pastor Jeffrey and drove for an hour to catch a ferry to the island of Bafuma to try to find the Grandmother of Rachel and Rita. Their mother abandoned them in Masese near Pastor Jeffrey’s church and he brought them here the day before we arrived. After waiting for an hour at the dock it was time to back the van onto the flat ferry equipped with 2 large motors. The attendants got quite a chuckle out of a blonde white girl trying to back a van down the slope, cross the gap to the ferry on 2 small boards and position it for transport. After all 6 vehicles were loaded, the piki’s, bicycles and dozens of people on foot climbed aboard filling every bit of space left and we were off at a snail’s pace to cross Lake Victoria to it’s largest island. I did have a slight concern when I saw all the men in the business trucks put on life jackets for the trip, but it was uneventful and fairly pleasant. About an hour later we pulled up to the dock, drove onto the land and headed off to find the grandparents.
The initial roads were in surprisingly good condition and we were surprised to see some fairly up to date buildings for schools and a small medical clinic and, although there is no electricity on the island, many of the homes were well cared for and there were a number made of brick rather than the standard mud and stick construction. We picked up a pastor along the way who knew how to find the pastor who knew how to find the grandparents and then the roads got a little more adventuresome. I’ll just say that Renee’s van has earned a crown of some sort and I believe could hold her own in an ATV competition in the states! We didn’t realize that our initial dirt road was actually an interstate until we were trucking down a cow path through the woods while dodging ditches that would require jumping on horseback! After about an hour, we stopped to meet up with another pastor who knew how to find the actual house. While we waited for him to collect some deacons and elders from his church, we took a trip to visit the landing site on the other side of the island.
This island is divided into two sides. We landed on the side controlled by the Bafuma tribe who originally settled the island. They have a decent dock and a small village with brick and mud homes with tin roofs, a school for the children and a medical clinic. Those that live on the other side however have very small homes of mud and thatched roofs, no schools or access to the medical clinic. Their landing site is a small stream, about 6 feet wide, where a small boat can carry people and supplies out to the main lake to get to the mainland. If there is a medical emergency, they must travel by boat the 10 km to Jinja for help. The tribe from the other side of the island is gradually lumbering all the trees on this side to make charcoal to sell on the mainland leaving these people no way to make any income. We began to look at the lifestyle of those on the other side of the island differently – even without the benefit of electricity, their life didn’t looked pretty good.
When we picked up our third pastor he was accompanied by a team of 2 deacons and 2 elders from his church. We managed to pile everyone in the “wonder-mobile” and chugged up the hill to meet the grandparents. When we reached the top, the view over the lake was breathtaking! We unloaded everyone and followed the pastor down a narrow path through tall fields planted with millet. The home was in a cleared area and was built of split boards with a roof of a stick frame wrapped with banana leaves. We were immediately offered the seat of honor; a wooden plank between a stump and a rock under the shade of a Jackfruit tree. The others sat on a mat made of reeds tied together. Pastor Jeffrey began a long story in Luganda telling the grandparents of the situation caused by their daughter. We were just an audience as the men all responded in unison to comments made by the grandmother and the pastor. As time went on, we attracted quite a bit of attention and, although there were no other homes in sight, by the end we had accumulated an audience of about 25 people! After much discussion, it was determined that the grandparents were not in a position to care for the children but the Grandmother would come with us to try to find her daughter and bring her to Masese. So, we collected the grandmother (who did not speak a word of English) with a few of her things and headed back to catch the ferry.
We were relieved to arrive well before the scheduled docking time of the ferry (it was scheduled to leave at 4 and we arrived at 2:30) – the prospect of finding a place to stay overnight on the island if we missed the ferry was not appealing!! We had plenty of time to kill as the ferry did not show up til 5:30 – TIA! (This Is Africa!) During that time, we searched for air time and bottled water among the small businesses in the community, played Duck Duck Goose and the Hokie Pokie with the mob of staring children and I learned how to wash clothes! I still can’t pronounce the name of the 13 year old girl who was my teacher, but we had great fun as I helped her do her family’s laundry on the shore of the lake. It is quite a process involving a bar of blue soap that is vigerously rubbed on the clothes in a basin of lake water, wringing it out and repeating the process at least 3 times before starting the rinse cycle of at least 2 rinsings in the same tub. There were 2 ducks that bathed as they watched us and one time I looked up and saw a young boy with a herd of about 6 rangy cows that had come to the lake for water. All the while, the fishermen working on nets or their boats nearby laughed with us as I diligently tried my best! I believe that if I had to wash my clothes like that, I would wear a lot of light weight polyester blends…… I am even more grateful than I thought I was for my washer and dryer at home!
When the ferry finally arrived we got into our spot to back the van in. After looking at the even steeper drop and larger gap to the ferry, Renee quickly opted to let one of the ferry operators do the honors and back her van into place. We could tell that they had been laughing about Renee’s parking on the trip over and they were quick to take the wheel. We tried our best not to laugh when they got the van stuck in the gap to the dock!! Not a problem though as several men quickly surrounded the van and simply lifted it up and onto the bed of the ferry. After loading all the extra people, pikis and bikes, an older man calmly stepped up onto the front of the ferry with his black longhorn cow. The cow rode calmly on the front of the boat without even attempting to move as the ferry chugged through the choppy waves all the way to the mainland! When we docked, the group of ladies sitting near our van each pulled out rolls of banana leaves to place on their heads and then each balanced a very large jack fruit (about the size of a medium watermelon) on top and walked off to the shore. We were just grateful not to get stuck!
I had the pleasure of sitting next to Jaja (grandma) on the way home as she held her little granddaughter, Rita, perhaps for only the second or third time ever. There is no need of a common language to communicate the love of a grandmother as she rediscovers the joy of holding her precious little granddaughter.
Now 2 days later………I have recovered from a nasty 24 hour bout with food poisoning and am trying to get caught up here before we leave in the morning. Most of the paperwork is done for Renee’s NGO and our new printer is installed. Eileen and I are still finishing up some packing and I’m working up enough nerve to eat some dinner. Apparently Rachel and Rita’s mother has been found and we are expecting her along with the father and grandmother to meet here with Pastor Jeffrey and Renee for a counseling session. Tomorrow Renee and I will meet with the Probation Officer for the Jinja district to present a proposed agreement for the malnutrition program, look at potential rental property for the program next door and head out for Kampala around 11.
Thank you all so much for your continued prayers throughout our stay here. Thank you also for the many comments that so many of you have sent – it has been an encouragement to me to see how our experiences here have touched your hearts. I will miss watching my beautiful daughter as she grows into an incredible woman of God passionately seeking His will for her life and holding my precious little grandbaby, Selah. I am blessed to be a part of such an amazing family and have the opportunity to serve with them in this beautiful place.
~Lauri (Uganda)
Hi Everyone,
I was talking to my mom last night and she asked me, “Hey, is that MUD Team that you work with going to Haiti?” I quickly corrected her by saying, “Mom… you must mean the DIRT Team from one of our supporting churches.” So funny!
Well, yes, DIRT is planning on a deployment to Haiti in a few weeks. We had concluded a training relationship over a year ago, but recently, Brian, the leader had asked us to provide a re-certification course in Wilderness First Aid. This last Saturday, Janelle, our Duty Officer, and I instructed the day-long training in St. Petersburg, FL. We all had a blast and actually ran out of time in the assigned classroom and had to move to another location.
Is Arise planning any direct deployment? Not at this time. We have been in contact with various ministry partners and are involved in many projects behind the scenes though. It seems that we are all sorrowful for the victims on the island and since it is so close many feel the draw to be involved in direct action. If God clearly directs your path towards Haiti, then by all means, follow! Ask for wisdom and be a prepared servant, too. Consider these thoughts:
1. Don’t go without a carefully thought out plan. Haiti is close but also a hazardous place even before the earthquake.
2. If you are the leader, then go in advance, do a site survey and either return to prepare your group, or else, send for them. Experience shows that the incidence of less than favorable outcomes is higher without a site visit first.
3. Consider food, shelter, and safe drinking water. Where will you get these in Haiti? There are so many hungry and desperate people there and every bit of food there probably needs to go to them. How will you bring enough to eat? How will you provide enough drinking water to your members? Consider 3-4 liters per person per day.
4. Hatian Laws. The Bible commands adherence to a government’s laws in most cases. This might differ from what you feel is right or wrong. Just this weekend, a church group was arrested and accused of child trafficing twenty children. You must know the laws and abide by them or the mission gets a black eye and worse yet, so does God in the eyes of those around you.
5. The enemy resides in Haiti. If you’ve been there, then you already know this. You must be ready for what you see and experience while there in country. Spiritual preparedness is as important as being in good physical health. Hunger, thirst, devastation, and suffering are tools that the enemy will use in any way that he can, so be cautious!
There is so much to do in Haiti and it will have MANY continued needs for some time. There is plenty of time to carefully plan, prepare, and go! Soon, the international players will wrap up their operations, take their photos, and go home. We experienced this in Sri Lanka in 2006. Before we knew it, we were the only ministry left working in a devastated area all alone….of course, the Scientologists also stayed to keep us company too!
~Carl for Arise Medical Missions (US)
P.S. Many thanks to Janelle who faithfully co-led and shared alongside of Arise. What a tremendous blessing.
