God's Promise

Rainbows are frequent here and are a vivid reminder of God’s promises to us.

I would love to have you spend a week here to see the Oriani clinic, have devotions with us, experience the bustle, see the patient suffering of the patients, take in the many varied smells J, and experience the blessings etc. Each patient has their own unique life and story that is intriguing and sometimes inspiring.

Dalia is a 33 yr old mother of 5 children who all appear to be under 5 yrs old. When I asked her for the children’s age she gave me wildly varying numbers that were obviously years from reality. After I suggested that maybe she had forgotten, she laughed and said “Yes, I never know how old they are.” Apparently she doesn’t even remember what month OR year they were born. One is crippled and rides on the back of her brother who is maybe 6 at most. Dalia and her children are just in survival mode since her husband left and went to the Dominican, having taken a prettier Dominican wife.

We have many many such “Dalias” in the area here. Children red-haired with malnutrition and suffering from sickness and parasites, gardens and crops completely failed every season for the last 2 years, and existing on credit or charity from anyone they can while living in houses that are deplorable. They don’t even have the physiological needs covered as outlined on the first quadrant of Maslow’s pyramid. We help them with basic health issues and give some education on the advantages to be had in sanitation. I could talk a long time about such a family to try to describe the reality they live in, but it’s hard to convey it, especially the damaged emotions and despair that comes from living without God, morals, and money. We are talking about children half naked and groveling in a parasite-laden dirt yard where there is not one “nice” thing to look at, no flowers, no decorations, no picture books, often not even basic needs like an outhouse available. There is no river, and most people don’t even have a cistern to get water from or to wash in, but just every day… having to beg a bucket of water from some neighbor who may have a little left in their cistern. Often they lack a pattern or example of how to live cleaner, healthier and better. They just exist. The sad truth of the matter is that too many of the women like this end up allowing themselves to be used sexually in exchange for sustenance. They shrug their shoulders and say, “We need to eat”. This numbs the conscience while further tearing down morality, courage, spreading more disease and suffering in the wake.

The clinic sees an average of 80 patients a day, keeping the nurses pretty busy. And then we get called on 24/7 for emergencies. Two nights ago we helped a lady in labor and a healthy little girl was born. Last night’s call was for a man who got shot in the foot by a Dominican border patrol officer. We could see an entry and exit wound, so we are sure the bullet passed through, but the whole foot was grotesquely swollen. With repeated antibiotic injections and faithfully coming to the clinic every 2 days, we feel we can take care of him here. This morning we received a young boy who fell into a 10 ft deep cistern (which was dry), breaking his forearm. Splinting it was easy enough and then we offered to take him down to Port au Prince for setting and casting. The closest X-Ray machine is a bumpy 3 hr ride away. But the family is refusing to go. It’s very aggravating that while it will heal, it likely will be crooked. Every Wednesday is still prenatal care day. The ladies line up to have a class, get weighed and checked, and given the vitamins and medicines they may need for the month. One of the practices these Oriani mountain people have is to give a woman 5 baths after she has delivered her baby. These five baths are still a little mysterious to us, but they involve herbs, other ladies beating the woman with sticks, etc. Then the new mom is wrapped up in many layers of clothes, jackets, scarves and head cloths. Mom is confined to her room for the next 30 days to sweat and suffer. All of this is to ensure that the mom does not ever encounter the most awful thing of all…. “fredzi”. It seems like this “fredzi” (cold air) is what they think is the root cause of half their sicknesses, when the truth is that the overheating and sparse oxygen they endure is what often causes them to lack milk and succumb to more problems. Ancient customs and old wives fables are hard to dispel, but we keep working on it, at least where they negatively affect them. Speaking of fables… I just learned another one. Apparently if a baby is born with the cord around the neck (representing a tie), then that is a symbol from God that he will be a very important person like a minister etc. If the cord is wrapped around the body like a bandoleer, then he will be a soldier or a policeman.

Another clinic story that I want to share is about a young couple named Jean and Sanania. They both have syphilis. His symptoms were minor, but she had huge infected patches all over her body where the skin was rotting off. Her ear was hanging with pus, her shoulder and back had almost no skin. 80% of her body was affected. She was so weak she couldn’t walk. Basically she was just about gone. They had tried witchdoctors and herb people, and now her hope and money were about gone. It truly was one of the more pathetic sights we have seen. Mirlene (bless her heart) donned protection and took this lady into the shower to clean everything off. We then gave them the prescribed Penicillin G shots and told them to come back in a week. After 7 days here they sat. Waiting their turn to come in. What a miracle sight they were! I have never seen someone heal so fast. She was walking and smiling and almost every inch of her body was re-growing skin and there was no infection or open sores left! I still can hardly believe it. They both were a charming picture of hope, excitement and life again. Encouragement was given them to seek God now that He has given them such an amazing recovery from the brink of death. We want to follow them and do what we can to promote continued full healing of both body and soul.

Thanks be to God for providing a few short term nurses to keep us going for the last while. After Ang Toews (from Grifton, NC) left in February, Kay Wedel (from Brooksville, MS) came for a month, then Rosalie Nichols (Inman, KS). Then it was Linda Unruh (Greensburg, KS), after that Gina Dirks (Halstead KS). Each spent a month with us. Now on July 15 Kay came back, so we feel blessed and happy to have her back here for a as of now… unlimited longer term. Every one of the nurses who spent time here brought their own valuable insights and help for the clinic, and we enjoyed each of them living with us. We have had an awesome Haitian nurse hired for the last 3 years and now we beg you to help us pray for her and her husband as they are on the verge of splitting up. Likely this will mean she will leave us to go back to where her family is from. We are very sad for them.

Cam, our 16-year-old son, broke the radius bone in his right forearm last week. He jumped over a yard wall to unlock a door and had a bad fall onto concrete. We spent a miserable afternoon and night in the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Port. By 5am we were able to leave with Cam only to see with dismay that the cast was poorly done and would need further attention. Since the DWB hospital had treated us so rudely, crudely and then hadn’t done a good job, we opted to go instead to a private Haitian hospital this time. Readily they took us in, quickly x-raying the arm, resetting and then recasting it very nicely. We were obliged to pay full price for everything at this private hospital. They listed all the supplies used, like gloves for the doctor, swab gauzes, the antiseptic wash, the cast material… everything had a price. The x-ray was $20 and all the cast supplies with the doctor’s fee, came to another $20. The grand total was $40 for a nice job with a brilliant blue fiberglass cast. But sadly, a private hospital costing $40 is often beyond reach for many Haitian families.
A nice little God-moment I can relate is this… When Cam broke his arm, he was 2-3 hours drive from where we were. We gathered our stuff and headed down the mountain to meet with him at the hospital. We had thought our fuel gauge was working and we had 1/8 tank left, but… an hour from home the Ford started sputtering and then stalled. We coasted to a stop within 50 ft of a house that sells diesel from gallon jugs beside the road. And this place is the ONLY place that has diesel for sale within an hour and a half drive.

Another God-moment was when we wrote out a cheque for clinic supplies and mistakenly wrote it out for 212 instead of 312. We just paid cash for the remaining 100 dollars. Later we found out the balance in the bank was 22 dollars after the 212 cleared the account. If we hadn’t made the mistake… we would have overdrawn the account and had the bank as well as our supplier furious at us for bouncing our check. 22 dollars is not a very healthy balance. We did get some donations come in to get us going again, but we urge you to see if God touches your heart for the clinic needs. We feel we are providing very good first line health care at very low cost. We have many needs. We are worried about the clinic funding situation, but we trust God that it is His work and He will supply and direct. Help us pray.

Help us pray for direction and wisdom for the many many requests and frustrating situations that present themselves to us. Sometimes it’s very difficult living here. People come to us every day telling us how their children haven’t eaten today, or they are pleading for help to build a cistern to collect rain water, or for money to buy 3 bags of fertilizer because without fertilizer they won’t be able to get a crop. Sometimes it takes me 2 hours to get to the clinic in the morning because of all the people lining up in our yard or along the road who “neeeeeed to have a few words” with me. I must confess that it is a bit taxing at times. I have to deal with my “self” to just have the patience to listen, encourage, and pray with them even if we can’t help them monetarily. I have sometimes felt like going into hiding till the hard times pass again, but we don’t know when that will be. The Caribbean drought that is affecting everyone from Cuba to Puerto Rico, is seriously affecting most all of Haiti. It’s not only in Oriani. Pray that after 4 dry and lean years now, that God will send rain and 4 fat years ahead.

Our family is looking forward to Jenna Toews from Pincher Creek coming in September to teach our children. In June we said goodbye to April Koehn, who taught last year. One of the joys of being here is all the many girls and teachers who live with us. Our family has been enlarged immensely and we have family in many places now.

Ok have a good night and let’s live like we know the Lord is returning soon.
Keith and Candace Toews
Director – Confidence Health Center
Oriani Haiti
Telephone 001-509-3783-9058
Keithtoews67@gmail.com

Of Economics

Haiti… the “Pearl of the Antilles”, a land of beauty, a land of many problems, a land of contradictions. A people that freely give verbal credit to God for most everything, a people who are burdened with many superstitions. A people who are not materialistic but have many material needs. A culture that is so interdependent that they are each the welfare and support structure that binds the fabric of them all together. Communal inter-dependency that is so strong that independence and the capitalistic way is frowned on because greed and selfishness (which are still present here) are not the attributes that can in any way sustain them in hard times. In this culture (especially rural areas) this large social inter-dependency is what pushes poor families to have 10+ children. The more they have the more support, hopefully, the children will produce for each other and to parents as they get old. This mutual sharing has many interesting pro and con aspects. For example, someone who is down to his last two dollars and will still give one away to someone who has none. When they both run out they will suffer together until they find someone else who has three dollars who they can each then ask a dollar from. Another aspect to this way of operating is that it keeps them all more on the same level. Like one said, “Haitians are like crabs in a bucket.” If one tries to get out and get ahead there are lots more who reach up and pull him back down. If someone is getting ahead financially here, there is often criticism that the person is greedy and selfish and insensitive. Otherwise he would surely be helping others until he was on the same level again. This limits incentive. In this culture, your friends and family are the first ones you run to in material or financial need. The banking system is unavailable to you and is too cold and unfriendly. To loan to and from a friend or family brings solidarity and warm feelings of togetherness. To be so materialistic that you would record all crop inputs, shows that you don’t trust God enough to just make it somehow work out in in the end. Some would go as far as to say that if you count your expenses God won’t bless the garden. They do not trust their governments and institutions. They see waste and mismanagement in all officials and too often in churches too. So their “giving” is literally done without the left hand knowing what the right hand is doing…sharing the bananas of their yard with the neighbors, cooking their last pot of rice and dividing it to the hungry, all the while hoping and knowing that when they are hungry, their neighbors will do it back. They suffer together. They do not criticize each other for poor management. Church circles are just like any other part of their other support circles. When times are tough, all needs, social, financial and spiritual are met by this life support group. Many of these cultural ways contribute to keep people in equality and in poverty, but yet these people also maintain a sense of community and solidarity that we lack in our culture.

We as North Americans, and in North America, tend to prize capitalism, independence, and self-sufficiency. We seem to see this as the one true way. Get ahead financially and then you will have enough to give to all those poor people in third world countries (at arm’s length). We work long hours, and look up to hard workers. Financial wealth is the definition of “success”. We have learned to trust our governments, and institutions, and churches, so that’s where we give our yearly donations, and get our tax receipts. We tithe, and we are generous. We eschew personal one on one giving to a large extent. We may have a financial need yet never go to our friends and family. We don’t want to owe them, or have them owe us, because we understand that the best way to lose a friend is to get involved with money matters. A friend is for emotional reasons, not financial. Church is for spiritual needs. Banks and government programs for financial needs. If we start helping one another financially, we are uncomfortable, worrying that other person will become dependent on us, or on the church aid, and we “feel it’s just not a good idea”. Much more could be said….. But do you get a little picture of what I am trying to show? Both of these cultures are a world apart in the BASE reason of why they each do what they do. Both cultures have positives and both have negatives.

Living in Haiti is teaching me more about them than what I can teach them about us. It’s hard to try to reform their financial ways and culture. And is that really our responsibility to make these changes? It is a challenge to live and work here among the people we love and keep our equilibrium. We no doubt have made many mistakes. Clearly it doesn’t work to be the rich guy in their community and just throw money around till it’s all gone. To NOT help in quiet, personal ways with the many little needs around us, very quickly bars our hearts from connecting with them and them with us. When we humbly and patently listen to their sufferings and sadness and offer a little help in food or money occasionally, our touched hearts open, making us “grieved with the afflictions of Joseph” (Amos 6:6). This enlarges their hearts toward us and we reap the huge and warm blessings of their trust and friendships. To have a “no personal help” policy would be so out of character and out of culture for them that they may not trust that our gospel is good either.
Gospel in action is what really counts with these people. Talk is cheap.

Two examples come to mind. One of their way, and one of ours. I might get frustrated at a beggar who rails on me and calls me “stingy” because I decided not to help him. I self-righteously think, “How dare he say that when I give so much? I have left home and opportunities to come run a clinic for them!” In the second, a Haitian can get frustrated at me if, when I don’t see him paying his church dues, or tithing enough, I try to instruct him on the subject of “giving”. He self-righteously thinks, “How dare you say that I don’t know how to “give” when my whole life is giving to the ones around me in ways you white men will never understand?”

Ok, enough said on that. Nurse Angela Toews heroically fulfilled her one year here, and a month ago headed back to her digs in North Carolina. Rosalie Nichols, an RN from Kansas, is here now working for a while till another nurse can come. The people here appreciate about the clinic is open every day, and they can count on that. We don’t shut down for lack of nurses, and we don’t run out of meds. Although people who walk from long distances are sometimes hampered by rainy weather, there are still plenty of patients each day! Recently I visited a similar sized clinic in another part of Haiti. They just had a small trickle of patients coming in, allowing the four nurses and one doctor to spend a nice amount of time with each one. I envied the personal time and care they were able to give to them. But, with so few clinics or health care providers in our whole area here, we are generally buried by the work load of 50-120 people every day. Recently, having not seen one of our patients (a single lady named Rosalyn) for a while and knowing she is sick and needs her meds, we decided to pay her a quick house call. We found her in her bed sick, and out of meds. The children were very sick, too. So sad. I convinced her to come to the clinic the next day and we were able to give her and the children what they needed. That night a man who had been coming by her house for “favours”, came by again. She had earlier declared to us her intention of becoming a member of our church and on the strength of that desire, she refused him entrance. He got mad and beat her to death. We were sickened and heartbroken. Those three young children she leaves behind haunt me.

Though not all born in the clinic, there are several set of twins in clinic care. One mom had triplets. The locals laugh at moms who have multiple births and call them “mama goats”. Seems like these people struggle enough to feed a child without having to be blessed with twins. Too often the breast milk doesn’t last long enough as it is and then, of course, kwashiorkor (protein deficiency) sets in with many resulting problems. Most of the ones who come to the clinic are women, and women with children. I doubt 20% are men. Because these women lack vocabulary to describe their issues, making a diagnosis always challenging. What do phrases like “waist is broken”, “water under my heart”, and “milk mounted up into my head” really mean?? There are many such things. One recent interesting case is of a young boy who got his finger chopped off. With Todd and Angela’s good efforts, the bone was trimmed back (with a sterilized wire snippers), the skin shaped, and sewn around the end nicely. It seems to be healing beautifully. Recently, I was reminded of the advantages of having Haitian church brethren here to help guide us and give us sage local advice. During our revival meetings, a couple of the Haitian ministers were visiting with me about the clinic, and they warned me that we need to start watching that the clinic profile doesn’t get too big, drawing too much attention from the government. Jealousy and envy of a good clinic could cause enough feelings that they would look for ways to take us over or shut us down. Help us pray that doesn’t happen.

The church here seems to be in good spirits and founded on the Rock, Jesus. Last weekend while the world celebrated Mardi Gras and carnality, our Haitian church gathered at one of our congregations for an annual three day fellowship time. I was sick the whole three days, but what I was able to take in was inspiring. About five hundred people were there. I have been lately reading history and the personal faith stories of many of our martyred brethren from 800 AD to 1600 AD. It impresses me that the active faith that I saw and felt in St Marys while we were there is the same active faith I see in Oriani, and I see the same faith in the old accounts in the Martyrs Mirror. But why am I surprised? God is the same yesterday today and forever. What a security we can take in this.

I could mention that during this last two weeks I have been quite sick with DHF Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever and a double whammy of kidney infection to boot. I want to really thank you all for your prayers and support that I felt. Honestly, I was very low for a couple days. My white blood cell count was dangerously low according to the doctor who read my blood test results. I seem to be on the way back up even though I feel very weak and tired.

Our family went back to St Marys, Ontario, for Christmas and then we stayed to participate in revivals and communion. What a wonderful time we had. The snow…. So white, so pretty, and so cold!

A tailender story I want to tell is about a poor, lovely, lonely little 11 yr old girl called LoveMy. She is Christina’s friend and one day when Christina had a lot of yard work to do, LoveMy wandered over and started helping. LoveMy’s dad is not with the family and they often don’t have enough to eat there, so when the work was finished I thought it only good to give her a little money for her effort. I was going to give her 25 GDS which is about what a child could expect, but I decided to double it to 50 for her. She was so happy! She skipped out of the yard towards town. But in 10 min she was back. She had used most of the money to buy a Coke just to be able to give to me. I just about cried. I really enjoyed that Coke. Computer says I have typed 2271 words. Time to go to bed.

G’nite, and God bless each one of you in His service.

The Country Is Weeping

The country is weeping. The lips are the Haitian flag.
A street artist spray painted this on a tree trunk in Port au Prince. Two weeks ago this pic was on a Haitian news site after 325 violent prisoners had a jailbreak.

To those of you who have been asking for an update on the Oriani clinic, I say sorry for my tardiness. But it’s been an eventful last couple months! One of the things that dominated our time and mental energies was the robbery. A couple months ago while we were gone to church someone broke into our house. The only way in was thru a 7and half inch little glass window on top of the door. He broke it and squeezed in, which cut and scraped him up considerably. The thief leaked blood everywhere he went while he ransacked the house. He stole some money and my laptop and a few other minor things. I could write a 4 page article of all the drama that ensued, but the ultra short version is that he was caught a week later and he admitted it all. He was caught when he returned to the area, reportedly with a gun, and was seen walking by our house at midnight one night. Some of the locals wanted us to allow them to beat him with a bicycle chain, but we didn’t get involved, and police were called up to come get him instead. We understand that he is still in prison although there is a question about that because the main prison in Port that held 899 prisoners had a big jailbreak recently and 329 of some of the worst prisoners broke out taking the prison armory with them. So we are all on alert and we ask your prayers for continued safety.

The clinic is still steaming along. Angela Toews, RN, has been here since Feb and is planning on leaving us in October, so we are imploring your help to find another nurse. We feel the vision of good Christian care to these poor sick people is best continued by keeping an American or Canadian nurse on staff all the time. Please pray for this need. All prospective nurses should email us with info on who they are and what conviction they have to serve here. We feel a single female nurse is the best fit at this time… RN or even LPN. Our local missionaries Deacon Todd and Donna Schmidt are a big help when needed, especially for difficult situations. That’s when Todd’s long experience as a RN comes in handy. Donna’s occasional help with computer filing is appreciated, too.

I don’t want to plead for funds because I feel strongly that God has always provided in the past and I trust He will continue, but this I can say… our patient numbers were at an all-time high last month and that means a lot of meds and supplies to purchase to keep things running. And I guess I could let you know too that our funds here are at all time low too. Remember us.

One night there was a bad truck wreck a few miles from our house. The truck was loaded with potato sacks and people way up on top of that. It rolled over and many people rolled under the huge sacks of produce as it spilled its load. One lady died on the road in front of us and another had a broken neck and was paralyzed. We sent a number of them down in the ambulance but one still died later in Port au Prince. About 12 were injured enough to need medical help. That was a busy and dramatic night.

And of what should I say more? For time would fail me to tell of… Boozy, Denise, Jemima, and Kawol. Of healthy babies born, of a mom of 9 who tried to abort her 10th child and then came to the clinic too late and bled to death, of infected DONKEY bites, of sicknesses and infections, of cholera infected children who barely survived but are now healthy, of prayers and victories, and inward cries which feel like defeat, and we have to submit people to the care of a loving Father. But we are happy that even the name of the clinic… “Confidence in God Clinic” lifts up God and that people who come here often are able to get that boost of confidence in God and medicine that many didn’t used to have. We are open 8am-4pm five days a week and 24/7 for emergencies. Seems a lot of the after-hours stuff falls upon us “whites” to look after and that makes for tiring days and evenings, but we find that God gives strength and blessings for it all. Honestly, we love the work here and it is a blessing to us. God has done so much good for our family while here in Haiti that I will never complain about it being too much work. It’s the least we can do in return. Is there any other (young?) family that is interested in filling our place here as administrators if our time would come to go back to Canada? May the Holy Spirit guide us in this.

This has been a very pleasant year as far as weather goes because usually it rains every day in summer, but this year, while comfortable and dry….the crops and cisterns are severely lacking water. If we don’t get rain soon the crops will be failed and the cisterns won’t be full for the long rainless winter months. It is so sad that there is no water available in either wells or rivers here in the mountain top. And if we start the fall/winter season with dry cisterns… wow… it will be very tough. Please pray for rain for Haiti. But not too much rain!!! One time in a three day spell we had 30 inches of water come down!! That was terrible too.

We feel blessed to have a teacher lined up for our 2 school children. April Koehn from Farwell, Texas will be joining our rambunctious household of 8 at the end of this month. She will be coming in time for the wedding of our previous teacher Sallie Mininger, who is marrying Frantzy Dorleus, a fine Haitian brother from Port au Prince on Aug 31. We look forward to this marriage and we think the world of them both. If you will recall… our previous nurse Heather Isaac married here in Haiti as well. To a fine young man named Isaac. (Good thing it isn’t tradition for the man to take the bride’s last name or he would be “Isaac Isaac”.) Frantzy and Sallie, and Isaac and Heather will be close to each other and will all be members of the same church congregation in Cazeau, by Port au Prince. Interesting how this is all working. Our son Trev married a Haitian girl too, named Mirlene, and we love her to death. She very much feels like a daughter to us. In our church in Haiti they say it’s all good now because they have 2 girls who married white boys and now 2 white girls got Haitian boys. These 4 marriages include 2 Canadians and 2 Americans. (Derrick Johnson from KS married Mary Vena, a Haitian girl, several years ago). Due to many Haitian’s prevalent national and racial inferiority complex, it is always interesting and animated when discussing with them that God only created one race… the human race. What color was Adam? They say white. I say we can’t know, but that many scientists who study DNA coding tell us our earlier ancestors were dark and genetics are making us lighter colored. Does God even notice or differentiate how much melanin we have? Seems everyone involved with Ferguson, MO does!

Our interest is piqued with the Ebola outbreak in Liberia and other places in Africa. Wow. Read up on it if you haven’t already. The stories are heartbreaking. It touches me because, even though the death rate here wasn’t as bad… I can relate to some of those Liberia stories because of our cholera experiences a couple years ago. Overwhelmed, under-supplied, and understaffed. Death and panic, and uneducated superstitious people. Let’s continue to pray for the Ebola situation in Africa, especially for the brave doctors and nurses who are literally laying their lives on the line.

God Bless you all, and “over and out” till next time.
Keith Toews
Director - Clinique Confiance en Dieu
Oriani, Haiti
Tel- 011-509-3783-9058

Us? A married child???

The Wedding And Our Family
I have neglected writing the last couple months. Our son Trevor’s wedding was a very nice day. As you all probably know, he married Mirlene Henry who was/is our translator here in the clinic. She is a great girl for him and a joy to have as a daughter in law. The wedding service was in Fond Parisian at our church there. Food was served in the benches for most of the people (400), and the reception for friends and family(another 135) was in the backyard of a little hotel close by. The breeze was blowing off the lake as we sat under the thatched roof, eating… RICE and BEANS! And BANAN PEZE and such good food. (I always said I would never write a missionary letter about “what we had for dinner” but I just ate my own words). It was so neat to have all my family and all Candace’s family here for this great event. We put up tents in our back yard some nights to be able to keep them at our place. There were lots of other visitors here too that helped make it all a very warm special time.

Angela Toews from Griften NC is the clinic nurse and is living with us and is part of us now. We and the kids love her dearly.

Our teacher, Sallie Minninger, who has been here for the last 2 years, will soon be going home. She feels like part of our family and we will really miss her.

Candace is a busy mom of a big family and keeps us all going somehow. I can’t figure out where she gets her endless energy from. She says from “exercising” but I think it’s her Penner/Troyer bloodline. Cam Chase Christina and Ketli are all growing concerns. Cam would be soon in “youth group” back in Ontario if we were there. He has youth age Christian friends here which we are thankful for. Chase and Christina are busy with school and neighbour kids. Ketli is completely in love with her new puppy and it seems vice versa too. Zack is just a natural at understanding and fixing things, so he’s been the unofficial motorcycle repairman locally. He’s been studying and is now comfortable enough to open a little repair shop here in town. He won’t make much money but that’s not really the goal either.

Clinic
An axe through the foot, machete wounds, a badly infected dog bite, a knife fight to the head, blood pressure of 247/152, babies being born, MRSA boils that squirt, 287 pregnant women per month, casting simple fractures of an arm and another of a leg, tummy aches, ear and throat infections, respiratory problems, asthma, suturing large cuts from having motorcycle wrecks, cutting out arm cysts, and people sick from a host of misc diseases and fungal infections are all part of the 1900 people we see (and can treat!) per month. But… compound break to the leg from a motorcycle wreck, hernias, cancer, large keloid removal, etc etc are things we refer the people to Port au Prince which is 3-4 hrs away at best. We have connection with a few hospitals and when they have surgical mission teams from USA in, then they let us know. Yesterday I took some people down for surgery at a mission hospital close to CSI compound in Roche Blanche. I got to observe one of the minor operations. I really want to watch a hernia repair yet. I got to observe a dead baby removal, and an extreme D&C once. (rather high on the yuk scale)

Todd is not a full time nurse at the clinic, but since he is an RN he comes in very handy when needed. Angela is our fulltime RN and is doing just great, fitting in very well to both the clinic and to our home. She has had some Creole classes and is getting the language quite well. Trev’s wife Mirlene is Ang’s assistant and translator.

People are still streaming in from extreme distances. Monday a mom and her daughter came in that had left home Sunday morn and walked all day arriving in the evening, slept in town and came to the clinic in the morn. A suspected TB case. In the mornings “Dr” Ozias has devotions with the porch full of people, and he encourages them that beings this clinic is called (in Creole) “Confidence in God Clinic” that they should leave off their heathen beliefs and practices, put their confidence in God and in medicines instead of witch doctor things. We hear the witch doctors are mad at our clinic so that must mean the people are listening. Praise God! We have had a lot of “tet foo” people lately. Tet foo means crazy, mentally challenged, whatever. Some have been humorous, and others make you feel so bad for them that you cry. There just is not a lot of good help for these people here. There is an asylum in Port, but so little that these mountain people here could really do, so they wander the streets and roads, causing real problems. Sometimes they get mad and throw rocks till others tie them up. Other times they undress, or steal clothes from washlines etc etc etc. Just a few nights ago a tet foo man climbed over our yard fence and came back behind the house and knocked on the door. He is an innocent soul that is totally harmless so I just told him to go back out and he smiled, said “OK”, and left. We have had numerous young women who have seemed to been under a satanic spell or influence too. The Christians here call it Satanic persecution. Sometimes they come to the clinic to see if it’s a medical problem, but it’s not medical, and it’s not something we are used to in our culture. Often they come out of it with stories of terrible visions and a sense of being far away and in chains with serpents and evil people. Often they then hear a faraway voice of a loved one praying, or they start quoting a verse to themselves, and they feel themselves leaving that “place” and they suddenly come conscious again. It can last for several days at times. Prayer services are often held for them repeatedly. Recently one of our young converts was attacked this way and as the church was praying for her, the Devil spoke aloud and said “I can’t stay here, it’s too much pressure for me” and within a few minutes the girl stopped grinding her teeth and writhing, and a little later opened her eyes and awoke, asking for food. All this doesn’t make me fear the devil more, but it makes me realise and respect that all the devil’s ways are nothing to mess around with. He attacks us all in whatever way he can best enter. But let’s all remember that our weapons are “mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds”. He gives power, He gives grace, He gives victory if we are in Him and He in us.

Church and Community
The community here has been thrown into a confusion over a new business that opened up within a 150 ft of our church building. A brothel! Seems a lot of people viewed it as a legit business and even as “development” of the town to have it. Wow. Well, we didn’t see it that way, and as we started to see the negative results of this thing in our midst, and the pounding music during our Sunday afternoon worship services… we got a little more active in telling locals what the Bible says and how it will ruin our tranquil and happy little town, and also the youth of the area as they begin to pass idle time around there. We went and offered to buy the ground, building, sound systems, TVs and whole kitandkaboodle and… The owner AGREED!!! We thought our troubles were over. Well, not so… this news got the local vakabos (bad guys) stirred up and they threatened the owner and threatened the community that they were going to hold a protest, burn tires, and cut trenches across the road if this “wonderful” place shut down. The owner then reneged on his agreement with us and decided to keep it. Our church then had a two prayer meetings especially that this evil would shut down and leave our community and …. It’s amazing… since then it hasn’t been operating the last 4 weekends. Now this weekend we hear they started again and that they had a robbery there… and so we’ll see what happens. We know God is surely working against it behind the scenes, and the community is now saying too that it may be a bad thing for everyone.

Todd and Donna Schmidt, the missionaries for the church here are learning Creole and even though I still translate the sermons he preaches, I no longer have to translate everything like at first. The church is growing and God is still calling sinners to Himself. Seems the gospel light is exposing what likes to hide, and people in the shadows of darkness are coming out of it. I recently was inspired as I met one of the new converts who is about 55, a widow, and lives in the bottom of a deep ravine. She’s crippled in her legs, is in very poor health, and walks 2-3 hours one way (alone) to come to church. I asked her if it isn’t too hard to come like this all the time? She lit up and with just abit of consternation in her voice, heartily declared that coming to church here is LIFE for her. She said “I always come home with a heart full. The love I feel and the preaching of God’s Word keeps me alive spiritually and I will keep coming until I DIE!!!” Wow! God bless her. In this land of extreme poverty it is important to watch that people come for the right reasons and not for hope of material gain. Examining convert’s testimonies for true repentance, encouraging them, and teaching them while looking for a change of heart and life, becomes very important. This is where Holy Spirit’s leading is very crucial. We were at mission meetings this last week with all staff, leaders, and boards, and I feel they are strong and on a good footing in general. Pray for the church in Haiti. As they continue to hear cries for missionaries from many areas here… how can they respond? It’s very difficult for them to supply and fund very many missionaries on their own. People are very hungry for the gospel.

We are happy to have my cousin’s son Kayle Friesen serving here as one of the CSI boys at the volunteer unit nearby. We have quite a nice “American” style youth group when all the American and Canadian youth here get together. The CSI unit up here is still building houses, latrines and cisterns for the very poorest in the area. People who can’t do anything for themselves. We too had some money brought in to build a couple of simple houses for some extremely deplorable situations. I wish you could see their joy, their courage, and the changes it all brings to their lives to have a dry place to sleep.

The School
I also wish you all could see the school. 180 students crammed together. The conviction for a Christian school is here, but it is not an easy vision to accomplish with poor facilities, few supplies and undereducated and underpaid teachers, but… it’s working! (sorta). Merci Bon Dieu. I think in next yr, with a few changes again in the administration, it can be improved.

We found a local source for some help to feed the children in 3 local schools. Love-a-Child organisation gives packets of premixed, prepped, rice and soy protein that can be quickly heated up and is very nutritious for them.

In the words of Lacey Toews who is working with our church school here….
“Hunger is a big problem here now in these spring months before the gardens are ready. Lately I have been noticing more and more how lethargic and listless some of the students are. They sit there heads in their hands, eyes half-shut, no energy. It’s very hard to teach a student like that. But that changes… huge yells of excitement go up when the steaming pots of food comes in. They shovel it down, talking about how good it is. I have seen some of them stop in the middle of filling their empty stomachs, as if remembering something. They then say, “I’m taking the rest home for my little brother and sister because they don’t have anything to eat”. They then tie their bowl in a rag and carefully put it somewhere so they can take it home later.
This meal truly makes a difference in our students lives. They look forward to it all morning. And the joy and energy after the food is amazing! Wow!”

God Bless you all, and we need your continued prayers!

Keith and Candace Toews
Administrators - Confidence Health Center
Oriani, Haiti