“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” Dr. Seuss.
At the breakfast table Dr. Matt Tincher handed each participant of our 6 day medical mission in Haiti a 3 by 5 card with these words. At the end of that day the team returned having seen nearly 300 residents of a tent camp here in Port au Prince.
Marie, one of the participants on our trip this week, is a U.S. citizen born in Haiti. She told me that she had never wanted to return to her home country. She was simply happy to leave when she did 20ish years ago. When one of her coworkers invited her to join our team as a translator, she hesitated. Todd asked her to pray about it.
Sunday one of our team preached in our host church and Marie was asked to translate. By the middle of the message she had a rhythm of communication to her people that drew shouts of praise to God from the congregation. I thought, “she’s back.”
All week Marie has worked in our pharmacy translating for patients their dosages, holding a hand as she listened to stories. Yesterday she held the hand of a woman who lost 4 children in the earthquake the woman explained how when she looked at food she could not eat. As if she did not deserve to live with the good members of her family gone.
Marie’s heart was broken and asked the mother to consider that she was alive for a purpose, that the next time she saw food in front of her, that that food was provided to sustain that purpose and she would eat knowing it was God’s provision for a better day. That’s Marie in the picture consulting a patient earlier in the day.
Marie is one of 30 Mission Discovery medical team members here this week in Port au Prince serving the residents of 3 tent camps with medical, dental and eye exams. This team would call this a small work, but when it’s dark outside, a little light will do. The clinic continues to the end of this week.
