TED'S Blog

TED’s Blog (Just in Haitin… I Hope)

This morning started off very quick. We had to leave for the church service at 5:45. Our room however did not wake up until 5:30. So I had to fight lane off to go to the bathroom before he got his shower.  All of us worked it out and we were able to get to the church on time. Today’s service was a little different than a regular Haitian service. Today’s service was a combined service with 5 other churches. Church was held in the parking lot of a sports complex. When we got there, there were only about 20 people in the parking lot. We were not sure if we were at the right place or if we were there to early. Crystal asked one of the pastors if we were in the right place and they said we were, and that people would come eventually.  30 minutes later, the parking lot was filled with probably 500 people.  We had worship for probably an hour and it was just how you would expect. People were dancing around singing loud and proud and just having a good time. They sang a few songs that I was able to recognize but I did not know them well enough to be able to sing the English part with them. Obviously I could not understand the sermon so I ended up reading my bible and playing with the 2 kids beside me that was interested in my skin and arm hair. Church let out at 830 and it reminded me of getting back to a car after a football game. While we were getting on the bus, Grant made a friend. A homeless guy decided to wrap himself around his leg and would not let go. Grant kept a good attitude though and just stood and smiled until one of the translators ran over and was able to get him off and get the rest of us on the bus. After that, we went back to the base for a late morning breakfast that consisted of fried scrambled eggs that were mixed with onions and peppers. I loaded them up with hot sauce and they were delicious.

After breakfast we went to the children’s hospital. The United States is so blessed to have the facilities that we do. Down here the parents have to do a lot of the care for the children with just medical professionals watching over. And they do not have separate rooms. In the first area where we were at, there was about 20 beds at least. While we were there I met some very interesting and inspiring people. There was one mom that had a 4 year old boy and he has been sick for most of his life. The doctors think he might have a tumor in his brain or some immune system problem. My group prayed for him and I felt that God was asking me to talk to the mom to see if she had a relationship with Christ. So I naturally fought it for a minute or two and just gave in and I asked her. She said that she goes to church and knows of him but she was not ready to accept him yet. So through the translator I was able to explain that God’s love doesn’t need us to be ready. He is always ready to be able to accept us. After about 5 minutes of us going back and forth between the translators, she started to just get quieter and give less of a response.  She was firm in her decision that she was not ready to accept him. So I told her that I would be praying for her and her son and we continued to pray with more families and kids in the hospital. We went through a few other parts of the hospital. We went to a pediatric burn room and were able to pray with a few kids and then we went to an orthopedic floor. On the orthopedic floor we met a boy who had broken his leg and did not tell anyone. After a month he couldn’t walk and they took the kid to Doctors without borders and they fixed his leg and drained his knee of a greenish discharge. The boy and his mom had been at the hospital since New Year’s Eve waiting on something to happen. They had a prescription for an Antibiotic and crutches but the mom could not afford them because they had already spent 20,000 Gourd which is 400 American dollars. The mom had put everything they had into saving his leg. So the group was able to bless them by giving them 1000 Gourd to get them out of there and provide the medications and crutches.

Overall today was a great day. We met some wonderful people that were put in some very unfortunate circumstances. Now we are at the base about to eat some dinner and play some Dutch Blitz!! Everyone but Cody says hi and we miss you! If you are not part of my family you can stop reading now. Happy New Years! Everyone wants to hear from everyone so please comment on here!!

Happy Birthday Victoria!!!! Sorry I couldn’t be there today but I think you will understand Hahaha. I hope you had a good steak and you are keeping Josh in line. Tell him he might not be lighter than me by the time I get back. (Who am I kidding; I’ve been eating so much here.)Mom, Dad, Mike and Cheryl, I hope you had a great time going out to the movies. Still can’t believe you ditched me! At least you didn’t see Concussion. I would have been going by myself sometime this semester.  Kayla I love you very much! I’m excited to tell you all of my stories and just to get to see you! BTW, we were able to get all the scores and congratulations on beating the browns. Big accomplishment I know. And I think that means you guys are in the playoffs because the Bills won? Let me know.  And the Buckeyes crushed Notre Dame!!! I got really excited about that. Hope you are having a good week and I’ll see you in a week or so! I love you all!