Thank you for reading our blog and keeping up with our ministry. We are not great about contacting each of you on facetime or skype so we appreciate you keeping up with us.
We had another eventful week. I (Josh) have spent a large amount of time this week working to get two heart patients ready to go to Santiago for heart surgeries which start this upcoming week. It is very difficult to get passports and visas in this country. It seems like the process changes every month and then it is hit or miss if the people have birth certificates to even get the passports. Then there is the issue of trying to contact them over phone which is never easy and then trying to get them into Port au Prince to apply for the documents. Needless to say, we were very busy this week. I was very thankful for the help of our translator Josue and another Haitian man who knows how to get passports and visas. The process is not complete yet so please pray for us. Tomorrow morning we are going to the Dominican Consolate to get the Visas. We hope there will no surprises. Once we get these kids across to have life saving heart surgery it will be more than worth it. I would do it all over again next week if it meant it would save a child's life. We enjoy meeting these children and there families. We have two of them downstairs as I type. Chadasha's heart program is a great ministry. We get to talk with not only the patients about Jesus but also the doctors who come from all over the world.
This is allenson. He is one of our heart patients going to Santiago.
This is Ashley and her mom. Ashley is going to Santiago to have heart surgery too. Sharles loved holding her hand in the car!
Also this week, Wilgens at our children's home got an infection. He informed us that he cut his hand on a piece of rusted metal about a month ago. I was not happy and we had a good life lesson talk about it. He is a former heart patient that needs to be careful with his health. As you can imagine, the infection was not pretty. He is healing now but the wound is going to take some time to heal.
The longer I live here in Haiti, the more I learn about how to serve poverty stricken people. You would think it would be as easy as providing for their needs, but it is not. I am very thankful that God is teaching me and giving me a great experience. The poverty here is overwhelming at times. I feel very helpless sometimes. The natural thing to do is to try to help every situation. I am learning that the best method to helping in a poverty stricken place like this is to focus on a few people and truly try to help them. I've also learned that sometimes saying no is the best way to love a person. That person might really need to be forced into providing for themselves. If we always bail them out, then that never gives them a chance to provide for themselves. It is very difficul,t but creating dependency is not loving them.
This upcoming week we will hopefully be sending the heart patients to Santiago tomorrow. We will also be visiting a lady we have been trying to setup her own business, so she can provide for herself. Please pray that she will understand that she can do it. I truly believe people in poverty lose hope and therefore stop trying. We want her to understand with hard work she can provide for herself. We will help her get started, but she will be the one to make it work. Please pray for her to have hope and determination.
We also are continuing to try to disciple and care for our children and the children's home. We feel responsible to teach them life lessons and to teach them who God is. It is a big responsiblity that we are blessed to have other people to help us. As most of you know, discipling and mentoring these children is what Brittany and I feel like God brought us here for. Please pray for Brittany and I as we take on this challenge.
We continue to work to raise funds and support to move the children's home into a new building. Please pray that if it is God's Will then He will provide for us.
Brittany and Sharles are doing great along with the baby in the oven. Brittany is feeling pretty good, but is having trouble eating rice, which is not good here. Sharles is speaking more and more (both English and Creole).
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