His heart for Haiti

I am very excited to share some of Mike's pictures from his recent mission trip to Haiti. We felt so fortunate that he was able to participate with a medical mission team that performed medical, vision, dental and pharmaceutical services to the people of one large city there. Mike was able to assist in providing the morning worship/devotional time for the team, provide encouragement and help to the medical professionals and provide services at the main gate to the clinic, assisting the people who came to receive help. He often recounts that the most profound and deeply moving activity he was asked to perform was to stand at the gate and determine who would receive services for that day. There were so many that he knew the team would not be able to see them all. You see, many people had made appointments weeks in advance to be seen by the doctors, while many others just arrived, hoping to be chosen to receive help. Often, he would find men dropping their pants to show them their large henias or women passing their sick children toward the gate. Having no medical background or training, he says that he had to totally and completely rely on the Lord's leading because the medical team was seeing as many patients as they could, but they could not get to everyone despite their best efforts. He says that the Lord guided him to the sickest, the infants and the elderly first. He prayed that God would direct His choices - taking himself completely out of the picture and choosing the ones that God was leading them to see.

It has been 3 months since his trip, and he still finds himself saying, "Oh, I forgot to tell you about..." and then he recounts something that he saw or a person he interacted with. I imagine it does take a long time to absorb such a lifechanging experience.

So, now, although we like to say we have always had a worldview and enjoy a multi-cultural family life, we can include Haiti in our love for the nations. I asked him one night if he was going to go back to Haiti - he said, "I can't not go!"