Mustard Seed Missions, Inc.

A wonderful friend from College Church, Karen Lamoureux, proposed the idea of  fund-raising for Mustard Seed by reading as many books as she could during the summer and asking people to sponsor her.  Although Karen has expressed interest in going to Haiti, there are too many things going on in her life to allow that right now, so she said she asked herself, “What could I do instead?”.  As of last week, Karen had already read 4 books and had 21 sponsors!   Her goal is to read 15 books by August 31st.   Way to go, Karen, and thank you for thinking of Mustard Seed!

We have exciting news!  Mustard Seed Missions has decided to make an even stronger commitment to working in Haiti.  We will be returning  to Haiti  every four months to travel into the mountains and hold medical clinics in the villages there.   Our scheduled trips will happen in February, June, and October. We are currently exploring the possibility of going even deeper beyond Platon and spending more nights up in the mountains so that we can access more of the people that live so remotely.

When Yanie saw the doctor yesterday, they diagnosed a urinary tract infection as well as the sickle cell flare up.  So, the end result is that they are unable to perform the surgery now.  This morning Yanie and Amoce were scheduled to fly back to PAP where they will take a bus back to Les Cayes.  Fortunately, Dr. Mehne said she can come back at the end of October, so we will definitely be planning on arranging that.

It is still raining there…

Yanie’s surgery has been postponed.  She woke up this morning with Sickle Cell Fever.  It’s very painful.  Dr. Mehne said she needs to see a general doctor tomorrow.  If she has no other infections, he may be able to do the surgery on Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning.  He is only there until Friday so we are praying that she will be well enough by tomorrow!

It continues to rain…

This was an exciting weekend for Yanie (and Amoce).   We spoke with Amoce late yesterday and found out a lot of the details of their whirlwind weekend!

Early Friday morning they took a bus to Port Au Prince to go to the Embassy of the Dominican Republic to seek their visas.  He had printed out email letters from the hospital administrator and from Mustard Seed, as documentation of their ‘invitation’ to enter the DR for Yanie’s full hip replacement surgery.  Amoce said the visas were granted very easily and that the letter from the hospital administrator was especially helpful.

That evening Yanie went to Amoce’s cousin’s house to stay in Port, while Amoce returned to Les Cayes.  He went back to pack his belongings, collect a phone that he could use for the DR and pick up airplane tickets.  He needed to pack sheets and towels for each of them because they are staying in a Nazarene Camp next to the Hospital Elias Santana, a Christian Medical Missionary hospital in Santo Domingo.  He returned to Port on the 2 p.m. bus arriving late in the evening.

Early the next morning they got up and flew Tortug Air on the 10:30 a.m. flight from Port Au Prince to Santo Domingo.  This was Yanie’s first ever flight and Amoce said she slept through it!!  I don’t quite understand that.  He also said it rained during the whole flight; perhaps she was just frightened.  (Judy Foster said it’s been raining non-stop.)

When Amoce phoned us he was delighted to tell us that he has enough Spanish to be able to negotiate cab fare with the taxi drivers and to give directions to where he wanted to go.  On the way to the camp they stopped to buy minutes for his telephone.  He also phoned Nicole, the hospital administrator. Amoce was surprised that the Haitians he’s met in the DR don’t know kreyol; they only speak Spanish.  That was our experience back in 2005 also.  Only the old and gray Haitians knew any kreyol; the younger ones just speak Spanish.

Yanie is scheduled to see the doctor today; Dr. Mehne is only there for one week, so if she is a candidate for the surgery she will get the surgery some time this week.

[As an aside, Amoce is also very thankful and excited because this trip is offering him a chance to see his step-sister, Rick Christopher's mother.  He spent a week looking for her after the earthquake, and found that she had moved to Santo Domingo.]

Last night, Amoce and I were finally able to connect.  He phoned me late and I was able to give him some of the information he needed.  Nicole, the hospital administrator, has reserved each of them a bed at the Nazarene Camp next to the hospital.  They need to bring their own sheets and towels.  Early this afternoon, John V helped Amoce make plane reservations to fly from PAP to Santo Domingo.

MAJOR DETAIL:  Tomorrow Yanie and Amoce will go to the Embassy of the Dominican Republic in PAP to seek visas to enter the DR.  They have to get these visas.  Without them, there is no travel and therefore, no surgery.  This is so important for Yanie, it’s her one chance to receive this surgery and be relieved of the pain she’s been living with for over two years.