Safe return to Illinois

After 1-1/2 days of traveling, I safely arrived back in Illinois late last night (Saturday).  To say the least, I'm very glad to be re-united with my family.  I had been in Haiti the past 3 weeks while my family was in Illinois. Thanks to those praying for my travels yesterday.  At one point, it seemed nearly impossible that I'd make it home, due to flight problems, but the way opened and I was able to fly into Peoria late last night.

I'm glad to say that the situation in Bonne Fin seemed to improve some in the past week.  On Wednesday, several of us went to Les Cayes for a meeting with MEBSH.  MEBSH is the mission org. that owns Hospital Lumiere.  We met with the MEBSH executive team to discuss the ongoing challenges that we're having at Bonne Fin.  The outcome of the meeting was very positive in that MEBSH agreed to be more proactive in helping resolve the conflict with the Bonne Fin community.  We were encouraged later in the week to find out that they had already taken action and communicated with some of those in the community.  I've come to respect these Haitian christian men.  Our relationship has grown over the past several weeks.

Also, thankful to hear of so many others that are aware of the situation in Bonne Fin and praying. God is hearing and answering those prayers.

The Journey Continues!

In this past week, there were no roadblocks or demonstrations in Bonne Fin.  We're grateful for that. Yet, the underlying issues remain unresolved & tensions are still high.  On Wednesday of this week, I invited a couple members of the community to my office to discuss the ongoing problems. We had a good meeting and understood each other well, but didn't really gain anything.  I was told by these men, that they couldn't influence the community as a whole and that it would be better to have a larger meeting with more representatives of the community present.  So, we agreed to that.

Yesterday afternoon (Friday), we had that meeting.  Around 12 or so men from the community attended along with our leadership team.  Unfortunately, many that were present had strong emotions and weren't willing to listen or consider a change in their position.  They made unreasonable demands which we declined to accept.  There were a couple men present that were able to think rationally and at least consider what we had to say, yet the majority resisted us.  So, we continue on.  Praying that God's will would be done.  The devil is at work and is attacking yet we're comforted in knowing that God sees it all.  He is still on his throne and in control of all things.

In Psalm 47:7-8 we read,
"For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding.  God reigneth over the heathen:  God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness."

Thanks for your prayers.  I've felt a calmness and a peace in this past week in spite of the difficulties.  I can only attribute that to the prayers of the saints and the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Update from Bonne Fin

Greetings to all from Haiti:

As many of you are aware, we've had some challenges in the Bonne Fin area in recent weeks.  Joan & I have been communicating updates on the situation with our family & friends using various other methods, but we feel like it may be simplest to just use our blog as a central location for future updates.  

I'll give just a quick update regarding the issues that we're facing here in the past couple weeks as some of you may not be aware.  In recent months, things at the hospital were going quite well.  We've been blessed with good collaboration with our workforce and have seen our patient counts steadily increase.  As I look back on the recent months, I'm grateful for the gains that we've made and thankful for a smooth stretch of sailing!  

A couple weeks ago, that smooth stretch of water ended and we hit some rough seas.  Some members of the local community started setting up road blocks and "demonstrating."  Unfortunately, this is not that uncommon here in Haiti and it's often done when Haitians have major disagreements or anger over political issues or people.  It seems that most of the time, these roadblocks occur due to disagreements between the Haitian people and the government.   In this instance, the demonstrations were directed at the hospital.   

Initially, we were unaware of the reason for roadblocks, but we soon found out the reasons for the manifestations:  electricity for the community, jobs at the hospital, and problems related to specific Haitians in leadership roles at the hospital.  

There have been several meetings recently between us, government leaders, and representatives from the community (the people blocking the roads).    The most recent meeting took place yesterday (Friday) & involved all of the key parties:  hospital admin, govt. leaders, MEBSH leadership and representatives from the community.   There were some positives that came from the meeting.  The governmental officials and MEBSH leadership were supportive of the hospital admin. and were reasonable.  All of the governmental officials spoke in support of finding solutions in a peaceful manner (ie. without manifestations.)  Yet, at the end of the day, we didn't make as much progress as we would've liked and the plan of action was less than ideal. There were several from the community that "tainted" the meeting with false statements and strong emotions.  Unfortunate!

One specific person targeted by the community is our Haitian HR manager.  He returned to work yesterday for the first time in 2 weeks.  He was met with some resistance from the community and it didn't go as smooth as we had hoped.  He's a key employee and kind of my right hand man.  Much of the focus has been on him during the past few weeks simply due to the fact that he's Haitian and not American.  He's getting blamed for issues and decisions that were not his.  So, please pray for him. His name is Jean Pheguens Pierre.  

We know that many of you have been praying specifically for us and this mission in recent days.  Those prayers have been felt and we humbly ask that you continue to support us in prayer.   It's a great encouragement for me to picture specific people on their knees praying to our creator God to walk with us through these challenges.  

Some specific prayer requests that come to mind include:

1. Continue to pray for a peaceful & reasonable resolution to the issue of electricity for the community.

2. Pray for our leadership team at the hospital that's working on these issues on a daily basis (David Z, Lee K., Sheila M., Rick A. & myself).    Pray that the Holy Spirit could guide us each day and that we could feel God's presence and strength in spite of challenging circumstances.  

3.  Pray for those that oppose us ......that their hearts could be changed according to God's plan.  It's hard for me to pray for those that make my life miserable, but Jesus taught us that principle in the sermon on the mount.  Matthew 5:44 says ...Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;"  

4.  Pray for the safety of Mr. Pheguens who is taking the brunt of the threats.

5.  Pray for the leaders of Haiti.  The outlook seems pretty bleak for this country.  I pray that leaders who fear God would rise up and make a difference in this country.  For those interested in an update on the political challenges in Haiti including the struggle to find a President, read this article:  

Haiti needs food, jobs, doctors.....and now a President!

Thanks to each of you prayer warriors that have been supporting us in prayer. Please continue to pray.  

Kurt

Joy in the Journey

The last couple months have been so full I hardly know where to begin!  First of all, we are extremely thankful for all our friends and family that have come to visit us and support us!  On behalf of our family, I would like to thank each one who has made the effort to come!  The anticipation and joy that we feel when we see a vehicle pull in with people we know is hard to describe!  We know what a big trip it is, and how many shots you have to get, and how many unknowns there are, and how winding the roads are, and how big the potholes are, and how different the culture is, etc., etc.!!!  So, to put it plainly, we feel loved!

A large group came from our church in Goodfield at the end of February to work on the Medicine Ward in the hospital.  I am happy to report that last week was the ribbon cutting ceremony, and it is already being well used and appreciated!  It looks beautiful!  And, perhaps of equal importance, was the baseball game we played at the end of that week:).  Our boys were looking forward to it all week, and they were not disappointed!  Many people were touched by the team throughout the week  ---hospital patients, Haitians in the community, and definitely our family and the rest of the missionaries here! 

Our niece Abbie and her friend Brooke came for a week in March, and it happened to be the kids' spring break from school.  They did so many fun activities with the kids and really made it a great week for all of us.  We also spent a day doing a project at the hospital moving files from one room to another.  It was a fun and accomplishing day, and we were so glad for their help!

Last week we hosted Kurt's cousin and his wife from Ohio.  They helped out at the hospital, our house, and wherever they were needed.  So grateful for the fellowship and joy they brought!

Lastly, please join us in praying and spreading the word... we are in need of a teacher for the missionary children for next school year.  Click here for more info. on this teacher position!

Joan

Our team from Goodfield.

Our kids had a blast with Jayci and Alex who came with the Goodfield team.  They spent a lot of time hunting geckos, tarantulas and snakes!

Some very adventurous folks enjoyed riding on top of the Toyotas!

Throughout the week we took small groups out into the countryside to visit some Haitians in their homes.  We took them rice and beans, sang a song, and had a prayer with them.  It was a huge blessing for all of us.  One day, the group was hiking a particularly strenuous mountain, and they weren't sure if it was worth the hike.  When they came back, however, they told us it was VERY worth it....the lady that they visited told them she had just had a dream the night before that a group of people came to visit her and encourage her!

Passing out some gifts at a Haitian home.

Kurt's sister working hard painting!

Our kids had the special privilege of going on a class trip to Cape Haitian in the north of Haiti (about a 10 hour drive from us).  They were gone for 3 days and had a wonderful time experiencing and learning the history of Haiti.  A special thanks to all the chaperones that went along and especially to Miss Desma for giving them this opportunity!

My Ladies singing group recently sang for a team that was here from the States.

Kurt took Reg and Hadley and a Haitian friend to Port to pick up some guests, and they had some time to sight-see,

This was our 10 hour file moving marathon that Brooke and Abbie got to help with.

The files all had to be kept in order, and they ended up in this narrow hallway.

One day we took the girls to a pizza place in Cayes.

I enjoy visiting the hospital during the week.  I sometimes take my mandolin and play and sing for the patients.  I have typed up several Creole songs, so I can sing for them in their own language.  They also like to sing along!

Sometimes Brenna comes with me, and she brings a coloring book and crayons to color with the patients.

The last few months we've been taking our students to Cayes for sports day once a month to play with the kids at the missionary school there.  It has been fun for them to play soccer with a bigger group of kids.

This is the boutique at the Domestic Centre in Cayes where I help out once a week.  Olga (in the picture with me) has become a good friend of mine, and I enjoy working with her.

This was at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new medicine ward.  

Last week we had a dental team here that set up a clinic at the hospital.  They either clean teeth or pull teeth, but nothing in between.  I watched a guy get four teeth pulled!  Kurt's cousin Scott and his wife Sara helped out a bit with the team while they were here.

Sara, Scott and I spent a day painting Kurt's office.

The kids had a science fair for school and spent a lot of time on research and presentations.  Toby did the science of baking ingredients....

Hadley did the science of hydraulics....

Brenna studied different trees of Haiti.  It was a fun and informative project!

We continue to thank God for the beauty that surrounds us here.  Thankfulness, I believe, is the key to finding joy in the journey.

Lots of Action!

Just so you know, this is Kurt authoring this blog post.  I'm usually not a very willing participant with this blogging stuff, but I've been encouraged to take my turn!  Things have been busy around Bonne Fin lately.  We've been blessed with numerous visitors and many work teams in the past month.  Kirk H. has been serving as a medical intern at the hospital for the last several months.  It has been wonderful to have Kirk around the campus.  He's been a great example for our boys and they love spending time with him.  His family came to visit recently, and we were able to spend some time with them.  

It's fairly common in Haiti for vehicles to cross rivers while driving back roads.  Below, is a picture of our convoy of Toyotas driving down a small river.  I've never seen a vehicle as tough as Toyota Land Cruisers.  You would not believe the beating they take on these roads and they just keep right on going.  I'm impressed.  Our minivans and light duty trucks would fall apart if used on these roads!

A large group of us went on a hike in the Haitian mountains recently.  This hike was pretty mild.  Not a lot of up and down and only about 3-4 miles round trip.  We enjoyed swimming in a water cave at the end of the hike.

 Hikers in action.  We paid a little money this time to have a Haitian watch our vehicles while we hiked.  Last time we did this hike, we came back to our vehicles and found 3 or 4 deflated tires!  No problems this time!

After our hike, we stopped at a restaurant that just recently opened in Cayes.  Pizza was good.  One of the better restaurants that we've been to in Haiti.  Kind of felt like we were swinging by Tobins Pizza after going to the park (okay, maybe not quite like that but it was nice)!

Valentine's Day "mystery dinner" hosted by the kids, their teachers, and Kirk H.   Very good food and lots of hard work went into the evening.  Much appreciated by all the adults.

A sonography tech, Rebekah, spent a month with us here at Bonne Fin.  She needed some test subjects to train the Haitian doctors so Brenna and Joan were the willing participants!  The doctor in the picture is Dr. Guito.  He's a very talented pediatrician working at Hospital Lumiere.

I continue to see progress with my security guards.  We talk about building "muscle memory"  (ie. practicing techniques so often that when you need to use them you hardly even have to think.  It just happens.)  We're not quite to that point yet, but definitely improving.  We recently had another training session with our guards.  We learned a new "take down move" that they all seemed to enjoy a lot.  Kind of makes you feel like a man when you know how to get someone on the ground in 1-2 seconds using nothing but your hands and the weight of your body.

One of the guards practicing a soft-hand technique on Kirk.

Below, is a pic of my chief of security, Jilbert.  I consider him a friend as well as a co-worker.  Our relationship has really blossomed.  I've seen good improvements in him & am thankful to have been able to build a high level of trust with him.  Of all our guards, he's the one that you really don't want to mess with.  He knows the techniques well and is strong.  One of his best qualities though is that he's a thinker.  He knows how to diffuse tense situations without resorting to force.  I'm really thankful to have him as my chief of security.  

While doing our training recently, we took a 10 minute break.  The guards came back late so they got to do 20 push ups.  

In the middle of February,  our friends, Mike, Amber & Andrew (Buzz) came to visit us.  It was wonderful to spend time with them.  Buzz braved the long hike to the hydro along with the rest of us.  The picture below is a litter of young, curious pigs (not meaning the boys) that we discovered at the bottom of a deep ravine.  

Hikers were able to successfully climb back out.  Here's a group shot at the top.  Worn out after the steep hike but having fun!

Joan, Mike & Amber spent (1) day helping out with a medical team that was here that week.  This was a Pediatric team.  The team went on the road and visited a few small villages within an hour or so of Bonne Fin.  A couple doctors, several nurses, and lots of helpers took the medical care to these rural communities.  The next few pictures are from the time spent with the medical team.

Couple darling girls, don't you think?

Beautiful rainbow painted the sky above the hospital recently.  Great reminder of God's many promises to His children!

During our week with the Grimms, the game of choice was "Rook!"  This was a common sight on pretty much every day of the week when we were together!  Thanks Mike for being a good sport!

We closed out our week with our guests by heading to the beach.  It was rainy on the mountain when we left and when we returned, but an ideal day just down the road at the beach.  

So thankful for good friendships.  We feel truly blessed to have family and friends that make the sacrifice to come visit us.  It's always been a great encouragement to us and helps to keep us motivated and connected to all of those back in the states!  

Okay, for all those that are still with me in this long post, I've got just a little more to share.  We rarely give updates on these posts about the hospital and my job at the hospital, so I want to give just a brief update.   The hospital continues to make progress.  We're always striving to improve our medical care, improve the effectiveness of our workforce, all while trying to improve the financial picture of our organization.  Our inpatient counts continue to increase which is a positive sign.  It feels like our hospital is again earning a positive reputation with Haitians.  At one point recently, we had over 100 patients in the hospital.  That was the highest we've seen since it has been under our administration.  We have a couple facility related projects in process currently.  We're almost finished  with our solar project and hope to be harvesting the abundant Haitian sunshine in the coming weeks.  The solar project will allow us to provide good stable, clean power for the hospital while lessening our dependence on our diesel generators and our hydro generator.  In addition, we're working on a renovation to one of our (4) wards in the hospital, the Medicine ward.  This is our largest ward and the only one that has not been renovated.  Lord willing, a work team from our home church will be coming next week to assist with this project.  The work will involve plumbing, carpentry, electrical, flooring, and painting.

I feel like I'm settling into my job more and more and am gaining a better understanding of my role. I've got some great Haitians working with me & am glad to be past the "newbie" stage with them.  My current responsibilities include things like hospital admissions, accounting, fund assistance, administration and security.   When I started my job, I was focused heavily on security.  In recent months, I'm spending much more time on admissions and accounting.  I continue to focus on development of people.  We have numerous employees with the supervisor title, but very few who actually know how to supervise or lead people and are willing to do it.  My desire is to change that. The cultural challenges and the employee "baggage" can make this tough, but I'm thankful for every little bit of progress.   One of the most exciting changes in the past year is my improvement with the language.  I'm thankful that God has helped to loosen my tongue and for those of you prayer warriors that were praying specifically that I could learn the Creole language.  A year ago right now, I was convinced that I was a complete dud when it came to learning Creole and that I wasn't ever going to get past saying a few greetings like "bon jou" or "bon swa."  I've still got a long way to go, but I am thankful that I can handle most conversations during the day without the aid of a translator.  At some point in 2015, I finally convinced myself to just start talking even though I didn't really know what I was saying.  Kind of weird to express it this way, but that's when things started to click.   Due to the way my mind is wired, it was hard for me to just wing it.  I wanted to say everything just right and didn't want to guess at how to say something when I wasn't sure.  Part of that is wiring in my head and part of it is pride.  I didn't want to look stupid.  Once I got past that hurdle and just "let 'er rip", I started to learn quicker.  At this point I feel like I've plateaued again, so need to keep working on learning new phrases/words.

Last of all, I want to mention that we're still looking for God to touch hearts and call people to his work here at Hospital Lumiere.  We've got numerous missionary positions open including our Medical Director role and Nursing Care Manager.  Please be prayerful with us that God call medical professionals to this work.  Perhaps you know of those that may be qualified.  If not, we'd really appreciate your prayer support as we try to fill these positions.  God bless!

Christmas and a Wedding

We kept quite busy in December with some Christmas caroling and gatherings and then getting ready for a trip to the States.  On December 17 we arrived in IL, and spent 2 1/2 wonderful weeks celebrating our Lord's birth, enjoying a lot of family time, and then celebrating Jamie and Will's wedding!  It was such a blessing!

Once when we went Christmas Caroling at the hospital,

we saw a cute little girl sitting in the middle of the room. Mom and Brenna visited her several more times after seeing her that night.

We are making many memories around our new firepit that we sent on the sea container. 

While we were home over Christmas, we spent a lot of time with our cousins.

We had tons of fun at grandma and grandpa's Christmas.

 Mom and Dad took an overnight trip to Chicago while we stayed with Grandparents.

For new years eve we went to our aunt and uncle's house and stayed up past midnight.

The younger girls fell asleep on the couch.

January 3 was a joyful day as Jamie and Will were married!

Joy, Fred, Jamie and Joan

Jamie, Hadley and Mitch

The three stooges with Grandpa!

We hosted a supper after we got back to Haiti for some of our friends here.

We even had menus for made to order skillet breakfasts.

One of our friends goes down to the hospital every afternoon after school and we sometimes go down and help him.  We go through glasses that have been donated and clean them and figure out the prescription for them.

A Haitian man got trained by a missionary organization (SEED) and wanted to practice his skills at our house.  So, we told him he could dig up the space that the previous owners used for a pool.

Instead of swimming I guess we'll be eating cabbage, beets and lettuce!

By: Toby