health care ministry
Serving the sick

In Haiti, February was filled with activity for Lifeline’s health care ministry. Two medical teams of over 60 medical professionals served every week-day at the Grand Goave Christian Health Center seeing patients.  Many children were treated for viruses, skin conditions, and malnutrition; many patients received ultrasounds; and several hundred pregnant women received pre-natal care.  In addition to caring for hundreds of patients each day, they performed minor surgeries.  

health care teams in Haiti
ministering to patients at the Grand Goave Christian Health Center

The teams also held Mobile Clinic at 5 of Lifeline’s outpost schools, providing health care to children in our schools and to their families.

 

One of the highlights for the health teams is the mountaintop experience: traveling to Vieux Cayes where only 4 x 4 vehicles can reach the site, and to Laregal where everyone has to hike up the mountain and all the medicines and supplies must be hand-carried. Haitians help with this. It is physically challenging but still something exciting to experience and talk about.

health care teams in Haiti
 holding mobile clinic in a local Lifeline school

During the first health team, a little guy was brought to clinic by his father.  The boy had sustained an extremely serious knee injury. Dr. Bill performed surgery to clean out the dead tissue and infection in the knee and in the process was able to confirm that the boy had a torn tendon in his knee.  Lifeline was able to help by providing transportation and funding for him to go to an orthopedic surgical clinic in Port au Prince for the tendon repair. At the time of this writing we are awaiting more news on his progress.

 

The second health team ministered to a woman who is 137 years old; she was born in 1878 (her birth certificate and baptismal certificate both confirm that)!  Dr. Joni and a few other medical workers went up the mountain to visit this woman and to care for her. This is the first time we’ve had anyone that old in Haiti; the next one was Sister Deliverance who was about 103! (Although the life span for most Haitians is early 50s, this is truly an exception. Amazing.)  Unfortunately, we recently learned that she passed away.  (keep her family in your prayers)

health care teams in Haiti
the 137 year old woman and the home she lived in 

Last week’s final day of clinic found our doctors examining and treating some kiddies from our new Children’s Home in Grand Goave, where we have an outbreak of mumps! 

 

But one thing that is also exciting about these medical teams is they don’t just come to provide medicine…they participate in all of Lifeline’s ministries, including home building, food/clothing distribution, home visits to minister to those needing prayer, and spending time with precious, sponsored children and the children at the Children’s Home.

 

We thank God for all the members of these teams, medical and non-medical alike, who come with servant hearts and allow themselves to be used to share Christ with everyone they come in contact with during their 10 days short-term work trip.

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The health of our children and families in Haiti & Honduras depends on you!  Help us educate and improve their health for future generations.
 
 

 

Praises
Haiti
  • John Dickonson, a member of the work team, was baptized last Sunday at the beach in Haiti.  We praise God for his decision.  He will never forget his baptism experience! 

  • We’re thankful that our “Chick Chalet” poultry program in Haiti has successfully advanced to the point that we’re now about to add additional coops! More coming on this.  Continuing prayer will be appreciated.
baptism in Haiti
baptism in Haiti
Honduras
  • The Ocotillo Christian Health Clinic has a new look, thanks to Okolona Christian Church (Louisville, KY)!  The clinic pharmacy was remodeled and upgraded with air conditioning, a pass-through window, and a sun-shade, among other things.  Thank you!
Ocotillo Christian Health Center
updated pharmacy area in the Ocotillo Christian Health Clinic
United States
  • We are thankful for the good staff meeting last week.
  • Staff update: JD Hite, Lifeline’s Advancement Director, has been with Lifeline for the last five years.  We praise God for the wonderful blessing he’s been and the positive impact he’s had on our ministry.  He joined our staff shortly after the earthquake in Haiti and has used his many talents and skills stateside and on the foreign fields where we serve.  We’re sad to see him leave, but happy that he’ll be following the desire of his heart, to be more actively involved in preaching and teaching, and just be more available to his family.
  • Our ABC food program continues to grow.  We’re blessed to have 12 packing events next month. They will be held at churches in Texas, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Indiana, Virginia and Kentucky.  Matt and the ABC food “Action Team” have been doing a great job.  As you can see, there’s lots of travel involved, so please keep them in your prayers.

Prayer Requests
  • Prayers for Andy Sims (Lifeline’s Leadership Development Director) & his team’s upcoming Leadership Seminar in Cuba.
  • Please be in prayer for the team in Haiti now, who are from Kentucky and North Carolina.  They are busy on many work and ministry tasks. 
  • Andy Sims, Roger Hendricks, Rick Belcher and Myron Williams just returned from a Leadership Training seminar in Haiti.  Please pray that the preachers and teachers there will be successful in implementing the lessons they were taught.  More about this seminar next week.

leadership seminar in Haiti
leadership seminar: pray for the pastors & leaders in Haiti

devotion
Blizzards of grace

I’ve been on a quest for the past 13 months.  I call it my “Freedom Quest”.  My performance-based upbringing has left me weary and wondering….If God truly loves me unconditionally and there’s nothing I can do to earn my salvation with Him, then why do I still feel bound to this daily checklist?  And, what does it mean to really grasp His abounding love and live with freedom in Christ? 

 

God is slowly but surely peeling back the layers as He gently teaches me what it means to live an abundant, grace filled life.  As Emilie Griffith suggests, “We must admit our tendency to sin, reflect on our sins, and consciously dwell on our redemption.” She’s affirming that until we recognize our own sinful nature, we can’t possibly accept the “blizzard of grace hovering over us, blanketing our transgressions and hiding the ugliness we’re so ashamed of.”  

 

“For from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (John 1:16) This verse reminds us that there is grace where grace was already given.  Inexhaustible, for you.  And me.  We are loved more than we will ever discover.  The well of His grace never runs dry.

 

I love to picture myself running to God with all of my problems, wondering if He will restore me as His child and co-heir with Christ.  He is the father in the prodigal son story…. He runs out to meet me with a robe, a ring, and a party invitation.  May this image fill your heart with the longing to run to Him every morning. It’s a small surrender to accept the possibility of this transforming power as we receive grace, little by little.

 

 

by Stephanie Schannuth, Southeast Christian Church (Parker, CO)

Lifeline Christian Mission restoring hope among the nations