I met some of the coolest people in Haiti. Americans, Haitians and other countries represented. If you only have a few minutes right now, please go read this post by Stephanie Joyner then come back for the rest of this post later. She and her husband, Noah, are trying to adopt two kids from an orphanage in Haiti (and have 3 boys of their own in America) but the process is held up because they are not yet 35 years old (they're 32).
Their boy, M, was one of our patients at the mission and this is her journal entry recounting her feelings and experience around the surgery and subsequently having to leave him back at the orphanage. Seriously heartbreaking. Noah and his brothers work with a ministry called HaitiLove - their vision is to connect American churches with Haitian churches for the purpose of real growth and discipleship. Check it out when you have a few minutes. 
Photo from the Joyner's blog
This is Johny. He's from Port de Paix and is a translator and is awesome. He's humble, funny, has hope for the future and loves Jesus. This video shows his personality and what he's saying is totally unprompted {you will have to excuse his language in some parts. Some terms that are pretty offensive here are not so offensive in their culture}. He's comparing a couple of Haitian and American cultural differences: men holding hands and skinny jeans. I'm not saying I agree with what he says.
This is Connie, a nurse anesthetist from Kansas City. She was the only anesthesia trained professional on this trip - what a job to have! She was under a lot of stress and handled it all with such humility and grace. This girl was there to serve others and that was very apparent in her actions and attitude. If you want to see her trip pictures you can visit her blog here. The itty baby in the picture below has an interesting story. He's 11 months old, though you certainly wouldn't know by his size. He's blind and from an orphanage about 10 hours away from the mission. A lady from the U.S. flew all the way to Haiti just to pick him up and bring him to our team of doctors. He's too little to do much right now, but surgery might be an option for him later.
I don't have a picture, but our team of physicians was outstanding. I work with a lot of doctors, many of whom are so busy they aren't able to attend their own children's activities. These doctors, though, make it a priority to travel (some of the every year or even two times a year) to meet a deep need in the country of Haiti. They take time out of their schedules, pay to travel to a 3rd world country and work from morning until evening - all with servant's hearts. It was a blessing to be on a team with them.
This is Courtney, a full time staff member at the mission. She runs the special needs orphanage and a few other outreach programs. She has a heart of gold and seeks to glorify the Lord is all she does. She is SO good with those kids and has even been the mother of a sweet little baby. The special needs orphanage has had 24 funerals in the past two years. It takes a special person to see God in the midst of such tragedy and she's that person.
There were a lot of other cool people. Dentists who fly in just for the weekend to provide care. College students who choose to give up a summer of comfort to serve at the mission. Grant and Natasha are newlyweds committed to the people of Haiti - they run an orphanage at La Baie and are cooler than cool.
Praise God for people like these! Oh, how I pray that my heart becomes more like theirs. More like Jesus.
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