Coming Home

The last 10 months in Haiti have been way more then what I could have ever dreamed of. I remember being home sick my first week here and thinking it was too many days to count down but maybe I can count how many Sunday I had left, at that point it was 20. Twenty Sundays came and went and this place has become my home, the people have become my family and Mission of Hope has become part of my heart.  I feel very blessed to have lived here and experienced everything I have experience. My friends have taught me so much. They have taught me that life is not my own and each day you get is a gift. It doesn’t matter what you have to just be thankful for everything and every blessing you get.  They have taught me about relationships and love, the most important thing in your life is to have people around you to love and pray for and build relationships with. They have taught me to lean on God always, in the good, bad, happy, sad, struggles, and when things are going well! Often when you ask a Haitian “How are you?” they say “Good by the grace of God” and the statement that follows almost everything they say is “If God wants” God is always there and everything is in his control and it is only by his grace and his will we are where we are yesterday, today and forever.

As some of you already know I will be coming home on December 15^th for Christmas… the second part of that you may not know is that I will be moving home. Un-expected yes but I truly believe it is God’s plan for my life right now.

When I took this position I was aware that Haitians have been in this position previously. When meeting with Brad Johnson about a month ago. He told me they had found a Haitian that could do the Guesthouse Coordinator role. This is bitter sweet as this is what we want; we want the Haitians to be working in more roles then North Americans and we believe that it will be Haitians that will bring change to their country. Please be praying for my friend who will be moving into the role at the Guesthouse, I can’t wait to see him shine like I know he can in this position.

I will be coming home knowing I served the lord with all my heart and that I am coming home forever changed by the people of Haiti.  I also come home leaning on the lord for next steps… at this point I have nothing planned and I’m kind of excited that God knows and has wonderful plan for my life.  

Please pray for my transition home… I am excited to be home again with friends and family but I am leaving another place that also feels very much like home to me.

Pray for Haiti right now during this political unrest. Pray for safety of all the Haitians in the city. Pray for peace and justice and hope for a non-corrupt government one day. Pray that the rioting calms down and the airport open back up so me along with 6 other staff can make it home for Christmas.

Love, Blessings and home,

Leeann

Prayer, Praise and New Begginings!

Prayer. I couple posts ago I posted about a little boy named Pierre. Well last Saturday while sitting in our apartment one of the Hope House girls ran up the hill to the staff housing to tell us that Pierre was sick , he had a fever and he was stiff, he wasn’t moving very much. Dr. Cheryl and Dr. Marja went down to the Hope House to find him very much not himself. We ended up taking him to the children’s hospital in Port au Prince that evening and that he were he is still. Rachel was out of town while this all happened so she headed to the hospital on the way home from the airport to see how he was this past tuesday. She saw a rough looking little boy hooked up to tubes and Machines at that point they thought he had meningitis. Dr.Cheryl and Rachel went back a couple days later to get a report from the doctor, they hadn’t gotten the result back from the meningitis test yet and they were going to send him for a CT scan and see what they could see. We are unsure of what the future looks like for “Ti-Pierre” (little Pierre) but we know God is healer and he has plans for the little boy. We’ve watched Pierre make some improvements in his time with us, Pray for him to keep fighting.

Praise. I’m not sure if you I ever told you about my friend Sultan. Sultan was a surgery patient in June. She has two below knee amputations, she is diabetic which can be a cause of that but other then that she told us that a rat bit one and then she steps on a thorn with the other so we are not exactly sure. She came to the clinic in June for her pre-operation consult and I remember seeing her and thinking wow this lady is rough. She hobbled in with her 2 very old fake legs and no fingers. She was going to get her legs re-amputated so they would heal properly and she could get fitted with new legs.  As you know the ward is my sweet spot and I loved going down to the ward at night with the patients. Well Sultan worked her way into my heart. She may have a rough outer shell but she is the sweetest thing ever, she loved speaking creole with me and would say things over and over until I understood. I loved practicing with her.  Anyways this past week was her week to walk. We had an amazing prosthetics here this week who casted and fitted 2 new legs for Sultan. I walked into the lab on Thursday to see Sultan walking between the bars we have in the lab for patients to practice walking. When she saw me she lit up and gave me a big hug! Then I watched her walk out from around the bars and walk without hands.

She was so happy she did  a little dance. She walked… Praise the Lord. Something as simple as walking we take for granted, we complain when we have to walk to school or walk to work but people like sultan would give anything to walk, and to see the joy and hope in their eyes when they walk for the first time in a long time is incredible.

New Beginnings. Yesterday the Hope House kids finally moved up to Hope Village, this has been years in the making. It was cool to see how some kids got really excited about this and other just pain kids and complaining that now they will have to walk further to school and church. You may recall that Lindsay and I use to live in the village since then they have built a couple more, now we have 6 houses with 4 apartments each and a baby house.  I went down a bit today and most have them totally settled in are enjoying their new home. Pray for our 62 children as they transition to their new homes in Hope Village.

Also, earlier this week Lindsay and I had a couple days off and were able to get off the mission to go to our Friend Nathalie and Billy’s to help them paint their new house. It was nice to get off the mission and socialize with People and do nothing related to work. Praise the Lord for a break.

Will write again very soon!

Love blessings and life in Haiti!

Leeann