Why go?

So why have we decided to go to Haiti? A number of reasons really. It is not because Haiti is in the Caribbean (although this is attractive for me...not so much for Bill who does not like being hot). Making the decision has been a bit of a journey and a hard decision to make. Bill and I met at missionary training, we were both interested and involved in missions from a young age. From the time we got married in 2011 we have been open to going overseas to serve God.

Bill has been to bible college in Canada and when he moved to Northern Ireland he went to  bible college to do a masters degree in Theology. When it came to writing his dissertation he decided to write  paper on finding God's will for your life. After a few months of studying and writing his paper, Bill came to the conclusion God's plan is already written for us in the bible particularly in Matthew ch 28 v 10 which says 

'And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.'

There are many ways in which we can do this, by teaching sunday school, by going to work and telling others what God has done for them, by going overseas. All of these ways are obeying God's command. One of the books which Bill used  asked this question ' What is the best way I can serve God?' not what is the least I can get away with, or how can that other person serve God but 'what is the best way I can serve God?'

As we thought about the future and prayed about it, we came to the conclusion that the best way we can serve God with the gifts he has given us is to go overseas. Bill has good theological education, something many people have both in Canada and Northern Ireland. I am a physiotherapist and there are so many physio's in Northern Ireland that there aren't enough jobs for everyone. So we began to look for opportunities within OMS as this was the mission organisation we had both been involved in before. One of the places which needed both a seminary teacher and a physiotherapist was Haiti. 

That was a long story cut short. Now we are in the process of getting ready to go towards the end of this year. This process involves getting  a team of people from home who will commit to praying for us and supporting us financially. If you would like to be part of that team please get in touch with me. 

I came across this video today which I made along with my friend when were in Haiti in 2010, this is the clinic I am going to work in. 

You can stop the video after 4 mins...its just blank after that!!

Going

I've lived in Haiti  twice before, Bill has spent a year in Spain and some short term trips in Haiti. Now we believe that God has called us to go and serve him in Haiti. Bill will be teaching in Emmaus Biblical Seminary and I will be working part time in Bethesda Medical Center as a physiotherapist. At the minute we are in the process of raising support. This means we are  visiting different churches and prayer meetings explaining what were going to do and why. We hope to find people who will support us both financially and in prayer for when we go.


Our plans are to go late 2015, have a couple of months to settle in, for Bill to take language study and then start teaching in January 2016.


If you would be interested in having us come and share with your church or prayer meeting just drop me and email (julieedler@hotmail.co.uk).

To find out more about who we are, what were going to do, where were speaking...come back again!

This is us with our baby, Sam who is alot bigger now!

Rodney and Vedane in Canada

I have decided to start ‘blogging’ again really just to keep up to date with what Dr Rodney is doing. Last time  Dr Rodney was in Canada on his first trip. A lot has happened since then, he is still working in Bethesda medical centre. He is currently the medical director and has done a great job. I took a trip back to Haiti last September and the clinic looks great. There is a new pharmacy, the place where people pay is expanded, the price list has changed (for  the better!), there is a fixed price so people know exactly how much they will have to pay when then come no matter how much medicine they need. The clinic looks really well.

One of Dr Rodneys aims was to open a medical training centre, to train people up in nursing, pharmacy, lab tech and Xray tech. The school opened last October, he is renting out a building close to the clinic and actually was way oversubscribed so had to rent other buildings of OMS for class aswell. They currently have over 100 students and are at about full capacity! The vision for the school is that people will come from rural areas where there is no medical care at all, do their training and then go back to their village and provide healthcare and advice. Perhaps not all of them will go back but if a percentage do then they will be achieving the goal. The next aim would be as the school gets up and running that they would be able to provide scholarships for these people from remote areas. The majority of these villages would be extremely poor and people just would not be able to afford to come to the school.

The mobile clinics are going well, empower global has sent down a vehicle to Haiti, one which is able to drive on the roads and Dr Rodney along with a team of people are now running mobile clinics when they can.

Right now Rodney and Vedane (his wife) have arrived in Toronto, Canada for three weeks. Over the next three weeks Dr Rodney will be speaking, raising awareness of the project to different groups such as church groups, school groups and medical groups. The aim of the trip is to raise awareness and to fundraise. There will be a few fundraising events over the next three weeks which I will keep you up to date with as I am here (well nearly now in newark airport!).

I am here just for a week and I cannot wait to see what they think of Canada. Dr Rodney has been once before, Vedane on the other hand has only ever travelled between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. This is her first time on a plane, first time seeing a big city, first time being cold and seeing snow!!

Here is a short 3 minute video of Rodney which we put together in September. 

Dr Rodney interview

Family Love

My closest friends in Haiti are a wee family which I am sure you have heard me talk about, Dr Rodney his wife Vedane and their 3 kids, Wood, Ollie and Alisha. Dr Rodney works in our clinic and they live on a wee house on the compound which is how I got so close to them. Dr Rodney has an amazing testimoney which I will share a little with you.

Dr Rodney grew up in Vaudrieul, and was very involved in his local church, so much so that people started to call him Pastor Rodney before he even left school!!When he was still at high schooll with his family struggling to pay the fee's for high school Rodney got a part time job translating at Bethesda medical clinic for visiting doctors and nurses. It was during this time he felt God calling him to be a doctor. However he came from a poor family and had no means of getting to university.

However Rodney with the strong faith that he has, and still has today, had saved up all his money each week from translating in the clinic and used it to get his passport and visa to go to the Dominican republic to talk to the people in the university there. The language is spanish in the dominican and the univeristy advised three months of language before staring university especially as the entrance exam is in spanish. Due to some circumstances Rodney couldn't attend language school he also couldn't attend the only day the exam was on. However by a miracle the university agreed to let Rodney sit the exam at a different time.


Remember at this point, Rodney has not been to language school or does he know one single word of spanish. He passed the exam and was accepted to study medicine in Univeristy in the Dominican Republic. During his first term he found another Haitian student who could translate the lectures from Spanish into Creole or French for him. However in saying this Dr Rodney's best marks throughout his 7 years at university were in his first year.

Rodney has many many stories of God's faithfulness and provision to him over his 7 years at university. There were many times when he had not a single penny left to eat, to wash his clothes, to pay for electricity and to pay his university fees. During those times he would go into his room and close the door and praise the Lord for how He had saved him and what he had done for him. Every single time over those 7 years God provided all that he needed, he would get a phone call from western union or somewhere else saying someone had transfered him money through. He told me he had just one pair of trousers and one pair of shoes through the whole 7 years and each day when he came home he washed his one pair of trousers and I even think he has that one pair of shoes!!! Just one example each month someone from the states sent Rodney $100, Dr still even today doesn't know who sent the money but they sent it faithfully every month. One Rodney's last month at university the person sent a message with the transfer saying their financial situation had changed and they were unable to send money anymore. What the person didn't know was that this was Rodney last month at uni and he would no longer need the money for rent. 

Dr Rodney and his wife left a 'nice' life in the DR to come back to Haiti.With no where to live and a baby they lived with Rodney's mum. Since then Dr Rodney has been working at Bethesda Medical Clinic at OMS. Rodney and Vedane now have three children, 2 boys of their own and one adopted (a baby which was abandon at the clinic).

 Rodney believes God has called him back to work among his people, his heart is for his own Haitian people. One day he wants to open a hospital providing a high standard of quality healthcare and showing God's love to people who come.

Right now Rodney is in Canada, his first time off the island of Haiti. He is working with a Canadian organisation called empower global (http://www.empowerglobal.org/). He is working on fundraising and speaking about their project. The project is three fold, firstly to open a medical clinic with affordable, quality healthcare. There are many clinics in and around Cap Haitian, however many of them are expensive, others are run by 'doctors' who have never been to medical school, others are just a money making scheme which do not help patients. Secondly to run mobile clinics out into areas where there is no doctor, where people die from simple illnesses, many of these places will also have never heard the gospel. For pictures of the vehicle to be used for mobile clinics click this link https://www.empowerglobal.org/initiative/124/. The vehicle is fully equipped to drive over Haiti's pot hole covered roads and even has oxygen in it ( It is difficult to find oxygen even in hospitals!!!). Thirdly to provide education on healthcare and prevent the same diseases occurring over and over again. This will happen by providing education to schools, educational institutions and communities.

If you look back at Rodney's life you would never imagine he would be where he is today. It is exciting to see how God has led him and has used many different people along the way. Please pray for this stage of the project which is fundraising.

I will keep updating as I find out what is going on.

Back for a visit

I am just home from just over a week in Haiti. As you know I left a month early and very quickly due to a couple of circumstances and I really felt I never got a proper chance to say goodbye to alot of people and see them before I left. So that is exactly what I went back to do. On top of that I also got to take my fiancee back with me for him to meet my friends there.

I just got to spend a week in Haiti, not very many people knew I was coming so it was exciting to see their reactions when I walked into the clinic when they had no clue that I was coming. I got lots of time to visit with different families who I was close to when I was there. I worked a little in the clinic, some physio, some cleaning, some pill counting and we also got the chance to do a mobile clinic.

Our mobile clinic was just an hour's drive away in the church of one of our ECC pastors. It was a bit of last minute planning but with the help of lots of people we got it all organised. We ran the clinic with both Dr Rodney and his mum (who is a nurse) consulting,  other nurses taking blood pressure, a few in the pharmacy, Pastor Jean-Marc and Pastor Devacoeur sharing the gospel. While the patients were waiting we had Rachelle, Kate, Wadner and Gesner running a kids club.

As soon as we arrived and set up some people brought in a wee 5 year old boy who had really swollen leg. Turns out he had fallen just about a week ago and the family had no money to take him to the doctor (which would have been a 15 minute walk and over an hours motorbike ride). Dr Rodney knew immediately that his leg was broken, so he splinted it up and when we left for the day we brought him back to our clinic with us. Hannah took an X ray and Dr Rodney was right he had a very bad break in his femur which will require surgery. We gave his family some money and sent them off to the hospital in town for his surgery. No matter how long I live in Haiti I will never get used to the suffering people go through due to poverty. This wee boy had been in agony for over a week, unable to get essential medical care because of money. At the end of the clinic the pastor's told us three people accepted the Lord that day.

If God only sent us to do the clinic for that one boy then it was worth it. I'm not sure what would have happened if we weren't there, he may have got an infection, he may even have lost his leg but the Lord's timing is perfect. For both Hannah and I this was a very last minute trip and one of the things we wanted to do was a mobile clinic.

This was a big thing I saw the whole year I was in Haiti, God's Providence and his plan. How he puts you in situations with different people so you can be used by him all for HIS glory.

One of the things I enjoyed the most was spending time with my wee family, Dr Rodney, Vedane, Wood, Oly and Alisha.  None of them knew I was coming (although it may have been better to tell them, Oly was shocked and didn't talk for the whole rest of the day that I arrived!!) it was exciting to surprise. I was down at their house every night just spending time visiting and playing with the kids. They have some very exciting news which I will share about in the next blog.

I left Haiti on Tuesday, feeling ready to go home but also sad to leave. I have no idea if God will ever call me back to Haiti I am just trusting in him for his plan he has for the future.

1 year later

12th January 2010........a date not one single person in Haiti will ever forget. One year ago today the 7.3 earthquake hit Port au Prince and devestated the whole country. In just 35 seconds......

Over 300,000 people died
Over 500, 000 injured
Over 1 million left homeless......still homeless one year later.

I don't think I will ever forget where I was when I found out, I had just left home on my way to Haiti stopping at Greenwood Indiana for cross cultural training before heading to Haiti. That night I checked my email wondering why people were asking if I was ok, then I saw online what had happened.

It was devstating to watch, every night I was trying to find out as much information as I could, check if my friends and other missionaries were ok, then all I wanted to do was to be there to see what I could do to help.

I remember just thinking why?After living in Haiti before I knew how difficult life was........already, how terrible housing  was........already, how terrible the health care  was........already even before the earthquake Now things had just got a million times worse. And I couldn't get my head round it, I questioned God and couldn't understand why God would let this happen to an already suffering nation. I arrived in Haiti on 3rd February and was straight down to Port to help with some mobile clinics. The scenes were awful, the smell was awful but the people proved to be strong and resilient. I would say between being in Port and working in Milot hospital with patients from the earthquake I have spoken to over 350 people who were in Port on 12th January and not one single person said why did God let this happen. Not one. Every person I spoke to said 'Its only by God's grace I am alive today.' What a challenge.

Since then I heard miracle upon miracle of how people lived through 12th January.  One young girl, Rose Marie in Milot trapped under rubble for 15days with no food and no water yet survived. A friend of mine, Anice traped in the 3rd floor of his school, found at midnight that night and amazingly amidst the chaos was found by his family two days later after sleeping in the street again with no food and no water. My wee friend Sterlina lived 6 months thinking her whole family was dead and was placed in an orhanage then found by her family who were all alive and well.  Joesph who lost both his legs, now walking with 2 prothestic legs by himself.

Baby Jeffely born 6 months after the earthquake after his mum was trapped under the rubble for 5 days. The light on the hill.....Where we ran our mobile clinics with over 600 people coming to the Lord. The church is going strong with people getting baptised and growing in the Lord. Right up their in the middle of tent city. A miracle.

I am praying for Haiti, God is the only thing that will change Haiti. Please join me in prayer, not just for physical help  but for spiritual help. Haiti's roots are in Voodoo and only the Lord can change that. Pray for all those people who gave their lives to God after the earthquake that they can raise up a new generation who can change the beautiful but suffering nation of  Haiti.

Great is thy faithfulness

Due to a couple of personal circumstances I have decided to leave Haiti a month early before my term ends and head home. I am going to try and keep writing on my blog experiences I have had and ways I have seen God move even as I am at home. There have been so many things I would have loved to have shared but just didn't have time to write.

When I begin to look back at this year the big thing that stands out to me is God's faithfulness. This year has been difficult for me, maybe even to be honest the hardest year of my life and it started right from the beginning. I left home on 9th January to go to Greenwood Indianda and on 12th January I heard news that my granny had died and also Haiti had suffered from a huge earthquake. I wanted to be in either of those places and instead I was in the states. When I think about the situations I have been in this year, if you had have told me before that I would be able to cope with them, I would have said no way I could never do that.  Situations like listening to stories and praying with people who lived through the earthquake and lost everything they had including their family, going on trips to Port to work in tent villages, sharing the gospel boldly, working with patients with Cholera to simple things like driving a 15 seater van (with 15 people in it), being brave enough to kill cockroaches and sleeping in the same room as a rat (one of my least enjoyable experiences). YET God was faithful and give me the strength for all these situations and many many more.

I like to think I am tough but I am not really, watching the film My Girl or ER makes me cry and this past year I have spent each and every day with people who are suffering, suffering because of the earthquake, because of cholera, because of poverty, because of illness, because of death YET again God had given me the strength to build relationships with these people, to help them physically and spiritually and to help carry some of their burden. Before this year I have never really experienced death in my life and this year I have experienced to much death that I care to even remember........I have even watched a 4 year old child and a 23 year old girl die of cholera right in front of my eyes, YET again God remained faithful and unchanging giving me the strength I needed to cope with those situations.

To be honest there are many things about Haiti which I will not miss, the pothole covered roads, wearing skirts, bean sauce, the smell of cholera, flip flops, sweating, the sound of car horns, motorbikes, wheelbarrows, chickens, goats, pigs (basically all those things which are on the road which should not be there!!), mosquitios and hearing Celine Dion's my heart will go on at full volume!!

Saying all that there are many things I will miss, Haiti is so very close to my heart and God has given me a love for the people rather than the actual country. I find it hard to love a place where people are suffering so much everyday but I love the people, I love speaking and listening to Creole and usually if I am not feeling very good walking down the street and someone saying 'Bonswa Cherie' to me usually brings a smile to my face. The thing I will miss the most are my good friends Dr Rodney and Vedane and their beautiful kids. I probably spent time with them everyday, Vedane has become one of my very best friends. I will miss going down to their wee house and Oly greeting me with ' Hello missionary.', Alisha's huge smile as soon as I walk in the door and Wood jumping on top of me as if he hasn't seen me for months. Dr Rodney is a very special man clearly chosen by God to help his people. He has taught me a lot about Haiti and its culture. He has also made us laugh so many times with his Dr Love consultations!!!

Even though the next wee while is going to be difficult I know God will remain faithful as he has been in 2010 and will give me the strength I need for each day. God promises he will never give us more than we can handle and I know that to be true. Here are some of God's promises I have had to depend on over and over again this year.

Psalm 46 v 1 

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble.

Isaiah 40 v 28-31

Hvae you not known, Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth

He does not faint or grow weary, his understanding is unsearchable 

He give power to the faint and to him who has no might increases strength.

Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted

but they who wait on the Lord, shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, 

they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not be faint.

1 Peter 5 v7 

Cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.

Psalm 46 v 10 

Be still and know that I am God.

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my father!
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not:
As thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.

Great is Thy faithfulness, Great is Thy faithfulness, Morning by morning new mercies I see: All I have needed Thy hand hath provided Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!