On Medical Supplies

Today we had an object lesson on donating to foreign missions. A small group went over to the facility where Heartline trains women in sewing, crafts, cooking and other skills by which the women can become self-sufficient. They expected to organize a few medical supplies, but found a garage full of rotted boxes. The boxes were full of expired medicines (most of which had expired even before they were donated), band-aids (both in and out of boxes), orthopedic supplies and, yes, a few dead rats.

It’s tempting to blame Heartline for not organizing these things, but they really have no way to deal with items not on their request list. Their people are already overwhelmed by day-to-day ministry, and don't have time to deal with the stuff they don't need, so it goes in the garage.

Remember when you make donations to stick to the request list and to give only items that you would be willing to use yourself!

Blood for Haiti

Some of our crew decided to give blood today, to help out our host organization. When people give on behalf of Heartline, Heartline earns the right to pull from the blood bank when they need it.

The group went first to the Port-au-Prince hospital, which is made up of several wards in dilapidated buildings. The line was way too long there, though, so they crossed down to the Red Cross offices, which are in the biggest building in town, owned by what seems like the biggest company in town, the cell provider Digicell.

Though Emily was bounced from machine-to-machine, Sammi's arm turned purple because of an overtight tourniquet and one of the non-Saint John's folks fainted, they did get to spend the afternoon in air conditioning. They got back in the late afternoon, but still in time for lunch and a nap.

Out for Beer

A bunch of us white folk—we've developed better tans, but are still awfully conspicuous—went down to the corner for a beer. One of the stores sold us the Haitian beer, Prestige, out of a cooler in back for a buck or two apiece. Probably made their night! Certainly made ours.

One notable feature of the store was the black dried whole fish on one of the shelves. Made the place smell a bit … off.

Looking Up

We’re getting tired of painting ceilings, here. We've painted ceilings inside and painted ceilings outside. We painted ceilings at the Harbor House, the guest house and the Maternity Center. Most of us have sore necks and little specks of paint all over our faces.

Over at the Harbor House, however, we did have some time to entertain the children who were running around and occasionally quite captivated with what we were doing. Jeannie snapped this photo before we left:

Cards

Another card game tonight, and we thought we'd share a photo from the last bit:

“Hesed” is a Hebrew word that means “kindness”, “mercy”, “loyalty”, “loving-kindness” or “steadfastness.” It’s the way God intends us to live together—a “love your neighbor as yourself”, active, selfless, sacrificial, caring-for-one-another brand of living contradictory to our fallen natures. The “Heseders” are continually looking to work together to share some small measure of God’s extraordinary love. Won’t you join us?