Update on Haiti Medical Center - November 2010

We haven't had many updates recently as we are in somewhat of a holding pattern.  We have great vision from God, Great plans from our architect and other expert, Lots of passion form the leadership team to see things start, plenty of willing volunteers ready to get started.  The only thing we lack right now are the funds to get us started!  We know that God will provide the funds in his time and so we are being patient and waiting to see how he brings those resources together.

Right now we need an additional $25,000 to send a skid loader and other equipment to Haiti to get us started.  We have a giving page set up at http://www.firstgiving.com/trentdavis2.  If you want to support this project you can give as little as $10 on that site.  If you or your church or group would like to tackle a larger chunk and help us raise the funds for this project, please contact me at trent@servants.org and we can discuss your ideas.

Please pray for this project and for God's provision to see this vision become a reality.

Trent

MIVO Medical Center

Here is the future site of the MIVO Medical Center! We spent much of the day Wednesday scouting out the property and taking measurements. The great news is that the land is relatively flat and is lightly covered with brush so we won't need to do a lot of ground moving or clearing. I love the cactus that is throughout the property and it is also covered with little lizards!

L'Estere, Haiti

L'Estere is the town in Haiti where the MIVO Medical Center will be located. It is a small town in a rural part of Haiti. Here are some pictures of the town and some of the residents.

The Haiti National Cathedral

The sight of the National Cathedral exemplifies the beauty that was once in the evident in the city of Port au Prince but is now, at least for the time, lost.

Common Site in Port au Prince

This building was completely pancaked. before the earthquake this was a 4 story apartment building. Now it is about ten feet tall. We were told that all the people that were in the building at the time of the earthquake are still inside. They just have not had the resources or opportunity to get to them.

Port au Prince

Much of Port au Prince was in rubble. There wasn't any pattern to it. Sometimes it would be two or three buildings in a row that were leveled then a building would be fine. In other places all the buildings would be OK then one in the middle for some reason would be flattened. Very little of it was cleaned up yet. Many times people would place their tents right on top of the rubble to sleep.

We're off to Haiti!

Todd Jackson, Dr. Gracia Etienne, Jack Althouse and I will be traveling to Haiti tomorrow morning, April 13. We are going to visit the community of L'Estere, Haiti, where Dr. Etienne has land to build a medical facility. We hope to do some initial site surveying and answer a lot of questions we have for future mission trips there.

We look forward to meeting new people and making new friends in the community!

Please pray for us as we travel on the 13th and return on the 15th. Pray for our time there that we are able to answer the questions we have and that we can share the love of Christ with the people we meet.

Haiti Scripture

The following scripture is one that God led me to when I was thinking of Haiti and how do we pray for and respond to such a huge need. Here is what God says through Paul:

^{Romans 8:26-39}

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

More Than Conquerors

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

"For your sake we face death all day long;we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We are heading to Haiti!

We have our tickets to Haiti! We will be flying to Haiti April 13th to check out the land that Dr. Etienne has purchased and to start preparing for teams to come to Haiti.

Please pray for us as we follow God. Pray that we will be open to God's leading and timing. Please continue to pray for the people of Haiti who have suffered so much in the past 6 weeks. We pray that by doing our part God's mercy and grace will be shown through our service.

Meeting with Jack Althouse, Architect

Todd Jackson from Servants, Dr. Etienne, and I met with Jack Althouse of Althouse, Jaffe and Associates. Jack had done the new building design for my church a few years back and I contacted him to see if he would be interested in helping us with the design of a medical facility for Haiti. We weren't sure what to expect at the this meeting other than just to discuss the need a little. What happened though was God showed up in a big way!

Jack started out the meeting by letting us know that he was very excited about helping with the project and that he was willing to donate his time to the project. That would be the first of many miracles that God brought us. Heading into the meeting we only had a vague concept of what God might be leading us to build. After we explained to Jack what our thoughts were he told us he just happened to have been working on a similar project that might work in Haiti as well. He proceeded to break out his laptop and show us designs for a medical facility that was specifically designed to be built in a 3rd world country. In answer to my prayers it was also designed to be completely built by volunteer labor in 10-14 day trips. Each room of the facility is designed as its own stand alone building. Not only will this make it much easier to build but it will make it a better facility to stop the spread of disease and germs. Also, with this design, we would be able to have a facility, albeit small, up and running after the first teams arrive. This would be opposed to the months/years it would take to build a one building multiroom facility.

We really were excited by how God's hand was evident in process and in bringing this group together. Probably the highlight of the night was when Dr. Etienne asked Jack how many acres his plan would need. Jack didn't know off hand but after calculating the square footage and converting it to acres, he replied that it was designed for a 36 acre plot of land. Dr. Etienne and I just shook our heads because we knew that Dr. Etienne had bought a 36 acre plot of land in L'Estere last year when God first gave him the vision for this facility. God is good!

Our next step is for Dr. Etienne, Todd and I to travel to Haiti and survey the land to start planning for teams to arrive. Please pray for us as we go with God to begin this great undertaking!

Dr. Etienne Reports back from Haiti

Dr. Etienne went to Haiti January 20-27 to provide medical care to the injured. I thought when he returned he would say we should turn our attention to Port au Prince and the people there who would need medical attention and rebuilding assistance.

What he said when he returned though was quite the opposite. He said, "The devastation is more widespread thank I expected. We need to press on with the project (even more now)." He went on to explain that many of the people in Port au Prince and the surrounding area were being encouraged to seek medical and other assistance outside of the Port au Prince area and that when he went to L'Estere, he found his hometown caring for many of the refugees. In the day that he was there, he treated over 200 people with wounds from the earthquake. He was saddened by the lack of supplies and medical professionals outside of Port au Prince to care for these refugees.

This only served to reaffirm that God was leading us from the beginning. One of the main themes in the recovery effort in Haiti is the decentralization of services and population out from Port au Prince and Cap-Haitian into the smaller communities of Haiti. Unfortunately, the population has already started the moving out process but the services will take years to spread out. L'Estere is about half way between Port au Prince and Cap-Haitian. Having a medical facility in the L'Estere community would be a huge benefit to the people in all the surrounding communities.

We continue to pray for God's help and guidance as we move forward in the direction he is leading us. We will meet with an architect, Jack Althouse soon who has offered to help us in designing a facility.

Earthquake hits

I was in Guatemala on a mission trip to the New Life Children's home when I read about the earthquake on CNN's website. The news was sporadic at first and then it was pretty reactive. It was hard to tell much from the website about what was taking place.

I immediately thought of Dr. Etienne and the conversation we had had a few weeks earlier. I prayed that his family in Haiti was safe and sent him an email to check. I thought it was somewhat Ironic that I was serving in a children's home in Guatemala that was started after the 1976 Guatemalan earthquake.

I reflected back on the conversations of the previous month and realized that God was preparing Servants for what was to come. It was difficult to be in Guatemala and somewhat insulated from the outside world. I didn't have much ability to speak with people in the States or to get news from more than just the internet.

My heart cried out for the people that were dead or missing...

Initial meeting with Dr. Etienne

Dr Etienne and I met at Shultzie's restaurant to discuss his passion and vision for helping the people of Haiti. He shared with me about his recent trips to L'Estere, Haiti and about the huge need for medical services in that area. We talked about the possibility of bringing teams to Haiti to build a medical facility to provide services for the people of L'Estere and the surrounding area.

It was evident to me that there was a tremendous need for medical services in Haiti. Little did I realize that the need would be increasing exponentially in 3 weeks!

When we parted ways we decided that I would start making contacts with people I knew with architectural and construction experience an that we would meet again after my trip to Guatemala in mid January.

Dr. Gracia Etienne called me

Dr. Etienne Called me last night and briefly described his vision for constructing a medical facility near his home town in Haiti. We decided to meet soon and talk about how Servants might be able to help in the construction.