We Made It! We Actually Made It!

So we pulled into our new home in Lotore! We left the compound at 6:30 am and arrived in Lotore at 9am! While in Lotore, we stay at St. Barnabas Church and the school located on site. I was told that when these mission trips first started to Lotore, they slept in grass huts! So as you can see, there has been much growth and development over the years.


This is the view as we pulled into our home for the next three days. St. Barnabas Church is on the right. The school (and where we hold clinic for the week) is the building behind the church.

This is the school building where we spend most of our time. The two doors to the left are the showers. The other rooms are our clinic rooms, sleeping quarters, and dining facilities. My expectations were so low, but I was pleasantly surprised at how nice our accommodations were!

The front of St. Barnabas Church and the steeple.

When we pulled into the courtyard there were a view people around. I noticed one older lady in particular. She started to clap and wave her arms in the air when she saw us. It was a very touching moment.

Brian stretching his legs and taking in the surroundings of Lotore! He finally made it!

This is the end section of the school. The two black doors that you see are to the largest room in the school. This is where we hold the adult medical clinic and it is also the men's sleeping quarters.

This is the mango tree that provides shade for our patients while they are waiting to be seen. The small brick building behind the tree is the cook's house. It is a small room where the ladies prepare all of our delicious meals. The brick structure in between the school and the cook house that is low to the ground is the cistern. The cistern collects rain water to provide the people of Lotore and surrounding townships with some source of water. It is not the cleanest, but it is water.

This is a picture of some of the locals waiting for our arrival.

That is the ambulance parked next to them.

This is the view standing on the porch of the school and looking at the back of the church. Do you see the wooden benches? Those are the school children's desks, church pews, and serve as our clinics seating! Highly functional furniture to say the least!

The smaller building to the left holds the shower stalls, our interpreters sleeping quarters, and Carmil's room. Carmil runs the school and conducts church services when Pere Soner is not there. The black door on the bigger building to the right is a storage room. The door next to that is our dining room.

This is the ladies room! Laura and Leslie are loading up with bug spray!

This is the view outside of our room looking through the brick "windows". It is such a beautiful view, don't you think! See all the cute goats everywhere!

The view down the porch with all the doors open.

Our Backyard! Can you believe how beautiful!

A picture of our beloved Chen!

Once we got to Lotore and explored our new surroundings, we realized that we didn't have any of our stuff. There really wasn't anything to do at this point and we just had to wait for the big dump truck to come with all our supplies!

Here the team is contemplating our game plan in the adult medical clinic/men's room.

About an hour and a half later, our truck and stuff arrived! Yeah!

There were many helpers around to unload all of our stuff. Everything had to go to designated rooms, so I tried to stay out of the way because I had no clue where everything went. Thank goodness there were people around that did know what to do!

More locals came once they heard or saw that we had arrived.

These people were already lining up for the clinic!

Look at all that stuff! Yes, those are Cokes and other Haitian soft-drinks!

Here are some of the local children looking through the window.

This became a very common picture as they were all very curious to see what was going on.

Cynthia and Mandy setting up the pediatric clinic! Notice the posters on the wall in yellow. Those were made by Mandy's two sweet daughters! The have pictures of themselves, drawings, and sweet words written in Creole for our Haitian patients to enjoy! They have learned so much about Haiti from their mother. You can tell that they have the heart and passion for the Haitian people and they are very eager to come with their Mom one day!

Once the trucks were unloaded, we began unpacking our stuff and setting up clinic. Again, I did not know where things went, so I felt like I was in the way. I really wanted to be helpful, but I didn't want to make a big mess of everything. I knew there was a method to the madness though. I roamed from room to room to try and offer my assistance to whomever needed it.


Once we got everything unpacked and into place, it was time to start clinic! No waste of daylight here! We all gathered into one big circle in the middle of the courtyard. We held hands and prayed together. Of course the prayer was in Creole, so I understood nothing. However, I did feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. Even though I did not understand the prayer verbally/audibly, I did understand the prayer in my heart.

My prayer I wrote in my journal on this afternoon before we started clinic: "Thank you Lord for bringing me to this place. I pray that God uses me in the place he needs me most. I pray that I am a blessing to others and in return, they are a blessing to me. Lead me and guide me Lord."


Coming Up Next.....It's Clinic Time!