"Hands on Haiti" Response Effort (1/24/10 - 1/25/10)
POSTED ON Jan 24, 2010 / UPDATED ON Jan 27, 2011
COTN founder Chris Clark talks with local pastors and COTN volunteers in Jimani about their role in helping with the spiritual needs of the Haitian earthquake victims.
COTN medical team members Dr. Ben Levine from Massachusetts and Dr. Geoff Haft from South Dakota evaluate a nine-year-old earthquake victim at Good Samaritan Hospital in Jimani.
COTN medical team members from South Dakota Judie Nelson, surgical technition, Mark Steinborn, CRNA, Dr. Geoff Haft and Barbara Kjose, RN, work on a complex crush injury to the leg at Good Samaritan Hospital in Jimani
COTN medical team members from South Dakota, Barbara Kjose, RN, Dr. Doug Bell, and Dr. Geoff Haft work on an open fracture wound to the leg at Good Samaritan Hospital in Jimani on Thursday.
On Monday, the COTN medical team from Arizona and California sorts through the many boxes of medical supplies they brought for the DR and Haiti at COTN's Casa Bethesda.
MONDAY – January 25, 2010 (9:30am)
This morning the COTN medical team that arrived last night began sorting through the many boxes of medical supplies and donations that they brought along with them. The COTN medical clinic had a list of items that the team used to choose the immediate needs to take to the clinic—to prepare for any Haitian children that would possibly be coming to be treated in our COTN clinic here in Barahona from Good Samaritan Hospital in Jimani.
SUNDAY - January 25, 2010 (7:05am)
Barahona, Dominican Republic – The third COTN medical team arrived safely last night after traveling from Arizona. Two of the women who joined up with the team traveled from San Diego—they are members at Flood Church.
The team arrived at COTN's Casa Bethesda in Barahona late last night, but had the energy and interest to listen to the stories of one of the first COTN medical teams who arrived here, who are also staying at Casa Bethesda since they are flying out tomorrow.
One of the first medical teams—from South Dakota—showed photos and told stories about their somewhat surreal last couple of days. It was a good processing opportunity for the first team and also allowed the third team to feel somewhat prepared for what they might begin to do today as they minister to the people of Haiti.
Please donate to COTN's "Hands on Haiti" Response Effort TODAY! Your help is needed for immediate relief and long-term support.
SUNDAY - January 24, 2010 (12:45pm)
An update from Debbie Clark, COTN co-founder...
Silverdale, Washington – As I got off the phone a few hours ago after talking with Chris I was both heartbroken as well as filled with an overwhelming sense of God's faithfulness. The beginning of the phone conversation was a conference call with Chris and a number of the doctors, as Chris wanted me to hear firsthand some of their experiences.
One of the doctors (Christine Nieman) told about the chaos which happened yesterday as the patients (most with something broken on their bodies) fled from the hospital two different times when they experienced aftershocks. I had talked to the staff the night before shortly after this happened and they all described the experience as incredibly sad—sad, I think to see the fear and terror that the people are living with. They said it was especially sad to witness the children in an adjacent building who ran out in terror.
Dr. Nieman told of how they had just established some order in the wards and then everything was out the door again as patients were separated from their charts and many things lost in the chaos. I was struck however by Dr. Nieman's incredibly positive attitude in the midst of all this and was later told that she is one of many who stands out as a true servant—willing to assist in any way possible. It was an incredible blessing to hear Dr. Nieman say, "No other group here is as well taken care of as the COTN groups!"
Chris reported that our team—both the DR staff as well as those on the ground from the US—has been an incredible blessing to many! He was overwhelmed how they are serving with no expectations and such amazing attitudes. He described it as "Awesome" to see these individuals serving day after day with very little sleep and doing oftentimes what he described as "dirty jobs" because they have been willing to jump in wherever there is a need and never a complaint.
I know that most of the team has slept only a few hours at a time—some nights less than two hours' sleep—and when I asked Chris how he was doing it he replied, "Debbie, it has been incredible. While I am exhausted and overwhelmed with all the details, the Lord has sustained me!"
The team greatly needs our prayers as they continue the work with no break. Please continue to pray for Chris and the team as well as our DR staff today and throughout this week. Pray that God continues to sustain them as they lean on Him for their strength, pray for wisdom in decisions that need to be made, pray that servant's hearts will be evident in all (staff as well as teams), as the needs continue to be overwhelming. We have two new medical teams arriving on Sunday and then two additional teams arriving next Thursday.
Please donate to COTN's "Hands on Haiti" Response Effort TODAY! Your help is needed for immediate relief and long-term support.
SUNDAY - January 24, 2010 (12:30pm)
Barahona, Dominican Republic – "The COTN–DR board is excited about the vision of helping to bring spiritual renewal to their Haitian brothers and sisters," reported COTN founder Chris Clark, currently on the ground in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. "I have asked them to bring together the church of Barahona and to give their youth the chance to serve in Haiti. COTN will provide the transport, rebuild kits, food, water, hygiene packs, etc. and they will provide the manpower. Haiti is broken spiritually and the Dominican church needs to lead the way with our support. Our pastors in our Haitian bateyes, led by Pablo, spent all day praying with kids and adults. You would be proud of them in their COTN shirts kneeling next to one patient after another. Wow! The Glory of the Lord is being seen by all of our staff and volunteers. Today we will mobilize some of the youth from our bateyes to go and minister."
Please donate to COTN's "Hands on Haiti" Response Effort TODAY! Your help is needed for immediate relief and long-term support.
SUNDAY - January 24, 2010 (2:30pm)
Barahona, Dominican Republic – The possibility for COTN to bring children who are patients at Good Samaritan Hospital in Jimani to our medical clinic here in Barahona has been an option from the beginning that we've considered and had on the back burner if and when it was a need. That possibility is about to become a reality as people at Good Samaritan Hospital have agreed that this option would be good for these 10 children who are patients—providing them a safe place to stay and continue to receive treatments and care from COTN medical teams that continue to come in to help.
The option became possible just about two hours ago when the US military offered four hours to transport these ten children to our medical clinic here in Barahona. Though there is possibility to change, the plan right now is to bring the families of these children here to Barahona as well and pair them up with Dominican families who are either on staff with COTN or involved in some way.
These Dominican families in the bateyes will take the patients' families in and care for them as their children continue to receive care here at the medical clinic in Barahona for the next few weeks.
Please donate to COTN's "Hands on Haiti" Response Effort TODAY! Your help is needed for immediate relief and long-term support.
SUNDAY - January 24, 2010 (8:18AM)
"Dominican Church Hoping to Bridge a Gap"
Barahona, Dominican Republic – In a meeting last night (Saturday) between COTN founder Chris Clark and the COTN–DR board of directors, they discussed what COTN’s role would be outside of helping just the physical and medical needs of the Haitian people. The board, who are all local pastors here in the Dominican Republic, have been praying with Haitians who are injured and have visited them in the hospital. “Today we were in the public hospital in Jimani and we were praying with the sick people and talking to the children and giving advice and helping some with translation,” said Santos De Leon, one of the COTN–DR board members.
But the board, along with COTN, wants to mobilize more Dominicans to minister to the Haitians in a spiritual sense. “I feel like everyone has been focused on that physical support, but there are also grave injuries in the spiritual,” said Evangelista De Oleo, COTN–DR Board President. “Some of them might be classified as incurable. I read in the newspaper of a girl in a restaurant and after four days there with the bodies of her friends, she was rescued but she couldn’t even realize that she’d been rescued. She could only talk about what had happened before the earthquake. So I think the intervention of the church in this could help people to regain confidence in their faith. We’re going to meet with the president of the Pastors Association in the DR because we know that there will be pastors that will be ready and willing to go and pray, but it would be great if we could partner with COTN to give us logistical help.”
Chris and the board talked about this being a great opportunity for the Dominican church to kind of bridge the gap between them and the Haitian church. The two cultures have a history of opposition, though it has gotten better recently. “The DR has shown solidarity with Haiti during this time. I think you’re right for the church to kind of overcome a barrier in the sense of the religious culture of Haiti in relation with the Gospel and Christianity,” said Evangelista De Oleo. “The average Dominican has sort of a fear of the Haitian culture and witchcraft and things like that and sometimes I think that the church sees that as a big in opposition to their faith. So I think it's a good opportunity for the church to establish a strategy to overcome that.”
The COTN–DR board will be working with fellow Dominican pastors to mobilize their church members and the older COTN teenagers to get involved in ministering to the Haitian people spiritually—to pray, to love, and to provide anything they can.
Please donate to COTN's "Hands on Haiti" Response Effort TODAY! Your help is needed for immediate relief and long-term support.
SUNDAY - January 24, 2010 (7:43AM)
Port-au-Prince, Haiti – Yesterday, (Saturday) Good Samaritan Hospital in Jimani got word from a hospital in Port-au-Prince that they had about 8 to 12 patients who needed to get to another hospital for care. So COTN–USA staff members Erik Nield and Brandon Bleek headed out on the COTN bus with a COTN team doctor and nurse and a few translators to find this hospital and to transport the patients back to Good Samaritan.
According to Brandon, it took most of the time to actually get across the border into Haiti with traffic—then they waited two hours after they made it across. Just waiting. Once they finally started driving, they passed the American Embassy and UN buildings—surrounded by marines and UN forces.
“It was a zoo,” Brandon says. “There were people everywhere. All you see is people.” Downtown Port-au-Prince, Brandon explains, looks like a warzone. “It looks like a bomb went off,” he says. “There’s a huge park with all these people—a sea of humanity. Every open space we went by, there were people living there in a tent or with sheets.”
Erik adds to the story: “Anywhere there’s open space, there’s people tenting. They don’t have a house to go back to or they’re too afraid to go back inside.” Brandon explains that the mountains that surround Port-au-Prince are made up of slums—small shacks and houses built on the mountainside, one after another. As they made their way up one mountain where the hospital is located, Brandon said that’s when he lost it. “We came around the corner and most of the houses had just slid down the hill and crumbled and fell,” he says. “It was horrible.”
They reached the hospital and loaded the patients into the bus for the trip back to Good Samaritan in Jimani. Erik says he overheard one conversation between a doctor and a young girl named Cherri. “She started crying at the hospital because, she said, 'I don’t have any food, I don’t have any money and my house is gone.' The doctor told her, ‘The world will take care of you.’”
As they left the hospital, Erik and Brandon explained the site of the port at the capitol with all the huge ships that are here to help. “There are all these ships at the port,” Erik says. “What amazes me is the amount of people that have responded, but still the need is so great.”
Please donate to COTN's "Hands on Haiti" Response Effort TODAY! Your help is needed for immediate relief and long-term support.
Click here to read previous posts (1/23/10 and earlier).