Children of the Nations: News & Updates

Humbled By Their Faith

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:22:28 -0800

COTN medical team member Brandy Parker is a nurse from Central Florida. She recently returned from serving for about ten days in the Dominican Republic at COTN's medical clinic, caring for the Haitian children there. The following are her thoughts from one night while working the night shift at COTN's clinic.

My heart is broken into a million pieces. Tonight I am working the night shift in this clinic-turned-emergency-hospital and I am overwhelmed at the suffering I see. Suffering that pain medicine and medical intervention cannot fix.

There is a boy here who is maybe 10 years old. He and his brother were badly injured in the earthquake. His mother and brother are in another hospital. Today he faced a skin graft alone. The only way he falls asleep is if I hold him like a baby. While there in the dark, I am watching a mother sing praise songs and pray over her son in the next bed. He has devastating injuries to his leg.

A few beds over lays a girl who just told me that when the house fell on her, but the church remained standing. "Maybe if I was at church this wouldn't have happened," she said. She has one arm amputated, and a huge wound down her leg. A new girl came here today. She is fifteen years old. When the earthquake happened the eleven people in her house all died; she was the only survivor. She was given a mirror, and for the first time, spent some time examining her wounds. Her hair has been shaved off in clumps, and she has terrible scrapes all over her face, arm and hands. One arm is completely amputated. She then rolled over and wrote the names of her dead family in a notebook with colored pencils, doodling like any teenage girl.

I can't explain how hard it is to see mothers who have lost husbands and children tend to their wounded children, quietly suffering their own pain.

And yet in all of this sorrow, they praise God. Little boys with fresh amputations read Psalms by flashlight from their stretcher beds. And little girls with broken legs sing happy songs about Jesus.

I am so humbled by their faith. Although I give them pain medicine and rock them to sleep, I know I can't truly ease their pain. Only Jesus can. Oh Lord, please help these people.

A Child's Story - Mikeline of Haiti

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:46:39 -0800

Mikeline stared at the homework in front of her. She was almost finished. Her friend was beside her—diligently working away as well. They had come straight to her friend’s house today after school to get their homework done early. Mikeline picked her pencil back up and the table started moving. But it wasn’t just the table—it was the chair that she was sitting on; it was the house; it was the actual earth beneath their feet. The girls looked up at one another with fear and confusion in their eyes. Was this an earthquake? They had felt little earthquakes in their home of Haiti before, but this one was not stopping.

The girls took off toward the door to get out of the house, which was already beginning to fall behind them. Just a little farther, Mikeline thought to herself. She could see the door ahead of them. But she passed too quickly by a window. The curtains somehow entangled the 13-year-old’s arm, causing her to fall to the ground. Her heart was racing and sweat was running down her forehead. She had to get out, she thought to herself. But before she could pick herself up, she felt the wall tumble down—heavy cement blocks hitting her hand and leg. It seared with pain. She cried out for fear of what would happen.

The earth had stopped shaking and 18-year-old Olanda was looking for her younger sister. Luckily, Olanda had been outside when the earth had begun to move and she had not been injured, but she knew that her sister was doing homework and she was desperate to find her. She ran down the street to Mikeline’s friend’s house. Was she here? There was movement under a pile of rubble and she immediately recognized Mikeline. She cried out to her and began to drag her out from under the blocks. She was alive! Relief spread across Olanda’s face, but she could tell her sister was in pain. She helped her to the street, away from any buildings. Their father was there and their brother. The four of them slept in the street there together that night.

About eight hours away from her home and children in Haiti, Alta Gracia was working in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, for a Dominican government official. Though the job was far away from her family, it helped pay the bills and it allowed for her children to go to school and have food on their plates. Right now, her heart raced after hearing about the earthquake in her home country. Was her family alive? How would she ever find them? A few days passed and her boss volunteered his time and ability to find her family so she could travel to be with them. He began by going to Alta Gracia’s home in Haiti.

Mikeline couldn’t walk. It was too painful for her leg and her hand and arm fell limp to her side. She hobbled with her sister Olanda to a hospital near their home in Haiti. Once they arrived, all they could do was wait. There were so many people. Two days went by as the girls waited at the hospital, but still no help. It wasn’t until a group of Americans took notice of the girls and offered to drive them to a hospital in the Dominican Republic that the girls began to have some hope of getting care. They were soon on their way to Good Samaritan Hospital in Jimani, Dominican Republic. There, Mikeline’s arm was amputated and her leg bandaged. She was recovering, but at a slow pace.

When COTN medical team leader Dr. Vicki Sakata assessed Mikeline, she determined that she would be a good candidate to come to COTN’s clinic to receive better care. Dr. Vicki knew that she needed a skin graft and additional help with her amputation. Olanda and Mikeline agreed to go. They both wondered if their mother—who worked in the Dominican Republic—would ever find them. They hadn’t talked to her at all since the earthquake.

It took six days for Alta Gracia’s employer to track down her family. In Haiti, he found her son and husband near their destroyed home, but neither of them knew that the girls had been taken to Jimani. He asked around the area and at the hospital where the girls had been in Haiti and found out that a few girls had indeed gone to a place over the border where there was a hospital. He went to Jimani and again asked around—carrying their photographs and saying their names to people in the street. He was told to check at Good Samaritan Hospital at the edge of town, where many Haitians had gone for help.

Once there, the man again asked for the two girls. Had anyone seen them? Had they been here? Someone recognized their names and their photos. He was told that they might have been part of a group that was airlifted to a medical clinic in Barahona, Dominican Republic. "Try there", he was told. Once in Barahona, he asked around about a medical clinic—where was it located? How do I get there? Finally, the patient Dominican entered the doors of COTN’s clinic. He showed the photo of Mikeline and was led to her bedside. He had found the girls! What good news he had for his employee, Alta Gracia.

The reunion was a beautiful one when Alta Gracia finally walked in to COTN’s clinic and found Mikeline in a clinic bed and Olanda at her side. There were tears of joy and relief—both for the girls and Alta Gracia. “When the earthquake happened, I was worried because mothers are always stressed about their children. I couldn’t eat because I couldn’t find them,” Alta Gracia said after she was reunited with her girls. “Now I feel better because I’m together with my daughters.”

Mikeline received the needed skin graft on her leg about a week after arriving at COTN’s clinic. It has almost completely healed and she has been working with COTN physical therapists to get accustomed to her amputated arm. The teenager, who loves soccer, the color orange and playing all kinds of games, also has a much happier demeanor about her now that her mother has joined her and she is healing. She says she wants to be a nurse when she grows up so “I can help people, like I’m being helped now.”

"Hands on Haiti" Response Effort (2/22/10 - 2/26/10)

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:12:19 -0800

Read HAITI CHILDREN'S STORIES from the field here.

(LAST UPDATED ON FRIDAY - February 19, 2010 (2:00pm))

* * TOP THREE MOST URGENT NEEDS * *

(List will be updated accordingly or as needs are met. Please check back often.)

"To reach into Haiti we desperately need a 4x4 double cab truck ($35K), and a Ambulance" pleads COTN founder, Chris Clark, currently on the ground in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. To donate to this urgently needed fund CLICK HERE.
"Let's Eat" SmilePacks™ and other urgently needed supplies posted to our Haiti Needs List.
On going finances to fund our “DR Churches helping Haiti Churches’ D4H program, which puts USA raised resources in the hands of Dominican Churches who are reaching out to Haiti Churches and their communities.

FRIDAY - February 26, 2010 (3:15pm)

Two Haitian children who have been cared for in COTN’s medical clinic for the past month were taken back home to Haiti this week. Both were determined by COTN medical team members to be healed enough to leave the full-time care clinic and both were emotionally ready to be reunited with their families again after being away for so long, especially after such a tragedy.

Before they left, COTN founder Chris Clark sat down with the parents of the children and challenged them to have some sort of plan before they left to go home to Haiti, after being away for a month with their children. Where do they plan to go? Where will they live if their homes were destroyed? How will they get food and water?

The COTN team of counselors was then able to go over each of the parent’s plans with them one-on-one, helping prepare them for the devastation that they eventually will return to. Although it will be difficult in some senses, most of the parents and children are anxious to get back to their homes in Haiti, their families and their communities.

Six-year-old Antoine and her father Bolivar were one of the families that went home to Haiti this week. Bolivar knew where his wife and other child were living—near their old home, which is now crumbled in pieces. Armed with a plan for where they will be living, Bolivar and his daughter were quite anxious to see the other members of their family.

Chris Clark and COTN medical team leader Dr. Vicki Sakata accompanied them to Haiti. “It was very sweet to see them go home,” Dr. Vicki said. “Antoine’s mom was so excited to see her. She started running toward her. Antoine was so happy and you could tell her father was really happy. People came up to greet him and welcome them. You could tell they were really a part of that community, so it was nice to see them return.”

Vicki also talked about the harsh reality of Haiti’s continued devastation—more than a month after the earthquake—including the area where Antoine and her family are now living. “It’s still such a mess. It’s incredibly sad. I can’t imagine being there a month ago; it’s such a disaster,” Dr. Vicki said. “These families tell you they have nothing left, but it doesn’t really sink in until you really see it. Their house is completely a pile of rubbish. You can’t even tell it’s a house—the entire neighborhood is essentially rubble.”

Once they reached Bolivar and Antoine’s neighborhood by vehicle, everyone had to get out and climb through rubble, rebar and broken glass to a large open area behind where the buildings were, where the whole neighborhood used to dispose of their trash. “That is now where they are living,” Dr. Vicki said. About 7,000 people have created makeshift little homes with sheets and pieces of wood in the open area behind where they used to live.

Though the area is being run by the American Refugee Committee (ARC), it’s a huge health hazard since people are literally living on trash. “It looked like there were trucks where the ARC was delivering free water. They had water hooked up to spigots so people could shower, as well as a makeshift school set up for some the kids,” Dr. Vicki said. “There was organization within the camp, but where they were living was pretty disgusting—dirt surrounded by trash, essentially.”

The homecoming was a joyful one that COTN was grateful to be a part of, but COTN will try to stay in touch with Antoine, Bolivar and their family—hoping to encourage them emotionally and to somehow find a new life in their home of Haiti. Before he left, Chris Clark encouraged Bolivar to use his skills as a carpenter to possibly create new opportunities for his family in the future. “I think Chris planted a seed in his mind,” Dr. Vicki said.

FRIDAY - February 26, 2010 (3:00pm)

Last night, a small COTN medical team made up of two nurses from New York and San Diego and a logistics coordinator from Orlando arrived in Barahona, Dominican Republic. The team of three will take over as the medical team from the Seattle area heads home today. “The two physical therapists that have been here have been great because they specialize in amputees, so they’ve been doing a lot of great exercises with the kids,” said Ryan Nichols, who is serving as a COTN team host in the Dominican Republic.

Also leaving today are the remaining members of the counseling team, who worked in Haiti, teaching pastors and lay people how to do trauma counseling for their community and congregation members, as well as in the Dominican Republic at COTN’s medical clinic, helping the children and parents talk through the trauma of the earthquake.

The new medical team of three will continue to care for the Haitian children in COTN’s medical clinic along with their families. They will also help with any logistics of new patients, rehabilitation, and getting patients who are well enough, home to Haiti.

A Child's Story - Silo of Haiti

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:14:21 -0800

Silo Henderson lay in bed last month at COTN’s medical clinic in the Dominican Republic. His mother sat by his side. The shy 16-year-old had a bandaged leg and looked off into the distance. He cracked a smile every once in a while, but not often. In his first week or so at COTN’s medical clinic, Silo had trouble sleeping. He’d wake up with nightmares or just lay awake—unable to sleep at all. He had pain due to fear and anxiety. Anxiety from what he had just gone through—Haiti’s earthquake.

Silo is an only child. He loves soccer and math and says he wants to be an engineer when he grows up. He and his parents live in a town called Nazon in Haiti. Their humble home was on the sixth floor of a building and that’s where Silo was when the earth began to shake far below. He was alone in the house and when the earthquake was finished, he was alone in the rubble—buried by cinderblocks and parts of wall. Buried for more than six hours. Just lying there, injured and in utter fear, hoping that someone would find him. “When it happened, I was very afraid and praying to Jesus at the same time,” Silo said.

It wasn’t until about 11 p.m. that Silo heard people who were searching for him and others who might be alive under the fallen building. They were calling him—calling his name, in fact. “I called back and said, ‘I’m here!’” Silo remembers.

His mom looks at him as he retells the story. She and her husband had been at work when the earthquake hit. She didn’t know if she’d ever see her only son again. “I was very sad because I thought that he was dead, but when they brought him to me, I felt really happy because he was still alive, and I thank Jesus for that,” said Maggetta, Silo’s mother, through an interpreter.

Silo’s parents were eventually able to find a hospital in Haiti for their son, but the doctors there looked at his deep wound on his leg and determined he needed better care than they could provide. They sent him and his mother to Good Samaritan Hospital in Jimani, just over the Haitian border into the Dominican Republic. It was there that COTN medical team leader Dr. Vicki Sakata became familiar with Silo and his medical situation and needs. She determined that he could be better cared for in COTN’s medical clinic about two hours away in Barahona. So, after being treated in Jimani for at least a week or two, Silo and his mother agreed to be transported to Barahona for better care. This was a big decision since they had no way of telling Silo’s father where they were going.

Even after just a week of full-time attention from COTN medical team members, Silo was showing signs of improvement. “He is now doing much better,” his mother said.

Now, more than a month after arriving at COTN’s clinic in Barahona, Silo is able to walk around with crutches. He had a skin graft on his deep leg wound and it is healing nicely, according to the COTN medical team members who are caring for him. Silo is also sleeping through the night with less anxiety than he when he arrived in Barahona. As he recovers, Silo and his mother must also prepare mentally for what they eventually will go home to in Haiti: not much of anything. But his father will be waiting and that reunion will hopefully be a joyful one.

A Child's Story - Jordani of Haiti

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 10:36:48 -0800

Jordani ran ahead of his dad in the street as they walked toward their house. They had been out most of the day and he was excited to get home. Besides, his dad was walking too slowly anyway—the energetic 6-year-old wanted to run! He looked back at his dad and smiled. Benjamin looked ahead at his son and smiled back, shouting something that made the boy laugh. His dad could be pretty funny, Jordani thought to himself.

Reaching their house, Jordani jiggled the doorknob to let himself in. As he opened the door, Jordani felt it begin to shake in his hands—but it wasn’t just the door, it was the whole house. It was the ground he was standing on. It was his entire body. Everything was moving. From behind him, he could hear his dad’s voice shouting to him—his name over and over again. Before Jordani could turn around to look, the house began to fall apart. The cascading cinderblocks of the closest wall came tumbling down on top of Jordani, pushing his little body to the ground. He screamed out in pain and in fear of what was happening. His foot was pounding in pain; he tried to get out of the rubble that covered him. Where was his dad? Was it finished? He was trapped under the cement cinderblocks and his whole body throbbed. The tears began to roll down his cheeks and the crying came from deep in his chest. What was going to happen to him?

Jordani’s father, Benjamin, was searching. He couldn’t see anything through the dust around what used to be his home. He couldn’t see Jordani anywhere. Had that really just happened to his son? he thought to himself. He called out the boy’s name and there was no answer. “I thought that Jordani was dead,” Benjamin said, recalling the horrific earthquake in his home of Haiti.

But then Benjamin heard it—the crying of his tender-hearted son. Jordani suddenly heard his father’s voice telling him it was going to be okay. The blocks were lifted and he was safe with him. The tears continued as Jordani told his father about the pain in his leg and his back—where the blocks had landed on him.

Though Benjamin still did not know where his wife and other son were, he rushed Jordani to the closest hospital he knew of—passing neighbors and friends in the street who were wailing in pain and loss. There was destruction everywhere. So many buildings were gone. Though the two made it to the hospital, no one was there. It was only minutes after the earthquake and no one had even ventured back into the building to begin to help those who were injured. Trudging back to their crumbled home, Benjamin found a neighbor who was a nurse. He cleaned Jordani’s deep wound in his leg.

The united family of four sat there—in front of their destroyed home, unsure of what to do next. Thankfully, no one was hurt besides Jordani. Benjamin knew that his son needed attention soon. In the street, some doctors walked by with food they were handing out. Benjamin recalls them being Americans—they told Benjamin to wait there and that they would give him and Jordani a ride to the hospital in Jimani in a few hours. Benjamin couldn’t pass up the opportunity for his son. Leaving his wife and other son in Haiti, Benjamin went with Jordani to Good Samaritan Hospital in Jimani, Dominican Republic.

Though Jordani received care there, his pain was still great and so was his infection. His situation was such that, about a week and a half later, COTN medical team leader Dr. Vicki Sakata identified Jordani as one of the children to come to COTN’s clinic in Barahona for better care. Benjamin agreed to go. “I was considering going back to Haiti because they didn’t have good care in Jimani,” Benjamin said. “But when Dr. Vicki offered to bring the Jordani here, I was happy.”

Jordani has changed a lot since he arrived in Barahona on a US military helicopter more than a month ago. Though timid, shy and sad when he got to COTN’s clinic, his real personality has come out, showing a boy who loves soccer, wearing sunglasses, singing into a pretend microphone and making people laugh. He is healing well and now working with physical therapists as his foot and leg continue to get better.

Though the news is good about Jordani’s healing, his father Benjamin still has his wife and other son in Haiti to think about and where they all will live in the near future. “We have nothing to go back to,” he said.

"Hands on Haiti" Response Effort (2/15/10 - 2/19/10)

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:02:34 -0800

Read HAITI CHILDREN'S STORIES from the field here.

FRIDAY - February 19, 2010 (2:00pm)

* * TOP THREE MOST URGENT NEEDS * *

(List will be updated accordingly or as needs are met. Please check back often.)

"To reach into Haiti we desperately need a 4x4 double cab truck ($35K), and a Ambulance" pleads COTN founder, Chris Clark, currently on the ground in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. To donate to this urgently needed fund CLICK HERE.
"Let's Eat" SmilePacks™ and other urgently needed supplies posted to our Haiti Needs List.
On going finances to fund our “DR Churches helping Haiti Churches’ D4H program, which puts USA raised resources in the hands of Dominican Churches who are reaching out to Haiti Churches and their communities.

FRIDAY - February 19, 2010 (2:00pm)

Joy in the Midst of Tragedy

More than 30 Dominican pastors who have agreed to partner with Children of the Nations (COTN) piled into a bus in the early hours of Tuesday morning to make their way into Haiti. There, they met up for a conference with about 500 Haitians—half of them pastors in Haiti and half of them church leaders and members. The goal was to not only encourage the Haitian pastors as they continue to minister to their suffering and desperate church and community members, but also to form a plan on how the Dominican Church and COTN can continue to unite with them and help in this crisis. Because Dominicans and Haitians have a long history of not working together or getting along, this step for both sides was a significant one.

“It was great to see the harmony that came in between the Haitians and the Dominicans,” said Ryan Nichols, who is currently working in the Dominican Republic (DR) as a COTN team host. “To have the Dominicans come in and be welcomed so warmly and to have so many Haitians be part of this movement was amazing. They talked about trying to strive to pay less attention to the divide and pay more attention to the fact that they are all united in Christ.”

COTN-DR staff member Angel Samboy agreed. “It was so touching to see our [Dominican] pastors and the pastors from Haiti together praising God, giving words of hope and praying with the people of Haiti,” Angel wrote in an email on Wednesday. “The Lord allowed us to minister to our brothers and sisters in different ways. We spent time praying, singing, consoling, encouraging and talking to the people. There is hope for the people of Haiti; there is a hope for the Church in Haiti; there is a great hope to see a new Haiti that knows about Jesus.”

The first part of the conference addressed the group as a whole, after which everyone broke into smaller groups to discuss what they had heard and pray. “We divided the 500 Haitians into groups and it went well all over the church building,” said Malou Faublas, COTN-DR staff member. “Every group had one counselor, one translator and one Dominican pastor. It was very organized.”

The group of Dominican pastors, COTN staff and volunteers also brought about 700 packages of food gathered by the pastors, along with water and 600 boxes of rice from COTN’s supply. This was then given to the pastors at the conference so they could pass it out to the people in their communities and congregations.

After the small groups met, COTN volunteers Ryan Nichols and Jessica Wise asked each of the Haitian pastors to line up and share the individual needs of the people in their church congregations and communities. Ryan and Jessica recorded each list to take back for COTN so that we can begin discussing how to continue to help meet the desperate needs of these Haitians through the local churches.

“We found out how many people are in each congregation, how many need to see doctors, how many need houses, and the statuses of their churches and schools to discover whether they still stood,” said Jessica, who is volunteering with COTN to help with logistics and teams during the Haiti relief. “Almost all of the pastors that we talked to don’t have church [buildings] anymore and their schools are [gone]. They all had needs for tents for their congregation. One of them who had a school told us that the Haitian government has mandated that schools start soon, but he has no idea how they are going to start because the school is still in rubble—the school records are buried. He said they have 300 kids who really need school and all of them need psychological help.”

Malou said, “Overall the day was a blessing. We found out that the Haitian believers are strong in their relationship with Christ our Lord. The greatest needs they have are medical and construction, because all of them are sleeping in the street, most of their houses have collapsed, some churches also are collapsed and, so far, no one has helped the Haitian people and the believers to repair or rebuild their housing.”

As COTN discusses possible methods for helping meet these needs, the Dominican pastors will continue to meet with the Haitian pastors every couple of weeks to continue to support, encourage and help. “It is really cool because you see all these Dominicans who have never really stepped out of the Dominican box wanting to help all of these Haitians,” Jessica said. “I’ve been coming here to the Dominican Republic for three summers and I’ve never seen that before.”

As the Haitian pastors left the conference at the end of the day, Jessica says the peace was evident. “You could see that they were filled with the Holy Spirit and they were so happy,” she said. “To see the joy that they had in the midst of this tragedy was amazing.”

Please donate to COTN's "Hands on Haiti" Response Effort TODAY! Your help is still needed for immediate relief and long-term support.

Click here to read previous posts (2/12/10 and earlier).

Doing Small Things with Great Love

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:01:13 -0800

Dr. Peggy Sarjeant of Seattle, Washington, was part of one of Children of the Nation’s (COTN) first medical teams on the ground about five days after Haiti’s earthquake. She worked both at Good Samaritan Hospital in Jimani and in COTN’s medical clinic in Barahona. Here, she shares her thoughts about her experience:

“Don’t look for big things, just do small things with great love . . . The smaller the thing, the greater must be our love.” ~Mother Teresa, 1981

Of course, I cannot speak for the rest of my COTN team, but I suspect that all would agree Mother Teresa’s words apply, on many levels, to our work at Jimani. For days, our orthopedic and general surgeons were unable to operate because there were more surgeons on the ground than had been anticipated and OR time was at a premium. Our anesthetists and surgical RNs were unable to work in the ORs for the same reasons. Performing life-saving surgery in the midst of such destruction is, indeed, a big thing. But for our team, skills would not be used nor expertise applied as hoped, or as anticipated.

Our surgeons, anesthetists and RNs put their own disappointments and expectations aside and performed jobs that easily could have been ignored. They all understood that true service means filling needs, regardless. They ran the OR board, organized supplies, transported patients in their arms, changed wound dressings, and started IVs in the dirt so that patients would not be in pain when their dressings were changed. They wrapped amputation stumps. They spread blankets over cold and exposed patients.

Small things, all.

My experience was no different. For me, Mother Teresa’s words meant letting go. Letting go the goals of providing meaningful medical care to everyone who needed it, of imposing order on the chaos when patients fled the hospital during the aftershocks; of touching—personally—every single patient. Letting go my lofty and self-indulgent goal of using this experience to bury the demons that caused me to leave the practice of pediatrics two years ago.

In the end, I walked with my dear friend Dr. Vicki Sakata through the patients sprawled on the ground and chose eleven children. Eleven children and their family members, from the hundreds of people in need. Eleven children COTN could help. It was so small, yet it was the hardest task I have ever been asked to perform.

I remember years ago, when I was a pediatric resident, telling a junior colleague that the only way to survive residency was to acknowledge that she could not help everyone. That the secret was to identify one patient with whom she could make an intimate connection and then to act on that conviction; to serve that particular patient in a way that mattered. Such a small thing, in the face of such great need.

On January 25, 2010, eleven children and their surviving family members were air-lifted by U.S. military helicopters to COTN’s clinic in Barahona, Dominican Republic. Among those on the ground in Jimani, the air lift operation was not without controversy—there were local air traffic control issues that grew complicated, there remained critical patients other organizations had not been able to arrange transport for. It was a difficult day, in many respects, but COTN, and our team, had identified a need we could fill. In the face of hundreds, what we accomplished was small—and the smallness was overwhelming. But I must believe that what we accomplished was meaningful.

Mother Teresa says, “ . . . The smaller the thing, the greater must be our love.” I understand that now, in a way I never could have before. It is easy to do the big things—surgery, anesthesia, facing one’s demons—because doing the big things gratifies our ego. The small things go unnoticed and are often perceived as worthless, if they are noticed at all. To persist in doing the small things requires a degree of love and commitment that is impossible for a human alone. It is impossible without Christ.

Our team accomplished small things, and I can only pray that the COTN teams that follow will also focus on accomplishing small things. Math works. Lots of small things add up to big things. I think Mother Teresa would agree.

"Hands on Haiti" Response Effort (2/8/10 - 2/12/10)

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:25:53 -0800

Read HAITI CHILDREN"S STORIES from the field here.

FRIDAY - February 12, 2010 (8:37pm)

* * TOP THREE MOST URGENT NEEDS * *

(List will be updated accordingly or as needs are met. Please check back often.)

"To reach into Haiti we desperately need TWO 15-PASSENGER VANS ($19K each) and a TRUCK ($35K)," pleads COTN founder, Chris Clark, currently on the ground in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. To donate to this urgently needed fund CLICK HERE.
"Let's Eat" SmilePacks and other urgently needed supplies posted to our Haiti Needs List.
We are also in urgent need of a FLIGHT SERVICE willing to fly much-needed supplies into Barahona in the Dominican Republic. Please contact Dave Schertzer at daveschertzer@cotni.org.

FRIDAY - February 12, 2010 (8:37pm)

One month ago today, Haiti was devastated by an earthquake—killing and injuring hundreds of thousands. With our established ministry center just across the border in neighboring Dominican Republic (DR), we were able to launch an immediate response effort. With your support and quick action, the last month has been nothing short of miraculous:

48 hours post-quake, our Dominican staff and board had surveyed the needs in southern DR and were assessing the situation in Haiti. They were also meeting with our partners to establish a distribution plan for the food and supplies from our Dominican storehouses. All COTN countries began prayer vigils for the victims.
4 days post-quake, Children of the Nations sent 100+ medical personnel (surgeons, doctors, nurses, anesthesiologists, translators, drivers, coordinators, etc.) from the USA and the DR to serve in Jimani, a Dominican border town where thousands of injured earthquake patients were pouring in each day. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in supplies and cash donations began to pour in including the use of private jets and planes to transport needed supplies.
7 days post-quake, our volunteers and staff were manning the primary administrative functions at the Good Samaritian Hospital while our bus was transporting recovering patients back across the border.
12 days post-quake, two Black Hawk helicopters from Puerto Rico transported 22 injured children and their parents to our clinic in Barahona where US and Dominican health professionals began 24/7 compassionate care.

Today, one month post-quake:

We are providing specialized medical care for 13 children identified as most-critical and transferred to our medical clinic in Barahona, Dominican Republic, while making final preparations and contracts to provide a rehabilitation center for up to 50 children and their families.
Our Dominican staff and 200+ Dominican pastors are heading up an outreach to Haiti, partnering with 150+ Haitian pastors to provide food and supplies to children and their families.
We are providing Trauma Counseling training, both in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, working with 200+ professionals who will, in turn, be able to minister to their communities. Daily radio programs will be aired to help the greater Port-au-Prince area begin the emotional journey back to normalcy.
We are finalizing plans to establish a temporary rehabilitation clinic just across the border in Haiti to provide outpatient and follow-up medical care.

With your help, SO MANY children—like Stanley, Antoine, Saudine, and Sylvain and many others—are now safe and beginning to heal.

Thank you for playing such a vital role this past month and walking with us as we move forward. While the journey looks daunting, we know God has gone before us to provide.

Continuing to pray for Haiti,

Chris Clark
COTN Founder and CEO

FRIDAY - February 12, 2010 (4:37pm)

COTN’s ministry site in Barahona, Dominican Republic continues to welcome medical teams who are arriving from the States to help care for the Haitian children who are in our medical clinic. Today, a new team arrived from the Seattle area: two nurses, a first-year residency student, a pediatric nurse practitioner, a wound nurse, and a pediatric physical therapist. Tomorrow a team from North Dakota and Minnesota will be flying home after serving for five days in the clinic—changing dressings and checking on the recent skin grafts, as well as helping a few people in the Barahona community.

This Sunday, a team of counselors is also set to arrive. Three of them will remain in Barahona at COTN’s clinic to work with the children and families who are there. The rest of the team will travel into Haiti for several days for a counseling conference to train people from churches in Haiti and other Haitian counselors and therapists on how to best respond and provide ways for people to cope with the tragedy of the earthquake. COTN’s vision is train people so they can counsel their fellow Haitians as opposed to Americans being the primary counselors.

This week, Ryan Nichols from Seattle, Washington, who is serving as the COTN team host in the Dominican Republic, will also be traveling into Haiti with Haitian pastors with whom COTN has been partnering. He will help assess the needs that COTN can continue to help with—such as supplies and food—as well as get a better understanding of possible places for safe shelter and housing for Haitians who have lost everything.

COTN–DR staff member Malou Faublas has traveled to Santo Domingo today to bring back two of the three children from COTN’s medical clinic in Barahona who were sent to the hospital there more than a week ago with the need of more intense surgeries and care. One child will remain as more surgeries are still needed. Ryan Nichols said that Malou is due back this evening with the children, who will continue to recover at COTN’s medical clinic.

MONDAY - February 8, 2010 (12:37pm)

The COTN medical team made up of those from Central Florida and Seattle is on a plane home today, after serving in the Dominican Republic with Children of the Nations for 12 days. “They were amazing, they did a great job,” said Ryan Nichols, who is serving as a COTN team host in the Dominican Republic for about a month. “You couldn’t even tell a difference between the Florida and Seattle teams—everyone blended together. Dr. Mary Wierusz and Dr. Elizabeth Hutchinson did a great job leading everyone. The surgeons were great, they were able to do extra surgeries and everybody really bonded with the kids.”

Though Ryan says the children in COTN’s medical clinic were sad to see the team go, he says they are doing so much better compared to when they first arrived. “Its great to see the transition come about and see the kid get better—they have so much energy now,” he said. “It's amazing.”

Just two days ago, another COTN medical team arrived from North Dakota and Minnesota. Made up of one doctor, two nurses and two physical therapists, they will continue to care for and treat the children in COTN’s clinic. The focus, however, will be physical therapy for the kids who are ready for it—learning how to function without certain limbs or exercising the muscles that are injured or weak. They have already started on the clinic patio and in the nearby COTN office conference room. “They’ll do the physical therapy pretty much wherever there is room,” Ryan said. For the three children who had skin graft procedures done last week, they all still have a few days before they’re able to get up and walk around, but they will soon join the others in the physical therapy. Though these two physical therapists are the first to help the children here in Barahona, others will be coming on more teams in the future.

Please donate to COTN's "Hands on Haiti" Response Effort TODAY! Your help is still needed for immediate relief and long-term support.

Click here to read previous posts (2/4/10 and earlier).

A Child's Story - Lucky Adongo of Uganda

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:01:36 -0800

Lucky Adongo has a gift for storytelling, which is obvious by the lively five-year-old’s excitement to talk to everyone. Like most girls her age, she also loves playing with her friends.

Lucky lives in COTN’s new Uganda Children’s Village in Northern Uganda. In one of the seven homes, which are clustered together, Lucky and about nine of her new sisters sleep, eat, play, do chores and tackle their school work together with their home mother. Lucky just graduated from her nursery school class and will be moving on in the next school year.

Originally from a village called Abia in northern Uganda, Lucky was abandoned to live with her grandmother by her parents, who were too frustrated and desperate to care for her themselves. She became just one of the many children who her grandmother was trying to provide for.

Lucky was the youngest of the group, which meant she got whatever was left over after the older ones had eaten—which wasn’t much. Her grandmother was concerned for the child. COTN staff became familiar with the family and eventually Lucky became part of COTN.

Lucky’s life is very different now. She no longer is the last one to eat and her needs are provided for. “Sometimes I used to sleep without food,” Lucky says. “More still, I sleep on a mattress placed on a bed. I have my bed sheets and a blanket and on Sundays I am taken to church.”

When Lucky first became part of COTN’s family, she was shy and stayed isolated—quite a difference from her talkative personality now. “My life was not good and now I like here more than my village,” she says.

Lucky’s smile is contagious and her excitement for life is sweet from someone so young. When she grows up, Lucky says she wants to be a teacher. “I like my teachers, writing and drawing pictures,” she says. Lucky also loves listening to stories, especially those from the Bible. “I like praying and Bible stories when mom is telling us,” she says. “I have learned that God is in Heaven and watches over us.”

To sponsor a child like Lucky, visit our Sponsorship page.

A Winning Season for I Love Baseball™

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:55:04 -0800

Children of the Nations’ I Love Baseball™ (ILB) Program is having a huge impact on the lives of young men in the Dominican Republic. Six new players have recently joined the program, bringing the total to twenty-one, and we hope to add nine more in the near future. We’ve also been able to add another coach to share in the workload; his wealth of experience will greatly benefit the kids. His addition makes four Dominican staff members.

Four of our players have given their lives to Christ in the past couple of months, and we rejoice to see the changes that are occurring in their lives! Sharing the gospel is a key part of ILB’s mission, and we are encouraged to see God at work there.

Perhaps the most prominent pillar of the ILB Program, however, is education. ILB participants hit the field to hone their baseball skills in the morning and hit the classroom to hone their academic skills in the afternoon. The results are visible: eighteen-year-old Salomon, our oldest player, began Pre-Med classes last fall. He still dreams of the Major Leagues, but he has a solid backup plan.

The Major Leagues are getting interested, though. A scout from the Toronto Blue Jays recently visited and gave rave reviews to two of our players, Henri and Fileral, who both pitched extremely well that day.

Major League Baseball player Miguel Batista also visited our Barahona facility in December. He spent two days working with the kids, giving advice, holding individual pitching and hitting lessons, and teaching new stretching and conditioning techniques.

“It was awesome!” said COTN–USA ILB Coordinator Ben Holman. “Miguel was great. He was so helpful, and he spent a ton of time with the kids!”

Another person who has “spent a ton of time with the kids” is Chris Sullivan. Chris worked with us as a communications consultant in Barahona for the last five months—teaching English and helping with sponsorship, internal operations, and coaching. Children of the Nations would like to thank Chris for loving our kids and dedicating so much of his time to helping them succeed.

The future is bright for ILB. This year, players from six high school and college baseball teams—among them, Concordia and the University of Washington—have scheduled Venture trips to the Dominican Republic to work with the ILB Program. We have also begun relationships with Seattle Mariners Spanish Radio and the Ronald McDonald House and are planning multiple events for the year, among them the annual Baseball Challenge event (www.thebaseballchallenge.org) and a celebration for Major League Baseball’s Opening Day.

Please continue praying for the I Love Baseball Program and the young men participating in it. For more information on the Program and how you can get involved, check out www.ilovebaseball.org.