October 4 – 15, 2014
“And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick.” – Matthew 14:14
The Jesus Healing Center continues to provide excellent medical care for poor Haitians in our area and beyond. We are excited to have Barbara MacMannis as our new medical administrator of the Jesus Healing Center on our team. She is doing a wonderful job overseeing the clinic and serving the poor in the Fond Parisien area.
Here is an update from Barbara about some recent cases at the Jesus Healing Center.
I have been on many mobile medical clinics in Haiti, but nothing could prepare me for the constant and unwavering flow of people with medical needs that I saw during my first week as the new medical administrator for the Jesus Healing Center.
The patients start lining up at our doors before the sun is up, and sometimes wait until the afternoon before they are finished with triage, consultations, lab work, and prescriptions if needed.
There is always a flow of patients throughout the day receiving medical care and leaving the clinic with hope.
Their wait at the clinic does not begin with getting a number and waiting for the process.
Their day begins with devotions, songs of praise, and prayer to a God who has proven over and over to those who know Him the blessings of His faithfulness. Here at the Jesus Healing Center, we all know where our strength comes from and we use this strength to help the poorest of the poor navigate through feelings of hopelessness to a renewed hope in Jesus Christ.
Day to Day
The Jesus Healing Center is treating thousands of patients in Fond Parisien and beyond. Our community clinic treats an average of 2,000 patients each month.
Each day brings hope, and it is with faith and wonder that we approach the morning.
Recently, a young mother brought her barely breathing newborn down from the mountain. When I told her the baby must go to Port-au-Prince via ambulance for a higher level of care, she cried as she said, “I don’t know where I am going, or how to get back home, and I will be all alone.” Although this woman was from Haiti she had never been away from her mountain home. She was an alien in her own country. I wondered how I would have felt if I were her.
She had taken the giant step in faith to come off the mountain to find help for her dying baby, and now we needed to take further steps to make sure she would continue to trust us.
We were able to reach into our benevolence fund and give her money for hospital expenses, food while she was there, and enough to travel home when her baby is better. We also paid a runner to go tell her family what happened to her so that they would not worry when she did not return home that evening. It was a lot to do, but no more than what we would expect Jesus to do in this case. The Lord brings hope, and we are expected to do no less.
“We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.” – Romans 15:1
Unexpected Package
It was a day that started like any other, but when the doors opened at 7 AM, a woman rushed to the nurse to say that her water had broken. She was nine months pregnant and had walked for miles to the Jesus Healing Center to get food and help from the malnutrition clinic. We prepared the ambulance to take her to the local hospital as the baby was showing signs of fetal distress when she started to deliver. She was the mother of five other children, and this one was in a hurry to see his siblings. At 7:15 AM, as the people sat in the waiting room singing hymns of praise, a healthy baby boy was born in our emergency room. It was a great way to start the day and all day long I kept thinking about the miracle of procreation.
A Better Life Through Hope
Recently, we have provided excellent medical care for some very special children with unusual illnesses.
Shalken began getting sick when he was a little over two years old. He had swollen and painful joints, weakness, and severe malnutrition. He was hospitalized several times in one year and was misdiagnosed leading to ineffective treatment. Shalken was sent to France for a definitive diagnosis, but was still not given a complete diagnosis through a biopsy, or extensive blood work.
Today, Shalken is still undiagnosed definitively, but is given a glyconutrient which helps his body cope with the constant pain, weight loss, and lesions that develop from swollen growths before they open. These growths and lesions leave Shalken open to infection and further debilitation. The Jesus Healing Center provides medical care, but also hope for the chronically ill. We will not give up on this young boy who wants to run, play, continue in school, and lead a normal life. He told Dr. Mardy, our pediatrician, “I love life, I want to keep living.”
Seven-year-old Magda was diagnosed with Tuberculosis (TB) of the bone and left hip displacement. We first saw Magda while conducting a mobile medical clinic in the mountains of Lastik. Magda’s mother brought her to the clinic in an effort to find help for the sores on her leg that would not heal. She was treated for a bone infection by our clinic, but the infection still would not heal, so we sent her for further testing. She was found to have TB in the bone of her right leg.
After being treated for TB for about nine months, she returned to our clinic and we sent her for X-rays. The X-rays showed that her leg was clear of TB, and now we can address the problem in her left hip.
Missouka first came to the clinic at age five. Her left leg is more than six inches shorter than her right leg. She and her family live four hours away from the Jesus Healing Center, but her father faithfully brings her each time we ask so that her condition can be evaluated by medical teams for possible treatment.
Missouka uses her short leg to bare her weight, and our fear is that she will put too much wear and tear on her right hip. She was recently seen by an orthopedic surgical team from Canada. This team gave her good news and suggested fitting Missouka for a prosthesis instead of amputating her left foot.
Our in-house pediatrician is Dr. Jean Claude Mardy who is highly respected in our area and even the poor parents seek him out to treat their children. Dr. Mardy reaches out to these sickly children with love, compassion, and patience.
We want to thank Joyce Meyer Ministries – Hand of Hope for sponsoring the operating expenses each month at the Jesus Healing Center. It is because of this generous gift that Love A Child is able to provide excellent healthcare to these children and many others just like them. Thanks to the Jesus Healing Center, children with chronic illnesses are able to lead more normal lives. Love A Child and Joyce Meyer Ministries – Hand of Hope are partnering together to reach out in Haiti to meet the needs of the poorest of the poor.
We pray for continued blessing from God as we honor Him with the healing of not only the body, but the very soul of the people who grace our clinic. As we teach them His ways and His truths, we need also to be aware of our actions toward them as Christians. We ask them to have faith in their afflictions that the Lord is with them, and we tell them of His power in our lives, but we must also continue in our love for humanity because as we all know here at Love A Child, “Love is something you do.”
Barbara MacMannis
Medical Administrator of the Jesus Healing Center
We thank Barbara for her hard work at the Jesus Healing Center. She works many long hours caring for the poorest of the poor. You can take part in helping us to help the poor in this area. We are always in need of birthing kits at the Jesus Healing Center.
If your church or community group could help supply these kits on a monthly basis, it would be such a blessing. Here are the items needed for each birthing kit.
Birthing Kits:
(Please send items inside a pillowcase.)
• One newborn outfit (a “onesie” and stocking hat)
• Feminine pads and two receiving blankets
• Small plastic basin and a bar of soap
• Single-edged razor blade
• Two 10” long pieces 1/16” cotton cord
• Disposable newborn diapers and one cloth diaper
• Absorbent underpads
Please ship the birthing kits to the following address:
Love A Child, Inc. • 12411 Commerce Lakes Drive • Fort Myers, Florida 33913-8664.
Thank you and may God bless you!
Love,
Sherry