Church leaders seminar

Pastor Russell Rumble from Yakima WA teaching at Robia. Pastor Cerant translating.

Pastor Rumble taught on issues of moral purity.

Pastors registering for the seminar at Badi. Mike Martin, Pastor Sije, Victoria Rumble and Eralus Thelusme are facilitating the registration.

We used a tent at Badi, most of the pastors were able to fit inside.

On Monday 22 Dec Pastor Rumble was not feeling well. Mike Martin translating.

This region of Haiti, Pays Pourri, is home to about 15,000 people. It was only accessible by foot until last year when a road was completed. This road is mostly used by motorcycles, but Mike Martin has a small four wheel drive vehicle that can make it. Church is an important part of the social fabric, and there seems to be a desire among the many of the leaders for teaching. Our vision is to address moral issues, leadership development, and basic theology with simple, solid bible teaching.

There is also a need for schools and education.

The third year of Church Leaders' Seminar in Pays Pourri

 Please pray for the church leaders seminar in the mountains. This is the first day of our four day seminar. It is the third year that we have been blessed to do this seminar. Today we had 130 participants from all over Pays Pourri and Marre Roseau, Haiti.

Looking over the notes that we handed out.

Choice of coffee or tea for breakfast.

And a piece of bread.

Pastor Simeon Shankster

Listening.

Following along in the notes.

Today's Subjects: 1. Christ (types and prophecies), 2. Christ revealed, 

3. Christ's teachings, 4. The return of Christ.

Mike and Simeon, today's speakers discussing the topic.

Mike teaching.

Pete was the moderator.

Please pray that the Spirit would work!

Praying for deacon ordination

Please keep praying for the deacon ordination. This is the 7th night in a week of prayer meetings. Tonight we are having an open forum discussion concerning the deacon ordination. Everyone is welcome to ask questions, and everyone is welcome to respond to the questions.

Week of prayer meetings for deacon ordination.

Tonight is the first in a week of prayer meetings. We are seeking God's direction to ordain two deacons. Please pray with us. 

Field clinic in the mountains

On Saturday, we were happy to be able to do a field clinic in Soliette, Fonds-Verrettes. There is a huge need for health care in this area. Fonds-Verrettes is a commune of 111 sq. miles with 47,738 people. The town is about 1 1/2 hours drive south of the IFM base in Fond Parisien. People live in the mountains that surround the town, up to 4 hours hike away.

Last Sunday, we delivered 70 invitation letters to the churches all over the commune of Fonds-Verrettes, announcing the field clinic. We hand delivered many of them on Sunday morning, making brief visits to the churches.

The girls spent a lot of time getting the meds packaged and ready.

When we got there, over 300 people were waiting for us in the church. Saturday is a big market day, meaning that any other day of the week there would have probably been twice as many people.

Carrying in the meds, and setting up.

Hanging up the scales to weigh the children. 

 Moise taking the names, addresses, and phone numbers and writing them on the patient charts. Its quite a talent because a lot of mountain people go by several different names.

Dr. Alexis and Dr. Mendel Thelusmé (Dr. Jolius'friend) looking over the list of meds that we brought along. 

Nurse Villaine taking vital signs

Dr. Alexis examining a patient.

Dr. Jolius Thelusmé examining a child.

People waiting.

Levi taking patient information and writing it on the patient's chart for the eye tech.

Zann, the eye tech doing an eye exam.

Jeana filling prescription.

Chricimene making our lunch.

Nurse Esther taking blood pressure.

Nurse Villaine taking blood pressure. For those of you that know Joe that works at the mission, Villaine is Joe's wife's sister.

I am running the scales. 

Michelle, our head lab tech doing lab tests.

Gesnert helped in the lab.

Caitlyn filling a prescription. 

The pharmacy. 

Carlos helping in the pharmacy. He also handed out "Flanbo Verite A" (Flame of Truth). 

This is a bimonthly booklet that we get from Christian Aid Ministries.

Celimene helped move patients, send patients to the lab, etc.

This little guy has kwashiorkor. This type of malnutrition causes swelling and is very dangerous. A leaf doctor told the grandma that there is a medicine that will make him vomit the water out of his body to reduce the swelling. The lady in the picture is his grandma, and the girl is his aunt. He is 13 months old and already has a younger sibling. We gave him Herbalife, MannaPacs, and medicines. We tried to make it real clear that they need to bring him down to Fond Parisien to the Children's Home for Mary Ann to nurse back to health.

There was an 8 month old baby that weighed 8 pounds 12 ounces. His mom was really young. We also gave her some MannaPacs and Herbalife, and tried to convince her to bring the baby down to the Children's Home.

This cute little girl waiting with her mom.

This lady's blood pressure was 240 / 140.  

Dr. Jolius listening to this grandma. It's hard to imagine how hard her life has been. 

In all we saw 344 patients. There are no clinics close to this area. They either have to go about 2 hours drive up the mountain or about 1 1/2 hours drive down to Fond Parisien to see a doctor. Many do, but many can't. We had people that walked 3 hours from up in the mountains to come down to the field clinic. 

 Here are some pictures of children that Joanna took:

Thank you for your prayers and financial support. 

     -Mike

To see Carlos' pictures of the field clinic on IFM's Facebook page,  click here.