Anniversary Mourn (by sue walsh) The early dawn, as the sweet strum of the crickets quiet, The dogs and night frogs rest, As the rosters finally lose their voice, My eyes are reflexively pulled upward To pink and purple puffy clouds ~ a fresh sunrise in my repertoire. Slowly drawing back from the soft, slumbering mountain they Wisp and dissipate; rugged rocks not yet visible. Morning light is ever energizing and reassuring! Monday is here. The first day after the last day of the 4th year Since the ground broke and took up so many to You too soon! Blanket Haiti with your precious nature of hope and joy this New Year. Thank you for this fresh morning. Lovingly wake those who need care and walk with them to our clinic. Wrap your arms of this new day around Haiti.

Bonjour! Thank you everyone for praying our way with traveling mercies ~ and for our luggage. Always my worst time of the trip...waiting for the flash of each ribbon in the luggage pile. Now, instead, each bag arrives via a new turnstile - and there are enough of us that no bag gets dizzy circling. Each bag arrived with its bounty! Takeoff was uneventful with just a 45 minute delay. We can barely remember the frigid and snowy weather we left behind and the travel nightmare that accompanied so many over the holiday exodus. We have a talented and diverse medical team with each provider bringing a specialty; exceptional nursing and pharmacy students and plenty of very eager non-medical helpers bless our team! Our work in the clinic has been a joy and an everlasting experience for all. The faces of well over 1000 men, women, children and babies we cared for in the clinic and at the MTM school will be ever clear in our memories. Oh yes, we’ve been slathering on sun screen, aerobicizing with daily mountain walks and soaking up every minute of the warmth of the people, baby goats and the weather in Haiti!!! Hope all of you can be warm just thinking about us :) Below is a prayer written by Tim Fitzpatrick, a pharmacy student from Roosevelt University. He lovingly wrote this prayer to be said before our final meal at the guest house at MTM… His penance for losing a game of Jenga the night before ~ “Dear Lord, Bless this meal; amid the oh-so-proven talented hands that have prepared it. Bless the tired feet that traveled up the mountain for treatment. Also bless our equally tired feet that found their way up the mountain to serve in the clinic. Thank you for helping us with our mission to lower blood pressure, relieve itches and pain, alleviate reflux, infections, worms and so many other conditions that are a result of a hard but beautiful life. Thank you for the opportunity to make so many new friends and the chance to learn from so many open, knowledgeable and modest people. Bless those who may find their way back to this beautiful country to continue to serve. And may everyone here continue to grow and learn and have great careers. Thank you for the things we found that we weren’t looking for such as great scenery, heart-shaped rocks, best friends or a baby from the orphanage we all wished we could take home! Also, thank you for the wonderful creation of Epocrates. May those who we could not help find the help they need, and may you guide us safely on our trip home. Amen.” Thank you for following our January 2014 trip, Team 21, as we serve, little by little in Haiti. Sue Walsh

October 2013 Greetings from Haiti- We are more then halfway through our week here at Mountain Top Ministries and we wanted to send out greetings from the Team. Our travel was uneventful and we arrived at the Guest house without a hitch. No one was lost in the airport, everyone's luggage arrived and Willem was there to take us up the mountain in the back of the big blue truck. Clinic has been a little less busy then usual - there was another team here only 2 weeks ago, but it seems like more of the patients that have come have been significantly ill. After 3 days of clinic we sat together last night and shared the path that brought us each to this team at this time and it was amazing to see the creative ways that God used to connect this team for this week. It is clearly evident in our time here that each person is here for a specific purpose. Our pharmacist Dachelle and her pharmacy "techs", Ray, Betsy,and Debbie have been awesome. Our inventory manager Lou and his storeroom staff, Catherine, Cheryl, Chris, Pat and Mike have keep us in good supply. Kara runs the lab (and is the lab), Lanelle mans the scabies station (lucky Lanelle), and Ashley captures it all in living color as our team photographer. We have Murph Jr, Jon and Patty triaging the patients in a chaotic entrance hall- and the rest of us are able to see patient in steady flow. Clinic has run like a well-oiled machine... well, most of the time. Vanda and Lisa are doing a great job keeping us aimed in the right direction. There have been plenty of challenges presented by some very sick patients that need far more then we can offer like a 12 year old boy who likely has a brain tumor of some sort. We have also experienced a few miracles like the tiny 8 week old female infant brought to us this AM from the orphanage with a 2 week history of vomiting. We unwrapped the swaddled infant to find a severely dehydrated little baby "raisin" peering up at us with tired, sunken eyes. It was clear this little one needed immediate intervention and a quick decision was made to take the baby into PAP to try and get her into a hospital. A group from the team took her in and were reassured to find the Medishare hospital to be a well run and organized hospital adequately staffed and knowledgeable in their care. The baby was rehydrated successfully and then admitted for more care with a working diagnosis of pyloric stenosis. We have another sick baby from the orphanage with severe failure to thrive and very abnormal anatomy that we uncovered on X-ray. We were able to get input from a pediatric surgeon in the states and it is clear the infant needs a complicated abdominal surgery soon if he is to survive. So we are praying for another miracle. Of course intermixed with the serious nature of our mission are moments of laughter... hearing a little Haitian girl skipping by down the path by the stray dogs singing "who let the dogs out" in creole...trying to shoe the gecko off the bug net... watching Lou's imitation of Peewee Herman and Vanda doing her version of Michael Jackson in a game of garbage.... and the joys of being on a team that is made up of newbies, returning old-timers, life long friends, a father and son, mother and daughter, husband and wife- all working together as one to deliver God's love in many forms. Thank you for your prayers as we continue God's work, Fondly, LBL Team 20