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