Faithful

54 years old and diggin' this grandpa thing.

I guess I'm weird... Most people, when I ask them if they make resolutions say they don't. But I do. Every year.

They're never specific. Vague bullet points more than anything... Eat smarter. Simplify. Pray more. Write more. Stuff like that.

This is the week, the week between Christmas and New Year's Day, that I'll start thinking about mine for 2011.

Looking back, my resolutions have never really stuck. I fail. I forget. I fail and I forget... every time.

I will always and forever look back at 2010 as a watershed year in my life. Exhilarating. Exhausting. Humbling. Gratifying.

In the final analysis, resolutions kept or not, the main thing I want to be able to say at the end of each year is that I've been faithful to God's call on my life.

To be faithful... not a bad resolution.

Cholera Update

Thanks to your kind donations, we were able to wire $10,000 directly to the village hospital, where, immediately, construction supplies (wood, etc.) were purchased and workers were hired (Haitian workers by the way). And TODAY we are erecting a free-standing cholera treatment clinic, isolated from the regular hospital and clinic. Large army tents (the ones used to house hospital patients in the days after the earthquake) will be erected atop raised, plywood platforms. Elevated latrines are being contstructed, under which large plastic waste containers will prevent cholera-containing human waste from seeping into the ground water.

We have determined that the cholera we are seeing on La Gonave right now has three origins:

the village of Pointe des Lataniers (small, northwest seashore village),

Bodin (small, southwest seashore village),

and the mainland (people who have contracted cholera on the mainland and then traveled over to the island).

As I write, we know of no cases of cholera which have been contracted from the water in the village where our hospital is. This, of course, is very good. But as long as there is even one active case, a wider epidemic remains a worrisome possibility. People in the village are, understandably, a bit worried (and perturbed) that the cholera patients are coming to their village to the hospital. Hence the isolation hospital.

Please keep La Gonave in your prayers. They don't deserve this.

Good Times

Someone took this picture of my daughter, Katie, and me on our way to a small seaside church down the coast some 45 minutes by boat. Friends, it doesn't get much better than this. Good times.

You know you're serious about mission work when you wear hats like that to church.

Cholera on La Gonave

Just minutes ago I received word that cholera has reached La Gonave in a more than sporadic way: 40 confirmed cases (13 of which are currently at our hospital). At least three persons have died, but everyone who has reached medical care at the hospital has survived. There is another possible "hot spot" in one of the villages on the island and an assessment team is on their way now to that spot.

As I type, a temporary facility is being constructed near the hospital for the purpose of isolating all cholera patients from the rest of the community.

We have an immediate need:

1. Pray for God's help here. Cholera is serious and rapid.

2. Huge amounts of disposable items are required immediately (sheets, linens, etc.).

3. Immediate funds are required to erect this temporary (or not-so-temporary?) field unit (purchase wood to construct beds, purchase tank sprayers, etc.). We will place some supplies on a container to be sent down, but those containers take awhile to arrive and be cleared (2-3 months!). As important as this is, the unfortunate reality is that this does not help them TODAY.

4. Pray that panic will not occur. Panic would be absolutely counter-productive. What is needed is order, cooperation, level-headedness, and unity.

I am still processing this and will keep you posted.

Steve