"...Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions.” Joel 2:28

And such it is with each visit we make to this Caribbean nation, forgotten by some, many never really aware of its existence. We leave with a sense of fulfillment and yet clearly aware of what has yet to be done;
a challenge that the Lord places before us all in some fashion. We think often of our focus “Bringing True Love to a Real World” and it forces thinking of how we fashion our everyday lives; what we believe to be “required” on a daily basis, what is essential and what would God have us release to His use elsewhere.

As we face yet another departure it becomes acutely obvious that we leave behind those whom we have assisted in one way or another by God’s mercy and provision. To some it was perhaps a meal, a few dollars to purchase a new pair of shoes; to others it was life itself, making every effort to reclaim a remote hospital located in one of the most desolate places in the Caribbean. Because of your generosity there are many families freed from the debt of hospital expenses too costly to pay; because the debt was reconciled there are funds to purchase diesel fuel for the generators and electric power to run the hospital.

“It is almost 5AM in a rural hospital in Dessalines, Haiti, only a few hundred miles from Miami, Florida, and the activity of the coming day is about to begin in earnest. By evening no one will remember the Caesarian operation performed by the light of cell phone displays that saved both the mother and child; few can recount the details that saved the little boy literally “skinned alive” as the frightened steer attempted to flee the bus coming from Port au Prince, dragging the boy helplessly tangled in the rope tied to its horns. Most will never recognize the man brought in after being fished from a lake with a broken leg; an act of kindness and God’s provision after being run over by a large truck in the wake of Hurricane Jeanne.

Who, over a period of twenty years, will recall the doctors, nurses and volunteers both domestic and international that have made the Dessalines Rural Hospital an outpost of hope in a land all but forgotten by the “1st World” on a global scale? Today we celebrate life; a life that in many instances would not exist were it not for the cadre of professionals and those giving of their personal assets and time in not uncommon ways to be certain someone else has the opportunity to make a difference in their world.

We celebrate the greatness and mercy of a loving God making it possible for an infant to live; a child to grow; a young adult to mature. We celebrate the reality of what God has provided and pray as did Jabez to be given much that we might give abundantly to witness the lives of hundreds of others moving forward. We celebrate the generosity and kindness of those who have caught the vision of what God intends for Dessalines, Haiti.”

We trust as you review this chapter of our Haitian adventure that you recognize, as do we, that this simply would not be possible without the prayers of many and the provision of God. We seek His will humbly and cautiously extend ourselves as He leads to attempt in our own small way to make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate. We leave you now with your own thoughts on what God has for you; how would you contribute to making this world a better place for those less fortunate.