Nurse Nancy Clark with patients

This is the sixth of several guest posts from the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s disaster relief team in Haiti. The 10-member medical team arrived in Port-au-Prince Monday and began ministering through a makeshift hospital on the edge of a tent city on Tuesday. In this post, Butch Vernon, pastor of Thoroughbred Community Church in Nicholasville and the chaplain for the group, shares about the group’s final day of work.

I’m writing to you on our last night in Haiti. Our prayer this morning in the van on the way to the hospital was that we might finish strong. Praise God He allowed us to do just that!

We had three babies born this morning and it was crazy hectic. My day was really different. The doctors suggested that I take pictures of the wounds up close so that we might use them later on in clinics to teach Haitians how to do their own clinics. To say I was out of my comfort zone in the surgical area as fingers and toes were amputated would be an understatement. However, God didn’t send me here to be comfortable, He sent me here to be obedient.

The day went by quickly. We were all so busy that time just flew by.

Linda with nurse Chris Lee. Linda was the only survivor from her family of 11.

There is a picture here of a little girl named Linda. She is about 15. Linda came in today malnourished and despondent. We found out that she had been buried in the rubble of her home for two days before being dug out. When she was finally freed she discovered that her family of 11 were all dead. Since then she has been wandering the streets with no where to go and no one to take care of her.

The little girl in the arm cast and leg cast was also involved in the quake. She was injured but treated. She came to us because the wounds were dirty. We cleaned them but even before we started she was crying hysterically. We couldn’t figure out what was wrong. We eventually got the idea that she thought we were going to amputate her leg. She never truly settled down until after we gave her some toys and gifts and allowed her to limp off with all her limbs intact.

We had another little boy who came in complaining of an ear ache. We couldn’t get him to allow us to touch it so we had to sedate him. The doc dug in his ear and pulled out a bean that had gotten stuck in the canal. It was one of the few light moments of the day.

A doctor ministers to a girl with a broken leg and arm.

Just as we were closing up and sitting around cutting up to release built up pressures, we heard all kinds of screaming and hollering and suddenly people were being rushed into the room. We found out that there had been a knife fight and four people were injured. It reminded us that we must always be ready to respond to what God sends our way.

It is a relief that as we leave there are other teams already in place to fill the gaps. Slowly but surely things are settling down to the point that we might be able to begin planning on sending other teams in. Please be praying that God will work out the logistics so that we can reach out to the Haitians while they are still the most receptive.

May God continue to allow His holy light to shine upon the people of Haiti.