A few weeks ago, Blake went to Haiti with the Haiti Christian Development Project (www.hcdp.net). We missed him terribly, but are so proud of the work he and his teammates accomplished by showing the love of Christ. Here is a summary of their trip from Blake...
"Our group of fifty volunteers included a wide variety of professionals any where from farmers and irrigation specialists to doctors and everything in between. During our short stay we accomplished an amazing number of things. At least 2,500 patients were seen in our medical clinic. The clinic included several wonderful physicians and nurse practitioners that gave these people the extremely rare chance to have a medic exam by a true professional. Along with the patients seen by physicians there were also 270 people seen by the dentists (resulting in 727 pulled teeth) and 629 people seen by the optometrist. Altogether we saw well over 3000 patients. Praise God!
"As a pharmacist, I spent my time dispensing medications from the vast number of meds that were either donated or purchased for this trip. Throughout the week those 2,500 patients resulted in at least 5,000 prescriptions. To put that in perspective, even some of the busiest pharmacies in Little Rock rarely do more than 3,000 prescriptions in the same amount of time. This was the first time that a pharmacist went on this trip, and I was blessed to have the opportunity to serve in this way. With a pharmacist on board, the physicians were able to leave some of the things such as medication dosing and medication substitutions up to me. This greatly cut down on the amount of time the people in the pharmacy spent running back and forth to the doctors when there was an issue. This also provided an ideal situation for pharmacists and physicians to work together to make the best out of the situation we were in.
pharmacy at one of the clinics
"On the non-medical side of the trip, the farm that the Haiti Christian Development Project (HCDP) uses to teach the locals had a complete irrigation system installed, water was run to the farmhouse (which brought immense joy to the local ladies), and a front end loader was installed on their tractor (which is one of the few working tractors in all of Haiti). Also, a solar powered water purifier was installed at the compound of our local developer, Gueston Pacius, who had recently given up sleeping in is own home for a tent in his back yard so that over 50 refugees from Port au Prince would have a comfortable place to stay.
"Another amazing experience that we were able to witness was the installment of the local congregation’s first elders. The Haitian men of the church have been waking up at four in the morning for months to pray about the possibility of electing members of their own congregation to be shepherds. Our trip provided the perfect opportunity for the prayers to be answered and on the Sunday of our trip, the men of our group that had or were currently serving as elders prayed over the church, the elders wives and the elders, installing them as not only the first shepherds of that congregation and possibly the first elders of any church in that region.
"On this trip we landed in Port au Prince and headed due north to a town called Gonaives. Since most of the damage of the earthquake took place south of the airport we saw very little of the destruction that occurred due to the quake. What we did see though was what it means to be the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. The poverty there is very hard to put in words and very hard to experience on a first hand basis. These people have little to absolutely nothing and if they do have something it is usually short lived due to either natural destruction, such as the earthquake or the two hurricanes that battered the area a few years back, or political unrest that plagues the country year after year.
"The work being done by the HCDP has been going on since 1990 and has been doing amazing things in Haiti ever since. The group works with the local Haitians in a variety of ways to not only help them spiritually but to also help the locals improve their standard of living and provide for their families. A few things HCDP is constantly working on are providing microloans to the Haitians for business development, running the local farm to teach them better farming techniques, and providing spiritual and leadership support to the local church congregations. For more information on the Haiti Christian Development Project, visit, www.hcdp.net.
"Many of the things that we witnessed are nearly impossible to put into words. The trip was one of the most amazing experiences of my life and I can only hope to be a part of it in the future. I know that God’s work was done in Haiti through us, and I also know that, spiritually, my life was also renewed."
