Dear Family and Friends,

We can hardly believe that our year in Haiti has come to an end. On May 26th (which happens to be our anniversary) we will be headed home to Kentucky. This past year we have grown together in our faith through serving God’s people here in Haiti. We have come to depend on those around us as much (if not more) as they depend on us.

Many of you may remember the floods/hurricanes we experienced in September. Through this God showed us that we are NOT in control. No matter what nationality, how much money you have, or where you live, God is in control of everything. After our house (and the Rogers’) was left in ruins, we had many people from the town come and help us clean up. They may have lost everything, or not have eaten in a couple days, but they were there to help us.

(Becca) I am a nurse. A nurse, not a doctor. As great as it is to bring health care to a small town in a third world country, I can’t help but feel that they deserve more. They deserve a doctor. They deserve a hospital. They deserve all the medicine they need. God is enough. God will provide. God did provide. In the months of running my small clinic, I learned to rely on the judgment and skills God gave me. He also gave me great advice from physicians state-side, and from the Haitian nurses who worked on the mission’s main campus in St. Louis-du-Nord. God taught me that I can’t save people, only He can, and it may not come in the form that I would chose, but God is good.

(Matt) I have had the great opportunity to learn a ton of hands-on skills. I’ve learned so much from the hundreds of short-term missionaries that passed through the mission this past year that I never would have back home. The greatest blessing for me has been to use some of the electrical skills I’ve learned to wire the new birthing center. It has to be the nicest facility of its kind in the city and it really was an honor to work on it. It’s also been an honor to work with the countless people that give so freely of their time and money to come down and help. God really put a lot of trust in His people when He left us to be His body and it’s been awesome to work with so many people that really understand that.

We are extremely blessed to both be going home to jobs. Matt will be returning to work with Messer Construction, and Becca will be working at The Kidz Club. We plan to continue to be involved with Northwest Haiti Christian Mission. You can continue to follow the work of the mission by going to their website: www.nwhcm.org.

We also want to say thank you so much for all the support we received through prayers and financial support. We could not have done anything without your help and we thank God for all of you.

God bless,

Matt and Becca Jump

Just a quick update…Dianie did finally get to go home. She had a quick turn around after being really sick. She looked like a different little girl. She started sitting outside in the sun and coloring all day! When they left they got my number in case they had any problems, and I didn’t get any phone calls! I guess no news is good news! Thank you for all the prayers. Here’s a picture of her after she got all dressed up to go home!

As promised…

 

The new operating room (1 of 2)

Delivery Room in new Birthing Center

Opposite wall of Delivery Room

Some of my more creative conduit work

Sky behind the Mission Tuesday night

Andre at the beach

As Matt previously posted, we had a BUSY 2 weeks with the surgery team. Many lives were changed and saved! I wanted to share with you about one little girl, and ask you for prayers. Dianie is a 5 year old, soft spoken, little girl. When she came to the mission she had a LARGE mass on her abdomen. Her mother said people always teased her and told her she was pregnant. Last week her life was changed when she went into surgery to remove the mass. Dr. Holloway went in and removed the mass that was on her kidney…meaning she had a kidney removed also. All things were going well and her IV was taken out last Friday before the team left, and she had her first bit of food since her surgery. She began throwing up that night. The team left at 4 the next morning and she was still vomiting…with her IV back in. I tried to balance her pain meds with meds to help with the vomiting, but she was very uncomfortable, and very, very sick this weekend. Finally on Monday she threw up worms. Honestly, I’ve never been more excited to see worms…it helped explain the problem. I started treating her for worms on Monday and she didn’t vomit until that night. I thought we were on an up-swing. Then her belly started to grow and leak LOTS of fluid, and the vomiting continued. After a conversation with Dr. Holloway, it was determined to be peritoneal fluid, and maybe ascites. Tina, a pastor from Canada prayed and prayed with Dianie and her family. Last night, she did NOT throw up at all, and her stomach has gotten smaller! She is so much more full of life! She is talking to me and even getting up on her own. Please pray for Dianie! I am so thankful for the progress she has made, but she still has a ways to go! Pray for her mother too, who is sooo TIRED. She is constantly taking care of Dianie, while nursing her baby boy. I have told her that many people are praying for her little girl!

It’s been too long since our last update, but at least this time we have a good excuse: we’ve been extremely busy. The surgery team just left yesterday morning after two weeks of work here in St. Louis. They were in the operating room from seven in the morning til nearly midnight almost every night. Becca worked in the recovery room this past week from four in the afternoon until all hours of the night. As of this morning she now only has one little girl left to discharge. She had one of her kidneys removed and is recovery slowly and could use your prayers.

The team was working in the two new operating rooms for the first time. Somebody said it’s a miracle the type of healthcare we can provide in Haiti and it’s so true. Stepping out of the dirt, poverty, and hopelessness of Haiti and into those operating rooms is like walking into a different world. Thank God for all the work, time and money that came together to build them.

Unfortunately, we did lose a little girl this past Sunday due to complications. Please pray for her family and the medical team as they deal with the loss.

I’ve been working in the new birthing center trying to get it ready to move in. One of the guys from the group and I were able to wire lights and outlets in several of the rooms including the delivery room, patient recovery room, a few exam rooms, an office, and a nurse’s living area. A few other grouop members were building some really nice cabinents and counters for the workspaces while others were painting, cleaning, and organizing. Hopefully they’ll be moving in tomorrow.

I’ll try to get some pictures up soon.

We apoligize for not posting in a while (ok, it’s been over a month).  We have been at the bay, and things have been pretty much “normal.”  The construction on the Rogers’ and Michelet’s house has begun on higher ground.  We have had the construction guys staying with us for the past couple weeks in hopes that the houses can be finished before hurricane season (June 1).  You can check out the Rogers’ blog for more updates on construction. 

Easter was interesting.  We decided to dye eggs with Michelet’s kids/brother.  When we brought them in our house the mood turned very solemn…I think they thought we were crazy.  While they were dying their eggs we told them about the egg hunt afterwards and their moods quickly lifted!  Danielle and I (Becca) stayed with the kids inside while Matt and Curtis hid their eggs and they kept trying to escape.  They kept telling us they needed to go outside to use the restroom…good try!  Here are a couple of pictures.

 

Matt and I are currently in St. Louis for the next couple weeks to help out with the surgery team/construction guys.

Yesterday started with some excitement here at The Bay.  Michlet came over and told us to go up on the roof to look at the big fish that some guys caught that morning.  We saw two guys struggling to carry just a section of the “fish” from the beach to town.  We quickly grabbed a camera and headed to town.  As we walked into town people were waving and pointing us to the fish.  This is what we found at the first location:

We were thinking shark

 

We barely had to ask where the rest of it was, people were telling us to head a few houses over to check it out.  The next section we found was way beyond recognition, they were chopping up the meat and with a machete and handing it out.

Good day at the office

 

Next we headed down to the beach, still not knowing what kind of animal we were looking at.  We had gathered though, that they didn’t actually catch it (we couldn’t imagine how they could with the boats and equipment they use) but had just found it struggling in the rocks in the bay.  Here’s what we found at the edge of the beach.

Shark, whale, dolphin?

 

Finally we headed down to the water to see the final piece of the puzzle, the head.

Have you seen me?

 

All this to say, we really don’t know what we were looking at here.  We’re thinking it’s either a baby whale or a shark, but we’re no marine biologists.  Any ideas/opinions?

I am getting low on a few vital things I use everyday in clinic. If you are coming on a trip soon, or can send meds in with someone who will be, please let me know!  Here are the basics I’m running low on:

CHILDREN’S ANTIBIOTICS!!!!

ANTIFUNGAL CREAM!!!!

children’s/infant Tylenol/Motrin

cold/cough medicine

Vick’s

hydrocortisone cream

antacids

multivitamins/folic acid

Thanks!!! Becca

Friday was a pretty rough day. Michlet came to tell Becca and I that a boy we’d seen a few days before was about to die. We walked into town and up to his house to find a group of guys playing dominos under a USAID tarp that formed their front porch awning. Wilben had already passed away inside. Becca prayed with his mom while she sobbed. The boy’s father had brought him to our house Saturday and Becca, realizing he had severe Kwash, told him he had to get him to a hospital immediately. Apparently, for whatever reason, that didn’t happen. Please pray for the family.

The twins that I wrote about in the last post have now come to stay. Their names are Geno and Gena. Their mom says they are 19 months old…which I’m a little unsure of. Geno has no teeth and only weighs 7lbs…he has gotten a lot worse. The no teeth thing kind of puzzles me, but his mom said he had a run with kwashiorkor last year. She explained that his legs and face “were big with water” but Miss Pat gave him milk and he got better. I’m not sure if being that malnourished can prevent teeth from coming in or not. Gena, his sister, is a little better off. She weighs about 12.5 lbs, and has teeth! They are both very limp, and have just a little hair that is blonde tipped from being malnourised. They live about 4 hours away, but the mother was finally conviced to stay. They stay here on campus all day, receiving feeding (F-75 by WHO) every 2 hours, and then are staying with someone in town at night. The mother seems to have a change of heart and is willing to stay as long as it takes. When they came yesterday, they came with their father too. He supposedly was going home to get food from their garden and then coming back. He has yet to return. Please pray for his return, otherwise the twins’ and their mother’s lives have just gotten that much harder. I will post pictures in a week or so…we forgot our camera cord! Please continue to pray for Geno and Gena!!