Jerrensia...

Everyone has fallen for this little peanut! How could you not... If you want to read the latest on her, go to here, to Melissa's blog.



Dixie is going to be taking her and another little boy to get x-rays soon. Then we will be able to start on her medical visa and getting her the care that she so deserves!

We are really still here...

Big post coming soon..... We have been very busy working on details and we have joined forces with GLA (God's Littlest Angels Orphanage). My son was adopted from GLA and we have had a fair share of HTH patients come from there. So, after the earthquake and restructuring how HTH is going to function post earthquake, it only made sense to both GLA and HTH to form a team. We are going to be looking for more medical based people to help with finding donated care for these kids. There are going to be a lot when medical visas open up; which we heard will be soon.

There is going to be a sponsorship program. We will still be doing medical visas for other children and adults too, as we have in the past, but this partnership is just going to be a bonus.

Can't wait to share all of the details with you soon...

In the midst of the chaos, Denel was ready to go back to Haiti to reunite with his family. You can read a glimpse of his return to Haiti here...

Thanks for your patience in our silence... We have felt all of your prayers...

**Also, Stephanie, our Nurse Coordinator, is back in Haiti for a week. This is her second trip to Haiti since the earthquake. She will be updating here...

One Month Ago Today...

One month ago today the entire world was drawn to Haiti. Some for the first time ever. Some people, prior to Jan. 12, 2010, would not have been able to find Haiti on the map. Now, that is not the case. But, as we reach one month out from the earthquake, where is Haiti on TV??? We cannot and will not forget Haiti! Hands That Heal was here long before the earthquake and we are here for the long haul.

Will you pray with us today, as Haiti fasts for 3 days, that Medical Visas would be re-instated again and we would be able to begin reaching out to Haiti's most vulnerable.

I leave you with this amazing tribute and prayer to Haiti...



Keep praying for Haiti!!! Rebekah

Update on Jean

Jean is one of Pastor Pierres workers that I see every time I am in Haiti. He is like a haitian brother to me. He has Epilepsy. Through Hands That Heal we were able to get him a CT scan and medicine that is not available in Haiti. Since he has been on the medicine for approx 3 months he has been seizure free! He is soooo happy. I talked to him about it this trip. He had the biggest smile, it was great. Jean is very quiet and reserved. I had to beg him to smile for this picture. He showed me a picture of his 1 yr old daughter and introduced me to his sister last week. It is amazing what a simple pill can do for someone to change their whole life. He lived with terrible seizures for 25 yrs and now can function and not be afraid to be alone.
What a blessing to be a part of that for me. God is so good!
Steph

Update on Flamanda

Flamanda is doing very well with her mom back in Chambrun. Her head has only gone down a tiny bit from when I saw her a month ago but she seemed still better. She smiled at her mom and let me hold her 2 Sunday's in a row at church the entire service with out crying. Her mom came to see me most every day while I was there. I'm thrilled at her progress! I will continue checking on her when I am in Haiti. I plan to return in April. Her mom does an amazing job taking care of her.

Update from Haiti

Many have been asking how my trip to Haiti was. I appreciate all you thoughts and prayers.

This trip ran the range of emotions for sure. It was happy and sad, scary and joyous, gutwrenching and aweinspiring all at the same time. We got there 10 days after the earthquake so the majority of bad injuries were already taken care of initially or the people died. We worked outside of PAP in Chambrun which is on the NE side and the epicenter was on the other side of PAP. Our clinic was extremely busy though. Everyone was effected by the earthquake even if it wasnt a physical injury. No food, water, shelter, anxiety, lack of sleep, aftershocks continued the first week I was there which made the Haitian people even more fearful. Most even if their homes were still standing would not go into them and slept in their yards under sheet tents.
Those that lost their homes are called Internally Displaced People or IDP. Many IDP camps are growing and growing. People making tents from sticks, trash, sheets or anything they can find. They find open flat areas and start building. Other join and pretty soon it is a large tent camp. Unfortunately the areas are not meant for living. No wells, or latrines available.
In the 2 weeks I was gone the camps grew and grew. We took our bus as a mobil clinic to some of the camps and administered meds there. It was an experience to see them first hand. One we got to walk through. The people are desperate and scared which made the clinics more dangerous and not as secure. Late into the day the people knew we could not see everyone and they would begin to push, shove and cut line which caused fights. Thankfully we had no major incidents at the IDP camps or in Chambrun which had the same thing going on every day.
We saw some injuries from the quake but not many. Luckly we had access to a helicopter service that could fly our most critical patients to a hospital. We flew around 7 or so patients out. Several very malnourished babies that had not had food for as long as 8 days. A broken arm that needed surgery and woman that had a miscarriage during the quake that had been bleeding for a long time. Otherwise we saw the same respiratory, GI, skin infections, colds and fevers. Many hungry people and dehydrated needed help. We started a handful of IV's and gave out tons of antibiotics, tylenol, antiacids and vitamins. All together we saw in 2 weeks 5,300 patients between Chambrun and the IDP camps.
Most of our translators have no place to live either and are sleeping in their yards or on the street. The university was completely collapsed with hundreds dead. In 45 seconds their lively hood, homes, some family members and all belongings were completely gone. Thier spirit remains intact somehow. The Haitian people are so strong! Their faith that God has a purpose for them and the will to continue on is amazing. We saw life continuing on as usual in many areas. People selling, buying, walking, smiling and living.
The gratitude is unbelievable that they share with us. They are truly thankful for anything even as small as a hug or a baggie of tylenol. It gives them the hope they need to continue going on.
We found out last week that 50,000 IDP's are going to be relocated across the street basically from our compound! God has definately placed us where He wants us to be able to minister to them. NVM has been financially blessed since this has happend and I am so happy to announce that we are going to begin construction very soon on our hospital. God has been very faithful to provide what we need. GAIN (Global Aid Network) has been partnering with NVM to help get aid and supplies as well. It has been a great blessing.
We are praying that through this tragedy that God will shine into the darkness of Haiti and real, permanent change will begin to be seen!
I was blessed beyond anything I can imagine to be able to serve with the people I did and witness the Haitian people surviving!
Thank you to all who prayed and supported me to do this. Tom and the boys did great while I was away. What a blessing!
Steph

Please pray for Stephanie...

Tomorrow at 5am our nurse coordinator, Stephanie Mueller, will be heading to Haiti for 14 days to do medical missions. She will be literally entering the pits of hell for a medical team. There are no supplies and medicine will be being practiced as it was 100 years ago. Here is her blog entry from her personal blog:
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Finally a plan
We are heading to the airport at 5am tomorrow morning. Flying into the Dominican Republic and renting a van to drive to PAP. Life has been more busy in the last week than I have ever had in my life. It is stressful, crazy and a lot of pressure. I am finally at a good point now. Packed supplies for team, myself, coordinated most everything I need to. I purchased hack saws and Vodka for doing amputations. Vodka for sterilizing instruments and maybe for the patient. They will be awake for the procedures. No narcotics available. It is going to be civil war style medicine. It sounds crazy and barbaric but if your limb has gangreen set in or is completely crushed what else is there to do. The amt of Haitians missing limbs will be staggering.
Im nervous, relieved to have a plan though.
Please pray and then pray some more. We should get into SantoDomingo tomorrow night and to PAP by Sat night.
I am staying for 14 days. I have not been away this long ever. Pray for the boys and Tom while Im gone too.
Steph
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Please keep her team and all of the other medical teams in your prayers!!! Pray for the people that they will be treating and pray that the love of Jesus will shine through to the people.

Thank you for all of your support and prayers!

Rebekah Hubley--Founder and Director

**Please consider making a donation through paypal today. 100% of our funds goes to helping the people of Haiti.

Denel hears Daphlene's voice for the first time...

Denel finally got to speak with his daughter, Daphlene, for the first time since Tuesday's quake. Two of Denel's sisters work at GLA,(God's Littlest Angels Orphanage) and they brought her there after retrieving her from Carrfouer. The house she was playing in fell on her and she had to be pulled out from under the rubble. It was a very emotional reunion, but it was twinged with him knowing that his fiance, Daphlene's mom, is sleeping on the streets and has nothing to eat or drink. Dixie, the director of GLA, has been able to take in some children of the staff, but she does not have the room or means to take in extended families. So, his reality of what is going on is so raw as he is warm here, clothed, and has more than enough food to eat.

***This is a disclaimer for the video: They had me translate into a microphone after I re-watched the skype. They DID NOT use the right clips with what I was translating. I am by no means an expert in Creole, but I translated great for him today, but the clips do not match up with what I was saying... :-) I just wanted to throw that out if you speak creole... I know my words do not match up with what he is saying in the clips... He really did say the things that I translated, only in different clips. lol...

Enough about that... Here is this amazing video of reuniting a family...

Denel and Witlene...

I spoke with Dixie Bickel today at GLA and she told me that Denel's house collapsed in the quake and that his daughter had to be pulled from the house. She is reported to be injured, but not badly. He is so understandably shook up! He will not believe that his fiance and his daughter are alive until he hears their voices. He was interviewed by our local stations today and you can click on it to see the report. Please use the side PayPal button to donate to our patients here in the US, and the ones that have returned to Haiti.

I got a hold of Witlene's brother today who lives in Buffalo, NY and he was able to tell me that Witlene and her family survived the quake, but their house, just off of Delmas, is completely destroyed!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please be in prayer for the people of Haiti.

PLease Pray for Haiti...

As many of you know... Haiti suffered the effects of an earthquake today with a magnitude of 7.3. Many after shocks of 5.0 and higher were felt for hours after. Here is an update from God's Littlest Angels Orphanage... (We help GLA with kids that need to go out on Medical Visas) Djemy and Jean Widler are from GLA. Sabrina also was from GLA. Here is an update from Dixie:
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NOTICE: WE ARE FINE AFTER THE 7.3 EARTHQUAKE. THE HOUSE SWAYED AND SHOOK. KNOCKED DOWN PEOPLE, KIDS, THE FOOD OFF THE STOVE FOR SUPPER, ALL OF MY GLASS WARE OUT OF THE CABINET, BUT WE ARE ALL OK! SHOOK UP A LITTLE, BUT OK! WILL POST MORE LATER! STILL HAVING AFTERSHOCKS AN HOUR AFTER THE MAIN EARTHQUAKE! PLEASE PRAY FOR US AND FOR HAITI!

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Here is a good article from Yahoo News:

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The strongest earthquake in more than 200 years rocked Haiti on Tuesday, collapsing a hospital where people screamed for help and heavily damaging the National Palace, U.N. peacekeeper headquarters and other buildings. U.S. officials reported bodies in the streets and an aid official described "total disaster and chaos."

United Nations officials said a large number of U.N. personnel were unaccounted for.

Communications were widely disrupted, making it impossible to get a full picture of damage as powerful aftershocks shook a desperately poor country where many buildings are flimsy. Electricity was out in some places.

Karel Zelenka, a Catholic Relief Services representative in Port-au-Prince, told U.S. colleagues before phone service failed that "there must be thousands of people dead," according to a spokeswoman for the aid group, Sara Fajardo.

"He reported that it was just total disaster and chaos, that there were clouds of dust surrounding Port-au-Prince," Fajardo said from the group's offices in Maryland.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington that embassy personnel were "literally in the dark" after power failed.

"They reported structures down. They reported a lot of walls down. They did see a number of bodies in the street and on the sidewalk that had been hit by debris. So clearly, there's going to be serious loss of life in this," he said.

Alain Le Roy, the U.N. peacekeeping chief in New York, said late Tuesday that the headquarters of the 9,000-member Haiti peacekeeping mission and other U.N. installations were seriously damaged.

"Contacts with the U.N. on the ground have been severely hampered," Le Roy said in a statement, adding: "For the moment, a large number of personnel remain unaccounted for."

Felix Augustin, Haiti's consul general in New York, said a portion of the National Palace had disintegrated.

"Buildings collapsed all over the place," he said. "We have lives that are destroyed. ... It will take at least two or three days for people to know what's going on."

An Associated Press videographer saw the wrecked hospital in Petionville, a hillside Port-au-Prince district that is home to many diplomats and wealthy Haitians, as well as many poor people. Elsewhere in the capital, a U.S. government official reported seeing houses that had tumbled into a ravine.

Kenson Calixte of Boston spoke to an uncle and cousin in Port-au-Prince shortly after the earthquake by phone. He could hear screaming in the background as his relatives described the frantic scene in the streets. His uncle told him that a small hotel near their home had collapsed, with people inside.

"They told me it was total chaos, a lot of devastation," he said. More than four hours later, he still was not able to get them back on the phone for an update.

Haiti's ambassador to the U.S., Raymond Joseph, said from his Washington office that he spoke to President Rene Preval's chief of staff, Fritz Longchamp, just after the quake hit. He said Longchamp told him that "buildings were crumbling right and left" near the national palace. He too had not been able to get through by phone to Haiti since.

With phones down, some of the only communication came from social media such as Twitter. Richard Morse, a well-known musician who manages the famed Olafson Hotel, kept up a stream of dispatches on the aftershocks and damage reports. The news, based mostly on second-hand reports and photos, was disturbing, with people screaming in fear and roads blocked with debris. Belair, a slum even in the best of times, was said to be "a broken mess."

The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.0 and was centered about 10 miles (15 kilometers) west of Port-au-Prince at a depth of 5 miles (8 kilometers), the U.S. Geological Survey said. USGS geophysicist Kristin Marano called it the strongest earthquake since 1770 in what is now Haiti. In 1946, a magnitude-8.1 quake struck the Dominican Republic and also shook Haiti, producing a tsunami that killed 1,790 people.

The temblor appeared to have occurred along a strike-slip fault, where one side of a vertical fault slips horizontally past the other, said earthquake expert Tom Jordan at the University of Southern California. The earthquake's size and proximity to populated Port-au-Prince likely caused widespread casualties and structural damage, he said.

"It's going to be a real killer," he said. "Whenever something like this happens, you just hope for the best."

Most of Haiti's 9 million people are desperately poor, and after years of political instability the country has no real construction standards. In November 2008, following the collapse of a school in Petionville, the mayor of Port-au-Prince estimated about 60 percent of the buildings were shoddily built and unsafe in normal circumstances.

Tuesday's quake was felt in the Dominican Republic, which shares a border with Haiti on the island of Hispaniola, and some panicked residents in the capital of Santo Domingo fled from their shaking homes. But no major damage was reported there.

In eastern Cuba, houses shook but there were also no reports of significant damage.

"We felt it very strongly and I would say for a long time. We had time to evacuate," said Monsignor Dionisio Garcia, archbishop of Santiago.

The few reports emerging from Haiti made clear the country had suffered extensive damage.

"Everybody is just totally, totally freaked out and shaken," said Henry Bahn, a U.S. Department of Agriculture official visiting Port-au-Prince. "The sky is just gray with dust."

Bahn said he was walking to his hotel room when the ground began to shake.

"I just held on and bounced across the wall," he said. "I just hear a tremendous amount of noise and shouting and screaming in the distance."

Bahn said there were rocks strewn about and he saw a ravine where several homes had stood: "It's just full of collapsed walls and rubble and barbed wire."

In the community of Thomassin, just outside Port-au-Prince, Alain Denis said neighbors told him the only road to the capital had been cut but that phones were all dead so it was hard to determine the extent of the damage.

"At this point, everything is a rumor," he said. "It's dark. It's nighttime."

Former President Bill Clinton, the U.N.'s special envoy for Haiti, issued a statement saying his office would do whatever he could to help the nation recover and rebuild.

"My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti," he said.

President Barack Obama ordered U.S. officials to start preparing in case humanitarian assistance was needed.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said his government planned to send a military aircraft carrying canned foods, medicine and drinking water and also would dispatch a team of 50 rescue workers

Haitian musician Wyclef Jean urged his fans to donate to earthquake relief efforts, saying he had received text messages from his homeland reporting that many people had died.

"We must think ahead for the aftershock, the people will need food, medicine, shelter, etc.," Jean said on his Web site.

Brazil's government was trying to re-establish communications with its embassy and military personnel in Haiti late Tuesday, according to the G1 Web site of Globo TV. Brazil leads a 9,000-member U.N. peacekeeping force there.

Felix Augustin, Haiti's consul general in New York, said he was concerned about everyone in Haiti, including his relatives.

"Communication is absolutely impossible," he said. "I've been trying to call my ministry and I cannot get through. ... It's mind-boggling."

Yahoo News
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PLEASE PRAY FOR HAITI AND HER PEOPLE!!!

Flamanda's Return Home

On December 28th I traveled to Haiti to return Flamanda to her mother. It was a long day flying back but Flamanda did great.

Her mom was super surprised. She did not know I was comming. She only knew Flamanda was comming home that week. She as you can see she is covered with mud. She had a big bucket and had been gathering mud to patch their mud hut. What a life. I cannot imagine. It was dark by the time we arrived. I left her with a few supplies and returned the next day to give her everything else we had brought for Flamanda and her brother. They live in a 10ft x 10ft sq mud box. Everything we brought filled up half her house. There was a small bed and a table, that was it. When I arrived the next day she was doing laundry in basins by hand. Again I cannot imagine. She said Flamanda had a difficult time falling asleep that night, she just kept looking around in the dark. Im sure it will take her a while to readjust to being home.
We left her mom with lots of food and formula. We hope she transitions well to Haitian food.
Thanks for all the prayers for her. It was a great honor to be a part of her journey from beginning to end. We are so thankful for Beaumont Hospital in MI and Dr. Zakalik for donating her surgery.
Steph