Medical Team Serves Hundreds

A special thank you to Kristin Alvarez for providing this article     
     Last month our team of 15 had the immense pleasure of being able to treat 659 patients throughout our trip and show the love of Jesus through medical care. Our group saw patients during a time period of only 4 ½ days so the number of patients seen seems staggering. It never ceases to amaze me how God wakes us up each morning with a renewed strength to take on the crazy day ahead despite the constant lack of sleep. For anyone who has been to Haiti you know that the nights are definitely not quiet (generators, dogs, roosters, etc.)! 
Our God is a God of miracles and that was definitely evident this year in some of the patients that we saw and their miraculous recoveries.  We saw a young boy with an acutely dislocated hip, who was in excruciating pain and had extremely limited range of motion. This same boy walked into the room two days later completely healed after we sent him for an x-ray. I couldn’t believe that I witnessed a miracle happen right before my eyes, it is something that I will never forget.  

This year was unique in that we had a large enough of a team to split into two groups each day and serve in different locations.  One group was at the clinic in Pillatre each day and the other team did a pop-up clinic in Lory.  The road conditions on the way to Lory were a bit rough on account of the rain. The multiple trips back and forth were bumpy to say the least but Mackenson and Alex’s driving skills never cease to amaze!  However, being able to serve in Lory each day was an absolute blessing. As Lory is more medically underserved, it seems as if the line of people coming for care is never ending. Being able to be there multiple days in a row gave us an ability to see more patients and seemed to give an air of hope to the people coming. We also got to see tons of babies and kiddos at Lory which never hurts for us baby lovers and having a pediatrician on this trip made it extra special!

This trip we were also able to see patients at the Haitian prison.  This was a day that we prepared for heavily with the power of prayer because of how emotionally taxing we knew going to the prison was going to be. These men and women have been incarcerated for any and all reasons; some of these prisoners will be here for years before they even receive a trial, judgement, and sentence. There were cells with 70+ prisoners crammed into them. The prisoners are underfed, underserved, and in dire need of medical attention.  While patients were being seen, part of the team was able to visit cells and pass out Creole bibles as well as pray with the inmates. As hard as this day was, it was so encouraging to see the prisoner’s hunger for God’s Word and prayer.  Despite the conditions, there was much more hope than I had ever expected.  You think you are going in to encourage them and it ends up that they encourage you!  We were able to see 87 patients and fill all of their prescriptions in a very short amount of time which could only have been done with God’s power.  
 
It always amazes me how God can bring together a team of 15 people, who start mostly as strangers, and use them in mighty ways to fulfill His will and purpose. Everyone’s unique talents and gifts are utilized in the best way to form a collaborative unit as we serve others. Some are the mouthpiece (Tonjua), some may be the funny bone (Lyndsey) but we all get to be God’s hands and feet.  This being my second trip, I was completely struck with how much of a true partnership we have with Haitian Christian Ministries. We do not simply go for a week and take over the clinic; we come alongside the Haitian team and work beside them to serve the needs of the community.  I never had the pleasure of meeting Pastor Manno, but as he said, after you go to Haiti once, “Haiti’s got you”.  I know I speak for everyone on our team that Haiti has our hearts.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Financial Transparency and Accountability

We take very serious the proper stewardship of funds that are generously donated to support our brothers and sisters in Northern Haiti. We wanted to provide an overview of financial details of HCM. There are two primary sources of income: General fund and child sponsorship. We anticipate receiving approximately $527,000 from these sources in 2017. Approximately 65% comes via child sponsorship.

 

Category                                                                                                    Cost    % of budget

 

Salaries for Haitian Employees                                                         $244,572    46.4%

School feeding program                                                                      $108,000    20.4%

Campus operational expenses (Lory and Pillatre)                       $54,600      10.3%

Medical clinic expense (medicines)                                                $12,000        2.2%

Preaching and Teaching                                                                     $30,000        5.6%

Church planting                                                                                    $25,500        4.8%

Reserves for future needs (generator replacement etc.)            $15,000        2.8%

U.S. expenses                                                                                         $23,150        4.3%

Unallocated funds                                                                                 $14,178        2.7%

 

 

*HCM does not have any paid staff in the U.S., and is staffed by volunteers.  The U.S. expenses shown above are administrative costs of operating HCM, such as the cost of producing and mailing the newsletter.  

 

 

 

Any questions or concerns can be directed to Tom Moss at [email protected].