Helping The Hurting
// Jeanne DeTellis Loudon
Thirty-five years ago, nurses Cindy Smith and Diane Vrooman, from Calvary Evangelistic Center in Worcester, Massachusetts, packed a suitcase with medication and came to Haiti.
The next morning, with just two chairs and a table made out of pallets, they saw their first patients—twin sisters Jessica and Jennifer—daughters of Felicia from Bord-Mer. Felicia was our first mission cook, and most important of all is her Christian testimony.
Thirty-five years ago, we began our clinic ministry outdoors on a wooden table under coconut trees.
Health education through our clinic ministry happens each day in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. We prefer to take an aggressive approach in preventing disease. Medical education empowers people to help themselves. When people are hurting, they need a smile, a touch of love, and a solution to their pain. God prepares our team of medical professionals with His Word, wisdom, and compassion—plus the proper equipment, skills, and medications.
Over the years in Haiti, we have seen graduates of our schools become nurses and doctors—who are now equipped to treat the communities we serve. From midwives arriving in the middle of the night to help deliver a baby, to nurses at our schools helping a child who is suffering from a fever, we are responding to the medical needs of the children and their families. Medical care is administered through our two medical clinics in Haiti. One is located in Bire on the Leogane Plain, and the other, Hope Medical Center, is located in the mountains of Tom Gateau.
Changing the life of a child happens with medical care and God’s love.
The Dominican Republic has a free health center that is open five days a week. It is staffed with a doctor, and provides specialty services including ultrasounds. Miguel Angel Nunez had an accident seven years ago that developed into a serious ulcer on his leg—compounded by the discovery of type 2 diabetes. He has been treated daily by our doctor, who cleans the wound and applies sterile dressing changes. Thank God, Miguel is now working again and supporting his family of six children as a motorconcho (motorcycle taxi), and he also makes and sells delicious coconut desserts. Miguel says our health center is his second family.
Miguel, who receives wound treatment, says our health center in the DR is his second family.
Your prayers and financial support make it possible for us to help the hurting. You empower our medical staff to be the healing hands of Jesus—touching people in their time of sickness. ~Jeanne DeTellis Loudon
