Haiti Presentation as Sermon Dec 7, 2014 Deacon Juan Sandoval - PDF document

Haiti Presentation as Sermon Dec 7, 2014 Deacon Juan Sandoval "Prepare the way of the Lord and his paths straight"- Amen Bon jour, Are we there yet? This is a question we often hear from children in the backseat of a car or as we approach an exciting event. It might be in anticipation of a visit to a relative, a vacation or even in anticipation of Christmas. Advent is a time of preparation for the new "wilderness" that each of us must continue to prepare for. The wilderness of Advent, a new church year, is before all of us. In recent weeks have heard about preparing and also how to treat our neighbors as Jesus told us in the Great Commandments.(I was thirsty, goats and sheep). So, how do we prepare? Prayers, meditation and Love. Daily prayer and corporate prayer- especially with new prayers as we light a new candle of Advent each week as we come closer to the glorious day of Christ's birth. Then, love God and neighbor in order to broaden the boundaries of the self so that all embracing and universal love is possible. We are called to love what God loves immensely and the act of loving our neighbors is, in fact, an act of worship. We are almost there. God does sometime answer our prayers quickly. Earlier this year, I told my wife that I had prayed for a mission trip to assist others using the gifts God has given me. In this case, the messenger was Terry Franzen. She had emailed me that she wished to speak to me. We met a few days later and as we spoke, she asked me what my interest might be in a medical mission trip to Haiti, and the rest is history. So, near the end of October, I found myself, along with others, setting foot in a new wilderness, a new land and a continued journey, and loving my new neighbors. Now, I wish to share some reflections and experiences during my visit to our neighbors in Haiti.  Friday: leaving USA and landing in POP Airport - an initial impression similar to other 3rd world countries I have visited. Going through POP - crowded, poor sanitation, traffic without signals, wonderfully colorful buses (individually owned) transporting many people and wares. 1

 Saturday: to Leogane: increased poverty, continued poor sanitation with trash everywhere. People crowding the streets, open air markets selling varied foods, water and wares.  Leogane: I noticed lots of ruble (remains of 2010 earthquake w blocks, metal, concrete all looking like missing puzzle pieces and buildings that were partially destroyed, very impressed with people carrying large items on their heads (baskets full of water bags, breads, fruit, etc), even as we got to St. Croix Hospital, destruction from the earthquake could still be found in different tiers of disarray. I think to myself, where is the good news here? I am saddened by this new wilderness and yet as I look at the faces of the people, I see smiles and hope.  Sunday - We travel about an hour to get to Jasmin and St. Joseph of Arimathea. At first, we travel on a paved road out of Leogane, the make a right turn onto a dirt and gravel road. It starts out easy to use, but then becomes more hazardous, steep with hairpin turns, large rocks/boulders on the road. The church is small but beautiful - I looked at the rafters - large tree branches, some tied together. We met with the lay leaders, acolytes and others. Parishioners trickled in at first, but were overflowing out of the doors for the service. The music was wonderful; I don't speak Creole, but tried singing the words from their hymnal. The service has the same format as our, using the BCP in Creole. I preached and Pere Kerwin translated - so it was lengthy. What I found interesting, as did Kerwin, that my sermon talked about Baptismal Covenant and it meaning - and we had 2 baptisms. When I wrote the sermon I did not know there were baptisms. Thank you God! You could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit at St. Joseph's - what a blessing. The baptisms were the whipped cream and cherry on top. I felt so accepted, especially as we passed the peace and I got many hugs from the children.  Sunday Eve - we continued separating drugs into baggies with labels for pharmacy distribution at our clinics (did I mention we also did this Saturday afternoon and evening?)  Monday - up early (as usual) ready for first clinic at St. Philipe. We used some of the school class area as our clinic. The children seemed very happy that we were there. We had 4 doctors - 2 American and 2 Haitians, 1 Haitian dentist and 1 Haitian optometrist plus 1 nurse and 5 nursing students and their instructor Evens, plus our wonderful pharmacy staff - Terry, Jeanne and Russ. Oh and me too. We saw many patients this day - it seemed like the line would never end, but slowly it did. So many thankful people that were so glad to have medical care, eye care and dental care. Saw lots of 2

HTN, GERD, respiratory and malaria. The day was warm and went by quickly. We returned to our rooms about 6pm, ate dinner and then counted/separated more drugs for the next day.  Tuesday: Off to Jasmin, using St. Joseph's church as our clinic. The altar was the lab, the vesting area was optometry, the pews -waiting area, the front area - triage, the entrance to the church was the pharmacy, 2 docs inside, 2 docs outside under tarps as well as the dentist. Many patients, many thanks for care. You came to see me when I was sick.  Wednesday: much the same as Tuesday. For these three days we saw 900 patients, fitted 300 for glasses and provided 80 dental procedures. Busy every day, except for a short lunch break. Everyone was great - just can't say enough. Our patients were wonderful too. Some walked 4-5 hours to come get care - Amazing!!! We returned to our rooms and started inventory of equipment and remaining meds.  Thursday - inventoried all morning, then that afternoon went to visit Kour Timoun National Children's Nutrition Center and the Nursing School (very impressive) and walked through the streets of Leogane.  Friday: -A day to relax - went to Jacmel, enjoyed their artist district with beautiful paper mache items. Beautiful waters to swim in. National road was very nice and the town was clean (they actually had trash cans). Very nice city.  Saturday - up very early to get back to POP and to make it through customs.  Other thoughts: Electricity, air conditioning, plumbing, trash pick up, animals (dogs, chickens, goats, cows), water. Oh and what would you like to drink? Coke, 7 up, Prestige or juice? Food - basics were rice and beans, fruits and vegetables, the "meat or poultry" served in small quantity - fish, meat, chicken, lamb, goat. Ah yes, loved the piklez (hot or hotter).  I must say we are both fortunate and spoiled by all that we have in the US of A. When we say God Bless America, think about the abundance we have received.  How do we prepare for a new wilderness? If you are going to Haiti you might prepare by doing the following: learn about the country, get appropriate immunizations, take appropriate clothing, spray your clothing with a "bug repellent", bring medications to curb or prevent certain disease processes, don't drink the tap water. Bring your passport. If you don't, what happens? Malaria, diarrhea, Chikungunya fever or dehydration, perhaps spend extended time in a foreign country. 3

Whatever the wilderness, we must prepare appropriately. Follow the Ten Commandments and the Great commandments. God has promised baptism and forgiveness to those who have confessed and repented of their sins. The poor, the homeless, the sick, the imprisoned and all of the marginalized are no longer excluded because of lack of resources. All God's people are our neighbors and we must be ready to give that unconditional love, the agape type love, to them. To broaden our boundaries of ourself. We put ourselves outside the boundaries and make that all embracing and universal love possible. Now we can "draw the circle wider". While this practice of loving God-Neighbor-Self is not something that is innate to our human capacity, It is a habit that we should practice in a loving and faith filled community, like the wonderful community at Christ Church. It must be practiced over and over through self and through our faith filled community. Our lives, the lives our neighbors and the lives of all depend on each of us developing this habit of loving and caring. We need to insure we are equipping ourselves to go into that "new wilderness" to not just survive, but to thrive . All this we can do with God's help, together! God is speaking to us a fresh word, if we only have ears to hear! We are almost there! AMEN 4