Handful of Hope in Haiti

Packed with prayer and care at the HCJB Global Technology Center, 100 small solar-powered, fixed-tuned radios are now in Haitians’ hands, thanks to members of a medical emergency response team from Ecuador now seeing patients in the Caribbean nation.

The SonSet® radios, pre-tuned to local Christian radio outlets, are working well, said Hermann Schirmacher, a German engineer who is leading the nine-person team from HCJB Global Hands in Ecuador. “At least two of the four pre-tuned frequencies usually come in very well,” he explained.

The sets were brought from the U.S. by fellow engineer, New Zealander Alex Weir, even as the medical professionals had arrived with Schirmacher from Ecuador on Saturday, March 20.

To read the rest of the story, please click HERE.

And to see MANY MORE PHOTOS, please click HERE.

Field Trip

A little while ago, Nathan went his first field trip with the kids from the little day care that he attends about 9 hours a week. The day care is called House of Dreams (in English, no less) and is a great place for Nathan to play, learn and develop his social skills while I try to get a few things done at the Extreme Response office or run errands or just do whatever else needs to be done!

Anyways, the kids all went to a "finca" (little farm), located very near to the actual equator line - about 15 minutes north of the city. Because of where our house is located, it was easier for me to take Nathan directly to the finca rather than meet the group at the day care. And I was glad that I went as it was so much fun to see the little kids running around, looking at ducks, turtles, rabbits and birds and just having a great time. Here are a few photos from the outing . . .

This is Nathan and Bettina - the daughter of one of our missionary friends from Switzerland - they were checking out the ducks!

I just love this photos of all the kids climbing the fence so that they can see - I'll let you all guess at who was the first to climb up!?!?!

Nathan was really fascinated with the turtle and talked about it for days.



Getting a group photo with lots of little kids is not the easiest thing!


Then, climbing the trees became the next fun thing to do!

Family Yard Day

On Sunday, we worked outside as a family - trying to clean up our yard some and just do all those odds and ends that need to be done. We've tried to do this before, but it always seems like Nathan gets bored really quickly and starts getting in the way, or wants to go inside or just wants to play.

But this time, we really enjoyed a couple of hours outside as a family, with Nathan helping to rake and pick up the cut grass. He later got distracted with all the seeds from the eucalyptus trees we have around and started collecting those (which was totally fine as it kept him "busy" for quite a while). In the meantime, Isabella just hung out in her infant seat in the stroller, happily staring at the trees and the skies (which Nathan ever would have done at her age).

It was fun to be together as a family and also get some work done! The yard looks extra nice today after a nice rain last night.

More info on the HCJB Team in Haiti

A second team of HCJB Global healthcare workers plans to travel from Ecuador to Haiti on March 20 to assist victims of the Jan. 12 devastating earthquake, even as team leader Hermann Schirmacher is exploring mission training possibilities there. The first team of physicians worked alongside Samaritan’s Purse Jan. 15-24 at the Baptist Haiti Mission (BHM) Hospital in Port-au Prince.

“When the first team came, there was a lot of chaos and trauma, especially during the first few days,” said Melissa Strickland, communications liaison at Samaritan’s Purse. “What we’re seeing now is mostly infections, diseases and things like that.”

Flying north from Quito, the nine-member team will again work with Samaritan’s Purse and BHM for two weeks. Team members include five medical doctors, two nurses and two engineers.

To read more . . . please click HERE.

Isabella is 6 months old today!

It's hard to believe that 6 months have gone by since Isabella joined our family. . . . and she's hit several milestones: rolling over, scooting around (not quite crawling), almost sitting up, cooing and laughing and most recently, eating solids (rice and oat cereal and bananas - this week we're going to start on avocados). She truly is so much more calm than Nathan ever was . . . .yesterday we spent the afternoon as a family working out in the yard and she happily played in her stroller, looking at the trees and the sky and never cried once! Nathan would never have been content to do that. We are grateful for the gift of little Isabella in our lives!

And here's a little reminder of our sweet Isabella when she was born!

Haiti Relief

HCJB Global is sending a 2nd team of doctors, nurses and other staff to Haiti today. They will be there until April 3, doing relief work at the Baptist Haiti Mission Hospital (where the 1st team went). Please pray for this team as they travel today and for God to use them while in Haiti.

Click here for more information on the Baptist Haiti Mission Hospital.

As I have more updates, I will post them here.

Changing lives for the Kingdom . . .

Angel Tapia tells of seeing God work in big ways and small since he decided to follow Christ while a patient at Hospital Vozandes, HCJB Global's hospital in Quito.

There was the day he needed bus fare for the trip into Quito for a checkup. But Angel’s wife, Patricia, wanted to buy a chicken for lunch. Seemingly a small matter … and even smaller when you consider that Angel was near death when he came under the care of missionaries Dr. Dick Douce and nurse Rita Whaley.

Please click here to read the entire story.