LC's whereabouts

Do you sometimes wonder how God gets his will done? I’m surprised sometimes how he uses circumstances to help out. It humbles me to see how he twists things, even sometimes against our will, to get us to do something. I had an example today that I’ll share.
Yesterday a friend of Canaan’s came because he had been translating in St Marc hospital and met someone he knew there (Richether). The limited story he gave didn’t make sense, but it was something like, they want us to take him to a different hospital, because here they won’t give him what he needs for his foot to get better and he wants to go elsewhere, to a bigger hospital (It already is the biggest hospital outside of Port). Now when someone tells me to go persuade other doctors to something, I tend to balk. And as a medical person, I know you don’t just switch doctors and hospitals like that, and especially in a time like now when all the hospitals are full and all the staff overworked. And if American doctors can’t help them, what can I do? Why come to me? So to me it seemed a wasted trip (30-40 minutes on bad roads), and on Sunday – the day I was hoping to be able to rest for a day.
But I went (thanks again, donors, for the new truck!). I walked into Richether’s room, and immediately Deb, the nurse I had taken there and now was head nurse) said “Oh Elsie, thank God you’re here! Help me get in an IV. The patient was losing it fast, unconscious; they were putting in an IV into his neck, as well as in his arm. After a bit we got it in, and the patient actually perked up a little after awhile. His name is Fritz (honestly, maybe that’s not so strange for you guys but it was the name of the tail-less monkey we used to have growing up), 38, and his whole left leg was bad. It was either taking it and part of his hip off in surgery, or shipping him to the Red Cross hospital boat, that is huge and fully equipped for ICU cases. We weren’t sure he’d even make it through surgery. Shipping him out was first choice but they couldn’t find a helicopter, nor even an ambulance. I told them I’d make a few calls. I tried a guy that had told me they had a helicopter for such situations, but he was out of the country. My missionary friends down the road have an ambulance but they said it wouldn’t be available for another 4 hours, and by then the patient probably wouldn’t live. One more option left to me: We have 2 guys here for a week. One is a Jewish soldier living in Florida, but with a Canadian passport, and a ‘let’s-get-it-done’ type of person – still quite military like in a lot of ways (interesting). He came to see what need there is, but kind of with the idea of setting up a convalescence field hospital. We’ve seen major need for patience that leave the hospitals and don’t take care of their wounds, and they get infected. It’s getting worse and worse. So the idea would be a place they could come and have some nurses to do all the wound care. (Please pray about it! We have to get supplies (like tents and mats, etc) first and that’s the hurdle, but it’s needed SO badly.) Anyway, he and some others went to Port again today to see if there’s that kind of patients on the streets that they could help – they did this yesterday too and found lots. Since we didn’t know what I would find in St Marc, they kind of went with the mentality of looking for help. So I called him and said “Davey, can you get me a helicopter?” They went to the Canadian Military and voila! A couple hours later and the patient was airborne. (I posted some pics on facebook – sorry, I just can’t post them here). (I found maybe I’m more patriotic than I think. I LOVE the fact that I’m able to work with the Canadians, since I’m Canadian – not that it makes a difference to the patients, thankfully-purely personal – no offense ☺ )
So when somebody asks you to do something, don’t be too quick to say no.
Now let me tell you a little about Richether, so you can pray for him. He’s 19, in college, and was planning on entering medical school next year. His dad died before and he’s the breadwinner for his mom and 2 sisters. His toes on left foot are necrotic (dead) and he’s got infection in his leg. The doctors want to amputate to save his life but he refused – says he can’t work and make a living for his mom and sisters. Also, he has had 4 people die in the bed next to him and he thinks he’s in that room because he will die too (the hospital is so full they use any bed). So I had him moved to a different area. On the way home, I persuaded his friend that took me to persuade him to allow them to amputate if that’s what was needed because if he died, it wouldn’t help either. God is good. I had to stop at the Pierre Payen hospital on the way home and there was a professional man, with a wooden leg. I asked him to go talk to the friend and show him there’s life after amputation. He will now go back, with pictures of this man, and tell the patient about prosthetic limbs. Which I know we will have access to in time: there’s people coming here to check out the possibility of a center for that.
Wonderful things are happening – almost too much to believe!! But it’s all still in the works. What did I learn today? If God wills something, he’ll find people to accomplish it.
Apparently, Tuesday some Jamaican and Canadians are coming in (same helicopter) to check out our “field hospital” possibilities. PRAY!

Please continue praying! I know so many of you do and I’m grateful!