Last Day for Team 3

2/21/10
Its Sunday morning...busy day ahead. We got up and out early and were at Carrefour at 7am to pick up Sybile and bring her to the hospital for her surgery. When we arrived we were amazed to see that the people of Carrefour had set up a tent for us to hold Sunday Service!!! It was so beautiful and just melted my heart! We told them yesterday we would hold service there, but we expected open air, so when we saw the tent we were just so amazed!! Unfortunately, Annie and I had to go and bring Sybile and her father to the hospital so we would not be able to make it back in time for the service.

Pastor Mimsie preached the first service at a church around the corner from the Carrfour Camp to about 200 people. Pastor Michel preached the second service at the Carrefour camp. They had a time of worship led by Juan and also had a time of testimonies from people at the camp. They said it was so inspiring how the people are still loving God through all of the tragedy and still maintain such a hope for a better future.

Both Sybile and her dad were so grateful to us for transporting them to the hospital and kept thanking us, but they were also nervous and had lots of questions. When we got to the hospital we discovered a specialist had arrived last night and was able to consult on the case and even do the surgery. He said that the lump was a fibroid and he could just do a lumpectomy and save her breast! Everyone was so happy...what an answer to prayer! Her surgery took 2 hours and she was able to go home that day. The other part I am not sure I shared before was that on Friday when they first saw her at the hospital the surgeon wanted to do the surgery that day and remove her whole breast, but the administrator insisted on a sonogram first. Since they didn´t have a sonogram machine that day we had to wait for Sunday. Now we know that was just God´s way of intervening and bringing us a specialist!!!

Since we were at the hospital we decided to check on Maxo, the man with the swollen face. One of the nurses told us that his surgery was delayed because 20 orphans came in yesterday because their orphange was shut down due to abuse and neglect. But this also just God intervening again because on Saturday a plastic surgeon had arrived and was able to consult on Maxo´s case and he is getting the best care possible for his face. He will have surgery today and go home tomorrow. Wow, God is just overwhleming us.

Annie and I couldn´t resist taking a peek at the orphans. They were all staying on the roof with the doctors. Annie and I went up to peek...they were soooo beautiful. They were mostly toddlers with a few little ones in playpens. They were so happy and playful despite their circumstances. Some did look very malnourished, but they will get a full medical work-up and then be replaced in another orphanage. Oh, and another God thing....we took down a suitcase of stuffed animals for the children we encountered, but were unable to give them out at the camps because there were too many kids and because we were just so busy with other ministry it just didn´t happen. So as we left for the hospital that morning I thought why not bring them to the hospital for sick kids. We were able to bring the stuffed animals to the orphans and there was one for every child!! Thank you Jesus!

AND ALL OF THIS HAPPENED BEFORE NOON!!! WOW!

All of the teams met back at home base, ate a woderful lunch made by Mama, took pictures, said our goodbyes and we were on the road to Santo Domingo. Because it was Sunday there was less traffic and we had a pretty smooth ride back. There were at least 5 checkpoints where Domincans were checking passports which slowed us down a bit. We finally checked into the hotel about 9pm and will have a night to rest before heading home tomorrow. Some of the team were not feeling well including our main guide Carla who had a bad stomach and fever for 2 days. Please keep her health in prayer.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support. We will be stateside soon!
Love from Tara, Annie, Mimsie and Michel