I had a vision the other day.  It wasn’t a spiritual vision, but it did have spiritual implications.  I was standing on the newly completed floor of our new clinic, discussing with Engineer Nick Matthews where inner walls and doors were going to be placed.  As I did so, I envisioned in my mind what things would look like in each room when construction is completed.  I was standing in what is to be the Emergency Room, a place where we’ll receive patients who are brought to us on stretchers.  We won’t have cardiac monitors and oxygen tubing and resuscitation equipment like we have in US Emergency Rooms.  But, we’ll be able to evaluate patients, do some routine laboratory testing and give them medications to make them better.

Across from the ER is the procedure room, where I envision nurses doing dressing changes on patient wounds.  Perhaps we’ll have visiting surgeons perform some minor surgical procedures on patients who need cysts removed or hernias repaired.  Who knows?  Maybe we’ll even do some emergent deliveries in that room some day.  “We’ll have to keep an emergency OB kit handy,” I think to myself.

Down the hall is the Triage Room, where Cherlie will check vital signs, then the examination rooms, where I’ll be seeing patients.  “I hope we can still feel like family when we’re larger and more sophisticated,” I think.  The patients love having us greet them and talk with them in the morning at the start of our clinic sessions.  They laugh when Cherlie makes jokes about typical Haitian behavior because they know she’s telling the truth.  “”Don’t be using products to lighten your skin because it will make it tough and I can’t get an IV needle into it,” she says.  “You’re the color God wanted you to be and if you want to see what color that is, just look under your breasts.”  Those kinds of comments always bring laughter and nods of understanding.  We’ll have a larger waiting area outside and it will be covered with a concrete roof, so patients won’t get wet when it rains.  We’ll have more staff so we can see more patients and will have visiting physicians come help us once in a while.

My mind wanders as we measure hallways and door openings.  My office will be there and medical records down the hall.  “Maybe we’ll use the conference room to sleep in, so we don’t have to drive up and down the mountain every day,” I think.  “At least until we have a staff residence built up here to house us.”  Who knows what the future will bring?  For me, right there, today was enough.  I said a big prayer of thanks to the Lord for bringing us this far.  I can finally see the future and it’s not too far in the distance!

Here is a photo of the poured concrete floor of the clinic taken last week:

Clinic Floor

Continue to pray with us for good weather and a dump truck without breakdowns, so we can keep up the recent good progress!