Cholera in Haiti

We are asking for special prayer for Haiti today. The cholera outbreak is getting significantly worse and increasingly closer to the villages we minister to. At this point, there is no case in Titanyen, but unless the Lord intervenes, it will be there shortly. We are praying for special protection for our employees and their families, our school kids and teachers, and all our ministry partners at the church and many friends we have in the village. We are in very little danger on the compound as we have clean, treated water and sanitary conditions for all who are here (more and more medical people are arriving to work with both Samaritan's Purse and North Carolina Baptist Relief on their medical teams in the cholera tents.) Susan Bruns, our fellow nurse, has worked 3 shifts so far at a clinic about 40 min. north of us and Sheryl has been at the schools and in the village doing cholera teaching and providing water-treatment products to our employees and schools. We would love to be able to give aqua-tabs to everyone in Titanyen, but the supplies have been slow in arriving. SP was able to get a plane with IV fluids and the tabs here by Friday, but it had to go into customs and we had been praying for a quick release. They were able to get the supplies late yesterday afternoon as IV supplies were getting dangerously low, so that was a big answer to prayer.


We are assisting the small clinic down the road with IVs, supplies, and medical help as they treat cholera patients coming from about 10 min. down the road. Yesterday, a 15- year old girl from Minotree, a small village just 5 min. away, died at the clinic even after receiving IV fluids. The disease comes on so rapidly and if they are severely infected, they can die within hours. People are becoming very fearful and we are praying for God's peace and presence to be felt in a great way over our zone at this time. We will not be treating any cholera patients at our clinic-if they come, we will triage them and send them down to the end of our road where they have tents set up to receive them. We need to continue with our burn care and do not have room for overnight patients or isolating patients. Burn patients have low immunity and would be very suseptable to cholera because of their compromised immune system.


The cholera outbreak is starting to cause violent demonstrations and with Presendtial elections less than two weeks away, there is concern that violence will increase. Please pray for peace and calm and for wisdom and endurance and perseverance to deal with this crisis. We do know without a doubt that God is in control and He will be glorified even in this!


Thank you so much for standing with us in prayer.


Chris and Sheryl

Glen is still in HAiti and will be returning to Colorado on Friday night.