My Week With The Elderly

I love the children at Grace Village and feel so blessed to have been able to spend the week staying with them. I have watched them grow the past three years and it's been a wonderful experience. I got to meet the new additions to Grace Village this week and spend time getting to know them.

I also got to spend a lot of time with the Elderly of Titanyen. They stole my heart.
There were a few I really wanted to check on the first day so I am happy to report that they are doing well.
Antonia's bedsores are healing, Angeline said she felt better, Edmond is always full of love.

Thursday the kids went to the beach and I stayed behind to have a spa day with some of the elderly at Grace Village.  I first picked up 4 of them and brought them up to take a shower.  I could hear the men laughing while they were showering. Then I fed them peanut butter sandwiches and gave them some juice.
Then it was Marie's turn. She is about 103 years old. I had to help her a little, but she was singing and laughing. Then I dropped them off and picked up another 3 to do the same. After they ate I rubbed lotion on their skin and wish I knew Creole to ask them about their lives. What they have seen, how they have survived. With the average life span being about 53 I can't imagine the stories I would hear. One day I will come down here only to sit and listen.
Then I got to go deliver the meals on wheels to the 10 elderly Healing Haiti feeds everyday.Henry Claude, our Haitian elderly worker let me go deliver the meals myself.  I loved it. I blessed each one as I delivered the food.
Then I went back to Grace Village and Henry Claude went to check on some of the elderly we did not feed.
I thought my day was finished until he came back and said some of them were not feeling well. So off we went to deliver pain meds and cough syrup and other things to those who needed it.
My heart just breaks for them. What do they do when they are sick? Who will take care of them? Most of their families are already gone. They have lived through so much. Are they ready to move on from this place and meet their Savior? What keeps them here?
One of my top priorities of being down here was to get a man named Dieufort to the lab for tests. He has been waiting for a month to get this done. So I told him I would bring him on Friday morning, be ready at 7am because we had to go downtown Port Au Prince.
Friday morning Fanfan and I picked him up we arrived at the lab about 8:30, I gave the receptionist his papers and she asked him if he ate anything in the morning. He said yes and she said then no test. My heart sank. The look on his face was so sad. She said come back tomorrow. Oh how that hurt.
So we planned to bring him again on Saturday. I told him he could eat but not in the morning.
Saturday morning we picked him up again and off to the lab. We arrived around 9am, got our number and waited. Dieufort told us he didn't eat or sleep, he was so worried he wouldn't be able to have the test again.
After 2 hours he finally got in. When he came out they told us, come back Monday for the results.
Everything in Haiti is hard. I wish I could stay to bring him back and be with him when he finds out the results but I have to be obediant to what God's plans are.
I went with the team to do the elderly visits when we got back. One of the stops was Marie's house. Some of the kids who were with us sponser Marie. I asked her how she liked her shower. She said she never slept so well as the night after she had it. The sad thing about it was after the showers, I had to dress them in their dirty clothes. The kids all prayed over Marie before we left and she cried. We asked her if she needed anything and she wanted candy and cookies to sell so she could make a little money. Remember she is 103.
Sunday, Laura and I decided to bring Edmond, one of the elderly, up to Grace Village for the service.
Edmond is blind and very weak but we got him there. This was the blessing to end my week here. He was so happy.