Since my last update, I have become obsessed. Literally obsessed. With prosthetics!!! The hope it gives people... the art involved in making them… the one on one time spending with patients, encouraging them and counseling them…it is flat out incredible.
I think last week was my favorite week I have had thus far in Haiti… I got to see a 2 year old little girl, Stevensya, STAND for the first time in her LIFE!! She was born with a leg deformity, so is missing nearly everything below her knee on her right leg. Her mom brought her in on Tuesday, completely hopeless, and skeptical that we could actually make a leg for her daughter. I could tell she didn’t believe me when I said that soon she would walk just like the other little kids. From the minute they walked through the doors on Tuesday, I could not stop thinking about Friday, the day she would receive her new leg!
Immediately after they left, Harold (the prosthetist on site for 2 weeks) and I got to work. He had been teaching me all throughout the week, and I was ecstatic when he let me do a few things for Stevensya’s first leg. As I was working on it, I remember thinking, “There is literally NOTHING on this planet I would rather be doing right now than building this little girl’s leg. Nothing!”
I think last week was my favorite week I have had thus far in Haiti… I got to see a 2 year old little girl, Stevensya, STAND for the first time in her LIFE!! She was born with a leg deformity, so is missing nearly everything below her knee on her right leg. Her mom brought her in on Tuesday, completely hopeless, and skeptical that we could actually make a leg for her daughter. I could tell she didn’t believe me when I said that soon she would walk just like the other little kids. From the minute they walked through the doors on Tuesday, I could not stop thinking about Friday, the day she would receive her new leg!
Immediately after they left, Harold (the prosthetist on site for 2 weeks) and I got to work. He had been teaching me all throughout the week, and I was ecstatic when he let me do a few things for Stevensya’s first leg. As I was working on it, I remember thinking, “There is literally NOTHING on this planet I would rather be doing right now than building this little girl’s leg. Nothing!”
Trying to paint the white foot brown!
filing the leg so it is nice and smooth :)
So Friday morning, Stevensya and her mom came bright and early to see if what we promised was true. The leg fit perfectly! She was able to stand on it, but didn’t have enough strength to walk on it yet, which is completely normal. I will keep you updated throughout her journey as she will be coming back every week for check-ups and physical therapy.
On the wall of our prosthetics lab, it says “Behold, I am making all things new” (in Creole), Rev. 21:5. When we sent this precious momma and 2 legged daughter on their way, Harold and I gave her a note, encouraging the mom to help Stevensya on this journey, and promising that we will always be here to help her and revise her leg as she grows. I read the letter out loud to her, and at the end, shared this promise with her, and that God is making Stevensya new too. Tears flooded my eyes, and her mom nodded and said she knew.
God is so faithful. And He TRULY is making all things new!
On the wall of our prosthetics lab, it says “Behold, I am making all things new” (in Creole), Rev. 21:5. When we sent this precious momma and 2 legged daughter on their way, Harold and I gave her a note, encouraging the mom to help Stevensya on this journey, and promising that we will always be here to help her and revise her leg as she grows. I read the letter out loud to her, and at the end, shared this promise with her, and that God is making Stevensya new too. Tears flooded my eyes, and her mom nodded and said she knew.
God is so faithful. And He TRULY is making all things new!
Stevensya wearing her new little leg! This is her twin brother on the left.
At one point, Stevensya curiously trying out her new leg.. she is standing on her prosthetic leg while lifting up her good leg!
I recently read an incredible article on “Where is God in Haiti?,” by the president of World Vision. It is DEFINITELY worth reading..:
Since the devastating earthquake in Haiti, who of us has not asked the question, “Where was God?” The sudden deaths of so many innocent people and the staggering human suffering that persists seem to mock the very notion of a loving God. Where is God in Haiti?
There was another time that God was mocked in the face of suffering and evil. It happened on Calvary as Jesus Christ, God’s own son, was spat upon, beaten, and hanged on a cross. And people asked, where was God then? If he was God, why didn’t he save himself?
God had another way. On that cross, Jesus faced all the evil that ever was or ever would be. He took upon himself the sins of mankind, the evils of injustice, the pain of suffering and loss, the brokenness of the world. He felt every pain and took every punishment for every person who would ever live.
Where is God in Haiti? Christ is not distant from us in our times of suffering. He lies crushed under the weight of concrete walls. He lies wounded in the street with his legs broken. He walks homeless and hungry through the camps. He weeps uncontrollably over the child he has lost.
Where is God in Haiti? He hangs bloody on the cross: “A man of sorrows, and familiar with our suffering” (Isaiah 53:3).
“But where is hope?” we might ask. Here, alas, we need to see something not easily seen from human perspective. We, not God, are trapped in time. We, not God, see only in part and cannot yet see the whole. We, not God, must wait for that day when “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:4).
What then must we do? Unlike God, we live in the time between the already and not yet, and we must wait until then. Until then, we are commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves. Until then, we are called to comfort the afflicted; give food to the hungry and water to the thirsty. Until then, we are to shelter the homeless, clothe the naked, and grieve with the grieving. Until then, we are to care for the widow, the orphan, the alien, and the stranger.
We are to let our light so shine before others that they might see our good deeds and give glory to our Father in heaven. Until then, as the apostle Paul wrote, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors … as though God were making his appeal through us” (2 Corinthians 5:20). Until then, we must show forth God’s deep love for Haiti.
I continue to be amazed at God’s faithfulness here.
He is good.
Since the devastating earthquake in Haiti, who of us has not asked the question, “Where was God?” The sudden deaths of so many innocent people and the staggering human suffering that persists seem to mock the very notion of a loving God. Where is God in Haiti?
There was another time that God was mocked in the face of suffering and evil. It happened on Calvary as Jesus Christ, God’s own son, was spat upon, beaten, and hanged on a cross. And people asked, where was God then? If he was God, why didn’t he save himself?
God had another way. On that cross, Jesus faced all the evil that ever was or ever would be. He took upon himself the sins of mankind, the evils of injustice, the pain of suffering and loss, the brokenness of the world. He felt every pain and took every punishment for every person who would ever live.
Where is God in Haiti? Christ is not distant from us in our times of suffering. He lies crushed under the weight of concrete walls. He lies wounded in the street with his legs broken. He walks homeless and hungry through the camps. He weeps uncontrollably over the child he has lost.
Where is God in Haiti? He hangs bloody on the cross: “A man of sorrows, and familiar with our suffering” (Isaiah 53:3).
“But where is hope?” we might ask. Here, alas, we need to see something not easily seen from human perspective. We, not God, are trapped in time. We, not God, see only in part and cannot yet see the whole. We, not God, must wait for that day when “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:4).
What then must we do? Unlike God, we live in the time between the already and not yet, and we must wait until then. Until then, we are commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves. Until then, we are called to comfort the afflicted; give food to the hungry and water to the thirsty. Until then, we are to shelter the homeless, clothe the naked, and grieve with the grieving. Until then, we are to care for the widow, the orphan, the alien, and the stranger.
We are to let our light so shine before others that they might see our good deeds and give glory to our Father in heaven. Until then, as the apostle Paul wrote, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors … as though God were making his appeal through us” (2 Corinthians 5:20). Until then, we must show forth God’s deep love for Haiti.
I continue to be amazed at God’s faithfulness here.
He is good.
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