Highlights

Campus News

Wildcat Weekly Minute for Nov. 17, 2011

A look at what's happening on campus this week.

Faith

Cleansed through the Cross

Dr. Quarles speaks on the efficacy of Christ's sacrifice at weekly chapel

Sports

LC hoops teams wrap up homestand with pair of wins

Off to Ozarks, UT-Dallas next

Organizations

LC media student give to Toys for Tots

More than 100 toys will help local charity

Campus Life

February is Heart Health Awareness Month

Stay healthy and 'God Red'

Culture

All the Shakespeare you could laugh at… and more!

tlc's adaptation of 'Shakespeare Abridged' pulls out all the stops

Special Coverage

LC brings another successful ‘Follow the Star’

'Christmas on the Hill' and 'Gala' add to festive weekend

Children’s lives are changed at Bethel Mission Outreach orphanage

by Sarah Hudson

Louisiana Medical team works and worships with orphans in Haiti.

Driving into Croix des Bouquets, Haiti, the streets are lined with rubble from the recent earthquake. Haitians sit in front of their homes trying to continue life as usual. In front of unstable and fallen homes often stands a new makeshift home made of cardboard, tarp, sheets or whatever other material is readily available.

Croix des Bouquets is on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince; just a short drive, depending on traffic and the time of the day. Nestled a mile or so off-road, surrounded by Voodoo temples, sits Bethel Mission Outreach orphanage.

There are over 450 Voodoo temples within a 5-mile radius of the orphanage, but this does not hinder worship and praise being lifted up to Jesus Christ within the concrete walls of the orphanage.

Eight of the fourteen from the Louisiana medical mission team never imagined that they would be working and sleeping within these walls.

The original plan was to have the entire team work together at Good Samaritan hospital in Jimani, Dominican Republic, but with the hospital being overstaffed, the team split up to do separate work.

As the team arrived on day one at the orphanage they were greeted by David Gunter, a firefighter from Anniston, Ala.

Months before the earthquake on Jan. 12, Gunter planned his trip to Haiti. He had no idea that just two weeks before his arrival the earthquake would happen.

Upon his arrival in Haiti, Gunter saw a need so great that he decided to extend what was supposed to only be a two week stay, to a nearly six week stay.

With excitement in his voice, Gunter led the Louisiana team into the gates of the orphanage on Monday, Feb. 22.



Making new friends

Upon entering the gates, children of all ages excitedly ran to see who their new friends would be. Tugging on their arms with wide smiles, the children quickly wanted to make new friends with the eight “blancs” (foreigners).

Jay Hebert, a non-medical member of the team, remembers how the children were thrilled to have new friends.

“They started grabbing on to you and you just smile and talk to them,” Hebert said. “The kids wanted me to take pictures of them so they could see. They wanted to play with my cell phone. They wanted attention.”

Dwayne Rogers, team leader and Chief of Security at Louisiana College, recalled being overwhelmed at first.

“Their desire for attention was unreal,” Rogers said. “They loved being around us.”

During the four day stay at the orphanage, the team set up medical clinics at the orphanage and at a nearby school. The team saw 467 patients and handed out over 750 prescriptions.

“We saw the most colds and stomach aches,” Dr. Todd Pullin, Pediatrician in Eunica, La. said.

There were, however, several children with illnesses much more severe.

Late one night at the orphanage, a young girl was brought to Pullin with an eye infection so severe that her eyes were swollen shut. Pullin gave her eye drops, a simple medicine that is readily available in the United States, but that probably saved this girl’s life.

Howard Turner, team member and pastor at Live Oak Baptist Church in Denham Springs, La., recalls that the girl’s eye infection was worse than he had ever seen.

“The reality is, if we hadn’t come she probably would have gone blind,” Turner said. “Us being there was the difference in that little girl’s survival.”

Turner said that saving one child’s life makes the entire trip worthwhile.

“We take the most basic medical care for granted,” Turner said. “Eye drops. That’s what saved this girl.”

On the first day at the orphanage the doctors saw a two-year-old boy with a very large stomach. After Pullin examined the boy, it was discovered that he had a hernia and an enlarged liver. Only medical tests that the team could not provide would reveal if the child had cancer that needed to be treated.

Gunter, the firefighter from Ala., agreed to bring the boy to a hospital to have tests run.

“I’m just so thankful that you all were here,” Gunter said. “Without you, we would have never known what this little boy needed.”

As some of the team stood over the boy to pray, some wept over the magnitude of the situation.

“It’s just overwhelming to see so much need here,” Gunter said.



Let the little children come

The team noticed, though, that even with all of the need, the children worshipped daily. Before the Jan. 12 earthquake, the children spent 40 hours each week in worship. After the earthquake, that number was increased to 60.

“The amount of time that they spent in worship was overwhelming,” Rogers said. “It made me realize how much we are lacking.”

Hebert said that waking up to the children worship every morning from 4:00 a.m. until 6:00 a.m. was life changing for him.

“It’s embarrassing, really, that we take so much for granted,” Hebert said. “The time that we don’t spend in worship when we should, we blame it on a busy day.”

The man who founded and runs the orphanage, Pastor Gary Hyppolite, emphasized to the team how important it is for the children to have time for worship.

“When you see these kids praising God without electricity and in very different circumstances,” Hyppolite said. “I’m telling you, this is something to be wanted.”

As the team packed up their bags and prepared to return home, memories from the week flooded their minds. The children waved goodbye and continued on with their day, but each person on the Louisiana medical team realized that the faces of each child would remain etched in their memories.

“It’s a heart breaking situation,” Hebert said. “But we were blessed to have the opportunity to get to know these people.”

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