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

Flexibility is key for the Haiti medical team

by Sarah Hudson

The Haiti medical team quickly learned that flexibility is necessary when following the will of God.

LC's Sarah Hudson continues her series of articles on her trip to Haiti last week with the medical mission team organized by LC's Chief of Security, Dwayne Rogers:

Dwayne Rogers, Chief of Security at Louisiana College, and his 14-person team quickly learned the meaning of flexibility during their week long journey in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

After the massive earthquake in Haiti on Jan. 12, Rogers assembled a medical team to do relief work in Haiti and the Dominican Republic for 8 days. The original plans were to have the entire team on staff at the Good Samaritan Hospital in the border town of Jimani, Dominican Republic. After only a few hours in country, plans began to change.

From Monday, Feb. 22 until Thursday, the five nurses and one doctor from the team stayed in Jimani to work at Good Samaritan, and the rest of the team, including two doctors, traveled into Haiti to Bethel Mission Outreach orphanage in Croix des Bouquets near Port au Prince.

At Good Samaritan Hospital, Dr. Dana Mays became the Medical Director of the hospital for the week because of her experience as a general practitioner.

The team at Good Samaritan worked 12 hour shifts every day, and some worked the night shift from 8 p.m. until 8 a.m.

Although the Good Samaritan group wanted to be in Haiti working closer to the earthquake damage, they learned how to be flexible and allow God to make and change plans in his own timing.

“I’ve been trying to live by Philippians 2:14 and 15 this week. ‘Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe’,” said Mays, after a long week of work.

Mays explained that she joined this medical team to be used for God’s purposes and not her own.

“I really felt like at the hospital, a lot of people (volunteers) there were not Christian and were not dependable,” Mays said. “We needed to show that we were committed and faithful. Maybe that was our purpose: to show that we are dependable as Christians.”

Johile Curtis is a Registered Nurse in the Emergency Room at home, but during his time at Good Samaritan he was assigned to work in the Intensive Care Unit. Plans remained the same during his first day of work, but before the week was over he found himself working every area of the hospital.

“I was tossed around and I just said that I would do whatever was needed,” Curtis said.

The team members at Good Samaritan learned that God works in ways that are often much different than we tend to think, but he always knows what he is doing. While they thought that they would just be giving medical care to earthquake victims, Curtis said that he noticed another reason for their stay at Good Samaritan.

“I honestly think that we were there to set up for the IMB (International Mission Board) and missionaries here (Dominican Republic) so that anyone who comes here through them would be seen as dependable,” Curtis said.

The team noticed that many of the volunteers at Good Samaritan would not show up on time or even at all on some days, and the Dominicans running the hospital came to rely heavily on them to keep things in order.

Lisa Miles, an RN in Pediatrics, arrived in the Dominican Republic expecting to work during the day and hopefully with children, but also finished the week off working in every area of the hospital.

“I started on nights, for two nights in a row, and then showed up for my third night and they told me to come back the next morning instead,” Miles said. “God knew I could work nights when other people on the team couldn’t, so I just tried to do everything without complaints.”

As a pediatric nurse, Miles had never worked with adults before. On her second night of work she found herself in the ICU working with all adults.

“There was a lot of flexibility,” Miles said. “Every five minutes plans changed, but God has a reason for how everything has happened. I may never know it, but there is a reason.”

In Haiti, the second half of the team also learned to adjust plans and be flexible whenever it was necessary.

On the day of arrival the team learned that they would be sleeping in tents at the orphanage, eating meals with the children, which would sometimes only be once or twice a day and setting up medical clinics outside in the dirt on benches and small tables.

“Life turns on a dime,” team member Audis Dawson said. “You get a game plan going, but events change. You have to learn patience.”

Dawson is not a medical professional, but felt the call of God to work in Haiti after the earthquake and found his way onto this medical team. He worked in any way that was needed, but mostly helped to run the pharmacy in the clinics.

He counted pills and bagged them, brought bottles of water to the team and loved on the children at the orphanage. He did all of this with a smile on his face.

“Go with the flow and with a smile on your face,” Dawson said. “Sometimes that can make someone’s entire day.”

On Wednesday and Thursday, the team at the orphanage went to a nearby school to set up the clinic and see many of the children and adults in the community. On two different occasions, the transportation to the school did not show up and the team had to walk over one mile carrying supplies in the heat with the sun beating down on them.

Dr. Martin Langston, who works in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Pain Management, jokingly recalled that the walk to the clinic was like a death march.

“It reminded me of hiking in the Himalayas in India in the heat of the day, but we certainly had a purpose,” Langston said.

The walk brought the team on dirt roads and through fields, passing many of the people in the area and also a Voodoo house.

“We were able to see the area and the people around calling out our names,” Langston said. “It was up close and personal. I just wished I had my true hiking gear for that.”

Langston recalled that the team kept a good spirit, even while hauling heavy medical supplies, backpacks and water.

As the entire 14-person team was reunited on Thursday, they discussed that the purpose of the trip was to serve the Haitians and Dominicans in whatever ways God saw fit. During the team meeting that night, team leader Dwayne Rogers reminded the group that their flexibility was the key to seeing the Lord’s work fulfilled.

“So much has been done this week through this team,” Rogers said. “We may not know the positive effects that we’ve had on these people until eternity, but God knows.”

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