In January of this year I received a call from our good friends Gregg and Gail Ennis, missionaries in Haiti. Gail was feeling overwhelmed by a new project that she had undertaken in October of 2006. Her job was to improve processes and procedures in a 35-bed hospital located in Dessalines (a rural city). She asked if I could come help for three weeks; three weeks later I arrived in Haiti! For three weeks we worked on patient records, which had not been looked at since 1987. We worked day and night and didn't even make a dent in the project.

At the end of my three weeks I left Haiti with a heavy heart. Not only was the job not finished, our missionary friends were hurting in ways that I had never seen them hurt in 17 years of serving. Their hearts were heavy with concerns for the lost, the many needs at the hospital, and the lack of funds, just to name a few. Thank God for LifeGroups so that Randy and I did not have to carry the burden alone. Our LifeGroup began to pray for Gregg and Gail and their needs as Randy and I planned a return trip.

As we made our plans, God was designing His own plan (sound familiar?). Each year we have a Haiti fund that we keep back for use on projects. This year we were shocked to see that our taxes had nearly tripled over last year and as of April 15th our Haiti funds were nonexistent! We began to pray but were devastated at the same time. Our plane reservations had been made but we had nothing to take for the projects that we hoped to help with.

Then God started to work… some friends from 121 whom we rarely see “bumped into” Randy and in a matter of minutes they offered $1000 to help paint the hospital. Then our LifeGroup pitched in and we were amazed at their generosity. One week a newsletter from Randy's office came in the mail telling about a new matching funds program. All this time, in the back of my mind I had a wild dream to build a house for a widow lady who lived just outside the gate where we stay. An anonymous giver from 121 who has a heart for widows and orphans gave money specifically for a house. Our Financial Adviser from Indiana even wanted in on the giving.

One month later we had over $8000 (more than double what we would have taken). We had all the finances we needed to do all that God wanted to do. Randy painted and did maintenance type stuff, I worked on patient records, and the local church had funds to build a much needed home for a widow lady in their church. We stayed for a month and had a wonderful time.

Since my patient records were still not done I returned for a final six weeks. What a privilege it has been to serve God in this awesome way! Pictured here is Macine Joseph in her new home – I would have loved to have been a mouse in the house and seen that day. The caption could be “The House that God Built”.