An Email


I just got an email from a sort of acquaintance from my college days. Actually Diane was one of the pastors of the church Jodie and I attended and Paul, her husband helped out with youth while he spent most of his time in the seminary in order to finish his graduate degree.

To be honest Diane and I were not all that close. She was certainly friendly but when push came to shove I was more of a person on the outskirts of her realm of influence. I really wasn’t all that great a guy. I certainly didn’t dress like a church leader. And it was maybe that self image that gave me the idea that neither Diana nor Paul really cared if they ever really “knew” me. I figure everybody has people in their lives like this so you probably understand the situation. Or maybe I’m just a paranoid.

Eventually Paul and Diane moved from Anderson and settled into a church somewhere up in Michigan. Then after a few years the news started coming that Paul was having some physical problems and was eventually diagnosed with cancer. It seems that Diana now works in a local hospice program while Paul continues to go in and out of remission and continues to have less and less strength for living daily life. But they keep on holding on with a faith far beyond anything that I could ever come up with. If life hit me hard like it has this lovely couple I would fold. Then she says how much she respects and appreciates our work here in Haiti.
John
That’s just not fair. I wasn’t ready for that one. Now don’t get me wrong, I want people to think highly of our contribution to life in Haiti. But I feel like a real nothing when good people who are struggling every day for their last breath continue to do far more in their neighborhood then I ever did.

And So It Goes. Not only in Haiti.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day will be here in exactly two more days. That is not a very hard thing to remember around our house. It's not that I'm a natural at those love kind of things but I am married to a lovely young lady who really gets into it. This is a picture of Jodelle (Jodie) my wife of 30 years now. Isn't she pretty? This is one of my favorite pictures of her. For some reason she doesn't take a very good smiling picture so I just have to enjoy this picture and imagine that she's telling me how much she enjoys me with her eyes. Actually she seems to get irritated with me when I say that she's not photogenic so I've given up trying to tell her that there are simply people who, EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE VERY BEAUTIFUL, are difficult to photograph well. Now, does that sound like criticism to you? You need not answer.

So anyway I just felt the need to introduce you to Jod. I am blessed beyond anyone I know to have found such a great wife. She even likes me and those persons are hard to come by. We have fun together, actually talk with each other every day, and try to make some time for each other. In the missionary field there are many couples who are forced to spend periods of time apart. I'm sorry but we don't do that unless absolutely necessary. When I got married I got spoiled at having this lady with me almost all the time and I don't do well when we're separated. At the end of May I will be leaving Haiti early for knee surgery and Jodie and Jessica will be flying in about two weeks later, which should give me a chance to get up and walking prior to their arrival. But know, I'm already living in fear of those days. As I said, I don't do well without her around.

And So It Goes!

John

Ain't This Neat?

I never really thought about where a cashew came from and how they got into those little cans. I only had three basic thoughts about them. First, I really liked to eat them. Secondly, they were really expensive. And thirdly, they are high calorie fat bombs. You can tell by the simplicity of my statement that I really had never done a lot of intense research on this topic. If I saw them in a dish at a wedding or grad party I would usually park myself near enough so that I could make the best of a nice situation. Other then that, well you can see how deep a thinker I am.

Last year at a missionary retreat that someone invited me to attend I found this little puppy on the table. Isn't it cute. These things grow on trees. Yes, one nut to a fruit! Get this! The nut that looks like an apple stem is encapsulated with a very tough pealing and below that pealing is a layer of very toxic pith (good word?) that covers the nut. So what this means is simply that Cashews are harvested by hand. Persons who clean the nut prior to roasting them must wear gloves to protect their hands and work hard to get the nut out. Then they go and sell it in a can for somewhere around $5.00. Can you imagine that? If I were doing that much work I would charge at least $50.00 for just my work. And we get a can of these for $5.00 or so. Doesn't that make you want to run to the store tonight and buy them out of this GREAT DEAL!

Isn't it amazing what you can learn on these blogs?

And So It Goes

When You Try To Help

This little guy is Nicodeme. I first met him at the Prospere clinic just this past Monday. He was a cute little kid. The complaints were that he had a fever, cold, cough, and he wasn't eating. These are the primary things that parents complain about with their children. So I checked him out. I found a light cough but very little conguestion in his chest. So I gave him someTylenol and cough medicine. It was not until I told them that they were free to go that Nicodeme's father let me know the real problems. He's not able to walk. "Well how old is he?" He seemed small to me. "28 months." "What?" So the REAL examination started. I allowed him to stand by holding onto a stool and although he was able to stand up he was certainly unable to walk.I then put Nicodeme on the exam table and checked him for congenital hip disorder and I believe this is what I'm looking at. I am hoping to be able to get him to go to a Haitian Orthropedic surgeon who will be able to give us a definite diagnosis through X-Rays. The two biggest problems for children like this is that their parents are working for about $3.00 a day and even if they had the money to cover some of these costs there are no surgeons in this country who does those surgeries. If you have any ideas let me know.

Now, the reason I get a little emotional about this situation has much to do with this little girl in the picture. Her name is Jacqueline Esther Ling Ackerman. At this time in her life we had just moved to Haiti and we were yet to know about our future dealings for our little girl. By the time she became 16 months old she was just starting to begin to walk and when she did it was with a great deal of pain and difficulty. Due to some special friends and a geat pediatrician, Jacquie was blessed to be able to go to the Shriner's Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, who came to her rescue when she was in need. After a few months of braces, casting, and more braces she began to catch up with other children.Wouldn't it be great if all children of the world would be so blessed? And so it goes!

John

Jacquie at 3 months

It has been quite some time since I have done anything on the blog. I had a rough start and after working on it for quite a while to get it worked out someone stole my pictures! Yes, one day they were in my blog and the next they weren't so I've had to quit for a while in order to get over my depression from my loss.

So what I'm doing now is to start our slowly and try simply posting some pictures. I got a new wonderful camera for Christmas and will show you some of what it can do. These first two pictures come from Wahoo Bay Beach where my family and I spend a couple days between Christmas and New Years.

The first is a blossom of what I know as a bottle brush tree. My name for it is a toilet brush tree but my wife tells me in no uncertain terms that that's not the correct name for it. It is a very beautiful tree in that it is made up of almost leafless branches but in the morning these very bright blossoms break out at various places on the tree. Isn't it neat?

The next is a near sundown shot taken as the sun drops on the other side of La Gonave Island. I thought the colors were really striking. I'm easy to please.

PS. Nobody stole the other pictures but I still feel bad about not being able to find them in the blog.