For Jonathan Sake Outreach UPDATE

The past 2 weeks of outreach have been such a blessing!  God has really opened doors for me to fulfill some of the vision & dreams He has given me for outreach.  I fall more & more in love with my outreach families & their children every week. God has really changed my heart over the last 4 years for this program. I used to dread 1-3PM. I hated hearing parents ask me to take their children day in and day out. I hated that these families did not think they could take care of their children and felt they needed to give them away. I hated that they actually thought it was better to give them away rather than struggle & keep them. I love that 4 years later I NEVER hear those words come out of my families mouths (at least not families already in the program). I love watching the mothers interact with each other and their children. I love seeing the love & bonds that have been formed between the children & their mothers. I love seeing their dedication to the program. I love watching their children grow & gain new skills and seeing the mother’s excitement as their children make progress.

God has given me a 6 fold vision for this program. Over the past 2 weeks I have seen 5 out of the 6 of these areas being poured into.

1.     PHYSICAL: Equipping the parents with needed skills to take care of their child’s physical needs by providing them training, a safe place to bring their child, and access to medical care.

a.     Since being back in Haiti every Monday through Friday the children & there families came on their designated day and have received therapy and training on how to do therapy with their child at home. They also have been provided with toys/therapy items from the toy lending program to enable them to do therapy/interact with their child during the week.

2.     COMMUNITY BUILDING: Because these families meet in groups of 3-7 families at a time, this program opens up an opportunity for these families to have community. Families are grouped together based their children’s disabilities in order to help form a support system.

a.     It has been fun to see the mother’s on each day interact with each other, form friendships, help each other out, and support each other. I sometimes feel the mother’s come more for the fellowship with each other than for the therapy for their kids. I know it is for both but I love that they enjoy the community aspect so much!

3.     SPIRITUAL  DEVELOPMENT: One of our goals is to teach these parents about the love of God and the character of God. Because it is only through the lens of God’s love that they will be able to see the unique gifts their children are and realize that their children were not given to them because of a punishment but that their children are a blessing from God.

a.     In the past few weeks we have had Bible Study (when we handed out the lights) and everyday we have prayer to end our session. We have moved from Presidue or I praying to the mom’s closing in prayer. I am praying about adding a short Bible Lesson or verse to each week of outreach.

4.     OUTREACH: visiting the families homes is important to better understanding the families living situation, what their personal needs are, and how to best support their child in their home. During the home visit the family is shown ideas of therapy they can provide in the home with what is available, best positioning for their child, a needs inventory is taken and the family is prayed for and loved on. Home visits open the door for the opportunity to make individualized  equipment for the children and specifically bless them in the ways God shows us.

a.     I have been praying about starting this aspect of outreach for months now. We were suppose to start when I arrived in February  but 1 thing after another came up & we were not able to go.  2 weeks ago at the end of outreach Wilden’s mom came up to me & asked if I would come to her house. God could not have made it clearer that this was his timing and will.  The next day I walked up the mountain to Wilden’s House. I could not believe how steep the climb was up to her house. She was so EXCITED to have me visit her home. She pulled a chair out for me and both of my interns to sit down in front of her home. She then brought out Wilden’s chair we had provided in outreach so he could sit with us. I did not have a translator with me on this visit and so all interaction was through body language. There was a group of  kids from the community around them that gathered. We started playing hand games with them and loving on them as well. I then did some therapy with Wilden’s in front of everyone to show mom therapy ideas of therapy she could do at home as well taking advantage of a chance to do some disability awareness training in the community. Wilden’s is super small for his age. We give him pediasure weekly to try & help boost his size/weight. He was also born without knee caps. She then took me to her little room in her families home that Wilden’s & her lives in. It had a bed & table. The table was covered with items to take care of wilden’s (formula,  medicine, a few toys (from toy lending program), and a few personal items. This mother adores her son. I just love watching her interact with her son!!!

b.     The next week Presidue took me to Ricardo’s home close by the mission. This was a surprise visit. When we arrived the first thing we noticed was that Ricardo was sitting in the doorway in a wheelchair. To my knowledge none of the outreach kids had a wheelchair. Not only did he have a wheelchair but an appropriate fitting wheelchair with chest support, head support and straps. Nicer wheelchair than any we have at the mission. My heart was so happy to see this…for multiple reasons but one being that it meant that his family had sought out a place to get a wheelchair and purchased one for him! Mom was not home because she was at work (which is awesome because many of my outreach mothers don’t work because they have a disabled child with noone to care for them and/or unable to find a job. Ricardo’s home was full of children and neighborhood children quickly started to arrive as well. 3 blancs make quite a skeptical. I played with Ricardo in his chair for a while with a toy while simultaneously asking the children around their names and ages. I then took Ricardo out of his chair and proceeded to stretch him in my lap and play/interact with him. I loved getting to love on him at his home. Something about it felt so right. I also loved getting to be a witness to all the children around on how to love on little Ricardo. The moment that most warmed my heart though was when Ricardo started to cry and a teenage boy came over to comfort him. It may have been his older brother but I am not sure.

c.     Most recently I visited Mosline and Ralph's House's. These 2 visits were WONDERFUL. First we visited Mosline's House. She has always been one of my favorites & her mother is so faithful to the program & I can tell works with her daughter at home. When I walked in Mosline was sitting in her chair that we recently provided her with. What a blessing for her to not be sitting or laying in the dirt but sitting up in a clean chair. I started out just loving on Mosline & her mother got her toys out that they had borrowed from the toy lending program. I began doing some therapy with her while Presidue talked to her mother about their living situation & needs. I do not speak creole so I don't know what all she said but they live in a small 1 bedroom shack. Their are multiple siblings and I am not sure if the cousins & aunts live in that house too or not. all they have is a bed a few chairs and a small table. I then showed the mother some different ways she could work with her at home. One being having her practice standing learning on the bed. I then started playing with her brother, her cousins and some neighbor kids. Her brother showed me a toy car I had given him months ago. His 1 toy he had to play with. We had a WONDERFUL visit. We then walked farther downtown to Ralph's home. He lives in a small room within a building that appears to have multiple rooms that various families rent. Ralph was in bed with mom who was sick. He was so EXCITED to see us. I did therapy with Ralph while Presidue talked to mom. We then prayed for mom's health. We had a WONDERFUL visit.

Needless to saty, I can’t wait to do more homevisits! I am so EXCITED for what God has in store for these visits!!!

5.     EMOTIONAL: By pouring into the parents spiritually & teaching them to meet their child’s physical needs opens the door for bonding between the child & parent as they interact  on a more intimate level on a daily basis.

a.     I have seen these parents interacting more an investing more in their children since coming to Haiti in February then I have in the past 4 years. I love seeing the relationship these families have with their children!!!!

It has been wonderful being able to bless the outreach families with some practical physical blessings the past few weeks.

1.     CHAIRS: for each child. This chair will benefit them in multiple ways including getting them in a different positioning other than lying down, better positioning for feeding, and put them in a better position to interact with family.

2.     BOOKBAGS: Each family received a backpack so that they can more easily carry therapy supplies and toys from the toy lending program to and from outreach. It also allows them an easier way to carry their therapy binders.

3.     SOLAR POWER LIGHTS: Each of the families received a solar power light that will provide light after dark since majority of my families do not have power. We did a Bible Lesson prior to handing lights out on what scripture says about the light and how Jesus is the light of world and how we are called to be a light to those around them. I prayed that everytime they looked at their light they would think of Christ and his power over darkness and in our lives.

4.     TEXTURED TAB BLANKETS: My Monday group which is my baby’s all received textured tab blankets that my friend Emily and her mom made for them. The children loved them!

5.     SIPPY CUPS- My Friday Kids (who are working on walking) each got a sippy cup. This will allow them to work on increasing oral motor muscles (as they were straw sippy cups) as well as provide a way for them to bring a drink with them to outreach each week.

6. TOMS Shoes- The mission got a BIG donation of thousands of TOMS shoes and I was able to bless the kids & some of the moms new shoes.

In the coming months we have plans to bless these families with Yoga Mats for therapy/clean place to lay child in their home, boppy pillow with a waterproof cover, Quilt, therapy ball, and solar power Christian radio.