New Tool for Eye Clinic

Two weeks ago, Saturday February 6th, I was privileged to spend part of the morning with the eye surgery team from Des Moines Iowa who were working at the Pignon hospital. They had graciously allowed me to refer about 40 people to them for cataract surgery and other consultation and treatment that is beyond me. And now they had offered to train me to use a Tono-pen – a portable, simple-to-use instrument for measuring intra-ocular pressure to see if someone might possibly have glaucoma.
Virgil and Linda were my teachers and explained the care and use of the Tono-pen and showed how to use it

and then coached me as I learned. They were kind enough to say that I did a very good job. If they were not being just kind, it is as simple to use as was advertised.

One of the most poignant parts of the morning was that I got to test a young woman who had lost part of her left arm in the earthquake. She needed help walking to the place we were working and her face had a very frozen aspect the whole time we worked with her. After I checked her pressure, I asked if I could pray with her. After she was seen at the next exam station, they called us over to pray with her again. It was good to see her later in the snack bar after she had gotten a pair of glasses. She had an energy drink mixed with evaporated milk and was talking and smiling and animated. Please keep Carline Pierre and other earthquake victims in your prayers.

The team was working with 2 Tono-pens and when they left they gave HAFF one of them as well as a supply of glaucoma medication. So now Becky and I will be able to offer another service to the people coming to the HAFF eye clinic. Please pray that I would use the instrument properly, that I interpret the results wisely and that it would be a blessing to the folks who come.

School is Back in Session

Monday school opened. While the students did not come in uniform, and there were only about a third of the them at devotions, school has started. Met Phanes said in devotions that morning that the next day the students could come in uniform – always a good thing since it lends official authorization to the opening and lets everyone know that things are getting back to normal.

Please continue to pray for the schools throughout Haiti, including HAFF's Bohoc Training Institute. The Ministry of Eduction has yet to determine how to help those students whose schools have been destroyed by the quake. The local inspector for this area seems to think that our headmaster will be able to submit a form for those students transferring into our school. Pray that it is so. Also there are still questions about how the national exams will be done, if the school year will be extended, and, if so, will the time be taken from the Easter break, other national holidays or added on in June and July or some of each.

Continue to pray also for those people who were in Port-au-Prince during the earthquake. Many of them still have the tendency to run when they hear sudden noises and they are still having trouble sleeping. Pray that the Lord, the Father of all comfort, would lay His healing hand on each of these people.