FBC Long Beach and Alpha Gamma Delta Trip #2

What do you get when you ask…

• 25 people from Mississippi
• 16 Haitian staff members
• 15 people from Alabama
• 5 Haitian nurses 
  
• 2 local churches
  
• 2 local Pastors
  
• 2 American trip leaders
  
• 1 Haitian doctor
  
• 1 American intern

Our second trip during the summer was with two teams who are dear to our hearts, Alpha Gamma from Alabama and FBC Long Beach from Mississippi!

Alpha Gamma Delta

trip journal link

FBC Longbeach

trip journal link

We’ve been serving alongside these teams for years now and we absolutely love it. These churches mean so much to us, they are so supportive of our family and they are in for the long haul with their partnerships. In recent years, their trip has morphed and changed into a multi-site medical clinic in the areas of Carrefour and Bertin.

We had an amazing week, working hard to see every single patient who came through the clinic doors. It was an “all-hands-on-deck” kind of week with super early mornings and very late nights.

We spent the majority of our days coordinating logistics and ensuring both clinics had everything they needed to run efficiently, which means a lot of runs to the pharmacy!

Our highlights:

Bethany –

• I really loved getting to work with these teams again, I hadn’t seen anyone in over a year! When you serve on trips year after year, you develop relationships and friendships that are so special.  It was so awesome to be able to reconnect in person with all of our long-time friends in these teams and get some hugs all around!
• Medical trips are incredibly chaotic, busy, and stressful. You never know what kind of patient is going to be coming through the doors or what your day will hold (probably at least 5 trips to the pharmacy is guaranteed though ;)). And while it’s stressful and crazy, I love it so much. There’s something so special about partnering our teams alongside our local churches, their pastors, their church families, local Haitian nurses and doctors and our amazing staff, in a clinic situation – the goal is palpable and pushes everyone’s motivation through the roof. It takes a real, coordinated, focused vision for everyone to work together as seamlessly as possible and when it works well, it’s a beautiful sight to behold.
• Being back in Bertin and at Cote Plage was so much fun. Bertin feels like home for Eric and I, since we get the privilege of leading a few different teams to Bertin each year. Getting time to spend with Pastor and Madame Clement was treasured by our family.
• I have to say, working with a Haitian staff team of 16 was absolutely a highlight! HOLY MOLY. It was SO much fun!  Too much awesome in one place and so. much. laughter.

Eric

• It’s always a pleasure working with Pastor LaRue and Katie, who were the group leaders for these two teams. We’ve been working with both of them for several years now to coordinate their mission teams in Haiti, and they both have a great heart and really understand the kind ministry that Praying Pelican wants to see their teams doing when they serve with churches abroad. They make our jobs easy!
• This team lodged at Cote Plage, which is a lodging location that, until the last couple of summers, we used to have a ton of teams stay at. I really enjoyed interacting with some of the people there that we maybe don’t see as often, and hope that we can continue to maintain those relationships even though we don’t get to see them as often as we once did.
• Getting to experience this clinic with such a large staff had to be a highlight. Any time you get our staff together, you are bound to have a blast and this week was that, but to the extreme. We made some amazing memories with our staff that will last a lifetime.
• Bethany and I spent a ton of time in the car during this trip. Since we had two clinics, we would bounce back and forth between them, check on supplies they needed from the market and local pharmacies, pick up and deliver lunch to the groups, etc (one day, we spent 12 hours in the car. 12 hours!)  This can sometimes be a bummer, but since we didn’t want to take any of our Haitian staff from the clinic, Bethany came along as my interpreter.. which was awesome. I love to see her interact with people, use her Creole (and her limited medical awareness) to take care of errands we need to do, and just spend time doing life with her in a totally different context. She really impresses me with how well she folds into everyday life there while also taking care of our family and doing her job so well.

Thanks to everyone who was involved and praying for this trip! Here’s to preparing for next year!

*there are not a lot of photos from our clinics, because we try to give as much privacy as possible to our patients. these photos are to merely document our teams and their side of the trip. Any photos of patients were taken with verbal permission.

-Bethany and Eric