Leaving home for home.

I really never understood this concept before now. We are just one week away from our return to Canada and I can't believe the range of emotions and feelings we are all experiencing. Riley and Sammy are both excited about our return to Canada right now. They are talking about the cottage and camp and their birthday parties in August. Oh to be young and only have those things to worry about. Michelle and Madison are both leaving a huge part of their hearts here in Haiti. They have made amazing friends and become strongly attached to the kids in our orphanage. We have watched many of them grow so much over the last year. The twins, Hannah and Jeremiah who were tiny newborns when we arrived and now are beginning to walk on their chubby little legs. Matthew who was so malnourished and close to death when he got here last fall and is now not just walking but constantly running.

Matthew BEFORE. Matthew NOW

The changes around the mission are incredible too. There are buildings and structures going up in record speed and the complement of North American staff has grown tremendously too. A part of me wants to stay and keep watching all the changes, to feel a part of it. And a part of me is ready to be back in the arms of my family, where things are familiar and easier. I feel guilty for wanting that at the same time. If you could see how many of our good Haitian friends live you would be amazed. Not only are they happy and content with what they have but they are constantly looking for ways to give to their neighbours who have less. I wish everyone in North America could see it...it is a life-changing, humbling experience.

Hannah BEFORE Hannah NOW

So we return home with mixed emotions. So happy to be spending time with friends and family. So happy to have hot showers and water that doesn't run out just as you're about to rinse your hair, constant electricity, cooler temperatures so you are not constantly sweating, our own vehicle so we can come and go as we please without having to put in a written request 3 days prior. There are a few more but I don't want it to sound like I have so much to complain about. I think it's a subconscious safety feature that all of a sudden everything we were OK handling a month ago is now driving us crazy. My recent illness and visit to the University of Miami field hospital near the airport (think of the 80's TV show MASH) changed my feeling about returning home incredibly. I was just so sick and tired and all I could think about was being at my Mom & Dad's house, laying in the leather recliner in front of the big-screen TV, in the air-conditioning, with the satellite remote in my hand. That was so where I wanted to be. Instead I was laying on an army cot, in a sweltering hot tent with wood plank floors and a 10 minute walk to the "clean" port-a-potty! I had never been so ready to go back home until then. It will be a sad goodbye next week. Keep us all in your prayers as things wrap up this week. We are looking forward to being home and to trying to get together with everyone during the summer. 7 more sleeps!

Carrying a Fresh Flame

I can't take credit for the phrase used in the title of this blog. I stole it from our teacher Diana's recent blog entry in which she talks about our family. I have been racking my brain the last few days trying to figure out how to approach this blog entry and exactly what to say. When I read Diana's blog it was an encouragement to me to take a new perspective regarding our family's future plans.

You see, after a wonderful year in Haiti, a place that will forever have our hearts, we have felt God's leading to return to Canada. There are too many reasons to list here but the basic ones being Grant's job (he only had a one year leave of absence) and the kids education (we have one in her last year of high school and one in her first year of high school).

There is absolutely nothing about our time here that we regret. We will forever be able to share the story of how God placed us here "for such a time as this". Just read back over our blog entries and you will see how God orchestrated so many things to bring us to this place and these people in their greatest time of need. All the glory goes to God and we have no idea how far-reaching the effects will be for years to come.

It has been an incredibly difficult decision and leaving is going to be extremely hard. I have been searching for things to grab hold of to cause me to "look forward" to going back to Canada because I have been dreading it since we made the decision. It was in reading Diana's blog today that I was reminded that we are going back "carrying a fresh flame". We have so much to do, so much to tell, so many people to tell about Haiti and about Mission of Hope. There are so many ways people can help support the work that is going on here and we have a voice because we have been here and been a part of it.

So as we return to Canada at the end of June and search for a house, we will be looking for opportunities to share our story and to share what God is doing through Mission of Hope in Haiti. I am excited to return...carrying a fresh flame.

Friends and Family

Mission of Hope is overwhelmed with people right now. That's a good thing...most of the time. We have several teams here right now and by this weekend there will be over 100 people here. It means more work for most of us...long days and not much private time as there are people everywhere.

On the bright side, there is a lot of family visiting. Our friend Rachel has her parents here, our teacher Diana has her brother, sister-in-law, cousin and Grandpa here. And next Tuesday my (Sandy) mom and dad will be here. When you live so far from home, having family and friends come means more than I ever thought it would. I have never really liked having people stay in my home (and never really had the opportunity before) but now I love it. You definitely grow a new appreciation for your family and friends when you live far away from them. I'm sure what we have endured in the last few months adds to that feeling as well. We have so many Haitian friends who have lost some of all of their family...something I can't even imagine enduring. I don't know how they come to work everyday and continue serving the Lord and the people of this area through their work at the mission. They will all tell you that God gives them the strength. I can resonate with that because it has only been through the strength God gives that we have endured the last few months.

We are still learning lots...seeing lots...and loving lots. We are so thankful that God called us here "for such a time as this". For the rest of our lives we will be able to testify to the awesomeness of our God. We are humbled that He chose us for this task and whether in Haiti or in Canada or anywhere in the world, we will continue to serve Him and to share how He has used us.

I have been keeping a list of all the little "God things" that have happened before and after we came to Haiti. One of these days I will write them all down. Heck...maybe I will write a book. What do you think Dad?

For those of you who didn't see them on Facebook, here are some pictures of the girls treating the patients in our hospital ward to manicures. They had so much fun doing it and the ladies were thrilled.

A Personal Journal Entry

During the second week of March, my sister, Karen Ward came and spent a week with us in Haiti. She and her good friend Kim Lewis, painted our kitchen, one bathroom and one of the kids bedrooms. They also helped organize a supply room in the clinic for Grant. It was a joy to have good friends here (as my big sister is). We were able to take them into Port au Prince one day and just drive around to show them the devastation and how hundreds of thousands of Haitian people are living. Karen has given me permission to share one of her journal entries on this blog. It speaks very well to the feelings Grant and I and the kids share about our experience in Haiti. I got to experience Heaven today and it was not in a place I expected – in fact it was probably the most unlikely place – Haiti. As I write this, I’m sitting in an outdoor church in Haiti. The pastor is preaching away in Creole and I understand about 1 in every 40 words – not enough to have a clue what he is saying. All I can tell is that he, just like the 1000 other Haitians here, is in love with God. A love so deep it overflows constantly on all their faces – in their eyes. We just worshipped God in song for the last 45 minutes – was it really 45 minutes – it seemed so much less than that. For the first time in my life I realized that singing in Heaven and worshipping my Lord and Saviour for eternity is still not going to be long enough. The really cool thing was that I knew all but one of the songs. They were songs I sing every Sunday at my church in Canada. The worship leader was kinds enough to lead the songs in both Creole and English for us ‘blanc’ – white people. I thought of the worship leader back home at Harvest – Joshua you would have loved this morning’s worship time! It’s been 2 months since the devastating earthquake here. I spent a day in Port au Prince and not much has changed in those 2 months. The buildings still look like they did when I saw them on CNN – a couple of them I recognized from reports done about how many people were trapped inside. Those bodies are still inside – but life is going on around the devastation. There are many more people living in makeshift tents than in homes – but life is going on. I’ve been here for 5 days and I was wondering why I wasn’t feeling extreme emotions of sadness or pain for what I was seeing. Was it because I’ve experienced sad situations before as I serve my First Nations friends in northern Ontario? Was it because the media has made the events of the whole world and most recently Haiti so readily available at the touch of a button that there is no shock factor anymore? I think I may have discovered the reason this morning as I experienced worship ‘Haiti’ style. There was certainly no lack of emotion in my heart this morning – in fact I couldn’t stop crying. I realized at a different level that I am God’s daughter and was amongst others who were also His sons and daughters. Jesus died for each and every one of us and gives us each breath that we take. We all had that in common this morning. I worship Him to live and live to worship Him – nothing else mattered this morning – not earthquakes, not poverty, not riches, not health – nothing. It was the greatest privilege in the universe to be worshipping God with my Haitian brothers and sisters. I knew that nothing matters other than loving others as God loves them and helping those who are hurting – that’s all I want to do with my life. I knew that the joy of this realization far outweighs the sorrow and the sadness of the events of this world. GOD IS IN CONTROL – the tears and emotion I’ve experienced here today is because even through all I’ve seen these last few days, the proof of God’s hand in everything is so evident. Yvette, the woman who runs the pharmacy at the mission clinic that I served at this week, told us her earthquake story. She was in her living room looking through some papers when she heard a voice tell her to get out of the living room, so without question, she picked up her stuff and moved to the dining room. She then heard a voice say “Go to your bedroom”, so she immediately gathered her papers and went to her bedroom. A few seconds later the earthquake hit – her living and dining rooms were crushed under the 2nd floor. – Her bedroom had no damage at all. There was no doubt in her mind that it was God who directed her to the bedroom. And she spoke about it so nonchalantly as though she hears God’s audible voice all the time. When I asked her where she is living now, she said in a makeshift tent structure on the street in front of her house. She doesn’t know if her house will ever be fixed – she doesn’t think she will ever be able to afford to rebuild it – in fact it took her 10 years of working to afford the one room addition that was just added to her home. She is happy because she is alive and she knows that God spared her and is in control of all her circumstances. 1000 Haitian people loving God this morning – some who had lost family and all their possessions, some who had lost limbs, children without parents – singing with their hands in the air and joy on their faces because; they aren’t the biggest news story; they aren’t the victims of a catastrophic tragedy – they are the children of God and they hunger for Him and are having their basic needs satisfied by Him. Well, second thought, I do feel the emotion of sadness. Not for the people of Haiti and all they’ve been through but for the people of North America and for the catastrophic tragedy they aren’t even aware of – stuff, materialism, defining wants as needs. My niece described it as ‘distractions that keep us from having a deep and intimate relationship with God.’ And we don’t even realize it. I pray that we will all experience an earthquake in our lives – a shaking up of our world where we learn to live in make shift tents with very little except God’s presence and that our deep hunger becomes all about Him and no longer about fame and fortune. Thank you God for the glimpse of Heaven I experienced today. Please let it change my life forever!

4.7 x 2

No, not a mathematical equation but a 4.7 magnitude earthquake times 2. Feb 22nd we woke up at 4:30am to one 4.7 quake followed by 2 aftershocks in the next few hours. Feb 23rd we were shaken out of bed at 1:30am by another 4.7 quake quickly followed by an aftershock that felt almost as strong. My good friend Rachel, who is the director of our Hope House Orphanage, managed to put into words exactly what I am feeling. "If this earthquake were a person, I would punch him right between the eyes!". While the fear is not gone, it is mixed with anger at this point. "Enough already" seems to be what many are saying. While the somewhat "small" quakes are not causing major damage like the 7.0 on Jan 12th, they are causing major damage to people's peace and feelings of safety. So many sleep outside even when they have safe homes to sleep in. We don't know what each of these small quakes might be doing to the buildings we sleep in. How many 4.7's can it withstand before it falls? I think often of the people who felt the first quake and then spent hours or even days trapped in a collapsed building. What must it do to them to feel these quakes? I can't even imagine.

Somebody asked me the other day if life was back to normal. I thought about that and realized that life will never be like it was before January 12th. So I guess we have to find the "new normal".

The mission clinic is still as busy as ever. We have medical teams coming in every weekend and spending a week doing surgeries and caring for post-op patients. There are still many people that have had little or no medical care since their injuries on January 12th. Grant is busy every day moving patients around whether it's just from the clinic to the school (where the post-op ward is) or all the way into Port au Prince to one of several hospitals. He is receiving calls from doctors working in hospitals in the city to take critically ill patients in need of emergency surgery and transfer them to other facilities. He is looking forward to having the help of some more of his collegues from Halton EMS in the near future. I am looking forward to him maybe having an entire day off.

We did have a chance to get away for a week thanks to many friends and family that encouraged us to do so and helped finance it so we were able. It was a much-needed time of rest and refreshment and loads of fun, family time. We were even able to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics live on TV. We were watching NBC and at the very start of their programming they showed the video of the new "We are the World" song that has been produced to help Haiti. There was alot of footage of Port au Prince in it along with the Haitian people. When it was over, there was silence in the room until one of the kids said "I want to go home" followed by a chorus of "me too". Never before has our family been ready for a vacation to be over. Haiti and it's people have certainly planted themselves in our hearts and made Haiti home.

A Nation of Amputees

It's a sad statement I read in a news article recently. That the earthquake in Haiti has created a nation of amputees. For a people that had a difficult life before, what are their lives going to be like now? For a population living in a rocky, mountainous terrain, dirt roads, paved roads that can be worse than the dirt roads. What is it going to be like for these people? Crutches and wheelchairs are not easy to come by and will be expensive I'm sure. There are no such things as electric scooters or prosthetic limbs here. I just can't imagine what it will be like. One thing I have learned is that the Haitian people are resiliant and they are tough and they work hard to do the best they can for their families. They will survive this and they will come out stronger. We have had a new experience here at Mission of Hope the last 2 days. A military helicopter has been dropping off patients to our clinic. Overcrowded hospitals and the vast number of people requiring surgery have forced medical personnel to send patients anywhere there is room to take them. We had an amazing team of surgeons here last week that set up an operating room in our clinic. They left yesterday but are being replaced by another team from their hospital in Texas. (we have had so many Texans here recently Grant is starting to pick up the accent.) We have set up the pre-op and post-op wards in our school building (most schools are still closed in the area including ours). We have nurses and ER doctors doing rotating shifts there.

We also have an amazing paramedic (OK, I'm biased) who is coordinating the movement of these patients to and from our clinic as well as doing patient care like starting IVs when the patients arrive. Grant is also going into nearby villages and picking up patients too ill or injured to travel into our clinic. Yesterday some much needed help arrived in the form of another colleague from Halton EMS, Joel Smith. Grant's face lit up when he saw him, it is such a comfort and relief for Grant to have "his guys" come and work with him. He knows what they are giving up to come and he realizes they are doing it for him just as much as they are doing it for the people of Haiti.

Of the 6 people that arrived yesterday, 2 had badly broken legs and the other 4 had leg amputations. One was a 19 year old girl. Another young woman was crying while Grant was putting in her IV. When asked if she was in pain she replied "not really, I'm just sad". We found out later (from a visiting reporter from the London Times) that she was a well-known ballerina.

We had a chance to talk with a great Christian Psychologist from Louisiana the other night. He was here with a team and specializes in Trauma and Disaster Relief. He has worked most of his 30 year career with police, fire and EMS workers. We sat down as a family and shared our experiences over the last couple of weeks as well as our fears. He assured us what we were feeling and experiencing was completely normal and we were not crazy. (Michelle pointed out at this point that Dad was always crazy anyways!). It was good to hear the kids talk about how they were feeling, they had only shared a bit with me over the weeks and not at all with Grant. We now know what to look for in ourselves and each other as warning signs and he gave us some practical things to do that I'm sure will help. God continues to provide for us in amazing and wonderful ways, much more than we could ever imagine to ask him for. We truly believe we are here "for such a time as this" and continue to ask God to equip us with what we need to serve Him by serving the people of Haiti. Thank you for your prayers. The Rumfords

Halton EMS Rules!

It had been a really crazy, exhausting and discouraging week. So much devastation, so much pain, so much work and not enough workers. Grant was way beyond exhausted, physically and emotionally. The kids and I were missing Grant, he was (and still is) working such long days. Then Wednesday morning, a bus arrived with reinforcements. 3 doctors, a pastor, an FTC Canada representative (who also happens to be my Dad) and 10 amazing Paramedics. Though he may not admit it publically, Grant was moved to tears as he thanked everyone for coming to help.

Grant all of a sudden had a renewed sense of energy. A feeling of "we can do this now that I have MY team". To see him driving off in the ambulance with Peter or Brian or Glen at his side was just surreal. I could tell he no longer felt like he was handling things on his own.

The team has been working at General Hospital in Port au Prince every day since their arrival. After the first day, the hospital administrator told our medical director, "I want that team of Canadians back. They really care for the patients". They have earned a much deserved reputation for a high quality of care, not just medically either. They are doing some triage and lots of wound care. The number of amputations is astronomical. Infection & dehydration are just some of the things the Haitian people are facing right now. There is the fear of water-born disease and not knowing when or where their next meal is coming from. Not to mention no shelter, they literally have no place to go.

So, we keep pressing on, doing whatever we can for as many as we can. It will be hard to see the team leave on Tuesday. We have enjoyed their help as well as their friendship. I never thought 2 weeks ago that I would see these guys and girls sitting on my couch eating popcorn and chocolate bars. Thanks for the help guys, for the hugs and kind words and for the many laughs. Thanks for all you gave up to come here, you will never know how much it meant to us and to the people of Haiti.