Excursion Day -Seeing How Big Our God Is

Here are some pictures from our last full day in Haiti. In the morning we visited some of the other ministries of OMS and in the afternoon we toured the Citadelle. It was great fun, especially riding horses!

Tyler sampling some of the best home ground Haitian coffee ever!

Bethesda clinic staff and SBU PT team

Our team with Dr. Rodney - medical director


The Citadelle!













 

God has made His presence known to us this week in fresh and deep ways. To Him be the Glory for it all. 

Tom’s Ponderings

Sorry for the delay! This is Thursday’s blog but was not posted due to internet issues.

Final Day!!! What a day! Busiest day in the clinic with 29 patients and wrapped up the course we were teaching.

Wick is prepping for her lecture to the Bethesda nursing staff. That chicken is learning about the pelvic floor strengthening. 

Alright, you will never guess what Wick is teaching this group of nursing staff in the clinic? In your comments below, take your best guess. 

Students teaching on low back pain!

Patient was carried in ——- but she’s walking out! (Look at that smile on her face.)

Da-team!

Course attendees practicing. 

Bev knows MSK! (Well, she at least can be a patient.)

What do you get when SBU PT students teach Haitian therapists? That’s right, Haitian therapists learn to teach each other!

Graduation! (Well, we awarded certificates for participants.)

Course participants, teachers, and translators.

What do you do when you finish up four days of morning teaching and clinic work followed by afternoons of teaching on low back pain? Yep, go buy some Haitian cookies from the locals nearby.

First time blogger. I will not be doing this again. I think you all agree, I should not.

Something Happened in the Corner...

We will get to the title in a bit but for our group, today was considered one of our best days!

Today began with Phillip and Tracey giving a devotional to the Besthesda staff about stress and anxiety, and the importance of giving worries to the Lord. Tom continued his lecture to the staff about other systems in the body causing low back pain.

While these three were teaching to the staff, the others assisted in assembling a pediatric wheelchair for a child who is currently receiving PT at Bethesda. After many…many adjustments, the mother was completely satisfied with our work.

During our morning clinic session, we saw as much progress today as we have our first two days! We all felt accomplished with our efforts and felt as if we were making a real difference.

During the afternoon continuing ed. session Tom proceeded to teach on low back pain. Watching from the back of the room it was easy to see the connection Tom was making with the course participants. Light bulbs were coming on in their minds and there were increased interactions among the group.

And not to be lost in this journey is the importance of our translators. These people have been unbelievable all week to relay vital information between PT and patient as well as what we are attempting to teach. Here is a photo of Tom with translators.

After another terrific dinner, a missionary named Erica gave her testimony as to how she came to Haiti and about her service here. Within her testimony there was a clear message affirming that God is using physical therapy to make a real difference in people's lives.

Now, after all of that, we can get to the title… something happened in the corner. After working with a patient earlier in the morning, Wick discovered that this patient had not accepted Jesus. Treating patients and educating is only one of our missions, but our biggest mission is to share the love of Christ. The 18 year old young lady asked Wick to help her pray and ask Jesus to be her Lord and Savior! (She did 😊). It was an absolute joy to hear the story and a humbling reminder of the true purpose of this trip!

Hitting Our Stride

Tom set the tone for the day with a heartfelt devotional challenging the team and the Bethesda staff to trust The Lord in places of unfamiliarity and uncertainty. Still trying to find a groove with our daily schedule, we accepted the challenge. We encountered some patient diagnoses that were familiar to us and some that were not. We experienced familiarity in the tenderness of the Haitian people, but were challenged with conversations of voodoo’s presence in Haitian culture. While we reflect and assess the effectiveness of our interventions and our words, we trust our hands and voices were guided by The Lord. 

The team agreed in debriefing that we were hitting a stride and functioning really well as a unit while seeing patients during the morning session. 

Our continuing education course on low back pain continued throughout our afternoon session. The Haitian students and therapists experienced more hands-on learning opportunities and began to apply their knowledge in making clinical decisions. Our main focus today was teaching objective measures and clinical tests that would lead to an evidence based intervention to treat patients with instability in the low back. 

The team agreed the course participants were increasingly attentive and excited about today’s topics and practical learning opportunities. 


Tom and Tyler demonstrating proper evaluation of a patient’s lumbar spine range of motion.

Phillip instructing learners on a proper technique to assess vertebral movement in the lumbar spine. 

Breakout session where participants learned clinical testing for spinal instability.

Tyler and Tom demonstrating a way for the therapists to teach their future patients how to activate their transverse abdominal muscles, a key muscle in treating lumbar instability.

We shared a meal with a few long term missionaries that are a part of OMS here in Haiti. They shared stories of where the Lord has brought them, and how culture and past experiences play a part in their current work across the globe. 

We are blessed with an opportunity to be here surrounded by people committed to serving God, and the opportunity to pass along skills that can be used for His glory long after we depart!

Busy Busy!

Today was chaotic and crazy but all of our patients got seen! On top of a full morning of patient care, we taught on lifting mechanics and back posture to the clinic nursing staff. Then this afternoon, Tom started the first of a four day course on low back pain assessment and treatment to area PTs and PT techs. 

Please pray for our focus and presence of mind when working with patients, and for long-term sunstainable effects from our efforts. 

Here are a few pictures from the day!

Teaching session with Bethesda nursing staff. 

Tom demonstrates how to lay down for low back pain relief.

Afternoon continuing education session.

Weekend Bliss

This weekend was both relaxing and busy. The good news is that the rest of the gang arrived safely to Cap with all of their equipment! While the team was traveling today, Bev and Wick were fortunate enough to attend a church service with the Edlers (Julie is the missionary physio at Bethesda clinic working with and training Altidor, and Julie’s husband, Bill, is a teacher at the seminary).  Below are pictures from the weekend’s festivities.

Some R&R at the Villa Cana hotel pool on Saturday. A very blessed time to reflect back on the week’s work and look forward to the coming week.


National flags outside the Villa Cana.


The view from the back of the church looking forward while everyone rejoices in singing worship songs in Creole, the native spoken language of Haiti.


An adorable Haitian girl that was munching on her wrapper after pounding some delicious crackers.

The grounds of the seminary.

The rest of the team made it safe and sound! Going to bed early tonight!