A Time to Celebrate

BY MARK

A milestone is defined as “…an action or event marking a significant change or stage in development”.  We celebrate them, we share them and we reflect upon them.  The hospital/clinic in St. Ard , Haiti officially opened for business on July 11, 2005.  Many organizations here in Haiti struggle to make it to their 5^th anniversary but with God’s grace and the help of so many workers for Christ, we have made it to our 10^th anniversary.  On July 11, 2015, we celebrated together the milestone of 10 years of serving the people of Haiti.  The staff of the hospital worked tirelessly to clean, paint, trim the grass, prune the trees, make decorations, make signs, put up tables, erect a large piece of canvas for shade, and do whatever it took to make the celebration a success.  About 15 of the employees actually worked through the night at the hospital, sleeping just a few hours in the hospital beds to make sure the celebration was a success.  The caterers prepared some incredible Haitian cuisine and flowers were placed in strategic locations.  The event was attended by 250 invited guests with the local dignitaries hearing the stories of the clinic from its inception through the earthquake to future plans.  Of their own accord, the staff of the hospital prepared two songs to sing to the crowd, along with other musical and dance numbers from people in the community.   A patient also spoke to share how the presence of the hospital had saved his life.  The staff was esteemed for their hard work by certificates and plaques.  

Throughout the event, God was placed in front.  We began with prayer. We ended with prayer.  God was rightfully given the glory for the success of the hospital.  As we approach our 100,000^th different patient at the hospital, it was truly a blessing to look back and reflect upon how many lives have been touched by this staff of Haitian workers; how many lives that have been exposed to Christ.  We have a lot of work ahead, but as we paused to celebrate, we realized that we have reached a milestone.  Ten years and 100,000 different patients:  May each one have seen a snapshot of Christ when they were at the clinic.  We are anxious for our next milestone.  Whenever or whatever it is, we are thankful to the God who makes milestones possible.

- for more pictures of the big event, see the “Gwo Kokennchenn Fèt” album on Kathy Norman Fulton’s Facebook page.