The first week of December, Duane, Keith, and I visited CSL. We brought many repair parts with us, along with several pieces of equipment I had taken home with me on my last trip to repair.
One of the biggest repair needs this trip was our 2 industrial washing machines which were both broken. For several weeks the ladies in the laundry had to wash all the dirty laundry by hand, and there’s a LOT of it. I’m not sure how they kept up; I was surprised how big the piles were each morning. Needless to say, they were extremely happy to have them working again. Many thanks to the guys at Gerrit’s Appliance for their help.
Another big project was the replacement of a water line that went under the concrete road. It was hard work cutting and breaking the concrete; however, the biggest challenge was dealing with all the traffic. I thought for sure someone would get hit or a scooter would crash. There’s no patience there and it was chaos.
We had many productive meetings with our executive team, doctors, and staff. We are very busy and the number of visitors keeps going up. Every department appeared full all day. I had conversations with our ultrasound tech who does 20-25 ultrasounds every day and the x-ray tech is doing about 40-50 x-rays every day. The lab has a line out the door all day. We have added more equipment and technicians to help handle the growth.
In our last newsletter, we talked about how our education program has grown. We now have 110 children of staff in school. Last week we approved medical school training for another child, whose mother has been a midwife for us for 21 years. These children are our future. Dr. Bill had a huge desire to help the children of staff get medical education and being able to put another child through medical school is very special.
I have received a lot of questions about sponsoring these children. I’ve included several pictures of some of the students, and we plan to expand this next year, offering individual information and pictures of each child you can sponsor. We are encouraged by the support we have received but are very short of covering the cost. Please consider sponsoring a child or a family.
Following is a letter describing how the program called Caleb’s Closet was started. This a wonderful example of how God can and does bring blessing out of tragedy. Last week Duane visited mothers with Pastor Zidor, presenting them with blankets.
Caleb’s Closet is a ministry that was established in memory of our grandson, Caleb Robert Westra, who was born October 2, 2014 and lived only ten hours. Because of God’s enabling grace, Caleb’s mother, Elizabeth, had the desire to honor his memory in a way that would involve newborn babies, be a benefit to other mothers and would also make an impact for eternity. Because our church was supporting a ministry to the Centre de Sante Lumiere Hospital in Les Cayes, Haiti, we knew this would be a great opportunity to show love by ministering to new mothers who come to the hospital to give birth. The theme for the ministry would be “A New Blanket for a New Life”. Caleb’s Closet holds beautiful handmade quilts and crocheted baby blankets made by a team of women at Jamestown Baptist Church. After a mother delivers her baby, a chaplain at the hospital gives her a blanket and shares the gospel with her. This blanket is to be a demonstration of God’s love for the mother and the baby. It is meant to meet a physical need, as the blankets serve as bedding, and emotional need, to show new mothers that someone cares for them, and a spiritual need by explaining the good news of the gospel, A New Life in Jesus. Since 2015, we have shipped 3000 blankets to the hospital, which means the mothers were prayed for and the gospel has been shared 3000 times. We are so thankful to be a part of this ministry.
For His Glory
Bob and Delores Allen
As we near Christmas, we are still collecting for our Rice & Goat fund, a gift for each staff member. We do this at the end of every year, celebrating Christmas with a gift of appreciation.
Please continue to be in prayer for CSL as an organization and for all of our staff. Haiti continues to struggle with ongoing violence and uncertainty. As we look forward to 2026, there are many decisions we are faced with. There are three different programs we have been asked to add – Community Health, Prosthetics, and Dialysis. Each of these would be big and have unique requirements. Our prayer is that God would provide clarity in how we should proceed.
2026 will be a busy year and we couldn’t continue this ministry without your support. We are so thankful for each of you!
Dan, Duane, Dr. Luke, and Dr. Jose