Duane and I made it safely home from Haiti on Friday, December 17. We had really felt the need to make a trip there before Christmas. Besides the situation in Haiti, we have had other obligations and dealings with Covid that have prevented us from going earlier. Because of the holidays, American Airlines has direct flights to Miami, making for an easy one-day travel to the hospital. We had several goals to accomplish this trip: a review of the treatments given after the earthquake, the Rice and Goat program, employee’s damaged homes, and an administration program.

We are very happy with our response to the earthquake. Every one of our staff have worked very hard doing their jobs and/or helping to fill in where needed. Considering everything we have endured this year with the passing of Dr. Bill, Miss Corrine, and Welser, along with the unrest in Haiti and the assassination of their president, and then the earthquake in August, they have done an awesome job. The fact that Samaritan’s Purse was comfortable working with us speaks volumes. The staff deserve a huge thank you!

Last week we still had 4 patients recovering in the in-patient area, and we think these are the last of the earthquake victims that we will see. We have done almost 300 hundred major surgeries and have treated hundreds of others. The list is long and incomplete as we sometimes didn’t even get the names of those we treated during the first few days. We were overwhelmed being the only hospital fully operating in Southern Haiti after the earthquake, and still have some catching up to do. Praise God for your generous donations, enough to cover all the bills!

Last week the Rice and Goats funds were distributed. Each of the staff received a nice Christmas present – a chicken, money for a bag of rice, and enough money to buy a goat or two, depending on their level of income. Dr. Bill always gifted more to the lower paid staff, and we did the same this year. A total of 131 staff received proceeds through this fund. Because of the unrest and instability of the area, we gave mostly money rather than risk problems trying to make distributions. Thank you for blessing our staff with your donations!

We have 9 staff members whose homes were damaged from the earthquake. Five were destroyed, and the others suffered minor to major damage. We have struggled with how best to help with some of the damage. How do we get involved and not be held responsible for sound repairs or injuries related to the repairs? We have decided the wisest course is to provide each homeowner with $2,000 up front and let them be responsible for hiring contactors for the repairs. We have been blessed with a couple of donations totaling $20,000 designated for this. The homeowners have been instructed to turn in before and after photos and all receipts once their $2,000 is used up to receive more money from the building fund. We have a remaining balance of $4,000. If you would like to support us in repairing these homes, please put a note on your donation designating to this effort.

Welser left a big hole when he died in October. He was a special person who we loved and trusted. We are blessed to have a few like him, but he had a lot of responsibilities. We went into this trip asking God to show us the direction He wanted us to take to fill Welser’s position. We had identified 3 possible options, each having their pros and cons. We tried to go into the process with an open mind; however, I will admit that I had ranked our options by what I viewed as the best to worst. We talked with several of the staff to hear what they had to say and received some input from our board member at the hospital. We got the same answer after every interview and phone call. And though it wasn’t what I had viewed as the best option, it was clear that this was the path the Lord wanted us to take. By the end of the week, we had very clear answers of how to proceed, which we will do under the watchful eye of Dr. Moise. We promoted our accountant Manekins to administrator, our secretary Shansley to accountant, and hired as our new secretary an interpreter that we have frequently used. Please pray for us as we work through this process.

We are planning a mid-January trip to start the installation of the solar system. Please pray that this will go well.

Thank you for your continued support. We hope you had a Merry Christmas and have a blessed New Year!

Dan with Duane

Dear Family and Friends; As we near the end of the year 2021, we would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and also share with you our biggest thanks.

More than 18 years ago, we left home in Canada and moved to Haiti, believing that God was calling us to serve Him and the Haitian people. These past 18 years have been amazing and we thank God for giving us the privilege of living and serving in Haiti.

We hope that you will keep in touch, We have appreciated your friendship, partnership and prayers so much,

thanks again,

bye for now,

Love Rod, Debbie and Katie

1072 Nicola street
Kamloops, B.C.
Canada
V2C2S1

As we just finished celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday last week, we are reminded of all God’s blessings and provisions. We have had a trying year – so many things have happened that we could not have expected. Yet we trust in God’s perfect will and plan and see His blessings even through the trials.

Haiti has had a hard year with the gangs making life difficult for everyone – it is definitely a land of turmoil. But I’m happy to report that the gangs gave everyone a FREE WEEKEND earlier this month and we were finally able to get our container safely delivered to the hospital after it had been sitting in Port au Prince since we shipped it in September. This container was loaded with all the solar panels and the hardware needed to mount them to the in-patient roof, along with a lot of building materials and general supplies. Our batteries have been parked on a cargo ship outside of Los Angeles for some time; I believe they have now made it on shore and are going through customs. We will ship another container as soon as we can get the rest of the equipment needed to install the solar system.

I was talking with Dr. Moise last week and he reported that they performed a hip surgery for a woman on Nov 14th who had broken it when a wall fell on her during the earthquake – a full three months after the earthquake. It’s hard to imagine living with a broken hip for three months. The hospital is still seeing patients needing medical treatment from the earthquake. I had estimated that it would cost the hospital $65K a month to provide free medical treatment to earthquake victims for 2.5 months. In reality, this cost has been higher, ranging between $75-80K a month. With your support, we have raised almost $200K to date.

We desire to assist the 8 employees whose homes were either destroyed or heavily damaged from the earthquake; discussions have begun as to what that help will look like. We have received donations designated for these home repairs, which Duane and I will be bringing to Haiti. I believe that God has given each one of us unique talents that He expects us to put to work for His purposes. Let me tell you about one – Jim Heist. Jim is a retired machinist/tool & die maker from General Motors who attended church with Dr. Bill at Byron Center Bible. When he retired, he set up a small shop in his garage. In the past, he made external fixators for Dr. Bill to support severe fractures. When we hired our orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Lamy, a year and a half ago, we asked Jim to make us a supply of external fixators as purchasing the hardware needed is very expensive. I don’t even want to guess how many hours Jim has put into making these. These will lower the cost of orthopedic surgeries for a long time. Thank you to Jim, and the many others, who devote their time, talents, and resources to help us minister to the Haitian people.

We will continue to accept Rice & Goat donations up until Christmas. Since Dr. Bill began this program years ago to show our appreciation to the staff, it has become a Christmas tradition, made possible by your gracious support.

I have spent the last week sitting in my basement prison serving my quarantine. I’m thankful for relatively minor symptoms; still, not having energy to even do paperwork is against my style. Let us not forget and continue to pray for all those who have lost loved ones from this pandemic.

Duane and I plan to return to Haiti on Dec 10 and stay for a week. Please pray that our time there will be used wisely, that staff will be blessed, and that all who come to CSL will see Christ in all that we do.

Thank you all for your continued support and prayers. May the Lord continue to use your gifts for the advancement of His kingdom.

In Christ, Dan Boerman

‘O God, You are more awesome than Your holy places. The God of Israel is He who gives strength and power to His people. Blessed be God!’ – Psalm 68:35

Dr. Luke, his daughter Maddie, Tabitha, Beth Newton, and Duane & Ruth arrived at the hospital on Saturday, October 9.  Upon arrival, we were informed of the fuel shortage and the fear of getting fuel trucks across the country.  The fuel that we ordered still has not come. As of today, we only have enough fuel for 12 days if we conserve. Currently, our hospital is the only hospital that is not functioning at a limited capacity.  Please pray that the fuel truck will be able to deliver soon. The lack of fuel is not allowing Haitians to even get out of their villages and as a result the hospital is seeing only foot traffic. Situations like these further confirm our need for solar power and we are reminded of God’s rich provisions with the support from of you that have made solar possible. 

During the first week, Dr. Luke and Maddie spent time in the OR, as well as joining Tabitha and Beth in administrative meetings each morning with Dr. Moise (our interim administrator) and Dr. William, discussing how to move forward in the wake of Welser’s death.  We had the privilege of attending Welser’s funeral service on Saturday, October 16.  Duane shared a few words representing our appreciation to God for the work of his servant Welser – 25 years of faithful service to God at CSL.  Welser lived the words of Micah 6:8: ‘He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?’

Tabitha did an outstanding job of organizing the hospital storage rooms, which will be an immense help in determining what is on hand or in need of ordering. This kept her busy, but she was happy to get this project completed. We are blessed to have her on board!

We were joined the second week by Evert and Kitty Bek while Dr. Luke, Maddie, Tabitha, & Beth returned to the states.  We were planning on unloading the container and starting work on getting set up for the fall/winter solar project teams.  The Lord had different plans as the container did not arrive – it is in port but the roads are closed due to roadblocks; there is much conflict in Haiti right now and kidnappings are occurring daily.  Kitty and Ruth finished sorting and cleaning the upper storage area – a big job that needed attention.  Evert is very gifted in electrical and can pretty much repair anything you ask him to.

Duane met each morning with Dr. William & Dr. Moise, as well as meeting with other department heads to make some changes, encourage them, and ensure them of our care and concern.

It is an answer to prayer that we are finally seeing a tapering off of patients with earthquake related injuries and have returned to our normal routine.  Through your support, we were able to build up the poor fund and will make of use of these funds for any more earthquake victims that may still come.  In the course of the earthquake relief, our hospital completed 237 major orthopedic surgeries – this does not begin to include the more ‘minor’ injuries that we cared for.

We are quickly approaching the Christmas season and are once again receiving donations for the Rice and Goats project (a project began by Dr. Bill that gifts rice and a goat to each staff member). We are thankful to our supporters who graciously help provide for our staff as they struggle to feed their families. If you wish to make a donation to this, please designate ‘Rice and Goats’ in the memo and mail your check to:

Centre de Sante Lumiere

2632 28^th St. SW

Wyoming, MI 49519

The Lord’s blessings continue to abound amidst the trials that we face. Thank you all for your continued prayers and support!

‘Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us…’ – Ephesians 3:20

In Christ