‘It’s always an adventure’ is a common conclusion when talking about our Haiti travels and our trip in February didn’t let us down. Dr. Jose, Mark and Michelle Zwyghuizen, Laura Stlueven, and I left for Haiti on February 12. The adventure started when we boarded our Sunrise flight from Miami to Cap-Haitien and were then asked to unload because of fuel issues. In light of recent events in Haiti, we certainly wanted to ensure the plane was capable of flight, but out 6am departure turned into a 6pm departure, not arriving in Cap-Haitien until 7:30pm. Needless to say, we missed our flight to Les Cayes, but Sunrise had prearranged a taxi service, motel, and meal for us. It took a while to finally get in the taxi and then our luggage wouldn’t fit, so they put two of our bags in another taxi, which apparently meant on the roof. As we headed out, we passed a taxi picking up luggage in the street. Guess whose it was? If you’ve ever ridden in a Haitian taxi, you know they are fast and aggressive. Ours was quite the opposite, driving slow and uncertain, and after 45 minutes we were beginning to worry. We finally pulled up to a gate, only to be told we were at the wrong place. At this point we became certain we were lost. We are now out in the country, it’s very dark, there’s no traffic, no lights, our driver is going even slower. After another 15 minutes we pulled up to another gate and were very relieved to be greeted by a man speaking good English, welcoming his Sunrise guests. Another great feeling of relief was when the taxi with the rest of our luggage pulled in afterwards. It was short night of sleep and we were up early to head back to the airport at 5am for our rescheduled flight to Les Cayes. We were quite happy to make it to the hospital late morning. Travel uncertainties are always a part of visiting Haiti and we’re extremely thankful that God sees us through them.

We had a very busy and productive week, which involved generators, lab equipment, employee roofs, internet issues, and working to transition to a shared cloud for increased collaboration between Haiti and the US. There is always more that can be done, and we all wished we had planned a longer stay. The list will be even longer for next trip. We continue to settle into the new house and it has been a great place for teams to stay.

There is so much happening at the hospital every day. Each time I visit, there are even more people waiting for treatment. I have struggled with how to show the treatments we do every day. At the end of this newsletter I’ve included two cases from the week we were there, which are not uncommon. We normally have around 10 individuals in the hospital struggling with these types of injuries. The pictures can be difficult and graphic to look at, but I think it’s important for our supporters to see what the Haitian people deal with. Our hearts hurt for them. Thank you for your support as we work towards the goal of always providing better care as we share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We continue to see improvement in the level of treatment we are giving and are encouraged by the staff producing educational material to share. Dr. Jose attended one of these presentations on this trip and was impressed with the detailed information provided. That attitude will go a long way in helping more people.

On March 11 we are loading another container with lots of vital items, which comes sooner than we had originally planned. We have additional batteries for the solar system, another generator (big enough to run the hospital), two new industrial washing machines, dental equipment, and many medical supplies. There’s a lot of work put into maximizing what we send as the shipping cost now exceeds $20,000. It’s hard to spend that much, yet it’s so important to the hospital’s ministry, making sure they have what they need to operate.

We have relied heavily on Agape Flights to send needed supplies to the hospital between container shipments. One of their planes went down in Haiti in early February, killing both pilots. Please pray for the organization and the families as they struggle with this devasting loss. Both pilots will be greatly missed. More information can be found on Agape Flights web site.

I was able to meet with several students on this trip who we’re supporting through our education fund. All are doing well, and even the students we support in the Port Au Prince area report that they have been able to stay in school. What a blessing it is to be a support to these children in their education.

We’re excited to share that CSL is now able to accept online donations! We have received a lot of requests for this, and our hope is that this is helpful for our supporters. You can click the ‘donate to CSL’ button below, or visit our webpage, www.servingincayes.com and navigate to the ‘Donate’ Page.

Donate to CSL

Dan Boerman

Patient Cases:
Images included might be hard for some to see. Proceed with caution.

Miss Kandia is a 28-yr old mother of a 3-yr old boy that sustained a severe burn on her legs. She sells sandals in the local market, and the burn was caused by an exploding propane tank. She is undergoing aggressive wound care. We hope these will heal without the need of skin grafts, but if she does need skin grafts, this will be done at CSL. We place patients under nets to prevent flies and other bugs from contaminating the wounds. She will likely spend several months at CSL.

A 27-yr old male who unloads boats for a living, fell off his motorcycle and sustained an open or compound fracture on his lower leg. The tibia and fibula poked through the skin and were contaminated with dirt, stones, and grass. He was brought to CSL where he had emergency orthopedic surgery, in which his wounds and bones were cleaned. The bones were then lined up and an external fixation was applied. He then received wound care and antibiotics. He will be in the hospital for 6-8 weeks.

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

The conditions at CSL continue to change. The staff is maturing and handling the daily operations on their own. They continue to impress us with their desire to not only improve the services we currently offer but also add needed services. Our role is changing to that of a coach and guide, along with getting the hospital medical supplies and equipment. The hospital is a very busy place! Talking to one of the local missionaries, he described how difficult it is to drive past the hospital because of all the people, motorcycles, and cars in the street. One of the problems we are discussing is how to increase our number of beds as we are at times sending patients home sooner than we would like to make room for more urgent cases.

It’s hard to believe we’re already planning for the coming end of 2025. For many years, we’ve had a Rice and Goat fund as a year end gift to our dedicated staff and we are excited to continue that again this year. Many of you have been faithful contributors to this fund, and we thank you. It is a gift of more than money; I hear so many comments about how much it means to our team to have your support and encouragement.

We appreciate the prayers for our ministry and request specific prayers as we plan how best to expand our facility and for our staff as they deal with difficult living conditions. But above all, we pray that the patients we serve will find not only physical healing within our doors, but that they will be met with the love of Christ and be granted spiritual healing.

Please consider a donation to one of our funds: Rice and Goats, Education, and Poor Fund. We are thankful always for your support!

Dan

Our mailing address is:
Centre de Sante Lumiere
2632 28th St. SW
Wyoming, MI 49519

A lot has been happening this summer; a successful trip to Haiti, preparation of a container leaving here this month, a large medicine order placed, a new ultrasound machine arriving soon, and many supplies being purchased and donated.

Haiti in July! Hot and humid. Bryan Johnson, Evert Bek, and myself returned late Sunday night from a nine-day visit to CSL. We might think summer in Michigan is hot, but nothing truly prepares you for the heat and humidity in Haiti. A lot of sweating and a lot of water was drunk on this trip. We were quite thankful to be spoiled and sleep in A/C. Our focus for the week was repairing and maintaining the equipment used at CSL. The solar system, generators, lab equipment, and sterilizer are just some of the equipment we worked on. We also finished the guest house we have been working on for almost 2 years, allowing us to move out of the administration building and freeing up much needed space.

We had the opportunity of partnering with the MEBSH church that neighbors the hospital and lead a mobile medical mission about an hour from CSL, ministering to those who have difficulty reaching the hospital. In addition to assisting in the medical clinic, the church also led a 2-day evangelistic event. Roughly 100 church members went out into the community, spreading food and the gospel to their village. It was awesome to see.

There were several people suffering from medical issues who haven’t been able to receive treatment. Among them was a seventeen-year-old (pictured below on the left) involved in an accident. Without basic treatment for her foot and hip, she has had to use a crutch to get around. We are going to provide some physical therapy, hoping to regain some movement. We also met this young boy (pictured on the right) who’s one leg is 2 inches shorter than the other and needs help with special shoes to assist with walking. These examples are very common in Haiti; we help those we can, but the need is so great.

Preparation is under way for a container shipping on July 30. It’s been 1.5 years since we last sent one, and we are prioritizing the most important things to send. There is an incredible amount of work done by many to gather, package, sort, and label the items we send, which range from maintenance supplies, medical supplies, medical equipment, construction supplies, and personal items. Everything currently needs a good restock. Hopefully we can send another container soon, but the cost has risen a lot. Estimates for this container is close to twenty thousand. A big thank you to all who have volunteered your time, products, or money to help make this possible!

We continue to send vital supplies via Agape Flights almost weekly. A special thanks to them and to the NRC Disaster Fund who have been a huge blessing in helping cover a lot of shipping expenses.

Last year we had the funds for a new ultrasound machine, but redirected the money to purchase a new x-ray machine when the current broke. We are excited that we again raised enough money to order a new ultrasound machine, which we hope to receive soon.

Getting medicine to the hospital has been a continuing problem for many reasons. We were recently able to make arrangements to have a good supply sent. The order is in process and should be there soon. I’m sure once this order is received we will start the ordering process right away again, as this one has been in the works since February.

CSL remains one of a few, if not the only, fully functioning hospitals in Southern Haiti. As people continue to flee Port Au Prince and move to the Les Cayes area, the hospital has experienced the increased demand of their services. I haven’t seen so many people at the hospital every day and night before. Our staff has also increased in size and grown in experience. We are thankful for their efforts to better serve the Haitian people.

We have started the process of enrolling our lesser paid staff’s children in school this year. Last year we enrolled 68 children, along with one who is in medical school and another who is doing a general surgery residence program. This is so important for the future of Haiti. We hope to expand this program when we have the needed resources, as our desire is to be able to enroll all of our staff’s children.

We thank each of you for your support of this ministry and appreciate your prayers. During this trip and while preparing to send this container, we have seen so many ways in which God has both provided for our needs and paved the way for necessary things to happen. We are thankful for His guidance and leading.

Dan Boerman

Dr. Luke, Duane, and I were able to spend a week at the hospital last month working with the staff and getting a couple of overdue projects completed. As an answer to travel prayers, Sunrise Airlines has recently started flying from Miami to Cap-Haitien, where we then can catch a flight to Les Cayes, allowing us to visit the hospital while bypassing Port Au Prince. While the country continues its downward spiral, we continue to be blessed with a staff that works very hard to provide excellent care and at the same time improve the services we give. We still remain about the only hospital in southern Haiti that can give good, consistent care.

Life in the Les Cayes area has gotten a little better as vital supplies such as food, fuel, and batteries are available, although still a long way to go to be considered normal. Many families have extended family living with them that fled from the continued violence in Port. The hospital has been very busy as a result since this has increased the number of patients the hospital has been seeing. It has also put a bigger demand on the poor fund as a lot of these patients don’t have the means to pay for their treatments.

One of our backup generators failed a year ago and we had purchased a slightly used generator as a replacement. With the assistance of several local businesses here in West Michigan, we were able to have it serviced, test ran, needed electrical components installed, and shipped to Les Cayes. It arrived at the hospital right after our last trip in September. Duane was finally able to get it installed and running this trip! We are so thankful and blessed with the help we receive in times of need. This generator is another component which contributes to our consistent electric, something we don’t even think about in the states, but is something that’s not available to people in Haiti who can’t afford a small solar system (mostly for lights at night and maybe running a refrigerator during the day). We are blessed!

Beginning in 2003, Dr. Bill traveled to CSL one week out of every month for almost 15 years. His desire and vision was to train local doctors and staff to be able to give better treatment to the locals than what was available. Dr. Moise and Dr. William worked with him from the beginning and the foundation they established is hard at work today. The Haitian government requires medical students to ‘donate’ a year of service to an in-country hospital. We have had many of these medical students requesting to complete their year of service at CSL. While this doesn’t necessarily mean that they will come work at the hospital once they become doctors, just having them for their year of service has resulted in a surgical department that is staffed 24 hours a day. This is a huge relief to our staff as the increases in emergency c-sections (with patients often traveling several hours) and emergency surgeries from accidents at night was becoming a large strain

Dr. Marc Dubuisson, a medical student CSL supports, started working with Dr. Bill several years ago. He has completed his education and his year of service and is now in his second year of surgical residence in Mirebalais. Once his education is completed, he will come work at CSL for 5 years. Below is an update from him on his recent experiences.

As a first-year surgery resident, my days are a whirlwind, primarily split between the demanding realms of general surgery and trauma. We also rotate through emergency medicine, which throws a different kind of intensity into the mix. It’s a steep learning curve, but I’m finding my footing, absorbing new techniques and protocols with each passing day.

The hands-on experience is invaluable. I’m now confidently performing minor surgical procedures, like circumcisions and excisions of lipomas, which feels like a significant milestone. There’s a real sense of accomplishment when you can apply what you’ve learned and see a positive outcome. The operating room is a dynamic environment, and I’m constantly learning to anticipate and adapt.

However, it’s not all about technical skills. The morbidity and mortality (M&M) conferences are a crucial, albeit emotionally taxing, part of the training. Analyzing complications and patient outcomes, especially when things haven’t gone as planned, can be incredibly difficult. It forces us to confront our limitations and the inherent risks of our profession. It’s a necessary process for growth, but it can be emotionally draining. Despite the challenges, I’m driven by the desire to improve and provide the best possible care for my patients.

Following this update, Dubuisson notified me that Mirebalais was invaded by armed gangs last weekend, causing many injuries and deaths. The town is in panic. They were able to evacuate the hospital staff and patients and are safe for now, but they fear the gang will destroy their hospital. Please pray for God’s hand of protection on the patients, staff, and people of that town.

Dr. Jo Marturano has been our visiting psychiatrist for many years and her excellent services are in great need. Below is a letter from her requesting assistance with her work. Please feel free to reach out to us if this is something you are able to help with.

SEEKING PHYSICIAN SUPPORT:  The leadership at CSL has been supportive of Dr Jo Marturano visiting as a psychiatrist since 2011, and she has maintained a good relationship with the doctors on staff, especially Dr Adulte.  He has taken over prescribing psychiatric medications for the many people there with depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar, trauma and aggressive disorders. 

We would like to put out the call if you know any psychiatrists, or family practice doctors with an interest in these psychiatric disorders for the following help: 

Assisting in ordering and mailing the large quantity of medication through Agape to the CSL clinic.  We currently have reimbursement of the cost of these medications, thanks to the generosity of the Stiftung Friedrichsheim in Germany.   But we need assistance in ordering thousands of tablets (currently through Henry Schein) or any other medication outlets.  The most commonly used medication is Risperidone which is currently on a backorder and puts our patients at risk of relapse or danger.   We need ANY OTHER ideas for acquiring large quantities of these medications perhaps through a charity that we are not aware of.  You may contact Dr Jo Marturano for a list of needed medications at jomarturano@icloud.com.  it would also help to have the manpower to order and mail medications every 1-2 months, in case Dr Jo should become incapacitated for any reason.  

Helpful but not necessary:  Visiting occasionally to support Dr Adulte and mentor his questions about difficult cases.  (Dr Jo is aging and has had a lot of family needs this past year, but is still available by phone, email, and What’s App to a new volunteer.) Please put the word out through your churches and personal contacts, if you know of anyone with a heart for our brothers and sisters struggling in Haiti with mental illness. 

So much good is happening at the hospital and we recognize it as all coming from the hand of God. Thank you all for your continued support and prayers. Please continue to pray for the patients and staff, that they will continue strong in their work and have faith and trust in God to supply all of their needs.

Dan Boerman