Re-entry - the hardest part...

Renee, Joan and I are back home from Haiti after a delayed 18 hour journey...A test of my patience and endurance.  Exhaustion, heavy hearts and minds filled with the faces of desperate children flash on in my head.
I don't "snap back" into my old routine when I return from Haiti very well. I almost feel paralyzed as nothing has the importance or priority that it did when I left. The priorities of life in Naperville suddenly hit the bottom of the list.  Similarly, when I am in Haiti, on the first day you see a situation and you are aghast and think THIS is what we need to support.  The next day you see a situation which takes precedents over the last - deciding the "urgency" of the day before, those kids at least had water, so this new situation becomes your focus.  This goes on and on and pretty soon you have all these VERY important needs all before you and you get overwhelmed.  99% of all solutions require money to fix!  NOTHING is simple in Haiti.  While they live totally simple lives, everything is a project.  Cultural and safety issues play a big part in resolution.  You end up doing a triage of needs.  In order to survive you need:  Water, food, and medical help.  Sanitation is a huge cause of illness and death - making the contaminated water enhancing the medical needs.  ROUTINE vaccinations could prevent so many deaths that it's ridiculous.  As Miriam from New Life 4 Kids accurately describes it - "All we are doing is putting out fires.  We haven't gotten to the cause of the fire to stop the cycle."  Miriam is a visionary who has the patience to take one step at a time, assuring that her feet are planted securely.  ME - Ms. IMPATIENT - I'm bubbling with  inconsolable desires to fix, fix, fix!  Somethings DO need to be fixed right away to sustain life.  I would like to stress to contributors of Impact For Jesus that together, we are capable of doing that.  I would like our funds to be at a level where we could finance a new clinic, orphanage, piece of land for a community learning center to teach specific trades for them to survive in the future, or who knows what -  we MUST keep trying to reach those goals.  But - in the mean time we can FEED THE HUNGRY - sustain life, rescue the dying, and sponsor children to provide their basic needs.  WE can and ARE making a difference.  I am abundantly thankful for every penny contributed to Impact for Jesus so we can "go and do."  While using discretion and being responsible stewards of donations will ALWAYS be the foundation of Impact for Jesus, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and caring for the lost is an ongoing focus. There are 1,800 tent cities in Haiti right now - 14 months after the earthquake.  The largest tent city has 52,000 at its location. Impact for Jesus may not be able to feed and clothe all of them, but I suspect if you ask those who WERE fed last week because of generous contributors - THEY would express hope and thanksgiving.  America's dogs are better cared for then the people in Haiti.  What has happened to our world? Impact for Jesus will never give up - so please, don't you give up trying with us!  Remember  - we promised many children in Haiti that we WILL be back.  I wouldn't want to disappoint even one of them.  May God bless our broken world.  Patty