SANTIAGO, D.R. — There’s nothing quite like witnessing an open heart surgery.

Seeing a human heart beating and a pair of lungs expanding and contracting is absolutely incredible.

You can also view photos from Pricile’s surgery. Keep in mind that many photos may be considered disturbing by some due to the nature of surgery.

I don’t have a whole lot of inspirational thoughts to share today because we’ve been going full-speed for a few days. In lieu of words, today I’ll just share some photos and a few updates.

Isenadaire was the last to arrive of the four kids we we able to take to Santiago so far. He's older than the others. His health problems are noticeable when he has to walk a lot, especially up and down stairs when he gets very fatigued.

Erin Brenner prepares the instruments in the OR before Pricile's surgery.

Dr. Rodrigo Soto was our chief surgeon for Pricile's operation and he should be performing all the kids' surgeries when they are scheduled. Most of them should happen next week.

The following photos are from Pricile’s open-heart surgery and contain material that may be considered graphic to some due to the nature of the operation. They are tasteful, but display internal organs, blood and other subjects that may not be of interest to some. View at your own discretion. Continue Reading

PORT AU PRINCE –

“Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

- Psalm 37:4

We are all selfish by nature.

Even the most well-intentioned Christian men and women are subject to selfish motivations and desires subconsciously.

For me, the last few days have been quite a stretch on my patience. Since I have only a finite amount of time to film the process of these kids getting surgeries, delaying only a day puts me under the gun to get what I need before I leave.

Our trip to the Dominican Republic has been delayed for three days now. I have to return to Port au Prince in four days. They call it “Waiti Haiti” for a reason. Continue Reading

PORT AU PRINCE — I wrote about how God needs those that are willing and not just those who think they are able in my last post. Then I touched on how God’s perfect should define our perfect, not the other way around. This leads me to the second point of my discussion on serving for God:

God doesn’t need perfect people to accomplish his plan.

He needs us where we are and and he needs us to be willing. Waiting until we think we’re ready only wastes the time and blessings he’s prepared for us. Continue Reading

PORT AU PRINCE — As is how most things go in Haiti, nothing happened today as planned.

After relaxing a bit and allowing all my experiences and thoughts settle in from today, I’ve come to one conclusion:

You don’t have to think you’re a perfect fit to be the perfect fit. Continue Reading

Dr. Doiron poses with many of the homeless at KARM that gave nearly $200 to help the burned Haitian baby.

Dr. Clint Doiron is the founder of the Chadasha Foundation, an organization that does a lot of work with helping children in Haiti with medical, physical and spiritual needs.

Clint keeps a regular journal, and I’ve tried to get him to post his journal stories on a blog so that others can learn about and share his amazing experiences across the world. He’s yet to do this, but he did email me a story from his journal recently that is too amazing not to be shared. While reading this aloud, it brought me to tears. Below is his journal/email exactly as it was sent. Continue Reading

All the orphans from this orphanage were evacuated and taken to Chadasha's guest house in Port-au-Prince--nearly 80 kids in all.

The rain never ends, but they have nowhere dry to go.
They live in tents, and shelter is hard to come by. So is food. And clothes.

And none of them have parents–most lost in the earthquake.

Then, as if the earthquake, politcal instability, and loss of parents isn’t enough, these Haitian orphans were flooded out of the only place they had left–their dirt poor orphanage, now comprised of mud holes, standing water and tarps.

They are great kids–really. Just watch this video and you’ll see that just because they are parent-less and homeless doesn’t mean they are depressed or downhearted. Continue Reading

The final heat of the 2011 NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships in Knoxville, Tenn. began with more drama than any men's heat in the last 31 years. Denison had to finish within two spots of Kenyon to retain its lead and unseat the only overall champion the sport had seen in 31 years.

The full slideshow of photos from the event is located at the end of the story.

I remember showing up at my first UT football game as a photographer. Not a fan, student or band member, but with my mind focused on my goals for the next few hours and working to learn and accomplish those goals.  I was impressed with how nice the facilities were, but it didn’t come as a surprise to me–this is Tennessee, an FBS (Division I) SEC program with a top-10 all-time winning percentage.

Neyland Stadium is known for being one of the largest stadiums in America--over 100,000 in capacity, but after the multimillion dollar renovations to its interior and exterior, it is one of the nation's most beautiful as well.

Money goes to what people care about most, and Volunteer football is a big-revenue operation. Neyland Stadium is one of the oldest, finest and largest stadiums in the country for a reason–people are fanatical about the cleated brethren that don the orange and white jerseys and hit the wooden sign that says “I will give my all for Tennessee today,” as they leave the locker room.

The Tennessee football locker room has been compared to the quality of NFL locker rooms.

That locker room, by the way, was recently renovated and named for Peyton Manning after he made a $1 million contribution to the Neyland Stadium renovation project. According to UT’s website, Phase II of this plan alone was an estimated $27.4 million.

The media rooms that I’ve worked in on field level and in the press box are beautiful and spacious areas. They serve a pre-game meal, halftime meal, and snacks and pizza after the game to working members of the press. A similar routine occurs at men’s and women’s basketball games in Thompson Boling Arena. In addition, all media get parking passes near the venue, a storage area for gear, work space for writing/editing/uploading and dedicated athletic department personnel to help them solve problems and accomplish (most of ) their needs.

None of that exists at the Division III (DIII) level. Continue Reading

The pastor of the church in Port Au Prince follows along in his Bible and makes notes to translate the message to the visiting Americans.

Imagine being immersed in a culture you don’t understand, that speaks a language you can’t translate, in a place you couldn’t navigate with a map. There’s hardly anything in common between you and these people who look, act and sound nothing like you or what you are familiar with. Even the most basic of ideas must be painstakingly demonstrated to communicate–and even then you aren’t sure if you got the message across successfully.

Now imagine that those people began singing a song in which you know the lyrics by memory; praising the same Savior you’ve traveled across the ocean to share with a passion unmatched by your fellow believers at home.

In English. Continue Reading

Today I finally got some good film in the can at a clinic we ran in a town up the north coast in Haiti.

We setup a full clinic with two general doctors, an optometrist and some nurses to go along with a semi-full service pharmacy. Continue Reading