Unforgettable People - Mariam Fredrick and Pastor Frank Amedia

Miriam Frederick – Director of NLCH and World Harvest Mission of Lake Worth, Fl.
Miriam, 67, established NLCH 34 years ago. During that time she has lost her property twice, once during a governmental coup when she and her staff were flown out by a Lear jet, the other time when the family of the Haitian employee she was required to add to the property’s deed to reclaim it, showed up with machine guns to forcibly evict her. That time she managed to flee by small boat, eventually being rescued by two Coast Guard Cutters off the coast of Cuba. She later recalls that when questioning God as to why he let her fail, she was reminded that He had sent her a Lear jet and the Coast Guard as evidence of His support. To return for a third start represents a conviction that passes all understanding!

NLCH runs a Christian orphanage for between 90-125 children, many with special needs. Over 15 current orphans are mentally challenged and wheelchair bound. Two are amputees. Some were just abandoned at the gates of NLCH or left nearby to die; others have been rescued from the various remote regions of Haiti where they conduct medical missions. Several orphans being cared for in the Post-Op facility are babies that were so severely malnourished when brought in that they were within a day or two of death.

The Post Op Clinic is currently affiliated with the Medishare Hospital Operation (a University of Miami Medical School outreach program) at PAP airport. Amputee and other critically injured children operated on at Medishare are sent to NLCH for Post Op care. Doctors and nurses rotate through the clinic caring for the patient needs on kind of a missionary availability… signing on anywhere from three days to three months. Dr. Ken Pierce and his wife Diane, an ER doctor and RN from Kauai were recently here for three weeks with their youngest daughter Emily, a home schooled high school junior. (In addition to doctoring, Ken has published a book “Wise @ Heart”, plays guitar, sings and leads worship service). They were a fantastic addition to “our family”. This clinic, housed in the former church building in the compound, is being overseen by Dr. Steve Schroering an orthopedic surgeon from Ft. Myers who is in the process of adding a permanent prosthetic fitting facility to accommodate patient recovery and rehabilitation.

Pastor Frank Amedia
A former wild child who played with the WHO, Alice Cooper, etc. business owner and entrepreneur. Frank was born an orthodox Jew, has a PHD in Philosophy, and now is an evangelistic, conservative born again Christian, a conviction reinforced on April 20, 1999 when 12 students were tragically gunned down at Columbine High School. (Franks rather remarkable vision and subsequent conversations with Darrell Scott, the father of the first girl shot, Rachael, are fascinating and I encourage you to Google “Frank Amedia Rachael Smiles”, and follow the link.

Frank arrived at NLCH to deliver aid to various orphanages, etc. He is also in the planning process of setting up a two day revival (tentatively May 6-7) for 1200-1500 Haitian pastors on the street across from the collapsed Presidential Palace downtown PAP. The purpose of the revival is to reinstill a new spirit of commitment, service and leadership to Haiti, led by pastors at the community level. This can only succeed, Frank believes, if the pastors confess and repent of transgressions in the secular world in recent years.

On the morning of our third day we joined Pastor Frank and his assistant, along with Dr. Rik Celie, to go to Carrefour and meet with Bishop Vilsaint Chervil, church Eglise Jesus Christ De La Guerison, one of the area’s religious leaders. Pastor Frank wanted Bishop Chervil to head up the team to obtain the permits for the pastoral crusade.

Carrefour, being nearer to the earthquake epicenter, sustained more destruction than PAP. Quite a bit of the church property including the school, and even the Bishop’s residence several miles away, were destroyed. The main church structure itself was not damaged and was being used as a clinic on Monday when we arrived. They were routinely seeing 200-300 patients per day, or until they ran out of meds. Many families were living behind the church in the destroyed school facility and on the bare ground in front of it, sleeping on blankets on rock hard ground (which would turn to mud and standing water when the fast approaching rainy season arrives) under a couple of tarps. One of these families included the Miracle Baby born the day of the earthquake and twins born the day after the quake.

After the clinic (see below) we ended the third day in front of the Presidential Palace and adjacent to a massive tent complex of displaced Haitians surveying the site for the revival. As the day’s light began to fade, seven of us joined hands to pray. One by one those on the street began to join in until the group swelled to over 50. After an angry young man passed by and created a big disturbance, Pastor Frank calmed him down, got him to repent, and a healing revival broke out. Turns out the young man had lost his entire family in the earthquake. A potentially explosive disturbance was averted and we returned to our compound safely as darkness fell.