Monday, September 25, 2017

Home Again, Home Again

Many thanks for your prayers last week.  Hurricane Maria turned North and other than some strong rains that evening mostly missed the HOH.  Boy did it ever do damage where it hit though -- we feel very grateful that we were not on that hit list.

We appreciated your prayers for Linda's trip to Port-au-Prince as well.  She had a great trip down, a good conference with the mission leadership and a nice visit with some long time friends she hadn't seen for a while.  Unfortunately, the trip back was not so nice. 

The bottom line is, our vehicle is old.  It's been working hard for almost 20 years now, and it is definitely showing it's age.  It broke down 3 different times on her way back, making the normally 6 - 7 hour trip turn into a 26 hour saga -- most of those hours spent sitting by the side of the road. When she arrived back home this morning, she was very thankful for our prayers for safety, and that the trip was over!

Another answer to prayer, the boat arrived in Haiti.  They started to receive the shipment of food today -- always a good day when the groceries arrive!



Please continue to pray:
  • For our students as they dig into their school work.
  • For Lyse, she has once again had a bad turn in her health and has been hospitalized needing blood transfusions.
  • For Jenny as she is planning a quick trip back to Haiti in about a month -- everyone is thrilled about this "bonus" trip.
  • For some decisions about our sick vehicle... that we'd be able to fix what we can to continue using it for now -- and for wisdom to know what to do about the future.
  • As always,  our financial needs never seem to go away!  Please pray for some more monthly donors to help us out as we bring Hope in its many forms to the kids in our care. 
 Thank you all so much for partnering with us in this special work. 

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Here we go again...

Well, no doubt by now you've heard of another hurricane going through the Caribbean.  So far, it looks like the eye of Maria will go by even further North and East then Irma.  This is good for our part of Haiti and while we might get rain and wind from the outer bands, we are hoping it's not too bad.  We'd really appreciate your prayers though, as you know these things can be quite unpredictable.  We have a shipment of food for the HOH on the way to Haiti this week -- pray that it arrives safely.

Another area of prayer is for Linda as she has to travel to Port-au-Prince this week for some meetings with the leadership of our Haitian Mission.   As you can imagine traveling around Haiti is tough for her on a good day.  This week they are facing some unrest and demonstrations popping up from time to time, and now there's the possibility of bad weather due to the hurricane. 
Sweet Lovedine will be Linda's travel partner to help her out along the way.

Some of the boys will be driving them down.  And the Joseph and the young leaders will hold down the fort along with our staff.  Pray for safety as they travel.  For good meetings while they are there, and for health especially for Linda.  Seems like there is a virus going through the house -- about 10 woke up with colds and fevers this morning!

The rest were up and ready for school early.  
Here they are eating breakfast before they head out...

We are so grateful for the many ways you support us!  Thank you for keeping us in your prayers and  have a great week. 

Monday, September 11, 2017

School Starts (Take 2)

The kids officially got started back to school this morning.  It really ended up being very good they didn't have school last week, as we had the whole Irma thing to deal with.  But it was good to have them all get off this morning.  Here are a couple of pictures...
 Manouchka and Mits 
(I know this picture looks like they are being tortured -- but they really were excited to go this morning!)
Valandjina is ready to head off for the 5th grade

In the end, there wasn't a lot of damage to our area of Haiti after the storm went by our Northern coast.  We seemed to have had a lot more rain than other areas were reporting, but that is not anything new for us.  We are grateful for being spared, while at the same time realizing with sad hearts that many other people were not.  

Our prayers continue to be for our friends, family and supporters in areas of the Caribbean and US who were severely affected by these storms and ask you to do the same.   It feels so weird for them to be the ones in need and not be able to help them as they so often do for us when we are in need.  So for that, we ask you to pray along with us as they have some weeks of tough recovery ahead of them.  

We are so thankful for your support in so many ways.  Thank God for us as we received enough funds this past week to be able to pay off the first installment for the kids' school tuition.  God is so faithful in providing for our needs -- thank you for being a part of that provision. 

Friday, September 08, 2017

The morning after!

Good morning, heard from Linda this morning. It was a pretty scary night for them, the wind was fierce, she said she wondered if the house would still be standing! It is still raining a lot as it did through most of the night. She doesn't know how it is in our community, but we'll update you later about that. Just wanted to let you know they are ok.

Thursday, September 07, 2017

Update

The HOH has experienced intermittent rain and strong winds most of the afternoon into this evening.  They are doing fine though and are so appreciative of your prayers.  The eye of the storm hasn't quite gone past yet, but it is further north than it had looked earlier -- so that is something to really be thankful for.  We have heard that people in our town who live by the ocean had to be evacuated because the ocean was really getting rough.  But we likely won't know until tomorrow what the whole area looks like.  Thanks for your prayers, please keep them up -- and pray also for the others getting hit now, and those down along the line. 

In the meantime, they are busy celebrating Linda's Birthday -- it's nice they have something else to keep them all occupied.  


Irma

Linda said the HOH woke up to nasty weather this morning, and all the path projections show just some of the outer bands have reached our area.  So, please keep them all in your prayers as the day goes forward.  

It is also Linda's Birthday today -- the kids have been planning a party for days -- not sure how this will impact it, but if you are able to -- send her your best wishes.  She can be found on Facebook.  Or if you send me an e-mail, I can pass it along to her.  Thanks for standing with us during this time of uncertainty. 

Monday, September 04, 2017

School & Irma

There's nothing quite like the excitement of the first day of school -- for those who like school.  Nothing quite like the dread of those who don't. Over the weekend Linda and her helpers were able to unpack and hand out all the school supplies we had sent in over the past couple of weeks.  Here are some pictures of the fun...





It's always quite a production to get the right shoes/sock/underwear and other supplies to each of our 50 students.  But they pulled it off, and were able to get everyone ready for this morning.  The only picture I got was of Lala, who is now officially finished Elementary School and is starting in Secondary school this year.  She is really excited...

But, as so often happens in life -- the excitement turned to dread and the dread to excitement when the majority of our students were sent home and told to come back next week.  What could have possibly caused all of our students to get sent home?  Nothing they or we did for sure!  The schools told them, they simply weren't ready for students yet! 

We aren't going to complain though, we have other things to occupy our time this week.  You might have heard of the bad hurricane, Irma, heading our way.  While getting ready for school last week, our kids spent a lot of time praying for our supporters and supporting churches in the Houston area.  And now we need all of your prayers for us as we are facing our own.  All the projections show it going right over us with the eye itself a little too close to that northern coast line of Haiti where we are.  

We will be spending the next few days making as many preparations as possible, but we could sure use your prayers.  Ultimate good thing for us would be for it to break up as it hits islands heading our way -- but then that's not too good for them.... no easy best case scenarios here.  Please just pray for Linda to receive the funds we've sent down in time to purchase food and fuel.  And for wisdom for her and the older kids as they face the uncertainty of the storm and the days ahead.  Pray for our other colleagues, friends and family all over Haiti for God's protection and provision for all of us.  

Thank you so much for helping us in all the many ways that you do.