Life and New Life for Kesnel

He was 14 years old, but after suffering for a long time with a mysterious illness; you sure couldn't tell that by looking at him.  Maybe his tall lanky body would give it away, or that distant yet determined look on his face; but that's about it.

He came to the HOH after having been taken from doctor to doctor, hospital to hospital; whatever it took to figure out what was wrong.  Earlier on the diagnosis had been a tumor in his stomach--a death sentence here in our corner of Haiti.  Yet his mom persisted.  She was determined to find someone who could give her son a chance.  

After spending quite some time in our partner hospital and after having many tests done; it was determined that the earlier diagnosis was not correct.  He was believed to have tuberculosis in his stomach, not an altogether uncommon occurrence for us to see. 

Sure enough, after a few weeks of treatment, he started to show improvement.  This picture above is already after he's had those first weeks of treatment.  Now, this is how he looks after 3 weeks of more treatment as well as healthy food & care at the HOH:

As you can imagine, his mom is thrilled each time she comes to see him.  

Her persistence paid off and now her son has life where the former prognosis was death. 

But his physical body is not the only thing that has been healed since coming to the HOH.  For the Easter week, the youth at the HOH decided to do an in-house prayer meeting each morning throughout the week.  Normally they put together a week of evening services for the community to participate in and hear the Gospel shared leading up to the Easter weekend services.  Brother David was going to help them with these Evangelistic meetings this year, but his own dad passed away the week before and he had to leave to go be with his family.  So, the young leaders at the HOH decided to keep it low profile this year and do something amongst themselves.

For three mornings they met for prayer, worship and a time of learning from the Bible.  During this time Kesnel heard the story of the Good News of Jesus God's Son coming to die in our place; paying the punishment for our sins, satisfying the wrath of God towards sinful man.  He learned of his need to place his trust in Christ to be saved from his own sin and to receive new life in Him.  Perhaps it was the first time he had heard this story, perhaps it just hit home especially now so soon after coming so close to death himself.  It makes no difference though, Kesnel accepted Jesus that week, and became a Child of God.  Not only does he have life, but he has a New Life as well.  

Stories like this help us remember what the HOH is all about -- bringing Hope to the children God brings to us.  Hope takes on all kinds of forms at the HOH, but the one we get most excited about is this hope of a new life because of the Risen Jesus.  We hope you had a wonderful Easter season and want you to know we are so grateful for your part that allows us to bring this good news to the children and youth of Haiti.  

There were some other activities at the HOH during the Easter break week.  Here are some photos for you to enjoy:

 A big soccer match was organized between the HOH boys who attend 2 different High Schools in our area:

(from back l to r) Magloire, Reginald, Herby 

(front l to r) Evelte, Dieujuste, and John 

all go to one High School

Joseph, Rosnel, Toudley

Jn Mary, Wilkens and Dieuny

all go to another.

I don't even know who won...but that wasn't the point anyway, they had some fun times together.  Several of these young men have been quite sick the past few months, so it's good to see them doing well enough to play some soccer.

Remember the new mattresses we received a few months ago?  Well, our friends in Simcoe, Ontario sent us down some heavy duty raincoat material, some thick thread and big needles.  After a lot of sewing, our new mattresses are all covered and protected.  Hopefully, they will last for many years to come.

Many thanks for the various ways you help us with this special ministry.  Blessings to you!

Mosquito Free Rooms!

Greetings to all of our friends, family and partners.  Jenny is writing you from a very cold - 20 degree Manitoba winter that doesn't want to go away, and she is bringing you news of the House of Hope that is experiencing incredibly hot nights that make sleeping almost impossible.  

At least they are now able to sleep without the buzz of mosquitoes flying about their heads as the new screens have arrived and been installed in all the rooms at the HOH.  Over their annual Carnival (Mardi Gras) break, the young men at the HOH worked hard to replace all the old, rusting and rotting screens we had in place.  As you can see, they desperately needed replacing...

Now they are nice and useful again; and we are so grateful to all of you who participated in this project.  Some people gave financially for us to purchase the materials, others helped order and ship them to us, still others paid for the shipping.  It was a team effort utilizing our partners from all over North America.  Thank you to those of you who helped out.  Here are some pictures of the new screens and the HOH boys installing them...

and here's a look at a window with the finished product...

After much counsel from various sources, we purchased both bug screen and a slightly larger and stronger wired cloth in order to give the bug screen more strength.  It is our hope that these screens last a long time, and give our kids many mosquito free nights (as long as they remember to close the doors!!).

Since returning to school after the break, most of our students have been busy with exams.  As you can imagine it's a stressful time for them, and their days out of school are consumed with studying for the next exam.  They'd sure appreciate your prayers as they finish up.  While we are talking about exams you can already be in prayer for those who have already started to prepare for the difficult government exams coming up in June/July.  Linda is one of those who will be taking these difficult exams, please pray for all of them as they will be working long hours to prepare for this.  

Linda's health continues to be another reason for prayer.  While she did not undergo surgery at this time for her fibroid, the doctors continue to monitor her and are trying other methods in the meantime.  Her blood sugar continues to be an issue as she struggles to get it stabilized, and I know she'd appreciate your prayers for that as well.

We were recently blessed with a visit from a church in Oklahoma.  Among the many things they brought to help out the HOH and cheer up the kids were new cups and spoons.  

In a similar way to the new chairs, the young leaders at the HOH have come up with clever ways to make sure each child at the HOH takes care of his own cup and spoon.  It may seem like small things, but I am pleased with their efforts to include more and more of the kids in taking responsibility for things in the HOH. 

Brother David continues to hold Bible studies with our young people, and several of them have also started helping him with various activities in his church plant in our little town.  It is exciting to see them getting involved in these activities.  

Please continue to pray for the various needs we have at the HOH.  I hope to get a needs page set up on our blog soon that will give you up to date information on the needs we have.  If you are interested in helping us out in any way, just let us know.  A big thanks to all of you who do already help us out in so many ways.

New, again!

"New" has arrived at the HOH once again; this time it was new chairs!  Yes indeed, the new chairs arrived in February, and as you can imagine brought much joy to everyone.  You heard us talking about them for quite some time now.  It all started in the spring of last year with some research, then came an invitation for you all to be involved in collecting the necessary funds to get them.  Once the funds came in it was time to do the ordering -- a would be nearly impossible feat had it not been for some willing helpers in the Extreme Response home office who helped us pull that off!  That was back in November and then came the wait... Finally, in mid February; after having traveled many many miles, the chairs arrived. Four different colors, and four different sizes.

They will have many uses at the HOH, but two of the biggest ones are for use while the kids are eating at the tables, and for use during church services, Bible studies and school. 

So now this means, of course, no more kneeling or standing while the kids are eating.  Also, no more fights over who gets a chair and who doesn't (I know, I know you thought our kids never fought about anything!).  It also means that the kids do not have to rush to get to church and school first in order to snag a chair.  Hmm, we are going to have to come up with another reason to encourage them to be on time now!

In any case, we are so grateful to all who helped us at every step through this process.  In an effort to preserve the life span of these chairs, our young leaders have come up with a "chair care" plan.  Each child, youth and young adult has been assigned a chair, and their name written on it.  That is their chair to care for, keep clean and keep under surveillance.  It is our hope that these chairs will last a long time and that our kids learn from their responsibility to care for them well.

Our friends in Miami continue to provide us with food goods brought over on the boat on a regular basis.  Their help in this way is of incalculable worth; on the months when our financial donations are low, we are always encouraged to know at least we'll be able to feed all the hungry mouths we have to feed.  If it would interest you to help them out with the purchase and collecting of these food supplies feel free check out their website at:  http://friendsofhumanity4haiti.org/ .

The arrival of food always brings a smile!

This past month has seen several new children being brought to the HOH.  Most of these children have come with severe malnutrition.  These children bring the most work for our staff of nurses, and while they often are the ones who break your heart when they don't make it; they are more often the ones who bring great rejoicing in our home as we see the incredible change just a few weeks of good nutrition can bring to a child.  Along with one family member, these children generally spend a month in our home as the children receive care, and the family members (usually their mothers) are shown the proper food and life choices they need to make in order to maintain the child's level of nutrition and healthy home environment once they leave the HOH and return to their homes. 

Another frequent health concern that brings a child to the HOH is some form of Tuberculosis.  Recently, Marcsony came to the HOH with this very problem. 

He comes from a town a few miles up the road from us.  He has been battling TB in his neck glands for quiet some time.  Unfortunately, he faced a problem many other children face; in fact it is this very problem that originally caused the HOH to come into being.  The treatment for TB takes many many months, and need consistent daily medication throughout the treatment time.  Marcsony started his treatment from his home, but he didn't get very far along when his family started to forget to give him his meds.  Then when the meds ran out, they didn't hurry to get more; thinking they had time before he needed it again.  At first, it didn't seem to make a big difference, but soon he started to get worse again.  When they returned to the hospital this time, the doctor convinced them to allow him to stay at the HOH for the duration of his treatment so he could fully recover.

Kechnaida and Chilienne also came to the HOH with various forms of TB.  Kechnaida had it in her spine and Chilienne in her glands like Marcsony.  They've already been at the HOH for several months at this point, and are well into their treatments.  Kechnaida was unable to sit, stand or walk when she arrived.  Now she can do all of the above.  It's amazing what treatment can do for the physical body, and as you can see on their faces the love and care given at the HOH does a lot for their spirits too.

We appreciate you all and your support of the HOH very much.  There are so many ways you help us out, and each one just makes us better able to care for the needs of the children and youth in our care.  There area a few areas in which we need more help.  Several people and groups of people offered to help us with our need of Baby supplies, thank you so much for each one who participated in that.  We have a list of other supplies we are in need of sending down to Haiti, if you'd be interested in helping out in this way, please just let us know and we'll fit you with one that suits you.  We are also in need of continued monthly financial donations.  We love and appreciate all those who give financially, and if anyone else out there is interested in helping in this way, please let us know.  The easiest way to get in contact with us is at the following e-mail:  houseofhope1@hotmail.com. 

Please continue to pray for Linda, the HOH director's health.  She was scheduled for surgery today or tomorrow, but is not sure that it will happen or not, so pray for wisdom for all those involved in deciding and doing this, and for peace for Linda and the kids as she faces these health needs at this time. Once again, thank you so much for the various ways in which you support our ministry.  May you be blessed and continue to be a blessing.

Oh Baby!!

Last week we were privileged to received a beautiful 5 day old baby boy into our home.  His name is Job, and his mother died in childbirth.  The father brought him to our hospital asking for help.  He said he had no family to take this child, and since he already had 8 children at home, he could not take care of this tiny baby.  It was obvious that the baby was already on his way to becoming severely dehydrated, so the hospital sent him to us. 

5 day old Job

Everyone was excited to have a new baby in the house.  None more than the younger kids.  They marveled about every little thing he did.  In the following picture I found a bunch of them huddled around Linda as she was feeding him...

Unfortunately, our joy of having Job in our home didn't last too long, but we couldn't be sad about the circumstances that took him away from us.  One of the national staff from our partnering hospital has been wanting to adopt a child for some time now and jumped on this opportunity to adopt Job.  We just love it when Haitian families step up to adopt children whose birth families are not able to care for them.  But, we were disappointed to have just had 3 days with him in our care!

One thing we did realize, however, is that we are out of baby supplies here at the HOH!  We have had 5 babies come through our home over the past year, and we've depleted our stock of baby things.  We were able to find a few bottles to feed him, but we are going to need to replace our stock soon to be ready for the next one.  If there is a small group, school, church, family or friends out there who would like to put together a "baby" care package for the HOH, please feel free to get in contact with us and we can give you details about what kinds of things we need, and how you can get them to us. 

We appreciate so much the help you have been to the ministry here at the HOH.  We are blessed to have partners who help us in many different ways.  For those of you who pray for us, here are some requests:

• Jenny will be on her way to Canada soon, please pray for safety in traveling.  You will be hearing from her on how you can be in touch with her there, once she is settled.
• Our students are heavy into studying.  For those in grades 6, 9, 12 and 13 there are government exams coming up in June and July and they are already studying for them.  They are hard exams and they would appreciate you praying for them.  We will get you a list of them closer to the day, but Linda is one of them studying for the grade 12 exams.
• Linda's health is still a concern.  Her diabetes is back under control, and she is much more careful with her diet than before.  But through all of this the doctors have discovered another problem that she is having.  She has 4 fibroid in her abdomen, and the OBGYN doctor feels she will need to have surgery.  She does not want that, so she is trying several other options first.  We ask you to pray for her as she does this, that the medication she is on can dissolve them, or at least reduce them, and that she can avoid having to have surgery to remove them.
• Continue to pray for our financial needs.  We are grateful for generous donations in December.  And ask you to pray that our monthly financial needs would continue to be met.

Many thanks, and Blessings to you all!

Starting the year out with a Bang!

On Jan. 2, 2014, our friends from Miami came to the HOH with the express purpose of hosting a BBQ for the HOH family.  It all started about 6 months ago when they were here on a work project.  They had a BBQ for themselves and some friends in the neighborhood one afternoon, and brought Linda and I some of the leftovers.  There were hotdogs, hamburgers and ribs.  Good stuff.  We shared it all with the kids, and to our friend's amazement the food got split into many many pieces as the kids all wanted to taste this strange food.  They had never tasted anything like it. 

And with that the planning started for a special surprise BBQ just for the HOH so that our kids could enjoy their own hotdogs and hamburgers.  Jan. 2nd was the special day, and our kids had an incredibly good time.  When asked if he wanted a hotdog or hamburger (they called them long or flat meat), one of our older boys said, "Please give ma a hamburger, I've only ever seen them in the movies, I'd like to know what one tastes like".  Here are some pictures of our fun day...

Cooking up a storm, Mikerlange and Rosnel help BBQ the meat.

Renel, the mastermind, behind the BBQ taste tests the food to make sure it's OK for the rest of us.

Waiting for the food to cook, Ivinsky does his best to entertain.

Finally, Hotdogs and Hamburgers for everyone!

An afternoon of games and popcorn.

 

 A late afternoon meal of BBQ chicken, ribs & Steak plus good ole Haitian rice & pikliz (like a very spicy hot coleslaw).

The end result!

Thanks so much to our friends from Miami Shores Presbyterian Church, Central Presbyterian, and Friends of Humanity for a wonderful day.  

Now the partying has finished, and it is back to school.  The books have been dusted off, uniforms washed, and the week is now filled with classes and homework.  Please keep our students in your prayers.  Several:  Siliana, Chedlyn, John Wisly and Ivinsky have such a hard time with school, they could use your prayers as they struggle to keep up with their classes.  A few others have not been putting the effort they need to into their school work and did not get passing marks last semester.  Please pray for their attitudes toward school, and life in general.

Jenny will be traveling starting tomorrow and into next week visiting an Extreme Response ministry in another part of Haiti, so please pray for her as she travels.  Linda has been having some trouble with her diabetes the past couple of days, and has had to start on insulin shots.  Please pray for her that she'd be able to get this under control, and get her numbers back in a normal place.

Many thanks for all your support!

HOH Winter 2014 Newsletter

Here is our new Prayer letter. Please let me know if you have problems reading it and would like me to send it as an e-mail attachment to you.

Winter 2014 Internet by Jenny Reitz

Merry Christmas!

A very Merry Christmas to all of you.  We hope you have a blessed holiday season wherever you may find yourselves.  Ours has been a busy one so far, we are part way through our Christmas program and party schedule with a few more days to go.

The kids got out late for Christmas vacation this year, most of them just finished their exams on Friday.  So they have been enjoying these first few days on vacation.  Yesterday we held our annual Christmas program.  The kids, under the direction of Saingermain, did such a great job.  It was full of songs, skits and full of the message of the gift of Jesus.  There were about 130 guests in attendance, and with our resident count it made it just over 200 people who crowded in our gallery area to enjoy the festivities.  Here's a glimpse of how the day went...

First came the preparation... Snack bags for everyone consisting of a sandwich, cupcake, bag of kettle corn and some candy.

 

Jenny's "helpers" licking out the icing bowl.

 

 

 

All dressed up... 

 

Songs from the heart

 

Dieula delivers a Christmas Poem.  She'll recite it in her school program tomorrow as well.

 

A fun dance to "Feliz Navidad"

 

And Finally... the food!  Rose Nirva tries cupcake and sandwich at the same time!

It's always a fun day at the HOH, and our friends and neighbors always enjoy coming as well.  One lady thanked us for giving a clear message of the true gift of Christmas, Jesus who lived so we could also live.

Speaking of gifts... the Christmas gifts from Grace Baptist Church in York, PA have arrived!  The kids are excited and we look forward to handing them out after our family Christmas meal on the 26th.  All of our staff will be here with us to participate in this meal and it's always nice to spend the day together.  Thanks so much Grace Baptist for once again sending our kids these gifts.  

We appreciate those of you who have prayed for our late president's wife and family during their difficult time.  We ask that you continue to hold up this family in prayer during this holiday season, as it will be tough for them.  

We'd also ask you to pray for the financial situation here at the HOH.  We were blessed by those of you who participated in helping us collect funds for our projects over the summer months (be watching for some pictures as we start to receive some of the items you helped us purchase).  We now really need to concentrate on increasing the amount of financial support that comes in on a monthly basis.  For those of you who give regularly, we thank God for you... Please pray with us that God would bring more people alongside of us to help increase this monthly support.  It costs us roughly $200 per child per month here at the HOH.  This includes everything:  food, clothes, schooling, medical care, daily needs.  If you do not do so already, please consider helping us with these costs.  If you'd like to know more details about this, just let us know at houseofhope1@hotmail.com .  If you are unable to help us out in this way, please pray with us that God would use others to do so.  Be looking in the coming weeks for news about changes we're making at the HOH due to these financial needs...

Until next time, we'd like to wish you a very Merry Christmas.

Continuing in the midst of sadness

I know it's been a bit since we've written. Things have been busy and then they were just sad... and it was hard to know how to write you about it all. 

A little over a week ago, the President of the national mission the House of Hope is part of (the Union of Evangelical Baptist Churches of Haiti) was taken from his home in Port-au-Prince and brutally murdered.  His wife survived gunshot wounds, but is still recovering in the hospital. 

You can imagine the shock to everyone, and it's hard to talk about anything else these days.  The funeral is supposed to be this coming weekend, being held in various places across Haiti.  We would ask for your prayers on behalf of the Simon family (they have 3 young adult children who are in the US).  Pray also that those investigating this murder would be able to find those responsible and bring them to justice and keep them from doing this to anyone else. 

Here at the HOH things are going ok.  We have two of our young men who have been sick, and I will be taking them to Port-au-Prince this week to see specialists.  Pray for safety for them as they travel, and that they'd be able to find solutions for these health issues. We will also try to attend the funeral of Pastor Simon while we are there.

We appreciate you, your support and prayers very much.  I will try to get a better update written when I get back from PAP.  Blessings... And thanks for praying.

"New"

The past couple of weeks we've had the chance to receive some new stuff at the HOH.  New stuff is always exciting for us, so we wanted to share some of them with you.

First, was the purchase of some new mattresses, thanks to a very generous gift from a supporter.  Half have been delivered to the HOH, and the other half will come in a week or so.  The kids really enjoyed getting them, here's some pictures: 

Another new was new shoes!  We've been blessed twice now by a young lady in the US who grew up in an orphanage herself in Russia.  She has spent time lately collecting shoes and money for shoes for other children in need around the world.  She helped us get new shoes for the kids for school, and now this past week sent us a suitcase full of shoes.  The kids had so much fun trying on the shoes and picking out ones that fit them...

And perhaps the most fun "new" of all was a new swing set sent to us by some new friends in Florida...

I think the smiles say it all.  We love to have new things around here!  So thank you to everyone who has so kindly given to us these past few weeks, and for those who gave to our other projects.  The screens and chairs have been ordered, and in another month or so we'll have even more new things!

Thank you so much for all the ways you support the House of Hope.  We do have some prayer requests we'd ask you to pray about.  Please keep our students in your prayers as they prepare for upcoming exams.  Also specifically pray for Chedlyn and Siliana as they are having difficulty learning to read.  The school system here doesn't allow for help for students who cannot learn just like everyone else, so we are doing the best we can to help them at home.  We could also use your prayers for Dieujuste who is going through a very difficult time right now.  Pray that we will know how best to help him and that he would make some good choices at this time.