Better Days

First of all, thanks so much to those of you who have prayed so faithfully for us during these difficult days.  The weekend was a bit up and down, but this morning Linda called to say all was looking much better.

All of our kids who were admitted to the Cholera Treatment Center have been released and sent home.  No new cases have risen, and the HOH is getting a royal cleaning treatment today.  The last kids came home last night, with the last one being 9 year old Daphno.  When I asked Linda how he was doing today she said, "Oh, he's out playing soccer".  That's a kid for you!

Phania is doing better.  The Doctors had her in the operating room to take the baby on Saturday, but decided at the last minute to wait a bit and see if Phania would improve.  She did, and today is getting an ultra sound done to see how the baby is doing.

Again we appreciate your support in so many ways, but particularly your prayers through these days.  Pray that Linda and the other leaders can catch up with some much needed rest!  Pray also for those who had the cholera that they'd continue to heal and not have any negative health issues that arise from this.  Blessing...

It's been a tough day

While Phania and Rose Nirva continue to hang in there, the doctor's are trying to decide if they need to take Phania's baby while it is still doing ok.  Please pray for them as they make a decision on this.  She lost her last baby which was born very premature, so I'm sure this is very scarey for her and her husband.

Ricardo has now come down with Cholera and has been transferred to the treatment center.  Two other young people Mirlene and Rosnel are sick, but so far not with Cholera.  My guess would be two things, they are working hard and they are scared to eat or drink because they don't want cholera, so they have become dehydrated!  Keep them in your prayers as well as all the other kids as this must be scarey for them as well.

One of our babies died earlier this evening.  Lovinson had been at the HOH for the past several months with a serious case of malnutrition.  He got cholera and wasn't doing too badly until today.  He died quite suddenly this evening.  We were hoping not to lose any, please pray for those on the ground there, I'm sure they are feeling terrible about this.

Linda and the other leaders are very tired as you can imagine.  Keep holding them up in prayer.

Update on the Cholera situation

Good Evening all...The news seems a bit better today.  Rose Nirva pulled through the night and continued to hang on through today, but she is still touch and go.  They had to do a cut down on her neck to find a vein yesterday to get IV's in, and were able to later transfer it to her arm.  Today the doctors felt that she had malaria on top of the cholera, so this was complicating things.  Phania (former HOH kid who was visiting and got cholera as well) seems to be doing better today.  The doctors are keeping a close watch on her, as she is 32 weeks along in her pregnancy.  They are not too worried about the baby at this point, but are ready to do a Cesarean at any moment should it be necessary.  Please continue to pray for these two.

Ronaldson, a young boy seems to be a bit worse today, so keep him in your prayers as well.  There are no new cases as of about noon today, so we thank you for this specific prayer request.  Cholera spreads incredibly fast, so this is a great tribute to some very hard work by our staff and older kids on the ground at the HOH to keep this contained.

The National Public Health officers came by the HOH today and insisted that all of our sick kids/youth be taken to the Cholera Treatment Center at our neighboring hospital.  Linda fought very hard to make them change their minds, as she felt we and our staff would take better care of them than they would get at the treatment center.  But they would not be swayed, so they spent much of this afternoon moving all the sick ones down to the hospital.  We have several of our staff who have gone down there with them to make sure they are properly looked after, but while this eliminates the chances of spread in the HOH, it complicates things for Linda as the kids are all split up now.

Thank you to those of you who have responded with help. And to all those who have prayed fervently for us.  Please continue to pray for all of the sick kids and for Linda and the other staff working hard during this tough time.

Urgent Need at HOH!

As many of you know, I am traveling in Canada and the US for a couple of months.  Today I got a call from the HOH.  They have at least 8 cases of Cholera that have sprung up in the last day or two.  This is a very serious situation.  It is the first time we've had confirmed cases at the HOH, and with almost 100 people living together in fairly close quarters, it could potentially get really bad.

We really need your prayers for Linda and the older youth who are helping her care for these sick ones.  We specifically need prayers for Rose Nirva, the little girl pictured here.  She is the one who is most sick at the moment, they weren't even sure if she was going to make it through the day today.  So please pray for her and those caring for her.  Then there are several others who have it as well:  Stephanie, Fendly, Daphno, Ronaldson, Lovinson, Lovedine, Phania.  Phania is one of the former HOH kids, she moved out and got married last year.  She is expecting, and this will be very serious for her and the baby.

This is a picture of Rose Nirva today, being cared for by Linda,

They have had to put up tarps and fences to limit the kids who are still healthy and keep them away from those who are sick.  Here is a picture of where they are keeping the younger healthy kids during the day...

So, you can just imagine how difficult things are at the HOH right now.  Please pray for Linda, Saingermain, Ernst and Jn Daniel as they lead the others in this difficult time.  Pray for health for them, and for the cholera not to spread further.  Please also pray for the financial implications that this outbreak raises as they are having to buy huge amounts of medicines and IV fluids, as well as supplies to care for the sick.

I will update as soon as I am able to.  If you have any questions feel free to write me at houseofhope1@hotmail.com .

Catching up!

It's one of those busy moments in life, where time just never seems to be enough.  So I'm writing just a few things to catch you up on our news! 

This week starts the spiritual life conference of the Haitian organization that the HOH is part of.  Thousands of people have come to our little town to take part in the festivities.  Our kids just love this week as it's a chance to get all dressed up, go to services, learn new songs and be part of the thousands of other kids who have come here from all over Haiti. Here are some of our kids all dressed up.  They have meetings in the mornings and afternoons and they enjoy it so much.

Most of our kids are finished with their exams.  The last group left is the Grade 13 exams, and they were almost done when we had the scare of Tropical Storm Chantal yesterday.  So the exams got canceled and rescheduled for next week.  A bit of a bummer for them, but then a few extra days to study as well!  Pray for Jn Daniel and Manno who are writing these exams.

Jenny is busy getting ready to leave on her two month trip this coming weekend.  Please pray for her and Djordjy as they travel to many places and see many people.  If you are interested in contacting them, just send an e-mail to the HOH address and she'll be in touch with you.  That e-mail is  houseofhope1@hotmail.com.

Tomorrow please be in prayer for Jenny, Altagrace and Immaculee as they travel to Port-au-Prince to see a specialist to get braces for the two ladies.  Altagrace has been in the HOH for years and as never been able to progress from crutches to walking on her own.  A physical therapist in our area has given us hope if she gets the braces she'll be able to support herself and walk unaided.  This would be a huge blessing for Altagrace.  Immaculee was a resident at the HOH many many years ago.  She was struck with polio as a young child.  She has been the assistant director of the local elementary school for many years now.  Last November she fell and broke her hip. It has been a long road of recovery for her, and she also needs some braces.  We were blessed to find a place called Mission of Hope just outside of Port-au-Prince.  They have a lab and a technician who can make the braces for them.  They also have a missionary who has his own plane, and he has offered to come get us, take us to the brace clinic then bring us back.  If the weather permits tomorrow, we will do this all in one day.  So pray that this works out and we can get these ladies the help they need.

Many thanks for your prayers and support.  Continue to pray for Linda and the kids here at the HOH and for Jenny as she travels seeking to raise the funds we need for the coming school year.

a mistake!

I know you are never going to believe this, but I made a mistake!  The first set of dates is for June 25-28, not July.

Prayers for the kid's Exams...

Good morning!  Just wanted to ask you all to pray for the kids who are going to be writing exams over the next few weeks.  I know they'll appreciate exams.

July 25-28:  Oliana, Pierla, Mirlene, Evelte, Reginald, Herby

July 1-4:  Gimalia, Saingermain

July 9-14:  Jn Daniel

Thanks so much for your prayers.

Prayer Letter from the HOH

 Good Afternoon from a very soggy Port-de-Paix, Haiti!  As promised... here is our summer 2013 prayer letter.  I have posted it here, where you should be able to download it easily to your computer.  If you have trouble with this, just let me know and I'll send it to you in an e-mail directly...

   Summer 2013 by Jenny Reitz

Many thanks for your support, blessings to you all!

Quick Updates

Greetings to all of you!  Do you remember back when there were actually 24 hours in each day?  I don't know what happened, but somehow I've been missing hours somewhere...  Every day seems gone before I can even finish half of what I want to.  And here we are, already in June! Well, I wanted to update you on a few things, so you can be praying for us and all the activities going on down here. 

• First of all, thanks to all of you who prayed and gave towards Jenny's upcoming travel plans for support raising for the HOH.  We now have the entire amount promised, and are starting to work on concrete plans.  We'll be traveling from July 19th to Sept. 17th.  We will be spending time in Southern Ontario, Eastern Pennsylvania, and a really quick trip to Manitoba.  So, if you live in one of these areas and want us to visit you, share at a meeting, or if you want to know if we are already speaking at a Church or home in your area, please feel free to contact me (jreitzcompere@extremeresponse.org).  We really want to see as many of our supports in these areas as possible, and also desire to share the ministry with others who might be interested in helping out.

• We are in the final stages of getting out a newsletter for the summer, so be watching for that! We will post it again on the website.  If for some reason you can't access it, just let me know and I'll e-mail you copy.

• Our students have started with their final exams.  They will be writing all through the month of June, and into July.  Please pray for them as they study and prepare; especially for those writing the tough government exams.  They must pass these exams to move ahead with their education, so they are really important.

 We were blessed with a wonderful shipment of food this past week.  Our friends in Miami are so good about getting us bulk food items.  This time there were numerous added surprises, here are some pictures of the kids with some of the food.

We so appreciate all the ways people help us out with bringing hope to the children and youth in our home.  Thank you for your part!  Have a blessed weekend!

Let's catch up!!

Greetings to all!  First of all, I would like to pass on a word of thanks from Ernst to all of you who prayed for him and his family and also to those who wrote him notes of encouragement.  All the traditional funeral events are over and now the family would appreciate your continued prayers as they face so many new and different things related to life without their dad, husband and friend.

Life here at the HOH has been moving along fairly normally.  The students are big into studying and school, there are various Bible studies and other studies taking place on different nights.  All in all, things are going really well.  Not far from everyone's mind, however are the upcoming school exams scheduled for the month of June, so please be in prayer as they prepare for this stressful time.

Linda spends her days helping many different people.  Today for instance she has spent most of her day at our mission's hospital helping 4 different people get to see the doctors and schedule surgeries.  One of these people is a staff member of our friends from the Lemuel Organization.  The other three come from a home for severely mentally and physically disabled children called the Miriam Center.  One of their staff and two of their kids are quite sick, so she's helping them get taken care of today.  One of the children will need to stay with us at the HOH for a few days as he gets treated for a severe infection. Linda does this on top of all her other responsibilities, so you can imagine, she's a pretty busy lady!

I (Jenny) have been busy trying to work out a new niche for myself at the HOH.  Numerous things that I have taken care of over the years are slowly being transferred over to our young leaders and it is freeing me up to start focusing on other things that the staff and residents here are not able to do.  I find the area where I can be the most helpful here at the HOH at this time is in the area of development; particularly for the moment in the area of donor relations.

It is neat to see our ministry progress over the years to the point where I feel I can let go of some things here and start focusing on other more pressing needs. This has led me to do some research on where our support team is coming from.  I have started working on some plans for developing our support base; and at this moment these plans include some extended periods of travel to see various supporters and attempt to gain others.

With this new opportunity that is in front of us to connect with our support base, we are anticipating God's provision to make these travels a reality.  We have come to understand that in order to adequately provide and care for our kids; and properly invest in their future it will require more funds.  We are asking you to help is with this need in whatever way you can.  We are trying to raise $3,500 so Jenny (and her husband Djordjy for at least part of this time) can spend 2 months traveling to various locations in the Northeastern USA, and parts of Canada.  The biggest expense is getting over there, so we want to make it to as many places as possible in the amount of time we have.  If you can please pray for us that God would supply this need over the next couple of weeks.  If you are able to help out with this need, you can send donations to Extreme Response and designate it for Jenny Reitz Compère's travels.   Their website is www.extremeresponse.org.  Their US address is:

PO Box 345,  Snellvill, GA  30078-0345.  And their Canadian address is:  PO Box 1013, Simcoe, ON N3Y 5B3.   If you have any questions about this, please feel free to contact us at houseofhope1@hotmail.com. 

One last thing we need to share with you is with regards to our friends in Miami who so graciously help us get food for our kids.  They have recently started their own non-profit organization so that they can receive funds for this directly instead of needing to go through their local church.  For those of you who have been giving funds for this through the Miami Shores Presbyterian Church, we are asking that you now send these funds to:  Friends of Humanity, c/o Renel Noel, 15414 NE 2nd Ave., Miami, FL 33162.  Again if you have question feel free to write and ask.  You will still receive tax-deductible receipts for these donations, just from Friends of Humanity Corporation instead of the church.

Thank you so much for your faithful support.  We know we couldn't bring hope to the children of Haiti if it wasn't for you giving us the chance to be here.  We are grateful for your partnership. Please continue to hold us up in prayer, and if you are able to help us out with the need we mentioned above, please consider doing that as well.  Blessings to you all... 
 

Thank you so much for those of you who sent your sympathies to Ernst and his family.  His brother Ruben also grew up with us here with us at the HOH.  He was away at University when his father got sick and died, so it was more of a shock for him.  He has come back, and could use your prayers as well.  Several have asked when the funeral is, and I just found out myself that it will be on Sunday at 2pm.   They will also have a wake on Saturday night before the funeral.  I'm sure they'd appreciate your prayers.

Prayer for Ernst

Good afternoon... this is just a short post to ask you to pray for one of our young leaders, Ernst.  His father had a stroke earlier this week, and then passed away this morning.  As you can imagine it was a terrible thing for that family -- Ernst, his mom and 4 brothers and 1 sister.  the family is also raising a young orphan boy they had taken into their home.  We'd ask you to please pray for the Jean family, especially for Ernst, he considered his dad his best friend. 

Oh my!  Where has this past month gone?  My last post to you all was as I was rushing out the door on my way to Florida.

I had a great trip there.  It was a wonderful time visiting with old friends and making new ones; encouraging our partners along the way, and being encouraged in return.  I was able to speak at multiple different events and places, and was blessed with a few days to relax with a cousin who came to see me in Orlando.  Thank you to each and everyone who made my trip successful.

Meanwhile back at the HOH,  just a few days before I was due to return, our kids were in a car accident.  It was after dark and they were coming home from a school function in Port-de-Paix (the town 6 miles up the road from us).  An oncoming mini bus had only one headlight and St. Germain thought it was a motorcycle.  Meanwhile the mini bus was passing a parked vehicle on their side of the road.  It smashed right into our vehicle... We thank God that no one was killed.  St. Gemain the driver had the worst injuries, and is still recovering; everyone else walked away just really shaken up.  The car on the other hand...

Throughout the week before Easter our kids were all on vacation from school.  They once again planned and put together a Spiritual Life Crusade each night of the week.  It ended with a great Easter service on Sunday morning.  There was lots of singing, special musical numbers and preaching from a pastor and national missionary in our area.  We had a good turn out of several hundred people the first two nights.  Then the rains started... all day... all night for 4 days/nights.  Not to be deterred, the kids moved the crusade inside, and the people crowded in; in smaller numbers, but quite a few from the local community came anyway.  It really was a good time of remember what Jesus did for us, and all that He gave us in His death and His resurrection.

Our students are back in school now.  Several have received their report cards for the last semester.  We've had a mix of results.  The star by far has been 8 year old Dieula who brought home a 9.4 out of 10.  Very impressive.  Others are struggling and could use your prayers, those include:  Esther, Siliana, Ivinsky, Chedlyn, and John Wisly.  School is just not easy for them, and the school system leaves no room for kids who need extra help or different methods.

We have been able to start up a weekly Bible study again with the residents of the HOH.  We are thankful that God has brought a young national Child Evangelism Fellowship missionary to live in our town, and he has expressed a desire to work with our children/young people.  Please pray as David gets to know our kids and starts to share God's Word with them that they would grow in their knowledge of Jesus.

We'd appreciate your prayers as we continue to struggle to get enough financial support to pay our bills.  I know I must sound like a broken record, but we need approximately $200 per child/youth per month.  That adds up to quite a bit when you consider we have 85 here at any given time.  This includes their schooling, food and medical costs as well as any other needs they might have.  Please pray with us that we work to find more supporters to help us with this need.  If you are able to help in any way, please let us know.

Thanks so much for what each of you does do to help us out.  God's blessings on you!  Till next time...

Some quick prayer requests

Hi Everyone!  Once again I am almost out the door!  On my way out, I thought I'd give you some ideas of how to pray for us over the next few weeks.

• I, Jenny will be traveling to various places in Florida over the next couple of weeks.  Please pray for safety in travel, and for good health as I will be really busy.  Also pray for the right words to speak as I have numerous speaking engagements on behalf of the HOH.  
• Pray for Linda and the kids as they remain here and write exams!  Yep, it's exam time again, and everyone is deep into studying.  Pray for health for them too at this time, and the wisdom to balance their time and lives to study and remain in good health, and keep the house running!
• Praise God for a good amount of support that came in for the last month, and pray for continued financial support to come in to meet our monthly needs.
• Pray specifically for 8 year old Ivinsky.  This little ball of energy has been giving his teachers a lot of trouble at school.  They have threatened to not allow him back at school.  We have been all over the place with Ivinsky since he started school, and we had thought we were getting over the misbehaving at school, as last year we had no problems whatsoever.  So, please pray for wisdom for us as we deal with this, and pray for a change in Ivinsky. 

Many thanks for your support!

A bit of a vacation

 It seems that no sooner did we get back into the swing of things around here after the Christmas vacation, that the kids received another week off of school.  This past week's vacation was for the "Mardi Gras"/"Carnaval" celebrations that were happening in Haiti.  Most of our students got the whole week off, and a few were off for just half the week.  They found ample things to do to keep themselves busy...

the older kids helped Linda organize our clothes

this group of little ones enjoyed reading a book

Lala & Nani help sift flour for the noon meal

Blandjina took care of her little one

 

 

 

 

With the end of the "Carnaval" celebrations came Valentine's Day.  The older students had programs and parties with their various schools.  So in the afternoon Djordjy & I took the younger kids to a local store (about 5 miles and a 45 minute drive away) to buy some chocolate.  They were thrilled -- almost as much for the ride in the car as for the chocolate. 

This coming week, I will be traveling to various places in Haiti.  Some of our Extreme Response partners will be coming to visit their partnering organizations in Haiti.  Djordjy and I will be traveling around with them.  We'd ask you to pray for safety as we have many miles over very bad roads to cover.  Also, pray that our visits would be encouraging, profitable and a blessing to all involved.  This is the first time we've met these men, and so are looking forward to that very much.  

Back at the fort, Linda will be holding things down with the three young men who are helping out.  One of these men, Jean Daniel, is going to have an eye operation this coming week as well.  We go to see the doctor tomorrow, but are not sure when exactly the operation will happen.  It isn't a serious operation, but we'd ask you to pray anyway that it would be a success.  Last year he had he operation, but it didn't work.  This year the team is bringing the exact equipment they need to do the operation, and we hope it is successful this time.

Please continue to pray for 

• The spiritual growth of our young people, for their testimony as they interact with the local community, and that they would be diligent in their studies.
• Our support needs are still lacking.  I am planning several trips this coming year to visit supporters in various areas.  Please pray for an increase in monthly support to meet the needs of caring for the kids God has given us.
• Wisdom for Linda, the three young men and myself as we make decisions daily that affect the home.  

We appreciate each one of you very much.  Till next time... God bless!

Back into the swing of things...

Greetings once again from the House of Hope.  It is good for us all to be back in our places, and getting back into a more "normal" routine after so many weeks of school vacation.  They might have gotten out late in December, but the schools sure took their time starting up again in January. 

It was a really nice vacation time though. I was traveling back in the US, and had the chance to spend Christmas and New Years with my family.  And also had the chance to visit with some friends and supporters of our ministry.  Linda held the fort down here with our budding leaders.  As I wrote before they were unable to have a Christmas program, but we were so thankful to receive the Christmas gifts before Christmas this year, and the kids received them on the 24th.  It really was a great Christmas as far as gifts go this year, and it was just perfect for the kids to have all their gifts to play with during their school vacation. 



Our faithful supporters from the Grace Baptist Church in York, PA made sure each of our kids had a special Christmas bag just for them.  Here is Valandina with her Christmas bag spread out all around her! 






 
Another very generous supporter in Miami made sure they each had a gift she had chosen just for them.  Most of the younger girls, like Jedline here, received dolls or play houses, the younger boys trucks.  All the older kids/youth received watches, and a few some other jewelry.  We were so blessed by everyone's generosity this year, and the kids really did feel special.  Thank you to everyone for your participation in making this special time of year very special for our kids this year.

The toys have by now lost their luster; they have been played with and passed around, and enjoyed and utilized to their max.  But now, school has started, and the toys are back in their gift bags waiting for the weekend to come.  That's right, it's back to School. 

That means, getting up at 5:00 am, getting the chores done, and getting the first group of students out of the house by 7.  The second group goes at 7:30, and then the last of the morning groups leaves at 8.  School here at the HOH with kids who can't go out to the community schools, starts at 9am.  This year a young man named Wilvens has volunteered his time to teach the younger children who stay here at the HOH for school.  Wilvens is one of the neighborhood boys from our boy's Saturday Bible Club.  How good it is to see him taking his time to teach the younger kids.  We are happy to help him as we are able to, so he can pay for his own schooling which he attends in the afternoons.  Several of our older kids go to afternoon school as well.  It actually helps us with our schedule at the HOH, with both morning and afternoon school options, we can make sure we always have some older youth here to help run the house throughout the day.

So, you might just be wondering how our kids did this last semester of school.  Well, for the most part, we were very pleased with the grades our kids brought home.  We had just a few who didn't do too well.  Some we need to discipline to try harder, others we need to give a bit more help.  But we are working out what we need to do in order to try and get these grades up where they should be.  School can be very frustrating for our students, especially those who perhaps don't learn as quickly as everyone else.  There are no programs that offer special help; if you get behind, it's your responsibility to catch up again.  We'd ask your prayers specifically for Chedlyn, Siliana, and Lovedine, John Wisly and Terrens. 

We want to thank each one of you who gave financially in the month of December.  We were blessed by many generous gifts, and will once again be able to make a payment on our debt.  Please continue to pray for more monthly donors to come alongside of us and help us with these needs.  Until next time... Blessings...

HOH 2012 Christmas Card

Christmas and other news...

Well, the house is now cheerfully decorated for Christmas.  Quite a feat, considering our kids are all still in the midst of writing exams.  Unfortunately, their school have messed up their schedules so much that none of our kids have Christmas vacation at the same time.  Each school (our students are in 12 different schools) has decided to let the kids out at a different time, one of the schools is holding onto the students right up through the 24th!  So, we've had to cancel the annual Christmas program this year, there's just no way they can practice and pull it off with all their different schedules.  This also means that I won't get to participate in any of the holiday activities around here this year as I leave on the 22nd for 2 weeks with my family in Tx.  It sounds like our special Christmas gifts from numerous supporters are actually going to get here before Christmas this year!  This will be a first since quite a few years, so I will hopefully get a chance to get all the kids Christmas sacks organized before I leave.  It's going to be a busy week!!

We had fun this past month celebrating Nani's 6th birthday.  With the arrival of our baby Rose Nirva (who by the way is doing great), we were reminded of how tiny and sickly Nani was when she came to us 6 years ago.  No one thought she'd live, and now here she is bringing joy to all everyday.  

Being near the end of the year, I've been working on getting finance reports finished up, and working on a new budget for the coming year.  I figured it's probably just as good a time as any to let you know how things are financially for us.  Because of two things, tightening up on our spending, and our friends in Miami who have been regularly sending us food, we were able to come in well under our budget this past year.  That is the good news.   The bad is that we received even fewer donations than we saved by cutting down on the spending.  So in the end, we still have a debt with our local hospital (who takes care of our staff payroll for us each month--then we pay them back).

I know many of you gave gifts for us to be able to pay off that debt, but in the meantime, several months pay were added to it, and the monthly amount we received to cover other necessary items at the HOH were not very high.  So... the bottom line is we still owe money, and we are lacking in the monthly donations that are coming in for the ministry.  

I have been reminded by several of our supporters, that it is my responsibility to share our needs with you all, so this is what I am doing.  Perhaps some of you are able to help us out financially, perhaps you can pray with us for this need to be met, perhaps you have a way to share the need with others who can help.  However you can help us out, we'd appreciate it very much.

Our new budget for the 2012-2013 fiscal year stands at just over $200,000.00 US for the year.  I know that looks like a huge amount, but I've worked it out in a bite size chunk for you that maybe doesn't seem so huge.  It costs us $200 US per child per month to keep them here at the HOH.  This includes everything... food, school, clothes, medical care, and a home to live in -- everything.  So, maybe you can do that... pay for one child to be here... maybe you can't, but you could get a group of friends/family together to pay for one.  Or, perhaps you could just cover part of a child's needs:  Food needs are $65/month for a child, paying the staff to take care of them is $59, school is $13, the rest is for general supplies and overall expenses.  However you can work it out... can you help us meet this need?  We generally have between 85 - 90 children/youth/young adults in our home at any given time.  

Thanks for doing what you can.  We are blessed to have you as partners in this ministry.  We hope you have a blessed Christmas season, wherever you are!

A New Baby!

It's been a while since we've had a baby in our home.  This week we were so blessed to receive tiny little Rose Nirva.  In spite of the fact that she is 6 months old, she only weighs just over 2 pounds!  She is tiny, but so cute and so much fun to have a baby again.  As usual, she already has more mom's than she knows what to do with, but  Tati Da and Tati Jen always take precedence :). She is the 10th child born to her parents, and after her birth, her mom started having psychological problems.  She is not able to care for this child, and the father brought her to us asking for our help.  This we can do!

The other HOH kids are all busy with school and homework.  Exams are coming up, so studying is happening pretty much constantly.  When they do have some spare time, the kids who have been here a long time are taking the time to show the new kids all the Christmas songs, in preparation for the annual Christmas program.  Being so busy, they've not had time to decorate the house for Christmas yet, but I'm sure it won't be long before that happens.  Everyone loves Christmas around here, and the question on all the younger kids's lips is, "Is it almost Christmas?"  This year the question started a couple of weeks ago, when I still had to answer there was 7 weeks left.  Every box of supplies that comes into our home gets looked at and pondered.  The questions start to circulate...."looks like it's Christmas gifts!!".  It's going to be a long count down for them!

We were blessed once again with a shipment of food from our friends at Friends of Humanity in Miami.  What a help this is to us as our finances are still doing so poorly.   We are so grateful for our financial supporters, and for those of you who pray for and encourage us.  Please make this prayer request a priority, we really need more people who are willing to stand with us financially each month, to help us cover the daily needs we have as we care for those God has brought to our home.  We are blessed to have some supporters send us gifts from time to time.  These gifts help us make ends meet, but we really need to have some more partners come on board to help us with consistent monthly needs.  Thank you for helping us in this way.  And if you can, pass the need around on our behalf.

I will be away for the coming week, as I'll be traveling with a friend who has some government paperwork that she needs to do.  So, please pray for Linda and the other leader as they have a lot to keep up with around here.  Pray for wisdom in dealing with all the daily situations that come up.  Pray that others would see Christ in us as we interact with many others on a daily basis.

Many thanks for your support...Hope our American friends had a great Thanksgiving!  And a great weekend to all of you.

In Memory of...

It seems somewhat ironic that I am posting this today.... here in Haiti it is the "Holiday for the dead".  We, as believers in Jesus do not celebrate this day as others around us do, we did however want to share a tribute with you all of a man who was a very dear partner with us in ministry, and who passed away on Monday.

Larry Bailly from Snohomish, WA has come to the HOH every year for as long as I can remember.  Every January, we could bank on him and his group coming and fixing whatever needed fixing at the HOH.  Taking care of our vehicles was his specialty.  And when he wasn't working, he was busy loving on our kids and others in our town here in Haiti.  He was a beautiful model of Christ, as he served others and shared his love to those around him. 

This past January, he came even though he wasn't feeling well.  He worked, as though everything was fine, but we all knew it wasn't.  We never would have dreamed where it would all end though.  His last words to our kids as he left them was, "See you in 2013".  It was his trade mark saying.... always, see you the next year.  But, this was to be his last visit.  We are saddened that we will no longer see Larry here in our home, see his smile light up the room, hear his laughter ringing out.  But we are so thankful that he no longer suffers, that he has gone to be with his Lord, whom he loved so faithfully; and that one day we will be reunited with him. 

We are grateful that God directed Larry our way, that he gave to the work here so faithfully, and that he loved our kids so much and made them feel special.  His favorite was Lovedine, she was his girl and loved it when he came down. The other younger kids here knew Larry as, "Papa Didine" (Lovedine's dad).

 

 He was loved an appreciated by kids of all ages though here at the HOH...

When he had time to spare from his work in the shop, "Boss Larry" would come over and inevitably the kids would play with his beard.  Beards of Larry's quality are a rare thing in our part of the world, and boy did they love to play with it.  And Larry was such a good sport about it.  He let them braid it, and occasionally let out an "ARRGGHH" or two. 

He spent many hours working with our youth and young adults.  He was always ready to teach them what he knew about cars, mechanics and whatever else he could teach them as they worked with him.  A favorite of his was Dukeman, our deaf, mute maintenance man.  Larry and Dukeman had a way to communicate between them that just worked.  Neither spoke the other's language but they communicated and Dukeman learned much from Larry. 

We send our sympathies to Larry's family, especially his wife Paula, and Rachel, his daughter who often came down with Larry to love on our kids while her dad worked on the cars!  We are praying for you as you face these difficult days.  We want everyone to know how much we appreciated Larry  and look forward to continuing our partnership with the many people he brought down over the years.  Blessings on you all...