Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Staff Camp

We are half way through our bi-annual Staff Camp, and so far things are moving right along. Thanks so much for your prayers on our behalf. It has been very busy, so that's why I haven't had a chance to write for a couple of weeks now. We are full of visitors, some just visiting, and some helping take care of the HOH children while the staff is at camp. Linda and the girls are very busy in the kitchen, making 3 meals a day for our 26 staff members, 24 visitors, as well as for all the HOH family, so for about 150 people all in all. I don't know how they keep doing it, but they do it so well, and I'll tell you, good stuff comes out of this kitchen!

Our visitors at the moment include, Jeb Bland and a group of 5 ladies from his home area in PA. They are doing a great job of taking care of the younger children throughout the day so we are free to keep things rolling in the kitchen, and with the staff. The Lewis family is also here from England, it's always great to have them with us, they are such an encouragement to us and the ministry here. Bonita Sparling has also dropped in, along with a number of friends (Some of the older kids/workers from Lemuel, including Judy Dilus who came for a day). We so enjoy Bonita's visits, and benefit from her non-stop energy, I just wish I could get some of it from her for myself! It's been a nice time of fellowship as well, as we all have one thing that binds us together, Jesus! His love for us, our love for Him, and our desire to serve Him together, at this time in this ministry. What a great privilege to have so many servants together in one place. Here you can see the staff and visitors sharing a meal together...

We ask that you continue to pray for us. I'll try and update more after the week is over. But we really want this week to be a time of relaxing for our staff, but also a time of growth in their walk with the Lord, and in a closer relationship with each other. We are spending several hours a day in studies, and in times of worship. Please pray for Pastor Kenny Vil, who is leading our morning Bible studies based on our theme verse of Romans 12:18. And also for several of our doctors who are doing health studies for the staff in the afternoons. Then also remember Linda and Rosnel who are leading the evening worship services. This picture is of the staff and HOH young people in last nights time of worship...it was a great time of praising God, and remembering all He has done for us, and who He is!

God bless you all, and thanks so much for your prayers!

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Look Jenny!!


I could hear the excited voices marching their way to my office from the back yard. "Look what we found Jenny!" I'm always a little hesitant whenever I hear that, for some reason. Today their treasure was a couple of soldier snails. A group of the kids had found them, captured them, and were having a blast using them to terrorize whoever showed the least little bit of fear! Thankfully I've learned to be prepared for anything when I turn to face the group heading to my office. You can see their newly acquired pets in the little plastic container they are holding. Who knew you could have so much fun with snails?

This past weekend the kids enjoyed attending the Bible conference that is held every year in our town. 7,000 People from all over Haiti come every year for 4 days of Bible studies, times of worship, and kids programs. There was such excitement in the HOH as the kids prepared every morning and afternoon to attend the kids' programs. They learned lots of new songs and verses. This year's theme for the kids was "Jesus is the light". Here is a group of our children who were all dressed up and ready to head off to "Camp Bethel" where the kids' programs are always held. The kids weren't the only ones to enjoy the Bible conference. We adults had a great time of learning and worshiping as well, as Jim O'Neill shared God's Word with us each evening of the conference. Some of his topics were, "Operation Obey", "Getting involved in World Missions", and "Humility". I think God really used his message to speak to a variety of audiences, I know our young people really enjoyed what he taught, and learned a lot.

For those of you who were praying for and rooting for Manno in his singing competition. Thank you for your support. Manno was eliminated this week, as the competition took a different twist. It no longer was a judged competition, and was based much more on voting over the telephone. There really was no way (nor a desire on our part to do so) we could keep up with the thousands of dollars other contestants we spending to keep in the competition. We are thankful for the chance Manno had to compete, and we look forward to what God is going to do with him and his voice in the future.

Linda, Lois Beadle and Marie Claire are all teaching the CEF course number 2 this week. Please pray for them as they teach 10 ladies, who are all pretty influential in their communities. These ladies will take what they learn this week, back to their home communities and churches, and use these methods and ideas to teach children how to grow in their walk with the Lord.

Finally everyone is finished writing their exams, now comes the waiting period as we wait to find out if everyone passed. Speaking of waiting, we are still waiting for Ciliana's exams to get back, we should have them by Thursday of this week though. Here's a picture of her and all the girls who have "adopted" her into their family.Several years ago, Lovedine (the oldest girl who is holding Ciliana) took Esther, the young girl standing beside her, as her "daughter". She watches out for her during the day and makes sure she is taken care of. To follow in her "mom's" footsteps, Esther "adopted" Dieula (in front in pink dress) as her "daughter", making Lovedine the "Grandmother". Well, once Ciliana came along the family just kept growing as Dieula took Ciliana as her "daughter", and Lovedine is now a "Great Grandmother". It is so cute to watch the four of them interact with each other. What a beautiful example of Jesus they are as they lovingly take care of each other.

During these next two weeks we will be preparing for our Staff camp, set to take place on July 23 - 28th. We have a lot of visitors coming to participate, and the Staff is looking forward to a break and to a fun week together. Pray for Pastor Kenny Vil as he prepares messages to share with us each day, and also for us as we make all the plans for the week, there is much to be done, and it is at times like these we thank God for our older young people here who help out with so much.

Thank you for your prayers on our behalf, please continue to pray for God's provision of all of our needs, and thank Him for everything he has given us already. Pray that we would be lights shining forth the love of God to those around us. The children you prayed for last week are doing just great this week. We don't have any specific ones who are not doing good at the moment, so thanks for praying! God bless, and have a really great week!

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Back home again

The summer fun continues here at the HOH as the kids are enjoying a new play area Linda and the boys fixed up a couple of weeks ago. They are pretty good at coming up with creative games, and while Linda and I can't always figure out what's going on, they seem to know and have a lot of fun playing them.

As always when we leave the HOH, it's good to be back again. We enjoyed our time in PAP, catching up with the Boucher family, and getting done the various things that needed to be done (despite the intense heat and very sporadic electricity).

Manno, was also in PAP over the weekend, participating in the next leg of his "Star" competition. While we weren't able to go to the show, Carl Evens (his brother) and St. Germain went and saw Manno and 7 other artists sing. Manno came in 3rd after the judges gave their points for the performance, and at this stage in the contest that will count for 40% of his total score. Now it's up to voters to vote via our cel phones. Manno and several others from the HOH are busy doing some marketing in our area to drum up as many votes for Manno as possible. I guess we'll see where this takes him. We are just proud of him for his hard work and getting this far in the competition, and for reflecting Jesus while doing so. It was exciting for him to see, and for us to hear, that all 8 of the artists in his pool at this stage of the competition are believers in Jesus, and they had a great time of fellowship this past weekend!

We were able to get Ciliana into the center to have her tests done. We should get the results next week. She's been having a bit of trouble with diarrhea these past few weeks, so we hope we can get that taken care of soon (for her health and ours! I was up 4 times last night to change her, down from the 6 times a night a week ago, but we've got a ways to go to get this back to normal). She's just so cute I have to share another picture of her!

Ruben is the only one left writing exams. He's been sick with malaria, and is now writing exams, so if you could pray for him he'd sure appreciate that. He'll finish tomorrow (Wednesday). Then they are all on vacation! We received back a few report cards this past week and found a couple of the kids didn't pass the school year. They were pretty much the ones we figured wouldn't, but one of them, Mirlene has a chance to retake her exams in August to try and pass the year, so you could pray for her as she studies. Most of the students did really well however, and will be moving up next school year.

This week our Haitian national mission the UEBH will be hosting it's annual Spiritual Life Conference here in out town. Somewhere around 6-7,000 people will show up for the conference that starts tomorrow evening. We've already been able to see a few early comers, and it's was especially good to see a lady who used to be a nurse here at the hospital, Mme Amichlot, come back. It's been several years since we've seen her, so it was nice to have her back for a visit. We are looking forward to the other CrossWorld missionaries who will be here for the conference as well. This year the main speaker for the conference is CrossWorld President, Jim O'Neill, he'll arrive tomorrow, and we are looking forward to having him here as well.

Next week Linda will teach her CEF level 2 course, so we are in a rush trying to get all her materials together for the class. Please pray as she prepares to teach people how to further teach the Bible to children The emphasis of this course is teaching children who are already believers so they grow in their Spiritual walk with the Lord.

We are still having some trouble with a few of the newer children. It's not always easy to figure out exactly what's wrong with them, and how to treat them. Please pray specifically for Valandina and Sloweky. Thank you once again for your support of the HOH in this way!