Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Life at the HOH

Greetings to you all! I’ve been back in Haiti almost 2 weeks now, boy how did that happen? While I was still in Canada people were asking when I was going to update the blog and I said as soon as I get back to Haiti, that’s first on my list. Well, as you can see, that got pushed back, numerous times. As you know we had water troubles before I left Haiti, and those still exist, but now we have added electricity problems, and internet problems to the list. So between all of those problems, it gets quite complicated getting everything done that needs to be done. The hospital that provides us with our electricity is supposed to get a new generator installed soon. The problem there is that the generator is still in the US! So, please pray they’ll be able to get it here soon, and definitely before the one we are using gives up the ghost for good.

I had a great trip through Canada, and saw so many people. I tried to keep a count of the numbers of people who were at the different meetings I spoke at, but stopped somewhere after 1,500. It was really great to see you all, and get a chance to share what God is doing at the HOH, and also have a chance to talk about the future plans of Hope Village. I was able to enjoy a few days of nice spring weather in Canada, but for the most part I followed the cold weather around. In Calgary they even pulled out the snow for me (check out the picture of the tulips with snow)! It’s been a long time since I’ve had that, and I actually enjoyed seeing it.


Of course it was great to get back to the HOH again. The kids had been counting down the days, pretty much since the day I left, and every plane that flew over the HOH in my absence was a cause for rejoicing as they thought I was in it. That’s kinda funny because the plane that flies me in doesn’t actually go over the HOH, but they don’t realize that!

I came back to quite a change of kids at the HOH. We are still right around 95 kids, but numerous ones who were here when I left are gone now, and new ones have replaced them. It’s making me work hard to keep up with all the name changes!!

So, what has been keeping us busy? Here are a quick glimpse…

Exams are the order of the day as far as the kids go. Today the grade 6 government exams started. Desimene, Oliana, Evelte and Sonson are all writing these exams, and would love it if you prayed for them. Next week will be the Grade 9 exams, we have St. Germain, Mirlene, Toto, Rosnel who will be writing that one. Then the week after will be the Grade 12’s, there we have Jn Daniel, Phania, Stephania, Dada, TiBen. Then it will be the Grade 13’s, and there we have Ricardo, Caleb, Lubin, Benton, Ronel. So…lots of studying going on, and lots of stress.

It doesn’t help that World Cup Soccer 2010 is going on at the same time. Life pretty much stops around here when a game is being played, especially a match that involves Brazil. Our kids have set up two different areas for people in the community to come and watch the matches here at the HOH. They are charging them for admission, and then using the money to pay for the fees of getting the matches on the TV. They have quite a little business set up, and as long as Brazil stays in the running, they should bring in a fair bit of money. Once they are out of the running though the revenue will drop considerably! The next big Brazil match is Friday…there’s a break in all the matches today and tomorrow, and our yard seems strangely quiet!

While I was away we had over 200 boxes come in on the boat for the HOH. What a blessing it was to receive all these wonderful supplies. Thanks to each and every one of you who sent us stuff. Much is already being used, and we were able to store the rest to be used in the months ahead.

Tomorrow we will be welcoming a young man from Philadelphia Biblical University who is coming down to spend a 6 week internship with us. Dan is arriving just in time to catch a crazy few weeks of activities around here. There are graduations, end of the year parties, and then the major annual convention of our Haitian mission. We also have numerous visitors and groups heading our way over the next few weeks. We are waiting for Angie to come back from LeTourneau for a few weeks. We are so grateful to a church there that bought her a ticket to come and see us before she goes back to her studies in the fall.

We’re going to wait for things to settle down a bit before we decide what type of activities we are going to have for the kids and the community kids during the summer. Once school is officially over, along with all the extra events we’ll be able to plan a bit better. Some of the kids are heading off to music camp in Limbe, some are heading off to be camp leaders for a local church camp, others are heading to their home communities to visit family and friends. Linda will be teaching her Child Evangelism course for two weeks, and I’m working to complete the first unit of my Masters program…everyone certainly seems to be able to keep busy!

Thanks so much for your support in so many ways. And thanks for your patience in waiting for another update, hopefully the next one won’t be so long in coming. We are grateful for your partnership in this ministry.