Tuesday, January 20, 2015

It's a New Year

Actually we are already almost a month into the New Year!  How did that happen?  It's been an interesting and different month for all of us since we wrote last, here's some news to help you keep up with us.

Most of the kids finished their exams before the Christmas holidays from school.  A few, however, had their exams canceled at the last minute and rescheduled for after the holidays -- No fun!  But as of the end of last week they are all finished these mid-year exams and are now into the next term of the school year. 

Because of the school schedule and the arrival of our Christmas gifts from our supporting churches in York, PA and Simcoe, ON Canada; the kids didn't receive their gifts until Jan. 2.  It didn't matter to them, they were just so thrilled for the gifts they received this year as you can see in Merla's picture here. 
I always find it so interesting when I ask them to hold up their favorite thing -- it's always the candy!!  Not that they don't enjoy the other things -- but, that's what they grab!

It was Mits' very first Christmas, and it looks pretty satisfied too...


We are so grateful for those of you who work so hard to make Christmas a special time for our kids.  There are many steps and people involved in order to make sure all of our kids, youth and staff receive something.  Thank you so much for your part.

Both Linda and I were able to take some time to be with our respective families over the holidays.  Linda spend a week with her family in the Cap Haitian area of Haiti.  My sisters traveled here to Manitoba and spend a week with us here in the crazy cold!  It was good for us to have some time off and to spend time with our families.

Coming up in February, Linda will be traveling to Miami.  I will be traveling down to meet with her for a few days.  It was the best way we could work it out for us to be able to get some time together to do some planning and shopping for the kids.  It will also be a good time for Linda to get rested and rejuvenated.  We also hope to see some of our supporters from that area while we are down there.  This will be the first time Linda has traveled on her own to leave Haiti.  Please keep her in your prayers, she is a bit nervous, but I am so proud of her for taking this big and important step. 

I will also be traveling out west the first week of March.  I am hoping to be able to connect with supporters in the Calgary, Banff and Edmonton areas.  If you've not heard from me yet about this... I'll be getting in touch with you.  I'd love to meet up with as many of you as possible in these areas. 

Thank you so much for your prayers for our financial needs.  We received some very generous gifts over the past months and are going to be able to pay off half of our debt as soon as the funds are cleared.  That is a big relief for us, and we'd ask you to Praise God with us for those who responded to our need by helping us out.  Please continue to pray for the rest of the debt, that we'd be able to pay that off as well, and also for the monthly financial needs we have.  We are praying that we would have enough come in each month so that we do not fall behind again. 

We hope you all have had a good start to the new year, and we wish you grace and peace from our Heavenly Father throughout the events of this upcoming year.