Pure Joy!

Greetings to all of you! Thank you so much for your prayers for us during Carnival week. We had a great time receiving young people (and even some adults) from the local community into our home for a time to relax, have fun, and see Jesus in us. (you can see a group of them in our classroom enjoying a movie). All of our kids and young people worked very hard, and also had a good time themselves. It was a great chance for them to serve others around them, and see how much they could accomplish in a day when they all work together! We were struck by the incredible need there is for someone to work with these young people in our community, and our heads are already working to see in what way we can be a part of that. Pray for us as we seek ways to influence these young people for Christ.

The past few days have been at the same time difficult and encouraging. Encouraging because in the midst of difficulties we can see God working in the hearts and lives of our young people. Difficult because our adversary is working just as hard to get them to make bad choices in their lives, and some of them have and are choosing bad over good. Please pray for us as we seek wisdom to deal with the different situations that arise every day, and also for patience as we deal with some tough choices they have made.

I've been memorizing James 1 lately, it's kinda perfect for right now..."consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds." There sure are many kinds of trials, and we appreciate your prayers as we face some of them these days. We do consider it pure joy to be here serving the Lord in this special place. And we are so thankful for God's working in each of our lives, as we seek to know Him better.

Health wise the kids are doing pretty good, we have not had any new admissions lately. We do have one little girl we'd ask you to pray about. Aline is an eight year old girl who has been at the HOH for a number of months now, but has not made any progress. She came in extremely malnourished, and is still in that state, despite all that has been done to try and help her. This week the Dr. decided to try and see if she has Celiac disease, and she has been put on a very restricted diet as a last ditch effort to try and bring her around. She is just the sweetest little thing in the world, and so patiently accepts all her health troubles, without ever complaining. Please pray for her and for her health.

Please also continue to pray for the Peacemaker lessons I am getting ready to teach in March. I have finished the translation, Linda has almost finished typing them, and I am now working getting the lessons ready to teach, and for the workbook the kids will have as I teach.

We appreciate you and your prayers on our behalf. Continue to pray for God's provision of all of our needs, and praise Him with us for His daily provision. In our family devotions at night, one of things the kids always thank God for is the fact that they were able to eat during the day, when they know so many around them didn't have that opportunity. It sure makes you thankful for every little thing you have. There is an incredible hunger/famine going through parts of Haiti, we are indeed blessed to have what we need every day. Thank you for praying for us and supporting us in this way. God bless you all.

We are still here!

The past few weeks have been packed full of activity. For two weeks we enjoyed having a group of 9 people here from the Seattle area (and one from Il.). They come every year, and as always, were so helpful during their time here. They come with the intention of fixing as much as they can, and making our lives much more bearable during the rest of the year. They certainly fulfilled that once again this year. The fixed many leaking roofs, and other problems we had during the rain. The put in all the electricity in the new building, and helped with many computer networking and internet problems. And also fixed up our vehicles for another year of rough muddy roads! I'm sure there's much more they did, that I've forgotten to write down!

Things are going well here at the house. We are thanking God so much for the full time nurses that have made Linda and my jobs so much easier. Especially as we had some extremely ill children be admitted during the past couple of weeks. Most of them are doing much better, some have returned home, unfortunately, one little girl passed away after several days of much struggling here at the HOH.

While I have told some people this news already, we are pleased to announce that Ciliana (the 1.8 pound preemie we've received back in December 2006) finally tested negative for HIV! Praise the Lord with us. We've had so much fun rejoicing with her. Everyone who comes by the HOH has to pick her up and dance with her in their arms. She had no idea what was going on, but she sure enjoyed the attention. It almost feels like she does realize something has happened because since that day, she has really had a spurt in her growth and development! You can see her here starting to take her first steps unassisted! We praise God for her, and are so thrilled to have her as a part of our lives. We can't wait to see what He is going to do with her in the future! But for now, we are enjoying the little changes that happen every day.

This coming week our students have a week of vacation as it is Haiti's Carnival week. They have been busy planning two days of fun for the young people in our town. We did this last year and it was well received, so we plan on doing it again this year. There isn't much for young people to do when they are on vacation from school, and so many just end up getting into trouble. We hope to use this as a method to reach out to them, have a chance to share Jesus with them, and also to allow them some time to relax and have fun. St. Germain, our resident event coordinator, is spearheading this event, and it will take place Feb. 3-4. That gives us the whole weekend to prepare for it, and from what I hear we are going to need every bit of it!

We have started up our Bible studies again, after having stopped them over the Christmas holidays. It's been good to be back into studying the Word together again. It is exciting to see God working in the hearts of our young people, calling them to present themselves as "living sacrifices". Please keep them in your prayers. There are so many temptations and bad influences around them. Pray that they'd be open to the Lord's working in their lives, and willing to be different from their peers, in order to allow His working to be displayed in their lives.

Linda has had a bit of trouble with her health again, and it's becoming more and more evident that she has diabetes, she is on a very low dose of medication, and seems to be doing better than she was. Please pray for wisdom for the doctors, and willingness on her part to keep up with a healthier diet and with the medication

God has heard your prayers concerning the need for more financial support for the HOH. While we have received an increase over the past few months in support coming in, we still need more, and ask you to please continue to pray for Him to supply the things that we need.

We would also ask you to pray concerning the shipping of things into Haiti. The shipping company we've used over the years is threatening to close up shop. I talked to the owner last week, and he told me he might rethink his decision to close down, if all goes well on this next boat load that he is bringing in. He wants to come into Haiti the beginning of Feb. So, I'd ask that you pray that all goes well, and that this shipping company would not shut down. It is such a vital link for us to receive donated supplies, most particularly clothes for the kids. We can't even begin to process what it will mean for us if we have to start looking for clothing to buy here in Haiti, the time and cost involved in that will be huge. So please pray with us, that the shipping company will still make runs, and if not that God would open up other options for us to receive the things we need to make the HOH run.

One last request I'd like to share at this time, is for me as I am trying to finish up translating, and preparing the second half of the Young Peacemaker's course. Last year over Spring break we taught the first half to the young people and children here at the HOH, and the principles they learned in the course have been life changing for them. This year we hope to finish the rest of the course. The only problem is that I'm finding it very difficult to find the time needed to translate and prepare the lessons. The date is set for the 14th to the 19th of March, so please pray that I would be wise in how I spend my time, and also that I would have a clear mind and health to do the work, and have it done in time for the seminar mid-March. In preparation for the second half of the course, the young people themselves are doing revisions of last year's lessons each night during our family devotions. It's interesting to re-hear the course, but this time from their perspective.

Thank you so much for holding us up in your prayers. You are an important part of this ministry, and we thank God for each and every one of you.

Home Again

Happy New Year to all of you! The years just seem to fly right on by, and if the first week and a half of this on is any indication of how fast this one will go by, we are in for a major roller-coaster ride!

Well I know some of you are itching for news on how our trip went, and as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, I thought I'd take you on a bit of a picture essay of our trip. We left of Friday morning at 4 AM, or I should say we were packed and ready to go, but the driver for the kid's vehicle didn't show up until 5. We arrived at Linda's families village at around 3 so it took about 10 hours to go the approximately 100 mile distance between the HOH and her village.

7 of us including Lala, Nani, Oliana, Linda and I rode in Linda's vehicle. We took the drive much slower than the other vehicle that had all the other kids. We also got stopped by the police for not having the correct paperwork, which was the correct paperwork for our section of Haiti, but when we went over into their section they wanted different paperwork. So we spent some time at the local jail getting it all sorted out! The kid's vehicle as it turned out didn't have any paperwork at all...and they went right through the police screening! Go figure!


The kids rode on the back of a truck. Needless to say their trip was much rougher than ours, with all the sun, rain, mud, dust, suitcases, food, hard benches, squished in like sardines...but they sure had a great time! A friend of ours found the truck for us, and convinced the driver to take us there and back for a very reasonable fee, half of what other people were asking us, so we thank God for working it out for us that way. It was very nice for them to all be able to travel in one vehicle.


We were welcomed into Bayeux, Linda's village with open arms. We (all 35 of us) stayed at her mom's home. Where she already had a number of grandchildren and relatives staying for the holidays, some days we were close to 50, but in true Haitian fashion, there was always room for everyone, especially if you didn't mind where you slept for the night! With so many people in each room, it was sometimes difficult to get everyone to quiet down and sleep at night, but it was great for bonding together, which was one of the biggest blessings that came out of our trip. Even though they all live here at the HOH in a similar setting, there was just something about being in a different place that just caused relationships to grow deeper, and everyone was able to get to know each other better. It was amazing to experience the hospitality of the entire village as family members and non relatives alike brought us sugar cane, grapefruit, coconuts, and sweet oranges by the wheelbarrow full. They also gave us home grown rice (yummy!) and several goats were also provided for special meals. We were all made to feel right at home.We had the chance to spend a day at the beach (which just happens to be a beautiful part of Linda's families property located a few miles outside of the main village!), and it was really a lot a fun...


Thanks to St. Germain, Lala learned not to be scared of the big waves.













She also helped some of the older kids bury Jn Daniel in the sand.










Nani decided she preferred shade to sun, and sand to big waves!











The boys took a trip one day into Cap Haitian, the closest city to where we were. They enjoyed seeing some different sites there, such as National monuments, and town squares.

Meanwhile the girls got to some really fun things too, like...
cooking the food




















and, washing the sheets and clothes in the local river!











Of course there were a few inconvenient things that happened on the trip like... running out of gas (and yes we know for all you diesel mechanics out there that is a very bad thing to do),


and getting the car stuck in the river!
















Of course it wasn't too much fun for the kids driving through very cold weather through the mountains on the way home either. I pulled out my thermometer to see just how cold it was, and it was all of 72°F (or around 22° C). I guess it's all relative to what you are used to, I was surprisingly very cold myself! Since we are usually in the mid 80's to mid 90's most of the year, that dip into the 70's was quite a shock to our systems!

All in all, however it was a really great trip, and we are so thankful for God's provision for us to be able to make it together. Some of these kids had never been on a vacation of any kind before, so it was a really neat experience for them.

Now it's back to work, however. The students are all back in school, our Bible studies have started again, and we are looking forward to a number of visitors and visiting teams over the next few weeks. Things went smoothly here at the HOH in our absence, and in spite of several very stressful times since being back, we are working our way through them, and thank God for his faithfulness towards us.

Thank you so much for your prayers for us. Please continue to pray for the sick children we have here, as well as for God's provision for our needs, both financially, and materially. Pray also for each of our spiritual growth as we daily have opportunities to live out our faith in a very dark environment. Blessings on you all!

Party Fun!!

It was simple and low key, not a normal thing for our Christmas parties here at the HOH. We usually invite people from the neighborhood, and put on a program for them, but this year we just couldn't pull it off. So we just had a family party, and it was actually really nice. No pressure or stress, everyone had a good time, as you can see by Blandjina's smiling face (her smile is so big it almost doesn't look like a smile, but it is, trust me!). Just thought you might like to see these pictures of our party last night.

Merry Christmas!!

I think the only thing busier than having 40+ kids in school, is having them home on school vacation! That's what has been keeping us busy these past few weeks, as the kids have been finishing up their exams and starting their Christmas vacation. We've had numerous new children being added to our ranks as well, so that helps fill in those rare empty spaces of time when we have nothing to do!

We thank you for your prayers for the two children who were extremely sick, Brianna and Alexandro. Brianna is doing much better, although it appears she will have some long term health problems, due to her very severe case of TB. Unfortunately Alexandro was not able to recover, and just a few days after I wrote, he passed away. It was difficult for us, as we were unable to reach his family, and in the end had to do the burial ourselves. We always dislike this part of the work, but know that God knows best when it comes to matters of life and death.

We did not have any success with our rabbits either. All 7 of the babies died shortly after their birth. If anyone has any knowledge on raising and keeping rabbits alive, we'd love to hear about it!

A good bit of my time lately has been spent trying to figure out the new system the government has put on us receiving things from Miami via the shipping company we've always used. They really want to shut our wharf down completely here in Port-de Paix, but are still allowing boats to unload for the moment. So we've been trying to comply with all the new regulations, and trying to get all the right paperwork in order that they want in order for us to receive the many boxes of supplies we have on the boat. I was at first, optimistic that I could do all of this before Christmas, in order to have the presents here and unpacked in time for the kids to have during their vacation, but it is becoming increasing evident that that will not happen! Nothing happens quickly in Haiti! We are thankful for the boxes we have been able to receive (some contained soccer uniforms and equipment, from friends in Portage La Prairie, MB Canada, that made our kids very happy, you can seem them trying out the gear in this picture here), and for the prayers of so many of you as I've been going through this process. God indeed made the customs officials look favorably on us, and so far we have paid far less than others have had to pay to receive things for the kids.

Our shipping company that we have used for years has now informed us that they will be shutting down their operations, as they are unable to make any money with all the new regulations with the customs in Haiti. This is indeed sad news for us, as we have always been blessed to be able to receive donated clothes and supplies for the HOH. We don't know what God has planned for us to receive these much needed items in the future, but we do know we can trust Him to give us everything we need to do His work with the needy children here at the HOH. Please pray with us as we seek out options, and watch eagerly to see just what God is going to do to supply our needs in the future. If you are among those who have been sending us supplies over the years, please do not send any more items to our shipping address. Feel free to check with me from time to time to see if anything has changed, and if we have a new way to receive things.

Tonight we are having a small Christmas party with the younger children. It won't be anything big, as we haven't received the gifts yet, and don't expect to until the New Year now. On Friday morning Linda and I and about 30 of the "Our Hope" kids are heading off for a vacation/retreat to a small town outside of Cap Haitian. This is the area where Linda is from, and it's been a while since she's been back to visit her family. They are all very excited to be receiving this group from the House of Hope, and have been planning and saving for it for a long time. We are looking forward to the chance to visit, and a chance to grow closer as we spend some quality time together. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel, and also for those staying back here to hold down the fort, our staff, and the rest of the HOH kids.

We send you all very Merry Christmas greetings and wish you a very happy New Year. God bless, and we'll be back with you in 2008! Thanks so much for your prayers and support.

At last an update!

Greetings to everyone! First of all, I know this update is way overdue. I had great plans of updating you all even while I was in the US, but it just didn’t happen.

I had a great trip, starting with a visit to some friends and family in Philadelphia, then a conference in New Jersey, spoke at a church for the HOH and spent some time of rest and of course shopping at my sister’s in Texas. In all it was a very productive and restful time for me, but as usual, I was more than ready to get back and see everyone at the HOH.

At least two little girls really missed me too, and I received a great welcome home reception when I got back last week. Lala spent about an hour telling me she loved me every 5 minutes! And Ciliana (Nani) wouldn’t let me put her down for the rest of the day, nor would she allow anyone to take her out of my arms. They are both growing and doing very well as you can see in their picture.

There were quite a few children who had left the HOH when I got back, and about 9 others who had come during my absence. Most of them are small children with malnutrition, some are here with their mothers. Two in particular, Brianna and Alexandro are extremely ill, and the doctor feels she has done everything she can for them. Please keep these two little ones in your prayers.

When I arrived back at the HOH I found quite a few changes. The kids had painted the house, and it looks very nice, they also had put up all the Christmas decorations, so it looks very festive as well. Another change had to do with our animal population… While I was gone, some friends gave our kids 2 rabbits to keep. Those of you who know rabbits know 2 rabbits (a male and female) don’t remain 2 for very long, and last night they multiplied as Pom Pom gave birth to 7 little rabbits. This is a new experience for almost everyone here, so it’s very exciting!

Owen is doing much better, he seems to have come through his difficult time of depression, and he is once again smiling and happy. I bought a toy guitar for him while I was in the US. It was something he had said at one time that he really wanted, so we thought it might make him happy to have it, and sure enough, as you can see here in the picture, he was overjoyed, and has spent many hours playing it! Thank you for your prayers on his behalf.

Tomorrow we are receiving a work group from Fellowship of Frisco in Frisco, TX. They will be with us for 5 days, and will be helping us work on the ongoing building project. It is almost finished, and we hope to finish most of what is left of the construction part of that building. It will be nice to have it finished. Please pray for safety in travel, and that all the logistics we’ve planned will work out ok.

The new nurse we hired in October is doing incredibly well, and we are so thankful to God for bringing her here. She has a real servant spirit, and really cares about the kids here and about the ministry in general.

Our students are almost at exam writing time again. Ronel and Phania will be re-writing their Grade 12 exams that they didn’t pass at the end of the school year last year. They could really use your prayers that they would succeed.

We appreciate your support in holding us up in prayer, and ask that you continue to pray for our monthly financial needs, as well as for growth in the lives of our kids and young people.

A peek into our Whirlwind!

Wow, so much has been going on, so I thought I'd stop for a minute and catch you all up on the news. I am busy getting ready for my trip to the US. I will be there for several weeks, but will miss everyone here very much...especially my two special girls Lala and Ciliana, who are here in the picture with me. These are the two little girls we've had since they were days old, and they are such an important part of the HOH. We continue to be pleased and praise God for Ciliana's progress, and both of them continue to put a smile on our faces and bring joy to our hearts!

I received quite a few comments on how you liked the picture of Owen on the last blog update. I'd like to ask you to pray for him. Just a few days after taking that picture, and seeing how excited he was to have his own set of wheels, Owen had a major set back. We have not seen that smile on his face recently. While we do not know who his mother is, Owen apparently recognized her in a group of ladies who came to pray with some of our sick children. She didn't identify herself, and no one knows which one she was except for Owen. She didnt talk to him, and he was very hurt by the whole experience. I'm sure she was just wanting to check up on him and make sure he was doing ok...perhaps she didn't realize he'd recognize her, or see her, but it really broke his heart and he is very sad. Please pray for him, that with the Lord's help we'd be able to lift his spirits, and pray also that she would be convicted, and would come back and meet us and see her son.

The two new children we mentioned in the last blog are doing pretty good, it's been a rough road for Daphnie, she has not wanted to stay here, but I think we've gotten over the toughest part for her. We've admitted 8 more children since then! Our house is definitely bursting at the seems, even with having sent several of the children back to their homes. Two of the newest children are Kendrick and Amos, both boys around 12 years of age. They come from the same area of Haiti but from two very different family backgrounds, and both needing a lot of love, attention and care. We struggled to help a little boy named Wilphene. He took up a lot of our nurses time over the past week or so, trying everything we could to save him, but he passed away earlier this week.

Our students have been studying really hard this week, as mid-term exams start this coming week. We are one of the only places in our whole village that has electricity at nights, so we've been noticing an increasing amount of students from the community coming to the HOH in the afternoons and evenings. They've created study groups one for each class in school (even though they attend several different schools in the community), and they can be seen all over the HOH putting their heads together to study. You can see one of the groups in the picture here. We are so glad we can be a help to the community in this way, and pray that the connection with these young people will produce fruit for the Kingdom of God as we interact with them as the spend time here with us.

We have one more Bible study tonight, and then the Tuesday and Saturday Bible studies shut down for a while as I'm away. Linda will continue to have evening devotions and Sunday School as well as Sunday Evening studies with our kids and young people, so she'd appreciate your prayers. She'd appreciate your prayers in general as she holds down the fort, it's always harder to do when one of us is away!

So here are some more prayer requests for the next little while:

• Our new nurse started work, and so far she is doing really great. Please continue to pray for her as she learns her role here, and organizes the auxiliary nurses so that they can all do a better job together.
  
• For more monthly supporters who can help us with the daily expenses of running the HOH.
  
• For safety as I travel, attend a conference, see some friends and supporters, and take a break at my sister's place.
• For our students writing exams, that they'd have clarity of thought as they remember what they've studied and learned.
• For continued growth as they study God's Word with Linda over the next few weeks, and for wisdom and patience for Linda as she helps them.
• For health of the numerous malnourished children who have been admitted, and for the Gospel to be communicated and understood by their families as they are here with their children.

Our latest newsletter is now available to be viewed online, so feel free to go take a look at: http://www.handsofhope.org.uk/hoh_main.php click on "Read our latest newsletter"

Thank you some much for your prayers for and support of the House of Hope.

Moving along...

We were blessed to receive a number of new wheelchairs this past week, from www.freewheelchairmission.org . They are made from parts that can be easily replaced, and not cost a lot...plastic lawn chairs and bicycle tires. We are thankful to our friends from Extreme Response who connected us with the distributor of these chairs in Port-au-Prince. Owen, pictured here, was one of the children who received a wheelchair. He was so excited, as he has spent his life walking on his hands and knees. This is the young boy who was abandoned here several months ago, and has just turned into a ray of sunshine here at the HOH. We are so thankful for this gift that has allowed him to get up off the floor, and move around a lot easier.

The children are doing well for the most part. We received two children this week, Daphnie and Anslot. They are both older, around 10 years old, so it's been a bit of a harder adjustment for them, but they are getting there. Pray as we interact with these young people, that they'd be open to the Gospel as we share it with them during their time here.

School and studies are both going well, thank you for your prayers. We were happy to have a visit from our friends, Jeb and Gail Bland last week. They brought over 100 pairs of cloth diapers with them, what a blessing that was! We were also able to get a prayer/news letter written, and mailed. It should be posted on our website sometime in the next week or so.

We appreciate your prayers for us very much and ask that you continue to pray for:

• The students here at the HOH as the attend school and study here at home, that they would be faithful in their studies.
• For our different Bible studies, that we will be open to the Holy Spirit's teaching as we study God's word together.
• For God's provision of more monthly supporters of this ministry.
• For the health of our children, and for our staff as we care for many sick children.
• For our new nurse who will start working here this next Tuesday. That she would fit into this ministry, and would be an example of God's love to our children.
  
• For me as I prepare for a trip to the US the end of this month.

God bless you all...

School has started...

Greetings to you all. School is now under way. All 30 of our students are now regularly attending their respective schools. It feels nice to have things on a more "normal" schedule. We pray that the students have a good and productive year this year in school. We thank the Lord for providing the funding needed to send them to school, He is indeed a great God, and always takes care of us so faithfully. Thank you so much for your prayers on our behalf.

The past couple of weeks saw much activity here at the HOH. Besides getting ready for school opening, we enjoyed seeing our friends from England. They were a blessing to us as they brought us a lot of medications, especially the anti-TB meds, as well as other antibiotics that we need on a regular basis. We thank God for these faithful supporters of this ministry.

Another grand occasion we celebrated this past week was Linda's birthday. This picture is of the two of us at her party, we had a lot of fun preparing for and celebrating her birthday. The HOH loves a good party, so having an extra special reason for having one made it that much more fun.

Our Bible studies have begun again as well. On Tuesday nights Linda and I meet with a small group of our young people. Right now we are studying Who God is. We've been going through different Old Testament Characters, and learning what we can about Who God is, through looking at their lives and their relationship with God. It has been a very good study together up to now, and we enjoy spending time together, learning about God, and Who He is for us personally, right here and now.

On Saturday nights we have about 30 young people (most of them ours, and some of them from the local community). We are studying God's plan for the family, discussing relationships, dating, marriage, and all of these types of things. You can imagine we have some pretty lively discussions during this study time. But it is exciting to see God's Word taking root in the hearts of our young people, and making a difference in their every day lives.

Sunday mornings for a Sunday School time, Linda, St. Germain, Rosnel, and I are going through the Character Studies with the younger children. We've done Attentiveness, Obedience, and are now working through Truthfulness. Sunday nights we all get together, about 50 in all, and we are presently studying and learning many different Proverbs, and studying how we can put them into practice in our every day lives. These are always fun nights full of games and discussions, as we learn and study God's Word together.

Planning and preparing these lessons takes up much of my time. I would appreciate your prayers as I work on these, and also for everyone participating in these studies, that the Holy Spirit would use these studies in God's Word to make us more like Jesus everyday.

We appreciate your prayers for our sick children. Two (Bendjy and Keisha) of the ones you were praying for are doing really well, and will probably be heading home any day now. Shelov passed away just a few days after I wrote the last blog. It is always hard for us to lose on of the children here, but we trust in God, that He knows what's best for these children. We now have 4 new children who could use your prayers as they receive medical care over the next few months. Emerson and Andley are 2 baby boys, they've been here several days now, and are starting to do much better. Just today two 7 year olds were admitted, one boy (Widnel), and one girl (Aline). Please pray for a quick adjustment for these two children, and for healing for their bodies. Pray also as we share the Love of Jesus with them, that their minds and hearts would be open to the Good news of Jesus.

Ciliana continues to be a joy to us. We aren't sure yet what we are going to do about her tests, we will need to take her to PAP if we want to go further at this point, and we are unsure of whether or not we should do that. She continues to be extremely healthy, now working on her 3rd and 4th teeth, she is over 14 pounds, and working on putting on more! Please continue to pray for wisdom for us as we make decisions on a daily basis for these children. Also continue to pray for God's provision of all of our needs, as we bring His hope to the needy children of Haiti.

New Toys!!

Greetings from the HOH. Jenny is back from PAP, Linda is finished teaching her courses, and we are trying to get everyone and everything ready for school that is opening on Monday the 3rd. Where oh where did the summer vacation go?

Thank you for your prayers for the boat and customs and all of that. We were able to receive a number of boxes over the weekend, and among them were three tubs of new toys for the kids. They have been having so much fun on the trikes, and with the balls, and all kinds of other things. We are so thankful for the church in Vancouver, WA whose children collected and sent these toys to our children.

I was not able to take Ciliana to PAP for testing, so that will have to happen at another time. We are looking forward to our friends from England, and the Hands of Hope who will be coming this Friday to spend a week with us.

Most of the Our Hope young people who went to visit their homes, are back. Several of them had the opportunity to teach 5 Day clubs in their home areas while visiting, and a number of children came to know Jesus as their Savior as a result of these clubs. We are thankful that God is using our young people to teach others about Him.

We have a number of new babies who have come to the HOH with severe malnutrition. Their names are Bendjy, Shelov, and Keisha. Please pray for them and their parents who are staying with them as they are really struggling to make it.

We appreciate your prayers for us very much. These next few days/weeks as we get everyone ready and into school will be very busy ones for us. We also will begin our evening Bible studies, so I could use your prayers as I prepare the materials for these. Please continue to pray for God's provision for our needs, and that we would be lights, shining forth God's love to those around us.

Have a great week!

Malaria

Well, that pretty much sums up my week last week! I started not feeling well about Tuesday, but thought I was just really tired. The weather has been so hot here, you break into a sweat just sitting in the shade doing nothing, so I realized something was wrong when I started trembling on Wednesday night. Anyway, got my finger stuck, my blood checked, and started treatment on Thursday, which pretty much was the end of my week. I'm feeling much better, with a greater respect for mosquitoes, and my need to stay away from them!

Things have calmed down significantly as far as activity at the HOH, for which we are somewhat thankful. About 15 of the "Our Hope" young people have gone to their home communities to visit their families for a few weeks. So our numbers have dropped, and with that comes less activity.

Linda is busy in the mornings teaching another Child Evangelism Fellowship course for the next two weeks. She'd appreciate your prayers for her that she'd communicate well, and that God would use her to train these students how to share the Gospel and the Bible with children in their local communities. Pray also for good health for her, the other teachers and the students, as they have a lot of work to get through in these two weeks.

We've received several new children in during the past week. One of them is a 12 year old girl named Michelda (pictured here). She is unable to walk, and the doctors are still unsure as to why that is. At the moment she is under observation, but might begin treatment for TB of the spine soon.

Ciliana is continuing to do really well. We still don't have clear results from her tests, but that still makes us think it's a good thing, and that she might be rejecting her mom's antibodies, and turn negative any time now. I'll be heading to Port-au-Prince next week to attend a CrossWorld Ladies' Retreat, and will take her with me. We'll try and redo the tests, and hopefully find a more conclusive answer.

The drainage canal we were working on is now finished. Boy did we get that done just in time. The day after we finished it rained, torrential tropical rains for several hours on end. We can't even imagine all the damage all that water would have done to the HOH if we hadn't had the canals finished. But then God knew all about that didn't He? It's so nice to know He's in control.

We appreciate your prayer for us very much. Please continue to pray for God's provision for our needs. We have a praise in that department, some friends of the HOH offered to pay for the cost of putting in the canal, so that is a huge help to us. Another prayer request we have concerns the shipping company that has brought supplies in for us from Miami for many years now. With new laws and regulations being put in place in Haiti every day, it is becoming more and more difficult for these boats to bring in supplies. The boat has come in this week, but is unsure that it will make any more trips with supplies, depending on how difficult the government makes things. So please pray that we'll be able to work through all of this. The best thing would be for things to be not that hard, and the company be able to continue bringing things in for us. We do have a lot of stuff in transit at the moment as well, so pray that we receive all that is for us during this time of transition.

We heard back about some of our other students, a number of them in the higher grades didn't pass their exams and will have to redo their school year. Among them are Ronel and Phania. Ruben failed, but with enough points that he has a chance to rewrite the parts of the exam he messed up on, so he is busy studying and would appreciate your prayers on his behalf. On that same note, school is just around the corner, so we'll be busily preparing for that in the next couple of weeks...boy this summer just blew right by!

Well thanks again for your prayers...til the next time...Bye

Whew!! Let's all catch our breath!

Well, we made it through Staff Camp, most of our visitors have gone back to their homes, and we were looking forward to a relaxing week of just catching up on things around the HOH. But instead, it has been one of those weeks, where everything seems to be happening at the same time. First of all, Monday morning we realized the main drainage canal from the HOH was totally blocked and the water was backing up into the HOH. So the boys started working on getting it unblocked. Problem is, when the new hospital was built right beside us, they built right on top of our canal, and didn't leave any access places to check it out if there were ever any problems. Well, in the middle of trying to figure out how to unblock the drainage canal we were called to the other side of our property to check out a septic tank. It was very evident that the tank was full and overflowing onto our yard. So we had to stop the drainage project, to work on emptying out the septic tank, by hand, after digging a huge hole to empty it into. Having finished that, we returned to the drainage canal, only to get the metal pole stuck, that we were attempting to stick into the canal to unplug it. The next day we got some help with the metal pole, and it finally came out, but after a third whole day of working on the drainage canal, it is still just as plugged as ever. Thus we came to the conclusion that we must build a new one. We knew this was going to have to be done at sometime, we were definitely hoping for a later time, but it can't wait at this point. So today the boys are at it again, working hard to dig a new ditch to put the drainage canal in. This time it won't be under the hospital!

In the midst of all of this, the maintenance men of the hospital came to tell us that we needed to cut down the dead palm tree that stands right beside the HOH. It has become more and more of a danger whenever we have high winds, and they were sure that yesterday was the day for the tree to come down. It was unbelievably nerve wracking, as we watched them work on cutting it down. It was so close to the house, just a tiny mistake and it could have been a mess. We prayed the whole time they were cutting...and it came down perfectly in the best possible place. Praise God! Here's a picture of Bòs Dieunousa cutting it down. And then here's one of it on the ground.So you can see these past few days since camp have been a bit hectic. Thanks for your prayers for us, and please continue to pray as we work on getting the drainage canal finished before any major rains, or we'll be in a lot of trouble.

We just got back the wonderful news that both Benitha, and Jean Daniel passed their grade 9 government exams this year! They are so excited. And even more exciting is that Jean Daniel was the Valedictorian for his school! Praise God together with us for this great news.

We are still awaiting the news for Ciliana's tests. I know some of you think I've forgotten to let you know, but that isn't the case. The clinic that performed the tests sent word that the first set of tests came back inconclusive, so they did a second one, it too came back inconclusive. So I will be taking her to Port-au-Prince once again this month to be tested. This is really good news, as we feel that if she was going to be positive, it wouldn't keep coming back inconclusive. Perhaps that's wishful thinking on our part...but please keep this in your prayers. As you can see from the picture she is doing extremely well, and has started to get a tooth!

We appreciate your prayers for us so much, and ask that you thank God with us for his provisions for all of our needs, and ask Him as well to continue to provide, especially as all these new expenses are popping up to fix things.

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!

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!

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!

Summer Vacation is Here!

Wow, where have the weeks gone! It is way past time for me to update you all. I'm back in Haiti after having had the chance to visit a number of friends, family and supporters in North Western USA, and South Western Canada. It was a very busy trip, but I had a great time seeing all those I was able to.

I am happy to be back though, I missed everyone here, and was missed as well. The baby Ciliana is now 11.5 pounds, and doing great. I plan to go to Port-au-Prince this week to try and get her tests done. There were about 10 new admissions while I was gone, including an 8 day old baby girl named Valandina. She is doing really well and is now just over a month old. We seem to be getting quite adept at taking care of these tiny ones, and so far everyone enjoys pitching in to take care of them.

For the most part, school is out. Ronel, Phania, and Ruben are still writing grade 12 and 13 exams these next two weeks, so they could really use your prayers. They've worked hard studying, so we hope they each pass their exams. Everyone else is finished, and so summer vacation has officially begun here at the HOH. It's going to be a busy one, and has already started with a flurry of activity.

Linda and I are so thankful for St. Germain (pictured here), who has earned the title "Program Director" of the HOH. He has planned games every morning and afternoon to keep everyone busy. What a blessing to have that taken care of for us, so we can get other work done. God has gifted him in this area of planning and implementing his plans, and boy do we appreciate all of his efforts.

Last week started out with several very serious games of water balloon races, and dodge ball (with both balls, and water soaked sponges). With the high temperatures we've already been experiencing this summer (yesterday it was 108˚F in the sun!), any game with water is a welcome relief. As you see in the other picture even afternoon rainstorms couldn't stop them from having their fun!

While the kids are having all the fun, Linda and I have been busy preparing Bible studies and lessons for the coming year. Linda is also preparing to teach some Child Evangelism Fellowship courses this coming summer, so she could use your prayers as she prepares these lessons to train teachers to teach children the Gospel.

We enjoyed a fun weekend together this past weekend, not only was it the first weekend I was back, and the first weekend school was out. But it was also my birthday, as well as the graduation of one of our youngsters from elementary school, so we had a couple of parties together, and had a lot of fun enjoying just being together.

Manno, our star, is still waiting to head to Port-au-Prince to compete in the semi-finals of the singing contest. He's been busy preparing 10 songs that he will have to perform. Out of the 14 semi-finalists, they will eliminate 6 and only keep 8 for the finals. The Semi-finals are supposed to start Friday the 29th of June, so you could keep him in your prayers as well. We pray that he will be an reflection of Jesus to those he comes in contact with as he sings in this competition. Pray that God would direct his steps, and direct others who come in contact with him, pray that he would have the courage and wisdom to speak of his faith, and share Christ with others around him, and that some would come to know the Lord.

Here are some prayer requests you could pray for this week:

• There is some kind of fever/flu going around, we have kids dropping like flies, so pray for those of us who are still well, as we cover for those who are sick. Linda woke up not feeling well today, so hopefully she won't be the next victim!
• 6 of us plan on heading to Port-au-Prince this week to take care of some government paperwork, and doctor appointments. Three of the older kids will be going on the bus, and Linda and I plus the baby will be flying down. Pray for safety in travel, and also that we'd be able to get done all we need to accomplish.
• There is so much work to do, we need wisdom to prioritize what needs done, and also know when to say no!
• We have a very busy visitor schedule through this summer, pray as I work through all of these logistics, and pray for safety in travel as these groups come from all over.
• Pray that we would be a reflection of Jesus to those around us, and that we'd grow closer to Him every day.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support. We thank God for the many people He has placed on our team to enable this ministry to continue. Thank you for your part.

He Won!!!

We are so proud of Manno. He won, and is one of the two finalist for our region of Haiti. Now, early in June he will be going to the capital city, Port-au-Prince to compete with the other 13 finalists. This is a big deal for him, and we are proud of him! Please continue to pray for him, that he would be a good example to the others in the competition, and that he would be a light shining for the Lord as he continues to use the talents God has given him to bring Him glory. We'll keep you posted as time goes by.

I am currently in the US. I'm missing all my kids and Linda, especially baby Ciliana, you can see in this picture she is doing just great. We don't have a final answer yet with regards to her blood tests, we hit some walls, which I guess is normal as we are walking on new and unfamiliar territory for us, but hopefully we'll get things straightened out, and will be a help, not oly to her but to others in the same situation as she is in the future. At this point we won't know more until I go back to Haiti and can take her back to PAP.

I've been in touch with Linda and the kids and they are all doing just fine. School is coming to an end, so they are getting ready for exams. Some will be writing government exams this coming month, so they could really use your prayers. I'll try and list who they are before they write their exams. Thank you so much for your prayers, and for your patience as I'm traveling and not able to update this quite as often.

A Star among us!

Over the past few months the phone company that gives us the cell phone service in our area of Haiti has been having a contest to find a rising star in the area of music. One of our boys, Manno (Emmanuel Pierre), entered the contest, and out of the 1,000 contestants in our department of Haiti, he made it to the top 10. This week is voting week. The top two out of these 10 will go to the capital city, Port-au-Prince, to continue in the contest. We are proud of Manno, his hard work, and his love for the Lord. Please pray for him that he would use this chance to sing as a chance to be a strong witness for the Lord. We'll let you know if he makes it to the finals, but we are proud of him either way.

As you know, I spent almost a week in Port-au-Prince meeting with the other CrossWorld missionaries, and a couple from the CrossWorld Home Staff. We had a nice time together up at the Lodge, in the very cool mountains above PAP. I was also able to take Ciliana to get her blood tests, we are waiting for those results.

Thank you to those of you who expressed your condolences for the death of our friend and former HOH kid, Celibon. Our young people were able to participate in Celibon's funeral while I was away. They sang a beautiful song together, and I have heard that it was very well attended. Continue to pray for his family and friends who are missing him very much, and also that as they talk about his life, others would come to know Jesus because of how much he imitated Christ in his daily walk.

The two men from Compassion Canada were able to make it here after all, and we had a nice visit with them. We also enjoyed a visit from David & Phyllis Schmid, and John and Rachael Sherwood from the CrossWorld home office this past week. Now we have one more group of men coming for just one day this weekend before I take off and go to the US for a few weeks. It has been a busy year for visitors!

Most of the children are doing pretty good. Only Blandjina is still struggling, but she is doing better, and we hope in a few weeks she'll be fine. Many of our students are really studying hard as end of the year exams are coming up really fast. Linda and I are preparing things for my travels, so we are all managing to stay busy.

We'd appreciate your prayers over the next few weeks, as I travel in the US and Canada, and as Linda stays here and holds down the fort (and she's not been feeling well for quite a while now). I will try to update as often as I can while I'm away. I will be in Corsicana, Texas first, then will be traveling with my sister up to Seattle, then up into Canada, over to Calgary and Edmonton, and then back again. It will be a busy few weeks, but I am looking forward to seeing a number of different friends and supporters of the HOH. If you'd like to get in touch with me while I'm in the US just send me an e-mail and I'll give you my phone numbers. I'd be more than happy to talk with you! Thank you for keeping in touch and for your prayers. We just admitted a little malnourished 2 year old boy named Kedner, so you could keep him in your prayers as well. God bless, til next time...

With the Lord...

It is with a very heavy heart and great sadness I write to tell you that Celibon (see picture below or in the last update) passed away this morning. Thank you to those of you who prayed for him after my last update. While we know he is better off right now, and we rejoice that he is with his Saviour, whom he loved very deeply, and with his beloved "Miss Caro" (Carolyn Bradshaw, the founder of the HOH, and the lady who he loved like a mother), you can just imagine how sad life already feels without this ray of sunshine in it. We will miss his smile and ready hello as he passed through the HOH on his way to/from work, his laugh as we sat around telling stories. His incredible courage to face a society that scorns people with any kind of handicaps, not to mention someone with the multiple physical handicaps that he was born with, was an inspiration to everyone who knew him. We will miss Linda and him remember the "old days" of the HOH together, and the many stories they had to share. I ask that you please pray for his family, Fre Domay, his father, is beside himself with grief, as are his brother and sister. The funeral will be held Tuesday of this coming week, but they really haven't made to many concrete plans, Linda is working closely with them, and I am trying to prepare what I can ahead of time as I have to be in PAP this week, so I regrettably will miss it. He was a very close friend of Linda's so this is very difficult for her right now, so please pray for her as well. They have known each other a good part of their lives, so the memories and ties run deep and long. Thank you for holding us up in prayer and support through the good and the difficult times. How grateful we are that we have a loving and sovereign God in times like these, and we can trust Him to work out his good and perfect will in all situations. God bless...