A whole new me!

Well, here I am again. This is my third chance to write to you, and boy am I excited to show you my picture this time. I am doing so well, if I should say so myself. The TB treatment is really doing the trick, and I am feeling so healthy. Here I am doing my absolutely most favorite activity -- eating!!! Fortunately for me eating is very good for me right now, so I am doing as much of it as I can. You'll be able to see in this picture and some of the others that my skin pigment is smoothing out, the swelling is almost completely gone from my hands and feet, and I am just overall much healthier. The boys cut off my white hair, so I lost my "Father Christmas" nickname along with the hair. My new nickname is "Ti Blan", which literally means "little white".

Well, this has been another very busy month...which is why it has taken me more than a month to update you all on what's been going on. As you know the kids are almost all on summer vacation now. All except for Manno who is in his last days of writing his final year exams. All the other kids have finished their government exams, and now have to go through the stress of waiting for the results. I was able to take part in more activities this month, so are you up for some pictures to help you see what's been going on? I hope so, because I have a lot this month...

The first major event since we last talked was Tati Jen's birthday. Boy was that a big day, because it was a big birthday....but she won't let me tell you which one it was...you'll have to figure that one out on your own.
Anyway, we had a big party, and good food, and Birthday cake and presents, and singing and music and jokes and laughing. It was a good evening (actually I'm just telling you what they told me because I actually fell asleep before the whole thing started!).

The next big event was Lala and Ivinsky's graduation...from Kindergarten!! Yep, after 3 hard years of pre-school, they are now full fledge students. Lala even graduated with honors, coming in third in her class for her grades. We had a nice party for them after the graduation...boy was that fun, we had cookies and candy and juice. And we sang songs, and listened to music and showed off our dancing skills. They sure do know how to have fun around here!

After that came another graduation, this time it was a group of pastors who were graduating from Bible School. Tati Da was asked to be the "God-mother" of the graduating class, which is a really big deal here, and a big honor. She looked beautiful, so I just have to share her picture with you...Then came the really big occasion that happens every July here in our town. That is the big July conference, where over 5,000 people come from all over Haiti to spend a week in meetings. They have Bible studies, kids meetings, Praise and worship sessions. It is absolutely mayhem around here with that many people added to our village. Here' how it looked from around here...A few days before the conference started they older kids braided all the little girl's hair, and put beads on the braids...
It was such a big job, even the boys helped out. And the results were just great...The girls looked so good, I was quite proud to walk with them over to the campground where the kids' meetings. Every morning at 9 am and every afternoon we all dressed up for the occasion and headed out... We had to take our own benches to sit on, because by the time we got there all the seats were already taken up by other kids. But thanks to our older boys, we always had seats because they carried the benches over for us. Here I am sitting on one...We were thankful for the chance to sit, but boy was it crowded and hot! As you can see we weren't the only kids there...
In fact, we were only about 40 kids in the midst of 2,000 kids who came every day for the conference!!!
It was so much fun!! We sang and danced, and learned verses and our theme this year was "My eyes are fixed on Jesus". To learn the theme we learned a little chant to say, "My eyes are fixed on Jesus, his eyes are fixed on Jesus, our eyes are fixed on Jesus, and you? Are your eyes fixed on Jesus?" To learn the Bible lessons, we divided up into smaller groups, this was my small group...
Can you see me? Didn't think so. Here I am...
You can see I found the Bible lessons very interesting. It was all so much fun and I'm so thankful I got to be a part of the conference this year.

So that pretty much brings us up to date. The next few weeks are going to be so busy. We have a team coming in from Pennsylvania with our friend Jeb Bland. They are coming in to take care of us kids, while the older kids and Tati Da and Tati Jen hold a retreat for the House of Hope staff. Tati Jen is driving down on Friday to Port-au-Prince to pick the team up and bring them back here on Saturday. Then, all next week is the Staff Retreat.

They have the retreat every 2 years to give the staff a break, and to make them feel special and appreciated for all their hard work during the years. They take such good care of us, and it's our way to say thank you back to them. So pray for us over the next couple of weeks, it's going to be crazy busy around here, with lots of comings and goings. Pray for safety in travel, for good health, for good times in God's Word as our local pastor comes and shares with our staff and for just a great time of being together. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures to show you the next time I update.

Please continue to pray for God to provide for our needs at the HOH. Giving is still really low, and it is an added stress on Tati Da and Tati Jen. I know they trust God to provide for all of our needs, so please pray that He would do so. They almost cancelled the staff retreat, but are trying to do it anyway with what we have. So pray that God would open His storehouses and send us what we need to continue this special ministry. Til next time...Loveson

It's me again!

Hi Everyone! It's been over a month since I've written you. Boy have things been busy around here. I wanted to take this chance to show you my new picture. If you have a keen eye, you'll be able to see I am doing much better. My face isn't as puffy, my hair is growing back (the kids here can even make it stand in a Mohawk after I've finished washing it!), and I'm starting to get my normal color back. At first the doctor thought I had Celiac disease, so they put me on a diet that I did not like at all. I couldn't eat anything fun at all...no bread, no macaroni, no fried dough...boy was that hard.

In the end they decided that was not my problem, so they allowed me to start eating all that stuff again. I was so happy, I started eating as much as I could of all that stuff, just in case they changed their minds and made me stop again. So, what did they find out that has made me start to get healthy again? Well, in a last ditch effort to help me in some way, the Dr. here put me on treatment for TB, and that was exactly what I needed. I've been on treatment for about 2 weeks now, and the difference is incredible. I feel so much better, my body isn't swollen anymore, my hands and feet are healing up. I can walk, dance and I have made it my personal responsibility to make everyone in the house as happy as I can. Nicknames are very important here at the HOH, and over the past few weeks I have earned the nickname "Father Christmas", or literally "Uncle Christmas" (Tonton Noel). I'm not sure why, but I don't mind...it makes me feel very much a part of things here.

I'm very happy to be healing up, because there have been so many activities these past few weeks that I haven't been able to participate in because I was too sick. I'm going to share them with you anyway, you'll have to excuse me though for not giving you a first hand report on everything. To make sure you won't miss out on any of the news, I hired some extra help.

Carly and Micah are in on everything around here. They don't miss anything. So you can rest assured, that even though I wasn't personally at all of the following events, the news is true and accurate because my help was there and told me all about it...
We had a really nice girl here from France, her name is Lucille and she spent 2 weeks at our house. She could really speak French well, and I was so excited to be able to practice my French with her. Some of the other kids were too embarrassed to speak French with her, but not me; I boldly spouted out French whenever she was close enough to hear me. I think she liked it, because it always made her (and everyone else) laugh. Anyway, we really had a great time with Lucille here, and we were sad to see her go.

May 18th is a big celebration day here in Haiti. It is Flag Day, and we sure do like to celebrate it. The different schools in the area always hold parades with special marches and dances. And a whole bunch of people in the community open up stands and sell all kinds of good things for people to eat. This year some of the older kids from the HOH opened up their own stand, and sold BBQ chicken, fried plantain bananas, candied popcorn and lots of things to drink...

They worked hard and did a really good job from what I hear. Honestly, all I remember about that day was that the house was really dull and quiet, because almost everyone was at the celebration! There was another day the house was really quiet as well. One Saturday Tati Da and Tati Jen took everyone (well almost everyone, I had to stay home because my feet were too swollen) to the beach. Boy did Micah and Carly ever have stories to tell when they got back home that night. They played in the sand, ate sandwiches and then BBQ chicken. And they got to swim in the ocean. Carly loved the ocean, and Micah didn't. When I questioned him about it, all he could tell me was that the ocean was scared of him. (I really think it was the other way around). Here are a few pictures they shared with me of the day...

Rose Carline and Valandjina enjoy sandwiches and juice.

Once again St. Germain ran the BBQ. Well, he pretty much planned out the whole day. He's really good at that kind of thing.

Here the kids are waiting in line for the food.

They had a lot of fun swimming and doing tricks in the water. I can't wait until I can go. When I'm completely better, I'm going to beg Tati Da and Tati Jen to take me to the beach too. I'm pretty sure they'll do it.

So, that brings us to a last bit of news. We've received 4 new girls into the house, and it's about time too. We've had boys for so long, it was really nice to finally get some girls in.

All 4 of them are sick with different things, but 2 of them are malnourished like me. It will be good to see them get healthy again. Their names are Noëldine, Marianne, Lanka and Genide. It'd be nice if you could pray for them that they would get well, and also that they would learn about Jesus while they are here. We have many occasions to hear about Jesus here at the HOH. We have Church and Sunday School on Sundays, and Bible studies and family devotions during the week. So pray that if they aren't already in God's family that they would soon be.

Once again, thank you for your help that allows kids like me and these other girls to be here at the House of Hope. None of us thought we had any hope before we came here, and now we know that we do. Please continue to help and pray that others will do so as well. As you can imagine, things have been really tight the past little while. So I'd ask you to pray for God to give us everything that we need to take care of everyone in our large family. Pray also for the kids who are in school, they all will be writing exams soon. And Tati Jen has to travel to Port-au-Prince for a week next week, so pray for her as well. And pray for Tati Da while Tati Jen is gone, it is always hard to run the place alone (you can be sure I will help her out though). Thank you very much, and God bless.

News from Loveson

Hi! My name is Loveson, and I am 6 years old. I just recently showed up here at the House of Hope, but this is my 3rd trip here in my lifetime, so I'm pretty up on how things run around here. Let me let you in on a few things I've learned over the years and some other news...

It's very important to know who these two ladies are. They are "Tati Da" and "Tati Jen", it doesn't really matter which is which. Some of the children here can't ever keep it straight, so they just respond to both names. I've never had a problem telling them apart though, Tati Da wears glasses and Tati Jen doesn't. It can't get much easier than that. Anyway, these are the people to know around here, they have all kinds of ways to make you feel loved and wanted. For instance, they love to hear me sing and they ask me to do it all the time. I have learned though, that if I hesitate for a few minutes and don't sing right away when they ask me, they are likely to offer me something, like a piece of candy if I sing...so I usually hold out for as long as I can. But it is difficult, because I just love to sing. And every song that comes out of my mouth is a song of praise to God. I just love singing for Him. You should stop by sometime to hear me!

There are so many things to do here at the HOH, some days I just don't know what to do with myself. For instance, they have this really fun animal farm out back we love to go and watch the different animals. They have chickens, turkeys, ducks, and now they've added...

Yep, two rabbits have joined our family (and from what I understand we will likely have more before too long). Do you have any idea how fun it is to watch rabbits hop around? Some of the other kids here (not me, I would never do this) love to do things to make them hop, like throwing little stones and things...but they are learning this is not a good thing to do.

Another very fun thing to do is swim in the swimming pool. It is really starting to get hot during the days, and it is so nice to swim in the cool water. They put in soap, and it makes all these bubbles, and then we just all end up getting a bath at the same time. It is so much more fun than just taking a bath. I wish we could do it everyday, but we are having some trouble with our water system, so we can only do it occasionally. This is Daphno enjoying himself, and as you can see....
everyone gets a chance. I do need to mention to Tati Da/Jen that it might be a good thing to get a slightly bigger pool next time, because I have trouble doing my flips underwater when it's so crowded.
Two weeks ago the house got very quiet as a number of the older kids and Tati Jen went to Port-de-Paix for the "Capping" ceremony of three of the girls. I have no idea what a capping ceremony is, but all I know is that when the three girls left here; they didn't have anything on their heads, and when they came back they all three had these white caps on their heads. So I think that means they they are nurses now, or something like that; and I think that is really neat, because we always need nurses around here to take care of the sick kids like me.

We received a bunch of boxes at the HOH these past few weeks. And some of the boxes had soccer uniforms and balls in them! Because the kids here were off school for Easter vacation they had so much fun with all that stuff. I didn't get to play because I'm still a bit too sick for that rough stuff, but it was a lot of fun watching them. Some of the older kids even got to play in a tournament with their schools. For the finals it ended up being between two of the schools the HOH kids attend. Boy did they every fight with each other over who was going to win. It didn't really matter to me who won, I just had a lot of fun shouting and dancing with the winners when it was all over.
The older kids here held a concert over Easter weekend. It was a really great time. They opened it up for kids and young people in the community to come and sing for Jesus. I just sat and enjoyed all the songs. When this boy sang it was really special because his randmother (who is the one who takes care of him) is dying of cancer. She is in this little room not too far from the HOH. We all go to see her during the days and sing for her; and Tati Da likes to read the Bible to her. Well, this little boy sang a song called "Jesus is Alive". It meant a lot for him to sing like that knowing how hard things are for him right now.

Well, that's about all I have to tell you except for this; we pray for you all very often. Every time we have our family devotions we pray for you and ask God to protect you, to guide you and to provide for you. We really appreciate the way you give to the HOH so kids like me can be in a great place like this. I learn so many things here, especially about God and how He loved us so much to send His Son to die for us. Thank you for making it possible for me to be here; now if you'll excuse me I need to go for a very important meeting...

It's about time!

I can't put it off any longer. I kept telling myself I didn't have anything new to write, but that's mostly because everything I should have written about before has already passed. For instance, I didn't tell you in the last update that I was taking a trip to the US. I had a reason for that, I told myself that I would have time to update you again before I left, and I would write about it then. Well, I was wrong...

The days leading up to my trip were hectic, and I never did get around to writing about it on the blog. So, I told myself that I would have time while I was in the US to at least write and say I was there. Well, wrong again. From the moment I touched down in Miami, until I returned to Haiti 10 days later, I never stopped long enough to even catch my breath. Those of you who know me are probably saying by now, "Jenny, that's how it always goes, why would this trip be any different", and you are right. I should know that by now, but I always have that bit of optimism that I'll just find the time.

My 10 days in FL was busy, but it was also a very good time. I was able to spend a week purchasing items that we needed for the HOH. A lot of what I purchased was getting us ready for the upcoming summer season and a lot of the plans we have, especially for our biennial Staff Retreat. We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our purchases on a boat. It was supposed to have arrived already, but, well, such is life in our little country. Anyway, this was a really great time; I was blessed by some very generous supporters who gave me a wonderful place to stay, shop, pack things up and then move on.

The later part of my time in the US was actually the reason I went in the first place. I was blessed once again to participate in the mission conference of Miami Shores Presbyterian Church. This time I also spoke at Central Presbyterian Church. Through the weekend I spent with these 2 churches I had the opportunity to share what God is doing at the HOH 8 times.

The conference ended Sunday night and I returned to Haiti early Monday morning. By Monday afternoon I was knee deep into baking pizza's for our kids annual "Recreation" days. Each year during the "Mardi Gras" festival break in Haiti our kids hold these fun days to attract the kids and youth from our local community. It is through these fun days we start building relationships with the youth, and eventually many of them begin attending our Bible studies and clubs. There was a great turn out again this year, and all who were involved in the planning and preparation are breathing a sigh of relief that it's over for another year :) (especially the pizza maker).

Most of last week I spent sick, crawling from bed to do what was absolutely essential, and then crawling back again. My only explanation is that I must have caught a virus from my very kind friends in Miami, and thus I gained a few "sick days" in my schedule, or you would have had this update last week! I am feeling better now, still dealing with a few health issues, but hopefully will get everything squared away this week.

In the meantime, our students are busy with exams, our Bible studies are getting underway again, and we are preparing to have a team come in from PA next week.

The second round of the Haitian presidential elections went by peacefully this past Sunday. All of our kids who were able to went out and cast their vote. We are now waiting for the results. We pray that goes by peacefully as well.

One of our former staff ladies is dying of breast cancer. There is nothing that can be done for her, and her days are full of suffering. We are doing what we can to help her during this very difficult time, but we'd just ask you to pray for Mme Sonel.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support over this past month and a half. Hopefully, the next update won't be so long in coming.

A month load of Greetings...

My apologies for not updating sooner....lets see, what has been keeping us busy. Well, there's been school and homework; Bible studies and clubs; as well as community service work projects and shipments of supplies from North America. Here are some photo highlights of our past month...

Nani passed her first ever reading homework assignment. Might not sound like a big deal. But for a young girl who can't sit still for 2 seconds, we congratulated ourselves even more than her :).

Lala lost her first tooth, followed very quickly by her second. She considers herself the most heroic person in the world for having gone through this extremely traumatic experience.


We received Christmas gifts for the kids...Grace Baptist Church in York, PA once again provided a lovely box full of wonderful gifts for each of our kids. Some other families also sent gifts to their "Long Distance Loving" kids...In the end, everyone here had a nice sack full of gifts and clothes.



Miami Shores Presbyterian Church blessed us with two shipments on the boats this past month. The first was a wonderful assortment of toys for our smaller kids to play with. If you are wondering what the kids thought about that, I think the pictures tell it all...


They also purchased food supplies for us in Miami, and shipped them to us on the boat. They have been doing this regularly, with the help of our friend Renel Noel since the earthquake last year, and it has been such an incredible help to us...


Our friends from Snohomish, WA came once again to help us with several projects. It was good to see them and have a chance to catch up on things with them. Jeb with Doors of Hope also made a visit here, and was a great encouragement to us as always. We have been blessed over and over again as we've seen God's incredible provision as we care for these children and young people He has given us. Thank you for your part in supporting us in so many different ways.

I was sent a devotional on 1 Chronicles 29:11,"Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendour, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honour come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name." It seemed like a very fitting verse as we face multiple uncertainties around us at this time. What a comfort to know we are children of the One who is control of it all, and we can trust in Him for what lies ahead.

We are here!! We are fine!! We have internet!!

Yes, I know it has been almost forever since I've updated the blog. Life has been busy, but that really hasn't been the real reason I couldn't write. The real reason is our internet, it has been so bad lately I couldn't get on long enough to update the blog. I finally was able to get the company based in Port-au-Prince to make the trip out here and fix it. Now we are back to incredibly fast internet, and I've spent the past week getting caught up on all the e-mails and other types of communication that I had pile up over the past few weeks. I feel all caught up now, and am ready to update you all on life here at the HOH!

So, first things first. Cholera. The numbers of new cases at our hospital have decreased greatly. Not enough to eliminate the need of the make-shift cholera ward, but certainly enough to allow life to feel like it's getting back to normal. Although, as is common here in Haiti, "normal" has changed once again, and cholera seems to have become a permanent word in our vocabulary, and a pretty fixed part of our lives. With fewer cases, and the feelings of threat seeming to have diminished it's easy to get lax in the precautions we have put into place to avoid it entering our home. We are so thankful no one has gotten it here, but we constantly have to keep on the kids to keep it that way. Previously, no one would eat before washing their hands. Even 4 year old Nani was obsessed with hand washing. No matter what it was that you gave her to eat, she'd say, "I haven't washed my hands yet". The other day, Linda reminded her to wash her hands before eating and she replied, "I don't need to wash my hands, the cholera is over"! Well, reality is, it isn't over and while we are thankful we haven't had it in our home, many others are still suffering.

A friend of ours who is a nurse had it hit her family last week with a vengeance. Her 34 year old brother came down with it. Within just a few hours he was almost dead. He recovered from the Cholera, but the day he was discharged to go home he came down with a secondary complication that we have seen several times since the epidemic started. His body slowly started to become paralyzed from the feet first working it's way upward. Just last week we lost one of our nurses here at the hospital from this same thing, but this time the Dr.'s knew what it was. They came to Linda and I on Sunday night asking us to come up with a way to get this young man to PAP so he could get on oxygen before his lungs became paralyzed. We worked long into the night, and then again on Monday morning. Finally, we were able to set up an emergency flight with MAF. By Monday afternoon he was in a hospital in PAP. He is still very critical, and could use your prayers. Our friend's name is Clenide, so you could just pray for her brother, I can't remember his first name off hand.

I wanted to give you an update on Terrence, since several of you have asked me about him. If you don't remember, he's the young man who has Myosthenia Gravis. He's been staying here at the HOH since he returned from PAP back in July I think it was. He has had an amazing recovery. It's been slow, little by little. First he was able to eat again, then slowly start to move his hands. In the last couple of weeks he's been able to start moving his legs, and then one day surprised us by starting to walk all on his own! He is still weak, but he is putting on weight and starting to join in on activities around the house. I found out from one of the homework assignments I gave him in our Bible studies that he wants to be a pastor some day and preach God's Word. I never knew that! How exciting it is to watch God spare his life, and go on to form and shape his character during these past few difficult months. Thank you so much for your prayers on his behalf.

It feels like the kids have been on vacation forever! To keep busy, some of the boys decided to redecorate the babies' room here at the HOH. When they had completely covered the walls and ceiling of the babies' room they went on to the wall between us and the hospital. Our home has been transformed into a "Disney" and "Pixar" wonderland by some amazing art work done by the boys from our community projects. Here are a few pictures...All in all, a pretty incredible job! And our house is looking like a very happy place!

While the community kids have been making our house all nice and pretty, our kids have been busy working in our local community to bank up their community service hours in exchange for their upcoming school fees. They should start school on Monday, we tend to preface everything with "should" or "might" these days. We are still waiting for the results of the elections back in November, and know that whatever we have planned will be affected by that announcement. We hope to start back up with our Bible studies, and this Sunday we will return to our study on the names of God as well. It will be nice to return to a more normal schedule after so many weeks on vacation.

The Christmas and New Years festivities were enjoyed by all once again this year. We did our fairly usual Christmas program for the local community. Linda and I enjoyed being invited to the program again this year, and apart from helping with the food preparation, we basically had nothing to do with the program planning or implementation. The HOH and young adults did it all, and we got to sit back like 2 proud mamas watching their kids perform! Christmas has been stretched out again this year as the gifts didn't arrive in time for the 25th. We are planning a small party this evening to hand out the gifts as the last of them arrived yesterday.

We have been blessed this year to watch God provide for our needs over and over again. What a great God we serve. Thank you for your prayers for us and your support. We wish you all a blessed New Year 2011. Today I'll end with one of our favorite blessings here at the HO, it is found in Numbers 6:24-26, "The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace."

It keeps going

In spite of the fact that the Cholera epidemic continues to spread throughout our area, we have managed to stay Cholera free at the HOH. It is quite amazing when you think about it, and we are so thankful for your prayers on our behalf.

This does not mean we've not been affected by the outbreak... More and more family members of the HOH kids have died. Some can't even keep track of the numbers. This week one of the "Our Hope" kids, John Wisly lost his mom, and another little girl's mom died from AIDS. So two of our kids who weren't orphans before, now are. Linda has lost 3 members of her family so far, and others have gotten it but have recovered. We continue to assist the hospital wherever we can, mostly helping the international organization (Medical Teams International) who is there helping them. It's not much, but it is what we can do.

Food prices continue to go up, here are two examples to help you understand this: A gallon of Clorox that just a month ago cost around $4 now costs almost $7 US. A sack of sugar was just over $30 US when this all started, it now costs $64 US. You can just imagine how difficult this is for us as we have so many mouths to feed. In an effort to cut costs we have started to cut down on the number of meals we make in a day, same as we did after the earthquake. It always amazes me how the Haitians can just tighten that belt another notch tighter every time things get worse--and still have a good spirit about them as they are doing it.

And we have plenty of that good spirit about us these days. One benefit to having such a large family is that it'd be almost impossible for everyone to get down in the dumps at the same time, so there's always someone to pick up the others who are down. We have seen God sustain us through hard times in the past, and know He will do the same this time. We have had to cancel our trip to the new property that we were going to take with the kids over Christmas break (we canceled it last year too -- someday we'll make it). I am actually kinda glad about that, we can use a break that is just a break, not trying to ferry 50 kids across 100 miles of road that would take us at least 10 hours to drive.

So, in an attempt to encourage you all...here's what brought us great joy this week:

Remember this little girl? She is here dressed in her school uniform with the birthday hat they made for her. Think back 4 years ago...Nani turned 4 this past week. Yep, the little tiny Siliana, who we didn't think would live (just in case you don't remember I've added a picture of her at 2 weeks old). Well, she is thriving, and is our constant joy. She is loved by all, and honestly who could imagine life without her bubbly spirit and constant boosts of energy? It's hard to stay discouraged with her running around all over the place.

We thank God for His protection of Phania and another friend of ours who were both involved in motorcycle accidents this past week. They have to take little motorcycle taxi rides to school each day in Port-de-Paix. Both had minor injuries, but nothing too serious, and we are thankful.

So, please stay encouraged...and keep praying for our requests. For protection from the epidemic around us, for wisdom in using the resources that God has already provided for us, and for His continued provision of our needs during these tough days. Blessings on you...

The numbers keep rising

Thank you for your prayers, and for those of you who have given so that we can help those in need. Every day the numbers of new cholera patients goes up. I've been told that between our hospital and another one up the road they are averaging 175 new patients a day, but have had a death rate of under 1%, which is a lot lower than other parts of the country, so that is commendable for both these hospitals and the different international agencies helping them out.

Unicef is supposed to be helping our hospital build a tent complex on another part of the yard to open up more space for even more patients in the future. We are helping in whatever way we can, but are mostly occupied with keeping the HOH safe and healthy. So far, thank the Lord, we have had no cases here. We are prepared, however, thanks to our co-workers in PAP who shipped us IV supplies yesterday. We keep getting news from the kids' and Linda's family; some more have died and others are infected. The days are long, people are tired and getting discouraged. We are grateful for your prayers.

Just a reminder, if you leave a comment on the blog and ask a question but don't leave an e-mail address, I cannot respond to you. Write to me instead at: jenny.reitz@crossworld.org . Thanks

A quick update...

Just a quick note to say things at the hospital are continuing to get worse. I've included some pictures so you can see. We've been given 2 tents now, so the wards, porch, yard and two tents set up for Cholera patients are full.the yard.

inside the tent.the new tent going up.

So far we are doing ok at the HOH, thanks for your prayers. Continue to pray for the hospital staff, especially the nurses, they are all working so hard. Pray also for those mourning the ones they love. We just got news of the first death from Linda's family this afternoon. Others have lost more family members as well. so we really appreciate your prayers.

Please keep Praying

We are still dealing with rain, mud and high water from the hurricane going through. It has left us with very limited access to the internet these days. At the same time the Cholera epidemic is in full swing in our area, it is everywhere. The hospital has received 269 people during this past week, all with cholera.

Yesterday we had a scare as one of the boys who spends every waking hour here at the HOH. He started with symptoms of Cholera late yesterday afternoon. In the end, he does not have it, but it has definitely gotten us concerned. We feel that it will be a miracle if we manage to keep it out of the HOH family.

We are daily getting reports from the HOH kids families back out in the villages, there are many people dying. One of our girls has lost 6 family members in the past couple of days. Another one has lost 3. Please pray for our kids as they here this news, it is very difficult for them.

We have tightened down our yard, our gates are being locked 24/7, and everyone coming in or passing through must wash hands and shoes with Clorox water. We are keeping our elementary age kids home from school for the next little while. We are continuing with the precautions on the preparation of food and drinking water.

We really need your prayers for protection, prayers for wisdom, and prayers for God's provision of our needs (which by the way, He has been working on in the past few days, thanks for praying with us since my last update). Every time a crisis hits prices of everything go up, this time is no different. We have added expenses of trying to keep our kids safe, and also of food prices rising. So, if anyone wishes to help us out with the added financial needs, just follow the instructions at the top left of this blog.

Thank you all for your prayers and concerns, I will try and update more often, provided I can get on the internet. You don't need to necessarily wait for an e-mail to check, because I might not be able to get e-mails out telling you I've updated the blog.

All is well

Thanks for your prayers, all is well. Tomas is past for the most part. We had rains most of the day yesterday, and some fairly heavy wind gusts last night through the night. This morning the hospital and our yard was a mess of branches and garbage, and the kids have been working since early to clean up for us, the hospital and some neighbors yards as well. But that seems to be the extent of the damage, for which we are very thankful. Unfortunately others around us had more damage as most everyone lost their gardens. This will make things even more difficult in the months ahead as many people count on their produce to live off of, and pay for things like schooling for their kids. Please be in prayer for these people, many who were already in great need before this loss.

Cholera, Cholorx & Climate

Hi Everyone. WOW! Ok, first of all sorry for the long period of silence. I'm sure you can all understand why. The bottom line is if you don't hear from me for such a long time, life is just insanely crazy and we can only get the basic necessities of keeping the place running accomplished in a given day. So, I'm sure you can imagine how you can pray for us during those days.

Linda and I returned to the HOH on Oct. 22. We both had a very good trip to our respective families, and in spite of being busy where we were, we both felt like we returned to Haiti a bit more refreshed than when we left. It was very good to see those of you we were able to see while we were there.

It has taken us a while to get things back in order here. The kids did a great job of keeping the house going while we were gone. They get better at it each time we leave. But there's always a back log of things needing to be done whenever we get back. That is the biggest part of what has kept us busy during the past couple of weeks. Along with that has been the start of school, and with it all of our Bible studies and programs here at the HOH. Add to the mix that my Master's course also started up again, and I think you can get a glimpse of what has kept us busy.

We got back to Haiti just around the time for the cholera epidemic to get started. It's taken several weeks to get up our way, but it has hit around here with a force the past few days. Our partner hospital is over run with patients, and they are having to put them outside on the porch as more and more show up. The staff is working hard, they were able to find some help from a foreign organization today, and so they have some added hands to help them out. We are offering our help whenever we can, but our main occupation has been keeping our own kids safe and healthy. We've put as many precautions into place as we are able to, and appreciate your prayers on our behalf as we deal with the latest trial to hit Haiti this year. This has included buying lots of Clorox to clean our house even more than we normally do, keeping the kids as clean as possible, keeping our gates locked more than usual and putting clorox in all of our drinking water. It's taken us some time to get used to the taste of clorox in all of our juices and teas, but better that then the alternative of getting cholera from the water.

Today we've been waiting the arrival of Tomas the Hurricane. School has been canceled, both yesterday and today. We've had a lot of rain, but not a lot of wind which we were expecting. According to the internet it's going over our area right now, but so far all is well the eye is out over the water and here it's just overcast and fairly calm. So, we thank God for letting it pass by so calmly -- at least for us. We had a team scheduled to fly in today from the US. Unfortunately they had to cancel their trip due to the impending hurricane. This same team had to cancel their original trip into Haiti back in Feb. after the earthquake; so, you can imagine the frustration they are feeling. Please pray that they'll be able to reschedule soon and be able to complete their trip here.

Some things to pray for:

• Continued protection from the weather, and from the cholera epidemic right outside our front door.
• We still are running on the old generator (praise God it keeps on going), and the team that had to cancel was the one that was going to finish installing the new one. So pray that they'll be able to get back soon.
• Praise God that our water situation is much better, and we don't have the hassle of carrying our water at this point in time.
• For the kids as they've started the school year, that they'd study and also be able to understand what they are learning.
• For God's provision for all of our needs. We were so grateful once again to Miami Shores Presbyterian Church for sending us sacks of food to help us through. We are grateful as well to each church and individual who has given of themselves in one way or another to help us have what we need to continue to serve here. These past few months we've really had to tighten our belts, with extra mouths to feed and added trials to manage. Please pray that God would provide what we need, and that we would be faithful to use it all in a way that pleases him.

Thank you all for your incredible support. May God bless each one of you.

Ups and downs...

A big hello to everyone. Where oh where does the time go? It doesn't seem possible that so much time has passed since my last update. We've had some good moments and some tough ones, but through it all we've been blessed by the faithfulness of our God. These past few weeks in our church services we've been encouraged as we've looked at how God always keeps His promises. Last week we went through some of the promises he's made us in his Word, and it was a very encouraging time. What a blessing to know He is able to, and will do what He promises.

The summer events have pretty much ended. The games are finished, and out of the 70 + kids who were involved, there was one who came out on top as the winner...a young boy from the community named Shilder. In fact, the only HOH kid who came in the top 4 was Jean Mary, coming in at 3rd place! The same thing happened with the basketball tournament. The HOH team made it into the finals, but we lost the game in the last 4 minutes, when the lights went out and it was too dark to continue. At least it gives us a good excuse as to why we lost the game. Don't tell them I said this, but we'd have lost anyway!!! We all know that winning isn't the most important thing though, right?

To put an end to summer type activities, we decided to have a beach day. So last Saturday we loaded about 80 kids (all the HOH kids except for the babies and smallest toddlers plus a few extra community kids) into the back of a big truck and headed down the road to the town of St. Louis. We had a great day playing in the sand, swimming in the ocean, and eating BBQ chicken! Here are some pictures of our day...
The very full truck loaded with kids ready to hit the beach.
Kudos to Chèf St. Germain, the food was great. Actually, he planned and pulled off the entire day -- I'm almost out of job here :)!!Happy faces...I'm pretty sure they enjoyed themselves.

On Sept. 7th we celebrated Linda's birthday. She unfortunately was quite sick with the virus that was passing through the house at the time, taking down many victims with it. We all enjoyed her party very much -- she, not so much, but she still looked beautiful! Because we don't have enough space inside we planned it for outside, in spite of the fact that a hurricane was passing by our general area. Thankfully the rain stayed away until almost the end, and when it started to pour down it was a good thing because it broke the party up quickly, and also helped us clean things up!

There's been so much going on these days, it'd be impossible for me to fill you in on all the details. One thing we've learned though, is when there start to be a lot of little problems around the house, usually there's a bigger problem just waiting to explode. Sure enough, this time was no different, although it seemed to take a lot more time to brew before exploding this time. We are glad it popped before we left for our trip though! God's timing is perfect!

In the end, 3 of the "Our Hope" kids who have been here for quite some time decided to go back to their homes, or extended families permanently. It'd be impossible to explain all the things that lead up to it, and I know when I tell you who they are, some of you are going to be very disappointed. Just know that every one of them made this choice on their own, and our experience is that when they've decided they want to go back home, there really isn't anything we can do about it. We tried with all of these kids to help them think through the consequences of their choice, but they were insistent. So, Roseline, Rodeline and Donald all returned to their homes this past week. Those of you who know them personally and have more questions, please feel free to write and ask me, I'll do my best to explain.

The thing with being in a country like this is that a bed doesn't stay empty here for very long. We've already filled up their spots with other kids who came to us, some with heart wrenching, unbelievable needs. Our prayer has always been that God would direct which kids come and stay at the HOH, and so we are trusting Him to do just that. It is always hard though, to watch these young people make choices that seem so obviously not good. We know that they have been given a good foundation on which to build their lives, and so we trust them to our loving Heavenly Father to take care of them wherever they are.

Our days are filled up with trying to get everyone ready for school. We have 47 students this year -- that's a lot of uniforms, books, shoes etc... to get ready! We are also getting ready for our trip to the US. This will likely be my last update until, either I do one from the US, or I get back to Haiti. We'd really appreciate your prayers for both of us. Linda will be visiting family, and trying to do some shopping for HOH needs. Pray that she gets a great rest, which she very badly needs. I will be trying to do the same, visiting family and friends, speaking a few times, shopping and resting (oh yeah and attending a conference, and getting my tooth fixed, and seeing the Dr....oh boy doesn't sound very restful :)). Please pray for the kids & the HOH in our absence. No one likes it when we are away...we understand that, but also see the need of getting away every now and again to refresh ourselves. So pray that all goes smoothly, pray for St. Germain, and Phania who will be left in charge along with the staff members.

Blessings on all of you, thank you so much for your prayers for us.

Lots of Activity

Greetings to you all! 96 kids + 100 (or so) community kids + no school = lots of activity around the HOH these days!

Here's a bit of what's keeping us busy...Most of the kids are back from their time visiting their extended families. There are just a few stragglers left out there, but I imagine they'll be back on the weekend. Most had a good time, a few came back with stories of how grateful they were to be here at the HOH, as life in their home communities is extremely difficult. These trips home are always good for an attitude adjustment for those who need it!

We've received the results back for the grade 6 & 9 exams. So far 3 of the students (Rosnel, Desimene and Rodlin) didn't pass, but the others have all passed and that makes us very happy. We need wisdom as to what to do with Rosnel, as this is his second time to not pass and he cannot continue to take the class in the school where he attended. There are not many other options in our area for him to continue his education. Desimene and Rodlin are both young enough that redoing their classes will not be a problem. Pray for them that they'd really be able to capture the concepts and lessons as they retake them this year.

Angie is back in TX after a great visit here with us for a few weeks. She had a wonderful first year at university last year (even making it on the Dean's List each semester), and is looking forward to her Sophomore year. I am excited to be able to visit her in her school when I visit TX in September/October.

Carl Evens is up from PAP for a few weeks, and we are working with Ruben to try and get him into a Fine Arts program at a Christian University close to Cap Haitian, since his university in PAP never opened up again after the earthquake. We are so excited about the possibilities for him to study in this domain, as he is very artistic.

Our prayer since the earthquake was that God would send us the kids he wanted to have here in our home. Little by little they are trickling in, and while things are not always as they seem at first, we are trusting God to pick and choose those he wants to be here with us. Nicodème is a 15 year old boy who was sent to us through some contacts in PAP this past week. While the true stories of these kids is often hard to come by right off the bat, he was definitely a young man in need of a home. He has fit into life here very well so far, and we look forward to the chance to invest in his life.

These days I am so thankful for the young men of the HOH who we've already invested in over the years, most particularly St. Germain; and now Rosnel and Jospeh as well as they have put their heads together to run some "Game Days" for our kids and the kids of the local community. About 100 kids meet in our yard twice a day for games and fun times. It is so chaotic and there is so much energy out there, I get exhausted just watching it all unfold! Here are some pictures from yesterdays water soaked dodge ball game...These guys are busy soaking the sponge balls they'll use to tag the other team members.
This guy got tagged, and has to sit and wait for the "doctor" to come and free him.

These kids are protecting their "doctor" as he moves to free people. If the "doctor" gets tagged with a wet sponge ball...the game is OVER!

Ok...see what I mean about total chaos? I honestly just have to sit and watch or I'll go insane...I'm so thankful for those boys!!

During the evenings these same boys as well as Ricardo and Wilkens have put together a basketball tournament for 5 different teams from the local community. Each night our yard fills up with spectators, and two teams play their hardest in order to make it to the finals. Thankfully, the old generator is still hanging in there and we are able to light up our basketball court. The HOH team has given themselves the very original name of "Chicago Bulls", and so far are doing pretty good having won all three of their matches so far.

Yes, we are still using the old generator. Paul was able to get things mostly ready for the new generator, but we are still waiting for some parts off the boat in order for him to get it all up and running. The boat came in on the weekend, and has started to unload. It's been painfully slow so far, waiting for proper authorization from PAP, and getting the big stuff off first. So, we are still waiting to see if what he needs actually came on this boat. Then, Lord willing, he'll come back down to finish the installation.

Talking about fixing things...Renel the water man came to fix our water problem this past weekend. We had 3 wonderful days of running water, I actually had a shower (cold, but it's so hot here these days no on wants hot water anyway) 3 nights in a row...that has to be a pretty long standing record! But, it was short lived. I have learned down here to never let my hopes get up too high, and this was one time where that little lesson helped me. I enjoyed the showers without expecting to have one again. And sure enough due to unforeseen problems, we are now worse off then ever before. Not only has the big pump in the well stopped working (he fixed the little pump that will pump just up to the HOH) but both our cisterns are empty, and we are having to rely on the Haitian Government water system which is shaky at best. So...we could use some major prayer here. Renel is planning on coming back in early September to try and get the pump and cisterns back up and running. But until then we just pray that the government water keeps running, and with enough pressure to at least fill up buckets at our lowest point of the house. If not...ok, let's not go there...we'll just pray in faith that this will happen.

Terrence is continuing to improve. He is eating almost normally now, and starting to gain back some of the weight he lost. He is moving his limbs a bit more, and can at least hold his head up for short periods of time, so he's able to sit and watch some of the activities going on around him. We've received some help from a lady in the US who also has this disease, and the doctors here have started him on some meds that will hopefully help him improve even more. Thank you so much for your prayers on his behalf, and please continue to pray for him.

Linda and I will be traveling from Sept. 22 to Oct. 22. Linda will be staying the month in Fort Lauderdale, FL to spend some time with her family, and get some much needed rest. I will be traveling to TX for some of the same, and also will be speaking in a few churches and attending a conference (what was that about rest?). At this point I plan on being in a church in Frisco, TX and in Corsicana, TX. So if you are interested in attending either of these meetings, just let me know and I'll give you the details.

Well, I think that's about it for now. This coming Sunday we are excited to begin a new study in our church services. We will be looking at and studying the names of God over the next months. This past week a group of 7 of our youth helped Linda and I prepare the "Introduction" we'll be doing this coming Sunday. It was fun working with them to plan the service.

Blessings on you all, thank you for your support in so many ways. We couldn't be here doing what we are doing without our team of supporters holding us up.