Cholera? Where?

The difference between this week and last week is unbelievable. It's like we've been transported to an identical village some place else over night. As fast as the outbreak occurred; so it ended. Yesterday the hospital didn't have more than 20 people in the cholera wards, and we haven't had any more sick kids here at the HOH at all. We are so thankful that it is over, and we are able to catch up on our work, sleep and health.

Through this ordeal, the hospital was given a Cholera Treatment Center, I'm putting up some pictures so you can see it, it looks really good -- and the best thing about it at the moment is that it is empty!! But it is there in case another outbreak should occur.

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With life returning to normal, we've been able to allow the "Our Hope" kids to go back to their home communities and families for a short visit. Pray with us that these young people would be a light for the Lord to their families and friends as they spend some time with them.

Next week, Monday, I will be taking 4 people (3 of our kids and a friend from PAP) to the eye clinic being held in a neighboring town. They have many specialists coming from the US, and all 4 of these people have pretty serious eye conditions. Please pray that we'll be able to get each of them the help they need, and that all would work out well.

Again, many thanks for your prayers and giving over the past week and a bit. God bless you, and please continue to pray that we would point others to Christ as we minister to the needs around us.

All are well

Greetings from a healthy House of Hope! Our cholera room is empty, and the rest of the house full of healthy people, for which we are extremely thankful. Many thanks for your prayers, it has been a roller coaster week for us and we appreciate you all holding us up in prayer and support.

Just wanted to tell you a story of a very dear pastor friend of ours. Pastor Emerable is 79 years old and came down with Cholera last week. He is one of our biggest fans, and supporters here in Haiti. He is the most amazing man I've ever known. He just shines forth the love of Jesus everywhere he goes, and lives a life of a servant to his fellow man. He spends his days hiking the mountains behind us and the neighboring town looking for people in need. It's not that he has a lot to give them. He himself is a stick thin man with almost no worldly possessions at all. He just knows how to help people. Bring them to the hospital if they are sick, bring them to the House of Hope if they are sick children, and share the love of Jesus with everyone.

We couldn't even begin to count the number of children he has brought to the HOH over the years, even hiking over 4 hours one way just to find them and bring them to our home. And once they are here, he doesn't ever forget them, he comes back at least once every two weeks to visit them and make sure they are ok. He is just an wonderful man.

Cholera took out a huge toll on his body though, by Wed. of this week, he was over the cholera, but his heart had been damaged. His family didn't want him to die in the hospital, so they asked me to drive him part way to his home. It was one of the saddest moment of my life. When they first put him in our vehicle, he was lying on his stretcher in the fetal position, skeleton thin and mostly unresponsive. When we reached our destination I went and took his hand; he grabbed mine. With a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye he said, "I sure do love you guys". I assured him of our love as well, and even more important the love of his wonderful Heavenly Father. It was such a beautiful, yet sad moment, as I was sure I'd never see this man again -- until we met up in Heaven one day.

Well, God had other plans. His family called us yesterday to tell us, he is doing extremely well, able to sit up, and even walk with some help. We never expected that and feel like it was just a gift from God at this moment. So I wanted to share it with you as well. Pray for Pastor Emerable, and for his family (his son is still recovering in a hospital in the south of Haiti from his Gillian-barre syndrome that he got after his run in with Cholera).

We had some visitors here from our supporting churches in Miami this past week; they left this morning. Now we are headed to the airport to pick up some dear friends and supporters from England today.

May you all have a blessed weekend, and I'll try to connect with you all again next week.

two more sick ones

Today wasn't quite so good. The hospital census went up a bit more, and two of our middle age kids came down sick as well. We aren't sure it's cholera, but we aren't taking any chances either. They are both doing considerably better than they were last night. The original 3 sick ones here at the HOH are all doing fine and have been released from the cholera room.

I've been put on antibiotics for an infection, and am without fever and feeling better today.

Thanks for your prayers for us, and please keep them up. God bless...

A better day

We are still doing ok as far as the cholera goes here at the HOH. We've managed so far to keep the others healthy -- thanks to your prayers and a great big miracle from our Heavenly Father! This evening one little boy has some diarrhea, so we are watching him closely to see if it turns into something more serious.

The hospital is doing better as well, they were able to release about 170 patients yesterday, reducing the numbers in the yard significantly. They also were able to get more tents set up, so it is looking much less like a horror from the civil war area down there. Again, thanks for your prayers.

I have been in bed most of the day with a high fever and generally feeling ill. None of my symptoms are cholera, so don't worry. I've been going full blast for several weeks now, and I think my body is telling me to slow down a bit. So, I've been resting most of the day.

Please continue to bring our needs before our loving and faithful Father. We have full confidence that He will provide for all of our needs. We were blessed by a group of Haitians from a Miami church today who came and brought some supplies to the HOH, and also spent time singing with our kids, they had a really nice time. They will be holding a evangelistic crusade in our town this week, so that will be a good and encouraging thing for the townspeople who have been through a really tough week.

Doing ok

So far there are no new cases here at the HOH. The 3 who had it are doing much better and were able to get off their IV fluids today. They are eating and keeping the food down, and in general are doing much better. They are preparing themselves for a barrage of teasing once they get declared healed and let out of the cholera room!

It is the start of a long battle for us, however, as our Doctor friend told us that once a person has had Cholera he is still able to infect others and re-infect himself for a period of 6 months. So we are busy pushing the rules to proper hygiene and food preparation techniques. Please continue to pray for us that we all will be wise in how we handle ourselves and be able to maintain a cholera free home. It is a lot harder than it sounds when you are dealing with over 100 people all in one home!Please remember our three nursing students: Phania, Dada, and Stephanie. They are all three volunteering their services down at the hospital. They are working long hours and helping with all kinds of patient needs. Pray for their safety, stamina and health.

Cholera at the HOH

In spite of our best efforts to keep it out of our home, cholera hit 3 of our family last night. It started with one and quite quickly moved to 3. We were bracing ourselves for more this morning, but so far today, these three are the only ones with it. They are all doing ok, we caught it quick enough, but it is definitely making life a bit more stressful. We've isolated a room in the house for all with Cholera, and are attempting to contain it as much as possible. Please continue to pray for us during this time.

The hospital is absolutely unbelievable. I was gone throughout the weekend and just got back this afternoon. I was overwhelmed by the masses of people spread throughout the hospital grounds. There just aren't words to describe it. They do have several different groups there helping them out with different things, and seem to be doing ok at the moment for supplies.

We were able to get a stock of IV fluids and clorox thanks to our colleagues in PAP. Many have asked if it is just in our area or all over Haiti, it does seem to be just in our area from what I can tell. I was traveling on the weekend and didn't see it in other places.

Many others have asked what they can do to help, and my response is: Pray, and if you are able to help us financially, that will help us meet the needs of the house at this time. Thank you all, I'll try and update regularly for the time being, so I might not always get the chance to send out an e-mail with the updates. Blessings on you all, thanks so much for praying, and for your encouraging messages.

Updates

I'm really busy as you can imagine, but my friend Jeb has described the situation here much better than I. So please feel free to take a look at his blog: http://doorofhopehaiti.blogspot.com/ . Please keep praying, the situation seems to just get more serious as we go along. It's so hard to know what's the right decision to make on some situations. So thanks for praying.

URGENT PRAYER NEEDED!!!

We are posting this blog update to ask you to pray urgently on our behalf. Cholera has returned to our area of Haiti, many times worse than it every was before. Our hospital yard is completely full of patients. Here's a picture, but honestly no picture can do justice to the unbelievable amount of people in the hospital yard. They are having trouble keeping count but it has been over 200 new patients a day for the past 2 days.There is a constant stream of people flowing in, and already there have been more than 15 deaths in the past 2 days. It is really bad, and we just need your prayers for the hospital, the staff, and for us. We are working very hard to keep it out of our home, but it isn't easy and we really feel the need at this time for you to stand behind us in prayer. We are trying to get the supplies we need in case it does hit our home. We already cannot get Clorox here in the markets around us, we have sent off for our colleagues in PAP to see if they can help get us some. They are also getting IV solutions for us and non-sterile gloves. I might be driving down to pick them up in the coming days, at that seems to be the best solution at this point to get the items here. Please just pray for us....that we'd find what we need, that we'd have stamina we need, and that financially God would provide what we need to get through these days. Blessings and many thanks. Jenny

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."