Some Newcomers from PAP!!

After weeks of trying to help some kids from PAP, we received two in our home this week. I can't even begin to tell you how excited we all are about this. And with these two, the door has cracked opened and we hope to receive others in the weeks ahead.

Biterson has been on our hearts for weeks now, ever since we heard his story and were asked to take him at the HOH. It was so good after so much work to finally receive him at the HOH. Sonson (that's his nickname) was at school when the building he was in collapsed in the earthquake. His mom, brother and two cousins were in their home when it also collapsed, they all perished. Sonson was trapped under 2 floors of rubble for 8 hours before someone came along and pulled him out. Of the 43 students that were in his class, he was one of only 3 survivors, the rest all died under the rubble. (I had told some of you 53 before, but he corrected me on that).

Sonson sustained numerous injuries to his arm, shoulder, face and eye. Some of these injuries will have long lasting if not permanent effects on him physically. Almost as evident are the emotional effects this tragedy has had on him personally. He has a long road of healing ahead of him, and we are thankful for the chance to have this time of influence in his life. Pray for all of us as we minister to Sonson. Several of the other kids and youth here have had the chance to sit and share their stories with him in an attempt to encourage and comfort him with the comfort they have found from God. Here's a picture of Joseph sharing his story with Sonson. (Joseph lost most of his famiy, including both parents, and numerous siblings in the floods that swept away his village in 2004. Joseph himself was pulled out of the floodwaters by an older brother and spent that terrible night high in a tree). As 2 Cor. 1:3-4 says, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassin and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God."

The second child is a 9 year old girl. She is a family member of a friend of ours, and we have just offered to give her a place to stay for a while while her family gets things sorted out. The family unit in Haiti includes much more than just mom, dad, brothers and sisters...all the extended family are an integral part of it as well. Dieunika's extended family was hit very hard by the earthquake, with many of the aunts and uncles being killed leaving more children than the remaining family members can care for. Dieunika is a lively young lady who in spite of the fact of having just arrived here, already looks and acts like she has lived at the HOH all of her life! She'll stay with us for a while as the family gets themselves settled, and they can get things sorted out for their family.

There are a few more children in the works to bring up to the HOH, and we ask you to please continue to pray with us as God works out the details of the children He wants to be here with us. We praise God for his incredible provision for us these past few weeks. Another load of food from our friends at Miami Shores Presbyterian Church has just arrived, and others generous financial gifts have enabled us to be able to help those around us who are in need. The first load of totes with other supplies should start to arrive sometime next week, as the boat has just left Miami. We are so grateful for all of you who have supported us in so many ways. God bless you all!

We are here!

10 days...wow, I didn't mean for it to be so long before you heard from me. Nothing really in particular has been keeping us busy; we've just been trying to get things back into a more normal routine. We were able to start up some of our Bible Studies this past week, and will hopefully have them all up and running by next week. One of them I'm really excited about, as the older youth here are going to help Linda and I teach "God's Plan for the Family" to the next level of kids under them. We also have about 10 boys from our local community who want to participate as well, so we are very excited about these lessons starting up. We were supposed to start early Jan. But well, you know that didn't happen!

The kids attended school from Monday to Thursday, and now have a few days off (some of them have a few days, others will start again on Monday). Everything is up in the air these days, and seems to change daily -- making me hesitant to say anything about what might or might now happen next week. There are many people with differing views of whether school should start or not, and some places around us have refused to open their schools. So we'll see where that all ends up. Our kids say that their classes are full and overflowing with the students who have come up here from Port-au-Prince. Some even have to get there early or they won't get a place to sit for the day!

The Government of Haiti declared several days of prayer and fasting across Haiti as the one month anniversary of the earthquake came. Yesterday we spent the entire day having prayer & praise meetings with our kids here at the HOH, and today we had meetings throughout the morning. It is always good to get together with our kids and sing and pray, and read the Bible. We had numerous youth from the area join us, as well as patients and families from the hospital who heard the singing and came up to join in. Since the hospital is so close to us, even those patients in the hospital could hear us and were able to participate as well.

Most of our prayers were for Haiti; the government and people...for people to really seek God's face, and turn to Him, not just for a little while, as an emotional response to the catastrophe that took place; not just for these few "official" days...but truly and wholly seek Him. Our prayers followed Micah 6:8, "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God". Please pray with us that out of the hard days of this past month, God would raise up men and women as leaders in Haiti who are willing and ready to do as God requires.

Judith, Andrine & Michka continue to heal well here at the HOH. We are looking forward to having someone coming this week to help us know how to better help them work through the emotional and psychological issues they and others are dealing with. Suze had a really rough week, she started with a fever, and then ended up having to go back to the OR for her leg. We are just watching and praying for her, the doctors still aren't sure if the leg is healing sufficiently, or if they are going to need to amputate it higher. She remains in very good spirits, and we appreciate your prayers for her as well.

Our numbers are right around 100 these days, when you add all the mom's who are staying with their malnourished children, and other family members staying to help out the injured girls. Put that together with the 60 + young people from the area who hang out here at different times, and the house is a pretty busy place. Friends who stopped by this last week both asked the same question, "Is it ever quiet around here?". Well, the answer is not often, but it does happen, on rare occasions...like at about 2-3 am, if you are up to hear it...and happen to catch the dogs sleeping and not barking as well!

We are looking forward to a several weeks of visitors starting this coming week. We have three different groups (totaling 5 people) arriving this coming week. 3 of the people are only staying 2-3 days, and the other 2 will be here a week. Then the next week we have 2 more groups (3 people total), one just for a day or two, and the others for a week. Then the week after that is a group of 2 staying for 2 weeks. Getting here is still a big challenge as the commercial airlines are not up and running yet, so it is taking a lot to work out the logistics. We'd appreciate your prayers as we receive these groups, and also that they'd be able to accomplish the things they are coming to do. Also, if you don't hear from us for a bit it's likely because we are a bit busy with all the visitors...

Thank you for your generous support over the past couple of weeks. Thank you for your response to the material and financial needs we have. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement. It is wonderful to be in ministry with such great partners as you all! God bless...

A "Timid" Start to School

The rumors were flowing the end of last week that school would start up again this week. But no one, including the directors or teachers of our kids school, wanted to actually go on record as to declaring that such a thing should or would happen. In the end, a few classes in a few schools are slowly starting up again. The kids are doing more sitting and waiting for teachers to show up than actually having class, but they seem happy to have somewhere to go, and something resembling "normal" back to their lives. They've been off school for almost 2 months now (they had just returned for one day after Christmas break before the earthquake). The general feeling is that next week school should begin in full force in our area, but that this week things would happen "timidly".

We had a very good weekend together here at the HOH. The kids spent most of the day Friday and Saturday playing games up in the campground behind the hospital (still located on the same property as us). The older kids did the planning and footwork for making this a reality, and boy was I grateful. I had 2 days of almost total peace and quiet in the house (if you can imagine that), and I got so much work done! You can see Judith (holding the red balloon) here with the older kids enjoying a game of Uno with the other kids.

Speaking of Judith, she is doing really great here at the HOH, as are the other girls. They've each got a long road to recovery before them, but it's so great to see their spirits so high. Andrine has started getting up and walking with the help of a walker. Michka is up and around as often as she can be, and Suze got out of bed and came up to the HOH for a visit for the first time today. Please continue to pray for their recovery, both physically and mentally.

We continue to follow what leads we can find on helping take care of some of the children left without people to care for them after the quake. It hasn't been an easy task, but we are slowly making some connections. We hope soon to be able to offer these needy kids a place, whether temporarily until they find their families, or permanently if they have no family. We've had multiple contacts ask us to help out in this way and we get all excited; and then things don't work out. So, please pray with us that in God's perfect timing He'd send us just the kids He wants us to help out. And pray for patience for us :). We'd have preferred to have the kids in our home already!

We continue to have some great times of devotions and praise together as a family. Last night we were really encouraged to watch some of our older boys take the lead in cautioning the other kids from listening to and believing every rumor that comes through our doors. A lot of people are going around scaring everyone to death with rumors of even greater impending doom to the country of Haiti. They encouraged the younger kids to make sure their relationship with God was what it should be, and to trust Him with their lives and future. It was just very encouraging to see them really starting to stand up as leaders, especially spiritual leaders here at the HOH. Three of them: Manno, Carl-Evens and Ronel are part of a group of youth who have decided to hold an evening of open air praise and worship on the streets of our town on Sunday night. So we are all looking forward to that very much.

Once again, a big thank you to each of your for your various ways of support. We are so blessed to have partners such as you working together with us to bring the hope and love of Jesus to those around us.

Medicine for the body & soul...

I wish I could bottle up a bit of the praise and worship music that's been filling the HOH these past two nights and send it to you. Things were feeling a bit heavy around here...maybe it was different bits of news we'd received, or the emotional highs and lows taking their toll, or perhaps just the fatigue we've all been experiencing. Whatever it was, we all felt it; our focus was getting off kilter and we started to hear and feel it in the conversations that were flowing between us.

So what do you do when your focus needs a little adjusting? Music is an important part of life here and for the HOH family nothing gets us back to fixing our eyes on Jesus than some concentrated times of worship together. So that's what we've been doing. And it's been beautiful -- the voices singing in harmony, the music from various intruments, the words coming from deep in our hearts, the tears streaming down faces, the promises read from God's Word, the prayers raising before the throne of our Father. Wish you could be here! And it works, like medicine for our soul...our focus turned off the things around us and once again fixed on our Heavenly Father who knows each of us by name, and holds the universe in His hand.

When our focus is fixed on what it shoudl be, we can't help but see that we are so blessed...we've been overwhelmed the past couple of days by how blessed we are. Let me share some of those blessings with you:

• The medical team lead by Dr. Piepgrass was able to help numerous people with orthopedic injuries. They were a blessing to all of us, and enabled us to have a part in helping those who were suffering in ways we never would have been able to if they hadn't come. God blessed the team by providing a flight for them to return to Cap Haitian, sparing them the body jarring 8 hour return trip overland! Thanks for praying for that.
• Thursday we received sacks and sacks of dry food, and many cans of meat from our friends at Miami Shores Presbyterian Church (see picture). Talk about a blessing...I love the verse Isaiah 65:24..."Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear." This church and our friend Renel were on the ball. Before we could even think about things like possible food shortages in our area due to the earthquake, they had already gone out, bought food and put it on a boat headed for Haiti. We were blessed to receive it yesterday. We are well stocked for the days ahead, and are blessed to be able to help those around us who are in need.
• We also received several hundred pounds of medical supplies yesterday. This will help the hospital as they continue to care for those wounded in the quake, and also help us for the ones we have here with us.
• We are blessed to have so many wonderful supporters like you. The response to our needs has been overwhelming. We thank God for each one of you.

Today we were blessed to add another member to our home. Michka is one of the young ladies who was operated on by the surgeons who were here. Michka is from Jean Rabel, a town quite a distance from us, still on the north coast, but almost on the far western point. She was in PAP during the earthquake, and slowly, painfully made her way north as she was unable to find medical care further south. Michka's foot was badly injured. She had made it to a hospital close to here in PPx, but she hadn't received the care she needed. While visiting that hospital, our visiting medical team saw her, and had her brought out to the hospital here -- she made several trips to the OR this past week.

Several days ago we realized she had nothing to eat, and no money to purchase food. We started sending her food down to the hospital, but today found out she has very little period. She needed clothes, toiletry articles -- pretty much everything. She has a very long hospital stay in front of her, and was having a hard time dealing with everything she's been through. In concert with the doctors at the hospital we decided it was best for her to come stay at the HOH during her recovery. Already Michka has a different look on her face. Linda spent the day today getting her settled in here, talking to her, encouraging her, sharing God's love with her. Tonight she made her way to our school room to particpate in our worship time. She joined her voices with those of our kids...eyes closed, tears on her cheeks...medicine for her body & soul.

Please continue to hold Michka, Judith, Andrine and Suze in prayer as they recover from their injuries. Pray for their emotional and mental healing as well as they have so much to deal with. They as well as our other young people who were in PAP have been dealing with a lot of nightmares lately, pray for God's peace for each them, and for wisdom for us as we seek to help them through these days.

Where do the days go?

Greetings from the HOH! Boy, I can't believe how fast the days are flying by. Things continue to be busy as we help the visiting medical team help as many people as they can. They spent Friday night, all day Saturday, half a day Sunday, and all day yesterday doing various surgeries. Gail Kealy the other CrossWorld missionary here in La Pointe and I have taken turns helping them with translation. It is so nice to see the people they've been able to help, and we look forward to following their recovery over the next little while. I've especially grown fond of the 22 year old young lady who had her leg amputated, and Linda and I hope to be able to encourage her in the days and weeks ahead.

Both Andrine and Judith are recovering very nicely, and the doctors say they can go home whenever they are ready to. They both have a several long weeks of recovery before them, so continue to pray for these two young ladies. We've gotten several phone calls today about receiving more wounded and sick from PAP, and hope that this can be worked out. Transportation is the problem, and we hope to be able to establish a site soon where they can airlift some to us, both for the hospital and for the HOH. I spent time on the phone with a Lieutenant from the US army today coming up with proper coordinates to get a helicopter in here, so pray we'll be able to work that out in the coming days so we can help alleviate the needs of the wounded in the hospitals in PAP.

I have spent quite a bit of time working different angles trying to get medical supplies here to the hospital. So far we've had donations from several different locations including the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, and Duke University. We were able to work together with some other mission groups in the area, and they helped us get some of this stuff here. It's amazing how many people want to help out.

I have been blessed by you all as well, and those of you who have offered to send us the things in the list I posted. I haven't had a chance to answer all of you who have written with questions just yet, but please be patient, I will answer you all! Also, remember if you post a comment on the blog and have questions, I need an e-mail address where I can answer you.

Because all schools are closed, the HOH is once again a very busy place. We are trying to come up with some things to keep all these kids and young people busy and out of trouble. We are hoping to start implemeting some programs and studies for them in the weeks ahead, especially if school doesn't get started up again any time soon.

Everyone here sends their thanks for your encouragement, your prayers and your support. We appreciate you all very much, and ask for your continued prayers as we minister to those around us who have been through so much these past few weeks. Please remember to pray specifically for Marie Ange who will be returning to PAP tonight. She is going to continue her job as a nurse, as she is greatly needed there at this time. Pray for safety for her, and for courage to take opportunities to share the Good News of Jesus with those she ministers to.

Saturdays Off Anyone?

I think somewhere in the world there's gotta be a job that gets Saturdays off! Every now and again we do get to have a relaxing day on the weekend, but today was not that day! And we don't really mind, we are actually feeling good to be able to finally help some of the people that God has sent our way from PAP. While we are working on a very minuscule scale compared to what's happening in PAP, we are glad to be able to do something.

The car got back from PAP at about 10:30 last night. You can just imagine the excitement here at the HOH when the last of our "kids" finally arrived home. We spent the next couple of hours chatting, and listening to them tell their stories. Carl Evens will be here for the foreseeable future until things settle down and he can get back in to University. Marie Ange will still be working in PAP, and will return next week. But she's happy to be able to have a few days here with us to rest and get back up on her feet.

They were able to bring 5 kids back to join their family here in La Pointe, and also a 16 year old girl named Judith. Judith was at school in PAP when the earthquake hit. She ran, but was knocked to the ground and trapped her leg under a cement wall. She lay there for several hours before people were able to free her. Instead of seeking medical treatment right away, they tried to do what they could to dress and take care of the leg. Now 11 days later, the muscles and nerves in her lower left leg are damaged, and she has lost some of the function in moving her foot. With time and healing we'll be able to see how much function she'll have back. The Dr.'s tell me it's called "Compartment Syndrome"....the "Survivor's injury", and it's a common injury that we are seeing a lot of. Anyway, Judith is going to be staying here at the HOH for a while, as she heals and gets back up on her feet. So pray for her, she's in a lot of pain. Pray that this time she's here with us is just a really positive and helpful time as she heals.

The medical team is working away, they saw around 80 orthopedic cases yesterday; were in the OR until late last night, and have spent the day there today as well. They are really doing great, having to substitute or do without a lot of things they are used to having. Please continue to pray for their health and stamina as they put in some long hours. Also, for our Haitian staff that are assisting them. They plan on having the morning off tomorrow, and then back into the OR tomorrow afternoon. Pray that we can get supplies that they need, and also pray that I'll be able to get a flight for them back to Cap Haitian, so we don't have to drive them back. That will give them a whole extra day here, and will be a big help.

Thanks so much for your support. I know many of you have written me with specific questions on my e-mail, and I will answer you, but it might just take a bit of time as I'm really busy helping the medical team. Here's wishing you all a great weekend...

Hectic days!

I didn't get a chance to update yesterday, other than getting the list of things we could use online. Our medical team arrived her safely about 9:30 last night. They are already busy this morning, seeing patients and planning out the rest of their time here with surgeries and such. They had a rough trip in being on the road 8 hours after flying into Cap Haitian. They were able to bring in quite a few medical supplies, and also picked up some things from the Cruise ship docked outside of Cap. The doctors here were extremely glad to see them arrive, and even though we haven't ended up with as many patients as they had initially thought, they are very grateful for the help. Please continue to pray for them that they'd be able to help as many as possible, and that others who are in need of help would be able to get here in order to receive it.

Our vehicle is currently in PAP picking the last of our young people there. Lord willing, by tonight all of our "family" will be back home. We are really looking forward to that. The Bouchers have decided to stay in PAP and then head to the US as soon as they can. While we were happy to have them stay with us, we understand their decision to go there instead. Please pray for the guys and the car in PAP, pray that they get home safely tonight, they have a full load of people to bring back.

Last week this time, we had anticipated a lot more people staying in our home, but that hasn't happened yet. I'm being told by numerous people that our numbers are still going to swell, and we do really long to be able to help some of the children who have been left orphaned after the quake, so we are just praying that God would bring to our home those He desires to be here.

I'm feeling really tired today, and can't think of anything else to write! Thank you again for your prayers on our behalf, and your support.

Shipping things to us...

The boat that usually brings in supplies for us is arriving back in Miami and will be packing up in the next few weeks to bring supplies into Haiti. If you want to help us collect supplies that we can both use to give care to the kids at the HOH and to give to others who are in need at this time, feel free to check out this web page. I've posted it on the website of our new project "Hope Village" so hopefully it doesn't confuse you to much. If you get to the main page, click on the "Our biggest needs" link, If you have any questions feel free to ask... Here's the link: http://hopevillagehaiti.org/HOH_Needs.pdf

One last thing, if you have access to hospital type medical supplies, I didn't put any of that stuff on the list of things we need. Most of that stuff wouldn't be for the HOH but for the hospital located next door. Let me know in an e-mail if you'd rather send that type of stuff, and I'll send you the list...

A Belated Christmas

Good evening! I meant to get to this before today, but it was again one of those days where you get up with a list in your head of all you are going to get done, and then you spend the whole day doing everything but what was on that list! So, here's a bit of an update, and then I'm off so I can rock my girls to sleep tonight -- they've been missing that (and so have I).

Some have asked how Andrine is doing, she's in a lot of pain, but is so happy to be back in her home town, in her home hospital...She's really held up like a trooper through all of this. I hear it is a very painful injury. She's really hurting all over because they are making her stay lying on the wooden door that she was carried here on. I don't think she'll need surgery, but I guess we'll know for sure when the Dr.'s come.

When we went through the hospital this morning there wasn't an empty bed anywhere. They aren't overflowing yet, but they are full. Last evening they lost a patient that had traveled all the way here to receive medical treatment. He survived the quake, made his way 150 miles to find medical care, and then he died of an embolism, because they didn't have any blood thinning meds to give him. It really upset the doctors here. They are all working hard, and what makes it harder is that they all have lost someone dear to them...but they just have to keep going to try and save these who are here now. Pray for the doctors and nurses of the Beraca Medical Center.

Plans are still changing with the Boucher family, as their family who live in the US is trying to have them all go there for a while. Since they all have Visa, it shouldn't be too hard to do. So, tomorrow we should know what they've decided to do, and then we'll decide when and how to get Carl Evens back home. We haven't heard from Marie Ange at all today.

We look forward to receiving the medical team tomorrow. They'll be flying into the North of Haiti, and then our fellow CrossWorld missionary will drive them back here. Please pray for safety all along the way.

Well, just so you see that the title of my update actually has something to do with what I wrote...
Last night we finally had "Christmas" at the HOH. The last box of Christmas gifts got delivered to our house on Jan. 12th...so, since we'd had such a heavy week here at the HOH, we decided to go ahead and pass out the gifts so the kids could enjoy themselves a bit. I think this picture of Aubert gives you a clue how everyone felt about the evening. A big thank you to all of our friends who sent us gifts for the kids...

Tomorrow morning, Lord willing (we say that a lot in Haiti...maybe because so often we dont' get to do what we planned on doing!). I'll be posting a list of things that can be sent to us, and instructions on how to send it, so keep an eye out...

A couple of last bits of good news from our area today. A fuel truck got here today, so were able to restock up on diesel fuel. That will be a big help in the days ahead. And I talked to the director of the bank today, and they are planning on opening up tomorrow! That will be a big help to the area as well.

Your prayers, words of encouragement and willingness to help, have blown us away. We are so blessed, thanks for standing together with us. Good Night!

Praise God for a Virus!!

I got a bad virus on my computer about 3 weeks ago now. It wrecked my computer (and I've had to go back to using my extremely slow old one--which thankfully I had, or else you wouldn't be hearing from me). Because he was here on Christmas vacation Ruben tried to help me fix it. He's one of our boys studying Computer Sciences at a university in PAP. Though we struggled through it together for days on end, we never were successful. So, Ruben leaves to go back to school, and then, just last week, he gets a terrible virus on his computer. He struggled to fix it, and ended up having to miss some classes because he couldn't do the class work.

Last Tuesday he left school to go find a CD that he was told would help him fix the computer so he could back to classes the next day. While preparing to head across town to get the CD the earthquake struck, he hadn't left his house yet. Though shaken around a lot, his house stood strong -- amazing when you see the pictures of destruction all over PAP. The first thing that popped into Ruben's head was his sister, she was at school. He tore out of the house to find total chaos in the streets. He found his school (that had more than 5 stories to it) completely flattened. He is unsure if they ever found any survivors among his classmates who were still inside.

He ran to where his sister's school was and found it collapsed as well. He started screaming for her, and after searching for quite some time they found each other. She had a broken pelvis however, and so their nightmare continued as they searched for medical aid all over the city. They relied on the kindness of others to help carry Andrine from place to place on a door they had managed to find. Early this morning -- at 3:30 to be exact, they finally arrived back home. We were a large and enthusiastic welcoming party as the truck pulled into the hospital gate. How wonderful it was to have them back here with us. We got Andrine settled in the hospital, and Ruben finally got a chance to get some sleep.

Thank you so much to all of you who prayed for their safety yesterday. God really protected them, and we are so thankful for your part in holding them before the throne of our Father in prayer. Toto and Makens arrived here yesterday as well, and so we are left with only Carl Evens and Marie Ange still in PAP. Please pray as they both continue to deal with the traumatic events of this past week.

When the vehicle arrived at the Boucher's house in PAP yesterday, they thought we had sent for them. Apparently the past while since we had been able to talk to them have been very bad. Looting is rampant, and they are receiving cases of young girls and women being raped on the streets. They feel the best thing now is for their family to leave the city, which is home to them, so a very hard thing to do. We of course are very happy with their decision, and will be sending the truck back to get them either tomorrow or Thursday. We will be so happy to have Carl Evens and the Boucher's here. Please pray for safety for them, they no longer feel safe in their area so are going to stay somewhere else until we can get there to get them.

And that just leave Marie Ange. She's been holding up so well, helping out where she can, and returning to work as asked to do (she's a nurse). But yesterday things hit her hard. It was her birthday, she was away from home, without a place to stay, broke, and living out a horror story everywhere she went. We talked on the phone, and told her if she decided to come home we'd support that decision, and worry about another job at a later date. We told her to talk to her boss about letting her come, even if it's for a few days to get some rest and regroup...so we'll see if they let her. She'd appreciate your prayers for her. Pray she'd be able to think clearly about whether or not to leave PAP. Pray for safety as she has to walk to/from work each day. Pray that she'd be a light in the midst of darkness where God has placed her at this moment.

God blessed us, yesterday, working out the details of a medical team to come and help at our hospital . Sometime yesterday morning the hospital Administrator asked me if we could find help, specifically and orthopedic surgeon, and medical supplies which are already running low. The name of a doctor who used to come here regularily popped into my mind, but before I could even try to find his e-mail address I received e-mail from another doctor asking if he could come and bring an orthopedic surgeon! Dr. Piepgrass grew up in Haiti, and spent 6 years working here in La Pointe at our hospital. He's the one who trained our surgeon who is here now...so he knows the ropes around here. What a blessing! They are flying into a Cap Haitian this week, and should be here Thursday to help with surgeries. There are four of them (the two surgeons, and anethetist, and an OR nurse). They are bringing in medical supplies as they are able, and have asked for prayer for safety as they fly in and then drive numerous hours to get to her from there.

Many are asking how to help financially, and a financial gift to CrossWorld is really the best way to do that at this point. To help the HOH specifically, include a note that it is for the HOH; if you'd rather help with their Haiti relief fund, just mark that on the note. Their address is: CrossWorld, 10000 N Oak Trafficway , Kansas City, MO 64155. Or CrossWorld, 1020 Matheson Blvd. E. #11, Mississauga, ON L4W 4J9 for those in Canada. You can also visit their website: www.crossworld.org . I just heard of a new blog set up to post updates of CrossWorld's work in PAP, and their earthquake and recovery updates. If you are interested in keeping up with that the blog is: http://haitiearthquakerecovery.blogspot.com.

Some of you want to collect things and send them. The boats are still running between Miami and Port-de-Paix, so this is a possibility. I'll be preparing a list of needed items, and instructions on how to send it to us if you are interested drop me an e-mail: jenny.reitz@crossworld.org .

Once again, thanks so much for your prayers, your words of encouragement, and your support during this time. We praise God for each of you!

Please Pray Today...

Sorry I didn't get a chance to update you all yesterday. It was a rough day in a lot of ways for us. We had a great church service yesterday morning. Most everyone (at least all the older kids/youth who can understand what's going on) had tears streaming down their faces for much of the service. There were many mixed feelings...overwhelming feelings of gratitude for being spared, and for having our kids and close friends in PAP spared...unbelievable sadness for our friends and family who are grieving...desperate longing to help those we can, and frustration from not being able to. But in the end, the youth who directed our service did a wonderful job of fixing our eyes on our Beloved Creator through the reading of numerous Psalms, and then ended the service with a challenge from Eph. 5:16 "to make the most of every opportunity." And this is what we continue to do...

We spent the afternoon visiting with our grieving neighbors, and then got a call to please go visit another lady. She's in her late 20's I'd guess, and lost her husband and 2 oldest children in the earthquake. She survived with her small 3 month old baby boy Christopher. She, as you can imagine, is just beside herself with grief. She keeps hearing her little girl's voice in her head calling out to help her out from under the collapsed house. We've heard many similar stories, of these survivors not being able to sleep, still hearing the voices of their friends and families crying for them to help but not being able to...It was heartbreaking...we just feel so overwhelmed, and have no idea how to help these people. Please pray for us to have incredible wisdom these days as we seek to comfort and help those around us.

Ronel didn't get back from PAP until late last night. As soon as he got here we started making plans for his trip back today. He is going in our vehicle, and is taking food provisions for the Boucher family, and Carl Evens and Marie Ange who are staying there. Marie Ange called us last night, her place of employment is still standing so they are going to try and open up and keep working. So she will stay indefinitely to help out. While we'd love for everyone to just come on home, we are so proud of them for wanting to stay there help out.

Ronel still hasn't been able to leave PPx yet this morning as our car had some brake problems, and they were working on fixing them before they hit the road. I would like to ask you all to please pray for them today. Pray for safety on the roads, pray that they can reach all the places they need to with provisions. Pray that they will be able to reach Andrine ok, and pray for her as it's going to be a terrible trip over these rough roads with her broken pelvic bone. Pray for Kerby the chauffeur who is driving. Pray for other connections that need to be made, we have other friends (including one who is trying to bring back 4 nieces and nephews who lost their father).

For those of you who write comments on the blog, I do appreciate that, but if you ask me a question, I have no way of answering your questions if you don't include an e-mail address. So, please either include and address, or write me directly at my e-mail: jenny.reitz@crossworld.org.

That's all for now, please pray for the guys on the road today.

Today's HOH News

I started this update with "not a lot of news today", and then by the time I had finished writing it all had changed with lots of news...So, here goes

A lot of people are starting to make it back up to La Pointe. Numerous ones have been passing through the HOH all day today, telling us their story. We've been helping those we can with clothing, funds and food, as most of them have nothing. So far we haven't had any arrive to stay with us, as they all have family in the area. One boy came by with two of his friends. He had been trapped under his house for 6 hours, and his friends had dug with their hands until they could finally rescue him!

Here's an update on our young adults in PAP:

Toto & Macken (Mme Yvon's 2 boys) were able to meet up with a friend Ernst who came in from the DR. They are going to come back to La Pointe with them, but they need to find Ernst's little sister first. They know she is alive, but they haven't been able to locate in which makeshift camp she is yet. So they are still searching for her. Pray they can find her and all come back here.

Our friend, Ronel Jean, went to PAP today to find his brother Ruben and sister Andrine. He found them, we had been told Andrine had been hit by falling cement, but they had told us she wasn't too bad. Well, that's not the case. It appears that her pelvic bone is broken, she cannot sit, and hasn't been seen by a doctor yet even though she's been taken to three different medical stations. It's a good thing Ronel went down. He's just called and said they can't stay there, there's no care, and nothing they can do about it. He is going to come back here tomorrow, and will likely take one of our vehicles back down to pick her up. She cannot sit, so he needs a vehicle she can lay down in. Pray that we can work out these details, so she can come back and get the care here at our hospital that she needs.

Carl Evens is going to stay with Mme Boucher to help her and the kids out. While their house is unlivable, they still have most of their belongings, so they feel the need to stay there for now. Dr. Boucher is working non-stop helping the wounded, so when he can come home they want to be there for him. He lost both his clinic and the hospital he directed. They seem to be doing ok, and we are so thankful for the 20 minutes we got to talk to them on the phone this evening to catch up on their news. They are managing to find a few things to eat, but not a lot. So we will try to send them provisions with the vehicle going back in. We have offered to take the boys here if it will help them out, so if they feel the need to do that they will. They have not left their neighborhood at all, so while they hear a bit of news every now and again, we hear more about what's going on in PAP around them then they do!

While we haven't heard from her in a couple of days, Marie Ange said she is staying in PAP for a bit. As a nurse she is helping out where she can. She is planning on coming back home as soon as she can.

The hospital we are connected with(CMB) is starting to fill up with wounded that have been able to make it out here. We've sent all our extra medical supplies to them because they will run out quickly (dear friends at Simcoe -- your medical supplies are being put to good use!). Dr. Mozart was exhausted this morning, so you could pray for him and the other Dr.'s and nurses as they treat these wounded. They were told they'd get some extra nurses from the government, but so far we haven't seen them yet.

We also heard that the street kids that some of our missionaries in PAP work with were all found ok today. They can't stay in their house, but they are alive, so we are so thankful to hear that.

In general, we feel better after hearing news from most everyone today. Please keep praying, especially that we can get Andrine up here. And for those who have lost loved ones...everyone has family or close friends who have died, it is so very sad.

Precious Prayer Warriors

We are so blessed to have so many people holding us up in prayer these days. One of our very young prayer warriors prayed this for us today, "Lord Jesus, I pray for Haiti which is falling down and all the people dead. Please make Haiti stand up and stay up forever, Amen!" To which we add a very hearty AMEN!!

Our sleep last night was cut short as people in the area felt some small tremors early this morning. They panicked, and started yelling and scaring everyone. Soon everyone was calling whoever they knew telling them to get out of their houses...It got everyone here worked up, so we ended up sitting outside with the kids and watched the sun come up!

Today was another busy day, trying to connect people with their loved ones. Again some good and some bad endings, but we are glad to be able to help. We communicated with Dr. Boucher, and he sounded much better today. We are still trying to get our kids out of PAP and up here. We have received numerous requests to keep people who have survived and have no place to go. We are happy to do so, and so are waiting for them to start showing up. We imagine our family growing quite a bit over the next few days, and we are happy to be able to help out in this way.

Thank you for your continued prayers, please pray we can successfully get our PAP kids up here. We are going to try and send someone to them (they have no money to pay the bus fees -- the buses are running, they just need the money). So we are trying to work that out. We had a private vehicle all ready to go today, but at the last minute we found out PAP isn't letting private vehicles into the city anymore. So, we are back to square one. But we did find out the buses are running, so we'll try that angle. We have some friends who are still on their way here, but they should get in pretty soon.

So, with our little friends prayer in mind, we say Amen! and Good Night

"Help me Praise Him!!"

One of you sent me a verse today that was not only very fitting to what we are experiencing, but very encouraging as well...Ps. 46, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be removed...Be still and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah."

This morning we spent an hour just sitting with our neighbors who have lost their children in the earthquake. Tonight I can say their names, for those of you who know the people here. Emmanuel Francius is the director of our kid's High School. He and his wife lost their daughter and granddaughter. And Dr. Sider and his wife lost a daughter and a son. It was heart wrenching to sit with them, and we all wept as we mourned with them. The are two incredibly strong Christian families, and while they grieved painfully, they made it clear they still trusted God. At one point, one of the grieving parents cried out, "Help me praise Him! I can't do it on my own, pray with me, sing with me. Help me praise Him!"

As I read this verse later this morning that phrase "I will be exalted in the earth" really struck me. If you don't read the first part of the Psalm, it would be difficult to imagine how God could be exalted in the midst of such great tragedy, pain and suffering. But when you stop for a bit, remembering He is God, He is our refuge, and our strength...somehow it becomes possible. It was as Linda sat there and reminded our friend that He is her strength and refuge that she cried out with her request to help her praise Him. I know they have many dark days ahead of them as they grieve their loss, but what a blessing that they have a Heavenly Father who is there with them to be their very "present help in trouble".

Please continue to pray for these two families, and add to them the many others who are finding out little by little which ones of their family members are alive and which ones have passed away. One of our nurses lost a brother, another doctor lost her mother, still others have not yet heard any news of their loved ones.

We heard from Dr. Boucher very late last night. We only got to speak to him for a few seconds. He sounded exhausted from trying to run his hospital with the hundreds of sick piling in. He confirmed that they did lose their house and pretty much everything they owned. We encouraged him to send his wife and kids to the HOH so they could stay here until things clear up. Unfortunately, there just aren't a lot of options to get them out of the neighborhood where they are and up here. We continue to pray that we'd be able to work that out though.

We have not been able to have any contact with them whatsoever today. Different men from La Pointe are talking of trying to get to PAP and find those they can and bring them back here, so we'll see if they are successful or not. From what we see on the news it seems like that might be an impossible task.

One piece of good news we got today was that someone has spoken with Miss Marie Ange, so she was our last young adult in PAP that we hadn't heard from. So all of our kids who live there are alive and accounted for...what a blessing and reason to do some serious praising!!!

So with that thought I leave you all tonight....Help us Praise Him!

Update

It's been a long day. It was like the world of La Pointe stopped and the only thing important was finding news about friends and family. The kids went to school but within an hour everyone was sent home. Our office was full of people all day begging us for more information and help trying to locate loved ones. We did all we could to help, and in the end some were able to rejoice; some like us were thankful for lives spared, but terribly saddened by the situations our loved ones find themselves in; some are still waiting for news and others are tonight going through intense grief. We all have shed our fair share of tears today; tears of joy and tears of sadness.

We heard from Carl Evens, our boy who lives and studies in PAP with the Boucher family,this afternoon after much trying. We were so relieved, I can't even tell you, we all had tears in our eyes while he talked to us. We also were able to talk to Mme Boucher for a few minutes before the phone cut out. They are fine, but it sounded like they pretty much lost everything; she was sitting out on the road with the kids...with nothing and no place to go...our heart are broken for them, and we know there's nothing we can do to help them right now. She did tell us she lost one niece that she knows of as well.

God really spared Carl Evens, he wasn't at school yesterday as he had finished his exams and had a few days off (he was supposed to come up here today on the bus, go figure). He said his school was ripped in two, and all the students who were there were buried underneath and they've not been able to get any out. It was such a God thing that he was at the Boucher house when the earthquake happened, because he had to rush in to get their middle boy out. He got hit on the shoulder, but saved the boy's life!

Dr. Boucher is also ok, but completely swamped with work. The MSF hospital he directs had to be evacuated after the building became unstable, and he is now trying to deal with more patients than he and his team can handle. So please pray for him during these very difficult days.

On a much sadder note one of our neighbors lost their daughter and granddaughter in PAP, as well as a niece and nephew (children of another neighbor). They all lived in the same house…just young kids really, it’s terribly sad. The spouse of an employee of the hospital found out throughout the day of 7 different family members who had died. Others are still waiting for any news at all that their loved ones are still alive. Please continue to pray for our friends and neighbors. It's still very hard to get news. The phones only work sporadically.

We’ve heard from Ruben (Ernst’s brother, also studying in PAP) he’s fine. And so are Mme Yvon’s boys. But we haven’t heard from our good friend Miss Marie Ange at all. So we ask you to pray for her.

Thankfully we still have the internet. And thank you to everyone who has written to let us know of your prayers and support. Many are asking what you can do. Both CrossWorld and Extreme Response have Haiti Relief funds set up if you are interested in helping out financially. At this point we are waiting for things to settle down a bit to know how best to help out.

Pray for wisdom for us to know how to deal with the different situations that come our way. Pray for our co-workers in PAP who have so much more to deal with (we are thankful fhat all of our CrossWorld missionaries in Haiti are accounted for and are ok). Pray that we'd continue to be a light to those around us during this dark time.

EarthQuake!!!

Just wanting to let you know we are fine. We felt the earthquake up here, it was a bit disconcerting, but we had no idea how bad it was in Port-au-Prince. Please pray with us for our friends and family who are there, we have no way to contact most of them, and are very concerned for them, especially for the Boucher family. Please pray for them, and for all of us in Haiti during this very difficult time. The stories we are getting from Port-au-Prince sound terrible, but all we can do at this point is pray. We know this hasn't surprised our Heavenly Father, and we know we can trust Him completely. Thanks for praying.

Christmas -- Unscripted!

Flexibility -- that's our character quality to work on these days. I think we are doing pretty good so far; at least we have managed to keep from going absolutely crazy in spite of the seemingly constant changes in our plans! Our plans for Christmas vacation have changed so many times already we've just scrapped the whole idea of planning, and we are having a totally unscripted 2 weeks. We've already had the chance to have a last minute Christmas party, we are preparing a last minute Christmas dinner for tomorrow, and we are just waiting to see when the presents will arrive (they are stuck on the boat in Port-de-Paix; we've had so much rain lately they can't unload the boat!).

So you can probably figure out that one of our plans that got canceled was our trip out to the new property. December was a tough month for us financially. Part of that was due to some lean support coming in the months previous to that, but another big part was due to some administrative/financial problems and the way we receive our finances. So, needless to say, we've had a few stressful days this past month; and as a result, we are staying put for the holidays (and changing plans again and again!)

It actually has been good for all of us to have to put our heads together to figure out what we can/can't do, and how to sacrifice one thing in order to have another. Sometimes it's easy for us all to forget where we came from. Most of the kids here came from situations where they lived and survived one day at a time, never knowing where their next meal would come from. But after a couple of years of never thinking twice about whether they'd eat their 3 meals a day; or whether or not they could do/have what they need/want; well, that has a way of dulling the senses a bit, and can make you forget how blessed we all have been. So, while it's been a bit stressful, it's been good.

Don't get me wrong, we've not gone hungry at all -- we got through the end of the school semester, with the school bills all paid, and some of the kids even got to participate in their school's Christmas program (this picture is of Lala, Nani & Ivinsky at their school party, with Joseph, the one who takes them to and from school every day).

But, through it all we've been blessed to see God provide for us in different ways than we normally do. One example of that was when Linda's family in the town of Bayeux heard that we weren't able to come for Christmas; they pulled their resources from their gardens and livestock and sent them to us so we'd "at least have food for all the kids". One day last week Daniel, their delegate, showed up here loaded down with all kinds of goodies: home grown rice, vegetables, fruit, spices, chickens, goats, cassava, sugar cane. They told us whatever they had planned on giving us while we were there with the kids, they decided to send so we could eat it here! We were extremely surprised and humbled by this kind gesture from our future neighbors.

And we are very thankful! Thankful for the many people who help support this ministry in so many ways, whether it's by giving financially, praying, encouraging, helping us work through the sometimes very complicated administrative/financial issues that pop up from time to time or simply offering a chicken or a goat for our kids' Christmas meal. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful group of people standing behind us, and working together with us as we bring the hope of Jesus to those in need here in Haiti.

And what better time of the year for us to have had these problems, and be blessed as God takes care of them through the different gifts of those who support us. At a time when we pause to specifically remember God's gift of his Son who brought us the Good News of His Kingdom; we have been blessed with tangible reminders of His love for each one of us and have had a bit of a taste of His Kingdom right here and now. Maybe having an unscripted Christmas isn't such a bad thing after all!

So, breathing a sigh of relief, this week we were finally able to get cash from the bank. And, even though we thought it wasn't going to be possible, our youth pulled off a Christmas party complete with Wise Men (and women),








King Herod,
















some really good food















and just a really nice time being together.




We don't know where you'll be, or how your Christmas plans will turn out, but we want we want you to know that we appreciate you all very much, and wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.

All is well!

Greetings to you all! My apologies for the period of silence. Life has been, well, hectic as usually. Every day something will happen and I'll think, I should put that on the blog. But then the moment passes, we get busy again and I forget about it. So, I'll do my best to catch you up on the past couple of weeks, and a glimpse of what's ahead (or should I say what I think is ahead!).

First, a look back. We had asked you to pray for Linda & my trip to the US. Thanks so much for praying, we had an incredible trip. In some ways it was the most stressful trip I've ever taken, as I just kept having one problem with my bank after another. I spent so much time on hold on the phone it was crazy! Then when I finally got through to someone, the security questions they asked me were wild. "10 years ago when you opened this account what was the zip code of the bank where you opened it?" (umm, I'm lucky I can remember what country I was in when I opened that account). At one point I had to ask if they were joking...how are people supposed to remember such things? Gone are the days of asking for your mother's maiden name -- at least that I could always remember.

Anyway in the end, this just made things a lot more hectic for us, and I ended up pulling a few all-nighters to get everything done before we headed back to Haiti. Were we ever relieved to finally get on the plane and shut our eyes for a little sleep. What a time to get bumped up to first class! We were grateful for the extra nice place to sit and sleep for a while, but unfortunately Linda was so exhausted she couldn't even wake herself up to enjoy the first class meal.

Our travels took us to Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando, Penney Farms, Port St. Lucie, and Miami Shores, as we visited with friends, family and supporters. What wonderful visits we had at each of these places. Every time we finished visiting with one group of people Linda and I would drive on to the next, and all we could talk about was how blessed we were to have such incredible supporters behind us as we serve God in this ministry. It was a very encouraging time for both of us as we met and fellowshipped with some people we've known for years, and with others that we just met. Here I am with one of the newest members of our partner team!

We did get a chance to enjoy a bit of down time, particularly in Port St. Lucie when some friends from PA came down to spend a few days with us. Here's Linda enjoying some Friendly's ice cream. All in all, we are thankful for the great trip we had, and even more thankful for the awesome partners God has given us in this ministry.

Meanwhile, back at the HOH they were waiting for our return. Everyone says life is just boring when we aren't there, they say the HOH is actually quiet. We find that hard to believe, however, as we aren't the ones who make noise when we are here. The HOH is never quiet (well maybe in the wee hours of the morning), but that's what they say. And they were so happy to have us return.

We were also ready to get back, and had been congratulating ourselves on planning our trip so well that we'd be getting back right before the weekend. "This way", we smugly said, "we can rest up from our trip, and start the week out fresh."... Yeah, you can laugh. We do occasionally have random thoughts like that, but as you can imagine with over 90 kids in the home, that didn't happen.

We got in late on Thursday afternoon and on Friday afternoon received a visit from some security guard with an arrest warrant for one of our kids! Uh, what was that again, was exactly our response as the guard stood before us (especially since things are supposed to be so "quiet" at the HOH when we are gone!). Well, after many phone calls and the weekend spent learning the ins and outs of the judicial system of Haiti. In the end, we learned that the warrant wasn't legal, neither was the security guard (good thing we didn't let him take the boy with him!!). The whole issue was over a traffic accident the kids had gotten into; that wasn't their fault and we were able to settle the situation by the time the weekend was over. So this was our welcome back to Haiti weekend!

We celebrated three birthdays this past weekend -- Manno, Lovedine, and Nani all have the same birth date. It's hard to believe that Nani is now 3, here's a picture of both her and Lovedine (who turned 9).


















The kids, with St. Germain at the lead, are busy decorating the house for Christmas. This is their favorite time of the year, and the house looks so festive. We are able to use the things my sister and brother in law made for us last year, including the homemade Christmas tree and the stockings. Here's a glimpse of what it looks like...

Now, two weeks after getting back, life is pretty much back to normal. School, studies, Bible lessons, and all these good things. The house is full, there were numerous new kids who came during our absence, and we are still having trouble calling all of them by name (it's harder when you have to learn a group of them at one time instead of just one or two).

The weeks ahead include:

• Several groups of visitors breezing through the HOH, none staying for very long, but we are looking forward to the visits.
  
• The kids will be writing exams again before school lets out for a bit of a holiday over Christmas and New Year.
• We plan on taking a trip over to Bayeaux, near where the new property for Hope Village is. We will be taking all the kids who eventually will be moving over there with us so they can see the land, and start to familiarize themselves with the people and area. We are also planning on holding a Bible club with the children of the area while we are visiting.
• Both the HOH young people and our Saturday club boys are taking a seminar offered by the Haitian Red Cross on HIV/AIDS. They've completed about half the seminar already and will be completing the rest in the weeks ahead.

Please continue to pray for God's provision of our needs. We could use your prayers as well for good health, many of our kids and young people have fallen victim to a passing virus, so that makes the work load a lot harder on those who remain healthy. Pray for our continued growth spiritually, and that we'd be a light and reflection of Jesus to others around us, as we live and interact with our local community.

Thanks for your support and your patience. I do hope the next update doesn't take so long to get out to you! God bless...

Well, it's about time!!!

I know, I know...the day after tomorrow will be one month since I've updated -- shame on me. So I am quickly trying to get this done today and beat the one month date! I have no great excuse to give you except for the same old one I always use...it has just been crazy busy around here...keep reading and you'll see some of what's been keeping us busy.

First, I'll catch you up on some of the things that were in the last update...

• Brother Rosemond is healthy once again. He even returned to his job as head of the guards for the local hospital, so thank you so much for your prayers for his healing.
• School continues for our students, and they are in the midst of mid-term exams. They'd love to have your prayers for them, as they are all working very hard to succeed this year.
• The 5 little ones we asked you to pray for are healthy and either have already returned to their homes, or will do so shortly. Now we have others that have already replaced them. There is no shortage of malnourished children in Haiti these days.
• God did indeed provide for our needs during the past month (He always does...He is so good to us). But He does tell us to ask, so please ask with us that He would continue to do so...and perhaps an even more relevant prayer request would be that we weak and sometimes worrying (why do we do that?) human beings would trust Him completely to provide for this coming month!
• Our Bible Studies continue to go really well. It's really neat to watch how the kids (and us adults too) get the chance to apply what we learn in our every day lives...it's not always easy, but it is exciting to watch changes taking place. Please continue to pray for us, that we'd be lights in the midst of darkness.

So what could possibly have kept us busy this month? That is a somewhat silly question for most of you who have ever been here know that simply waking up and getting everyone safely through the day; healthy, happy and well fed is an enormous and exhausting task. In any case, we have managed to accomplish some other things as well, and here's a brief rundown of our activities, and even some pictures:

Late in September the mother of our good friends in Port-au-Prince (the Boucher's) passed away. It was somewhat sudden, and was very difficult on the family. In order to support the family through the wake and funeral, several of us took a quick trip to PAP. When I say a quick trip, it sounds so simple, but it really took quite a bit of planning and preparing. In the end, it was most cost effective to drive our vehicle down with those who were going along (there were 10 of us). So we left our town of La Pointe at 4:30 am on Friday morning. It only took us 7 hours to cover the 150 miles of road! That was a pleasant surprise, because it has been known to take a lot longer, so while the road was still really bad in places, it also was really good in some places.

It had been quite some time since I've had to drive around PAP, especially in our vehicle which is a little larger than I like in confined spaces with traffic whipping in and out every which way, so I was a little nervous about that part of things. But everything went really well. We spent Friday and Saturday with the Bouchers taking part in the funeral activities, and left Sunday morning to head back to La Pointe. We got back early afternoon very exhausted! Bouncing over miles and miles of washed out road does get exhausting after a while, and doing it twice in 3 days is a lot. In the end it took us a few days before we could feel rested again. It was really good for us to be there with the family though, and I know the Boucher family would still appreciate your prayers if you think of it as they re-adjust to life without their Mom & Grandma.

As means of outreach to the youth in the local community, our young people have started to have a regular game night each Friday night. Most of the boys who take part in our Bible club on Saturday, as well as some others come for a time of fun and games. Our youth play along with them, and the interaction between them is great. Our yard is a wild and crazy place on Friday evenings...it's not that big, and there's at least 80 kids participating, running here and there. It is just too much for me --my role is to sit in a chair and watch St. Germain, Rosnel, and Da make things happen! They thrive on mayhem! Here are a couple of pictures of the games.For a couple of weeks the youth of the HOH decided to try and make some money by selling BBQ chicken on the grill some friends gave us. They BBQ'd while the kids played, and then they could buy it afterwards. It was delicious, and a great experience for our youth (here's St. Germain handling the grill...)
Unfortunately, they were unable to make any money off of it, so they likely won't do that anymore. It was a good business experience for them...t but, they are going to have to put on their creative hats to try and come up with other ways to make their business ventures worth their while!

We were pleasantly surprised by a visit from some people who live in a town just up the road from us. They came here with about 15 severely disabled children whom they care for. They were taking the kids on a small trip for ice cream at the shop close to our house, and decided to stop in for a visit. They shared with us their desire to help abandoned, disabled children have a home, loving care and reach their personal potential. They are fellow believers, who have been amazingly gifted to love and care for these children. While they were visiting, they asked if we didn't have any children that they could add to their family.

I must stop here and explain that we do have 4 such young boys who have been abandoned at the HOH. I have tried for years to find a permanent home for them that could properly care for them, but I've not been successful. We had pretty much resigned ourselves to the fact that they would be in our care for the rest of their lives. (We were even planning on taking them with us to our new project. Check out the Hope Village blog to find out how this event affects that project...www.hopevillagehaiti.blogspot.com). For those of you who know our kids, I am talking about; Henry-Claude, John Kerry, Moïse, and Owen.

When we introduced the director to our children, she asked us to allow them to take them into their home. We have longed for these 4 boys to have someone care for them who could do more than we were doing. We could give them food, love and care. But we were never able to get to the point where we could do Physical Therapy with them, work with them to progress as they are able to. Here was an incredible opportunity opening up for these boys. It didn't take us long to agree to come see their place, and place the boys in their care. This morning we headed out to their home and took the boys as well. It is small, but they are building a new location that will be able to care for 100 disabled children. But it was a very nice place...they hire a good number of employees to care for the children. In the end, all the boys stayed up there, and now have a new home! We are so thankful for God's provision of this new family for these boys. What a blessing it was to us. Here's a picture of Benitha getting Moïse ready to go this morning...Because it is quite late and this is getting quite long, I'm going to bring things to an end. Hopefully our next update won't be so far away in the future. One last thing I do need to tell you is that Linda and I will be leaving Haiti next week to spend 2 and a half weeks in Florida. We will be visiting supporters and speaking in meetings there. We have a very busy few weeks ahead of us, as we are driving to multiple locations around FL. Please remember a few more prayer requests for us...

• Pray for safety as we fly & then drive many miles.
  
• Pray for health for both of us, as we have a busy schedule and not a lot of time to be sick :).
• Pray for the kids and the HOH that we are leaving behind. As you can imagine none of the kids like when we are gone, and especially don't like when we are gone at the same time.
• Pray that we'd be a blessing and encouragement to those we visit, and that God would enable us to effectively speak about all that He is doing down here through this ministry.

Thanks so much for your partnership in this ministry.

Routine...

No matter how fun it is to have all the kids home from school during summer vacation, there is something refreshing about getting back into the routines that school brings with it. After a few weeks of the schools deciding whether or not they were going to begin in September or October we are back into the everyday fun of making sure all of our 37 students are off on time to the right school with the right uniform and the correct homework finished! Thankfully, we are a large family so we are able to divide up the tasks among everyone and somehow it all gets done! Here is a picture of some of the kids in their various uniforms...

It was an exciting start of the school year for a few of our kids who started school for the first time. Nani was one of those. Do you remember that tiny little baby we received here almost 3 years ago, the one that didn't even hit the 2 pound mark on the scale? Well, here she is in her little uniform, heading off to school with "big sis" Lala. She had a few days at the beginning that were difficult for her, as she and Lala are in different classes at school. But she is used to it now, and enjoys saying "Au Revoir" (good-bye in French) each morning on her way out the door!

Because the government exam results this past year were so terrible, the schools are attempting to work twice as hard with the kids this year. Some of our students in the harder grades are starting school at 7am, and don't return home until after 5pm. We are thankful that they have started to take their work seriously, as we've been complaining for years that they are too soft on the kids! I think this year our kids are going to be doing some serious studying!

We've started up our various Bible studies again. It's been exciting to see some of the boys who participated in the Peacemaker seminar we held this past summer show an interest in the other Bible studies we are holding. 3 of the old boys came and asked if they could participate in the other studies as well, which of course we were more than happy to have them attend.

On Tuesday evenings we are doing a study called "Conformed to the Image of Christ", it's a study on spiritual growth in our journey with Christ. On Saturday evenings we are continuing our study on what God has to say about "Money". On Sunday evenings we are looking at different Character traits that, as Christians, should be visible in our lives. Add to these the Saturday afternoon study with the neighborhood boys and Sunday morning Sunday School classes; and my days are kept very busy trying to keep ahead in preparing the materials! What a joy it is to see God's Word producing fruit in the lives of these children and young people. Please continue to pray for us all as we seek to bring the message of the Good News of the Kingdom to the people we come in contact with.

In the midst of all this "routine", we have, of course, had some non-routine things going on as well. After all we do still live in Haiti! Here's a look at some of those things...

Da (Linda) had a birthday (I won't tell you how many this makes!), and naturally, we had a big party for her. Some friends recently gave us a barbecue, and so we had BBQ chicken and fried plantain, and of course some really good "Pikliz", what those of you who visit here mistake for Cole-slaw the first time you see it. (Believe me they only make that mistake once! It can be quite hot-- as in spicy hot). Here we are at the party, (if I look exhausted it's because I just got finished BBQ-ing chicken for 170 people!! Good thing her birthday only comes once a year!).



One of our nurses here at the HOH gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. This was her second child, but the first she's had since working here. Since the maternity room of the hospital has a window right outside our wall, we could hear her the evening she went into labor. All through our family devotion that night we heard her screams of pain. Finally Da stopped our devotions and started praying for the safe delivery of the baby, and before she had stopped praying we heard the cries of the newborn! Since she hadn't picked out a name yet for the baby, she offered us the chance to name him. After much discussion (we have many people with many opinions around here) we gave her several options, and she took them home to share with the rest of her family. We're not sure yet which one she chose! This is a picture of the newborn...

Last night we lost a little baby girl here at the HOH. She was extremely malnourished, and her family had brought her here at the beginning of the week. They chose not to stay with us at that point, and they took the little baby away with them. Two days latter they brought her back, after having gone to the witchdoctor's house to try and get help from him. Unfortunately, it was too late to save the baby, and she passed away. It was a sad evening, but we are thankful for the chance Da had to share the Gospel with them, using her own testimony of what God has done in her life.

This morning we awoke to the news that the husband of one of our employees was critically ill in the hospital. Brother Rosemond is a friend of ours, and a beloved husband of Mme Rosemond; he works at the hospital as the head guard. We'd appreciate your prayers on behalf of the entire family. He seems to be doing better this afternoon, but was still on oxygen as he's having trouble breathing on his own.

Well, that's about it for news around here, both routine and non-routine! As always we appreciate your prayers and support very much. Please continue to pray for

• God's provision for all of our needs.
• That we would love God and love each other in a way that brings glory to Him.
• That we would be faithful in our service to the Lord.
• For the health and healing of 5 little children with severe malnutrition in our care.
• For our students to study hard and be faithful students this school year.

God bless...