House of Hope News

2012-01-23T13:02:00.000-05:00

Many greetings to you from Haiti! Yes, I am back here now (just in case you thought I was still in the US, which would be understandable, since you haven't heard from me in forever). But no, I am back and am happily getting a refill of spontaneous hugs and constant noise. As you can imagine, life has been really busy since I've returned. School has started, we've had 3 visiting teams, and I'm busy trying to catch up on all the end of the year administration things that didn't get done thanks to my rush to the US for my eyes.

Speaking of which, just how are my eyes doing? Well, for the most part they are doing fine. I'm learning to take better care of them, recognizing when they are tired and too dry, and for the most part I've managed to do pretty good. It has been very helpful in making me realize there is only so much you can do in a day, and if it all doesn't get done, there's always tomorrow! Well, today it's the blog's turn to get updated, so sit back and enjoy a bit of news about the end of our year, and the start of this new one.

So, to begin properly, I need to wish you all a very Happy New Year. Ok, so I could never quite figure out where 2011 went, and now I'm already almost a month into 2012...it doesn't seem possible! But here we are, and already this year I've had two flights to Port-au-Prince to pick up teams, and two bumpy 8 hour bus rides to bring the teams the 150 miles up from Port-au-Prince to were we are. I know you might be thinking why on earth have we gone back to taking the bus after all these years of using the 30 minute charter flights up to our area. Well, it's a fair question, and here's the reason: The airline has reduced it's flights to our area from 3 per day to just once a day. And on top of that, they've raised the price for the privilege of flying with them -- once again. So this means that the chance of getting a work team up here complete with all their luggage, which used to take 3-4 days, now takes over a week of me fighting and pushing and begging to please fly up the rest of the luggage. And we get to pay more for the experience! Well, usually by that time the team is already on their way back to where they came from. So it ends up being a very stressful time. On the bus, well it is a bit stressful too -- but it's pretty much over in an intense 18 hours by the time I fly down, pick them up and head on back on the bus. So, it's worked out really well and the teams -- other than being a bit sore are pretty much ready to get up and working the next day.

Just what have these teams been doing? Well the first one, a group, who came down through one of our partner organizations called Children's World Impact, was a fully medical team. They helped our partner hospital with consultations and surgeries for the week that they were here. The second, our regular group from Snohomish, Washington, had our mechanic on it, and he worked on all of our vehicles. There were also some ladies and general handy men who did odd jobs around here for us and for some other missionaries in the area. They have now moved on to another area in Haiti and are helping yet some other missionaries in the same way. The third team is a group from various areas in Quebec. They are still here and are making me really work hard on my French from time to time. They are helping out the hospital as well doing odd jobs.

Back here at the HOH, the kids put on a spectacular Christmas program once again. I'm reporting that it was spectacular, because that's what I've heard -- as you know I wasn't here. Unfortunately, we lost most of the pictures that they took do to technical difficulties, but I managed to save a few and here they are:

Of course they also had the traditional Christmas meal where everyone including our staff have the chance to share a meal together. Here's a picture of the smaller children sharing that meal:

The Christmas season is always a great way to end the year. And we are always a bit sad to see it end. But the new year, and the start of school that it always brings comes whether we are ready for it or not. And now, everyone is back into their routine schedules.

So, as we look to the days ahead, here are some items you could remember to pray on our behalf:

For faithfulness for all of us to use our time wisely and do our studies. I am still working hard on my Masters (but I am behind and need to spend more time on it). Linda is also continuing to study at home for her High School class. The school has offered her the option to keep up with the classes at home and just come to school during the exam period to write the exams. So she is trying that to see how it goes. All the kids are working in their various levels of education. We had pretty good report cards over all after the first cycle.
For God's continuing provision of our needs. The help of food through the church in Miami has been such a huge help for us, there just aren't words to describe it. Giving picked up through December as well, and that has helped us out so much, so please thank God with us for that. Please continue to pray for us in this area as we wait on the Lord to provide for us each day what we need.
There are a number of new children here with us with a variety of illness. One 14 year old boy named Wedlyn has a huge TB mass on his neck. It makes it very difficult for him to swallow and breathe. He is very uncomfortable and weak. Please pray for him as he recovers and adjusts to life here at the HOH for the time being.
Tomorrow I'll be taking two of our kids as well as two ladies from our community to see an eye doctor in a nearby town. Please pray that all would go well, logistics aren't always the easiest things to pull of around here!
We have finally been able to restart our Bible studies and lessons. We started the Community Boy's Club this past Saturday, and Sunday School with our kids on Sunday morning. Slowly, we'll start working in the others as well.

Many thanks to you all for supporting us in the ways you are able to. We know we couldn't be here doing what we are doing if weren't for all of you doing what you do. So thanks, and God bless...

Not quite like I planned it...

2011-12-14T10:40:00.002-05:00

Well, some times in life you just never know what's going to hit you next. I am writing you from Texas. Yep, I have left Haiti already... I wasn't supposed to or I should really say, I hadn't planned to leave so quickly, but things don't always go as planned...

As you know from my last blog update, I was having a lot of trouble with my allergies. Well, all through this time I was having some trouble with my eyes, particularly my right eye. Suddenly last weekend things took a sharp turn for the worse. Starting Thursday night and through Saturday, I couldn't open my eye for very long, I would go hours without being able to open either eye due to the sharp pain and spasms in my right eye. The doctors at our hospital, and the leaders of our mission decided I should head for the US immediately instead of waiting until my planned travel date next week. You can imagine the rush of trying to get things together for me to leave, all the while me not being able to open my eyes for very long to see what I'm doing! But I had lots of help, and everything that needed to be done was done.

God worked out all the travel arrangements perfectly, and provided people to help me all along the way. I flew to Port-au-Prince Sunday morning, and by Sunday night I was able to open my eyes without any trouble, but was really bothered by light and still had quite a bit of pain. I traveled to Texas on Monday, and by the time I arrived here I was already doing much better. On Tuesday, I saw my eye doctor who told me I have an eye disorder that isn't serious, but can be extremely painful if my eyes get too dry, as I found out! I didn't even know I had anything wrong with my eyes....I've never ever had a bit of problem with them before.

The treatment for the disorder doesn't seem to be to difficult, so I should hopefully be able to take care if it in the future. To everyone who knew about these events while they were happening, thanks so much for your prayers and help in so many ways. To those who didn't know, so sorry I couldn't tell you about it, but I couldn't see well enough to update the blog! So, in the end I will be in the US a week longer than I had planned. Once again feel free to call me if you wish to chat at all. E-mail me at jenny,reitz@crossworld.org to get the phone numbers where I am at if you'd like to do that. They are the same numbers as other trips, so if you have them already you can use them.

Please remember Linda and the kids during this time. It was very difficult for them to go through this, and now I will be gone for a longer period of time.
Much work will fall on Linda, so pray for her to be able to handle all that will come up.
The kids are writing exams before their Christmas vacation so pray that they'll be able to concentrate and do a good job.
We have several work teams coming to the HOH right after I get back on the 31st, so pray as we still work out logistical details and have these teams come in.
Continue to pray for God's provision of al of our needs, and thank Him for the way He has done so throughout this year.

This time it wasn't so gentle...

2011-11-29T14:10:00.001-05:00

Yes, the reminder was much stronger yesterday when I opened mom's e-mail...I could imagine her wanting to ask me, what's up with you, this needs to be a priority. And she has every reason to say such things, because one thing I got over and over again on my recent trip to the US was how important it is for me to update more often. My answer to everyone is: Yes, I am going to try ... as soon as I get back. And then I got back, and before I could get through the stack of work on my desk, and the many e-mails in my inbox I got sick, and can't seem to get over it. It's my same old woes all over again, I am allergic to Haiti -- ok, well something in Haiti -- although I am exploring the possibility that perhaps it is actually SOMEONE in Haiti that I am allergic to, but everyone I say that to says, "hey, you had this problem before you knew me!" and they are correct, so I should perhaps scratch that idea. In any case, I am pumping 5 different allergy medications into my body, but so far I am just struggling everyday. So, I guess you can imagine that only what is most urgent seems to get done these days.

This afternoon I have determined that the blog is urgent, so I'm laying on my bed and typing to you all in between fits of coughing. Oh please don't feel too bad for me I really am not suffering at all. The weather is cool, there's Christmas music playing, I'm being catered to and I get all kinds of teas brought to me (there's a tea in Haiti for everything. I'm pretty sure I've been through the entire list and some of them twice -- thankfully I like tea so even this isn't a hardship). So are you ready to do some catching up? Here goes...

Our trip to the US was wonderful. Linda and I had such a blessed time visiting Faith Bible Church in Edmond, Oklahoma. We were able to take part in their mission's conference and it was just a wonderful time. It was so nice to meet new friends, and reconnect with those we knew already. We had so much fun with their kids during the evening sessions with them, and were blessed with many many pairs of shoes. Those shoes actually made it here to Haiti today! As I write Linda is down in the office opening up the boxes and distributing shoes to everyone. Thanks so much FBC, and thanks for a great time at your conference.

We then spent 10 days in Texas at my sister's place. We were able to rest a bit there and were also able to visit some of our supporters and friends in the area. We visited our good friends at Centennial Church (formerly Fellowship of Frisco), and had a wonderful time there one Sunday morning. We were blessed by friends there who printed new prayer cards and brochures for ideas on how to help the HOH. We'll be sending them around to our mailing list eventually and if anyone needs or wants copies of these to pass around to friends, please drop me an e-mail to let me know.

Then came 10 days in Florida. These were not a rest in any way, but they were good days. We visited with friends and family, and we shopped. There are just some things that we need that we cannot purchase here in Haiti. What a blessing it is to have a place in Florida to stay, shop and pack up things to send into Haiti and friends there who help us get them on the boat at the right time and here into Haiti. We are hoping to receive the items we sent next week sometime.

And that brings us back to Haiti -- and we are going to stay put for a while right? Well, not exactly...that would make life just a bit too easy. I will be traveling twice more before the end of the year. This coming weekend I will be heading to Port-au-Prince to meet with the other CrossWorld lady missionaries in Haiti for a retreat. We will be spending time with each other, resting, sharing and studying the Bible together. We are looking forward to the time together as we don't really get to spend that much time with each other. I'll be back the end of next week and will be preparing things for my departure again as I will be heading back to Texas to spend Christmas with my family there. It's been quite a few years since I've been with them for Christmas, and thanks to some gifts from some very kind friends I will be able to do that this year. My mom is so excited she's already counting down the days!

Now, on to the kids -- just how are they doing? Well, they are so busy into school. This year seems way busier than other years. Everyone seems to be needing to study more, and there is just much less free time for everyone than before. We haven't even been able to start up our Bible studies, and have just kept up with our family devotion times in the evenings because everyone's schedules are so full. Linda really felt the stress of this trying to return to school, and then missing a month while we were traveling (our trip was planned before she decided to return to school). Also, her diabetes was really hard to keep under control with all that was going on and in the end, after a valiant effort she had to make the choice to stop school. She really wanted to try and continue, but with the kids all having heavier schedules this year there was no way she could continue. So, she is now back at the HOH with me in the mornings, and we are attempting to get back on top of things that had kinda fallen by the wayside.

We had quite a few new kids come to the HOH while we were gone. One little 9 year old boy Kerly came just before we left. He was quite sick then, but has just gotten worse over the past few weeks. They are not sure what his problem is, but he almost died last night. We were able to get a blood transfusion for him today and he really seemed to pick up after that, so please pray that he would continue to progress and that the doctors would know what to do for him.

To conclude, here's some prayer & praise requests:

Please remember Linda and the kids here while I'm gone on my different trips.
Pray for the kids with their heavy school schedules, exams for this semester will start soon.
Pray for the salvation of several of the new kids who do not know Jesus. One 8 year old little girl came crying into the office the other day after having seen the children's version of the Jesus film. I asked her what was wrong and she cried out between sobs, "They nailed Jesus to the cross!". It was a special time to share the Good News with her, and watch the stirrings start in her heart. Please be in prayer for Schnaida.
Pray for me as I look at the new year and what studies to do with the kids. We'll be starting them back up in January, Lord willing, so pray that I'll be able to work out the details to doing that.
One last thing, please pray for God's provision of our needs. These have been tough months, we are doing all we can to cut costs and use our resources wisely. Pray for continued wisdom in these areas.

That is it for now -- this got longer than I thought it would. I will try and update with some pictures before I leave for the states in mid-December. Blessings to you all...

A Gentle Reminder...

2011-10-18T14:17:00.008-05:00

Yes, that's what I received from my mom about a month ago, gently reminding me that it had been a month since I'd updated the blog. It was very nice of her to remind me, not because I really needed the reminder (I knew it'd been a month), but it was just nice to know she cared about it enough to remind me. I was determined the next day to sit down and update the blog...I really was...I had such good intentions, but as the days started to once again fill up with the tyranny of the urgent, well the blog got pushed back again and again.

Now, today I am up against a different deadline. In two days, Linda and I leave for the US for a month. If I don't update now... I won't get a chance to for another month. And I just couldn't do that to you all. So here goes...

Just what has been keeping us so busy?

Well, to keep up with some of the themes from the last posting; the chicken pox hit us pretty good this time through. Up until last week we still had kids coming down with it; and older kids at that. Even some of our 20 somethings came down with it. We finally are getting a break from that, and hopefully we've seen the last of it for a while. We are so thankful that no one was too seriously sick, just miserable for the days they were down. But in the end everyone has successfully pulled through.

Another thing that has consumed much of my time these past few weeks has been the start of school. We have 51 kids/youth in school this year... Yep you read that right, 51... in 14 different schools and universities. So, I probably don't really need to tell you it takes quite a bit of effort on everyone's part to make sure everyone is in the right place, at the right time, with the right uniform, the correct books and their bill paid. Add to that the fact that Linda is also attending one of these schools this year and has to be at school in her place at 7am every morning...well, you get the picture, right? Here's a picture of 4 of our youngest kids in their uniforms. They were so excited on the first day of school!!

So, is anyone wondering how our little Loveson is doing? You aren't going to believe these next pictures. First is one taken several weeks ago. He's doing much better, but still has the white hair and discolored skin showing his severe malnutrition. He is eating "Kenèps" a favorite fruit among our kids here. Our own kenèp trees gave an abundance of fruit this year, much to the delight of young and old alike.

Loveson would have loved to update the blog for me like he did a while ago, but he has been much too busy with school himself here at the HOH. And much, much too busy sporting his new look...complete with totally black hair, and a more normal skin tone...Yep! An incredible difference. It is so exciting to see him doing so well. Thank you so much for your support that enables us to bring hope to these kids. We couldn't have done it without everyone doing their part. Thanks for yours!

Here are a few prayer requests to keep in mind for us over the next few weeks:

Linda and my travels -- We will be in Oklahoma, Texas and Florida over the next four weeks. Pray for safety, some rest, and a productive time sharing the ministry of the HOH in various locations.
The kids as we are gone -- Especially pray for St. Germain and Phania who are pretty much in charge when we go away. Pray for wisdom for everyone to make wise choices while we are gone, and to take care of each other well.
School -- Everyone is studying (including Linda and myself). So we all need to give our studies the time and effort necessary to do well. And have understanding as we learn new things.
God's provision -- Praise Him for the way He's provided for us already. We have received numerous food and other shipments from Miami over the past few months that have helped us out so much. Our actual donations are still very low these days, but so far we have not gone without anything we have needed. So we praise God for that, and ask that you pray for His continued provision for the ministry.

Chicken Pox - School - Irene

2011-08-23T13:05:00.007-05:00

So, if you were picking out what comes next for us here at the House of Hope, just what would you pick? Sometimes I wish we actually could have a choice on what came next -- sort of like a multiple choice, would you like this, this or this. But then again, perhaps that wouldn't be so fun after all, especially if all them were hard and difficult choices (remember the choices God gave David as his punishment for counting the people when he wasn't told to).

Well, if we had a choice, we probably wouldn't have chosen Chicken Pox so quickly after our run in with Cholera; but that's what we got. We always are looking for the positive in things, so here's the big positive at least up to today -- only one of the kids has it! Yep, that seems almost too good to be true in a house of over 80 kids; but that's where it stands. So, we'll see if it stays there or if more kids get it. So, anyone curious as to who was the lucky kid? None other than my own little Nani...yep, and I just don't need much of an excuse to put her picture on the blog...so, once again, here she is...not with the pox...I couldn't do that to her! But you can just imagine her with spots all over her little body. For her it has been a total adventure, she had to give us a running commentary of every spot that shows up. "Oh look, there's one...Oh! and here's another one". She almost made you feel like you were the one missing out on all these spots...

School was approaching rather quickly. We were starting to feel the rush of needing to organize and get uniforms and books in order, and of course the thought of paying for all the entrance fees was also in the forefront of our minds. This week the Haitian government decided to postpone school for another month. Yes, this is not an unusual event n Haiti Well, this for us was an excellent turn of events. Having another month to get all of our ducks lined up in a row -- or kids as it would be around here, is such a great relief for us. This year we have a special student going to school. Linda has decided to return to school to try and finish her High School diploma. She has several tough years of study ahead of her, but we are proud of her for taking this step. For being a model citizen and huge help to many in our community, she was offered a full scholarship at the local high school, and will be in the same class as some of our kids -- how's that for having your mom go to school with you!

This does have one small drawback to it...we now have to keep the kids occupied here at the house for an extra month. We have learned;

that you can only make kids take a nap for so long...

And sticking the remains of Tati Jen's labels on your face is actually very fun, but only for so long...

And while talent shows are extremely fun to prepare for and put on, you really only can stand on your head for so long as well.
So, we will continue to seek out other activities to keep the kids happy, healthy and growing in all areas of life.

As I am writing this, we are in the process of getting pummeled by rain from Hurricane Irene. It hasn't been too bad as far as wind goes, but we are getting a lot of rain, and the homes in our area which are closest to the ocean have received damage. I will try and get out and about tomorrow to see just how much damaged was caused. As always we appreciate your prayers for us as we face the different things that come our way.

We'd ask you to continue to pray for our needs. Donations have been low, and yet the prices of things (especially food) continues to rise with every crisis we face. Almost all of the main foods we can find to purchase in our area of Haiti come from Miami. By the time we get ahold of them down here they are at least 3 times the price one would pay in Miami. For being one of the poorest countries, it is unbelievably expensive to keep food on the table down here. One way a church in Miami has decided to help us with this is by purchasing food directly in Miami and shipping it down to us on the boats. They have been doing this since after the earthquake, and have continued up until now. They had been using their own donated funds to make these purchases up until now, but are now running low and are not able to purchase for us as they did before. I know there might be people who are interested in helping us directly with sending gifts to this church so they can purchase food to send directly to us. If this is of interest to you, please contact me directly at: jenny.reitz@crossworld.org and I will give you more information on how you can do this.

In any case, we appreciate you, our faithful supporters for your prayers, your financial help and your encouragement along the way. Life in Haiti is certainly a roller-coaster ride, and like any good roller-coaster it's so much more fun with a lot of friends to enjoy it with you. So thanks for being part of what's going on here...we appreciate you all.

Cholera? Where?

2011-08-02T14:16:00.003-05:00

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

2011-07-30T10:38:00.002-05:00

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

2011-07-28T16:45:00.001-05:00

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

2011-07-27T16:05:00.002-05:00

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

2011-07-26T16:40:00.002-05:00

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

2011-07-25T17:21:00.000-05:00

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

2011-07-22T21:13:00.003-05:00

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!!!

2011-07-22T08:53:00.003-05:00

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!

2011-07-12T15:15:00.010-05:00

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!

2011-06-01T10:15:00.009-05:00

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

2011-04-27T13:07:00.001-05:00

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!

2011-03-24T15:15:00.003-05:00

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...

2011-02-07T13:47:00.010-05:00

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!!

2011-01-07T11:40:00.006-05:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It keeps going

2010-11-26T10:44:00.005-05:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The numbers keep rising

2010-11-18T11:07:00.002-05:00

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

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

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

A quick update...

2010-11-13T15:51:00.005-05:00

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

inside the tent.the new tent going up.

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

Please keep Praying

2010-11-12T10:55:00.000-05:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

All is well

2010-11-06T09:51:00.005-05:00

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

Cholera, Cholorx & Climate

2010-11-05T13:33:00.005-05:00

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

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

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

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

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

Some things to pray for:

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

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

Ups and downs...

2010-09-16T10:11:00.009-05:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lots of Activity

2010-08-27T12:05:00.010-05:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here, there and everywhere

2010-08-10T10:46:00.010-05:00

Our house always seems to have a revolving door, but these days with the kids' comings and goings it is spinning out of control! It's hard to keep up with it all, but they are enjoying a bit of a change, and the chance to reconnect with their home communities and extended families. It does make for a bit of comical happenings around the HOH as we can never seem to get into any kind of a normal routine. Someone is always missing who would "normally" do it. It sure makes us thankful for how smoothly things run when everyone is here doing their part to keep things going, and it reminds us of how the Body of Christ can work together when each member does their part!

Linda is busy teaching her CEF course to future Children's Club teachers. It makes for very long days for her, as she starts early and ends in the afternoon, then starts to prepare for the next day. But it is rewarding work as she teaches these future teachers how to share the Good News of Jesus with the children in their churches and neighborhoods.

Our friend, Terrence (I know I said Harry last time, but I don't know what I was thinking -- sorry for the confusion), who has the Myasthenia Gravis is actually starting to do better. He has had a rough couple of weeks, and we weren't sure if he was going to be able to pull through or not. Getting him to Port-au-Prince was no little feat, and when we finally did get him there the Dr.'s said they could do nothing to help him at all. So then we had to work at getting him back up here. He did end up going down to PAP on the plane (after much sweet talking on my part), but we couldn't get them to bring him back up again, so we sent down our car to pick him up. Since coming back to the HOH he's slowly started to regain some movement in his hands and feet. He is able to swallow now, and in the past couple of days has been able to start to chew some soft things. So, we continue to pray and work with him. We hope that this crisis is over and he'll gain back much more movement in the days and weeks ahead.

We enjoyed a visit with our friend Jeb, and were able to talk over a number of things for the new project (Hope Village)...we haven't forgotten about it, it's just slow going! I am heading to PAP next week to speak with some of the men who are helping us with the paperwork there. Please continue to pray that God would work out these details in His own good time, and that we'd have patience in dealing with all the steps we need to work through.

Paul B. is coming down today, Lord willing, and will be installing the new generator for us. It will be so nice to have reliable electricity! Now if I could only get my internet and water to work!! (I should be thankful for one out of three shouldn't I!). Please pray that he is able to find or make do with things that are down here to complete the installation as everything he needs has not arrived in the country yet. Pray for strength and health for him and the guys working with him, and safety as well.

Thanks again for your support in praying for us. I'd appreciate your prayers as I spend the next couple of weeks preparing for the Bible studies that will start up again in the fall. I have a break from my Master's course for the moment, so I'm trying to "get ahead" as much as I can.

Well that's about it, sorry for no pictures this time, I figure if this actually gets posted on the blog as it is without the added pictures it'll be enough of a miracle given the way our internet hasn't been working these days! Blessings on you all...

On again, off again

2010-07-20T09:45:00.003-05:00

That's how our Internet has been over the past couple of weeks. It's working well this morning so I thought I'd better hurry and get something written for you all. So has anyone else ever wished you could just stop time for a bit to catch your breath? That's how life has been around here the past few weeks. So much activity, the days are just flying by.

Most of the kids are done their exams, only the Grade 13's are still writing this week. Most everyone feels pretty good about them, so now we just have to sit and wait for the results to be given. It's a good exercise of patience for everyone!!

The house is somewhat empty as numerous of the older kids are gone to their various camps and visits to their families. This always puts a bit of extra work on the rest of us who are here, but it's good for them to get away and do stuff like this. It's amazing how much you miss even just one kid out of 95...we really notice when they aren't here.

Today we have a special request to ask of you. In just a few minutes I'll be heading to the airport to take a young man who needs to go to Port-au-Prince (PAP) for medical treatment. He is one of the boys from our boys club, and he is very sick. He has Myasthenia Gravis (I had never heard of it before), and he is in a major crisis right now. His family is extremely poor, his mom and brothers have been mostly abandoned by their father who lives in Miami. Please pray that they can find a doctor in PAP who can help him. Please pray for strength and courage for Harry, as he is suffering a lot (he hasn't been able to swallow anything for almost a week now -- although yesterday he got a sip of water down). Pray for his mom and family who are taking care of him as well, this is a difficult time for them all. He is a really great kid, loves the Lord, and is loved by so many people. Thanks for praying...

We were contacted by the Haitian Child Welfare services this past week and asked to take in some more children who lost their families in the earthquake. We have agreed to do so, and would appreciate your prayers that God would send us the very kids He wants us to add to our family here.

Part of the team from Hands of Hope in the UK is here now, and the rest come in next week. We are looking forward to visits from our friend Jeb, and also Paul Browne, who hopes to come and install our new generator in early August. The generator is actually here, thank you for your prayers, there are a few boxes of stuff left that need to get here in order for him to install it, so please continue to pray that they come. We thank God every day when the back-up generator actually starts up and runs for the day, so we'll be so relieved when the new one is installed (and our appliances will be too, we lost Linda's refrigerator the other day...just one in a series of losses).

Well, I best run and get to the airport. Thanks so much for your prayers and support. God bless...

Life at the HOH

2010-06-30T11:08:00.002-05:00

Greetings to you all! I’ve been back in Haiti almost 2 weeks now, boy how did that happen? While I was still in Canada people were asking when I was going to update the blog and I said as soon as I get back to Haiti, that’s first on my list. Well, as you can see, that got pushed back, numerous times. As you know we had water troubles before I left Haiti, and those still exist, but now we have added electricity problems, and internet problems to the list. So between all of those problems, it gets quite complicated getting everything done that needs to be done. The hospital that provides us with our electricity is supposed to get a new generator installed soon. The problem there is that the generator is still in the US! So, please pray they’ll be able to get it here soon, and definitely before the one we are using gives up the ghost for good.

I had a great trip through Canada, and saw so many people. I tried to keep a count of the numbers of people who were at the different meetings I spoke at, but stopped somewhere after 1,500. It was really great to see you all, and get a chance to share what God is doing at the HOH, and also have a chance to talk about the future plans of Hope Village. I was able to enjoy a few days of nice spring weather in Canada, but for the most part I followed the cold weather around. In Calgary they even pulled out the snow for me (check out the picture of the tulips with snow)! It’s been a long time since I’ve had that, and I actually enjoyed seeing it.

Of course it was great to get back to the HOH again. The kids had been counting down the days, pretty much since the day I left, and every plane that flew over the HOH in my absence was a cause for rejoicing as they thought I was in it. That’s kinda funny because the plane that flies me in doesn’t actually go over the HOH, but they don’t realize that!

I came back to quite a change of kids at the HOH. We are still right around 95 kids, but numerous ones who were here when I left are gone now, and new ones have replaced them. It’s making me work hard to keep up with all the name changes!!

So, what has been keeping us busy? Here are a quick glimpse…

Exams are the order of the day as far as the kids go. Today the grade 6 government exams started. Desimene, Oliana, Evelte and Sonson are all writing these exams, and would love it if you prayed for them. Next week will be the Grade 9 exams, we have St. Germain, Mirlene, Toto, Rosnel who will be writing that one. Then the week after will be the Grade 12’s, there we have Jn Daniel, Phania, Stephania, Dada, TiBen. Then it will be the Grade 13’s, and there we have Ricardo, Caleb, Lubin, Benton, Ronel. So…lots of studying going on, and lots of stress.

It doesn’t help that World Cup Soccer 2010 is going on at the same time. Life pretty much stops around here when a game is being played, especially a match that involves Brazil. Our kids have set up two different areas for people in the community to come and watch the matches here at the HOH. They are charging them for admission, and then using the money to pay for the fees of getting the matches on the TV. They have quite a little business set up, and as long as Brazil stays in the running, they should bring in a fair bit of money. Once they are out of the running though the revenue will drop considerably! The next big Brazil match is Friday…there’s a break in all the matches today and tomorrow, and our yard seems strangely quiet!

While I was away we had over 200 boxes come in on the boat for the HOH. What a blessing it was to receive all these wonderful supplies. Thanks to each and every one of you who sent us stuff. Much is already being used, and we were able to store the rest to be used in the months ahead.

Tomorrow we will be welcoming a young man from Philadelphia Biblical University who is coming down to spend a 6 week internship with us. Dan is arriving just in time to catch a crazy few weeks of activities around here. There are graduations, end of the year parties, and then the major annual convention of our Haitian mission. We also have numerous visitors and groups heading our way over the next few weeks. We are waiting for Angie to come back from LeTourneau for a few weeks. We are so grateful to a church there that bought her a ticket to come and see us before she goes back to her studies in the fall.

We’re going to wait for things to settle down a bit before we decide what type of activities we are going to have for the kids and the community kids during the summer. Once school is officially over, along with all the extra events we’ll be able to plan a bit better. Some of the kids are heading off to music camp in Limbe, some are heading off to be camp leaders for a local church camp, others are heading to their home communities to visit family and friends. Linda will be teaching her Child Evangelism course for two weeks, and I’m working to complete the first unit of my Masters program…everyone certainly seems to be able to keep busy!

Thanks so much for your support in so many ways. And thanks for your patience in waiting for another update, hopefully the next one won’t be so long in coming. We are grateful for your partnership in this ministry.

I'm on my way!!

2010-05-05T13:49:00.002-05:00

Lord willing I'll be leaving the HOH at 5 am tomorrow morning. Thanks to the fact that we are did not change time here in Haiti, the sun is actually up at that hour! (Gone are those days of driving in the pitch black to the airport -- for all of you who remember that). Am I really ready to go? Well, given that it is 2pm on the day before I leave, and I haven't even put one thing in a suitcase yet might give you a hint on the answer to that question!

We woke up this morning to both Linda and St. Germain being quite sick, both have been in bed all day. Not a great start for my travels, since it's the two of them who'll be holding down the fort...so please pray for healing for them, and strength in the days ahead. No one is happy that I'm leaving, so pray for the kids as well, they never enjoy Linda or I being gone.

Please pray for safety as I travel, and for health and strength for myself as well. I have a really full and busy 6 weeks ahead of me, so please pray that I'll be able to effectively communicate all that God is doing here at the HOH in all the different places where I'll be. It's not too late to get in touch...e-mail, or call at: 204-857-9370.

Thank you to all of you who hold us up in prayer and support. God is so good to us.

It's Paradise!

2010-04-22T15:54:00.002-05:00

So sorry that it has been so long since we’ve updated the blog, time just seems to be flying by these days as they are filled with so much activity. Our head count here at the HOH is up to 97, and somewhere between 90 & 100 kids, things seem to just get really busy! I know that probably doesn’t make sense, but we’ve experienced it before. We generally hover between 80 & 85, then every now and then the count starts to go up, and somewhere around 95 we inevitably go, “Man, there’s a lot of kids here!” But we aren’t complaining, ever since the earthquake we’ve been praying and trying to get some of the orphans up here so we could take care of them. So far we’ve received 8, and there are another 11 or so on the horizon that will be coming soon if everything can be worked out for them.

The latest to arrive from Port-au-Prince (PAP) are three boys (pictured from L to R): Herby, Junior and Reginald. Herby and Junior came first, they both had lost their moms in the earthquake, both of their dads had already died before that day. Herby’s mom was in their house while he went out to carry in water for her to use. In the quake their house collapsed, and his mom was killed underneath it. To make matters worse his best friend Magloire lost his mom too, and was sent off to live in a far off town. (For those of you who don’t know, Magloire is one of the boys who arrived here at the HOH a couple of weeks ago.) Herby mourned the loss of his mom, and didn’t have his best friend there with him. Little did he or Magloire know that God had plans to reunite them here at the HOH! When the boys saw each other here at the HOH they jumped up in the air, they were so excited. It was an incredible moment, and we all were so touched by how God did this special thing for these two young boys who have lost so much.

As for Junior, his mom left him and Reginald his little brother at the house that day and went to sell in the market in downtown PAP. She never came home. They have no idea what happened to her. The boys were separated and sent to temporarily live with different family members. We got connected with Junior through a friend of ours and found out he needed a place to go as the family he was staying with couldn’t keep him any longer. When he arrived at the HOH almost the first words out of his mouth were, “I have a little brother, please can he come here too”. We sent off for Reginald and in a few days they too were reunited here at the HOH.

They are all doing really well here. Sonson, the first boy we had received from PAP, had the hardest time adapting here and we weren’t really sure what he was feeling now about things as more and more kids showed up from PAP. When I went to pick up Reginald at the airport, Sonson rode along to get him. All the boys in the car were having fun pointing out different things in our town to Reginald, and just as we were pulling up to the HOH gate I heard a voice behind me say, “And now you are entering Paradise!”. I had to turn around to make sure I was hearing correctly. Sure enough, it was Sonson — telling us exactly what he was feeling about the HOH now. What a blessing it has been to be able to add these youth to our family here.

Our days have been filled with visitors coming and going. They have fixed many broken things, we have both our cars up and running again, all the lights and computers are working properly again...it’s been a very profitable few weeks. One thing they have not been able to fix is our water situation, and we are not getting water anywhere at the HOH now, except for a few sporadic moments throughout the day. We try to fill up as many containers as possible in those moments, but the kids are back to having to “run” most of our water with their own legs from a cistern in another yard. It definitely is a good source of exercise, but it also adds a lot of extra work to our days.

We currently have a Physical Therapist here working with our kids, they’ve made a lot of progress, especially the ones who were injured in the earthquake. In just 2 weeks, Jenny will be heading off to Canada for 6 weeks. She’ll be in Manitoba, Alberta and Ontario, so if you are in one of those locations and would like to see her, get in touch and we’ll try and work it out (e-mail is the easiest way: jenny.reitz@crossworld.org).

Thank you so much for your support of this ministry. Whether it’s financial support, sending us things or simply praying and encouraging us, we thank God for each one of you…

World TB Day

2010-03-24T14:57:00.002-05:00

Today, for all of you who didn’t know this, is the World Tuberculosis Day. We don’t usually track such things around here, but I happened to notice it on the calendar, and thought it was kinda fitting since I was going to be telling you about our latest arrival here at the HOH. We definitely get less cases of TB now than we used to, but we sure got a bad case in this week.

I heard him coming all the way down in the hospital, he was yelling and screaming things like “Don’t send me there”, “I’m going to die” and “I’m going to lose my leg” over and over again. The sounds kept getting closer and louder, so we figured he was heading our way. Sure enough, 13 year old Riderson was wheeled into the HOH office in a wheelchair. Of course his yelling and screaming didn’t go over too well with Linda, and in her own special way, she soon had him quieted down.

As we heard his story we found out Riderson has been sick for a long time. An infection in his ankle has only gotten worse, and now has spread to other parts of his body. On top of that, he has a bad case of TB in his glands. Riderson was convinced that someone had put a curse on him and that was the reason for his illness that had taken over his body. He cried and begged his family not to leave him here, he was totally convinced that he would die – immediately – if they left him here.

Well, we are very glad to be able to tell you that Riderson did not die, and has been at the HOH for a week now. You can see by the look on his face now, that he feels very differently about being here. His fears opened up a door for Linda to be able to talk to him about a God who loves him, and who was giving him the chance to find hope for both his body and his soul. Over the first few day here, Riderson sat beside Linda every chance he got, and every chance she got, she shared about Jesus’ love with him. It wasn’t the first time he had heard the Good News of Jesus, but during one of their conversations he expressed a desire to become a child of God. So his healing has begun, and we’d ask you to continue to pray for him as he has a long road of healing ahead of him.

Some more good news this week is that Ronel and his wife Wilmide had their second child. It was another boy, whom they named Roumy, and he was successfully delivered by C-section on March 15. Ronel continues to help us out here at the HOH, as well as working on other small jobs he can find in the area around La Pointe.

We had some really good weeks here at the HOH with our visitors from all over. I especially enjoyed having a “ghost writer” for the blog, but they are all gone now, and we are looking forward to other visitors in the weeks and months ahead. It seems like there’s always someone coming and/or going, sometimes it’s hard for me to keep up! Carl Evens left to go back to Port-au-Prince this week. His university is talking about opening up again, so he’s there to see if any of the classes he needs are going to be offered. He should know more by the weekend. So, we are missing his presence here at the HOH. We know the kids can’t stay here forever, but it’s so nice when they are back “home” for a while.

We are waiting to receive two more boys from PAP who lost their family in the earthquake. A pastor there has been keeping them, but he needs to find a more permanent home for them. We think they will come up here soon, so pray that we’d be able to work out those details. All our other kids from PAP are doing just great. We were really concerned about Carly’s right leg, but this week she’s started to stand on it, and even is attempting to take a few steps, so that’s a great relief. Sonson continues to do exercises with his arm. We are trying to get a Physical Therapist here in the next couple of weeks to help him know what things he should be doing with his arm, and also to hopefully answer some questions on what he can expect in the future due to the permanent damage that has been done. It’s still hard for him to think that he’ll never have normal arm/hand movements back again, but we know in time he’ll work through all of that. Keep praying for him.

Well, I started on a new adventure this week. I’ve been wanting to continue my studies for quite some time now. Last fall I started the application process to begin a Master of Art’s program in Intercultural Leadership. Some of you might recall back in July of 2008 I had attended a seminar out in Portland, OR at the WorldView Center. Well that was the pre-requisite seminar to this Master’s program. I am looking forward to learning a lot about effectively communicating God’s message in the culture and place where He has placed me, and one of the neat things about this program is that I don’t have to travel anywhere to study. It is set up deliberately to be able to be completed in the country where you are ministering, and at the same time it is a group learning experience. So, I am grouped together with a Missionary lady in Hong Kong, and I am looking forward to learning a lot from and with her in the months…and years ahead (it’s set up to take 3 years to complete). You all will be hearing more about it as time goes on, but I’d appreciate your prayers for me as I start this week.

It’s official now, that I will be traveling (Lord willing) to Canada from May 6^th to June 17^th. My plans at this point are to visit as many of you as I possibly can, but I will be sticking to these three provinces: Manitoba, Alberta, and Southern Ontario. So, if you are in these areas, and want to find out where I’ll be and when, and want to try and connect, please get in touch with me. I wish I could go to more places, but it’s only physically possible to be in just so many places within a 6 week period!

Well, that pretty much brings you up to date with things around here. We continue on with our Bible studies, and school for the kids. They are looking forward to a few days off over the Easter weekend, and are planning to give a special concert for other youth in the area on Good Friday evening. Thanks for your continued prayers and support. God bless…

Three More...

2010-03-10T17:41:00.002-05:00

It’s time for another update from the House of Hope! Because things are so busy around here, Jenny has temporarily reassigned the writing of the update this time to a visitor from Canada. I don’t know about you, but I love reading Jenny’s updates, so don’t worry….Jenny will be back next time! For now, here are the things that have been keeping everyone busy at the House of Hope over the last while, from the perspective of a visitor.

As mentioned, the House of Hope has welcomed two visitors from Canada (Beth Reitz and Heather Patterson) who are staying for a couple of weeks. Beth is Jenny’s “little” sister and Heather is a friend. We are very excited to be back and always feel welcome and loved when we are here.

Canada has not been the only country that has visited the House of Hope. There have also been a few gentlemen from the United States who have come for a few days to take care of some much-needed repairs on vehicles, wiring and plumbing. We really appreciate their help and willingness to keep us up and running! You don’t appreciate how much you rely on things like lights, water and reliable brakes on a vehicle until there are problems.

Life after the earthquake continues to unfold. The House of Hope has begun to receive children who lost their parents in the earthquake and have no relatives who are able to care for them. Two young boys flew up from Port-au-Prince with Beth and Heather last week when they arrived. Magloire (14 years) and Carlo (12 years) are cousins who will be staying at the House of Hope for the foreseeable future. When we first met them at the airport in PAP, they were very afraid and sad. They seemed so small and lost. I’m sure the thought of flying on an airplane with two white women whom they had never met, and leaving all that was familiar to them, was a frightening thing, indeed! We did start to become friends, though, when we gave them a sandwich, a drink and some Cheezies. The boys seemed to enjoy their first ride on an airplane, smiling the entire way, and they have settled in so well at the House of Hope. All of the other children have made them feel welcome and they are already part of the routines and life here. They look happy and confident…very different than the two scared little boys that we met just last week. The House of Hope has made a huge difference in their lives in just a few short days.

Another new arrival to the House of Hope family is little Carly who is 15 months old. Her parents were both killed in the earthquake while she remained buried under the rubble for several hours. A neighbour managed to pull her to safety and get her the care that she needed. Little Carly had 2 broken legs and several cuts and she has spent the last several weeks in a hospital in PAP. Carly arrived at the House of Hope on Sunday and, understandably, she was very unsettled. She must have had a dad who was very involved with her care because, at first, she would go to boys much easier than girls. Once again, the entire HOH family has gone out of their way to make her feel welcome and coax some smiles out of her. Everyone from the older kids to the younger ones can be seen carrying Carly around or offering her toys. 3 days after arriving at the HOH, Carly is much more calm, more settled, less anxious…and the smiles are not so hard to come by. The HOH family is now Carly’s family and, from our perspective, they all take this very seriously and really know how to “be” a family.

While the arrival of more children is a happy event around here, another happy event is the arrival of tubs of supplies. After the earthquake, many people began to send things in anticipation of the increasing needs that were expected. Today 35 bins were opened, sorted and organized and there are approximately 100 more, at least, that have yet to arrive. The water has been too choppy for the bins to be unloaded at the dock, so we are all looking forward to calmer waters.

Every day is so busy around here. We are amazed at how things just get done. Everyone knows their chores…everyone knows the routines…everyone understands that they are all part of one body and when one of them hurts, they all hurt. When one of them is happy, they all share in the joy. Never is this more apparent than during devotions or church services. Every single person has been affected by the earthquake in some way. There has been much sadness, but there is also great joy. When we listen to all of these young people singing at the top of their lungs, we are reminded of how great our God is and how He is worthy to be praised both in the midst of joy and in the midst of sorrow.

Please continue to pray for Jenny and Linda as they minister to these precious little ones in their care. Pray for wisdom in handling the many, many things that happen each day…from dealing with “parenting” issues to water issues and everything in between. Pray for strength…physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Pray that they would be encouraged in loving and caring for these young lives in the name of Jesus.

While there is so much more that could be written about (as I said, a lot goes on around here every day!), those are the high points of the last little while. Keep checking back for Jenny’s amazing updates in the future!

Some Newcomers from PAP!!

2010-02-24T13:56:00.005-05:00

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!

2010-02-13T12:43:00.003-05:00

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

2010-02-03T14:47:00.005-05:00

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...

2010-01-29T19:50:00.003-05:00

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?

2010-01-26T17:06:00.003-05:00

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?

2010-01-23T14:53:00.003-05:00

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!

2010-01-22T12:30:00.003-05:00

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...

2010-01-21T14:05:00.002-05:00

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

2010-01-20T19:28:00.005-05:00

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!!

2010-01-19T11:44:00.003-05:00

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...

2010-01-18T09:12:00.002-05:00

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

2010-01-16T19:07:00.003-05:00

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

2010-01-15T20:44:00.003-05:00

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!!"

2010-01-14T15:31:00.003-05:00

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

2010-01-13T20:03:00.006-05:00

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!!!

2010-01-12T22:25:00.002-05:00

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!

2009-12-24T12:14:00.009-05:00

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!

2009-11-25T12:21:00.012-05:00

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!!!

2009-10-21T16:00:00.009-05:00

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...

2009-09-23T13:58:00.008-05:00

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...

A quick News flash!!

2009-09-04T10:09:00.002-05:00

It is true...two postings in two days! No, I haven't been struck with loads of extra time and nothing to do...I just have some information that we feel is important to share with you all.

I'm assuming that most of you have read our latest newsletter telling of Linda and my leaving the HOH to begin a new ministry. (If not, you probably should... http://www.handsofhope.org.uk/files/hohnewsletter.pdf ). You will not find a lot of information on this blog with regards to the changes and transition, as we are attempting to keep the two ministries separate. If you are wanting to know more about Hope Village, the new ministry, you can look up the blog we have set up specifically for it... www.hopevillagehaiti.blogspot.com .

The one bit of information we did want to pass on to you was to let you know that our new ministry, Hope Village, will be under the same mission we are under now, CrossWorld. I, (Jenny), will remain a member of CrossWorld, and will continue on as a missionary under them here in Haiti. This seems to have caused a bit of confusion so we wanted to clear that up and to let you know that CrossWorld is supportive of this new venture. If you have any specific questions about this, please feel free to contact me directly.

As always, we appreciate you all, and appreciate your support of this ministry. We are excited about the new direction that God is leading us in, but at the same time do have some sadness at the thought of leaving a ministry that is so dear to our hearts. We still do not know a specific time-frame for this transition and change, we are working through piles of details, and things like this don't happen quickly in Haiti! We will keep you informed as we know more.

Turning the corner...

2009-09-03T10:43:00.003-05:00

We finished with the Peacemaker seminar on the weekend. Boy did we ever have a great time together with these boys. They were so eager to learn, and in the end we had 29 boys receive certificates for completing the whole course. There were about10 more who were there for different parts of the course. The last evening we had a big contest to see which small groups remembered the most, and then ended it with a bit of a reception for everyone to receive their certificates. We were also able to give them each a Bible. This was the most exciting part for them. They were so thrilled to received a Bible, for many of them this is the first Bible they've ever owned. I was overwhelmed as I saw several of them, like Rodly, holding their Bibles to their chest and talking about how happy they were to have their own Bible...wow, something we so often take for granted!

One young boy waited until the festivities were over to come and ask Linda and I to pray with him, because he wanted to become a child of God. What a joy it was to lead this young man to faith in Jesus. That makes 2 throughout the course of the seminar, and together with numerous testimonies of how God was and is using the materials taught to work in the lives of these boys, we are so thrilled to have been a part of something that has had such an impact in their lives. Please pray that as they go on into the coming school year that they'd put into practice the things they learned, and continue to grow in their walk with the Lord. We will return to Saturday afternoon Bible clubs with them, this next week.

With the seminar finished, and all the "Our Hope" kids back from visiting their families, all of our attentions have turned to the coming school year. The uniforms and books have all been purchased, and Monday morning the schools are supposed to open. We've been hearing rumors that they were going to postpone the opening of school for a bit, but no one has made an "official" statement on that, so we are planning on sending them off as normal, unless we hear differently. We have 37 students this year in all grades, starting with Kindergarten going right up to Grade 13 in 9 different schools in our local community.

Thank you so much for praying for Angie, she has settled into life and studies remarkably well. We thank God for some very understanding professors who have been a huge help in getting her settled in and started in her studies. Carl Evens has started his classes once again at Univerisity in Port-au-Prince. He is starting his 3rd year of a Business Administration degree. He continues to live with the Boucher family, and we are so thankful for their willingness to help us out in this way.

Linda had an aunt pass away this pass week, so several of the kids have gone to Cap Haitian for the funeral. We also had a 6 year old little girl pass away earlier this week. She had arrived here severly malnourished. We had thought she was making some positive steps towards health, but then suddenly took a turn for the worst and was never able to get over that.

We'd appreciate your prayers for the following:

That our students would study hard, and apply themselves during the coming school year.
For God's provision for all of our needs.
For growth in the lives of the community boys who have been learning God's truth about how to live at peace with each other. Pray that they would be a testimony to these truths in school, in their homes, and out on the streets.
For the various Bible studies that are starting up, that the Holy Spirit would work in each of our lives so we can apply what we are learning, and be witnesses for the Lord where we are.
For continued health for us and the kids.

Thanks so much for your support in this way. We appreciate your part in this ministry, and thank God for each one of you.

Comings and goings....

2009-08-14T12:30:00.008-05:00

A big thank you to all of you who prayed for us these past couple of weeks. It is high time I update you on all that is happening here. While we are still struggling with various health issues, in general everyone is doing much better. Linda has made a speedy recovery, thanks to all of your prayers on her behalf.

We were able to start and continue holding the peacemaker seminar with the boys from the neighborhood. Of the 50+ who were enrolled about 40 have actually showed up, and 30 of those have been very faithful in coming every night. We've worked through the first 5 lessons, and will begin #6 tonight. The HOH Young people have done a great job at helping. Here you can see them leading a worship time with the boys...

Another way they've been involved is as small group leaders as each of the boys have been placed in a small group to do activities together. They have been leading Bible studies, and helping the boys work through their workbooks.

This is such an important part that they play as they build relationships with these young boys that hopefully will last even after the course finishes. Here are some pictures of the groups working together...

Thank you for your prayers for us as we share God's Word with these young boys. One young girl who is here at the HOH taking care of a niece who is sick has been listening to the studies each night. This past week she accepted Jesus as her Savior after one of the sessions. Please continue to pray for God's Word to bring forth fruit in the lives of all those who have been hearing it.

Here are some other newsworthy tidbits...

In the last 2 weeks, we've enjoyed visits from both our friend Jeb, and our friends from the UK (the Brooke family and Nathan). It was nice to spend time with them all, and we feel so blessed to have such great friends, supporters, and co-workers.
A newsletter for the HOH has gone out, if you haven't had a chance to read it yet, take a chance to look it up on the website: http://www.handsofhope.org.uk/files/hohnewsletter.pdf . It has some important information you won't want to miss, so make sure you take a bit of time to read it.
All the results are back for our students who took government exams. This wasn't a great exam year all across Haiti, with very low success rates all around. For the HOH, we had a success rate of 66%. Quite a bit higher than the national rate, but unfortunately that means we had several who failed the exams and have to redo the school year. Several of them have a chance for a re-write, so some re-write exams on Monday (the 17th), and others on the 24th. They would appreciate your prayers as they are preparing for and writing these exams.
Several of the Our Hope kids have been home to visit their extended families and reconnect with their home communities. It is good for them to keep building these relationships, but we do miss them when they are gone. Somehow the house seems empty, in spite of the fact we have numerous visitors who have come to spend some time with us this summer. Linda's 4 nephews are here, one from Cap Haitian, and the other three from Boston, MA. Several girls have come back to see us (Helen & Vonette), and have spent several weeks with us. Other people have stopped in here and there throughout the summer, so there have been lots of comings and goings around here.
School is just around the corner, and we've begun buying school books and uniforms. With the start of school we will begin our normal Bible studies here at the HOH. I'd appreciate your prayers as I prepare for these.
Last Friday night we had a going away prayer meeting with Angie. She left to go study in the US where she had received a scholarship at LeTourneau Christian University in Longview, TX. We all shed a few tears as we said goodbye to her for an unknown amount of time. I know she'd appreciate your prayers for her as she begins this new stage of life. She is extremely grateful for God's hand in working out all the details of her being able to attend this university, and at the same time is a bit nervous as this is all very new for her. So pray that she adjusts well (she arrives there this Sunday), and that she would grow in her walk with the Lord as she studies at this school.

We appreciate your interest in the minsitry of the HOH, and in the lives of the kids in our care. Thank you for your prayers on our behalf. We'd ask you to continue to pray for God's provision of our needs, and that we would continue to be a light for Jesus Christ in this needy country.

God bless...

Prayer

2009-07-29T16:27:00.003-05:00

Good Afternoon! This is just a really quick update to ask for your prayers for us. Things have been so busy I haven't had a chance to update the blog, but unfortunately it always seems to work out that that's when we really need your prayers! So I'm just quickly writing you about a couple of things.

Nani has come down sick with what has all the symptoms of Scarlet Fever. Our Pediatrician has been hesitant to call it that, but the symptoms are all there. So, she has been really sick. We were able to get her on antibiotics really quickly, so she is much better today, but we all could use your prayers for healing, for strength, and that this wouldn't spread to the other kids.
At the same time numerous of the other kids have come down with different viruses/illnesses going around, so things are a bit crazy around here at the moment. Those who are still healthy are trying to remain that way, while taking care of the sick!
Linda has been having some health troubles of her own, and this week her hemorrhoids have really started to cause problems. Tomorrow morning she will be undergoing surgery to try and take care of the problem. Please pray for Dr. Mozart as he performs the surgery, and for Linda as she undergoes it. We hear it is very painful, and her body usually takes longer to get over things like this, so please pray for her, and all of us who will be helping her get through this.
Saturday evening we are supposed to start teaching the "The Young Peacemaker" seminar to 52 young men from this area. With so much sickness going around it's been hard to find the time to prepare for the seminar, and enough healthy bodies to pull it all off. We know our enemy doesn't want God's truth to be told to these young men, so please pray that we would be able to continue with the seminar in spite of the obstacles that keep popping up.

Thank you so much for holding us up before the Father! When I get a chance I'll update how things are progressing.

Hot, Hot, Hot!!!!

2009-07-06T16:04:00.013-05:00

It is definitely summer around here. We're back to working up a sweat by just sitting in a chair and doing nothing! The afternoon rain showers that occasionally come our way are a much appreciated break to the heat and humidity of the summer. But I don't really mind it that much, summer is my favorite season. For us the sun is coming up at between 4:30 and 5 am (we didn't change to daylight savings time this year), and this morning it gave off a glorious orange glow that was just beautiful. Not that I make it a habit of being up with the sun, those of you who know me well know I am a night owl, but at precisely 5am this morning a very large bang occurred right outside my window. At first, it really annoyed me off that someone would be making such a large noise at such an hour, but then I had the blessing of seeing an awesome sunrise, so I quickly adjusted my attitude!

With summer around here comes fruit! Something we don't get for much of the rest of the year (I know strange for living in a tropical climate). The latest crop has been mangoes, and once again the favorite pastime at the HOH is sitting beneath the mango tree, wooing one to fall right in front of you. I've heard kids sing to the mangoes, scold them, and even offer up a short prayer hoping for it to fall at that moment! This picture of Nani enjoying one, shows you exactly how a mango is meant to be eaten, it's not for the timid, or for anyone wanting to remain clean for that matter. Digging in and getting your whole face into it is the only way to go!

We've been occupied with many things these past couple of weeks. Most of them have to do with school ending. All but a few of the kids are done with their final exams. Most of our students passed the year, but a few didn't, making us have to think and make decisions about what we are going to do with them in the coming school year. The few who are still writing exams are those in grades 12 & 13. They will continue to write their government exams today, tomorrow and Thursday. If you think of it pray for them, these are very difficult exams, and determine whether or not they can continue with their studies and finish school, or if they have to wait a year and re-write the exams.

With the end of school came several graduation ceremonies. The two that we celebrated were for Esther, who graduated from Kindergarten, and Dieujuste, who graduated from elementary school. They looked great in their new outfits, and we had great time celebrating with them.

Here is Esther at the party we had for her at the HOH afterwards...

This is Dieujuste at his graduation with his sisters. Desimene is on the left, she also lives here at the HOH. The other sister lives in our local community.

It is exciting to see our kids work hard and get through these milestones of their lives.

This week is the big conference week here in our village. Over 5,000 people from all over Haiti will show up for a week of Bible studies, times of worship and fellowship. Our kids are really excited about the childrens program which will have several thousand children in attendance. To get prepared they've been braiding the girl's hair with beads, pulling out the best clothes we have, and asking us several times a day if the conference is starting today. It's almost as exciting as Christmas!

I am spending most of my days getting ready for teaching the young boys the Peacemaker studies. We almost have 60 boys signed up to take the course, which is very exicting. Thank you for your prayers as we prepare to share God's truth about living at peace with each other, and resolving conflict in a way that pleases Him. In two weeks we'll also be holding our Staff Camp. This is something we do every 2 years as a way to thank our staff for their hard work taking care of the kids here at the HOH. Many of these ladies would never be able to take a vacation, so we can at least offer them a week where they are taken care of instead of them taking care of others. We have all kids of plans to pamper and care for them, so please keep that in your prayers as well.

We appreciate every one of you who supports us in this ministry. Thanks for your prayers for God's provision over the past few weeks. Our faith has been stretched, and God has been faithful. God bless...

HOH Kids - 1: Very big fish - 0

2009-06-18T14:24:00.010-05:00

School is quickly coming to an end. To celebrate we decided to take the kids to the beach. A man we know here in La Pointe has a beach on his property about 2 miles down the road, and he told us we could bring the kids down anytime we wanted, so we decided to take him up on the offer. After playing a quick game of "how many kids can you fit in the back of a Land Cruiser", we arrived at the location ready for a great day at the beach.

Pretty much the moment we arrived it started raining, and it kept raining for the whole next week! So much for me thinking I wasn't going to get wet at the beach. The kids and Linda were not going to let a little rain deter them, however, and they had a great time playing in the water. It did get a bit cold though with the rain coming down, and several had come to complain that they were freezing. We told them to try running around a bit to warm up when God sent us some entertainment that made everyone a whole lot warmer.

Somehow the word "Shark", screamed out by several kids while you are at the beach seems to get your blood going. We scanned the waters to try and see what they saw, and sure enough down the beach a little ways we could see a dorsal fin sticking out of the water, swimming uncomfortably close to the water's edge. I didn't know we had sharks in our waters around here, and it turns out it wasn't really a shark, but we didn't hesitate to get all the kids out of the water as quickly as we could.

In my "American/Canadian" mindset I'm thinking, ok that's it, no more kids in the water until this thing goes away...silly me, what was I thinking. Everyone else in the HOH was thinking, "Yeah, there's supper!". And as if set up by a synchronized timer all the older kids took off running down the beach towards where the "big fish" was swimming. My mind went off again, 'this isn't good, someone is going to get hurt', but their minds were pretty fixed on supper. Armed with nothing but rocks the kids lined up on the shoreline and started using the rocks to scare the fish onto the beach. Soon after a few well aimed rocks stunned fish, they jumped in the water, wrestled around with it, and soon had the fish in their custody. Who would have thought that? Here you can see the mob coming back down the beach rejoicing at their catch. (The group in the bottom left hand corner of the picture are carrying the fish. )

And just what was their catch?

It was a 5 foot swordfish type fish...it was amazing. Fishermen from the area started showing up, and were totally in awe. They'd seen the fish show up there for days, and had been trying to catch it, but hadn't been successful. They kept saying how we must be very blessed people for God to give us such a gift. Of course, then they suggested that we probably would be wise to share that blessing with everyone else in the area!

Our friend Mithou got a machete, and boy let me tell you, what a woman! She just cleaned that fish right up, while at the same time Linda and her kept watching the crowd that was rapidly expanding, trying to keep up with who in the crowd we needed to give some of the fish to. By the time we got the fish all cleaned, the crowd was so thick we could hardly see our kids, and everyone wanted a piece of the fish. So in the end we had to call our beach day over, so we could get at least part of the spoils back home with us.

It was a great experience, and made for a really great day. When we got home we had the chance to cut up the fish, and many people both at the HOH and in our surrounding community were able to eat off of the meat we got from the fish. It really was a blessing and a gift from God, and people in the area are still are talking about it!

There have been quite a few other events that have happened in our local community during the past couple of weeks, that clearly remind us that we live in a fallen world, and have helped us remember our responsibility to be witnesses of light to this needy place. One incident that affected us greatly happened to the family of one of the boys who attends our Bible club. His father was killed in a fight, and then in retribution a mob attacked, tortured and killed the man who killed him. It all happened one evening here in our little town, and as the streets where dangerous our yard started filling up with neighbors and friends trying to find a calm place. Many young people from the community showed up, and as we listened to the mob raging on the road, everyone started sharing their own opinion about what was happening. This gave Linda and I the chance to talk to many of them about what God opinion was about all of this, and more specifically what he says about taking revenge. This talk led to a lot of other topics, and in the midst of a very terrible event we were able to share God's truth with a lot of young people from this area.

So we ask that you continue to pray for us as we seek to use every opportunity we get to share God's truth with those we come in contact with. Pray as we start to prepare the "Peacemaker" course for the young men in the community. 25 of the HOH young people have offered to help me teach this course, so we are revamping it so that they can do some of the lessons and teaching. We are looking forward to what God is going to do in the lives of the young people as they learn these Biblical principles for dealing with conflict, very fitting in light of what happened.

We do appreciate your prayers and support very much, and have one other specific prayer request we'd like to share with you our partners in ministry. We've had some trouble with money we were supposed to have received at the bank, and the end result is that we are extremely low on funds right now. It is very good for us to have our faith stretched to really depend on our Heavenly Father to take care of all of our needs (like he provided supper from the beach). But we'd ask that you pray for us and ask Him to do just that...provide for our needs, and also grow our faith as we wait on Him. Thank you for partnering with us in this way! And God bless...

Moms and the Wii

2009-06-03T13:16:00.009-05:00

This past weekend was Mother's Day here in Haiti, and as usual, our kids had a great time celebrating it. At least half of the kids here have lost their moms, so maybe that's what makes it such an emotionally charged Sunday morning service as the kids sing with all their might all the official "Mother's Day" songs. Linda and I are always humbled as they pour out their love on us for being their "fill-in" moms, and we both received a picture frame and a plaque as a Mother's Day gift, as well as a very yummy special afternoon meal. It really was a special day together here with our "improvised" family. Sorry I was too busy enjoying it to take any pictures.

Last week we celebrated the "home-going" of a former House of Hope mom & employee. Mme Merzilien passed away at an age I can't even imagine reaching, she was 105 years old! She worked for almost 30 years here at the HOH taking care of children in need, and one of her daughters followed her in this work and for many years as well. She has numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren who live in our village, one grandchild is a good friend of ours. She is known for being a joyful, caring lady, and while we know she is much better off now, she will be missed greatly.

Well, I guess it was bound to happen at some time, but in the past couple of weeks something new was introduced here at the HOH. A youth group from a church in Alberta, Canada decided they wanted to raise money to purchase a Wii for the HOH. They worked on it for a couple of months, and we just recently received it. So we are now part of the Wii players of the world. I can't tell you how much fun the kids have had with this game. Their two favorites so far are boxing and motorcycle racing, not that they actually get much of a chance to actually have a favorite. With over 100 people vying for a chance to play, and only 2 people playing at a time, it takes quite a while before your chance comes around again! We've only pulled it out twice, because I, as the official "Wii Coach/Referee" only have so much energy...it is quite an exhausting task! But as you can see in the picture of Baslet & Chedlyn, the kids are having a blast with it, and so we say a big thank you to the youths in Canada who thought of getting this gift for us.

If you should pop by the HOH during the evenings these days, you'll probably feel like you've entered into a three-ring circus. While our actual numbers have gone down to around 90 kids, many other kids from our community are preparing for their final exams. Because we have electricity, they come here to study, and it can get quite crazy around here after a while. But if you remember from the last blog, everyone starts writing exams soon, and the government exams will start towards the end of June, so please keep praying for them to work hard, study well, and be examples as they write their exams.

I learned during the last Boys Club we had with the community boys that 6 of them have come to know Jesus as their Savior since the club started! What a joy it was to hear that and watch them stand up to give testimony to that during the last club of the season. We look forward to studying the Peacemaker series with them during the month of August.

I am studying an online course throughout the month of June. It's called "Foundations and Principles of Holistic Ministry" through the Chalmer Center for Economic Development. So far I've learned a lot, and have been able to keep up with the work load (it only started two days ago), in spite of faces like this popping out of my desk every now and again! It's amazing I get anything done at all!

We continue to have our family devotions in the evenings, and lately have started sharing with each other how the Bible was "alive" for us in any given day. Our hope is to encourage them to read their Bibles on a daily basis, and look for ways it impacts their lives and the lives of those around them. Pray for growth in all of our lives as we seek to become more like Jesus, and then seek to witness Him to those around us.

We continue to appreciate your prayers and support very much, and are so thankful for so many people holding us up before our Father. He is so patient and kind, and He cares for us so completely. Thanks for your part in this ministry.

Back at the HOH

2009-05-22T10:22:00.004-05:00

I always hate leaving the HOH for an extended period of time, but there is nothing quite as pleasant as returning after being gone for a few weeks. Often I can hear the cheers coming from quite a distance as we honk the horn on the car announcing my arrival (I'm usually not the driver!). It does indeed make me feel special.

Then comes the kisses...everyone has to greet me, welcoming me home, there are hugs from the younger ones, and in the case of Micah, his hug lasted a full 10 minutes as he wouldn't let go until he finally fell asleep in my arms! He looked quite different as he has had his curly locks cut off, and now is sporting a bald head, but as you can see, he's still cute!

I was gone for 4 weeks. The first of which was some time spent in Port-au-Prince with the other CrossWorld Haiti missionaries at our annual retreat. We had a good time visiting with each other, and really enjoyed having our good friends Walt & Dotty Baker there with us. Walt's sharing from God's Word was just what I needed, and it was a huge encouragement to me.

The other 3 weeks I was in TX, at my sister's house. They were full weeks of buying shoes and school supplies to ship down to Haiti, visiting friends and supporters, and also getting a bit of rest. Unfortunately, the getting rest bit was too short, so I got back to Haiti feeling pretty exhausted, and have spent some time the past couple of days trying to catch up on some sleep!
So the next few days will be filled with trying to catch up on things that didn't get done in my absence, and trying to catch up on all the news of things that did take place while I was gone.

School is almost over for the year, and everyone is studying hard for final exams. We have 13 students who will be writing various government level exams this year, and we'd appreciate your prayers for them as they'll be writing them during the last weeks of June and beginning of July. Here's a list of those writing the exams:

Grade 6: Joseph, Stevenson, Dieujuste, Donald, and Kendrick
Grade 9: Mikerlange, Mirlène, St. Germain and Rosnel
Grade 12: Ricardo, Dada, TiBen
Grade 13: Caleb

Thank you for your prayers. Pray that they'd be diligent to study, that they'd be in good health to write the exams, and that they'd be examples to the other students as they write their exams.

The Saturday boy's club continues to meet, but this Saturday will be the last as everyone is preparing for exams and then summer vacation is here. We do have plans to do some things with these boys during the summer as well, to keep up our connection with them. Continue to pray for them to put into practice the things they are learning, and for those who do not yet know Jesus as their Savior, that they'd fully understand the Gospel message, and come to faith in Christ.

There are several things going on at the HOH that we aren't able to share with you, but still desperately need your prayers. Hopefully in the next month or so we'll be able to share everything with you, but in the meantime, we'd appreciate your prayers for wisdom, a Godly attitude and the fruits of the Spirit as we deal with some difficult situations. Thank God with us that He is Faithful, and totally in control, and we can count on Him for everything we need.

We appreciate your partnership in this ministry very much...God bless, and hopefully the next update won't be as long in coming as this one has been!

Pressure...

2009-04-16T09:23:00.010-05:00

That single word aptly describes what life has been like at the HOH these past few weeks. We've been experiencing a lot of it on many different levels, and the ups and downs of it all has made life feel like an never-ending emotional roller-coaster ride. Here's a bit of a glance of some of the things we've been dealing with...

The most recent incident of dealing with pressure happened very early this morning. I had had one of those nights, you know where you can't sleep, your mind is thinking about a million things all at once (none of which seem very logical by 10 am the next morning). It was 3:30 am and I had already tried reading a book, spent time praying, and was about to pull out the book again when my phone rang. In the 5 seconds it took me to reach for the phone and see who was calling me numerous scenarios had already gone through my mind...is it family, a friend, a wrong number? Who calls people before 4am? Then I saw it was Benitha, our oldest girl who stays with the younger girls downstairs. "Jenny", she said, " one of the propane tanks is leaking, I can hear it, and we can smell the gas". I jumped out of bed, woke up one of the older boys thinking perhaps it had a leak at the top and we just needed to turn it off. I was wrong! At the very bottom of the tank was a hole, and propane was hissing out with a lot of force! It had just been installed and was completely full, and we could already smell propane throughout the whole house. We quickly woke everyone up and sent them outside, called in some help from our neighbors/friends, and tried to plug the hole...umm, we found out that was not possible! Not even with duct tape, which we have been told can do pretty amazing things. Needless to say, a lot of praying was going on, as were phone calls back and forth to my brother-in-law in TX who works in the gas industry. In the end, everything worked out OK, one of our maintenance men came and unhooked the tank, carted it far away, and eventually the propane dissipated, no one was hurt, and nothing was damaged...and for that we praise God for his graciousness to us.

Wisenika, a cute baby girl who had been abandoned at the local hospital joined the HOH family in late January. She had been born with multiple disabilities, but seemed to be doing ok until a couple of weeks ago. She took a turn for the worse, and nothing we did seemed to help. After weeks of struggling to survive she passed away on Friday evening. We were relieved to see her suffering relieved, but it's always hard to lose one of our kids.

On Monday of this week we received word that Jn Daniel's younger brother who lives in Port-au-Prince (PAP) had been hit by a truck. He had been driving a little motor scooter. Their uncle in PAP had been trying all day to find out where they had taken him, and late Monday afternoon they found out he had died during the course of the day and had been taken to a morgue. As you can imagine, it was a shock to everyone, especially Jn Daniel's family, but here at the HOH when one of our kids is hit with something like this it hits us all. We all shed tears as Jn Daniel wept for his brother, who was not a believer. With much planning, Jn Daniel picked up his mom and another brother and they headed to PAP on Tuesday to help with the funeral plans. Please pray for this family in their time of grief. Jn Daniel is the only believer, pray that in the midst of his own grief he would be a witness for Christ, and have the opportunity to once again share his faith with his family.

Max, who had broken his leg a few weeks ago was able to get his cast taken off...note for anyone who has ever wondered: it takes hours to soak off a plaster cast! No sooner did he have his cast off when Marco slipped on a wet spot on the floor and broke his arm! I guess with 100 kids around we shouldn't be surprised by having a few broken bones every now and then. We have been speculating as to who might be next, especially since they kids have pulled out some of our old roller blades and have started to whip around the house with them again!

Several of the kids came down with malaria, Micah was by far the sickest of them all. For days he couldn't keep anything in him, and we couldn't keep an IV going as he was so agitated. Everyone took turns trying to help out, even Lala & Nani, who decided to climb into his crib with him. Thankfully, we eventually got the malaria under control, and he is doing much better.

Add to these events, exams at school for the kids, and numerous other fairly major pressures we aren't able to share with you, it has been quite a month! So we are so very thankful for your prayers on our behalf, even though sometimes you may not know exactly what's going on, but you pray for us nonetheless. Thanks!

Lest you think we are by any means discouraged....think again! Remember the roller-coaster ride, with the ups and the downs. Well, with all the "downs", we've had some pretty major "ups" during this month as well, and they by far outweigh the "downs". So, let me share with you some of our more encouraging moments of the past couple of weeks.

Remember the group of about 60 young boys who have been attending our Character Studies every Saturday afternoon? Well, they just can't get enough of the Bible stories and lessons we've been teaching them. They get very upset if we have to cancel for some reason, and we've received numerous reports back from people in the community wondering what's been going on with these boys because they can see obvious change in their lives. One lady told us about one of the boys who every day shares Bible verses he's read in his personal devotions with whatever friends he runs into. Another mother came by to tell us she doesn't even recognize her son anymore, he's a totally different boy. She couldn't thank us enough for taking an interest in helping these young men. Well, a few weeks ago the boys themselves came to us and asked us if we would study the "Young Peacemaker" series with them. We had done that series with the HOH kids over the past couple of years, and have posters of different lessons still hanging up around the HOH. They've seen the posters and have decided that they want to learn what the Bible says about getting along with others, and helping them resolve conflict! Ok, I admit, I was just a bit shocked to have them come and ask us that. So, we are going to make some time this summer to teach them those lessons as well. It's so neat to see God working and transforming these young lives!

Then, the young people of the HOH decided they wanted to do something special over the Easter weekend. They spent hours planning a "Spiritual Life Conference" with the theme of "Living in Unity with each other", and using the life/death and resurrection of Jesus as an example for us all. It was really exciting for me to see them implementing some of the different techniques of teaching that I've been using with them in our Bible studies over the past few months. They did skits, role plays, story telling, and all kinds of things to share their message. It was a great week, ending with an incredible worship & celebration service Sunday morning. We had over 100 people from our local community join us each night throughout the week, and on Sunday morning as well. On Saturday night we had a time of testimony for anyone who wanted to share. Some of you may remember Clervi, he was one of our older boys who out of rebellion left the HOH some years back, and has not lived a life pleasing to the Lord since then. He showed up for every meeting, and on Saturday night got up in front of everyone and said he knows he has not lived as he should, and that his relationship with the Lord has really gone backwards. He asked everyone to pray for him, that this would be a new beginning for him, and that he'd regain that ground that he'd lost. Wow, that was incredible to hear, and so we'd love for you to pray along with us for Clervi, that'd he'd be serious in his decision to start anew, and that he would grow in his walk with the Lord.

So...the ups, the downs...it's all been there, but what a joy it is to know that we serve a living God, a resurrected Lord; and it is a privilege to be His hands and feet bringing His hope to the children and young people in our corner of Haiti. Thanks so much for your prayers, your support, and your encouragement.

It's 70°F. and we are chilled!

2009-03-24T12:57:00.002-05:00

We aren't great weathermen here at the HOH, but one thing we know these days, we're having a lot of rain, and a lot of very cool (for us) weather. The jackets/sweaters/pants/blankets are back out again as we brave low temperatures around 21°C during the nights. Ok, so I know these are spring temperatures for many of you, so we are trying to "enjoy" it as best we can, and think happy thoughts of spring along with you all...

Our numbers here at the HOH have not gone down at all. We are now sitting at 99 kids, we did hit 100 last week, but unfortunately one little girl passed away over the weekend. The incoming kids continue to have malnutrition, but we also received one little girl who is a Collodion Baby this week. I had never heard about it before and had to look it up on the internet. It is a skin condition that the babies are born with, this little girl is 4 months old, her name is Jepsny. She is greatly improved since coming here and being plastered in Vaseline twice a day, but her condition is so terrible I can't even think of sharing photos with you all. Hopefully, one day she'll improve enough for me to do so.

We were very glad to receive a shipment of food from World Vision last week. Their food helps us supplement what we feed the children, and enables us to save money by not having to purchase everything that we need. We are also able to help numerous people in our area who have been having trouble feeding their families, by sharing some of the food we received with them.

The kids are back to school, and most will begin to write their exams this week. They'd appreciate your prayers as they study and attempt to pull their grades up with this mid-term exam.

My trip to Miami went really well. I had a great time with our friend at the Miami Shores Presbyterian Church. It was a really great weekend of hearing what God is doing around the world, and I was very happy to be part of it by sharing what God is doing here at the HOH.

We are back on schedule with our Bible Studies, and kid's clubs. Last week one of the young men who comes to our Saturday afternoon Bible club accepted Jesus as his Savior, it was a very happy time for us to see him make this decision. Please continue to pray for these studies, that God would use them in all of our lives, to enable us to reflect Jesus to those around us. Pray for Shilder, that he would grow in his new found faith.

Please continue to help us pray for people to support this ministry financially, as you can imagine with the economic crisis everywhere, we are feeling it here too. Pray that God would provide for all of our needs, and that our faith would remain strong as we wait on Him to do that.

Sorry to not have more interesting news/pictures for you on this blog. These days are days of simply pressing on, sharing the love of Jesus with those we come in contact with. Please pray that we would be faithful to love God and others as we live among and interact with people in this area of Haiti.

Time for an update!

2009-02-27T14:45:00.012-05:00

A great big tropical hello to everyone! These have been beautiful days, not too hot, not too cool; a mix of rain and sun, vacation from school, and much activity here at the HOH. Our numbers got up to a whopping 98 this week, two have since returned to their homes, and another has come, so we are now sitting at 97 kids! I don't think I need to say it, but I will anyway, it's a bit wild and crazy around here!

Most of the kids coming in have severe malnutrition like Jameson who just arrived today. It's sad but with all the nutrition programs being run throughout Haiti today, they only want to treat the ones with severe malnutrition. That means that when children like Jameson come to the hospitals or clinics to be treated before they are gravely ill, they are sent away with no nutritional help at all. Two to three weeks later they are severely malnourished and on the verge of death, and that's when we get them at the HOH. We usually find out quickly which way they are going to go, and in all reality they don't spend a lot of time here. It usually only takes a couple of weeks of treatment for them to be healthy again, and for most of the children we receive that is the way things turn out. For the few who don't make it, they are only at the HOH for a matter of days, if even that before they pass away. It is a frustrating reality these days, and while we wish it wasn't so, we are so thankful that we are here to receive these little ones in their time of need. We are even more thankful for all of you who enable us to give them hope.

We have had a very busy month of February, full of activity. We've had visitors or teams every day, except for 4, during this month. We enjoyed the team from East Stroudsburg, PA. They were a great encouragement to us, and helped with numerous projects around the HOH and especially at the hospital. Of course it was great having our good friend Bonita and her family here for a few days, and also the men from Wisconsin with Doug Anderson. The few days they were here were days of great encouragement for us, and we appreciated the times of sharing and prayer we were able to have together.

One of our dogs gave birth to 8 puppies, adding greatly to the general population of the HOH. Thankfully many people in our area wanted the pups and we were able to get rid of them quite quickly, but before they found homes the pups endured many hours being "loved" by the kids here at the HOH. No one "loved" them more than Nani, she was constantly carrying them around, and amazingly they never seemed to mind.

The young people of the HOH planned a Valentines party for the evening of the 14th. We enjoyed a nice evening playing games, and just spending time with each other. It was nice that it was Ernst' birthday that day too...we love reasons to have a party around here!

Our friends from Simcoe, ON have been here for a week now. They always bring a lot of excitement to the HOH, as I'm writing this update they are teaching the kids to play floor hockey in our hallway! They've brought an activity for every day including sewing projects, a number of the girls have learned to sew cloth diapers for us to use. Other fun things they've been doing with the kids is hand painting, face painting (see Jn Mary's lovely face in the picture!) lots of toys and fun games. Since the kids have been on vacation from school it's been great having activities to keep them busy, and let them enjoy themselves. The Simcoe crew hasn't only brought along fun and games, they've also brought some good times of learning and fellowship. Last night their team leader, Wally, spoke to the kids in our family devotions. He talked about how they are lights in our community here in Haiti, and how they needed to shine brightly for the glory of God. To illustrate his point he passed out flashlights to each of us, and turned off the lights and turned on the flashlights and sang "This little light of mine". It was a special time of remembering how we are to be lights to those around us, and it was great time of fellowship with our friends from Canada!

The reason the kids have been off school is because it's "Carnival" week here in Haiti. For two days this past week we opened up the HOH to the kids in the community to come and have some "fun days", we set things up almost like fair, there was games, movies, music, food and lots of fun. At times there were well over 100 people here at a time (not counting our 98!). All of the boys who are involved in our Saturday Bible club were here (you can see them playing dominoes in this picture), as well as a number of employees from the hospital, and other people from our community. Everyone was able to find something to enjoy themselves, and we were proud of our young people for their hard work in pulling off these fun days. Once again St. Germain did the bulk of the planning and organizing for the day, he really has a talent for these types of things.

In spite of all the other ativity, I've been able to get a few office/administrative type things accomplished, the biggest of which was a new prayer card for the HOH. It only took me about 40 tries to get the picture that we wanted, mostly because my subject (Lala, who will turn 4 in a month, can you believe it!) has really turned into quite the little ham (this is one of the pictures we had to scrap as she struck this pose right as I clicked the picture!). I did finally get one we liked however, but you'll have to wait to see the finished product...

I'm hoping to get a prayer letter written in the next couple of days, and also a new presentation as I'll be speaking at a missions conference at the Miami Shores Presbyterian Church during the weekend of March 5-8th. So you can keep me in your prayers as I try to get a lot done, in the midst of some already very busy days.

There's lots more I could write about, like Max who turned 1, learned to stand and then promptly broke his leg all within a few days of each other!

Or, Altagrace, who after more than 4 years of sitting in a wheelchair unable to use her legs has actually starting to walk using a walker...who would have thought this day would ever come? You'll be hearing more about this in the future!

But they've taken the power, the hockey game is winding down, and our afternoon meal is really starting to smell good, so I best get moving. It's been fun going through a recap of life here over the past few weeks with you though...

We'd appreciate your prayers as we continue to grow, shine and reflect Christ to those around us. Please pray for all the travel that's coming up over the next week and a bit, the team taht's here will be leaving, another group of visitors will be coming, then I'm leaving for Miami. I'll be back in Haiti on the 10th of March, Lord willing. Pray for a good time at the mission's conference, and if any of you live in that area and want to come and hear the presentation, and visit with me, please contact the church for more details. Pray too that God, who is faithful, would supply all of our needs during these days as we receive more and more kids needing our help.

One last thing. Some of you have written questions or requests in the comment option on this blog. The only problem with that is that it doesn't give me a way to get back in touch with you, so if you'd like to write me an e-mail asking your questions feel free to do so at: houseofhope1@hotmail.com

Off and running in the New Year...

2009-02-03T10:49:00.007-05:00

It hardly seems like a new year anymore. The way this year is flying by it'll be over before we know it!

The new year started for us with full schedule of visitors and visiting teams. The whole months of January and February were and are completely occupied with visitors, including every single day of the month of February! I'm not sure what it takes to become an official travel agent/tour guide but if hours put into making travel arrangements count for anything I must be close! We do enjoy these teams and visitors however, and look forward to the ones still on their way here.

The team from Snohomish, WA was here for two weeks starting mid January. As usual, they fixed tons of things around the HOH and also the hospital and various campuses. We so appreciate these guys who come back every year, and work so hard to get everything in fixed and in order again. They always find things to fix, usually things I didn't even know needed it! This year we were able to take a trip with them out to Bayeaux (outside of Cap Haitian) where Linda's mom lives. It was an interesting trip, as it was the first for me to go by motor boat around parts of the North coast where the road isn't passable. Going there wasn't so bad, but coming back the waves were huge, and the captain not quite as good, and most everyone got a good case of sea sickness! We were all quite happy to get our feet on solid ground again.

A week and a half later I turned around and went back out again, this time with our friend Jeb. We decided to drive out there on this trip, and about 7 hours later weren't too sure which was worse...I mean we only went about 40 miles up the coast, as a crow flies. Unfortunately, we couldn't take the crow's road...it was either: an hour and a half in a bumpy car over terrible roads followed by an hour in a boat over wavy waters followed by a 10 minute hike then another hour and a half over completely horrible, never before seen so terrible roads; or 7 hours bumping along over terrible roads driving about 100 miles just to get to the town about 40 miles away. I've come to believe that helicopters area a great thing...I guess I don't need to say how sore and tired we were, but they were good trips, and it was good catching up with Linda's family again.

This week we look forward to a group from E. Stroudsburg, PA (they are traveling here as I write). They will be working on a number of projects at the hospital, and also spending time with our kids here at the HOH for a week. Then our good friend Bonita and her family will pop in for a quick visit, followed by a quick visit from Pastor Doug Anderson and some friends. Hopefully I'll get a chance to update you all before the next group comes after that.

Things have been going well at the HOH. We had a bit of a lull in the numbers of children moving through here, allowing us to catch our breath, and catch up on everyone's name. When they are coming and going so quickly it's hard to keep up with everyone! We currently have a total of 91 kids and young people here, most of those being admitted continue to have severe malnutrition. One little six year old girl, Fredeline came in late December swollen from head to toe with a protein deficient form of malnutrition (first picture) - KWASH. Now just over a month later she is doing incredibly well and almost doesn't even look like the same girl (2nd picture). She is a little giggle box, who loves being here and playing with the other children. Her family is amazed at her recovery, and spoke to our staff members about it. They said they would now give testimony that God was here in the House of Hope. They said, "We visited so many witchdoctors, doctors, churches and hospitals with Fredeline, none of them were able to help us. But here, God healed our little girl." This story is repeated countless times over and over again at the HOH, and not everyone gets it, but are we sure glad when they do, because it really is all about Him. God is here and He is working, to Him be all the glory!

What a joy and privilege it is to be God's hands and feet, bringing hope to these precious children. We certainly couldn't do it without all of your help, praying for us and supporting us in the many ways you do. So thank you for helping God's glory be known, in this little corner of the world.

Here are some prayer requests for the next little while (see I do have high hopes of updating you again before too long!):

Some of our students didn't do too good on their first semester of school this year. We had a very serious and stern talk with them over the weekend, and they all have renewed their intentions to study hard and get better grades. Pray for them to be faithful in this part of their lives and to make the effort to study hard, and learn the things they need to.
Pray for all the traveling of our visitors to and from the HOH. Many are coming and going, so pray that all the logistics would work out, and that they would have safety as they travel here.
Pray for the various Bible Studies we continue to do with our young people, the children, and they 60 or so boys from out in the neighborhood. It is really hard for me to find the time to make up all the various Bible Study materials, so pray that when I do find the time that I would be able to use it wisely and be able to stay on task to get the lessons prepared. Pray that God's Word would continue to transform our lives, and to make us more like Jesus every day.
The economic troubles all over have affected us here as well. Pray that God would continue to provide for all of our needs, and that He would give us wisdom as to how we can better use the resources He has already given us.

Thanks again for your various means of support. God bless you all.

An update is coming soon...I promise!!

2009-02-02T15:11:00.002-05:00

Thanks for your interest in making a donation to the House of Hope. All the information you need in order to do so can be found at www.crossworld.org . Go to their giving page, and then choose the method you'd like to use. God bless, and keep watching, an update is on the way!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T11:19:00.004-05:00

The Christmas festivities are well under way here at the HOH, inspite of the fact that we have not yet received most of the Christmas gifts off the boat. The boat is in, just not unloaded. The kids don't seem to mind, because that just means we'll have to have another party of some kind to pass out the gifts when they actually do arrive, prolonging our festivities, probably into the new year!

This past Sunday was our annual Christmas program. This year the kids and young people, specifically St. Germain were in charge of everything. They worked out a program earlier in the year, were responsible for having rehearsals, and making sure everyone knew their part. Linda and I did absolutely nothing for the program. We were able to sit in the audience, and watch it for the first time with everyone else in attendance. I must say, they did an incredible job, and lest you think that is just me being a bit prejudice, everyone who was here to see the program told us the same thing. There were more than 200 visitors crowded into our home to attend the program, and with a perfect mix of music, poems, humor, skits and messages of the true meaning of Christmas, everyone from the children to the adults was satisfied and encouraged.

Our days have been filled with end of the year school activities like exams, and Christmas parties, as well as having a number of visitors here at the HOH. Our last group of visitors left about a week ago, and now everyone is done with exams, and all the meetings and parties have been attended, and we all feel like we can take a deep breath and relax a bit. We were all in need of some vacation days, and it's been nice to be able to just spend some time together relaxing in the evenings.

Tomorrow for Christmas Day we'll be having the entire HOH family in for a meal, that includes all the staff, kids, and friends from the community. It total we'll be about 200 people, and Linda and the girls are busy preparing for the meal preparations. I'm so glad they are good at cooking for such events, and enjoy doing it.

We really enjoyed having my family here to visit, and they helped us make up a lot of decorations for the HOH for Christmas. My Brother in law made some Christmas trees out of plywood, and the boys learned a lot from working with him. My sister Emmy brought stockings for the kids to decorate, and then to use to decorate the house, it does look very festive, and all the colors and decorations just makes the kids' faces light up!

The day after Christmas I'll be heading back to Port-au-Prince to attend a friend's wedding, then I'll be back up here a couple of days later to help with our New Year's Eve party. So the activity never stops around here!

As we are busy celebrating Christmas in our special ways, we want to send our wishes to you all for an incredible Christmas, and a very joyful New Year. What a privilege it is for us to be able to bring the wonderful story of hope in Jesus, the One who was willing to come to earth as a little baby, to live among us, to die to pay the price for our sins; who rose again, and offers eternal hope to all who believe in Him. This story continues to go out from the House of Hope, and it is our prayer that it brings you all hope as well at this special time of the year.

It's About Time!

2008-11-25T12:51:00.012-05:00

Ok, do I start with an apology or not? Well I feel like I do owe you one, not that I really could have done much to avoid the fact that I haven't updated the blog for over a month now. I can tell you why in three words...BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!!! I've even been too busy to make up and have the Bible studies with the kids, so you know it's been crazy around here, because that's not something I'll give up easily.

Here's some idea of what's been going on, and what's ahead for us...

Shortly after having Micah brought to the HOH, we received another newborn baby named Max. He came to the HOH after his mother died giving birth to him. He was only 1/2 day old when we got him, the youngest baby we've ever received. We agreed to keep Max for a couple of months for his dad who didn't know how to care for a newborn baby. Max is HIV positive, but since his mom was receiving treatment already he has a good chance of being negative once we can do a more specific test for him. That can only be done when he is a month and a half old, so we are waiting to do that. In the meantime, we have our hands full keeping up with two small babies, Max and Micah, pictured together in the crib here...
Micah was really doing great for most of the past month, then suddenly last week he took a turn for the worse. He was treated for malaria, but is still having trouble getting over it. he had put on about 4 pounds, but now has lost a couple of those. Finally today we were able to take out his IV's and hopefully we are heading in the right direction with him.

The family that is adopting Micah has decided to adopt a second little boy as well. Max Travis is from the same general area as Micah, and also recently lost his mom. Max Travis (pictured here together with Micah) is almost 10 months old, and is slowly getting adjusted to life at the HOH. Their adopting mom is coming this coming week to meet them and also to start the paperwork for their adoption to be processed. We pray with them that this process will happen quickly, and that they will be able to take their boys home with them soon.

Earlier in November I made a quick day trip to Port-au-Prince to pick up my sister Beth and a friend Heather Patterson. They came down for 2 weeks to help out at the HOH. What a blessing they were to have here, I can't imagine how busy we would have been had they not been here, seeing as I was so busy in spite of all their help. One day during their time here we were able to take a day trip on a sailboat to the island of La Tortue and spend the day at the beach (see picture). We were thankful for the friend who set this day up, and also for a chance to just have some fun together. About 10 kids from the HOH went along as well, so it was a lot of fun for everyone.
Also during the first part of November, we received an intern here at the HOH. Britney Mabel, from Lancaster, PA has come to help us out, and to spend time experiencing missions first hand. She will be staying with us until the end of March. She has already been a big help with the babies and in other ways as well. We are happy to have her here to help us out, and hope she has a great time here with us. She's already made friends with a number of the kids here, and they have begun exchanging language lessons, English for Kreyol! We'll see who learns more during the next couple of months!
Mid November we received John Berger and Walt Baker here for a visit. Even though it was just for a morning, it was great to have them both here. Walt was the one who first brought me to Haiti back in 1992, so it was so great to have him here at the HOH, and see the work God has allowed me to be part of since returning to Haiti. We had a really good and encouraging visit.
I returned to PAP in mid-November to take Beth and Heather back to PAP, and also to attend the going away party for John Berger who left Haiti to take up the position of Vice President of CrossWorld. It was nice to get together with almost all the other CrossWorld missionaries in Haiti, and also some former missionaries who had come back to Haiti and were here at this particular moment (like Darcy Dickerson, and Beth & Duane Browne).
That same weekend, I was also able to visit with the Boucher family as well. Then Dr. Boucher, myself and several of our older boys drove back up to La Pointe in a new vehicle we had purchased for the missionaries here. It's been many years since I'd driven up from PAP, and it was quite the 9 hours, especially since all the flooding that has happened in the parts of Haiti we drove through. We couldn't believe it was the same place, it felt like we were driving through a totally different country. It's amazing what flood water can do to totally rearrange a landscape. I regret that I didn't have a camera along to take pictures, especially of the area just north of Gonaives, called Doubedou, it was just unbelievable.
Last week we enjoyed a visit from our International Director from CrossWorld, Dwight Lehman. It was great to catch up with him, and news from our home office, as well as have a chance to talk over different ministry issues here.

We did manage to continue our Saturday afternoon "Boy's Character Club" several times during the past month. We are now receiving up to 50 boys each Saturday afternoon. Thanks to a special gift from some friends, we are occasionally able to make a meal or a snack to feed them when they come, as many of them come to us hungry, not having anything to eat at their homes. They seem to enjoy coming, and participating in the various activities we've put together. Here's a picture of some of them working on a project.

Last weekend we had 3 birthdays here at the HOH. One of them was for Nani. Remember the 1 1/2 pound little baby we received just 2 years ago, not thinking she'd live? Well she's 2 years old now, and as much of a live wire as ever. I call her our own personal hurricane, because wherever she goes, you know she's been there, and she seems to be able to be everywhere at once. She's such a joy to us, and absolutely adores her big "sister" Lala. They are pictured here together the night of the big birthday party (Nani is in front).
This coming Friday I'll be heading back to PAP to pick up my older sister Emmy and her husband, as well as my mom who are all coming down to visit the HOH for the first time. We are all very excited to have them coming as they've all been such a big part of the ministry of the HOH since I started working here, and to have them actually come and see everyone is a big deal for us. All week the kids have been painting the house, wanting to make it as fresh and nice as possible. They hoped to get it decorated for Christmas as well, but it looks like our visitors might get to help us do that.
Lord willing I'll be heading to PAP the next weekend to visit with the other people who were at the WorldView Center with me this past summer. We hope to meet together and encourage each other in putting into practice the things we've learned. I will also be taking Max and Micah together with their mom, to get a Psychological evaluation done in PAP. I should come back to the HOH on the 9th, and arrive just in time to receive a team from the Fellowship of Frisco in Frisco, TX on the 10th of Dec.

Well, I think I better wrap this up and send it on out to you all. Thank you so much for your patience in hearing from us. Thank you for your prayers on our behalf. Thank the Lord for us for His faithfulness over the past month, and for providing for all of our needs. We continue to receive extremely malnourished children quite regularly, and our numbers have gone back up into the 90's after dipping down to the low 80's for a bit. Thankfully we started receiving food rations from World Vision last month, and they've promised it to us for the next couple of months. We don't know how long we'll receive them, but we are so thankful to have the help to be able to feed all of our kids. Please continue to pray for God's provision, and for wisdom for Linda and I as we seem to face new situations almost every day. We desire to be a light and a witness for Christ to the community around us, as well as bring His love and hope to the needy children He brings into our home. Thank you for your prayers and support that enable us to do that.

Getting back into a routine

2008-10-07T13:45:00.007-05:00

We are feeling a lot more settled these days. School started yesterday, and so we are starting to get into a routine during the days. It's back to getting up at 5:30 am to make sure everyone is out the door in time for school.

It was the first day of school ever for 4 of our kids. Baslet, Esther and Chedlyn started in class 1 & 2.

Lala started kindergarten at another school. She was so excited to go, and had no trouble being dropped off. Nani on the other hand was not so happy about being left at home. When this picture was taken she didn't yet realize what was going on, she was just having a lot of fun watching her Lala get dressed up.

This morning, when I said to Lala, "You're going to school today!" She looked at me and said, "um, no", like it was something she could choose to do if she wanted to. She didn't mind when we told her she was going to go every day, though. Nani on the other hand, hid the comb so they couldn't comb Lala's hair, and for the first 15 minutes after Lala left she walked through the whole house looking for her and calling out her name. When she couldn't find her she came to the office and cried. But I guess she'll get used to it.

Things in our area continue to be very difficult economically. Every day we receive people coming to ask us for food, or medicine, or money. It is so hard because we can't possibly help everyone, the need is just too great. We've received 20 kids into the HOH in just a month, we can't even keep up with them all. We now have 97 here, and every day more seem to show up. We are glad we are here to help out those we can, but it feels like a drop in the bucket to what needs there are around us. Pray that we would have wisdom to know who to help, and how.

We have 30 boys from around La Pointe signed up to come to the Character Studies we are going to do with them starting this Saturday. We'd appreciate your continued prayers as we try to reach out to this very needy group of young people. They are quite a formidable bunch when you look at them, but if we don't do something now to help them in developing good Character, this whole area will suffer greatly as they get older and more rebellious. So pray for Linda, St. Germain, Rosnel and myself as we prepare and run the activities on Saturday for these boys.

Our Bible Studies started on Sunday evening with each of the three family groups presenting a song they wrote, from the Proverbs we've been studying this past year. They all did a super job writing the songs, and we are all looking forward to learning and singing the songs as part of our devotions and worship time here at the HOH.

This past week we received a new (to us) 3 week old baby boy named Micah. Micah was born during the string of hurricanes that went through the country of Haiti. His mom died after giving birth, as they were unable to get her to a hospital in time. Micah was a twin, but his sister died a couple of weeks after they were born. A family who are friends of ours heard about his story and decided to adopt Micah into their family. They asked if we'd keep him for the time being, and we were more than happy to help out. So Linda and I are once again trading off nights to care for a small baby. We are happy to have a part in helping this little treasure, and are very thankful we have a lot of helpers around us to help care for this little one. Pray as he's had some health issues that we've been treating, and also pray for the adoption of this little one to go through quickly so he can go and join his family that is waiting for him.

Well, that about brings you up to date on our life. We appreciate your prayers for God's continued provision for all of our needs. And while your praying, Praise Him too, because He is good, all the time! He has shown His faithfulness to us over and over again.

Back home again

2008-09-25T09:57:00.005-05:00

Well, here it is, 3 AM, I can't sleep, so I figure it's time to finally get an update out to you all. It's been on my "to do" list since we returned to Haiti, but with so many other things popping up, it seems like updating the blog always gets pushed down on the list.

So many people have written to ask how we are doing after the recent series of hurricanes and storms to pass through our region, and we appreciate the concerns, prayers and encouragement of each one of you. Let me assure you that we are fine here at the HOH, which unfortunately can't be said for a lot of other places in Haiti who were much harder hit than we were. Linda and I were not here for the storms, but the kids said it was a very scary time, the winds and rain were fierce, but in the end we had no damage to the HOH whatsoever. All we can say is "thank you Lord for Your mighty protection".

The only damage done on all of the mission property here at La Pointe, was a few tree branches that fell down. One fell in the area where our vehicle is usually parked, but Ronel had thought ahead and had moved the truck when the winds had started to pick up. Thanks to his quick thinking, we were spared any damage to the vehicle! In anticipation of any other storms that might be heading our way, the maintenance men of the hospital have been cutting off any tree branches that are over the buildings, just in case.

You've been asking if we have food and water, and at the moment we do have both. But with the extensive damage all over the country of Haiti, the roads cut off in many places, thousands of people left without homes or anything at all, and most if not all of the gardens completely wiped out; supplies are becoming scarce and food prices are soaring. Some estimates have said food prices have risen 60% in the past month alone, and we can believe it. Getting anything fresh from the market is increasingly difficult, and staple goods like rice and flour are expensive. Powdered milk can't be found, and the condensed milk we use for our malnourished kids has gone up in price as well (we were only able to get 30 cases for the same price we usually get 45). But we have some for a while, and are thankful to just have it. So the bottom line at this point is, if you can afford it, you can find something to eat...if you can't, you go without, and there's plenty of people around us going without these days. We can see it in the numbers of malnourished children brought to the HOH. Every day there seems to be at least one or two new ones, we have 2 babies in almost all the cribs in our nursery.

As for water, we are still having trouble with our water source, the local hospital. Their pump has problems that they can't seem to fix, so in the 10 days we've been back, we've had running water for a little bit on 2 of them. The rest of the time the kids have been hauling it from wherever we can find it. They are such good sports about it, and when doing it together actually seem to have a good time creating ways to carry as much as they can at a time. We don't know for how long this problem is going to last, but we are much better off than many other people around us, so we'll take it when we get it, and carry it when we don't!

Another issue we are facing is a shortage of diesel fuel. With the roads so badly cut in many places, the fuel trucks can't get to us from Port-au-Prince, and what does make it through is expensive (we've seen it as high as $18 US a gallon in the past couple of weeks, but it has come down considerably if you can find it, I paid $5 last week for some to put in our vehicle). Anyway, we get our electricity from the generators at the hospital, and they've had to shorten the hours they run their generators as their supply of fuel is quickly being used up. We've had to tighten our belts and manage our time more wisely to use the hours of electricity we do get to get as much work done as possible. But again, we are privileged to have this amount considering those around us who go without on a regular basis.

School across Haiti was canceled until October, so we've had the kids here at the HOH every day. We've also become the official "drop in" center for all the boys and young men around our town who have nothing to do. Our yard is constantly full of kids playing basketball, soccer, dominoes, or whatever else they can find to keep themselves busy. While it can get kinda crazy at times, we are happy to provide a safe and healthy environment for them, and hope to start some week-end activities with them during the school year. God has been impressing on our hearts the great spiritual needs of this group of young men, and we hope to be able to use these activities to reach them with the Good New of Jesus in the days ahead. Pray for us as we throw around ideas of how to do this, that we'd be effective ministers of Jesus to this needy group of kids.

So here are some ways you can pray for us:

Pray for the country and people of Haiti. We hear of a lot of aid coming in to help people who have lost everything, pray that it would be distributed wisely and fairly, and that there wouldn't be a lot of corruption through the process. Pray that the leaders of the country would use this help wisely for the good of the people and country of Haiti.
Pray that in the midst of incredible loss and devastation, God would be glorified, and that God's people would allow Him to use them to bring His message of hope to those who need it. Pray for the comfort of the many people who have lost family members, and pray that many would come to know Jesus during this difficult time.
Pray for Linda and I as we are working on the Bible studies for our kids. We hope to start when school starts up, or the beginning of October, whichever comes first!
Pray for God's provision of the financial support we need to continue to purchase food and supplies at these high prices.
We have a lot of items coming for us on the boat. The boat is anticipating coming into Haiti from Miami in early October, pray that all the items for us would make it here ok, that God would protect them from theft and damage. These items help us out in so many ways.
Our friend Jeb is coming down for a couple of days, we look forward to his visit, and already marvel at how God worked out this trip in His perfect timing as Jeb is bringing us some items we really needed. Praise God together with us for His perfect provision.
We have been offered help with our staple foods from World Vision. Unfortunately, just when they were going to bring us our first shipment of food, all the hurricanes hit, and we were not able to receive it. We have no idea where this food is now, or if we'll ever see it, but pray that we would, it would be a huge help as we feed around 100 people 3 times a day!

While Linda and I are very happy to be back at the HOH, we had a great trip visiting friends and family in the UK and in the Miami area. We are so blessed to have had the chance to see some of our supporters in their homes and churches, and to have the privilege of sharing God's work at the HOH with many different groups of people. It is always amazing to us how God brings together people from all walks of life, and from many different countries to form a team to minister to the needy children and young people of Haiti. We appreciate your support and prayers so much, and thank God for your partnership in the ministry He has given us.

Travel and Hurricanes

2008-09-03T11:37:00.003-05:00

Hi, Linda and are are still in the UK. We've had an incredible time reconnecting with friends and supporters of the HOH, and realizing just how many people here in this country love and support the ministry. God has just overwhelmed us with the encouragement and support of our brothers and sisters here in the UK.

As you can imagine, however, we are saddened by the news of hurricanes hitting Haiti, and our homesickness is even stronger now as we long to be there with our kids. They are doing ok after Hurricanes Gustav and Hanna, but there are two more on the way behind them, so we ask you to pray for them. None of them know yet of any of their direct family members being killed, but many other people were heavily affected all over Haiti.

I am just finding out bits and pieces of information, it seems like Port-de-Paix, the town closest to us was quite flooded, no airplanes are able to get in or out at this point as the airstrip is underwater. Gonaives is underwater as well (that's the major city that was hit back in 2004), that is the land link up to our part of Haiti, so at this point traffic is stopped both via land and air. We just heard that a friend of ours lost 5 family members in that town, if you think of it pray for Esther.

Our mission campus in Port-au-Prince sounds like it was hard hit. With houses loosing their roofs, and one of our missionaries being injured. So please pray for them as well.

I'll update you as I can, but thanks for your prayers on our behalf, and on behalf of Haiti.