Wednesday August 31, 2011

Despite all the troubling weather in and around the Caribbean we were blessed to only receive a little wind and about 3/4" of rain out of Irene. We know that the tents and temporary shelters would have had a difficult time standing in hurricane force winds and rain.
The Gateway team left on Saturday. What a great team. Really flexible. Linda Sullivan collected and sent down a large number of wedding dresses along with mother's of the bride or matron of honor dresses so we needed to find a place for all of them. (we loan these out to ladies in the community). Linda Erickson and I cleaned out the back of one of our containers and had one of our guys build racks to hang all the dresses on. What a blessing to have them in good plastic zip bags. We have them hanging in order of sizes, etc. So much easier to work with when the ladies come. We also have a section in the container where they can try the dresses on. The team ladies were so helpful in organizing all these.
We continue to work on the new TiTanyen church. What a huge undertaking. To date this will be the largest church we've been involved in constructing. We are praying that we have a lot of partners come along side us to carry the financial load of the construction. The church congregation is doing its part. Each week they have a "contest" between the men and women on giving to the construction of the church. YEAH!! for the women. They have out given the men 5 weeks to 1. It is a joy to see them giving with a cheerful heart.

August 23,2011

The last few days have been "catch up" time for us. Getting lots of things done that have to be set aside when we have teams.

We've been so blessed to have Mary King staying here on the compound while her husband Curt is well drilling. They've worked in Haiti for years and she is a nurse and speaks Creole. She has been so gracious to work in the clinic while Sheryl Brumley and family take a much needed time out....speaking of Sheryl...she had surgery to remove a complex cyst off her thyroid. The surgery required removing the right lobe of her thyroid. PTL! all the tests came back normal and they will return to Haiti on schedule the first of Sept.

Last Thursday Linda Erickson, Mary King and I had the pleasure of doing crafts for the 150 youth attending the Youth Conference at TiTanyen Church. Thanks to the last teams here on the compound we had white T-shirts and sun visors for them to paint and decorate. They made "salvation bracelets" and we had enough other new T-shirts to give everyone a new shirt to take home. The biggest hit of the day was Mary teaching the youth to make balloon animals.

I started giving out school funds to the sponsored children thinking school was starting Sept 4th. What a disappointment to all when the Minister of Education decided that schools won't open until Oct 3rd. They opened in Oct last year. We understood this was due to the earthquake. God knows?

Gateway Church in TX sent a team of 8 here last Saturday. They have been very flexible to do whatever. The kitchen in the Afternoon school needed major work. They've scraped, washed and painted the walls. The guys picked up the stoves with 5 large burners and brought them to the GO compound to be degreased, scraped, cleaned and painted. They also installed 3 new burners. The ladies have painted all the brown trim on the Kindergarten...lots of block windows so it's been very time consuming.

August 9, 2011

We've been extremely busy since our last update but it's been a great time of ministry. The Fellowship team painted the clinic addition the first couple of days and ministered with a young peoples program in TiTanyen...overseen by the Brumley's. These are some of the children in the village who don't attend church. They come to the program each Saturday for a Bible story, games and food. On Saturday the team went up the mountain to another children's program and ministered there for a few hours. The kids were thrilled as the American played games, etc.
While part of our staff was working with the Fellowship team David was at the airport picking up a team from Westport Rd Baptist Church in Louisville, KY. This team consisted of the pastor, his wife and two teenage children, the church's administrator and her husband and 3 teenagers.
These teams, along with 5 people here working with well drilling and David Jr. his wife Betsy, Ben Scott and a 19 year old young man from Louisville made for a GREAT week of ministry. Accomplished a lot too. David Jr and Betsy took one team and I took the other team. Both of our schools were painted inside and out. The Fellowship team was able to spend a day ministering and blessing another orphanage in TiTanyen. My Kindergarten director had asked me the week before if we had someone who could paint some more cartoon characters on the outside of the school. I told her we didn't have anyone that I knew of who could do this. Well..........God always has a plan. Alyssa, the pastor's daughter, said.."Oh, I can do that." She sketched out characters on the wall and the rest of the team helped paint them all. They are so cute. The Louisville team also did a VBS for an orphanage about 4 miles up the road from us. They had a great time. One young man from the orphanage plays the trumpet. As we arrived and got out of the van he started playing the Star Spangled Banner. The team was shocked and so was I. Then they played their Haitian national anthem. It was a joy for all.
Ben and David Jr also helped us with some much needed maintenance............electrical, etc. They shared with everyone that they were not electricians but sons of electricians so they wouldn't guarantee their work.
What a week....16 teenagers and not one complaint or whining out of any of them. God is good !! Great groups !!