Dec 26,2011

We know everyone has had a very busy holiday season.  The same here.  On Dec 9th the Runk's arrrived on compound to spend a couple of months here. We love having them and of course the children are a delight.Dec 10th Ronnie Blackwell from Danville, KY brought a team of 8 men to be with us for a week.  WOW !! we worked them hard. The first day we  sorted and sacked over 500 Christmas bags. Thanks to the team...they were able to bring down 8 duffel bags of toys from our home church Walnut Memorial Baptist Church in Owensboro. These toys plus all the extra toys that were brought down during the year made up the gifts for the school children.  The next few days the men worked on building forms to make a concrete pour on the expanded grease pit where we work on vehicles. On Thursday we did the pour....around 19 yards of cement all mixed on the ground. Friday was a day of blessings.  We gave out the Christmas gifts to our Kindergarten, Morning School and the Afternoon School  The smiles and the laughter on the face of the children was worth it all.  Sorry each of you couldn't be here to share in the give away. As the team shared in their debriefing....Friday was worth the entire trip. Another ministry shared over 300 boxes of gifts so we were able to give to other schools and orphanages.Wednesday we gave to another Kindergarten of 40 children plus 106 kids up the mountain at Blanquet school.  There we were also able to give out dresses made by many ladies in churches in the US.
Thank you so much for helping make this time of the year special for so many.
Christmas Eve:  What a special time.  It is the night when we invite all our staff...American and Haitian that  live on the compound to come and share in our home.  We started with a time of prayer then we read the Christmas story found in Luke 2 ...in both Creole and English.  It was time for the food and fellowship around the table. As we finished the food the kids were anxious to see what was under the tree. Mme Girard, Cecile, Saul, his wife and three children opened their gifts.  One gift was a song book so that started our time of singing. Everyone participated. We had quartets, solos, etc. Lots of laughter and fun. As we ended in prayer we knew we had just experienced Christmas.
Christmas Day.  The Heady's and Runk's shared a lovely Christmas breakfast at the Erickson's home. We opened gifts and then it was time for David to go to Shekina to preach. At 2pm we had dinner at our home. We invited the only 3 Americans  with Samaritan's Purse left on the compound for the holidays. All 11 of us had a great time of food and fellowship....way too much food!!!

Dec 7, 2011

WHEW!  Great days of travel but wonderful to be back in Haiti. We returned about a week ago.  Catching up is always a challenge.  We had a blessed time in our 3 Mission Conferences...Lee University, Christ Church and Global Outreach. Our travel to visit 6 missionary units in Ecuador was also a blessing. It is exciting to see how the Lord is using each one of them to accomplish His ministry in each of their areas.  As we visited each one I'm saying..."I would love to be here". Ecuador is such a beautiful country.  They have lush country sides and lots of vegetation. However...my heart was at peace when we returned to Haiti knowing this is the place the Lord has called us and His call has never been more clear.  As we age...David will be 72 the 20th of this month...we know there are things in the future that will change but our hearts for Haiti are still strong. Working in a physical way may not be able to continue long term but working in the spiritual will always  be a possibility. God called...and that call has not been revoked.
We have a BUSY year 2012  ahead as our team schedule is FULL. This is so exciting knowing that God is still calling out people to work in His Kingdom.
Please pray for laborers to help.  We need an office manager, a teacher to help oversee the schools, at least 2 couples to come and work along side the staff we have now.

Oct.19,2011

David's trip to Africa has been good. Long and tiring but very timely. He and Pete will return to the US Thursday night. They will arrive in Memphis and hopefully David will be back in KY on Friday. We will be leaving on Sunday for TN to do two different Mission conferenes that will go from Oct 24th- Oct 30th then on to MS and Ecuador. It is rare that David and I travel without the other but this trip has given me time in KY to spend time with family and get some much needed things done here such as preparing us to be on the road and in the air traveling for the next full month. We covet your prayers....you know we aren't getting any younger!!!
Please pray for our staff in Haiti. They are doing a wonderful job but the load is heavy. They just finished a team of 10 and all went well. They showed the Jesus film in a new area in TiTanyen and 40 people accepted Jesus as their personal savior. PTL! They have another team coming in about 10 days. I know they will need this time to catch up on all their administrative things too. They continue to work on the construction of the new church in TiTanyen and they have started another home for a family still living in a tent.

Oct.7th, 2011

David is flying to South Africa today. He and Pete Gibson ...from our home office...will be visiting several of our missionaries in Zambia and South Africa. Please pray for them as they make this journey. We know it will be an encouragement for those they are going to see. I will be staying in KY while David is traveling.
The last two months I have been filling in for the nurses in the Burn Clinic...first Sheryl...while they took a much needed time out and then for Linda as she and Glen took some time to visit family and take care of some business. Burns are such a terrible injury. It is so difficult to watch the suffering of these patients but so rewarding to see their burns heal. We have many patients for 3,4, 5 months and more. You really get attached to them. We have a 94 year old lady that was burned on both her legs from her knees down. Her family has been so faithful to bring her every day. Some days it took four of us to minister to her needs. What a strong lady...both in the physical and in the spiritual. Many days we sang to calm her as we dressed her legs.
Sept 21st-26th.Sally Betro and Teresa from Atlanta, GA came to do a teacher's conference. What a blessing to have people pour their lives into our teachers and give them teaching tips and of course encouragement.
It is always hectic trying to leave Haiti for a few weeks....trying to get everything caught up so the load won't be so heavy on those we leave. David and I will be in the US for several weeks. When he returns from South Africa we have couple of days to do his laundry and head out again.
Oct 24- 25th we will be in a Missions Conf. in Cleveland, TN at Lee University
Oct 26-30 we will be at Christ Church Mission conference in Nashville, TN. Return to KY to repack and go to Tupelo on Nov 2nd for a Mission conference and GO Board meeting. We should be back in KY on Nov 6th and then we both fly to Ecuador Nov. 10-21st. We have several missionary units to visit during these days. REST?????

Sept 21, 2011

The Brenize's arrived on the 8th. Eileen always comes with "goodies" in hand. This time it was peaches, apples and she always brings David her homemade fruit cake. They were a blessing to all. Dave did so many maintenance jobs...hard to name them all but the steps to my container are much safer now because he remade them. Eileen had meetings everyday with some of her Flannelgraph program leaders. She sent in 8 new complete set of the Flannelgraph and now it isn't enough because more programs are starting up. PTL!
Sept 10th a team from our home area arrived. What a blessing. Dr Michael Braden...eye doctor in Owensboro...his wife Trish, son Jarrett and daughter Ellen along with Tommy Heifner.. Matt and Leesa Pendley. They set up an eye clinic in our Burn Clinic. They had told me they wanted to give complete eye exams not just check to see if they needed reading glasses. The old people from our feeding program were the first patients. What a challenge....so many people here cannot read. We had to use charts with symbols but even then one of the old ladies told me she could see the shape but she had no idea what to call it. Michael was so good as he patiently took so much time with each one. Each patient that needed glasses were allowed to select a frame and then the team took the frames back to Owensboro, KY where they will make each prescription for each person. We will bring them back to Haiti after our time out in the US.
The greatest blessing was to see the patients faces when they received a new Bible. They had their choice of a French or Creole. Some said "why give a Bible to the ones who can't read?" They will take this Bible home and someone in their family will read it to them>>>> The team thought they would give away 60 Bibles....they gave 123 away. PTL!!!

Sept. 7, 2011

Everyone has been working toward school opening on Sept 5th...now the government changed the dates until Oct 3rd. Sure makes for a late date getting out next summer.
The wedding dresses were a "hit". Eight couples were married at TiTanyen church last Saturday. It is such a blessing to see these couples get their lives on the right track. So many have just lived together so long and now that they are saved they see the need to marry. The church helps them as much as they are able but you can see what a blessing the wedding dresses are for each bride.
The Brumley's returned on Friday. Great to have them back. The Erickson's left on Sat. and will be out for over 3 weeks. Pray for them as they travel to 3 states to see their kids and grandchildren. Clinic continues to be very busy. We never lack for patients. I filled in for Sheryl while she was out and now am filling in for Linda while she is away. August is the month I give out school funds for sponsored children. The families of sponsored school children are so grateful to receive these funds. We want to thank each one of you who supports a child in school. Every year we think prices can't go higher and every year they do...especially their books.
Dave and Eileen Brenize will arrive tomorrow for a week. It is always good to have them back here. They ministered with us for 6 years on the GO compound. Eileen continues to direct a ministry called Hope for Tomorrow...there are around 30 Haitian teams in our area and the mountains that do flannelgraph programs weekly for the children in their village. What a ministry.

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 !!

July 28, 2011

Picked up a team of 12 yesterday. They are from Fellowship Church in Brentwood, TN. Two adults with 10 9th and 10th graders. They will be working with a children's program in TiTanyen for a couple of days and then with another children's program in the mountains on Saturday. Lots of painting for them to do too. The Burn Clinic addition is finished and ready for a coat of paint.
David Jr, Betsy, Ben Scott and Mitch (a friend of David Jr's) will arrive tomorrow. On Saturday a team of 9 will arrive from Westport Rd Baptist Church, Louisville, KY . We have 5 others here drilling wells too. Never dull.....lots of people. I've run out of beds to sleep people until after Aug 6th. PRAY for our strength as we attempt to mix all these groups and accomplish what the Lord wants done in the next 10 days.