Welcome to the month of Akron (aka May). This month we will be seeing many familiar and some new faces from University of Akron. Last week we welcomed Stephanie, Matt and Cathi. They spent some time with the orphans, at church, helping with the Hands and Feet Project, building bunk beds and working on a video called…Lost, In Hait. They also spent the afternoon hiking up and down mountains and enjoying a waterfall in the wilderness, near our church and school in St. Etienne. It’s a rather difficult terrain, so everyone felt a sense of accomplishment when it was all done.
Political problems have been up and down these past few weeks. Sadly, a small tent camp, transitional houses that we put up and a transitional building for a local school were all burnt down. The road has been blocked several times, as well. The children are paying the price, as usual, with schools not functioning for over a month now. Please continue to pray for Grand-Goâve. The situation is not simple, but God knows the end from the beginning. We’re praying that would guide those in authority to make the decisions necessary for the citizens of Grand-Goâve to live in peace with security.
After several meeting in person, on conference call and several emails, it has been determined by the engineers, the architect, the building consultant and ourselves, that some buildings we were trying to save, really did need to come down. Most of the demolition was done this past week. It’s a bitter-sweet moment, watching all that work come down, but knowing that something much better is about to be erected.
The Praise and Worship Team at our main church is working on recording an album of – you guessed it, praise and worship music. They are rehearsing three days a week and expect to begin recording soon. Pastor Edon is on the radio 5 days a week. He shares the Good News and plays our worship service music on the air. It has been a good outreach and many people have visited the church, as a result.
We received great news last week. The IRS sent us their determination on our application for tax exemption. We are now officially a 501(c)(3) tax exempt public charity. This is retroactive to December 2010, so any donations made this year to MOHI will be receipted by us and can be used for tax purposes.
We are blessed to have a place to house visitors and missionaries right on the beach. Besides our regular visiting groups, we have been able to provide housing for a half dozen other organizations working in our area. The vision for that property has always been that it would be a place where workers come into to be refreshed, so they can go out into the fields of Haiti to work. The vision is beginning to come to pass. Travis Knipple, from F1 Engineering pointed out to us today, that one year ago, he slept outside on the slab which became the choukoun (pictured below). It had 2 1/2 colums built and no roof, at all. Tonight, he’s sleeping on a bunk bed in a solidly-built mission house. Praise God!