School has not officially started. The government decided that school won’t open this year until October 3rd. Instead, we are holding a Summer Academic Camp for about 800 children and youth. There’s one difference between the two: no uniforms for camp.

I moved into my new office this week. I was a little nervous about a couple of aspects, but so far, I think it is a good move all around. It’s a very different atmosphere – especially at 7:15AM when 3 year-old through 6th grade kids start showing up. My office opens into Pastor Edon and Maestro Odenet’s office, so I’m tucked away. I like the seclusion. It helps me to be more productive. No internet is problematical, but our main system is hardly working either – a good topic for prayer and the reason there are no pics in this post.

My first few days in my new office have been quite enlightening. I’ve discovered that 3 year olds cry a lot when they first arrive at “school” (Summer Camp in this particular situation) in the morning – especially the first week. I’ve witnessed that we have some incredible teachers, who are able to project their voices as well as any professional opera singer. Mostly, though, it’s exciting to see the kids repeating what the teacher says and realize that their futures look brighter because of the work that MOHI is doing in their country.

Gamaniel’s family is back and rarin’ to go. Nathan grew a lot in the six weeks they were gone. He’s now using full sentences and is as curious as ever. Angela will be starting up the Heart of Worship again. Those of us that were involved in it in years past are so excited. I told Angelise about it this afternoon and I couldn’t get her to stop talking and laughing afterwards. Heart of Worship is a more intimate time of worship in a smaller group setting. The sole purpose of meeting is to worship. This group was instrumental in helping to develop a greater freedom in worship in our Sunday morning services. I’m looking forward to seeing wonderful fruit from this group!

Lex started a Bible understanding competition a couple of weeks ago. The goal is to encourage more personal Bible study. Questions are based on scripture from the Gospels and the Book of Acts. What a blast! The Sunday evening service is cut a little short, to make time for the question and answer time. Haitians, in general, are very animated, which makes for a great time of debate and laughter during this competition. I noticed that while not everyone was actively offering answers, not one person left during these 45 minutes. EVERYONE was engaged in this activity. Isn’t that awesome?

Len Gengel from Be Like Brit spent the better part of this week in Haiti with us. The perimeter wall around the orphanage property is going up pretty quickly now and (of course!) it’s just beautiful. Len took some time to look over the school construction site for MOHI and helped to lay out some more markers. Excavation of the remaining footings will commence tomorrow.

John Armour, who created the Aquavast system that we use to provide the best water in Haiti to our foreign guests and neighbors, spent a few days with us this week, too. What a blessing! The man is like a walking encyclopedia. His main purpose for visiting was to upgrade our water system, making it totally automated. It can also be monitored State-side. If we run into any problems, he’ll be able to diagnose them from over there in Florida. John also helped out on several other fronts – electrical issues, building picnic tables and demolishing part of the former orphanage building to make room for the new school. No matter what he was working on, he always had Haitians there learning to do what he was doing. It was really awesome. What a blessing!

I’ve thought a lot about 9-11 this week. One thing that 9-11 brought to the forefront of many of our minds is that we truly are mortal. The morning of 9-11, people going to work in the Twin Towers didn’t know that their time was up. We won’t know, either. What do you want to do before you die? Stop waiting for “someday.” Life is lived today, not tomorrow and not yesterday. Let us use the remaining time to make a difference in the lives of others.

And what of eternity? What if this were to be MY last day? Am I ready to meet my Maker? I like to find answers to the really deep questions like this in the Bible. I encourage you to take some time to read in your Bible today. Don’t wait for tomorrow. If you need advice on where to begin, send us an email. We’d be happy to give you some ideas of where to find answers in your Bible.