Chris and Joy Youell are back in Pennsylvania, after giving two weeks in service here at Mission of Hope International.  They served so selflessly, worked hard, thought on their feet and touched many lives, as they spent their days interviewing our students for the child sponsorship program.  I love that they made such a great effort to speak Kreyol with the kids.  By the end of their trip, they worked better/quicker without a translator!   They also spent time with the children at the Hands and Feet Project and painted some railings in the afternoons/evenings.  Chris is a great photographer/videographer.  He got some really great shots and also interviewed us for a video.  We are praying for Chris and Joy.  We know they are missing Haiti after this trip.

MOHI’s radio broadcast airs at noon, Monday through Friday.  Pastor Edon shares Bible snippets, plays music from our church services and updates people on local happenings.  We’ve heard from people who were feeling down when the broadcast came on.  They have been encouraged that with God’s help they can keep moving forward.  Many have also commented on the music and visited the church, as a result.

The Sirona Sunblazer project continues to pick up steam.  Lex spent the beginning of the week in Port-au-Prince with Michelle Lacourciere, at a CARICOM Energy Exposition.  Another large organization is very interested in financing the project for some villages north of Port-au-Prince.  They will be meeting with Lex and Michelle on Monday, as we are all praying for the right connections and the funds to come through to begin assembling the units here in Haiti.  The six existing units continue to perform well and are impacting hundreds of families already.

Vehicle maintenance in this country is just a nightmare.  Most (perhaps all) roads are in varying levels of disrepair.  The vehicles are attacked daily by inordinate amounts of dust (due to a lack of paved roads and grass in yards!) or, if it rains the “dust” turns to mud.  Most roads have craters, rather than pot holes!  On top of this, it is very difficult to find a decent mechanic.  Even if you find a good one, he’s never good at everything.  Another part of the nightmare – parts!  Some parts are just not available at all, so the mechanics “make” the parts, which has its own set of problems, as you can well imagine.   On top of all this, time is never “of the essence.”  When we first came to Haiti, we went 10 months without a vehicle, while our truck was in the garage in Port-au-Prince.  Can you imagine?  We were very fortunate to have a truck left, as our truck certainly became a “parts supplier” for other vehicles the mechanic was working on.

Lex works so hard at trying to stay on top of vehicle maintenance and repair.  He’s been having some issues with one of the vehicles and decided that he would try driving over the border, into the Dominican Republic, to see if he could make out any better there.  He and Jeff drove about 8 hours into Santo Domingo, where our missionary friends, Bud and Karen Simon, put them up for two nights.  Bud brought Lex to his own mechanic, who completed repairs to Lex’s satisfaction in one day.  Bud and Karen introduced Lex to different folks that they are working with in the DR and he visited some of the places they are working, as well.  It was a quick and very productive trip.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post and for supporting MOHI.  More to come next week!