Merline was thrilled when she was presented with two chickens for Christmas. Thanks to Jack & Wanda Lewandoski for their generosity!

I love that friends, partners and child sponsors are thinking about the people of Haiti this Christmas season.  Donations have begun coming in to purchase Gift Shop items for children here.  As you can see in these pictures, the gifts are a great hit.  Some people just want to give gifts to these kids and others like the idea of giving the gift on behalf of a loved one.  They purchase the gift and we send a picture and card to their loved one.  It’s so much fun to see these kids so unexpectedly blessed.  There’s still time, if you’d like to participate in this program, too.  There are lots of really neat gifts available, like fruit trees, goats and donkeys!  Just click here to choose what gifts you’d like to give.

8x8x53 feet of food for schools in Grand-Goâve and Petit-Goâve arrived this week.

This week we received two shipping containers of food from the World Food Program.  We will be distributing this food to 29 different schools so that they can implement feeding programs.  Handling food in a country where most of the people are hungry can be very challenging.  As John Armour was pointing out to me today, there are four things that need to be dealt with before a person can put their mind to anything else: water, food, clothing and shelter.  When people are hungry, all they can think about is getting food.  I thank God that He has truly given us favor and that He provides the very best security.

The kids at the Hands and Feet Project still seem to be doing great.  Granted, some of them are getting into a little more mischief than they used to, but overall the kids have melded together well.  Some of them have made really good friends and are already concerned about what will happen when the kids from Jacmel go back home.  The girls all came down to the mission compound today to enjoy some beach time.  When they finished swimming, they all started gathering almonds (they are coming into season right now and we have lots of almond trees!)  They took rocks and stood at the ocean wall, smashing the almonds and eating the nuts.  Kettia, however, was laying under the choukoun in a hammock.  She said to me, “Madame, I’m hungry.”  I told her, “Well, Kettia, all the other girls are over there making food and eating while you are laying around.”  The girls all thought that was pretty funny.  They continued working and Kettia continued laying around.  I guess she wasn’t that hungry after all.

Kitchen construction at the missionary compound where all our visitors eat and sleep.

We are excited to have a team from Mission USA (Akron, OH) joining Bob Heier Ministries with us at the end of the month.  They will be doing medical clinics and lots of construction.  To the left is a picture of the kitchen construction (what you can see behind the mango tree, that is!)  They will be putting the roof on it.  Marie Yves is sure to be their best friend.  Right now she cooks downtown and we have to transport the food to the mission compound.  She’s looking forward to cooking for all our guest right there near the ocean.

Cement is in high demand after the earthquake. Here you see a truck being unloaded at MOHI.

John Armour and his son Austin arrived just in time to help us get the school construction started up again.  We ran into problems with international money transfers and our US bank.  What should have taken 2-3 days, ended up taking about 2 months!  After the fourth try, we finally received the funds and are ready to continue.  Our excavation needs some cleaning up after sitting and getting rained on.  We will then form up the back wall, which will be poured-concrete with lots of reinforcement steel inside of it.  As you can see in the picture above, we will be using a LOT of cement to get this job done!

This Christmas Eve the church in Thozin will be having a celebration for/by the children in the afternoon and an all night celebration for/by the youth.  The churches in St. Etienne and La Gonave will also be having special events that evening.  It’s so awesome when we don’t have to “make” the churches do something, but they actually take the lead.

When we started the church in Thozin, it was very difficult to get people to take communion.  This morning I was moved to tears as I watched 260 people go to the alter to receive the sacraments, bread and wine – reminders of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for us.  The bread representing His body, that was broken for us.  The wine representing His blood that was shed for the remission of our sin. Some things we cannot do by ourselves.  I’m so grateful that Jesus can and He has made a way for these 260 people to draw close to him.

This is one of the most beautiful views possible. The picture does not do it justice. This is the Be Like Brit orphanage being constructed in Grand-Goâve.

It’s great to see the progress that Be Like Brit is making on their new orphanage.  We all love working with this organization to bring Hope to the lives of children in Haïti.  By working together we are able to share resources to benefit both and ultimately the people of Haïti.

That’s a little bit about what’s happening around MOHI.  Thank you so much for your continued support!