Team Work

We had a great week with our friends from Bless Back Worldwide (BBW), architect Paul Fallon and electrician Ted Bronson.  The  BBW team worked like a well-oiled machine.  Their main goal was to perform well-child checks on all 800+ students at the Thozin and St. Etienne campuses.  Goal accomplished!

Team from Bless Back Worldwide (Charlotte, NC)

Regular clinic patients, as well as many students with fevers and cold symptoms were cared for all week.  Dr. Chris Kibler (Dentist) and Susan Thomson (dental hygienist) worked so hard, not only checking teeth, but also doing extractions and cleanings.  The team was able to distribute food and clothing in one of the poorer villages in our area, as well as dedicating the house that BBW paid to have constructed.  Madame Nelson and her three children were so blessed to be the recipient of a new home, Bible and a special “God Bless Our Home” plaque.  This is the third home that BBW has purchased for families in need.  Thank you!!!

Leah in front of the restaurant (turned clinic for the day!) in St Etienne

St Etienne students

St Etienne

Thozin well-child checks, pictures and education

Madame Nelson’s new home

Food Distribution

Arriving at Thozin

Paul Fallon, who spent two weeks of each month here for all of 2012, is a always a welcome addition to our missionary/expats team.  The timing of his return is just perfect.  He helped our carpenters figure out the roof for the electrical room.  He’s been doing estimates for finishing the school, as well as helping us to think through some changes.  He was also able to talk medical space with Melissa, from BBW.  They are very involved in our medical ministry here and it was wonderful to see her have the opportunity to talk with Paul about room designs.  We also decided to move our science lab out of the new school and into the medical clinic area, where it can serve both our students and the clinic.  The room in the school will now be utilized strictly as a computer lab, as we’ve discovered we cannot combine the library space with computer space.  All is well and we are very pleased with having the computer lab and library connected, but separate.

Electrical

Ted found himself a great electrician from Petit Goave and the two of them have started doing the “heavy” electrical work, preparing for the transformer to be installed and the service to be brought into the new electrical building.

School

Carpet for the library and computer lab

So many exciting things are happening at the school.  The students and staff are so excited to be in the new classrooms.  They’re even coming to school looking crisper and more professional than ever.  The things happening in the school are exciting, too.

It always exciting to meet the new preschool (3 year olds) class each Fall.  The kids are so tiny and adorable.  This year all of our preschoolers start each day with some physical activity out doors.  That means that most mornings when the missionaries arrive at the Thozin campus, we find about a hundred little cuties clapping, jumping, wiggling, singing and/or flying like butterflies.  They’re just so irresistible!

Student Frenzy

Reflection

Lex brought up an interesting point for me this morning.  He was asking, “Where do you go when things are going wrong?  What do you do when confusion reigns?  Where do you turn when disaster strikes?”  He said, “We all knew Who to turn to each time the earth shook in 2010!”  We all voiced our agreement, as we remembered the night of January 12th.  The tremors never stopped for more than 15 minutes at a time.  Many of us were gathered in the church yard, where we tried (most unsuccessfully) to sleep.  We always knew when another tremor was coming.  They would come from the east and we would hear camps of people to the east of us start shouting out, “Jezi, O!” (Oh, Jesus!)  We’d all brace for the tremor and shout out to Jesus in the midst of it.  Then to our west we would hear the next camp and the next, shouting out likewise.  In that moment when the earth no longer seems to be solid, we all knew that Jesus was the place of refuge and help.

Did I mention that I am happy to be back in Haiti?  I am!  And I’m looking forward to the many friends that will be coming to visit this Winter/Spring.  Drop me a line, if you’re interested in coming, too!

Horses getting washed down, just down the beach from the MOHI missionary compound