It’s been a very busy and really great week, here in Grand-Goave. I thought you might be ready to hear a little more about day to day activities here.

Pastor Carlos Pereirra (Fall River, MA), a member of our Board of Directors, spent last week here with us, along with two men from his church. As is always the case with Pastor Carlos, he comes to Haiti to serve, wanting to be a blessing to us and the Haitian people. He preached several times at the church in Thozin, very basic messages that were very life giving. We’ve heard a lot of shouts from folks in the congregation, as they tell us how much these messages blessed them.

Pastor Carlos’ team continued with the painting of the guest house. It’s being done little by little. They helped construct a work building where we will be making blocks for construction. They also helped to prepare the area where we have a well in the village of Icondo, that needs to be cleaned out. It has given very little water since the earthquake last year. This well will be used for the new orphanage and it’s critical that it’s working before we construction resumes, full speed ahead.

Pastor Carlos’ church will send us barrels of supplies from time to time. Their last shipment of FIVE barrels arrived while the team was still here. I thought that was pretty cool that they could both pack and unpack the barrels. It’s always fun for us to see what kinds of things were sent. These barrels had lots of shoes, sandals, clothing, hammers, canned foods, school supplies, room sprays, toothpaste, stuffed animals… Many thanks to the people of Fall River who donated all these supplies.

Drex and Jo, from the Hands and Feet Project, hosted a small group that helped to prepare things for the orphanage construction. They helped with MOHI construction, too!

This week was the end of the first work crew’s time on the road project. Tomorrow we will have another 1000 people start working. They will be working several miles up into the mountains and so we chose people from the mountains to work for the month. What a job it has been for Jephte to oversee. This week Lex had to step in a little more often to talk with the people about how they will be paid. Yesterday, we started dividing up the food portion of their pay and about 1/3 of the workers came to the mission to receive their food. We hope to finish up the rest of them early this week.

This past week I discovered a great secret. I have a great hide away office sitting down at the beach just waiting for me on those days where I really need peace and quiet to get my work done. Friday and Saturday I spent there and I felt like I’d accomplished 2 weeks worth of work in 2 days! Those of you who have visited us in Haiti over the past year or so know that it’s difficult to concentrate in my office. I’m so glad to have discovered my knew hiding place.

We hosted a concert at the Mission tonight. National TV and radio stations were there to broadcast it across the country. Huguener, a MOHI high school student who will be graduating in June, is a favorite on the guitar and was hoisted up high by the crowd while he played. Where do you suppose he learned to play guitar? At Mission of Hope, of course. A young woman, born without arms, was invited to share with the people how she manages. Many of the things normally done with one’s hands, she does with her feet. She encouraged the crowd of about 1200 people to give their all for Jesus.

Our heartfelt gratitude to all of you who remembered to pray for us this past week. We are dependent on God’s grace. Many thanks, as well, to all those who donated, enabling us to continue this work in Haiti. God bless you all!