We’re about to roll out a new idea for the people on your Christmas list.  I love this and I hope you will, too.  How often do we want to buy something special for the people we love and we shop and shop and never seem to find the right gift?  MOHI would like to offer you the opportunity to share a special gift with a child in Haiti, on behalf of your loved one at home.  Maybe you’ll choose to buy a pair of chickens, or a bicycle.  We will purchase the gift, give it to the child, take a picture of the child, send the picture and a greeting card to your loved one, describing what they have done for this child and acknowledging that this is a gift from you to them.  The new brochure should be in the next Hope Report you receive.  If you don’t receive the Hope Report and you want to, sign up now.  We are also working on making this available to you online, as well.

We had a great team in last week from Robert Heier Ministries.  They are located in Florida, but the team was from all different states.  The team did medical clinics at our schools in Thozin and St. Etienne.  What a blessing they were.  In St. Etienne, especially, they got to see a lot of the local people, as well as the students.  The people are always so grateful for the advice and free medicine.  We are looking forward to Bob and Sally Heier’s return at the end of the year with yet another team from – can you guess? – from Akron!  This is a group of folks from the Chapel that have come together to form a group called Missions USA and they focus mostly on emergency relief.  Sounds like we’ve got ourselves another group of hard workers coming.  Thank God!

I’d like to encourage you, if you ever find yourself thinking about what it would be like to visit Haiti, come on down!  From now until March is the perfect time to come.  The days are warm and the nights are cool.  It’s a great combo.  There are so many different areas to get involved in, there’s really something for everyone to do. Consider putting together your own group of 8-20 people and contact us for help with the planning.  Maybe you’d like to have a family reunion working together to help the people of Haiti.  Perhaps you have a youth group or missions group in your church that would like to spend a week on the field.  Be creative.  Forego a typical vacation this year and come work with people that need the skills and love that you possess to share with them. Think about it. Pray about it. Do something about it.

Lex attended a meeting last week concerning a program called SEED.  It is a scholarship program, sponsored by USAID and Georgetown University.  We were given applications that we may give to two of our high school graduates.  We had a meeting with all the graduates today and are starting our own application, interview and evaluation process to determine which two students would be best qualified for these scholarships.  Please remember to pray for these young people.  A college education is out of reach for most of them, but they are not on their own.  We want to help as many of them as we can.  If you’d like to help, too, please contact us today.

It’s true that there are sacrifices that we make as a family, living here in Haiti.  But we still manage to have some great times.  Last week, Lex took our son A. Jay and his friend, Romy (from the new Hands and Feet Project in Grand-Goave) to an international soccer match.  We also went to a beach nearby that is accessible only by boat.  As you can see in the picture here, we lost part of our anchor there.

Lex and I are looking forward to another incredible week here in Haiti.  There’s never a dull moment.  We’d love to have you join us!