Joyous Moments

After two intense medical teams, back to back, I think all of us were looking forward to a little breather – not that it happened, mind you.  It was a great week of catching up on some communications and perhaps even expanding the vision a bit.  We work with some really great folks, both Haitian and foreign, who don’t like to rest on their laurels.  It’s good to be with people who encourage you to keep pressing forward.

There were two extraordinarily exciting announcements that came our way this week…

Stuart Rankin and Maike Kraft, our friends from Sturbridge, MA and Flensburg, Germany, have announced their engagement.  We are thrilled for them!  They were here with us at MOHI in Haiti during the tragic earthquake in 2010.  They both have been such a blessing to this mission over the years.  I asked one of our workers if she remembered them and she said, “Yes, I remember Maike and Stubacha.”  (Our term of endearment for Stuart.)  I feel like all of Grand-Goâve is rejoicing over this news.  We wish them a life full of happiness and all manner of blessings!

Our good friends Pastor Kevin and Tammy Groder made it official this week.  They are moving to Haiti to pursue full time ministry here.  They will be partnering with MOHI, while pursuing their goals in the area of business, evangelism, Bible school and church planting.  We are excited for them as they takes the necessary steps to transition into their new home at the missionary compound.  What a blessing it will be to work full time with our brother and sister who know us so well.

We enjoyed a special dinner (thanks to Len Gengel!) with our friends from Be Like Brit, the Hands and Feet Project and Lifeline Christian Mission.  We are so blessed to have special friends here in Haiti that can truly relate to each other.  We each understand “some” of the nuances of our simple (yet very complicated) lives, here on foreign soil.  Some things just can’t be explained fully enough for our family and friends back home to understand and yet the people we minister to may consider these things as normal and not understand why we react the way we do.  We really do appreciate Len opening his doors to all of us.

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We met Emery and Jeannette Gaudet many years ago, now.  They were having a yard sale to benefit an outreach in Aquin, Haiti and we were missionaries going to yard sales looking for used books and cheap deals to bring back to Haiti with us.  Since then Emery has been stopping by at MOHI on his way to Aquin each year.  Last year he spent some time helping with the foundation for the school.  He was happy today to see the building in person, after following the progress all year long.

HOPE FM 106.3 returned on the air this weekend.  Sometimes things that should be so simple are so difficult to get done here.  With a new antenna and some other minor repairs, I was listening to great music yesterday.  It’s always “pumped” into the yard for everyone to enjoy and it reaches into my office without any difficulty.  (If you know anything about Haïti, you know we LOVE music and the louder the better!)

Bye Bye Marcy

Marcy has been with us in Haïti for the past two months and will be heading home to Pennsylvania this week.  She has been involved in gardening, medical clinic, teaching English and has been a willing set of hands to pitch in.  We pray she has a great harvest this summer back home.  Hopefully the worst of the cold is over already.  Thanks, Marcy!

Angela and Nathan have gone back to the States for 5 weeks.  We’ve known since October that it was coming, but it’s never fun to say goodbye for such a long time.  We’ll stay in touch, though, as Angela continues to look out for our burn baby (see updates below).

Construction Continues

This week we had a good size crew working on the new school, pouring floors, applying finish plaster and painting.  For some reason, I am just thrilled every time I look out my office window and see the concrete floor in the entryway of the school.  There’s still a ways to go, so if you’d like to impact Haitian kids with a quality education, please consider donating to complete phase 1 of this project.  Thank you!

 

PB & PB

You’d think the preschoolers would be getting tired of peanut butter, but that is definitely not the case.  It’s such a treat for them.

Each time we give the peanut butter out, we think about all the support we received from our friends in America, who brought barrels and barrels of peanut butter to us.  Some of the people on Emery’s team were from Douglas, MA.  It was the Douglas Fire Department that won the Peanut Butter Competition between area fire departments.  It was pretty neat to make that connection and for them to see the area that folks from Douglas are impacting.

The little cups of peanut butter you see Lex giving out in the pictures were given to us by Bless Back Worldwide, out of Charlotte, NC.  Yummy!  Thank you!

Burn Baby

Totou has been heavy on the hearts of many of us over the past few weeks.  We are so happy to continue to share good reports about his recovery from severe burns on his entire right forearm.

In this picture you can clearly see the pigmentation is returning to his skin.  He no longer cries when his dressing is changed or during the physical therapy, so pain is no longer a problem.

Cindy Bennett, who is a PA specializing in burns, was here when Totou first came to us.  She has been on top of his treatments, all the way in Ohio, giving Angela lots of advice.  Recently she shared the following with me: “What a blessing this is…you have done so well with him. Many people have been praying and it is always amazing to see the Lord working through his servants! Knowing about burns, this is a miracle healing…should have taken at least one more week and maybe a skin graft for as deep as it was! Thank you all for what you do, May God continue to shine on you and your work in Haiti!”

A Few Random Pics from this week…

You might find Paul Fallon’s latest blog entry interesting. I know I did. It’s about his recent visit to the village of Aux Parques in La Gonâve.  It’s titled “Island within Island.”  Enjoy.