Hello friends! I love working at MOHI. There’s always something good going on that I can share with you. If there were no “you,” then I’d have nothing to share. We depend on one another and others depend on us.
The Jatropha plants are looking GREAT! They have bushed out nicely. This is the plant that bears seeds that, when pressed, produces a bio-diesel so pure that refining is not even necessary.
Michelle Lacourciere, from Sirona Cares, and Lex attended and presented last week at a workshop dedicated to rural electricity solutions in Haiti. All of the key decision makers were there: President Michel Martelly, the Minister of Energy, The World Bank, CARICOM, Jamaica, the director of the Haitian electric company, EDH and many other influential people. As most of you know, we have been working with Sirona Cares on the Sun Blazer project. We have deployed 6 units into rural areas and have had remarkable results. Read Michelle’s blog here.
We continue to work with Be Like Brit, as they build an orphanage up behind our school, in memory of Britney Gengel, who was killed during the earthquake of January 2010. They are currently working on the security wall surrounding their property. As you can tell in this picture, it’s going very well. Len and Cherylann, Brits parents, are so easy to work with. They believe in creating win-win situations and so do we! Len and Cherylann just celebrated their 23rd wedding anniversary. Congratulations!!!
The “Summer Camp” (school without uniforms) has been going very well. I love hearing the preschool classes in the morning. The teachers spend time teaching them French pronunciations, which means that the sounds are overemphasized. It’s so cute! There’s always lots of singing and rhythm activities. This week, I was amazed as I heard two preschool classes singing a round together. It sounded really good!!! I know lots of adults who still can’t sing a round and these are 3 and 4 year old kids. Impressive! School officially begins tomorrow. Can’t wait to see all those little uniforms in the morning!
Boss Pepe and Huguener recently built the “high school cafeteria.” I’m sure it’s a bit different than YOUR high school cafeteria, though. It’s a metal roof, held up by some lumber, with a gravel base. Our friend John Armour, who visited a few weeks ago, showed them how to make picnic benches, so there will be seating for when they eat.
Church is very enjoyable, as well as challenging. Enjoyable? – The music, singing, praise, worship, seeing friends and listening to their stories… Challenging? – The message. Recently, Lex talked about how we shower, fix our hair and get dressed to go to church and then we look in the mirror to make sure we’re looking good. He challenged us to look beyond if we shaved ok, or if our hair was done nicely, to actually look at the person in the mirror. Who is that person on the inside? Take a good hard look before you go out and complain about other peoples’ faults. Chances are you can find more to cleanup in the mirror than you can pointing your finger at someone else. Yep, it was a challenging message, but I’m up for the challenge!!!
We often have very special times under the choukoun (round pavilion with grass roof) at the beach. We hosted some folks from Amesbury, MA and Carrefour, Haiti for lunch a few weeks ago. Four of the Amesbury folks had been with us during cleaning up and reconstruction efforts about a 1 ½ years ago. They were totally amazed by the changes they witnessed. They were especially thrilled to see the orphans that were with us then had grown up so much and looked so good. They remembered many of the children’s names and were just so pleased to watch them swimming.
Unbeknownst to us, we had a couple of other noteworthy folks that were came to lunch, as well. Madame Pastor Joel Jeunne and her son Johnny accompanied the group. They have a large ministry in Carrefour, with satellite churches all over the country. Although I had never met them, I knew of Pastor Joel, by name. It was an honor to meet his wife and son. We spent a good while talking and hope to find opportunities to collaborate further, as we seek to impact lives with Good News!
Dr. Josette Bijou, former Minister of Health for Haiti, also stopped by and joined us for lunch. Dr. Bijou is well known throughout the country, but has always had a particular interest in Grand-Goave. The road that goes by the back gate of our home is called Rue Jerome Bijou, named after her father. We are grateful that we continue to find favor with God and man.
Thanks to Len Gengel and Moe Finlay for shooting the grades at the MOHI school construction site during their recent trip to Haiti. We’ll soon be forming up the poured walls in the back of the building. Understand that people don’t usually pour walls in rural areas of the country and barely in the capital city, so this is quite a major undertaking for us. Please keep this project in your prayers. Thank you!
Angela Parayson started up our Heart of Worship gathering again on Wednesday evenings. It was so nice to have a time with a small group of people to just totally give our hearts in worship. This was one of my favorite activities at the mission, in the past and I’m hoping it will be a joy to Angela and all those who come with their hearts full of worship for the Lord.
The Hands and Feet Project in Grand-Goave joined us for lunch and beach time this afternoon. There were so many people and so much splashing going on in that ocean! I love to see everyone having such a good time!
Congratulations to our niece Edna, her husband Tony and son Ben, on the birth of Christopher Leon Jones! Edna spent all of four hours from the time Tony called me for a ride to the hospital until she arrived back home with the baby. Just incredible!!! The family is all doing well. The ultrasound tech told them it was a girl, but their eyes at birth told them that he is a boy.
It’s good to have internet service again. It was down for a couple of months. I’m actually posting this using our own system. Yay!!! We appreciate you taking the time to read this and for all your support in prayer and with your finances. There’s lots of work to be done. Come join us!!!