Construction Update

This was a very productive week with construction.  Paul Fallon, the architect who designed the new school building, returned and supervised laying out block and preparing the form to do another concrete pour on Monday.  It’s so exciting to see work above the ground level!  Here are some shots from this week:

Out of the ground!

Food Distribution

MOHI is currently providing food to children in 31 different schools in Haiti

Did you know that in addition to feeding the students at the MOHI schools, we also distribute food to 29 other schools in Petit-Goave and Grand-Goave?  It’s true.  The World Food Program has food and MOHI has the staff and necessary vehicles to get the food to the children who need it.  When you support MOHI, you are literally impacting the lives of thousands of children who would otherwise be hungry.

I’ve heard my husband speak many times about starting school at the age of 10.  He was so excited to finally go to school.  But he also shares about putting some rock salt under his tongue in order to trick his body into thinking he’d eaten before he went to school.  Perhaps some of you reading this have had similar experiences of truly being hungry and not knowing how you are going to eat.  Thank God, most of us have never been in that situation, but we can certainly empathize with those who are hungry right now.

I love this verse from Hebrews 13:16 “And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”  There are times when I think I’m really sacrificing to please God, but are those sacrifices truly pleasing to Him?  Well, according to this verse, if I am sharing with others, then yes, He is pleased.  I find it interesting, however, that God is talking about sacrificing.  To me, that would be not only sharing out of my abundance, but denying myself of something I want, for the sake of another.  Ouch.  That’s hitting a little closer to home.

MOHI Radio Station on the Horizon

We are filling out paperwork to obtain a radio license for MOHI.  The whole mission is buzzing with the prospect of HOPE Radio (if the name is available!) becoming a reality.  Pastor Edon has been working on the weekly program schedule and getting lots of input from all of our staff.  Some of the programs he’s considering right now include programs geared toward children, youth, men, women, parenting, married couples, community updates, nutrition and health, Bible Education, Contemporary Christian music, emergency preparedness, driving tips…  Radio is still one of the important forms of communicating in this country.  Please let us know if you would like to be involved in this ministry, too.

School in Session

Preschoolers writing at the chalk board

I love it when school is in session.  I really enjoy seeing and interacting with the students.  I love seeing them make an effort to learn, the smiles and recess.  These little guys are learning how to write in cursive.

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Gloria’s Visit

Gloria Harvell at Janina's Baptism Celebration

Gloria Harvell, who serves on the MOHI Board of Directors and also heads up the child sponsorship program, spent some time here in Haiti with us last week.  She helped gather student information for the preschoolers and register them for our nutrition program.  She will be returning near the end of June to participate in the school graduations, as well as our annual conference.  She has also agreed to hold a teacher’s seminar for our preschool, first and second grade teachers.  She will focus on lesson preparation and tying lessons, craft projects and Bible stories together in their lesson plans.  If you would like to send some materials to Haiti with Gloria, please contact me and we’ll work on making that happen.

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Kristie Jean

Baby Kristie with nurse Angela and her mom, Rosnie.

You’ll recall that four month old Kristie had to have an operation just over a month ago.  The opening to her stomach was almost nonexistent.  As a result, she was failing to thrive.  She went in for her operation at  the fragile weight of 3.6kg.  This week she weighed in at 7.1 kg.  I marveled Thursday at her little arms that now have some baby fat on them.  Praise God!  She is definitely thriving now!

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Pastor Guy

Pastor Guy and a singing group from his church

Lex mentioned to me that “Guy” was going to come to church today.  I asked him “which Guy,” since we know quite a few of them.  We got interrupted and I forgot to ask him again.  Before service started this morning, I came out of my office to see a truck with a group of young girls in uniform in the driveway.  I walked toward the church and Lex grabbed my attention to say hello to someone.  It was Pastor Guy Fontaine.  I worked with Pastor Guy back in 1989.  He taught at the school I was overseeing and he was the pastor of the mission’s church at their main compound in Neply Bord Mer.  He was he 23 years older with a much larger physique than the wiry young man I’d worked with, but there was no mistaking who it was.

Pastor Guy came with a singing group from his church.  Most of these young people were not even born yet when we’d worked together!  We shared lunch with them at the missionary compound after church and shared many stories about our time with Pastor George DeTellis who founded New Missions.  Lex and Guy both learned so much from this man.  It was so fun to hear them repeat things he had told them.  I, of course, piped in with a song, “Anyen, pa enposib, si nou priye ak lafwa…”  We all laughed, as we remembered our monthly meetings with all the New Missions pastors.  Whenever the discussions would start to heat up, Madame George would boldly jump up, start clapping her hands and enthusiastically singing in Kreyol, “Nothing is impossible, if you pray in faith…”

I was very encouraged and just plain happy to see my old friend Guy today.  And I was reminded about the important role that George and Jeanne DeTellis played in our lives.

Be Like Brit

It’s so great to see the incredible progress at the Be Like Brit orphanage.  They have now completed all the masonry walls.  They have LOTS of re-bar to install and concrete to pour, but it definitely looks like a real building now.  Len Gengel, Paul Fallon and Gamaniel Parayson have pulled together with the Haitian crew to really make things happen.

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Drex and Jo Stuart

Drex sharing with the church in Thozin

After 10 months in the US, Drex and Jo Stuart (aka Papa Drex and Mama Jo) have returned to Haiti for a few weeks.  Drex and Jo spent years caring for the children at the Hands and Feet Project in Jacmel.  They started the construction of the Hands and Feet Project in Grand-Goave last year and will be caring for the kids here while Andrew, Angie and Michelle attend a conference in LA.  Our church in Thozin was so thrilled to have Drex back in the pulpit this morning.  They remembered well the last message he’d preached about the three rocks and today he brought 12 rocks.  It was a pleasant and educational time this morning.  We look forward to working together for a short while once again.