Cheryl “CHEL” Finn has been here with a medical team (they call themselves G3) for almost a week now. They have conducted several clinics at the mission in Thozin and two in the mountains of St. Etienne. They helped people with small problems and chronic illnesses alike. They even did an eyeglass clinic. Just awesome! I’ve seen people just fall apart because they can’t see well. So many people were helped that would not have gotten the chance to go to the hospital. Yesterday the medical team had the opportunity to do some village ministry nearby the guest house. They gave things away to grown ups and were mobbed by kids! Such fun! Today they are heading to Port-au-Prince to head back home. Praying the snow will take its time getting into New York City.

Chris Youell uploaded a video he put together of his trip to Haiti last week. I’m amazed. It captures so much of what is experienced in a trip to Mission of Hope International. Click here to watch for yourself.

Woody Pierre is definitely fun-loving!

Len, Bernie, Ross, Chrissy, Susan and Alexa took their leave of us yesterday. They were here long enough (18 days) and spent enough time in my office that their absence will be noticed. I especially enjoyed observing Len and relating to Bernie and I will miss both. Ross…we told him he is a missionary. He just seemed like a natural, swinging kids around and ready to do whatever needed to be done. Len came up with a term. He says he’s a Britionary (he’s in Haiti working for Brit).

The Be Like Brit team left Gama here with us. It’ll be really nice to have him around again. We are hoping to get the rest of his family down for a visit in a couple of months.

I want to encourage you today to consider visiting Mission of Hope International, in Grand-Goâve, Haïti. There are so many people to help, projects to work on, music to be sung and children to be hugged. AND, there’s warm sunshine and NO SNOW!!! 🙂

We will be starting a joint project with the World Food Program on Thursday. We will be repairing 15 km of road going up into the mountains of Icondo where the Hands and Feet Project is building an orphanage for the 31 children in our care. Over 900 jobs will be created by this project, giving people an opportunity to earn both food and money to care for their families. Working also builds self esteem, as opposed to begging which tears it down. We’re very excited about this project. We received delivery of tools earlier today, hundreds of rakes, wheelbarrows, picks… There’s going to be a LOT of work getting done!

This morning the Sturbridge Worship Center team is at the school having some piñata fun with the preschool and lower grade classes. This afternoon they should be helping to start on some more transitional shelters for our neighbors in Thozin. They are scheduled to leave tomorrow, again, if the weather allows it.