Fear is the Absence of Faith

Fear is the Absence of Faith

We Have a Guest House and it Rained Last Night.....

We Have a Guest House and it Rained Last Night.....

Three Weeks Into 2010/2011 School Year

Oh my! We never dreamed we'd be this busy!!! Our school enrollment is nearly 100 kids, 20 high school age. The office is busy from the moment the doors open until the last child is out of the building.

We took Crystal's class (first grade) Petit Homme's class (first grade), and Kevin's class (kindergarten) to our old house. So now ESLC is located in three buildings. We hired a young man who told us he might not be there very long, he wasn't. Stevenson spoke fluent English, had graduated the ACE system, was excellent helping the high school do their math (although he wasn't much older than they). He got the opportunity for higher education in the Dominican Republic and bid us farewell. To fill the void, Gary is in the classroom, I'm in the office and Dan is directing the whole thing. WE NEED HELP!!!

We need a couple of North Americans to come and commit some time to getting this school off the ground. We are doing it, but Gary and I have so much more that needs done with Bible schools, the orphanage oversight. We also work with two Haitian pastors, one to build a building and one to build a house. This doesn't get done without us being on the scene regularly, so it 's on hold right now. Pastor Cesar asked me today at Bible school what we were doing or when we would begin. I know he wants to get started, but we must check prices and make sure his estimate isn't higher than what we can do if we purchase here in St Marc. All that takes a lot of t-i-m-e and we don't seem to have much as we are using every available moment now.

The new house is coming along nicely…the one we rented and moved into three weeks ago (as if school opening wasn't enough on our plate). We finally got our mosquito netting up so sleeping is easier. BUT now we have rats. Ever since the dog died, the rats have invaded. The other morning, I got up and came in the office, noticed that a utensil called Cleenere's was bitten off at the tip…only a rat could have done it. Then I saw the droppings and later proceeded to put my hearing aids in, only one was missing. A rat stole my hearing aid! Although, we are joking about it, with the price of such, it is no laughing matter. And, the difficulty I have in hearing since it was the aid for the worst ear.

I don't know if I told you about the death of our little dog. We had to cut down some coconut leaves because they were shorting out the transformer. We took pictures of Buddy frolicking in the branches on the ground, eating at them and having a very nice time. Four days later he was dead, a horrible death! The leaves balled up in his stomach and cut his intestines. They wouldn't come up or go down. He was in such pain and literally bled to death. That was hard to watch happening. The vet kept coming to try and help him but to no avail. (He really needed surgery but that doesn't happen here and/or a shot to put him to sleep but that doesn't happen here either).

Back to the rats. When we got up this morning, a huge piece had been eaten out of an avocado that was sitting on the table. There was also evidence of one being right back up here on my desk. Trust me, my remaining hearing aid was NOT laying here. But the rat had been back and left his calling card!!

We have a new girl in the orphanage, Sylvana, a dear child who is getting along very well with everyone. Olivie and Junior are doing well and have truly bonded as brothers. Last night, Dan and Gary both got out of bed and headed toward their room at the same time. They were having a very loud disagreement. It had to do with one touching the others' bed. So, they were moving their beds away from one another….if that isn't a brotherly love fight, I've never known one.

The other morning the scripture from Acts came to me.
Act 6:3 Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; Act 6:4 but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word."

 

Gary and I need to give ourselves to prayer and to ministry of the Word. We must find the workers for the school and we pray we have North American help. If you know anyone who ever thought they would like to do this kind of thing, please steer them our way.

Hopefully, I'll get to post some recent pictures when this gets posted to the blog!

Love,

Gary and Carolyn