El Shaddai Officially Closed for the Summer!

We got up to rain, rain, and more rain on Thursday.  It looked like one of those all day things that are rare but do happen in Haiti.  Much of the time was spent discussing the "what ifs" rather than believing everything would be okay.  And it was okay.  Sweltering hot with the humidity soaring after the rain stopped, we got through the evening.  The kids were excited and everyone sang their songs with joy! 

During the  program, we observed a couple of our older boys taking leadership roles and it was exciting because we've been looking for those who would rise up.   Kerwine had a group singing "Our God is an Awesome God"' as he played guitar.  It was delightful. The humorous part was trying to end.  He forgot how to stop. When he looked over at me, I gave him the "time to cut it off" sign and he slowed it down and ended, no one knew he was having a problem.

It's when you come to the finale of something like a school year that you realize all the work and dedication was well worth it.  As the kids heard their averages and number of PACES they finished, they felt a sense of satisfaction, but the teachers more  so.  You can't be with a group for nine months and not have a sense of pride at accomplishment.  As I looked at staff, I realized there was no way we could have done this without them.  Yet there were those stress times when we thought we wanted to be done with them all.  (Excuse me, but the reality of working here sometimes overrides the mission and you feel like you are banging your head against a brick wall).  One long time missionary said:  Face it!  There is no meeting in the middle between the minds of Haiti and the Western mind.  Words too true and I'm sure if any missionaries are reading this, they are saying "amen." 

For the record, our boy, Junior did 103 PACES and a 99% grade average.  He is amazing!  We look for great things to come from this quiet, skinny kid!  Oliver didn't do badly.  He did 63 PACES (which is over the required 60) and had a 95% grade average.  He reminded me that he was the highest in his room.  He's forever working to keep up with Junior.  I've never seen two boys totally unrelated be so totally brothers.  Olivier is always trying to reach where Junior is.  If it's art, Olivier is getting better.  If it's music, spare me his attempts to sing.  If it's building a village out of mud (a huge past time for them) Olivier is the one covered with mud.  If it's riding bicycles Olivier does his best to go very fast.  They are a delight to observe, not difficult to have around (but teaching organization is a bigger battle than I sometimes want to face).

The beach was a wonderful day for all of them and today we will go to the Montrouis Bible school graduation.  Pray that Gary gets all the certificates completed as well as the program.  He's struggling with it right now.  Typing in French is not an easy thing to do....I'm very proud of  him for doing it well.

Off to dry my hair.  Blessings!