Christmas is behind us, the New Year awaits us..........

What can we say after an ardorous time trying to make sure we got home before Christmas, then running around trying to make sure everyone would have a present, trying to get to see our church friends and pastors, all with coughing, sneezing, sore throats, shivering, fever.........oh! should I go on?  How many of us had the same experience or part of the same?  Most probably didn't have our Haiti exit experience but the American Christmas rush is most peoples' experience.  Today, I'm enjoying a visit from my middle son as he tries to catch up on computer work while away from home (so we are fellowshipping, both having our laptops open and working---what has happened to conversations where we look at one another in the eye?

Gary is feeling better and doing some work in the house, which I should be doing as well, but couldn't resist the urge to blog.  We did have a wonderful Christmas and we are so thankful for family!!  And yet, my thoughts keep going back to Haiti.  We'll be back there shortly, with gifts for Olivie and Junior, dinners for many kids at churches and we'll see school continue.  We are watching the political situation closely but for now everything is quiet and we expect school to continue uninterrupted.

We are happy the new wall is built, Family Harvest in Tinley Park, IL came with a mission in mind and although we were having trouble politically, it did not deter their mission.  We love teams who are committed to what they came to do and do it.  There's a group coming from WI in February who will paint the wall.  That will be super!!!

We remembered Dr. Haupt from St Louis, this holiday after a call from Pastor Ed saying Dr. Haupt's organization wanted to give to the orphanage so they'd have meals for the next six months!  Dr. Haupt, an orthopedic surgeon came to Haiti after the earthquake with Service International.  He brought his medical team with him and together they helped a lot of people out of their misery.  Dr. Haupt went to be with the Lord, unexpectedly a couple of months after leaving Haiti.  He loved our orphans and his friends have given a gift in his name.  What a special gift!  Another Dr. friend of ours, from WV, is donating new computers to El Shaddai.  We stand amazed at people's giving.  The generous hearts of everyone keeps the work going.  Gary and I are truly blessed to say we can continue the work at hand. 

I am sitting here with a huge sweater on and wondering why I am not too warm.  But, my heart is filled with joy and thanksgiving for what we have here and what we are able to do in Haiti.  The Lord is faithful and as we welcome a new year, we need to remember that He is faithful, that our part is to seek first His kingdom and all things will be added ....all things....all we need.  I'm reminded once again of another scripture: keep yourself from idols.  We seek Him, we keep from idols, we have all we need...He is all we need, He is our reward.  Have a wonderful New Year.


 Carolyn

Political Struggles in Haiti

Here we sit, unable to have school because of possible riots in and around town. In the book, Too Small to Ignore, Dr. Stoddard stated that it's the children who are the first to suffer famine, disease, and war. It's true and as a living spectator in a country which has gone through an earthquake, still dealing with cholera and now a presidential election, 2010 will go down in history as the YEAR of struggle. The number of deaths is overwhelming without knowing the number of children who died and is dying. Haitian parents are quick to keep their children home from school if there is threat of any problems. But, when children miss days and days of school, it really interrupts their education. Two months after January 12^th, and now two days here, three days there, doesn't make for a successful school year does it? The problem right now is how long will it go on?

I was just thinking about 2004, when there were wars all over the country, particularly in St Marc. There was a group who wanted Aristide out of office (and the turmoil he was causing was excessive, whether it was provoked or whether he was a power monger, I don't know---however, in St Marc, the shooting up of a radio station nearly killing a pastor who was reporting news against the president—resulted in our thoughts being negative toward the president. These two factions, one for and one against the president, had shooting battles day in and day out for almost two months. I said, day but it happened at night as well. Gary and I would just get in bed when the gunfire would start. One shot, my heart would begin to beat rapidly and my stomach would turn over, then another and another…when it would get quiet I would lay there waiting for the next one. We had school in spite of the problems. Every other school was closed but ours. One day, after school was over, we had one child left (before we were busing kids). We waited and finally called the father who owned a grocery store in town at the edge of a Haitian market. He said, "I'm buried in my store, there is a war going on in front of the building." That was sufficient reason for not coming to get his child. Last week, we got a call from one of our teachers who lives near the UN base here in St Marc. He said, "I am buried in the back of my house because they are shooting and throwing rocks at the UN base." (Two Haitians died having been shot with rubber bullets that struck the head).

Those horrible days we went through six years ago are on the minds of all of us who lived through it. Parents remembering it keep their children home rather than risk coming to school and it's our first thought as well. I was on my way to school last week to see the team from Chicago work on the school wall. We had cancelled school because it was the day after the election. Traveling north on the Grande Rue (Main Street), there was a huge crowd coming toward us, filling the highway. They were carrying tree branches (which they use as their banners when manifesting) and I knew, 'get out of here quick'. Just as I looked left there was a place where I could pull in and turn around. I'm sure the Lord provided it….sort of like the ram in the bushes. Then I had to find my way to school via side streets and nearly ran into a guy on a motor cycle proceeded toward me as I was turning onto a side road. One of my choices was unfruitful and some kind men told me I couldn't go that way and told me the way to go. We got to the school just about the time gunfire erupted. The team was so brave! We closed the gate and went inside until it subsided. There were fires all over town from what I'm told but we averted it all as we stayed to work on the wall. When it was time to leave, we were able to get right home, but Al (Carpenter) and Joe had to carry the motor cycle across a river bed to get to where they lived.

So, we are in the midst of it again. There is a revival going on at the church we attend. I'm to speak tonight. It's great to be able to go to God's house at times like this. The joy of worship and the refreshing of the Word gives us strength to go on. We were in church all last week as well. I don't know what I'd do without that time with the Body of Christ. It's been a well of sweet water for me.

Haiti is in struggle. Haiti needs prayer and at the same time, Haiti is having its greatest moment in Christ. Perhaps that's what it takes to build a strong church. History seems to prove it takes struggle and turmoil outside to bring people inside. The scripture that keeps coming to mind is this: The kingdoms of this world have become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of our Christ and He shall reign forever and ever! Today they will announce the new president.

Some of our teachers at El Shaddai. Some of our students.

 Our El Shaddai students and teacher of whom we are very pleased!!!

2010 A Year of Challenge For Haiti | Touch Ministries, Haiti

2010 A Year of Challenge For Haiti | Touch Ministries, Haiti

2010 A Year of Challenge For Haiti

Every year is a challenge in Haiti, but this year has certainly been the exception. A week ago Sunday, we discussed the coming hurricane, Tomas, during a missionary meeting. Gary said, "I am going to stand against this hurricane, it will not hit Haiti." Pretty bold statement but I was in agreement with him. Needless to say we watched the weather reports several times a day and speculated, praised the Lord that it would not come. If you happened to watch Tomas in his various wind speeds, twists and turns, you would have to agree that it was a confused storm. Thursday came, we obeyed the Presidents order to close all schools. Nothing much happened, Friday nothing much happened, intermittent rain, some gusts of wind. Gary worked making shelving that we need to get more organized, I got things done that we'd not had time to do since we moved. The sun came out for a while. About 9PM, Friday night, we were surprised by the wind and rain. I thought about the books I'd left on the porch and imagined them being blown about and soaked, actually ruined. Saturday, we canceled Bible school because of rain. When I checked my books, they were not even wet. No explanation for that, plenty of rain came in that porch. In other parts of Haiti, there is real suffering, homes gone by flooding, and the threat of land slides. We continue to pray but we believe Haiti was spared this storm.

Our guest, Charlie Young and his son Kenny tried to get out of Haiti on Thursday evening, only to get stranded when the flight was canceled. We arranged for them to stay at a guest house of a missionary friend of ours. They finally flew out on Saturday. I'm sure they were very happy to get back to Tampa, but we missed them when they left. Charlie taught how to plant seeds in tires to the school and to Haitian farmers. The children will enjoy watching the seeds grow.

The Cholera reports more numbers dying and it's popping up everywhere. I received a World Health Organization report today which says:

But the really big story here is that it then broke out in Nepal, around 2003-04. It now appears, though we're awaiting more confirmation at the laboratory level, that this pandemic in Haiti started with Nepalese peacekeepers who were the carriers. We have similar outbreak-carrier situations now in several places in the world. In fact, the largest cholera outbreak at the moment is Nigeria, with far more cases than are being seen in Haiti….. Actually, if aid workers and peacekeepers were taught proper hygiene and provided with toilet paper and proper soap and so on, they would not be transmitters. The problem with cholera is that it really is a classic hygienic issue. The spread of cholera is about water, it's about dirty hands, touching water supplies and food supplies, and about the inability to limit what's going into the water because either there are improper sewage systems; or people are drinking from, washing in, and defecating in the same water supply.

It's inexcusable that we cannot control cholera today. We fully understand the disease. It is generally treatable with a combination of appropriate antibiotics. But most important is heavy-duty hydration with consistently safe water.

The other issue is part of the reason cholera is always a crisis in the Bay of Bengal region--because the microbes, especially this 01 form, can live inside of other microorganisms that float around in such things as red tides and algal blooms. Wherever you have very warm surface temperatures, relatively still waters, lots of sun, you're creating a kind of stew that's ideal for the growth of the microorganisms that the vibrio cholerae [the organism that causes cholera] can live inside of. You get this constant feedback-replenishment thing going on where problems on the land mainly associated with humans--waste and water runoff--feed into breeding colonies in the sea, and vice-versa. We had a classic outbreak of cholera that hit Latin America in the 1990s, and it turned out to have reached Latin America because of ships loading bilge in the Bay of Bengal, going across the world, and offloading the bilge water into coastal waters where they were absorbed into clams, shell fish, oysters, and so on. Then you had an epidemic that spread across Latin America. If you don't have very good public health tracking systems, general population hygiene, and water safe systems, it spreads extremely rapidly.

So, based on the previous information, the Haitians were correct in blaming UN people from Nepal. We encouraged the church to continue taking precautions and to pray.

Good News!!!

First you need to get the picture of what the church is like. It's being built. We sit under tarps because there is no roof and we walk in mud after any kind of rain. So, there the people are, mud caked to their Sunday shoes. The children climb a ladder to get to the adjacent building's second floor, they too are under tarps.

• We have a medical team coming in on the 14^th. They'll plant themselves at the hospital and be a viable force there.
  
• Testimonies shared today at church. The testimonies were given by two women, both of whom had been sick with vomiting and diarrhea, (cholera symptoms) they rebuked it until they were better. It was definitely time to shout HALLELUIA!
  

As I sat there looking around at the faces, their love and dedication to the Lord, I thought about the excuses each one of them could have given for not attending church today. I thought about excuses that I've made in the past. For a moment my emotions wanted to spill over because the realization of how God looks at their dedication was overwhelming. I told Gary, "God doesn't take this lightly…..and in North America we argue over the color of carpeting"... or miss church because it's raining and walking to the church from the car will get their Sunday clothes wet. If you could see this church………….and it's crowded. One teenager stood up to tell about how he's given his heart to the Lord and sharing Jesus with classmates. Five of them accepted Christ and were with him in church today.

(Because of the rain, the tarps had filled with water. It was breezy today. The tarps blew up and dumped water at our feet. Pastor Chery was so embarrassed when it hit Pastor Gary, he apologized over and over again while calling someone to get a barrel to catch the water).

While Haitians meet the struggle getting through 2010, God is building His church. Jesus said it so clearly: Mat 16:18
Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means 'rock'), and upon this rock I will build My church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. We see it over and over again, in every church, every Sunday, people are coming to the Lord and they are hungry to learn of Him. Hurricanes, cholera, poverty, muddy churches with no roof, mud caked shoes, nothing can separate us from the love of God. Romans 8:38.

 

 

Fear is the Absence of Faith

Fear is the Absence of Faith