Hi Everyone, Seems these days of posting get harder and harder.  We are in the midst of being in the midst of....winding school down, gearing up for teams in May.  The weather has been so  incredibly hot we can hardly breathe. That may be a gross exaggeration but Delson came to me the other day and said, "I can't breathe right."  It's the high humidity because he's still breathing and so am I.  With rain everywhere in the country but St Marc, we tend to have to deal with  it.  And deal with it we will. 
I am finding that Facebook, emails and newsletters cause me to either be repetitive or wonder where I said what.  The Lord  has opened doors for me to speak in churches lately.  That's pretty exciting because that's what we are called to do.  The Gospel message is what we do.  All the other is wonderful and necessary but like Paul it's a woe to us if we don't (1Cor. 9:16).  This Sunday I'll be in a village that is very dark.  Please agree with me that the light of this glorious Gospel will break through the darkness and many will  come out of voodou.  By the way, we understand that the voodou people are attacking Christian churches.  Something to make a matter of prayer!  They are losing people since the earthquake and have started attacking by burning churches.  My understanding is that it's  in the Hinch area, not near us. 
Testing some picture things that may make this a better venture. I think I'm getting homesick for my little, wonderful grandchildren.
Have a blessed day!

Where does the time go?

I promise myself that I'll post regularly and don't. Why is that? One of the reasons is Facebook. Another reason is busy. We've been having a grand time getting back into routine. I love it!! Bible school has begun, and I've volunteered to teach Sunday School at a great church I've been frequenting. Can't be there every Sunday but most of the time.

You should see this Sunday school room! It is below ground level, mud and cement walls, dirt floor, tin roof, not enough benches for the children and too many kids packed in this small space. No ventilation except for the door. YIKES! I began to wonder where my head was when I said I'd like to do the job. Hopefully, we can get some more benches in the room and maybe split the class. What's happening is with all the Port au Prince people moving into St Marc, they have to find church homes and/or are getting saved. It's great for church growth but hard on teachers of children because there are so many!

This Sunday school starts at 7AM. The children come and learn a memory verse, then go to the adult church with all the others to recite it as a group. After that they file back into the Sunday school (about 8:30 which is when I arrive). Then for the next hour we have a story and a time of questions and answers. When I leave for church the children sing and play games. I'm talking about ages 2 through 10 and at least 70! Imagine that the next time you want to complain about size of classroom, heat or air conditioning. It will take the complaining away quickly. Not that any of you would complain. But, I must confess I did complain about the lack of order although they were doing the best they could and if permitted I have a few ideas that might help the situation.

Bible school has moved from the church we were using to a better place. For some reason the Haitian outdoor market moved right down by the church. The noise was unbearable. We were shouting trying to be heard over the din and one another. Saturday, the Pastor informed us that he'd received money to continue with construction of the building and there was no room for us. That was fine because we'd been discussing leaving there for a long time. (I love it when God undertakes and makes things so that what we want works out without us having to say anything). The building we are in now, is a school, we each have a classroom, it's quiet and cool. For the first time I could really see my students and not strain to hear them or be heard by them. Gary and Barbara felt the same way.

Kreyol class coming up. I will never really learn this language without a formal class. But, I've never found anyone who I believed could teach me either except now. We hired a young man by the name of Claudy, whom I've known for years. When the Peace Corps was here, he was hired by them to teach the people Kreyol. He's trained, he speaks very good English as well and he will be teaching Dan, the Carpenters and I on Mondays and Tuesdays for one hour each day. I'm excited about it.

Another thing I've decided to tackle is English grammer. In order for me to teach the kids, I have to teach me. So, I'm doing PACE's. It's been fun and I'm exercising my brain!!! Very important for those of us who fall into the category of "senior citizen." What I discovered is this. I can write and speak the English language correctly but it sure is different being expected to name verbs, parts of speech, etc. But, it's a good exercise in thinking.

That's what's happening in our neck of the woods. Soon we'll welcome teams once again.

Wow!

It's so quiet here. Dan is in his room, Nancy is in her room, Gary and I are fellowshipping at the computers (same room, not same page), Jr and Oliver are playing on the porch and they are making the only noise in the house. Everyone is gone. After people here since 1/14/10, except for four day stretch in first of March, it seems strange not to have the house full. Tasha was the last of the Family Harvest group and she left Monday. Cindy Rahl who was here for three weeks left on Saturday. So, here we are, each of us doing those things we had on hold.

I've been working in the testing room at school nearly everyday for, let's see…..the third week? Interesting and I enjoy it but there is much on my plate that take early morning energy. Perhaps we'll get someone to do that job soon.

Pierre came in this evening to have his dressing changed. Oh dear! The Dr. had to cut away a huge piece of flesh due to an infection. He needs a skin graft, anyone know of a Dr coming this way?

We have great things coming up. Building the church in Port with Pastor Cesar, about done. Next it will be housing, etc. Big things actually for these very impoverished folks. Pastor Cesar is living in a tin shack, another story and will go into detail on that one soon. We are going to deliver tents to him this week, as well as food.

I watched a video clip about amputees on MSNBC (Walking With No Place To Go) and how they were giving prosthesis' at a hospital not far from here, so we decided to take a ride and see. To our amazement, Albert Schweitzer Hospital is all set up with equipment to get people who have lost their legs into prosthesis' and Physical Therapists to train them to walk again. We hope to transport people to and from there. Another project we can spearhead.

At the end of April we will have a team from a big Baptist Church in Tampa, FL., Family Church, headed by Pastor Joe Windham. They will basically be a construction group and finish the school wall. In May, we will welcome a medical team from PA, headed by Ron Hillard and with them will be our good friends, the Haas'. At the end of the month, Pastor John Paledino is coming in to preach the graduation ceremony for the Bible school. He's got a farmer, a barber and a couple of evangelists with him, so it will prove to be a great time in the Lord.

We leave Haiti on June 8^th and head to PA for Ezra and Audrey's wedding in Little Washington, on June 12^th. We are still working on the return date to Haiti, since there is so much to do here, summer in WV will elude us but we plan to go to Family Harvests' conference at the end of July, first of August and maybe a couple more weeks in the States before returning to St Marc.

God is so wonderful. He amazes me every day with His goodness and mercy. I'm reading or should say , just finished a book by Mahesh Chavda on Fasting and Prayer. I would recommend it to anyone whether you ever thought about fasting or not. It's changing my life AND helping me to be successful in fasting. Whoo hooo!!!! A quote from the book is this: There is a place beyond victory called triumph. Victory is being able to defeat our enemies. But triumph goes far beyond mere victory. When you triumph, you come out of the battle with more than you had before. God wants to give you more.

I'm looking to get to the place beyond victory. I'm looking for triumph. Prayers prayed for years may have been answered by doing the one thing that Jesus said we should do….fast and pray.

  Nancy took the team to Jacmel then up a mountain. During their three days (two of travel) they installed a solar water purification system that will give clean water to a whole village.  A couple of them came home a little ill but it was over in a day or two and they were able to continue enjoying their stay in Haiti.It's great to see men working in the heat with a smile on their face, is it not?  Janice Myers had a great time organizing the kindergarten room.  One of her projects was to bring all the puzzles home and let Junior and Oliver work them. Those little boys worked from 2 to 8 PM, then got up at 6:30 AM and went right back to working puzzles. It was so delightful to watch!!  Anna Grassman got to help several of the El Shaddai students with their work.  Mark and Jim worked a long time on installing the new electrical system, please forgive my ignorance but I have no idea what it was they installed.  All I know is this: Gary is so excited it's as though it were Christmas!!  The picture of the hand is on the wall at school, Ketia drew it.  Most of the time when our kids draw it  has to do with God.  Neat, huh?  I'm so thankful to be in a place where God is in our thoughts and where we can freely talk about Him and the Word of God. I would not do well in the American system such as it is today.  Mike Harrawood is with Jean Philip Felix.  We've known Jean for at least seven years.  He's a preacher's kid, which spells ornery, but he's a great delight.  He liked Mike so well, that when he came to me in the testing room to show me he was doing his Word Building test, he said, "May I have it back, Mr. Mike is going to give me the test."  Oh, fine with me, one I didn't have to do.  Have you ever given three different spelling tests at the same time........not fun! 

The wall is just about finished, now for the other side!

The beginning of our new shed started with a lot of breaking down and clearing away rubble. The picture of welding is quite interesting. Mark Grassman sent us a welding machine with the generator to run it.  They are working and did fix the gate at the school so now we the rollers work, which will allow us to park one of the vehicles inside the school at night.  We recently had our truck battery stolen due to the fact that it sat out all night.  (Not bad though, the truck is going on it's sixth year, first battery theft!)
As you can see there is much activity going on and it's great to watch first hand things getting done and school in session at the same time is a joy for me.