Friday, November 19, 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Some of our teachers at El Shaddai. Some of our students.
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 14th. 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.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
Saturday, October 9, 2010
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
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