Visiting the community of Grande Savane

On Tuesday Kyrk had an opportunity to go out and visit a community that has been badly affected from the earthquake.  He predicted that at least 75% of the homes in the community are destroyed.  Most people are living in tents or in huts that they built from the salvaged tin from the roof of thier damaged home.
It is always humbling to visit people like this. They have so little and are so grateful to have people come and talk with them and listen to them.  As Kyrk was visiting one lady, she gave him some bananas as a gift.  The people in this community have very little, yet she was so grateful that he came and visited her and that we are going to try and build her a new house.  She shared what she could as a thank you.
Some of these people, who Kyrk visited, are not saved and we are praying that as we are able to share Christ's love with them in hopefully building them a new home, seeds of the gospel will also be planted and hopefully some will come to know Christ personally.

Things are much better today

Wow, God is at work and things have been very peaceful for the past 4 days.  Yesterday we were able to send a driver into Port-au-Prince to buy some supplies.  We are so thankful that they were able to find some needed things.  We are trying to stock up, in case things get bad again.
On Sunday and Monday we received a lot of rain.  This is making it difficult to send the rest of the food to the schools.  We were going to try today, but we are not sure we can make it to the schools now.

As of yesterday we had 10 patients in our cholera clinic.  Sadly one young child died yesterday in the clinic.  Pray for the family of this child.  The parents are very upset.  Since their child died of cholera they are unable to take the body.  This is very hard on the family.  Pray that God would comfort this family and draw them closer to Him through this difficult time.

Kyrk and Anna seem to be doing better.   Kyrk had a lot more range of movement in his arm yesterday and I was able to move Anna's foot without her crying.  So they are on the mend.

Thank you so much for your prayers.  We know that God is answering them and it is a huge encouragement to us to know that so many people are joining us in prayer.

Praising God for another peaceful day

Today has been another very peaceful day.  Church was full this morning and I'm sure it was an encouragement to the people to be able to gather together for worship following the events of this past week.
Pastor Baker had a very successful trip yesterday and when he returned he said that if you didn't see the black ashes and wires from all the burnt tires, you wouldn't know that anything had happened.  People were back out selling things on the street and the streets were full of people walking from place to place.

We are so grateful for these couple days of peace.  We are praying that this continues.  It is really unknown what this coming week will be like.  We continue to pray for peace and for God's will to be done.

Kyrk's arm is still very painful.  The deep cut on his elbow seems to be healing well, so we are very grateful for that.  Yesterday afternoon I discovered that Anna wasn't moving her right leg very much.  It looks like she may have injured her ankle, since when I touch it she cries.  We are probably going to have it x-rayed if it is still painful tomorrow. 
Thank you for your prayers for both Kyrk and Anna as they heal from this fall.

Much more peaceful today

From the reports that we are hearing, things are a little better today.  People are saying that they are taking a break from the protesting for today and tomorrow and then they will start back up on Monday.

Pastor Baker (Kyrk's Dad) left this morning to go visit one of our churches on the other side of Port-au-Prince.  He has not returned yet, so we are assuming that all is well and that he is able to make the trip.

The Master's class finshed well with the students that were staying here.  Since it is calmer today they are able to travel home.  We are praying that those who had to miss Wednesday through Friday's classes will be able to get up to the mission on Monday and Tuesday to make up those classes.

Yesterday there are also some school coordinators that were able to come to the mission, so the Education department was able to do some training with those who came.

This morning we were able to send out some building materials to some of the sites that we are building houses.  We are so thankful that we can once again travel around a little bit and deliver supplies like this so that the rebuilding of people's homes can continue.

In other news...... Kyrk fell on the steps in front of our house last night and he has a deep cut on his elbow.  He was carrying Anna at the time and thankfully she seems to be okay.  Kyrk is in a lot of pain today and is not able to move his arm much.  Pray that this would heal quickly.

Friday and things are looking a little better

We are hearing reports that a few stores are starting to open once again.  We sent one of our drivers out this morning to see if they could find places open to get some needed supplies, but they returned empty handed.  They couldn't find any place open.
We have also not been able to send food out to schools.  Hopefully things will clear up a little more next week, so we can get this food out.

Thankfully we are not hearing any protests or seeing burning tires around this area today.   We are very thankful for this.

We currently have a couple here who was supposed to fly home today.  The airport has been closed since Wednesday and they are definitely closed until Sunday and on Monday they will reevaluate to see if they will open.   Pray that the airport would open once again and that they would be able to get home.

Some pictures from yesterday

Yesterday we sent a camera with a man who lives right by the mission.  He walked down the road to take pictures of what was happening.

Just down the road.

Blocking the road with rocks

Blocking the road with tree branches

Protests have begun again

It is now noon and the rain has mostly stopped.  The people are back out on the streets protesting and rioting.  Just a few minutes ago they were burning tires just below the lower gate of the mission. 
We did send a few guys out to try and find some needed supplies, but they could not find any store open and once the rains slowed down they found some road blocks, so decided to come back.  When they were almost to the mission, they had to turn around and go back down the mountain since the road was blocked by burning tires.  Thankfully they were able to come up the back rough mountain road and have arrived safely back at the mission.

We are still all fine here at the mission and enjoying our days at home.  These days have been quieter and many people have been able to catch up on needed work since many people are not able to come to the mission.

Thanks for your continued prayers.

Another day

As I lay in bed this morning and listened to the rain fall I was truly amazed.  We have not had rain in over 3 weeks and we are currently in dry season.  Typically in dry season we may get the random evening rain, but to have rain during the day is very rare.
I truly think that this is a miracle, that it is raining this morning.
God is answering prayers and sending rain to stop the violence.  When it is raining, road blocks don't burn and people don't like to be outside. 
We are continuing to pray that today is a little more peaceful.

Yesterday almost 1/2 of the Master's students were unable to attend the class and some of our medical staff and other workers were unable to get here. 
Kyrk is hoping to be able to send some food out to schools today if the road up the mountain is cleared and may try to send people out to purchase some much needed plumbing supplies for our conference center.  We have people here right now who are wanting to help put the plumbing and electrical in, but we need the supplies for them to do their job. 
Pray that as we try to send these men out, that they would remain safe and that things would be more peaceful today.
We know that God is in control and we thank Him for things like the rain this morning.  It really is an encouragement.
Let's keep praying that the leaders of this country would have wisdom to know how to handle this situation and that God's will would be done.

Riots and Protests as a result of the election results

This morning we woke up to see black smoke from burning tires.  Many people are upset with the election results and they have taken to the streets protesting.
We here at the mission are all safe and enjoying a relatively "normal" day.  The kids and I have had fun exploring outside and doing our typical Wednesday school.
Because of the riots and protests, we were unable to send any trucks out to deliver food.  All school are closed today and most roads are blocked, even the ones up the mountain.
We would really like to get this food out to the schools in the next couple of days since the schools have been without food for awhile.
Thank you for your continued prayers for peace and that God's will would be done in terms of the elections.

Election results

The results of last Sunday's election were given tonight.  They are a little bit of a surprise and as a result it is expected that tomorrow will be a challenging day as the supporters of various candiates protest.
Continue to keep Haiti in your prayers.

Cholera, Bible Curriculum and Conference Center

Cholera Update:
This morning as we were walking to Sunday School we saw people carrying a young girl, around the age of 10, down to the cholera clinic.  She looked very weak and it was a reminder of how imporant a treatment center in this area is for the mountain people.
Pray that God would heal this young girl and the others that are in the clinic now.  We are praising God that there have only been about 5 people in the clinic at a time.  The numbers are slowly increasing, but it is still very small.

Bible Curriculum:
This past week we had 2 Bible curriculum meetings and things are slowly progressing, but it seems like poeple are getting discouraged with this project.  Please continue to pray that all those involved in this huge project would have the strength and encouragement that they need to keep working and that with God's strength and wisdom we would create the very best curriculum for the schools.

Conference Center:
We have been blessed to have had a great team here for the past couple of weeks.  They were able to get the roof on the newly rebuilt conference center and they also started to put the electrical wiring in.  This was a huge help and we are so thankful that people are willing to come down and help out in ways like this.  We are praying that we are able to have the conference center finished by March so that we can have sufficient accommodations for all the pastors and preachers that we will coming for National Conference. 

I thought I would include a few fun pictures of our kids.

Jonathan and Naomi really enjoy their little sister.

Anna is "playing" with her daddy's Snickers.

Rebekah really enjoys playing with Jabez.

And yet another "Robert holding Anna" picture.  He just loves to hold his little sister and have his picture taken.