Help Needed

During the week of June 11-15 Kyrk is going to be building the team house.  Today he found out that the man who was planning to work with him on this building has to leave on June 14 so he will not be able to go with Kyrk.
Since Kyrk will be using steel stud construction the men who work here are not familiar with it. 
So Kyrk is looking for 1-2 people who would be willing to come on June 9 -17 to help with this project.  Having some construction experience would be very helpful. 
The conditions will be rough, but it will be a great experience also.
Please contact us if you or someone you know is interested in helping build the team house.

Robert's Road Trip with Dad

 On Monday Kyrk made a quick trip to Atrel.  Robert really wanted to go along even though it meant spending 12 hours in a vehicle.  He really enjoys spending time with dad and going to Atrel.

 When they arrived in Atrel Robert enjoyed playing on the pile of rocks that will be used for the foundation.

 Boss Joubert along with Kyrk checked out the finished cistern for the team house.  Kyrk also marked out the rest of the foundation which will be built where the bars of iron are laying on the ground.

Yeah, things were a little green in Atrel thanks to the rain that came a few weeks ago.

Mango Fun

Yesterday Kyrk made a trip to Atrel to mark out the full foundation for the team house as well as the outhouses. Things are progressing well with the construction and tomorrow Boss Joubert will go back up to continue working on the foundation.
As Kyrk was coming home yesterday he found some large baskets of mangoes at a very reasonable price, so he bought 2.  I had been wanting to try canning mango, so today was the day.

 This is what I started with this morning and after several hours of work I was able to cut up and can one basket.  Tomorrow we will tackle the second one.

The kids loved "cleaning" off the seeds.  These mangoes were so juicy and delicious making all their faces orange by the end of the day.

Saturday night update

Construction Update:
Construction continues to go well on the team house.  Last Sunday Kyrk made a quick trip to place all the drain pipes and make sure everything was ready for the men to pour the top of the cistern. 
On Monday he will be going back up to mark out the full foundation of the team house and the foundations for the 2 outhouses.  If all goes well Kyrk will be going up sometime during the first 2 weeks of June to build the actual building.  
We are praising God that so far things are going very well with construction.

First Time experience:
This evening following supper there was a knock on our door.  It was one of our drivers and he shared with us that a man he knew from his home town was here with 2 newborn twins who's mother had died.  They were hoping to find someone to take the babies.  Wow, I know this type of thing happens too often in Haiti, but to know that these 2 tiny infants were orphaned and unwanted really hit me hard.  Thankfully we were able to refer them to a great orphanage close by who would be able to take the infants in and provide great care and hopefully adoption in the future. 
Join us in praying for this grieving family and for these 2 precious children.

Fun pictures of the kids:

Naomi, cutting our lawn.

 Jonathan loves football and today decided that he wanted to build a field goal post.  With Kyrk's help they built one and then had to play a little football together.

Rebekah and Robert enjoy climbing trees.

Anna was "reading" her Three Little Pigs" book to her bunny and bear.

Grandparents 60th Anniversary

This past weekend I had the amazing opportunity to attend my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary celebration.  I surprised them and to see the look on their faces as they saw me, was priceless.  Grandma and Grandpa Smids have been wonderful supportive grandparents who have been great examples to me and it was a huge blessing to be able to attend their special celebration.

Special thanks to Kyrk for being willing to watch the kids and for making it possible for me to go to Canada for the weekend.

Construction has begun

It is so exciting to finally be able to say "construction has begun"  Last week a group of men from the Fermathe area went to Atrel to begin building.  Well actually it is more digging right now.  They are starting with digging a hole that will become a water cistern under our team house.  

It has been very dry in Atrel over the past few months.  But for the past 9 days it has rained every day.  This has made their job a little more challenging, but they are making the best of it and doing a great job.

Working under a trap, they are digging a 6-8 foot hole for the cistern.  Of course you always have a crowd in Haiti.

The wood structure is their "kitchen."  They are cooking all their meals right here beside them, using a large pot and some rocks to keep it off the ground.

They are digging mostly shale, but they have hit a large rock at about 6 feet, so it is not going any deeper in that section.