Flu and Rats

Fight with the Flu:
This past week our family has been fighting the flu bug.  Robert, Jonathan and Anna had it fairly bad and it lasted for at least 3 days for each of them.  Kyrk and I had less then 24 hours of feeling yucky, but thankfully didn't get it as bad as the kids.  We are so thankful that we are all doing well now and it seems that the bug has stopped spreading to the other staff. 

Rats:
On Saturday morning I did my typical morning routine of checking the rat trap in the back room.  I noticed that it had moved, so Kyrk went to check it out.  Yes we had indeed caught a rat and that rat had made a large mess in the back room knocking over the bucket of food for the pig.  I wasn't too excited about having to scrub the back room, but it was good motivation to clean it really well.  We moved the freezer to clean behind it and discovered a drain pipe that wasn't blocked.  After checking outside, we discovered that for the past 10 years we have had a nice open passage way for the rats to enter our house :(  Wow am I so thankful that the rat made a huge mess and we were forced to move the freezer.  Hopefully once we catch all the rats in the house, we will be rat free!!  Thank you God for a big rat mess.

Getting ready to leave for 2 months:
The next couple of weeks are going to be filled with preparations for leaving for 2 months on December 1.  It is always a lot of work to get things ready to leave, but it is so wonderful to be able to rest and relax once we are away.  We are really looking forward to seeing family and friends and to share in several churches.

Our week

I'm so thankful that this past week has been a much more relaxed week compared to last week. 

This past week Kyrk has traveled to visit a few newly constructed homes and also went to the village of Grande Source to check on the progress of the community to carry the sand to the building site of their new church (about a 1 hour walk).  It is encouraging to us that we are able to continue rebuilding homes, churches and schools.  We will keep rebuilding until the rebuilding money is used.

We were also blessed this week by having a group from Fellowship Bible Church in New Jersey come and help build a home.  They arrived on Thursday and will be here for a week. 

 Kyrk's parents also returned this week, which is always a wonderful thing.  It was nice for them to be able to be out for a few weeks, but it is always wonderful to have then come back.  Thankfully my work load is much lighter now that Patti is back, so I'm super thankful that she is back.

On Thursday Chelsea and I were able to have a fun ladies morning out.  It was a real treat to visit a jewelery making project and also spend some time with a friend from MAF.

Next week we are having a conference for about 75 preachers.  I'm really praying that everything goes well with the ladies in the kitchen again.  Join us in praying that the men who come to the conference will be open to hear what God wants to teach them and eagerly take what they learn and apply it and share it with others.

Fun in the Kitchen

This past week I have had the privilege of working with several cooks in our conference center kitchen.  There were about 200 teachers, school directors and administrators who came for a training conference and the 5 people in the kitchen were responsible for preparing 3 meals a day for them.  On Monday when I went to see how things were going in the kitchen, the head cook asked if I would be willing to help serve the food during lunch.  I willingly agreed knowing it would be a great opportunity to get to know the ladies and work alongside of them.
Brianne, my niece, along with Chelsea, a new missionary here, also helped out and we had a lot of fun together.
Even though it has been a long tiring week, it has been a blessing to spend time with the cooks and continue to build a relationship with them.

Chelsea helping to cut up potatoes for the salad.

Rebekah came along today to watch

My first job today was to help squish the plantain to make "banan pese"

The head cook, Madame Dodo, talking with 2 men who helped to serve the food.

Ladies doing the final preparations for the salad and sauce.

The people patiently waiting for their food.

Plating the fried chicken.  My hands were super greasy when I was done this job.

Everyday this was our job.  Using a large plate we scooped the rice and beans into the containers for each table.

Chelsea and Bri having fun washing the dishes

Fun with a Generator

Load the generator onto a large truck, sounds like a simple task right??  Well in Haiti it easily becomes an all morning project.


It was decided that the best place to park the truck was in the playground against the steps leading from the road.  After carefully positioning the truck they had to build a large ramp.  This required several pieces of plywood and carefully placed concrete blocks to support the ramp.  Then they had the fun task of cautiously moving the generator down the road without it going down the road by itself :)

Thankfully when there is a difficult task to do, everyone is willing to join in and help.

Mission accomplished! 
The following morning the truck took the generator out to the camp where it was installed and is providing much needed electricity for the camp.
 
Another praise!  Some of you may recall that following the earthquake I wrote a blog about our trucks and how they were old and we were praying that God would keep them running to keep distributing supplies to people.  Click here if you want to read it.   Jan 2010 truck blog

A couple of months ago God blessed us with a new large truck.  (The truck pictured in this picture)  We are so thankful to have a new very reliable truck.  God is so good!

Moving to Atrel plans starting to move forward

After quite a long delay due to the earthquake, we are finally beginning the long process of moving to the northwest of Haiti.  God has really given us a heart for the people of that area and we are excited about the changes that God is bringing to the ministry that we are involved with.  For those of you who don't know we are going to be setting up a training center so that training for pastors and teachers can be offered in the Northwest instead of only at the Fermathe campus.  This center will also be part of the hope of decentralizing the work of the mission, so we will be working closely with the pastors in the Northwest.

A week ago Friday Kyrk took a quick trip to Atrel along with a construction boss and they marked the property lines and marked places for him to start building pillars as the beginning of a wall around the property.   Boss Joubert left on Thursday and along with a small crew of men they went up to build those pillars.  They just returned this afternoon.
We are also working on house plans and starting to plan out how we are going to start building the structures that we are going to need on the property.
It truly is amazing how God's timing is always perfect.  Since we have felt that God was leading us to Atrel we have been praying that God would send someone here to take our place here at the mission.  Recently there has been a couple who are very seriously considering coming and serving with BHM and he would take over Kyrk's job.  They would be able to come this summer, allowing a few months of overlap with Kyrk still here and then if it is God's plan we hope to move by Novmeber 2012.
Your prayers are greatly appreciated as we continue to seek God's will and follow where He leads.  The next several months are going to be stretching ones, but we are trusting God that as we step out in faith He will direct our steps and provide all that we will need.

Day of Big Changes

Today has been a day of some huge changes here at the mission.  This morning the Lieb family loaded up 2 trucks and moved to the beach camp property about 2 hours away to begin a camp ministry.  After a few hours of carefully arranging a large amount of their belongings into the truck they were on their way.
For the past 7 years, that the Lieb family has been living at the mission, Lizzy and Naomi have been like sisters and it is going to be very difficult for the girls to be seperated.
Already we are missing them and it is going to take a long time to get used to not having the Lieb family around.  Thankfully they are only 2 hours away and every time we pass by the beach property we will for sure be stopping in to see them.  
It is exciting to see what God is doing and even though is it difficult for all of us it is a blessing to know the Lieb family is continuing to follow God's leading.

All the belongings sitting outside waiting for the truck.

The truck arrived, now to figure out the puzzle.

Chris and Christopher were on the truck arranging everything.

Thankfully several of the workers were there to help lift everything on the truck.

Watch out for the drawers Christopher.

The peanut gallery.  Bri is pretending to be sad :)  I'm going to miss these girls a lot.

Naomi and Lizzy were enjoying every moment together.

God's Little Reminders

Sadly it is not uncommon to hear about the corruption in Haiti, and yes it is true that there is a lot of corruption here and it can easily get discouraging.
Today I was delightfully reminded of God's faithfulness and that there are those here who really are striving to live a life of integrity.
Yesterday was payday, so I gave one of our cooks the money she was due.
I was a little surprised when she came to my door this morning, since today was not a day she was to come to work.  She said when she got home she discovered that I had given her $100 dollars more then I should have (about $12.50 US).  She didn't want to wait until Monday to make it right, she had to come and return the money this morning.
Wow, praise God for this true example of integrity.  This was convicting to me.  Would I have wanted to make it right so quickly that I would have paid extra tap tap money to return the money so quickly? 
I am so thankful for my sister in Christ's example of integrity.

Answered Prayer

All night last night the tropical storm sat still in the ocean south of Haiti.  It was a very peaceful night with no wind or rain.  We were closely watching the reports all day and were expecting the storm to come.  All day the sun tried to shine and there was very little wind.  We kept wondering when the storm was going to come.  When we checked the report at 4pm, we were amazed.  The storm had broken apart and disappeared.  WOW!!!  God surly answered our prayers and spared Haiti from a tropical storm.

Since we were expecting the storm to come, Kyrk made the decision to keep the 2 teams that are visiting, here at the mission instead of going out to continue building the houses they are working on.  This also was such a blessing.  These teams were able to complete some much needed projects here at the mission and were a huge help.  Some of them finished installing all the plumbing for 2 apartments.  The others built some walls in storage depots and helped with some cleaning and sewing.  They all worked so diligently and it were a great blessing.  Tomorrow they should all be able to go out to complete their houses.

Calm Before the Storm

Today has started out to be a great day.  Today is Jonathan's 7th Brithday and Kyrk and I's 10 anniversary.  So it is a day of celebration.  The sun is shining and I have my clothes hanging outside drying.  It is hard to imagine that we have a tropical storm heading straight for us later today.
Several of our workers are going around making sure that everything is tied down or put away, preparing for the storm.
We are thankful that several homes have been rebuilt, so many families have a safe, secure home to stay in during the storm, but at the same time there are still so many who are living in tents and poorly constructed tin shelters with tarps.  We are praying that people are able to find safe places to go while the storm passes.
Your prayers for the people of Haiti are appreciated as we wait for the storm to come later today.

Accident update

Thank you so much for your prayers for those affected by the accident in the market on Friday.
We praise God that several of those who were injured are recovering well. 
This morning one of the workers, Celavy, came in and was very thankful for the ways that we were able to help him out on Friday and have a driver take his son to a hospital.  His son was released from the hospital and is doing much better. 
The reports from the other family members of workers are positive also, but their is still lots of healing that needs to take place. 
Thank you once again for your prayers.

Accident in the Fermathe Market

This morning around 8:00 a small pick up truck (Tap Tap) lost it's brakes coming down the hill from Fort Jacques and ran into the market area at the bottom of the hill.  The market area was very busy since it was market day and many people go to the market early in the morning. 
This market area is located about a 5 minute walk from the mission.
Sadly several people were injured and some were killed.  We treated some of the injured here at the mission hospital, but most of the injuries were transfered to other hospitals since they were severe injuries and we didn't have the staff to handle all the severe injuries.
Two of our drivers became Ambulance drivers and helped to transfer 2 worker's family members to hospitals in Port-au-Prince.  We praise God that they were able to get them to the hospital where they could get emergency surgery if necessary (we can only handle scheduled surgeries here).
We don't have any further updates on those injured.  As we hear more, I will try and update.  One is Celavy's son and another is a family member of Gaston.  Madame Boss also had a sister in law injured.
Thank you for your prayers.  Your continued prayers for the families who lost loved ones and for the healing of those who were injured are greatly appreciated.

Kyrk took this picture when he went through the area around noon.  In the middle of the picture behind the 2 motorcycles is the truck which flipped over on it's side when it crashed.

Summer Bible Institute, Teams and Fun Pictures

Conference Center and Summer Bible Institute:
After about 2 weeks of very hard work, Kyrk finished building 3 classrooms and a dorm room on the second floor of the conference center.  This was a large task and we were blessed with having several people come and help with the project.  We were also very thankful for our very talented carpenters and painters who faithfully worked each day helping to get the project finished.
Summer Bible Institute classes began on July 6 and it was an answer to prayer that they were able to use the newly built classrooms.
This year Kyrk was asked to teach one of the classes for Summer Bible Institute. He is teaching a class on the doctrine of sin, salvation and man.  It is a third year class and on Thursday (his first day of class) there were 6 students in his class.  He teaches every Tuesday and Thursday morning for 2 hours.  Pray that God uses Kyrk to clearly teach these doctrines and Bible truths and that the students would be able to clearly understand and apply what they are learning.

Teams:
Over the past few weeks we have been blessed with several work teams coming to visit and rebuild houses.  This is always a delight and encouragement to the people in the communities that they are working in and also to us missionaries. 
It has also presented some challenges for Kyrk to try and get all the building materials to the job sites while he was struggling with several mechanical problems with the trucks.  Pray that God keeps our trucks working well.

Fun Family pictures:
I thought it was time to include a few fun pictures of the kids.

We had to count thousands of Aqua Tabs to be sent to the schools and Anna was "helping."  Thanks Bri and Brooke for helping me with this huge task!!

Anna was more interested in climbing in the boxes.

Anna playing with glasses.

Robert was gifted with a little pig from Ti Jean (one of our contractors)  He named it Thomas and loved to go feed it each day.  Sadly this pig died a week ago, but the next day Ti Jean brought another pig for Robert. The new pig is Lightning McQueen and so far it is doing well.

Flexibility

There are definitely some days when God really teaches us a truth and we can't help but get the message.  Yesterday was one of those days for me.  I started my day thinking that it would be a typical day, doing laundry, cleaning the house, and other jobs that come with raising 5 children.
Around 11 am all of that changed and God started showing me that I was going to learn a little more flexibility.
One of the team members that is here helping to build houses had tripped on a piece of a cement block and they thought she may have broken her ankle.  Once she arrived at the mission the fun began of visiting the doctor, getting x-rays, getting the proper hospital paperwork, etc.  Thankfully that all went rather smoothly.
We discovered that she had fractured her ankle and would have to go down to Pettionville to have a cast put on.  So off Rebekah and I went with Evelyn and a driver.  Once we arrived we discovered there were 2 flights of stairs that she would have to get up.  This was a huge task, but we made it and thankfully the doctor was willing to help us quite quickly, which was a huge blessing.
By late afternoon we were back home and Evelyn was feeling much better.
Needless to say, I didn't get accomplished what I had thought I would do yesterday, but I'm so grateful that God chose to use me in this way and teach me that His interruptions may not be my plan, but He wants to accomplish great things through His plan.  It was a wonderful time of getting to know Evelyn and she really encouraged me and challenged me in many ways.

It is often said that to survive on the mission field you need three things, flexibility, flexibility and flexibility. I think I still need to work on this one, but I'm thankful that God continues to teach me.

Cholera on the increase again

On Friday Kyrk had an opportunity to visit the community of Grande Source.  He took the Honda Big Red and drove for about 45 minutes and then had to walk 1 hour to reach the community.  During the earthquake the church was destroyed and the community wants to rebuild.  They were wanting Kyrk's wisdom to help them decide on the best place to build the new church and other construction advise.
As Kyrk was walking back to the place where they had parked the Honda, he was passed by a group of people who were walking very quickly carrying a lady who was very sick with cholera.  They were taking her to the closest clinic which was over one hour walking distance from the community of Grande Source.
When Kyrk got the the Honda, he once again saw the group carrying the sick lady.  They had found out that there was no one at the clinic to treat the lady and a truck had been called to come and pick her up to bring her to the mission, the next closest clinic.  Kyrk had passed the truck used to pick up cholera patients, on his way out and he knew it was broken down on the side of the road and that without someone else helping this lady, she would die.
So he offered to put the stretcher on the back of the Honda, but he didn't have any ropes to tie it down.  He asked the people if anyone had any ropes.  No one had any, but they were so desperate to get this lady to a clinic that one man took off his sweatshirt, ripped it up and made rope to hold the stretcher on.  This was all he had and had to borrow a t-shirt from another man to have something to wear.
Kyrk was able to bring her safely to the mission and she quickly received treatment. 
We are praying that she is recovering and will soon be able to return to her village.

The rainy season has increased the number of cholera patients that we are seeing.  Our cholera clinic had downsized, but they are going to move back into the bigger facility soon since the number of patients that they are seeing each day is increasing. 
Pray that people will be able to get to clinics quickly to receive treatment.

Here is a short video of the group carrying the stretcher with the lady on it.

Antione is with Jesus

On Monday night at his home, Antione went to heaven.  He was a wonderful man of God who faithfully worked at the mission since it was started.  He would always arrive at 6 am and was the last to leave around 6 pm and he would come 7 days a week.  Each day he lead devotions with the workers and was a great example to everyone around him of what a Godly servant should be like.
Our children, especially Robert, have had a special place in their heart for Antione.  Since his stroke in 2009 we have been sending a vehicle to his house every Sunday morning to pick him up and bring him to church.  The children all looked forward to saying hello to Antione each Sunday after service. 
Also every evening that we eat together in the dining hall with the mission staff Robert requests prayer for Antione.  When I shared with Robert yesterday that Antoine had died and went to heaven, he didn't understand.  I think he might realize what happened when he doesn't see him at church on Sunday.
He will be dearly missed.
Pray for his family as they go through this difficult time.

This picture was taken in November when my mom and 2 neices were here visiting.

Back again

Sorry that it has been so long since I have put anything up on our blog. 
On April 25, Kyrk and I traveled to London, England for a 2 day vacation and then went on to Holland for some vacation time and a 6 day conference with World Servants.  It was a wonderful time for us and we enjoyed spending time with some dear friends in Holland.

We are very grateful to Chris and Kelli for taking care of our children for the 2 weeks that we were gone. 

We were able to spend Sunday afternoon with this wonderful group of friends.

Gerben and Marjon were such wonderful hosts and we really enjoyed spending time with them.

Saturday morning bike ride through Joure.

Shopping for good dutch tea.

Kyrk loves Stroopwaffles.

Doing an assignment during the World Servants training.

Playing Farmer's Golf.  We had so much fun playing this crazy game.

New Machinery arrives

Last week we were blessed with some great machinery, a John Deere and a Bob Cat.   Yes, they came in the form of 4 hard working men from the St. Louis area.  They had a wonderful sence of humor and were a very wonderful group to work with.  Two families were blessed with a new home thanks to these 4 men, the 2 ladies that joined them and some of our faithful workers who worked along side of them. 

New machinery, John Deere and Bob Cat

Working on one of the houses

 As an update on Sanel's house, Kyrk and the others working with him, have completely finished this house.  Sanel and his family are very thankful for the gift of a new home.

Sanel and his family in front of their completed house.

Fun Video of the kids

Kyrk recorded this video this afternoon of the kids playing.

Election results

Around 6 pm tonight the election results were officially announced.  It was announced that Mr. Martelly is going to be our next president.
As soon as this announcement was made you could hear cheering and celebrating all over the mountain sides.  As I am writing this (at almost 9pm) I am listening to people cheering and celebrating on the street.
Overall it appears that the people are happy with these results, so we are anticipating that things will remain calm.
Thanks for your continued prayers for Haiti.  We are praying that as Mr. Martelly takes office soon, he will have Godly people around him to help him make wise decisions and that he will lead this country well.