Quick Update

The past couple of weeks have been full of challenges and rewarding experiences.
Kyrk was kept busy for a couple days repairing hospital equipment. The hospital staff were trying to get all the operating room equipment working well in preparation for the team of Surgical Volunteers who came and did over 50 surgeries last week. They were mainly for cleft lips and palates, but some were removal of tumors etc. It really is amazing the work that can be done at our hospital here.
We have received many large truck loads of food recently what had to be unloaded into our storage depots and then this week Kyrk is trying to get all of this food to the schools. This is always a large task.
I have been fighting an ear infection over the past 2 weeks. It is a infected ear drum and I'm really praying that I start to get my hearing back soon. I'm going to see the specialist again on Wednesday, so hopefully this heals soon. Your prayers would be appreciated.
The kids are doing well and enjoying school. We just finished a unit on trains and even Robert was enjoying learning about trains.
Here are a few pictures of the boys and their trains. (I have realized that I haven't put up pictures of the girls recently. I will try to have some for next post.)

Relaxing Weekend

This past weekend we were blessed by having an opportunity to get away and relax. God really knows our needs and knows when we need a break, more then we do. To be honest, we weren't really looking forward to going away to where it was hot. We thought we didn't need it, but God knew better.
It was so wonderful and refreshing to spend time away as a family and staff.
Yes it was hot, the day we arrived it was 111.5 F in the shade and then the next day it was 105F at 11 am. Thankfully they had a pool and we spent a lot of time in the pool.

When it was cooler, early morning and late afternoon, we played softball.

Jonathan really enjoyed this and after practicing a little with mom, decided to play on Dad's team. He loved it!!

Robert just enjoyed playing with the ball. Thankfully there were many extras.

The kids are all fighting a cold so that made the weekend a little challenging. We are praying that they recover from this terrible cold soon.

God did amazing things in Atrel!

Wow what a great experience the last 2 weeks have been. God really worked mightily. Thank you for your prayers.
Here are a few of the praises:
4 people from the team were saved
We were able to get to know some of the locals and start to develop some good relationships with the people in Atrel.
Even in the intense heat the group was able to build a large 3 classroom school that will be used as a highschool. Right now when children want to continue their education beyond grade 6 they have to leave their families and travel about 3 hours away. Now they can stay at home and continue their education.
Our children really enjoyed playing with the local children and even developed some friendships.
Everyone stayed healthy

If you want to read more of the details of our time in Atrel, here is my journal from the time we were there. It is long, but I put it here for those who wanted to know more.


July 27
We left home at 6 am and after a great, but long and bumpy ride we arrived in Atrel at 4 pm. The bus with the group arrived at 5pm. When we all arrived it was like the circus had arrived in town. Many people came to the school yard to see what was happening. After a lot of set up work we had made a large classroom into a kitchen and ate supper by 7pm. Then we still needed to set up our bedroom in a classroom, but everything went smoothly and we all slept well.

July 28
Today I met Madam Pepe. She is one of the 6 ladies from the church who has volunteered to help us. She seems willing to do anything and has faithfully carried water for us and washed our clothes. After talking with her I learned that she has 12 children. She has a garden behind the school yard where she grows millet.
After talking with her for a few minutes, she invited me to come visit her house some time. Hopefully we will be able to go within the time that we are here.
Madam Pepe washing clothes.


July 30
Wow it is hot!!!
Our afternoons are spent just trying to stay cool. We have quickly discovered that it is very difficult to do anything in the afternoon since it is too hot. The group has started to get up at 5 am and they are working by 6am. They take it easy in the afternoon just because it is so hot.
Things are going well with the group. We are continuing to pray that God would us this experience, the people here and us to either deepen their faith or bring them to faith.

July 31
Dinner tonight was goat head and foot sauce over rice. This was the first time I had ever had this and it was interesting. She boiled the whole head and feet, which meant that there was the tongue, eyes, and the other meat off the feet and head in the sauce. We think that it was from the feet, but the sauce had a very strong (billy) goat smell. It is definitely something that I don’t want to eat anytime soon again.
Here is a picture of the building so far.


Aug 1
It rained yesterday and that was a huge treat. Most people decided to wash their hair in the rain. Kyrk even took the opportunity to wash the very dirty truck.


It has been so hot and many people are very exhausted. Nobody worked yesterday so they could regain their strength.
Kyrk had a chance to share with the group last night and we are praying that God will use what he said.
Many people are really wondering why Kyrk and I want to move here. Every time people ask it is an opportunity to share about God and how we need to be obedient to Him even when it isn’t easy.
The people from the group went to visit several families from the church. It was such an encouragement to see the hospitality of the Christians in this community. They are so generous and give out of the little that they have. This is very convicting and it challenges me to really consider how much I give to God.
Today I had a chance to talk with 2 other ladies. They are both working in the kitchen with the great cook that we brought with us from Fermathe. Madam Chrisen and Mis Mimos work very diligently each day in the very hot kitchen without complaining. There is so much that we can learn from these people.

Aug 2
This morning the church was completely full. They made some children move from their seats so that our family could have a place to sit down. There was about 700 people in church and almost half of them were children.
This afternoon Kyrk and I went for a walk up to the property which we hope to build our home on. It was great to get out and meet some people in the area.
The property is the hill behind the house in this picture.

Tonight I sat and talked with madame Pepe. I really enjoy learning from here. She has such a simple faith and she is a wonderful sister in Christ. As we were talking she said “It doesn’t matter who we are, I am poor, You are rich. I am haitian, you are a foreigner. But we have the same value in God’s eyes.”
Often the white person is seen as being more important and sadly the poor people here can be looked down upon but God used a poor mother of 12 to remind me of His love for everyone equally.

Aug 3
Happy Birthday Jonathan!
This morning Kyrk had to pass by Bruce and Deb Robinson’s house, so I decided to go along and the kids and I spent a couple of hours with Bruce and Deb. It was wonderful to visit with them. It is always so refreshing and encouraging to spend time with them.
When we got back we heard some wonderful news. In the last 24 hours 2 people have accepted Christ as their Saviour. That is why we are here. Going through these challenging times is all worth it when we hear what God is doing. We pray that God continues to work in these people’s hearts and that more people come to know Him.

Aug 4
Happy Birthday Mom!
Today started off very challenging. Mariloude (our cook from Fermathe) and Madam Pepe were not getting along and they are having a big disagreement right now.
We talked with both of them this morning, but it wasn’t until Pastor Frtiz (the pastor of the church in Atrel) came, that it was resolved.
He came with 2 deacons from the church and we all sat together under a tree. It was SO encouraging to see these godly men share with us and after listening to the problem from Madame Pepe, they gave her good godly advice.
God definitely used an ugly situation to show Kyrk and I how Godly these church leaders are and how they really desire to work together with us and they are diligently praying that a missionary family would come live here and help this community develop. Their faith is so simple, but they have a lot that they can teach us and hopefully God will also use us to teach them more about Him.
While we were talking with Pastor Fritz and the others he turned to the 2 deacons and said, “I’m sorry if I hurt you by what I am about to say, but this area is very poor and many people are very hungry.” For a pastor to admit this emphasized the point that there is a huge problem of poverty here. It really is our prayer that as we begin to focus on training the teachers and preachers in this area, they will be better equipped and as they grow in Christ they will share that with others. We are also praying that God would give us wisdom to demonstrate new gardening methods that would allow the people to grow better crops allowing them to make a better income and eat better food.

Aug. 6
Today we went to visit the home of Madame Pepe. Her home is a small mud hut and we were very surprised when she told us that 15 people sleep there. One good thing about the thatch roof was that it was nice and cool in her house.
This is a picture of her and her husband in front of their house.

Aug. 8
They are finished building. When they first came they thought there was not enough work for them. But they soon realized that with the extreme heat here it was going to be challenging to finish it. They ended up building all the walls and only putting the soothe cement on the walls of 1 room. Today they poured the floor with the help of 25 people from the community. It was a great experience to see the willingness of the community to come out and help and to work along side of them. Things have went much better these past few days with the helpers and kitchen staff.
All the people that worked together to pour the floor.

Aug. 9
Today was a very relaxing day. There are many people from the group that play soccer in the Netherlands. They wanted to play against a local team. It was a great game and the community all came out to watch. The final score was Haiti 2 Holland 0.

Aug. 10
We leave tomorrow morning and it is going to be hard to leave. I have really enjoyed being here. The people are wonderful and have welcomed us into their community with open arms. Even though it has been very hot, there is still something about these people that makes me want to come back. Yes life is easier in Fermathe, but I think I would rather live here.
Here is a picture of the dedication ceremony that they had for the new building.


Aug. 11
After 8 1/2 hours of driving we arrived back home safely. It was a great trip and it is good to be back where it is cool and in our own house. This evening after dinner one of the leaders shared with us that 2 more people were saved on Sunday night. God sure did a great work in the lives of the group from Holland. We will definitely continue to pray for the 4 people who were saved during these past 2 weeks. Join us praying that they will find a good church and good Godly friends who can come along side them and disciple and encourage them.

Heading to Atrel

This week has been full of preparations for our two week stay in Atrel. Tomorrow 31 people arrive from the Netherlands to help build a much needed secondary school in Atrel. We will be traveling early Monday morning with everyone up to Atrel.
It has been a lot of work just to get ready for this group, since we will be staying in a school and have no electricity and therefore no refrigeration, along with no running water etc. We have had to get everything to make a classroom into a kitchen, along with building our own shower stalls etc.
Kyrk and I are tired already and we haven't even started the work in Atrel. Pray with us that the next 2 weeks go smoothly and that God is glorified through all that is said and done. We know that we are going to be stretched, but we are relying on God's strength.
We will return on Aug. 11 so I will try and post once we return. We are trusting that God does come great things and that He continues to draw us closer to Him through this challenging experience.

Dunkin Donuts

Tuesday was a great day. We were able to meet up with our good friend Bonita and spend a little bit of time grocery shopping with her and then getting something to drink at a little bakery. It is always such an encouragement to spend time with Bonita.
She surprised us with a huge treat. Doughnuts are not something that we get here, so having a dozen doughnuts brought in for us was wonderful. I have put some pictures of the kids enjoying them.
THANK YOU BONITA!!

Quonset Hut is Here!!

The first step towards us moving to Atrel is starting to happen. About a week ago the quonset hut that was ordered at the end of November finally arrived at the mission. It really was an answer to pray that we were able to get it through customs using the mission franchise and therefore did not have to pay the customs bill for it. God is Good!
It also came at the perfect time. (Of, course it was perfect timing, God is in control)
When we go to Atrel on July 26, with a large group from the Netherlands Kyrk is going to have some of the workers come along and start to build the foundation for the quonset hut. This way he can supervise 2 jobs at the same time.
Below is a picture of all the pieces in the truck when it arrived here. It doesn't look like much, but it will turn into a large 30x60 storage facility.

Jonathan

Yesterday started off as a normal busy day, especially since we have a team of 15 here from Pennsylvania right now.
Around 4 in the afternoon, Jonathan and I went over to the kitchen to see how supper was coming along. Jonathan chose to ride his bike, which he had been doing for most of the day. The only difference was that it had just rained, making the cement a little slippery.
As I was talking with the cook I hear Jonathan start screaming. He had fallen off of his bike and hit his head on the cement. I ran to him and took him into the kitchen to put a wash cloth on his forehead (which was really bleeding bad) I knew that I was not going to be able to deal with this, so I sent some people to find Kyrk.
Kyrk is wonderful!!!! He called the Doctor to make sure he was here and then took Jonathan up to the hospital. 3 stitches later he was back home.
We are so thankful for good medical staff right here at the mission. Dr. Bernard is a great doctor and he even stopped by the house this morning to see how he was doing.
This was taken right after he came back from getting the stitches. I think he was feeling good at this point. Back to his same silly self.

This is what his head looked like this morning when I changed the bandage.

Special Visitor

On Saturday we had the wonderful surprise of having Nate come visit us.
I'm sure many of you are wondering, who is Nate?
Some of you may remember back in November a large school collapsed in Petionville. If you want to read all the details you can here
Kyrk still does not know who called him that day to ask him and the other men to come down and help. It really is amazing to see God's hand at work through out all of this.
When Kyrk got to the school he started working along side of Nate. Nate is a Haitian man who lives in Florida and was here for 3 days to help train local fire fighters.
As we talked with him on Saturday it was so clear that God brought him here for those 3 short days to be at the school. He and Kyrk were able to spend many hours freeing a little 6 year old boy.
Shortly after the boy was rescued Kyrk and the other men from the mission left and no information was exchanged with Nate. Since that time they have been trying to get back together again and talk. All Nate knew was Kyrk's first name and that he worked at the Baptist Mission.
A few weeks after the incident the pastor from our church here was preaching in Florida (at Nate's church) and Nate was able to ask him if he knew Kyrk and he was able to give Pastor Joubert his card and email address for Kyrk. Since then they have been emailing and hoping to someday meet again and share what God has done.
As Nate and Kyrk talked on Saturday they were so amazed at how God brought them together for the purpose of rescuing that little boy.
Nate and his wife are wonderful Godly people and it was such an encouragement to us be able to talk with Nate and to meet his wife.

Rats

I guess part of living in a third world country is having to deal with rats. Usually it is not terrible, but recently we have been having a lot of fun with rats.
It all started about 1 week ago. One evening, last week I heard a little chewing sound in the kitchen and asked Kyrk is check it out. Being the wonderful man that he is, he found the rat in a drawer and hit it with a stick. After a couple of times he was successful in killing it.
A couple of days later we caught another rat in a trap. At this point I thought we are finished with rats in our house for awhile.
Well I was wrong. This morning when I opened my dish towel drawer I found a dead baby rat laying on top of the towels. It was so gross and Naomi knew that I was not going to deal with it, so she immediately called Kyrk.
He came and discovered 6 more dead baby rats amongst the towels.

Rebekah liked the little rats and after they were in this cup she took them to show Grandma, her cousins and the other missionary family here.

Once they had shown the rats to everyone, it was time to bury them. Naomi had the honors on digging the grave and covering them.

Yeah there are 9 less rats around!!

Fun evening out

On Saturday night we had the rare treat of going out to eat as a staff. It was a very enjoyable evening and we had a great time. The restaurant is a rather unique place. The main part is covered only by plants and branches. This is where we were initially sitting, until it started raining. Then it was time to quickly move to a drier location. Our children especially enjoyed it. This was only the second time that they have been to a restaurant in the evening like this, so this was a really huge treat for them.
This isn't the best picture since it was pretty dark.

Canning Fun

This past week I have been having fun learning how to can meat. Growing up I helped my mom can fruit and vegetables, but never meat. Thankfully we found a large pressure cooker in one of our storage rooms here at the mission and it has been working great.
Then a missionary friend had some extra jars and was willing to let me borrow them.
It has really been amazing to see God work in providing the things that we need.
You may ask, why am I canning all this meat??
This summer we have a group of 31 dutch people coming for 2 1/2 weeks. We will be staying in Atrel for that time. Since we are not living there yet, we will all be sleeping in the school and we will not have any electricity or refrigeration. This has caused me to get creative and figure out how we can have some meat with our meals. We will be purchasing some meat fresh from the market but they only have market 2 times a week (Friday and Saturday) and with the heat up there it would not take long for meat to spoil.
These are going to be stretching days for our family. Our whole family will be traveling with the group and staying in the school along with them. We are praying that during this time we will be able to get to know more of the people in the community and learn more about the needs that are there, so we can better prepare for moving there.
Our goal is to move to Atrel by the summer of 2010. We are still praying that God provides the funds in His timing. We currently have about 20% of the needed funds.

Some ground beef and chicken that I have canned.

Visitors

This week has been a fun week so far. On Saturday we had a group of 7 people from from West Virginia and Virginia come to visit for 1 week. One of them is Uncle Roger (Kyrk's uncle) and along with him is his son Tony with his wife and daughter. So not only is it great to have visitors here, it is great to have family visiting.
The men are working on replacing the roof on part of the conference center. It leaked really bad and desperately needed to be replaced.
We are so thankful that they have come and helped out in this way.

The view from the top of what they are doing.


This is Tony and Boss TiJean

Garden

At the beginning of April we decided to start a garden. We had heard about Square Foot gardening and wanted to try it.

This is our Haitian version of a square foot garden. So far it has been doing fairly well.

We also wanted to see how successful we would be growing vegetables in only compost in old tires.

These are all techniques that we are trying, hoping to find out what works so we can have a garden when we move to Atrel. In Atrel there is very little good soil and it is very difficult to grow many vegetables, so we are experimenting. Our next project is going to be making compost, to find the best methods for doing that.
On Wednesday we ate the first things from our garden. The romaine lettuce was such a wonderful treat. The people here do not grow romaine lettuce, so it is a treat. We also had one cucumber that we felt was big enough to use in the salad.

Having the garden has turned into a great family project. The kids have each claimed a tire and help take care of their plants. They were very excited to finally be able to pick something from their little gardens.

Garden

Bible Curriculum

Yesterday we started working on the grade 3 Bible curriculum. This a huge task and after 2 hours yesterday we had put together the basic information that the people writing the stories will need for 6 of the 40 stories. Thankfully we have some people in the United States who are willing to write the stories for us. This is a huge blessing!!
Once the stories are written they are sent back to us here in Haiti and then people here spend a large amount of time editing them and making sure that they are appropriate for Haiti. We also write application questions, review questions and put a memory verse along with an explanation of that verse.
As you can see this is no small task. I have been overseeing this project for the past 2 years, but have recently been convicted about the importance of putting family before ministry, even if the ministry it super important, my family should come first. My children are my main ministry right now.
I currently do not have the time to spend editing these stories and writing more etc, as well and all the meetings that go with it.
Please join us in praying that God would show us His way of getting this very important Bible curriculum written. It is our prayer that God would send someone here to help oversee this project. There are still many more years of work, since we hope to write a curriculum through 6th grade.

Thanks for your prayers!

Kyrk's Atrel trip and Robert

The past few days have been full of exciting things.
On Tuesday Kyrk took a dutch couple who is visiting up to Atrel to show them where World Servants is working. It is always exciting to show people where we are planning to move to and also to introduce them to the wonderful people in that area. Kyrk was also able to visit with a family that lost everything in a house fire back at the end of February when Kyrk was staying in Atrel. Their home was completely destroyed and their youngest child died as a result of the burns that he received. They have 8 other children and they are currently living with a family member. Through all of this it is encouraging to see how the church community is coming together and helping them is whatever way they can. It is their pray that somehow they will be able to build a new home, but right now they don't know how that will happen.

The children in this picture are 4 of the 8 and the lady in the white dress is the mother. The lady beside her is the lady that they are staying with right now.


This is what was left of their home after the fire.

Overall it was a great trip and Kyrk was able to see the property boundaries and has a better idea now of where we will build our house and put the training center buildings.

Robert started having a high fever on Monday afternoon and when he still had a high fever on Wednesday I decided that it was time to see a doctor. Dr.Bernard a wonderful Haitian doctor that lives and works here at the mission took a look at him and prescribed axocillen and a strong fever reducer. Since he wasn't sure what was causing the fever he also sent Robert for Blood and Urine tests. Taking my kids for things like that is very challenging, so it was a tough things for me. Robert handled it very well and thankfully all the tests came back showing no serious problem.
Then today he has a rash all over his body. We now know that this is what was causing his high fever and we are continuing to pray for his complete recovery.

Great Weekend

This past weekend we had the privilege of going on a staff retreat. It was a wonderful time of rest and relaxation as well and planning. Saturday afternoon we spent time as a staff discussing what we think God is leading us as a mission to be doing and what changes we need to make. It really is exciting to see what God is doing through the Baptist Haiti Mission.
The kids enjoyed the time away as well. I think that the highlight was being able to swim in the pool most of the day on Saturday.
Today was back to our normal routines again.
Unfortunately I have no pictures since I forgot that we had our camera with us.

Fun Family

For those who have not seen updated pictures of our children in awhile we thought we would share a few. These were taken last week after dinner one night. The kids had some boxes and they were trying to see if they could fit completely in them. It was very entertaining to watch them try.

Naomi was more interested in just using the box as a hat.

Jonathan figured out that he could get covered completely with 2 boxes.

Rebekah just being her cute self with her box.

Robert really enjoys this rocking chair.

We are back!

We have recently been convicted about our lack of communication with our faithful supporters, friends, family and many others. We realize that we have failed in keeping you informed about what is happening in our lives and what God is doing here in Haiti. It is our hope to update this blog on a regular basis so people can stay up to date on what we are doing, how our kids are growing and what God is doing.

Enjoying Northwest Haiti

Since Aug. 1, our family has been in northwest Haiti, hosting a group of 12 from the Netherlands. They are here doing a construction project at a school.
On Sunday Aug 12 we went on an adventure and went to Port-de-Paix. But to get there we had to travel on very muddy roads with large mud puddles. The group was riding in the back of a large truck, so their ride was interesting.
Also we had to cross a very large river. It was probably about 2 feet deep and was fun to drive through, but we were thankful that it was not any deeper.
So we are having fun and enjoying our time here. I will probably be posting more soon from our time up here.