The Perkins Family

First Day

2010-06-12T10:28:00.002-05:00

I spoke to Luke this morning and he said the neighborhood that he is staying in has been without electricity since last Sunday. They have inverters which they charge with a generator, but the inverter cut out around midnight last night...that makes for one hot night of sleeping without fans, and also leaves you to be a great target for mosquito's!

Luke said he did not sleep that well, but he only has a couple things to do today so maybe a nap later....MAYBE :). He has to drain the baptismal pool at the chapel because it is clogged. He started that yesterday, and will hopefully complete that project today. He also brought a computer down for a missionary and he needs to help transition him from a PC to a MAC, along with transferring files, pictures, and all that good stuff. Good thing Luke is so handy with that kind of stuff! Later one this afternoon he will go to another missionary house who had their house broken into (while they were all sleeping), and bring some supplies they requested, that were stolen.

I wish I could be there to squeeze everyone and fill my heart with a Haiti fix, but Luke is amazing and we are blessed with the opportunity for him to be able to go down there.

Quick trip next week

2010-06-08T15:51:00.002-05:00

Just a quick note to say that I'll (Luke) be going to Haiti on Friday morning and coming back the following Thursday. This is a quick trip that has a couple of purposes:

1) I'm planning to take some time to sit down with an organization that has expressed interest in having Becca and I join with them. We're real excited about this and really need discernment we we begin talking with them.
2) I'm bringing a new computer to Pastor Karl and will be moving all the stuff from his old computer to this one. I'll also be spending some time with him teaching him how to use the new one.
3) I'll be delivering some donated sound equipment to Quisqueya Chapel.
4) I'll be checking in on a couple of business, income generating projects, that I started with a couple of men a few months ago.
5) I'll be arranging for the delivery of approximately 10,000 reading glasses that have been donated by some people from New England.

I'm excited of course to get back. Becca and I often say that we think about Haiti multiple times during the day and it feels more and more like home to us. We'd really appreciate your prayers for us while I'm there over this next week.

2010-05-05T17:19:00.002-05:00

I just sent out the following email to our mailing list. If you did not receive the email and would like for us to put you on the list please email me at: perkins.luke@gmail.com

Hey Everyone!

Just a quick note to say thanks so much for your support of us and our ministry in Haiti. We truly couldn't do what we have been able to do with out you! We put out a last minute call for support and you responded so generously, thank you!

We've just finished putting together our latest newsletter that talks about some of the things we were involved in helping with while I was in Haiti after the quake. You can find that newsletter here: www.perkinsfamilyonline.com/Newsletters

As you can imagine, Haiti has been devastated. Please keep Haiti in your prayers in these next months and years while the rebuilding continues. There is a lot of work ahead.

We also ask that you pray for us as we begin conversations with missions agencies in preparation for full-time ministry there after seminary.

In Christ,
Luke and Becca Perkins

Haiti

2010-03-24T19:34:00.007-05:00

Well, please forgive us the the lack of posting! Being in Haiti last week, I can tell why Luke did not have two seconds to himself never mind sitting down, praying for a strong Internet connection, and posting!

Like I said last week I was able to fly to Haiti (after lots of plane and ticket issues going and coming from Haiti) and see Luke after almost 2 months!! It was amazing to hug him, but the initial embrace was quick and off we were to the chapel. John Edwinson (a man from our home church in NH, he is like our second dad) came with me to build a " lean two" that was needed to keep dirt and stuff out of the water purification system. I have posted recently about this, and John's amazing work.

The week FLEW by and before I knew it Luke was dropping me off at the airport. He will be flying tomorrow from Port-au-Prince to Miami, spending the night, and then Friday returning to Dallas :) I am beyond excited to have him home! Haiti has stolen our hearts, we will return there again, and someday (Lord willing) we will live there. I am so looking forward to having my husband home with me!!

Below are some pictures that I took while in Haiti..I took almost 500 pictures and will try to post as many as I can the next few days. Thank you all for your prayers, and please continue as Luke makes his journey home!

This is JJ...he stole my heart this summer! He was rescued along with several other orphans from a village that was flooded by the hurricanes last year.

Just one of the many "tent cities" that consume Port-au-Prince right now

Everyone is in need of clean water!

disaster everywhere!

I really hope no one was in this car!

To the right of the picture is a small building which was at one point a great friend of ours store (Maxime)...he was in it when the earthquake hit, and only by inches made it out of his store!

I like others have many memories of this building called "one stop"! Everyone in the store made it our alive!

Life goes on in the streets, with ladies selling their daily goods.

This is a pole on the ground and connected to the pole is our transformer for the electricity. Those wires are also used to bring the electricity to the houses....it is not working. The "electric company" came to cut the live wires and just left everything there for a couple days. We did eventually get electricity again :)

John and his crew after completing the "lean two"

Luke....trying to fix everything :)

Almost there...John had this much done in one afternoon!

Karl and Joseph unloading the truck full of food.

Luke and Karl explaining to Maxime how to cook the food.

The packages of food upclose...I believe this is beans.

Unloading the truck of food

This little guy was hanging out...I have never seen a snake in Haiti before, so I thought I would capture the moment :)

Still unloading food...Praise the Lord from whom all Blessings flow!

So far.....

2010-03-17T09:29:00.004-05:00

So here we are..... John and I have been here for 24 hours so far and LOTS of things have been done. Yesterday shortly after we arrived John went over to the chapel to see what his project looked like and develop a game plan for the next morning. While Luke, Karl, and John were discussing the "lean two" a truck load of food showed up. It took quite a few Haitians and Karl to unload the food and water, but it go done!

Unloading the 2,000 pounds of beans, huge bags of corn, and lots of bottled water (that came out of their packaging and were rolling all over the floor of the truck) :)

Karl, John, and Luke looking at the supplies and taking about what else they need

The big black container in the back here is the water tank and the thing wrapped in a tarp is the filters. This needs a roof over it to keep out dirt, junk in the air, and leaves.

Here are a couple of pictures of the destruction from the earthquake...

A Church

Apartment building

As you can see there is still TONS of stuff around to remind everyone of the earthquake. Luke and I just returned from driving around and gathering more supplies. While we were driving you cannot miss the tents that are up everywhere. Some are in parks, some are in fields, but these "tent cities" stretch so far in some places. Other tents you see in people's yards. They are still afraid to sleep in their homes so they are sleeping in their driveways.

Here

2010-03-16T17:29:00.002-05:00

No wonder it is so hard for Luke to update this thing! I haven't been here that long and Luke has been running around doing tons of stuff, and every minute it seems the guard is pulling him away because someone is at the gate for him. Wow, poor Luke!

John and I are here, and praise the Lord we had no problems getting into Haiti (John had a hard night flying from Boston to Florida last night, but he is here) and we got our bags! It was awesome to see Luke, "awesome" actually doesn't describe it! We got to our "Haiti home" and had lunch then John, Luke, and Karl got right to work with the "lean two" thing for the water system. They have plans and already started the project. I do have pictures, but not sure if I will be able to post them on here. Those of you who have a facebook I did post some pictures on there.

While at the chapel a truck came to deliver food. There was 2,000 pounds of beans, tons of water, and even corn. There was a lot to unload, but what a blessing to have food to unload! We have a wonderful breeze blowing in through the windows and some clouds, not sure if it will rain, but I am going to post this before the Internet goes out, and then try to post pictures. Thank you all for your prayers, and hopefully I can update tomorrow! God Bless!

4:45

2010-03-16T04:56:00.003-05:00

Good morning!!! It is currently 6:00 here in Ft. Lauderdale,FL where I stayed the night last night and continue my adventure today to Haiti. I woke up at 4:45am very excited to see my husband and actually hug him for the first time in almost two months. I am VERY excited! There are military and other relief help that have been in Haiti since the earthquake and have not had the opportunity to talk to their family never mind being able to see their loved ones; for this opportunity I am thankful!

Luke and I were talking last night and he was reminding me again that Haiti is not the Haiti that I remember. I have spent the last couple weeks thinking about this and trying to prepare my heart. Luke has been nonstop since he touched ground there, and I can just imagine the weight of being on the go, and seeing all the sad sights around you. We have close friends in Haiti, that have been greatly affected (like all the Haitians) and I am sure that will be hard to see them in their current situation.

I am hoping to post more when I am in Haiti, and post pictures as well. I do not think I will be as busy as Luke is and that should allow me to post more, but I also need to Internet to cooperate. So keep checking and hopefully I can update soon! Thank you for your prayers and support! I am feeling so much better and ready for this trip!

4 MORE HOURS :)

2010-03-06T22:24:00.002-05:00

Brief update:

Continued with building inspections and food distributions since the last update. Funding a couple reconstruction/repair projects for a couple of homes that are close to being able to be reoccupied. Tomorrow morning a team of 3 counselors from Dallas will arrive and I'll be coordinating their counseling times for most of this coming week. I'll take them around a bit tomorrow afternoon so they can get a sense of what has happened here and then Monday morning they'll dive in and begin counseling. I have several people scheduled for counseling sessions over the week and I'm hoping it is a benefit to them. I think it will be. We're so thankful to these counselors who are volunteering their time and paying their own way to get here.

Karl, Ann and Bobby are back now and it is VERY good to have them back. Now that they're all back I don't have to be the go-to guy on everything that happens on the campus and I can more effectively do the other things I'm doing. They had a good time of rest in the States and I'm glad for that. The schedule here has been crazy. I've not had a day off since Feb 3 and I'm beginning to feel it. The other missionaries here have been pulling this schedule since Jan 12! Many of the full-time missionaries have taken some time off and gone to the States for a brief rest, those who haven't look completely worn out. I'm worried about them. I know it's tough to get away but in this environment if you don't create some kind of rest you'll not last. So - pray for those who live here all the time.

John Edwinson comes in for a couple of days in a week or so to build a lean-to for us and Becca comes the same day because she's smokin' hot and I miss her. It will be awesome to see both of them.

Looks like I'll be heading back to the Big D on the 26th. Hope it's warm by then.

Feeding the thousands

2010-02-25T09:09:00.003-05:00

Luke just called me to tell me that they were having a food distribution. Yesterday there was enough food for about 60 people, and the workers told Luke he needed to pray over the food before they open the containers tomorrow morning. This morning they gathered around the container and prayed, opened the container and began to distribute the food. When Luke called me they had already fed about 160 people......remember yesterday there was only enough food for about 60 people?!?!?! PRAISE THE LORD!!!!! This cannot be explained in any other way, but God....He is providing!

aftershock again, and again

2010-02-23T02:53:00.002-05:00

We just had two aftershocks. One at 1:30am and one about 20 minutes later. Both at 4.7. Weird that I happened to be awake anyway. I woke up about 5 minutes before the first one, went downstairs to get some water and then it hit as I was going back up so I ran down and out as the dog ran in with his tail between his legs. So I decided to sit here and process for a minute and then my chair started shaking.

I went across the street to the church since everyone was now awake and talking and I hung out for awhile. I could hear people calling to Jesus in the distance. People's nerves are rattled. I'm understanding this a little now. Now I'm back here and going to try to sleep some more. I don't think sleeping on the second floor is happening tonight so I'm crashing on the first floor now.

It is pretty unnerving to feel the earth move like this - especially when all day long I see what happened when the earth really moved.

Ps 46

today

2010-02-22T20:00:00.004-05:00

I'm glad Becca is keeping this up for me. I thought I would have had more time for this but between work and bad internet connections it hasn't been easy.

Here's a quick run through of my day today:

4:30am I was woken by vibrations and a rumbling noise so I shot out of bed and got ready to run out. By the time I was upright it was over. At first I thought it was a dream or maybe a truck coming by, but then I realized the neighbors were upset and had come out into the street, so I figured it was real. Once I realized everything was ok I went back to sleep since I had been up late the night before.

Slept through my alarm and woke up at 7:30, leaving me only time for one psalm and half a cup of coffee.

I got ready and went across the street to the church to make a couple of calls and make sure the secretary had what she needs for the day.

On my way I noticed a crowd gathering outside our lower gate thinking we were doing a distribution today. So I sent someone to tell them we hadn't received any and they would have to come tomorrow. I also touched base with the guys who are helping us with the distribution to make sure they hung around because we were hoping for a shipment at some point during the day so we can do a distribution tomorrow.

My goal was to leave the church at about 5 till 9am so I could pick up the seismic (earthquake) engineer and take him to a few places to inspect. Finally left at about 9:05. With so much going on at the church campus there are always questions to answer. Several times a week I'll get in the car, start towards the gate and stop for another question, maybe have to leave the car again to take care of something, get back in the car, get a little closer and stop again.

Picked up the engineer at 9:10. First stop was Joseph's house. As is the case with each house we visit - Joseph's family had been sleeping outside since the quake because they were afraid to enter their house. His house passed. This made him very happy because he had built it with his own hands many years ago. Craig's (the engineer) expertise allow him to say with a high degree of certainty what will happen to a structure in another quake. For many it gives them great relief to hear the words "in another quake of the same magnitude - this house will not fall".

Next stop the CRWRC office - passed. Then Kelo's house - passed. One the way to Kelo's house I called a crisis counselor in Dallas who is coordinating a team of counselors who will come and work with the people at our church during the second week in March. I was able to give her the green light to buy tickets. Then Alexandre's house - passed. Then Jean's house - passed. Then Jasmine's house - passed. No failed houses today, some need work but all can be reoccupied. This gets people out of tents and also frees up tents for people who have none. Time well spent. Some times part of our visit includes us sitting the family down and explaining what Craig does (professional quake engineer that evaluates structures for vulnerability to quakes) and how long he's done it (35 years). After one visit today the mom of the family told me that her kids would still be very afraid so I crouched to their level and explained to them what we were doing. Then the girl told me she was sad because she couldn't see her friend at school anymore (her school fell). Sure would have been nice to have Becca on that one.

After all our inspecting I brought Craig to a UN office where he would work with them for the afternoon. On my way down I got a call from Kelo saying that the truck load of food was there. When I got there they were still delivering it so I jumped in and helped with that until we were done. We received a bunch of the fortified rice stuff, macaroni, little debbie oatmeal thingies, those austin cracker packs, a pile and a half of cans of vienna sausage and something else too that I can't remember. So, we're set for the distribution tomorrow.

Once the truck was unloaded we organized it all into the container and the nursery. Somewhere around 3:00 we finished and I began to prepare for a 4:0o meeting. At 4:00 Corrigan Clay, his friend and I met with about 15 guys who we're sending out into the neighborhood to go house to house to see how people really are. We're wanting to know several things: are they able to get food and water, do they have unmet medical needs, does their house need to be evaluated by an engineer or did it fall, do they have access to shelter, are they traumatized to the point that they need some professional assistance. We're distributing food for about 3,000 people roughly three times a week at the church, but we know there are some who physically can't come - are they getting food? We also know there are some double dippers, we need to know who they are so we can get the food to who really needs it.

The meeting ended roughly at 6 and somewhere around 7 I headed back across the street. For dinner I had some leftover mac and cheese, a couple of hot dogs and some pea salad. Yeah - I miss my wife. Lunch didn't happen today and breakfast was a chicken pate from a street vendor in between inspections.

Apparently there was another aftershock at 10am but I didn't feel it. Hopefully no more tonight because I need some good sleep. I've heard a rumor being passed around that another big one is coming. Unfortunately that only feeds the fear that is here. Both Craig and the articles I read say there really is no way to tell and that it is statistically unlikely.

These sure are busy days here. It is such a blessing to be able to work with the people we have here. God has brought some really good people here to help with the relief effort. People who have good hearts and who know what their doing. There are a lot of "well meaning" people here (like the 10 who've been on the news) and then there are those who really know what their doing. It's a honor to be able to work with them.

Monday

2010-02-22T07:44:00.002-05:00

This morning at 4:30am (3:30 TX time) there was another aftershock in Haiti. It was calculated to be 4.7, which hasn't caused damage as far as Luke knows. He was woken up by the shaking and could hear the neighbors talking about it. He called some people and people called him, so far everyone is ok.

Luke has been extremely busy and continues to be! The Lord is providing him with strength to get through all the things he is working on, and pray that He continues to. Please also pray for rest! Luke has been sleeping, but being on the go all day, going to bed late, and getting up early is going to catch up to him.

The food distributions are going well and calm. There are still many people in tents and tents are still needed. Luke went to the Palace the other day and took this picture....

Sorry it is so small, but I think you can see it. Please continue to pray for Haiti and the people there. Luke went around with the earthquake engineer from California to different houses to inspect them. There were some that could go back to their houses, and other could not until work is done on their house. Luke is going to be looking into getting things fixed so we can get these Haitians out of tents and into their home. Thank you for your prayers!

3 stories

2010-02-17T21:32:00.004-05:00

Looks like I have a decent connection tonight. Rather than trying to recap the past several days I want to just tell three stories from the quake - probably more so for me as a way to process it.

Today I took an earthquake engineer to the office for World Vision in Haiti so he could inspect it to determine if it was safe to begin using again. While there we spent some time with Frank Williams, the director for Haiti, and he told us his story. I believe he was at his office during the quake and his wife and one of his kids were home at their apartment. As soon as he could get out after the quake he headed to the apartment to see if they were ok. When he arrived he found it completely collapsed. Knowing they would have been inside he instantly knew that "His life had just drastically changed". He tried looking for a while to see if he could find them in the rubble but he realized as he was losing light that it was hopeless. So, he had no choice but to go to the house of a friend that first night, knowing that his wife and child were dead.

The next morning he, his son and some others decided to go to the World Vision office to get some tools and then head to the apartment to see what they could find as they dug. They knew it was hopeless but they had to try. When they turned the corner into the parking lot - there was his wife and child! They were badly scraped up but they were alive! It turns out that they were able to get out of the house and had taken refuge at a neighbors house for the night. With the phones down there was no way to call so they had to wait until the morning. Can you imagine?

Last night I was passing by the Nazon church and decided to call my friend Emmanuel who lives nearby to see if he was ok. Within a minute or so I was able to give him a big hug in the middle of the street. Then he started to tell me his story. Him and his fiance had been driving in their car just before the quake hit. They soon became stuck in a traffic jam and they were waiting for the car in front of them to move when it hit. The car started moving back and forth and unsure what to do he decided they needed to get out of the car. The very moment they cleared the car they turned and watched a house collapse on top of it, crushing it. He says "Luke - God saved me". Indeed he did.

One more. In January 12 at 4:45 Becca and I were driving a rental car down the highway in North Carolina headed to Becca's mom's house. My phone rang. It was my best friend in Haiti, Maxime. We chatted for a couple of minutes, all was well and Maxime and I joked around a bit. We hung up at 4:50. Three minutes later the quake hit. Maxime was in his store when he made the call and not really knowing what to do he ran out of the store and headed for the street. As the quake shook the ground he tripped and flung into the street, landing on and scrapping his arm. Then he looked to where he had just been and saw the next door house collapse into the front yard of his store. Had he been there, he would have been dead. As soon as it was over he started running, pye a terre (barefoot), to his house. His house is several miles away from his store. He knew no cars were moving on the street so the quickest way to get to his family was to run. As he ran he says he called out to Jesus and asked Him to help him. He ran and ran, from Delmas 30 to the bottom of Delmas 33. Finally he saw one of his nephew's so he yelled to him "Eske m'gen fanmi?!" (Do I have a family?!) His nephew shouted "Yes!" and told him to rest for a minute. He did this and then ran the rest of the way home. His wife and kids had not been able to get out of the house during the quake, and luckily it stayed up. They later learned that if they did get out and tried to run they would have been crushed by a house that fell into the path leading to the road.

There are so many stories here. Some dramatic, some not, all miraculous. Many ask the question: "Where was God in the earthquake?" The answer: Everywhere.

The picture below is Maxime's store and what is left of the house that was next to it.

The next few days:

2010-02-16T20:54:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow Luke will be totally alone to cover the chapel. The food distribution is giving food to about 3,000 Haitians now, and there are lots of other things going on to the chapel. There is an earthquake engineer from California that has asked Luke if he needed help. Luke will be going around with him for the next three days checking out houses and letting people know if they can or cannot move back in. This is great! There are so many "tent city's" around that this can open up more tents for those who are sleeping under sheets. It has been raining at nights, so you can imagine the night sleep these Haitians are getting sleeping in mud! Tents are in high demand right now, so if is a blessing for Luke to be able to get help from this guy.

Please pray for strength and wisdom for Luke. There are so many things to do, and he cannot do them all! Thank you so much for your support in prayer!

a nice cold glass of culligan

2010-02-11T23:26:00.004-05:00

Looks like the internet is working well enough tonight so that I can get a blog up. Busy days here, busy days. We distributed food this morning to feed almost 3,000 of our neighbors and the distribution continues to go well. A few days ago we received a bunch of chicken soup in those microwave bowls and we gave that with the normal rice and vegetables today. One woman asked what it was and Pastor Karl said with a smile "Well you put it on your microwave." Yeah - it's safe to say that out of the three thousand that are getting food, zero have a microwave and most don't know what one is. So we told them to open it and heat it with their rice.

A couple of days ago we received a water filtration unit donated by Culligan to Convoy of Hope. It weighs 3,500 lbs and cost Culligan $20,000. What a huge blessing to have this donated! We tried hooking it up to the well so we could make that water drinkable and pass it out during the distribution, but the well is too dry. So we're in the process of getting a bladder that we can fill with the water from a water truck, then we can begin to use the machine. Hopefully when the rains come we'll be able to use the well too.

One of the fun parts about being here is getting the chance to work with this guy. Joseph has been through alot in his life, but he's always happy. Here he's messing around trying to pray the machine into working.

Tomorrow will be a difficult day as it is the one month mark from the quake. As Becca mentioned we'll have a memorial service tomorrow afternoon/evening. It will almost certainly be a very emotional thing as so many have not even had a chance to grieve yet. I think the death toll is something like 230,000 now - yet very few funerals because people are on survival mode here. We're hoping this service provides a way for people to process what has happened and that God will minister to broken hearts.

Death is all around us here. There is a mass grave just up the street from where I'm sitting. Many of the collapsed buildings all around the city are still full of bodies because people can't get them out safely. Some have called this city a cemetery right now and in many ways it feels like it.

But in the midst of the sadness good thing are happening. We're able to laugh with guys like Joseph. People are being spiritually awakened in a way I've not seen here before. God is at work here and it is so cool to see what He's doing first hand.

One Month

2010-02-11T19:41:00.004-05:00

I forgot to mention that tomorrow starting at 4 the Chapel is going to have a memorial service for the ones that were lost in the earthquake one month ago tomorrow! The earthquake happen January 12th at 4:53! Please pray for those who have lost loved ones! The president has asked the country to fast and pray! This is unheard of; this time of year the Haitian are preparing for Carnival (their version of Mardi gras,it has some connections to voodoo). It seems that has been called off and the President has asked everyone to fast and pray for Haiti! Please be in prayer tomorrow during the service and this weekend as people every where are fasting and praying for Haiti.

Food and Water

2010-02-11T09:54:00.003-05:00

This is a picture of the chapel and the chapel grounds from the roof of the house Luke is staying at. If you look to the right of the chapel you can see an orange glow; that is where all the tents are. The chapel is being used to house two orphanages, and others. It also where Luke and others distribute food to the community (I believe two thousand people, Luke please correct if that is not right). They did get a water filter and were not able to get it to work. Haiti is in it's dry season and the wall is too low to get water. Please pray for that need!

Luke just put this picture on his facebook. They are doing another food distribution this morning and these people are hungry! Please pray for safety and patience for the Haitians as Luke and the other workers are doing their best.

Luke is not able to get a strong Internet connection to post pictures and most times even blogs, but AT&T has blessed us with free data and messaging at the moment so he is doing what he can with his phone. Thanks for your prayers! We definitely feel them!!

Clean Water

2010-02-10T09:08:00.002-05:00

This is Joseph! He works at Quisqueya Chapel, and is a light for Jesus. This picture shows a little bit of his personality :). He is Luke's right hand man when it comes to working on the grounds. Please pray today that they are able to get the HUGE water filter working so the people can have clean water. Luke, Joseph and others will be working on that today; getting the water filter hooked up to the well and functioning. Please pray!

quick summary of the past couple of days

2010-02-08T22:42:00.005-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts over the past few days. I've been too busy during the days to get near a computer and the internet has not worked the past couple of nights.

I began Saturday with a neighborhood meeting at the Chapel. Several of the missionaries living in this neighborhood got together to share what we're each doing and to share ideas with each other. One of the reasons for this is to ensure that we're not doubling up on things. We're trying to avoid things like having two separate medical clinics right down the street from each other and instead we're trying to combine resources as much as possible so we can serve this community more efficiently. So we have one organization doing medical clinics, we're distributing food and water at the church, another organization is addressing shelter, etc, etc. The meeting went well and was productive. Shortly after the meeting began we were joined by the group of police officers that are responsible for this zone. We're able to share with them some of our security concerns and also work out specific times for them to patrol or provide a presence. At the end of our meeting with them we gathered around them and prayed for God to protect them and provide for their needs.

Yesterday was Sunday and we had a great time together at church in the morning. I've never seen Quisqueya Chapel as full as it was yesterday morning. As Pastor Bobby began the service, the workers and I went all over the campus to get every chair we could so that as many as possible could sit. Many had to stand outside at the entrance because we simply could not fit another person in the building. We prepared extra communion cups in anticipation of a large crowd but there were still maybe 50 or so that did not get a cup because we ran out. I know there is a lot of debate going on both in the States and here about whether the quake is judgement from God or not, but one thing it has done is driven many people to seek God and the forgiveness that He offers. The word on the street (I heard it again today from a trusted friend) is that President Preval has called for three days of prayer and fasting around the time that would normally be carnival (kind of like mardi gras). Interesting.

Today we had a successful food distribution at the church. I say successful because these don't always go well. I asked a friend that lives in another part of the city if he has been able to get food and he says that whenever people go to a food distribution they have to fight with the crowd to get anything. He doesn't want to fight so he doesn't go. He did wait in line, in the sun, for an hour this morning for a 20oz bottle of water.

I was also able to get a battery for the car I'm using today. I had to go to 5 places before I found someone that sold the right battery, but I got one. Traffic is much worse than the normal bad traffic here so errands like this are tiring.

We're planning on having a memorial service at the Chapel this Friday, which is the one month anniversary. The service will begin at 4 and at 4:53 we'll have a period of silence (Psalm 46). We're also going to have those who have lost someone come up and read the name and age of the person they lost. Over 200,000 killed and there have been very few funerals. We're hoping to provide an opportunity for the church as a community to grieve together. I know this community has been affected in a big way because there is a mass grave just up the street. The grief is so apparent in people's eyes. Grief is everywhere in this city.

Long Day

2010-02-04T23:19:00.002-05:00

Quick post as it's been a long day. This morning we met up with a team from a Dominican church and loaded a 15 passenger van and a pick up with medical supplies and water they had collected to bring with them on their trip into Haiti. This church (forgot the name but will look it up tomorrow) from Santo Domingo made their 4th trip since the quake into Haiti today. I was so impressed with their eagerness to help given the history there. They had doctors, a nurse and some translators and they're planning on staying a few days to work before they return to load up with supplies again and come back.

It took something like 4-5 hours to get to the Haitian border and then probably 3 to get from the border to Port-au-Prince. Normally the last leg takes half that but traffic was a MESS from Croix-des-Bouquets into Port. We started seeing destruction soon after we crossed the border and it got progressively worse as we got close to the city. Rubble is piled up everywhere. "Tent cities" fill in all the open spaces as people are afraid to enter their homes. Buildings are collapsed or twisted or caving in on themselves. The ride up Delmas 33 was particularly difficult as the destruction is so bad. It was emotionally very difficult to see.

I grabbed some pictures as I was driving but I'll load them later. I'm tired and tomorrow will be a busy day.

Haiti

2010-02-04T20:19:00.003-05:00

Luke called about 2:30 and said that he was almost into Port-Au-Prince! Then about 6:00 he called again to say that he had made it. Luke was talking while driving back to the house he is staying at and describing to me what he was seeing. It didn't sound like the same Haiti, and Luke's voice was filled with all kinds of emotions. Luke's plan was to go back to the house and talk with Karl and Ann (the pastor and his wife: Luke is staying with them), and then get some rest for a busy day tomorrow. Please continue to pray for strength for him!

Onward to Haiti

2010-02-04T07:54:00.002-05:00

Luke called me this morning to let me know that they have a 15 passenger van packed up, and ready to take them to Haiti! How much of a relief that was to hear since we were not completely sure on how he was going to get from Santa Domingo to Haiti. We had a lot of ideas of how he and the two other missionaries he is with could get to Haiti, but nothing was set up.

So now they are on their way! I was able to talk to Luke last night and he sounded great! He did seem a little tired, but he is definitely still running on adrenalin. This morning he told me that he was able to get a cup of coffee, but it was quite a process considering Luke speaks Creole and English. We both took Spanish in high school, but when we try to use it our brain just turns it into Creole... so I wish that I was there to see my husband order coffee in Spanish! He did say that he got a small cup, which he thinks is espresso, but he will survive because he just needs the caffeine or his head will explode from the headache he receives from being addicted to the stuff :).

Thank you for your prayers! Luke and I cannot stress our thankfulness enough! We have both felt them, and ask that you continue. Luke has a super long day ahead of him and the exhaustion of traveling all day yesterday as well as today will soon catch up to him. Also, pray for safety for the people traveling in the van. We have all seen pictures of Haiti, and Luke and I were able to see pictures on the news of places that we knew, which are now gone due to the earthquake. Luke will soon see Haiti in a way that he hasn't before, and that will take an emotional toll on him. Please pray!

DR

2010-02-03T20:15:00.003-05:00

We're here in Santo Domingo at a guest house. We'll be leaving here tomorrow around 6am to catch a ride that leaves at 7.

Weird to see highway interchanges, Payless shoes, McDonalds, Burger King, etc. on this island. They say they definitely felt the quake here, but very little damage.

On the way

2010-02-03T11:46:00.000-05:00

Dear Family and Friends,

Almost a week ago I wrote you to tell you of our plans to go to Haiti and I asked for your help. I am humbled and amazed and so thankful for your response in this past week. Thank you!

This past week has been incredibly busy. Since I last wrote I've been busy arranging travel, renewing my passport, gathering needed supplies for missionaries in Haiti, meeting with various professors at the seminary (Old Testament, Counseling, Pastoral Ministries) to get advise on how I can be most useful there, keeping up with emails, keeping track of donations and soaking up as much time with Becca as possible. Does this mean I'm ready - not a chance. The communication I've heard from missionaries this past week ranges from: "It's pretty rough, make sure you're prayed up", to "the chaos is fine - come on down", to "PAP looks like it was bombed, it's a war zone...I can't even bring myself to take pictures". I don't know how to prepare for what I'm going to see except to pray and trust God.

A couple of Sunday's ago Becca and I traveled to a church in Garland, TX to speak about Haiti and present some of the needs there. As I began my talk, I held up something that looks like a clay disc and I asked them if they had ever played in the mud as children and made "mud pies". Of course they had, and so have I. I then explained to them that in Haiti people make mud pies as well. They take mud and filter it through a sheet or a piece of cloth to get the sticks and rocks out, sometimes they add butter and then they form this mud into small discs the almost resemble pita bread. Once the discs are formed they lay them out on a sheet in the street and let them bake in the sun for awhile so they become hard. Once they are baked and hardened they gather them together and bring them to a market area to sell. If a person is poor enough and desperate enough they will come to the market area, purchase a few of these mud pies and eat them.

You read that right. They literally eat dirt.

Of course this is horrible for them as the mud is sometimes mixed with sewage and is full of parasites and other harmful things, but when you can't get food for your family - what else are you going to do?

After telling this story to the church I want through the rest of my presentation, I talked about Haiti's history, about its culture, about some of the ministries we've been involved with and then I showed some before and after pictures relating to the quake. Then I held up that mud pie and as I pointed to it I said "this was the situation in Haiti before the earthquake".

Haiti was in desperate need before January 12th, and it's worse now. I am so thankful for the way so many of you have responded and I feel privileged to represent you as I travel there tomorrow to begin helping with the relief effort. Although we've been able to raise a good amount of money this past week, once that money is spent, there will still be needs that will have to go un-met. So, my plea for help continues. If you have thought about giving to help Haiti but haven't yet, I would encourage you to pray and ask God if He'd like you to help as well. Anything you give to any of the reputable charities out there is great. If you'd like to partner with us as we're there over these next few months you can send a check made out to: Danville Baptist Church with a separate note indicating it is for "Luke Perkins - Haiti fund" and mail it to: Danville Baptist Church, PO Box 2, Danville, NH 03819. You can also go to our blog at: theperkinsblog.blogspot.com and click on the "donate" button to give a non tax deductible donation.

Here is a quick update concerning my plans for the next few days. As I write this I'm on a flight to Ft. Lauderdale where I'll meet up with another missionary that I've known for a few years now. She happened to be out of Haiti during the quake at a conference and has been trying to get back since. We'll then fly to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic where we'll meet up with another missionary (the son of an MAF pilot), who basically grew up in Haiti and was evacuated with his mother and sister shortly after the quake.

At the airport we'll be picked up by someone from the Christian Reformed Church's mission in the DR and taken to their guest house where we'll stay for the night and figure out a way to get into Haiti the next day. We're hoping to be able to get a ride to the border in a private car, but if we have to we'll take a bus. If all goes well we'll cross into Haiti sometime tomorrow and make our way to Port-au-Prince.

Here are a couple ways you can pray:

For safety as we travel across the border and into PAP. I'm carrying a decent amount of cash on my person because the banks are not accessible in Haiti. Pray that the Lord gives us safe passage.

For wisdom and strength. I'll be working in an environment that is comfortable to me, but also uncomfortable because so much has changed in the past few weeks. Pray I'll know what to do, where to go and not go, and what to say.

Strength for Becca and I as we endure having to be apart.

Thank you so much for your love, your words of encouragement and your support. It is an honor to serve.

In Christ,

Luke Perkins

*if you would like to stop receiving these emails please reply with "unsubscribe" in the subject line and you will be removed from the list. Please accept my apologies.

Going to Haiti

2010-01-29T09:26:00.003-05:00

Below is the email I sent out to our email list the other night. If you're not on the list and would like to be send us an email and we'll put you on it.

Dear Friends and Family,

As the whole world knows by now Haiti was hit with an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the richter scale at 4:53pm on January 12. Since then news from Haiti has been all over the media and millions of dollars have been given to help with the relief effort. As you all know Becca and I’s ties to Haiti are deep. For those of you who do not know, we’ve been involved with ministry in Haiti for 10 years now, and I lived there full time as a missionary before I went to seminary.

Over the past several years we’ve become increasingly involved with an international church in Port-au-Prince called Quisqueya Chapel. Since the earthquake I’ve remained in communication with the pastor of this church trying to do what we can to help from afar. We wanted to go immediately, but knew it would be best to wait until we became aware of specific needs that we might be able to help with. In my communications with the pastor this past week, it has become apparent to me that he is just swamped with all that has been thrust on him in the past couple of weeks. Since the earthquake Quisqueya Chapel has turned into a refugee camp. There are two orphanages that are camping on the grounds in addition to many from the neighborhood. Each day roughly 2,000 people from the neighborhood are being fed there. There has been a makeshift medical clinic on the grounds treating the injured. Now, the grounds will also become a place where helicopters will be landing to pick up seriously injured people to transport them to where they can get better care.

Today, in one of my emails to the pastor I asked him if I could better help him here in Dallas, or there in Port-au-Prince. His response: “I need someone on board to assist, come..”

While this is all happening pretty fast, in the next couple of days I will be putting things together with the hopes of being on the ground early next week. I have withdrawn from my classes at seminary for this semester and will pick them up again hopefully this summer. My plan at this point is to go for a month. After a month either have Becca come visit if the situation is ok, or me return to her for a week or so. After this, if the need is still as great I’ll return.

However, I can’t do this without your support. One of the biggest needs right now is cash. The earthquake leveled the places I used to cash checks and the banks that survived are not accessible yet. My hope is to get a significant amount of cash in hand before I leave so that we’ll be able to get supplies as we need them once I’m there. There are walls to repair, mouths to feed, gas for generators to buy, etc, etc.

In addition to the needs I hope to meet while there, I also need funds to cover my expenses so I’m not a burden on those I’ll be staying with and funds to travel there and back again.

If you’d like to help there are a couple of ways you can do this:

1: You can make a (tax deductible) check out to: “Danville Baptist Church” and include a note that indicates it is for the “Luke Perkins Haiti Fund”. Then mail the check to:
Danville Baptist Church
P.O. Box 2
Danville, NH 03819

2: For a quicker way to get funds to us, go to our blog: theperkinsblog.blogspot.com and click on the “donate” button. While this is a great way to get money available to us instantly, it is not tax deductible. Whatever money comes in this way I’ll take out of the bank and bring it with me.

3: If you have any American Airlines miles you’d like to donate that would be great too! I have enough to get to the Dominican Republic (from there I’ll likely take a bus to PAP as the airport in Haiti is closed to commercial traffic), but I need more to be able to get home again.

4. Pray, Pray, Pray! Now is certainly not a good time to go to Haiti as the security situation is very tense. Pray for safety, wisdom and physical and emotional strength as I serve there. Pray also for Becca as she remains in Dallas. Pray that the Lord will help us endure as we’re apart from each other.

If you have any questions please email me or call me at (972) 415-3771 and I’d love to talk with you about what I’ll be doing.

Thanks so much for your support of us and the people of Haiti.

In and for Christ,

Luke and Becca Perkins

Go where needed

2010-01-27T21:26:00.002-05:00

Well Luke and I have felt the Lord directing Luke to go to Haiti. Luke will be leaving and spending a little over a month (as planned right now), and depending on the security situations I will either be going during my spring break, or Luke will return depending on Haiti's situation. Please join us in prayer as we are still ironing out details. We are trying to collect as much cash as we can to take down as it is still quite difficult to get cash there. We will also be purchasing as much food as we can to take. Luke will be working at Quisqueya Chapel. There are pictures somewhere on this blog, and once Luke is there we will update and add more. If you are looking to help us you can send money to our church which is tax deductible:

Danville Baptist Church
PO Box 2
Danville, NH 03819

Or (which is not tax deductible) just click donate on our blog. Thank you so much for your prayers, support, and interest! May God Bless you all!!

My last week

2009-07-30T09:28:00.007-05:00

As I write this I am trying to figure out what happened to June and July! Seriously, it seems like we were just purchasing our tickets and making plans to come down, and here I am packing and getting ready to return to the states tomorrow! Where did the time go?!?!?!?! I am honestly ready to get back home and into the swing of things. Haiti is awesome, hard, happy, emotional, healing, and painful. What a trip this summer serving God and His people. As I am returning to the States Luke is staying here for two more weeks to wrap things up and prepare the church for their new pastor. He will also have the opportunity to preach at two Haitian churches! One of those is the church that we would attended when we came down on short term missions trips, so for him to preach there ten years later is pretty neat! I wish I could be here to see that, but like in Texas, and my classroom calls.

This week has been full! I taught my last summer school classes and topped off my last day yesterday with a coke and chocolate chip cookie party! It was so much fun! There was also a team at Sherry's that consisted of 20 people! I am not so sure we would have done much work even if I planned anything :). Tuesday after teaching I rushed over to Beth's to help out with her child development class and baby clinic. I was so blessed to be able to see Danilla and Jean Paul again before I left :) We have not see Emmanuella yet, but planning on stopping by today.

Tasting the ingredients :)

Showing them what the cookies look like before we bake them!

Jean Paul and I
Mommy and Jean Paul

Mommy feeding Daniella! She is a great mom!

Yesterday Luke and I took five boys from a missionary who runs a boy's home to go swimming! We did this last year as well, and when they saw us at the beginning of the summer one of their first questions was "when are we going swimming?"..... :) We had a blast! Their smiles brighten up the world, and there were LOTS of smiles!

SMILE IF YOU LOVE SWIMMING :)

So that is about all the news from me. The chapel is going well for Luke. He is super busy all the time with pretty much everything you can think of! The wall is coming along slowly, but at least it is able to be worked on. We just received word from the Mayor that the other wall on another street needs to be moved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAHHHH!!!!! This has been such a crazy experience! Poor Luke and the Chapel....the Mayor did not mark the wall yet, so we are not too sure what needs to be done, but that is probably another $20,000 just for that wall! That would bring the total up to about $50,000 (that is not exact, I am just estimating)!!!!!! That is $50,000 that the chapel does not have! Please pray that God will send the money and this whole wall situation will go smoothly! The congregation has donated some bricks for the wall, and is getting together on Saturday to knock down the old wall. So it seems that they are trying to help as much as they can.

Thanks so much for all your prayers and support! We could not do any of this without you!

Emmanuel la

2009-07-24T10:05:00.003-05:00

Just a quick post here. I just brought a 3 year old girl to an infant rescue mission. She weighs 13 pounds and looks like she has been having seizures for quite some time. Her legs and arms are all twisted and tensed up. Her legs, feet, arms and hands were quite cold. Her lips were blue. By the providence of God there happened to be a team of American doctors here for a week doing a medical clinic up the street so I picked a couple of them up and brought them to look at the girl. They've given her some medicine and she will have a feeding tube put in place to begin giving her some nourishment. Her mother brought her to the grandmother yesterday morning, dropped her off and disappeared. Her grandmother brought her to Sherrie's, who sent her with some money and a driver to the hospital. The first hospital turned them away because she was too far gone. The second gave her a prescription for amoxicillin. As I was driving Becca to Sherries this morning the grandmother waved us down and we brought her to Sherrie's. Then I brought her to Dorothy's. At first Dorothy thought she wouldn't live through the day. She was beginning to respond to some medicine so we'll see.Her name is Emmanuela - which translated means "God is with us - here". Pray for her. We'll let you know what happens.

UPDATE By Becca:

The little girl I wrote about in yesterday's blog is Emmanuella! Like Luke said, one hospital turned her away and said the baby was going to die. One gave her some medicine that was not going to help her. When Luke brought her to the infant rescue missionary she also said she did not think Emmanuel la would live through the night! She is currently being cared for and sleeping last we knew. Please continue to pray for this little precious girl! Here are some pictures!

Emmanuel la being prayed over by her grandmother.

Emmanuel la: 3 years old, 13 pounds, said to not make it through the night...Please Pray!

Hard

2009-07-23T13:13:00.008-05:00

Haiti is hard! Things seem to be going nonstop for us since we last posted. I am back to teaching summer school after the children having a week off, and I was even able to split some of my time with Beth! Teaching has been great. We have finished with science and moved on to Language. This week we focused on description words by describing ourselves and comparing our descriptive words with other things. Here is an example from one of them:

Jean

I am tall like a tree

I am dark like a brownie

I am smart like my teacher

I am angry like a dog with an empty belly

I am happy like a monkey
I am excited like a soccer player

Working hard!

This class was working on describing their partner!

It was so cool to see what the children were writing and what things they came up with to compare their descriptions! We are really having too much fun! Today we spent an hour playing sight word Bingo! Every time someone won it was their turn to call the words, but they had to use the word in a sentence. They thought that was great, and they said they felt like they were the teacher :) I love it!

Tuesday I went to Beth's and taught a class of moms about child development. It was really great and there were a ton of moms there! The mom and Daniella that I wrote a post about earlier were even there! I was so excited to see her come on her own! Daniella has gained a pound in a week, mom is breast feeding some and doing a great job, and when I picked her up I saw a smile and she smelled so good! Mom likes putting lotion on her :) I just cannot believe how great she is doing! Praise the Lord!

The moms come in and get their baby weighed

Then they are fed two hard boiled eggs, and a bowl of high protein enriched rice!

Tuesday morning before the class my buddy Jean Peter came with his mom, but this time he was sick! This little guy has already been brought back from death, made it through pneumonia, and now he came with the chicken pox!! He was COVERED! It was horrible. Mom said he has just been miserable and has not been eating, or anything. He runs fevers and the bumps keep coming up! She was doing a great job feeding, and we could tell that she had put some powder and stuff on him to help. We gave him some Tylenol and completely rubbed him down with calamine lotion! That was one pink baby when he left. I felt so bad for him. Other then that there was not anything else too horrible Tuesday. Mom's came into the clinic with their babies, but they needed birth control, and there was one with a cold, and another one with the chicken pox! It is going around like crazy!

Poor baby, he was out of it!

9 months old and already has gone through so much !

This morning was hard for Luke and I. Yesterday afternoon there were some gun shots in the area due to a robber, but all was fine and the police caught the robbers. It was intense at first, but we were perfectly safe where we were location wise, and the Lord is always with us. After being on alert that afternoon and night we awoke this morning to hear that there was a death of a church family member back in NH, and then we were scrambling to get going on time this morning. When I got to school and went upstairs there were four people circling a mom with a baby. I knew it was not good when I saw them, but when I looked at the mom she was in tears, and praying over her baby. I looked at the baby and noticed instantly that there was something physically handicapping her. Her hands and feet were tight and she was not relaxed. She was also having tremors. We could not figure it out, but there was that and she was literally starving! She has a cracker hanging out of her mouth, and mom said that is how she feeds her, but the baby was just there with the cracker hanging out of her mouth. I took it out and noticed more inside her mouth. This child cannot chew on her own! No wonder you can see her bones! Mom told us that her child is like this because of a spell casted on her by voodoo. I took the baby in my arms and noticed how she weighs hardly anything and that she had lots of teeth to be a baby. She was long, but the teeth told us she was not a baby. When we asked the mom said she was three!!!!! Unbelievable!!!! This three year old was so small and starving that I was able to fit a newborn diaper on her with no stretching at all!!!! I changed her because she did not have a lot of clothes on and the mom would not take her to the hospital naked. As I was putting her on the floor to change her, the mom laid her hands on the child's legs and prayed! I could not understand all of the prayer, but I know mom knew Jesus, and knew Him in her heart! We got her changed and Sherry paid for them to get to the hospital! No word of anything yet, just that they were able to get into the hospital and now just waiting for the doctor. Praise the Lord she got that far! So what a morning we have had.....some times Haiti is hard.

Milo

2009-07-22T19:33:00.002-05:00

Just a quick post to say thanks to all of you who were praying for Milo and his housing situation. Milo was able to move into a new place with his family this past Friday. It has three rooms (one more than he had before) and is in the Nazon neighborhood. He was very happy when he told me about it this past Saturday morning.

I really appreciate Milo. This afternoon one of our neighbors was robbed and there was a good bit of shooting (warning shots fired into the air) in our neighborhood. Without blinking, Milo was on top of things. His shotgun was ready and no one was getting on to the church grounds without his permission. Normally, Milo just opens the gate all day for people, but when something is going wrong, its good to know he's around.

Thanks to those of you who helped him.

In His Time

2009-07-15T16:14:00.011-05:00

In His time, in His time. He makes all things beautiful, in His time.
Lord, please show me every day, As You are teaching me Your way,
That You do just what You say, In Your time.
In Your time, in Your time, You make all things beautiful, in Your time.
Lord, my life to You I bring, May each song I have to sing
Be to You a lovely thing, In Your time.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God makes everything beautiful in His time. This song and verse have been in my heart in mind for a few days now. I went to visit a missionary here who runs an infant rescue program. She is a wonderful lady with a heart for the Lord. She gets infants from around the country who are severely malnourished and some have actually died from starvation. The pictures that she had shown me are horrific! The only meat on these babies when she gets them is the skin covering their visible bones. She has a couple babies still way under weight and far from where they should be, but they are growing and eating everyday! This one afternoon I was with her and she was explaining to me each child's situation. She has a playroom where all the toddlers are, and we were playing with the children as she began to explain to me that a couple weeks ago she lost a toddler due to AIDS. This sparked a conversation due to one of the little guys having something on his eye (we thought was blood). It wasn't, but she began to explain to me that he had AIDS, so we needed to take the necessary precautions when dealing with him. She then went on to pick out another little boy who also has AIDS. I asked her why the little girl who had just recently passed away die. She was too little, and her body could not fight any more; AIDS killed her. I instantly wanted to cry! How horrible is it for a baby who did not make a choice to have AIDS have to deal with it until it kills him! Then I got angry...I just could not comprehend this situation. After playing with them I went home and prayed. I actually argued with God about the situation because I did not understand it! How could He, the God who says He loves us allow something so small, and fragile, and innocent have such a horrible disease? I did not receive an answer to that one, but I was calming down and thanked Him for the opportunity to meet two amazing little blessings!

Now I would be lying to you if I said everything was fine after that....it wasn't. I still wrestled about that situation for a couple days. Sunday in church we sang the hymn "In His Time"....that song really spoke to me, but I was not so sure why. Well I now know why! Before I explain that, let me tell you about what I did yesterday:

I was at different missionaries place (Beth McHoul). We were to do a child development class, and check on some babies. I was so excited because I would have endless babies to hold, and teach moms how to play and love their children! When I got their this morning there was a mom already waiting outside. Her little boys name was Jean Paul. He was so cute and nine months old. He was the size of a 4 month old, but super cute nonetheless! Two weeks ago he was said to have been on his death bed and only by a miracle alive today. He was starving and mom had no interest in him at all. Three American doctors swarmed Jean Paul, prayed and got some fluids in him, and now (besides being really underweight) you would not be able to tell! And as for the mom....she is an amazing mom! Beth said it is like a whole new person! She plays and kisses, and breastfeeds! Praise the Lord :) Beth loves it when other people pay attention to the their babies because it shows the mom's how to interact with their babies, but also bring attention to their babies and allows them to see how awesome they are! It was a neat experience!

Jean Paul

He is a happy little boy!

Checking the stats, he seems to have a cold and scabies

Mom had to learn to give him medicine so she could do it at home, and I had to rub some medicine on him.

He did so great! I think he like the touch :)

Putting on a clean diaper and showing mom how to play while changing him

He can't sit on his own yet, but he was eager to stand and take steps :)

LOOK WE ARE BALANCING :)

After that a mom who was in labor last Thursday came back to Beth to show her, her beautiful baby girl! The mom started labor at Beth's with the hope of delivering their, but her blood pressure was really high, and they had no choice but to send her to the hospital. She successfully birthed a baby girl who is PERFECT! The mom and dad were both at Beth's showing her off! That is not seen a lot here, and it was so great to see!

Beth checking the new mom's blood pressure

Taking measurements for the file! Everything looks great!

Here she is :)

After the child development class we were organizing the files in the office when another mom came in.... she was a young mom who has a baby girl named Daniella. Daniella is one month old tomorrow and weighs 5 pounds 11 ounces! She has lost weight since birth and the only thing she has had in her system for the last week or so is water! Her mom stopped producing milk, and she just did not seem interested in her baby. Beth and others that were with us instantly started the mom on a breast pump to stimulate her milk (with the hope that she will start to produce again). This is the only hope for Daniella! While they were going through that another lady and I took Daniella and hid in another room to try to get her to eat some formula. We had to feed her through a syringe and had to help her swallow. I have never seen anything like this before and again I was heart broken. I could not believe it! After we got about an ounce and a half in her she instantly feel asleep. She slept on me for about 20 minutes, and then she started to suck on her had, so we tried a little more....she then threw up everything that was in her stomach! It was so sad and all we could do was cry. We all had tears for we were told that it does not look good for her. Beth came and said all we can do is pray! We laid hands on Daniella and prayed to God! After we said Amen, we decided to try again. We got an ounce in her, and she did so much better!!! She had no problems swallowing, and kept it down! After I went to change her diaper and she pooped!!! Just a little but it was healthy looking, and Daniella was starting to actually move her arms and legs! It was awesome. Beth told the mom that she needed to return tomorrow so we could help her and if she doesn't then her baby would die because the baby needs more then water. The mom understood and even showed up today! She was smiling and seemed to be more into Daniella PRAISE THE LORD!!!

Daniella

Trying to feed her

Burping Daniella without squishing her!

Giving lots of kisses and physical touch

Exhausted from a full belly

So back to Ecclesiastes 3:11....God has everything planned out! Not everything so that we understand, but He knows and nothing surprises Him. He makes all things beautiful in His time! I do not know how anyone can see these things and still deny God. Even in the heart ache and deaths.....they are still beautiful in His time!

Teaching child development!

Moms and babies

UPDATE:

This morning about 8am Daniella and her mom came to the clinic. When she came the side of Daniella's face was swollen and mom said that Daniella's dad hit her! I guess he beats the mom and last night his Daniella! Then Beth asked her where all the formula went that we had given to her...she said Daniella drank it all (not likely). Beth said that Daniella looked like she was dead when she got to the clinic....Beth was not hopeful when she picked her up, but Praise the Lord she wasn't. They most likely sold the formula. Now mom and Daniella are at the boy's home for now where Daniella is receiving formula from a bottle which she is taking wonderfully! She is also drinking pedialite to get her hydrated. So far she looks awesome, and mom seems happier too! Please continue to pray for them and what to do next! I will be spending the day at the boy's home tomorrow so I will be able to be with Daniella all day :)

School+Science= FUN!!!

2009-07-12T06:35:00.013-05:00

This week in school I have devoted it to science. We have done a few different experiments each day. I have two classes each day; the first 6th graders (12 of them) and the second 4th and 5th graders (13 of them). My 6th graders have been so much fun because I worked with them last year, so to be able to work with them again, and see how much they have learned and what they remember with me is really rewarding!

Each experiment we did really made my students excited, but there is one in particular that we were suppose to do three experiments that day (I had planned for three at least), but they got so excited that we only accomplished one :). One of the main ingredients in the cement they use here is lime. I asked them what it was in the cement that made their houses and walls stick together and they all said it was water. Well I poured water on their hands and asked them why their hands were not sticking together like glue, and they were stumped. We tried a couple of other ideas that they had, but those all failed too. We were stumped. I then explained the combination of the stuff in the cement and rocks that are combined here (by hand, they do not have mixing trucks here...I think they may have two, but way too expensive to rent), to make the blocks stick together. They were interested in more, so we went out to the street to collect some rocks to test them to see if they had the lime in it used to make the sticky stuff that holds their walls and houses together.

While out in the streets picking out the rocks we were going to use we had a lot of strange looks and other people coming up to us trying to figure out what we were doing. In a Haitian school this type of teaching is unheard of. It mostly consists of the students repeating everything the teacher says and memorizing their work. Once everyone found their rocks we went back into our classroom and wrote out our reports. Once those were finished we started the experiment! The rocks that fizzed when put in vinegar had lime in them; the ones that did not, do not have lime in them. We had a pretty even amount that did and did not. When their rocks started to fizz they got super excited and started to shout! They had never seen anything like that before. One of my students jumped up and started laughing and calling my name! I thought he got some vinegar in his eye, or drank it after I explained to them how bad it tasted! When I got to him he held his cup to my ear and asked if I could hear the fizz! They all started to listen to their cups and each others! This went on for about an hour! They were so excited! After their rocks stopped fizzing we took them out of the cups and noticed that what was left over was a glue like substance that helps stick the blocks together for their houses and walls! They could not believe it! It was amazing and a blessing to see them figure that out on their own, and see how it is all connected!

Roosevelt (with the hat) and Mackenson testing their rocks

Jean (pronounced John) is listening to his fizz!

Val (left) and Alex (right) are listening to each other's fizz :)

The cup of rocks, vinegar, and fizz!

These are my 4th and 5th graders! We did a study on plants and leaves to see how God created them to work. Here they are shading over leaves to get a closer look at the details of each leaf.

Working hard, and having fun!

My classroom :)

Nerline playing with play doe! They had so much fun :)

Caleb looking through his play doe

LUNCH!!! There is a feeding program here at the school and the children recieve breakfast and lunch!

Full belly and ready to go home :)

The Weekend Happenings and Monday!

2009-07-06T18:30:00.009-05:00

Wow, what a weekend! Luke and I ended the week (to our surprise) with our last day of EDH. EDH is our electricity that we usually get every night. This is just enough to charge our inverter batteries to last us through out the day. Friday was the last time we received EDH. There is something wrong with the transformer and it needs to get fixed. Nothing in Haiti gets done fast, so we are waiting, but hear that it will be fixed Wednesday or Thursday this week. We will see! Last night Luke was out and I was just about to finish up the dishes when the inverter went out and I was in the kitchen with my hands in bleach water completely in the dark! I was not very happy, rather scared to death! I was mostly scared that I would get eaten by a bug, but no worries, I was not. Everything turned out fine! We just have not had a fan during the night, and it has been HOT! Hard to sleep, but God sent a tropical storm today that dropped the temperature 30 degrees and a gorgeous wind! We are happy campers right now :)

On Friday one of the cows at the chapel gave birth to a baby girl! She is the little brown calf in the back! So cute, and I got to hold it :)

Luke and I went to check out some great sights of Port-au-Prince!

Saturday morning a missionary couple had a team of vets in and wanted to see if we needed any help at the chapel. We needed to pull some bushes, trees, and move some brush, so they were well needed!

Starting with the tree! This was hard work!

Keith (one of the missionaries, and a vet) decided to attack another tree!

Luke went over to help.

Here Luke is sharpening the very dull axe.

Finally Keith's tree is down and the team come to haul it out of the play ground!

By the time that was done, the bigger tree was ready for some tugging! The men tied it up and played tug-of-war! It may appear that the tree is winning, but just wait!

See, the men quickly get their bearings and are really fighting back!

AND THE WINNER IS......................... THE MEN!!!! Men 2 Trees 0

After wrestling with the trees and playing with the cows the team left to get lunch! Luke and I got cleaned up and went off to help our friend Julio. We met up with the team later at a compound of another missionaries place. There they have some goats that needed deworming and vaccinations. I was not sure how this was done, so Luke and I tagged along to see!

It was really hard to get these guys together, then to catch each one for a vaccination shot and some deworming medicine. Not easy folks! Not at all!

Look, I am holding a little goat! That makes one cow, one goat, and one 10 week old puppy! I could get use to this farmer thing...maybe :)

After the goats came the horses....I did not hold one of these! They were not a fan of the whole vaccination and deworming stuff.

Sunday was great! Luke had an amazing sermon, and worship was incredible! The afternoon was spent with relaxation and a nap :) Monday came fast and this week is Science! The students and I tried three experiments. First we looked at oil and water. The students were shocked that oil and water did not mix, but the water and food coloring did. It was so funny to listen to them and see their faces as I poured the oil into the cups of water! Next we are turning salt water into fresh water, which we will see how that worked out tomorrow. The last experiment we did was planting beans. They were so great and really enjoyed the hands on activities! I cannot wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Excited that their experiments work! They could believe it!

Still trying to figure out why it would not mix together even when he tried to mix it!

Wall Update:

2009-07-03T13:52:00.004-05:00

Well here we are on the wall; so far the section that the chapel had money for is almost complete! The workers have done a great job, and finished that part of the wall in about two weeks! In those two weeks we were able to raise (we think, and have not totalled it all up yet) enough to start on the next part! Praise the Lord :) However that leaves us with just a couple more weeks to raise more money to keep going! How cool would it be to raise enough money these next couple weeks to keep going on the wall?!?! That is my prayer!

Here are the workers laying the blocks for the new wall!

The new wall!

On the left is the new wall.

On the right is the old wall that they will soon break down.

This is the view from the street.

What has been accomplished so far! Praise the Lord!!

The construction on the walls around our neighborhood has been going well! The workers are working diligently and have almost finished the wall next to our house. That means that they will probably start on our wall next week. Thank you for those who have been praying about this! We have had no problems with unwanted guests, and the Lord has kept us safe!

The wall next to our house (our house is not the castle looking one in this picture, it is to the right of the wall shown). They did a great job!

School

2009-07-02T15:34:00.004-05:00

Yesterday Luke and I needed to go to the market. On our way back we were stopped at a red light when Luke saw a lady who was selling corn (cattle corn is what we call it) on the side of the street on her little coal grill. Luke turned to me and wondered if he should buy on. "Are you serious?" I asked him and before I knew it he was in his wallet getting money out to buy one. We called the lady over to our car, and with her she brought four of these cobs. Luke talked to her and found out how much it was, but our light turned green and we needed to get going. Do not worry though we managed to get three of these delicious looking corn on the cobs! It tastes like popcorn, but burnt and it is on a cob. It was a fun experience. Now that I have eaten off the street (which we do not so because of risk, but some things are ok), Luke is going to try to get me to get a chicken dinner.....the answer is already no! Luke ate all his corn, we gave the other to the guy at the gas station, and this is what I ate of mine....then I gave it to the cows. They loved me :)

Today was my first day teaching English. I had done some small lessons earlier, but mostly read books and worked on reading comprehension. I started the morning with the 6th graders. It was so fun because I worked with most of these guys last summer. They have grown so much and are so smart!!! I am so proud of them! We worked on some grammar and vocabulary. At the end we played pictionary....I gave them vocab words to draw and the team had to guess which word it was. It was a lot of fun, and these guys really get into it :)

My next class is the fourth graders. These guys need a lot of help with their English. They have a lot of vocab words and can spell anything! They just need a little more work on verbs and putting sentences together. I am having so much fun with them! Today we focused on writing what they were going to do this afternoon and what their favorite animals is and why. Their paragraphs were well written! When we were coloring our pictures we were just talking and I was getting to know them more. They have all heard about Michael Jackson and asked me why he was black when he was little, but when he grew up he was white? That one was a hard one to answer! We managed to get away from the topic, and I had a blast laughing with them, and listening to them quiz me in creole :). I cannot wait for tomorrow!

"it's gone"

2009-07-01T11:19:00.004-05:00

Our guard Milo came to me this morning and asked if he could run home because he got a call saying that the bulldozers are in his neighborhood. He just got back a few minutes ago. He looked at me as I pulled thought the gate and with tears said: "Yo craze li net" (they destroyed it). Milo has a wife and two kids and with no warning is now homeless because the government wants to make a road. Please pray for him. He has a friend he can stay with for now, but it's temporary.

Pray also for the Chapel that it can raise the funds it needs to complete the wall before the bulldozers come down this road.

UPDATE: Milo's wife was able to get a couple of suitcases out of the house before the bulldozers took it down. They still lost most of their clothes, all of their furniture, their fridge, etc. He thinks what probably happened was someone working with the dozers stole the fridge. So for now He is staying with a friend and his wife and kids are staying with another. He'll start looking for a new place tomorrow and this weekend. Hopefully he can find something decent. He's also hoping the landlord will work with him and refund his rent. In Haiti many landlords require people to pay their rent for the whole year up front, Milo did this in December. Unfortunately there is probably not a "if the government knocks down the house and steals my stuff" clause, so he's probably at the mercy of the landlord.

Sherrie Fausey gave us some clothes for his kids yesterday and we have some who should be able to help with relocation. We're praying right now that the landlord will do what is right and that Milo can find a decent new place.

the way it's supposed to be

2009-06-28T15:52:00.002-05:00

It was an interesting and exciting sight this morning at the Chapel during the first worship set. Leading us in song was a Haitian at the piano, a Cuban (flew in just a few days ago) alternating between the flute and the sax, a helicopter pilot with the Chilean army (here with the UN) at the keyboard, a Guatemalan (also here with the UN) at the drums, another Cuban on bass, an American as lead vocal and four Haitians as backup vocals. In the congregation was a general from the Dominican army (who would be preaching at the spanish service that resumed today) and people from the US, Canada, Europe and South America representing several evangelical denominations, missions and organizations. As I was standing there singing, I looked up at our worship team that was caught up in what they were singing and then around at the congregation who was also caught up in the music - it was amazing. No one was concerned with the incredible cultural differences that were present this morning, we were all united around the one thing that transcends nationality, profession, economic status, and every other division that man has constructed - the Almighty God who has revealed Himself and made Himself accessible to us through His Son. It wasn't perfect this morning, but it was definitely a taste of what Church is supposed to be. What a privilege it was to preach Ephesians 1 to a congregation like that this morning.

And the walls came tumbling down.........

2009-06-26T15:27:00.005-05:00

Well this is not a Bible lesson on what happened to Jericho, but there are lots of walls coming down in Haiti. In March (I believe) the Mayor went around and marked on some walls letting the owners know that they needed to move their wall back however many meters was painted on their walls. Now this is great because the purpose is to widen the roads and pave them, and there is a lot of work for the Haitians. Good news, however, it also raises a lot of concern because the point of the walls is for security reasons. If you take down your wall before building another one you are exposed! Now some people are building the new wall first and then knocking down the old wall, but their are others (like the ones on our street) who are just knocking down the old wall to reuse the rocks for their new wall. So, as you can see there is a lot going on here!

Paint on the wall telling how much the wall needs to move back

Getting things in place to mix the cement and start building!

Here the workers first broke down the old wall using sledge hammers and now using the rocks to build the new wall

The Chapel wall is one of those walls that need to be moved back. I do not remember how long the wall is, but trust me it is super long! To move the wall back 2 meters is going to cost $38,000.00!! That is a ton of money that they do not have right now. If the wall does not get done then the Mayor will come and bulldozer it down! Please pray that they will get the money they need.

One side of the chapel wall

The other side of the chapel wall

We are ended our second week here in Haiti! We brought Karl and Ann to the airport on Tuesday, and they have arrived in the states safe and sound. Luke is working hard preparing for church on Sunday and I am gearing up to teach this coming week!

This is Luke working really hard on his sermon for Sunday :)
(We staged this, he really wasn't sleeping.....atleast when I was in his office) :)

There have been lots of baby goats roaming the street and this little guy just made himself home under our car....he is so cute, I just had to show you :)

Week 1

2009-06-20T16:54:00.005-05:00

We are ending out first week in Haiti. Luke has been working with Pastor Karl with things at the chapel as well as the house. I have been getting things settled and unpacked while spending time with Ann. Pastor Karl and Ann will be leaving Tuesday and heading to the states for furlough. Please pray for safe traveling.

Friday I went with Pastor Karl and Luke to Sherry's house to talk with her about what I can help her with this summer. It looks like helping with summer school, and working with the children from the orphanage that have recently come to stay with her. The children were out in the country side, but after the hurricanes destroyed their home, and they were left without food for about two weeks; Sherry had them moved to her house. They are so cute :) After my meeting with Sherry, Luke and Pastor Karl were expecting some Haitian Pastor's to come over for an introductory class. Pastor Karl will Begin classes with these guys when he gets back from the states, and wanted to meet with them before he left. Luke got to tag along and meet them. At the end they closed with prayer.

Here is Luke closing the class with prayer

Sherry and the Haitian Pastor's praying

So you may be asking yourself; "well I wonder what Becca was doing while Luke was meeting with the Pastor's?" well let me show you :)

I was busy playing with the children from the orphanage :) They are so much fun, and loved the chance to practice their English! I cannot wait to get back over there!

On our way home we needed to stop and get some more water. While Pastor Karl and Luke were getting the bottles changed I spotted a lady selling vegetables walking down the road..... I am not sure I could ever do this! She is talented!

We are excited to be here and cannot wait to see what our second week has in store!

Rain

2009-06-16T17:49:00.003-05:00

I went over to Erik's house this afternoon to bring him a calculator and thought since I was so close I would swing by AFCA and say hello to Vivian. It began raining lightly as I pulled through the gate going into AFCA but I didn't think to much of it and continued up the hill to Vivian's house. After a very brief visit I decided to leave because it was beginning to downpour. I got into the car, put it into reverse and gently let the clutch out - the car went sideways. I knew this was not going to be fun. Fast forward 10 minutes and I had about 6 guys in their skivvies (they didn't want to get their clothes wet) helping push me out of the mud. Finally after we all got drenched and covered in mud, the vehicle was free. I gave them each some money, threw my muddy self into the drivers seat and started heading home. Traffic, as I expected, was a nightmare. I thought I would try taking Rue Faustin because I knew Delmas would be a parking lot because of the rain. When I got up to Faustin though I immediately had to made a u-turn because it had literally turned into a river. I saw one guy trying to make it up but the water was up over the top of his wheels and he was going nowhere. I had no choice, I had to make my way out to Delmas and take the paved roads. So after sitting in traffic forreevveerr I finally made it back to the Chapel. My pants were caked with a layer of mud and my shirt and face were splattered with it. I was completely soaked. I hope the rest of my driving this summer doesn't turn out to be as adventurous.

Good Morning

2009-06-16T08:47:00.003-05:00

I'm sure Becca will update this pretty soon - in fact she'll probably be doing most of the updating while we're here - but I thought I put something up here this morning before I get busy. We slept great last night and it was nice to wake up to the sound of roosters crowing and dogs barking again this morning. It was also nice to have some fresh mangos and real coffee this morning. Joseph met me at the gate this morning when I came over to the church and tried to scare me by hiding behind it, just like he normally does. He's lost a little weight and has been through quite an ordeal with his wife over the past few months. He told me she was hit by a car in December and while she didn't break anything, she has had a tough time getting back on her feet and is still in a good bit of pain. I imagine the next couple of days will be rough as I catch up with many of the Haitians and listen to some of their struggles from the past year. We come back hoping things will have gotten a little better for them, but so often it is the other way around.

We should have a good day today. I'm going to leave in a few minutes to go see if we can get our old Haiti cell phones working again - if not we'll have to buy new ones. I'm also hoping to connect with Marc and Erick so I can give them some things we brought down that they need to get through this next week of school.

Becca talked to Sherrie this morning and said she sounds tired, but is feeling a little better. We'll connect with her in the next couple of days.

God's Work

2009-06-14T21:41:00.002-05:00

Luke and I have about three hours until we head to the airport! I cannot believe that we will be in Haiti tomorrow!! We were just asking each other how excited we were to go. Last year I think I was jumping out of my skin with anticipation to see all our amazing friends in Haiti! This year we are looking forward to seeing our friends. Even tonight we have had a couple of phone calls from Haiti telling us that they are excited that we are coming. That is fun to hear :) But, we have a different excitement. As I said we are thrilled to see everyone that we have missed over the year, but I think because we have done this before we have a different sense of excitement. It is not new to us to go and spend the summer in Haiti with our friends and take on the adventures that were in store for us. Although we will face new adventures this year, we also have a new excitement to not only go to Haiti to see friends, but to do the Lord's work! There is something about understanding the culture a little more and going to down to continue building on the relationship previously made that makes my heat over flow with God's love and we are just so undeserving and blessed (at the same time) to be able to have this opportunity!

Wow......we are pumped! Now with only 2 hours and 45 minutes to go before we load up the car and head to the airport, I think I may try to sleep :) Good night all, and thanks again for all your prayers! We have already felt them and we will need them in the weeks to come :)

And We Are Back!

2009-06-06T15:15:00.010-05:00

2,070 miles, several rest stops, 8 states, and 1 country later Luke, Riley, and I have made it to NH! We started our journey on Wednesday, June 3rd driving from Dallas, TX toward Grand Rapids, Michigan to visit Luke's friend from College. We spent the night in Illinois and then got to Michigan on Thursday. We stayed the night in Michigan and then headed out Friday morning toward NH. We drove up through Canada and stopped to see Niagara Falls! What an amazing sight! After spending some time there we got back into the car and headed straight to NH. We arrived Saturday morning around 1:00am! We had an amazing trip, and are glad to be home. Thank you all for your prayers!

Here are some pictures of our journey:

Riley getting ready to leave her TX home!

This is pretty much what we looked like through our trip! Riley did an awesome job riding in the car!

Traveling through the country :)

We are still smiling as we are heading to Canada :)

Luke and Riley checking out Niagara Falls!

Heading to NH!!!!!

We are so happy to be home with family and are gearing up for our summer in Haiti! Thank you all for your prayers and support!

time to start getting ready again

2009-02-24T23:23:00.002-05:00

Becca and I are beginning to get things together to make our next trip down to Haiti. Stay tuned here for more info as details begin to fall into place. In the meantime, check out our facebook group and join us. We should have our latest newsletter up there within the next couple of days.

Food

2008-08-08T21:31:00.003-05:00

During our last week in Haiti we had the opportunity, because of many generous people, to buy food for ten Haitian families in need. We chose these families because they were in need, but also because we knew that they would share it. On our first attempt to buy food we purchased 300lbs of rice and several gallons of oil (a staple in every household in Haiti). The person who we bought the food from did not have enough food, so we had to go back a few days later. When we went back the price for a bag of rice jumped considerably...in THREE days! This is the reoccurring problem in Haiti. Most Haitians do not make enough to buy food, and when the prices jump it makes it almost impossible for them to provide for themselves and family. In total we were able to purchase over 500lbs of food! Praise God! There were a lot of grateful people, and those people are praying for those who gave money to help them. Thank you all for your help!

(I had to take some of these pictures through the car window, so we did not draw too much attention to ourselves)

Luke and I are now back in Dallas, and moving into our new apartment. We have been very busy, and have not finished processing our time in Haiti, but things are going well, and we are just so blessed!

we're back

2008-07-30T15:55:00.003-05:00

We're Back in the States now. We're sitting here in Ft. Lauderdale waiting for our next plane and using the free internet. We had a crazy couple of days this week as we tied up loose ends in preparation for our departure. Although we were very sad to leave, we are excited to see family again and we look forward to getting back into the swing of things in Dallas. We know we'll get back to Haiti again soon enough. Haiti is in our blood now so we'll never be able to stay away for too long.

Gotta run for now. We'll post more later.

Sunday

2008-07-27T16:54:00.002-05:00

Today was our last Sunday in Haiti, and Luke's last sermon. He has been doing an awesome job, and it has been so great seeing his passion for preaching, and listen to God speak through him! During the service one of the Deacons thanked us for our service here, and then had some people pray for us as we return home, then to Dallas to start another year! It is neat to fellowship with other brothers and sisters, and gain another church family! We are blessed!

Here is Luke preaching from Philippians 4.

After church we took five boys swimming! There is a missionary here who takes in boys who need a home. She has about seven at a time. She does not adopt these boys, but rather raises them, gives them an education, and with the prayer that when they grow they will be self sufficient. This is a full time job; 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! She has boys of all ages. So Luke and I took five of the boys out for the afternoon. We went to a hotel called El Rancho and swam! These boys instantly turned into fish the moment their feet hit the water. They had so much fun, and Luke and I did as well. The only thing that got them out of the water is when their drinks came :)

We are ready to go swimming :)

Soccer and a Pig

2008-07-26T09:08:00.003-05:00

This week has been filled with many different things as we are trying to wrap up our time here in Haiti. I spent the week at Sherry's school working with another team with their VBS. This was a great experience, as there were a lot more people on this team as last week's team, so I could spend more one-on-one time with the children. We had lots of fun! This is the team that has the soccer coach on it, so all week they had been taking an hour after VBS learning about soccer; the rules, the layout, and how to play! Yesterday, after many days of drilling, running, and practice plays they were finally ready for a real game! It was so much fun to see all these children on their own teams playing on the field that took almost two weeks to clear out! They really enjoyed it, and the adults that were playing with them were so encouraging! At the end of the game one of the teams did win, but the children were just so excited that they played a real game, played it correctly, and had so much fun, that it did not matter which team one. They all cheered, jumped up and down, and hugged each other in excitement :) What a sight! At the end of the day it was time for me to say good bye to all the students. This was not my favorite part, but I will be back!

On the way back to our house Luke had to stop by a church so my friend Brittany and I walked around a bit. Our first stop was on a bridge where we found a fat pig sleeping in piles of trash and water. He was a happy fat pig, but it really was sad to look at all the trash in what was suppose to be a river. The Haitians throw trash anywhere! There are dumpsters along the major road, but these are usually over flowing with trash, and you still see trash everywhere! Brittany and I were talking about the trash and the country while walking up the road. We decided to sit on some cinder blocks we found while talking about why be missionaries to a country that does not seem to be going any where. While those words came out of our mouths we heard "Hosanna...hoo..hoho.." I turned and saw four little children running over to us singing and motioning the songs that our team from Danville Baptist Church taught them during a VBS they did over a month ago! One of the little girls came right over, sat on my lap, and asked me if I remember her. I told her I did, and I was happy she remembered the team and the songs. That is all I needed to answer my question about coming to Haiti as a missionary! Praise the Lord for His work in these people, and myself!

1 Year Anniversary!

2008-07-22T16:38:00.002-05:00

As of July 21 Luke and I have been married for 1 year! To celebrate our anniversary Luke took me to Jacmel; a beautiful town on the Caribbean side of Haiti! After church on Sunday we packed up and headed to Jacmel. After battling our way through down town Port-au-Prince, we settled in for a beautiful ride up through the mountains of Haiti. About two hours later we arrived in Jacmel and at Cap Lamandou (our hotel). We had a beautiful room that provided us with air conditioning, TV, electricity (most of the time), and a gorgeous view of the Caribbean Ocean! What more could we ask for? We had a great time checking out the beaches, driving around the town, and looking at the different shops!

Our Hotel :)

While out on one of our drives we passed by a fire station. It was odd enough to see a fire station in Haiti, but one of the fire engines were from Litchfield, NH! We thought that was pretty cool!

We are now back in Port-au-Prince, and praise the Lord our home is fine! We are trying to get A LOT of stuff done during our last week here, and your prayers are much appreciated! We cannot wait to see all our friends and family back home, but we are really going to miss our friends and family here in Haiti! See you all soon!

Anyone want a banana? A house along the road up the mountain!

20 minutes in a Haitian's shoes

2008-07-18T19:28:00.003-05:00

Yesterday Luke and I needed to go to the store to get some groceries. We decided that we were going to go on an adventure. Now just about every time you go out in Haiti you encounter an adventure, but this time we decided that we were going to tap-tap to the store! Yes, that is correct, I said tap-tap to the store! Now those of you who do not know what a tap-tap is; it is a truck or sometimes a van that has been converted in some creative way to hold WAY more people then it was ever intended to hold. Tap-tap's are the primary way of getting around in Haiti, (like a taxi) and they are every where!! Luke has been on them before, but since I have not I decided that I was up for the adventure!

First thing we had to do was walk up our road to the top (it is up hill the whole way). Once on the top, we waited with a group of people on the side of the road for a tap-tap to drive by and pick us up. This did not take long, and before we knew it I was having my first experience on a tap-tap. We went a few blocks then stopped. We had to walk up another road (hill) to catch another tap-tap that would bring us to the store. While waiting for this tap-tap there were several people around, and lets face it, when you are the only white people on the street you stick out a little! We were getting some weird looks, and a lot of second glances :) Finally there were some tap-taps that stopped, but no luck! Either everyone jumped in before we got to it, or it was full, and no matter how many times the driver told us he had room the people hanging (literally) out of the back made Luke and I think we could wait for the next one.

We did finally make it to the store and purchased what we needed, now it was time for the adventure back! We succeeded on getting our first tap-tap, and once on our second I felt pretty good. I have seen and heard stories about tap-tap adventures and how crowded and smelly they get, but so far I had not encountered any of that....until my faith was tested! We had to wait a little bit on our second tap-tap so it could fill up. When I saw that my row was full (I was on the end, so we could get off faster), and Luke's row was just about there I was ready to go. I was waiting for the driver to crank the engine and we would be on our way. The driver never started the truck, in fact, he was not even in the truck! He was off getting more people to fill his tap-tap even more! I already had five people on my row and I was squished! Then the driver came with two more people! One for my row and the other for Luke's! Once everyone was seated I realized that the only thing that was keeping me in the truck was a bar that all my weight was leaning on! My feet were in the way of the lady who was sitting next to me, so they were hanging out of the back of the truck! Once I lost the feeling in my left leg from being pressed up against my life saving bar, the tap-tap starting going up a hill, and there I noticed that I had not only the weight of me, but also the six other people in my row on this one bar that was now embedding itself into my leg! I was praying so hard that the bar would not break off!!

After a few minutes we were at our stop and walking back to our house! It was definitely an adventure, and I am excited to say that I have ridden on a tap-tap. I can also say that I am not excited to go on one again :)

Still Working

2008-07-16T13:47:00.002-05:00

Sherry has a team of four people in from the states to do a VBS with the children from the school. Since they are here and we needed help clearing the spot for our soccer coach, we decided to allow them to help :) They were so tired after the first day! The team has never been to Haiti before and they also said they have never worked so hard in their lives! This is HARD work! They helped move the rest of the rocks, and the gravel pile! The only thing left was to cut the grass and get rid of a dead tree. Now in Haiti they do not have lawn mowers, so we had to use what the Haitians use....a machettie!! We did not allow the children to use them (although some where pretty skilled with one). The adults and workers cut the grass, and after pushing and pulling the tree finally came down! We still have some clean up to do and trash to burn, but this project is coming to an end!! We are having so much fun, and I cannot even express my love and excitement for these children! They are amazing, and each day that I spend with them my heart grows more for them!

This is how we moved the big rocks! We moved ALL these rocks!!

Raking and mowing!

How many children does it take to take down a tree?

who needs power

2008-07-14T13:29:00.002-05:00

Most of you who are somewhat familiar with the situation here know that electricity is not something to be counted on. There is a government run electric company know here as EDH which is a french acronym for Electricity of Haiti. It is the only company here and it does not have the capability of supplying electricity for everyone all the time, so we take turns. Here in Port-au-Prince, the city is divided into zones and certain zones get electricity at certain times during the day. Now, this wouldn't be too bad if there was a schedule that we could count on, then we could plan our chores that involve electricity around the EDH schedule. Instead the power comes when it wants and goes when it wants. Since we've been here, we've been getting it at our house beginning roughly at 8:30pm and ending sometime between 3am-6am.

There are ways of getting electricity when EDH is not on. Some people have generators which are extremely expensive to buy and expensive to run as regular gas is somewhere between 5 and 6 dollars a gallon here. Some people have a bank of batteries that are connected to an inverter system. This is nice because the batteries automatically charge when EDH is on and then when it is gone, they are able to run the lights, fans, fridge and power outlets throughout the house for a day or so. Others have solar panels, some have windmills, and many simply do without power.

We're lucky in the house we're staying in to have a good inverter system that is able to carry the house along with a backup generator.

Here at the Chapel, we have two large generators that can run the whole compound and an inverter system for the office.

We require a little more power at the Chapel on Sunday mornings as there are about 20 ceiling fans to run, along with a sound system and lights. So, we run the big generator.

Yesterday morning all was going as usual, the generator was humming away and everything was working. Then, about 15 minutes into the service, in the middle of a song, our power was gone.

In a normal Haitian church, this would be no big deal and the service would go on. In fact, I can remember one time I was sitting in an evening service at a Haitian church while a choir was presenting a special song and suddenly, mid song, the power went out. The choir however did not miss a beat. They just kept on singing away, and people took out their cell phones and opened them so we could have a little light.

Well, when you pack a few hundred people into the Chapel when it's 95 degrees out and then turn the fans off, it gets hot pretty quick.

So, the worship leader kept the congregation going, singing acapella, and since she had a few more songs to go before I needed to preach, I headed out to the generator house to see what was going on.

When I got there, Calixte, one of the chapel employee's, was pouring water into the radiator and there was a puddle of water underneath him that had spewed out of the generator. He put the cap on and fired it up. It ran, but there was water coming out and I realized as I got closer that it was spraying dirty, oily water on to my shirt. Not the best thing to have happen when I was supposed to begin my sermon in about 10 minutes. Luckily it didn't get me too bad.

So I went back to the Chapel and asked one of the elders if he could go check it out as I was about to preach. He was able to fire up the older, smaller generator and it gave us enough power to run the fans and sound for the rest of the service.

It turned out that the water pump on the big generator was shot and is going to need to be replaced or rebuilt. After the water pump quit, the generator began to overheat and shut itself off and that is when we lost our power.

So, hopefully we can get the pump fixed this week as we have a rental group using the facilities everyday next week, and they've paid for use of the generator.

So, just another Sunday morning here in Haiti. Who needs power anyway?

Working for Ministry?!?!?!?

2008-07-11T16:17:00.002-05:00

In a couple of weeks Sherry has a team coming down to help her with the new school she is building. On this team is a soccer coach. Soccer in Haiti is BIG...HUGE...GINORMOUS (yes I made that last word up) :) The plans are to have this man teach and play soccer, along with having a Bible study with not only the school kids, but also the boys on the streets! No one in Haiti can pass up soccer, exspecially when there is an actual soccer coach involved! Everything is set and ready to go....except for one thing.....there are two big piles of rock sitting on the exact spot that the soccer camp will take place.

Sherry told the students about the soccer coach coming, and how great it will be to play soccer, and have a Bible study with this man. The students of course were super excited...now the catch ....... " In order to play, we need to move the piles of rock". Those were her words, and no sooner did they leave her mouth when the students spoke about getting the workers that help at the school to move them. She smiled and said that she would like them (the students) to help move them as a ministry. WHAT?!?!?!?! Work and not get paid (were their expressions)? After Mr. John and I explained a little more about the job, the students became a little more interested, but still not thrilled that they had to work.

Today was the day that we as a team were going to battle the heat, smoke, dust, and ROCKS! When the students came to school I handed them work gloves. This got them motivated! Then we walked over to the new school and they saw the pike of rocks that we were going to move today....there goes their motivation :) It wasn't that the pile was so big, but the rocks in the pile were HUGE! To get started we made a line. Mr. John was in the front grabbing rocks from the pile, and I was at the end of the line piling the rocks into a new pile! Things were off to a great start! The children were all in line, and laughing, singing (if I hear the song "This is the Song that Never Ends" again, I will throw up; sort of like the Titanic song!), and suddenly taking off their clothes! About every half an hour or so, I would look up and see more boys with their shirts off, work gloves, and some pants (they had shorts on underneath)! It was funny! At one point Sherry asked me who I thought was stronger....obviously I said the girls were stronger! This made the boys go crazy! One boy imparticular (Val) told me that I was mistaken. I told him that girls were so strong, that we could carry a rock with one hand! He did not believe me so I started to move the next several rocks with one hand (they were small rocks, ok..medium size, I told you, girls are wicked strong). This meant a lot because Val is a tough kid! When I first started working with the children he was hard to deal with; disrespectful, deceiving, and never seemed to be paying attention. Yesterday and today Val and I really started to click, and have been having so much fun! So back to me being super strong; Val passed me a rock and it had a spider on it, so I dropped it because I do not like spiders! He laughed at me and told me I was not strong, so I pushed him, and tickled him until he said I was the strongest person in the world :) I won! After I told him that I knew a guy who had big muscles, and could probably lift the whole rock pile himself (John). Val said he would like to see that (looks like you have to come back to Haiti John! We have one more pile you could move for us). Then I was telling them that God can make you as strong as a lion, and told them some Bible stories. Sherry added to that and told the children that because of their hard work, that some one may accept Christ at the soccer camp. She went on and told them how neat it would be if someone did and how when we are in Heaven, God would tell them because they did ministry they helped someone come to Christ! They all thought that was cool, and that gave them the motivation to finish the job, I mean ministry!

Three and half hours later, two water breaks, one bloody finger, and one HUGE pile of rocks moved....... we were DONE!

Starting on the pile!

This is Val.

MacDonald showing off his muscles!

This is Sherry (the white lady on the right), not a good picture, but we were all working hard!

Taking a break!

They are so much fun!

Val and Mrs. Becca :)

thanks

2008-07-11T14:49:00.003-05:00

The other day I was driving over this dirt road covered in trash on my way over to pick up Becca from the school she's working at. As I was bouncing along I saw a young boy walking on the side of the road holding a basketball. His basketball had a huge slice down the side of it and it has probably been a long time since it had held any air. As the boy was walking along he was stuffing the ball with empty plastic bags he had found along the street. If it wasn't going to work as a basketball, it sure could as a soccer ball.

Later on that day, Becca and I stopped at a nearby gas station to buy some drinking water. While the guy was loading our filled water bottles into the back of the Montero I went over to talk with one of the pump attendants whom I'd gotten to know pretty well when I was here before. He can speak english pretty well and would come to the Chapel whenever he had a Sunday morning off from work. When I was here before, this guy was working 6 days a week, 10-12 hours a day and making a little more than 100 USD each month. Now, a year later, this guy is still working the pumps, but now he's developed some kind of allergic reaction on his skin from being around the gas. He's found some medicine that helps, but his skin is still a little discolored on his face. Long hours, little money, and a skin allergy, yet this guy still will not quit his job because he knows the chances of finding another one is pretty slim.

I know if my basketball was broken, I'd probably throw the thing away and buy a new one.

I know if my working conditions were like my friend's, I'd have quit a long time ago.

I don't think it's wrong to have the things I have in the States. What is wrong is when I take them for granted and forget to thank the one who has given them to me.

It is humbling to live among these people.

The Banana Tree Broke!!!

2008-07-10T15:30:00.003-05:00

We were sitting down to dinner last night when Luke and I both heard a cracking sound. We did not think too much of it considering all the awkward noises we hear at all hours of the day :) Right after we prayed we heard it again, but this time looked in the direction it was coming from and noticed our banana tree falling over! We both shot up out of our seats trying to catch it before it fell. This banana tree has a huge clump of bananas hanging off of it, and we were just waiting for them to ripen before cutting them down. Well, I guess that clump got too heavy, because the weight of it caused the poor tree to (almost) break in half! I got to the tree first and caught it right before it completely bent over. Luke made sure I could hold it (it was SUPER heavy), and ran to get something to secure the tree. After what seemed like an hour, Luke finally returned with bungee chords! It took a little time to get it standing straight again, but Luke got it secured!

After dinner Luke had Julio (the gardener) come over to check out the damage, and to see if we should just cut the bananas off now, or wait.....Julio said to wait two more weeks. When Luke and I came home this afternoon the poor tree was bent over; the place where Luke had secured it was standing straight, but it had bent in a new place, and now is hanging over :( Poor tree, but no worries, the bananas are still doing great!

Here I am trying to hold up the tree :)

Luke is trying to secure it!

Almost got it!

Finally, secured!

Luke telling Julio what he did.

I brought the camera along with me this morning while on our way to drop me off at the school. There are always so many interesting things! My favorite is when the pigs are hanging out in the trash piles, and some times in the road (sorry Jenna, no piggies this morning, but I will find them and take a picture for you!) Most of the pictures are taken through the windows because if the people catch us, who would probably have to pay them money for their picture!

This is how most of the women carry things!

This guy was wearing a Drew Bledsoe shirt :)

(For all those who do not know who he is; he use to be the quarterback for the New England Patriots!)

Out and About

2008-07-08T13:53:00.003-05:00

Three weeks from tomorrow Luke and I will be heading back to the states! Our time here in Haiti is already half way over! WOW! Where has the time gone? This is my second week working with the summer school students from Christian Light, and it is going great! Today was probably the best day so far. The teacher for the pre k class was not there today, so between Mr. John and myself, we had to cover everything. I started with the 4th graders. We worked on adverbs, reading comprehension, and had some conversation time. The students were super excited that they had me to themselves (I taught with Mr. John before). During our conversation time, I just sat at a desk and asked them questions about themselves and things they liked. As we were talking I would correct them, laugh with them, and answer their million questions :) It was fun! They think I am weird because I LOVE frogs, and most Haitians are afraid of them. Today we were watching a video on adverbs, and there was a discussion on frogs and toads! They all turned around, looked at me and told me that the frogs were only my friends because I am the only one who likes them! They all laughed and I told them I was going to get them each a frog! They were not really impressed with that :)

The other day Luke and I were sitting in our house, and I told him how I was happy that it seemed to be cooling off a little that day. He told me that it wasn't and that I was just adjusting to the weather. Of course I did not believe him, but he had me go to the thermometer and check the temp....it was 95 degrees in the house! I was shocked! So I guess we are adjusting to the heat, and now I appreciate air conditioning SO, SO, SO, much! I remember complaining this year at school about it being 90 degrees in May and that it was too hot for me! Sorry Mr.Clarke, I promise to never complain again :)

This past weekend Luke and I decided to drive around downtown and check out the sites. Here are some pics of our adventure, also, This afternoon Jacqueline showed me how to make picklies!

These are Tap-Taps (Haitian Taxi's). I was trying to sneak these pictures, so I took them through the dirty car window, but as you can see, they stuff themselves in tap-taps :)

Teaching

2008-07-05T11:28:00.003-05:00

I have tried several times to get a blog up this week, but between the weather and internet connection it did'nt happen, so finally an update :)

This week I started working with a fourth grade class and a pre k class for summer school. I am working at Christian Light School with missionary Sherri Fausey. The students in the fourth grade class are primarily working on their English (vocabulary, reading comprehension, and speech). It has been a lot of fun working with these guys! Because they are working on their English all they are allowed to speak is English, so I am able to communicate with them and also understand them. I have been working with them on reading comprehension, vocabulary skills, and correcting their English, and although it has been slow, they are already making improvements after week 1. As a part of working on their speech, I have them interview each other and then introduce each other to the class. Doing this has really allowed me to get a better picture of their life and background. Most of the children have come from Cite Soleil, and moved to the Ravine (the village where Sherry has her ministry) in 2004. For those who are unfamiliar with Cite Soleil, it is one of the poorest sections in Haiti. Many of the gangs and much of the violence you hear on the news about Haiti, either started in or came from Cite Soleil. In 2004 Haiti was in an uproar with political issues (when aren't there political issues in Haiti, I know), gangs, murders, rebels, and much more. During this time no where was really safe, but Cite Soleil was the hot spot. That is when a number of people left and planted themselves at the Ravine. So needless to say, they have quite the background.

The students in the pre k class are just cute! Here I work with them on their short vowel sounds and small words with those sounds. They do not speak a lot of English, and the English they do know is very rehearsed. When the teacher says good morning, they together say "good morning, how are you" and so on. It has been fun and such an honor to see their faces when they recognize a word in our stories that they can read. Every morning this class also sings! They are amazing singers, and they really shout to the Lord. I have a video that I will try to load up here (it took me about 4 hours to load it onto another website, but I will try). It has been more of a struggle teaching this class because they do not speak English, and although I do have a someone working with me on my creole, I am so far from being able to communicate with them.

I am so pumped for week 2, as you can tell I LOVE working with these precious children. Luke and I are doing well, praise the Lord! Thank you all for your prayers, we feel them every day!

Chris and Alex working on their book reports. Djenny and Djennis working on theirs.

Cristella working on hard on her ABC's! Working on penmanship.

"Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth.

Psalms 127:3-5

busy couple of days

2008-06-30T09:36:00.006-05:00

The team is off now. We dropped them off just before seven this morning at the airport and since I haven't received any phone calls I am assuming all has gone well there. Becca and I really enjoyed spending time with them and we are sorry to see them go.

After leaving the airport I dropped Becca off at Christian Light Ministries for her first full day of working with the children at Sherrie Fausey's school. She was a bit nervous but I know she is going to do great. Hopefully she'll be able to post something about her day here on the blog tonight when she gets home.

We've had a busy few days here in Haiti. On Friday the team headed out to Fond des Blancs, a village nestled in the mountains just north of Port-au-Prince. I was planning on going with them and had agreed to drive a few days before we were to go. Friday morning however, Becca reminded me that I was supposed to go pick up the mail that morning and that it would only be available for pick up from 8:30-11:30 am. Mail comes in once a week from the States and is flown here from Florida by Missionary Flights International. We are only allowed to pick it up on Wednesdays and Fridays from 8:30-11:30. While we are here I am responsible for picking up not only the Chapel's mail, but also for all the MAF pilots and all the mail that is flown to the missionaries on the island of La Gonave.

Pastor Martinez told me it would take about an hour to drive to the town of Cazalle, from which the team would then walk the rest of the way to the village as there is no road in. We were planning on leaving Port-au-Prince at 6:30 which, after an hour driving out and then an hour driving back into the city would put me back here in plenty of time to get the mail. Well, after leaving much later than 6:30, and after an hour and a half of driving and one river crossing we were still not at the drop off point. I was beginning to realize that I would not be making it to get the mail. Finally, about two hours after leaving Port-au-Prince, we arrived at the drop off point. I called Becca back in the city and asked her to get a message to someone from MAF telling them I would not be able to get the mail and then began the trek in to the village.

Aside from the intense heat, the walk wasn't too bad. We had some beautiful views as we walked parallel to a river and snaked our way up the side of a mountain and then down into a valley where the village was located. We stopped a few times along the way and at one point were able to enjoy some mangos that were growing along the trail. Since Pastor Martinez is 68, he set the pace for most of the time and after an hour or so of walking we arrived at the village.

Our purpose was to distribute some food with the funds raised by DBC's gleanings offering. The people of the village knew we were coming and they knew what we were coming to do so there was a small crowd gathered by the time we arrived. After a brief water break the process of distributing the food began. Within a few seconds we had a mob scene on our hands. People were trying whatever they could to get to the front of the line to ensure they got some food. There were literally women crawling over each other and a few of us had to physically block them from storming the place where the food was. Eventually we were able to distribute all the food and some clothes and the mob began to dissipate.

These people are surviving, but barely. They are desperate and desperate people do desperate things. We were able to distribute some food, but not nearly enough. In fact, most of the food we distributed has probably already been consumed and now they are looking to where they can find more. It can be discouraging at times to see such overwhelming need and know that you'll never meet it all. The important thing, as Pastor Martinez reminded us that evening, is to be faithful with what you have, and commit them to God. That is what we are called to do and I can say that on Friday, Danville Baptist Church was faithful in the sight of God.

So, the mail is still sitting there, waiting to be picked up. I'll get to it on Wednesday. Instead I was reminded again of the pure desperation there is here. I'd seen it many times before, but it was good to be reminded. People are hungry and often have no idea where the next meal is coming from. At times I'm tempted to question why I was born in such a land of abundance, but being faithful is more important than wondering why. To whom much is given, much is expected.

Work

2008-06-27T13:23:00.006-05:00

Our wonderful team wears many hats. From 9:00 to 11:30(ish) am they are VBS workers; running, playing, hugging, talking, creating with tons of children that seemed to multiply each day they were there. In the afternoons they turned into mighty concrete machines. They had piles of bricks that were in front of Pastor Martinez's house, but needed to be in the back of his house. Our team did not hesitate! They threw on their work clothes, work gloves, bandannas, and off they went. Now normally a line of people are made from where the blocks are to where the blocks need to be, then they start passing the blocks or conrete. This time Our team had the task of making their line go down stairs! They were amazing, and I think moved all they needed in record time! See for yourself!!

"Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways! You shall eat the fruit of labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you."

Psalm 128:1-2

Happy Birthday!

2008-06-25T07:36:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was Trevor's 16th birthday! We celebrated with a basketball game, cake, and team time on the roof! For the first time I made a cake. Not only that, but I made them in Haiti! As I was frosting the cake the frosting kept melting because it is really hot here :) All in all they came out looking fine, and everyonw ate them, and are still here! Happy Birthday Trevor!!!!

VBS

2008-06-23T14:41:00.013-05:00

Today was the second day of VBS. We have a team from our church in Daville, NH down staying with a Haitian pastor, and working on his ministry as well as hosting a VBS for his church. Most of them have been here before, but there are a few new ones! It has been so much fun seeing the enthusiasm to work and help from the team members who have not been here before, and to laugh about the memories we have with the "seasoned" team members (I meant "seasoned" like they have been here more then once, not old. Although, we do have some old ones on the team as well, sorry dad). :)

Rebecca is doing a great job teaching the children about Ruth, and Erik is translating for her.

Donna Edwinson is in charge of the games, along with Trevor and Cody! I wish I could have captured the expression on the children's faces when she brought out the parachute!

Donna Burleigh is in charge of crafts. It is not easy to pass out the crafts with 60 children on you :)

"Rejoice in the Lord always.........

Again I say REJOICE!!!!"

Philippians 3:1

busy day ahead

2008-06-21T07:01:00.002-05:00

We have a busy day ahead of us today. We'll be heading down to the airport this morning to help pick up the team from Danville Baptist Church and bringing them to Pastor Martinez's house so they can get settled. Soon after that I'll take my Dad, who is coming with the team, up to Hotel Montana in Petionville for Marc's graduation. While he is there I'll probably go with the team over to Eglise Bethesda so they can check out the place where they will be doing their VBS next week.

Then, this evening, Karl, Ann and I will be taking Becca to the Villa Creole for dinner to celebrate her birthday! Becca turns a quarter century today! I keep reminding her that this is only 5 years away from 30 and for some reason this doesn't excite her.

New York City

2008-06-20T17:51:00.001-05:00

Today while Karl and Luke were working in the church office I decided to play with the children from the orphanage. We were playing Frisbee and having a blast when the boys came and took over our (the girls) game. The girls were bummed so I decided that we were going to paint our nails. Now some of the girls already had their nails painted, but when I got out my nail stuff they all gathered and were amazed at all the colors of nail polish that I had laid out before them! Now the nail polish I had was a collection dated back from my high school years, so some of the colors were just a bit bizzar, but nonetheless so much fun. The last color I pulled out was red….” I want to look like New York City”, “Can you paint me like New York CIty too?” I heard from all around me. I looked at them and asked them what they meant, and they said that everyone in New York City has red fingernails. I told them that not everyone did, but they were not believing me. So after about 45 minutes of painting every girl’s nails we all looked like New York City :)
On another note; Luke’s dad and a team from our home church in Danville, NH are flying down to Florida this afternoon. They will spend the night in Florida, and then venture their way to Haiti tomorrow morning. Please pray for safe travel and open hearts for this team. There are some people on the team who have not been to Haiti before! Please pray for them too! Thanks guys, you are all so great! Love to all :)

Here

2008-06-19T17:50:00.001-05:00

We are here!!! We arrived Tuesday afternoon after a long but safe flight from Boston to Miami, then Miami to Haiti. We had no problems with our bags, and were greeted excitedly by Karl and Ann! Luke has been like a child in a candy store bouncing around here as if he never left. It has been fun to watch him pick up Creole (the Haitian language) and connect with friends.
We have only been here for a couple of days, but already having a blast! We went up to Baptist Mission Mountain yesterday for lunch with Karl and Ann. Then went to visit some other friends last night. Karl and Ann will be leaving next week for the summer, and we have a team of people from our home church in NH coming on Saturday to work with a Haitian pastor.
Next week Luke will start working at the church, and I am getting ready to start summer school with the Haitian children.
Things are going well so far! We thank all of you who continue to lift us up in your prayers and support! We cannot tell you how much we appreciate you all!

These pictures are from the place that we are staying. We are so blessed! The flowers are from the outer wall that encases the house and yard. On top of the wall is barbed wire to help protect the house from intruders that could jump the wall. There is also Mike (the dog). He is our guard dog. Also, the best part is that I have all the pets I could want! The lizards for example come from every where just to hang out and eat bugs. Hope you enjoy :)