Celebration Kids Club

Sometimes God has to give you a little push! Joy has wanted to start a ministry to our local kids where we meet with them each week and share the love of Jesus with them. She has been wanting me to schedule a time and decide the best way to go about it. I have just been slack in getting it going. So God handled it.

About a month ago a little girl showed up at our yard all dirty with matted hair and dirty clothes. She began to tell us how her parents were killed in the quake and she was living in the refugee camp down the road. Joy took her in and gave her a shower and everything and we fed her and fixed her hair. We had her go home and told her to come back the next day. When she came back some things just did not seem exactly right so we decided to go check things out. It turns out she has a mother and a father doing just fine and an aunt had put her up to the lie to try to see what she could get out of it.

So a month goes by. Then Saturday I am sitting in the yard and about a dozen kids come peeking around the wall. One would come out and then run back and then another and another. Finally I motioned for them to come over and asked them what was going on. They said they had been told we were giving away bicycles and baby dolls to every kid that came to our house that day. So here we had a dozen kids wanting bikes and babies. Guess who told them that...

You guessed it. The little "orphan" from the month before. So I took the opportunity to sit the kids down and find out their names and ages. Then I asked if the little fibber was on the other side of the wall... she was (she is the one on the back left in the picture looking all scared about her punishment for lying!). So she came too and I told the story of the boy that cried wolf and shared with them the importance of honesty.. . and forgiveness. Then since it was the day before Haitian Mother's Day we gave them all a gift bag of hygeine supplies etc. to give to their mothers. We also invited them back on Wednesday after school for the first official meeting of Joy's Celebration Kids club.

Fish Tale

I have a group of fisherman that I am trying to minister to by helping them be able to catch more fish and sell them to support their families. Another way we help them is by being a good customer. Last week 2 of my guys that fish in a little canot- wooden boat- showed up at the house with the fish you see here. They caught him on a 50 foot line tied to a bleach jug with a small fish on the end. They take their 10-15 jugs out to the deep water around the islands and lets them float. Then they go back about 4 hours later to check them. Today was a lucky day! When they see one of the jugs going across the water they chase it down paddling and begin to pull the fish in by hand. This was a sword fish that we were able to buy over 50 pounds of meat after they cleaned it. They don't like the fact that I will not buy the head to make soup out of but they are happy to sell the rest.

The biggest issues surrounding them are finding bait fish. They go out at night and place an oil lamp on a paddle extended out over the water. That draws in little fish that they can catch to use for bait. If they do not find bait, they can't go out for the fish that they can sell. We are trying to find some lights that are rechargable that we can mount on a board or something over the water to bring in more bait fish. We also are in the process of getting them good hooks and line so that when they do hang one they don't loose it. The guys that brought us the sword fish have not sold tried to sell us anything in weeks. One fish may have to provide the income to feed the family and continue to fishing business for weeks. We are trying to help these guys and share with them the love of Jesus Christ too. And we get to eat good fresh fish everyday. God is good!

Finally Reconnected!

It has been a full month since our internet went down and we had not been able to get it back up and running until yesterday.

We missed being able to talk to everyone. We are all doing fine. We have all been sick some but I think we are on the mend now. The kids are doing great. Jacy Klaire is doing good in her home schooling and piano lessons. Judah and Jaxon had their birthday party Saturday. Judah is 5 and Jaxon is 2. Josie is as witty as ever. She keeps us all in line. She speaks a little bit of creole but she speaks mostly bad English. She talks to the Haitians the way they speak English to her. So she tells the girls "me need eat" or "me want play out". She says it with a haitian accent though! Jaxon is just learning to talk and he speaks about half and half. He is into everything and constantly injured. He has a second degree burn on his leg right now from a motorcycle muffler.
Justice is growing and smiling. She is healthy and becoming a part of the family. We are frustrated with the process of trying to get anything accomplished with her case but we know the Lord is in charge. We would like to get a passport for her so we could bring her to the states for vaccinations and so we can visit family. We can't locate the mother but the father is anxious to get her legally into our custody so we are working on it.

Both sets of twins are doing good. We were able to buy an exersaucer off the street for one set so they can start developing some muscle tone. They are growing and developing well.

The mission is coming right along. We are ready to paint the kitchen and we finished the Tiki hut dining area. We have the appliances in the kitchen and ready to cook up some rice and beans.

We have our approval for the children's home from UNICEF and Heartland Alliance but we are waiting on licensing from Haitian social services. We have paid all the crazy fees so we think it should not be long before they give us the go ahead to start recieving kids.

We spent a good part of yesterday in a tent village outside PAP. It has become a permanent settlement now and they are errecting tarp schools and churches with the belief they are not going anywhere. The tarps are slowly being replaced by scraps of tin or wood. Thankfully, a group came in and put in latrines and two water bladders for the people to have but I don't know how long they will transport water to fill the bladders daily. We will see. They want our help in getting a school for the kids there. There are hundreds of kids with no access to school at all. We aer praying about how we can help.

Today Joy is gone with a group of doctors from Texas to visit one of the schools and feed them. I am going with an engineer from California this morning to another school to see about developing a feeding program there and building them a building. We are thankful for the chance to work with such fine folks from around the U.S.

I will try to get some pictures posted in the next day or so since we are back in the land of technonlogy. Thank you all for your prayers.

Justice

I was visiting one set of Joy's twins with a team from Indiana to give the babies some formula and rice for the mom when a friend of Joy's came up and told me she had a baby that I needed to see. I went to her house nearby and found a tiny 5 week old baby. Her mouth full of thrush and her skin covered in a rash. She had the smallest little round face you have ever seen. God immediately touched my heart.

The next day the lady took the baby to the hospital and called me to tell me she wanted us to take it. She said she could not care for it and did not have anyone in the family that could. I was in Port Au Prince but when I got home I sent Joy to the hospital to see what she needed to do for the little thing.

We discovered that at 2 weeks the baby was abandoned in an old school to die. By the grace of God she was discovered at 1 o'clock in the morning by a lady and brought to the friend that had agreed to keep her until they decided what to do. They knew the baby and Joy's friend was the cousin of the father. He is an older man in the village. Too old to be caring for a baby. We have had trouble finding out much about the mother. Supposedly she was here from the mountains and is a young girl. No one has heard from her since she abandoned the baby.

The father asked if we could take the baby. After a long discussion with him about how irresponsible it was to get a teenage girl pregnant at his age and how disgusted that made me, we agreed that the baby needed a new home. He asked if he could be known as the baby's grandfather and have a role in her life. We agreed.

We get offered babies all the time. We were offfered a six month old set of twins just this week. It is usually either a sick mother or from a family with too many children. But this was different. God had touched our hearts and we felt just like with the other kids we have adopted that she was supposed to be a part of our family. So Joy stayed with her at the hospital that night and then we brought her to our house the next morning. Two days later we met the father at the Justice of the Peace office and allowed him to sign the rights and legal guardianship over to us. Haiti is not allowing any new adoptions to take place right now but we are going to start the process as soon as it is allowable.

She has been with us three weeks now. She was born on Feb. 10. When we got her on March 29th she weighed six pounds. She is now up to over 8 pounds and looks great. We still have to have her AIDS tested and everything before we can start the adoption process but we are so thankful that God did not allow her to die that night in that school. Keep her in your prayers. We named her Justice Kacia. Joy got the name Justice from Isaiah 30:18 as she was reading in the hospital the night she spent there with her. All of the Haitian people know the mother committed a crime but the LORD is a God of Justice. Kacia is short for acacia which is the wood used to make the Ark of the Covenant. We knew this was the perfect name for our newest addition. Pray that all goes through in the arduous process of Haitian adoption.

She has really been an immediate blessing to our entire family. All of the kids as well as the Haitian people we work with are so blessed by her.

At UN Gunpoint

Each year the week after Easter we have a big convention with all the churches we work with in Bois Nerf, Haiti. We just finished the week of eye clinics, medical clinics, pastor training, youth meetings, children ministry, and women's seminars. We also have crusades every night and this year a group from our home church in Conover, NC put on a performance of a production they do each year at Christmas. The production is called The Promise and it was a huge hit. It was a crazy thing the way God put it all together.

The team that was coming could not find a medical doctor that could make it on the trip. They were having a team meeting just a couple of weeks before the trip and a couple from out of town was at our church for another meeting and "accidentally" walked in on the meeting where the team was praying for a doctor. The couple apologized and the folks from the team told them not to worry about it and if they were a nurse and a doctor to just hang around and go to Haiti with them. The couple excused themselves and headed for their car. But as they got into their car they felt they needed to consider going back to the meeting. The husband is a medical doctor with many medical mission trips under his belt. They returned to the meeting and shared their feelings to a team sitting in utter disbelief at the providence of God. The doctor did make it on the trip and ended up playing several roles in the theatrical production with his wife as well and God used them along with the rest of the team to encourage the Haitian people and touch our family deeply.

We had a great week with some of our best friends in the world. Things really were amazing this week and this morning was the topper of the week. We left Montrouis at 5:30 this morning to head to PAP to the airport. About 45 minutes into the trip we came onto a convoy of trucks with armed UN guards. The trucks were only doing about 20 mph and we were pushed to get the team to the airport. Dago, our driver, decided that although the guards were flagging him down to not pass that due to our circumstances that maybe they would reconsider for us...he was wrong! As we go about ready to go around the guard on the UN truck drew his gun and pointed it directly at Dago...a situation that would cause me to back off and go about my business...but Dago...being concerned about the team not missing their flight...continued to pressure the guards until one of them put down his machine gun and raised and aimed a 12 gauge shotgun at our windshield. Now I am almost sure he would not have shot our vehicle but we were close enough to see the seriousness in his expression and the cursing in his Brazalian Portugese. The danger however did not come from the UN, the danger came from the fact that we were only one vehicle with a Haitian driver that was not very tolerate of the UN's opposition to letting us get to our destination. There were about 20 other vehicles all pressing and bumping and jockeying for position just in case the irritated soldiers decided to let someone through. I think we had a little bit of a taste of being 4 wide at Talladega. I apologize to any non-rednecks that do not pick up on Nascar illustrations.

After the UN turned where we would normally turn we decided to go straight...not the best idea. We ended up in a 'blokis" or traffic jam and had to backtrack back to the same road. The team finally got to the airport but I have not heard from them since we dropped them off. I pray they made their flight and are safely back in Carolina.

Fuel Shortage Again...
We found out today that we are in another fuel shortage. Gasoline is out and diesel is being rationed. The Govenment controls the fuel that enters the country. Obviously they did not account for all the fuel the agencies are using that have come in since the quake. We heard they can't get a tanker in until the 26th so that will put a hault on a lot of the recovery efforts. Thankfully, I have a reservere barrel and a half that should get us through. We will have to see.

Jesus Visits the Fisherman...
Pastor Rick came to our prayer meeting with the fisherman at 5:30 Monday in his Jesus costume from The Promise. It was really a good time of sharing with the guys. Ken Wilson had brought some fishing supplies with him so we were able to give them some things and share the gospel with them as well.

God is so good!

Fishing for Fisherman

We had back to back groups led by eye doctors the past two weeks. Dr. Lori Geddes and her family and our new friend Darrell came down from Minnesota to spend a week with us. We were able to do some eye care but much more than that we were able to some things done in the schools with Pastor Cesar and began the process of organizing things in the clinics. It was a great week and we look forward to seeing them back in Haiti.

One really cool thing that came out of that trip was a ministry to fisherman. I have been meeting with the fisherman that fish here at our backyard. I meet with them at 5:45 on Monday mornings before they go out for the day of fishing. I pray with them individually for safety and blessing. I am also starting a Bible study with them on how much Jesus loved fisherman. We are going to try to help them with some supplies they need to fish as well. We are going to try to get hooks, line, steel leaders, and other small tackle for them to use in their trade. They do not use fishing poles but instead wrap the line around a coke bottle and then hold the line in their mouths as they paddle. When we asked them to show me their typical setup, the first fisherman held up a line that had an old sparkplug tied to the end as a weight. These guys lead a tough life and have a tough job. The deforestation of Haiti has had its effects on the fishery as well. The silt that flows into the sea has covered and killed much of the reef. That has reduced the amount of sea life and makes fishing a tough venture. They usually end the day with a handful of small fish only a few inches long. They will eat what they need and sell the rest to try to get by. Their boats, which are carved out of mango or bread fruit trees, are called a bwa fouye. They all leak so half of your time is spent bailing water out. Pray that I can get to know them and that they will choose to accept Christ. I have had 3 show up for the meeting at 5:45 each week and about 10 show up at about 7! They all tell me they start fishing at 6 and I see them out there so they wanted to do it early but then they get there the typical Haitian hour late. They are operating on Joy's schedule!

Dr. Dennis' team helped us work on the benches for the church at St. Marc. It was hot, hard work but we got 40 benches built that were used in Church this past Sunday. Everyone was so excited to get the benches into the church. What a great day! They also helped me work at the clinic we are setting up at the orphanage.

(As I type this Josie Kate came up to me carrying a baby chick! She is our fearless animal lover. I bought a couple of Hispanola Parrots the other day on the street in PAP and she just loves them to death...almost literally!)

All of the kids are doing great. We may have an addition to the family but I need to get some things settled before we introduce her officially. Joy brought a little one home after spending the night in the hospital with her last Friday. Joy is at the hospital again today with a little girl who has a hip deformity due to an infection. We are seeing if a visiting orthopedic team can operate on her while they are here. Be praying for little Dianna.

The twins are doing better. Both sets are healthy and growing. We are so thankful for all of your prayers. They still have issues...one has the chickenpox right now... but we know your prayers are keeping them strong.

Our time is consumed now with getting everything ready for our big annual convention with eye care, medical care, pastor training, teacher training, youth sessions, and children's ministry. That all kicks off the week after Easter. Be praying for the team coming from NC to do that work. It is a tough week for them but we always see God do some marvelous things.

We are in the process of getting the orphanage certified with UNICEF and the Haitian Social Services. Once that process is complete, about 2 more weeks we pray, we will be certified to receive kids from UNICEF. I went and visited some of the kids in PAP last week and it broke my heart. Kids that lost parents in the quake and were injured. They have been staying in the hospital for the last 2 months. UNICEF has standards that are keeping them from being placed in an orphanage right now. Pray we can get through the red tape and help these precious children. We are getting closer. We still do not have any furnishings in the orphanage, or even electricity or a kitchen but things are coming together. The Lord is in Charge. And for that we are grateful!

What do Starfish Eat?

It was a good day. I spent the day in Port Au Prince getting supplies for some friends that will be coming to stay with us next week and help us. I also met with Dr. Price from Christianville and picked up the equipment for the lab where we will be making glasses. He also showed me some of the pharmacies where he buys medications.

There are more military personel in PAP than I ever would have imagined. I definitely feel safer than I ever have in the city. Some removal of debris from destroyed buildings and homes is occuring. The food distributions and things are starting to decrease so things are getting back to semi-normal. The biggest thing you see is that the tents that the people were sleeping in were made out of sheets right after the quake. Now groups have came in and given better tents. So now many of the tent villages all have matching tents. The problem is that I do not hear much organized talk of actually doing anything with all the people living there. Right outside of the city in the last 2 weeks hundreds of people have migrated to this one area to claim a piece of land to put their house. Right now they are tents but soon they will be wood and tin and later blocks. But there are hundreds already with one right on top of the other. No organization. No water. No sanitation. No plan. If it continues as it is going it will become another PAP slum that is ran by the gangs and the women and children are the victims. The lack of sanitation leads to diseases and nothing is any better than before. I pray the NGO community will organize and not allow that to happen. We will have to see. But any day that I get to PAP and get back home safely without an incident is a good day.

Josie and a gecko she found in her bed.

Joy and the kids were here all day today. I had our team here today painting and doing repairs on the room where our visitors will be next week. I got home and Jacy, Judah, and Josie were all holding starfish. A son of one of the guys that works here found them for them today. They were so excited. They wanted to keep them as pets and asked what they needed to feed them. It turned out to be a pretty good question...What do starfish eat? Then of course it led to the fact they could not find a mouth, or eyes, or ears, or a tail. But they all agreed they were really cool and we should let them go so that we could find them again some other day.

Tomorrow we go to the Artibonite Valley to do an eye clinic screening of some of the people from the mountains with another missionary friend of ours. The whole family is going which is always a big deal. We strap Jaxon in the stroller and then strap it down to the bus where they used to strap in the wheel chairs for handicapped kids. It works out pretty good. We will see hundreds of patients and give them glasses and screen them for eye diseases such as glaucoma and cataracts. Any one that needs further care will be scheduled to come down and see me in our clinic. I received a donation of these really funky glasses that you inject serum into the space in hollow lenses and you can control the power. It is cool technology but we will have to see how well received they will be by the people. I will be trying them out tomorrow. I will take some pictures of the process and share how it goes. I am a little skeptical but I have read about them being well accepted in other places.

The cat in the stroller is our anti-rodent pest control agent. We had a huge rat in our house one night and Joy woke up the household standing on the toilet screaming. The rest of the night was spent in "prayer"! The next morning we mentioned that we had a rat and needed a cat. In a couple of hours a guy showed up to sell us a "cat". This little thing is smaller than the rat! A couple of nights later I trapped the rat behind a piece of furniture and me and our nightwatchman Charles chased him around the house for a while until Charles took care of him with his machete. Joy has slept a little better since. The cat was no help though. The rat walked right behind him to enter the house! He is still in training! But the kids LOVE the little kitten. If it survives Josie Kate's headlocks I think it will make a good rat deterent in the future. (Judah and an eel he caught while we were fishing.)

The mission is coming along well. Next week we will begin setting up the lab and the clinic. We will also start building the room for the generator and the covered area to eat. We have a lot of work to do to get an area usable for a detached kitchen. So we will get that going as well.

Our friends in NC are putting together a container to send over to get the orphanage and the rest of the mission furnished and equipped to begin operation. We are praying that can happen quickly so we can get the things out of customs before it gets too much back to normal. I have a doctor in Pennsylvania that has donated the equipment I need for our other eye clinic I just need to get it shipped directly to here or get it to NC and put on the container. If anyone has any ideas about that let me know.

We have a meeting tomorrow afternoon with the aunt of a little girl who lost her parents in the quake. I don't have any details yet but we are still waiting on God to begin to send us kids. His timing is always right.

Both sets of the twins Joy has been caring for are doing good. The mothers are healthy and the kids are growing. Thank you to everyone that sent formula. It is much needed.

We had another one of the people that we have been working with accept Jesus as his personal Savior this past week. I am meeting with two of the new converts every morning at 6:30. The newest convert, Charles, is my age and can't read at all. We are listening to the creole Bible on CD and he loves it. I am so grateful God is giving me the opportunity to disciple them and invest in them. It is awesome being a part of God's plan to save the world!