Haiti Work and American Travel

I’ve not had the most dependable internet over the past week, so I apologize if anyone was looking for a post that never materialized. We are in our final week in America, after a really great road trip, connecting with so many friends and supporters. While we have been doing this, our staff in Haiti has been keeping the ball rolling. I’m just so proud of them. I remember the days when things were really fall apart each time we left the country. Today, we feel like we could live in the States and MOHI would still operate as if we were there. We thank God for the men and women who are so faithfully serving HIM at MOHI right now!

School has been going very well. Maitre Sylvain, who is Pastor Bauvais’ son, has been teaching in our elementary school for over fourteen years. This year we promoted him to the position of assistant school director. Judging by the clothing and faces in this picture, I’d say he’s enjoying the promotion.

Maitre Sylvain is now the assistant director at the MOHI school in Thozin

Ecole Evangélique Mission of Hope International

I feel like I say this all the time, but it’s so true. We are extremely blessed to have Leah Fuller, RN working with us full time in Haiti. These pictures are from last week. This week she joined us in Charlotte, as we met with our partners at Bless Back Worldwide. We had opportunities to try to fine tune some of what we’re doing in the clinic with teams coming in, as well as dream about the next steps. To complete a meeting with their board, knowing that we were all of like faith and on the same page with the vision for the clinic, teams and future endeavors was remarkable and just a tremendous blessing!

Leah and medical ministry

Work continued in our absence on the medical clinic. Our workers poked a hole in the wall between the medical room and pharmacy in order to cut out a doorway. This will make the pharmacy more accessible to medical professionals working in the medical room, needing to check on a particular medicine. We also are working on hooking up water to the medical room. This week our crew hauled a big water tank up onto the roof so that we can provide running water without having to run a pump constantly.

Punching a hole for a doorway between the medical room and the pharmacy

Working on water for the clinic

The finish carpenters/cabinet makers have been working on the furniture in the computer lab and the radio station.

Computer Lab Construction

Radio station upgrades

Of course church services continue in our absence. So many are blessed in the presence of the Lord each week.

Sunday morning at MOHI in Thozin

With the first phase of construction being complete, we have been trying to add some green to the campus. Renord is always on the lookout for plants and even starts them in buckets at times.

Adding green to the campus – corn in Thozin

While all of this (and so much more) is going on in Haiti, we have been traveling through Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and Florida. We spent three days with our dear friends from the Hands and Feet Project, Drex and Jo Stuart. It was a fascinating time, as we had never spent any time in Kentucky. We enjoyed learning about farming practices at these MASSIVE farms of corn, tobacco, soy and sorghum.

Kentucky – I’d never really seen crops growing like this!

Drex showed Lex and AJay how to use a lathe. This was important, as we are in the planning stages for beginning vocational training with our high school students. Seeing first hand how things work, help us to better plan for the future.

Drex at the lathe

We enjoyed some historic parts of Kentucky, including the first church that Drex pastored, the Bill Monroe Homestead (he’s considered the author of bluegrass music), and Abraham Lincoln’s childhood home.

Drex and Jo in front of their first church, and some of their neighbors

Bill Monroe’s Homestead

Abraham Lincoln’s Childhood Home

We had the opportunity to visit the church that Drex is pastoring once again, in Indiana. We joined a youth group event, visited the parsonage and then shared with a large home gathering about the work we are involved in, in Haiti. It was special to meet some of Michelle Meece’s family and close friends, too.

Michelle’s Mom

We headed to Tennessee for a quick visit with more of our Hands and Feet Project friends. Will McGinnis was so gracious to host us at his home and we enjoyed seeing all the Haiti Made products that had come from what used to be my bedroom in downtown Grand-Goave. I was very impressed with the quality of the products now being produced. We had some “business” meetings, but we also enjoyed some time with our friends in Tennessee.

Will was great at this game!

Over the past fourteen years, we have been blessed with the opportunity to stay with the Engman family, in Westminster, MA. This trip we were able to visit their daughter, Hanna and her son in their home in Nashville. (Unfortunately, Brandon was at work.) What a joy to hear Z play the drums, doing a double bass rhythm and just blowing us away with his energy and skill.

The Wickhams

We have several long-time ministry friends in Florida whom we got to visit (however briefly) this week. We stopped for a night with Peter and Esther Plastridge in Jacksonville. They have been great partners over the years through prayer and advice, as well as monetarily. They also introduced us to John Armour, the creator of the amazing water filtration systems that keep us and so many other healthy in Haiti. We had a great meeting with him, his wife and sons.

Today, we had lunch with Chris, Joy and the new addition to the Youell family, Gus. Chris is a “sound guy” and is helping by locating some of the gear we need to take back to Haiti with us.

We appreciate Bob and Sally Heier more than I could ever explain. Most of you who have been to Haiti have heard us refer to them, most likely NUMEROUS times. They are great supporters as well as incredibly wise advisers. Bob has pastored longer than we have been alive and Sally is probably the most capable nurse for working with the Haitian people that I have ever met. We are so grateful for their eagerness to welcome us into their home, taxi us around, deal with our unusual schedules and activities (like drying out our soaked clothes and ironing the time cards so they weren’t destroyed when everything got wet!) and go to church with us. We all ministered this evening at Grace Bible Church in Lehigh Acres. What a sweet bunch of folks who have been praying for us and supporting us regularly all year long!

Bob & Sally Heier, signing the devotional they wrote.

I decided that Florida is a lot like Kentucky, because it’s so flat, but instead of corn, they grow oranges here!

We have enjoyed much of the beauty in America and are so grateful to our many friends who continue to support our work in Haiti. Thank you! As we prepare to return, would you please join with us in prayer for a safe trip and a smooth transition into the land that we’ve grown to love so much? Thank you!