Happy School Days

Sunday, August 13, 2023

School is back in session at MOHI, and what a wonderful first week it was! Our prayers for a great year are being answered! There's nothing quite so impactful to the school as a happy staff. The teachers were excited to receive certificates of completion for the seminars they participated in before school began again. The sense of teamwork and comradery among them is palpable.

Each day of school begins with prayer and patriotism.

Classes all begin with a good morning song...

...praise and worship, Bible lessons, and Bible verse memorization. Help is much closer when God's word is hidden in our hearts!

Preschool is everyone's favorite class - especially at the beginning of the school year, as we welcome the new 3-year-old students.

What is everyone's favorite room on the Thozin campus? The library, of course. No shoes are allowed in the room and Marc Henry keeps the carpet in top shape for our students.

The medical clinic had a lot of activity this week. We are so grateful for our partnership with Bless Back Worldwide, enabling this clinic to function daily.

Dr. Mabou runs the dental clinic.

More than ever, she needs your help to keep this clinic open. Last month, dental clinic sponsors covered 12.5% of the budget. Please consider joining us in providing free dental care to our students, and very low-cost care to our neighbors.

Although we are still prohibited from bringing teams into Haiti, due to the excessive amount of insecurity and violence in the country right now, we are still maintaining the missionary compound and happy to provide as much employment as possible. This was seen this past week, as concrete repairs were made to the ramp that had been damaged by the ocean.

Feeding babies is among our favorite activities at MOHI. The nutritional boost now will impact the lives of these children for years to come. Their moms and dads are so grateful for your support!

Pastor Lex was in the Dominican Republic this past week to continue analyzing the aftermath of the fire in La Grua, Imbert.

For several reasons, he hired the victims of the fire to clean up the local field. This field has long been an eyesore (a poor reflection on the community). It is in this area that we had hoped to erect tents for temporary shelters.

Unfortunately, locating tents locally proved much more difficult than anticipated, so onto plan B we go. We are now proceeding with plans to construct a temporary shelter. We are grateful for the Mayor of Imbert's positive response to our requests for the proper permits and equipment to assist with the cleanup.

As always, our dear friend José helps to make our lives easier, from his on-the-run translations to connecting us with the right people in the right places - all paving the way to assisting our friends. We're grateful for the care he shows to others.

Our new friends who have immigrated to Massachusetts (legally, mind you) have encouraged us with their gratitude for the services being provided for them. We have been helping with transportation to appointments, translation services, and what I would call culture-translation services. Of course, we invite everyone to church and have seen several families continue joining us each week.

They cannot cook where they are currently being housed. We are grateful to the Gardner CAC and Senior Center for coordinating with us so that a small group of Haitian women (and one man) can cook rice and beans (and meat) for everyone several times a week. Please pray for these folks. We will be traveling again soon, and unable to be present to help them, but we trust the LORD will continue to provide for their needs.