News ending Sunday 30th October

Three weeks so much has happened and so many things come to mind ….these are some of the highlights.
Moise was on vacation – this was a much deserved break, he had not taken a break since he started the role back at the beginning of the project! Whilst he was gone Mike was the Project Foreman; he felt it appropriate to be on the jobsite every day, at 7am and to be available whenever possible. During the time Moise was away Mike sifted sand, for stucco, moved many a block, worked with the doors and window welders for two days, and was chief purchaser and cement mixer mover. When Moise got back he was told that Mike worked very hard while he was away (and that was not by us!)

The work on the Administration building is going well, there was a tremendous pressure forced on the construction team to get the rooms ready so that the four class rooms that had been commandeered so many months ago were released for the school. In the end we feel we were pushed into the admin building a few days too early. However, the school is a Haitian school and it is run by them; they need to take the final say. The week that we moved back into the (new) admin building reminded us how much we appreciated the FBC Albany cross over team. They were with us when we moved out and now that we moved back in by ourselves we realized how much work they did, with us. The electric power is all working, the water  pump is running and the solar panels are functioning.

Now the school is back in all the classrooms they start every day offically, with notices, prayer, National Anthem and the Haitian flag raising ceremony. It is well run, formal and a delight to see.

Check out the new rain catchment pipes - thank you Lifepointe.

Haitian flag raised every school day.

The construction team are now working hard in and around the Administration building to stucco all the ceilings and walls before finishing the floors as well as the stuccoing of the outside. With the end of the work on the admin building literally around the corner our prayers have increased on the search for the necessary funding of the re-building of the church. We really do need to have all the funding secured before we start as we don’t want to half build the church and run out of funds. Please pray that their funding will come soon. The whole project is approximately $80,000US to $100,000US

Self Help Group (SHG) leaders have started to explore new avenues with the ladies of CBH – Convent Baptiste d’Haiti. This additional avenue was due to the motivational encouragement of Kihome Mabudiga. Mme Nzonga is a ABC missionary, resident in Limbe and she works closely with the women throughout Haiti but especially with CBH. We have had one women's visioning meeting in Port-au-Prince and a second one planned in Ti Gwav, early next month. May God inspire the women to see the values and goals that the SHG movement is trying to foster, here in Haiti. This weekend the SHG team have returned to Limbe, in the North, to work with Brother Paul and visit a number of the groups that have started in that region.

We had a joint construction/medical team from Lifepointe, Victoria, Texas, this last week. They worked on the rain harvesting at the school, and re-roofing the shower facility, at the school . They also did a tremendous job of cleaning up around the toilet area at the school. This last task was unglamorous but sorely needed and we were blessed with a team with such willing hearts. It was good for Brenda and I to share with another missionary couple, Matt and Katie Sciba, leaders of the Lifepointe team, they talked to us about their time in Indonesia as missionaries; they were there for four years with a young family, we could relate to some of their stories, well.

New roof for Scott's showers

Lifepointe team, Herb Rogers, Tawna Kramer, Jeanson & Jenny

While our pump repair equipment is not used often, it was used with weekend. A pump chain was repaired and water is now flowing once more. It is always both inspiring and a bit scary to see the Haitians working on the pump and the pieces that need fixing. There is often a lot of hammer work and apparent “violence”  to the parts; but it did get fixed! Michelet is hoping to fix another well on Wednesday. This is GREAT work, skilled, trained Haitians using the tools and skills available to them with their own direction, may the Lord encourage and bless this on-going work.

The men asked to pray over the pump once if was fixed - a Godly crew.

We have been asked if we know anyone that may be interested in sponsoring another school; this would be many, many thousands of dollars over many years. Both this and our prior blog asks for people to put us in touch with churches, organizations or individuals that may be interested in financial support of our local communities. Two great books worth reading are “When Helping Hurts” ISBN 987-0-8024-5705-9 and one Brenda has completed and I am 1/3 of the way through “The Poor Will Be Glad: Joining the Revolution to Lift the World Out of Poverty” ISBN 978-0-3102-9359-0

A useful link to a page we update from time to time http://mchbjh.blogspot.com/2011/05/web-sites-for-information.html