New Life for Haiti-Joline's July 2008 Journal

We had the best 5 days with Pastor Fran and the group that came with him. As I said, they weren't really a work team, although they did help paint the front of the Marfranc church. The scaffolding wasn't very strong, so we could only paint on the bottom, but people from the church were painting and scraping the top, so it was great. The front still needs to have the churches name put on it again, but it looks so much better! Beautiful...and a joint effort from all of us. We had fun visiting different places, walked up to Chameau, a church that Fran had visited on his trip in February and wanted to show his family. We went to Azile the Old Folks home in Marfranc and visited with the people there and for me, the highlight of the trip was Sunday when Joanna (Fran's daughter) danced and sang with 8 girls and 1 guy from the youth at the Marfranc Baptist church. Three young men sang with Fran and his wife Linda, Velix (Pastor Plaisir's son) played the keyboard, Larry (from LifeSpring church) played guitar with Fran and sang and Steven (Joanna's husband) played a hand drum. It was truly awesome. Joanna taught them a modern dance to go with the song, “Holy is the Lord”. They sang the song in Kreyol and it was great. Everyone practiced together on Friday and Saturday morning, then performed for church on Sunday. If you want to view the performance, Fran has posted it on..... YouTube just press CTRL + click to go online and watch it (or just click the video below). Everyone really enjoyed dancing and singing. I'd love to have Joanna do it again.

The house......is full of sticks! ha! I told Steve I wondered if it was ever going to look like a house! They are putting the metal bars (framework) on the plywood that is covering the roof, that is being held up by a million sticks and posts. The only framework they have left is the overhang around the house. When they finish the metal grid work, Steve needs to put in the conduit for the electrical boxes so that after the roof is poured, they can pull the wires through for the switches and lights. Whew. They are hoping that they will have this part done by this next week....and can then start pouring the roof the week after that. Then....it has to cure for 2 weeks, dismantled.....and then we are on to the finish work, which is still a lot of work. Enjoy the pictures...

Thank you to everyone that contributed to the Youth Camp. It will be finished in the morning (Mon.) and they have had a wonderful time. The report is that all of the kids want it to be for a full week next year! ha! Must mean they had a great time. And because of everyone's generosity, they have been well fed and are enjoying themselves. The Salvation bracelets were a huge hit and I think they will remember how to use them with other youth. I was able to make 3 9 X 13 cakes last night and frost them for the final festivities tonight. They are going to have a lot of fun and enjoy cake and candy as well. Because everyone helped out, they were able to have good food, more than they thought they would have! Thank you to everyone that helped. I'll have better pictures after the party tonight! There were 60 youth and about 10 adult helpers there, so it was a great turnout. All of the youth attended the Marfranc church this morning, there was so much singing and praising, we raised the roof! God surely was smiling watching the youth sing, dance and praise His name. I know that this is just a beginning of something that will be a wonderful tradition!

Pray you all had a great 4th of July weekend! We send you much love and prayers.....as always.

Late again....maybe you don't notice when I'm late, but I do! I had great intentions as always to get this done on Sunday night, can't remember now what happened, but something did, so here it is Tuesday noon and I'm finally getting this done. We have a team coming to work and they are supposed to arrive this afternoon. They were scheduled to get to Port-au-Prince at 11:30 AM and leave to come to Jeremie on a smaller flight at 3:00 PM. Well best laid plans....and American Airlines! Guess there was a thunderstorm in Miami and the plane was on the loaded and ready to go, but couldn't. When the storm passed, AA thought it might have been hit by lightening, so had to have the mechanics check the plane again. It amounted to them not leaving until 1:35 PM....yeah, a 3 hour delay! Imagine. So now....they probably won't get to Port in time to make their 3:00 flight to Jeremie, and will have to stay in Port tonight. Not too bad, but when I called the small airlines...they have no seats until Friday morning!!!! Well...they can go on standby and see how many they can get on, but hello...not for 3 days! The team is only here for 7 days....so 1/2 of it would be spent in Port! We'll see what time they get here today, if they miss that flight, so how many get on in the morning, then in the afternoon! But that is ridiculous! Guess you can see now how this can get very frustrating. ha! Plus, now....do I cook dinner or not? Hmmm....another problem!

Plus, Steve was out at Marfranc putting the pipe in on the roof that holds the electrical wire. You have to put it on before you pour the concrete on the roof, guess you have to put the light boxes and switch boxes in on the roof along with the pipe that holds the wire, then you pour the concrete. They want to start pouring the concrete on Thursday...so he had to go out today and do his part. Guess it was going okay, but on the way home he had 2 (yes, I said 2, not 1) flat tires! Not a good day. So he has spent the last 2 hours, fixing tires, sending someone into Jeremie to get the 2nd one fixed and then waiting and putting it back on. I'm not sure when he'll be home! So you can see what our life is like! Sometimes it gets so frustrating and the smallest things are so hard to do! (No AAA here to call!).

On a lighter note....the house is coming along. I'll include a picture of what the roof likes as they get ready to pour, you'll have to imagine the white PVC pipe on the roof as well, that holds the electrical wire when the roof is poured, it's not in the pictures. What I noticed is how huge the roof is! It's gigantic! This team will be working on the metal security bars (called grillage) that will go around the front porch and then the metal grillage that goes on the windows. Plus, if they have time (which they probably won't now) they will work on some screens for windows. There are 4 women on this trip and we will be going to the Marfranc church and helping with the bible school this week. They have brought craft projects for 2 days and also bubbles to give away on the last day! Should be fun.

I'm including a new picture of Touton...he is a riot. He is getting bigger each day and loves to play and harass KC...sometimes drives her nuts. He attacks her and jumps all over her. He gets along with Sejan just fine until he tries to attack Sejan...he's learning that Sejan doesn't play very well! He is 3 months old now and is getting braver and braver about leaving the house! We just hope that he doesn't run away and get too far from home, someone will surely keep him as he is bigger and prettier than most cats in Haiti. He loves to sit in the office window which is also on the front porch...it's his favorite sleeping place!

I'll include a picture of the food on Sunday at the Youth Camp. The youth had such a great time! They had several guest speakers and sang and prayed and enjoyed each other's company. Thank you again to those who helped put it on! Some of the extra money that was sent will be used to help with two conferences at the churches here. They traditionally supply food on Sunday for those that attend and the money will help them buy food that they need. Plus, it is also helping to buy small gifts for the kids that memorize their versus in Bible school this week and some candy to give to them! Your help with these projects for the kids, youth and churches is a huge blessing. Thank you for all you do for the people here!

Until next week.....Ke Bondye Beni ou!

Okay, it's Tuesday, maybe I'll just start doing my journal on Tuesdays instead of Sundays, then I wouldn't be late! ha! We just had a team of 7 leave on Monday morning! (yes, I already miss you guys!!!) and so I was trying to do some catch up and cleaning and washing and was pooped, so didn't write on Monday night. We had such a great week! Actually it was a crazy week because their plane from Miami to Port was delayed because of a thunder storm, so they didn't catch their afternoon flight, then the small airlines didn't have room for all of them the next morning, so 4 of them had to charter a plane to get here or they might have missed the entire day or more! It gave them 1 less working day, but we are just happy that they made it safe and sound for as many days as they did! It was a great bunch of people, we had a blast and they worked really hard.

The biggest project was to do the metal security bars for around the porch of the house. It is a really large porch...so had about 11 panels to do (not counting the doors). They got 6 panels cut, put together and painted and another panel cut! The saw to cut the pieces burned out the last day...so it slowed them down a little, but they still got soooo much done! The 4 women on the team also did crafts with the Marfranc church Bible school two different days! It was so much fun to see the kids putting the crafts together, they made crosses to hang on their walls and frames with tissue paper decorations and Bible verses in them. Haitian children rarely get to do crafts, so they had fun. The adults also made them and enjoyed it as much as the kids! it was chaotic, crazy, nuts and fun!

This team brought tons of stuff with them, not only the Bible school crafts (which we have enough for the 3 churches in the district to use as well!), but supplies that we needed, saws, screen, a water jug...food...cheese...tons of stuff! They were a huge blessing and we are sorry that we missed that extra day with them. Thanks guys!

The house finally has a roof!!!! Yahoo! The boards are still up and the roof has to cure of 2 weeks before the plywood and sticks can be taken down. There is no way to describe what it is like to watch these guys do a roof. They mix cement on the ground like crazy, and then haul the cement up a ladder, hand over hand, to the top of the roof, dump it into wheelbarrows, take it to where they are pouring, and then the empty buckets go back to the ground (usually on a rope) and the whole process starts over again. They started at 6:00 AM....took a break for lunch and quit at about 4:00 PM. It took 3 1/2 days to do the entire roof! They were so covered in cement and had blisters on their hands! Cement is horrible to work with. The picture will not do justice to all of the action it takes to do this roof! The only way, you might understand is if you saw a video! It is amazing.

In 2 weeks, we have a team of 5 coming that will be working on the electrical, some plumbing and probably more welding! we are trying to get as much done as we can on the house before we leave for Seattle on Aug. 28th. The roof was more expensive than even Steve thought it would be due to prices of concrete and metal still going up! It goes up more each week! There isn't anything we can do about it and we need to be in the house in October. God has placed this on so many people's hearts! We have had a lot of additional donations and we appreciate it all! Thank you so much to those of you that continue to support us and the projects that we work on! We love you all, and only wish that someday you could all come and visit us here!

We pray that you will have a great week!

I'd like to say that I had a nice and relaxing week...however, it was a nice week, just really busy. I can't tell you for sure what all I did, or why it was extremely busy, but it was! Guess that's good huh? We went out to Marfranc for church on Sunday and there were a group of women from a church in Port-au-Prince that had been in Marfranc all week walking around the community praying as well as doing revival services in the evening. They sang several songs in church, it was nice to have them there worshiping with us.

Yesterday we went out to Marfranc and Steve got a small crew started on the clinic project. There will be several phases to this project, the first part is to demolish the front of the room, where the altar was to bring the area down to the level of the rest of the floor. After everything is removed, they will refinish the floor and it can be used when the doctors come in November. Right now the floor has lots of holes in it and is very uneven, with several levels of concrete. This first stage will enable them to use the entire area for seeing patients. The building they are renovating was the original chapel, a new church has been built out nearer the road and a medical group has been holding clinics in this old building for several years. The front of the building is breaking apart and falling down. Eventually, the front will be demolished and a new wall put up with a porch on the front, the interior will be painted and repaired and a storage depot will be built on the back side to store medicine and supplies. This will be a multiple stage project, it is nice to get it underway! The pictures that I have attached are of the altar area that will be town down as well as the guys as they start working.

As you will see in the other picture of Kay Bo Rivye, the roof is done!!!!! It looks really good and can't wait to get all the sticks and boards off of it next week to walk inside of it again! Steve will work a smaller crew to do the finish work, slowly but surely. There is a group of 5 coming next Tuesday. There are 4 men that will be working on electrical, some plumbing and maybe some welding during the week. Leslie Stauffer will be coming with them as well. We met Leslie quite a few years ago, probably 6 or more, when she came to visit Pierre Payen with her parents. She is interested in looking at mission work and we are looking forward to having her here to work and take a look around.

Other than that....not much new news. I will be talking to Vilex this next week to see if he can get several of the churches together that will still be doing bible schools this summer. We have some craft material left over from the Marfranc bible school and I would love to show them how to do the projects so that the kids in the outlaying areas can do them as well. Plus, I have talked to Vilex about having the youth at Marfranc do some service projects, it is very exciting to talk about young people sharing the love of God with others.