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Putting Right Along

Since the medical team left us we have putting right along with life. We were able to enjoy a spiritual retreat with the CRWRC here in Haiti, enjoying the beauty of Haiti, spending time in God's word and fellowshipping, it was a beautiful time! When we got back from that we were once again struck with some kind of bug, both Randy and I took a few days to recover from the nasty little bug and now we are getting right back into the swing of things. Thursday we celebrated Amercian Thanksgiving, one of the plus' to living here - double turkey dinners! We do have much to be thankful for, it was nice to gather with friends and remember all the good things that the Lord has done for us.

And while we've been putting along with life we have been encountering some tough stuff. People who are have been hurt and are broken, and sick.... it's hard. Life is tough. Please keep these people in your prayers, the Lord knows their names. Pray that they may be touched and healed and that their lives may once again be filled with hope.

Bye Bye!

Well the medical team has packed up and gone home. Thank you Uncle Hank, Karon, Samantha, Deanna, Jackie, Andrea, Sarah and Kim for giving of your time to serve here in Haiti. We know that you were a blessing here and we pray that you were blessed as well. Maia is missing having you all around as there is really not much entertainment anymore while she eats her brekkie and supper.

The advertisement on the door for the clinic at Adoration
The "pharmacy"Moms and babies waiting for their medication. Some ladies in Canada knitted and donated the little teddy bears for the children, they LOVED them.One little boy proudly holding his and his brothers teddy bears.While glancing through all of the pics that the medical team took I found a few of Maia, enjoying life, that brought a smile to my face...

More Medical Happenings

On Friday the day was spent in Croix des Bouquets out in a small church. Again 200 patients were seen and cared for. Here are some pics of team members seeing patients ...

Group Picture up at Fort Jacques

Medical Team

well... we haven't been very good about keeping you updated on the medical team but hopefully this post gives you a good idea of what they have been up toThe Medical Team has arrived... a couple of days ago now already... and has been hard at work first around the Delmas 31 area registering patients, assessing patients, diagnosing them, prescribing them meds, packaging meds and distruting meds. They've had some big clinic days, the first two days being at Adoration School seeing about 200 patients as well as doing 10 minor surgeries. And yesterday they were out by Delmas 10 at Pastor Leny's church running a clinic where I think they saw close to 300 patients. We pray that the medical treatment that was received will be blest - that the patients will be healed from their sicknesses and relieved of some of the pain that they deal with day in and day out.

I should introduce you to the wonderful doctor, nurses and paramedics that we have with us. Uncle Hank Scholtens, Samantha Jongsma, Deanna Oosterhoff, Andrea Hopman, Sarah Otten, Karen Gazeindam, Jackie Schakel, and Kim Hutten. They are a fantastic team who are doing an incredible job and we are having a lot of fun hosting them.

Today they were out a little ways seeing patients in Bon Repos. It was a clinic of 200 patients in a church associated with Pastor Leny. Although the church was a little furnace - tin roof - the team persevered through the heat and were even done earlier than usual. Only one more clinic day to go tomorrow in Croix des Bouquet tomorrow and then their clinical week here in Haiti is done. They've seen some tough stuff this week, some heartbreaking cases and some people who really have it tough. Our prayer as a team is that through the small amount of time they were with us in the clinic they felt loved and cared for and we pray that the medication may ease their pain and suffering.

More happenings at the ACC

As I was just quickly glancing over our blog I realized that Maia has totally overtaken! There is more going on here...

Adoration Christian Centre continues to be a happening place.

The school is running very smoothly. This year we have 120 students, 8 teachers, and 2 teacher assistants. We have a great team of teachers who are committed to their students as well as encouraging each other. It's a beautiful thing to see them working for the Lord in the school environment. Most of the students are active and healthy and are enjoying their days at Adoration, through the sponsorship program they are provided with breakfast and lunch, an Adoration shirt, textbooks, and most importantly a Christian education. One thing that we have opened up at the school this year that is very exciting is the Special Education Class. We have taken in 10 students with a variety of special needs and have hired a qualified teacher and assistant who are working with them. This class has been a huge blessing as these children would not otherwise be going to school. Now these children have a chance to learn as well as interact and play with the other students in the school.

One top of the regular running of the school the organization also has 60 secondary students that we sponsor. When they are done at Adoration, which ends at Grade 5, the students are sponsored to go to other schools. The majority of our students attend either Chima or Guilgal but we have a few students in other schools as well. Through the sponsorship program these students are provided with their books, uniform, class trips, exam fees and tuition payments. And because most of these students are older they have a few things that they need to take responsibility for. They each have a day once a week that they need to come in and help clean the school and they are required to attend Bible study once a week that is lead by the pastors of the Presbyterian Church.

And while all of this is going on at the school there is also a medical clinic run by Dr. Ed and his two Haitian assistants. Four days a week they come to Adoration and host free clinic days for the community. Through the course of a week 120 people are seen and treated and are also exposed to a short devotion, to share with them the good news and encourage them. These devotions are given by either Pastor Octavius, or Pastor Leon or Randy. Dr. Ed also sees the students of the school who are sick. Kim goes around and finds the sick students and Dr. Ed sees them and Kim administers the medicine to the students at the school.

And then when classes are over, clinic is done, and the school is cleaned the church comes in and uses the property. Premiere L'Eglise Presbyterian de Port au Prince uses the property four times a week for prayer service, Bible study, church services and their theological seminary. The church is active with four supervising pastors and Randy all working together to teach Reformed doctrine. This past week we were able to celebrate our 1 year anniversary of the church plant. We celebrated with church services every night and then a special service on Sunday morning with a social afterwards. It was a full house! One thing in the church plant that we are very thankful for is the amount of committed young men. We pray that these men may become Christian leaders in their communities and in their households.

So that's an overview of what is happening on the frontlines, their is still lots of other stuff going on behind the scenes both here in Haiti as well as in Canada. None of this would be happening if we didn't have the board and committees and volunteers in Canada giving of their time to make things happen. When we reflect on the organization and all the people that are involved, both in Canada and in Haiti, we are amazed at how the Lord has provided and blessed the organization. God is Good!

Back to "normal"

Well life is getting back to normal... whatever normal is. We were fighting some kind of viral infection in our neighbourhood, both Kim and I were sick which meant extra busy days for Randy as he looked after the school, sponsor students, running errands, and Maia. Thankfully Kim and I are both feeling healthy again and have been getting back to our regular routine. In the midst of the sickness my sister, Nicole came down and saved the day by filling in at the school making sure things ran smoothly, her expertise is selling pens and pencils :) At Adoration we finished off our first controle, today was the parent teacher meeting and tomorrow, the Lord willing we will be starting our second controle. It's hard to believe we are already a quarter of the way through the year. We've seen many ways in which the Lord has continued to bless Adoration, He is good and faithful and for that we give Him praise.
Maia continues to do well living in the Caribbean. She is almost 6 months already which means we've started her on a few solids. So far she's eaten some baby apple sauce and some rice cereal and she spends many hours chewing on bread but she mostly just makes it soggy and then throws it on the ground. But it entertains her for quite some time. And she has her first tooth! Her bottom front tooth broke through last week, she still getting used to having it in her mouth as it shocks her quite often. Here are some pics sharing what we've been up to with Aunt Cole
Maia chewing on her bread. Aunt Cole with Maia spending the day at the beach on our holiday Monday

Maia eating her first solids...

Randy presenting a devotion at the parent teacher meeting

And life continues.... Saturday, si Dieu vle, we will be hosting a medical team of 8, please pray for them as they prepare to come down and host clinics for the Haitians who are sick and need healing. Pray that they may be a blessing to the community and that they too may be blessed. We'll try our best to keep you posted while they are here.

Beautiful British Columbia

We made a suprise trip out to B.C. to witness my brother Ryan become a minister of the Word. It was a real blessing to be able to go and surprise them and spend some time with them as well as my parents. Although we would have loved to be in Ontario at the same time for the big Lodder thing B.C's weather sounded better... NO snow!

Here are a few pics from our trip

The cranberry festival in Langley

Flying over Vancouver with Stan in the little plane, definately a HIGH

Maia taking a warm bath in Uncle Ryan and Aunt Ruth's sinkAnd now we are back... While we were gone Kim was left in charge at the school. She, as usual, did a fantastic job. Here are some of our boys from the younger grades, I think a good way to describe them would be full of life :)

And since returning from our two week vacation we've been trying to fix the things that were broken before we left or broke down while we were gone... invertor, generator, car, motorcycle, water pressure tank... basically anything that is major and useful. But we are on the way to being functional again, praise the Lord!

Happy Birthday Daddy!!!

First day of School!

School year 2009-2010 has started at the ACC (Adoration Christian Center). The teachers put a lot of time and energy into preparing for this year and the children were excited to get back into the swing of things. It was fun to see old students again and to meet the new ones.

We pray that God will bless all that we, as an organization, are doing, that He may continue to guide our steps as we embark on this new year.

Maia's first day of school!

Air Conditioner for Sale

One week old air conditioner for sale...

We are very thankful because by the mercies of God we were spared and not hurt by a fire in our bedroom. Our newly installed air conditioner caught fire Saturday night with Maia sleeping in the bedroom. When we caught it, the room was beginning to be full of smoke, and we had a hard time disconnecting the power because the breakers did not stop the power, or the other switches, and we had to disconnect the power from the line. The thing went up in flames just as we finally got the main line disconnected and we were able to douse it with water. But, we are so thankful because the situation could have been a lot worse. If it had been a wood house it would have been up in flames as all the 240 wires running throughout the house melted and burned. Also the bed, which was right under that air-conditioner could have caught fire. Anyway, Praise be to God for His hand of protection!

On the lighter side, Here's little Miss Joy enjoying life in Haiti

New School Year

The last month has been a crazy busy month. August is always busy trying to get everything done in time for school to start. Sponsor students need all of their books and their uniforms and their entry fees paid, we start teacher meetings with Adoration's teachers to start planning for the year, Adoration students need uniforms and books, Inscriptions need to be done for Adoration, work teams were in preparing the buidling as well as training the teachers, and on top of all of that it's about 40 degress at 8:30 in the morning so you really don't feel like doing anything. But thankfully, by God' grace, we have been able, with the help of many people both Canadian and Haitian, to get most of these things accomplished so that our sponsor students can start school this week.
Adoration won't be starting school until September 21st. This gives us a bit more time to prepare with the teachers. But the biggest reason for starting later is that we have Kim Gringhuis coming to work with us. We are very excited about working alongside Kim as she has worked and lived in Haiti before and has so much to offer to the organization. She has a heart for the Lord and a real passion for teaching and training which is the next step for Adoration Christian School. Kim will be joining us in Haiti tomorrow, si Dieu vle.
Below are a few pics of some finished products and of the princess...

The finished new classrooms where we also now hold church. It's a lot roomier and fresh inside but still brutally hot!
The sign for the church looking down Delmas 31. It has all the church info on it as well as advertising for the seminary that they will be starting in September. Randy meeting with all of our sponsored secondary students outlining for them their expectations for the year. CDIA has about 50 students that they sponsor to go to High School and we sponsor about 10 students who have different disabilities to go to school as well.

And, always got to end with a picture for the grandparents. Maia enjoying her bath.

Maia Joy's Baptism

"The Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with joy"
The Lord has indeed done great things for us... yesterday we were blessed to present our little daughter before the Lord for baptism. What an amazing thing to be a part of God's family and to hear his promises to her. We pray that the Lord may give us strength and wisdom as we are responsible for her here on this earth. As friends of ours wrote on a card for her ..."May the Lord guard and keep you in his love, dear one. May you always know the sweet presence of your Saviour who graciously calls you His own. May His Word dwell richly in your heart." That is truly our prayer for our daughter.
Although our family was greatly missed yesterday we were able to celebrate with our church family as well as close friends here in Haiti who have become like family to us.
Here are some pics: our little family, Pastor Ben Hopp, OPC missionary, baptizing Maia Joy, the back of the church (quite a few blans :), fellowshipping after the church service.
Enjoy!