Day 4

Day 4 of the same hairstyle... still cute or what?

Barrage Hydroélectrique du Péligre

School was closed last week.  The beginning of the week was carnival, Thursday was a teacher's workshop on teaching Bible and Friday was...
a STAFF OUTING to the dam in Péligre, just outside of Mirebalais.
It was really interesting seeing the dam, checking out the turbines up close and going into the control room - seeing the switch that gives Port au Prince power!  The staff loved the outing, there was some amazing beauty on the way and at the dam.  Our tour guide was fantastic, very knowledgable and informative.  Having a tour in Haiti was extremely interesting.  (I think the recreational safety boards would have had a heart attack if they saw what they showed us during the tour - access to the control rooms, standing beside an active turbine with no rails or protection etc.)  And it was fun to hang out with the staff outside of school.

For those who are interested here is some info on the dam (stolen from wikipedia) :

• The largest hydroelectric dam on the island of hispanolia
• The dam was created as a flood-control and an energy-providing measure in the Artibonite river valley as part of the Artibonite Valley Agricultural Project in the 1930s.
• The dam was completed in 1956
• The Peligre Hydroelectric Plant and its consequent operation was completed in 1971.
• The plant situated on the dam provides the country with most of its needed electricity.
• Recently a rapid rate of silt deposition has occurred in the Peligre Reservoir reducing the energy producing capability of the reservoir. (due to deforestation)
• The power plant, though needed, has fallen into near disrepair.
• The EDH (Électricité d'Haïti), Haiti's federal electricity supplier, has done relatively little to restructure the plant.

Heading down to the dam

Barrage hydroélectrique

Our tour guide explaining how it all works

The structure that made the concrete some 50+ years ago

Beauty

Group shot

Mesi Anpil!

Gary, Andrew, Kevin, Gary, Shane, Dave, James and Dan, thank you for your time spent at Adoration Christian Centre.  You were each a valuable team player and we are thankful for the skills and talents that you brought to the table.  Thank you for your patience with us and for being able to go with the flow here in Haiti.  Thank you for your dedication to training and mentoring a few of our students so that they were able to learn and succeed at a skill.  Thank you to your wives and children for supporting you, encouraging you and allowing you to spend 10 days away from them, we appreciate it.  And thank you for your prayers and encouragement for the work of Adoration. 
I missed out on the pictures for the last few days the team was here so check out Cornelius and Mindy's blog for pictures.

Men on a Mission on Monday Morning

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Proof

The team was hard at work again today at Adoration.  They passed along some pictures to prove it.

check out that new storage depot for food supplies!

Revamped classroom dividers

Dave redid the frame for the office door

Kevin and Samuel putting together the shelves

Some of the boys working on the front gate

brotherly love

Heart Knowledge

"I have hidden your word in my heart"  Ps 119:11a



Students reciting their memory verses



Construction Team

The construction team and their 700+lbs of luggage have arrived safely in Haiti.  They arrived yesterday for a 10 day stay and will be busy at Adoration doing a bunch of different projects around the centre.  They started off strong today setting the bar high, hopefully their momentum keeps up!  While working on the different projects they will also be teaching, training and mentoring some young Haitian men who work for Adoration or are connected to the programs in some way. 

We are very thankful for these men and the skills and talents they bring to the table and we are praying a special prayer of blessing over them as they serve these next 10 days, and over their families as they are apart one from the other.

Thank you to all those who donated supplies and tools!

Gary Aikema working alongside Franklin and Daniel

Andrew and Dan cutting their steel for the playground
with a small audience in the background

pre-requisite

You would think being cute is a pre-requisite to being in Adoration's program

because these kids are so adorable!

Valentine's Day!

Maia and Levi and I got to spend yesterday, Valentine's Day at Lucas's house.  Check out Britt's blog for some cute pictures of Maia and Levi with a few of their friends!
Happy Valentine's Day!

You know you live in Haiti when...

You know you live in Haiti when directions to get to your friend's place looks like this...
when coming down the road continue straight thru. we are before the next light...so if you reach it you're a little too far. you'll turn right on the road right before the depot it's after you go around a little curve, and at the start of the next curve. turn right here, we are the 9th gate on the left. (it's a dead end street).

Bible Month

The month of February is Bible month at Adoration Christian School.

Check out the Adoration Blog  to see the great bible activities the school is participating in this month!

Kiddos

Thought it was about time for a little update on Maia and Levi.  Levi is walking!  He started walking about a month ago and now there is no going back.  Besides walking he loves exploring, he spends hours outside exploring the yard, playing with the dogs and sitting in the dogs water bowl... hours of entertainment for him in the yard!  And Maia is growing.  She is super funny and such a joy to be around.  She talks, and talks and talks about anything and everything and you have to acknowledge everything she says.  She loves going to the park and swinging higher than the cows - I don't think many people see cows when they go to the park but we have a nice family of cows that hang out by the park so we try to swing higher than them.

We have a million and one great pictures of them but I thought I'd just entertain you with a few of my favourites. 



Levi hanging out with droppie



Christmas hugs



Hanging out with the plungers and Lucas at One Stop in her princess dress!



Levi's favourite spot to hang out in the kitchen

flying with daddy



Cool girl on the way to church



colouring pictures for cousins and grandparents

Christmas Program

On December 22 the school had it's Christmas program.  The teachers did a great job decorating under the tent for the occasion and Wislande (Gr 1 teacher) and Roodvens (Gr 3 teacher) were the MC's for the morning.  They had the crowd clapping, laughing and singing.  Each of the classes presented a short presentation, most of them a song, the younger classes had cute little actions with the song that half of the class did, while the other half looked at them.  And after the presentations were over awards and report cards were given out as Christmas is also the end of the first controle (there are 3 controles in a year)

Wislande MCing the program

It was a full house!

Emmanuel serenading us with the recorder

Kindergarten II singing a Christmas carol

The Grade 2 class singing a Christmas carol

Alix presenting Hermite with her award

Posing with the plaque we received from the staff

At the end of the program the staff surprised us by giving us a plaque for our dedication to education in the community.  It was a really sweet gesture.  We are far from experts in education and we have made a lot of mistakes in the past and will continue to do so in the future.  AND the only reason we have a good education program is because we have a GREAT staff who is dedicated to their students and community... we should really be giving them all a plaque. We are, however, thankful for the community where the Lord has placed Adoration and pray that the Adoration can continue to be a community project and that through it Jesus Christ may be worshiped and adored.

Staff Pictures

Adoration Christian Centre Staff 2011-2012



the WHOLE staff, Directors, teachers, asssistants, property supervisors,
disaster relief staff, gatekeeper, runner (missing the cooks)



Adoration Christian School Teachers

"the Guys"
Cadeau, Yder, Randy, Cornelius, Samuel

And, we'll just sneak a Family Picture in here too

Staff Par-T

Our annual staff party was held the weekend before Christmas.  It was GREAT having all the staff and their families together for some games and food.  We had 64 people all together laughing, eating, talking, giggling and a few little ones crying... 

It is always such a joy to see our staff members with their families.  It's always a good reminder too that some of them have a lot of responsibility outside of the school as well.  Seeing them helping their wives and their love and devotion for their children brings a smile to my heart and knowing that they are providing for their family because they have a job through Adoraiton makes me thankful for Adoration and the opportunities it is giving to the community.
There were some great pictures from the day, I've just chosen a few to show you the yummy food, the intense games and the good fellowship that was enjoyed that afternoon.

One, very intense, bocce game

Mindy with Maman Manise's little baby girl

The party wouldn't have been success if it wasn't for Rolland and his wife
and friend who prepared us some amazing Hatian food!

Eating up all that yummy food!

Women's Bible Study

Tuesday afternoons are spent worshipping with my Haitian sisters in the Lord.  One of the things that we have been doing lately is what they call an "action", we visit a different ladies home every week and spend time in worship, praying for that household and encouraging that sister in the Lord.  In December is was our turn to host, it was a beautiful time of worship, fellowship and was truly encouraging as they lifted our family and our home up in prayer.  Love these ladies and their hearts for the Lord!

Month of Prayer

December was a month of prayer and fasting at the school.  Throughout the month we, as well as our staff, took different opportunities to pray for different needs of the centre, the school, fellow staff members and the students.  Some of the things that we did throughout the month included morning prayer services held at 6 every morning with short devotionals, each class made a poster of prayer requests, a topic was chosen every day for the school to be praying for, time was spent in the classrooms praying over the teachers, time was spent praying for each student by name, etc.  It was a really encouraging month and we saw answered prayers and people being encouraged by the Word of the Lord. 
We have some BIG things at Adoration that continously need prayer and so the month of December was a time to once again lay them before the throne of God ... but even though December is over we are still laying them down.
Some of the BIG things that we are praying for and we'd love for you to join us in praying for are:

• Land for the organization
• Registration of Adoration Christian School
• Registration of Adoration Christian Centre

"Pandan n'ap fè tou sa, pa jamn bliye lapriyè.  Mande Bondye konkou li.  Lapriyè nan tout sikonstans avèk pouvwa Sentespri a.  Se poutèt sa, pa kite dòmi pran nou, kenbe fèm nan sa n'ap fè a.  Lapriyè pou tout pèp Bondye a"  Efiz 6:18

"praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.  To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints."  Eph 6:18

Barahona

Shortly after we got back from Canada, 2 days later, we were able to head to the Dominican Republic for a spiritual retreat along with staff from both the Dominican and Haiti CRC offices.  The people who work for the CRC office in Haiti are kind of like family to us in Haiti, we love them dearly and are very thankful that they allow us to tag along to different events, this spritual retreat being one of them.  This weekend was hugely needed for Randy and I.  We slept a lot, worshiped, fellowshipped, dug into the Word, were challenged, encouraged, cried, and laughed.  One of the exercises we did during one of the sessions was extremely tough but good and the result of the exercise really allowed us to clearly see how the Lord has carried us through the years and how He is Faithful!  It was a good reminder for us.  God is good.

I had a few more pictures picked out but our internet is going really slow... I've been uploading these pictures for three days!  So 3 pictures will have to suffice 

The group spending time in worship

Randy and Levi spending some time on the beach

Maia loving the pool!