Happy Birthday Aunt Karen!

Say Hi to Maia for me. I miss her already.

Love, Matthew (and my parents)

hApPy BiRtHdAy!!!

Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you!

Happy birthday dear Karen,

Happy birthday to you!!

Maia Joy sitting beside the birthday flowers daddy sent mommy

Here she is...the Birthday Girl!

Today she's a star and she's looking the part!!

We too would like to wish Karen a very happy birthday. We are all so thankful that you are here today to celebrate it with us. We wish you the Lords blessing in the coming year and we remember you and your little family in our daily prayers.

With love,

Your family ;)

January 27, 1984

If i take a look at this day, January 27, in history many things have happened.
Many, many things.
I googled it this morning.
There are too many to write here, but you can google it when you have time.
What is interesting is this date, January 27, in the year 1984.
Some very interesting things happened.
Here are some:

• John & Yoko release "Milk & Honey" album
• LA Kings end Wayne Gretzky's NHL-record 51-game scoring streak. The Los Angeles Kings beat the Edmonton Oilers, 4-2, ending Wayne Gretzky's NHL record for consecutive point getting at 51 games. Gretzky collected a total of 153 points - 61 goals and 92 assists - during the scoring streak, which started Oct 5, 1983
• Michael Jackson is burned during filming for Pepsi commercial, his hair catches fire and he is hospitalized
• Carl Lewis beats his own indoor world long jump record by 9 inches (23.5 centimeters) with a 28-foot, 10-inch (8.795-meter) jump.
• I, myself, was playing hockey I think.
  

Anyway, to make a long story short - Something else happened on this day, January 27, 1984 - something absolutely incredible, something truely special,

And that is what I want to mention today:

Little, tiny Karen Elizabeth entered the world.
That's right, it is my wife's 26 Birthday Today! So Happy Birthday Karen! I wish I was with you and Maia today to celebrate with you, but that is okay. I am just so thankful that you are safe and healthy, and that the LORD has blessed you with another year.
It is my prayer that He will bless you with many more years, and with health, strength, joy and peace.
I love you.
Your husband.

Here are some pics of my beautiful wife.

what to say...

Things have been quiet on the blog for the last two weeks... it was two weeks ago that our world changed. A lot of thoughts and emotions have been going through our hearts and heads these last two weeks. It's been difficult to process and make sense of it all. Anything I write doesn't really do justice to what is going on in Haiti. Hearts are broken, bodies are hurting, people are starving, people are thirsty, people have no homes, there is fear... fear that the building is going to collapse around you, fear that you won't find food or water, fear because people have no idea what lies ahead... where will they go? what will they do? Life as they know it has changed forever. In the middle of this is the need for the gospel, people need to know that Jesus loves them, He died for them and we are all in His Grip of Grace. Please continue to keep Randy and his team of young men, Cadeau, Samuel, Max, Yder and John in your prayers. They are working hard, they are hurting, they are fearful, yet they know the Love of Jesus Christ and because of that they continue to press on.

The team right now is focusing on water purification as well as trying to collect food to hand out to students of Adoration as well as locating students and staff. All of these tasks are time consuming and essential. Please continue to pray for these efforts.

And Randy was able to send over some pictures today of what they have been up to. The first pic up top is Randy talking with an Adoration student and finding out the needs of their family.

below : A refugee camp

Teaching people in Citi Aux Cayes how to purify water Handing out food to families of Adoration students

The team purifying water at Quisqueya chapel

Broken Hearts

here is an update that Randy sent out late Saturday night. Please keep him and all our Haitian brothers and sisters continually in your prayers.

Many hearts are broken... ours included.

Well, its 10:00pm on Saturday night, as I begin to write this little update. I am sitting inside, which is a little unnerving, but all the doors are open in case i need to make a quick exit. We have had more aftershocks today, that are not that big, but when the ground is moving under your feet for about 30 seconds, my brain keeps telling me thats not normal. It sends my heart through the roof every time. Anyway, I thought I would send a brief update so that you could know our prayer requests, and know a little of our situation. This is hard to write because I have so many emotions that are coming up, and my nerves are fried right now.

I feel so incredibly thankful - my family was spared, Kim was safe, our visitors John and Jim were with us and were spared, everyone was out of the school at the time, the earthquake didn't happen at night when there are a ton of locks to unlock just to get outside, that a lot of our friends are safe, that God put it in our heart and made a way for the car-port to be taken down during the holidays, that my wife and child are safe in Canada right now, that my house, although it has a few cracks, it seems relatively safe, and my walls, which are very weak to the point of falling over, have not fallen over. I have so much praise and thanks to give to God.

I feel so fearful at times - fearful of violence getting out of hand, not being able to find students, or co-workers, or friends, fearful of the next aftershock, fearful that people won;t get enough food or water to survive, fearful that people are still trapped, fearful that my house might come down...

I feel so much pain - its hard to describe the pain that people are going through right now, pain of losing loved ones, pain of seeing all the destruction, pain of seeing so much death, and so many people grieving, the pain of not knowing - not knowing where someone is, or how they are,

I feel so much sorrow - my heart and head are just heavy,

I feel joy- joy in being able to share the gospel with people who need to know Jesus, joy in singing God's praises with neighbors i never knew before this, joy in living with all the guys who live with me now and seeing them work to help others and work to make sure that we are safe, joy in seeing Karen and Maia, and Kim, John and Jim making it safely home, joy in being reunited with freinds that i didn't know what happened to them, joy in knowing that my sins are forgiven and that if I perish - that i am with my Lord and Saviour.

I feel grace...this is hard to explain, but we could have all perished - it is by God's grace alone that we are alive.

So many emotions, admist such a great disaster.

We have spent the last few days finding students, connecting with other organizations to see how we can work together, delivering medical supplies to clinics around the area, distributing clothes and supplies to feilds of people, finding supplies so we can survive.

We lost two good friends and co-workers, Samuel Marcelin and Guerdeson, and that is very painful. I went and visited their families and grieved with them. I also was visiting families of students I knew had lost their lives. One of our grade 6 students was killed with his father, leaving 9 siblings behind. We found him as we watched his body being pulled from a building. I am just trying to encourage, comfort, and be with our students and their families and our co-workers. It is a difficult task but a beautiful one that the Lord has given to us. We don't have enough food and water to give them, or a place to stay, but we can minister to them and care for them the best we can. We suffer together and we encourage eachother to find our strength in the LORD alone.

We have been going through our storrage room where teams and people have donated supplies and these are coming in handy right now. The guys have been distributing clothing to the parks which are packed with people, and i have been able to supply a bunch of clinics with a lot of medical supplies. We don't have a lot, but what we do have is such i blessing. Next we will hand out all the toys we still have to the children who have lost everything, and then the rest of our 'Adoration' uniforms to those who need clothes.

We had a scare yesterday. The guys came home at night and said that nobody could locate Wisly, and then they said there was a smell coming from the school. I was almost sure that nobody was in the school, but my heart sank and was filled with so much grief. This morning we went to the school and started digging and searching. this was very difficult because the building is half fallen, held up by the neighbors wall and house. It could go anytime. So we checked in the places we thought he could be, and we couldn't see anything or find anything. Then I asked who had asked for him that didn't know where he was, and it was only one person, but not a family member, so we went to go find his family in cite soliel. The only problem was that it is very dangerous in cite soliel right now, and so i went to the UN base and asked for a UN escort to find Wisly, and they wouldn't do it, they only travel in packs and did not want to go into cite soliel. Then we drove to the police station in cite soliel and they said it was to dangerous for them to go out. So then we went by ourselves - Cadeau walked by himself the roughest part. And he found Wisly's sister who said that Wisly was safe and was staying with his mom. Praise the LORD!

There are quite a few students that i have not found yet, because everyone is everywhere. Most families are living in parks, or on the road or have left to the country side. As I was dropping of medical supplies at a clinic I found one of our kindergarten students at the clinic. He had a broken foot, as the wall had come down on it. His mom was a cousin of Guerdson, and i had to inform her that Guerdeson had passed into glory. So much pain and sorrow.

There are truck loads of dead bodies being removed from the city. The roads are lined with the bodies, and the smell is pretty bad. But people are banding together and working to help out. People are mourning together and living together in parks and in the streets. Because all have lost so much, and because all are affected there seems to be a unity here that was not here before. At the same time, other people are getting desperate and the violence has started - looting, stealing, gun shots; it is definitely all around us. There is a definite fear in the air that things will get tough, and then violent.

We are so thankful to hear that countries are sending Aid and sending troups to try to control the city and bring relief. We have heard so many planes landing, and i have seen many trucks leaving the air port with supplies. I have been to the Canadian embassy a lot this past week and have seen the soldiers come in, the medical supplies, and the different teams and organizations that have come to help. This gives us much hope - because much help is needed.

Right now we are still sleeping outside. We will go back inside once all the after shocks are over, and i don;t know when that will be.

We are holding services every night in the street right now. We just take our chairs, go sit outside, walk around and invite all our neighbors to come join us, and then we start singing. Then we share scripture, and pray. It is a beautiful time. A time for us to lament together, to the LORD, a time to pray for others, a time to heal, and a time to bring Adoration. That is our main focus right now - ministering to people; being willing and ready to pray with people, share the gospel, and to comfort people, and give them hugs. We pray that the LORD would give us strength to do this. I woke up on Thursday morning and was praying and asking God how i could best help people. He really put it upon my heart that I was to minsiter to their spiritual needs - the need to repent, to turn to him, and in the midst of pain and devestation not to turn away from God, but to find our hope and comfort in Him alone. I talked to the guys that morning that that was to be our focus - working hard, but the main part was ministering - listening, grieving, helping, sharing with them, but also prayer and Bible reading. That afternoon, I approached a man on the street who was just sitting there, who looked like he couldn't go on. He was a deportee, in jail for years in the States, and in a lot of trouble in Haiti. He was deeply shaken by the events that have happened and God opened up a door for me to share the gospel with him, and pray for him. He wants Jesus in his life, but has no idea how that works. Anyway, it was a blessed time. Please pray for Willice Fidel Mendez and his family that they may turn to Christ. We have met many neighbors by just singing in the streets and asking them if they want to join us. Please pray that God would put it on people's hearts to come out and join us. And pray for my team - these guys are young, and are shaken, and are scared. They need a lot of prayer. The guys at the house are Cadeau, Samuel, Max, Yder, and John. Roland and his son are moving in too, as his family is moving to the country side to be safe. And we have other guys that help us during the day - Allyn, Evenz,Deigo, and Silly.

Anyway, thank-you for praying for us. We are greatly encouraged by you and we need your prayers.

I want to leave you with Psalm 46, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, and though the mountains tremble at its swelling.....Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I wil be exalted in the earth!" The LORD of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our fortress!"

In His Service and In His Grip of grace,

Randy

Home

On behalf of Karen we would like to let you let know, with thankfulness to the Lord, that Karen, Maia Joy, Kim, John and Jim arrived home safely early Friday morning. Randy remains in Haiti and continues to work with and support the staff and students of Adoration Christian School. There are still so many unknowns, much devastation and violence. We ask that you pray for safety, strength, and wisdom for Randy, the people of Haiti and those that have gone there to help. Also for Karen, Maia Joy and Kim as they struggle with many emotions being so far away from family and those they care deeply for.

Please join us TOMORROW Sunday Jan 17 for a prayer service for Haiti, at Cornerstone Can. Ref. church, Stonechurch Rd., Hamilton, ON. We will begin at7:30pm, and Rev. Bezuyen, of the Trinity URC, will lead in prayer and devotion. Karen, Kim, Jim and John will be in attendance, and John will have a short powerpoint to show some of the pictures he took, and to tell of their experience. Hope to see many of you there!

Earthquake!

Hi this is Karen's family on behalf of Karen, Randy, and Maia
We received word this afternoon that there was an earthquake in Haiti. the school has collapsed completely but by the grace of God they don't think that anyone was in the school. Randy, Karen, Maia, Kim, John Kottelenberg, and Jim Kampstra are all ok. Please Pray

This is an email sent by Karen after the Quake:

Good Evening All,

We just wanted to let you all know that, by the grace of God, our lives have been spared. An earthquake hit Haiti just before 5 this evening. Randy, Maia and I were at the school along with our two visitors, John Kottelenberg and Jim Kamstra, as well as a bunch of our secondary students and the school collapsed right before our eyes. It was the scariest moment of our lives. As far as we know no one is trapped in the school. Kim is safe as well.

There is much devastation here and many unknowns, please keep praying for Haiti and her people.

O Lord have mercy!

Randy & Karen & Maia Joy <><

Bon Ane!

We wanted to wish you all a little belated blessed New Year! God has been very gracious to us all in 2009. There has been times which have been extremely tough and challenging; times which have been great and full of laughter; times where we have felt the weight of sin and weakness and Satan’s constant bombardment; times when we have been perplexed; times that we have been so thankful and happy; times when we have sat in peace and quiet; times when we have been so worn out that we don’t know if we can go on; times that we can see God at work so clearly, and times when we wonder ‘God where are you’; times when we smile, and times when we grind our teeth; times when we think we are growing in the Lord and times when we feel we are controlled more by our flesh than by His Spirit; times when we have seen His glory and Majesty all around us, and times where we only see the ugliness of the world at large; and through it all God has walked with us, carried us, forgave us, stilled us, helped us, blessed us, comforted us, been our Rock, and has filled us with joy and peace – His Peace which passes understanding. His love is greater than our weaknesses, and there is nothing that we face in our life in which, He doesn’t know about, and doesn’t have the power to deal with. And so we look forward to 2010 with much Hope and much anticipation, in seeing what the LORD has in store for us, and how He can use us, weak servants, for His Kingdom work. He has given us life, and has been working in us to make us more like Him. Our prayer for our whole familyand friends, is that He would continue to work in us all; continue to purify us and grow us up in Him, that more and more everyday we would walk with Him, find our Joy in Him, and declare His glory to the Nations. And may He bless us all, and give us everything we stand in need of for any trial or difficulty that comes our way, and that we may put all our confidence in Him alone.
Love and Hugs from Port au Prince

Our start to 2010

And a little bit of catch up with pictures...

Our Christmas dinner with the guys who work at Adoration.

Maia sitting like a real lady

On New Years day in Haiti we celebrate the coming in of the New Year but Haitians also celebrate their independence from France and so tradition is to eat pumpkin soup. The guys at the school invited us over for some pumpkin soup and so here we are celebrating Haitian Independence

Maia LOVED pumpkin soup!And while at the school for Pumpkin soup we were invited to come the next day at 10:30 because they were preparing a big meal for us to share altogether. Cadeau, Samuel and Guerdeson as well as a few of their close friends, the cooks from the school and ourselves got to sit down and share a meal together. It was very special.The VERY delicious food that the guys slaved over that morning.Maia enjoying time with Maman ManiseAnd then after our tummies were full we headed out to the lake which is North East of Port au Prince and we were able to see the flamingos! It was pretty amazing.... being on the water was peaceful, the mountains and clouds were spectacular and the flamingos were beautiful... although it's hard to sneak up on them with three boats and a crying baby. And... now we are back to regular life. School has started up again, Bible studies are going, the basketball tournament has semi-finals this week, John and Jim are visiting with us right now, we are planning a health seminar for our female teenagers this week, we are trying to sell our car as well as look for a new vehicle and...in the midst of all the chaos Maia Joy has started crawling!! This morning she was EVERYWHERE, chewing on the laptop chord, the stereo, the fan... I think our house needs some child proofing! Here's some proof of it all...

Merry Christmas!

"Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:10, 11

"Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace amonth those with whom he is pleased!" Luke 2:14

On behalf of all the staff at Adoration we would like to Wish you a Blessed Christmas as we celebrate our Savior's birth

Demolition

After we had our Christmas Program at the school Randy and the guys decided that vacation time was as good as any to get rid of the car port at the school. This car port was a little bit a hazard as it would shake if anybody walked on it but we also wanted to take it down so that we can level out the playing field to make more room for the students to play. So Randy rented some BIG equipment to get the job done.

Cadeau and Guerdeson would like you to think that we used these BIG machines to get the car port down....But in reality it was these ones And a typical job site... 5 supervisors and 1 person working

Au Revoir Car Port! Now we have a big field of dust... but thankfully a team is coming in February to help us concrete it all and fix it up nicely. We are eagerly looking forward to that.

Adoration's Christmas Program

On Sunday afternoon we were able to gather with teachers, students, parents and friends to celebrate Christ's birth as well as award students for a job well done in the second controle. The students put on a beautiful program, singing Christmas carols, reciting poems and acting out a drama. Randy was also able to share a short message with everyone on the angel revealing the SAVIOR to Joseph. Afterwards awards were given out to the top student in each class as well as to the student who put forth a lot of hard work. Also students who were never late or absent in the second controle were awarded. And to end it off the students and parents met with their teachers and were given their report cards and we had a time of fellowship with cookies and juice. What a blessing to celebrate Christ's birth with the Adoration community. Below are some of the highlights of the program

Kim welcoming students and parents Randy sharing a devotionThe Special Education program performing their dramaThe Grade 3 class reciting a poem Kindergarten students taking in the programAschelly resting after her big performanceMarline, Node and myself relaxing after the program

Christmas Vacation

The school year for this year is Fini! The students finished their exams on Thursday and today the teachers have to hand in their report cards. Sunday we will have a Christmas program, that the students have been practicing very hard for, and we will get the opportunity to celebrate, with our students and their families, Christ's birth. We are looking forward to that.
During the next two weeks Maia is going to miss her friends!

Baby Carle

Our grade 3 teacher, Alix, and his wife were blessed with a beautiful baby boy last weekend. They've named him Carle and he is cute and healthy. Kim, Maia and I had a chance to visit the family last week and meet baby Carle.

The Gift of Education

Looking for that perfect Christmas gift this holiday season? How about sponsoring a child in Haiti? At Adoration Christian Center we currently have about 200 students that need sponsorship. 120 of those students attend École Chrétienne Adoration and the other 80 are sponsored to go to other schools, either secondary school or a school geared to a specific special need. Right now only 141 of these students have a sponsor which means that we need 59 more sponsors.

When you sponsor these children you are giving them a chance at life. All of these students come from difficult living situations and probably wouldn't be going to school if it wasn't for the sponorship program. But because people have chosen to sponsor them they are receiving an Christian education. Our secondary students are receiving weekly Bible training as they attend a Reformed Bible Study led by the Pastors of the Presbyterian church. They are also learning responsibility as they come in once a week a clean the school. Their education is important to them too and so they put forth the effort to ensure that they continue in the program.

So are you interested in sponsoring a student? It's only $30 Canadian each month and that provides a child with a uniform, books, meals, class trips, and a Christian education. For more info or to sponosor a child check out CDIA's website http://www.cdiacanada.com/

Vehicles

I thought I should post about our frustrating vehicle situation, at least it was frustrating but things are starting to look up.
Our vehicle, vehicle #1, has been in the garage since Oct 6, so friends of ours kindly lent us vehicle #2 since they had just bought a new vehicle. But while we were borrowing vehicle #2 it had to go in for a wheel bearing change, no biggie, but it ended up being a biggie because the axil was actually broken! So vehicle #2 is out of service as well. Our co-worker, Kim, has a vehicle but her vehicle decides to break down the same time as ours so we are left with Randy's motorbike.... Maia does not like riding on the motorbike (nb we DO NOT take Maia on the motorbike). Thankfully we have these great neighbours who lent us vehicle #3 which we are using and enjoying and then we find out the insurance is up... no more vehicle #3 and we are back to the motorbike. But as of yesterday there is a good twist, Vehicle #2 is fixed, vehicle #3 is returned to the proper owners and we are still waiting (patiently) for vehicle #1.

Let the Games Begin!

We started our first basketball intramural tournament with our secondary students yesterday. Randy and some students made the teams and the schedule this past week and Monday they painted the lines on the court with the help of some more anxious secondary students and yesterday was the first official day. We have 36 guys playing and 20 girls playing, 6 guys teams and four girls teams. The games are happening every Tues and Thurs afternoon starting at 2:30. Yesterday there were big crowds and lots of excitement as the first games got underway. Twas exciting indeed!

And...

Maia training for Harvard