We are not done yet

As we prepare to come home to Canada for a summer "vacation" we cannot thank all of you enough for your prayers, e-mails and support. We could not have got through this year without many of you praying for us regularly!

Having said that, we wanted to let you know that God is not done with us in Haiti yet. We feel very strongly that we are just getting started and so we have committed to the Mission of Hope for longer. 

What does this mean? Well, Cheryl will be continuing as the Medical Coordinator for Mission of Hope, expanding current services, providing excellence in care, providing chiropractic, working to develop community health and HIV/AIDS programs. She is very excited to announce that Grant Rumford, also from The Meeting House, will be joining her on medical staff in charge of the future vision of ER care. 

Laurens will continue to work on current infrastructure, building projects, managing teams, and future expansion projects. We both will be involved in Haiti One, which is the organization we are developing to bring all missions across Haiti together for the purposes of sharing tools, ideas and resources. 

Sandy Rumford, (also Meeting Houser) will be coming to work on the admin. for Haiti One. It is exciting.

We know that many of you have contributed financially over this past year to our mission work and we are so glad that we partnered for this great work together. We would love for you to partner with us again as we continue on in this impoverished country. We have been so grateful for His provision this year and we are a little scared and a little excited to see what He will provide for our family for this next leg of our journey.

When we are in Canada, we will be at The Meeting House on Sunday July 26th and we would love to see you all. Please come and say "hi". We have so many stories to tell you. 

Graduation!!!!!!

This last week was high school graduation at the mission here. The Mission of Hope has a school with over 1300 kids. High school graduation is quite something to see.

First of all, it is about 3 hours long.......on hard benches.....very long. BUT, let me tell you how great this was.

We had about 40 graduates. As we watched them march down the isle (dance down actually as it is customary to do at graduations and weddings) we had an overwhelming sense of pride. Why? Well although we did personally know a few of them, it was not the fact that we knew them all. It was the fact that as they walked down the isle, we knew that these 40 kids were

now among the ranks of only 2%!!!! of Haitians that graduate high school. And not only were they graduating high school, they were graduating from one of the best high schools in the country (grade scores). 

These kids from rural Titanyen now have a great chance, a chance to make a difference in their families lives, to make a difference in their country, to make a difference in the world. And whether they get an educated job or whether they work the land with their parents, they now have the knowledge to make changes, to think of new ideas, to work up the ranks. What was also so great was to see how many girls there were that were graduating in a society where men have priority. This is all because of the many sponsors from the US and Canada that through our sponsorship program have made it possible for these kids to go to school.

My favorite part of the ceremony was that as each kid got his/her diploma, the parents were to stand up. As I watched the parents, my throat choked at each parent that stood up that despite wearing their best clothes, they looked weathered, run down and malnourished. I knew that for this family, they never would have been able to afford to send their child to school without this program. I knew that having this child graduate would mean a better life for their family and for this I was so proud to see them standing tall watching their child take that hard earned diploma.

Teamwork and Praise

Great things are happening at Mission of Hope in Haiti. 

We have had many teams of Americans here lately working to help build our new orphanage village, the Village of Hope. A few blogs ago, we showed you what the buildings looked like and we are working on finishing the first 4 buildings. To go along with an orphanage village for 240 kids, is a kitchen. This kitchen was the project this past week. 

Let us tell you a bit about this kitchen. This is not just any kitchen, this is Maggie's kitchen. You may remember Maggie our orphan child that passed away earlier this year. Maggie had a very hard life but she had hopes and dreams just like everyone else. Maggie wanted to be a cook when she grew up. So in honor of our beautiful Maggie, the kitchen for the Village of Hope will be named Maggie's kitchen. 

The main project this week for the kitchen was pouring the roof. 400 bags of cement, 2500 square feet, and 95 people! It was amazing to see the chain link work in action all day long. 95 people, Haitian and North American, staff and team members, construction and medical

 personnel, even kids working in harmony trying to get it all done before the sun set. 

It was a beautiful sight and a wonderful gift to Maggie and all others like her, that will soon have a loving home, a safe home and a Christian home to grow up in.

Another exciting thing happened. We have a nutrition program at our mission that feeds over 9500 meals per day. One of those recipients of food, is an orphanage close by. We visit this orphanage regularly as I check on the kids medical needs and Laurens attend to other needs they may have. Recently they had a new baby show up. He was abandoned by his mother at someones house in the local village. People noticed this baby with no one to care for him and the orphanage took him in. I happened to go there that day, with a small medical team. We checked him out and noticed he was quite malnourished but OK. After providing him with what he needed and setting the orphanage up with formula and a re-hydration program for him, the director asked me if I would name him.

This was the first time I have been asked to name a baby and I was very excited. Many thoughts bounced through my head and then God told me what to do. I told her we would name him Mark after the M.D. that was there doing his first check-up. Mark was pleased but asked if we could name him after his son Luke. I thought it was a great idea as we have a nephew Luke. Baby Luc (Creole spelling) it was!

Today we were back there and baby Luc was doing much better, alert and holding his own head up etc. As Teagan our daughter held him all afternoon, I prayed for his future and hers as I watched her holding this little orphan child tenderly stroking the cheek of another little girl who had clambered onto her lap.

Praise God for saving this little boy.

Today was Grayden's 10th birthday party. He is getting so old! We can hardly believe that his school year is almost over! He is a fantastic kid.

We had a great time with 11 kids at the party! They played sports (in 90 degree weather) and then cooled off with water games. After that they ate non homemade pizza (Laurens made the hour and a bit round trip), cake and popcorn. When they were all stuffed, they watched the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe to top off the day.

We are thankful for good times and friends and this great place

God Bless