THE JUSTA'S

Mission to Haiti – April 17, 2011

As some of you may already know we have given notice to the HEARTS committee that we will be stepping down effective April 30^th from the committee as we have been invited, God willing, to return to Haiti next fall to continue to serve at the Emmaus Seminary in a support role to the visiting professors and seminary staff.

Seminary Chapel

I like to think of it as a continuation of our interest in the education of the children of Haiti.  The Emmaus Seminary trains pastors, pastors plant churches, churches start schools, and schools educate children.  It is also analogous of what John did in the Canadian Army 50 years ago.  He served with the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps whose primary function was support to the infantry and armoured corps by providing ammunition and food to the fighting troops.  Just as John was trained to provide support to the troops fighting in the trenches, so today we are providing support so the pastors who, once trained, can fight evil and save souls for Christ.  In Haiti, serving Christ can be very much like fighting in the trenches when you are serving in a society that has been inculcated with voodoo for hundreds of years.



Justa workers

 In reading Amos this past week, we were introduced to him as being a “justa,” just a shepherd.  There are lots of people who are “Justas,” just a salesman” or “just a secretary” or “just a farmer.”  Do you get the picture?  Amos wondered who would listen to him because he was just a shepherd.  But instead of making excuses, Amos obeyed and became God’s powerful voice for change.  God uses “justas” to fulfill His plan.  We are only “justas” …servants of God trying to enable change in Haiti.

Now that the election is all but over it appears that many of the works programs here in the north of Haiti have begun once more in earnest.  The sewers and roads are being upgraded throughout the Cap Haitien area, and we are told they will reach out to Vaudreuil and beyond.  Land lines are being installed for telephone (fiber optic) cable so that before too long Haitians will no longer need to have access to satellite or an internet café but will be able to dial up from home.  This may not sound like a big deal, but for Haiti, this is a major step forward.

Brunaveco, Mimose and Bruno

This past Sunday we once again dropped in unannounced to Faith Church.  Pastor Bruno welcomed us warmly and many in the congregation recognized us from previous visits.  The church was crowded as usual and to avoid displacing anyone from their seats we took along our own folding camp chairs and set them up in the aisle next to Mimose, Bruno’s wife, and their daughter, Brunaveca.  We were able to follow the service as they interspersed the Creole with English so we were able to understand where we were supposed to be in the hymnal and the Bible without having too much difficulty.  Bruno announced that they would be having a baptism in early June and at the moment 12 people have declared for Christ and wish to be baptized.

The team of 11 that are coming in on Saturday will be taken to Pastor Job’s church at Grison Garde and will have an opportunity to see first hand what he is doing and what St. Andrew’s has been able to accomplish with the support it gives for the school.

Later this afternoon we are going to visit a group from The Joy and Hope of Haiti, Hamilton, who is staying at Pastor Tony Paul’s guesthouse near Plaine du Nord.  It’s always good to see people from home and hear what their next plans are in Haiti. We understand that they are having a 5K and a 10K run in support of the OMS Christian radio station, 4VEH, and for Pastor Paul’s trade school.  The grand opening of the trade school will be Friday, April 15.

The peace of Christ be with you.

Visit to Konpech

Mission to Haiti  - April 10, 2011

The past week the house has been exceptionally quiet except for two guests, Mike and Mike from Illinois, who came in on Wednesday for a week.  They are sleeping here and eating meals elsewhere.  They have come in to work with a pastor half way between this campus and Cap Haitien at a little village called Duty.

We have started to prepare for the influx of the team of 11 from Philadelphia on April 16.  Dorothy has been baking cookies, several dozen of them, and will be prepping other food over the next few days. Our porch will be turned into the “mess hall” to accommodate the team and us.  The Ayars will join us for the evening meal and Stacey, several months pregnant, and Dorothy will be sharing the making of the evening meals. 



Wood from Konpech Tree
has another light side



Rachelle, Naomi and ti gason

Nearly two weeks ago Dorothy, Rachelle Hubele and Naomi, along with a small boy, walked to Konpech, a voodoo sanctuary about 35 minutes straight back the trail across from the campus, where Junior, a student at the seminary, has been led by the Lord to do some evangelism work.  We have told you about this in previous weeks or you may have read about it on Matt and Stacey Ayars’ blog.  Rachelle has been going along with Junior on Sunday afternoons and has started to teach several women how to knit.  Dorothy went along for the “ride” on this particular Friday afternoon.  They picked their way across several streams, went past the trees said to be inhabited by demons, and saw the Konpech trees after which the village is named.   A voodoo ceremony was already talking place as we arrived and there were signs that it would continue for quite some time.  We chatted for a few moments with one of the men and decided within that time frame that this was not a good day to stick around so took the same path back home.   Dorothy was tired, hot but impressed by the biggest tree that she had ever seen with the exception of the California red wood, and by a tree that was covered with prickles.

The preliminary results of the Haitian election were made know this week and, according to the news services and the noise of vehicle horns out on the street, Martelly will be declared the winner.  The official results are due on April 16^th.  As far as we know there have been no disturbances in this area as a result of the preliminary results.

 



Woodpecker in middle

We have heard a knock, knock, knock, knock like a hammer, for several days and wondered what was being built and by whom.  We asked about the noise only to find out the "what" and the "who" are woodpeckers.  Surprised?  Yes sir, we were.  The woodpeckers have been pecking away at the hydro poles so much so that they were in danger of falling apart.  John Hubele placed corrugated steel around the top of the poles and the woodpeckers are continuing to peck at the steel without ceasing.  It reminded me this morning of the parable of the Good Shepard in John 10.  Jesus says that He is the door through which anyone can enter, can be saved and can go in and out and find pasture.  There are so many people in this world who are like the woodpecker pecking away at their life, having nothing to show, when all they have to do is knock at the door of the good shepherd.  He is the good shepherd; the good shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep.  

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. 

Empty Nesters

Mission to Haiti – April 3, 2011



April sunrise prelude to a hot day

 We are once again empty nesters.  The Seminary director and his family depart for Jackson, Mississippi.  It is the little things that you miss when you are hosting guests, like being able to leave your bedroom door open at night so you can take advantage of the breezes that may blow through the house.  And right now with the temperature in the mid 80’s you want to benefit as much as possible from whatever winds may blow.

In the sun

Our next guest professor was to arrive on Saturday for a two-week period, but has had to cancel at the last moment.  So for the next two weeks we have two overnight guests for three nights, no meals that makes our load a lot lighter than it has been.  With Dorothy sick for three days this past week, all the cooking, cleaning, washing, and whatever fell on John’s shoulders, and if I don’t mind saying myself, John did a fantastic job under extreme conditions.  (He did, too, from baked oatmeal to a slow cooker meal – Dorothy.  By the way, I am feeling a whole bunch better.)

How to cool off at
the admin swimming pool

This past week we have also had the opportunity to meet with Pastor Vilmer from Heavenly Light and Pastor Job from New Life.  Both school programs are going extremely well.  Pastor Vilmer was telling me of the mother of one of his 4-year old junior kindergarten students and how this young girl evangelized her mother who this past Sunday made a declaration at church accepting Christ as her Saviour.  What is the quote, “out of the mouths of babes….?”

For those who were a part of the work team last May, the congregation at Bas Limbe has called Pastor Joel as its new pastor.  There had been a great deal of tension in the church since the early death of its pastor of many years and it now appears that the congregation are all back on the “same page”.  Forty people were lead to the Lord last Sunday.

We have now booked our return flight home with Missionary Flights for May 12^th, will spend a few days winding down, and should be home late on May 18^th.  We will have a heap of things to accomplish, and God willing, we should be back here sometime in late September or early October.  We don’t know yet and will need to wait until we have the final schedule for the visiting professors, among other things. 

There’s lots more to say but because our e-mail/internet continues to be intermittent this is it for this week.

Please continue your prayers for us and the children of Haiti.

May God richly bless you this week.

Vacation time

Mission to Haiti – March 27, 2011

Please accept our apology, as it has been 4 weeks since our last message. It is primarily because our Internet has been intermittent to non-existent for most of the time because of bandwidth problems.

Much has gone on since we last wrote.  We, of course, were in the Dominican Republic for 12 days for a little rest and relaxation and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  Dorothy took advantage of the availability of some special treats, pedicure, manicure, massage, and a haircut while John must have read four or five books while resting under the palm trees out of the sun.  It sounds like Dorothy didn’t sit in the shade and read but she did, too.  We saw so many people, Europeans especially, who were determined to go home with a tan and managed to get themselves crispy crittered within a day or two of arrival.  We also had more food than you can possibly imagine, so we “manje, manje”

(ate and ate some more). 

We arrived home in Saccenville just in time to get the house back in shape in anticipation of the arrival of 6 houseguests for a two-week period.  We understand that there was a minor earthquake in our absence that caused the dust to rise into the air, and with an accompanying wind, put a layer of black dust on everything.  Our houseguests are Bryan and Leslie from Jackson, Mississippi and their 4 children, Jacob, Benjamin, Sara and Elizabeth.  Bryan is the Rector of the Emmaus Biblical Seminary and he is currently fundraising to bring he and his family to Haiti.  The children are home schooled in Mississippi and their schooling is continuing while they are here.  It has been a pleasure to meet them all and be reminded how busy it was with children around, and also remember that Grandma and Grandpa can give them back to their parents.

The house that we live in now is the “Rector’s House” and Bryan and Leslie will move into this house once they arrive to stay, but for the time being they are guests in their own house while we make meals, do laundry and some cleaning.  Ideally, they would like to see another house built on this property that would be designed specifically for the purpose of housing visitors. 

We had planned on telling you all about the excitement around the run-off election last Sunday, March 20^th and would, but there is little to tell at the time of writing.  From what we hear there were few difficulties on the actual day of the election, traffic was at a minimum because of restrictions on vehicular travel, and it was so quiet you could almost hear a pin drop.  We had lots of old-fashioned “loudspeaker on a truck” advertisements for each candidate and a couple of night of very loud music into the night just before the election. John received many telephone messages asking him to vote for either one of the candidates.

The big news a day before the election was, of course, the return of former President Aristide to Port-au-Prince.  We thought that it might precipitate some demonstrations from his supporters and while there were several hundred people at the airport to meet him, all went very peacefully.  When all is said and done it is still felt that the entertainer Michel (Mickey) Martelly will be the winner when all the ballots are counted. According to news reports we should have the preliminary results on March 31 and the final results by April 16^th.

The good news this week is that a work team from Wellington County led by Albert Nykamp arrived on Monday to work on the new pharmacy for the medical clinic at the Vaudreuil compound.  The money for this project was raised at the dinner/auction that HEARTS and Men for Missions organized in 2007 at the Elora Community Centre.  It has taken this long to get things underway because funds for the new AIDS clinic were time sensitive and had to be accessed sooner rather than later so the pharmacy was put on the backburner until the time was right.  The earthquake in January 2010 meant a further delay until now.  The team consists of Albert, his wife and daughter, and at least a dozen men of varying ages.  The cement pad had been poured so the construction will consist mostly of block work while the team is here.  We are looking forward to having supper with the team next week before they leave for home.

We are entering the home stretch. In the next 6 weeks we have a couple more visiting professors coming that are bringing guests with them and another team of 11. (Anyone want to come and help?)  We anticipate that we will be starting the trek home following this with a little time out for rest on the way.  We miss our kids and grandkids very much and can’t wait to see them, see other family and friends, and sleep in our own bed.  We actually will miss the cacophony of sounds that are a part of our life here in Haiti and the special friendships we have made here.  In fact, we have been asked to come back in the fall but right now that is in the Lord’s hands.

We have been following a Lenten devotion that was available at the church a few years ago called, Your Nail.  Some of you may remember it.  The focus on every page of reading is from Colossians 2:13b-15.  “He has forgiven you all your sins:  Christ has utterly wiped out the damning evidence of broken laws and commandments which always hung over our heads, and has completely annulled it by nailing it over His own head on the Cross.  And then, having disarmed all the powers ranged against us, He exposed them…shattered, empty, and defeated…in His final glorious triumphant act”.  We hope that you will, along with us, remember why Christ was nailed to the cross.  He died for you and me and we caused His death.

Please continue to pray for strength for us during this next very, very busy period.

Please pray for the 600 children in our schools as they prepare to start their 3^rd trimester the first of April.

May the peace of Christ be with you.