HAPPY NEW YEAR, AND LOTS, LOTS MORE

Mission to Haiti – April 24, 2011 – Easter Sunday & May 1, 2011

Ebed Paul

On Friday, April 15^th, we attended the opening of Tony Paul’s Trade School together with a number of people from the Joy & Hope of Haiti group from Hamilton that funded the building of the school.  It was quite the event with many Haitian dignitaries making speeches.  Among the dignitaries were a Senator, and two presidents of universities in Cap Haitien as well as a guest preacher from Port au Prince.   

On Saturday, April 16^th, 9 men and women plus two children rolled into the campus of EBS in the back of Abel’s tap tap.  7 were housed at The Penny Inn (the new name for The Ville Auberge/Assisted Living Centre), our house, and four at Matt and Stacey’s.  Intro’s made, supper eaten, beds found and a good night’s sleep made for an early rise for the group to be on their way to Grison Garde to attend New Life Church, Pastor Job’s church.  His school is one of the schools that St. Andrew’s support through HEARTS.  Matt preached in Kreyol, and about half way through the service some of the Hamilton group staying at Pastor Tony Paul’s guesthouse in Plaine du Nord arrived for the service.  Ebed Paul, Tony’s son, translated for all the visitors.

Bright and early Monday morning the team started their scheduled work, tiling and grouting and painting in the second floor of the men’s dorm and laying a sidewalk to better connect the houses with the rest of the campus. 

Even after two long, hard days at work, the team was ready to count pills on Tuesday night for a mobile clinic at the Saccenville Church on Wednesday.

  A member of the team was a pediatrician and he, along with Dr. Rodney, a Haitian doctor from the OMS Bethesda Medical Clinic, then screened patients.  Weight was determined and blood pressure taken. Those treatable with meds were sent to the makeshift pharmacy where pills were dispensed.  Although there were illnesses that could not be treated with pills, the clinic was a huge success.

Thursday and Friday were again spent working on the dorm and sidewalk.

Right after breakfast on Good Friday a few members of the team and Matt led in a service while we sat in the shade of a mango tree.  Matt preached about how our sins were soaked up like a sponge soaks up water and when a sponge is squeezed this was how God’s love poured out on us from the cross as the nails were being pounded into Jesus’ hands and feet and up until the time of His death.

Matt, Stacey and Lily ate here all week for evening meals. Stacey and Dorothy shared the making of the meals.  Friday night the Hubele family of 4 came over and we all ate homemade pizza, compliments of all 3 ladies, salads by Stacey, ice cream (Yes, I said ice cream; there are two automatic ice cream makers here and neither one belongs us to.), and cake made by Rachelle Hubele.   It was wonderful to have all the help with the meals.  Stacey is a fabulous pastry chef along with her other many talents.  We don’t know what we would have done without all her help.

At 5:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, the tap tap was pulling out heading to the airport with 10 of the 11.  The leader, Don Hulmes, a personal friend of Matt and Stacey’s, stayed behind to do more work on campus and will leave May 9^th.

The Hubele Family, Rachelle, Jacob, John, Josephine

Pastor Wilber

The Hubele family along with us went to at 6:00 a.m. Easter Morning Sunrise Service at the OMS missionary kids school near the other Vaudreuil compound.  We sang as a congregation, The Hubele family sang, we had a message about the stone being rolled away from the tomb, and were asked to considered what stones we had in our lives that prevented us from fully leaning on Jesus.  We then fellowshipped with other believers, Haitian and white, around a potluck breakfast.  What a wonderful way to start such a special day.  Dorothy likes to think of Easter as the first day of the year for a Christian.  Hallelujah!  He is risen!

Easter dinner together

The three families, plus Don and a Haitian student, Junior, ate our Easter meal together, each family making it’s own but sharing in dessert. 

What did we do while the 11 were here?  Cooked, laundered, cleaned; cooked, laundered, cleaned; and cooked laundered and cleaned some more for 14 hours each day. 

Last evening a new visiting professor, Chris along with another young couple, Jason and Jessie arrived.  They are all from Northridge, Kansas.  Chris is teaching the Pauline Epistles for the next two weeks and leaves on May 6^th.  Jason and Jessie are here until this Saturday, the 30^th.  Jason and Jessie would like to come as full-time missionaries in Haiti and this was a bit of a look-see.  Please pray for them.

We also learned this week that a Canadian couple, from southern Ontario, Carol and Rick Folkeringa, will, God willing, be heading for the Haiti field.  Carol and Rick spent a year here in 2006/07.  Carol was the field treasurer and Rick was involved in maintenance.  In fact, it was from Carol that John and I took over from as field treasurer the last time we spent an extended period here.  It took both of us to do what Carol did by herself.  They are a super Christian couple and are what the field missionaries have been praying for.

We are in the home stretch now and have another couple of weeks or so before we leave.  Continue to pray for us as the time draws near for departure. 

“Go forward on the pathway of service, undaunted by possible future obstacles.  Let your heart be cheered by the certainty that whatever difficulty you may face, God will move the stone.”

From our Daily Bread, Volume 2, April 2.

Happy New Year