Week 4, Day 1

The “Pampered” team arrived last night, tired, dirty and ready for some horizontal sleep.  After an introduction to life at the mission house in the evening and a wonderful hot meal of spaghetti, we headed to an early bedtime. 

This morning we received our “marching orders” from Captain Mark and assigned weekly chores for everyone.  Bud, Andrew and Tom spent the day on the roof.  They tore off the old, rusted, leaky tin and put on a nice, new, green tin roof.  Jeff and Mark helped balance each other over a steep part of the church roof to scrub it and paint it. Andrea, Heather, Ruth and Sue worked to organize the pharmacy area, count out medications and prepare for the clinics next week.  Joe and Steve were hard at work on the welding, designing and making more parts for the student desks.  Kent and Allie worked on assembling the desks for the school.  Whitney, Rene, Amy and Sue stained and varnished desktops and seats.  They also painted ceiling boards, desk frames, a door frame and a bathroom.  Liane made a fantastic potato soup for lunch and enchiladas for supper.  (We all think she should put together a cookbook for us!)

In other big news for previous teams, the railings for the new school steps are painted and one is installed and ready for Monday.  We are impressed and humbled by the hard work of the other teams who made those new steps a reality.  All in all, we are busy, productive, laughing a lot and enjoying each other’s company.  We are excited about the chance to join the local people at church tomorrow morning and meet more of them.

Shout Outs:

Joe says:  “I love you, Joyce!”

Andrea says, “Happy Birthday, Eric!  I love and miss you, Noah and Anna.”

Whitney says, “Happy 1^st Birthday to Brielle, sorry I couldn't be there!”

Rene says, “Kayla don’t forget to pick me up!

Kent says, “I miss you and love you, Tammy!”

Amy says, “We made it!  Thanks for the prayers!”

Liane says, “Shout out to all the St. John ladies who helped with the sewing stuff and love to Lynn.”

Sue says, “Love you and miss you to George, Eric, Chelsea and Asher. Chelsea – Monita says hello.”

Heather says, “Diane – I love the Snickers!  You are the best!”

Bud says, “Love you and miss you, Chelsea and Asher.”

Steve says, “Earlene, I love you.”

Allie says, “To Stacy Michelle – Modrel was asking where you were today.  And then he wrote your entire letter in English on the chalkboard.”

Sue, Ruth, Andrea and Heather count out medications for clinic.

Local boys were fascinated by Kent & Joe installing the railing for the new steps.

Friday February 22nd

Hello again,
Sorry for yet another short post but we just wanted to let everyone know that everyone from the week 4 team has arrived here in Deyemon safe and sound. They have been fed, and are currently getting cleaned up and settled in. Thank you all once again for you continued support back home, your prayers are most certainly important and we ask that you keep them coming as this week will be very busy trying to finish all our projects up, especially considering wednesday (our last work day) will be mostly spent closing the house and packing. Love and miss you all!

Thursday, February 21st

Hello all,
It is our last thursday-friday "weekend" as we call it. The week 3 team left this morning leaving a small group of 7 here at deyemon. The last group will be arriving tomorrow evening. Many projects are or have come to a close but there is still a lot of work to be done this final week. Please pray that God multiplies our time as we seek to serve his people here! Sorry that this post is very short, we just wanted to say thank you for your continued support back home in sending the needed supplies and prayers.

We love and miss you all!

 As week 3 comes to a close, we have a lot of accomplishments to be proud of. We have had the privilege of putting the final touches on some projects such as: 16 bunk bed are being used, new desks are almost finished for the school just need assembling, the floor has been poured in the new office addition, the pharmacy is so close to being fully moved, and most exciting the children have been using the new (and much safer and prettier) stairs, but some projects are still in process. Joe and Steve have been working on railing for the new stairs. Butch and Tim have been blocking off the old stairs so they are totally disabled. A large group of guys have been working on various roofing projects. The roof to the new office addition on the school is ready to be put on. Herves house has half tarp and half sheet metal trying to keep the rain out and is also being painted in multiple rooms. They have also had to fix a few leaks in the church. Amanda, Shari, and Gail have had very successful seminars, and we have had a special guest, our familiar interpreter Doctor Ruth, who was also helpful in the kitchen while Liane and Monita prepared our traditional Haitian meal served with American Coca Cola.  Please pray for both teams as they travel to and from Haiti. We are all thinking of you back home.  A special hello to Joyce Suter, Joe misses your coffee in the morning. Your love and support has been very much appreciated. 

Rain

Monday – February 18, 2013 (9 p.m.)

Rain.  The rain that moved in on Sunday continued throughout the morning.  While the rain certainly changed a few of the plans for the day it was greatly welcomed by the people of Deymon.  By the end of the day much had been accomplished.  This was a great reminder of God’s grace and power and our need to not focus on our own plans, but trust that our God is in control.

The rain did not stop people from coming to the clinic and the sewing class that were both held today.  The medical team or Ruth, Shari and Gail saw a steady stream of patients throughout the morning and into the afternoon.  Liane’s sewing class worked on market bags.  While the rain did impact some of the construction projects much was accomplished.  Steve continued his welding work on the pharmacy door and Joe began work on the railings for the stairs at the school.  Rusty, Reuben and Mark B. spent time cutting and routing the wood pieces for new desks in the school.  Heather and her crew of Stacey and Charlie stained the wood for the desks and painted the pharmacy.  Bob worked on repairing the roof of the shop got started on the roof on the school addition.  Butch (Thomas) and Tim prepared the floors for concrete pouring and were joined in the afternoon by Amanda and Thomas H. in creating forms and mixing concrete for the railing support pillars at the top of the stairs. Lynn stained and he and Jeff spent a good portion of the day cleaning out and beginning to organize the shop.  Becky assisted with tasks at the house working to make sure that many details were taken care of.  Allie was busy throughout the day, and also got to try out the router and sanded the wood pieces for the school desks with the help from and very energetic group of local boys.  Mark M continued to provide great leadership for the activities and seemed to be involved in nearly everything that was going on throughout the day! It was hard for him to be everywhere at once, but he found a great way to get around!

It's Raining on Sunday...and Monday

Yesterday morning we had a wonderful time worshipping with the congregation at church.  Some of the groups did cardboard testimonies with the youth kids, there were 29 of us total, and it was a neat experience.  Then Pastor Herve asked for people in the congregation to come up to the front of the church who wanted to pray for our team.  It was such a blessing to be prayed for by them and was a great picture of the amazing way God has designed his Church to care for and support each other. 

In the afternoon there was a seminar for the women in the community but the evening service was cancelled due to heavy fog and rain.  It rained throughout the night and this morning it is still raining, pouring actually. 

Thank you for your faithful prayers, we can feel them here.  Please continue to pray for our team that we would recognize the entirety of what God is doing and his Sovereignty, even when things go differently than we expected.      

Another beautiful morning in Deymon!  The week 3 team arrived safely last night after their long ride up the mountain.  Liane had wonderful meal prepared.  Beds were made and they had a good nights rest.  We continue to be thankful for all that God provides!