Visit with our Compassion-sponsored child

After sponsoring Rose Esther for 3 years, we were blessed to get to go and see her while we are living in Haiti. She lives about 3 hours from where we live in a beautiful area of Haiti, close to St. Marc.



We first went to her school where the school director and Compassion host met us and took us to meet her. They had her class all greet us and then she stood up and came over to meet us, as she was planning to spend the day with us. (She looked shy here, but she was very excited and really warmed up to us fast since we could speak her language).

 

We first went to her home where she lives with her father and grandmother. We had brought some gifts for her and here she is trying out her new jump rope. Our girls were glad to help her. :)

After visiting her home we took her and her Dad with the director and host into town to eat lunch at a resturaunt. Above is a picture of some men working in the rice field, along the road they had rice drying out on big sheets. Didnt get a picture of that.
 And yes, rice is brown when harvested. :)

We went to a Haitian fast food restaurant, although there is no such thing as FAST in Haiti. :)

After lunch we came back to their home and they expressed great appreciation and blessed us for everything. We had a time of prayer with them and were all sad to have to part.  

This was a very special day for our family! Our connection with Rose Esther will be deeper than the letters we had sent back and forth, after getting to know her sweet personality, her family and more about her life. We feel blessed to have had this privilege and this also made us realize the how blessed we really are to be able to live in Haiti!   

A look at the lighter note here @ IFM.

Sometimes, things slow down a little here and we all step back and take a little time to refresh and connect.



Aaron and I got to get-away for our anniversary for a night in the DR. So beautiful, refreshing, relaxing!
Our kids enjoyed their stay at Tom and Laurie Mohlers. Laurie helped the girls sew some fun things and Rylan got to go to do some special things with Tom. 

Here, Levi (our newest staff guy) and Austin are ready to leave with a couple haitian boys for an experience-packed time. What a special opportunity for these guys!

We had a going-away party for our dear Hannah with all the IFM ladies. A special time together, but we were sad to see her go.

Tiboutson and Reynald are attaching stairs off our porch to go to our roof. Yes, we have a concrete flat roof that is now turned into a patio! (will show photos on this later)

Mike did a great job with designing the whole thing and we were thankful for all the helpful hands when it was time to lift and line it all up.


Dad and Mom Lavy came to visit this past month. They wanted to see more of Haiti and pamper us a little.  

We got to go visit Clint and Brendas new home and enjoy a yummy brunch together!

After that we headed to Jacmel to the beach. 

Reynald and Rylan sit and talk together by the beach, would of been interesting to hear all their Creole conversation. :)

While here 2 energetic girls jump to capture the best shots.

We enjoyed some of the best fish here. It is seasoned perfectly and served with fried plantains and a spicy salad.

Look at this cute couple! We got to take Aarons Dad up to Pat and Cheryls house and see all the beautiful country there.

Another day we got to go to Hinche to do some fabric shopping and afterwards headed over to see this beautiful waterfall, "Bassin Zinm".
Rylan stands by his haitian friend that came along. Louidi had never been here before and enjoyed taking lots of photos of that day.

Kenslie and Jayla got to bring their friend Dadou.

Haiti is a beautiful place and it it nice to get out to see and visit these neat spots! We all need to be blessed with a little refreshing from time to time. Thanks for praying...... we ask you to continue to pray that our ministry here be effective in our last three months here.

Sharing and making a difference

It always blesses me when you see others that are in need and they are always wanting to bless you. That is often how it is here. It is the truest example of hospitality-Romans 12:13. This couple here has been blogged about before but we wanted to share a little more about them......



Below, Yonel wanted to show us where he stores his fertilizer. Recently, he has started a business of selling this. He has a real passion to help his people here.

He then wanted to show us his church and asked if we could pray and sing with them. The pastor here knew very good English and asked if there was anyway we could start a clinic there. Pray with us that this could be possible sometime if the Lord wills. 

Back at their home they wanted to serve us some very special Haitian food. Yonels wife to the left has been  sick. This is a prayer need, she has not yet found a good doctor--pray for Madam Yonel. She smiles so sweetly but yet inside she is hurting. We have so much to be thankful for, when we are sick we can always find a good doctor and usually always has a solution. We have no idea......we just have to be more thankful.
   

They served us fried fish, fried sweet potatoes, sauce and spicy slaw~~quite good. 

 

He's got the whole world in His hands

On the edge of town lies a little community of people that had lost their homes in the earthquake of 2010. This new community of homes completed in 2012, is where we left part of our hearts in 2011. Since we moved to Haiti we have visited, had kids classes and have had a vision to do a VBS here. We recently were privileged to accomplish this. We set up tents in the little community and invited the children here, and from an orphanage nearby to come and participate. This was a great privilege for these kids, and they all came bathed and dressed in their best to attend this event.

"Bienvenue" welcome in French


We asked some of our friends from Fond Parisien to come and help translate.

Here Nerlange and Nate go over his lesson for the day

Wismith was our overall translator, crowd controller and all other that came in handy from a guy that understands the culture. From what we thought may have been a somewhat chaotic event, he reassured us that it went very well!

Everyone enjoyed participating in praise and worship first thing. 

And, they all seemed fascinated in skits were acted out each day to go along with the Bible lesson.

Aaron directed the skit to go along with Wismith as he read the Creole Bible lesson. Daisy and girls are throwing a party for the prodigal son (Rylan) that came home and the happy father (Austin) stands by.

These kids love to color! They would consider it a privilege, where we may just get bored with it. 

The older kids did a word search paper on the day of our "Lost Sheep, Lost Coin" lesson

They really enjoyed the craft time and it took all of us to keep things going smoothly. 

These little dears are very precious to me....they always want to be holding on our hands. They love to be shown love in this way!

We had a large group, about 100-120 everyday. 

This guy is showing off his sheep craft. 

They enjoyed learning a couple english songs thru the week. 

Jayla holds one of our little friends that we've grown to love. 

Red, Yellow, Black and White; they all are precious in His sight

These people need love, they need hope, they are no different than any of us. They were just put in a whole other world, a life of much more hardship than any of us will ever know. But they have a heavenly Father that loves them so much! Pray with us that they took something they learned from VBS, that helps them feel and understand His love more.

to see more about VBS check out internationalfaithmissions.blogspot.com

Youth Bible school

On July 23rd, 144 students filed in for registration for the 5-day youth seminar.  

(Mike in chair, on the left Pastor Voltaire and another member of support helps, Nerlange comes for his badge and binder of handouts and Aaron helps on right)

It was so encouraging to see all the eager and anticipation in their faces, most of them had never had an opportunity like this before! 

Ivan (the director of IFM) taught on Salvation.

Shea taught on the importance of Prayer and organized prayer groups.

Andy Eversole taught Christian leadership along with the guys purity classes

Matthew Mohart taught about how The Law leads to Christ.

Rebecca shared about purity in the girls class. I (Wendy) was also privileged to help her as I had an activity at the end of each class for the girls, to go along with our lesson. On the last day Wismith and Rebecca and Aaron and I each shared our testimony.

After our last class we passed out purity bands that said "Le vrai amour attend" (True Love waits in French)

Thanks to all for your specific prayers for us in this class. We had a couple rough days as we went into some difficult areas that we both felt called to share on. But we truly seen the Lord work as the girls opened up and shared testimonies and shed some tears. We give Him all the glory and pray His continued work in their lives!

Each day there was an hour for recreation. They all loaded up and were transported to the Children's Home where Matt Newcomer led in various activities to both burn off energy as well as teach a Spiritual lesson.

Lunch was served each day. On the last day they served what they call Fèt (party) food.

Each student was given a certificate of participation on Saturday. Here Zopoppe happily shows his.

We truly seen God's handiwork through this week. Please continue to pray that the seeds that were planted fell on good soil and will produce much good fruit.