New Life for Haiti-Joline's August 2008 Journal

Well, it's evening here, so thought I'd address this week's journal that way. It has been a crazy week for planning things and I almost forgot to write in my journal. We didn't get much done that has any pictures to go with it, but seems like we have been going non-stop. Steve has been really busy planning the next phase of the house, which started up yesterday (Monday). He has a smaller crew working and they are beginning to take down the plywood and sticks that formed the roof. Boss Tom said that he doesn't want a lot of people underneath where they are working because it can get dangerous taking down large pieces of plywood and prying the sticks off, better to have less people than have someone get hurt. Steve said this morning that they had cleared off the front porch and 1/2 of our bedroom and were continuing to work on the bedroom and bathroom to get it ready for the team that comes tomorrow.

There is a team of 5 people arriving tomorrow (Wed.) late afternoon. The last 2 groups have been delayed by 1 day due to American Airlines problems in Miami. We are praying that this group will not get hung up in Miami and will arrive on time to come to Jeremie on the afternoon flight tomorrow. There is a lot of work to do and we can't wait to get started. There are 4 guys and 1 girl. Steve plans that 3 of the guys will be working on the wiring for the house, getting it all pulled through the conduit and hooked to the breaker panel and ready to go when we hook the generator up to it. They can also wire the depot, if there is time. He is hoping that Alex will be able to work with him on getting some more welding done. Leslie and I will do whatever is needed, helping out where we can. I know it takes extra hands to cut the metal and weld, so will see what we do. We are just excited that this last minute team could make it! There is lots to do.

Steve also worked last week on the clinic at the Catholic church in Marfranc. As you saw last week he had guys demolishing the altar area and floor there. It has to be finished by Sept. 1 before school starts, so next week he will have Tom go and pour the floor, not very complicated because the base is there, but still needs to be done so that it can be used for school. He also had the guys dig the foundation ditches for a room that will be added on to the back for a storage area. A lot got done there in 4 days, which is great.

Work on the second school has slowed down due to funding as well. Steve had them start working a little more today, putting one more row of blocks on before they pour the top of the walls together. The next step is to do the roof and that is expensive. We will see what Pastor Fran and the treasurer say before being able to continue on it. Pastor Plaisir really wants it done by Sept.....but not looking like we will be able to get quite that far. In the fall, after the fundraisers, we will probably be able to finish it up.

We are kind of on a semi-holding pattern to see how finances are at NLH. They do their fundraising banquet at LifeSpring church in October and The Crossover does theirs in November, so we are at the end of the finances for last year. NLH as well as our home church in Lewiston have done some fundraising for construction supplies, which has been a huge, huge blessing. Steve bought some 1/4" rebar today. Last week it was $30 Haitian a piece...today it was $37 Haitian a piece...that is a mark up of $1.00 US in a week. This is how things have been going for months...very discouraging when you are trying to get something built. The roof, which has a ton of metal in it and concrete cost a lot more than Steve had anticipated due to the raising cost of materials. We just pray we will get this year's projects done before it goes too high and we have to quit. We are getting so close to making the house livable, but have so much more to do. After this team, it will be closer!

We have been having some wonderful, cooling thunderstorms in the late afternoons and evenings. It makes it so much easier to sleep! Still hot, mind you...like in the 90's with high, high humidity (who knows what it is % wise), but at least when it rains the earth and our concrete house cool down for the night!

We send all of your our thanks for everything you do for us. We appreciate your prayers, your love and your financial support.

Blessings to all of you as you continue to enjoy your summer with your families!

PS: Just had to include a picture of Steve and Touton. They were enjoying an afternoon nap together...it was sooooo cute. Plus a picture that was taken of downtown Jeremie! Enjoy.

WOW, what a great week we just had...I'm pooped! ha! We love having groups and watching how Haiti changes people's lives. I will always be amazed at how God work in people when they are here. This group was all second timers, meaning they had all been to Haiti before. This is unusual, usually there is a first timer among the group...if not more than one. It was fun because we didn’t have to spend so much time explaining things and they just dug in and "did". A great group of works and people who could punt when things didn't go as originally planned...did I mention that they worked! This group started out with just Andrew wanting/needing to come down and do all of the electrical wiring with Steve. Then we realized that they would need help and this team grew from that...into 4 men (2 with electrical expertise) and 1 woman. Leslie came along because she wrote to me to see how she could go about visiting us in response to a call from God that she had experienced with her heart. I told her to come for a week, then go from there.....well this was the week! It was great to have her along to help with everything from getting meals on the table, packing lunches and water to helping the guys with electrical, clean up at the house and helping with the Cutting of the metal for the porch and windows. God puts together such awesome teams, they are always perfect for what needs to be done and for the personalities of the group to work together. This group loved to play cards (often until midnight!!!!!). It was great. Thanks to all of them for all the great things they brought and all the hard work they did. They came from 4 different churches! Awesome.

We were able to cut most of the bars for the security windows as well as finish the cutting of the outside porch...now they just need to be welded! The original saw that we cut with died during the last group. The Zurita's and the Gerber's (both couples were on the last team) graciously bought NLH a new abrasive saw for cutting metal...I'll tell you, this 14" saw cut through the metal like butter!!!! THANK YOU for making this job so much easier!

The wiring is done and in the conduits...now we are waiting for the walls to get finished so that the boxes, switches and light fixtures can be put in and wired. Andrew is thinking about coming back at the end of Sept. with a small group that will be coming to help at that time! God is good!

I'm really tired, so I'm not going to write much tonight. Just wanted everyone to know what an awesome week we had! Just a little over 2 weeks and we'll be heading back to the states for my daughter, Robin's wedding! We are excited about being a part of this celebration and being home for a month. When we return on Sept. 29th...we'll be coming back with at least 4 and maybe 5 people to get more work done!

Thank you to everyone who has supported us, personally and through NLH to get this house at least to a state of being lived in! Still has a ways to go, but it is looking better. Next week, I'll get some pictures of how it is progressing...enjoy the pictures of the team.

May God continue to bless you and keep you safe,

We just had a really great weekend participating in the Marfranc/Jeremie Annual Conference. Every other year Marfranc hosts the conference. It is a 3 day event, with churches from both of the districts attending. There are services 3 times a day, 9:00 AM, 2 PM and 6:00 PM. People walk and take taptap and free rides (like with us), however they can get there and spend as many days as they can. The Pastor's from the district churches all participate in the services, by praying, reading scripture, leading music or being the main speaker. We went to the Saturday 2:00 PM service, which was for the youth and also the Sunday morning service, which was the closing service. I was asked to do the prayer after the sermon, which I have done before for church. There are certain things that each prayer is supposed to cover, then you can add whatever you want. The one after the sermon is the easiest for me, so I was relieved that I wouldn't have to think to hard to pray (because of it being in Kreyol, not because it's hard for me to pray, ha!). However.......the Pastor that was giving the sermon started out by having everyone sing...then he turned to me and said, "Mme. Steve.... (like your turn to pray), this was before the sermon...I was not even kind of ready, plus that is a whole different prayer, ha!....well, like I had a choice? So I prayed! It wasn't very long, but it was good I guess! They switched the 2 of the that were praying in front and in back of the sermon, but neglected to tell me. At least I got to relax during the sermon, which was nice! There were about 500 - 600 people in attendance. Those of you that have seen the Marfranc church can imagine how crowded it was. There were speakers outside and people sat in the school building as well as under a tarp in front of the church. The special music is always my favorite and we were not disappointed, it was phenomenal! It was such an amazing thing, to be in the church and listen to everyone sing, pray and praise the Lord! Nothing like it. I'll include a picture that I took Sunday morning from up front, but I know it doesn't do it justice.

There was a tropical storm that went through Haiti this weekend as well! A fun weekend huh? By the time we started tracking it on Sat. AM...it was on top of Port-au-Prince, headed our way, then heading North through Cuba...to Florida. It had winds of 40 MPH, which really isn't too bad. However, it brought with it lots and lots of rain. The Grand Anse River is big anyway, but not usually very deep. It went up to the edge of its banks and beyond in many places. We didn't have any flooded roads to Marfranc, but Steve took the people from Moron most of the way to Moron on Sunday after church because the road was washed out, with big holes and no vehicles could pass. He took them to one side, they got out and walked through it to get a tap tap on the other side. Steve took a picture today (Monday) and it was already down, but wanted you to see how muddy (red) it is and how high it was before it started going down. We didn't hear of any deaths or problems, except 2 of the plantain trees that were in our neighbors, but hanging over our fence, fell down! they both had hands of plantains that weren't quite ripe hanging from them. Too bad! Then we heard today that a big, fully loaded bus coming from Port to Jeremie tried to cross a big river area and it was too deep and the current too swift and the current pushed the bus into the river and downstream...killing at least 14 people, maybe more. We heard that most of those were women and children. I didn't hear a final total, but all of the goods that were on it were lost as well. This not only means a loss of lives, but also livelihood...income, commerce that was on its way to Jeremie to be sold. It's a hard country to live it, a driver's stubborn decision to cross when it was dangerous, just so he could get to Jeremie, cost people their lives and livelihood! It was very sad.

On a brighter note...our "kitten" Touton, is getting very big. He is almost as big as his mom (KC) and very awnry, but in a good way! (is that possible?). He loves to play, starts to but, but if you say "ouch" loudly will stop! (except for right now when he is batting at my foot and trying to bite it, under the desk) Brat! He was laying on the chair outside today when we were drinking coffee...so I took a picture, you can see how big he is getting. He loves to eat!

This will be a very busy week for us. We just have 10 days before we leave and have a lot to do and prepare before we go so that construction can continue or be completed in some cases. Next week I'll try to get some pictures of the house, school and clinic so that you can have a final update before we leave for a month! We have been blessed with many scholarships for this year. I'll tell you more about those next week as well. We have some elementary ones for the Marfranc School and some great secondary ones as well. Everyone has been great to help these kids go to school! More to come, next week!

We send you all love and prayers,

Thank you for praying for us! Keep it up!!!

Not sure you will get to see this before Hurricane Gustav hits. It is sitting of the Southern coast of Haiti and is supposed to hit this evening sometime. We expect have it pass over us sometime tonight. It is currently a Tropical Storm, but the forecast is that it will be a Hurricane when it hits Haiti. We'll see. Usually we get the worst rain as it passes and for at least a day afterward. Our concern is always for the people who live her and the devastation the rain causes on crops and flooding. We are also concerned because we have tickets to fly out of Port-au-Prince on Friday morning and we pray that the hurricane weather goes more to the West so that we can fly into Ft. Lauderdale! Please pray for the countries that get hit during hurricane season, especially for Haiti and all the flooding they cause. Pray for us as well! Thanks. Our internet is not working right now and may not work until after the hurricane! So, not sure when this will get posted.

I'm not going to write a lot as we are getting ready to pack and get the house ready for while we are gone. Steve was sick for a couple of days, but seems to be better today, he spent the weekend in bed. I'm glad he is better since he has so much do to at all of the job sites and at home. On a more frustrating note....we had a thief in our backyard for the first time since we have been in this house. Guess we were getting way too complacent and not worrying about stuff in our yard. Everywhere else we have lived, we have been careful what we leave outside, because normally it isn't there in the morning when we get up! When we first moved here, we realized that no one was going to bother anything, so.....we have left tons of stuff outside, ha! Well on Sunday night someone came into our side gate, into our tiny backyard and stole 2 jugs that we use for gasoline for the generator. One jug was full (5 gallons and about $35.00 US of gas) and one was empty. There was an additional full 5 gallons sitting right with those two jugs, but they left it. It still puzzles us as to why they would take 1 full and 1 empty, when there was another full one right there? Strange. When I told Pastor Plaisir, he said it was a considerate thief, they didn't want to leave us without at least some gas! It wasn't funny yesterday morning however. So...last night, we brought everything inside, our 1 remaining jug of gas, or jugs of water (in case they wanted the 5 gal jugs), our plastic chairs, our buckets....and we took in the things off the front porch that had any great value! Guess we were lucky that that is all they took and that it hadn't happened sooner or when there was a team visiting! My daughter reminded me that theft happens everywhere, in Seattle, they don’t leave anything outside unless they want it stolen....guess I should be surprised that with all the poverty here there isn't more theft! Anyway, we weren't hurt and apparently they needed the gas more than we did.

Work on the house continues! The crew is doing the finish cement on the walls inside and out. The block has to be covered with a base coat, then the boss masons go over it with a fine coat to finish the walls. Steve has asked them to finish our bedroom, bathroom/closet, kitchen, back entryway, small hall with electrical box in it, and 1/2 of the grand room. The posts outside on the porch have to be done so that Steve can put up the grillage (metal) for security. Oh, I forgot the floors in the rooms mentioned above. The outside has to be done on our bedroom and the kitchen area so that the holes they use for the scaffolding can be sealed up. (you'll see this in one of the pictures). This will only finish about 1/2 the house, but enough to get us moved in. The money is all but gone to work on things, so we will only be able to do whatever we can while the money lasts! The crew will work while we are gone or until the materials are gone (cement, gravel and sand). I'll include a couple of pictures of the guys working on the walls and the scaffolding outside.

I'm thinking I probably won't get a journal done next week, as we will be really busy getting things done for the wedding. I'll write in 2 weeks and tell you all about the wedding and the things we are doing. Some great friends at church are putting together a fundraising event for us, I'll tell you all about that as well! We will miss everyone here while we are gone. Please continue to keep us and those here in Haiti in your prayers, especially with Hurricane Gustav coming soon!

I am always grateful and thankful for everything that you do for us! God gives us all different gifts in our lifetime, we are ever thankful for those of you that give of your time, your money and your prayers!

THANK YOU and have a great week! I'll miss talking to you next week, but will sure be enjoying my family!

Update...We finally made it!

Have had lots of questions about whether we made it to the states or not....so thought I'd do an update!

We finally made it to Seattle, Washington....a day late, but here!!!! Our original flight plans were to leave Jeremie on Thursday afternoon, spend the night in Port and then leave at 11:00 AM for Fr. Lauderdale arriving in Seattle on Friday night at 9:30 PM!

Sounds simple...easy, have done it before...no problem!

Hurricane Gustav arrived on Tuesday in the middle of the night and proceeded to wreak havoc in our area through Friday...and beyond, actually! The airport in Port was closed for Tuesday and Wednesday and when it opened on Thursday there were so many people that missed their flights and could not be orderly or take turns and stay in line that they closed the doors of the International Airport and would not let anyone in due to disorderly actions and mobs outside of the airport. We heard that there were over 2,000 people outside of the airport trying to get it at the same time! Amazing!

Our problem locally was that the hurricane weather hung out on the end of our peninsula for a long time after it actually left our area. The small plane that normally travels between Port and Jeremie (Tortug Air) did not fly Tuesday or Wednesday and we were praying that the weather would clear up for Thursday. It wasn't to happen, Tortug didn't fly on Thursday either, leaving us with no way to get to Port. We called MAF (Missionary Aviation Fellowship, an organization that helps missionaries all over the world by providing air transportation for missionaries, (mail, emergencies, whatever the need) to see if they could come and get us on Thursday afternoon. They didn't have a pilot available, but said they could at 7:30 AM, getting to Jeremie at 8:30, back to Port by 9:30 and hopefully we could get on our plane by 11:00 AM. We knew it would be tight, but it was our only option...so we decided to give it our best shot.

It was not to happen.....called the MAF office at 6:45 AM Friday...found out that they couldn't get flight clearance to come to Jeremie, so they couldn't take off....he would call me back at 7:15 and let me know. I didn't quit panic yet, still hoping they could get clearance. Tortug said they weren't going to fly that morning early either...so that wasn't an option. At 7:15 MAF said they couldn't get clearance until 9:00 AM...at which time it would be too late to make our plane.

OKAY...now it was time to panic. We called the American Airlines office in Port to tell them why we couldn't make it and have them reschedule a flight for the weekend or the next available flight out of Port. Now our troubles really increased....lady said no flights until Sat. Sept. 6....the day Robin is getting married. I said, no...that wasn't possible, you have to have another day....you just have too...she had me hold on and said, well, she could get me on a plane on Friday the 5th....getting to Seattle at 9:30 PM. Now this really wasn't any much better, although as long as we didn't have 1 single problem, or missed flight I would at least be at the wedding. However, the way our things had been going, I didn't want to chance it that close to the wedding day. Now I can honestly say that I had melt down....actually totally fell apart. I think I frightened Steve, it was pretty bad.

Steve called Pastor Fran and asked him to call AA and see what he could find for us. Unfortunately, he couldn't find anything except for the same flight on Friday. I called him back about 15 min. later and said, look for 1st. class, we can upgrade. He called back about 9:30 and said, no luck, however the lady suggested that we try finding a way to the Dominican Republic and flying out of there to Miami, there were plenty of seats on those flights.

We went to work trying to figure out what we could do. Meantime, Will from MAF gave us a call and said that they had a plane part way to Jeremie....did we want them to still come and pick us up? They could be there at about 10:30 AM. We decided that IF MAF could come and get us that we could hire them to take us to Port, then try to figure out how to get to the DR and then have Fran change our reservations to go to Miami from the DR.

We got to the small airport at 11:30 AM, then went to the Tortug office to see about their flights to the DR. They had 2 a day, but were booked until Monday, not good, but better than next Friday. However, Steve suggested checking with the other small airlines that also goes to the DR...we did and they had a flight leaving Port at 5:00 PM....and Fran said that there was a flight leaving for Miami from the DR at 7:30 PM, perfect. Fran asked if there was enough time and I had asked the ticket person and they assured me that there was "plenty" of time to catch the plane. We said great, Fran bought 1 way tickets to the DR and waited.

HA...should have known it wouldn't be that easy! We arrived at the DR at what we thought was 5:45....piece of cake, however it was actually 6:45 PM (they are an hour ahead of us!) great, we lost an hour...then we found out that the small airport where we flew into was not even close to the large airport where AA is located. They said at immigration that we definitely would NOT make it. Great, found a taxi ($50 US worth), and sure enough, it was 45 minutes away! We got there at 7:45....yep, you guessed it, missed our flight!

This story just keeps getting better doesn't it! ha! The AA guy in the DR, changed our reservation one more time to leave the next morning (Sat.) at 8:45 arriving in Seattle at 8:45 PM. YES! We found a hotel, spent the night, arrived in time to catch our 8:45 plane to Miami...it was delayed for an hour! Okay, plenty of time. We sat on the plane for 1 hour while they continued to work on fuel problems..... left for Miami at 10:45 (2 hours late) and everything else went well! We arrived in Seattle, Washington on time at 8:45 PM on Saturday. Only 1 day late!

What a trip huh? We heard horrible stories about people being stuck every where and people unable to come back from the states to Haiti. It was really hard on a lot of people. We feel fortunate to be able to have options in getting out and making it here in time to help with the wedding plans.

Pastor Fran was amazing and a great encouragement, we couldn't have done it without him. THANKS, FRAN! Also would not have been able to be able to get back without the services of MAF....a huge thanks to them as well!

We are looking forward to the wedding and seeing people we haven't seen in a long time! I'll be sure and send pictures and catch you up on the wedding next week some time.

I still have a prayer request. Steve was sick last week before we came and had felt a little better on Thursday, he was really sick for the 2 days that we traveled...Friday he had a huge headache and felt bad, by the time we got to Robin's Sat. night, he was pretty bad, chills and hurting all over. Last night he had a high temperature and has had one off and on all day! We are pretty sure it is dengue fever, he had a rash last night and his whole body aches and feels horrible! It should pass in the next couple of days and he should be fine before the wedding! We would appreciate your prayers!