New Life for Haiti-Joline's February 2010 Journal

Sunday was a nice, quiet day. Church services have been longer since the Earthquake, especially the last 2 weeks since people have been coming back from Port on boats and over the mountain. This last Sunday we had about 10 people stand up in church and tell their experiences in Port, several of them lost family members in their homes. Our church service was about 2 1/2 hours long, even long by Haitian standards...however, they have been wonderful services, lots of singing, praying and praising! Sermons have been good (well long, but good) and it has been really wonderful, so no complaints. At least it isn't really hot! Then we rested, read and had a quiet afternoon.

Monday was pretty quiet and since Vilex spent the day in Jeremie, he didn't take any pictures or spend much time in Marfranc. I have been counting on him to do the pictures so wasn't much to do, but wait! We did decide a way we might be able to get some food to some of the people who are having family from Port in their homes. The hardest part about this whole thing is figuring out a way to help people. It is so difficult to give things away here. You would think that the need was so great, that it would be easy to do, but it is not. Jealousy is so prevalent here and when someone gets something, even if they desperately need it, and another person does not.....they are jealous and yell about it, give the person a hard time who receives it and then yells as the person who gives. It makes it very hard to help people that are in so much need. So, we have to find a system by which we give that limits where you give it and how you give it. Like the lists that Pastor Plaisir is making to give cement away. A system. So, we thought, if we could buy some ble (which is cracked wheat, by the way...thank you Joy McCall and Brenda Robertson) and give it to each of our 6 churches, they could find a way to hand it out to those families that need it. Plus, if we gave them some money in an envelope, they could give it out as well, so that some of them could buy food. This leaves us out of the loop and since they know their people better, they should be able to help those that need it the most. The Pastors of these 6 churches in our district meet on the first Monday of the month...which is next Monday...so we will be fixing envelopes for each of them and giving them the ble as well. We feel this is the best way to try to help the most people! Thank you for responding to the Relief fund, so that we can continue to help the people of this area.

Yesterday, Vilex went into Jeremie and bought 6 bags of ble.....said it was running out and very hard to find. This morning, he called the store that he had bought the 6 bags from and asked them if they had anymore, we needed to buy 10 more sacks. They said they had exactly 10 sacks left and if he would come in right away and buy them, we could have them. SO....he went back into Jeremie with money and bought their last 10 sacks. God is great! He said that we would have to go in tomorrow morning and get them at the pastor's house there because people watched him take the sacks into the house. He said several people offered him more money, if he would sell the sacks to them. The pastor was afraid to keep them for long because people are starting to get desperate. So tomorrow morning, Vilex and Steve will go into Jeremie and pick up the 16 sacks. Pray that no one bothers them with their truck load of food. Vilex says there are no more big bags of rice, sugar or flour. You can still get mamits (12 cups) of all of them, but not big bags. I'll have them get some flour for me, so I can continue to make bread for us. Not sure if we can drink coffee without cookies either. Vilex loves my cookies, so think he'll look hard for flour, ha! I'm out of tortillas, but if I have flour I can make those too, so flour is pretty important! We'll see how much I have to pay for it! sigh.

There was an article (available here) that was sent to us about a truck of food that 20 Haitians attempted to hijack....in Jeremie!!! I was amazed, our quiet little town? It said there was a truckload of food going from the airport into town and 20 men tried to stop it and steal it. The UN was right there, or passing by (didn't say) and shot rounds into the air and everyone ran....so it was fine. Kind of scary, but then people are starting to get desperate! Pray that food starts coming in by boat, so it can be bought....that would help tremendously. If it was available, then at least there is a chance people can feed themselves. Out here, in the countryside, we don't see too much desperate yet. Although, today, Pastor Plaisir said that he was asked by a lot of people on Sunday for food, or money for food. So, maybe it is starting to hit here already.

We hope that the ble we bought will help a few and what we give the churches will help as well. Pastor did say that the food we give to the elderly women is a huge blessing! Because of your support, we are able to do what little we can to help people.

This morning, I went to the weekly women's prayer meeting. They have been having more prayer meetings since the earthquake happened. Normally they meet probably 4 times a week to sing and pray, but since last week, they have been meeting at each others houses every day in the afternoon. Between 20 and 27 women get together and pray, it is so powerful! This morning was very emotional for me. As I kneeled on the floor to pray with the 27 women at the church, I could hear all of their petitions to God for help. It overwhelmed me to listen to all of their cries for help. But, amid those cries for help, there was also wonderful prayers of thanks. These women, who are trying to hold their families together were thanking God for taking care of them, for helping their families, for keeping their families safe and for everything in their lives. I cried because I have so much compared to them, and they manage to be so thankful! It is humbling to be with them. They are amazing women of faith and an encouragement to me. What a morning.

After the meeting, Pastor showed me that there was some damage to the church. Steve had seen a corner that was very cracked and coming apart and has plans to fix that. But Pastor showed me an outside wall that is close to the neighbors, so you don’t walk by it....the plaster fell off during the earthquake, so that will need to be repaired as well. Very reparable, but need to be done! Lots to do.

I have a friend in Lewiston, Pam Weenig. I have known Pam for a very, very long time, our boys were friends forever and ever. I taught Jr. High with Pam for 3 years and have kept in touch with her since we left to come to Haiti 14 years ago. She has been reading my updates to her 7th grade social studies kids. They have been listening to what is going on and decided they wanted to help. So all 5 of her classes sold suckers at school to raise money for Marfranc cement project!!! They raised over their $200 projected goal!! It is so exciting to see young people that want to help those less fortunate than themselves....thanks Pam for encouraging your students to look beyond their own lives to help others! Your kids are amazing!

Houses are being repaired, Vilex took a lot of pictures today. Can only share a couple with you...but wanted you to see a couple of faces with new walls! You are all awesome. I'll have some stats for you in the next update! People are very grateful for everything they are being given. THANK YOU so much for all that you have done to encourage these people and let them know that others care about them and are willing to help! We appreciate all that you are doing for them.

We send you love, please continue to pray for our people here and those that are still in Port without food and water!

I hope you have a good week.......God Bless,

Ever have one of those days that you thought you didn't have much to do and it ends up being like really crazy nuts? Well yesterday morning was like that, then last night when I decided to sit and write to all of you, my internet was going off and on so much, I knew I would get frustrated, so I just decided to put it off until tonight! Today was pretty mellow.....which was really, really nice!

First, I'd like to ask for prayers for Steve. For several weeks his "good" knee (the one that has not been replaced) has been hurting him a lot. He has had trouble sleeping and it has severely curtailed what he has been able to do. Those of you with knee problems know what happens when you start favoring a knee....yep, you mess your back up! He has been walking around the last 2 days looking more like an "s" shape than a normal back! He is having trouble sleeping and it is hurting him a lot in the day time. He spent some time under the truck this morning, on the ground, looking at the brakes.....you can imagine how bad his back was this afternoon and tonight. Please keep him in prayer. We both know it just takes time, but besides the pain he is frustrated with not being able to do so many things! Thanks.

Yesterday all we knew that we needed to do was to take a run to Moron church (about 1/2 hour further down the road from Marfranc) to deliver the ble for the Moron church and the Chameau church. Steve thought if we did it in the afternoon, then he'd have the morning to get some work done. HA!!! During coffee....before breakfast even...Pastor Plaisir showed up at our front gate...seriously, like at 7:00 AM. He was upset about several things and needed to talk. First he said we needed to change how we were giving out the ble and money to help the churches and after much discussion, we decided his way was fine, it didn't really matter to us, as long as the people got the food and the help. So, as we were talking, a couple of young people from the Kanton church showed up (because he told them to) to get their bags of ble....and then about 15 min. later a guy from Plik with a donkey showed up to get his ble......in between the ble give away...we talked a lot to Pastor. Some people in town are giving him a hard time about cement....and he doesn't think they are all using it, so we are stopping the give away for a week or so, then will resume a little more orderly, we hope. After much talking to Pastor, Vilex showed up and we all sat down together to have a light breakfast....impromptu as you can imagine!

It was decided that we should go to Moron in the morning, since the pastor could really use the ble.....which was fine. Pastor Plaisir left after we talked about bringing his ble to the church on our way to Moron (we have a feeling that is why it needed to be the morning instead of the afternoon, but no one said that out loud, ha!). Just as we were loading the ble into the truck, Bicolor (who is one of our teachers here in Marfranc and also goes to our church) showed up. He and his mother have been buying the beans that we are loaning out for our bean program. He told us that we needed to go and pick up some sacks of beans that he had bought, they were being kept on the outskirts of Marfranc. So we said, SURE.....come in with us, we'll pick up the beans, after we drop off the ble at Pastor's house and on our way to Moron. No problem. As we are talking about this, Dis (our yard guy) starts putting these large, large natural wood beams into the truck. I say, "hey Dis.....what are you doing?" Oh, he says, I need you to take me and the beams to Pastor's house so I can take them to my house. Great....I say under my breathe...we were going to leave Bouki with Dis....guess Bouki will go to Moron with us. Bouki is very excited about this change in plans.

Okay, have I lost all of you yet? Our simple day, had just turned into.........all of that.

SO, we got into the truck, all of us, Bouki, Vilex, me, with Dis and Bicolor in the back with the beams and ble. We drop off the beams, Dis and some of the ble at Pastor's house, thinking we are going to get the beans and drop off Bicolor....but when Bicolor doesn't tell us where to stop and we are almost to Moron, we figure out, gosh, we must be picking up those beans on our way back, duh! What were we thinking. We arrive at Pastor's house in Moron, drop off the ble for the two churches, say HI....and drive back to Marfranc, where we pick up several large sacks of beans....then go home. Once we get home, Vilex, Bicolor and I measure out the beans to see how much he bought, then figure out how many more we will need to get this all finished up!!! It is now almost lunch time....where did my day go!

Just wanted you to see what happens to our days. Actually this happens pretty frequently. Here in Haiti, cell phones have been around, probably about 3 years. Before that, no one called anyone, you just showed up and requested what you needed and assumed that it would happen. Well, that still is what they do here. You need something or to go somewhere, you show up and just ask...usually expecting that everyone else will drop what they are doing and take you or do it for you! People stop by our house all the time, doesn't matter what time of day it is or that we might actually be doing something that we don't want to interrupt! ha!

Today, the young man that is the acting Pastor for the Chameau church, dropped by. Keep in mind that he is living in Moron, a 1/2 hour drive, and preaches in Chameau, which is about a 45 min walk from Moron. He wanted to come and get the money to help the people in Chameau and also the envelope for his family. He was very appreciative of the help, both for the congregation in Chameau, but also for his family. I'm sure that he gets paid very, very little for the work that they do there. He is currently going to Bible college in Chambelan. It is a 4 year program and he is in his last year. Just this fall, he started preaching in Chameau. Every weekend, he and his wife and their daughter, walk up to Chameau and do Sunday school and church. His name is Estache and he's a great guy. He showed up today at lunch time! Of course we didn't know he was coming and Mme. Asson has been being careful how much she cooks. She has been cooking just enough for us, to conserve on the rice that we have! I got done talking to him in plenty of time before lunch, but he stayed to charge his cell phone! ha! Plus, he grew up in Chameau and that is where Vilex was born and where both his mother and father's families still live. Estache is a second or third cousin of Vilex. Didn't know what to do about lunch, since he was staying around. Didn't have enough, so I asked Vilex what to do! We fixed him a plate with a few things on it and some juice and he ate that while he waited for his cell phone to charge.

Like I said, never a dull moment! I'm sending along 1 picture of another house that is being worked on and the man that owns it. Lots of people are very grateful for all that you are doing for them. It isn't much, we aren't totally rebuilding houses, but we are giving them hope and encouragement and really that is what they need! Thank you for helping us, help them...we could not do this without all of you!

Still lots of challenges ahead, I'm sure! But, tomorrow is a new day...we'll see what it brings! I know for sure that Steve and Dis are going into Jeremie again. Heard that we can pick up our 2 large tanks of propane!!!!! YES! Silly how little things make me smile. So they will go and do that and buy a few things. Dis needs some nails at the local hardware store in Jeremie, so he will go in with Steve. Plus tomorrow is also the first Saturday of the month and that is the Membership meeting at church in the morning and we attend that! So it will be an early morning meeting, then I'll send them off to Jeremie!

We pray you are will have a great weekend. Do something relaxing and fun..enjoy your families!

We send you much love,

Haven't heard from me for a couple of days, so thought I'd write a quick note.

Things have gotten pretty quiet. When we decided to rest on giving away some cement for a week, it was a good idea. Pastor needed a break and I think we did to!

This week has been filled with lots of different things and it's only Tuesday!

Sunday was Steve's birthday, and it was a nice quiet day. Spent the morning in church and a quiet afternoon at home. Of course there isn't much to do or very many places to go ha! Steve wanted Thai food for dinner....but no such luck! He said he'd settle for a steak...but alas, couldn't do that either! Oh well....however, it was a nice, restful day for him.

Monday was pretty normal, with more of the ble given out to the pastors, just 1 church left to go. The Pastor's also got their money for their churches and were very happy with that. The Pastor from Moron actually came back with his report on how he gave out his money already, he said people were very, very happy to have the help. Vilex did say that he found a couple of bags of rice in Jeremie...it has gone up about $50 Haitian, which is about $8.00 US....That's a lot for our people out here in the valley. Vilex said that it's hard to find, but he thinks it's starting to come over the mountains by truck. He says that the boats still aren't bringing food.

Steve went into Jeremie on Saturday to pick up the large propane tanks that we finally got filled. He took Dis with him. Dis wanted to buy a few sheets of tin and also some nails and Steve wanted a couple pieces of tin as well. They looked all over for tin and found NONE....Dis did finally find some nails, although Steve said he took him everywhere and he walked most of downtown looking for them. Crazy. So no tin in town! OH, this will kill some of you, but those that love their pets will definitely understand it. We are down to 2/3 of a bag of dog food for Bouki, so when Steve was in the grocery store, the lady we know well, Rose, said....oh, I have some dog food, if you want to buy it. She had 2 50 lb. bags of Purina Dog Chow. HA! Steve thought great....we'll take one and our friend Pastor Dave (with another big dog, Jabari) can have the other one....he asked,, how much? Are you ready? $60 US...yeah, I'm not exaggerating! Okay, now how outrageous is that? However, they knew if we needed it, we would buy it and we did....and so did Dave! Just another example of how much things are and what they probably will continue to be!! Nuts huh? But at least Bouki will have food!

Monday was the Pastor's meeting that they have at the beginning of each month. If I have anything to discuss with all of the churches that is the best time to get them altogether. Vilex and I talked to them about the bean loaning program. We only have 1 more church to get the beans to and then we are done with this phase. They will plant their beans, then harvest them in about 2 months or so. Then each pastor is responsible for collecting the beans and returning them to us to resale. It is quite a process, takes a lot of time and Vilex has been wonderful! We will both be glad when it's done for awhile.

School started yesterday....yeah!! Finally. It still hasn't started in Jeremie or other places, but the Marfranc area decided to open school again, which is wonderful. However yesterday only about 6 - 10 kids showed up for each class. This morning when I went to the ladies meeting, there were more kids, so by the end of the week everyone should hear that it has opened and be there! We'll be able to start giving out vitamins again twice a week and catch up on our child sponsorship program as well. It will be good to be back doing that again.

I was talking to Steve about how to give away more ble to the community. As I said before it is so hard to give things away. I decided that giving some to each of the women at the women's prayer meeting was a good way to do it and a small enough group (30) to do it with. I had some small plastic bags, so Steve and I put about 5 cups of ble into a bag, sealed it and then I had some bandana's left over from several projects and also from donations from Judy Bonheim's home group (Pastor Fran Leeman's church) and I used them to tie up the bags of ble. Each woman that came this morning received a bandana with ble in it. It was great and there were lots of smiles and thank you's all the way around! I love it when they smile. It wasn't a big gift. I told them I wished I could give each of them a sack of rice, but since I couldn't this was just a token of our love for them. We prayed and sang for over an hour this morning, the definitely pray without ceasing! They are amazing.

Both of our teams for March have canceled due to the unknown! ha! Seriously, we have no clue when AA will be flying again and until we have a place we know groups can stay all night in Port, it is just too iffy. Right now we have enough fuel for the generators and truck, but our food is still not real stable, so everyone thought it best to just wait. The first group from Pastor Eddie's church in Indiana will be coming in the fall, probably November and Pastor Brian's group joined with another group they had coming in May...and will all come together at that time. Pastor Fran is still trying to use his tickets at the end of the month....if AA will fly, he'll show up! So we will just have to wait and see. Our next group is scheduled for April, it is the group that takes the Child Sponsorship pictures, so we are assuming by then things will be pretty much back to normal! Keep praying that the country will start to recover and things will get back to a normal pace!

Thank you for loving us and for loving the people in this valley. I know if they could, they would tell all of you thank you for all that you do for them. They pray for all of you daily and know that you are doing the same for them. THANK YOU from all of us.

The rest of the week should be pretty quiet. They are starting to work on the repair of the church building. Have to re-plaster one whole side and also fix a back corner of the church. So work is continuing to be done. Will start back on our cement list next week.....and will update you on how far everyone is getting!

Sending you all much love,

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's just another Sunday here...no one here in Haiti, at least in our area, celebrates the day, so it was rather quiet! We spent a quiet day reading and relaxing, it was raining which meant no visitors...which actually was really nice! Vilex was here most of the afternoon, but he's family...so that was nice too! I have to tell you a nice Valentine's story though. This morning we were drinking coffee on the porch and Steve told me Happy Valentine's Day... I said thanks, Happy Valentine's Day too....oh and thank you for the beautiful flowers. He smiled and said....did you like them? I said, yes, they are beautiful. He then said (smart aleck) what kind were they? I said, roses. He said, what color? I said, red of course, the color you always get me!!!! He laughed. This of course, as you have guessed was all hypothetical, since there are no FTD here or florists for that matter! It was a very, very nice thought though! We hope you all enjoyed your day with a loved one.. and that you were able to do something special together.....like go out to eat...yummmm.....okay so that is another thing we haven't done for months. We hope you all enjoyed it for us as well!

I try to go to the women's meetings on Tuesday mornings....like the ones that I have mentioned a few times. The ladies however meet much more often than that. They meet every Monday and Friday afternoon at one of the women's homes to pray for their homes specifically. They meet on Tuesday and Saturday mornings at the church to sing and pray and practice for their Sunday morning special music at least twice a month. They also meet with the rest of the church on Sunday afternoons and frequently during the week. It is amazing how much time they spend in prayer for each other, their church, their community and their country. I am always struck with the contrast between their prayer time and ours in the US. They spend so much time in prayer and praising God! When I went to the meeting last Tuesday, they all decided that it was my turn to have everyone come to my house and they chose Friday! So last Friday, 34 women came to our house at around 3:30 and stayed until 5:00. We all crowded into the big room....and used all the chairs we could find, even my small kitchen chairs...and we sang, prayed, read Psalms together and prayed some more. It was a wonderful time of fellowship and prayer. The entire time in prayer was for Steve and I, our families, New Life For Haiti, our work there in Marfranc and anything else that they know about us. It was a blessing and lifted us up! It made me realize that I need to spend more time in prayer....

Speaking of praying...Steve's back is still bothering him. We thought it was getting better, but this evening it is still bad. Would you please continue to keep him in prayer for the pain to ease up so that he can continue to get things done!

School has started again. Well, kind of! It was supposed to start last week, but I don't think very many kids came back. There was rain on Friday, so no one came to school. We are really hoping that tomorrow things will get back to normal. It rained all day today, so if it's rainy tomorrow, the kids won't show up! It just seems like things are just slow at getting started again. Tuesday is Mardi Gras, and normally there is no school all week, however Preval (the President of Haiti) has cancelled Mardi Gras for this year, so will see what happens at our local school. Schools in Jeremie and the state schools in our area still have not started....so the whole process is messed up! I'll keep you posted!

However....we will be busy the next two days. One of the big youth events that we started 2 years ago, was Mardi Gras camp for the Marfranc district. Some of you have donated to the youth activities that we started and some of that money is going to be used for our Mardi Gras camp. After the earthquake, when we heard that Preval had cancelled Mardi Gras, Vilex thought maybe he would cancel the Mardi Gras Camp. Last year it was 2 nights and 3 days, and they had a ball. Normally, everyone pays a small amount to come. We knew this year, no one would be able to afford it, but Vilex also said it was important to do it so that things were more normal. The youth need something to hang on to...to know things are going to be okay. So we decided that we had enough money to do a 1 night (2 day) camp and that they wouldn't have to pay anything. He gave each church the number of campers they could have attend, since it was free (we knew we would have 100 if we didn't limit it). So he made the limit 60, we knew we had enough money to do that. We also asked each church to help bring some of the food because they weren't paying money. So each church was assigned, either yams, plantains or fruit for juice. These are all things that are grown in the gardens in this area and would not cost anything to bring. Although we realize that the people donating would probably be selling or eating what was donated.

The 60 campers will stay in the dorm houses that are here at the camp (right next door to our house) and the meals will be cooked by some of the youth and also Mme. Asson (our cook) and probably Benit (our house cleaner) and hopefully several other women from the church. Vilex has a Police officer from Jeremie (who attends the Baptist church there) coming to talk to them and he will stay and eat with them on Monday. I have a craft project that I will be doing with anyone interested at some point during Monday or Tuesday. They will probably watch a movie on Monday night after their praise and worship service! They just love getting together and having a good time. It is one of the few social events in the area and the kids always look forward to it. These youth range from ages 15 to 30.....so it isn't like our youth group in the states. They are from 4 of our Baptist churches and a Faith of the Apostles church in Marfranc....a very wonderful and diverse group of Christian kids. I wish I could bottle up their love of the Lord and send it to all of you. If you could just hear them sing and praise God! It is so awesome.

Our beans are all given out...we think, ha! We bought and loaned out 348 mamits (or 4176 cups) of beans to over 60 families. We'll keep you posted on how the season ends up!

Thank you to those that donated to this project....everyone loves it and it helps so many people!

We have some things that were taken to Bluffton, Indiana this last week that we hope will arrive by container in a month or six weeks. LifeSpring Community church did a food drive for us and we hope this stuff comes on the next container! With this bunch of stuff is a sun oven!!! Yeah! Steve's sister, Amy, found a place on the internet that sells them and she sent me a link to look at. They get as hot as 375 to 400 degrees and there are pots to cook different things in as well bread and cookies! Our friend, Brian Zurita, lives about 45 min. away from the company that Amy found and on their website they talked about donating ovens to Haiti, so Brian decided to go and visit them! Long story short, he got a great discount on an oven, with 2 pots and Amy bought one for us along with cookies sheets, and bread pans and a cook book! When it arrives I'll let you know how we do with it. I think it will be fun to show Mme. Asson how it works, we'll have to see if we can cook beans and rice in one of the pots....or something! Wouldn’t' it be fun to start a new trend...no charcoal cooking. I doubt that it would ever totally replace charcoal, but it might slow down the consumption! I'll sure let you know.

We have also started to seriously look at a solar package to help us with our fuel costs. Currently, we pay almost $5 a gallon for diesel and over $6 for gasoline. Steve found a great solar package that would sustain our home here for about $8,000. This is everything, panels, batteries, inverter, all the hook ups etc. It is something we have been looking at for a while, but with the fuel shortage and high cost, it is really evident that the sun is FREE and we should be taking advantage of it since we live in the land of the sun!! So we will start a campaign to see if we can get this system and get it up and running! So many things in the works.....

You can see that at least the beginning of the week will be busy for us! We pray that you will have a great week! Please continue to keep us and the people here in your prayers. We'll get busy again on the cement probably the week after this...and we'll get you some more pictures! Thank you again for all of your love and prayers and financial help for the people in the Marfranc area. We really appreciate all that you do for us! You are awesome!