A few adventures...

Since I seem to struggle with keeping up to date with posts, I am posting photos from a few adventures in Haiti during the past few months.  

 

These photos were taken at a local bakery.  The men are rolling out bread dough that will be cut into squares and then baked in the concrete oven below.  A fire is built in the oven to get it very hot.  Then the hot coals are removed and the bread is put in to bake.

The Laundry Room at the hospital recently received a new paint job.  These ladies and a couple of men were happy to work in a clean, fresh room.  

Church in Are

Every year for one weekend in April, the local MEBSH church that we attend cancels services so that members can attend the MEBSH convention in Les Cayes.  We had the Pediatric Clinic team here that weekend so we attended a church in the community of Are.  This church lost its roof in Hurricane Matthew and was still working to get the entire building covered again.  They have only a few benches so we look our own chairs.

It really does not matter how big or beautiful the church building appears, what matters is the Presence of God and the Holy Spirit working within the hearts of the people assembled together.  

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.  II Corinthians 9:8

A few months ago as I was returning from a trip to town, I encountered this overturned charcoal truck on the mountain road to Bonne Fin.  For those that have been to Haiti, you know that trucks are loaded very high, making them top heavy.  This truck was overloaded with the large bags of Haitian charcoal and tipped over when trying to navigate through the deep ruts in the mountain road.  The men unloaded all the charcoal and are using long poles as levers to upright the truck.  Also, some men with ropes are on the other side of the truck.    As I approached, they cleared a space just large enough for my vehicle to pass through.  I had to pull in my side mirrors, but I was able to drive through the small space they created for me.  

This lady usually has a nice selection of produce in the Gwo Maren market.  When I shop there, she is my go-to person for good stuff.  I'm not sure of the spelling, but her name is Mashouka.

One of our favorite ways to relax is going to the Beach!   Below Krae and two of the Nussbaum kids catch a good wave for Boogie Boarding and Selah is a mermaid!

At the end of July, Rick and I attended the wedding ceremony for Mireille and Moise.  Mireille is one of my employees at the Guest House and it was a delight to be at their wedding.  They were married in the MEBSH church in Bonne Fin.  

I will close this post with a sunset over the mountains near our home.  August was a very busy month for us with lots to report so I will attempt to post again this week with some news and more photos.  

Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation.  Selah.    Psalm 68:19

5ive

As we are starting our 5th year in Haiti, I have been thinking about the number 5.  It has always been one of my favorite numbers as my birthday and my son's birthday both fall on the 5th of October; plus we have 5 people in our family, the youngest one being 5 years old. School starts soon for the kids and they will be doing school work for 5 days of every week.  And, sadly, it has been about 5 months since my last post on this blog.  With all these 5s rolling around in my head, it seemed a fitting title for this post.  

Now that I have written 5 sentences to get this post started, I struggle with where to begin in recapping the past few months.  I think that most of the people that read our blog probably know about the loss of our colaborer, sister in Christ and dear friend, Janella Zimmerman.  I would say that the main reason I haven't written until now is because I just didn't have the words to express our shock and grief after tragically losing Janella in early May.  Initially, we all felt the pain of this loss quite deeply, yet God is a might comforter and I believe he has given us ways to cope and he continues to provide comfort to our hearts.   As we reflect on the day of the Zimmerman's accident and see how God worked to protect and provide for David, Orrin and Cassia, we cannot deny that He has a plan for this family.  We have a peace that Janella was needed in the Heavenly Kingdom and that God is holding her husband and children in His embrace.  

As I sought comfort in God's word in the days and weeks following the loss of Janella, I bookmarked several verses on my Bible App.  This passage was of special comfort to me.

For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall...  
...He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth; for the Lord hath spoken it.  And  it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him and he will save us; this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.                       Isaiah 25: 4, 8-9

Recent Memories

Our family has many memories with the Zimmerman family.  Of all the missionaries that we have served with at Hopital Lumiere up to this point, we served the longest total time with the Zimmermans.  We have many memories of being together along with our missionary family for potluck dinners, hosting teams, beach trips and retreat weekends. In recent months, we spent time with just their family a couple of times.  

Back in January, we visited a small island just off the shore near Saint Louis du Sud. There are ruins from an old fort to explore as well as two shipwrecked vessels that are perfect for snorkeling.  We had a fun and relaxing day with the Zimms.  

Krae & Orrin playing ball with some boys

Selah & Orrin checking out the fresh catch of the day

Krae pretending to lead the charge on an old cannon

Mara   Krae   Selah

Building Sand Castles

Drone view photos of the shipwrecks that we like to explore

Making Sausage

We were able to spend a few hours with David, Orrin and Cassia in early June when we traveled to the USA for our summer furlough.  It was good to be with them.  We are able to share in their grief and also share in the peace that David feels about the loss of his wife. The kids had fun playing together at a park. 

Highlights from the last few months

As it has been a while since my last post, here are a few fun pictures from the early part of last year.

In February, we were able to take our re-scheduled trip to Florida.  We had a great time and really enjoyed the special time as a family.  

The Goodfield Team brought a giant bubble maker.  Selah had fun playing in the bubbles.

Fun body boarding in the ocean

Selah pretending to "camp-out" on the drive-way.

After a hike down the river, Mara prepares to jump over the waterfall into a fun swimming hole.

Krae jumping down the waterfall.

In May, we visited Jocelyn at his home in Cayes.  He seems to be doing well and thriving with his new family.  It was a joy to see him doing so well.

This post recaps our family during the early months of this year.  I will follow-up with some more Haitian adventures as well as news about our summer furlough in a few days.  

Call to Service

Over the last few months, it seems that the topic of being called to service for the Lord has been coming up in many of my personal devotions and in sermons in Haiti and in some of the sermons that we have randomly listened to through our church sermon streamer. At first, my feeling was that God has already called us and we are doing our reasonable service; we're good!  As this topic continued to come up, I began to wonder if God was calling us to a different type of service and I began to study the topic more.  As my study continued, it became apparent to me that God wasn't calling us to another event of service, but that He is always calling us to serve Him.  In essence, the call to service is not an event, but the way of life for those that follow Christ and call Him Lord.  

Ye shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him, and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.    Deuteronomy 13:4

As our work in Haiti has grown, changed and expanded over the last few years, it is encouraging to look back and see how God has called us to serve others and the hospital that is the heart of our mission here.  While the work continues to be challenging, we do see that God is blessing this mission and continuing to provide what is needed in his time.  
Since the beginning of the year, we have been blessed with many work teams, both medical and construction teams, that have come to Bonne Fin to serve.  While it has been busy, we are thankful for the willing hearts and hands of those who came and answered the call to serve in Haiti for a week.

Answering the Call...

We also appreciate several people that were able to commit to longer terms of service for several weeks or months.  We are currently blessed to have Dona Fehr serving as our missionary school teacher until the end of May and Anna Tieche serving as a Medical Department Intern.  Anna returned home this past weekend after serving here for 6 weeks and she hopes to return soon to serve for a longer period of time.  


Believing that God has called them to long term service as missionaries, the Nussbaum family joined our team in February.  They moved from Forrest, IL.

The two older Nussbaum children have increased our school size to 8 students and they are fitting right in with the other missionary kids.  We are especially thankful that Alayna and Tucker are each just a few months older than Mara and Krae and that all of the school kids enjoy being together.  

After a few months of language training and acclimate to Haiti, Raya will work in the hospital using her skills as an RN.  Lucas also has lots of skills in electrical, carpentry and general maintenance so his skills will be valuable as well.  We thank God for working in their hearts and prompting them to come and work alongside us. 


God has provided another family for our work at Hopital Lumiere as well.  Keith and Kristi Caldwell are from Nashville, TN and have been in Haiti since the summer of 2016.  

They came to Haiti to help a mission organization open a medical clinic near the Les Cayes area.  As God's timing and plan for that mission changed, Keith and Kristi were looking for a place to use their medical skills.  Keith is an APN (Nurse Practitioner) and Kristi is a Dietician.   They found Hopital Lumiere and joined our medical team in February as well and we are thankful that Keith has been able to jump in and start using his skills.  Since they have lived in Haiti for several months already, they have some language skills and have acclimated well.  

In addition, we are very thankful to welcome Carrie Stoller from Latty, OH to our missionary team this coming June.  Carrie is also an APN and will complete the medical missionary team.  After many months of having too few or no medical missionaries, we are very excited to have a full team!  Praise the Lord!

While we are thrilled to have a team with strong medical skills, we are praying that God will move hearts to consider joining our team in the next few months and years.  

Opportunities to Answer the Call to Missionary Service...

We are currently looking for a Teacher for the 2017-2018 school year at our Missionary School.  We ask for your prayers for a teacher and also ask that you help us spread the word.  If you know of someone who might be a good fit, please ask them to pray about serving as our teacher.   If you feel God leading you to serve in this way, please feel free to contact us with questions about the school and children.

See details for this position on the HarvestCall Website:  http://www.harvestcall.org/teacher-for-missionary-school1


We are also looking for missionaries who believe God is calling them to service in Haiti to fill roles of Director of Operations and Facilities Department Director as the Plattner and Zimmerman families plan to return home in 2018.  It usually takes about 1 year to complete the process and planning of sending missionaries to the field so it is not to early to answer the call for these positions if you believe God is directing you in this way.  Visit the HarvestCall Website for details on these positions as well:

http://www.harvestcall.org/director-of-operations-at-hospital-lumiere-haiti

http://www.harvestcall.org/facilities-department-director-at-hospital-lumiere

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service...

...Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; or he that exhorteth on exhortation; he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy with cheerfulness.    Romans 12: 1, 

We can be very thankful that God has given each of us different gift and abilities.  We see on the mission field how each person is used in different ways according to God's purpose and the gifts He bestows to each one.  At times, in our humanness, we begin to worry about who will come to fill the different roles here, but the Bible reminds us...

In thee, O Lord do I put my trust...  ...for thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy name's sake lead me and guide me.    Psalms 31:1, 3

Finding Blessings...

Bless the Lord, all His works in all places of His dominion: bless the Lord, O my soul.  Psalm 103:22

As the southern peninsula of Haiti recovers from Hurricane Matthew and the heavy rains that followed 2.5 weeks later, we look for blessings amid the destruction and loss.  So many of the Haitian people have told us that they are thankful to God that they have their lives.  The hurricane did lots of damage to homes, businesses, trees, landscape; but the loss of life and injuries in our area was very minimal.   We also have not seen a cholera outbreak in our area.  For these things, we give praise and thanks to our almighty God.   We are finding many other blessings as well.  The above photo is the new view from our rooftop.  The broken and stripped branch in the photo was longer and full of leaves and smaller branches in the past.  Because of these and other trees, we could not see the ocean from our house.  Now, we have a view of the mountains, the ocean and the small island of Ile a Vache in the background, a beautiful blessing each day!

This photo is a "fouch pou chabon"  or a smoking charcoal pit.  The local people gather up the smaller twigs and branches to stack into pits.  The wood is lit with fire and then covered with soil.  The wood then smolders for about 3 days to make charcoal.  The charcoal is sold in the local market and used for cooking fires.  Most Haitians have a small cook shack beside their house where they cook over an open charcoal fire.  While this is providing income for many people, the air in Bonne Fin has been thick with smoke for many days. Unfortunately, the location of our home seems to be in the path of most of the smoke. We've had sore throats and coughs as well as a sinus infection from all the smoke. Thankfully, the branches will be used up some day and the amount of smoke will decrease.

In addition to the charcoal pits, there have been many piles of leaves and debris burning all over campus.  I took the below picture on the lane just below our house.  The haze is smoke from several small fires.  Everything in my house smells like a bon fire.   I have to admit that it has been difficult for me to find the "blessing" in the amount of smoke that infiltrates my home each day.  Maybe the blessing is a lesson in longsuffering?

As clean-up has continued, we have seen many people working together.  Below are two sets of men working together.  The first photo is two men using axes to chop a large tree into smaller pieces.  I was amazed at their strength and rhythm as they worked together. The lower picture is two men sawing a tree trunk into planes of wood that will be used by a local carpenter to make furniture.  Again, their strength, rhythm and precision is amazing.  God blesses each of us with special gifts and talents!

Construction Team from Rockville, CT

At the end of October and first part of November, a team came from Rockville, CT.  The original plan was for this team to be a Dental Clinic team with some extra men to do some construction work on our campus.  With the damage caused by Hurricane Matthew, it was decided to change the focus of the team to be roof repair.  The team became a group of 14 men who came and repaired about 18 tin roofs on the hospital campus.  Most of these were small jobs such as the roof over the gallery or porch on the guest house. (pic below)

The original project for construction portion of the team was to put roofs on two new cook shack buildings that were built adjacent to the family housing rooms.  In Haiti, it is normal for the family of hospital patients to stay nearby and provide food and care.  The medical staff takes care of any medical treatment, but the families help patients with personal hygiene and provide their meals.  Most Haitians cook over an open fire with a small charcoal stove and a pot.  The new buildings have a cement sink with running water, a cement counter and space to set up their charcoal stoves.  

The team was able to put the roofs on the cook shacks and we took a team photo in front of and on top of one of the buildings.  

About one week after the team completed the cook shacks, I visited them and talked with some of the ladies working in them.

These ladies are doing some food prep at the sink inside one of the new cook shacks.

This lady is keeping an eye on the six pots that are simmering on top of the charcoal stoves.  Below each pot, a charcoal fire is burning.  I asked what was cooking; her reply included Vyann Kochon (Pork), Diri Kole (Rice and Beans) Mayi Moulen (Corn Meal Mush) Sos Pwa (Bean Sauce) and Poul (Chicken)  I believe she was watching the pots for several families that will share the food.  Those of you that know me and my love for cooking understand how fun it was for me to observe and talk with these women as they are cooking.  My heart is full and I am blessed to be able to learn from them.

Hospital Lumiere Auction

The annual HL Auction was held in Morton, IL on November 11th.  Rick traveled back to attend the auction as well as a board meeting that was held the following day.  Since the kids and I stayed in Haiti, I don't have pictures of the auction this year.   The auction was a success with the total collected increasing slightly over last year.  

Rick did come back with some fun toys that he purchased at the auction.  One was a drone; we are all having fun watching it fly around campus and we've gotten some great pictures .

We had an audience on our roof for the maiden flight of the new drone.

Hello!

An aerial shot of the hospital and clinic nestled in the mountain of Haiti.

Missionary Retreat

Each year the HarvestCall missionaries that are serving in Haiti gather together for a retreat the weekend before Thanksgiving.  We returned to Coby Beach Resort again this year and enjoyed a weekend of fun, fellowship, renewal and relaxation.  A huge thank you to John Huber, Kirk & Keri Plattner, Amber Miller and Eric & Jami Hartzler for coming and leading our sessions.  We were blessed!  Below are a few pictures from the weekend.

Thanksgiving

Since our move to Haiti, it has become a tradition for us to be with our extended missionary family for Thanksgiving.  This is large gathering of missionaries that are serving in southern Haiti and we have come to love the event.  Mara commented to me this year that Thanksgiving is her favorite holiday in Haiti.  We are THANKFUL for the blessing of having some many wonderful people serving with us in Haiti.  

I will close this post with a photo of my new friend.  I'm not quite sure yet how this friend is blessing me, but I do love this photo of the tree frog that frequently "hangs out" on our back gate.  

Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name.

Psalm 103:1