A Wedding and the 2nd Journey of the Gifts!

Our most recent trip to Haiti was full of joy!  Last year, Nono, one of our Haitian “daughters” who lives at the base and works to make our stays there possible, started teaching at Yvrose’s school.  She met Clenol, a young man who also teaches at Yvrose’s school, and the two were drawn to each other.  Clenol is a fine Christian man and has been helping us with things on our last several trips to Haiti.

Clenol and Nono at their wedding with Bill and Janet

On Dec. 15^th, they were married in Port au Prince.  As often happens in Haiti, all did not go smoothly with minor “crises” throughout the day.  But God pulled it all together and it was a lovely wedding though it was 1½ hours late!  Bill walked Nono down the aisle.

Clenol and Nono will be living at the base helping to host our visitors.  Our friends Danny Medeiros and James Padron worked all day building a partition to make them a room of their own at the base.  We ask for your prayers for their marriage and their future.  We have great hopes that their family will be a light to the community in Haiti.

The second highlight of the trip was the journey to the mountains to pass out Operation Christmas Child boxes that Samaritan’s Purse graciously gave us again this year!!  They gave us over 500 boxes but since their rule is One Child, One Box, One Time, we could not return to our schools but had to go deeper into the mountains to distribute the gifts to other children.

Sonel and others had traveled to Pensek, the site of one of our cholera clinics last year, to canvas the area and find the children.  Over 400 from Pensek and Grand Rac came to the church building in Pensek for the gift distribution on Dec. 17^th.  Friends from Chicago and Kansas joined us to help with the distribution.

Mules carrying gift boxes up into the mountains

Once again, we picked up the gifts in boxes from Samaritan’s Purse in Port au Prince, (thank you, Victory Compassion for the loan of the truck to pick them up), packed them into large bags that could be loaded on mules, took them to the trailhead (thank you, HCM, for the loan of the truck to take them there), loaded them on 27 rented mules, and headed up the mountain with members of our team riding our mules or hiking.  It was a long and hard five hour climb over very rough territory.

When we arrived, we were amazed to see Adrienne, the crippled girl Bill met last year in Pensek, waiting to see us.  She was 18 years old last year when he met her and hadn’t walked since she was four.  Bill left her a PROCLAIMER, an audio Creole Bible that she had worn out this year playing it for her neighbors.  Adrienne WALKED up to greet us!!  I was in tears as I met her for the first time.  I asked Bill what had happened and he said, “I think a miracle!”  We are praising God for how well she is doing!

The children were gathered in the church building.  A meal of rice, beans, and chicken sauce was

Bill handing out the gift boxes

served to them.  Then Bill spoke through a translator about the gifts and why they were receiving them.  He told them of the people here who love God and want to share that love with them.  Jackson told them the Christmas story of the birth of Jesus and then we passed out the gifts.  These are poor children who probably have never had a Christmas gift in their lives.  Bill gave every child their box individually and told them Jesus loved them.

We packed up the boxes that were left and headed out to try to make it to Pelerin for the night but it got dark and we stopped near Chapelle where the destroyed school was.  The family who hosted us swept up the dirt floor of one of their dwellings and

Happy little girls opening their gifts

we spread out plastic and our sleeping mats.  In the morning, many children from that area came and we passed out more gifts.  This time we got to see them open the boxes and it was a joy to see their beaming faces!  The rest of the gifts we distributed to children we met on the trail going down the mountain.

JUST MERCY is hoping to get to do this again next year.  To give a gift to a child who has never had one is such a blessing!  We are so grateful to Samaritan’s Purse for letting us partner with them to give gifts to these children in the name of the Father!

We are planning on having a graduation ceremony in January for the children at the schools who are completing The Greatest Journey course also provided by Samaritan’s Purse.  They will receive their own Creole New Testament!  I asked Sonel how the course was going.  He said one young lady said she had heard the stories before but now she knew who Jesus was!  We are looking forward to our next trip to the mountains to visit with the children who have taken the course.

There are many decisions that need to be made about the direction we are going in Haiti.  The school in Chapelle is meeting under tarps on sticks and we are trying to raise the money to build a church/school to replace it.   The school in Pelerin is about to fall down and needs repaired or rebuilt.  Storms Isaac and Sandy this summer were very hard on it.  We are having some trouble with the school in Robia and will be needing to make some decisions about how to continue there.

Please keep all of this in your prayers as we seek to know what direction God would have us go.  We are so grateful for your prayers and support that make it possible for us to continue to serve in Haiti.  May God bless you all!!