Cholera

Just a quick update on my parents, sister, niece and Manise (my adopted sister from Haiti) in Haiti. They went in and arrived safely in St. Marc Wednesday night. Rain has slowed some projects, but provided some good rest time and fellowship time. Manise has really enjoyed connecting with her family, a brother, two sister's and her Papa. Her biological father is so grateful to my folks for bringing her in to see them. It has been a long time, and I know he has missed her. When I called at one point Manise was sitting at the kitchen table playing pick-up-sticks with two of her siblings. Lots of laughter and good times! Many are aware that there has been some kind of epidemic going in Haiti, it has been covered up by the government (Haitian) because of the upcoming elections. We found out about it shortly after my folks landed in Port Au Prince. It is in fact Cholera, and many have died. We are not in the area infected, but because it is in the water, in can spread. However, many of the sick are being brought to St. Marc for treatment. Pray for swift deliverance from this epidemic. Cholera is still a big problem in third world countries and claims many lives every year. It can be treated quite successfully now days with IV therapy, it's just that often that is not available to the masses in these poor nations. Here is another thing to give thanks for at the end of the day, our tremendous heath care system. We are privileged to live in a land where we get the kind of help that we do, it may not be perfect, but it is light years ahead of where these poor people live. The other bright news today is that we have a pump in the well at the orphanage, and it delivers 10 gallons a minute, the same as our distribution well at the church property. The new pumps we took in on this trip run on a very small amperage draw. We can run them on the little generators we have purchased to help when there is no electricity which happens to be most of the time! We are so excited about this development, the city water lines to the orphanage building we discovered are broken and we have no idea when they will be fixed. Now it doesn't matter. We have clear water coming up out of the ground. What an amazing blessing as the rise of Cholera seems to add it's own exclamation point to this accomplishment! Keep my family in your prayers, they will be heading home Sunday afternoon. Blessings tonight.

Conditions

It's hard to believe the next trip is already upon us. What's even harder to believe is that two weeks before we go the suitcases are packed, tagged, and taped! 27 to be exact. There are 10 of us going on this trip, one is joining us in Miami coming from Texas. We are loaded for the orphanage, our children's services, over the counter medicines, Christmas supplies, school supplies, project supplies, and the list goes on! We are going to be building 22 benches for the church this time, modifying the water distribution system to be able to give away more water more quickly. We have found special pumps that will run off very low electrical demand, so our small generators will run them. This is going to allow for more water more consistently. We are going to be setting up a small internet service network for Robinson to hopefully improve our ability to communicate more economically and consistently. An added bonus we have just uncovered is that we are now able to text back and forth and that is working quite nicely. We are going to do some paint work at the orphanage, build a couple more shelves and do some organization work, hold three services for the children, a movie night at the church, and some training sessions. That's the short list! We are busy, but thankful for the way God is bringing this trip together. There is always anticipation and a touch of anxiety as you ready for these journey's. Things are not the same in Haiti as they are here, or most places for that matter. I know times have been tough in our country, but we have no idea the depths to which real poverty can plunge us. I often wonder about the condition our culture would be in if we were dropped into the same conditions as these poor hurting people. We appreciate all the prayers and support as we launch, we couldn't do this without our base of faithful supporters! Someone asked me the other day how we do this? The simple answer is: by God's grace. And I like to keep it simple! Our time here this side of eternity is short, we press against the limits of time to get done all we can, to prevail against the night, to forge out new beginnings from the void of darkness the enemy has lowered. Time rushes on! Until later, blessings today!