Haiti Visit by Cory and Church Visit Schedule.

We share about the work in Haiti:
March 24, 11am service, Central Wesleyan, Jackson Michigan
March 31,  9:30 am service Living Hope Community, Richland MI
March 31, 6:30pm service, Diamond Springs Wesleyan

The trip to Haiti went well. The country has been mostly calm the past few weeks but there are reports of potential serious trouble at the end of March. 

Broccoli and other vegetables

The politics are complicated and partly international so it is hard to predict.

Just before going to the airport on our return we had a good meeting with 3 of the top leaders of the Haitian Wesleyan Church: Pastor Denor, Pastor Doucet, and Pastor Clother. 

They advised that due to the potential problems, we wait until April 8 to decide when the Wesleyan missionaries should return. They think if Haiti is calm until then, it is likely to stay calm.

Planting the dormant apples

The time at Delice was encouraging. The nursery and small garden (irrigated due to dry season) are growing well. It was good to see many types trees and vegetables growing at a good speed. 

The cool weather slows the growth of most plants but the good side is that weeds also grow much slower than they do down in the hot areas.

The workers never had broccoli and were impressed with how “sweet” the raw stem part was. One, impressed with the diversity, kept asking if this or that tree would produce anything.

Macadamia tree 

We planted the 33 grafted apple trees, each a different variety shown to do well in the tropics. 

With all these we should have late storage apples available until the early varieties start to ripen. 

Some may even produce more than one crop per year. Varieties planted include Fuji, Gala, Granny Smith, Arkansas Black, Coconut Crunch, Cinnamon Spice… 

The photos are from this week.

Too much erosion from years of growing corn and beans in Delice area!

Spineless Peach Palm and Black Sapote I gave a few years ago at Clean Water for Haiti, in a dry area near the sea.

Moringa products for sale at Port au Prince Airport.

Cory's Haiti trip: Part One

The flight to Chicago on the way to Haiti was cancelled but flights the next two days went well, I loaded up the truck and drove to Delice with Gener after one night at Fauche. 

Moringa leaf solar dryer

After one night at Delice I went to LaGonave for the WISH 50th anniversary celebration.

Organic moringa leaf powder from LaGonave

It was good to see the gardens that we started 20 years ago still producing moringa leaf powder and being expanded and improved.

We hope to bring this experience to many more areas of Haiti. 

The search has started for land to  develop a demonstration farm and moringa leaf powder production center near the coast below Delice.

Jeantiny and four of his children

We hope local farmers will at least grow leaves to sell for processing or even produce leaf powder themselves to sell in Haiti and eventually to the USA.

H. Matthew .....Trip 1

Flood damage at Pitite Rivier de Nippes

Thank you for the prayers. While I could write a lot about our trip I need some time to process and rest up so will try to focus on some important points and update about current plans.

The hardest part I think was that continuing rains prevented us from visiting any of the hard hit areas in the mountains just south of Petit Goave or those north of Bainet. We were in the central coastal areas of the southern peninsula where damage was significant but frther West is much worse.

We also tried to get to Còte de Fer, traveling down to the Southern coast and then heading back East, but two bridges had been washed away on Rout 208, just past the town of Nadine.

Heavy storm clouds were coming in from the sea and although motorbikes were driving through, it  was knee deep, was wide, and looked too deep for our truck.

Tuesday we visited the church at Petite Riviére de Nippes and then took a small boat to Grand Boucan to see the church there. Wednesday the bridge that was out turned us around after a couple hours on the road toward Cote de Fer.

Where we had to turn back..no bridge.

So we visited three churches close to the road near Petite Goave as well as a location in town where the river ran through a neighborhood.

We managed to fit in one last church-which meant driving a while up a large riverbed.

During Hurricane Matthew a bridge coming into town was damaged by this river being flooded.

Wednesday night light rain started between 9-10 p.m. and continued all night into the morning.

Because our truck is small, the plan had been to send in a higher, heavier truck to take us to the harder to reach areas.

Petit Goave

So with the weather outlook being for heavy and all day rains, we returned to Port au Prince where a planning meeting was held that afternoon.

Four areas were identified as needing the most assistance. Yesterday we traveled home, picking up Anna from Ortlip.

Most of the banana plants will grow again and produce if they have enough leaves when they bloom to nourish a bunch of bananas(the number of leaves and flower bud form months before it blooms and then no more leaves can grow) but it will take about 15-18 months to start harvesting full-size bunches of bananas again.

Banana plants still in standing water...if they don't dry out soon the bulbs will be badly damaged or rot. If there is higher ground to plant, people could move the younger bulbs.

Meanwhile in Port, the supplies donated by World Hope [tarps, water filters, and personal hygiene kits] cleared customs in only three days. Food will be purchased to add to the supplies and be put into family packets.

We plan to return to travel with the teams going out for distribution of the family packets and to see the more heavily damaged mountain areas. Thursday night the US embassy sent out warnings for Les Cayes and Petit Goave because the long heavy rains caused additional flooding.

River bed 'road' one takes to visit Pomme Wesleyan church. 

Some of the locations of the heavily damaged churches are in the mountains and on a normal day can only take a truck so far and then need to go on foot or motorcycle up steep mountain trails for 1+ hours.

Flooded road in Port-au-Prince on Thursday.

Positives: The areas along the coasts that we saw, some homes were completely swept to the see and some gardens and trees down but it was spotty. Like the quake...some houses only had some mud, some were severely damaged and others gone. But with some trees and areas still OK just minutes away they will be able to receive help from close by.

We also saw areas along the way with moringa and chaya. ECHO contacted us to use our Creole chaya information and will add some to it and help to get the word out about this very nutritious leaf that most Haitians only know as a shade bush.

North Haiti

Another positive will be that the Haitians can reuse a lot of the tin and wood.  Much of the fallen branches and trees too small for lumber can be turned into firewood or charcoal.

The income, for those who had damaged trees, will help the needs.

Six days, 622 miles-many hours in the truck. [Yesterday it took us about 7 hours to cover 150 miles...]

Please continue to pray that the lifesaving supplies can reach those with the most need. Many very hard to reach areas still have not received any help. If the rains continue the relief can't get to the mountains or distant areas.

Moringa visit.

See if I can get this post written and posted before the thunderclouds reduce the internet or move so close we need to unplug all electronics.

Yesterday each of us spent most of the day studying or working on paperwork.

We remain hopeful that our home study social worker will firm up tickets to visit us the week of June 17 and therefore started on the 'new' list of documents and forms that we need to complete and sign for this step of the process.

Eli and Anna continue to work on school as just over two months remain in our school 'year.'

Today for a change of pace we hosted a short visit from some Americans and Haitian pastors working in Cap Haitian who wanted to learn more about Moringa.

Well they learned about Moringa and more in the few hours of their visit and we enjoyed chatting over lunch. During lunch they were able to try miracle fruit which we currently have many of, star fruit, mulberries and bilimbe.

They left with Moringa seeds and cuttings, mulberry cuttings, chaya cuttings, a breadfruit tree and malay apple tree.

Wednesday after French class Alert discussed with me some of the additions for the Creole Konsey book. Thankful to start winding down this project and getting it into shape to publish again.

Glad to share knowledge and samples with others working around Haiti.

Market visit to Moringa

 Today following breakfast the team loaded into our truck along with Cory and Anna to visit the Port Margot market.

Thankfully when a pickpocket lifted Cathy's camera from her pocket she knew it and asked him nicely for it back.

Amazingly he handed it back to her.







A few people bought machetes and small Haitian lamps made from old empty evaporated milk cans.

Back on campus, put a few new curtains up in the pharmacy and hospital while most of the team had some personal time or interacted with some of the school children.



Lunch consisted of Haitian rice and beans, fried chicken, goat and breadfruit.

After a short break the painting, door repairs, small jobs and laundry.










Eli and I made a couple of pies for tonight.



Supper the team will try Moringa and some tuna salad along with some left overs.

I just learned that a couple of the team stuck their fingers in a fire ant hill to see who could keep their finger in the longest?!?!?

Snow Day. Really.

Yes, I declared today a school snow day. Home schooling perk-teacher can call school off when she wants.

Not obviously because snow closed the roads and we cannot physically get to school. But because Eli's feeling snowed under with work and today we will work hard to get him dug out.

Five weeks ago we started a new curriculum year which means adjustments. Reevaluating now to see what changes need to be made to keep Eli thriving and learning but not frustrated and overwhelmed with school work. He prayed the other day for balance and that is our goal.

Today Cory will be working with Andy, a local college student studying agriculture. Andy will also be helping us with the new plant book. Cory's also working on a Creole handout on seed storage as requested for LaGonave.

Yesterday we attempted to make homemade bread bowls to encourage Eli. During our trip to the US, Fall 2010 he really enjoyed potato cheese soup in a bread bowl. Yesterday he enjoyed pumpkin soup in a sourdough bread bowl.  Cory learned a lot and the family voted to try them again.

Living with hardly any prepackaged food can stimulate one to culinary adventures. Adventures often caused by the ever present need to substitute for items one does not have access too.

 My idea but Cory did the work. Such a versatile man who allows me to focus on school. Thank you Dear!

Eli and Anna planted 140 Moringa tree seeds while we covered some church history in the afternoon.

Last night before bed we received an E-mail from Irvines asking us to call for a medical consult.

While it is harder to consult by phone or computer without seeing a patient in real life often advice can still be helpful. Sounds like one of the visitors on a team received barotrauma from diving in the sea to his ear drum. So dispensed a bit of medical advice and added him to our family prayers.

Moringa Tree Update.

Cory and I headed out for a walk on Tuesday and I noticed the young girl who my sister-in-law Beth befriended back in June pumping water at the pump on campus. So we chatted a bit while she carefully wasted the outside of her plastic water jugs.

This young girl Cory shared about in some of the churches we visited this summer as she initiated a Moringa give away by inviting us to her home and neighborhood because she did not have any Moringa trees.

The light color of her hair as well as her small stature point to malnutrition. But her attitude and personality sparkle with spunk!

The day of the visit she excitedly lead us up the path bordering the campus and after turning a bit south we came to her home. After giving her family a few trees she proceeded to lead us to neighbors who also needed trees, even reminding us to give out the Creole handouts.

Good news-she continues to attend a near by school this year.

Bad news-all the Moringa trees we handed out in June ended up as animal food. SIGH. Some how we did not get the importance of the Moringa trees though to the people so that they would value and protect the trees.  Told her with a smile that once she found a place that the animals could not get into she could ask for additional trees.

By the end of the month we plan to start planting Moringa tree seeds again for tree distribution. We pray that the people will learn to protect and regularly harvest the Moringa tree leaves.

Lord, forgive me for the life changing gifts that You bless me with that I don't appreciated and do not protect. Help me to see the value of those gifts and make sure that no one or nothing takes them from me or damages them. Help me to not waste the resources You graciously give me. Thank you for grace and second chances. Kris

This and That

This week our Fall Newsletters headed for the USA to be mailed as well as went out on E-mail. I think most of the information already found its way on the blog but will share a bit. 

Banana Plants

Before leaving Haiti Cory discovered, to our disappointment, that some of the 'disease resistant' banana plants appeared sick. He worried that Panama Disease had somehow infected the plants. He feared plants bought and distributed in the last few years would continue to grow and produce for a number of years but with time that the plants would become diseased. On our return to Haiti the plants looked better. More research and touring local gardens confirmed that it was not Panama Disease. He now suspects a nutrient deficiency or unbalance in certain soils. Several varieties still show better production and disease resistance over local varieties. So we will again start to purchase and distribute banana plants.

 {Photo-New baby banana plants from the USA that came in on Thursday}

Prayer Request: "New Christians to grow in faith: Haiti’s evangelical crusade in July reportedly reached 121,000 people for the Lord!"

Some of the smaller bananas currently waiting to be shared and enjoyed by the Kid's Club members. Thankfully able to share. 

School week finished well. Both children enjoyed French but need to learn in mom's opinion to stay on task. By getting us away from common words we end up the French words for 'door frame' and 'veterinarian'. While I'm glad that they enjoyed the class I feel that we need to focus on common and useful words first!

The almost daily afternoon rains water my growing Moringa trees. The sad trees we planted just three weeks ago recovered nicely. The large Moringa that the storm cracked the top out of now sports a nice green head of leafy new growth as well. 

Yesterday we learned that the hospital ran out of IV fluids the afternoon before. Thankfully by the end of the day a nice amount of IV's reached Fauche safely in the middle of a heavy rain storm. Please pray for John Pierre as he spends many hours traveling for supplies.

Windy Night

Friday's nice afternoon trade winds seemed to lose out to hot, sticky, still weather. One of those afternoons that you just know if you give into a refreshing shower that the refreshing feeling would end as soon as the shower and you would return to being sticky.  Not an afternoon that brings to mind nice sleeping weather.

Clothes Line Moringa Tree

But then a few rain drops....and Cory yelling prepare for wind. Doors banged shut as we scurried to take picture frames containing glass off the walls, pull the couch away from the big window, pin curtains to the bars in the windows and forgot to remove the shampoos from the bathroom windowsill. BAM!

Anna asked if a hurricane hit. No just a short violent local thunderstorm. In addition to the wind preparation we also unplugged everything in the house, grabbed flashlights and threw the switch-disconnecting the electricity to the House of Hope and the Dearest  House [both unoccupied at this time].

Wind Damaged Banana Plants

Thankfully the report on Saturday revealed that no local homes received any damage. Thank you Lord. But two of our Moringa trees lost their tops [we enjoyed some Moringa leaves for lunch on Saturday] and one took out the main stem of the Jujube tree on it's way down. Despite being located under the tree limbs none of the baby breadfruit trees received any damage.

After cleaning up the area near our clothes line Cory checked for further damage. As expected some banana plants went down. Because they contain only soft plant material not wood, winds can easily knock over these plants. A few palm fronds were liberated at the same time.

Small Breadfruit Trees

Need to add to our Moringa information the danger of letting the tree get too tall. We could of avoided this by eating more Moringa leaves!

Today the Pastor talked about what we need during the troubles [storms] of life: Patience and prayer. God will save us in His own time. We just need to pray and be patient.

Thankful: limited storm damage.
Prayer: Schools preparing to start first of October.

Sept. 17. Garden visit, bananas and Moringa garden

Kid's voices fill the air as they play soccer in the front lawn. Thankful Eli and Anna can play with friends in the afternoons. This morning both spent time finishing up some homework and helping to clean the house.

I worked on the computer, finishing up a children's lesson on Haiti/devotional, cleaning up my in-box, writing some E-mails as well as working on a 'about us' post as suggested by a fellow blogger. Hard to boil down one's family into a page but trying to capture the essence of our family and ministry.

Down loaded a few Kindle books..after not having access to a library for years it is nice to be able to read new books with just the push of a few buttons. I am learning to watch what I get as it is easy to waste my time on books that do not benefit my mind or life at all.  Goes back again to being intentional with the time that the Lord gives me on this earth.

Cory visited some gardens across the river yesterday and the community garden. He reports that down by the river many people were busy planting peanuts. Most of the donated banana plants continue to grow well and some are starting to produce large bunches of bananas. Genner's plants produced several big bunches [about 50+] pounds each] already and off shoots-which he gives away to others.

Some of the bamboo plants now top 20 foot tall while others remain small. Next week he plans to distribute more bamboo plants as they are taking over the nursery area with their rapid growth.

We spent some time as a family yesterday afternoon planting our Moringa trees near the house. Now 4 rows of 51 rescued baby Moringa trees can grow and hopefully thrive in their new home. The goal-easy access and enough Moringa trees to provide leaves to eat a few times a week even during team season.

Hand made truck.

Our growing season is just starting in Northern Haiti with the end of dry season and early start to rainy season.

Thankful for family this week and rapid communications.

Prayer Request: Last few business days in Port-au-Prince violent protests calling for the UN to leave. Pray for safety and wisdom for leaders.

Sept. 14th

School consists of Eli studying at the moment for his 4 chapter, quarterly chemistry test and Anna working on the computer [spelling, typing] and since the pictures down loaded this morning I thought I'd blog a minute. 

Sad Moringa Trees-needing a home.

Last couple of days consisted mostly of school. Clinic on Monday remained low and both Haitian doctors saw patients so I greeted the staff, reminded them to ask folks about herbal treatments and returned home for school. Yesterday I did wander down after school and prayed with three hospitalized patients: two cholera and one malaria. Reminded me how different our patient population can be compared with the USA.

Picking the location for Moringa near the house.

 Mail came yesterday including a part for the compound generator which rapidly found it's way into the generator and is working! Government supplied power remains little and random. Cory's researched additional solar panels and batteries for our inverter system hoping to learn how to improve and increase our power.

Preparing the soil for trees.

 A few of the Moringa trees we left in cups back in July did not find homes while we visited the USA. Twice we planted Moringa trees in locations on the North side of the house but both times the heavy clay soil limited or killed the trees. This time the trees will be planted closer to the house [convenient for the cooks] and the soil will be prepared prior to planting with the addition of sand for better drainage. 

Please remember to pray for my brother's family as Beth started her chemo this week. Also Pastor Rigo's wife could deliver their first child at any time.