Go tell it on the mountain

In less than a week, Lord willing, three of our family will be back on the mountain at Délice.

So thankful for the prayers during this busy summer and during our transition.

The move should be 'interesting', character building, faith testing, and exciting.

Sometimes missionaries have a hard time finding a honest balance between sharing things in a too positive light vs. focusing on all the hard ugly details.

So I'll confess to finding this blog hard to write and post...not knowing if I hit the right, true balance. Trusting you will forgive me if I did not.

We plan to live in the new house, while pushing to finish up some of the start up tasks....

• Praying to find a workable internet system for the new house. We plan to travel daily to the neighbors to check our emails as our phone reception will likely be spotty. 

• Praying that the neighbor's internet is still working. Putting a back-up plan in place in case it is not.
• Cleaning up from the summer's absence. Getting bedrooms set up
• Unpacking
•  Getting working household and school area set up
• Completing the cement surfacing of the floor
• Continuing school with Fritzlin
• Getting the electrical solar/battery system bought, set up, and functional
• Moving from cistern water hauled up by hand in a bucket to running water

• Once both running water and electric are in place, we will be able to treat drinking water
• [Until then drinking water will be from our kind neighbor's place]
• Purchasing propane tank and pipe for the stove 
• Working on the front retaining wall and entrance way, replacing the rock and dirt ramp
• Getting the fence up the mountain and in place so that trees and garden can be planted
• Terracing the land to help prevent erosion and prepare planting areas in preparation for next year's rainy season
• Find a way to transform the gravel pit into a water catchment area
• Start to connect with the folks from the village and build relationships


• Continue to build relationships with the staff from Together We Can-Haiti and the kids Agape House
• Work on building the AMP team and partnerships

And more.....trying to be realistic without becoming overwhelmed

Only the Lord knows the time-line for these projects. We will do our best to stay flexible and content..counting our blessings.

 But we know there will be trying days and issues, so we ask you to pray for our family. [Remember Eli and Anna at Calvin as well-that they can continue to lean on the Lord while trusing Him]

Another reality is that some of the projects will need to wait for additional funding before we can purchase the needed supplies and hire help. You can read more about the house build funding here.  

While we would love to hire a handful of men from the village during the dry season, [when they don't farm as much], to work on some of the projects, we don't have the funds to pay them. So we will hire just a few or wait until the funds arrive. 

We know what a blessing it was to the village to have so many of the men working on the house last year and early this year. We look forward to hiring some of the same men to work on the land, which will not only bless their families and the community but will help us to continue our relationships with them. 

The faster the start-up/developement funds come in the faster the AMP proprieties will move to becoming self-sustaining and Lord willing, generating profits for supporting the ministries of the national Wesleyan Church of Haiti.

Other approved projects:
Agricultural Training Program
Creole Health Book Project

Coming soon...AMP project for second site.

We thank all who already joined the prayer team for our family, the new work at Délice and for those joining us by giving or praying for the funds needed to move forward.

Together we can make a positive difference.

Cory's Haiti Trip..Part 2

Monday I headed back to Delice / Blessing after getting some pvc pipe and supplies in Port au Prince.

Hard cement layer over soft, rough cement floor

Resurfacing the floor is about half done, will take a few more days this fall to finish.

 Plumbing is mostly done and now a toilet works.

Planting macadamia trees

A few fruit trees, macadamias, potatoes, yacon and ornamentals are planted.

Pepino dulce/sweet cucumber has produced well the past year, along with some tomatoes that sprouted in the neighbor's yard and produced well on their own.

Plumbing challenge

Pepino dulce or "sweet cucumber"

Macadamia trees

Jackfruit at Fauche

The next Monday I returned to Fauche.

Peach palms from Costa Rica 3 years after planting & good grazing

We checked out all the gardens and most are growing well.

We spent part of two mornings weeding and trimming the tree nursery. 

Malay apple tree

On the way to the airport Friday, we stopped at Deep River Mission to deliver a few fruit trees, coconuts and see how the trees we provided a year or two ago are growing.

Many have grown fast and should start fruiting soon. 

Starfruit is already producing and had good flavor.

Mid-week..

Lots to do before we travel next week...lots getting done.

Scheduling summer events and travel.
School, grades...
Packing, loading, short drive, unload..repeat the next day.
Work on house: door hanging & hardware, caulk, rat/rain proofing under doors and roof, plumbing....
Cleaning

Septic tank

Week review and hike to village

Will cut to size once we buy the door.

Monday the 16th- we headed to Port-au-Prince: 
   -picked up Fritzlin's visa at the Embassy;

     - Cory and I had fingerprints done at a police station for our Haitian residence visas; it took a while to get back out of the limited parking area

      -bought a stove

     - grocery shopping, ice cream treat

    - dropped off mail with only 3 minutes to spare

     -bank which took three stops to find one without a big, hour long line

     -picked up some Konsey books at the Wesleyan Church office

     -2 hardware stores-tile, bathroom sink, spray foam, etc.

     -gas, propane tank filled

    -school work while waiting

- and a few more stops but returned up the mountain without any problems.

Rodent, wind, fog, and rain proofing. 

School work

Tuesday-Thursday: school, work on Blessing {the house} [painting floors, second shiplap wall, finished kitchen cabinets hardware, digging canal for water line] office work-focusing on updates and starting to line up speaking engagements and things like driver's training for Anna, for our summer in the USA.


Friday Cory headed down the mountain again: picking up the last paperwork we need to be able to bring Fritzlin to the USA and then speaking about agriculture in Haiti at Extollo, an organizaiton that works to train Haitians in building skills.

The topics included growing Moringa and making leaf powder, seed saving, selecting good varieties to plant, especially with certain crops like corn, papaya, coconut. Pest control, citrus greening disease. Introduction to some of the less common fruits that did well in north Haiti like starfruit, jackfruit, peach palm, egg fruit, malay apple.

Extollo has large gardens of banana and other crops and some small orchards that they would like to expand with more varieties of fruits. It looks like a good place to demonstrate new kinds of fruits and crops.

Saturday: school and work on the house. We brought over our third load of household items as we prepare to move from the Byxbes to our place.

Anna painted for me while I read her a school book in the morning.

Konsey books being shared at Extollo agriculture seminar.

Cory worked on fixing some of the leaking areas where the roof tin overlaps.

Nightly rains help us locate the leaks as well as having the water cisterns filling up.

Looks like we will have plenty of water since we are only a few weeks into the rainy season and the cistern is already more than half full. It is about 5'x9'x40'

Early afternoon we took a break when a missionary and friend stopped in during a visit to Fort Douet.

Nice to get to know a bit about other ministries and meet new folks.

Our house... top center

Today we hiked to the village where many of the local men who worked on our house live.

Almost 5 hours later-we puffed our way up the last hill, as a light sprinkle of rain started which was followed by several heavier rains.

Corn storage

Thankful we made it back when we did!

Seeds for living fence

Steep, muddy, slippery, but all made it safely.

Mountain bean garden.

Work on Blessing..the house

 In addition to school, office work, lots of e-mails....

More protective layers on wood work. 

Rains have started. 

Working on the storage room wall.

Electrical (not as crooked as it looks)

More painting for the next wall.

Rains show where the roof leaks...time to try to fix it.