Day 107

Day 107 of the coronavirus restrictions.

Planting sweet potato cuttings, also tomato and corn

Hot sunny days [up to 95˚ or so in the house] and cooler nights [down in the 70's] Most nights this week with at least a brief thunder shower makes for rapidly growing trees and plants.


Last week with the airport opening we started to hear and see more jets flying overhead but not as many as before.

Other restrictions remain in place as the number of cases continue to increase.

We may do a blog someday of the cool reef fossils here at 4,500' elevation

The guys weeded and fertilized trees, and made a terrace above the first part of the path that leads from the house to the other ridge.

Cory found a fossilized shark's tooth. The guys say there are lots in some areas, we will see if they bring any.

The local beans are being harvested to sell fresh-shelled without drying.

Fritz and I finished up month number two of fourth grade.

We celebrated along with our "family night" roasting hot dogs.

Black and butter beans and some of the plants they came from

I think the Fritz collects a new monarch caterpillar every time he collects food for the rest of them.


We continue to enjoy releasing the butterflies.

For the 4th we enjoyed some small ears of sweet corn and vanilla puddling pie with berries.

We'd collected and froze strawberries, mulberries, and blackberries for a week or so..to add a bit of flavor.

Count changes daily: losses, additions, crysalises.

Sunday we enjoyed listening to a sermon by my brother and talked on the phone to our older two.

We remain very thankful for our in-house internet. 

Unplugging during most thunderstorms as we pray not to lose any equipment. 

Seen a few rainbows to the east. 

Always reminding us of the Lord's faithfulness to His promises. 

So much pain the world.

So many hurting people: physically, mentally, emotionally. 

So much fear, anger, hopelessness.

So many needing to be comforted with the Lord's love, through His people.

So many voices, crying loudly: this and that; for and against; one thing now and then another, constantly changing 'facts', swirling confusion.

So many tired, hurting people

 Pslam 40: 1-5, 11-12, 17

Thunderheads over the fort and coffee plantation ruins

I waited patiently for the Lord;

He turned to me and heard my cry.

He lifted me out of the slimy pit, 

out of the mud and mire;

He set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in  my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
and put their trust in the Lord.
Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust,
who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods.

Many, O Lord my God,
are the wonders you have done.
The things You planned for us
no one can recount to You;
Were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare. 

Do no withhold Your mercy from me,
O Lord;
may Your love and Your truth always
 protect me
For troubles without number surround me,
my sinus have overtaken me, and I cannot see

Yet I am poor and needy;

may the Lord think of me.

You are my help and my deliverer,

O my God, do not delay. 

May 1st Agriculture Day, and a Voodoo temple, by Cory

Two big moringa trees at center and right were planted from tree seedlings in disposable cups we brought
for students years ago.

May 1st is celebrated as agriculture day at many schools in Haiti.

Peach palm offshoots for in front of church by the road.
Big enough to be goat resistant.

Friday we delivered about 330 chaya cuttings to Port Margot Wesleyan School for their Monday May Day program.

Also 330+ half page papers with instructions on planting and using the chaya bush/tree as a vegetable.

We continued to a school on the other side of Port Margot whose director would like to plant some fruit trees on the grounds.

 There is only room for a few trees but it is nearby so we plan to return on Tuesday with the trees.

Then on to another Wesleyan Church and school just over a hill into the Limbe valley to plant more trees.

 It is built next to colonial French plantation ruins.

There is an underground irrigation canal that still carries water from about 5 miles up the valley near Limbe and turns into a river where it exits the ground not far from the church.

 The canal probably hasn't been used or maintained since independence more than 200 years ago.

Last Wednesday we were in the same area, planting 100 fruit trees in a garden for a pastor.

The 100 trees filled the back of the truck and was a good amount for the size of the garden.

A few other pastors came to help.

After the planting, I was asked if I knew about the Voodoo  place nearby.

We had driven by several times in the past when visiting the Wesleyan Church, but hadn't really noticed.

 I had noticed there was a building next to the garden while we were planting, but could only see part of the roof.

From the road it could be seen better. "Funeral Chapel Park (of the) Holy Trinity".

I was told by the pastors that the owner has purchased a lot of land in the area, is well known in other parts of Haiti and has, or at least had under Aristide, friends in the government.

Visitors come from many countries. He also has a small hotel near the main temple and the funeral building but the road requires 4 wheel drive after rains to get there.

"Haitian Vodou Church, Gougoun Temple" The area is called Ba Limbe

The owner wasn't there but someone from the hotel opened the gate for us to see the big rock and sacrifice areas of the temple.

Years ago the rock had been pushed into the ravine when the road was made.

Some people were buried alive in an accident during the road construction and were left there.

Port Margot's police station was burned down several years ago and hasn't reopened since.

This makes the problem of theft and other crimes in the Port Margot area harder to deal with.

Some people have curses put on their gardens to protect from thieves. Some go to the voodoo priest to have the thief punished.

We wouldn't take entering this place lightly, only under the protection of God. As we said while there, "Jesus is King of ALL"

We have been praying more this year for God to protect his people and their gardens from harm from illness, theft, and free-range livestock, especially as the mission has experienced some of this oppression over the years.

It just adds to Haiti's hunger, malnutrition, and poverty when people get discouraged from gardening or manage land in an inefficient way because more productive use would just be stolen or grazed away.

The temple is only 4 miles away from the mission and there are dozens of voodoo leaders even closer.

The area churches have plenty of work to do to set people free from oppression and help them understand that God can and wants to protect them from the spirits if they, with a good church, will serve only Him. Not self, not the spirits.

We have heard many stories about supernatural events in Haiti that the average North American probably wouldn't begin to believe.

God is working here and much progress has been made but much remains to be done and many prayers are needed.

Colored flags represent various spirits, knives are stuck in the back pillar, small coffin under the red sheet.

Football !

Thankful this week that the unexpected crashing fall of a dead moringa tree did not fall in the direction of the shade house that Cory recently filled with new breadfruit cuttings.

 Sometimes serving the Lord means putting one's self in danger.

Sometime knowingly and other time's not.

This week Cory did voluntarily when asked to play soccer.


Thankful that during this week's parents vs. young men soccer game no one returned home injured.

Not sure if the primary event motivation started with the end of the school year or the coming World Cup Games but many of the local neighbors turned out to watch the game.

The young men did beat the 'older more mature' team but not a shut out with final score 3-1.

Eli loaned his soccer shoes as well as the ball for the game.

He remember it was his ball after a hard bounce off a tree late in the game.

Cringing as he saw additional hard tree hits as well as a few bounces off the bookstore building's two story roof that the ball indured in this game.

Anna watched with her friends.

Some of the younger viewers spent more time playing than watching.

John Pierre did not play but I found it interesting that several of the young ladies and older ones asked him if he was going to play but none of the non-playing men.

Guess they felt safe to tease him as women do not play around here.

At least the older men looked good in their yellow jerseys. 

Lots of yellow and green about in support of Brazil these days!

Laughter with Cory's head hit as well as him occasionally missing the ball.

Our local dentist also generated laughter with some powerful kicks that missed the target.

Our pastor impressed me not only with his orange socks but by playing full out the whole game.

For a student and man who does a lot of office work he remains in good shape.

Today we worked on cleaning the guest houses for next week's team as well as continuing clean up around the campus, house and gardens for the garden tours next Wednesday as part of an agricultural conference.

The washing machine part arrived but we continue to wait on the electrician so another big load of hand washed laundry done today as well.

Shopping for the team.

Something interesting happened today as Cory shopped at market.

First let me tell you how thankful I am that the Lord provided me with a man who shops! Growing up Mom went grocery and clothes shopping while Dad did some of the farm shopping although many times Mom ended up doing that shopping as well.

I rarely shop. I buy books and make lists for Christmas and birthdays and suggestions for items but the vast majority of the actual buying falls on Cory's shoulders. He's a great comparison shopper and a professional when it comes to E-bay.

[Both of our mother's use him to shop for gifts for Eli and Anna as well!]

Loving fruits as he does they catch his eye easily in market and today he watched carefully as we want to give the team as many taste experiences as possible during their one week visit.

Then it happened! There in the market place he saw a very large, long bunch of bananas. The bunch, Cory guesses was about 5 foot long and contained 15 hands of bananas.

This type is a cooking banana used for boiling or frying.

Genner pointed it out saying "25" recognizing the banana was a 'FHIA-25' before Cory did. Calling the merchant over she confirmed that she'd received the banana plant at the Port Margot Wesleyan Church from Cory.

This is the type Cory ordered when he bought from the Dominican Republic a few years ago but most ended up being regular or hybrid plantain cooking bananas.

Two other merchants bought parts of the bunch to divide into hands and resell.

Cory also heard another shopper asking what kind of banana produced such a large bunch of bananas.

The successful shopping trip means our team will have fruit [passion fruit, grape fruit, sweet oranges, avocado] and vegetables to eat this weekend. They should arrive tomorrow on the MFI plane about noon. Cory will met them, take them to lunch at a restaurant in Cap Haitian [orders placed before hand so they hopefully do not need to wait for an hour+ for their meal]. T

Then the drive to Fauche during which they plan on stopping in to see another mission that the Friendship Church supports. Meanwhile the kids and I will work on our studies and make sure that their clean and prepared rooms await.

P.S. For those following our adoption blog and praying we found out today that one cannot track the I-600a form like you can other forms. So will continue to wait.

Trip to Port Margot: health clinic, courthouse, and market.

I do not find paperwork and homework very exciting to blog about so forgive me for stretching the posting times a bit. The end results from the office work will be exciting!

Saturday, the morning spent cleaning and doing paperwork. Afternoon filled with family time and some paperwork.

'Courthouse' with flag behind Cory.

Sunday we attended church with Anna attending children's church. The afternoon we watched the first episodes of the History Channel's Bible that someone sent to the missionaries. We watched it with a Bible in hand and paused occasionally to read the stories.

Monday started with paperwork at 6 a.m. which continued throughout the day with a few breaks for school, dealing with folks at the door, a couple walks down to lab, and some exercise. All that hard work resulted in five envelopes ready to be delivered to Tuesday's MFI mail bag to the USA.

Tuesday we continued with some more paperwork and homework that needs to be done before the social worker's visit. We learned early in the week that she did confirm flights into Haiti on June 17th! She will stay here 2 nights before traveling to another part of Haiti for 2 nights with another family.

Today our family and Genner drove to Port Margot at 10 o'clock. Earlier research indicated that Eli and Anna, being children, could have TB skin tests at the public health clinic. After we walked in an explained to a nice lady what we needed, she led us past rows of waiting mom's and children to the lab.

The lab person sat at an empty desk and quickly preformed the tests. Because Dr. Jean Pierre works at our clinic on campus we will be able to just walk down the hill on Friday morning for the results.

Next stop basically the local courthouse. Earlier Cory talked with one of the local police man about our need for a police letter and learned we would need to see the justice of the peace as the local police station is currently closed.

Across the river from market.

Before we reached the office the judge saw us and looked over our paperwork right beside the truck. He let us know what paperwork we needed 'Certificate of Good Life and Manners' is the literal translation and how much it would cost.

While the paperwork was being processed we proceeded to market where Genner, Cory and Anna shopped while Eli and I read in the truck.

Then back to the office for a bit of a wait and more reading. Not as long as Cory thought however and we returned home by lunch time.

With the help of the computer I translated the French document into English and will ask our French teacher to help with a couple of rough spots before E-mailing the agency. We will either mail the documents or hand them to the social worker during her visit.

Cory will be trying to call the Embassy to learn about fingerprint processing.

More power, learning, and plans.

The last two days the smell of fresh cut grass in preparation of my folk's visit next week stirred up memories of college days when I mowed cemeteries in the summers between my college classes.

Cory's been busy between office work, organizing yard work and putting up two more solar panels. This increases our solar power 1400 watts above our original 900 watts.

 This amount should support our house, the school, clinic and rest of the campus during sunny days. 

The battery reserves should cover our house and part of the clinic needs overnight.

Eli and Anna continue to work through their school days which end with fun with friends playing sports before supper. 

Monday we dusted off our French skills and returned to class. 

After almost 5 months without class, with only rare personal study and infrequent Rosetta Stone lessons I worried a bit about how the three of us would do, not wanting to disappoint our teacher or embarrass ourselves. 

Thankfully we did well. Not perfect but good enough!

Our days wind down with reading. Soon we will start cleaning the guest houses and our house for the arrival of our special guests next week!

Cory brought me a rose today with a sweet candy like smell that he said many ladies would not like because of a little something extra. 

After the picture Cory gently placed our sleeping friend in a safe place. The flower returned into the house.

Tomato and beet season starting. A few mangos but not many bananas due to the storms this past fall. 

Local school restarted this week. 

Building continuing on campus.

Working with a few groups and individuals who would like to come visit us in 2013. Exciting!

Haiti's 209th Independence Day!

Traditional pumpkin soup.

Happy Independence Day Haiti. And to most of the rest of the world, Happy New Year!

A cloudy day with rain falling on and off but that did not stop the delivery of a pot of pumpkin soup from a neighbor.

Traditional food for Independence Day to share with friends.

 Yesterday afternoon, three times, we received blessings in the form of fresh beef from friends.

Think we came out on top with this season's gifts as we shared cookies, carmel corn and candy last week.

We spent the last hours of the old year watching a couple of movies and enjoying family time.

The special food of the night's celebration this year......homemade bagels. Not bad.

While I held sick babies on Thursday Cory graciously represented our family and chauffeured a group of people from Fauche to the wedding of our cook, Mme. Rosemary's daughter.

Unfortunately Mme. Rosemary did not make the wedding her health put her into the hospital for a short stay.


Thankfully we heard on Friday that she returned home.

No room for more!

  With 19 in the truck Cory drove very slowly and Mme. John Pierre waved at them as her public ride passed them by!

Processing beef from friends.

Tomorrow we will attempt to swing back into our 'normal' school routine.

In only three weeks we will take the day off for a trip to Cap Haitian to pick up my folks for their annual visit.

Looking forward to seeing the Lord work in our lives as well as thought the ministry opportunities in 2013!

Neighbor's Christmas gifts: cookies, candy, carmel corn

Adult Literacy Class Celebration !

 We enjoyed a good weekend. Slower and quieter on campus for the most part with the conference season done here [the young people will travel to the South for their conference the first part of August].

Yesterday Cory provided transportation for a missionary family from Limbée to Port Margot for church and then back again. 

The kids and I attended here, enjoying wonderfully encouraging songs and a good sermon.

 One of the main verses focused on was Isaiah 50:7 "Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be dismayed. Therefore I have set my face like a stone, determined to do His will. And  know that I will triumph." Needed to hear this.

In the afternoon Cory and I attended the graduation of the two adult literacy classes. 

The Kid's Club kids also attended. 

Courageous adults stood and read, wrote, worked math problems or sang to an enthusiastic crowd before receiving their report cards.

Truly inspirational! 

Not everyone completed their class or sat for exams but each were encouraged to continue with their education. 

They can make up the testing and continue. Cory took pictures of the leadership and students. 

Uniting with the Haitian staff to help people improve their education and station in life is a remarkable gift. 

Life changing not just for them but the children who witnessed the ceremony yesterday and for me.

 Lots of smiles and joking.

The class and their spouses went to the beach on Friday and I hear that some were rather timid never having experienced the beach or sea.

I'm so very grateful that the Lord allows me to serve and learn along side these courageous and wonderful people.

 Thank you to our partners who make it possible through prayers and financial support.

 I wish you could of been in the audience yesterday!

By supporting us you support this ministry.

Thank you for making a difference in Haiti. 

First level class.

Second level class. 

Top of the 2 classes. One tie. 

Saturday February 25th

A very nice Saturday especially since everyone felt well!

The second set of benches for the gazebo joined the first set. Dad and Eli worked on the ER gurney, thankful for completing the job.

 It looks much better.

Then they moved on to replanting some baby star fruit trees for Cory.

House cleaning and the making of chicken vegetable soup also completed Saturday morning.

Cory and Dad worked on organizing the back shed. Many banana bunches finish ripening in the shed. They also picked the ripe ones to be shared with the Kid's Club members today.

I talked Eli and Anna through making a daffodil cake for my mom.

Generally she does not get a birthday cake for her birthday in April so we celebrated early. Turned out very nice.


Mom, Eli, Anna and I also organized the video collection organizing them into sections: French Christian, French secular, English/non-French Christian and other.

 This will help Cory on Sunday selection for Kid's Club and Thursday night community movie night.

Today we will attend Fauche church and enjoy more family time. 

Naps are also on today's schedule as the drums played all night, stopping at 5 a.m.

Please pray for Haiti's government as the prime minister resigned this week after only 5 months in office.

Dad and mom leave for the USA on Wednesday, hoping to arrive home in Michigan on March 1st.

The Haiti His Hands team plans to share at the Allegan Wesleyan church on March 11, in the morning service that starts at 10:30.