A Christmas letter from CFNE… Haiti is a land of despair.
December 25th, 2007
Dear friends and sponsors;
In this wonderful Christmas time which is the reminder of our Lord and Savior, Jesus – Christ. We want to send to you a message of Peace, Love and Hope. The political man says “Haiti is the land of despair.” We, as people of god, we are called to change our living place in showing to every one our love for God and in serving the others in need. God promises us in Isaiah 60: 1-3, the glory of God will shine from the darkness place. We believe, Haiti, the darkness place will be arise from the darkness is because the glory of the Lord will be shine on him.
We are so grateful to each of you for your support, prayer and financial gift this year. Special thanks to Harry and Family for the love showed to our community. With their effort and the effort of the group coming from Church of Indiana we constructed the first vocational school in the community.
Thanks to Stanley and his wife. They never tired in the work; they invest their self body and soul to the ministry in Haiti.
This year was a wonderful year for us. Even though, we had knew some bad news: diseases, death. We understand it is a part of the life. The bad things are every where. We were able to respond to several cares which were needed in our community. Your moral support and your financial gift which was aloud us to be able to take care of about seventy kids, payment to our staff and building constructed for the vocational school.
Special Thanks to Mrs. Temple and Carol Sloan, who started with this work. And, they continue until that day in sending their subvention to us. Mercy to them, we can serve the destitute in our country.
Our experiences in the ministry of serving in Haiti are: you’ll have someone just outside the gate looking for help.
We want to give a special Thank you, for all of you who came to work in the construction, teach spiritual things to the pastors of our community. Those who are coming as visitors to visit us, Thank you, so much.
And last of all we wish a Merry Christmas 2007 and a happy New Year 2008 to each of our friends, sponsors and visitors.
May the God of peaceful keeps and protects you all!
Yours truly!
Children’s Training and Nutrition Center
Jean Nadieul and Milo John.
Found again… We’re flying home - I like road side food!
September 19th, 2007
Hi everyone, we are in the Port-au-Prince Airport and everything is fine. It’s about 8:15, we have an hour until boarding, and departure will be at 9:40. We don’t have Internet so I’ll post this while we are at Fort-Lauderdale after we get through security.
It’s been a great time, Isaac is safe and we have our Passports now. He and Gerry rode a bus because the tap-tap driver got scared to go up the mountain because of security check points, (he didn’t seem to have insurance). Praise the Lord! He wanted $50 US to take them there and back, and we would have still had to pay Gerry for his time.
The bus was only about $2.50 US each, but they did pay the tap-tap driver some gas money for taking them to the bus depot. Well, Isaac can tell the story from his side better, but from my side Isaac was lost in the mountains on a tap-tap and we couldn’t get a hold of him. When he finally called, it was only a little while after we started trying to get contact with him, and he had been on a Motor (Motorcycle) riding from the bus station to the Orphanage in Mirebalais.
So, everything was really fine until they got back to the bus depot and all the buses were gone with the next one not leaving until 3:00am… They planned to wait for it and called us to tell us. This was a time crunch for sure, we needed to be at the airport at 7:00am and the bus would have taken at least 3 hours.
When we tried to call them at 7:30pm to tell them they should spend the night at the orphanage rather then wait at the depot they said “No problem we are almost there” in two minutes they were at the door. An SUV coming down the mountain gave some rides for about $2.50 US per person. Praise the Lord! Well, we were delighted and fed the guys, it was a good deal to know that we would be leaving in the morning. It’s hard to travel at night in Haiti, and it was a real blessing for Isaac to be back in time for a shower – his hair was like wire from the dust.
I had spent the day with the Franks, marching around town, stopping at the Canadian Embassy to get the twins Visas and getting fried food. I was starving by 2:30, because we hadn’t had breakfast. Fried food is good, you buy it from the side of the road where they cook with charcoal in those little wire frames and deep fry breaded things and meat. I especially like the spicy sour kraut type stuff that they put with it, it’s fresh. I know it seems somewhat irresponsible to some people for me to eat food that could be contaminated, but I tell you, I’ve started to get sick 3 times this trip and simply taken some Colloidal Silver and it stops in it’s tracks.
The Silver has anti-pathogenic properties and it really amazes me how well it works. I drank the water from the hand pump in Gonaives and ate the same food that made Isaac sick with no problems. I will attribute this partially to a good immune system, but could the CS be an answer to clean water for Haitians? Thank you Nadia and Monica for your hospitality in Port-au-Prince, it was a pleasure getting to know you and spend time running around town with you. You’re going to have so much fun with your new twins Hannah and Gabe. Thank you also to Blue Ridge for giving us a place to stay, we appreciated the beds and the shower so much, it’s so peaceful there.
Mary in Haiti
We forgot our passports! Isaac is on a taptap…
September 18th, 2007
Wow, be praying for Isaac today… We came down the mountain at 6:00 am and arrived at 8:30 am. We started making plans for the day, to visit some children’s homes, then we discovered that our passports had been left in Mirebalais… 2.5 hours away! Our ride had already left and it would be impossible for them to take us up the mountain and back again in time for dark because they had things to do in town anyway. Well, we prayed about it and our only option turned out to be Gerry. He convinced us to hire a taptap for him and Isaac to go up and get the passports. I wish we could have done it some other way, but there weren’t any options that would garentee that we’d have them by 7:00 am tomorrow when we leave the county.
Pray for Isaac please. The taptap had to be push started to get going and it may have trouble going fast enough up the mountain to get back before dark. There are UN people that guard the road at night, so it should be safe, but it’s a little iffy in a truck like that one. He has a phone, and contact info for a lot of people if he gets stuck. I think Gerry and him will be pretty sore by the time they get there…
I am in Port-au-Prince at a cyber cafe with some adoptive parents to twins from Haiti Children’s Home. The Lord is watching out for me. Will write more when we get to Fort-Lauderdale.
Mary in Haiti
Try this… 14 babies, ages 6 mo to 2 years. FUN!
September 14th, 2007
Oui! Riding the a puplic Bus is quite the deal at $5
September 13th, 2007
So, I’m assuming everyone is ready to hear from us again? Well, we’ve arrived at Haiti Children’s Home in Mirebalais, (How we got here is another story, which I will tell shortly!) - hang on.
Tout ti moun la (all of the children) are doing good, Gerald is happy to see me and I him. He’s walking like a 2 year old, which he may be, we don’t know for sure (We were thinking he would be 19 months now, but he seems older). He won’t let anyone feed him, he has to feed himself and does a good job of getting most of the food in his mouth.
We have 5 new babies since I was here last, the newest is 1 week old and weighs 3 lbs 6 oz. His Mamma was 17 and died giving birth to him, his name is Evan. Keep him in your prayers!
So, we rode the bus from Gonaives to Port-au-Prince yesterday. There were 90 people, plus a chicken and a cat. Isaac and me got the isle seats - that is, part of a seat and the isle. I was between to thin men, and Isaac was between to big ladies. I had a hard time not slipping around. It was the adventure of two white missionaries with Haitian transportation. Milo-John, from the CFNE orhpanage went with us, and we arrived safely after a 5 hour ride. It wasn’t to hot, but everyone talked talked talked. There was an official man who advirtised about 10 different products, including an invinsible razor (wack it on metel and it doesn’t break), a tube of magic toothpaste (works like a miracle to make your teeth healthy) and soap that smelled like heaven… One lady bought everything he sold. The ride only cost $5 per person, and the Tampico drink was about .55 cents, water bags 2 or 3 for .15 cents.
The Lord really has blessed us this entire trip, and the timing for our arrival has been perfect! Thank you all for your prayers and we are so thankful for your encouragement and support of this work. The Children in Gonaives were so blessed by the gifts of clothes, hats, instruments and school supplies.
Hello from the internet - Bon Sekola Citron
September 10th, 2007
Well, I’m at the same computer again with the bouncy keyboard, this time Isaac is not with me, I am with my friends from CFNE, Job and Anthony, both are graduated and one is going to Medical school in Dominican and the other will start in January in Port-au-Prince to become a programer.
We have been having so much fun! Yesterday Pere spoke at church and told everyone we were angels sent by God, which was interesting because he did not know we were coming until the night before we arrived. Then the pastor had us come up and everyone pray for us, then everyone in the church came and hugged and kissed us.
It’s so neat to try to learn all of the children’s names, Fwidley and Kervinss are two of the smallest boys, they are soooo sweet. Fwidley is you little Oliver twist and wears little striped dress pants that are to short. Kervinss talks just a little, and smiles a lot.
We gave the school bags to the kids today, it was so neat to see them suprised. I ran out of film for the girls, but I got a lot of pictures of the boys. They were all really excited!
So much to tell, but I’ll have to keep it fairly short for now - Sekola Citron is a drink, it’s really good. Kind of like 7up, but a little more like lime. I’m not ready to leave these kids! Anyone want to come with me in January?
Gonaives is Beautiful! The food is good too.
September 7th, 2007
OK, we are here and everything is good (except this keyboard) we are in an internet cafe, and rode with Milo in a tap tap truck to get here. It was fun, and interesting for a first time. We are in good health and the Children are sweet, we are having a good time. We’ll post pictures when we are on the net with our laptop.
Will post more soon (on the 11th at the latest maybe).
Mary and Isaac in Haiti.
Going to Goniave today - Goodbye to the Blesh’s!
September 6th, 2007
Well, we are getting ready to leave early this morning for the Airport, Byron and Shelley are picking us up and we’ll meet up with MAF’s Will White. Once we arrive at our destination city, Claire will make sure we have someone to pick us up. We have been unable to talk personally with CFNE orphanage, but are praying that our contacts with be able to communicate with them before we arrive. God’s will be done!
We went to the Market yesterday, with Byron. I got some needed under garments for the girls at CFNE, but boy did we haggle for them! First they said sure to our 30 for $20 American, but they changed their minds. In the end we got 19 for $28 American. It was a good price, but I honestly think we could have done better if I knew my creole numbers better. I only know 1-10 really so Byron did the negociating. He looks more like a rich American tourist, so they firgured they’d get more out of him.
I spent some time at the Baby house and the Toddler house where Shelley and Byron volunteer. That couple is amazing! They just give give give, and always have what they need and more. God has really blessed us through them and we are just humbled to see the work God is doing with their lives, and the lives of their children. Shelley allowed me to help in their Women’s clinic yesterday. They had about 12 women who were pregnant or nursing mothers, whom they do a class for every week. Once a month they take everyones blood pressure, measure their bellies and check their weight. This was especially interesting to me, and I was able to assist enough to learn something. They give each of these women 3 eggs, a glass of milk and enough vitamins to last them a week. It was neat, I’d do it again if I got a chance.
Hurricane? Things are going good.
September 5th, 2007
Well, I woke up in the night to a huge blast of Thunder. It startled me, and I yelled “Isaac!” though, I’m not sure if it was out loud or in my sleep. I started counting between thunder and thunder, but it was variable. I wondered if we would experiance… a hurricane. I fell asleep again, and when I woke this morning I had to laugh at myself for the whole thing. One should count between thunder and lightning, not thunder and thunder to figure the miles between the bolt and oneself… Is that even an accurate way to find out or just a story?
Things are going good here, Suezett, the Blesh’s part time cook lady (Haitian women need jobs as cooks in order to feed their families) made for us a mashed potato, chicken, french cut green bean dinner last night - it was fabulous eating! She is going to make Myi Moule for us today.
We are looking forward to our departure tomorrow morning at 8:00 am with MAF on a charter plane out to Goniave where we will meet up with the CFNE orphanage. Pray for us!
Mary and Isaac in Haiti
In Port-au-Prince and it’s a crazy hot!
September 4th, 2007
We arrived safely everyone! Spending the day in Port-au-Prince with our friends, the Blesh family. We toured the Christian school and went to Carribean Market. We were at Blue Ridge earlier today, after spending the night there, and made contact with the Neilson family who were very nice people and a good contact for our future ventures in Haiti.
Well, Power is going out soon (generator is timed).
Mary and Isaac in Haiti!
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