Well, it's been a while since our last newsletter, y'all!! The past month has been a doozie around the Myers homestead. A mysterious illness that put us both down for twelve or so days coupled with the hot, hot, heat of Haiti made for an exhausting three weeks for the two of us leading up to our travel to the U.S. Chris got sick first with fever, headache, body aches, and a painful rash all which prevented him from sleeping for several nights. Exhaustion and persisting symptoms made us decide it was time for a visit to the doctor in Bombardopolis about an hour away. The doctor ruled out the more common mosquito borne viruses but also discovered through urine tests that Chris had a urinary tract infection that although unrelated to the symptoms he was having, still needed to be treated. He prescribed a common antibiotic that normally would be taken orally but was only available by injection at the hospital. Be it that we live an hour away from the hospital, they loaded us up with syringes and vials and sent us on our way. Thankfully there is a young lady who attends church with us who has experience in the nursing field and was willing to come by and give Chris the injections each day. So after a series of twenty injections over a period of ten days, plus a very sore rear end, Chris’s infection cleared up. However, about the time Chris was all better, Cassie began showing the same symptoms Chris had shown previously and she was down for well over a week right up to the day we were scheduled to travel to Arkansas. Meanwhile, as all of this was going on, our passports were in the hands of the Haitian immigration being prepared with exit visas that would allow us to travel to the U.S. Just one day before our travel date we received a phone call from the passport office saying that due to all of the current unrest in Haiti, transportation had been limited and only Cassie’s passport was ready for travel. This forced us to change our travel date to the following week in hopes that Chris’s passport would be ready and available by then. Thankfully it was, and despite never figuring out what we were sick with, the silver lining was that Cassie had a few more days to rest from being sick before we traveled to Arkansas. We are thankful to currently be stateside for a few weeks, resting up and visiting family before school starts back in September. A big thanks to all who were praying over our health and travel issues!!
One of our main focuses while being in Arkansas over the next few weeks is on our upcoming fundraiser for the kitchen/feeding center at Faith Baptist College (The school where Chris works.) The original idea behind the kitchen was to be a permanent structure at the school that would serve as an area for food prep and storage, as well as a dining area for the students who attend the annual youth conference put on by our church each spring. However, seeing on a daily basis the effects hunger can have on the students both physically and academically, a new vision was born to employ the kitchen as a daily operation where hungry students can receive a hot meal. One particular story comes to mind about a little boy named Makenly. One day while observing a class Chris was standing next to the classroom window and glanced across the way into a neighboring classroom where the elementary students were gathered. As Chris continued to look on he noticed Makenly emptying the contents of his backpack onto the classroom floor. Chris then watched as Makenly began digging into the bottom of his empty backpack to gather small crumbs of an old cookie. After licking the tiny crumbs off of his finger he laid his head on the desk and fell asleep from weakness. It’s multiple stories like these that leave us broken and have moved us to take action in eliminating hunger within the school and our prayer is that the kitchen could become a reality in that effort.
Makenly is pictured on the left.
As you can see in the pic below, the construction of the kitchen is at a current stand still due to the lack of necessary funding to move forward with it’s progress. That is why we are reaching out to our friends, supporters, and anyone else who will listen for help. We’ve decided to use this month’s newsletter to really highlight our trivia night fundraiser that will be put on by our team of folks at Least Of These Family Ministries. The trivia night will feature ten rounds of fun, family appropriate trivia questions. There will be prizes for winners, food for purchase, t-shirts for purchase, a gift card bundle raffle give away, and chances to hear more about the feeding center. This is all taking place indoors in a nice, air conditioned building so if heat and bugs aren’t your thing, no worries! We got ya covered! We ask all of our friends and supporters to please pray and consider being a part of this event that will help us move toward our goal of feeding hungry school kids on a daily basis. To sign up, head over to our Get Involved page!
As always we are so grateful for you taking the time to read our newsletter. We are equally thankful for your prayers and support that allow us to assist and reach people with the Gospel in Mole St. Nicolas, Haiti. It's because of you we are able to do what we do. We pray that God would cover you and your family with His richest blessings!
