Well, it’s been a mix of emotions and a real struggle at the juncture of what decision to make regarding the current state of Haiti and what the best move for us to make was. Thankfully school in our peaceful village has been in session for a few weeks now which has given us just enough time to get attached to our kiddos. Things are in full motion with our preschool feeding program and the new improvements have created a fresh and exciting atmosphere for our preschoolers. In addition to the school, the construction team is in place and getting more antsy each day to commence construction on the feeding center. As the hardships brought on by the current state of the country have continued to grow, we’ve spent so much time pleading with our Father to bring silence to the situation. The entire country has been “locked” for weeks now making it impossible for travel. Banks and transfer offices have been closed, sick people can’t get to hospitals, and a large percentage of the kids in Haiti haven’t even been able to start school. Sigora (the local power provider in Mole) was forced to completely stop giving service to residents and we can no longer run generators due to the inability to find diesel fuel ANYWHERE! Mole Saint Nicolas has been in a complete blackout for many days now. Because of this we had to throw out all of our cold foods. We’ve had almost zero ventilation in our bedroom so good sleep has been scarce. With transfer offices being closed we haven’t been able to exchange money and supplies are beginning to run thin. It seems that the problems continue to multiply and yet the political opposition says they refuse to stop protesting until the president resigns. All the while president Jovenel continues to say he will not step down. So when will all of this madness end? Only the Lord knows.
Needless to say the said problems brought us personally to a place of making the very difficult decision to return to the states for a little while and pray that things will clear over soon. Back in July we booked a couple of cheap plane tickets to Miami for the 14thof this month with the intention of staying a couple of nights and flying straight back to Haiti to stay in compliance with our visas. Since then, making the decision to return stateside for a while, and with money already spent, we opted to go ahead and fly into Miami as planned and then travel on to Arkansas from there. The Lord also made it possible for us to secure a little plane to fly us out of Mole into Port au Prince to catch our international flight. We have wrestled and wrestled with our decision and have repeated the same questions again and again. Were we supposed to just wait it out and hope the opposition would either run out of money or tire out from protesting and that life would soon return to normal? Are we acting cowardly by leaving our work and our friends behind to go stay stateside until things clear up? What about our school kids? What about the new believers and church members that count on our visiting them every week? All these questions have been weighing heavily on us and honestly still are. As we write this now from our hotel room in Miami we feel so much like we’re not supposed to be here but know there is a reason that we are. We are so grateful for our Haitian co-laborers in the faith who have made themselves readily available to take on some of our responsibilities while we are away. We ask you to please join us in praying. Our beloved Haiti is in a giant mess and we can’t yet see the end of it. Pray for the wisdom of president Jovenel Moise and for the political opposition to be halted. Pray that roads would open up and that gas could be distributed to stations all over Haiti. Pray that things will normalize enough for us to get back to our “home for now” and to our people.
In our previous letter we mentioned how we’ve seen a large increase in the number of our preschool students this year. We are happy to report this month too that the numbers are still increasing with several late-comers who enrolled just recently. This year we have close to 40 students as opposed to last year’s 12. God is so good! With so many new faces around the school this year, we decided we would start highlighting a child each month in our newsletter. This month we chose Chris’s personal class favorite, “Woodensley” (pronounced wood-ins-lee) Woodensley is an energetic and fearless young man whose love for making faces has us always laughing. He rarely has much to say but his priceless expressions bring a wealth of entertainment to us all. Woodensley exhibits many strengths in ninja fighting skills and takes to uncontrollable laughter every time Chris fakes an injury. We are so thankful for his presence in the school this year!
We want to use this section of our newsletter to say a huge THANK YOU! to all of our financial supporters. It’s because of you that we are able to continue the work that God has called us to do in Haiti. During this time that we are stateside we would love to visit with you and share with you how God has used your giving in specific ways in our ministry. Please contact us through our email or call or text us to plan a time when we can get together. We look forward to visiting with you!
Pray for the efforts of the political opposition to be crippled.
Pray for the wisdom of President Jovenel Moise.
Pray for Haiti to return to a functioning state enabling us and other missionaries to return to our work there.
