The thank you letters from students to their sponsors have been written. Now we have help from two different areas of Canada to get them into the hands of the sponsors.

We had an offer of help from Karen’s daughter, Liette, that was too good to be true. She offered to translate all of the letters into English for us. They are in her hands in Canada at this time. When translated she will forward all 52 of the Education Haiti letters to John and Bev Chappelle in Halifax. The others she will forward to Sandra and Dickie in Yarmouth and they will send out via e-mail or snail mail. Thank you, Liette. Thank you, Sandra and Dickie. This help has removed a burden from us and is allowing us to focus on other tasks. All of you who have sponsored a student for education through HATS will soon receive a letter from your sponsor accompanied by one from HATS.

Speaking of education and sponsored students, we want to say a long overdue huge Thank You to John and Bev Chappelle, and all those who work diligently with them, in collecting, cleaning, and recycling bottles, in the Halifax area for the education of children in Haiti. John and Bev started Education Haiti after a trip to visit Karen in 1997. Karen had been in Haiti two years by then and was involved with sponsoring students for school. Karen shared with them that she saw a need for land purchase and a school to be built. John and Bev quickly saw, too, that getting children in school was a very important thing to focus on, and came on board with Karen. They returned to Canada and started “Education Haiti”.

They have put untold numerous hours since then into working for the schooling of students in Haiti. Their hard work in the Halifax area paid off and the recycling program grew, with other volunteers stepping in to help with the project. Despite their lives being busy with other things, Bev still teaching, and John undergoing major heart surgery, Education Haiti has continued to grow. From 1997 to this year Education Haiti has collected, cleaned and recycled 1,418,235 bottles/cans, etc which has netted in $70,911.75. That, folks, is a lot of education funds and it took a lot of hard work to get it. These funds have been used for the schooling of many students since 1997, helped with school construction, and have also been a tremendous help in the feeding program of students. The work of Education Haiti has touched many lives in our area.

The new school expansion is indeed a huge benefit to the school. The completion has made it possible for all classes to once again be in session on the school property. Hopefully before school reopens in September we will be able to complete the rooms with doors and blackboards. Too, we will need to construct more benches/desks because we will be adding Grade 9 in September.

We mentioned last month the back part of the school property had been cleaned up to be used by the school for soccer, which is the national sport in Haiti. This , however, is on hold until we can get it enclosed, at least with wire, due to several neighbouring families continuing to use our land for a toilet.

We had a special service at our little church Easter Sunday. We decided to bless all who attended with a meal and juice. A lot of work was put into preparing meals for 60 people, but we could have used more. It was well received and appreciated. We had our Easter service which was followed by serving the meal and the showing of the video The Passion.

Sandra wrote and asked Karen where the nearest Xerox serviceman was located. Karen told her she was afraid the service person was actually the same person who was sitting at the computer responding to her question. With noone but Karen and Luckner operating it hopefully it will be quite some time before service help is needed.

Thank you to all who responded with help to the very well done story about HATS-Haiti by Stephen Puddicombe, Christina Harnett and Pauline Dakin in Halifax, NS. Thanks again to the three CBC employees who worked on this and who are still in contact.

Awhile ago Alex decided he wanted to be “Ti Luckner’ instead of Alex. One day two employees who work in Karen’s house (Mon – Fri), and who spend a lot of time with Alex, told him he was ‘a Ti Luckner.’ In other words he was like Luckner, who is ‘papa’ to Alex. Alex liked that and decided he wanted to be ‘Ti Luckner’. Since then whenever we call him Alex he says “No”. If we then call him Ti Luckner, he grins and says “Yes”. He now tells everyone his name is Ti Luckner. What an adorable child he is. This morning Mama Karen said “Alex, Mama loves you very much.” He quickly said ‘no’. Karen said “Yes, Alex, you know Mama loves you very much. Papa loves you too”. Again he said “No”. Then he continued “Alex pa la anko”. (Alex is not here anymore.) Oops, Karen quickly caught on and said she was sorry and said “Ti Luckner, Mama loves you very much.” That brought a resounding “Yes” and a huge smile. So Ti Luckner it is right now. Our little Alex has a strong will, for which we are thankful.

He continues to develop and continues to amaze some people. Mama Karen is never amazed anymore as she fully knows the capability of her boy. There is a lot of yet ‘untapped’ potential in Ti Luckner.

Karen recently met a lady, Drexey, who is in Haiti and staying at the hospital. She is teaching students in this area. She has done a lot of work with ‘Special Needs’ children. She has come to the mission a few times in the past two weeks to do some work with Ti Luckner. She has given Karen some good pointers on how to help him use his arms and hands and some exercises to help him move his tongue which will hopefully, in turn, help improve his speech. She plans to come, with her students, for two hours on Friday as that day she is actually teaching on Development Delay.

Drexey working with Ti Luckner

 

 

Ti Luckner cleaning

and doing laundry

Cutie Pitutie Josie looking pretty in pink

We mentioned a necessary project of a storage facility. When this is done, and all the stored supplies are moved into a depot, we can then focus on housing suitable for additional missionary staff. Karen needs help.!!

Some offers of short-term help have come in recently. A lady from NS, Tammy, plans to come for a few weeks during the summer. Karen has been corresponding with other potential short-termers.

We mentioned last month about Karen and Luckner going west this year to try and raise funds for the mission. Karen feels that early fall (September) would be a better time to go than during the summer months. With Luckner also being the director of our school, and with him teaching some classes to our secondary students, September will not be an easy time for him to be away. Luckner, however, sees the necessity of going to try to fundraise for the mission, and the benefit of doing so in the fall instead of summer.

Other missionaries here in Haiti have shared that they feel it is very important for them to go out yearly. They have experienced that if the hard working supporting people behind the scenes do not see and hear from the people they support, the support dwindles. With this in mind, we continue to move towards going to Alberta and BC in September after we have the school open and running smoothly.

In regards to us going out to try and raise funds Karen is wondering if there might be anyone who has extra Airmiles, or Aeroplan points, and who would be willing to share some to cover a ticket. It takes funds to go and look for funds and that makes it difficult. Karen used the last of her Aeroplan points for our fundraising trip back east last summer.

While speaking of fundraising we must be honest and tell you that we are struggling to keep things running here. Our trusty ‘BEAN COUNTER’ Dickie MacDonald, who processes donations sent to Yarmouth for HATS, e-mailed us to let us know that for this first four months of 2009 our donations are down more than 60%. We have been living it and we, the directors, have cut every possible corner. Only what is absolutely essential is being fixed or done, i.e. our generator seldom is in operation; the children’s home is cooking with charcoal a lot instead of propane; ice is now being purchased only once a week for the director’s house, which is what has been making the deepfreeze serve as a fridge. (The refrigerator is used as a cupboard most of the time.) Karen has loaned/given HATS the funds she had. For two months we had to borrow in order to pay salaries on time. We are doing the best we can with what we have, and will continue to do so. We continue to give God thanks for his provision.

Thank you again for your support. Your support of prayer, encouragement, and financial help, is needed and greatly appreciated. We are here, but in many ways so are you. It takes a good team to do good work. Teamwork, as we’ve said before, is essential to touch the lives of the needy children. On behalf of all the people in Haiti whose lives are touched by the HATS-Haiti Mission we say a tremendous thank you for being on the team.

PEOPLE MAY NOT REMEMBER EXACTLY WHAT WE DID, OR WHAT WE SAID, BUT THEY WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER HOW WE MADE THEM FEEL. LET’S CONTINUE TO MAKE PEOPLE FEEL HOPEFUL, ENCOURAGED, AND LOVED.