NOTE: This post is from June 2009 and was added to bridge the gap between the previous blogs.

We were happy to have Karen, from BC, with us for four days this month. It was lovely having her here. Ti Luckner asked for her for days afterwards. Tammy, from NS, will join us on Tuesday, June 30th. Tammy’s plans changed and so she will stay with us just one week. We look forward to having her.

This month a needy project was completed – that of repair and thorough servicing of our generator. Luckner was able to talk a repair man, associated with the store in PaP where we purchased the generator, to come out from PaP and take care of it for us here on site.

Karen was very happily surprised one day when returning from a quick trip to the bank in St. Marc to find that Luckner and his apprentice, Coubano, had undertaken another project of putting new screens in the gallery where needed. What an improvement in mosquitoes and other bugs in the house.

A project very important to Karen, what she calls a privacy fence, is well underway. Funds for this have been raised by ladies at Yarmouth Wesleyan by the making and selling of cards. Thank you to all involved in this project. Karen has lived on the mission compound for five years with what she considers no privacy. Every move she has made, and every phone conversation she has had, could be seen, and/or heard, by other people in the yard, and especially at night by security. It reached the stage where she could no longer handle it and a plan was made to put a wire fence around her house. Luckner undertook the leadership of this project and is doing a great job. He has five helpers – Coubano, Ricardo, Jacques, Merise, and Ti Mili. All 30 metal fence posts are cemented in the ground as of yesterday afternoon. When finished Karen will happily remove all the bedding that has been covering her windows for almost three months.

We have a Praise report in regards to the fundraising that has been going on for a vehicle for the mission. The total has risen beautifully and another $5000 would see us reach the goal set. Hopefully in the near future HATS will once again have a vehicle. It is important to Karen that the vehicle have automatic transmission. The three men from Texas who were here in December, spearheaded by Nolan, have been fundraising for a vehicle since they returned home from Haiti. The United Church in Springdale, NL held a fundraising concert recently to assist with the vehicle purchase.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH TO ALL WHO HAVE WORKED TIRELESSLY TOWARDS THIS END AND TO EVERYONE WHO HAS DONATED FUNDS FOR THIS VERY NEEDY PROJECT.

HATS has had only a one wheel vehicle for some time.

We have mentioned in the past the need of a storage building so we could renovate the house presently being used for storage into suitable housing for additional missionary staff. There has been a change of plans in that regard. We now plan to build on the second level of the Children’s Home. That house was engineered for housing on the second level and space was allowed for stairs to it. This will work out better in many ways, especially in regards to giving the additional missionary staff more privacy and more air flow. The plan is for additional staff, when they join HATS, to be overseeing the orphanage end of things, and living there would be very suitable.

We have a group coming from Texas, most likely in early February, who are willing to work on this housing project. Is there a group from Yarmouth area, under the direction of fearless leader Gerry, willing to come again in January to also work on it? If we have two groups splitting the work, and the fundraising, we think decent missionary housing could be put there by end of February.

Tarantulas anyone?? Karen has been seeing too many of them recently – inside and outside her house. She has since started checking out things around her a little more carefully than she did in the past.<

Ti Luckner continues to slowly develop and he continues to be a joy and delight to everyone – our other children as well as our employees.

Trying to feed himself yogurt

It looks like we might have something to look forward to in December. There are plans underfoot for a group from Yarmouth – Bob, Linda, and some family members to come for a week early in December before school exams; and Karen’s daughter and three precious grandchildren to come from Kelowna, BC for two weeks Dec. 21st. We will keep you informed.

1 John 3:17 “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth.”

We continue to give God thanks for his provision – past and future – as we do our best to show the love of Jesus to those we serve with actions and with truth.

A huge ” Thank You ” again for your support. Your support of prayer, encouragement, and financial help, is needed and greatly appreciated. The work we endeavour to do here cannot be done without you. Again, on behalf of all the people in Haiti whose lives are touched by the HATS-Haiti Mission, we say a huge thank you.

Luke 6:38: “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

To many people who live around you, and to many who work with you, you might be ‘one person’. But to one person, i.e. a needy child in Haiti, you might be ‘the world’.

~Karen