October Newsletter
Hello everyone. Surprise. You are hearing from me twice in one month. School has been operating a month and half and this week our students are writing their first exams of the year. Wow. Already so soon!
My 3 preschoolers, Josie, Dieunel, & Ti Luc. Now going to become my 4 preschoolers as Leica joins them.
Sponsors, thank you once again for sending the funds for your student for this school year 09-10. Thank you to those who decided, after reading the last update, to sponsor one of the students we mentioned. Hopefully all of our new sponsors have recently received a photo of their student. We still have four elementary and two secondary students attending our school who have no means of paying.
Hopefully before the end of November you, our sponsors, will all have received the photo(s) of your student(s) for this school year – 09/10.
In response to the last update where I mentioned needing some help now, my friend Brenda from BC is arriving Nov 3rd to help me out for three weeks. I am thankful and excited. This will be Brenda’s first time to HATS, but hopefully it won’t be her last. She is not even here yet and I am already thinking about her returning. Guess I shouldn’t mention tarantulas this month, hey Brenda.
While Brenda is with me I hope to get all paperwork in the office finished and organized again. Too, I plan to get the photos of our 135 sponsored students taken, downloaded, resized and sent via e-mail to our sponsors. I hope, too, to be able to get the students’ thank you letters written to their sponsors, so they can go to Canada with Brenda when she leaves us. Liette, our western administrative assistant, has kindly offered to translate them all again this year. I have not yet asked our eastern administrative assistants, Sandra and Dickie, if they will send them out to the sponsors again this year. But I expect the response will be positive. It is so good to have the help of those in Canada. The workload is too much for it all to be completed here.
We are very much looking forward to having Bob and Linda Comeau from Yarmouth, NS arrive early December. While here they will be supplying and serving a special Christmas meal to all our school students. And then Bob is turning around and coming back early January with the construction workteam! How about that! Bob is coming to HATS two months in a row. Awesome.
I told you, on the last update, about the mother who was heard walking away from our office praising the Lord because we accepted her child into the sponsorship program without a sponsor. She had no hope besides us. Her daughter is one of our secondary students. Last Sunday this student sang for us in church. Wow, wow, and wow – she can sing!! God has blessed this girl with a beautiful singing voice and she is using it for Him.
Our new little guy, Dieunel, that I introduced you too last month, is flourishing under the love and affection, teaching, and daily nutrition he is getting here. He now runs to me, yelling “Mama, Mama”, with arms wide open, giggles and jumps into my arms. He likes me to hold and hug him which, believe me, is not difficult to do. He is a cute little monkey when he does things that are not permitted.
I now have another one running for hugs and affection. Last week we added Leica Guillaume to the HATS family. Leica is a sweet spirited, pretty little girl, age 5.
We have already found a sponsor for Leica for schooling. Anyone willing to sponsor her for the orphanage at $30 month please contact Karen.
Ti Luckner continues to surprise us. He picks up everything he hears, remembers it, and uses it at the most appropriate times, often causing a lot of laughter from those of us with him daily. He amazes and delights us. At times he stands up and walks quickly towards us, surprising even himself. He loves to stand up and look around and is quite proud of himself when he does. He seems to do best when he does not think about it. At times he is nervous to try to walk without holding on to someone. His walking and his speech need help. I want to have him diagnosed and I want to learn what more I can do to help his progress. This, of course, cannot be done before the adoption is complete. The adoption is moving about as slowly as molasses running up a Banff mountain in January. Please continue to pray with me for this to move
forward.
He is very outgoing and likes to play and visit with others but he does not want to do so for long without checking on his mama. He needs to know I am around. Our new girl Leica likes to hug me a lot and sit in my arms. He likes Leika a lot, but we have been sensing that he has been somewhat concerned about her being in my arms. He said this morning when having quality cuddle time with me “Leica pa kapab pran mama”. (Leica can’t take mama). “Ou se Mama pam.” (You are my Mama). I assured him what he said was right and that he had no need to worry as only he was a “Huxter”. He was quickly content again.
He turned five this month and we had a little party.
I am so looking forward to being able to spend more quality time with my other children when I have someone on board to help. I spend every minute I can with them but it is not enough. I continue to spread myself too thin which is not good for me or for them.
I cannot send this update without again saying thank you to everybody for every dollar that was raised/donated for the purchase of the truck. Every time I drive it I spend time thanking God. Every time I walk out the door and see it, I thank God. Sometimes I actually walk out to look to be sure it is still there – a reality, not a dream. What a difference it has made for me already.
Thank you God.
Plans are underway in Canada, in Texas, and here, for the construction project of suitable housing for additional missionary staff. The plan is for it to be on top of the present Children’s Home. Thus, before the first group arrives from NS, early January, we, must have the steps to that level completed. Additional housing has been needed for a long time and I am thankful and pleased about the proposed project . I am thankful, too, about being able to seriously look for help and the possibility of finding it. By February we should have suitable accommodations finished. The construction itself being finished, of course, does not mean I can bring someone on board right away. Appliances, etc will be needed as well. Anyone interested in applying to come work with HATS can contact me at the address below.
Speaking of workteams. We are still hopeful that a team will be coming down this year from the west coast as well, under the leadership of Liette. Keep looking at it seriously folks!!! Lots of projects, various sizes, need doing.
On the last update I talked about the fantastic job that Education Haiti has been doing with, and for, the students throughout this area and said I would feature three of our success stories – thanks to them.
David is one of the finest young men that a person could meet. David is courteous, respectful, appreciative, and is a good example to the young people around him. He is a Christian and loves to play guitar and sing for the Lord. (He plays guitar in His church regularly.) David has been sponsored by Education Haiti since 1998. He greatly appreciated the financial help towards education and worked and studied diligently, passing every year. When I met David he lived, with his grandmother who was blind, his mother (who had some psychological problems), and younger brother, in one tiny room, which was made of mud and rocks. The floor was earth and all they had was one mattress for his grandmother, and one broken wicker chair. David attended school, studied, prepared meals, and took care of his blind grandmother, and younger brother. David’s grandmother and mother have since died. David completed his secondary education, in June 2008, while continuing to take care of his younger brother.
In September 2008 David was offered work teaching English at a school in the area of Montroius where he lives. This year he is teaching English at two schools. This gives him a little money but only enough to survive. David sees the need to further his education and would like to do so, by attending university in P-A-P every weekend. David is a young man who sees the need for changes in his country and would like to be able to help make it happen.
This is indeed a success story of a student who was able to attend school due to being sponsored. I plan to continue to feature employees and children of HATS. This will give friends and supporters of HATS, who have not yet been down to visit, the chance to meet those who live and work here. Actually a couple of people asked me to feature myself as well soon. They mentioned that many who receive the updates, and who support HATS, have never met me and know almost nothing about me. I have given your suggestion consideration.
Last month I featured Martha Joel and Luckner Estimable. This month I bring you Germaine Francois.
Germaine has been with HATS almost five years, having started with us January 2005. She has taken a load off Martha who could not do all that was necessary. Germaine takes care of the laundry, keeps the place clean, and helps Martha with food preparation when we have groups. Too, she is a tremendous help with Ti Luc. She comes to work an hour earlier than other employees to help me get him ready for school. She helps with his exercises regularly and she delights in spending time with him. She is respectful and dependable and has a good sense of humour. HATS is blessed to have Germaine on board. Germaine, like Martha and Luckner, lives the HATS moto “IT IS ALL ABOUT THE CHILDREN.”
We had a small problem recently. A neighbour, who has tried to cause problems for HATS in the past, decided to plant crops in the drain ditch that runs outside the compound. It is public property but it is HATS that pays 4-5 men every few months to clean the ditch so the water can run freely. He was asked by Luckner on two occasions during the summer to remove what he had planted. Then he decided to plant rice, which shortly would have completely plugged the ditch and given the mission a serious water/flooding problem. He would not remove it so Luckner had to contact the Jidg de Paix about it. He came and ordered the man to remove it. He refused for over an hour but when presented with “Start removing it now, or the police will be here shortly to take you to jail”, he did so with the help of his brother and mother. He, however, was extremely angry with us and threatened us saying “we would live to regret this”.
Last year Haiti suffered greatly from the hurricanes and flood damage. This month, October, we have had less rain than other years but more intense heat and humidity than I’ve experienced in the past fourteen Octobers that I’ve been here. You know it is hot when you pick up a gold earring that it is quite hot to touch and twists out of shape making it unusable. And when you take a bottle of jam out of the storage cupboard and it is almost too hot to handle. Also when you first put clothes on and you wonder why they feel different, then realize it is because they are dry. It has truly been unbearably hot and humid, 45 C or 115 F and running 135 – 140 F with the humidity factor . It should have been better than this by October and actually has been a tad better the past few days. Hopefully this is a good sign.
PLEASE REMEMBER – As of January 1, 2010 all cheques must be payable to:
“Hands Across The Sea Association”. Please continue to send to the same address in Yarmouth which is given below. And Thank you for your support.
We, at the HATS-Haiti Mission continue to thank God for all our “Friends of HATS”. Your many and various forms of support are greatly appreciated. This includes your notes of greetings and encouragement. Thank you to those of you who dropped a note with encouraging comments on the last update. It means a lot when I hear from you.
The people in the Artibonite Valley, through the HATS-Haiti mission, are being blessed by you. I wish you could all come and visit us, but in the meantime please continue to pray for us, as we continue to pray and thank God for you.
Serving Him in Haiti,
~Karen
“Orphans today, leaders tomorrow”
