Our Last Sunday in Gramothe

Today was our last Sunday in Gramothe. It has rained a lot lately and the road has been getting worse and worse. There are some really big holes in the road on the way down to the riverbed, and this morning they threatened to swallow us up. There's a team of 18 people here right now, but we didn't take the truck to church. The road is just too bad. So some people walked (bless their hearts) and the rest of us rode the ATVs. I have taken Isaac on the ATVs before--always in his moby wrap--but today was scary. That road is crazy! It was a relief to get to the riverbed because there were no giant holes to swallow us up. If it wasn't our last time at church in Gramothe, I would have kept Isaac at home!

Church was really great--except for my cranky son. I listened to the sermon from the cafeteria because he was so restless/cranky/crying. I tried to keep him in the sanctuary the other parts of church, but we left a lot because he was making so much noise. Silly boy. The great parts of church were the singing time, the English sermon on following Jesus, and the part where Willem called our family up on stage. We actually were up there twice. Before the sermon Willem called us up and talked a lot about Arold and then let him say something to the church. Isaac was going crazy, so we left the stage after that. But after the sermon Willem called me back up to say something (through tears of course) to the church. It was good to say goodbye. Then the church prayed for us. Prayer send offs are one of my favorite parts of being part of a congregation. I cried the whole time, and I saw my husband wipe away tears too.

The best/hardest part of church was when everyone was dismissed and so many people made their way to Arold and me. It was like a wedding receiving line. Except I was by the door and Arold was on stage. So it was two receiving lines of one person. Rosias and Monley were some of the first people to come and hug me. They were both crying, so of course I burst into tears again. (And I had just gotten myself under control from the prayer time!) Then other students and adults in the church came to find me and bless me and Isaac before we left. It was really sweet to be told over and over again that I am loved and they will miss me. Of course I got to tell them that I love them too and God bless them. Such a perfect way to end my time in Gramothe.

Tonight Arold's family is coming over after church. It's nice to spend time with them before we go. We will miss them so much more than words can say.

Student Work

My students in grades 9, 12, and 13 will take national exams this summer. Their scores will determine whether they get promoted to the next grade/graduate or whether they repeat their current grade level. In preparation for these national exams, I use test questions from prior years during class. Recently I had my grade 9 students work on writing production. It was painful to say the least. In the end they produced some decent work. Today's example is from Kettly, a young lady who is progressing quite quickly in English. Click the picture to make it larger... and comment if you need any help deciphering what she wrote.

MTM's senior class of 2013

I'm currently working on the senior class yearbook. They gave me their individual profiles and about 50 pictures they want in their book. They also have a few other pages planned, but I need to finish the others first. Here are a few snapshots of our senior class this year. They are an amazing group of young people. 

There are 11 students in our Philo Class (seniors) this year.

The gentlemen. Love this pic of them!

Three of the ladies. (I don't know why there isn't a picture of all 5 girls.) 

Official Bittersweet Announcement

I'd like to skip this post all together in order to ignore reality, but I know I can't do that. *sigh* Here's goes.

We’re thankful for the ministry God has given us with Mountain Top Ministries. Arold has been at the school since 2007 and I've been here since 2010. We have invested in our students through English and computer classes, crochet lessons, summer VBS, and countless hours in the school yard building relationships. Nearly 20 of these young people have been baptized in the last two years. Arold has taught Sunday school classes, played on the worship team, and most recently started a gospel choir with the youth. We have both been privileged to play a part in providing life changing medical care to more than 7,000 patients through the clinic in the last two years alone. There are a lot of good things happening through the school, medical clinic, and church in Gramothe.

While we have been blessed to be a part of the ministry here, we recognize that our time with MTM has come to a close. After a lot of prayer and many sleepless nights, Arold and I have made the difficult decision to move our family to the U.S. for the next chapter of our lives. We are still passionate about empowering Haiti’s youth through education, and we hold a special place for Haitian kids in our hearts. We look forward to the day that God will move us back to Haiti. But for now, we’re preparing for an international move during the first week of June.

So, the bitter part is that we are leaving our students, our church, our first home, and Arold's family. It's definitely not going to be easy. The sweetness that helps us deal with all this bitter is that we'll be close to my family, have constant electricity, and be able to enjoy all of the conveniences that life in the US has to offer. 

Pray for us, will you?

P.S. Nothing is wrong. Yes, it is very fast timing, and we are as surprised as you are that we're moving to the States. We are confident this is where God is leading us for this phase of our lives, so as hard as it is to leave Haiti we need to be obedient to Him.

Seeking Medical Care

It's exam week for the students, so I didn't have any classes to teach today. Instead of going to Gramothe in the afternoon for class, I rode up the mountain this morning with the team and helped in the dossier room for a few hours. It was fun to work with my husband and Nalouse again and to get to play a small role in the clinic ministry today. My favorite parts of working in the dossier room are seeing the faces of our patients through the window, especially the babies, and hearing where they live. I made my husband ask one lady from Bonga how long it took her to get to the clinic. She told us she left her house at midnight and walked several hours down the mountain so she could secure her place in line. She got to Gramothe sometime before dawn, probably between 2 and 3, and tried to sleep a little. Another lady was from Robin (up higher than Kenscoff). When Arold asked her how long it took her to get here, she said much the same thing.

Today there were many, many people waiting to see the doctor. There were actually a handful of people with dossiers already in the clinic that didn't get seen by the last team (very unusual). There were at least 30 people waiting with rendezvous slips, and those get pulled first. After we finished those Nalouse called the first person in line up to the window. We were going non-stop the entire time I was there. Just before I left at 11:30, we had added 63 people to our database. Those were just the brand new patients. Nalouse pulled at least that many dossiers for people who were already in our system. AND, there were still people waiting in line just to get their names on the list for today when I left.

Around 11 o'clock Yvner (pronounced eve-nair) came to collect the giant stack of dossiers, he asked me if it was the stack for today (as opposed to the stack from the last clinic day that was being filed). I told him yes, it was the correct stack, but probably not all for today. Eyes wide, he left shaking his head saying, "Not today. Not today."

I can't remember where in the stack my ladies from Bonga and Robin were, but I sure hope they get seen before the crowd hears the words "Not today. Not today."

I've written before about what happens in the dossier room when the clinic is open. Basically we keep track of the patient records. We pull the paperwork for each person who wants to see the doctor. If it's a new patient we create paperwork and add them to the system. 

Expanding the Lab

Our friends from Illini Life Christian Fellowship have committed to maintaining the computer lab in Gramothe. In March of 2010 they brought 14 laptops, equipment to make the lab internet ready, a server, and then they built a computer cart to house all of the equipment. It was a huge blessing to our students and made it possible for us to teach computer skills to more students. Last spring they added three more laptops to the arsenal, and spent a considerable amount of time doing "upkeep" in the lab. Their commitment to making our students tech savvy is incredible!

In planning for their trip this February, they asked us for a wish list. Since our dream is to be able to teach all 250 high school students how to use the computer, we gave them a big list. Molly wrote back and said she thinks it's doable; they just need to ask the right people to support the project.

Sooooooo, I thought I would give YOU the opportunity to partner with Illini Life and Mountain Top Ministries. You can help Haitian youngsters in a very tangible way. Molly and Jay put together a website with information about this Lab Expansion project. Check out their website and consider making a tax deductible donation. Instructions on how to contribute to expanding the lab are at the bottom of the main page. (You'd send the money to the Illini Life church, who will purchase the computers and other supplies to bring to Haiti.)

Prayerful Monday

Update from last week and prayers for this week:

• The student who needed stitches last Monday is doing well. He busted his forehead open on the playground, so he got stitches and a tetanus shot. Arold said the bandages have been changed (probably at a clinic or the hospital) and he is doing just fine. Praise God!

Church closed with Ricky-J singing a closing song with
the 78 new believers behind him

• Praise God for the 78 people (mostly students) who made decisions to follow Christ at church yesterday. 
• One of our high school students had an episode at school earlier this month. It's not clear whether she passed out or had a seizure, but her parents came to get her from school and took her to the hospital. Reports are that she's at home now, but she hasn't returned to school yet. Please pray for her healing.
• We finally heard from the Embassy that the initial paperwork for Arold's visa was approved. Praise the Lord!!
• The end of the semester is about a month away. Pray for the students and teachers as they wrap up this semester.
• The youth choir that Arold is leading had their first performance last week. They are excited to sign praises to God and are planning a Christmas performance/party.

Video of our Ministry

One of our supporting churches recently asked for a short video of our ministry that they could share during their Missions Sunday services. We were given a time limit of 2 minutes, and I think we were able to capture all the different areas of our ministry in that time. Here's a quick look at what we do in Gramothe. Enjoy!

little friends

These are some of Arold's littlest friends at school. He visits them on their playground several times a week. Aren't they cute?

Livestream Video of Church

A couple Sundays ago some cool people from Florida live streamed the church service from Gramothe. It was awesome for me to be able to "be" at church while sitting in my house. I loved seeing my students and worshiping with my church family! Here's a video of the singing time. You can watch the rest of the service on the Livestream website here.

Dumay

I don't often talk about Dumay on this here blog because, well, I don't generally go there. And for me, out of sight is out of mind. For those of you who don't know, Dumay is a village about 2 hours from Gramothe where MTM has an elementary school. I think the plan was eventually to develop more there, but it just hasn't happened.

Earlier this year a group from Nebraska partnered with MTM to jump start the ministry in Dumay. They have already started building a wall around the property and a work group is scheduled to be here later this year. It's exciting to hear about what is being planned there!

This month a few people from Nebraska were here and they did a dry food distribution in Dumay. The story is that as they approached the village, Willem stopped and told two people what they were planning to do. Those people ran to tell the neighbors and this is what ensued. Sorry you can only see half of the video; I can't figure out how to resize it. (Also worth mentioning is the fact that everyone reported the distribution went very smoothly. People only ran to get in line, they didn't cause any problems once they were in line.)

Wednesday Chapels

the principal addresses the students at the first chapel of the '12-'13 school year

Every Wednesday the elementary school students in Gramothe start the day with chapel. Arold and Judner, the 6th grade teacher, alternate leading chapel. Typically a few students from a class are chosen to help lead the singing time while Arold plays the piano and Judner plays the drums. After that each class recites their memory verse for the week, and then there is a short devotion from Arold or Judner.It's a great time of age appropriate worship and Bible teaching for our younger students.

Life Update

There are a lot of things I would like to write about, but the combination of time, energy and fingers that feel okay to type is rare these days. Here's a quick look at our life lately.

• We made the trip to the US Embassy this week--twice. Wednesday we submitted Isaac's paperwork to be recognized as a US citizen, and Thursday we had our "interview" for that paperwork to be approved. The interview was basically me swearing that everything in the paperwork was true and that I am married to Arold. The consular officer was very  nice.
• While at the Embassy on Thursday, we submitted the first round of paperwork for Arold's visa. It has been very frustrating to try to connect with a person at the Consulate about that, so I am extremely grateful the Consular officer was able to direct us to someone helpful on Thursday. We ended up staying at the Embassy for about 3 hours on Thursday morning, but felt it was worth it since we got the ball rolling with the visa. We have an appointment with an immigration officer on Monday afternoon to hopefully start the next round of paperwork for the visa.
• Arold started a youth choir in Gramothe. He's at repetition (practice) as I type this. The youth are really excited about having a choir, and nearly all 32 members of the youth group were present at the first practice. I think the plan is that they will sing in church once a month. I can't wait to hear them when I go back to church.
• Speaking of church, I haven't been to Gramothe since Sept. 16th for church. And I don't remember when I was there before that. I really miss seeing my friends in the village and being in church, but the ride down to the riverbed and across it are not really an option for me right now. I still have to be careful about how and where I sit, so going to Gramothe is going to have to wait until I'm all the way healed.
• I miss being at school with my students, but I love snuggling with my baby anytime I want.
• Did I tell you that Arold also started a Sunday school class for the worship team? I kind of volunteered him for it, and he wasn't exactly thrilled about that. BUT in my defense, we had talked about how the musicians needed some solid Bible time in their lives and that having a Sunday school class for them would be ideal. In addition to the Sunday morning class, Arold is also planning to have Wednesday afternoon practice with them to work on their musical skills. They are all self taught for the most part and could use a little more practice/instruction. I'm hopeful that the sound will be much improved when I go back to church. 
• School seems to be going well so far this year. There were 450+ students in school last week, which is impressive when I think back to my first year here. In the fall of 2010 there were only a handful of kids who came to school the first week and we weren't up to 400 until about a month into the school year. I'm glad to see this cultural shift. Education is important!

waiting

  

October 3rd, 2012

Patients arrive at the clinic early to secure a spot in line. Here they are waiting for the clinic to open.  Once the clinic is open they will wait inside the waiting room to have their paperwork pulled and then wait outside until their name is called to sit on the bench by the door. Then they wait to have their blood pressure and weight taken. Then they move to another bench to wait until a provider can see them.  

It's a long day of waiting.

There were 150 patients seen by the 5 stations of medical providers this day--not including several other surgical patients that were treated. 

Prayerful Monday

Here's some of what we're praying about this week:

• Pray for a natural and uncomplicated birth for our son
• School starts on Oct 1st. Pray for a good start to the school year.
• Praise God all the paperwork has been turned in for Britney's permis de sejour.
• Pray for God's favor as we apply for Arold's visa (waiting on one last piece of paperwork and our baby to be born before we take it all to the embassy)
• Praise God for a successful first clinic week Sept 11-15th.
• Pray for the next clinic team as they prepare to serve Oct. 2nd-6th.
• Pray for all the teams coming in October: two weeks of clinic teams, a non-medical team (I dont know what they are doing yet), and a group of people coming to check out how they can get involved. It will be a busy month for MTM!

Prayerful Monday

Last week I wasn't able to post because of tropical storm Isaac--he knocked out the internet for few days. Sorry about that. Here's what you can pray about this week.

• Praise the Lord for making it through T.S. Isaac with only minimal damage (trees down) in our area of Haiti. Life was back to normal in Thomassin by 3pm on Saturday.
• Baby Charles should be here by the end of the month! We've taken a tour of the maternity hospital and are now seeing the doctor every 7-10 days. We are praying for baby to come when he's good and ready--and for a natural, uncomplicated birth. 
• School will start in Gramothe on September 10th. The Ministry of Education doesn't really want schools to start before Oct. 1st because then schools can charge an extra month of tuition. Since our kids don't pay tuition, we should be fine, but we appreciate prayers that no waves will be made by opening in September.
• The national exam results are back for all of our students. It was not a good year for our students. We're in the process of identifying areas of weakness and setting goals for our staff and students. Pray for God's wisdom in this process.
• The first medical team arrives Sept. 10th. Pray that we'll have a great start to this new clinic season, and praise him for those who are sacrificing a week with their families to serve in the Gramothe Clinic!
• Arold is now teaching a Sunday school class for the musicians in the church. Praise God for this new class, and pray that the Lord would work in and through my husband as he leads this group.

We hope you enjoy your Labor Day weekend! We're planning to take it easy this week as Arold gets ready to go back to school and jump into the clinic routine all at the same time.

Blue Pens

Blue pens have special power here in Haiti. For some reason blue is the OFFICIAL color for documents and exams. Kids can only use blue pen on their exams and are supposed to use it for all homework too. Sometimes they won't even take notes or do classwork in another color or with a pencil. If they don't have a blue pen in class that day, it's like the world has ended and they can do nothing. Nothing. It's pretty ridiculous.

Part of Haitian culture is that they are pretty formal when it comes to "official" things. Like uniforms are a big deal. Once in my senior English class last spring I had each student stand and read something. One boy got up there with his shirt untucked. I didn't notice, but the rest of the class stopped him and made him tuck it in before he could continue. That's how serious they are! So if they are supposed to use a blue pen for something, then they refuse to use anything else.

With that said, here's a picture of our blue pen bin from the supply closet. We'd like to give all the students a blue pen with their back to school packet of supplies. If we don't have blue pens, we'll give them whatever color we have. But we don't even have a lot of other colors right now.

If you are coming to Haiti this year, at any point, would you consider bringing a few packages of blue pens with you? If you aren't coming, but would still like to help our students, you can mail donations to the MTM office in Terre Haute, IN, at any time and someone will carry them into the country for us.

Mountain Top Ministries
c/o school supplies
PO Box 7053
Terre Haute, IN 47802

Also, see my post about other school supplies.

Computer Lab Use

Last week we did the VBS for the younger kids in Gramothe from 9-11ish. After we finished with them, we would go upstairs to the computer lab for an hour and half and have class with the teenagers. Arold was in charge of the class, and did a great job explaining new concepts to the kids. Some days I think his lessons were derived from their questions, and other days he had a plan going into the class. They worked on basic formatting in text documents for most of the time (bold, italics, columns, colored text, font size, etc), but they also had a long lesson on computer components and how they work (ie how they store information and what you can do with them).

There are quite a few teens in Gramothe that are not in the MTM school. Some of them attend other schools, and some of them are just not in school. Nearly all of them are in the church youth group, so I see them at church on a regular basis. The students who are not in the MTM high school don't have much of a reason to talk to me, so I don't know them very well. It was nice to interact with them a little bit last week and see their personalities as they interacted with each other and my husband.

Name that tune!

Here's a video from our week of VBS in Gramothe. This is a classic Sunday school song in Haiti, just like it is in the States. But most of the kids didn't know the song, so Arold taught it to them on the first day. It ended up being their favorite song to sing. The video is from the first day, so it was pretty tame and in control. They got a little louder and rowdier with each day. I loved learning this song in Creole and singing with them. It brought back some great Sunday school memories for me!

And, here are the words in Creole if you want to sing along. The video doesn't quite start at the beginning of the song--sorry about that!

VBS in Gramothe

This week Arold and I went to Gramothe each morning for a few hours to have a VBS type "camp" with the kids. It was a lot of fun for me to interact with some of the younger kids. And I learned some classic Sunday school songs in Creole!

Our theme for the week was standing strong (kanpe djanm in Creole). Arold taught the kids the theme and verse for the day and then told a Bible story that went with the theme. We found a Group Publishing VBS outline on the internet and modified it to work for us. It's actually a 2013 kit, so if you are interested it's called "Kingdom Rock". Here are the lessons for each day:

• God's love helps us stand strong.
• Family and friends help us stand strong.
• Prayer helps us stand strong.
• Trusting God helps us stand strong.
• God's word helps us stand strong.

In addition to the Bible lessons, we also had a time of singing and then a craft for each day. I was in charge of the craft. Mostly we used up some of the supplies that have been hanging out in the supply closet for a while. One day we used some foam stickers, another day they just drew their own pictures, and so on. A team of ladies from Georgia were here a couple of weeks ago and left some craft supplies, so we used a few of the things they left. My favorite was a coffee filter butterfly, but we didn't have the camera that day.