Us? A married child???

The Wedding And Our Family
I have neglected writing the last couple months. Our son Trevor’s wedding was a very nice day. As you all probably know, he married Mirlene Henry who was/is our translator here in the clinic. She is a great girl for him and a joy to have as a daughter in law. The wedding service was in Fond Parisian at our church there. Food was served in the benches for most of the people (400), and the reception for friends and family(another 135) was in the backyard of a little hotel close by. The breeze was blowing off the lake as we sat under the thatched roof, eating… RICE and BEANS! And BANAN PEZE and such good food. (I always said I would never write a missionary letter about “what we had for dinner” but I just ate my own words). It was so neat to have all my family and all Candace’s family here for this great event. We put up tents in our back yard some nights to be able to keep them at our place. There were lots of other visitors here too that helped make it all a very warm special time.

Angela Toews from Griften NC is the clinic nurse and is living with us and is part of us now. We and the kids love her dearly.

Our teacher, Sallie Minninger, who has been here for the last 2 years, will soon be going home. She feels like part of our family and we will really miss her.

Candace is a busy mom of a big family and keeps us all going somehow. I can’t figure out where she gets her endless energy from. She says from “exercising” but I think it’s her Penner/Troyer bloodline. Cam Chase Christina and Ketli are all growing concerns. Cam would be soon in “youth group” back in Ontario if we were there. He has youth age Christian friends here which we are thankful for. Chase and Christina are busy with school and neighbour kids. Ketli is completely in love with her new puppy and it seems vice versa too. Zack is just a natural at understanding and fixing things, so he’s been the unofficial motorcycle repairman locally. He’s been studying and is now comfortable enough to open a little repair shop here in town. He won’t make much money but that’s not really the goal either.

Clinic
An axe through the foot, machete wounds, a badly infected dog bite, a knife fight to the head, blood pressure of 247/152, babies being born, MRSA boils that squirt, 287 pregnant women per month, casting simple fractures of an arm and another of a leg, tummy aches, ear and throat infections, respiratory problems, asthma, suturing large cuts from having motorcycle wrecks, cutting out arm cysts, and people sick from a host of misc diseases and fungal infections are all part of the 1900 people we see (and can treat!) per month. But… compound break to the leg from a motorcycle wreck, hernias, cancer, large keloid removal, etc etc are things we refer the people to Port au Prince which is 3-4 hrs away at best. We have connection with a few hospitals and when they have surgical mission teams from USA in, then they let us know. Yesterday I took some people down for surgery at a mission hospital close to CSI compound in Roche Blanche. I got to observe one of the minor operations. I really want to watch a hernia repair yet. I got to observe a dead baby removal, and an extreme D&C once. (rather high on the yuk scale)

Todd is not a full time nurse at the clinic, but since he is an RN he comes in very handy when needed. Angela is our fulltime RN and is doing just great, fitting in very well to both the clinic and to our home. She has had some Creole classes and is getting the language quite well. Trev’s wife Mirlene is Ang’s assistant and translator.

People are still streaming in from extreme distances. Monday a mom and her daughter came in that had left home Sunday morn and walked all day arriving in the evening, slept in town and came to the clinic in the morn. A suspected TB case. In the mornings “Dr” Ozias has devotions with the porch full of people, and he encourages them that beings this clinic is called (in Creole) “Confidence in God Clinic” that they should leave off their heathen beliefs and practices, put their confidence in God and in medicines instead of witch doctor things. We hear the witch doctors are mad at our clinic so that must mean the people are listening. Praise God! We have had a lot of “tet foo” people lately. Tet foo means crazy, mentally challenged, whatever. Some have been humorous, and others make you feel so bad for them that you cry. There just is not a lot of good help for these people here. There is an asylum in Port, but so little that these mountain people here could really do, so they wander the streets and roads, causing real problems. Sometimes they get mad and throw rocks till others tie them up. Other times they undress, or steal clothes from washlines etc etc etc. Just a few nights ago a tet foo man climbed over our yard fence and came back behind the house and knocked on the door. He is an innocent soul that is totally harmless so I just told him to go back out and he smiled, said “OK”, and left. We have had numerous young women who have seemed to been under a satanic spell or influence too. The Christians here call it Satanic persecution. Sometimes they come to the clinic to see if it’s a medical problem, but it’s not medical, and it’s not something we are used to in our culture. Often they come out of it with stories of terrible visions and a sense of being far away and in chains with serpents and evil people. Often they then hear a faraway voice of a loved one praying, or they start quoting a verse to themselves, and they feel themselves leaving that “place” and they suddenly come conscious again. It can last for several days at times. Prayer services are often held for them repeatedly. Recently one of our young converts was attacked this way and as the church was praying for her, the Devil spoke aloud and said “I can’t stay here, it’s too much pressure for me” and within a few minutes the girl stopped grinding her teeth and writhing, and a little later opened her eyes and awoke, asking for food. All this doesn’t make me fear the devil more, but it makes me realise and respect that all the devil’s ways are nothing to mess around with. He attacks us all in whatever way he can best enter. But let’s all remember that our weapons are “mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds”. He gives power, He gives grace, He gives victory if we are in Him and He in us.

Church and Community
The community here has been thrown into a confusion over a new business that opened up within a 150 ft of our church building. A brothel! Seems a lot of people viewed it as a legit business and even as “development” of the town to have it. Wow. Well, we didn’t see it that way, and as we started to see the negative results of this thing in our midst, and the pounding music during our Sunday afternoon worship services… we got a little more active in telling locals what the Bible says and how it will ruin our tranquil and happy little town, and also the youth of the area as they begin to pass idle time around there. We went and offered to buy the ground, building, sound systems, TVs and whole kitandkaboodle and… The owner AGREED!!! We thought our troubles were over. Well, not so… this news got the local vakabos (bad guys) stirred up and they threatened the owner and threatened the community that they were going to hold a protest, burn tires, and cut trenches across the road if this “wonderful” place shut down. The owner then reneged on his agreement with us and decided to keep it. Our church then had a two prayer meetings especially that this evil would shut down and leave our community and …. It’s amazing… since then it hasn’t been operating the last 4 weekends. Now this weekend we hear they started again and that they had a robbery there… and so we’ll see what happens. We know God is surely working against it behind the scenes, and the community is now saying too that it may be a bad thing for everyone.

Todd and Donna Schmidt, the missionaries for the church here are learning Creole and even though I still translate the sermons he preaches, I no longer have to translate everything like at first. The church is growing and God is still calling sinners to Himself. Seems the gospel light is exposing what likes to hide, and people in the shadows of darkness are coming out of it. I recently was inspired as I met one of the new converts who is about 55, a widow, and lives in the bottom of a deep ravine. She’s crippled in her legs, is in very poor health, and walks 2-3 hours one way (alone) to come to church. I asked her if it isn’t too hard to come like this all the time? She lit up and with just abit of consternation in her voice, heartily declared that coming to church here is LIFE for her. She said “I always come home with a heart full. The love I feel and the preaching of God’s Word keeps me alive spiritually and I will keep coming until I DIE!!!” Wow! God bless her. In this land of extreme poverty it is important to watch that people come for the right reasons and not for hope of material gain. Examining convert’s testimonies for true repentance, encouraging them, and teaching them while looking for a change of heart and life, becomes very important. This is where Holy Spirit’s leading is very crucial. We were at mission meetings this last week with all staff, leaders, and boards, and I feel they are strong and on a good footing in general. Pray for the church in Haiti. As they continue to hear cries for missionaries from many areas here… how can they respond? It’s very difficult for them to supply and fund very many missionaries on their own. People are very hungry for the gospel.

We are happy to have my cousin’s son Kayle Friesen serving here as one of the CSI boys at the volunteer unit nearby. We have quite a nice “American” style youth group when all the American and Canadian youth here get together. The CSI unit up here is still building houses, latrines and cisterns for the very poorest in the area. People who can’t do anything for themselves. We too had some money brought in to build a couple of simple houses for some extremely deplorable situations. I wish you could see their joy, their courage, and the changes it all brings to their lives to have a dry place to sleep.

The School
I also wish you all could see the school. 180 students crammed together. The conviction for a Christian school is here, but it is not an easy vision to accomplish with poor facilities, few supplies and undereducated and underpaid teachers, but… it’s working! (sorta). Merci Bon Dieu. I think in next yr, with a few changes again in the administration, it can be improved.

We found a local source for some help to feed the children in 3 local schools. Love-a-Child organisation gives packets of premixed, prepped, rice and soy protein that can be quickly heated up and is very nutritious for them.

In the words of Lacey Toews who is working with our church school here….
“Hunger is a big problem here now in these spring months before the gardens are ready. Lately I have been noticing more and more how lethargic and listless some of the students are. They sit there heads in their hands, eyes half-shut, no energy. It’s very hard to teach a student like that. But that changes… huge yells of excitement go up when the steaming pots of food comes in. They shovel it down, talking about how good it is. I have seen some of them stop in the middle of filling their empty stomachs, as if remembering something. They then say, “I’m taking the rest home for my little brother and sister because they don’t have anything to eat”. They then tie their bowl in a rag and carefully put it somewhere so they can take it home later.
This meal truly makes a difference in our students lives. They look forward to it all morning. And the joy and energy after the food is amazing! Wow!”

God Bless you all, and we need your continued prayers!

Keith and Candace Toews
Administrators - Confidence Health Center
Oriani, Haiti

Cannonball in bed

My letter will be short. Its been cool weather here in Oriani lately. This morn it was 7 degrees Celsius. (43F) Some nights I have resorted to heating my cannonball (Haitian souvenir of the Napoleon era) that is solid cast iron and putting it in bed with me (and Candace). I have found that if I put it on the stove burner for exactly 1 min 45 seconds it is a perfect temp to have in bed with us and warm our toes up. It will actually hold the heat for 3-4 HOURS. Its amazing. You all need one of these back in North America with this cold winter! But just remember that even here in this cool temp of the high mountains of Haiti we have no house heat. We actually wear jackets or sweatshirts in the house a lot of time.

Our BIG news is that our son Trev has fallen in love with our translator Mirlene Henry (min Enel’s daughter). They got engaged and will be married on Mar 16. Seems so fast! Us having married children? WOW. But we are so excited. We love her so much and because she has been living with us we have grown to love her almost like a daughter even before the two of them got engaged. Mirlene has been working as a nurse assistant and translator in the clinic for a yr and a half and is one incredible girl. She has alot of responsibility in the clinic and is in charge of alot of things. Very capable girl. Trev has been the maintenance guy and is also learning the management of the clinic, so they both will continue working in the operation as before.

Our new nurse Angela Toews of North Carolina is doing really well. She fits right into our family and we love her. She has been breaking into the clinic work and is doing really well. Mirlene is translating for her till the end of Feb and then we have a Haitian translator coming to fill in while Mirlene and Trev settle into married life for a few weeks. Mirlene will resume her position again in the first of April. We have our nurse Jeetan soon going on maternity leave so we have another Haitian nurse taking her place. Vaneet is her name. She is a really compassionate type that seems to really love her job as well as her patients. Nothing gets her in a flap.

A clinic story I can tell you is about a woman who had such a long standing abscess on her butt that all her family and neighbours had given up on her. She was basically put in a room to die. She was not fed any more. No one went near her. The stench of rotting flesh could be smelled from even outside the house. All were just waiting for her to die. Well… we found out about her and started treating her with antibiotics and daily dressing changes. Every day one of the nurses (or often just Mirlene) lovingly went down to her house to endure the smell and repack the abscess and change dressings. The word “awful” doesn’t describe it, but after a month now… this lady is alive. She is eating… even walking to the clinic for her own dressing changes. I believe she will make a full recovery yet. Praise God!!!!

Clinic patient numbers have backed off lately. I was glad because it gives our nurses a break when the days aren’t so long. I asked Ozias why this was happening. I thought it was because just not as many people are sick, but he reminded me that we are in the dry season and times are tough for people. He didn’t think they can afford the 1 dollar US fee that we charge for consultation and all medicine. So I am reminded again how tight things are for people in the winter season of drought. We are having to use Holy Spirit discernment on who to let in for free and whom to have pay. I would feel bad if sick people stay home and suffer or get worse because of the impossibility of paying the 1 dollar fee. I hope I am also following the direction and vision that you donors have in this.

We have 26 people in Bible and Doctrine class. Our missionary Todd and Donna Schmidt are in charge. (it is so good to have Todd’s here). Seems more and more people are seeing the gospel lived out in truth in the lives of our locals here and are pressing in. We stand back and wonder how it can continue because this is now the biggest church in the community and may soon have to separate into two congregations soon to be able to function properly. 300 plus people attending on Sunday mornings. Pray for us all, and that direction for the future may be clear. Everything we do here…. the clinic… and everything… is ultimately for the “good news” (gospel) of salvation.

If I could convey to you the sub-human poverty that we keep seeing around us I would, but words fail me. One man that we found recently is living in a straw pile hut that requires him to almost slither in on his belly. the door is literally knee high. He has a straw mat to sleep on and yet has a fire inside this hut to keep him warm in the cold nights. (I don’t see how he can keep a smouldering fire low enough that his roof doesn’t catch fire!!!) Things like this make my eyes wet when I see it, but thankfully there is a gracious donor that has already offered to help build this poor man a house. The man’s name in Creole is “Two Black Lines”. This man is in bad shape, but is not the only one. We keep finding these “forgotten ones” every once in awhile. If any of you have a desire to help lift this kind of poverty to a more humane level, please contact us with how much you can donate to this, and we will help these kind of people! This man’s neighbour has a house that is falling in on itself, but he never is asking for anything for himself, just help for his neighbour. The whole community swells with enthusiasm when one of these very low people get help. I can say with assurance that God is always glorified when the community sees these kind of people receiving help. It is the love of Christ (Christians) at work.

My field that I had with a widow sister failed miserably. It only recovered half of what we put into it. So I guess that’s a good example to me of how difficult it is for these people to make a living. I thought we did everything perfectly, gave fertilizer on time and kept it sprayed etc. It looked so good but the potatoes just weren’t there to even cover half the expenses. Kind of a bummer. Try again next season! Isn’t that the world wide “farmer” mentality? HA

OK God Bless you all wherever you are.

Keith Toews
Director- Confidence Health Center

Candace's Letter

Candace Writing here… We’re now in the new year…for several days already. Today is a relaxing day for us after a couple of really busy ones. Our New Year’s Eve activities were a first for all involved. Only Lacey was here besides our household, and she expressed a wish to do something she had never done before. As we were talking she remembered that she had brought some black and brown face paint to Haiti with her. She went to get it and we started smearing it on Keith’s face to see how it would work. Since several of the others wanted to use it, too, and the tubes of paint weren’t all that big, we mixed up some water and cocoa to use in his beard. Zack, Sally and Lacey got the face-coloring treatment, too, and I wish you could have been here while it was happening! It’s really good to laugh like that once in a while!

Once the four of them donned toques, hoods and unusual clothes they were ready to hit the town of Oriani and put the inhabitants to test. Keith first of all freaked Todd’s whole household out. Dallas was sure it was a thief, and Donna nearly fell over in fright. They were very certain that Keith was the ugliest black man they had ever, ever seen. Then when he stuck his face in through the brightly lit window opening of Fre Bartelmy’s store, all the children started wailing and screaming in fright about this devil. In the darkness of the street itself, no one gave a second glance, in fact, some guy bumped into Keith on his way by with never a word. The group of bad guys who stand on the corner swore at them as they passed. When they reached the little house where some of the brethren were visiting together, there was complete silence for a little minute. Then,”Who are you, who are you?” Keith just said, “It’s me.” When they all finally realized what was going on, everyone erupted into hilarious knee-slapping, foot-stomping mirth! After things settled down, they had several songs and prayers to usher in the New Year. Then the brethren said they had to go home, wake up their wives and children to pray with them in the New Year.

Too bad the rest of us couldn’t have been there to witness all that, but it would have tended to spoil the effect, I’m afraid! New Year’s Day we spent here making and eating New Year’s cookies and pumpkin soup. Keith and I took a number of plates of cookies to some of our neighbors. Pumpkin soup is their tradition and New Year’s cookies are ours. I think it’s fun mixing both. We invited the other two households and Dallas’s to our place and then in the evening we packed up wieners and wood, etc. for a picnic in the forest. The very next day, Virgil and Delma paid us a visit, bringing with them the three orphanage girls, Laura, Beth, and Maggie, plus Wichie, one of the orphanage kids, and Marie-Josie, a French sister from Quebec. Delma also brought a delicious stew with sausage from back home in it. We had a great few hours with them till they left at around 4:00. At that time I was at Donna’s with the ladies and Keith called me and asked if I could excuse myself because he needed me. I had a little idea of what it might be all about and I was right. Dallas’s had left the Oriani area that morning and he was carrying with him a marriage proposal from Trevor to Mirlene. He met with Ministers Nason and Enel, Mirlene’s dad, at Enel’s place to bring it.

After finding no objections on any of the minister’s parts, they called Mirlene in and asked her if she would accept this offer of marriage from Trevor. She immediately answered in the affirmative and so it was settled.

Dallas called Keith with the answer, Keith in turn called me home and we had the joy of telling Trevor! Wow! Trevor kept smiling involuntarily and couldn’t seem to stop…he still walks around somewhat aimlessly at times.

Maybe you are puzzled as to where Mirlene really is right now.

She left our place before Christmas to spend the holidays with her family and to prepare for her sister’s wedding which was on the 29th of December, last Sunday. We didn’t know when to tell Mirlene to come back to work in the clinic because of this proposal thing! It was almost getting a little awkward already, but that’s all over with now!

When she does come back, she will live at Todd’s place. There’s an extra bedroom outside next to Lacey’s. Tomorrow our two families will meet and make plans for the future.

January 5, 2014
Sunday morning here…an unusual time to be at home, but since it is raining and very cold, we’re sure there is no church service. The phone service is out, too, so we can hardly call around to find out what’s really happening. Last night and this morning have got to have been the coldest yet. And this rain is very unusual. Another reason to be disappointed is that we had planned to make Trevor and Mirlene’s wedding announcement this morning…oh well, not much can be done about it. We went down to Pastor Enel’s with our family yesterday afternoon.

We had a wonderful time with them…also got to see Jephte and Daphne again…who would have thought that Trev would someday be Jeff’s brother-in-law! We agreed on a date for the wedding-March 16th-and ate a delicious supper with them and just had a good time generally. Later today…we did end up going to church late, the rain finally let up for a while, at least. So the big announcement was made to a smaller than usual crowd. Everyone seems to be pretty enthused about the whole thing…everyone loves Mirlene. The idea of a white marrying a Haitian doesn’t seem to stress anyone out. Todd’s invited us for dinner which was special, especially today.

January 9, 2014
We have revival meetings starting this afternoon now. On Sunday for the first time that I can remember, we had a vote on whether we wanted the meetings to start at 3:00 or 4:00. No one voted for 3:00 that I could see.

Last time around, Fre Ozias just told us the meetings would be starting at 3:00. At that time, the three ministers told the leader brethren, maybe Fre Ozias in particular, that they needed to step back a little and let Todd take the lead since he is an ordained brother. I guess that has happened to some degree as shown by the vote about the starting time. It’s all a little awkward since Todd doesn’t know Creole well enough to speak on his own, and I’ve heard there’s some confusion among the brethren about the order of things, but hopefully, now that the revival ministers are back, things can be cleared up. The work at the clinic keeps on…Mirlene is back at her job there since Monday, the 6th. I was at the clinic several days back near quitting time, but things were still humming. There was a young woman on the exam table who was miscarrying and wouldn’t stop bleeding, so Fre Bartelmy was preparing to take her down in the ambulance. During all that, we received word that another lady was being carried in, as she was in such pain she couldn’t walk. That lady turned out to have a severe urinary tract infection. The first lady was on IV, and was put on oxygen for the ride down. As I watched all that, I felt almost overwhelmed that we actually are able to help people in this way. So many others have made it possible for this to be happening. The ambulance has not been in very good shape. Keith and the boys have been working on it to keep it on the road, but what is really needed is that our mechanic, John Beasly, come with parts to fix it properly. I breathed a little prayer that it would make the trip safely down with the sick lady so she wouldn’t die. Well, it did, but it didn’t get back up. This morning, Keith and Zack drove Todd’s truck down to Terre Froid where the ambulance was left by Fre Bartelmy, got it running again and drove it all the way up.

Thankfully, John is coming tomorrow.

January 14, 2014
John Beasly has been here and worked on the ambulance. On Sunday it made a trip down with a number of people who were scheduled for different surgeries in Fond Parisien. They needed to be taken Sunday already so as to be ready first thing Monday morning. But now the starter went, so Keith and Zack have worked all day on it. Trev was occupied with putting a new roof on the old clinic. That’s the first step to turning that place into a little honeymoon house for he and Mirlene. We also got word today that the new transmission for the Excursion is in the country.

January 20, 2014
Last Friday exactly, Keith went down to pick up the new transmission from Roch Blanch, thus missing the celebration of Trevor’s 21st birthday. I worked most of the day on a double layer chocolate cake with fancy icing. Of course I thought about Sonia and Shelly all day! I was pleased with the result, but it was still a far cry from one of their cakes. There happened to be company at both the other missionaries’ houses and Karen happened to invite us all to their place, so that’s where we ate supper. We were a group of 26, I think, 15 of which were young people. One of the CSI guys, Sheldon, has three of his friends visiting, and Lacey has her dad, sister, two cousins, and a friend here to do an eaves-troughing project. I heard that they did three different houses one morning. That’s a worthy project…anything to help people collect more water when it rains. It’s getting pretty dry…the dust flies when a big truck roars by. Last week Sunday was the end of the revival meetings. We concluded with a five hour communion service. There weren’t even any baptisms to make it take that long…I don’t know how it happens. Only three members did not go to communion. Fre and Se Jantzi have made a decision to leave our church for a different one, which makes us all really sad. Pray for the congregation here…it’s still so young. To switch subjects…Ketli comes up with some little jewels once in a while. Here’s what she said to me the other day.
“Trevor has a airplane at Canada, at Montreal.
It’s a big one; I saw it.” I told her, “No-o-o, he doesn’t.” She snaps back, “Oh, it’s Zack’s?”

January 25, 2014
Today is Saturday; I think we’re going to the market in Fore. I was up long before everyone else and have three loads of laundry drying in the sun.
The Excursion is fixed now…Zack put in many hours during this last week getting the new transmission in. Yesterday Trev, Zack, and Mirlene took it down to accomplish various things. Mirlene needed to sign for her passport and also buy fabric for the wedding.

It’s so nice to have a working vehicle again. The work at Trevor’s little house is progressing, albeit slowly. The masons have worked for two days filling in the gaps on top of the wall up to the new ceiling.

We were laughing the other day about how this house which Trev and Mirlene are planning to start out in, is far beyond the reach of any one in this area…yet at home, in North America, there wouldn’t be one, not one young man who would consent to live in a house like that! One day during the week I had gotten up, and was outside near our bedroom window which has some metal grill work at the top. I noticed that honeybees were starting to swarm around the feed sack we have stuffed in around the bars. I didn’t pay too much mind till Keith started yelling for help from his bed. He told me to pull out the sack to let the bees back out of the bedroom, but I couldn’t get near enough to do that. So he was trapped in the bed while several hundred bees buzzed threateningly around the room! Only when we started spraying them from the outside did the bees decide to start their retreat. I don’t think we actually killed that many, but they decided, apparently, that our bedroom wasn’t the friendliest place to begin a new hive. I had just made a comment to Zack that very morning that he should consider becoming a beekeeper here in Haiti and export honey to the rest of the world, seeing how the honeybees are dying everywhere. There seem to be a lot left here.

February 3, 2014
There’s been a lot of coming and going during this last week…Todd’s have guests…friends of theirs from Scott City…Casey and Jamie Nightingale. They came the day that Lacey’s crew left. Our new nurse, Angela Toews from North Carolina, arrived on Saturday. She is thirty-three, an RN, grew up in Michigan and Kentucky, and moved to North Carolina some years ago. She is a cousin of Craig, Lyndsey’s husband. We haven’t had a completely new person here for long enough that I have to keep reminding myself that no, she does not know anything about us or Oriani yet. It was hardly two months ago she heard about our need here and she’s already come!

Seems to me she’ll be a good fit. I don’t believe I mentioned that Sallie flew home for a week to attend her grandfather’s funeral. So suddenly the kids had some days off of school…an unexpected treat for them. I had to scramble a little to come up with ways to keep everyone profitably occupied.

We got a good little bit of clean-up work done in the yard.
Lacey’s sister, Jenna, wanted to substitute-teach for a couple of days which worked quite nicely. Jesse Lancour, the missionary I’ve mentioned who has settled not far from us, went with Keith the day he went down last week to pick Sallie up from the airport. Jesse’s wife, Kirsten, wanted to spend the day with me, which she did. She walked here from where they live…an hour-and-a-half walk, and she’s seven months pregnant. She actually spent the next day with me, too, because our dear old Excursion gave Keith some more fits while in Port. He managed to get to Roch Blanch and spend the night and then work all day the next day on it. Zack and Cam took Todd’s truck down so they could help with repairs. Christina had gone with Keith so it suited her just fine that she got to play with Jerrod’s girls for a whole day! Jesse seemed cheerful about it all, too. Kirsten and I had a good time…we walked around to see the school and the clinic and Donna, plus talked a lot…she’s a great talker. When Keith and everyone finally did return home, Jesse’s stayed the night. Now it seems, notice I said seems, like things will settle into a bit more of a normal schedule, what with a nurse proper living with us again. One problem we will face is what to do about a translator for Angela when Mirlene goes down to get ready for her wedding. We thought we had someone lined up but that’s not working out. Bon Dye konnen…God knows. We’ll trust Him.
An interesting tidbit…for the first time, Ketli asked how to say something in Creole. I had just given her an egg for her breakfast, telling her it was a hot egg. Then she asked me, “How do you say ‘hot egg’
in Creole?” That tickled me. I’m impressed that she’s starting to process the difference between the two languages.

February 11, 2014
I’m listening to a wild chorus of Creole singing, courtesy of Sally and Christina…they know I’m writing about them so now they’re singing gently and impressively! They both are very good at Haitian-style singing.

We’ve had a crazy weekend…lots of people around. Two guys from Ballico, California, Matt Jantz and Benny Friesen, came to see the clinic and the Lastic project. Sadly, Matt got really sick on Saturday and couldn’t go to church at all on Sunday. He felt better by evening but missed a lot. Sam Wilhite has returned to Haiti to work in Lastic and he was up here for the day with two others. The Oriani congregation has organized a ‘choral’, a choir…and the twenty-four or so of us practice at 3:00 every Sunday and Wednesday. That helps to make my Sunday very busy indeed, but it’s fun and they’re all doing very well. So, to take a look at Keith’s schedule of services in a week…Sunday morning; 3:00 in the afternoon in charge of choir practice, then the service; Tuesday afternoon from 3:00 to 5:00 translate for Todd at the doctrine class; Wednesday lead the choir again at 3:00 in the afternoon and after that the Bible Study, and on Friday translate the doctrine class for Todd again. Add to that the duties of the clinic and everything else and you’re looking at one busy man! Chase is really enthused to be in the doctrine class…there’s a number of young people. David, Mirlene’s brother, is up here now helping Trevor with his house.

Just maybe I’ll get this emailed tonight before this computer goes to Canada with Zack. God bless everyone and we’re looking forward to seeing some of you at the wedding March 16

Love to all, Candace

October 18th

We have had so many of our friends and family who keep telling us to keep on planning to go to Haiti and get started, that we feel to take their advice and press onward.

Kimmie the Idaho nurse is ready to go too. And she’s just waiting on me to buy our tickets so she can buy hers. So… the Lord willing… I will try to buy the plane tickets tomorrow to leave from Detroit on Oct 28th, and we’ll get started! I can hardly wait. We heard of several of our church ladies there who have lost children in the last 6 months due to unknown cause or disease. If we can keep going, and together with some of you reader’s compassionate contributions, make a positive difference in this little person’s life, in that one, and in another, then our efforts will be a huge success!

We are finding more and more info that medical supplies and basically everything we need can be purchased in the Dominican Republic now, so we will be able to find and rebuy the items we need that were lost with the ship. Vehicle costs in Haiti are high and I was told that good used ones are almost non-existent. So …. we are shopping for another vehicle in the USA that we can ship to Haiti (try again ). Untill we can buy and ship another SUV into Haiti, we have been offered the temporary use of one of the Mission Mennonite vehicles. Thanks! That is so awesome to have people we know and trust there for backup like this.

Keith's Blog

October 8, 2010
Submitted by Keith on Fri, 10/08/2010 – 05:00
Photo of sinking ship: http://www.tradewinds.no/casualties/568324/mystic-cries-mayday

We had so many interesting and “God moments” when it seemed like God was almost miraculously making things happen to be able to get this vehicle, and get it loaded with supplies, and actually across into the USA, that we were disappointed that after all that… it was delayed for almost 2 months leaving Miami docks to go to Haiti. But, the other day we heard it had left! and the ship was on it’s way! We were so happy, and repeatedly thanked God in our family prayers that the timing was good that we would have it in Haiti by the time we move there in a couple weeks. (I haven’t bought the tickets yet). Today… We are stunned and in disbelief.

We hear this afternoon that the ship and all the cargo, is peacefully resting on the bottom of the ocean. This included a couple other vehicles that were being bought by some of our poor Haitian brethren. Which makes me very sad for them too.

Words fail to describe our disappointment and we have already cried our tears of frustration. The weeks and weeks of effort into rounding up the clinic and household supplies, equipment, extra parts, tools, propane freezer, schoolbooks, and all the effort involved in buying and equipping the Suburban for Haiti…. all finished.

Where do we go from here? We can only say the very common Haitian phrase “BonDye konnen” (God knows). I know I am not feeling too chipper today, but I don’t feel we have the energy or the time to start buying and replacing it all here before we go. We have quit our jobs, and we are have our Canadian house rented out. So maybe we’ll have to just go, and figure out how to do without some of it, or buy what we can in the Dominican over the next year (generally high priced). Finding a suitable vehicle is the challenge right now.

Forgive me for writing a blue letter, but we thank you our friends for listening and praying.

Keith and Candace