Dennington Updates

School: 

School began Oct 1 and I teach 3 days a week at two different schools.  I teach at Grace Zion, where I teach English to all grades and Art to grades 1-4.  I also teach English for grades K-3 at Madam Jonathan's School.  I used to work with her at Starfish Kids.  It amazes me how much the older kids have picked up since last year.  They love to learn and they make teaching fun.  Some of the younger kids (the 3 and 4 year olds) are still having adjustment problems.  There is a lot of crying at least through part of the morning.  We are still having problems with teaching in the dark when the government electricity is not working.  A team is looking into how we can solve this problem and then comes finding a way to fund it.  The kids are such a delight and I love working with the teachers at Grace Zion.  They are so dedicated.

English School:

Class at Grace Zion school for adults will begin in November.  I will be teaching two days a week and helping with an English Speaking service.  Pastor James will be teaching two day opposite of me. We will be trying a new way of teaching English. I want to try teaching it the same way I teach it to the children.

Friday Bible Class.

 Pastor Joel and I began a Bible study in an area which is part of Haut de Cap.  Some of the people who live in that area wanted to do Evangelizing.  After two weeks of Bible Study we had several come forward for prayer and one to accept Jesus.  Now they want to have a church service.  They already have begun to make a church building for themselves.  The walls are bamboo and the roof will be a tarp.  They want to invite people to come there in whatever clothing they have to wear.  That is wonderful.  I am anxious to see where this will go.

Saturday Morning Kids Bible Club;

Every other Saturday morning we have Bible Club at the orphanage and children from outside the orphanage come as well.  They are also accompanied by their mothers.  The theme this month has been Jesus loves the little children.  Saturday I explained the plan of salvation.  I was watching the children when one of the mothers raised her hand and told me she needed Jesus.  What a morning one child who is new to the orphanage, 3 mothers and the security guard all accepted Jesus.  What a blessing. We were all celebrating.

Orphanage; 

The children continue to get healthier and healthier from eating better. Support for the feeding the kids has been slow coming in but we have continued to feed the children each month what we can.  The landlord sold his house and so he wants to move into the orphanage building.  That made it urgent to find another house for the kids.  Our budget is tight but a fund raising golf tournament in Canada had provided us with money for rent for the old house.  We set out with that amount of money for rent.  We did find a house that was much better for the kids but after the landlord agreed to give us the house for the same rent he changed his mind and raised the rent to a place where we could not afford to live there.  We looked a several more houses and God has blessed us with a beautiful house. It has three bedrooms  2 ½ baths.  Running water, EDH which is public electricity.  Kitchen, dining room, living room and a guard house.  I cannot believe the kids will get to live there.  It is about 15 min from my house so I will not see the kids as often as I did when they lived next door. The rent is higher and so we need to make it a matter of prayer. Praise the Lord we received a gift from a church through a visiting team which helped us make the deposit to hold the house. We also need to buy more beds.  Because of the size of the house we are in now, kids share beds.  Some of the kids are getting pretty big.  We can buy Bunk Beds from another orphanage for $300 US and that includes mattresses.  They are strong and big enough grownups can sleep on them.  This is also a matter of prayer. Other things are needed but not critical like chairs for the living room and I would love to see a basketball hoop. By the time we pay for food and transportation for school and give a little money to the workers who volunteer we are pretty stretched.  The kids will move in in December or January.

Sammy

I wish I could say Sammy adoption is going well but it is not and we may have to make some tough decisions.  I have asked the family in the states to pray about it.  Sammy adoption is actually illegal because of the new laws and the government would have to make a special exception to allow Sammy to have a private adoption.  Others have told us that it is a slim chance of that happening even though we have been lead to believe it is possible.  Sammy is a sweet dear child but he is going through the terrible twos and he thinks everything should go his way.  We are working on that.  Some days it is challenging and at our age exhausting but we love him very much.  Please pray for Sammy and his future.  And direction for all of us.  He is talking more and more everyday.  We are amazed and what he understands in both English and Creole.

Bud

Bud continues to work with MFI and Life Water . He also tries to be available to help other ministries as well.  He loves his new depot and so do I.  Our little house has gotten so much bigger since he moved his stuff into the depot.  We also have room for small teams to stay with us now. Bud has also been teaching our security guard mechanics, electrical and plumbing.  Juslian has never really had a dad in his life so he is loving spending time with Bud.  Bud is a good teacher.  I showed a video at school yesterday and since I know little about the generator Juslain went to school with me and took care of that part for me.

Building Schools,

I continue to work with Joy and Hope of Haiti doing bookkeeping for them as they build schools here in Haiti. I also sit on the board of Stella House Orphanage helping them to make wise decisions on money and what is best for the kids.  Joy and Hope builds schools for churches but have no one on the ground here full time to oversee projects that are run by Haitians.  I love helping the two groups work together and to understand each other.  One of the things God has shown me here is that I have the ability to help Haitians who have been given leadership responsibilities here by other missions to grow and do their jobs well.  I love helping them to take charge.  We should all be teaching the Haitians to lead and we act as advisors. Someday we won’t be here and they will need to carry on. Empower Global and Joy and Hope of Haiti also have brought in some food for schools and orphanages and I help with getting the food to the people.

Working together

No matter what my jobs or Bud’s jobs are we work together to help each other and I know I could not do what I do without Bud helping me. Sammy  tries to help as well.