Hi Everyone

Tues.

Hi Everyone,
I’m trying something new, writing in Word at home to transfer to Blogspot when I get online.
Our Internet connection to the satellite stopped working last week and we are traveling the ½ mile to Radio 4VEH each morning to retrieve our mail. Yesterday I sent an e-mail to the local Internet representative here to ask for his help.
We have been very busy to say the least. A new “Generator End” came in on Missionary Flights Int. two weeks ago and we now have it installed on our engine bringing our generators back up to two here at our main campus. It’s a good thing as stating this last week-end our local power provider which was up to about 22 hours each day has cut back to a few hours each night. Jane has been scrambling to order school supplies whenever she can get onto the Internet.

Over the July 4th weekend Jane and I took a trip to Sosua, Dominican Republic for a get-a-way and also meet Haiti’s 90 day visitor’s requirement. There we were able to do some Scuba Diving which we have not been able to do since coming here last September. It was a long but comfortable bus ride. Once there, we found this quaint little town a beautiful place. The ocean was full of colorful fish and a healthy reef system and a dive shop that was very accommodating to our every need. The first day I found that something was in the toe of my dive boot so investigating with my hand I had a scared tarantula ran up my arm.

Wed.
Yesterday the Internet at 4VEH was slow and was not able to post this, will try again today.

I spent the day working on adapting a new portable x-ray machine’s “head” to the ”mast” of our old dead x-ray machine. I located some aluminum and able to build an adaptor plate on the lathe. Today I will run some wiring for the darkroom, a waterline for the new processor and mount the vertical “Bucky” to the wall for chest x-rays. The team that provided this equipment is arriving tomorrow to train our current technicians on its use.

We are anxious to make plans for Air Conditioning up-grades in the adjacent room to pave the way for the larger more sophisticated X-Ray machine coming from Erie, PA. Between the two machines the people of northern Haiti will have access to more advanced health care.

Each day here is a challenge, making do with limited resources. God continues to amaze us with his answers to Haiti’s needs.

Continue to pray for Haiti, now that the distraction of World Cup soccer is over, the realization of difficult times settles back in for many.

Bud

Yes I do exist

Your probably wondering if I am here because all of the blogs have been from Bud lately but it seems by the end of my day the last thing I want to do is pick up a computer. It has been a very busy time for us here in Haiti. Of course we had the Crusade and the team that came to be a part of it. Then we had two more teams come in to do evangelising and all kinds of wonderful things to help spread the Gospel here in Haiti. It is so wonderful to have all of them here but it also comes with a lot of work for Bud and I. This week we do not have a team here and I really miss them. It has been a great week to get a lot of letters written and spend extra time working on Starfish Kids. Praise the Lord we have 4 new foster parents who are trying to find sponsors for 60 of our children in the states. I am praying for 100 new sponsorships before school starts next year. We are entering a time of school repairs and building new ones. Thanks to a wonderful organization in Canada some money has been set aside to begin repairing and building schools. We pray that others will contribute to these funds as well. We have 5 schools that need to be built because they failed inspection after the earthquake. Their was not damage from the earthquake. These school were needed before the quake but now the government is shutting them down because they are unsafe. The last thing we want is our children in unsafe schools. Many of these schools are buildings that were the best the people could find to hold church and school in. Now we are able to help them. While the teams were here we visited a couple of our schools and took along balloons, beads and paint to give them a great day of fun. The team tied the balloons into animals and the beads were made into bracelets that tell the Gospel story. The paint of course was for painting pictures on the kids.
My English classes have ended and 35 out of 50 of my students passed. Our year ended with a pizza party at my house. I am getting pretty good at making pizza from scratch. The students showered me with gifts which was so humbling because many of them have so little but they wanted to show their love for me. The greatest gift as I told them was their friendship. Many still come to have conversation with me in English. Many times those conversations are about the Lord and His Word. Today is Saturday and it is the first day in a long time that Bud and I had nothing we had to do. So I studied language and baked cookies and Bud prepared our dive gear to do some scuba diving over the fourth of July. It will be the first chance we have had to do it since we came to Haiti. It will be a nice break. Jane

Qua-Sod

That's how you pronounce Crusade in Creole. Last night was the first night of crusade in downtown Cap-Haitian. This is to help celebrate Radio 4VEH's 60 years of Christian broadcasting here in Haiti. Pastor Wayne Barber & Evangelist Harold Coomer along with 8 team members arrived on Thursday to prepare for this Crusade that has been Wayne's vision for three years. The site is in the centrally located park. All of the arrangements have been being made over the last month with Jane helping coordinating much of it. Saturday night the team spent time praying at the location for God to do a great work here through the Haitian people. Yesterday we really didn't know how things were going to start, the massive stage was complete with final details being put in place. People were starting to gather, the weather was a typical warm summer evening.
As the worship time proceeded and special choirs sang the park filled up with maybe 5,000+ people. It was fantastic as we were told that it would probably be our lowest turnout during the 8 evenings planned.
Harold with "T" Lewis interpreting were both quite animated and right to the point about our need for salvation and not being guaranteed tomorrow.
It was a wonderful evening and we look forward to each coming evening.
We know that God is moving in a miraculous way here and we thank-you for your prayers!

Radio 4VEH is broadcasting live on the Internet each evening from 6-9PM EDT with Harold speaking about 8:00 http://radio4veh.org/

Blessings,
Bud

Tough Week

As my last writing, the exhaust tower went together without a problem. With the new exhaust pipe in place we changed the generator's oil and pressure washed the radiator as normal maintenance. On Thursday morning we loaded the dump truck to travel across Cap-Haitian to the radio station's transmitter site to repair their generators broken exhaust pipe. After a slow ride there through heavy traffic we arrived and went right to work cutting and fitting the new pipe. When we were ready to weld, we went to grab our little Lincoln Mig machine and it was gone. After checking we believe that it was taken from the truck as we were in traffic, although all of our other tools were still there neatly placed up front, away from the edges. What a bummer, back to the shop to struggle with the stick welder. Later on Thursday the generator that we worked on the day before overheated & shut down. We patched a small exhaust leak that may have been allowing soot into the radiator fins and got it going again. On Friday we were dealing with power inverter problems in the office and Don ended up reviving a computer that was experiencing major problems. It seems that a virus may have been going around our network affecting many computers. About noon the generator overheated again! After washing the radiator and restarting, everything seemed fine again. About 3:00PM Angie called, the van was down at the school and wouldn't start. After getting it back to the shop we find that the starter is shot. Edric had just returned from Cap-Haitian with a repaired alternator for the Isuzu Trooper and would try to locate a new starter for the van and the generator was overheating again. 5:30 AM on Saturday I went and degreased & pressure washed the radiator and started the generator for the day, all seemed good at 10:30 and so we left for town. Arriving back about 6:00 PM, the city power had been on but soon went off in a thunder storm. I went and started the generator but it overheated soon after. I even tried putting the garden hose in the radiator on low but it would still over heat, so off with the generator at 8:00PM and soon the city power came back on until 4:00 AM. Don, Edrice & I started at 6:00 AM today, removed & flushed the radiator, removed and inspected the water pump, all hoses and the thermostat. All seemed fine except we replaced the old fan belt, and left the tired looking thermostat out. After a five minute warm-up & check we put it under full load at 7:40 just in time for the 8AM church service.
The engine temperature remained good all day, hopefully we resolved the problem, we will know tomorrow when the electrical demand is higher.
With only Monday left, Brett was joking with Don as this may be the first year that he will be leaving with fewer vehicles running than when he came!

Bud

Challenges

I've found that serving here in Haiti is all about challenges and how we deal with them in a God honoring way. From leaky faucets & deteriorated window screens to smoking wires and major power outages that we must solve. Vehicle problems such as alternators that won't alternate, starters that won't start, brakes that won't brake.
Every day is a new challenge with a list that continues to grow longer.
Don & Debbie Sweatman have come in for a few weeks to lend support. They have been coming to Haiti for short terms for 11+ years and were the team leaders of our first trip. Don have been giving me a hand down in the mechanic shop, it's been great to have a second set of eyes and ideas. Times can be discouraging when you struggle with things like a slow Internet when you need to order parts then waiting for them to come in. But then Sunday when we worship in a church jam packed with jubilant people the efforts of the week take on a different aspect. We remember the good things that did go right, a completed solar project to provide lights for a school, our generator powering the church out front so that they can have special evening services and the many faces that the clinic has served that week
For two days now Don and I have been fabricating a new exhaust system for one of our generators. Tomorrow we will try to straighten up and brace a leaning exhaust "tower" threaded up 25' through many electrical wires. Once straight then we will install a new muffler and piping.
When that job is complete there is another exhaust pipe to repair at the radio station's transmitter site, two vehicles and two lawn mowers waiting for parts and a new electrical panel coming for the clinic's x-ray room.
Each day we get to see how God is going to meet the needs next.
Bud