We will be returning to Haiti soon

Bud and I are praising the Lord and for answered prayer. I had to have my gallbladder removed yesterday and because it all went as planned Bud and I are planning to return to Haiti on January 1. We will spend a couple of days in Florida purchasing some needed things for our freezer and home in Haiti. January 3 Bud and I will be back to the work we love.

Although we have loved being with our family, we miss our work in Haiti and the Haitian people as well. We had a special treat this past weekend. Prudence and her husband came to Erie for some speaking engagements at our Church. Prudence works in our clinic. While she was here we received sad news that one of our employees in our clinic (a young man)died suddenly. This is so sad but far too common in Haiti. Another employee who works with Bud also has just recovered from Cholera and some complications. PTL.

Our Heavenly Father is ever present and is always working on our behalf. We have so much to be thankful for this Christmas. We are so looking forward to being with our family. We are also busy making plans for our return to Haiti. God has laid so much on my heart for Starfish Kids. Cindy is taking over much of the office work freeing my time more to work with our schools and the children. In order for Starfish Kids to do all that we feel we are to do for the children of Haiti, I need to visit the schools more often and find way to help our School directors run our schools well. We want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas. My freind Prudence told my church. "Please do not be so busy decorating your house, that you forget to decorate your heart with Jesus" God bless you. Jane

Wow Can't Believe So Much Time Has Passed

It is hard to believe it is November. For those of you who are so faithful to follow our blog I am sorry I have not written in awhile. We have a lot of things to catch up on. August was filled with visitors, report cards and making preparation for the next school year.

The month began with our final Vacation Bible School of the summer. Over the summer we saw over 100 children come to Christ.

Each of the teams prepared a flannel graph story for each day and taught the children through skits and songs. Each day ended with a meal of Beans and rice. Many of the children who come to these Bible Schools have never been inside the church.

When we began VBS in one of the villages we had so much fun watching the children. One the first day there was about 50 children but as we would sing and begin our program the children would be peeking in the windows and doors to see what was happening. Soon they would return dressed for church. By the end of the week we had over 250 children. On the last day we invited the parents to participate for the who program and they all came. The building held about 200 people so to accomadate all the children and their parents we gave the benches to the parents and put blankets on the floor for the kids. As we sang and taught we had to step over children. What a great day. Over 70 children accepted Christ on the last two days.




One of Bud's projects for the summer was to finish putting a roof on Cowman international school and oversee the construction of two schools. Plain du Nord school will open in October.
Flavil is still underconstruction and will open soon. What an exciting thing it is to see the children's faces when they come to see what the workman are doing. One day while the visiting team finished some painting at Plain du Nord I sat on the edge of the porch and read a story to the children about how much God loves them. When I asked the children who Jesus was some of the children responded "He is Life for me" other children did not know. That is where my heart is teaching Children that Jesus loves them and that they can have hope in a place that seems so hopeless.


The children do not seem to realize how hard life is for them because this is the only life they know. They do not know there is a whole world out there that lives differently. They laugh and play and make toys out of junk they find along the road. One of the village that I visit often to read to and play with the children is a place where the people go to make their sacrifices to Satan. The Pastor's wife came to me and told me the people in the neighborhood have been talking about the white woman who comes to read to the children. She asked me if we could do something with her church to set up a time for the neighbor children to come like a kid's club. i told her I would love to help her do this but it would be the members of the churches job to sustain it. It would be an outreach to children who do not attend our Christian School and who parents do not know Christ. It is my hearts desire to reach these children and their parents as well. As you can see in the picture each of our schools now have a toilet. Each building holds two toilets. This will be the biggest prevention along with teaching the children to wash thier hands to fight Cholera and other diseases that take the life of our children.

Bud and I are presently in Erie Pa our home. We are off the field until January 1 when we will return to the field. One of the greatest blessings we have right now is Bud and Cindy Lenker have joined our team. Bud Lenker will be a partner to my Bud. Cindy will be working with me in Starfish Kids.

While Bud and I are home we will be traveling around Pennsylvania raising support. Our support is not enough to carry us through the next 5 years. Although see our children is at the top of our favorite things to do when home, visiting the people who support us in prayer and financially is alway fun. We have met so many wonderful people on our trips and they alway pick us up and give us such encouragement. Thanks to all of you who are so faithful to us. God Bless

Thanks For Your Prayers

Thanks everyone for your prayers. The recent tropical storm Emily was set to cause much distruction in Haiti with torential rain, something that Haiti just can not bare at this time. We only received some moderate rain yesterday afternoon for about an hour and heard some light rain during the night. We see on the internet this morning that Emily was delared dead at 5:00PM last evening. Bud
There is a team here doing daily vacation Bible school, The first day 120 children came. The Pastor was dicouraged that their invitation was not accepted, but as the singing began and the laughter of the children filled the streets, other children peered in through doorways. After a short time the child would leave and return clean, and dressed in their finest. Day two we are up to 176 children and 47 of these street children accepted Christ as their personal Savior. Today is day 3 and the parents are invited to attend. We are praying for God hand to move and to reach the parents for Jesus. This a little church and with the 176 children in there, there is no room to move. Today we will double that attendance with grown-ups and watch God move. I will catch you up on all of this later Jane

Time to Veg.

Well it's time to relax a little. We had the Gross family here for two weeks checking on how their children would adapt to living in Haiti. Well they didn't want to go home, really enjoyed trantula hunting after dark, playing Wii and their Haitian playmates. We took them to catch their flight this morning and picked up Matt, Stacey, Lily & Sophie as they came back. Dave & Marylyn Graffenburger are at the bus station awaiting a new team arriving through the Dominican Republic. They will be doing daily vacation bible school this next week. Jane & I have been catching up on some down time and getting some paper work completed. Tomorrow after church we plan to keep a low profile while the Graffenburgers take the team to lunch. Steve & Melissa Gross are both school teachers and feel called to join the staff at Cowman International school here.
Steve, after helping with bible school volunteered to help me with some mechanical repairs. I cautioned him that it would be hot & greasy but he jumped right in with both feet. A week ago Friday we were able to once again repair the John Deere mower. Monday & Tuesday we spent changing a rear main oil seal on an ailing generator out at the transmitter site at Petit-Ance (Little Inlet). This was a great relief for me as this project has been on my to-do list for 11 months now but we had to wait for a special installation tool to be sent in which arrived June 2. Since then it has been one thing or another delaying the fix. Thursday evening a new generator end arrived to replace a bad one at the radio station, once again Steve jumped right in and Friday afternoon we were able to rig the generator into place and get it bolted to the engine. Monday will be getting all of the electrical connections made and preparing it for automatic operation.

Jane has been very busy with teams, Starfish, VBS, and you name it. She has been wearing many hats this summer in keeping things working smoothly. Edric is putting the final touches on the new Plaine-DeNord school we were able to tour last Thursday evening. What a beautiful facility.

Bud

How did we cram so much into June?

We have been back for a month now and it feels like months. So much has been crammed into this very short time and we both feel like we are running on God's strength alone. Two teams have come and gone. Our third team is here and two more are coming in over the weekend. Last week we had 28 visitors on the compound.

The main focus for the summer is VBS. Each team coming in will be working with local churches to assist them with VBS. Each church is planning for at least 200 kids. It is very much like the VBS in the states including all the same songs only in a different language. The last team did two VBS back to back. What a great team. Not only did they help with classes but took the time to clear a better soccer field for the children of Vaudriuel Church.

There has been a lot to do and we only have 5 missionaries on the field. At our prayer meeting this week we prayed for strength and endurance to get through the rest of the summer. We have no down time till the end of Sept. I am reading a book called" Too busy NOT to pray' and it has been a real blessing for me. It has reminded me that if we are to have the strength and guidence to do what need to do we need to take time for rest and Prayer. We also need to ask God what things are important for us to be doing and what things are just things we think God wants us to do.

One thing I have been tring to put into my day is time to sit and talk with the Haitian who come to my door asking for help. It is a steady stream of people. This month was my last classes for English as a second language. I held to graduation parties for my two classes. Some of my student need some extra help this summer and others want time to just come and spend time practicing language. It adds to my work but it also gives me a chance to sit and really get to know them and help them to know Jesus better.

We continue to build schools. Right now we are working on a new school for Plain du Nord, which is not far from our compound. The children in the neighborhood are so excited. Other areas are getting new toilets and water, both are needed to help fight deases like Cholera.

Our schedule for the fall when we will be out raising support is filling up and we are praising God for the opportunity to share God's blessing on Haiti with them. We continue to Praise God for the people He worked through to keep us in the black financially.

We are so excited the Lenkers will be joining us soon. They are new missionies from Oregon and are packing as we speak. We have seen how God has worked to open doors for them and we are so excited. We will have two maintenance men named Bud at that time. What a blessing for my Bud.

We are seeing a rise in theft in the area and we feel it is because of the rise of food prices. People feel desperate. That is a common feeling among people who feel they have no where to turn for help or any hope. We are so greatful that we have a Savior who is always preparing a way for us. Thank you for your prayer on our behalf. We feel them and appreciate them more than you know. Jane