Catching Up... Looking Ahead...

Dear Friends,

I know it has been a long time since you heard from us.  About a month ago the internet went out on the Plateau.  It was at that point that we found out the company we got internet through had sold to another company... but we have no idea who.  Fun times!

Every now and then we can get signal through the cellphone towers but it is difficult to find signal and not very reliable when you do.  I am in the US right now but will be heading back next week.  Once I return I have no idea how long it will be before we can get internet.  If you do not hear from us please know that it is not out of negligence but simply that we have no internet.

Since we may not be able to communicate with you for a while and since it has been quite some time since we were able to update the blog this will be a pretty long post... bear with me.

The end of June was the close of the school year and of different activities.  I left before Kindergarten graduation so I don't have any pictures of that but I hear that it was very well done.  

One of our teachers, Wiltha Belizaire, has been teaching embroidery to a group of young girls.  To close out the class for the year they had a little party.  They enjoyed Haitian cola, cupcakes that Krischelle made for the occasion, and a few other treats.

Wiltha and her class with one of the projects they worked on this year.  

 A bird done by one of the girls 

To close the year out and as a way of saying thank you to our staff we threw our first ever all staff end-of-the-year party.  It was a fun and unifying time. 

 

Our entire 2012-2013 staff.  They will all be returning next school year except 

Thony who will be going on to Seminary.

Unfortunately I didn't get a good picture of all four tables but this gives some idea.  The balloons that were found in Gonaives were the most random mix I had ever seen but they gave us a good laugh... can you see the tiger print one?

Some of the highlights from the evening were the staff sharing things they have learned throughout the year, a game where they would imitate each other and the rest had to guess who it was, and when we gave out awards for the year.  There was also a hilarious dance...

 Sam gallantly pulling out Mme Tiferne's chair so she could dance with him

 At the end we had a special send-off for Thony. Some of his fellow teachers did an improv song and staff members shared things they appreciated about him.

  Our great school staff.  

The camera battery died after their picture so I didn't get one of the other departments.

Since I don't know when we'll have internet again, I will give you a sneak peak into some of the things that will be going on in the next few months. 

Currently work has begun on preparations for putting on the school roof!  Workers started this week to pour the pillars and bond beams so that within the next few months the roof can go on.  We will be sending materials from the US which will take some time and are currently working on putting together a team to help our guys "Raise the Roof" sometime in the fall or early winter.

On Monday a team will be arriving from The Village church in Canada to do a children's English camp and some leadership training for NOVA (the youth group referred to here and here) as well as a few other things.  

Also within the next month we will be starting work on two Teachers' Houses!!!  We recently received funding to be able to construct these homes before the start of the new school year.  This will enable us to more easily receive qualified teachers for our school by giving them their own space.  We are so excited to get started!

Please pray for us as the next few months will be very full with preparing for the upcoming school year and also completing these construction projects.  Our staff was supposed to have a vacation this month but many of them have been working almost as hard, if not harder, than they do normally!  We are so blessed to have the staff we do, but please pray for them for strength, health and stamina as well as the ability and willingness to recharge as (or before) needed.  Please pray also for the situation with the internet.  If we cannot get it repaired it will greatly inhibit our ability to communicate with you all and to do some of our most basic work.  God is in control though and we trust that until we get the internet back, there are other things He wants us to be focused on. 

If you do need to get a hold of us while our internet is out please feel free to call us at 011-509-2258-4977.  

May God bless you all and may we be back in touch soon!

Judy

Kid's Club

When I (Judy) first got involved in Lemuel in Port-au-Prince back in 1998 my primary responsibility was doing the Sunday afternoon kid's clubs.  The first few Sundays were pretty bad but eventually it became the highlight of my week. 

We incorporated Kid's Club a few years ago but this year we decided to take it on as the responsibility of the administration - namely: Manis, Krischelle, Bonita, Sam and me.  Thony and Patricia from the school also wanted to lend a hand.  It has been fun getting back into "Club mode" after all these years and it has been good to be able to interact more personally with the kids. 

Club usually starts off with prayer and some lively singing and then segues into the lesson and some fun activities.

The kids are divided into four groups.  They compete for special parties throughout the year.  

The competition helps keep up motivation and discipline.

Like I said... lively!

For the lessons this year we have been using ideas from Character First and adapting them to our environment with the help of Selafen, a made up character that the kids can relate to.

Life size "Selafen" that Krischelle and I made.

For each character trait that we study, we share a story about Selafen and how he learned the importance of this trait.  The traits we have studied so far are: Attentiveness, Obedience, Honesty, and we are currently working on Gratefulness.

Manis, Selafen and some of the club kids.

Along with the Selafen story each trait has crafts, games, a song, a Bible verse and more that go along with it.

Back in March we were studying Honesty.  Part of their story involved a truck made out of tin cans that was given to Selafen (he let his friends believe he had made it and got into quite a mess!).  For the craft day we split up the kids into three groups.  The youngest kids had to match shapes in their envelope to the shapes on the template to make a truck.  It was harder than it looks and I was so impressed with how well the kids did! 

We conscripted the help of teachers Lovelie, Kattia, and Bergeline 

as we certainly had our hands full!

Some of the kids proudly displaying their work.

The second group sanded little squares of wood that we had left over from a camp about 5 years ago!  They then colored the squares, and threaded string through pre-pierced holes to attach button wheels.

 

You can see an almost finished orange car on the bench.

 The oldest group was divided up into their teams.  Each team was given a few tin cans and some basic tools and materials and told to make a tin can truck.  It was really great to see their creativity come out!

 The final products!

This past week we had another craft day.  We are currently studying Gratefulness and so their craft was to make a thank you card to give to someone who had done something for them and whom they wanted to thank.  The kids got construction paper and a mix of other items to decorate their cards with (thanks to our friends from Wisconsin for bringing the materials!).    

Despite the wind blowing all their stuff around (see girl in the back trying to hold her stuff and catch her flying papers) they really got into it and had fun. 

I was touched by what they wrote on their cards.  This boy's card is for his father.  He says "Thank you Papa for all you do for me and for putting me in school. Thank you."

This boy had started writing to his mom. 

Like I said, they really got into the stickers and gluing!

 

Once they found the scrapbook paper with the balls, the boys were all over it!

 I was impressed with this boy though who actually picked out flowered paper for a 

card for his sister.

 

The kids also love the game days...

This was one of the games for attentiveness.  The kids had to listen for their number to be called and then try to get the ball and run back to their team before being tagged.  

(Thanks Josh and Russ!)

For obedience our team from Wisconsin played follow the leader with the kids.

Other games have included "the Blob" to teach how lies grow and "roads and alleys" for attentiveness. 

We have had anywhere from 120 to 30 kids on any given club day depending on a bunch a variables (water shortage, gardening duties, school breaks, etc...) but it has been encouraging to watch the kids who have really latched on and engage in what they are learning.  Please pray with us that these children will really take what they are learning to heart and that God would use it to impact their lives and the future of this community.

Harvest Festival 2013

I know this is very late to be posting about the Harvest Festival that happened 3 weeks ago (!!!).  My apologies! 

The day after the Festival, Manis and Sam left for the US.  Manis was flying out to attend a leadership conference with Extreme Response, so he and Sam decided to fly out a bit early so they could fill a box truck that we will be sending.  Bonita had already left on Sunday afternoon so Krischelle and I (Judy) have been holding down the fort… and getting a little behind on blog posts :)  I did have a lot of fun working with the development guys and some people in the community to get a few surprises ready for the guys when they returned.  For three weeks I had a free hand to “beautify” the place a bit and we had a lot of fun doing it.  In the process we were able to provide some work to over 60 people in the community as part of a “thorn clearing” program.  The people really got behind the idea and were willing to work for very little in order to clear out the thorns along the road.  They would love to see the thorns wiped out of the community completely and we hope to be able to encourage and assist them in that in the future.  But I digress…

Back to the Harvest Festival…

On Easter Sunday, March 31 the church held its annual Harvest Festival.  This is one of my favorite church activities as I am always so encouraged to see the joy with which people from the community give sacrificially of their harvests, livestock and resources in order to raise money for the church. 

Usually the Harvest Festival lands while a group of some sort or another is here.  If only people from the community come, there is not much profit in it!  This year there were no groups coming so Bonita thought of the brilliant idea of inviting friends who were already in country!  But would they come?  Who would want to make the long and bumpy trip all the way up here to the Plateau just for our little church’s Harvest Festival?  Well, as it turns out… quite a few!  We had 26 people travel up, mostly from Port-au-Prince, to participate!  We were so blessed and encouraged by these friends. 

 

The service was lead by our school administrator, Patrica.  Behind her (L to R) are Pastor Simon Serleus, president of the Union of Evangelical Churches of Haiti and a long-time friend of Manis'; Mr. Armand Louis, director of the high-school that Manis and many of our students from PauP attended and one of the men who stood with Manis through some difficult times when he founded Lemuel; Mr. Leon Camues who was responsible for our PauP branch for many years and continues to oversee the work that has continued there; and Pastor David Schmid a CrossWorld missionary that I grew up with as an Uncle (his wife Aunt Phyllis was also there and entertained Ani while I ran around getting things together).

The church organized a praise team for the day.

Rounding out the music were Sam on the congo drums, a friend from Anse-Rouge on the drums...

 ... Krischelle on the keyboard and a friend of one of our youth on the guitar.

 As part of the program the children sang an amazing, two-part song about Christ's resurrection.  The Chorus was, "He not in the tomb anymore.  Jesus is alive.  Now He has gone to prepare a place for us in Heaven."

We had two visiting church groups that sang...

...as well as Myrlande, Josiane,and Modelene from our church.

Pastor Simon gave a great message combining the two things we were celebrating: Easter and Harvest. 

Manis gave a challenge and told the church how proud he was of them. 

To open the Harvest Celebration part of the morning five ladies and two men from the church did a "Harvest Praise Dance"

At the end they grabbed people from the congregation to dance too.

  

The people then brought in what they were giving and the auction began.  The two MAF pilots who came with their families were so hilarious bidding against each other for a goat, Manis said he had tears in his eyes he was laughing so hard.  They checked the goat's teeth, eyes, under its tail... one even tried riding it.  Unfortunately I missed the whole thing but I was laughing just hearing about it.

One new thing we added this year was a booth outside where people could buy things straight out and not in an auction format.  Each lady in the church made some kind of candy or sweet thing... 

 ...We then bagged them, put nice toppers on the bags and sold them at a fixed price.  Even those in the community who couldn't buy a goat or chicken or a whole "rejim" of plantains could buy a bag or two of sweets and take something home from the Festival.

All in all it was a great day.  It was wonderful to see friends, some of whom we hadn't seen in years, and to see the church rally together to put on such a beautiful program.  

A special thanks to everyone who came!