PRAYER REQUESTS: Continued strength and energy
                                        Continuing to learn the language
                                        Our family as it is hard to do things as a family, satan tries
                                         to do whatever he can to separate us.                                  



PRAISES:  Boom lift purchased and delivered to Nashville
                   Nicky baptized Ellie while we were in the States
                   New family arrived to work with us
                    Good well was drilled for school with 800 kids
                   Crusade went well in our village during voodoo holidays Halloween in the states

We pasted our 1 year mark for living in Haiti.  In some ways it seems like a year has flown by and other ways it seems like we have been here for much longer.  Either way we are blessed to be able to serve the Lord as a family.

Sorry for the late post.  I have many excuses that I could tell you but the fact that I am a procrastinator should say enough.  I know people want to here what is going on down here but to me it is just normal everyday stuff that doesn't seem important.  I have realized I need to get over that because no matter how small and unimportant our daily lives seem, they are so important to God and His will for the future and furthering His kingdom.

For the past month we have had back to back teams and guest housing.  We are able to be such a blessing to other ministries, providing them a place to stay and meals.  (One night we had over 30 people to feed).   I thank the Lord for our Haitian ladies that do most of the cooking.  I just make sure the meals are planned out and they have the food they need, and help with some of the cooking, making  some deserts.

I was able to give our ladies in the kitchen a cake decorating class with some of the supplies that brought down with me.

Carlene's son turned ten that day.  This was the 1st birthday cake he has ever had.

The boom lift was delivered to Nashville and is awaiting transport, when Nicky can fly back in and load a container. (We have to get our list of things going on the container approved by customs first)

We had a new family move down a month ago.  The Todd family, they have 4 children, ages 4-16.  Xander and Ellie are so excited to have more kids to play with and we are very appreciative of the additional help and fellowship.

Since the time has changed it gets dark at about 5:30pm and gets light about 5:45 am.  Most nights we struggle to stay up till 8:30pm and some nights I have gone to bed at 7:30.  But we do get up early, making you feel that you are more accomplished, plus it is cooler earlier in the mornings.

While we were guest housing both kids were up before I was to make sure they could go help make breakfast for them.  Xander usually is up early but Ellie likes to sleep.  Even she wanted to help even if it was to sit and read a book while Xander, Carrie, and I made breakfast.

Xander is a pro at making scrambled eggs by 6am

We had two well drillers from the states come down with Healing Hands.  They were able to help drill a well for us at a school for about 800 kids, the great thing about that is our kid supporters paid to have this well drilled! From Refuge, Mountain view, Central Baptist churches VBS fund raising along with a few other children that have supported us. We want to give children a opportunity to give clean water and the living water to kids here in Haiti!

Happy kids excited about other kids from the states giving them clean water! We were pumping out the well getting the drilling mud out allowing the clean water to flow!

Doing some maintenance on the well drilling rig replacing seals in the jacks

Got a flat tire on the way to the school to drill the well.

Some of the older students at the school praying for good water.

We had a 4 night crusade for all souls day, similar to Halloween in the states, but it is a 2 day national holiday, not trick or treating, ( people here that are into voodoo love to hear about Americans delving into their dark side on halloween) there was over 1000 people here each night 80% were young teens and children at our crudsade, this picture was taken from the far behind.

One of the holes washed from heavy rains, Nickys trying to get the water diverted as we build a wall around the compound so it wont keep washing these ravines.

July in Haiti

Prayer Requests:
Nicky's safety on the compound (being high up on a ladders and roofs)
God's strength for these hot days
For the support to purchase a tow able boom lift and send it down in September

Praises:
Xander's heat rash has cleared up
It is really hot and by 6pm we are worn out, its 95 to 100 in the house, but we are all healthy

Teams are a lot of fun and a lot of work.  We have a few teams that return year after year, some members are old friends but we also get to meet many new friends.  Teams not only come with their own projects in mind but come with the attitude that we are your servants here to help you with whatever is needed at the time.  What a blessing!!

We had 8 Americans here for a wedding.  We were just guest housing them but they wanted to help out with what they could.  We put them to work driving a tractor, painting, much needed organizing of freezers and pantries (what a blessing, who knows when we would have gotten to it).

Our teams consist of a wide range of gifts (medical, construction, well drilling and pump repair, VBS, youth sports camps, photography and video production, hair cuts, computer knowledge, mechanics, electrical  plumbing, etc.). You have no idea how God might use you to bless others.
We encourage you to be open to what the Lord has gifted you with and not be afraid to use it on the mission field.

It is great when people get excited about coming on mission trips.  We do tell them that our mission has found it more effective if the Haitian people are running the ministries.  They are able to reach and disciple more people.  There are things that we oversee, (I punch the cards for our gran moun feeding program and Sheryl is the head of the burn clinic) but for the majority we have a Haitian staff that do these ministries out in the community; well drilling and repair, teaching at schools, sewing, cooking schools and youth camps.

We are praying for more teams that are willing to come and get their hands dirty with all that we have to do behind the scenes here on our compound.  It takes a lot to keep what God has blessed us with running.  We just got finished guest housing 28 Americans with 4 Haitian staff for their 4 day conference with 180 Haitian youth.  The same day they left we had 200 nurses come to use our dorms for three nights. This adds up to 72 Americans in our volunteers Quarters and 470 Haitians thru our conference center in the last 6 weeks. There are 2 or 3 of us families here to take care of the teams, maintenance, airport runs, grocery, and material shopping, etc.  Kristie has been doing a lot of baking.

A typical week here starts out (depends on the arrival and departure dates) with Sunday-going to one of our local churches that our head missionary is preaching (he preaches at a different church each Sunday).  These services are usually lots of prayer, praise, and preaching (3-4 hours).  We come back to the compound for a nice home-style lunch, then relax time or trip to the mountain so teams can see the mountain life, before bible study at 5pm.

Monday begins with devotions with our men at the shop, then helping out with our gran moun (elderly) feeding program, lending a hand at the burn clinic or for some just taking a peek inside.  The rest of the day holds many opportunities to help on the compound.

The rest of the week kind of depends on the needs at that time or any emergencies that need to be taken care of.  like I said earlier some teams come with specific projects (they prepare months in advance for and bring the necessary supplies) they want to do or some just come to help us do what needs to be done.

All of us missionaries don't always eat every evening meal with the team.  Each family gets a designated night to eat with the team and share their testimonies and how we got to Haiti.  The teams really enjoy getting to ask questions and find out how we were called here.

Nicky and I have come under the couple that started these ministries over the past years (they have found what really works and allows the Haitians to be the main ones doing most of the ministries).  We pray that we are able to learn a good amount of what it takes to keep this place and those ministries going.

Please pray if God would have you get a team together to serve behind the scenes or to help equip us to keep the facilities in great shape as the harsh environment tries to corrode it away. We have been so overwhelmed in the last 9 months we haven't even had time to paint our own house.

Xander helping Nicky after school, greasing bearings

We gave 1538 lbs of fabric bolts to our sewing school.  Madam Pastor was so happy, they are going to make sheets and privacy curtains for some of the hospitals

The community praying for good clean water before we start drilling. Unfortunately 3 dry holes

One of our teams doing a youth sports camp

Kristie, Xander and Ellie give out food to 62 elderly every Monday morning.

Nicky repairing a well at another mission keeping orphans healthy 

Some of our team members.  You would not catch me that close to one of those!!

some days we have a extra 6 kids on our porch playing, can you find them?

8 of our workers ready to get to lunch, We praise God for the polaris!

180 youth here enjoying Facing the Giants movie in French

First hand miracle  

Praises:We serve a mighty God that is able to do anything!!!!

       

 Just Monday there was a little boy in the burn clinic that stopped 

breathing.  During the next hour of not breathing on his own Nicky was able to lay hands on him and pray as 4 nurses worked for 30 minutes while others on the compound prayed for him also.  He came back to life to where Nicky had to hold his legs as he was fighting them, and that's a good thing.  He had been coming for burn treatments, finished today's treatment and stopped breathing, alot of pain involved in scraping the wounds to keep scar tissue from building up. A real miracle from the Lord!

Later in the day a tool was lost while drilling 190' in a well the cable broke, the Haitian driller tried fishing for it for 1 hour, Nicky stopped everyone prayed and got it first try!!! God was busy Monday with us. Thank you supporters for your prayers and support allowing us to be used by God here in mighty ways!!!!!!!!!

    Prayer Requests:  
   
For a support team to help us with raising support                          For our family- it is hard balancing ministry, school, and family time                       
Our marriage- it can be really stressful
Two missionary families leaving this month- losing friends    
 and increased work loads   
For a tow-able boom lift


                      Catching you up on the last month

It has been weeks since we have blogged. We have been busier with fewer families here in the last 2 months. It was very nice to have 4 and 5 families here for a number of months as some new families were trying out our mission to see if it was a fit. We have been down to 2 families as one family retires leaving 2 families to run ministry's here and one on furlough. We knew this time would come but were enjoying have more families spreading the load out.

   We will try and keep our blog up as we get busier so you can know how to pray and be apart of our ministries. We also haven't had teams for a while but will start up in 2 weeks, every week to every other week. This has given us a great opportunity to get settled in and some more work done on our house. Maybe next year it will get finished painted, as when the day ends the heat has zapped the strength from us.

    North Carolina Baptist men who have been here since the earth quake are leaving the house they are in on our compound the end of the month. One family left Saturday and the other one leaves June 30th. It will be much lonelier here with out them here.

We have found a English speaking church 1 hour up the road at the beaches allowing us to meet other missionaries, making friends, and worshiping together in English.   We can't go every Sunday  but when we can, it has been a blessing.

So many of these thing we do daily most people wouldn't think a missionary would do but how else would the ministries keep running with out all the behind the scenes work keeping them going.

Hauling sand to the job where we are building a block wall around the compound, Xander and his friend inside are enjoying the big truck

Still cleaning up from the hurricane last summer, pulling up a stump

These men are building the trusses for the church we are building.   They are over built but building codes require it now.  We have 20 of the 60 made, it takes one day to make one.  Overseeing the welding is one of the jobs I have going and a painter painting these after they get done.

One of the geckos eating a roach on our house, yay for the geckos! 

This is the best tool ever. It is my service truck for the compound,  jobs close around, and to the well sites.

I had many friends come and help pressure wash the pool for 3 days and come to paint it, huge job but thankful for all the friend that helped out

Working on a generator from the 1980s, good Honda, it pays to have good equipment that will last for years

Xander making breakfast for us each Saturday and Sunday

Xander and Elisae fixing the lights on a old Isuzu we just overhauled

Nicky and Joel, our mechanic got married 2 weeks ago, he has got a great heart, and brought lots of people to the crusade this spring and 5 of them came to the Lord






We helped out at an orphanage a couple of weeks ago.

         A day (Monday) in our life here in Haiti

 Mondays you never know what they will bring. Flat tire on our army truck, take it off then send someone to the guy on the side of the street to repair it, much cheaper and quicker for him to fix it with these big split rims wheels.
   
By this time Kristie, Xander, & Ellie are ministering to the gran moun (old people) singing and worshiping with them and giving 62 of them provisions for a week. These are old people who don't have anyone to provide for them.
   
 Next off to the shop where we have 4 vehicles inside not working:

 The 1971 John Deere tractor, our main loader for all construction, loading well drilling supplies and material for pouring pump bases.  The oil pump broke and we have to replace it and the bearings on the crankshaft .

Then the white 1991 Isuzu trooper pouring oil out of the top of the engine so we took it apart to find the seals and gaskets need to be replaced.

The 1990's mule a dog chewed the wiring on it.

Glen takes the 1991 dodge transmission out, because it won't go in reverse, to find one of the forks in the transmission broken and have to replace the fork.

Not pictured a blue 1986 army pickup, military master, with a wheel cylinder broken and needs replaced, and a modulator valve that's not been hooked up since we swapped engines 2 years ago.

Beside that a giant yellow 1984 gmc power company truck we use for hauling well drilling supplies on well sites, it can be locked up and left on the drilling site, its valve cover gaskets are falling out and pouring oil out. ALL OF THESE HAVE BROKEN DOWN IN THE LAST WEEK.

 By this time Kristie and the kids are at the burn clinic giving the gran moun medicine for head aches, stomach, and other minor things. Then she's off to home school by 10 AM, make lunch and dinner.

I load our dump truck with sand to take to our guys building a wall by the main road, as they are hand digging footings for the wall.  Part of our guys are going to put a new pump on a base they poured Friday so more people in a tent city will have clean water.  Our guys share the gospel at each well site dedicating it to Christ and giving opportunity for people to receive Christ or planting seeds letting them know that God provided this water and well for them.

Then I get with Tim, who over sees the well machine I've been using, about some parts the big compressor needs.

 I find out someone has cut off our faucets where we give free running water everyday, these are beside the main road. One bad person ruins it for those really in need!  I get Joel our Haitian mechanic helper to come with me and I weld on a new coupler and get both faucets fixed so the next day the people and animals will have clean water again.  We are not going to let one rotten person spoil it for everyone.

Now its 4:30 pm and since its not rained in weeks I take the old fire truck up and help our workers water their gardens, and I get our kids pulling weeds in ours. 7 pm comes and its supper time, yay, by the way did I say i got up at 2:30 am this morning because I couldn't sleep, great time for a quiet time, then catch up on computer work till 5 when every one else gets up. Yep its another day in Haiti. I thank God I can serve him daily in what ever comes our way!

helping the guys water their gardens

this is a wreck 100' away from our water faucet at the deadly road

here's the mule, dodge with its transmission out, John Deere with oil pump out and need to replace the bottom end, The Isuzu we have the top of the engine off waiting on gaskets and 2 more outside also, they wouldn't fit inside

Kristie helping the gran moun in the clinic with medicine

first thing Monday morning flat tire

end of the day Xanders made him a bow and arrows out of sticks

Nicky working to weld on new faucet head, this is at the end of our property giving water to so many and the run off waters hundreds of animals that farmers bring down, this is the reason for the cattle guard around it

Glen working on the tractor, Xander likes helping out in the shop

Ellie and Siedle playing

April

                               APRIL

Well we ended our 2 week crusade and 371 people came forward to accept Christ and receive discipling in the future.  This was very exciting to do right before Easter in these tent cities.  One new village doesn't have a church with in 3 miles of it in any direction and if they can get land we would like to build a church there as they need one where they can walk to it since no one has cars. There were 16 in this village that received Christ.

We are still working on our local church here in Titanyen and hope it maybe close to being done around the end of the year, as it is a very large church.  The old church sanctuary holds 1000 people and is over flowing every sunday, this building and others on the property will be turned into a seminary to train up new pastors in Haiti, which is very exciting and very needed!

I spent a few weeks doing maintence on the well machine that I have been able to use. Last week I started back drilling to find water at the new church. I drilled one hole just 50 feet away from a well that gets pumped 24 hours a day by hand and hit no water (295') deep.  Wow thought for sure we would hit some. I started a new hole Monday and haven't hit water yet, you can be so close but not in the water. Please keep praying for safety, wisdom and God's discernment on where to drill. (We hit water at 250' Wednesday!!!! This will bless our church, seminary, and 3 different schools on the property!!!)

Kristie and the kids caught a caterpillar last week and fed it until it made a cocoon then about 14 days later they watched it hatch out, they are learning so much being home schooled here in Haiti, and learning how to pray and watching God answer the prayers in different ways.

It is starting to get hotter, seems the house is around 96 degrees inside each evening, it wipes you out, and I drink about a gallon of Gatorade a day working in this.  We are so blessed to have cold water and Gatorade to drink daily as most of this country has to work so hard just to get a drink of water from a well some where.

Ellie's been having a hard time reading from a distance of 5' or more (we knew that she would need glasses in the future but the need came sooner than expected) and I knew we needed to take care of this, we prayed and went to a church close to where we thought an eye doctor lives and he was the leader of the church!  PTL!  We took the 1 hour trip back up the road to see him the next day and got Ellie's exam at their mission and glasses also.  So thankful for New Vision ministries help for Ellie.

Its only April and its already 96 in the house!

Ellie getting a eye exam one hour up the road by a mission who is a eye doctor as shes having trouble reading from a distance. Couldn't get the power to work in the building so he put a box under her so she would be tall enough for the exam

Ellie's first set of glasses! Thanks to New Vision ministries

Our workers have planted acres of garden but it hasn't rained in a while and over 100 every day, the kids are helping them carry water to water some of the plants to keep them alive

Xander's a big help in getting the well machinery repaired and ready for Nicky to drill







Nicky drilled for 3 days before they finally hit good water.   They were drilling behind one of our schools, right beside a well that had could not be repaired







Getting ready to start drilling on the other side of TiTanyen.



PRAYERS

• For our safety and health
• For our visa's
• For a tow-able boom lift
• For our declining support
• That we keep taking time to learn Creole

PRAISES

Great crusade with 371 saved
We got Ellie glasses here in the country for free

Crusade Time

                                                CRUSADE TIME

We have an evangelist here for 2 weeks doing crusades and preaching multiple times a day in different tent cities and churches.  This week Nicky has been working hard working his normal duties on the compound and having the crusade in the evening wearing him out, but to see over 200 who came to Christ the first week, we keep pressing on.

We have stopped our well drilling and things that might pull our focus and prayers from the crusade, so we can spread God's word, as we have been working the ground before the evangelist got here in tent cities where we drilled wells.

The kids have got into a routine with home school now, and that is a blessing. We have seen 3 families in the past 2 months who have left Haiti to get their kids schooling back on track as the mission field especially in Haiti draws the parents to compromise on family priorities and get burned out and kids schooling get behind.

 I want to run this race as a marathon and not sprint ahead and loose focus of what our main goal is in raising our kids. God has allowed it to take 12 years for us to get to Haiti, full time, and in that has shown us how we need to have the prayer support and finical support to not be so over whelmed by many things pulling us away from ministry.

It is a full time job raising support to do ministry on the field as no one passes the plate for most missionaries each week, its many individuals giving to allow us to do our part in making disciples here. It would be a blessing to have individuals to help us get our support up to 100% by sharing us with others, doing a fund raiser each year, yard sale, car wash, walks for water, water grants, these all add up to Kingdom building and souls saved here, we can only drill wells when we have the funds to do it as is with all our ministries. Please pray and ask God how you may help with this. If your reading this you are probably already doing this because your invested in our lives and ministry. MANY TIMES IT FEELS AS IF WE HAVE HUNDREDS PRAYING FOR SOMEONE ELSE TO HELP US.

We thank you all for your prayers and support!



 This a link to a video of our crusade ( a 40 second clip)

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=488242391238098&l=970898086956102441

Xander holding a boy at the crusade

Kristie and Ellie holding kids, Ellie has a big audience



                                    Look who else is reaching out to people, but they don't have the truth! Have you shared Christ's love with someone today?  Others are out there sharing love but it doesn't lead to Heaven! This is a tarp on a tent by one of the wells we drilled 2 weeks ago.

This is at a Croatian orphanage where we drilled a well, they had 3 hand dug wells with the water in them at the surface of the ground, also 3 septic systems right by the wells like in the picture behind here polluting the wells, resulting in many sick.

This is becoming Xander and his Haitian friends past time when they have free time. Chicken hunting, (they catch them alive) this chicken went to one of our workers. We have a flock of chickens running around on the compound that will not leave so the kids are slowly helping out, but they multiply quickly, at least our workers are enjoying feeding their families with them.

 PRAISES
Safety and health
Had a great turn out for our crusade and 147 came to Christ in the tent cities where we drilled 2 wells 2 weeks ago
After 4 months we got a chance to get away as a family for 2 nights at a beach 1 hr away


PRAYER REQUEST
That we keep our family close and time with our kids
Health and safety
For a towable boom lift to do high work
For our support as it has fallen since we came to Haiti
For reliable affordable internet