Drilling for clean water

   We have had a busy few weeks with teams and drilling. For two weeks we had a three men here to change an engine on a well machine.  Nicky helped them change it and make other needed repairs. They hadn't planned on drilling but finished the repairs on the rig sooner than planned.

 Well drilling for clean water is a big need here in Haiti.  The list for those that want a well is long but having people to drill the wells and funding is the problem.  This was such a blessing for these guys to be here.   They spent time with Nicky showing him how to run the machine, about the formations and problems that could happen and thankfully they had problems for him to learn by while they were here.
 
    It's great to have a rotary machine to drill with (this machine is faster) along with our cable tool machine (our Haitian crew drills with). In a near by tent city both machines had drilled dry holes, these people were having to walk at least 2 miles either way to get water. Most of the land tent cities occupy are open land on the sides of the mountains with no wells anywhere.

Nicky tried a 4th well in between the dry holes and hit good water for the community.
Two of the wells are located in a tent city where a crusade will take place starting
Sunday.  As we gave them clean water now we can share with them the living water.  Please pray for the ground to be prepared as the seeds are sown over the next two weeks as an evangelist comes to share the gospel.


PRAYER REQUESTS:
We have an evangelist here doing a week long crusade near on of the recent wells.
For good internet
For our visas
Towable boom lift

PRAISES:
Nicky started drilling wells after a well driller spent 2 weeks with Nicky teaching him to use a rotary machine they are allowing him to use
Kids are settling into a good routine in school as Kristie teaches them








Praise God for water! Lots of water being sprayed out of this hole.

Hit good water!

Cleaning a well with the air compressor to get the mud and cuttings out!

A base being poured on a new well!

                     Last day of language class


We have had our last week of language classes and now its time to put it into practice and keep learning more words. Kristie has excelled in learning creole. This class gave us a chance to learn the rules of the language how to speak and the sounds.

We had a chance to go to a prayer luncheon last wed with 16 other ministries and got inspired to pray more specific for our ministries, country and world. Met some ministries like one who has a goal of sending 70 Haitian missionaries out of Haiti by 2017 to french speaking countries, and another ones translating the Bible into creole in a easier to read version and so on. Haiti broilers put the luncheon on and will keep this going every 2 weeks, this company is out of Jamaica and the company has values like Chick-fil-a in the states. They give back a lot to missions and have some great setups for orphanages or ministries or communities to set up coups and sell eggs or broilers at 6 weeks old to help support ministries or individuals. The plant happens to be across the street from our place, well 2 miles away.

We had a youth conference for the last week giving 200 youth a safe place to learn and worship Christ while the mardigras carnival went on.

We have a group or well drillers here to repair a rig, put a engine in one and maybe get a few wells drilled in the next couple of weeks.

We also have 2 teams coming over the next 2 weeks. One is 2 families that have 12 people between them to help out then a team from Virgina the next week to help here on the compound. Our youth camp the Brumleys run here is finishing toilets to go with the youth worship building that was left on site by another disaster relief ministry. 2 guys dug the hole 28 feet deep for it. I think it was 10' wide by 8 feet, one big deep hole.

For the last month a couple Tom and Rachel Lambert who are praying where the Lord would send them on the mission field have been serving here and will for the next month are a huge blessing everyday with keeping the behind the scenes work done.


                           Prayer request

For us to keep learning the language
For good Internet
For a towable boom lift to safely work on lights, high painting and church building
For us to take some quality family time here
For more communications in our ministries (phones and Internet don't always work here)

              Praises
Formal language classes are finished
Had a great youth conference

Praise we got the rest of our stuff out of customs Tuesday!
We have had some busy weeks with teams back to back, one that led a pastors conference and bible school one week and a team last week that worked behind the scenes here fixing many things from computers to hydraulic cylinders on trucks, repaired wells and so on helping us get some much needed things done so our ministries keep going on the front line.  We also had a mechanic from another ministry stay a week before he went out for 2 weeks to another location helping us on some vehicle repair. Still have lots of that to do so come on down and help us if you can!
This is such a diverse ministry that we really need all talents that God has given everyone, from accounting to computers to mechanic to plumbing to electricians to well drillers to people just willing to help in between allowing us to share with others and to make disciples in this nation.  We finally got our computer we do news letters on fixed by this team and have one coming out soon. 



Prayer request
We have a week long youth conference in a week
We have a big crusade we are doing for 2 weeks early in March
Keep praying for us to find the right Internet
For our support to get to 100%  we are at 76%
For a tow able boom lift to safely do repair work and church building
To be able to finish our Visas

 

 

 

 

 

2 young men building a swing set for a church and school they support beside the dump just outside of Port a Prince where they scavenge thru the dump for plastic to sale, this will be a great blessing to those who have nothing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a picture of the church our supporters are helping build!

 

 

 

 

 

This was the 80 pastors who finished a John Maxwell leadership conference

Crickets, fire, and language

No spell check or review of this so just read the best you can

We had 2 weeks our workers were off and this allowed us to get our porch screened in and fix up with stuff we brought in from the USA and build some counters, shelves for our office/ homeschool room and a table for the dinning room and most of those matelrials were donated PTL. We also had a 2 conferences during this weeks. Didnt seem much like hoilday time but we are thankful to have alot done as January is a busy month with back to back teams conferences, guest housing, well drilling,  church building and mantinece.

We just got a opportunity to take a language class at a compound close by which we thought we never would get the opportunity. It is from 1 to 5 every day for 5 weeks we believe. We spend 2 to 3 hours a day also reveiwing the class work. For anyone that knows Nicky he doesnt enjoy school and would rather be out fixing and working instead of this but is determined to learn the language to give the Lord more opportunity to serve him here. Kristie is doing great in the class like usual.

We had a big fire Sunday and wernt ready for it. We usuallyhave plowed a 30' fire break around our property but just hadnt done it yet this year. So Nicky got on the tractor and started plowing infront of the fire and the smoke was so bad u couldnt see him but he was determined to keep it from burning the compound the tractor have 5 plows behind it and after many trips. Back and forth with fire jumping up to 200 yards. The old fire truck that was donated helped put out the hot spots and keep another fire on the lower side of the property away. Chris Brumley run many loads keeping that fire away and then we put out the last of the hot spots and only lost 15 acres to the fire that burned over 1000 acres in a few hours. People burn off there farm plots and it gets out of control and some try to burn off the evil spirits also.

Also we have been inidated with so many crickets jumping into the house when we open the door. Its a daily chore cleaning up the crickets that have been smushed.

No picture this time as we have no internet that works right now and we used our phone for this.

Prayer request
Pray for us to learn much of the language in class and stay focused on it
Pray we get our UTV out of customs with a reduced rate
Pray we. Get good internet soon. Just none in the area.

Praises
We get to take this language class
No one or anything was damaged in the fire
Got alot of the house fixed up
Kids are doing good

Getting ready for Christmas Celebration!

We have had another big week working to get our container off the chassis and where it will be our storage place for many years. Friday I called a crane service and found the best price and did, a friend had recommended them. I had to go pay them Friday before they would come Monday. Nicky spent from 11 am till 4 pm looking for the business and never found it and called for directions and no one would ever answer. Called them Sunday and they said they would send it and we could write a check. The crane got there by 10:30 and a semi truck came to move it into place, when the trailer they were hauling unhooked to hook up ours the trailer collapsed to the ground. They moved our container into place and the big crane was scared to lift the empty container off the chassis, the cranes winch wasn't working right. So I called the company and told the the driver wouldn't lift it off he told them to come back and get another crane and be come back, they didn't make it back. Mean while the container that fell the owners worked all day trying to jack it up to put it on the truck but never could. Crane came back Tuesday and lifted ours off and slowly into place and the semi pulled the chassis out of the way and parked the truck on a hill and walked away. I went to show them where to park the chassis and the tractor and chassis start rolling away fast but no ones in it so I run and jump in it and found the brake and got it stopped. Equipment is wore out in the USA then shipped to Haiti instead of being sold for scrap metal evidently. We then set 20 24' trusses on the church we are helping the community to build. It was the same price to rent the crane for 1 hour or all day.
We've spent a lot of the rest of the week putting stuff together and sorting out what goes where and loading extra into the container for storage and getting tools straightened out in the shop.

We got a call Thursday that customs is charging almost 100% for our UTV and trailer. We can't pay that kind of money and wont. We are asking everyone to pray God will move and reduce this to a acceptable amount so we can use these tools for work on the compound and well ministry as Nicky's work vehicle.

Saturday morning Nicky lifted the doors for the youth worship building, huge metal doors. We have our first activities Christmas eve from 2pm till 6 AM Christmas day with a big meal at midnight and the youth dress up for that. Exciting for them to have this place to be blessed and hear the Gospel at. These youth are from the local churches. The youth program is called Camp Barnabas here at Global Outreach Haiti.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kids like hanging on Nicky

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kids handing out gift back packs full of goodies

 

 

 

 

Trusses we set at our church in TiTanyen 1/2 mile away from the compound

 

 

 

 

 

Our youth leaders helping move the big doors to lift them up

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nicky lifting the doors into place



PRAYERS

Pray that God would move and drasticaly reduce the price to get our UTV out of customs
For the youth Christmas celebration Christmas eve
For a towable boom lift to be donated


PRAISES

Our container is in place and loaded with our extra items for the future
We are getting our house in ourder slowly (painting and screening the porch and puting stuff where it goes
Getting to use our donated tools has made nickys work alot quicker and easier. THANKS
 

Container arrived

We have been so blessed by all the prayers that have helped to get our container out of customs in record time. It was all God, it was only in customs for 11 days, a friend of ours has one thats been in customs since July. We are still praying for our UTV and trailer to get out of customs.

We are having trouble with getting internet that will work here. We are using our phone for most of what we do here. Pray we find the right company  as they all promise their company will work where we live.
 Our church in TiTanyen Sunday school teachers came over yesterday for a get together and boy could they sing so beautifully. Our schools are running well and thru our child sponsorship program alot of the kids are sponsored thanks to Becky Ivy in KY who takes care of this from home. Wow how much difference one person can make here even from the states.




 

Our container arrived

The next day we unloaded it all!

A team from KY helped Nicky paint the shops.

 



This is upside down but The Mennonites from down the street cam and sang us Christmas Carole's, what a blessing!



 

                             Prayer request

Pray for our UTV and trailer to get out of customs
Pray we can get our visas finished
Pray for our internet that we find the right company to provide it
Pray for our youth Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve from 6PM till 6AM

                              Praises

Our container arrive after 10 days of work at customs
Have had 2 great teams in the last month get alot of behind the scenes work done
Kids are keeping bug spray on better
Got 2 generators running and our crane truck working thanks to a electrician from Nashville

                            

 

Being Here!

We have been here for 3 weeks now and I have to praise God for us being here.  We feel an awesome peace about being here, like God has been preparing us for our new home.  All of us are settling in really well.  Nicky goes to work at 7am and comes home for lunch.  The kids and I are getting back into our routines of school and chores.  The adjustment to the heat isn't as bad as I thought it would be,  we have been blessed with mid to upper 80's the last few days.

Please pray for the kids as they are passing some kind of cold/cough/fever back and forth (Ellie one day then Xander the next).  This has been going on for a little over a week.

We have been painting the last few days hoping to get it done before our container gets here.  We hear that it has made it to St. Marc, (although the company we shipped it through can't say if it is here or not), so now the waiting really begins to see how long it will take to get out of customs.  We have given all to the Lord, because he could have it out tomorrow of it is his will.  The other missionaries here had our home all set up so we could move in.  It has been great being "HOME".



Bathroom before....

and after ( this actually a pale sunny yellow)
 

Poor Ellie had about 50 bug bites at one time.
 

Today at lunch Nicky told me that a woman at the gate was trying to give her little, maybe newborn, baby to them.). Could you imagine the hopelessness you would have to feel to give up your baby?
 We actually found out later that this woman's daughter died in childbirth, so she is taking care of all her other kids too.


                                   
                                       Prayers

Pray for our container, UTV and trailer clear customs soon and as cheaply as they can
Pray for us to have wisdom in every decision we make
Pray for our kids safety and health
Pray for a towable boom lift to make much of Nickys work quicker and safer