Help.....

SUMMER 2013

                     

LOVEY & MASON & DANNY!!!

       The is one of the best camera shots ever and you gotta believe that

       #1. it was the only shot

       #2. I didn't stage it!

       

          Lovey is motoring around like she owns the place and potty training herself, much like Mason did.  Can you believe that 

Mason, Michael and Romise will be 5 in a few months?  Wow! ....and the last guy, Danny is getting very big and what a comic!  I'll admit, they're just plain cute!

Front gate entry to a very green and beautiful yard.  We have worked so hard on playspace.

     

The grass has finally come alive!  Our kids love to roll around and play in it and
well they should.  The last two years they have raked and picked rock......lots of rock!.....and picked a lot of weeds to get it clear for the grass to grow. Ask anyone that's been here....these children are eager to work.

Romise and Michael are as best of buddies as you can find and into the legos as always. Notice too, that the shakoun (sha-coon) is now the play room as it was designed to be.

 Many late afternoons, before dinner, we kick around the football-Haitian style!

Nadia helps Ray cook the weekend meals and this Saturday
we made potato chips for brunch!

William, Christian and Darlensky did a super job clearing
for our new sidewalks in the courtyard!

ENTER:  Dorka & Idalberto!

                                                 GOD put this couple in our hands to move

 this ministry forward. They have been with us now for over three months. 

 Idal has the language and social skills that third world people understand 

and a veracious drive to bring folks to Christ. We need to do all we can to 

increase the kingdom. 

                      They showed up with no means of support.  They are from 

Cuba.  There is no support that can substantially support them from there.   

Haiti Comfort needs  to increase it’s budget.  I need to feed them, house 

and cloth them.

                     They have three children and we are now preparing to get 2 of 

them here.  If they move back to Cuba, their passports will be taken and 

they  will never be allowed to leave again.  We won’t let that happen.

In only 3 months, we have made major changes to our ministry:

·          We are establishing a steady course in evangelism.  We initiated this earlier,  but AIDS babies kept coming and babies take a lot time!  Idalberto is “on fire” for spreading the Word!  He’s already working a large mountain area behind our home.  We will begin building a small shelter here on the property to hold worship and Bible studies.

·          All four of us split teaching duties:  We cannot send our children to Haitian schools.  We also  have  a promise from a donor in NYC that will pay a teacher and we’re looking.  We’re looking.  We teach everything in English…..it is our childrens’ first language. They are also fluent in Kreyol, because of the few Haitians that work for us.

·          We also feed people, who are in need with rice and beans we receive from Food For The Poor.

·          In total, Dorka and Idal spell relief for Trisha and Ray! After 9 years and over 20 children,  we were getting weary……..we’re both in our early 60’s.  Idal and Dorka are in their 40’s!

Our Present Project: (and monetarily, it will be a squeeze) is to add on our dining room.

We are preparing for their boys: ages 14 & 21.  We will be able to cordon off the end of the room to accomodate a bedroom.  We will move into the dining room! 

We need to raise support  $8000 to finish the final third of the 2nd floor deck. After that, the short walls need to be finished at 8 ft and then block walls,.....$800 bond beams w/asst rebar, sand and cement,......$2000 steel security windows, doors and rails, ......$4500 the trusses (20)......$2800, steel nailers and steel roofing.....$4000 and labor......$4000

      We built the steel re-enforcing mesh for the stairs a few months ago and they are ready to be poured, but we ran out of building money.  In April, we began our seventh year of construction.

Zoe and Mika

and

DAISY! (and she is with children!)

             It's gonna take some sacrifice and prayer to keep us going in support this new & exciting reach for new Christians.  It's going on now.  Every other day, Idal heads for the mountains with a 50 lb pack of rice and beans on his back and preaches.  He often takes Dorka or one of the Haitians.  That's the biggest and very best thing that we do! 

            Our equipment is stressed out!  We have one vehicle, a 19 yr old dump truck, broke down and awaiting for a $1000 starter from Japan. Our van is officially dead, so we take the kids to the hospital in the truck or by taptap thirty miles away.  We need to increase the capacity of our already stretched electrical equipment. Our inverter is almost 9 years old and half the capacity, our battery bank is one third of what we need. The electrical updating is a $5000 debit. We are awaiting our new washer, but have been doing clothes by hand for 8 months now.

             Now, we have a family of four to feed and raise funds for.  The 14 yr old boy will probably go to high school in either PAP or the Dominican Republic, but this family will be out of Cuba.  We have 14 children now, 10 with AIDS and they are just great!  They are growing faster than weeds!  But they eat! Right now, what keeps us afloat, is my $1700 a month retirement check.  I have given all $20K a year for two years now to augment donor support.  

            You say "Ray, you want to do this, go ahead!" It's not a case of wanting anything, this is for the kingdom of God!  We really don't look for anything but prayer, financial support and visitors now and then.  We are where we are supposed to be.  All guts-no glory.....the glory all goes to HIM!  Praise be His Holy Name!  Please help in the Great Commission!

 Please, please step up to the plate and help.

Please come down and see what God is doing. We have all the Comforts of home!

WELCOME 2013 Newsletter!

 It was really kinda good for Momma and I this  Christmas,  It really can be quite the load on top of everything else we do.........Chantal and Sharon showed up for a few days and set up the tree and decorated it!  Then in January, the Texas team showed up and took it down.....THANKS GUYS!

                      Right out in the open, kinda!  They did a super job on the tree.  We bought a few gifts, had a few given, and opened all the stuff we've collected in the last year and it made for a great Christmas.  This was Christmas morning and we locked them up in the chakoun while we prepared for this........just maybe next year, we'll have our family room and the kids will have bedrooms and Christmas will be like your house.......bright and early Christmas morning!

Rosy is pictured here swinging at the La Pinata, 

but it was Roodline who cracked it apart!

It was really fun!  This was Christmas Eve and they got all sugared up !

Lindsay, the Texas Bookend (she'll explain that) with Lovey and crew doing crafts.

TEXAS TEAM! 

...did their usual playing with the kids and teaching about Jesus and singing  BUT this year.....THIS YEAR>>>> we had a movie night with about 100 locals, a few of which are voudou practioners. 

Paige (daughter) and father (Tommy)getting acquainted over dirty dishes.
Their were 30 folks here to feed and the dish piles were enormous......
these Texans love to eat!

and 14 people from Texas prayed over several of these folks and it was a most blessed affair.  James, a local missionary that produces these life scenario films and Tommy, the head of the team and I decided that we will give big thoughts to a three day revival next year and some VBS for the local kids!

We also laid some forms and got our sidewalk project well underway! When it's close to completion, we'll send along some flicks

With the advent of the dry season, foliage is just bloomin' like crazy and blowing out of the ground!

 

For those that wax nostalgic, here's a look at the first three on our first Christmas! Neat, huh?

.....just to keep you in the loop, we are again scratching for dollars.  We've been blessed with Ray's retirement funds kicking in, but that's $1600/month and that is the safeguard that keeps us fed.  It does little else.  We have 16 mouths to feed now and a lot of equipment that gets no maintenance and a lot of stuff breaking or broke. TV is going, Roodline dropped it, but it's over 15 yrs old.  We've been doing laundry by hand for well over three months now and truck just had a head gasket replaced, but all the tires are bald......van doesn't run. A mechanic that was supposed to fix it, took the money and we got nothing but a very big mess of an engine.  I'm having an alternator brought in from the states for our generator, which fried two very expensive 12 volt batteries.  William is due up for cataract surgery this month = $800.  Ray has few teeth because of the lack of care for 8 years= $4500.  I just wish the list would get shorter, but some of you know how old some of these problems are. The only construction going on here lately is what teams bring in and we work on.....kids are always oblivious to our situation and their days are good and happy as they should be.  As for Momma and I, we're kinda tired of camping, but we don't stop......the Lord blesses us with love, but we need money more than stuff. We both come back loaded down with clothes and goods from the good folks we meet and now we are a part of the donor force with nearly $20K a year.  I've got a whole lot of folks from South Carolina that need to hear "we haven't left, probably won't and we need your gifts to continue"  I know times are hard, so if you can't give, please pray.  Prayers outstretch money anyday!  We will be coming soon to ask for support to conclude this building as God has other chores than construction for us.

Thanksgiving NEWSLETTER

                                                                                       

Momma Trisha 

           gets a new Kitchen!

          Well, when a big team shows up, ya gotta put 'em somewhere!  We emptied the chakoun, which was our temporary cookery, which was destined to be a baby and toddler playroom and moved into the new kitchen!

       Not quite done, but Trisha is happy to be in there. We'll keep working to make it a palace for her!

.....still have upper cabinets and tiling to do!

MORE PROGRESS!!!

"Tejas" is our little guest bungalow and is ready for occupancy.

Sleeps 3-4 comfortably.

The chakoun sleeps 8 people for teams and guests.
 It's a baby/toddler playroom the rest of the time.

Some day this will house our chapel and classroom.
It now houses 8 boys.

My office and storage.....(like I'll ever get to sit there!)

....finish the walls and windows and then hang 24 foot trusses and the roof and we'll be dry!
.... and we have more kids!

Thanksgiving NEWSLETTER!

This is Lovey with her "ti mamma", Nadia!  This is
usually her mood most of the time. Nadia is helpful
    and at times has to be made to go play, which she is 
doing more since Lovey has become very demanding!

Meet LOVEY! ....as sweet as she looks!      

         Lovey came and swept everyone's heart away!  She is a delightful little girl, who wakes at 6:00 in the morning singing and chattering her life away.  She came on board smiling and eating like a horse!

        She arrived here, September 10th by way of the malnutrition ward of Hospital Albert Schweitzer where she was recovering from neglect after losing her father a week before and her mother, three weeks before.  She is now 20 months old.

         She had not taken her AIDS meds for about eight months, which is very early but we've had a few starting at 4 months.  She had the red (malnutrition) hair and her skin had white spots on her neck and face, which usually indicate vitamin deficiency.  Both are subsiding.  She is gaining strength in her legs and will be walking in a short time!

Here's Kevin, the gang guy and Michael
wondering what he's doing! Kevin is
nine, Michael is four.

Here's Kevens!  

       Somewhat small, timid and quiet,  Kevens was found sleeping outside after having been abandoned by extended family.  We normally don't take kids this old (he's nine) because we've had big problems with street kids, but  his bravado wears thin.....so far he hasn't been a problem at all.  He has stopped wearing his pants down around his rear after Momma gave her opinion!....and if you look closely at the picture, he's doing that gangster thing with his hand, only his hand is in the wrong direction!

       Initially, he is reacting normal to discipline, hasn't really been "show-ey" with the kids and reacts to the love and attention shown him.  He is HIV+, which to us means he has AIDS with a healthy CD-4 count!  You have to be very sick before the CDC definition (Center for Disease Control) declares you have AIDS.

        Please pray that Kevens fits in here, we'll just love him 'til he does!!

Enter Denver and CONCRETE!

The team from Colorado!

          All these Colorado "big guys" (and girls) ascended on us and in three days we prepped and poured three pads of concrete to begin to complete our dining room and dish wash area.  By the end of day 1, they had tied the lion's share of steel for the pour, which we taught them.

They were extremely energetic and signed on to continue to help us.  It was our first big heavy work team in over eight years of being here in Haiti.  We made some friends last week and I know that we haven't seen the last of them.  God bless you all!

                 The gallery or porch that surrounds the house is one story with a
shed-type of roof, which attaches to the wall started on the second floor.
 The serving window has been built as well as a pass through for dirty dishes.
I will keep posting as we progress. After six years of construction, it's very
exciting for us

Arold gets his horn!

When he gets this thing going, I'll send along a song!

          Arold lives in Lachapelle and plays a fantastic trumpet......and he's always wanted a saxaphone.  I've been hunting for one for over two years now and a wonderful music director and friend from a church in Florida has now made that possible.

          It's an alto sax which is not as large as it seems here: Arold is small and in his 30's.  He is close to Nadia's size and she's ten.  We've seen a lot of people here, who are abnormally short, mostly due to lack of good nutrition when they were young.

           This guy is self taught and a very good musician.  He does a bunch of funerals and other events and teaches others to play.  He is also in high school looking to finish soon.  That is not abnormal at all......education is highly sought and valued.  As short as 20 years ago, there weren't a lot of people who could not afford an education here and a lot of folks are catching up!

An elevated floor pour!

This was a "sane" pour for a 11x 22 floor pad which we used 12 bodies to do. It is nothing here to see 30-40 guys doing a pour, especially if it is being mixed on the ground in stead of a machine.

Everyone has their job, loading the mixer, running the mixture,.
 running it up a ladder to the roof, dumping and troweling......
and if you live in the neighborhood, chances are you'd be here.

This is early in the day......by the end, these guys will be covered in slop from bailing up the ladder.

The guy in the blue shirt is Ti-YaYa and he's good at directing this stuff as well as finishing

String line preset for a level pour. 

That block pit rarely gets full because these guys have it flying up the ladder.

Three pours, $12K,  over 1400 square feet......about 900 sq ft more, hopefully done before Christmas!

The new ceiling/floor over the main entry......space above for bedrooms!

Rough coat on ceiling finished today in the chapel/classroom......smooth coat by Friday.......kids in very dry area for sleeping Saturday!  Praise God, we have finally got great shelter from the rain!
These guys are working hard and it's really looking good!