Your suggestions needed

In light of the time passing since the last update, I would like to know if you are still interested in postings about activities in Haiti. 

I have thought about posting information from each of the CrossWorld missionaries as their prayer letters get sent out so that we hear about the goings on from areas beyond Bolosse.

Please post a comment with your suggestions!

Haiti has a new President

Michel Martelly has been announced as the new president.  Please pray for this man as he takes office.  The rebuilding work in Haiti is extensive and will be a major part of his years in office and beyond.

Mr. Martelly is not who I expected to win, however God is in control and has His hand on Haiti.  Pray for the men and women in leadership (president, prime minister, parliament, etc.) who are responsible for the forward movement that everyone is expecting.

Haiti has the potential to be a wonderful place for business, tourism and everyday living.  Please pray that Mr. Martelly and his administration will keep the people, and the country as a whole, as the focus and not be distracted by things that have plagued the Haitian government for centuries.

This link is to an article about Mr. Martelly.
CNN article

Elections

Elections were held on Sunday with no announced results.  From all reports it was a relatively quite day.  Time will tell if things will heat up once a winner is announced.

Pray for the millions of people still living in tent cities or temporary housing.  While life has "moved on" in the fact that markets are open, some people have gone back to working, if they have a job to return to, and some children have returned to school, this is not the case for all.

Pray for the aid workers who are still in Haiti working in the camps/tent cities.  It is an incredible task that has no end in sight.  Pray for the medical workers, both Haitian and from other countries.  The need is still so great.

Update from Phyllis Schmid

It has been awhile since you’ve heard from us.  The 3 work teams have come and gone and as expected it was a busy but profitable time.  Sam’s home is done, Jean Robert’s home was worked on and the faculty office building is over ¾ done.  The remaining work is mostly carpentry (hanging doors and putting in windows, etc.).  Anyone interested, please contact us.  J  A note of praise:  We had asked you to pray for Sam’s salvation and he did pray with one of our Haitian leaders to receive Christ as his savior.  Praise the Lord!!!  Pray for his personal growth in the weeks ahead.

David, Bruce and the 4 top administrators of STEP were in Florida for a leadership conference.  All of them returned on the 28^th and David came home on March 4^th.  They all said it was a very profitable time and exciting to see how God is moving and leading in the world.  David stayed an additional 4 days to help take care of his sister, Joanne’s, needs with paperwork, etc.  She is in severe congestive heart failure and only has 25% function of her heart.  She was very grateful for his help and just to be able to spend time with him.  Pray for her as at this point she is living in her own small apartment near friends and her church but financially may need to move elsewhere.  David also worked on arrangements for 2 containers to come down – one with a front loader and other construction supplies and one with hospital beds for a clinic in Port-au-Prince. 

Lois Beadle has spent some time with me while David was gone.  She is involved in teacher training seminars with CEF on the north coast and came with lots of projects to do.  She, Cindy and I did get some movie and game times in and some just chatting time.  J  I thank God for the friends and coworkers He has given me. 

This is Mardi Gras weekend in Haiti and the celebrating and noise is already reaching high levels at night.  Monday and Tuesday will be bad and then hopefully Wednesday things will quiet down.  Then we start with “Rara” which continues until Easter. 

March has finally arrived.  I hope maybe some of you at least have begun to see signs of spring.  Our weather is beginning to change but still cools down nicely at night.  I dread the heat and humidity returning full force but that is the way it goes.  We also will begin to receive rains which makes everything come to life again

All for today.

Love,

Phyllis

Update from Phyllis Schmid

Greetings,

I have a feeling this may be a long chatty letter so just a warning! :0) We have a team here from Florida working on the house we told you about in a previous email – Sam’s house.  A crew of Haitian workmen, STEP teachers and students did the initial work of clearing the shack Sam had put together (previous photo), clearing the rubble around it from the destruction of his original house, building a strong foundation and putting up the walls.  The team will be putting on the roof of Sam’s house and hopefully do the roof on another house so a family of 6 can move in.

This family of 6 is living in a windowless, dark, very small room down a dangerous set of steps.  It is a family with 4 younger children and it is all they can afford.  The husband is trained in welding and does really good work when he can get it.  Now he is also heading up a bloc making business which was begun recently.  So he is fixing up a little house in our neighborhood and if the team can help with the roof he will be able to move his family to a small home but larger and much better than what they have lived in for years now.   Now I just recently saw the place this family is living in and I could not sleep that night thinking of and praying for this family.  The husband is such a nice man, never complaining and always with a smile on his face.  I was reminded of how much I have to be thankful for.

Starting February 12 we have people from Indiana coming to build a structure for STEP faculty offices and student study area on the campus.  Duane Brown, a former co-worker, who helped put up the classroom building last summer is coming to supervise this construction.  His coming is a tremendous help to Bruce and David as he knows the language and his way around working in Haiti. 

Teams are so helpful in getting things done that we just don’t have the time and resources to do ourselves.  It takes a lot of preparation to host teams because we no longer have a fulltime construction/maintenance person so we take on teams along with regular activities.  BUT we receive such a blessing from the men and women who come with hearts open to what God wants to show them and how He wants to use them.   This current team came to our home for dinner last night and it was great to interact with them.  McMartins and Schmids will spend time with them Sunday evening on our patio overlooking the Caribbean (:0}) getting to know them better and sharing how God is at work in their lives and ours.

There are so many as you will see that are living on the hillsides in tents in our neighborhoods.  Much still needs to be done.  Someone recently said “we aren’t a crisis organization like some NGO’s but we do what we can to respond to needs.”

You’ve maybe heard about the arrival of the former “President for Life” (Duvallier) and the possible return of Aristide.  The government just announced the two candidates for the runoff election to be held sometime in the coming months.  If I could get David to sit down and type a few lines about this he’d be much more knowledgeable about it all.  What do I think?  All I can say is I continue to pray because God is the only answer to the situation in our “Haiti Cherie” (dear Haiti). 

Without specifically giving prayer requests in this letter, I think you can see and understand what to pray for.  Continue to pray for Sam’s salvation and the testimony to one unsaved team member from Florida.  Add to that the continued gang activity in our area.  It is so senseless and just causes so much fear and anxiety in people’s lives that already experience enough difficulties in life.   It directly affects STEP as when the shooting is intense classes are canceled.   Some weeks ago a window in our guest unit was broken by a passing bullet.  It isn’t the first time and will probably not be the last time.  I know cities in the states have this kind of violence all the time so we can pray for each other.

Cindy and I were sitting on her swing the other day for a break and the breeze was delightful.  I commented on receiving pictures that morning from Karen showing her car iced over and the trees and bushes coated with ice.  It is interesting that as you all look forward to spring and the end of winter, I love winter here and DO NOT look forward to spring and the return of the high temps and humidity.   Oh well, I’ll enjoy it while it lasts.

David and Bruce are going to Florida along with some of the STEP administration for a leadership conference later this month.   David will stay on a few days after it ends to help his sister, Joanne, with some of the details for her care and business matters.  During that time Lois Beadle will come from La Pointe to spend time with me and she,  Cindy and I can have some fun “girl time”! 

I know I’ve referred to Rosita who works in our kitchen 3 days a week.  Her husband, Lamour, is the mission chauffeur.  Well, he is also a tailor and is always interested in any sewing – craft type – that I do.  I made the girls bags with lots of pockets in for Christmas and showed him how to do it.  He loved it.  Now I’m showing him the “log cabin quilt pattern” and different ways he can use it.  We helped him get a nice sewing machine when Missionary Flights was given some to distribute. 

Well, enough for this epistle.  I hope you all stay warm and have a blessed day in God’s house tomorrow.

Love,

Phyllis

Work Team Arrived

There is a work team from Boca Raton, FL at Bolosse.  They will be building a house in the neighborhood for Sam.  There is a picture slidewshow below.

January 25, 2011   Hello Everyone!


Sam and his wife are an elderly couple that live in the neighborhood surrounding us here on the STEP campus. Their house was completely destroyed during the quake as a 3-story house above them fell over breaking down their house. It would break your heart to see the hovel they have been living in that they erected from odds and ends they salvaged or were given – rubble, pieces of tin, a tarp, etc.

Update from Cindy McMartin

January 15, 2011

Dear Friends, 

Wednesday, the whole country of Haiti remembered the day one year ago that changed their lives forever.  All businesses and schools were closed; crowds of people all dressed in white marched in the streets in solemn remembrance of the devastation and lives lost; groups got together with their friends who had lost a loved one to read Scripture, pray together and encourage one another; we heard the services of prayer and praise all around us beginning before dawn and lasting into the evening; we remembered, we praised God for protection and His help in the past year, and we prayed asking Him to accomplish his plan and work for good and the advancement of his Kingdom in the midst of continued seemingly hopeless circumstances.