Update from Phyllis Schmid

Well, I missed sending an update last weekend. Sorry.

Pray for Bruce and Cindy as they host a huge medical/dental team this week from their home area of Washington. Cindy is very organized and the group brought their own tents, etc. but it is still a tremendous amount of work to keep food going for that many people. Omisia and Eliette are doing the cooking and Eliette's daughter, Betty is helping too. They even set up a small cooking area outside under a tarp to have enough room to do all the cooking. The team is doing clinic each day down in front of the seminary building and seeing many people.

The group paid for both McMartin daughters, Rebecca and Michelle, to come to see their parents and to help with the team. What fun to see them again here in Haiti. Bruce and Cindywill have a couple of days to "catch their breath" and then will head out on April 3 to spend time with their son, Joel, and family and enjoy being grandparents to Ethan and Tyler. Pray they get some rest too :-).

I wasn't sure why I was going out so early (leaving here on March 31) but God has certainly shown me once again that He was directing my steps. David has to teach out in Verrettes April 5-11 and so I would have been here in Port alone with McMartins and him gone. I could have done it but he just thought I should go out early. Now I know why.

Well . . . in my last update I mentioned my left jaw giving me trouble. You may not remember (but I DO) that back in the early '80s I had trouble with my jaws. At that time God provided a dentist from Fredericksburg, VA who was coming to Haiti each year with his family to do dental work. He worked on me in Haiti and then in 1986 right after my mother's death from cancer my jaw caused me a lot of trouble and he took care of me in Virginia. I have not had any trouble with my jaw for 24 years until just recently.

Well, this same dentist in Virginia has offered to treat me again so I am going by train from Lancaster, PA on April 4 and will spend the week with my brother and family to have this work done, and return to Lancaster on the train on April 12th, the day before David comes out of Haiti.

Being able to spend time with Bob and his family is a precious treat I hadn't thought I would have and getting my jaw taken care of by an expert is just God's extra special blessing. Also my niece has a friend who hasoffered to help me set up a Power Point presentation about the earthquake. I need help as this is not my area of expertise AT ALL.


We will be in DuBois from April 16 -19 and on the 20th will go to a lovely home in the woods of north central PA for some quiet R & R. Our kids will come to spend a few days when they can and then we'll return to Lancaster area on the 8th of May to return to Haiti on the 13th. We will be seeing our doctor and getting lab tests done while in DuBois so are glad to have that taken care of. We are packing in a lot but those days of R & R are what will really prepare us for our return.

Thanks to your many very generous gifts we have been able to help people gettheir homes repaired (the homes that could be repaired) so they could move back into them. Please continue to pray for those who have no homes to return to - this is a serious problem all around Port-au-Prince. TheHaitian Christian High School on our campus wants to begin classes in April and so they will be asking people to leave campus.

It is a difficult thing for us to leave when there is still much to do butwe know God's timing is best and He is in control of this situation not us. Trust me all 4 of us are ready for a change.

Will try for another update next week. After that we will try to send one from the states when we can. Keep praying.

Love to all,
Phyllis