My computer was out of commission for awhile so I apologize for all the delayed emails and updates.
Life has been extremely busy here. Just everything from cooking, to getting supplies, to just everyday living takes so much longer here than in Canada, and nothing progresses as fast as we anticipate. But we ARE moved (basically) into our house now. We still cook out in the storage room in the other building, but at least we are not all sleeping in there yet too. We don’t have lights or running water yet, but paling water from the cistern for baths and washing dishes etc has become part of the children’s day. As we look at our renovated 850 sq ft house we hardly know what we will do with all this space! It looks huge!!! Our boys all sleep in the upstairs/loft area. We have enough room between the loft and the outbuildings to easily host anybody who wants to come visit. We welcome and look forward to that!!! That means you guys just down the mountain at CPS, and CSI, and the orphanage staff too! Please just not all the same day just yet. J
DEATH struck our Oriani community Thursday evening. I have told you all of the awfulness of the mountain roads here before, right? Well, I was awakened at midnight by some Haitian friends at our bedroom window. Fre’ Jantzi was agitated and told me he heard his wife was in an accident on the road about an hour down the mountain and wondered if I could take him down to find out what happened, where she is etc. Of course! So we went down the mountain with a few local men to see what we could find out. On the way down we met large truck with a bunch of men sitting on the edge of the box. We stopped them to ask them what they had seen or knew and they told us to look in the back of the truck. We climbed up and jumped down into the box only to realize that the floor was covered in blood and dead people. We went on down to the scene of the accident and found out that Jantzi’s wife and about 60 others had all been riding on the top of a truck loaded with huge cabbage bags (200lbs each). They were taking them to a market area to sell them the next day when the overloaded truck began to sway over some ruts, and in a single lane area with a cliff on one side and a 12 ft vertical drop on the other.... it tipped over the edge and rolled completely over and was sitting in the river back on it’s wheels. As of this writing we know of 13 dead and 21 still in various hospitals. All from our local neighbourhood. Mostly mothers going to markets the next morning, and teenagers heading back to the city for school.
I spent the night driving our friends all over Port au Prince while they frantically checked various hospitals for news of their loved ones. By morning we had rounded up 6 young ladies that were freshly released from the hospitals and we took them back home to Oriani, 3 hours away. The Oriani community was out in force to greet us as we came back. They were eager for news. Some women sobbed as they heard the dreaded news of a daughter being dead, others got watery eyes and quivering chins of joy as they saw their loved one alive. These people don’t show emotions like this easily, but this was a traumatic enough of a night that I even saw men who broke down and quietly wept. Today was a sad quiet day in the whole village as people buried their dead and stood around quietly talking, eager for news from any vehicle that rolled into town.
The sorrow and sadness of these people’s lives, and yet how they find security in God, just alternately breaks and warms our hearts. For example... a couple weeks ago in church we had a time of sharing and people gave prayer requests etc. Request was made for prayers for many who were sick and were not able to come to church, others of other troubles. After the time of sharing problems they sang the song... “What A Day Glorious Day That Will Be” (a Creole version of the English song). And I tell you!!!!.... That song was sung at top volume with the depth of feeling and emotion that the writer intended it to have! “ when he takes me by the hand, then we will walk thru promised land, what a day... glorious day, that will be!” I was too moved to be able to sing-I just listened and was blessed by hearing them. These people have so much to teach me.
We have to also tell you that this weekend will be a special one. Special for our Oriani church because they will be having baptism for 19 more new Christians, and special for us that one of them will be our 16 yr old son Zack. He was born again awhile ago but thinks it’s pretty neat to now receive baptism in this little Haitian church. There is also going to be baptism in a new location close to us as well, a place called Savann Mouto. There will be baptism for 14 or 15 there on Sunday too. My Uncle Russ Toews’ are missionaries for that area. The Holy Spirit is moving among the people and convicting them of their sin, they are becoming born again and both in Oriani and Savan Mouto there are dozens new ones who are asking to have Bible/doctrine classes yet. We feel especially the Oriani congregation needs some additional support and another missionary placed here asap (our children hope that whoever comes will have children too J ), because Anthony and Darla are no longer here, but we commit that to God to plant that conviction in the right hearts. God is very near and has been holding us many times here in the last 2 months. We have had our times of discouragement with our house delays, with the language barrier, and slowness in getting the clinic building finished and open etc. But things are coming along nicely considering everything, and we are generally courageous and happy to be here where God has lead us to serve and work. Tonight when the children said their night time prayers, Chase prayed “thank you God for all the awesome stuff that we have, and help my friends back in Ontario to not miss me too much” (He hardly has any toys or anything to play with so I think his comment of “all the awesome stuff” was in comparison to some of our neighbours.)
Nurse Kim is already working from home and by making house calls with some of the pregnant mothers in the area, and as it “grows” it will be a enjoyable, rewarding work. J We hope to be operating out of the new clinic within a week. We hope to be able to get some authorization documents by Wednesday. If there is any young lady who is interested in teaching our children so that Charlene Johnson (our current teacher) can be freed up to be a translator in the clinic, please let us know. Our vehicle from Miami still isn’t shipped yet, so that is a concern to us. But as I look at the vehicle market here and the prices of new and used ones... We somehow will just have to try to wait it out. To buy a stripped down Isuzu pickup in Haiti with the small diesel engine is 33,000 US Dollars now. And with cloth seats and larger 3 litre engine it’s 40,000. Toyota is more yet. We are thankful to Liaison Committee for their support in loaning us one of their pickups to use for now.
We ask prayers for...
· The teenage girl whose mom and dad died awhile ago and has been raising her younger 4 bros and sisters on her own... and who now has one less sister due to the truck accident.
· The clinic that it can open quickly, efficiently, and effectively, and also that we will have enough understanding in this endeavour.
· That there will be the right people to fill the needed places here.
· That we will remain safe from accident and sickness
Love to you all, Keith
Keith & Candace Toews
Trevor, Zack, Cam, Chase, Christina
