Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Jacmel Earthquake Survivor: Christian What Do You Suggest?



I was in Haiti a month ago doing interviews for testimonies for the "Haiti Book" of our Church's involvement in Haiti. Here is a story as told from a woman that is attending Church in Oriani for a year. Her story touched me as we listened. A beautiful young lady with two children trapped in a evil cycle that makes her grow discouraged. To those that know there are millions like her. 

However with God all things are possible. Also the prayer of the righteous avails much. 

As I was working the other day it seemed the Spirit told me to post this story here so that people can pray for her. Also there may be people that go their way without knowing that  there is a cry outside your door----- seeking for what you take for granted. If we knew the power of prayer....... I could say more, but it is more important to hear what she has to say. She is like your sister out there, please think and pray. Thanks.

(Her mother is dead, her mother was superstitious and caused much grief to keep her other sister from going to Church. This girl lives in a dilapadated house virtually without much support other than her married sister in our church..):

I am 25 years old. My story is that I am a sinful woman. I have been very wicked and bad. I have two children on my hands to show what my sins are. I was a person that loved to sin. In my heart I loved the carnality of the world. My heart is now heavy with all that and I long for the day that God can wash my heart clean. I have been coming to church most of the time since last year. This last year I have not gone back to my sins in the world. I have been able to do this but I still do not believe my heart is free. The thing that I need from God is his Spirit and I do not know if he has done that for me.
I am poor and men come to me to offer food for favors. I do not want to go back to this. I need two things. These things are holding me back. I need a man to live with and provide for me. I hate this system we have of men offering me food to help me with my children to use me. I have nothing.  The second thing is that I need a better place to live. My mother is dead so there is no one to help me with my children. Some people probably told you I am not a person worth helping because I am not from here, and I will soon be gone. No, I am not that kind of person. I found the church. I want to stay. This is my home now. I am just in a struggle to know how to live.
I was in Jacmel during the earthquake and survived while a lot of my friends had died.  Jesus gave me grace not to die.  I was at a friend’s house with a man. A lot of his friends died. I loved the sins of the world much, so I was with this man watching a film. There was noise coming from the television. When the earthquake happened we heard and felt something that was not coming from the television. We thought it was a helicopter flying over.  No one died in the house we were in. Jesus saved all of us sinners because he loved us. He gave us a chance. We ran out of the house and then realized it was an earthquake. The whole city was completely covered in dust. Even though we could not see very far we could see houses were flat on the ground.  We went to the airport. We ran to this big field where there was no house to fall on us. We ran to the airstrip and there were a lot of people crowded in there. At midnight we were still there. The ground shook again the second time. We were terrible scared, but a bunch of blancs came there and brought food and drinks. They started giving us money to get taxis rides back to town. Someone gave me enough money to catch a ride all the way back to Oriani. I never went back since. That’s my story of the earthquake. It was chaos. Dead people were everywhere. There was a dead person and there was a dead person……..

Sunday, June 24, 2012

2012 Lastic Canyon Haiti Irrigation Project Update


To Lastic Friends everywhere -

We haven't been reporting recently, but we still have been busy. In the last update sent on February 20, 2012, I stated that we were planning to come/go back to Haiti for an organizational meeting. Neil and I did return for several days of meetings in early March. At this time we have both a Operational and a Capital Improvements Budget approved.

In the meeting where much of this took place, at our suggestion, everyone also agreed to pay for their water based on land area. In the past when water has been available, they paid based on the number of hours water was delivered to their garden. This seemed to make for a lot of conflict - somebody had to monitor and record the time, and there were questions about whether the water was flowing full, or if somebody upstream was sneaking a little of the side, etc. An annual fee based on area based seems to have much less potential for conflict.

A snag in the plans occurred when we discovered that nobody really knows how much land they have! Our budget is based on the total watered acres, and I believe that to be a fairly solid number, but when it comes down to an individual farmer and his bill, nobody knows! The community asked us to determine the area of each property, and after a small discussion, in which they unanimously promised to accept the results, we agreed to take this on.

Some time was spent in planning, and we finally kicked off the mapping project on May 9th. The CPS unit located on the north side of PAP provided most of the effort, and their House Papa, Waylan Litwiller, was an enthusiastic leader. The local water committee provided each of the two or three mapping teams with a local guide who knew each farmer's name, and sometimes an interpreter as needed. While standing in each field, the perimeters were discussed and agreed upon, a field number was assigned, the field was traced out onto a high precision aerial photo of the area, and a log kept of that information that includes the farmer's name. In the case of difficult boundaries, the mappers used a 200' and a 300' tape measure to verify distances. I used my precision GPS to spot check the work, and to determine some boundaries in tall corn, in the banana groves, and other places where measuring was difficult. After a few days, the Unit Papa and boys had the project well in hand, and I could feel comfortable with returning home.

The mapping continued right along. The day's work was uploaded to me every night, and I started to compile and draft the results. The mappers turned in maps for anywhere from 50 to 100 gardens per day, so I did not keep up. They also kept track of areas that needed to be checked with GPS because of difficult circumstances as noted above. To date, the smallest garden mapped and calculated is 1323 sq. ft. (0.03 acres), and the largest is 2.1 acres.

Toward the end of the project, I returned to help for a few days and covered the areas that had been reserved, as well as generally helping to advance the mapped areas. It seemed that water was flowing everywhere we walked, so we were often working in muddy ground, but as I observed to the rest of the workers, it doesn't seem too bad when you know its mud made with Lastic water!

The field work was finally finished on June 4, and the semi-official count for gardens being irrigated is 1,217!!! 1,217 families able to raise more of their own food! We observed heavy farming activities, with brush, weeds, cactus, and thorn bushes being cleared, and a wide variety of crops being planted. The early corn that was irrigated up in February is well over our heads, the bananas are thick and lush, and we saw various beans, squash, melons, garlic, papaya, sugarcane, tomatoes, citrus, and other crops growing well.

The next step is to finish calculating the area of all the farms, prepare maps for the water committees to use, and prepare a "water rights" certificate for each grower. At this time we will also check over the maps to be sure every irrigated property is accounted for. This feels like it is a big job, but we're working through it, and hope to be done in mid July. At that time we will again return and meet with the water committees and keep the process of organizing moving along. Anybody with AutoCAD experience that is interested in helping is more than welcome to contact me! Maybe we can share the load.

A very vital part of the whole project is the 9 km of pipeline that was installed in the late 90's. Per the records it has 2.5 km of ductile iron, and 6.5 km of PVC, most of which is encased in concrete. We feed water into the top end, and take it out down at the bottom about 2200' lower in elevation, but we have done almost nothing to the pipe along the way, and mostly have only a very general idea where it lies within the river bed. This year during rainy season the river bed shifted in the larger channel, and the erosion uncovered a section of the pipe. At the place it was exposed it was concrete covered PVC. The force of the water driven rocks eventually knocked off some concrete and cracked a hole in the PVC, which soon filled with rocks, and plugged the pipe. When I was in the area in early May we were able to clean out some of the debris, but we could still not get the water flowing. We also used Raymond's dozer to partially re-route the river to stop the immediate damage.

Raymond has recovered very well from his surgery, and the docs gave him the green light to go back and build roads. Raymond and Vera returned to Haiti the last part of May, and Raymond took the final unplugging and repairs to the pipe in hand, and had his dozer working about 3.5 days in the river, both burying the exposed pipe, and further re-routing the channel. This work was finished and the water is flowing steadily once more. Right now we have no other plan but to keep an eye on the situation. Hopefully the pipe will stay intact for many more years.

We're hoping to do some more mapping of the farming valley this fall. I think we have only enough land with canals to use about 60% of the water we can deliver, and there are certainly some additional districts that have good farm land, but right now there are no canals servicing them. I know that to get water to most or all of the additional areas will require at least some pipelines, so the planning/engineering needs to be done and then the most feasible areas selected and worked on as we can. It seems maybe we are not quite done with everything there is to do . . .

Pastor Relates Dream this Morning


We don't put a lot in our dreams but they do seem to make for interest when we hear them over the pulpit. Our brother stressed emphasis on practical living and down played dreams. Anyways the dream consisted of a road. The Gospel road. The speaker was a aboard a wagon that was on that road. They knew the end of time was close and were looking to the East. There was a mist or a fog obscuring the horizon so they could not clearly tell what was happening. There wagon as near as he could tell was moving byitself. They came up to a tree with a man standing on a platform tied with large shackles. They called up to him to ask him to join them, but he was content and happy to be chained there. The wagon kept moving on. They met a fearful man that ran up to their wagon and told them, "Christ is surely coming". They invited him to join them, but he was to fearful and ran off. Finally the speaker came to a field and looked out and seen himself out working in the field. The men in the wagon called out to him to come back and ride with them on the road. As he came he still had a tool in his hand. They told him to leave it there that he would not need that. The speaker relating the dream was having emotion creeping up on him at this point. 


What impressed him was these verses came to him from Isaiah 35:8-9


 And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.
 No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Ideas for Vocational Program for Youth


A Vocational Training Center For Latin America and Africa (Namely Haiti, Nigeria, and Belize)
These are just ideas to exchange to build on so action can be made in the future.
Goal and Purpose:
·         A more or less self-sustaining vocational center for teaching national church members vocational training and also giving them a sense of responsibility for their countrymen’s spiritual and humanitarian needs.
·         A combination of a CSI Boy’s Unit, Boy’s Prep Bible Class, and Vocational Training rolled into one
·         Also would be a buffer zone for experimental projects and aid programs initiated by the states like chicken farming, tilapia, etc.
·         Would provide a (unofficial) future leadership pool, just like how CSI and Mission programs benefit the States by allowing boys to give voluntary service to God.
·         Would provide a labor force to help man CSI projects, tract work, and humanitarian work.   
·         Introducing the responsibility to the young men of the importance of taking personal responsibility in tract work, disaster relief projcts, humanitarian projects, and foremost, a sense of responsibility to the Great Commission as is learnt in our CSI programs.
What it Would Consist of:
·         A farm plot where attendees would endeavor to grow farm produce to the benefit of the facility and to improve local breeding stock and experiment with local farming practices.
·         A Work Shop to learn fabrication, mechanics, and other trade training as they become available, possible motorbike repair and salvage
·         A School Room for Bible Study, English or other language courses, Basic Trade Courses, Mathematics and science, and Health and an introduction to medical.
·         A Dorm for Attendees
·         Housing for Overseers and Teachers
What Would Be the Program
·         It would be under the supervision of the National Staff
·         Complete two years of service (or what ever time frame of commitment to complete the program)
If an individual shows aptitude to a trade and looks like is capable to operate independently-------------------- a loan, leased equipment or a teaching position to train future attendees could be rewarded.
A limited pay program could be initiated similar to CSI where either a sum can be saved for after service living or if family difficulties exist--- a program where the money could be used to support their parents I need. A lot of this would depend on local staff, liaison, or further discussion.
·         Similar to New York City missions it would be required that boys attend and participate in devotions and Bible study and memorization on a regular basis
·         It would be desired that a language study of English be a first to help them and also to give greater flexibility in finding textbooks and learning manuals. The language would be invaluable to them for later work opportunities.
·         A major emphasis would be placed on agriculture. It would be mandatory for all boys to help raise gardens to support with feeding and selling produce for the facility. It also would be a excellent place to experiment with new crops, crop rotation, improving breeding stock, etc. All work would be done as is done locally. Hoes and machetes would be the main implements, etc. We do not want to create a “Little America”, but rather want them to develop initiative as they learn more about science and biology. Grafting, a tree nursery, bee keeping, there are many things to learn. These coupled with simple classes on biology and science in a classroom setting could later give tools for these boys when they decide they want to go back to farming the family plots.
·         Work Shop Training would provide training on the fundamentals of Metal Fabrication, Mechanics, Carpentry, and Electric.
·         Would be desirable if there would be a two man crew of CSI boy from the states that would operate this project. It would be a trying work. The goal would be to teach the fundamentals and the use of tools and tool safety. The goal would be to increase the ability of the establishment to be able to fix wells, build houses for needy, build latrines, build solar lamps or cookers, etc. As the need arouse short-term volunteers from the states or hired tradesmen from the area could provide more indepth training.
·         Also there could be a program for the operation, maintaining, and leasing of taxis motorbikes. It may be possible to come up with a Tuk-Tuk like in Guatemala or building a three wheeled version for more serious hauling, etc. It could be the program may promote a salvage yard for parts to have a motorbike repair shop. Leasing bikes to young men in the program to provide extra funding. They would be trained to properly maintain their bikes.
These would take the oversight of possible NA volunteer personal until there was enough graduates to take up the strain
·         If there was a way to construct and sell items like solar lamps, water filters, or if there was a demand from CSI to build handicap carts, crutches, tools or implements.
·         Automobile Driving Training, Auto vehicle maintenance, tire repair, etc.

Schooling would depend on the needs of the program. Bible Study would be foremost, than English, then basics on Health, Science, and Mathematics. Singing would hopefully be a nightly occurrence. It would be stressed that this effort depends on God’s direction on their lives and how much they are willing to sacrifice of their self to help themselves and their brethren find suitable jobs as Christians. This facility is merely to help them find the tools and resources needed to make it work. 
There would be a Mission Outreach on a given day to pass out gospel literature, sing in hospitals or some kind of activity to initiate these young men to giving service to God as the door would open.
It seems that the voluntary mission outreach, disaster relief, and volunteer units given to our youth in NA have blessed us bountifully. It just seems that if this opportunity could be combined with the need for our national youth to find employment….. I personally have attended two units and I taught a school term in Belize. I found these to be a blessing and a boon to my Christian development. It is not for everyone, but it has also proved that work units can help young men by introducing them to new trades.
Also I have notice is that a people need to be reached by their own people. When I travel to foreign countries I notice a cry from Latin Americans to be reached by people of their own skin and culture. However opportunity needs to be sparked to make this work. It is not the sole burden of the white missionary to overextend himself. However natives need the opportunity to have the same benefit to be able to give time and service to their countrymen. How many of us would have given service if we were not present at one of our fellow brethren’s report or if we were not supported by the Church to give a couple month’s, or year’s service to the Great Commission. Too many Latin American youth men need to be nurtured into finding direction out of the dilemma they find their self today. We say no higher education, but what are the alternatives.
I am absolutely a nobody in this struggle, but I do care enough to take out of my time to think and pray for my Brethren around the world. As I look at my family and at the opportunities I enjoy, I have to remember my brethren and their struggles where it is not so. We say it is solely their fate, but as I consider the rich man and Lazarus… I want to be sure I am faithful in being available to my brethren in need.
It seems we are today haunted by the ghosts of Camp 45. Not all was loss. Mistakes were made, but we can learn from those mistakes and rather strive to teach our young men how to fish vs. giving them a fish to eat today. Tomorrow’s Church is what would benefit. We have gave instruction, but today we need Fathers to show the way through this problem.
All these suggestions are just that. I have no agenda other than planting the seeds of ideas for men of action. I have no ambition other than to see the Lord’s work get down. I have no interest in recognition anyman can say these were his own ideas as long as it produces good fruit. May the work in whatever form it takes be blessed.

·         Added Inspiration can be found by Booker T. Washington and Washington Carver in the establishment of Tuskagee in hard economic times and in a time of opposition.
“The school expressed Washington's dedication to the pursuit of self-reliance. In addition to training teachers, he also taught the practical skills needed for his students to succeed at farming or other trades typical of the rural South, where most of them came from. He wanted his students to see labor as practical, but also as beautiful and dignified. As part of their work-study programs, students constructed most of the new buildings. Many students earned all or part of their expenses through the construction, agricultural, and domestic work associated with the campus, as they reared livestock and raised crops, as well as producing other goods.”





Thursday, June 21, 2012

Crunching Away at Summer Bible School

Our congregation has a Summer Bible School for K-1 to Grade Eight. We have 73 students. Been really busy. I am a committee man and it has been worth it so far. 

Friday, June 8, 2012

Praying for Coco to come Home


My wife and boys had a sad day today ---our Chocolate Lab had went missing. The friendliest well mannered dog we could wish for. Just a little too friendly to make a really good watch dog. However he will keep snakes and possums at bay till I come and take care of them. My wife an boys had a prayer that we would find him. Here in Alabama ranchers and fish farmers are definitively not immune from shooting stray dogs and most of them ride around with rifles. Anyways we checked our local neighborhood with no success. Our boy asked why Jesus had not answered their prayer. 
After work my wife received a call from Wyoming. She mentioned that our dog was missing. While it happened  that this Wyoming lady who used to be our neighbor had a son working on a nearby farm. He had told her that he had found a well trained dog that rode with them all over in the back of the pickup. They even called him Coco. They called and talked to the local people trying to figure whose dog it was. 
My wife came to me as I was sitting on the porch and told me to radio and see if it was our dog. I just seen this boy ride by in his pick-up as I radioed him. I described the dog to him and he started verifying the dog to us. He turned around and sure enough it was him. My wife told the boys that Jesus did answer our prayer. It was just interesting how the timing worked out. The lady in Wyoming that she was just randomly inspired to call because she noticed a table spread my wife had given her. 


An everyday occurrence proves to be another stepping stone of faith in our little family's walk. 

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Wit and Wisdom That Have Impressed Me Lately




I get a magazine called the Week and here are some Quotes from the June 8, 2012 Issue,:


Read each one and think about it.


"If you want your children to turn out well, spend twice as much time with them, and half as much money"
-Abigail Van Buren


"Pain plus time equals humor"
-Lenny Bruce


"To cure jealousy is to see it for what it is, a dissatisfaction with self"
-Joan Didion


"Critics are men who watch a battle from a high place, then come down and shoot the survivors."
-Ernest Hemingway



Monday, June 4, 2012

Oriani Haiti Clinic Update---Got Ambulance Needs SchoolTeacher


June 2
ACHTUNG- AUSSCHAULTEN- GANGSTALTEN- EINZIEHEN- UNTERBODENSCHUTZMITTEL
These are the words that glare at me from the dash of our recently arrived 6-wheel drive Pinzgauer Ambulance. We are very excited about this new addition. It’s old and its tough. It is a former Swiss army ambulance that’s been refurbished and sent to us by Jeff Hageman from Toronto. It took 3 months of agony at the customs and insurance departments to get it cleared, but now we have it in our grubby mitts.  Hooray! The container also had tonnes of misc things like dried soup mix, bed mats, exam tables, med supplies and many other things to help us do our jobs here. A HUGE thank you to all who helped put that together and get it sent here! You have no idea how important these things are here, and I wish you could see how the Haitians have tears in their eyes when they see help arriving like this! They remember the days when people died like flies here. Especially women and babies. Did I tell you all that I did a community survey that showed that a full one third of children born to these mothers have died? That’s bad! Even for Haiti. With God’s help we hope we can help change that.

Ashley Dirks went home April 25th , so Heather Issac from Alberta is our new full time nurse. Dallas’s girl Rachelle Koehn is full time translator for her.  Heather is on fire, not scared of anything, is a very hard worker and is doing well. She is a joy to have around here. The Haitians love her already and they say she is very beautiful. J She has delivered babies and seen some pretty interesting situations already. A couple days ago a 20yr old lady came on a 3 hr donkey ride to get help. She was about dead from anaphylactic shock. Her breathing was almost closed off and she was grotesquely swollen.  Today she is alive due to Heather’s quick responses and care.  Our mindsets are so used to counting our time here as worthwhile or not worthwhile depending on patient numbers and success rates, and there are many cases we could relate to you, but when I sit back and reflect on it all... I just rest in a peaceful confidence that we are where God placed us for His own reasons, and as we serve Him and mankind we don`t need to justify things, to be proud of accomplishments, or be ashamed of lack thereof. Sometimes I need to remember that each individual is of innumerable value, and that if I have to spend all day in Port with some poor mama and her 7 yr old abused child.... going from one hospital to another... advocating for them and trying to find someone who will help...  that is not time ill spent.  And maybe our efforts here are as much for our own good as it has been for others. I need to learn to trust God like these Haitians do. We thank you for your support that you`ve shown, in donations, in prayer, in calling, or email, or by looking after our things back in Ontario. May God bless you as you feel part of HIS work too.

It tears us up to see so many “poverty orphans” here. We just don’t know what to do sometimes. We have a half dozen moms now who are struggling to be able to feed and look after their children. The dads are not in the picture, and these young moms are offering us their children, saying that their love for them is making them give them away so that they can be better cared for. We have hunted for foster homes, for orphanages, also for ways to help them keep their own kids... and all to no avail so far. These kids are not getting what they need, but how can we help? Helping them get institutionalised may not be “help”. Every time we think we have seen the poorest of the poor... there is another family that we become aware of that is even more wretched. We visited a house that was made of banana leaves with a mud floor. It was raining so we ducked our heads into the low building and sat around inside with them. Picture this in your mind... mud floor with water puddles, 5.5ft high roof that leaked, the whole house was 7x11 ft and that was divided up into two rooms, the back half (5 ½ ft x 7 ft) was bedroom for 6 people, so we all huddled in the front room where all the rest of the household stuff was. In this 5 ½ ft x 7ft room was 14 people AND a little warming fire of sticks in the middle of the room. This smoky little fire was the only thing warm and dry. This is the home that our little foster daughter Ketli comes from. She is about 18-20 months (nobody remembers when she was born) and she has been with us now for 5 months. If God wills... then we will be happy to keep her for another 150 yrs! When she came to us she couldn’t walk, she was 12 lbs, and full of worms and other various sicknesses and infections. Very literally on deaths door. Today she is the happiest little thing, is talking Haitian and English, and walking very well. She is almost completely recovered and is a real charmer to us whites and Haitians alike. If she was the only person that was helped or saved by us being here, then it would still totally be worth it!

Trev, Zack and I spend about a week in Port awhile ago. We were trapped down there because half way up the mountain the people were blockading the road in protest. We couldn’t get home.  We tried to get thru one time but they got riled up and that’s when we realised they had strategically placed men up on the cliffs above us who  then started rolling rocks down towards us. We quickly realised we were in their control. After some quick negotiations they let us meet Ashley on the other side of the trenches who had come down from Oriani and was waiting for us to take her to the airport. Sure shows the volatility here.

We are very much hampered by the size of our little clinic so upon consultation with the Clinic Committee, the local Mission Committee and a group of donors back home, it was decided to get a piece of land and build a clinic that better suited the needs. We have started this project now and it is going well. The block walls are going up and the cistern is about done. I placed our son Trev as the overseer of a lot of it so that I can still spend time at the current clinic.

Some of you have been concerned and interested in how the hunger problem has been here, and I am happy to say it is now starting to turn the corner. The gardens are producing again, and even though the crop is mediocre... it is not a failure like all of last yr was. The longer we are here and as we allow these people to become our people, we can see how these times of hunger have serious effects on them not only physically but also mentally and spiritually too. They are stressed! and as they hear their children cry from hunger, they struggle mightily against depression, against frustration, which then sometimes spills over into fighting between husband and wife, neighbour to neighbour and even with fellow church members. The heat is on! And the devil smiles. Recently a neighbour took all his wife’s belongings, like clothes etc, and burned them all in their front yard. Then he proceeded to beat and whip his kids till the blood flowed from them. Tonight I heard he chased her into town and was threatening to kill her with a knife but others intervened. They say he was a good man that just snapped recently because his wife wasted all his last 2 yrs worth of savings on gambling. (she was trying to get ahead too).  Another man came to the clinic today and had been in a knife fight over some small debt some guy owed him. It’s awful. These are a smiley and friendly people who often amaze us with their happiness despite having so little. But we are learning that this behind the smiles and laughter there is deep desire to be able to better live, and to better provide for their families. Pray for them! They are a very giving people who give each other food and care in special ways and circumstances that make us ashamed of our cautiousness. Their lives in relation to their fellowmen is best described in the words of one dear Haitian church brother... ``we are a people who like to beg, but also love to give to others, even to the point of giving our daily food away!``.  

Last Sunday we had over 200 people in church and quite a few were new faces too. It’s interesting how they make all first time newcomers stand up and introduce themselves. We had 56 children in Sunday School. We have had up to a hundred children before. These kids are the future, and my heart swells with joy to see them coming to church, memorizing verses and singing etc. Dallas Koehn is still teaching doctrine class to a group of 20 people. It sure is good to have a minister like Dallas here. We enjoy their company alot too.

Lacy is now done teaching school for our children. We had our program Fri night under the banana trees, with an almost full moon rising in the evening sky just above the children’s heads. Was the most amazing and beautiful setting imaginable. The children re-enacted Tom Sawyers whitewash job. Was really good. We do not have a teacher nailed down for next year yet. If God touches any of your hearts to come spend some time here in Haiti with us and teach several children, please get in touch with us asap.  Lacey has amazed us many times and has done a tremendous job. We are sad to lose her. She taught the previous year too and so she has been living and working with us for a long time. She is loved, and will be missed by all of us when she goes home to Pincher Creek soon.

Candace is out picking green beans and peas. And visiting with Ketli’s grandma.
Trevor is cutting 2x4s for the clinic
Zack is in his welding shop fixing somebody’s motorcycle fender
Cam is riding bike out by the gate
Chase is laughing and talking to his friends
Christina is reading and swinging her legs
Ketli is outside doing what toddlers do best, toddling around checking things out.
And I... am heading out to do some maintenance on the truck


Keith Toews
Administrator- Confidence Health Center
Oriani, Haiti