Greetings,

Once again I’m canning pickles and making all kinds of jam.  Applesauce, pears and peaches come next to be enjoyed on a cold day this winter.  How different my world is from my friends who live in Haiti.  They live from day to day with the little that they have.  The mountain people are worse off than those in the valley in that they don’t have the variety of foods available.  When potatoes are in season, they eat potatoes.  When mangos are ripe, they eat mangos.  They do dry their corn to be ground later and it’s made into a cornmeal mush, sometimes served with a bean sauce.  But food is not plentiful.

Last month in August one of our sponsored little girls died.  Her name was Clercimene Alcinord and she was six years old. She liked dolls and the color yellow.  Her mother and father are farmers in the mountains and carve out a living by working the rocky soil in Kawo.  Clercimene had been ill, went to the doctor, but died of a “fever”; the cause of many deaths in this harsh country.  She is the second child from our school in Kawo to have died this year.  Death is such a part of life in Haiti.  Would you please remember her and her family this month in prayer?

We have sent some money to the schools so that the people can continue the work on the construction of both.  My heart really desires that both schools be finished, or near completion this fall, providing cover from the scorching sun and shelter from the hard rains.  We are having a fundraiser on Sept. 12^th to raise money for these projects.  There will be a dessert/auction at Cascade Community Church in Monroe at 7pm and I would love to have you all show up if you live anywhere in the area.  We also are praying that  more children will be sponsored.  So please join with us and pray that the needed funds will be raised.  We serve a very big God.

Camp for almost 200 children was held in August.  HOPE in Haiti sponsors this camp for children from four churches/schools that Pastor Louinet oversees.  The children are bused to the place where the camp is held.  They play games, have speakers and are taught from the Bible.  I hear that it was fabulous and the children all say a big “thank you” to HOPE in Haiti.  I know some of our kids go to camp yearly, but this is almost unheard of in Haiti.  So thank you once again for providing teaching and hope for these children.

Our planning for the October trip is underway.  It looks like there will be 12 going.  All night flights, loss of sleep and a heat that greets us as we walk off the plane onto the tarmac in Port au Prince.  Sound fun?  It’s only the beginning of an adventure that one will remember for a lifetime.

Dixie

“Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord You God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children.    Deut. 6:4,5