We have a well!

Dear Friends!

Just a short little update here on our water situation. As you all know, water, for years has been a very precious commodity here in these hills. Well through various circumstances we decided to have another go at trying to get the old beast of a well driller that we have to drill a hole in the ground to see per chance if we could find water! 

    So starting about 2 weeks ago Ivan Stolzfus came down with a couple friends to head up the operation. 

After quite a few breakdowns, and several trips to town, we managed to go down 360'. But the best news came when we went to check how much water was coming out, and we were very happily surprised when there was 10+ GPM coming out! 

We are very thankful to God for answering our prayers and helping us to find the water we so desperately needed. 

Now we pray that we will be able to spend more time telling people about the water of Life, instead of worrying about the physical water that we need!

Below are a few pictures of the operation!

Random happenings....

"What's happening in Allegue?" They ask; 

We don't know what to say.

The sun came up, the sun went down,

But has it simply been another day?

From banging gate at 7:10

To when we went to bed again

How much was done to shine

Eternity into the hearts of men?

That's the query posed to ourselves 

As we bandage wounds and restock pharmacy shelves.

A broken leg, a gash, a baby's birth---

Is this how our hands 

Are our Lord's hands on earth?

To sharpen a machete, to change a tire,

To counsel a neighbor who is 

walking through fire;

Making food, doing dishes, 

Reaching out to hug a child;

Huddling for prayer 

When the schedule has run wild;

Visiting and house calls, hiking the hills,

Getting devoured by mosquitoes,

Catching fever and chills.

Is cleaning up puke REALLY 

Saints' and angels' work?

And answering countless gate knocks

When we'd rather shirk?

Dragging weary bones from bed at midnight 

At the call "Emergency!"

(Though now and again we doubt the urgency!)

"Baby coming!": nurses run.

Day or night, their duty must be done.

"Power died!": mechanic scampers.

The goings-on at clinic must not be hampered.

"Boss! Call the boss": administrator smiles and sighs.

The price of this popularity is high--very high.

Yet the call, the voice, we will not, cannot deny---

A drink of water, a tool to fix,

A loan to request, a Band-Aid to apply.

Lord, help us serve as unto You,

And see this hurting, broken world

Through Your eyes.

                ******************

It's a beautiful rainy afternoon, and I've been thinking lately that it's a shame that this blog has been so neglected in the past months....so here are a few snapshots of various happenings from the recent past.  Not a comprehensive journal, but at least a sign of life from our corner! :)

(And for you true poets out there, yes, I do realize that the above ditty has a very scattered meter and dubious rhyme...but if you think about it....so does life. :). I rest my case.)

Here's a bright spot from November...new shelves in the storage depot.  Turning this mess....

...into this!

Much improved, wouldn't you say?

Then there was the whole scrub down of clinic over Christmas break.

.....break out the Ajax, gals, we've got work to do!

And sorting and organizing and straightening.....

Then there was the New Years fèt.....the annual church party where we get to help scoop rice....

...ALOT of rice!

A work crew of friends and relatives came in January and among other things, poured a concrete pad under the main gate.  Thanks, guys!

Beautiful!

A couple of fallen trees one windy day meant firewood....which is great...but first it needed cut and stacked, so one sunny Saturday we banded together and cleaned it up.

Many hands make light work (and many minds usually make a good deal of humor, as well! :D)

Stack it carefully, now!

From all of us here, have a great day!

Water.....

We all know it's important, and most of us have spent our lives taking it for granted (myself included), but let me just say, when the water runs low and the dry season stretches long, one tends to appreciate it on a new level!

We have not had a significant rain in many weeks now, and having exhausted the usual methods of replenishing the cisterns (a hose from the local water source, hiring water carriers, etc), the guys have had to "go big".  Big, in this case meaning a tanker truck called "The Well-Driller's Helper"....a beast of a machine that was called out of retirement to service on the front lines, with tires that would make guardian angels sigh and roll up their sleeves. :)

So, they spent hours trying to make her road-worthy again, and off down the trail they went.  Girard, a zone about 15 minutes away from us by UTV time, still has water, and after some negotiating and establishing a relationship with the keeper of the local cistern there, Brandon and Hans were able to start hauling.

When Julian came down for a visit, I got the privilege of riding along on one of the  trips over the mountain in the rumbling beast.  

I gained a renewed appreciation for people who can manuever large machines over small trails...and thanked God I wasn't driving! ;)). 

Ready to fill at the cistern in Girard.  The concrete structure here is the washing station...the cistern is up the hill a bit.

Connecting hoses, ready to pump.

Perspective shot.  Cistern in the foreground, hoses stretched down to the truck at the bottom of the hill.

She's full!  Time to wrap up the hoses and go home.

Safely back at the compound, they drain/pump the load into the cistern....what a wonderful sound! :)

Please keep us in your prayers through this season.  The guys estimated the truck to carry approximately 1,300 gallons per trip, and that is a nice amount of water, but a significant amount of weight to bring down the steep places in the trail, and there is a risk involved.  Please pray with us for safety for the men as they continue to haul, and also that the Lord would send rain.  Our neighbors are planting, and the seeds will produce nothing without moisture in the rocky soil....and we know that this is His concern even more than ours.

May you be blessed as you serve Him where you're planted. 

--Jell :)

New tires

This may not be as exciting to you as it is to me, but for those of us that travel up and down the hour and forty-five minute long trail in all weather conditions, this is exciting. It is a little depressing to load up a lady in labor or some other malady into the land cruiser and not even be sure if we can make it the whole way out on the slippery trail because of an overnight rain. But with new treads like these I think I could make it out almost any time we need to. I will say though that I think I spent more time in prayer while driving the trail with the old tires. :) 

David is working on taking the tire off the rim and I (Julian) am washing the mud off before we start. 

One step closer to hittin' the trail. You feel that excitement comin' on?

Finished! Let's go!

A Quiet Saturday....

......what a concept!  No knocks on the gate, no births or trips out to town or lacerations of any degree!  Unbelievable.  So, we decided to tackle a few of those "been wanting to get that done" kind of projects.

Mali and Kin took on the flowerbeds behind the house.  Looking good!

Some of the rest of us headed up to Elise's house to fix a bit of a problem with  her roof....seems the termites had done a number on one of the purlins and now the edge of the tin tended to flap in the breeze.

Gotta get it just the right length....

(And yes, it's exactly what it looks like...we talked Hans into the project, then hung out with the kids and watched him do the actual work. =)

I tried to figure out how to do Mika's hair...harder than it looks! :)

While Whit hung out with this cutie, who didn't love the camera.

Elise came out to check the final product, and was all smiles.  (That's her, in the red, ignoring me as I photo shoot her house. :)

Think it'll hold, Whit??

Meanwhile, back at HQ, some others had taken it upon themselves to work on the gazebo, a lengthy "short term" project we've been trying to finish.

Ellamae and Eugene helped mix...

....and Julian poured.  

Then we all wrapped up the day in our very favorite-est way....Happy Birthday, Kin!!!

Church benches

Thanks to the team from PA. we now have new church benches. They started with angle iron and planks and made some rather comfortable sitting devices capable of holding up to 12 people. Well this is Haiti you know. :)

Painting the boards 

Painting the frames

The finished product 

Lord bless you all. 

Roof is on!

After a couple set backs and rocks in the road, the roof is finally on the church!

First problem was my Haitian bosses made the church about 1.5' to wide. So we made a run to town for the steel to extend the trusses. Thankfully the trusses are steel, so they are pretty easy to repair. 

Now as of yesterday, thanks to a great group of guys we have here, the trusses are all up and the tin is on!

Now the next step is pouring the floor. So hopefully that can be done without to many glitches!

Donny