Pictures!

A little lizard taking a lunch break on our front porch.

The beautiful Aleg valley.

A Haitian horse forages for something to nibble on as it waits for its owner to return.

Celest and Fatil tilled up the ground below Steve's house for a garden plot.

Fre Direk asked if we could fix his gate...

So Steve and Andrew worked on it, finally finishing late into night.

There shall be showers of...

In church many times we sing the song "There shall be showers of blessing."

I had to think of that song this last Sunday as we sat through the service here in Aleg; towards the end, a rain storm began to move in. Typically that wouldn't be a problem, but in the last months the roof at church has began to leak- the "showers" we had that day weren't exactly what comes to mind when I hear the song!

In fact, it was more of a downpour!

Outside the church:

Inside the church:

As you can see, we're in dire need of a new roof! We've begun lining up Haitian workers from the church to replace it and are trying to get some finances together for the materials. Hopefully in the next months we'll have it repaired and won't have these kind of "showers of blessing" in the church :)

Beating out beans and painting at the clinic!

This morning our gardeners were beating out some more beans on the driveway. It was very fascinating to watch! Here's a small clip showing how they do it...

Yesterday and today, pretty much everyone has been helping paint the new clinic.

It's quite a bit of fun to get out the brushes and start brightening things up over there!

Beans and Baby Bundles!

Yesterday and today the gardeners brought a whole pile of beans up from the garden; they set them onto the cement driveway and let them dry out, finally gathering up the bunches again to shell them later. They will be used in cooking several staple foods, including "rice and beans", and "bean sauce."

Quite the pile of beans!

The man at the top of the picture is one of our gardeners, Fatil.

Most of the beans are black, but there are also some white ones mixed in.

***

Right before lunch, 

Steve and some of our clinic workers were discussing various subjects out on the porch, 

while Shana and Alex sorted out some white beans from the black beans.

Shana, pouring the beans into a smaller bowl for Alex to sort through...

Alex picks out the white beans- they're his favorite! :)

***

Inside the house, Heidi and her Mom sort through baby bundles for the clinic;

Since the babies down here are so little, often the clothes in the bundles are too big for them, 

so we need to make sure they're the right size before we can send them over to the clinic.

A big thank you to those of you who donate these bundles! What a blessing they have been!

Checking each bundle for the right size... if they're too big for a newborn, 

we set them aside for the older infants that are in need.

The two "parades"

There's been a lot of activity around here over the weekend! The Rara season is beginning to start up, where groups of Haitians gather together in a satanic worship service. This usually involves blowing of trumpets, whistles, clanging metal objects together, with lots of loud yelling and singing. They parade along, traveling down the trails and mountainsides, chanting out their songs. Often they'll start around midnight and continue through the night, keeping people awake and disturbing the peace, finishing up the next morning.

There was a very loud, long Rara that occurred Saturday night... it was quite the experience for those of us that didn't have earplugs :) About every 2 hours they would march right by the mission compound fence, making such a racket that it woke pretty much everyone up! The sad part for us isn't necessarily the fact that we loose sleep over the noise, but the sad fact that these people are in such bondage to the powers of darkness... they need Christ, just like the rest of us do!

The interesting thing was that on Saturday morning, there was a group of Christians walking down the mountainside, singing and preaching. The difference between the two groups was quite amazing!

Take a look at these video clips and see the contrast:

This first one is of the Christians coming down the mountain.

And this... is the Rara...

Please pray for us as we try to minister the light of the Gospel to these people- they are hardened by their sinful practices, and are in need of much prayer...

The septic lid...

Today Andrew and Wes went down to the clinic and removed the concrete forms off the septic lid... which included going inside to take the interior framing down!

Thankfully it's a new septic, so nothing has been flushed down yet :) However, there is a lot of rain water down in the bottom, so they lowered a ladder inside so they wouldn't get wet. Andrew climbed in, and began to disassemble the framing inside, handing the pieces up to Wes, who was waiting above.

They got it all done without much difficulty, and were able to move onto other projects...

Hmm... you sure you want to go into there? Kinda dark and scary...

See the water? Just a little stagnant, I'd say...

Making sure the ladder is secure and safe before venturing in...

There he goes!

Don't worry, it'll be ok... just go in, get it done, and get back out!

See him in there?

Andrew took the camera inside to get some shots from his perspective...

Farewell to the latest visitors...

This morning our latest "team" left to go back to the States: Leon and Shawn Zook, and Jonathan Newswanger. They have been working mainly on the floor tile in the clinic, among other things. 

Also, Michael and Virginia are going back to the States for a furlough; they'll be gone for about a month.

We'll miss everyone, but we're glad they get to go back to their families once again!