The Auto train ride was wonderful!!! It is the way to go. There is snow on the ground (though it is trying to melt now), it has been cold and I am soaking it in! Storing it up for those hot days in Haiti!!! Merry Christmas from State College Pennsylvania.
My Uncle Richard and I (shown here with our cousin Lynn Halkowicz) just spent 2 days visiting family and driving through memory lane in the anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania. We had a good visit. Now we are settling in for Christmas and visiting friends here in State College.
I hope your Christmas is merry, warm and bright with the love of family, friends and most of all with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 
Get set for yet another address change for me! The MFI agents in Cap Haitien e-mailed me the following article. MFI is the airline I use to fly back and forth to Haiti. They also carry HAFF's mail and cargo. Please keep them in your prayers as they prepare for this move. They will be starting all over having to find volunteers and businesses and having to move their families.
Missionary airline flies away to new base
Group called PBIA home for 40 years
By Erika Slife
Staff writerDecember 24, 2005
An operator of charitable flights that delivers "Christmas almost every flight" will be relocating its headquarters after negotiations to stay at Palm Beach International Airport fell through.
Missionary Flights International, which transports missionaries and supplies to Haiti and the Dominican Republic, will be moving its operation to St. Lucie County International Airport in Fort Pierce next year, after approximately 40 years of flying out of PBIA.
The four-plane, 16-employee operation will relocate to a three-acre land base, where it will operate out of its own $1.3 million, 15,000-square-foot hangar, warehouse and office space, said Dick Snook, president of Missionary Flights.
The organization will lease the land for 35 years, with the option to extend another 35.
The agreement relieves workers who have been in limbo for more than 4 1/2 years since the organization lost its space when the airport decided to rebuild, Snook said. It moved its office to Lake Worth, but continued to fly planes out of the airport.
"We just decided that there wasn't room for us," Snook said.
Airport officials said they tried working with the organization and that they offered it a lease option. But in the end, negotiations broke down.
"We worked really hard. We showed them the available lease areas, the ramping areas available for parking. I don't really know what they wanted vs. what we were able to offer," said Lisa De La Rionda, PBIA spokeswoman.
Snook said that the spaces offered at Palm Beach International did not meet all of their needs, such as enough space for an office, hangar and warehouse.
Missionary Flights has an operating budget of about $3 million a year, Snook said. The group flies mail, supplies and gifts to approximately 700 missionaries working in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The organization owns three DC-3 airplanes -- which can carry close to 7,000 pounds of goods or 20 people -- and a Cessna 310, used mostly for passengers and emergencies. Workers make about two flights a day, twice a week to the Caribbean, Snook said.
"It's like Christmas almost every flight," Snook said. "[The missionaries] tell us that the morning the airplanes come, it's like Christmas."
Erika Slife can be reached at eslife@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6690.
Copyright © 2005, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Final Exams start Monday. They will continue till almost Christmas Eve. Then comes the Christmas break till classes start again in January. The first of the 3 marking periods is about at an end.
It has been a pretty good 3 months or so. The students are better behaved this year, and so we can accomplish more learning with them and have fun doing it. Last year teaching was a lot of hard work and not much fun.
The most exciting thing about this year has been that there have been many opportunities to share my faith at school. I have lead devotions a number of times -- sometimes as often as once a week. I've talked about how to be assured of our salvation and, lately, various traits that should characterize the Christian.
In class there have been many opportunites. As we talk about learning techniques, there is room to talk about honesty and integrity in learning and testing. And in my Biology class, it is impossible for me to teach about cells and the human body without marveling over the amazing way we are made.
The other week, I was showing the students some anatomical drawings of bones with the ligaments and tendons and cartilage in place. Some of the boys were (a bit snidely) saying, "Mesi Bondye" (thank you God) with each comment I made about the parts of the skeletal system. I was able to turn that around and call their attention to the fact that if God had not seen fit to make our bones the way they are, we would be unable, or it would be difficult for us to move. The ligaments hold the bones together. The tendons attach the muscles to the bones so they can move. And cartilage covers all the surfaces in the joints so that the bones move smoothly. And we use it all without even thinking about it! What an amazing God we have and what amazing wonders He has made!
This is a photo from last December! That is Krista Leigh, our HAFF intern then, with Bill and Jesse Campbell, fellow missionaries in Pignon. The other young lady is a friend who was visiting the Campbells from their church in the States. They helped me decorate my Christmas trees (yes, trees -- none of them was big enough to be alone).
This year, my tests are corrected, my grades are turned in and my tree (just one this year) is decorated. I am now trying to get my Christmas cards out for the first time in a couple of years. I just might make it this year!!!
Christmas in Haiti is mostly a Church function. And much to my dismay, often gets lost in other celebrations. People often choose Christmas day to get married. Other churches have their harvest festivals at Christmas time.
But while Christmas is not celebrated in as lavish a way here as it is in the States, there are Christmas hymns and carols on most of the radio stations. Choirs and music groups are rehearsing their Christmas music for the services Christmas eve or Christmas day. And church members are practicing skits and poems for the Christmas pageants. It is a good thing that Christmas here is not full of the commercial gimme gimme spirit so often found at this time in the States.
The big gift giving holiday for Haitians is January first -- their Independance Day. The day is spent visiting family and neighbors and friends where everyone has a pot of pumpkin soup going and anyone who stops by is offered a bowl. Gifts are given and received.
So, as the Haitians say, "Jwaye Nowel e Bon Fet!" Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Tuesday December 13 I leave Haiti on MFI and fly to West Palm Beach FL. Thursday December 15 my car and I get on the Amtrak Auto Train and head north. Friday December 16 I get off the train and drive to State College. Lord willing I'll be there by late afternoon or early evening.
My Uncle Richard Curilla flys up from Texas December 18 to spend the holiday with me and our family friend Marie McGhee. Uncle Richard and I will do some visiting to various family in central Pennsylvania before Christmas and with friends in State College after. Then he flys back to Texas December 30th.
I'll stay in State College till January 2nd, take the Auto Train back to Florida the 3rd, arriving the 4th. January 5 I have a reservation to take me back to Haiti on MFI. School starts again the 9th.
I pray that each and everyone of you has a blessed holiday season filled with friends, family and all the blessings of heaven. May Jesus be close to all your hearts this year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
This is Chans and Sophie. They are best buddies. Chans (the brown one) is Tim and Paige Motis' dog. Sophie (the black one) is Barb and Greg and Zach Van Schoyck's dog. They are very attached to each other and to their families, but I make a good Aunt Connie when necessary. They love to run and wrestle and chew and play.
Tim and Paige are in Florida now for their annual time at ECHO. So Chans has been hanging out some with me in the evenings when he is not on his zip line. Greg and Zach are in Florida right now too. Zach had some medical appointments and Greg is using the opportunity to attend the HAFF board meeting today. That leaves Barb Van Schoyck, Jerry Pennington and me here at HAFF.
Yesterday, Barb spent most of the day in Pignon. Jerry spent most of the day in his dental clinic. I spent the day back and forth between my house and the office and the school. Both Sophie and Chans love to go wherever anyone is going on the HAFF campus. Whomever is moving, that is where they are. Chans was on his line, but Sophie was in and out of the house all day. Each time I went up to the office, I had a big black shadow named Sophie with me.
In the evening, Barb and Jerry and I were visiting on the swing with Barb Howard, who had stopped by. She had been followed by her neighbor's dog, Nippy. Things were a little tense between the dogs for a while, but soon they were all good friends and were running all over the place having fun. We are hoping Nippy didn't have such a good time he'll keep coming back!
But earlier in the day, the first time Sophie and I went to the office, she made the most unusual friend yet.
Many of you are aware that when I first came to Haiti, I came to teach animal husbandry. HAFF has had a herd of goats since long before I ever came. I used to spend a lot of time with them. Now I rarely see them.
Yesterday, I actually got to do a bit of goat work! Fr Odeles, our goat caretaker, brought one of the goats to me as I was working in the office with Met Telius. The goat wasn't feeling well. She is usually the first one to start at the food that Fr Odeles brings, but for the last 2 days she wasn't interested.
I checked her over a bit. She was anemic, but otherwise seemed bright and alert. I asked how long it had been since the goats had been wormed. It had been too long. So we made arrangements for Odeles and Met Telius (who is a veterinary agent as well as tailor, church leader and our office man) to worm the goats that afternoon.
While I was checking out the goat Sophie was with me. She checked out the goat. The goat checked out Sophie. Neither one knew what to do about the other. They were pretty wary of one another at first. I think Sophie was thinking , "I've never seen a dog this big with horns before!" And I think the goat was thinking, "That's the biggest dog I've ever seen!" Then, finally, they were nose to nose, both sniffing hard. I think if left alone for a while, they would have made friends! It was a fun interlude in a busy day.
This is an old photo. It is Met Claude Souffrance at a seminar for Project Healthy Family facilitators. Met Claude is the coordinator who has developed the project from its early beginnings. He works in about 25 of the communities surrounding Bohoc. In each community there are 2 facilitators who work with 25 people in their area. Met Claude trains the facilitators and then they train the people in their communities about health, sanitation, nutrition and evangelism. There are also facilitators trained to teach others to read. The goal is to see the health of the community improve physically, spiritually and educationally. The photo above was of a demonstration about AIDS. At the beginning of the demonstration, all the coke bottles are covered with paper sleeves. The bottles represent people. The paper is their clothing! At first all the bottles are filled with clear water. They are grouped on the shelf in "households" -- the Cultivator family, the Tailor family, the Single woman, 2 Single men sharing a house and the Faithfull family, for example. All are well and the village is healthy. Then along comes a truck driver. He is HIV positive. Met Claude adds food coloring to the water in the driver's bottle to represent the HIV virus. The truck driver sleeps with the wife of the Cultivator family who sleeps with her husband who sleeps with the single woman who sleeps with, etc, etc. Each time someone sleeps with someone else, Met Claude mixes the water in their bottles. Finally almost everyone in the village has slept with someone they should not have or with someone who slept with someone else, except for a few of the single people and some of the children and the Faithful family. Then Met Claude "undresses" everyone. And lo and behold, everyone is now HIV positive except those who remained faithful. The illustration is very effective. And the emphasis is that abstinance until marraige and fidelity in marraige are the only sure ways to avoid HIV infection due to sexual contact.
There is always a spiritual componant to all that is done at HAFF. This poster is one of the diagrams Met Claude uses in his Community Health Evangelism training seminars. The title of it is The Basic Message of the Gospel. At the left top, it says "1. Love of God" with "John 3:16" underneath. On the slope from that, there is written "2. Romans 3:23" and "Isaiah 59:2". At the bottom of the slope is written "Judgement of God Romans 6:23". In the middle of the cross is written "3. 1 Peter 3:18". At the bottom of the cross is written "John 14:6". At the bottom of the right hand slope is written "4. Choice" and on the slope is "Ephesians 2:8,9". At the top right of the diagram is written "1 John 5:11".
The orange writting at the bottom is the explanation of the above as follows:
"1. God loves us and he wants us to have an abundant life.
2. But sin seperates us from God's love and puts us under judgement.
3. Christ paid our sin debt when he died on the cross.
4. When we accept Christ into our lives, God pardons us to live in his love. It is he who gives us eternal life."
This is the basis of all the work done at HAFF. I pray that you know that God loves you and wants you to live with him for eternity. I pray that you have or will accept Christ into your life and find the pardon only he can give. May the Lord bless you abundantly as you seek his face!
Last year's Thanksgiving feast at HAFF happened in my back yard. There were about 40 people from 3 or 4 different countries and several different missions, including the UN military mission to Haiti. There were 3 or 4 languages flying around the tables! And there was LOTS of turkey and stuffing and all the trimmings! Look at that table groan!!! This year, we are keeping it simple. It will just be the 5 of us who are here at HAFF right now. We are doing more quick and easy things like canned ham and stove top stuffing. But one thing will be the same. Our thanks and praise will still go out in gratitude to a gracious God.
May this Thanksgiving be a time of remembering all your many blessings and a time of warm fellowship and time with those you love.
May God bless us one and all!!!
In the photo below, all the way to the right, you can see an image on a screen. This is a scene from The Jesus Film.
Last evening the new season of HAFF's Jesus Film Ministry began. The rivers are down and the roads are finally dry enough for the team to travel to the outlying churches that request the film.
The Jesus Film is produced by Campus Crusade for Christ and has been translated into many languages, including Haitian Creole.
They have done an excellent job with the translations and the film has been a huge blessing in this area. It is a visual telling of the life of Christ according to the Gospel of Luke. The Lord has used the film to bring many to a saving knowledge of Him.
Sometimes as many as 3 or 4 times in the week during the dry season, the Jesus Film is shown. The Jesus Film team consists of Greg and Zach Van Schoyck, Fabnot Jean, Joesse and Dr Jerry Pennington, when he is in country.
The Ministry is simply a help to the churches in the area. The team just goes to show the film. The host church is responsible for any service before and any altar call afterwards. And the host church is completely responsible for any follow-up of new believers. This is just another way that HAFF is suporting and helping the churches in the Central Plateau reach the folks in their area for Christ.
Here the Jesus Film is being shown to the students at BTI several years ago. The team goes to some area schools during the day as well as to area churches at night. HAFF has acquired a copy of the Jesus Film For Children now. It is in English, so when the team shows it, someone interprets in Creole for the film.
Below are the photos of a trek with the Jesus Film to an area so remote, even the 4 wheel drive pickup couldn't get there! Look and see how they got the job done!!!
HAFF's vehicles are not just used to transport supplies, cargo and visitors. Several times a week HAFF is called upon to drive someone to the hospital in Pignon. I just spent an hour and a half today in this truck doing that. I took a woman with extremely high blood pressure. She may have had a stroke. Please pray for Mme Rochenel and her family.
At the hospital I encountered 2 ladies from our neighboring orphanage. They had been there all day with 2 of the orphans -- a 21 month old pair of twins. I was able to give them a ride home. And on my way out of Pignon, I was flagged down by a man asking me to take 2 large bags of small bags of treated drinking water to a former student who has a small store across the street from HAFF. It is rare that any of the HAFF staff goes into or comes out of Pignon alone!
Mme Gesson, our Godly Woman class colleague, got news today about her husband's eye. He was able to get to a good eye clinic in Cap Haitien. They told him that he would not regain the sight in his eye. And amazingly enough, it wasn't the mule kick in the eye that is the problem. It sounds like Fr Gesson might have glaucoma. Please pray for wisdom for the doctors and comfort for the family. It may be a bit odd, but the mule kick may be responsible for saving his other eye, if it caused them to discover glaucoma and if they can start treatment if the second eye is involved too. Please continue to keep them in prayer.
My laundry lady, Mme Deces came to do my laundry yesterday. She said that Neltha has a burn mark starting from her right temple, right down the front of her body leading to a wound on each hip. She said the burns are starting to itch -- hopefully a good sign of healing. And Neltha has a severe headache, but she can walk and talk. Please continue to keep Neltha in prayer as well.
Last January a group of students from Gordon College in Massachusetts came to HAFF. They came with ECHO to study Agricultural Development. But while they were here, they shared about servant leadership with the Young Leaders Class. The culmination of their lesson was a foot washing ceremony. After the Gordon students washed the feet of the Young Leaders, the Young Leaders told Barb Van Schoyck, "Now, we want to wash their feet!" And that is what is happening in the photo.
Monday, 7 November, was the first day of the second year of the Young Leaders for God Class. The class is coordinated by Barb and former BTI student Derold Mompremier. That first day, 13 BTI students met to start the session with praise and prayer. Barb and Derold then gave them an introduction to the course and to Biblical leadership. The class teaches the students the principles, guidelines and responsibilities of Godly leadership in the home, the church, the community and the nation. The students also do several service projects during the year. Last year they built two brick benches in the BTI school yard, did some clean up work at a local park and painted the doors, windows and benches at a remote church.
Wednesday was the second meeting of the Young Leaders Class. The day focused on a round table discussion with local pastors about servant leadership. Barb reported that it went well. "They really got it!", she said. Please pray for these young men and women that the things they are learning would become traits that can enable them lead in their homes, churches, communities and nation, to the glory of God.
This photo is from 2 years ago. The woman in the white blouse is Madame Bibit. She does the most exquisite embroidery in the area. That is why we invite her to teach embroidery to our Godly Woman Class.
This photo also well illustrates the activities of 8 November 2003. That was the first day of the 2005 - 2006 year of the Godly Woman Class at HAFF. It was a busy day. It started out with 11 of the 12 women, Barb Van Schoyck, our colleague Madame Gesson and me singing a hymn of praise. We introduced the course and outlined the expectations. Then followed a time of getting to know eachother. We introduced ourselves, learned about one another and played two games that break the ice and show how we can depend on one another and how when we work together, we can accomplish our goals.
Then the really serious work of the day began. Barb lead an in depth study of the godly woman of Proverbs 31:10 - 31. We talked about the activities she is involved in, what parts of her body she uses and how she uses them. And we stressed that it is only when we are founded in Christ that we can become like this woman. After a coffee break, we had several women from the community come and share about women they know in their lives who exemplify the character of the Proverbs 31 woman. I moderated the round table discussion.
After a lunch of beans and rice, Madame Bibite and a former Godly Young Woman Class graduate, Sister Lauriana, came and taught the ladies embroidery in the afternoon. The group worked well together and there was a spirit of peace and eagerness throughout the day. The ladies are still somewhat shy, but I am sure they will soon become a close group of friends. Please continue to hold these women in your prayers. Sister Michelene Amicy Germain was the only one of the ladies to not come for this first day. We do not know why she was not there. Please pray for her that she would be able to come to all the other classes. The next meeting is November 22nd.
This is Mme Deces. She does my laundry on Mondays and my marketing on Saturdays. Wednesday evening, her daughter Neltha was struck by lightening. She has burns on her body, a wound on her hip and her whole body hurts. At first she could neither talk nor walk. Thursday morning her speach returned, but she could still not walk. By Thursday evening, she could walk with help. Please pray for comfort her mother and the family. Pray that the doctors would have the wisdom and she and her family would have the faith and the diligence to do all that is necessary for her to regain full use of all her faculties. Pray that this would draw them all closer to the Lord and that the Lord would restore Neltha to full health. Thank you so much.
This is Madame Gesson who works with Barb and me to coordinate the Godly Woman Class. Her husband, Fre Gesson, was kicked in the eye by a mule a month or so ago. He got treatment right away, but he still has no sight in that eye. Please pray that his spirit would remain strong and that his vision would return completely.
This is Lila Clark, HAFF and BTI (Bohoc Training Institute) founder. She is working with Maccene Limpreux, former BTI student and current BTI teacher. Lila was a master teacher certified to teach everything from Kindergarten through 12th grade and from mentally handicapped to gifted and talented. She was convinced that Maccene was a gifted student.
Lila was instrumental in Plateau education from long before she founded HAFF. She started the first primary schools, the first Sunday schools and now, with BTI, the first secondary school. She taught Bible classes, English classes and translated Sunday School lessons in the 1950's. Now, there is a primary school in just about every church and there are I think 5 other secondary schools in the Pignon area. She has left a huge legacy.
BTI has been a part of the Bohoc/LaJeune community since the beginning. The parents are pleased to have a secondary school of BTI's quality in the area. Before BTI, parents were required to sacrifice for high tuition, room rental and food for their children to go to school in Hinche or Cap Haitien or Port-au-Prince. So, BTI helps the community in that way.
But, BTI helps in other ways as well. The rooms and grounds are used for other seminars and meetings and will even be used for a wedding in December! The most remarkable of these events is shown in the photograph. This is 18 May 1986, Haiti's first Flag Day since President for Life Jean Claude Duvalier got kicked out of Haiti. It was a day of joy and high patriotism. Flag day is normally a day of celebration. It starts with a mass at the local Catholic chapel. Afterward, marching groups from various primary schools, who have been practicing for months, lead a procession to the local soccer field. There, the flag is raised, the groups show off their synchronized moves, there are speeches, skits and band music. In 1986 the people added a stop. They raised the flag at BTI!
In the fall of 1986, I was not the only American Science teacher at BTI. Liz and Denis Lincoln from Vermont trained with me and arrived in Haiti on the same plane as I did. We started teaching Science together. Liz taught Biology, I taught Geology and Astronomy and Denis taught Physics and Chemistry. Later, after the Lincolns went back to Vermont, I taught them all.
This photo is of two 8th graders using one of our hand made spectroscopes. By using the spectroscopes to observe the spectra of several kinds of light, the students learn how scientists identify unknown materials and even the composition of the stars and other bodies in space.
When I came to HAFF, 10 student microscopes arrived soon afterwards. Most of them are still in good shape. The humidity during the summer does not treat lenses well, so a few of them have mold growing on the lenses, even though there has been silica gel packed with them.
But the microscopes have given good service. Each year the 9th grade looks at human cheek cells, onion cells and attempts to see live protozoa in stagnant "pond" water. We have also looked at stomates in tree leaves, blood cells and malaria carrying mosquitoes.
With visiting veterinarians and local veterinary agents, we have looked at intestinal parasites and blood. We have also shown them how to do stool samples. All this in the attempt to show God's creation in all its wonder and to help the Haitians better understand their bodies and how they work, so they can take better care of themselves and their animals. And all this is a way to show God's love and care for us all.
Thanks to the San Bernardino California Amateur Astronomers Club, BTI has a 6 inch reflector telescope. When we can find a dependably clear night (harder and harder each year), we invite a BTI class to come and look at the stars, galaxies and planets. We have seen the rings of Saturn, 4 of Jupiters 5 Galileans moons, the Orion nebula and the Andromeda galaxy. We have shown people (with suitable precautions) sunspots, solar and lunar eclipses! The Heavens DO declare the Glory of God!
During stargazing nights, the students have used home-made starframes to help them find the constellations in the night sky.
A starframe is a piece of clear plastic attached to a wire frame. The positions of the stars in a given constellation are marked on the plastic with correction fluid. When the frame is held at arm's length, the dots on the plastic match up with the stars in the sky. The young woman holding the starframe is Anthiode Desrosier nee Francois. She was another student Lila considered to be gifted. She started at BTI at the same time as Met Maccene. She is now a BTI Math teacher.
