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!
