Philo Class Prayer

This morning at 9:00 am, the Philo class (grade 13) met for a service of Thanksgiving. Just as they met in June as Rhetos to ask the Lord's favor for their National Exams, so now they wanted to meet again and express their gratitude for that favor. The service started with Scripture reading,
continued with prayer,

and didn't forget praise.
The student prompted and led service continued for over an hour, alternating scripture, prayer and praise. Keep these young people in prayer as they finish their secondary education this year. Pray not only that they would learn the academics, but that they would grow in grace and favor with the Lord and grow daily in the fear of the Lord. This service is a good indicator of their hearts. 

Where I live 2

These photos were taken out in the road right near what used to be our back gate and is now the Experimental Garden. They will kind of give you a flavor of the rural community in which I live.
This first photo is of Maranatha Baptist Church of Bohoc. It is the first church I ever attended in Haiti and is the one that is closest to my house as the crow flies -- I can hear the choirs rehearsing very well! It is sometimes refered to as "the church across the street" since it is very close to our property.
This is the street in front of Maranatha looking away from HAFF toward Pignon. Beyond the church you can see the church school building. Most churches in Haiti have church run primary schools that meet during the week. You can't see it due to the trees, but there are houses and gardens behind and beyond the church.
This is across the street from the last photo. We are still looking away from HAFF. There are 3 houses in this photo. And this is about as congested as the housing gets in Bohoc!
This is again from about the same spot as the last 2 photos. This time we are looking the other direction toward HAFF's front gate. Just beyond the people standing on the right, is the old back gate which is now the experimental garden. HAFF's property line swings around behind 4 houses or so and then comes back to the main road at Met Phanes' house and the clinic and then the front gate. The road in all these photos is National Route 3 -- the main interior road from Port-au-Prince to Cap Haitien and the 34r major route in Haiti! 

Odds and Ends

Here is the first Philosophe (Philo) class at BTI! This is the last year of Secondary School for them. They have already passed the first National Exam, the Baccalaureate I. At the end of this year, they will take the second National Exam, the Bacc II. Once they pass the Bacc II, they are done with Secondary School and can go on to University or can teach at the Secondary level. All of our BTI teachers have their Bacc II. Pray for these students this year. It will be a year of hard work and long hours. Pray that they can lean on the Lord and help and support one another.
This is Fre (brother) Miguel Mompremier. He is a day guard at HAFF. Back in April 2005, he got3 plants of a new variety of plantain from ECHO to try in his garden. Two of them survived and did very well, in spite of the fact that the variety did not do well at HAFF! Here he is in September of 2006 with one of the plants. The photos below show the fruit of each of the plants. He is very pleased with them! He is especially pleased since the plants each have many new plants (pups) springing up from them! Thanks ECHO!!!



 

First Day of Classes for 2006 - 2007 School Year

Classes opened today at BTI at HAFF. As you can see in this photo and the next, we had a pretty full house for devotions before school started. I would say that most of the about 250 students were in attendance.

We have one unusual pair of students this year. Withnise (I think) Pierre on the left is in 7th grade this year. Her Mother, Wilna Pierre on the right, is also a student in 12th grade this year!
Devotions this morning were lead by Mlle Youseline Pierre. She had the students sing a hymn in French and then read a Psalm in French. New teacher Sensuel Charles prayed for the day. 

Met Phanes (with Sophie at his feet) greeted the students,
and he read the list of which students would be in 7th grade A, 7th grade B, 8th grade A and 8th grade B. Then he told each class their classes for the day.
Dr Germinale Privilege, the doctor from the dispensary down the road from HAFF, is the Biology and Chemistry teacher for the new Philo class -- grade 13.
He had his first class with the Philo students this morning right after devotions. 

Where I Live

In addition to questions about my house, I often get questions from people about the "village" or "town" I live in. Here is an aerial photo of part of Bohoc. If you right click on the photo, hopefully you will get a menu that will allow you to open the photo in a larger version in another window and see the writing.
In the mean time, I will explain what I can here. The light blue curved line is National route 3 -- our 2 lane dirt main highway! If you drive toward the top of the photo, you go to Cap Haitien. If you drive toward the bottom of the photo, you go to Port-au-Prince. The yellow outline is the aproximate boundry of the land owned by HAFF. The pink numbers are designating the school buildings and homes. #1 is the administration building, 3 - 13 are the school and shop buildings. #15 is my house and the higher numbers are the dorm and other houses. You can see how many houses surround HAFF!
This next photo is another angle showing the school and houses on the HAFF campus. But you can also get a better idea of the homes to the north of HAFF, "in front" of the campus on the road and across the road. Houses line the road but get pretty sparse the farther off the road you go.
This photo was taken by a member of the team from Chattanooga. It might be right out front of our gate, I am not sure. But even if it is not, it could be! This young man would be a local boy taking his family's plowing team to the river for a drink or to another garden or pasture to graze. This is a common sight right outside HAFF.
This photo is definately taken right outside the front gate looking up the road toward Cap Haitien. The fence on the left is HAFF's fence. The brown building behind the fence is the clinic. The administration building is just out of the photo to the left. So, Bohoc is not a town, or even a village, but a rural area with a cluster of homes and churches and small businesses within a short distance of the main road. It is a nice place to live. 

Back in Bohoc

I've been back in Bohoc for almost a week now! I flew from MFI's new facility in Fort Pierce, FL to Cap Haitien Tuesday, September 5, 2006. Bos Elizert was there to meet me. We got all my stuff and the cargo and mail and headed up the mountain. There had hardly been any rain since I left about 10 weeks previously, so the roads were not really any worse then when I had left. That is not saying they were good! It still took us about 3 1/2 hours to go the 44 miles to get home.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons we had some nice and much needed rain! Pray for more -- the corn crop is already mostly lost, but there are still millet, manioc and sweet potatoes yet to come that can use the rain.

The week was spent unpacking, greeting people and getting some things taken care of for school to start. We are planning to open the last year of high school this year, and there are still lots of details to work out.

Today most of the students and teachers came for meetings about the beginning of school. All the teachers were here except 2. And even though there were many students that did not come, the devotions room was full!

I had the blessing of sharing the first devotions of the year. We sang "There is Power in the Blood" and read Romans 8:28 -39. And then I shared how God knows us, chooses us, calls us, makes us right with Him and then how nothing and no one can take us out of His hands! There is no need to fear other people, or situations when we are in Christ. When I was done, Met Phanes, the headmaster, spoke to the students about the coming year.



After Met Phanes, Met Gabriel spoke to the students about the rules and regulations for the year.
Finally, Met Phanes introduced all the teachers who were present. Left to right they are: Met Ermann, Met Eribert, Met Dieugrand, Met Vernio, Met Bill, Madame Gredel, Met Ernest, Met Elois, Mlle Youseline, Met Charles, Mlle Acillienne (school secretary), Mme Leslie, Met Gabriel and Met Justin (collects tuition at the gate). The only teachers missing were Dr Germinale and Pastor Phanord.
Here is a better photo of the teachers. In the back, left to right, Met Vernio*, Met Ermann, Met Elois*, Met Phanes, Met Gabriel, Met Charles, Met Bill*. In the middle, Met Ernest, Mme Gredel* (aka Mme Anthiode), Mlle Youseline*, Mlle Acillienne*, Mme Leslie* (aka Mme Keket). In Front are Met Eribert*, Met Dieugrand* and Met Maccene*. All the teachers (and the secretary) with a star after their name are former BTI students! 10 out of 17 BTI staff are former students. What a blessing! (Met = Teacher. Mme = Mrs. Mlle = Miss.)

Pray for the coming school year. We will take this week for Met Phanes to work on the schedule and to finalize all the details for the last year of high school (the Philo year). And school will start in earnest next Monday, the 18th. Pray for the students to take their studies seriously this year and to take the devotions and chapel services seriously as well. Pray that the Lord would transform lives this year!