Merry Christmas!

A belated Merry Christmas from State College, Pennsylvania. I hope your day was merry and bright and that you and your family had a wonderful day together. My only problem with Christmas this year was the lack of snow! Otherwise it was a wonderful time of family and friends and, especially Christmas Eve, worshiping the King of Heaven come to Earth.
As I traveled north from Florida to Pennsylvania, I stopped over night with Ed and Beth and Nikki Moore who were spending Christmas in Nags Head, NC.
I arrived in State College December 22nd. My Uncle Richard arrived from Texas December 23rd.  

Since my Uncle was obliged to stay in a hotel, I got him a tree. The hotel staff were gracious and allowed me to get into the room early to put the tree up and decorate it!
The tree was the top of a larger one and smelled wonderful! I decorated it with ornaments that had belonged to my grandparents.
We spent Christmas Day with family friend Marie McGhee. She has been part of our family holiday celebrations as long as I can remember!

Uncle Richard left December 27th to visit friends in Philadelphia. I will spend New Year's Day with Marie. We will eat pork and sauerkraut and watch Penn State and Tennessee play in the Outback Bowl. Then I will start working my way back to Florida starting January 5th. I'll fly back to Haiti January 11th.

Adou Update

There is more news about Adoinet (Adou) St Amour. According to Adou via a former intern, the doctors say that he has "hepatoma with tumor thrombosis of the portal vein". According to the woman who is helping him with the scholarship to attend seminary, her doctor son said that "the lab results and biopsy could be sent to any lab in U.S. with a Dr. trained to interpret such things (can't think of the proper term for that speciality). Not necessary for the patient to come here." Her son also said that "His best guess is that Adou probably has helpatitis B or C, contracted from contaminated water, that has developed into cirrhosis and/or liver cancer. In either case, surgery is not indicated." The doctor's diagnosis is not good, but we believe in a powerful God who is able to heal. So, please keep praying as Adou seeks further tests and information.  

Urgent Prayer Needed

This is Adoinet (Adou) St Amour. He is a former BTI student at HAFF who is now in his fourth year of Seminary in Port-au-Prince. Adou has been sick for a while now and finally the doctors in Port have found something. I am not exactly sure what. His family has told me that a lump was found on his liver. Adou himself wrote a former HAFF intern and said it is cirrhosis of the head of the lung. At any rate, the doctors in Port have told him he needs an operation, but it can't be done in Port. He needs to go to the States and that they would write him a letter for the American Embassy so he can get a visa.

But the questions remain. Where would he go in the States? To what doctor? Which hospital? What about his lack of insurance? Who would give him a place to stay during the diagnosis and recovery periods? We are checking to see if there will be a surgical team from the States coming to the hospital in Pignon so that maybe the operation can be done there. But we don't know if that will be possible. Or, if it is possible if it will be soon enough to help Adou. His family is not well off. He is only in Seminary beacuse he was able to get a scholarship. These questions aren't too hard for God with His infinite resources. Please pray.
Adou (left) is a young man who has already made a differance in the Spiritual life of the Plateau. 2 summers ago he worked with Gabi and Barb Van Schoyck to train leaders from several area churches how to do Vacation Bible Schools. The trainees, with Adou and the Van Schoycks, then went and held a day of VBS at 2 rural churches.

I believe that this attack on Adou's body is a spiritual battle as well as a physical/medical one. The goal Lila Clark had when she founded HAFF and BTI was to produce young men and women with the educational skills to go on for further training to lead the area churches. Adou is the first fruit of that dream. He is the first (though not the only) BTI student to go to seminary. I believe that this battle is one for the hearts and souls of the Plateau. Please pray.
This is Adou leading singing with Gabi at one of the VBS days 2 summers ago. Greg Van Schoyck was mentioning the other day that Adou was one of the first Haitians to mention in the local church that salvation is by grace alone. Most of the local churches preach that salvation is by grace, but you must also work for it and you can lose it if you do not remain faithful. Please pray for this young man so that he can be preserved as a light for his community. Thank you in advance. 

Memorial Service

Today the students, teachers, staff and administration of BTI met for a 2 1/2 hour memorial service for Vernio Joseph, the teacher who died last Monday. Thank you for your prayers. The service went very well and was a comfort and help to many. Exams will continue tomorrow as normal.
Met Gabriel, the vice principal, opened the service in Met Phanes' absence. Met Phanes was still at his home in Hinche, not feeling well.

The service was lead by Met Maccene and was composed of several parts. First was Adoration -- a series of verses on the greatness of God and His love, interspersed with congregational singing of hymns.

Next was a time for people to share memories of Met Vernio. Then followed many verses of hope, interspersed with songs sung by small groups of students or teachers.
Jean Jean Mompremier shared a message encouraging the students to not delay making sure they had Christ living in their hearts. He shared how Christ's return will be like a thief in the night and how life is so fragile. He invited any who were not sure of their destination after death to make that destination sure by accepting Jesus Christ's free gift of payment for their sins.
The service ended with prayer for Met Vernio's family, fellow teachers and students.

Various ones had a part in the service. Se Youseline shared memories of growing up in the same town with Vernio. Students read scripture and a student led the final prayer for the family.

Several people indicated at the end how important the service was for them and how grateful they were that we had done it. Thank you to those who prayed for us Friday as we planned and this morning as we met. Please continue to keep BTI and Vernio's family in your prayers. Please pray too, for us as we seek to find a new math teacher for the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grades. Pray that the Lord would raise up a teacher who is strong in math, but even more, is strong in Jesus and who will be a model and example of how a Christian should live and work. 

In Memoriam

This is Met Vernio Joseph in a photo taken in September 2005. Other than updating the days and the tenses, I don't think I can put things any better than Barb Van Schoyck did in an email to HAFF's Board of directors, "Met Vernio, one of our teachers, died Monday. It may have been stroke, or heart attack. He was one of our young teachers.

He had been a student at HAFF for six years, then did his 13th grade in Pignon, and then came to work with HAFF last year. His funeral was Tuesday. Many of the teachers went, along with a delegation of students in uniform from the school (which is customary in Haiti). HAFF sent a cash gift to honor him and a letter of condolence from the entire staff and Board with Carla, Colin and Jerry who went to take the teachers and delegation of students to the funeral. (Connie was still en route and we go back Thursday).

Met Vernio was an orphan, but does have one sister (Saisette, also a former student) and at least one older married brother. The funeral is in LaVictoire which is a very difficult road. Thankfully our delegation made the trip safely. Please pray that God's hand of comfort and grace would surround Saisette and the rest of the family, as well as our students and teachers.

Carla and Colin did an exemplary job of handling this crisis and we are all grateful for their presence during this time."

School is closed for the rest of this week. Monday, when school opens again, we plan to have an extended devotions. We plan to take most of the morning to counsel, encourage and pray with the students and teachers to help them through this hard time of grief. Pray for us Friday as we meet to plan the time Monday morning, then pray for us Monday as we seek to minister to eachother. 

Long Delay

It has been a month since I last posted anything to the blog! I am sorry! It has been a busy month. We have been getting the Wilsons settled in, deciding who will do what now (more on that later) and just taking care of life at HAFF in Haiti.

We have also been having some problems with slow internet speeds which makes blog posting an excercise in frustration, so I just haven't done much.

Ely is back from the ECHO conference. He had a wonderful time, saw some old friends and made some new ones. He also spent some time studying at ECHO and came back with a new appreciation of all ECHO is and does. He also came back with lots of ideas about what to do here at HAFF to help the local communities. Thanks for your prayers for him. His trip went well and he stayed well.