Half the Bon Fanm class chosen!

This is Se Eliphane Bien-Aime from Colladere where the road to Cerca Carvajal meets National Route 3.

Thank you for your prayers! Barb and Mme Gesson (our Haitian colleague) and I chose half the Godly Woman class yesterday afternoon. These six women are from all over the area and from very different walks in life. Some have gone far in school, some not. But we believe they will be a strong force for the Lord in their homes and their home communities. Continue to pray for Barb and Mme Gesson and me as we finish choosing the class this afternoon.

The Godly Woman Class

This is the start of the 2005 -- 2006 Klas Bon Fanm Tout Bon or Godly Woman Class. This photo shows most of the 30 women who came from far and near today to take the entrance exam for the class. From these women, we will chose 12 for this year's class. Some of the women came from Bohoc. Some from neighboring LaJeune. Some came from Pignon. We had a group of 2 or 3 women from Hinche!!! Another group of women came from Colladere where the road to Cerca Carvajal turns off Route 3. Some ladies came from back behind the Pignon airport. They all came hoping to be one of the 12 who will spend the year learning to have a home set apart for the Lord.

The test is to see if they can read, write and do some simple math and follow directions. There are 12 questions. The last 2 questions are, "Explain why you want to take this class." and "Explain how you will use what you learn in this class to help your community." These last 2 essays carry a lot of weight in the "grading" of the test.

Please pray for these women that even now, that the Lord would be chosing those He wants in the class. Pray for Barb and me as we "grade" the test tomorrow at 3:00. Pray that the Lord would help us to discern those who should be in the class. 

Where does Connie work? Tahiti? Not quite!!!

I found some great maps on Expedia.com. They really show well where I work. They even zoom all the way down to show Bohoc!!! But we'll start with the big picture. This map shows where Haiti is in relation to the United States, Cuba and The Bahamas, Jamaica and the Dominican Repubic. Haiti is on the 2nd largest island in the Caribbean, though that sea only touches Haiti's south coast. Haiti shares the island of Hispaniola with the Domincan Republic. When I fly to Haiti from the United States, I generally fly with Missionary Flights International out of West Palm Beach, Florida. We follow the chain of the Bahamas down to the north coast of Haiti.  

Let's look a bit closer.

So, here is Haiti. You can see the capital, Port-au-Prince where the southern penninsula joins the rest of the island. And you can see Cap Haitien on the north coast. I usually fly in and out of Cap Haitien when I come and go from the United States. Sometimes I fly through Port-au-Prince, but I prefer not to.Bohoc is located about 88 miles north and east of Port-au-Prince and about 44 miles almost due south of Cap Haitien.
Notice the town of Petite Riviere de l'Artibonite written across the center of the country. That town will also appear in the next map all the way on the left side of it. Bohoc is north and east of there.


 

And now for an even closer look.....

This map even shows our little rural area of Bohoc (it is spelled Boroc in the middle of the map). The brownish green lines are the roads. The road Bohoc is on is National Route 3 -- the 3rd major "highway" in Haiti. It is a 2 lane dirt (now mud) road. If you follow the National Route 3 south from Bohoc and take the first left, that puts you on the road to Cerca Carvajal. About half way along the Cera Carvajal road is where we took the team to the medical clinic at La Boc -- the clinic we couldn't get to beacuse of too much mud! The mud photos from the previous post were taken about half way along Route 3 between Bohoc and the turn-off for Cerca Carvajal. Pignon, just north of Bohoc on Route 3 is our closest town and closest airport -- a lovely (really it is) grass landing strip. This is where I live.  

Visitors

Today our visitors left. Last Tuesday a group of 8 people from Covenant Presbyterian Church in Chattanooga, TN came. Today they left. They came in the rain, it rained almost the whole time they were here and now they are on their way back to the States today through the mud. Today the sun is finally shining. This photo and the following photos were taken other years with other teams, but they illustrate some of the things the Chattanooga team did while they were in soggy Bohoc!

This photo is of a group of students having an English conversation with some of the BTI students last year. The Chattanooga team had 2 ladies who taught 7th and 12th grade English for Barb Van Schoyck. The team also had a doctor and a nurse who held clinic 2 days at our HAFF clinic and 2 days at churches at a distance from HAFF or any other source of medical help. The doctor is also a black belt in karate and he did 2 karate demostrations for some of our school boys!

The team also included a Pastor and a former US Army officer who held a Pastor's seminar on Saturday. The Pastor also preached at a church a few miles away on Sunday morning.

And the team did some work projects. They cleaned out a store room and the wood shop. They built a new swing and painted some boards ready to make some new benches for the new gazebo. And they had lots of time to visit and interact with the Haitian people. Once I get my photos back, I'll post some of them to show you exactly what the team did. In the mean time, here are some other old photos to give you an idea of what teams of visitors have done over the last few years at HAFF.
 

Pastors' Seminar

This team from Chattanooga had former HAFF board member Pastor Eric Mullinax and his wife Boo as the leaders. Eric and one of the other team members spent a good part of Saturday with about 70 pastors and church leaders from a number of churches and communities surrounding Bohoc. I had the privilege of translating for the seminar. Some of the men (and one woman) walked several hours through terrible mud (see next article) to come. One man even forded a chest high flooding river. When asked how he arrived with clean, dry clothing after fording the river, he said he took off his clothes and carried them on his head! The leaders came to hear Eric teach about the 9 part Fruit of the Spirit -- What are the weeds we need to root out for each of parts to be able to grow, what are the false fruit to be detected that can choke out the true fruit and finally what is the true fruit of the Spirit. Eric's team mate, Bob taught the leaders about leadership. He showed them 3 principles of leadership and then showed how those principles were expressed in the life of Joshua. It was a rich time of learning and fellowship. 

MUD!!!

This photo and the next were taken several years ago, but this is pretty much the way this road looked Friday when we went to a church in La Boc for a mobile medical clinic. We had some pretty scary times in the back of the Mitsubishi Canter since the 4 wheel drive is not functioning. We were not even able to get all the way to the church. We had to walk the last almost quarter mile through sticky mud, carrying the medical supplies. My feet were a sight! Going home we were racing more rain which would have made the roads even more impassable. We didn't totally beat the rain, but the worst rain waited till were were on the "better" roads -- more rock, less mud. We were all soaked to the skin when we got back. And then the next day, the pastor of the church in LaBoc walked 4 hours through that same awful mud to come to the pastors' and church leaders' seminar at HAFF!!!

How a truck can get lost in the mud

 

Gazebo benches

This is the original bench and the original bench makers from several years ago. Billy Greenleif from Florida and Sonny Edwards and Freddy Greenlief from West Virginia came and taught several of the local welders how to make these benches. Then they made several for the school and Greg and the welders made some more. Later we painted the wood green and the legs rust red. These are the benches we want to have for the gazebo. The Chattanooga team painted some of the wood for making the gazebo benches. They couldn't do too much painting since it rained practically the whole time they were here!!!