Keep Praying

A friend e-mailed me this photo. We are still waiting for the results of last week's presidential and parlimentary election. That is a good thing -- in a country with no roads to speak of, not much in the way of telephones and no electronic voting, it should take a while to get all the votes tallied.

But some people are crying fraud. We have heard of some irregularities in the voting process, and some voters are claiming that votes are being suppressed as they are counted. And a significant percentage of the ballots have been invalidated. I have heard that it is because those ballots had votes for 2 presidential candidates or deputies or 6 instead of 3 senators! We heard yesterday that the road north of us is cut near St Raphael on both sides of the Bouyaha river. And there were demonstrations in Port-au-Prince and Cap Haitien yesterday. I went to Hinche today and as I crossed the bridge leading into town, there were black marks where tires had been burned at the bridge. But Hinche was its normal bustling busy self today. All was functioning normally. Students were in school and the market was in full swing.

The BBC has some good coverage of the events of the last few days -- from a Port-au-Prince point of view. They seem to be doing the best job of presenting the full story -- accusations and denials both! You can check it out at www.bbc.co.uk. Then type Haiti elections into the search space. Please pray that Haiti will be able to peacefully elect a national government and that the people will be willing to abide by the results of the election and to work with those elected. And thank the Lord with us that things here have remained calm and that there have been no major incidents of violence. 

Primary School Teacher and Administrator Training

Another of HAFF's Non-Formal Educational programs is the Primary School Teacher and Administrator Training Program (PALP). There are over 60 rural elementary schools participating in PALP. Many of the schools are associated with churches.  

More than 5000 students attend those schools.  

The students may be as young as 3 or 4 when they start. Some are in their late teens or even 20 when they finish.  

The program is coordinated by Met Justin Mompremier. Met Justin has over 20 years of teaching experience and was the language helper for the 6 of us Americans who started working with HAFF in late 1985 and early 1986.  

The emphasis of the PALP program is introducing Christian values into solid educational training. The teachers in the program may not have completed high school, so Met Justin presents basic subject content, teaching techniques and how to integrate Christian principles into the day to day instruction. This is BTI Bible teacher Pastor Phanord instructing a group of PALP seminar participants.  

The program also familiarizes the teachers with the Haitian National Curriculum and helps them develop strategies for using it.  

Chalkboard Ministry

HAFF has a companion program of building chalkboards. The completed chalkboards are given to schools participating in PALP. 

Future HAFF Staff

This is Colin, Carla, Rebecca and Rachel Wilson. They are currently raising support to come full time with HAFF. The Wilsons are from a family farm in north western Iowa. Farming has given them many of the handiman, administrative and agricultural skills they will be using in Haiti with HAFF. It has also given them the flexibility that is so necessary on the mission field. Carla additionally has a gift for languages and training in teaching students with learning disabilities. We are looking forward to them joining the team as soon as the Lord brings in their full support. Please pray to that end. As you will see with the next post, HAFF needs them as soon as possible! 

HAFF Staff 2006

This is the pared down HAFF staff for the year. Left to right Jerry Pennington (dentist) in Haiti October through December and March through June, Connie Curilla, Zach, Barb and Greg Van Schoyck.