Showers of Blessing

Many school kids proudly hold their backpacks and wait for their names to be printed on them. Dave shares a moment with Asher, my grandson as he remembers his grandkids back in the States.






Showers of blessings were everywhere as the group from High Hill Christian Church handed out 300 backpacks to some very anxious and excited children. Each bag was filled with a toothbrush, toothpaste, crayons, toys, stickers, candy and gum. It also had 3 bags of rice for each child provided by Feed My Starving Children and Love a Child ministries. A special thanks for this gracious donation to help us give each of these children the much needed nutrients and vitamins that they so desperately need. Smiles were contagious and could be found everywhere.














My daughter, Ashley Dorce' is an eight year old missionary kid. She is in third grade. There are 35 students in her class and one teacher. She was happy to receive her backpack. Many others patiently waited as we called out their names, one by one. We now have 185 children in the school at Carries. What a blessing! We also have two other schools. One at Legend and one in the mountains called Cupois. They have a total of 80 students. We don't know how to thank you enough for these beautiful backpacks with the school emblem and name of the school on them. Thank you all working with Tammy at the dentist for donating the money for them. You don't even know what a precious treasure you have given to these children. Something of their very own and something they can be very proud of. It may be the first thing, especially brand new, that they have EVER had. They come from large families because women usually just have children until they can't anymore or until they die in childbirth. They reason they keep having children is in hopes that if they have ten children at least one of them will survive and not die of hunger or disease and that one will take care of them when they are old. Needless to say, most of them wear hand-me-downs. Most things that might be bought for them are used already. I just wanted you to understand why they back packs are so special and why it was such a big deal to Wilckly and I too. Again, we are grateful to all of you.
Mdme Kiki

Thanks

Laughs and hugs were great medicine for kids and missionaries alike. Thank You! Mesi anpil!

Thanks to all of you from High Hill! You were a tremendous encouragement to all of us. We savor the precious time spent with all of you on your first trip to Haiti. We thank you for spending a year preparing yourselves and each other for this trip. We know the time you took to ask God's guidance in preparation and coming was the main reason for such a successful trip. You don't even realize the obstacles you removed by praying the team together before you came. It is hard to deal with a group that has maybe never even met one another and as soon as they do there are surely a couple or more who will have personality conflicts. It made our job simple really because you really did come as a group and it was such a blessing. We know God did his part to really break your hearts for Haiti. We are counting on you to continue praying for us and with us as we will be for you also. We love you lots

Airport run and shopping spree

It is always so exciting to pick our friends up at the airport in Port-au-Prince who have come to visit us. However, I have never gotten used to dropping them at the airport and saying, "Good-bye". Our group from High Hill Christian Church had an eye opening and heart warming experience in Haiti. We are grateful to the Lord for giving them a safe journey to and from Haiti. We also praise God that everyone stayed healthy. Grandma fell and really has a shiner today and is pretty stiff and sore but she says she'll live. She's a trooper and will be celebrating her 70th birthday on March 16th.



We got the group sent off and then headed for One Stop Market. We detoured to Valerio Canez. It's a store with everything from generators to refrigerators, stoves, beds and office supplies. We checked some prices and ended up buying a filing cabinet. Well okay, so we went to One Stop, changed money and went back and got a second one.



Jacqueline, the girl we raised that came to visit while you were here, said we were in the area where her son went to school and it was time for him to get out. We stopped to pick him up and found her husband already there waiting for him. They all hopped in. We finally reached her house and the area where Mariette lives. The one whose 2 year old nephew fell in a well and died. She will stay for the funeral and come back on Friday to help us receive the next group.



We went in for a few minutes to see her home and to meet our third "grandson". They are all very handsome. Lorenz is in Kind. He's the one we picked up from school. He talked non-stop on the thirty minute ride to his house but I, somehow, slept through most of it. Lorenz is 5. Bedensky is 3 going on 4 and very shy and reserved. It is easy to see why as there is no possible way he could get a word in at all. Asher is 4 months old and such a cuddly little guy. We praise God for the way God heals through time. We rejoice with this sweet one the Lord has returned to us and the way He multiplies our joy with 3 new grandsons and a son-in-law. There's always room for a few more at the Dorce' house. We anticipate Easter vacation as they will be coming to visit.



Our journey continued. We decided to stop at Cabaret and visit a preacher friend we hadn't seen or heard from in awhile. It was funny how I was about to say we should stop and see him when I saw Wilckly was already slowing down to turn in at his place. The Lord seemed to have laid this on both our hearts. We found his wife and a neighbor lady. They soon gave us the shocking news that he had been in prison since Dec. 31st. It seems after some false accusations of raping a girl he was put in prison. Blood tests were made and they were negative proving his innocence, but EVERYTHING TAKES LONGER THAN IT TAKES even if you are innocent and especially if you are in prison. We went immediately to visit him at the prison. Fifteen years is a long time to be in Haiti but I have never seen the inside of a prison here until yesterday. Just when I thought I had seen it all. He was thrilled to see us. He told us we renewed his hope of getting out. We ask you all to please lift him up in prayer. His name is William Burke. He is a faithful soldier of the cross. He was raised in an orphanage. He has created his own family as he has a wife and EIGHT children who are very worried about him. Please pray for God to show us a way to help him so that he may soon be released from prison and back with his family and congregation. This was enough for us to be totally exhausted as the group probable reached St. Louis before we got back to Carries. It was late.....ANOTHER DAY IN HAITI!

Group visits from High Hill, Missouri

The group left from St. Louis, MO on Feb. 18th, loaded with bags of goodies, 14 to be exact! The items filling the bags ranged from toothbrushes and toothpaste, toys and dolls, clothes of all shapes and sizes, shoes, and special backpacks for 300 school children.