Prayer - Margaret's Mom - breast cancer

Margaret works for us 4 days a week doing all kinds of things around the house. She is a good Christian and has faithfully worked for us for from the time we arrived in Haiti. Margaret's mother has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Please pray for them.

Pray for flood victims

Please continue to pray for the flood victims of hurricanes Hanna and Ike. We keep hearing stories of the extent of the damage and it is extreme. I've read estimates of displacd people from 82,000, to 150,000 and more. Many of these are children.

Especially pray for the 18 refugees from an orphanage in Gonaives that our school is helping. There are 12 very young children & 6 workers. They spent 5 days the roof of their building which was flooded up to the second floor and were rescued by boat, but their food had run out after the second day. A Haitian pastor brought them down here and found a guesthouse where they could stay in the neighborhood of our school. The staff of our school has been providing food, clothing and even some fun playing on our soccer field.

update on Gustav

The rain finally stopped late this afternoon here in Port-au-Prince. We don't know what the damage is yet. Richard called a pastor in the south today but he also said he didn't know the specifics yet.

A boy from down the street came to our gate and said that he and his sister hadn't eaten in two days. Richard asked him a few questions and found that 9 people are living at this "house" with almost no roof. He came in and suggested we make a spaghetti dinner for them. He mostly made it himself while I was making our dinner. He and Ricky carried it over to the neighbors.

I never really thought about the fact that many Haitians have hardly any food at home, in cabinets or whatever...that they buy food almost daily...that there was probably no place open and their charcoal wouldn't light in the rain.

Please pray for them and people like them in the same situation.

Update on Hurricane Gustav

Thank you for your prayers.
Although we have off from school again today because of problems on the roads, we're fine where we are. It rained hard and steady from yesterday afternoon until about 7:00 this morning, now the rain is lighter.
The south of Haiti was hit harder than up here in Port-au-Prince. However, many people do not have decent housing, so they have the rain comes in and in some cases walls fall down. For example, Madame Levy who works for us, lives in a 4 room house with her husband and 5 children, but only one room is dry. We're going to lend them some money to fix their roof (we've already given them quite a bit of money this year for medical & funeral expenses). Please pray for them and others like them who are suffering because of the hurricane.

Tropical Storms & Food prices

Please pray for the people of Haiti. Tropical Storm Fay damaged some local crops, the food prices on basic food items like rice have continued to increase and today Tropical Storm Gustav is making landfall in the south of Haiti, too. This storm is predicted to be stronger than the last, so there could be worse flooding, wind damage, etc. The eye of the storm is expected to move across Haiti during the day today (Tuesday) with it coming closest to Port-au-Prince around 2 pm. Please pray for it to get blown south quickly to go into the Caribbean Sea.

Prayer requests

There are a few prayer requests heavy on our hearts...would you pray with us?
Please pray for my sister-in-law, Nancy Frankenfield's, family. Nancy's sister, Sue, was shot and killed yesterday by a woman with mental problems that she was trying to help. Sue's daughter is only about 19 years old. Please also pray for the spiritual lives of the whole family.

Please pray for our friends and supporters, the Nowalinski's. Their sweet, beautiful,20 year old daughter was killed in a car crash last week.

Please pray for my cousin & faithful prayer warrior, Betti for strong faith and wisdom facing an extremely difficult situation and for God to continue to comfort her.

Please pray for my friend, Sharon, who had back surgery for scoliosis, was opened up again because of an infection, and after that had an infection again.

Please pray for my friend, Susette, again. Although we had the good news that her cancer is gone, she has had complications because her esophogas was "burned" during her treatment and that has been very difficult.

Thank you, so much, for praying with us.

Verrettes Tournament plans for the summer

Richard and Daniel went out to Verrettes on Thursday to meet with the TREC graduates out there and planned the tournament for this summer. There was a great turnout for the meeting and dates were chosen for the last week of June. Please pray with us for all of the tournaments for summer 2008--that God will provide all that is needed and that they will be used for His glory.

Protests continue

Protests are continuing today (Thursday) in some parts of Port-au-Prince. We went out today, just in our neighborhood to try to find some diesel gas for the generator but there was none being sold. Some places were closed, some open. We were able to buy a few grocery essentials, but when we tried to buy eggs from a local vendor, he wanted three times the normal price. We figured we'd try somewhere else, but ended up not getting any.

Since we haven't had any city electricity in the last 24 hours (we usually get about 6-7 hours a night which charges our inverter batteries to make them last a few hours) we will most likely not have electricity after tonight. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

School was cancelled for today and tomorrow.

Protesting high price of food

I found this interesting paragraph in an article on www.time.com

"The cost of staple foods has risen some 50% in Haiti since last year, a crushing trend in a country where three-quarters of the population lives on less than $2 a day. Only Somalia and Afghanistan have a higher per capita daily deficit in calorie intake than Haiti does. (The figure in Haiti is 460 calories below the United Nations' daily minimum of 2,100.) The U.N.'s World Food Program says it has received only 13% of the $96 million it needs to help Haiti's 10 million people in 2008 — barely enough to support its operations there through the end of this month. Due to an estimated 55% rise in global food and fuel prices since last summer, the WFP last month made an extraordinary appeal to donors for an extra $500 million this year. At least eight other poor nations in Africa and Asia have recently experienced food-related unrest."
From "Food Crisis Renews Haiti's Agony" www.time.com
Wednesday, Apr. 09, 2008 By KATHIE KLARREICH

There are some tires burning today too, but not as many as yesterday. I just heard that people set fire to a radio station and they are threatening to start a fire at Chanmas, the main plaza downtown near the capitol buildings. We're fine where we are, but almost everything is closed, businesses, government offices, schools, etc.
Please pray
Thanks
Carol

Adult ESL Class

Some of the parents of students at QCS have requested an English class and I was asked to teach them. This could be a great opportunity for interaction/relationship building with the families of QCS and integration of Biblical principles and concepts. Please pray that God brings the people He wants to the class and for me that I will be used by Him in this new venture. There will not be a set curriculum, I am designing the course. I have done this before, but I hope to improve on what I have done in the past.

Fasting & praying for our friend, Susette Manaserro

Our friend, Susette Manaserro, another missionary here in Port-au-Prince, was diagnosed with cancer on Christmas Eve. Apparently she is in 2nd stage Hodgkins Lymphoma. She is married and has young children. One of her daughters is Joy's closest friend here. She is in the States now along with her husband and one of the children to get treatment. Two of their daughters are still here attending school at QCS.

My friend Nehemie suggested that we fast and pray for Susette. This afternoon seemed like the perfect time to start because Richard and Grace are away in Cap Haitien and...well, it just seems right.

Grace shared something with us while she was here about faith. (She said she heard this somewhere...) She said something like... sometimes God moves the "mountain" when we pray in faith and sometimes His plan is for us to go up to the top. In that case we have a tough road ahead, but God has something better in mind--a mountain top experience. Sorry I don't know who to give the credit to :/

So, I'm praying for God to move the mountain and to take care of this whole family. They are some of the sweetest, most generous, most joyful, faithful and full-of-faith people you could ever meet.

I've been thinking about how last August I started praying for 3 people who were battling cancer while I was walking on the treadmill. Somehow I found that I really focused on praying for them longer and I felt I was not wasting my time. (The 3 people were: my cousin, Kathleen, Richard's cousin's wife, Jessica, and Kimberly, who started supporting us when she was only about 13). Since that time, Kimberly, who had already been getting treatment for months, has recovered, and has raised about $30,000 to help cancer patients; Kathleen went home to be with the Lord on December 6th and Jessica is still undergoing treatment. Although at times I struggle with unsettling thoughts about how Jessica is so young, the mother of two young girls, so intelligent, beautiful and gracious. How Kimberly was so young, so intelligent, about to finish college when cancer interupted her life. How Kathleen was only a few years older than me and we were only at the "middle" of our lives. How Susette was doing so much to help street kids here in Haiti. On Christmas of '06 about a dozen girls who were living in the streets had a cozy home where they could celebrate Jesus' birth. But I trust that God's plan is better than my plan. I don't know all He knows.