The Story of Venita

You may remember the story of Venita. She was one of the people we helped after the earthquake by letting her stay at our house with her 3 month old baby, Sarah. She thought that her whole family had been killed when the house where they were living collapsed during the earthquake. But God had other plans. She found her 3 year old son at her Father’s house a month after the earthquake, and then 3 months later she found out that her husband and 6 year old daughter had fled to the Dominican Republic, but had since come back to Haiti.

Venita left our house a few months after the earthquake and lived in a shack on a property owned by her family. During that time Venita’s husband, Berjano had not really been living with them. He said that he had to stay downtown with a friend a lot of the time to be available early in the morning for day work. So Venita’s job as a kindergarten teacher was the family’s only means of support for much of the past year.

In August we found out that the whole family was finally in a position to live together, since the husband, Berjano, had just found a more permanent job.
Unfortunately the next month Venita called us up and said that Berjano had asked her for a divorce and wanted to take her oldest girl with him. It turned out that Berjano had been having an affair and had a child with his lover.

Carol and I prayed about the situation and decided to help her try and build a house out of block so that she could have some security and Bejano could not come and take her daughter. The problem was that our earthquake relief funds were almost gone, and it was going to cost quite a bit to build her a house. So we started to pray and we decided to ask one supporter in particular if she would consider giving a gift toward the house. The supporter sent back an email saying that she had already sent a large gift to our account two days before, and that we could use it however God directed us! So you see that even before we prayed, God had answered our prayer for Venita and her family.

So for the past three weeks, we have had Venita and her three children: Sarah 2, Gaeton, 3 and Bergline 7 staying with us at our house while Venita’s house has been built.

Please pray for Venita as she enters into this new stage in her life as a single Mom with 3 young children. She works full time as a Kindergarten teacher, and will also be taking courses to get an official degree in teaching.

Post Earthquake Development note

The President of Haiti met with the president of the Dominican Republic, Fernandez who "reiterated his commitment to donate the university being built by the Dominican government in Haiti next January 12, and announced a donation of two buses, so the students who live far from the new facility can attend, and told Martelly that he secured with U. S. friends a donation of 15,000 books for the college."

Good turnout for discipleship group

After years of not having a formal separate discipleship group, Richard started one this September. He and I have been planning and praying all summer. At first, he started a Friday morning meeting and had a few guys come out. He changed it to Sunday afternoon (3-5pm) and today there are 11 here.

It's not that it's so hard to have people show up for Christian activities, but we are very happy because we've been seeing the need to have a time set apart to meet with guys that God seems to be putting in our lives to search the Bible and apply it everyday life. Please pray with us that God will bless this time, bring the men that he decides need to be here and give Richard wisdom as he leads.

Update on Carline

Richard and Francoise took Carline to a cholera clinic first (as the doctor asked) and she was told she didn't have Cholera. Then they went to the clinic of the doctor Richard had called, where she was put on IV overnight to rehydrate her. She felt a lot better this morning, in fact she felt that she should just get up and go. But, of course, the cause of the illness is still not known. Her husband (boyfriend?) came to the clinic but he says they have no money.

Pray for Carline

Our friend Francoise has been caring for her sister in law (her brother's wife), Carline, who has been sick since Sunday. We just found out about this and the young lady has not been able to keep down anything for days.

Please pray. Richard called a doctor for advice and he said it would be best to bring her to a Cholera clinic to rule that out first. So they are doing that now. (Saturday afternoon.)

Appreciate your prayers for her...we'll keep you posted.
thanks

Deaf in Haiti

I've been teaching a beginner sign language course (ASL) ast school and have spent some time researching what's been going on with the deaf people in Haiti since the earthquake.
Check out the link below to watch videos of help they have received. (Click on "links to this post" below.

Carol