JAN. 12, 2012
EARTH QUAKE REMEMBRANCE DAY

Today as last year was a national day of prayer and remembrance for the hundreds of thousands who lost their lives in the devastating earth quake that shook Haiti at about 4:55 pm on Jan.12, 2010. Yet today is as it should be a day of not only remembering and memorializing but reflection. I doubt if anyone who was here in Haiti on that fateful afternoon was left untouched by those dreadful seconds of destruction and death. Everyone can remember where they were and what they were doing when the earth began to shake and buildings crumbled to the ground. Tens of thousands if not more lost limbs or were paralyzed for life, Hundreds of thousands lost their homes, belongings and jobs and for the past two years have been living in tents, make shift shacks or temporary shelters on any piece of vacant land available. One of the questions I'm asked the most is, " Is anything getting better?"
I always say yes with little hesitation because from my view of having lived and worked here for 10 years before the earth quake things are definitely looking much better and moving much faster than I have ever seen in my 12 years in Haiti. Hope for a new Haiti is in the air, negative events can bring positive changes. Tragedy can and often does sweep in new ideas, which brings in a new perspective on how things should be done. During the "Cold War " years much was made of the "Domino Effect" in that if one country fell to Communism all the surrounding countries could do likewise. Major disasters are similar to wars in that change is inevitable and whether it be negative or positive change one must adapt quickly to survive. Haitians are quick to adapt and that is why they have survived for over 200 years under the must difficult of conditions. Haitians can cling to the littlest of hope, I see it everyday in those who come to talk with me and ask for help. The thought that you will listen to them and the mere mention that you will think about their request for assistance is reflective of this culture where hope is measured in the tiniest of increments.
The earth quake has changed that and now Haiti has a chance to think and implement big changes that will shape a new and brighter future.
I'm glad Haiti has decided to set Jan. 12th aside as a national holiday and a day of prayer and remembrance. Tragedies are painful, the loss of loved ones and the maiming of young and old may  affect your life forever even as a better country takes shape and higher quality of life evolve because of the disaster. Let Haiti, it's people and those who are here to help never minimalism the loss of life nor the pain inflected because the disaster was the stimulus to finally get things moving. SJM                               
 
DEC. 1

Wow the first day of December already, our teams departed on Thanksgiving Day but not without an American tradition of turkey, potatoes, gravy, dressing, vegetables, cranberries and great desserts. We celebrated on Wed. the 23rd and invited in several of our good missionary friends to join in with a day of thanks. Edgard and Seth Huber Played guitar and keyboard and several of us gathered around  to sing worship songs and even one Christmas hymn. The 22 pound turkey was exceedingly good even though it cost $78.00 US I guess they have us Americans over a barrel so to say if we want to celebrate one of our favorite holidays. Next year we are having one or two flown in with our Nov. teams, we may even request some cans of pumpkins and some pecans. Our next team arrives on Dec. 28th and they will be pouring a new basketball court for the Borel school yard. We also have two teams coming next year to make other improvements at the Borel school which is our oldest , they will be repairing roofs and painting. With 22 schools we can use a lot of other teams to come and help make repairs and maintence, if interested as always contact Kara at the Findlay, Ohio missions office. Even without teams we have Haitian workers laboring to make progress on some major improvements at our our two compounds. 2012 workteams will be working on many of these projects but it is imperative we get them done, so work goes on during this period without teams. I released some funds this week to get started on the big renovation project that will be going on most of next year at the Pierre Payen medical facilities. I have been contacting potential team leaders to recruit teams for this #1 project of 2012, this is a must do project that is pass due on this 34 year old facility. Come and be apart of this project and I guarantee your going to be blessed, I ocassionally run into those who built the original clinic and it is a memorable part of their life experience. There is a lot too that old saying "come to be a blessing a get a blessing" . SJM           
Nov. 26

It has been a couple of hectic weeks since I last did an update. On Nov. 5 we had 2 teams arrive both medical .One was a group of surgeons led by Dr. Joe Miller who recruits surgical teams usually from west of the Mississsippi. Joe recruited teams for 2 weeks and several of his team stayed on with him as the second group rotated in on the following Friday. We also had a medical team of 14 people out of the midwest from the Columbia City First Church of God. They came to do a mobile medical ministry in remote areas of Haiti and this trip traveled off shore to Haiti's largest island , LaGonave. During their 4 days of clinics they saw over 850 patients, doing combined medical and eye care, including giving out reading glasses. We also had a team arrive on Nov. 12th and they are the first team to answer the call to come and help with the renovation at our health care facility in Pierre Payen .Our last group for this month came on Nov. 17th and they came to work on one of the mission houses here at Borel that we are preparing for Ken and Betty McIntyre when they return in Jan. This group also included the coordinator for the Homes 4 Haiti ministry that is building Habitat for Humanity style homes for the neediest of Haitian families. We have a small group arriving in early Dec. then another group right after Christmas after which we start hosting teams every week sometimes at both guesthouse locations.

We still have some openings during the prime months that teams like to come to Haiti and we are in need of construction every week at Pierre Payen to renovate the clinic next year. Please inquire with Kara at the Findlay , Ohio missions offices for information and scheduling opportunities.

On Nov. 11th Project Help signed a contract with OSAPO to be managing partners at our Pierre Payen Health care facilities. This morning we had an informative meeting with the community leaders to discuss our future plans for better health care and our vision of the future. We invited the community to be a part of what we will be doing and support us in our work and promise of quality health care service, including specialized surgical procedures at affordable rates. It was an exciting day and ushered in a new era for our 34 years of medical outreach in Haiti.         
Nov. 2

I arrived back in Haiti on Oct. 21st from what I like to think of as some U.S V&R
 ( some time in the states for vacation and rejuvenation)  to a full plate of new projects, work teams and problems. We did have 2 weeks of dental teams and we provided guesthouse services for the Grace Covenant and Destiny organizations from Missouri will I was away.

 Our medical services ministry outreach has been been building a core group of U.S. surgeons, doctors, nurses, EMt's, pharmacists, anthesiologists, ultrsound techs, dentists, hygienists and eye doctors who lead or serve on teams each year. We have 4 medical teams scheduled between 10/22-11/19, we also have 3 work teams coming to work on various projects during Nov. Ben Tobias the associate director of Cross Cultural Ministries is leading a team to start the renovation project at the Pierre Payen Hospital Clinic, and Dennis McKee the president of Homes 4 Haiti will be arriving the week before Thanksgiving to check on the first home being built here in Borel. His wife Lisa is here for 3 weeks getting the project started. A  team from the Mt. Laurel COG in Pa. is here doing some ministry work with elderly widows and will also be helping get the mission house painted for the McIntyre's. Ken and Betty our newest missionaries will be serving mainly in Hospitality Services.  Betty has taken over as the School Sponsorship Coordinator and also is working with the Sister Church Program. Ken is assisting me  with the day to day management of the Project Water Haiti outreach.

These were jobs that were previously being done by Peter and Sara Craig who returned home to Washington state after nearly 2 years of working in Haiti. The Craig's were a real asset to the mission efforts going on here at PH-H and exemplified the best of what true and pure missionary work should represent. In their short time here they accomplished more significant mission work  as a  married mission couple than some organizations do with four times the length of time. But mission work is more than hard physical work, construction projects and assorted ministry outreaches. It is about building good relationships that exemplify the love of Christ and they set a high standard for the rest of us to use as an example. Thanks Peter and Sara we miss you and love you.

Some other things that are going on that I will write about later on are the Homes 4 Haiti ministry which builds houses on the Habitat for Humanity style system. The first one is going up a short distance from our Borel compound. The Project Water Haiti ministry is moving along as new interest builds in the U.S. to get behind this new outreach that will provide many new opportunities for water resource management. While I was in the U.S. I was notified that we had received  full funding for our two solar well projects. One of these well pumps will provide water to the community and the Borel school, the other well and solar pump will provide a new water system to the mission yard. Another donation was recently received to start the Tilapia fish tank project. With these funds we should be able to start up 8 indoor tanks initially and could go to as many as 24 later on. These tanks will be incorporated into what is know as an Aquaculture system, so the nutrient rich water in the tanks will be used in outdoor growing beds.

SEPTEMBER 19
It is hard to believe that I have been in the states for over a month now and that in another 4 weeks I will be back in Haiti. Since becoming the director of PH-H in late 2009 I have fell into a pretty consistent schedule of my time in Haiti and back in the U.S.. So for the last two years I have taken a two month period of mid August to mid Oct. to be back home. I hesitate to call it a vacation but it is a change in climate, scenery and social life with friends and family. We have had two short mini vacations in Kansas and Michigan with family.

Though I'm back home for a spell I'm in contact nearly everyday with someone or another of our missionaries and staff in Haiti or our U.S. offices in Findlay, Ohio. I also receive E-mails and phone calls each week from interested churches and individuals across the U.S. who are eager with excitement and questions about getting involved in one way or another with the Project Help ministries in Haiti. As the last quarter of 2011 approaches some neat and exciting things are taking place with our mission and it's ministries.

One of the first things you will notice if you have been a previous visitor to PH-H is we have increased the number of missionaries and hopefully by Jan. all of them will be in Haiti. Through out our 44 year history we have had numerous missionaries stationed at our 3 different locations in Pierre Payen , Borel and St. Marc. But during the last decade our missionary presence would often end up being just the Binkley's and for the last 2 years Shirley and myself. Running a mission organization of our size and varied locations with only one mission couple was a top priority of mine to see changed. Finding top quality people with the talents and expertise for the positions we wanted to fill has not been nearly has hard as it once was. Though for now we have our immediate positions filled I still have requests and inquiries from individuals who I know would be good missions candidates. So what has changed ? I have some thoughts about that and will be sharing them on the PH-H blog so watch for the next posting.

Ken and Betty McIntyre are our first new missionaries to reach the field and they arrived on Sept. 7th. They fulfilled their cultural studies in Colorado this summer and are serving their 3 month internship till Dec. 7th at which time they will go home for Christmas and return in early Jan. They are the Project Help mission teams Hospitality Coordinators and will be working with the Snyder's to host and oversee teams at the Borel Campus, Ken and Betty will also help out with teams at Pierre Payen.

 Andy & Theresa Snyder along with their 3 children have been in and out of Haiti since early 2010. They did their internship in the summer of 2010 then returned in early Jan of this year to help out 2.5 months. They left in March to raise their support and to attend cultural training in Colorado this summer. Andy is fulfilling a commitment to a Mich. nuclear powerplant the next 2 months and when that is completed they will be arriving fultime in Haiti on Nov. 15th. They will be at the Borel Campus where Andy is the Facilities Manager and Theresa is the Guesthouse Manager.

If you have been to Borel this summer you have probably met Peter and Sara Craig and their 2 boys. They are the new managers of a ministry called Project Water-Haiti which will be building bio-sand filters that purify unsafe drinking water. These filters will be manufactured at the Borel compound where Peter is building a  30x50 structure. Sara is the new coordinator for the PH-H school sponsorship program. Peter who has an engineering degree will act as special assignment engineer on some of our projects.

Edgard Miliace who is Haitian is the Pierre Payen Guesthouse Manager and coordinates the surgical teams that come from the U.S. That guesthouse also sees our Borel teams usually spending their last day and night staying there before departing for the U.S.

Donna Binkley who is our Health Services Coodinator also lives at Pierre Payen and travels back and forth from the U.S. numerous times throughout the year.

Our newest missionary couple are Pastor William and Isemene Prime who were born in Haiti and served in our COG Haitian churches in the 1990's before moving to Florida. They will be returning to Haiti in 2011 and William will serve as Pastoral Advisor to the Haitian Conference and Pastors. He also will be starting up our new Bible Training institute and langauge shool in St. Marc.

We also have some new ministry outreaches that are being staffed by STM's. These volunteer leaders who recruit and lead teams from the U.S. for a set period of months or weeks each year work alongside Haitians to see these ministries attain success.           
                

You may be wondering why I  haven't updated lately since I promised several updates each week, it wasn't for lack of trying. I did an update on August 6th but somehow it got tagged as an e-mail update instead of text update so it wouldn't update the way my system is set up. I talked with my IT person who said if i could get it to him via an e-mail attachment that he would upload it, anyway I tried but that didn't work either. So I'm attempting to bypass that update and send a new one out.

Back on Aug. 1st we had 2 members from the Project Water- Haiti board arrive to meet with myself and my boss who is the diector of Cross Cultural Ministries, the CGGC international missions agency.  Our intention was to formalize an agreement between our organizations as well as to get to know each other better. Progress is being made with setting up a manufacturing facility to make water filters and hopefully by the end of the year we will see these bio-sand filters start getting distributed. Peter and Sara Craig are the managers of the Project Water Haiti ministry here in Haiti, they live here at the Project Help-Haiti compound in Borel. Sara is the Haiti Coodinator of the new  Student  Sponsorship Program, a new PH-H pilot ministry effort to assist students whose parents have no resources to put their children in school. If this program works it will expand it's availability to all PH-H schools.

On August 3rd a work team from Calif. led by CCM director Don Dennison arrived . This group represented several COG churches from the Calif. Eldership. The project for their team was to roof, including the framing of a hip roof the future married guests apartment. When finished later this year this apartment will be one of several places we can house married visitors in privacy and comfort. It will also at times serve as a residence for short term volunteers who come for 1-6 months.

Also on August 3rd an advance group of 5 members of a medical team arrived to prepare for their surgical team which came in on the 6th of Aug. this group from Nebraska and Canada was led by Doctor Joe Miller who helps recruit teams from the Western U.S. and Judy Douglas who is a nuring instructor from B.C. Canada who works in Haiti when not teaching in Canada. Judy is assisting the OSAPO Medical group at Rouseau of which I will talk about in future updates. The medical team left on Sat. the 13th after performing nearly 60 surgeries, c-sections and possibly a hundred ultrasounds as always numerous emergencies and accident victims also showed up.
Dr. Joe will be leading another group in Nov. and possibly stay an extra week and lead a second group, many surgeries are already scheduled in advance.
        

We have had very hot weather and for those of us who are normally here every August it seemed hotter than usual. I will be heading home this week and meet up with my wife in Kansas City who will fly in with our two youngest grandkids who live in Kansas and visiting cousins back in Indiana where we have a home and are other 3 children live . We will spend 6 days in KC before Shirley and I head home. This is  my longest break out of Haiti each year, 8-9 weeks, and normally our time to take some vacation trips and see family and friends as well as some time alone, something you never get in Haiti.

I'm looking forward to the weekend before and the Labor Day weekend  to relax at our lake home and do some cook outs, boating and be with friends. Then we are going to Lake Michigan where we have a vacation house rented  to do our annual vacation with my mom who will be 92 this year and my sisters and their husbands. We haven't planned much beyond that but if it stays hot we will certainly look for some places it is cool to visit , if I wanted hot I could stay here. In God's love, SJM     

July 31, 2011

Wow here it is the last day of the 7th month of 2011, it is hard to believe how the days and months are flying by so quickly. It seems for sometime now I that I don't use a calendar or even hardly ever wear my watch except when I'm traveling and need to get to my departure gates before my plane leaves. Anymore I just seem to operate on an internal time schedule whether I need to arise at 3:30 am to catch a flight or 5:30 to start my work day it automatically happens. My body never seems to hesitate to tell me when to go to bed though, it varies from day to day as to how tired I'am. A 31 year old missionary friend (Africa) has a favotite quote" I rather go to bed tired every night than bored" that hopefully should be the case for all of us no matter what our life's purpose.

The one positive thing about the days flying by is that in 5 weeks Ken & Betty McIntyre will arrive to serve their  3 month internship. They recently completed their 3 week missions training in Colorado and are as eager to get here as I'am to have them here. The Snyder's who were recently here for a one week visit will be arriving on or close to Nov. 15th. These 2 couples will be overseeing the missions team that stay at the Borel Campus and occasionaly help Edgard our other guesthouse manager at Pierre Payen with large groups there. It's a team effort between them to see our groups have a great mission experience at PH-H one that can be a positive impact to serving God and discovering their part in reaching others.

When the Snyder's arrive in Nov. it will be over 2 years now  that I have been handling the job of hosting  the visiting missions teams and overseeing the management of the Borel Campus on top of my other work load. Honestly I'm looking forward to having them and the McIntyre's take this job off my workload. Don't get me wrong I enjoy doing it but in any situation where you have too much to take care of something has to give. I've tried to make sure it isn't at the expense of our visiting mission groups nor those I'm here to serve through my  duties as the PH-H director. During the 2 years I've been here at PH-H I haven't really thought much about this "you just do what you have to do". A  friend wrote me the other day " frankly I don't know how you keep track of all you have going on" . Honestly I don't either , and from my perspective I'm not on schedule to where I think I should be with certain things but hopefully I'm right where God wants me to be! Maybe that is why I don't look at calendar's nor a watch like I use to.

Tommorow two board members from Project Water- Haiti arrive for a weeks visit. They will be looking at the new facilities and project proposal here at the Borel Campus. On Wed. Don Dennison CCM/ CGGC missions director will be arriving with a group from Calif. they will be working at Borel. Donna Binkley PH-H Medical Services coordinator will also be flying in with the Calif. group for a 2 week stay. Dr. Joe Miller will be arriving with an advance team of four people to get ready for his surgical team of 21 team members that will arrive on Sat. It promises to be thirteen busy days what with hosting 3 different groups with three different agenda's at  two sperate locations (30 miles apart.  Now who was that saying " I rather go to bed tired than bored?"
                                

July 27, 2011

This is my first attempt at doing my own automatic update upload, so I'm a little intimidated, let's hope it works. We had a really heavy rain Sunday afternoon that lasted through out most of the evening so I abandoned my plans of going anywhere to visit  or check on PH-H projects. On Monday I stayed here at Borel all day and worked in the office  since I knew I had to be away on Tuesday to take the Snyder's to the airport. We left here at about 8:30 on Tuesday morning and made it to the airport in a quick 2 hours a testimony to the new highway and little traffic out that morning. I checked on the new church we are building in Port au Prince after I left the airport.  I needed to take measurements for the truss rafters we will weld up at our Borel shop. Once these are welded we will have the shop crew transport them in and erect them. Hopefully that can get accomplished in the next 4-6 weeks and then we will have a work team come to screw on the metal roofing and paint the exterior and interior walls.

I visited the new construction materials store MCS, in hopes of finding some peg board but no luck on that but did buy some paint while  I was there. Then we headed to downtown Paup to get some truck parts and headed back up to Borel arriving about 6:30. This afternoon I will go down to Pierre Payen to check on arrangements for our surgical team that comes next week. We have some guests arriving this evening to  visit with some long time Haitian friends in this area. Sharon Knous from Celina, Oh. who is the daughter of our friend Pastor Dick VanHorn will spend the night. Her daughter Tabitha is traveling with her and it will be her first trip. They are working with Go Out Ministry in Jacqmal which is run by Fenel Bruna who grew up in Pierre Payen and helped out withPH-H as a young boy.  It is great to see these young men and women grow up to stay and work in their own country. SJM            

July 23, 2011

Well I returned to Haiti yesterday and had good on time flights on all three legs of the journey from Indiana. As I expected the weather was cooler here than back home where we had 2 straight days of 100 degree heat. Even the lack of AC wasn't too bad and I had a good nights rest which was needed since I had gotten up at 3:30 am. The downside to my traveling yesterday was that my daughter and 2 year old granddaughter arrived from Kansas about 2:00 am this morning to spent several days in Indiana. I have only seen them possibly 2 days this year but will be stopping in Kansas City on my return trip home to spend several days with them.

Andy and Theresa Snyder are back in Haiti for a week along with Terry Bailey from the Mt. Laurel COG, Pa. they got into Haiti on Tuesday. The Snyder's will be returning this Fall to be managers of the Borel campus where part of their responsibilities will be taking care of our visiting teams. We have been struggling with some water and electricity issues here at the Borel facility for most of this year but hope to have things corrected by this Fall. We have received funding from the Midwest Conference to drill a second well and and erect another elevated water storage tank. We will install a solar powered pump and if we have enough funds the pump will be both ac or dc current . If the cost is too high we will purchase just a solar powered pump and a separate electric pump and see if we can get two pipes down the well casing. That way we can go solar during the day but use the generator other times.

The electric issue is we purchased solar panels and started the preliminary installation but are to the point now we need an experienced solar technician to install the panels and finish the hook up. I have two leads on installers both who are missionaries one guy lives in Port au Prince and did an installation for a friend of mine. The other guy lives back in the states but has been doing installations in Central America. So I'm pretty sure we will get them installed yet this year.Once they are installed it should resolve the lack of electricity ( fully charged battery inverters) we sometimes experience in the early morning hours.

Peter Craig and some of his work crew fenced off the area for the Project Water-Haiti facilities, the new water project that is going in here at Borel. It is exciting to see that area get cleaned up and take on a new use. The need for clean safe water has always been a high priority but even more so since the cholera outbreak. It is hoped this new ministry will be up and running later this year. Peter has been the project engineer for the new Eco San composting toilet at the Pierre Payen Clinic and he tells me it is almost finished, I didn't have time to look at it last evening but will go down maybe on Monday to check it out. It's been a good first day back!! SJM

July 20, 2011

Greetings, My time back home in Indiana has gone quickly and on Friday I will arrive back in Haiti. The Snyder's along with Terry Bailey arrived in Haiti on Tuesday 7/19 for a week of preparing for their return later this year to manage the Borel campus. Edgard Milaice who is the manager at our Pierre Payen medical campus will leave for the U.S. today to bring a young girl to Dallas Texas for follow up heart surgery. During his 9 day visit he will reunite with former Canaan classmate Erve Joseph who is in his last year at College of the Ozarks. Edgard hopes to make a short visit up to Indiana to spend a few days with the Freeman family who he used to live with. Edgard only had a 2 week break in his schedule to travel to the states as he had a group from St. Louis leave Haiti on 7/19 and the arrival of a large surgical team on 8/3. We will also have a group from California arriving on August 3rd led by Cross Cultural Ministries director Don Dennison. Project Help-Haiti is one of the world wide missions Don oversees for the Church of God General Conference and he is the person I report to at the CGGC offices in Findlay. While home I met with Don and Ben Tobias to discuss the 2012 budget for PH-H as well as the on going and future projects in Haiti. Ben recently became the assistant director of CCM and is a great addition to our missions leadership and takes some of the increasing burdens and travel off Don's shoulders as our international missions continue to grow each year. I have been checking the current temperatures here in Indiana, 97 degrees yesterday compared to the Haiti temps which were 94 degrees in St. Marc yesterday, not really discernible except for the fact we don't have air conditioning in Haiti. We have had 2 groups this week schedule teams for Nov. which is encouraging but we would like to have at least 10 more teams come to fill out our Fall 2011 schedule. SJM

July 5, 2011 3:19:21 PM EDT

Greeting to everyone, Today's update comes from lakeside in N.E. Indiana. I have been home 10 days now and will be returning to Haiti in less 3 weeks. Living in two culturally different countries can be challenging though for me very rewarding. Typically I'm in Haiti about 8 months out of the year and the remainder at home or traveling in the U.S. It is challenging because I feel at home in each country so when I'm in Haiti I find myself thinking of family and friends back home and making plans for what my time away from Haiti will include. Yet when in the U.S. I'm still everyday thinking, planning and dealing with my work in Haiti and when I say everyday I'm not exaggerating. I have phone calls and e-mails daily from states across the U.S., Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Canada relating to Project Help-Haiti.This is all possible because of the ever changing technology we have at our fingertips.

One of the biggest changes in missions during my years in Haiti is the ability and the options for instant communications around the world. Choices of cell phones, text messages, emails, Twitter, Facebook, Skype, blogs, Flickr, uTube, electronic newsletters, internet searches and websites have brought positive changes to missions who understand how to incorporate the new technology into their organizations. One of the things I have worked at since coming back to PH-H is to harness the potential of all this new media technology, that is not always easy for a technically challenged person like myself. I may be proof that you can "teach an old dog new tricks"; or at least I'm willing to listen, gather the info, study the facts and find those with the expertise to do the technical work.

Just before leaving for Haiti in May I started the process of building a new website for PH-H. My idea was to build a new super site that would not only answer all the pertinent questions people have about our organization but a central location to access all the newest media technology and communications mediums we use. I'm excited that possibly by next week this new website will be ready to unveil. Between 150-200 people receive this update, we mail out 1800 newsletters each printing, we have hundreds of electronic news subscribers, over a thousand Facebook friends and our blogs are followed by many. People have an interest in missions, as a mission organization we don't fulfill our duties to the fullest if we don't engage, educate and empower these seekers to be a part of God's Great Commission. The options we have now make it available to reach out clear around the world in a matter of minutes. Once our new site is launched every form of media communications we use will be available or accessible from our home web page. This update that now only a few hundred receive will be available to read by anyone looking at our new website. Our mission blogs, newest and archived videos, our Facebook posts; pictures, Twitter page, Flickr pics from our teams, newsletters, contact info and ways to get involved will all be in one easy place.

I continually get requests for more and more communications hopefully this will give our followers more ways to keep up with what we are doing.This update has proven to be popular with those who receive it and in the future I hope to do a shorter almost daily version that will automatically be posted to the home page of the PH-H website for thousands to read. The update will be used to inform readers of what actually goes on daily with our organization. The blog will be used more for a platform of personal thoughts of our various missionaries but also including events, observations, highs and lows and weekly overviews of mission happenings. Please continue to follow Facebook for short daily snippets of insights into PH-H.

Anyway stay tuned in and on board because you guys and the Facebook followers are going to be the first to know when the website is up and ready. You can actually play an important part in helping me get the site info out by contacting all your e-mail and Facebook friends when we do the launching. In God's love, SJM

June 18, 2011 2:06:53 PM EDT

Greetings from Borel Haiti. It has been a good week here as some teams have left and new one arrived things have been pretty smooth. The Sugar Grove COG that arrived on Thursday continued with the painting project at the hospital and will be doing VBS ministries today. We have heard from several teams inquiring about coming to work on the clinic improvement project scheduled for this Fall. We will need between 16-20 teams scheduled for the months of Oct. through Dec.. We may double up on some teams at Pierre Payen as we split them into skill group teams. We need teams for ** construction, ( both carpentry and masonry) ** electrical ,** plumbing, tiling and painting. This is a very important project that needs to move forward on a strict schedule so as not to disrupt patient care or cause us to curtail employment with our staff people.

We also need to move ahead with teams to work at Borel and bring previously started projects to completion. This Fall we will also be starting up two new projects in Agriculture and the Homes 4 Haiti Project. Anyone interested or with agriculture, horticulture, plant science or a green thumb we can use your skills. Likewise if you have knowledge or interest in aquaculture especially tilapia fish we need your help. The Homes 4 Haiti project leaders are here this week making final plans to start their first home construction later this year. Excitement is high among those who have heard of this new project and Fund raising is encouraging as the project gets promoted. This next week three H4H representatives will be at the Midwest COG Conference at Decatur ,Ill. so pick up a brochure or attend a breakout session so you can get your church involved. A modular full size replica of the home will be touring several Midwest churches, 4H fairs and festivals so look for it or request it to visit your area. We chose to go with Homes 4 Haiti over Houses because we are incorporating almost all of our ministries in this project. Each home will have a bio-sand filter from Project Water Haiti, a bunk bed made at our metal shop, a Bible, new home owners will be evangelized and invited to our churches, get hygiene, prenatal, infant nutrition, family counseling classes , encouraged to garden and get involved in community development. This project allows our teams many ministry options to make a difference in the lives of Haitians. This project is based on the Habit for Humanity model and each person must give proof of ownership of land, give sweat equity and agree to pay a small monthly fee for so many years to qualify. We don't want to create dependence but build independence, pride and self hope.

One last thing if you are traveling to Haiti this summer, American Air and American Eagle announced last week a ban on boxes. This includes all 6 sided wood, cardboard, plastic or metal shipping containers used as luggage. This will include the plastic totes our teams bring with supplies. It appears the embargo will last through August 23rd. Please check : http://aa.com/i18n/utility/boxBagEmbargo.jsp Hoping you have a great weekend.

In God's love, SJM

June 14, 2011

Greetings , Things are going pretty well here at PH-H if you discount the extremely hot weather and humidity that just arrived several days ago. We have teams at both guesthouses right now as we brought the ACT's team led by Mark & Susan Hosler up to Borel for several days to interact with several schools in the Valley. Sunday they attended the Pierre Payen Church then went up to the Freyceneau Church in the afternoon and attended the evening service with them. They painted at the Pierre Payen Hospital on Saturday and Monday morning. Tomorrow they will go back to Pierre Payen to go to the beach in the afternoon and eat at Club Indigo in the evening before flying back to the states on Thursday.

I will be leaving for Port in several hours to pick up Shirley , so yesterday was a clean the house type of day. With Loveline, myself and one other girl cleaning , dusting and mopping. I even laundered the sheets and put fresh ones on our bed, that should impress her!! She arrives at 4:00 pm so it will be dark by the time we get here but we mowed the lawn yesterday, weeded the garden, trimmed around tress, planted some tomatoes, and several flowering shrubs. With the rains and heat things are greening up and really growing.

Peter Craig project engineer on our new Eco -San composting toilet is commuting back and forth everyday to Pierre Payen to supervise the project and work crew. I will try to get some pictures to post next week. We have several guys cleaning out the shop yard and removing junk vehicles and scrap metal left from vehicle repairs and welding projects. This is to ready the yard for the new Project Water-Haiti bio-sand filter manufacturing facility headed by Peter and Sara Craig. The old poultry barn is being cleaned out in hopes of getting the funds we need to start the tilapia fish tank project.

We have teams leaving on Thursday and teams arriving. The ACT's team of 8 people will leave in the afternoon and April a young college student from Alabama leaves after two weeks of doing VBS at Pierre Payen. Dennis Mckee the president of Home 4 Haiti and Ted Wilson co-founder is arriving Thursday afternoon to visit with several other organizations doing housing projects to help place refugees in permanent housing. They will be staying at Borel and Pierre Payen. We also have a first visit from the Sugar Grove COG in Churubusco, Ind. they are being led by mission director Heidi Moreno and her husband. SJM

Sun, 12 Jun 2011

Greetings once again, sorry for the lapse in updates but that gives me more to write about this time. I left Haiti on April 10th for a 5 week break to get caught up with some things at home but returned on May 27th, Shirley joins me on Tuesday. It has been a busy year so far, in the period Jan through end of April we have had over 150 visitors come and work with us. The Snyder's family was here from Jan. through Mar. 21st to help with the teams and get their house ready to move into when they return in Nov. They have raised their support for next year and just completed 5 weeks of cross cultural training classes.

Ken and Betty McIntyre will be arriving here as special assignment missionaries in Sept. and serve a 3 month internship. Their first assignment is hosting the dental teams in Sept.. Then they will start getting their house ready to suit their needs before the groups arrive this Fall. They will be attending the same Cross Cultural training classes that Andy and Theresa were enrolled at in Colorado. Donna Binkley will continue to fly in and out of Haiti as we try to make improvements at our Pierre Payen facilities and offer some new types of patient health care. Pastor William Prime our new Pastoral Adviser and director of our Bible training Institute should arrive later this year.

Construction on the new Bon Repon church is in the last phase, all the masonry work is done and all that is left is welding the steel trusses and installing the roof. we may be able to do that in August. A team from the Highview COG was here last week and repaired the earthquake damage at the Borne church, they did a fantastic job. Mark and Susan Hosler have an ACTS team here till the 16th, they are painting at the hospital.

We also have a new missionary family living at Borel Peter and Sara Craig and their two young boys Noah and Abram. The Craig's are running a new ministry outreach called Project Water Haiti, they will be manufacturing bio-sand water filters out of some space at the back of the Borel compound. Peter is a civil engineer and I have asked him to oversee the construction of the new Eco-San composting toilet at the Pierre Payen Clinic.

This is being funded through a grant we recently received. We also got a grant to purchase a new sterilizing unit which was shipped directly from the factory in Sweden to Haiti. We got it out of Customs last week and have it in the hospital ready to hook up.

We are in need of lots of teams for this Fall at both Borel and Pierre Payen. We will try to finish up several projects at Borel such as the solar panel project and a new well and and storage tanks. This will also be a solar operated system as we try to cut back from costly generator use. We have recently decided to renovate and make changes at the Pierre Payen Clinic. This facility was built between 1974-79 and is in need of lots of work. We will also make some new changes to better accommodate our medical and work team guesthouses at Pierre Payen. This means two things: 1. the work at P.Payen needs done quickly so as not to disrupt the care of patients over a prolonged period. So teams should rotate in one after and another once we start. 2. We need to schedule teams for both guesthouses since the Snyder's and the McIntyre's will be in Haiti ready to host team at Borel. Interested individuals or churches can contact me at 682-936-9259 or Kara Norris at 419-424-1961 in Findlay. Well that is all for now but I will do another update in several days as lots of good things are happening in Haiti.