Kimberly and Raynold's wedding

Raynold and Kim asked me to be the photographer at their wedding!  They were a fun couple to photograph.  Thanks for the great day.  We hope you have an amazing honeymoon next week and we wish you the LORD's blessing in your lives together!  May God be with you wherever you go and may you lean on Him for support and guidance!  Go with God!

Back to back water days.

This weekend we enjoyed the Haitian beach at Kaliko.  We were very happy to be able to go with a family who are friends of ours through Chloe's school.  The Reims, Emma (a girl from Brantford who is staying with the Reims for the summer), and us piled into Randy and Karen's truck and drove down to Kaliko, a beach resort about an hour away.  The Hopp family are in Haiti as a missionary family from the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) live at Kaliko, and were able to host us there, which was a wonderful blessing. 

The pool had lots of shallow areas where Chloe could touch.  She and the other children (Elijah, Emma, Elita, Esmee, Esther, Evan, Ethan, Joel and Falo) had a great time in the water.

Joel relaxing in the pool :)



Elita, one of the two girls that the Reim family is in the process of adopting.





The Reims and a bunch of the older children took a boat out a ways
and enjoyed scuba diving at a reef.  They saw some
really beautiful, colourful fish.



 



It was a beautiful day at the beach, and while we were there, there were nicely dressed guests arriving, for a wedding that was set up down on the beach.  Shortly after the ceremony started, there was a big commotion and some police showed up.  We found out from one of the waiters that served our lunch, that the groom was already married to someone else, and his "first wife" showed up to object to the wedding.  The whole ceremony was cancelled, and everyone dispersed.  I felt sad for the bride. 

As we were getting in the truck to go home, we realized we had one very
flat tire.  We were able to pump it up with a air pump from the Hopps, and
made it home without any further issues.

On Sunday, after church, we went to "the pool" at the home of one of the MAF (mission aviation fellowship) families here in Port-au-Prince.  We met some friends there as well (Kim and Cadeau, and Lesley and Diego Toussaint, with their daughter Juliana).  We had a fun time.  Chloe is like a little fish.  She was the first one in the water, and the last one out.

Diego and Cadeau

Chloe enjoyed squirting the grown ups with a water gun.

Chloe, the little fish :)

Lesley and Juliana

It was a very nice and relaxing weekend.  Cornelius worked some very long days with the building project this past week, and we were very happy to spend the weekend together like this. 



Unless the LORD...

This morning Pastor Octavius, Remanius, Abner and myself travelled to the houses of Phase 2.  In each Phase we are building seven houses.  Currently we are in Phase 3.  Hopefully this coming Monday we will begin Phase 4.  It takes about 2 weeks to build a house 20 feet by 16 feet.  In each house there are three rooms.  One room is the dining room and kitchen while the other two are bedrooms.  After each phase is completed Pastor Octavius and others from the building committee go to each home to meet with the new home owner. 

The purpose of this visit is to dedicate the house to LORD with thanksgiving and prayer.
When we arrived at the houses we spent some time chit-chatting with the homeowners, and asking about their lives and family.  Afterwards we sang a verse of a song then read a couple of verses from the Bible...

"Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain. 
             Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain." Psalm 127:1

It is true, the LORD builds the houses.  Pastor Octavius went on to say that he hopes this house will be a house where God is served.  A house where the Bible will be opened, where prayer will be lifted up to God, a place where God can be introduced to other people and a place where children, with the guidance of their parent(s), will learn more about Him and come to love Him even more.

After the Bible reading and devotion, one of the visiting people led in a time of prayer.  A prayer filled with the requests above.  In all these visits took about 15 minutes each.  It was a wonderful time; a time where fellow brothers and sisters could share the common bond of our LORD and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Rebuilding Haiti

Recently at the Grade 6 graduation I had the privilege to watch some of the students perform a skit for the audience.  It was really awesome to see the thought that went into this skit.  The skit began with the one of the girls coming in draped in the Haitian flag.  She collapses on the road, moaning and crying for help.

A shoe cleaner comes along and sees the lady lying on the side of the road, he stops, he pauses and he thinks then he leaves a little something behind to help the lady...

...so does a musician...

...a mother...

...a carpenter...

...a doctor...



...a judge...



...a Christian...

But this lady realized that leaving things behind is not going to help the person, it is the people that have to work together to lift each other up, to help each other out.  If Haiti wants to become a better country the people must work together with the help of God to become a better place.

Follow my trail...

Uncle Randy and Aunt Karen have kindly let Chloe stay at their house until our house is ready to be moved in.  Chloe is so thankful for that because they have way more animals then us! :)  So she gets to play with the animals way more.  Plus our dog at our house likes to jump up so Chloe likes the dogs at Uncle Randy and Aunt Karen's house better!  If you have ever seen the movie 'We bought a zoo', I think I might have to do that with Chloe someday! ;)

So one day she asked for some food and decided to have the kitten, can't remember the name of the cat, follow her around while she fed it. 

Here are a couple of pictures...

Our new house.

When we started going through our new house to get things set up we found it to be quite dirty and dusty, filled with all kinds of surprises.  Here are some the surprises and how far we are with our new house.

Half of Chloe's room swept out.

One of the toilets.

One of the many cockroaches.

Chloe's rooom, she is painting her own shelf.

One side of the kitchen/dining room.

The other side of the kitchen/dining room.

The living room taking shape.

A bees nest we found after we opened one of the doors. (The picture would not flip for some reason)

Graduation June 2012

In Haitian schooling, children have government exams to graduate from Grade 6 and Grade 12.  The Grade 6 class of Adoration Christian School has been working hard in each of their subjects all year long.  They studied History, Geography, Mathematics, Bible, Language Arts as well as some others.  They are finally at the long awaited graduation, and then they can go on to the next level pending the results of their government exams.  Graduation ceremonies in Haiti are a big event to celebrate...



Getting dressed for the grand occasion!

The Processional!  And what an entrance it was. 

Pastor Delfis opened the graduation with a piece from the
Word of God and prayer!

Speaking of behalf of the class...also received the
highest mark in the graduating class.

Handing out the diplomas

A student receiving his diploma from Professor Evenz!
Thanks for the great job you did again Evenz with this class.

A student receiving his diploma from the Director, Alix Jean Pierre.

The ceremony was filled speeches and songs, including
the one sung by these two girls, very nicely done.

 

The audience watching the graduation cermony.

After the graduation cermony the end of the school assembly began.  The students received their awards for never being late and never missing a day.  The hardest worker and the person who had the highest mark received their certificates and their prize.  After all the that the report cards were handed out one by one.  The ceremony filled the whole morning and was enjoyed by all who attended. 

One of the Special Ed students opening his
gift because he was the hardest worker in his class.