November

“Let them give thanks to the Lord for His loving kindness, & for His wonders to the sons of men! For He has satisfied the thirsty soul & the hungry soul He has filled with what is good.”
Psalms 107:8-9

Dear Friends in Christ,

What an amazing and wonderful month we had. Much to our surprise, one building for the school has been completed and has been holding classes for our students since November 4th! We praise the Lord, He truly is a Way Maker!

Hudson (Lussade’s son in law) is the engineer who is overseeing the building of the school. He and his work crew took 2 weeks to build the 4 room school building, a 6 stall latrine, a kitchen and storage room for the kitchen. Hudson and the builders are now working on the next buildings. A smaller 2-room building for the kindergarten classes is in progress along with a home for the caretaker.

We hired a caretaker, Roland Fleury, to stay at the school to help make sure things are not stolen or damaged. Please keep him in your prayers.

While the school was being built, some of the workers were able to build new benches for the children. They have tables and chairs for many of the children, so this will be a nice addition for classes.

The teachers and children are all very happy with the new building! They have decorated the rooms with ribbons and artwork. A few days before school began, Nady and the teachers handed out uniforms and backpacks. This was a very exciting time for everyone. The new uniforms are a great gift for the school children along with needed backpacks. Thank you again to all of you who were involved in purchasing backpacks with us! Many children in their village would love to receive these gifts; education, a nutritious meal each day, learning God’s Word, and being supplied with needed items to attend school. Much of the reason for the new property and buildings is so that we can add more children to our current 150 children in the future. We look forward to how God supplies the school’s needs through many of you and other children in the village can be blessed with this school in the future. May He receive all glory!

The past couple of months we have been working on Christmas gift bags for the school children and children of the teachers. After gathering all the items to fill the bags, it was fun to have some of our grandchildren, Lussade, and a dear friend from our church, Kim, come to our home to help us put them together. This month, we delivered the bags to MFI in Ft. Pierce, FL. Hopefully, soon they will be delivered to Haiti and then to the children at the school for Christmas. Currently, the FAA has shut down flights into Haiti because of gang violence at the airport, but hopefully soon that ban will be lifted.

We were blessed to have Havilah, a sweet girl from our church put together a shoe decoration party with about 15 of her friends from American Heritage Girls Troop. It was so fun to go watch these girls decorate 36 pairs of tennis shoes which will be sent to our kindergarten girls in Haiti. One of the kindergarten teachers, Sondolia, was able to measure and send us their sizes. The little girls who receive these will be very blessed and excited to receive such pretty new shoes! We will share pictures of the children receiving them when that happens. This was a great project that Havilah did. She wanted to do something practical and special to help. What a blessing and gift! Thank you Havilah and friends!

If anyone else would like to do this for other girls, please contact me, Debbi, and I will help. It was an easy and inexpensive project, it went quickly and is a huge blessing for the children. Our home number is 830-228-4809. Because we receive many spam calls, please leave a message and I will call you back.

When we left MFI, we went to the Bible Bee in Orlando. It was a very encouraging time of hearing so much Scripture being quoted and God’s name being lifted up. This year, our daughter Holly and her 2 girls, Heidi and Hallie joined us to watch the BB. It had been a few years since they had attended and they also deeply enjoyed it. The young people who attended did an excellent job of reciting hundreds of verses and competing in a “game show”. The amount of information they are able to study and recite is amazing. The Bible Bee truly has become a fun and encouraging few days for these families and these dear contestants who attend. To God be all the praise and glory for this awesome event!

With many changes taking place at the school, we are trusting God for provision for the property and these buildings. Please pray about whether you can help with these needs for these precious children, their families, and our teachers. We are excited to see how God works in your hearts and provides for the projects we have set before you in our holiday brochure. If you would like more brochures to distribute and share with friends or your church please let us know!

We are blessed by you, our OSM family; your kind love through encouraging notes and cards, and your financial support to make all of this happen. You have helped feed and school 150 children this year! That is 3,000 meals a month and about 36,000 meals for the year! Along with this you have helped provide these children with a safe environment to hear the gospel and receive an education each day, thank you!

Besides the many cares of your own homes, you have touched and helped reach many precious children and their families. May Jesus Christ be the center of your homes and celebrations as you remember His birth and life. Our amazing Savior is the Giver of Life and we pray His love, protection, and provision for you and your families this year. We hope you have a blessed Christmas and New Year’s! Serving our Savior with you,

Ken and Debbi