August

For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God.
II Corinthians 9:12

Dear Friends in Christ,

We thank the Lord for His wonderful provision through you, as well as His care and protection of our teams this month. Overseeing a small Christian school is hard enough when you are working in the US with teachers, pastors, students, and their parents, and they speak your language. However, overseeing a Christian school in a third world country, with cultural and language differences can be much more difficult. Only Jesus can make this happen!

There are many ways that the Lord has shown us to serve the people who live around the school. (The actual name of this village is Brunett, which is located north and a little west of Mirebalais.) This month they had some medical needs, with many sick people throughout the area. Normally, we would send Pascale to check out the school children, but this was a more widespread sickness. We hired Dr. Berthola Eugene to go with Pascale and her assistant, Ketsia, to have a small clinic. In 2 days, they saw 161 people, with the vast majority being children. Two people they saw, they bandaged up and sent them on to a hospital in Mirebalais. They also saw a few malnourished people, but that is common there. Dr. Eugene reported that the people who came to the clinic were very grateful to be seen by a doctor and to receive medical care. This is all thanks to your generosity so that OSM can take care of such needs when they arise.

Not only did the Lord provide for the financial needs of this trip, He kept His hand of protection over the clinic. Medical clinics can be targets of gangs, knowing they can kidnap a doctor and receive more ransom money than the average Haitian could come up with. The gangs cause so many more difficulties for their own people because they make those who can help live in fear of what could happen. Knowing this makes us even more grateful for Pascale and Dr. Eugene’s help ministering to so many people. We praise the Lord for the success of this trip!

During the clinic, clothing was distributed to children while they were waiting to be seen. In the past, when we were at MFI, we sent clothing for the children. MFI has a lot of children’s clothing, along with many helpful items ready to be sent for missionaries, as well as the Haitian people. The children were happy to receive a new dress for the girls and short sets for the boys! Thank you, MFI!

Kaloulou took the tailor, Boss Emanier, to the school so he could measure the children for uniforms. He enjoys children and will talk to them while working with them, so the children love him. It takes some time to get everyone measured for uniforms. Emanier is a Christian man and attends Pastor Bertho’s church. OSM pays him to make the uniforms so that they are made stronger and last longer than when the children’s moms made them by hand, as we used to do. We are currently looking for a commercial quality sewing machine for Emanier. He does a great job with the machines he has, but they are both very old.

This coming school year we will have 156 children attend the school. This was due to a miscommunication and was a little hard for us to process that we had so many more children this year. However, Nady had already told children and their parents that they could attend. Though we felt a little trapped into taking more children than we thought we could handle, we are of course excited to have them this year.

Parents have been waiting for years to get their children into this school because there are no other schools anywhere in this area. OSM doesn’t require the children to pay to attend, plus they receive a meal each day, medical checkups, uniforms, backpacks, and gift bags. This is a huge help to the families; many cannot provide a good nutritious meal for their children daily. We are blessed to not only feed the children physically, but to feed them spiritually by sharing the gospel and love of Jesus each day. That is the reason for the school. Thank you for helping to make this happen for these needy, precious children and their families!

Another project taking place at the school is a man is digging a well by hand. He is glad for the work and we are glad to hopefully find water so it can be used by the school and the church. As we showed you last month, carrying water to the school is a very labor-intensive job.

Ernest and Edgard went out by motorcycle to attend the school’s year end party. The children sang songs and had a little closing program for their parents. This was a big celebration for them. Edgard also shared and encouraged the children and their parents. Even though the school year is over, the children have con-tinued to come through the summer for Bible school and to get a meal each day. We are also happy that the soccer team continues to practice and play other teams, in Mirebalais and close villages.

As always, the Lord has been good to OSM this month! He has provided a wonderful prayer and support team here in the states, as well as willing servants in Haiti, to care for and minister to these children, their families and the community of Burnet. What an awesome Father we have! May each of you see His love and protec-tion over you and your families as well.

In His love, Ken & Debbi