World's worst blogger...working on reformation.

The gorgeous mountain view from the church in La Victoire, Haiti

Something tells me blogging once every 2 years will not cut it!!

It will definitely not tell the story I wish to tell! SOOOO, one of my New Year's commitments is to blog once a month!
It is so important to share with you the story of our sweet little village of 
La Victoire and the great work we are privileged to be a part of.

Our last trip was just before Christmas. The blog is almost finished and will up soon! As we go I will work on filling in some of the gaps from the space in between.
Good work is being done...now to tell about it!

We returned from our most recent trip to Haiti last Friday. There is SO much to tell about! This was our first trip all together in 1 1/2 yrs. And Isemelda's first trip back to her home town and family. It was an intense trip! To say the least, but for tonight, I just HAVE to share this little guy with you. 



 This is Klines.


 

He is 2 years old. 

He is a angel of a little boy with the sweetest spirit and a smile that melts your hear. His Mama takes VERY good care of him! He was clean, freshly dressed, well fed and completely interactive and amazing to meet! 

He has  3 siblings, 14, 11 and 7. I talked with his Mama for quite a while at our clinic last week.

His sweet Mama told us about how he came to have his medical issues and how her husband did not want any more children, so he gave he a pill to abort Klines, when she was 2 months pregnant with him. It did not work. He tried to give her another pill, but she refused to take it.

She continued her pregnancy normally until she was 8 months pregnant. The summer Cholera was rampant in their area, she contracted it and spent 4 days at death's door. Klines was born the next month. 

When he was born, his daddy left. 

He left this Mama with 4 children, the youngest being a severally physical and mental handicapped baby boy.

 Mama explained that she loves her boy. She wants wants what is best for him. She asked me for help. Can our clinic help him? 
She explained that caring for him full time makes it very difficult for her to work to provide for her children. But what is the 'fix' for this situation in a place like the mountains of Haiti. There is no children's home, OTs, speach therapists, day care. There is just a lovely Mama and a sweet angel boy and this terrible dilemma. 

I held this little guy. Played with him. Sang to him. Talked to him. He was completely responsive and full of joy. He babbled back. Followed my voice with his eyes and smiled big, cheesy smiles. He kissed Jessica (Olivia, our 7 yrs old ALWAYS travels with a companion, one of her baby dolls) and loved on her. 

What can we do? We are talking to doctors and friends in the medical field to see if there is help to be had for him surgically and/or medically. 

What help can we provide? Vocational training? Special needs training? What else? 

I have been thinking about this Mama and her boy for over a week now. They haunt my days. I am fairly certain my my worst days are easier BY FAR than her best days! 

Please pray for them. For wisdom, strength, peace, and continued love. 

Please also pray for us and we consider how to best help her and him and their family. A good and gracious help. A real loving help that will lift her up and help her to sustain their lives. Good night sweet Klines. OXOX

I would like you to meet sweet Serline.









She is a sweet baby girl that we have been blessed to get to know over the past few months. She and her mama started in our progam in the 1st class back in the 2nd week in February.




Her mama is a wonderful lady. She and her husband, Serline and a new baby have all had quite a few struggles over the past year.





When Serline was just 6 months old, her mama unexpectantly got pregnant with her baby brother. When the baby was born, mama knew he needed her milk to survive, so she stopped nursing Serline, herself still a baby and still needing mom's milk to thrive. As the months past, Serline's health deteriorated. By the time we met her, the end of January, she was in poor health to say the least. She was suffering from Kwashiokor, a form of malnutrion that occurs when the body lacks protein. She was swollen, listless and had VERY thin, reddish hair. All signs of the disease. Truly, it would not have been long before her body would have started to give up.






Her mom has brought her to the clinic faithfully. She slowly and steadily gained weight and appeares a little healthier every time we saw her. It took the full 12 weeks to reach her goal weight. Even now, mom still comes to the clinic on Saturday mornings for prayer, worship and to learn the nutrional education that will allow her to make good food and lifestyle choices that will hopefully keep Serline's brother out of our program. A thing we very much desire. Our job here is the work ourselves out of a job. With the gift of training and education, in addition to the Medika Mamba, we work to give them the information they need keep their families healthy with better food and basic care choices.

In the past when I saw Serline she was quiet, still and had a vacant look. But, not this month!




We were so surprised and blessed to see her last month! She was bright eyed, alert and filled with energy and love!! She was just pure joy! She was babbling to us as we talked with the families. I lifted her out of her momma's arms and she gave us a smile that melted my heart. She played back and forth between Jeremy and I.



During the Mamba distribution...we played some more. This time, she took steps between her mama's arms and mine! Soo sweet and precious to be a part of this! This little angel, at 18 months old, is now chattering, playing and walking for the 1st time!!




Serline's family's story, is the very reason we started this clinic. We know that education can change the future of a child, family, communittee and country. We know we can only do this one relationship at a time. We know that this is the what Jesus calls us to. To love one another and allow Him to work out the rest. That is what we are trying to do at Fearless Warriors and in our clinic in La Victoire.

We pray that there are many great stories like Serline's to share with you in the future. We pray that we can continue our work of putting the tools and education in the hands of the families that need it, to allow them to build up their familes and communitees! We pray the funds will come in to allow us to purchase more Medika Mamba and to pay our nurse, health agent and pastor to continue training, couseling and spiritual teaching with these families. If you would like to be a part of futures like these, check out our video on a previous post or use Donation button on the right to become a monthly sponsor or make a one time donation.

As is...but putting it all in God's hands

Ok, so, I have struggled in the past few months what to write here. I didn't really know why. I love words. Have a passion for the work we are doing in Haiti! I believe that the technolgy that is involved in making Blogs available is wonderful as it unites us in a shared cause or purpose, allows us to quickly share info that would have taken months to communicate in the past, and brings us together even though we may be countries apart.

I have great stories to share. Stories that I have the distinct privilege of being a part of, and am excited to share. So what is the problem? Why the writer's block?

Then I read this great Blog from Tara Livesay. A woman I met in Haiti in on a trip in November of '09. She and her family have served in Haiti for many years and they have been an inspiration to us in many ways, including the fact that they are successfully and loving raising their family, including young children, in Haiti.


Livesay [Haiti] Weblog: Success (?): "In this work we often find ourselves wanting and needing to provide progress reports to the kind and generous souls praying for or financial..."

When I read this recent Blog, it seemed to put into words what I was not able to. I feel a pressure, possibly self imposed, to 'quantify progress' or 'label' our success. And to do that by human stadards seems very hard, when doing this sort of work. Reading her Blog helped me to remember something that I was temporarily forgetting--


"Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ."

Colossians 3:23-24


God has used this chapter of Colosssians to teach me so much over the past 2 years. Once again a truth that I needed was right before me.

This Fearless Warriors for Haiti Blog is a communication of our life and work in Haiti.
It is just that. I forgot that. I do not need to impress anyone, or find the perfect story. I just am reporting the great work God has allowed us to be a part of. Of course, I would love people to join us and want to support it, but

I am just following his lead. To listen for His voice, to try to be discerning of His message and "to just be faithful." That is enough.

I have a little pin as my house that I picked up years ago at an art show. It is very simple...a small black piece of paper with 2 little white words on it

as is...

It is one of my favorite possesions. Everytime I see it I remember, that is what we are...as is...just the way God made us. He expects us to impress no one. Not even Him. He just expects us to use the gifts and talents he gave us and the situations He puts before us to bring him glory.

The other part of this pin that I love is the '...' it leaves room for additional info, improvement. God accepts us just the way we are, and loves us enough not to leave us that way.

So there it is, writer's block broken. This is our story. As is... (with God's help, hopefully we are improving every day.)

Arrived in Haiti Safely on Weds--

We are here, safe and thrilled to be together. Took a trip La Victoire to bring supplies and help with the clinic on Saturday. 10 days of rain has made the road a special kind of BAD. Our car did not do well. Turned a 2 day trip into 3 and it has spent the last 2 days at the Car Doctors.
Internet is VERY slow right now. Jeremy posted pics on his FB page. Please check there for AMAZING pics of Seraline. One of the babies in the clinic that was in the worst shape when she came to us. We played with her, she laughed and babbled and took some steps from her Mama to me! She and Malatrice have graduated from the program and are doing REMARKABLY well! Such a blessing to see them!
We are very low on funds to run the clinic through the summer and now need to raise some additional funds to upgrade our vehicle to one that will like the mountains better.
If you have a church or organization that may want to hear more about our program, we are setting up some speaking dates for after we return in August and September. Please contact us at fearlesswarriorsforhaiti@gmail.com. We are looking for monthly sponsors and partners to continue this work with these wondferful families.
Don't forget to check my or Jeremy's FB page for pics, until we can download a little faster.

Been a while

Ok, so I need to get better at posting a blog. Things have been crazy busy since the last post.

~~First we did raise the money we needed to buy peanut seeds for 52 farmers in Haiti!! Seeds were a little more costly than was anticipated, so 52 instead of 60 was the quantity we could purchase. Will post pics soon of the seminar to talk about planting, the seeds and some of the new gardens!

~~We wrapped up our year with our GREAT homeschool co-op-sorta-thing. (It is not really a co-op, but I have not come up with a better name.)

~~Delaney and Christian mastered their memory work for the year and both became MEMORY MASTERS!! Yeah for all their hard work.

~~Delaney and I made a trip to Haiti to visit her sister/my daughter Isemelda and the clinic. We had so much fun visiting and celebrating the 1st Graduating class and meeting the next group of families in the program. We also met many of the new peanut farmers. These families are such a blessing to us!

~~We completed our home study and are waiting for approval from the state of Illinois to say we can be parents, (sorta seems a little late for that, but that is the process) and recieved a number for our adoption case at IBESR!! (IBESR is Haiti's version of DCFS) HURRAY!!!

~~Had a BIG garage sale to reduce our clutter and raise money for continued work in Haiti! We raised $1100!! HURRAY AGAIN!!

~~Have completed plans to spend the summer in Haiti with the kids. I will have all 4 kids together for the summer!! Jer will come down when/if he can as the months of June and July are his busies months of the year. We are excited at this adventure and are looking forward to studying Art, French, the Bible, Math, English grammar, learning Kreyol and spending lots of fun time together. I am looking forward to learning to drive in Haiti with quite some apprehension. Prayer welcomed!

So, I don't quite know where the last 2 months have gone. They has FLOWN by. Jer just returned from his May trip a few days ago and we have LOTS of great pictures and news to share so stay tuned for MUCH more!!

What support is needed to continue this work?

In the last year, Fearless Warriors has established 2 ministries.


One is an immediate life saving ministry. For the cost of $75 per child, we provide starving children with the nutrition supplement, anti-biotics and anti-parasitics they need to recover from their severe nutritional deficiencies. Additionally, their parents receive child development and nutrition training to give them the information they need to make better nutritional choices for the future.

A child in the program being weighed in for the clinic day.


We were able to start our program with a grant that we were graciously supplied from Meds for Kids, to get our program off the ground. They will supply the initial 2 months of Medika Mamba to get the program going. We supply the anti-biotics, anti-parisitics, water treatment chemicals and the staff to run the clinic.

In February we started the nutritional clinic with 11 kids. This weekend will mark 6 weeks of these children being a part of the program. It appears that all but 2 of them will have reached their goal weight and will graduate from the program. The other 2 will continue until they have fully recovered. In April we will start a new group of children in this program. The number of children depends on the funding support we can raise. Would you consider donating $75 to support one child through this entire program?


The second is a partnership ministry to provide education, tools and supplies for the families to develop an income to support themselves and their communities into the future. A "teach them to fish" ministry. For only $42 per family, you can provide all the supplies a family need to become self-sufficient farmers as they grow crops to provide a source of food for their families as well as have products to sell in the marketplace.

Right now we are working to provide peanuts for 60 families in the community. Peanuts are such a valuable crop! It provides a much needed source of protein for diets that are often high in sugar and carbohydrates, which will keep a belly full and give them instant energy, but do not induce growing and thriving. So, the farmers can use the peanuts to feed their family and also sell them in the marketplace. George Washington Carver would be so proud!

The best aspect of this great program is that they can also sell these peanuts to Meds for Kids, the company that makes the Medika Mamba supplement that is used in the clinic to treat the malnourished children in their own community! This product is produced in Haiti, by Haitians, using Haitian grown peanuts!!

This is an amazing way to partner with this community, not to rescue it. We come along side these families and provide the supplies, tools, education and help they need to become self sufficient.


We can also continue adding farmers to the farming program to grow new crops and provide education to meet future needs. Donating just $45 will support one farmer. You will be providing a career for a family! Can you believe it? For $45!

You may make a donation via the Paypal link on the right
or by check, which can be made out to
Fearless Warriors for Haiti and mailed to:
3349 Carbineer Drive, Belvidere, Il 61008.
Just put which ministry you would like your funds to support in the note section.

We appreciate you donations and are also searching for much needed monthly sponsors to keep some financial stability in the funding of these programs. Please consider if you are able to do even a small monthly sponsorship to make this program a continuing success.