▪•• • • •• • • • • ••• January, 2012 ▪•• • •• • •▪ ▪▪ ▪••• • •▪ ▪

Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works
to the children of men! Psalms 107:15 

NIGERIA’S CLIMATE AT A GLANCE

	Average Low	Average High	2010 Total Rainfall	2011 Total Rainfall
November	77.18	83.84	20.6"	N/A"
December	79.3	89.1	0"	0"
January	78.5	88.2	0"	0"

HAITI’S CLIMATE AT A GLANCE

	Average Low	Average High	2010 Total Rainfall	2011 Total Rainfall
November	73	89	N/A"	1.78"
December	71	87	N/A"	0.25"
January	69	86	N/A"	0.7"

 

Dear Friend,

We are praising the Lord for His goodness!  It is such a blessing for us to have the privilege to serve and represent Him in Haiti.  We share of some of the ways God has blessed us with His Goodness this past month in the following newsletter. 
         

Family Update – Counting our blessings!

We hear from the boys fairly regularly.  We try to call them once a week.  This is not always that easy as they have to sign up for a time to use a dorm phone, and then we have to remember to call at that specific time.  We usually try to call on Tuesday evening and talk with whomever is able to be near the phone.  Normally, internet access is not available to students on campus; however, the school has allowed an exception since they understand the unique circumstances of our family, and the boys can check email once a week.  We are very grateful to Mt Zion and their consideration. 

Josiah and Zachery are now finishing up their second year of school, and they are waiting for an assigned internship placement within the next couple of months.  This internship will begin in June and last for 8-9 months.  They both are excited to see where the Lord places them, and have asked us to keep them in prayer regarding the decision process.  Jonathan is coming towards the end of his first year, and has really enjoyed the transition to life at ministry school with his brothers.  Our phone conversations are filled with discussions on the things they are learning and the ways God is preparing them through their training experience.  It is such a blessing for us to see how God is working in their lives, and we praise Him every day for His goodness.

Rachelle and Nathaniel are equally a blessing to us.  Rachelle, sometimes with the help of Grandma DeRoos, is doing most of the Laborers With Christ administration work.  This entails keeping track of donations and helping us know how things are going and who has partnered with us from one month to the next.  Nathaniel has become very active in managing our website, and keeping things up-to-date and interesting.  If you haven’t looked at our website lately, we encourage you to take a look at www.laborerswithchrist.org.  It is such a blessing for us to have a “team” back home that allows us to serve and be away from all the daily workings of Laborers With Christ.  Another “team” member that is very active behind the scenes is Mom/Grandma DeRoos.  She has such a strong accounting background and a willing servant’s heart, and her professional eye and desire to serve the Lord in many ways has been helpful to us for many years.    This strong family team gives us great freedom to serve in Haiti knowing everything is A-Okay.  God is so good!

Our New Life

A question we often get asked is, “What do you do for church on Sunday?”  We wished there was short answer to this question, but not so.  We have a variety of options.  We try to visit local churches in the community as this does allow us to interact with our neighbors.  We are finding that most Haitians do not care so much about the type of church they attend.  They would rather walk a short distance to the nearest church vs. find the church that best fits their theological beliefs.  The down side of us visiting neighborhood churches is that we can spend 2-3 hours in a church service, and never completely understand the message, worship songs, or discussion during the service.  It is very difficult for the church to find someone to help translate to English.  We also have visited the church the girls from the orphanage attend. This is pretty much the same situation that we mentioned before, other than we get to help the girls with transportation to and from church.  It is a short walk, but they like to ride in the pickup.  Les has also had the girls stay at the orphanage and shared a message to them on a Sunday morning.  We have someone available to translate from English to Creole, and the message is geared more towards a Bible Character.  The girls really enjoy Moses, or the story of David and Goliath.  Usually the traditional church service in Haiti is not very children friendly.  We also have a Sunday once in a while where we drive into Les Cayes and worship at a church that a friend pastors, and Eddy (the orphanage founder and director) attends.  We have to admit our toughest day of the week, at times, is Sunday.  It’s hard to know you are in for a long day with a language barrier and very uncomfortable wood benches.  However, we do praise God knowing he is there even if we are a little out of our “comfort zone”.   

As you can tell by what we have just written, we continue to see the importance and value of learning Haitian Creole.  This past month we have found a suitable option for regular Internet in our home, Alleluia!  This allows us such better communication potential (feel free to send us an email…we love to hear from you!), and also has opened up some online language learning courses in Creole.  We are improving, but to us, it feels like small steps instead of big ones.  Keep us in your prayers as we truly desire to make a much needed advance in becoming bilingual in Haiti.    

One of our unique discoveries, since we have lived here, is a nearby Catholic Convent that makes home-made bread.  Once a week, Les goes to the Convent to pick up bread for the girls. It is only about two miles away from the CC, but it takes about 10 minutes to drive there due to the condition of the road.  This is a perfect time to give a few girls a chance to go for a ride.  This small dose of independence has started to become an enjoyable form of recreation, and has created incentive for applying themselves in school.  You see since Les did not want to pick or choose who could go, it was determined that those who are doing well in school get first consideration.  It is so much fun to watch their reaction when they have been chosen.  Just in case you feel a little sorry for those who don’t take their studies seriously, they all get to enjoy the bread. 

Happenings at the Consolation Center

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Things are hopping at the Consolation Center.  Right after the first of the year, we purchased 6 rabbits to start the rabbit project.  We have five mommy rabbits, and one daddy rabbit, and we expect to see many bunnies in the upcoming months.  The rabbits have caused quite a lot of interest.  We think they will be a good fit to bring some much needed fertility to the garden area. We can already see that the girls have a lot of fun being around the rabbit shelter.  They are in intrigued in these furry things that don’t bark or act aggressive.  They especially enjoy shoving banana leaves through the wire cage openings and watching the lapen manje (rabbits eat).  We haven’t “gone down the road” of explaining how they will also be used for manje (food).  It just seems sensible not to “jump” (sorry about that, couldn’t resist) into that quickly.

Imagine trying to learn one language while teaching another.  Does that sound unproductive to you or what?  Well that is what Catherine is doing.  In teaching English at the CC school, she tries to use Creole as much as she can in her Friday class.  She uses broken Creole for instructional purposes and to incorporate word pictures to identify the objects. It has presented a few challenges.  We got a laugh the other day as we were talking of strategies to use to make it simpler for the students.  In the US, when we home schooled, we used simple songs and a picture for letter object association.  For example, A-a apple, B-b ball, C-c cat, and D-d-doll.  The problem is Haitians don’t really have apples, so on to plan B.  So what object starts with A that they can associate with?  A favorite fruit (you may have thought an avocado was a vegetable, but not so) is avocado…perfect.  Well, think again; in Creole avocado is zaboka beginning with Z.  See how complicated things can be…in one piece of fruit we have gone from A - Z!! How about that for learning the alphabet?    

With the language barrier, going to the CC and interacting with the girls and staff can be challenging at times.  Most of the time is really spent on observing things and using the little Creole that we know.  Catherine has been taking strides to get to know the staff and the girls on a more personal level.  One way is through song.  One day Catherine sat down with the head cook, Madam Vile (Veelay), to learn how to read sing (learn to read Creole while singing) a hymn from a song book.  It was Madam Vile’s favorite song and you could tell Madam Vile was thrilled and having so much fun.  It wasn’t long when a group of the girls were standing around to sing along or to just listen or to watch the American woman sing the Creole words.  One of the girls even moved in closer to hear if Catherine was pronouncing the words right.  Another day Catherine had communicated that she wanted to get pictures of what she calls the “house mothers” and the girls they share their dorm with.  She arranged for a time when they could dress up to take that picture and what fun the “house mothers” had.  They don’t like to smile (sourisooree) for the camera, but they sure got Catherine to smile with the interesting poses they made.  Catherine hopes to make an album of the pictures for the CC.

Culture Corner – We are learning!

It is so amazing to see how people live differently in different places. What one people group would think intolerable, another people group would have it no other way.  We are fascinated, yet confused by some of the accepted cultural practices.  We thought you might enjoy a humorous look at some of the things we regularly encounter.

“When I say I’ll be there is not important, but when I’m actually there…that is important.”  We regularly deal with communicating times that are merely communicated and nothing more.  There doesn’t seem to be recognition of promptness, or punctuality.  Perhaps it is just that in this culture, things such as delays or transportation issues are an everyday event.  Our western minds have been influenced to be very time oriented, most likely to a fault.  We are learning that the clock does not have the final say in Haiti. 

The speakers during the church service are turned up so loud that the sound is distorted.  Guess where the VIP seating is…yep, in front of the speakers.  We are learning that we don’t want to be considered important, and wearing ear plugs in church is an acceptable fashion. 
There are only two things necessary when driving in Haiti…a horn and fast reflexes.  Some of you may be asking how Les drives then?…very slow!  The driving in Haiti is very different, no speed limit, just horrendous speed bumps, right-of-way is yielded to the biggest vehicle, and a defensive driver will get nowhere.  We are learning that it is much easier for a good driver to learn to drive “poorly”, than for a bad driver to learn to drive well!  

•	Pray for our language lessons, and the Lord’s help with wisdom and retention.
•	Pray for wisdom as we evaluate a trip to Nigeria.
•	Praise the Lord for our home and local community.
•	Praise the Lord for our family, and their willingness to help us with LWC, and for God’s goodness to them.

 

     

              

So grateful for your words of encouragement, thoughts, and prayers!



In His Love & Service,
Les & Catherine

WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!