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February/March 2012 CHM Newsletter
Dear Family and Friends--This is NOT an April Fool's Day joke...I really am sending out a newsletter!! LOL!! Sorry it has been awhile since I have updated you...I am excited to report that lots of GREAT things are going on here. To make it easier to read...I have put everything in a numerical format!! Thanks for your love, prayers, and encouragement!! Happy Easter and Merry Christmas to you and your families!! (A little April Fool's Day humor...Ashlee McAdam's is celebrating her 24th birthday today and we put Christmas decorations up in the kitchen for her big day!! LOL!!) Blessings--JAN (Luke 1:37)
1. I have been blessed with GREAT staff--Raquel Newman returned for the last part of her 6 month stay and Ashlee McAdam and Morgan Bolander came back with me in December and will remain until June. They are the kind of staff that jump in and do whatever...from playing with kids to making meals to preparing the house for the arrival of teams. And of course, there is Jacob...he is our "Jake" of all trades. He does everything from maintaining the generator to building cabinets to making breakfast every morning. I am so thankful God has sent me such great staff...and they're fun to be around too!! 2. We have been blessed by great friends coming to visit us. Deborah Burns, from Flint, Michigan, joined us in December. We had a great time getting to know Deb!! (She found out about our ministry through Pastor Steve Windle and his family!!) Kathy Martin and Chase Locke from El Dorado, KS and Ruth Johnson, Amanda and Jared Kostreva, all from Wisconsin joined us next. Jared and Amanda built a cabinet, (the story of how they got it hoisted up to the second floor of the orphanage is frightening...glad I was gone!!), Kathy and Ruth cooked for us, and Chase entertained us with his humor about all the roosters, rats, and power outages in Haiti!! After they left, we were blessed to have Tony and Sondra McNorton, Kim and Kevin Patterson, and Tom and Kelly Davis join us. They hosted a marriage seminar for 10 couples who are friends of our ministry. What an amazing week we had with them...all the Haitian couples loved the seminar!! (They don't have things like this in Haiti!!) When I took them back to the airport...I waited a few hours and then got to see my mom and dad come through customs in wheelchairs!! I have never been so thrilled to see them!! My brother, John, and his daughter, Missy, made all the arrangements to have them come to Haiti and came with them. My dad has recently been diagnosed with Altzheimers and my mom has macular degeneration...both of them are 79 years old. What an amazing blessing to have them come see what I do here. WOW!! What a great time we had...moments I will cherish forever!! Then when they left, Raquel's mom, Patty Newman, joined us for the last 5 days of Raquel's time with us. What an amazing blessing it was to have Patty in our home...we look forward to them coming back again!! (and so do the Hopesters at the orphanage who love Raquel so much!!) Our last and final team (for awhile) was a medical team of 3 nurses, Karleen Smith, Margie Russell, and Debbie McAdam...Ashlee's mom!! We were blessed by all the medicines donated and to have them with us...especially when a few of our Hopesters had fevers of over 104 degrees!! Also coming with this group of nurses were Britt Hauck and Sandy Giles from Hope Community Church and Shelbie and Betty Hutchins from the Oxford First Baptist Church. What a treat it was to have these ladies all come. They did facials and manicures and pedicures for the staff at the #1 Hope Street Orphanage. They cooked for us. They cleaned for us. They blessed us just like all the teams who came to stay with us had done before them. THANK YOU SO MUCH to those who came and to those who donated things and sent it with them!! We felt like we had 6 weeks of Christmas!! 3. We continue to do our Kid's Club in Lot Bo Kanal...we have around 200 kids each Saturday morning. The Church in Lot Bo Kanal has joined with us and they have 7-8 people help us lead singing and participate in our skits. We are building some great relationships with them and the kids!! 4. We continue to do Women's Bible Study each Wednesday evening too. We have been having between 40 and 50 women come. Madame Pastor Penel, our Director's wife at the orphanage, has been coming to lead singing. That has been a blessing. She is learning English and I am still struggling to learn Creole, so we are able to talk more with each other...that has been a blessing getting to know her better!! 5. Well-drilling equipment is now in place at #1 Hope Street Orphanage!! This week they have been working on getting the equipment up and running so they can start drilling our new well!! HALLELUJAH!! Hope Community Church in Andover, KS has raised the money to not only dig a 250' well, but also to get a water purification system on the well, and then to install all new plumbing in the orphanage. WOW!! Is that not amazing???? (I need your prayers when Dan Warren brings his team of plumbers to the orphanage...pray that I don't run out of coffee!! LOL!!) 6. We continue to work on getting our orphanage license from the Social Welfare Dept. of Haiti. We now have 14 little Hopesters and we want to continue filling our home with at least 6 more. Pastor and Madame Pastor Penel have been GREAT directors!! We also have a great staff of laundry ladies, translators, nannies, and cooks. We get along great and everyone treats the kids with such respect...you can tell that everyone really enjoys the kids and their work that they do. It is such a "God" thing!! 7. The staff and I have been studying the Book of Acts each morning during our morning devotions. God has been speaking to us about "Bold Humility". He is challenging us to walk in Bold Humility...one of the examples we saw was in Chapter 6 with Stephen and then again in Chapter 9 when Peter raised a widow from the dead and again in Chapter 24 when Paul boldly stands before the Council sharing his testimony. We have continued to prayer walk in Lot Bo Kanal...the Haitians don't understand why. They want to know what we have for them. It takes Bold Humility to keep going there. Recently God spoke this to me, "If you are going to walk in love into a community of hatred, you must know the rules of hatred in order to be effective." I am learning...He is theTeacher, a Teacher Who walked this earth in love with Bold Humility!! 8. Sandy Giles gave me a haircut when she visited...it is REALLY short!! I look in the mirror now and see an older and gray-haired version of Ellen DeGeneres!! LOL! Thanks, Sandy, for the GREAT haircut!! I really do like it...it is so easy to take care of!! 9. Lathon returns...When our first group of kids left the orphanage last September, we were really heartsick. We continued to pray for them, but never expected for one of them to show up at our gate. Lathon, one of the older boys, got kicked out of Mackendy's orphanage after they left, so he saved up some money and made it back to Gonaives and knocked at our gate. We contacted his mother and she said, "I didn't know he was going to Gonaives, so do whatever you want with him." His dad has died, so he is back with us!! He suffered a lot out on the streets in-between orphanages, so please pray for him!! THANKS!! 10. The shipment arrived!! THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO DONATED FOOD, CLOTHING, BOOTS, TOILETRIES, SHOES, OFFICE EQUIPMENT, and TOYS for the orphanage and for our ministry. What an amazing blessing!! Also a big thanks to everyone who helped pack everything and who sorted boots for us!! And in the shipment was Jake's favorite...Keith's scooter!! Keith Martin was always wanting to get his scooter down to Haiti for us to go back and forth between the orphanage and my house. He died in September, but his scooter got delivered to our home on the day that Kathy (his wife) arrived to stay 10 days with us. God's timing is perfect!! 11. Lastly...for some family news!! Amanda has announced her engagement to Blain Dodson and they are making plans to be married sometime while I am home this summer. Her ring is beautiful!! Seth continues to grow and he is SO CUTE...oh, and Shelby and Aaron are doing great, too!! I thank God for Facebook where I can get family updates with pictures!! Jake is praying about what to do next...whether to stay back in El Dorado this summer or to come back when I come in July. So, please pray for my family and me...lots of changes!! THANKS SO MUCH!! I feel I have not done justice to so many things that are going on here...there's so much more to tell, but I have to quit. We truly are blessed by all the things God is doing. We know we are sustained and blessed because so many of you are praying for us. THANK YOU!! Each night we have Circle of Hope where we share our favorite event of the day and then we sing a few songs...one of my favorite songs is "No place I'd rather be...than here in Your love." That says it all!! Love you all...~Jan (Luke 1:37) BTW...this verse was written in our front room of the orphanage by all the Hopesters. They can say it in English...it doesn't get much better than that!! |