Three new kids

Another milestone today.  Yesterday, Vero and Smith went to Ti-Goave to pick up three more children.  We wanted to share their photos with you, so you can pray for them, and for us.

Kerby and Makinlove were both abandoned.  One mother was only 18 years old.  The other mother was 19.  Anderson was taken in because his mother has 7 children and cannot care for them.  She is also a very young mother.


Kerby is very sick and we are not sure we can keep him.  We think he may need more help than we can give him.

We also wanted to share a photo of the new doors on the orphanage.  Aren't they beautiful?

Please keep praying for IDADEE and for the Lord to guide and direct in all we do. 

The Children at IDADEE

We had promised to post some photos of the kids, and have finally gotten those taken.  They are not used to cameras and were not sure they wanted their photos taken.  

Here they are:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The children are listed with their birth dates.  You will notice that Claude has a question mark...we are not sure of his background or birthday.  We are guessing at his age.

A typical day is varied a lot.  Claude is the most challenging at this point.  He wakes very early, and wants someone to hold him constantly.  The rest of the children have many different "quirks".   But as with most 2 and 3 year olds, they are ACTIVE.  A gate has been made for the porch, so the children cannot fall down the steps.  With the huge porch, they have a lot of area to play.  All of the children, except Claude, nap in the afternoon.  Claude sleeps when he wants...no definite times for him.  

Their days consist of eating, playing, napping, bathing and sleeping.  At this age, with only a couple of house parents, it's difficult to take them to church.  But Vilbrun does spend time teaching them songs and Bible verses.  They are smart little tykes and just need the guidance to help them learn.  


We are praying for supporters for these children.  It's a huge responsibility, but these little ones would be without any help at all if we didn't take them in.  Please pray with us that the Lord will touch hearts to help these little ones.


We hope to send more photos soon.  The new doors are installed and helping a lot.  It's been so very hot here, and we are so thankful for the wonderful porch where the children can play without being in the scorching sun.  


Please keep IDADEE and all the children and staff in your prayers.  We are looking to the Lord for His help.  We pray your eyes are on Him, too.

Greetings from Haiti and IDADEE

It has been a LONG time since our last update.  A lot has happened and we will try to catch up with the doings and happenings at IDADEE.

Since the dedication we have taken in more children.  We now have 10 children.  One of the children we did have was taken back home by her mother.  That was Magdarlie Jean.  It was a sad situation, and she did not want to leave.  All we can do now is to pray for her and her family.  We will update with photos of all the children within the week.  We've had a real "interesting" time getting the photos.  (Have you ever tried to coral nine two year olds, and one infant?) 

Many things are progressing at the compound.  We have started the building to house the chapel.  The following photos are of the initial work being done.

 

 

For the 2 days before the annual Kids Fest, we did evangelism in the surrounding area.  We had 39 adults come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  What a great blessing for us as well as them, to welcome them into the Kingdom of God.

The next big thing is the Kids Fest held in August.  We had 530 children who came.  We had 70 leaders and teachers to help with all of the activities.   Close to 60 children made a decision to accept the Lord.  Each day we fed all of the children and workers.  The following photos show some of the excitement from the week.

 

 

 

 As you can see, we've been busy...building, caring for children, evangelism and Kids Fest.  Please keep IDADEE, it's children, the workers and the committee in your prayers.  The Lord has given us a huge responsibility and we need your prayers to help us adhere to His ways and guidance.  


Until next time, remember to keep all of Haiti in your prayers.  The needs are so great and the people so hurting.  We know the answer to the problems is the Lord.  He may not take all the suffering away, but He will walk with those who know Him and listen to Him.

Matthew 18: 5  "And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name, welcomes me."

The Dedication was AWESOME

We are sorry this update is so late, but unavoidable circumstances prevented posting.

The Dedication was really a huge success.  We estimate that over 1,000 people attended.  It was a day of rejoicing and praising God for all He has done for us.  And we praise God for those who helped this event become a reality.  

We now have 9 children.  Eight of those being between 2 and 2 1/2 years old.  The newest is only 2 or 3 months...we aren't positive yet as to his age.  God is bringing those to us who need our help.  We do ask that you pray with us for the Lord to help and supply all the needs IDADEE will have in the near future.

We have just a few photos to share with you.  God was definitely with us as our day progressed.  It was a day of shared joy and praise.  The first photo is the committee of IDADEE.  Through prayer and dedication, all of this was accomplished through their work.

 Remy and Vero were on their way from the orphanage to the "Tent Meeting". 

 You can see just a few of the many, many people who came to celebrate with us.

 

 A "long" view of the celebration and the attendees.  The weather was great, with balmy breezes and the temperatures were great, too.

 Thank you for being a part of this with us, through prayers, support and encouragement.  We will try and post some photos of the children in the near future!!  May the Lord bless and keep you.

We are growing

Greetings in the Name of the Lord!

We have been very busy and getting so much accomplished.  Where to start?  Well, the best place to start is with our new orphans.  You have seen a photo of Emmanuella.  She was our first.  Then, we received our first boy.  His name is Ephraim.  He is a bit different from Emmanuella.  He is very outgoing and smiles a lot.  He is two years old.  His being there and being such an active little fellow, has drawn Emmanuella out and she is becoming an active, happy child now.  And now, just yesterday, we received a 2 ½  year old little girl.  She is still very shy and hasn't spoken yet.  Her name is Ammonia (not real sure of the spelling yet, but that is how it is pronounced.)  We have taken some photos of the kids.  

Here is Ephraim.  You can see what a happy child he is.

 And then there is Ammonia.  She was still a bit frightened when we took these photos.  

 But, kids will be kids.  You can see how interacting with each other changes demeanor.  They will be a great group.

 We did go today to pick up another child.  It was  a little 6 month old boy.  But he has aids, so we could not take him. He is in the hospital.  Please pray for these children who are abandoned and have no one to care for them.   

We do ask you to pray for several things now.  As we take in children, pray that the Lord will be with us in these decisions and that He will bring the children He wants to our attention.  And pray for the workers at IDADEE that they can adjust as quickly as the children seem to be doing.  These little lives are a huge responsibility for them.  They do have the love to share with the children.

 Our next prayer request centers on an upcoming event.  We will be having our dedication of the orphanage and the compound on April 10th.  We are including the invitation here.  Shannon did a great job of getting it set up and printed.  So, if you can, come for this event.  We are excited and praying for God to bless all who come to share with us.

Keep in touch, and email or write to either Remy or Vero and let us know how we can pray for you, too. 

Greetings from Haiti

Sorry for the long delay in posting, but a lot has happened in the last few months.  We have a lot to report, so sit down, and relax...we'll share it all.

First, we want to show you how far the building has come.  It has even improved since these photos, so we'll have to update again with more photos.  But for now...the roof is on, which we showed you before.  But the front of the building has taken on a new look.  And the interior has also improved a lot.  

You can see the porch is near completion.  And we have a walkway and have started some night blooming jasmine to border the walk.  These are just superficial things, compared to the rest.

We have our house parents in place...Vilbrun and Wangelie Martin.  They were married in December and moved up from Port au Prince to the IDADEE compound.  We also have Sainvil and Lea Volmyr as caretakers and cook.  We have a photo of Vilbrun and Wangelie but not Sainvil and Lea...that will come in the next post. 

As you can see here, the kitchen is will on the way to completion thanks to work teams and money donated for the project.  Things really are moving along well.  

 In fact...we are planning to have our official dedication for the whole IDADEE complex and children's home on April 10th, 2011.  We will be posting more on that in the very near future.  But we would appreciate your prayers for all of these things.  We are totally depending on the Lord to help us with the financial end of things.  For the workers and for the children....OH...we have our FIRST child.  She arrived yesterday.  Her name is Emmanuella Valmyr. She was born June 7th, 2008.  She does have parents and one sister, but the home situation is so very poor, the family has no way to care for her.  So we do ask for prayers for Emmanuella and for her family, but also for our staff as they have started the long awaited project of helping the poorest of the poor.

  The next post will also include information on how you can help, through prayers, and through support in various ways.  Please keep praying. 

The roof is finally on

We have been trying to get the roof on for quite some time.  Many things stood in our way.  We met with the architect to improve our plans.  Because of the earthquake, we wanted to make the structure safer. It took time to study exactly what was needed, concerning the concrete and supports.  

Our second problem arose when Haiti had some political problems and the roads were blocked and places of business were shut down.  This lasted for almost a week.  

But FINALLY, on December 3rd, we were able to pour the roof.  We poured about 600 square meters of cement.  We hired almost 130 men to work on the project and we finished it in 1 day.  We also had 9 people working on food for those workers.  You can see it was a HUGE project.  We started at 6:00 am and  finished at 4:00 in the afternoon.  The photos below show the work in progress and the finished roof. 

This picture shows the preparation of the roof before pouring the cement.

This is our cooks and where they worked to prepare the meals.

The next two photos are of the actual pouring of the cement.  They had three areas where they were mixing cement and handing it up to the roof workers.  You can see the progress of the work being done.

And finally, it is finished.  We have someone out there pouring water on it to help set the cement firmly.   A job well done!!

 We are already starting the process of selecting the children for the home.  At present we have 4 children ready to move in with us.  Names will be published once we have the forms filled out.  Their ages are: 2, 3, 3 and 4 years old.  We had hoped to start with just infants, but these four cases are desperate children who have lost their whole families.  One 3 year old child has a grandmother, but she is quite old and unable to care for the child.   The child that is 2 years old has a father, but he is very ill and not expected to live.  The other two children are totally without family.

We will now start the process of finding supporters for these children.  We are praying that the Lord will find the right people to help with each child we have.

We have our house parents ready to move in.  Vilbrun and his wife (as of Dec. 19th) will be the main house parents.  Vilbrun and Wengelie (his wife) will be in charge of the children and their needs.  Sanvill and Leah will be overseers for the orphanage.  Leah will be cooking the meals and Sanvill will be in charge of the maintenance of the buildings and the yard.  Both couples will work together for the children and the compound.  We are also praying to find sponsors for these two couples as well.  
    

We have now given you many things to pray about.  We know the Lord will help us in our endeavor to help these children and to support them.  Thank you for being a prayer partner with us on this enormous project.  May the Lord bless you!