So I need to do a quick update (in pictures) to get us current. Let's go back to Melissa's birthday at the end of October. We celebrated with lots of family time, breakfast in bed and some honest-to-goodness cheesecake.
Halloween around our house was just the way I like it - virtually non-existent. A friend brought us some candy corn and that's all I needed to celebrate the end of October.
Then, the first Thursday in November, Melissa and Hannah left home for a trip to the Dominican Republic, accompanied by our friend and co-worker, Cassie. The goal - to get working on a solution for Hannah's chronic jaw pain. Cassie knew of a good orthodontist in Santiago and helped Melissa make an appointment for assessment on Thursday afternoon.
Long story short, their three day trip turned into a six day absence due to delays in getting a follow up visit with the doctor. In the end, though, Melissa was happy with the orthodontist and he was able to set up Hannah with braces both above and below.
The ladies made the most out of their extra time, getting their hair styled and nails done and visiting restaurants you can't find in Haiti, like Burger King and TGIFriday's. Melissa also did some grocery shopping and picked up a few household items at a store that was remarkably similar to a Sam's Club. She was in shopper's heaven.
While the two of them were living the high life in the DR, we were blissfully unaware of coming floods back home. On that Saturday noon, many Cowman teachers gathered for the funeral of our first grade teacher's mother. Ben's mom had died quite unexpectedly at a young 56 years of age after a short illness. We were heart-broken for him.
It was a beautiful ceremony at a local church and there had to be easily 4 or 5 hundred people in attendance. She was obviously a well loved woman.
The boys and I had to get a picture with us all dressed in our best.
At the tail end of the funeral, a light rain began to fall. As we drove home, it continued and gained strength.
It had been raining a bit now and then over previous days and at first it was simply a welcome break from the Haitian heat.
At school one day I had scrambled to grab my camera when I saw the teachers of the 4-year-olds pass by my open door, guarding their students like a couple of mother hens.
But by that Saturday night, the rain was coming down HARD and not letting up - for hours on end. And then it continued through the day on Sunday.
The weather system stalled out right over Cap Haitien and dumped inches upon inches of water. That water came rushing down the mountainside and overflowed the banks of the Grand River, carrying mud and rocks and garbage and sewage with it and carving deep ravines through roads as it went.
One of my adult English students later sent me this picture from his neighborhood:
Much of Cap Haitien looked this bad ... or worse. The main road through town, Route 1 Nationale, was strewn with mud and garbage and foul water.
On Sunday afternoon there was a short lull in the rain and bulldozers were quickly employed to clear the main road at least. I took the following picture to show how thick the mud was on the road compared to the lane in the foreground that had just been bulldozed clear. Several feet thick!
Sunday evening, after dark, Brett Bundy and I headed out to Rose and David's house to rescue the family from rising waters. We floated their two boys down the street on a large surfboard while Rose and her cousin Sonny waded through the water alongside us back to the waiting truck. David stayed back at the house to protect it from any possible looting.
Since Melissa and Hannah were still away and Sarah was sleeping in the boys' room, we put Ryan and Rasheid and Sonny in Hannah's room and Rose stayed next door with the Bundys.
School was canceled for Monday, then Tuesday, then ... the whole week. I ended up spending a lot of time in the kitchen (missing Melissa intensely) while everyone else had plenty of free time on their hands. Sometimes we used it well; here's Samuel reading a "Froggy" book to Ryan.
I was able to check in with Daniel at one point. His neighborhood and his house had flooded. There were piles of freshly shoveled mud up and down the streets. His neighbors and the children he feeds each weekend had helped him get the water out of his house.
This shot is from inside Daniel's house. Maybe you can tell that his threshold has a raised lip on it and then his floor is sunken a good 8 or 9 inches below that lip. The flood waters had come over the lip and then filled his floor like a shallow dark pool. Thankfully, he had managed to get all of the rice and beans and other food supplies up onto cinder blocks and out of the reach of the water.
By Tuesday noon, Melissa and Hannah managed to drive through Cap Haitien - slowly - to return home from the DR. And there was much rejoicing. Especially since they came bearing gifts of doughnuts and apples and potato chips and all kinds of assorted goodies.
The rains finally started to let up by mid-week, enough that we were able to join Storly Michel and his work team at Radio 4VEH to celebrate the (near) completion of a much needed remodel of the station's sound studios.
Our family felt honored to join voices with others in singing "Great is Thy Faithfulness" for the microphones. The newly refurbished recording studio was then rededicated to God's service in spreading the gospel across Haiti.
Little by little, life has returned to normal ... for us, anyway.
There are still hundreds of families who continue to suffer the aftereffects of the flooding - loss of food, loss of crops, loss of property. And we are praying against the possibility of cholera outbreaks.
If the Lord brings Haiti to your mind, please lift these friends and neighbors in your prayers, in addition to all those in the southwest of Haiti still recovering from Hurricane Matthew. Also, this Sunday will see the do-over presidential elections here. We're praying for a safe, quiet and honest election day and that God would raise up God-fearing men and women who will lead this nation in a positive direction.
And if I can add one more prayer request, please remember our friend and co-worker Chris Love. She is Cowman's new junior and senior high science teacher and she has been hit hard by a mysterious virus. She has been out of commission for over two weeks now, suffering fevers and pain and dehydration. Some days she has been so weak she could barely speak. Please join us in praying for her complete recovery and for extra strength and grace and peace for her and her husband and their son as they endure what has been a long and intense trial.
Here's Chris in better days showing Hannah and Maxiane some cool sciencey things.
Currently, we are glad to be back in school this week after so much time off. It's going to be a short week, though, since Friday is a Haitian holiday. All the OMS missionaries will be making the day into an early Thanksgiving since school will be in session on the following Thursday.
We are also looking forward to welcoming a short term team from Grundy Center, Iowa this coming weekend, led by our dear friends Phil and Connie Dicks. They are always such a delight to have around and we will be anxious to see what God does in and through this new team.
God bless you, and, as always, thank you so much for your support!
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