DECEMBER SNAPSHOTS

December here has been a whirlwind of a month - as it most often is!  Maybe you can relate? Anyway, I thought I should post a few photos (with brief commentary) before they are completely "old news". 

So, first up, a photo of the seven students who were the first ever to take the ACT on Cowman's campus. Six of them were Cowman students while the 7th was our friend Haylie, who lives down the road at Emmaus Biblical Seminary. It will be a few weeks still before we hear how they did.

We had a great visit from our friend Kelly who helped a tremendous amount at Cowman during her week AND she spent some time with the orphans at The Potter's House. I have much to tell you about Kelly and her relationship with the orphanage, but that will wait until later in January...

We got our annual Christmas card photo, and even successfully included both dogs (even though Oreo is not at all thrilled to have Ginger in our lives). 

The final days of school featured a lot of dressing up and candy canes and class parties ... and another special visitor who has become a real regular (for which we are very thankful!). Pastor Phil lead Cowman in a very raucous final chapel of 2017. 

Caleb and Frantz helped with the music.

And the high school science students threw "snow" over the crowd as they left chapel.

During our final full week of classes, I came across an interesting little living object lesson on overcoming fear: One night I found a tarantula on our front porch and managed to catch him and bring him into show my students, especially my 6th grade science class. Of course there was a lot of screaming and a bit of theatrics, but I was impressed with the level of curiosity the students soon demonstrated. 

We even had a death match between the spider and a praying mantis. (The spider won.)

One day after school, a few of the students spent about 45 minutes working up their guts to let the spider crawl on their hands ... oh so briefly. About three students successfully touched the tarantula but often the interaction ended with seeing the spider launched unexpectedly through the air. 

But THEN a young lady visiting from Ohio visited our class and showed us how easy it was to pick up a tarantula and how little we needed to fear a bite. Before you knew it, kids were lining up to take their turns at letting this little guy crawl up their arms. (I'm not sure I can convey how near miraculous this was, especially among Haitians!)

Even Hannah got into the act:

Even I overcame my deep-seated hesitation...

Turns out, there's nothing at all to fear. (I need to remember this.)

On a less icky note, the teaching staff of Cowman gathered for our annual Christmas party. Look at this incredible staff! Truly a great group of people and a joy to work with. Praise God for each unique individual He has called to this ministry.

The annual Cowman Christmas program required a lot of effort from a lot of folks. On top of all the usual orchestrations with food and music and acting, there was the extra challenge of driving props and participants 45 minutes down the pot-hole laden road to a church big enough to accommodate our ever-growing audience. 

But it's all worth it in the end!

The middle school and high school students sang "Mary, Did You Know?" under the direction of our science teacher, Chris Love.

Gotta have the manger scene, of course.

One of the newest members of our OMS Haiti missionary family, Lori took on the "honor" of directing the actors for the production. She did an awesome job.

The evening ended with a sandwich and cookie free-for-all...

And a photo booth.  (Hannah is behind the green glasses.)

Sisters.

After school was finally out, we made a quick trip to Santiago, Dominican Republic, (with a few extra friends) mainly for Hannah and Sarah to get their orthodontist visit in but we took advantage of the opportunity to catch the latest Star Wars movie (which was terrible, in my humble opinion) ...

And we did a whole bunch of shopping, which is exciting for the first few minutes (since there's not a store anything like this in all the north of Haiti) but THEN you realize that Dominicans are almost as crazy with their Christmas shopping as Americans are. And I DO NOT MISS Christmas shopping.

Our second and final night in Santiago, we found a Christmas celebration with lots of trees lit up around a monument in the center of town, where we got a family silhouette. 

Another special visitor showed up around that time, Pastor Storly Michel all the way from Columbus, Indiana. His family soon joined him.

We had a wonderful Christmas day with family.

The kids did an especially nice job this year of getting gifts for each other, even with limited budgets and options. I was impressed.

In the afternoon, we observed one of our new family traditions - delivering Christmas cakes to some friends.

We were back home again in time for dinner with Rose and her boys (David was away visiting relatives). 

During our attempt to deliver a cake to Brandon and his mother, we found out that he was in the hospital, recovering from typhoid. He was on his 9th day in the hospital when we got there on the 26th. Melissa offered to do some home cooking for him and then she and I stayed at the hospital a few hours while his mom took the opportunity to go home for a bit and shower. 

(Glad to report Brandon was able to go home the next day and is planning to be back at Cowman on January 3rd when we get started again.)

The boys have spent a lot of hours on the trampoline, perfecting their forward and backward flips.

Yesterday we had a Christmas party at Emmaus for all of us who didn't get to travel to the States for Christmas. It was a great afternoon.

One last tradition - today, Hannah and Sarah worked on decorating a gingerbread house.

On a final, fitting note regarding the passing of time - the mulberry bushes we planted just over a year ago have grown like crazy and are starting to produce fruit. 

It puts me in mind of the last stanza of a Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem my high school students will be reading next week: 

Let us, then, be up and doing, 

   With a heart for any fate; 

Still achieving, still pursuing, 

   Learn to labor and to wait.

ONE DAY

We call it our "Science Lab", but so far there are currently only two features that distinguish this room from our other high school classrooms: first, there's a decent sized, air-conditioned closet full of microscopes, beakers, and dissection trays and such ...

And secondly, there's an emergency shower head mounted on the front wall.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          (And it works - we tried it!)

All of the numerous other items that will truly mark this room as a laboratory are coming "One Day".

For example, where these pipes jut out of the concrete wall (at exactly shin level!), there will One Day be a row of sinks.

For now, Bunsen burner use is not 100% safe here, but One Day this space - where our homemade wooden tables currently sit - will see a set of 6 tall lab tables and 24 tall lab stools.

One Day, Mrs. Love will need to relocate her periodic table to clear space on this wall for a fume hood, safely making possible some truly top-notch chemistry experiments.

Finally, (and Mrs. Love says this might be the top priority in many ways) One Day the floor of the Science Lab will be tiled. 

You would not believe the amount of dust created DAILY from the action of feet and chairs across an unfinished, unsealed concrete floor. This dust ultimately could be fatal to the microscopes and other tech equipment with which God has blessed Cowman's science program. Not to mention, the uneven floor is a genuine safety hazard in general and could be doubly so in the presence of the open flame of a Bunsen burner. 

You might have guessed that the Science Lab is not alone in having an unfulfilled wish list; there are plenty of One Days all over the Cowman School campus.

Our sweet first graders, our principal, our secretaries, our junior and senior high students all await that One Day when tile covers their rough, concrete floors too. 

Mr. Adams, Ms. Kacie, and I each look forward One Day to ditching our DIY dry erase boards (made of $12 bathroom panels from Lowe's) for proper white boards that don't take 30 minutes to erase at the end of the day. (It's the little things...) 

All of these things and many others are on a waiting list because Cowman doesn't currently possess the resources even to construct the next few classroom walls we'll need by next school year, much less this substantial punch list. But we trust the Lord will provide.

Maybe you can guess why I am telling YOU all of this. We have learned over the past 5 years that the Lord most often provides what is needed for His Kingdom work through the generosity of His people. 

I am sure that you, like me, know Haiti is a place of deep hurt, great needs and plenty of injustice, but maybe you're skeptical of whether anything will ever change here. I want to reassure you that One Day life will be truly different here in Haiti.

If you'd be tempted to give if only you were as certain of positive outcomes, let me humbly suggest an approach that can truly make a lasting difference: Invest in Education.

Cowman now serves 181 students who are being prepared to be world changers. Our goal as teachers and administration is to give them an educational experience that is second to none, to the glory of God. 

Listed below are several projects waiting for a completion date. Would you look over this list prayerfully and consider the possibility that the Lord might use YOU to bring One Day closer to Cowman School and to all of Haiti?

A few possibilities:

Project 1: Dry Erase Boards

(Cost amounts for each project piece is a current "best guess"; some factors, like customs taxes on imported materials, are always wildcards!) 

     1A - Ms. Kacie's First Grade Classroom - $500

     1B - Mr. Adam's History Classroom  - $500

     1C - Mr. Gross' English Classroom  - $500

Project 2: Tile Floors

     2A - Tile for Ms. Kacie's First Grade Room - $2,500

     2B - Tile for Main Office  - $2,500

     2C - Tile for Science Lab  - $2,500

     2D to 2G - Tile the Other Classrooms and hall of the 2nd Floor

                            - roughly $10,000

Project 3: Furnish the Science Lab

     3A - Fume Hood - $3,000

     3B - 6 Lab Tables with Epoxy Countertops - $1,500

     3C - 24 Lab Stools - $1,500

     3D - Cabinetry- $2,500

     3F - Sinks and Fixtures - $1,000

Black Friday and Cyber Monday have passed and "Giving Tuesday" is upon us. If you are feeling prompted by the Spirit to support the work of Cowman School on behalf of Christ's Kingdom and the future of Haiti, we would be so grateful. And LIVES WILL BE CHANGED. 

Perhaps you are in a position to take care of one of these projects from your own budget or perhaps you'd be willing to spearhead a fundraiser with your Sunday school class or bring Cowman before your church's mission committee. Whatever your support might look like, I ask you to take one simple step right now:

Email me at sgross@onemissionsociety.org and share with me what you are thinking and how you might be able to contribute to the realization of One Day. Then I will gladly share with you information on taking further steps.

If, on the other hand, you simply want to directly give a gift to be used toward the general construction fund, you can do that at this website.

TRASH PUPPY GETS A NAME

Looking for a warm and fuzzy story?

About a month ago, I noticed Caleb heading out our front door with a bag of trash in one hand and a bowl of food scraps in the other. He said the scraps were for two puppies he'd discovered living in the trash pit where refuse from all the missionary homes gets dumped for periodic burning.

Not the loveliest corner of Haiti:

After dinner that night, curiosity drove Caleb's siblings and me to follow him down the trail to the trash heap. Sadly, one of the two puppies lay motionless against the wall. It was too late for him.

But this little girl came to greet the five of us, timidly wagging her tail. She was in rough shape - open sores on her head, ears and back. Ribs showing. Seemingly alone in the world and surviving on scraps of food found among the garbage.

Hannah went running back to the house to grab some Q-tips and antibiotic ointment and within minutes she and Sarah were doctoring up that pitiful puppy.

Now, I am a dog-lover ... but I'm also a realist. I was immediately concerned that the kids were going to get attached and go to great lengths to nurse this pup back to health, only to be heartbroken by the inevitable visit by the Angel of Death!  Or ...

OR the dog was going to survive and then the kids would be begging to keep it. And I would have to be the one to say "No". We had tried to raise a Haitian pup a few years ago and it had been disastrous - that whiny, yapping puppy (misnamed "Buddy") had quickly grown into an unpredictably fierce biting machine with no friends outside our immediate family. (And even the family was not unanimous in that!) 

Besides, we already HAVE a dog. Oreo joined our family 14 years ago, just before Samuel was born. And this past August we had finally brought her to live with us in Haiti, relieving Grandma Trudy after four years of dogsitting duty she had never asked for.

We joke that we brought Oreo down to the Caribbean for her retirement, but in reality, we had all missed having her around.

So we already have a dog and she's plenty enough to look after on her own (especially since she's developed a leaky bladder in her old age).

But I certainly couldn't object to the heartfelt compassion which drove the kids to begin making morning and evening trips to the trash pit to check on and feed the little Trash Puppy. (Even though sometimes it involved scrambling eggs that I had paid good money for.)

After several days, the kids were excited to report that the pup was beginning to gain strength and her skin was healing up. She was always happy to see them but never once attempted to follow them back home. Which I thought was PERFECT.

And then, one dark evening, there was a faint whimper outside our front door. Trash Puppy was sitting on our porch. She had found us! And SOME inhabitants welcomed her wholeheartedly. (And some did not.)

If you look closely at the above photo, you'll notice Oreo on the inside of the front door, shooting laser beams out of her eyes directly at Trash Puppy's head. (And I was on Oreo's side.)

Trash Puppy was still there the next day... and the next ... and the next.

She was given a water dish to drink from, table scraps to eat, and an old towel to sleep on. In other words, she wasn't about to leave anytime soon.

And then Trash Puppy got a bath ... several baths ...  

And then started turning on the puppy charm full blast every chance she got.

She won ME over with a quality extremely rare in puppies and highly valued by me - the ability to quietly sleep through the entire night without a single whimper or yelp.

She has yet to win over Oreo - who alternates between pretending Trash Puppy doesn't exist at all and snarling loudly in her general direction.

There was really only one final, big step to make it all "official". She needed a name. 

Sarah was especially helpful in suggesting several dozen options. Eventually, we settled on ...

"Ginger" seemed appropriate not only for her color, but for her general demeanor. Under the puppy friskiness, she most definitely has a gentle, grateful heart.

For several weeks now I have talked tough to the kids (and on Facebook) about "Trash Puppy" and how I didn't want her sticking around, but the truth is I'm a sucker for a good redemption story. 

It's looking like Ginger has been rescued from the trash pit, given a new name, and adopted into a family. Who can resist being a part of a story like that?

Psalm 40:2

"He lifted me out of the pit,

Out of the mud and mire;

He set my feet on a rock

And gave me a firm place to stand."

Keep Oreo in your prayers ... she might be overcompensating just a bit as she attempts to step up her cuteness game...

THANKS TO OUR FRIENDS IN PA

With all the construction projects over the past two years, Cowman's budget has been continually stretched to the max. We've done some great fundraisers and seen some generous gifts come our way in that time. Even so, we often find ourselves in the position where we are stretching dollars to barely cover concrete, steel, paint, light fixtures and labor, with precious little remaining to actually furnish the new spaces. 

So when my cousin Jennifer put me in contact with the Children's Ministry Coordinator at her church back in June, with the prospect of Cowman becoming their summer VBS mission project, I was elated. Grace UMC of Coal Center, Pennsylvania wanted to know what Cowman could really use and Melissa and I suggested it would be great (and necessary) to have enough chairs to cover our five new classrooms for this school year. 

In late July, we had the privilege of attending Grace UMC on the morning of their VBS closing service and were delighted to hear they had already raised $1,500 and would continue gathering donations until Labor Day! 

Church programs involving kids can often be incredibly cute (and funny!) and this one at Grace did not disappoint! There were some big personalities on that platform...

All told, Grace raised $2,400 for Cowman - enough to buy and ship 42 sturdy chairs. (Sometimes people assume that everything is dirt cheap in Haiti. And mangoes and avocados are, but anything that is not grown or manufactured in country tends to be quite expensive after shipping costs and customs taxes are added into the mix.)

We started the school year with a couple dozen borrowed chairs but yesterday, after the day's final bell, the 42 chairs arrived!

31 of them went into my classroom - so that all the middle schoolers have a place to sit for my afternoon writing class. (Don't they look sharp?)

The remaining 11 went into Mr. Love's math room.

Today, we started breaking them in...

Here's hoping for many years of good use!

Many thanks to the kids and leadership (especially Andrea) of Grace UMC for raising the funds. And thanks to Pastor Ken for inviting us to worship and to share about Haiti with the congregation. 

And, last but not least, our sincere thanks to my cousin Jennifer and her husband Michael and their family for their hospitality and for connecting us to this church family in the first place! God works in mysterious and wonderful ways.

P.S. For those who have been praying for the Love Family, we're glad to say they arrived back in Haiti yesterday after a rather quick trip to Indiana for Jeff's dad's funeral. Please continue to pray for them as they (re-)readjust to life in Haiti and catching up with work while still in the midst of the grieving process. 

FIRST WEEK IN PHOTOS

What a week! All things considered, it was a relatively smooth start to the new school year at Cowman. 

Or ... we've gotten used to chaotic school starts!

Hurricane Irma threw us a curve ball the previous week and put us a bit further behind in prepping our new upstairs rooms for our Middle School and High School classes. Fortunately, we were relatively unscathed by the storm itself since the winds never grew too powerful in our area.

Just enough to take out a couple of large branches:

By Monday morning, Cowman was ready to welcome the grade schoolers to class. 

And by Monday afternoon my classroom was finally pulled together for my literature and writing classes for the older students.

Looks pretty sharp, huh?  We have five new classrooms for this school year and we are using them all!

By Tuesday morning, after weeks of moving furniture, cleaning shelves and organizing EVERYTHING, Melissa and I were ready to line the kids up for their traditional first day photo, load up the pickup truck and head to Cowman to start the REAL work. 

6th, 7th and 8th grade are all together this year, giving us 31 in Cowman Middle School. Some day we'll have lockers, but for now each middle schooler has a shelf in Mr. Adams' history room, keeping the chaos somewhat contained!

Melissa and I are in denial about now having three high school students in the family. Samuel is a freshman? Impossible!

Caleb is a junior (!) and Hannah is a sophomore (!!) and together our kids make up more than a fifth of Cowman High School's student body of 14. 

And our youngest, Sarah, is a 5th grader! She is so excited to be doing math on the computer this year - like her older siblings have been doing for several years. She's thrilled to have her "own" computer, even though it's just Melissa's old clunker with a few new stickers applied.

When we moved to Haiti four years ago, Cowman started the year with 65 students or so. We've tripled in size since then! It's hard to believe but from our 3-year-olds to our high school juniors, Cowman now has 188 students!

More students means more staff. Melissa has hired a few new staff members for this school year. A couple have personal ties with me. A couple of days before the hurricane, I went downtown Cap Haitien to buy a couple of new fans for our home. Now, Cap is a quarter of a million people, but it amazes me how often I see someone I know. On this particular day, Oles came running across the street after I had parked and offered to help me negotiate a good price for a fan. 

Oles was in my adult English class two years ago and was an outstanding student with a great personality and gentle spirit. I asked him if he had ever been successful in getting a job at the bank as he had messaged me over the summer. No, they hadn't even called him back after the interview.

The next day, Melissa told me she was still looking for a teaching assistant for Mr. James in 4th grade and I said, "I know who you should call!"

Now here he is...

Melissa was also looking for some part-time help in the preschool classes since we are trying to provide healthy snacks to the kids this year in an effort to avoid the crazy energy and mood swings from the ample sugar and grease contained by the junk food sent from home over the past few years. 

Lo and behold, Ruysdael's mom, Madeliene, was available and ready to give the new position a try.

Through these past few weeks, Melissa has seen her fair share of challenges in her new role as principal, and the first full week of classes continued the trend. With 188 students now being dropped off and picked up in a very small parking lot, traffic flow has become a leading cause of frustration for EVERYONE. Melissa's been working out a system that shows promise now that drivers are starting to get the hang of it. 

It still requires a lot of hands on attention from Melissa - on Friday, she and Val and several other workers got caught in a tropical downpour during dismissal:

Speaking of Val, I'd like to conclude with some fairly urgent prayer requests:

Hurricane Irma really disrupted a lot of travel plans, including Val's. She ended up spending almost a week longer with us than she intended to and now she's going to miss a vacation with extended family as a result. Pray patience and comfort and strength for her, if you would. She has done so much for Cowman over the last few weeks and we will look forward to seeing her again soon. 

Also, the government here recently announced some tax hikes and the news did not go over well with a lot of citizens. There are "demonstrations" rumored for this week in Port-au-Prince and in Cap. This has the potential to disrupt our school calendar and frustrate travel plans, not to mention the threat of violence. Please pray for peace.

Furthermore, there's a new hurricane headed our way - Maria. She's building in intensity and right now we are in the cone for Thursday. Again, at the very least this threatens to disrupt our school week. God spared us from Irma, please pray that Maria would dissipate and disappear. NOBODY, in these islands or in Florida, needs another hurricane right now. 

Finally, in the midst of all this turmoil, our math teacher, Mr. Love, received news last week that his father was dying. He flew out the next day but was unable to make it back to Indiana before his dad passed away. Now Mrs. Love (our science teacher) and their son Camden are hoping to fly out tomorrow for the funeral. The loss of a family member is a heavy burden by itself, but this is being complicated by tricky travel plans and the need to leave instructions for classes science and math classes to be covered in their absence - when they can't even begin to predict the length of that absence. Our hearts break for them and so we ask for your prayers to join ours - prayers for comfort and peace, protection and strength. May the Good Shepherd guide them and their extended family through this particularly difficult Valley of the Shadow of Death.

Thanks for all your prayers and support!