Thede Connection

Sept. 1st Rain and Roof

Wed, 01/09/2010 - 20:50

Over 3 inches of rain this week reminds us to pray for the hundreds of thousands living under tarps and in tiny shacks.
It also reminds us while being thankful for our tin roofs that it is an extra blessing when they don't leak. Cory's guys scraped for hours on the roof of the medical records / waiting room building of the clinic this week preparing it for a new paint job.
They also will attempt to stop the termite damage in the inside by using some wood treatment.
Good news from the medical director, Pastor Rigo - with the help of the Indigent fund and some financial gifts the clinic ended the financial year without debt. Some months debt did occur like in January, post earthquake but all and all the year ended up much better than the previous year.
In February the clinic provided free medical care to the earthquake survivors who displaced to the Fauche / Port Margo area to live with relatives.
Please continue to pray for the work-that the spiritual focus does not get lost in the physical needs.
Also Pastor Rigo and his wife continue to battle health issues.
The translation work on the Health Book continues.
Kid's club kids that the clinic helps.

Categories: Planet Home Education

Pictures of Last week's End of the Northern District Conference

Sun, 29/08/2010 - 22:02

Sorry thought that Cory had posted this. Northern District Pastors.

Categories: Planet Home Education

28 Aug.

Sun, 29/08/2010 - 05:18

Sun shining, slight breeze stirring the hot air through the leaves, a baby goat competes with our wind chime to be noticed-all in all a nice Saturday afternoon.
The tin roof of the medical records building has started to be scraped to prepare it for roof paint, one of next weeks projects.
Today I put the last lesson plans of the year into Eli and Anna's working folders-the end draws near.
The photo is of Eli and Anna by this year's Artemisia crop. It is used as a medicine for malaria and to help the immune system.
The health book now exists in Creole-but the proof reading continues.
This week Cory worked on the financial reports with the folks at Global Partners- a new financial year will start on September first and some of financial procedures are changing.
E-mail update zoomed out through cyberspace on Thursday so if you didn't get yours let us know.

Categories: Planet Home Education

Aug. 25 Six weeks to Go.

Thu, 26/08/2010 - 01:37

Translation work continues both in our house and at Pastor Emmanuel's as they agreed to help with the proof reading of the health booklet. Sadly I lost some of my work yesterday on the computer but I remain thankful that the ideas for new topics has slowed considerably.

Cory's first attempt at using a sea container business to ship supplies into Cap Haitian worked very well. In less than a month of receiving payment we received roofing paint and a lawn mower from the USA. Cory's gardeners work to spread mulch and rice hulls around the campus banana plants.
School continues for Eli and Anna as we finish up the year looking forward to a long fall vacation in the USA [We skipped summer break for this]. Next Friday we plan to take the day off to celebrate Eli becoming a teenager. Avocado season started, we enjoyed a red sugar apple last week and more bananas.
Sunday morning we worshiped with most of the pastors from the north district of the Wesleyan church as well as delegates from all 26 churches. Pastor Rigo was ordained. A couple goals talked about-to be in the new Fauche church building by next years district conference and to increase 50% the size of each church.

Categories: Planet Home Education

22 Aug. Prayer request and update

Mon, 23/08/2010 - 02:29

First a request for LaGonave's Wesleyan Hospital Administrator and family.

Good morning ,

This past Thursday , after receiving news regarding the deteriorating health of Rousvel’s daughter Bedonia, I launched an appeal for help within a small circle of our stateside medical network. Bedonia is the child that received care in the US for Spinal Bifida after her birth nine years ago. At present she has a serious infection in her foot that now involves the bones and may require amputation. In an effort to save the foot , or amputate it in the best possible conditions for healing and future prosthetic , a group of “Haiti disaster relief alumni” from Marion, IN have agreed, with a local hospital to sponsor her care. I will copy you pertinent emails. I am glad that we are able to respond to this need in support of Rous who works so hard for the hospital.

Blessings

Dan

Update on medical student Jean Donald.

I had an opportunity to visit Jean Donald in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, last Monday night. He was a little down, he has lost a lot of weight. The visit of five men from Team from Calvary Wesleyan of Harrington, DE, Pastor Carlos Martinez and myself seemed to lift his spirits. His casts are off his arms and legs, and he will begin therapy soon. He did not have movement in his right thumb and two fingers. The Team had prayer with him, and he began moving his thumb, praise God! He is now receiving email: Jean Donald Dorelus jeandod@hotmail.com On June 24 a van plugged into the car Donald was driving in Haiti near the Leogane, nine people in the van died including the driver. Donald was alone in the car, he suffered multiple fractures, he was returned to the D.R. where he is studing medicine for treatment. Donald hopes to return to his studies in November. Thank you for your continued prayer. In Christ,

Rick Global Partners
* Ibero-American Wesleyan Fellowship
* Caribe Atlantic: Suriname, Guyana and French Guiana
* GP Rep to Wesleyan Hispanic Congregations in the USA
Rick West, Coordinator

Categories: Planet Home Education

Aug. 21 Translation, banana plants, and More...

Sun, 22/08/2010 - 04:41

Thank you to all who prayed for the translation project.

Cory helped a ton-both by proof reading pages and pages for his brain impaired dyslexic wife who's 'handicap' adds an interesting twist when writing in Creole.

I have trouble enough switching letters in English but adding that E-is pronounced 'a' and I is pronounced 'e' compounded by being tired.......well you can see why when Cory figured out how to have the computer easily locate any letter combination or words caused GREAT rejoicing!!!!!!
All information at this point has been translated into Creole. The spelling correction work continues but at a much faster rate.
Some words I had wrong over 100 times but with the handy-dandy 'find & replace' feature I can correct them at a pace of about 1 very 3-5 seconds.
Cory-a great man in my life also kept the campus supplied in electricity this week during the Northern District Yearly Conference. He retrieved cargo [including banana plants], mail and supplies from Cap Haitian on Thursday. And saved a coconut tree from inside the building project of the new church site-and placed it in our yard.
Eli and Anna worked hard at school and even helped look up some words for mom [combining spelling class with Creole study].

Categories: Planet Home Education

18 Aug. Project prayer request.

Thu, 19/08/2010 - 01:24

Below you can read what I shared on Sonlight Forums today with my International friends. As some are in 'closed' areas we talk in 'code'. I'd add please pray the kids to continue to work at school with less help this week and for Cory how is trying to help with the Creole spell checking.Basically after the earthquake I became motivated to start a project idea that had been simmering on the back burner for a few years.

In the 12 years we have lived in Haiti I have only seen one small health booklet in Creole and it appalled me with some of the dangerous misinformation in it.

While I only spend a few hours doing patient care a week-a lot of the teaching information gets repeated week after week because in part of the lack of basic health information.

Well-a supporting group in the USA picked up on this project and decided to help with printing-GREAT. I've been pushing for a couple months to get the information into Creole but have had trouble finding help, and the help I have is very busy with Dad's work.

Well I thought I was almost done getting everything in to Creole when yesterday Dad brought to mind some great topics that NEED to be in the book and a good website with basic information.

So now the book grew again by 15 pages or so that need to be translated. And I leave my translator help for the USA in less than 7 weeks.

And my Creole/English dictionaries are falling apart with all the recent use.

So please lift this project up when you think about it. I hope it will have a big positive impact but it is overwhelming me at the moment. Merci in advance.

Categories: Planet Home Education

16th Aug. 2010 Weekend report: Beach and fishing nets.

Tue, 17/08/2010 - 05:57

We visited the beach on Saturday and watched the folks pull in a couple fishing nets. Even with many pulling each side each pull only advanced the net a couple of inches so it took a long time.



Once the net arrived to the beach only a small basket of fish, crabs and squids resulted-not much to show for the hard work.

A couple of gelatinous critters also ended up in the net but not edible.


On the other hand the coconut pavlova served with blueberry pie filling and whip topping--very edible. Thanks to the crew that made it for me.

Cory again crossed the river Sunday afternoon to provide one of the Kid's Clubs with a video.

Afternoon thunderstorms caused us to wonder if he would make it back.
Thankfully he made it back only a couple minutes after the heavy rains started.

Avocado's season is just around the corner while we enjoy star fruit and Barbados cherries daily.
More banana plants to fly in from the USA on Thursday.

Categories: Planet Home Education

14 Aug. God's Closet.

Sun, 15/08/2010 - 04:52

Grandpa TerAvest's passing the day after he turned 94, Cheryl's [past ECHO intern] death at the hands of the Taliban, my birthday, Eli's countdown to be a teen...all these things this week got me to thinking.
As I get older I find I think more about things..so today as we traveled down the road [14 km = 8.7 miles] 40 minutes to enjoy our Saturday morning on a Caribbean beach I pondered 'stuff'.
Every year I think I realize more that I need less. My list of things I'd like in life grows smaller [especially now that i have a Kindle]
This week also marks the 3 year anniversary of our moving from LaGonave to Fauche. And we moved a lot of stuff. The house came with hardly anything and I knew to host visitors and would not be able to pop in on ex-patriots to borrow anything. I admit that sometimes the stuff my house holds still bothers me a bit.
But today I experienced an epiphany-the stuff in the house I've asked the Lord to use as He sees fit. I acknowledged that the stuff, loosely labeled 'mine' is on loan from Him therefore our home is one of God's Closets.
Our neighbors homes don't have the space to store a bunch of stuff. So when they need tools, ladders, cake pan, blender [cooks made tomato juice for the pastor's meeting once here], a cold place for clinic vaccinations, a quick check of the E-mail--they come to our place.
Ex-pats enjoy our home on visits [they often eat here as we have the only oven on campus]. They also borrow items-kitchen pots, spices, oven, books, fans, raincoat, umbrella, clothes, games, bug spray, tools, and more.
Lord thanks for using us as Your Closet. Help me to remember who REALLY owns this stuff and to share with a loving, open heart. Thank You for sharing with us.

Categories: Planet Home Education

12th Aug. 2010 Pray for pity? Reflection.

Fri, 13/08/2010 - 02:32

This past Sunday, special music consisted of a group [14 or so] young men who sing great a-cappella, harmony together. Wonderful to see nice looking young men joining together in their Sunday best[long sleeved dress shirts, ties and shinny shoes] in song and praise to their Lord.
One of the songs got me to thinking. I didn't write down all the words but the first verse talked about folks in the hospital waiting to see a doctor and suffering.
The second verse talked about Christians in church who could not pray but suffered due to evil.
The third went something like this. All you in church put your heads together [unite] and pray for Haiti. Ask God for pity for her. Haiti can change if together we believe in God.. it can be the solution.
Yes the solution to Haiti's, the sick, the suffering can be found in our loving Lord and Savior.But have I ever prayed for the Lord to pity someone? If I did, time erased the memory.
Pity "the feeling of sorrow or compassion caused by the suffering and misfortune of others." Yes, my God embodies pity. He died because of love but also pity. I'm thankful He pities me and the world.
I think that in America our culture teaches us to scorn pity. "Don't pity me." But in my opinion the world would be a better place if more folks learned to pity. Not just to feel pity but act on that pity to touch the suffering with His love.

Categories: Planet Home Education

Aug. 11 Busy and Giles Update about Conference.

Thu, 12/08/2010 - 07:52

Our days pass doing school, working on translating the health booklet, garden work and planning for the trip to the USA.
In case you missed it the building in the middle of the big picture in the header is our house. I'll be removing the picture soon. I need to learn how to make it smaller.
Thank you to the folks who prayed for the National Conference-I've taken the liberty of coping the update that we received today from the Giles. Pastor Carl attended the conference.
We want to thank you for standing in the gap for us in prayer during our National Conference. We faced some difficult challenges; there was an attempt to stop the conference and declare it illegal and unconstitutional. In the midst of serious threats, God brought us through and we completed the task. We can assure you we would not have had a successful conference without the help of faithful prayer partners like you. We have a new Superintendent in place (Rev. Doucet Desronvil) and a new board of administration. We are very hopeful that this new board will bring the national church ahead... Please continue to intercede on our behalf: For wisdom for the new Superintendent to be able to rally the different districts under his leadership.That the new Superintendent will have the support of all four district superintendents.That there will be cooperation between the National church and the Mission. With Sincere thankfulness, The Gilles in Haiti

Categories: Planet Home Education

Join us in prayer for Cheryl's family.

Tue, 10/08/2010 - 08:37

You'll notice that Cheryl, like Cory, served as an ECHO intern. Please join us in praying for her family, her work, the other families and for those responsible-that they find the Lord. Following is a press release from IWU.

Indiana Wesleyan University Graduate Among

Humanitarian Volunteers Executed by Taliban

Cheryl Marie Beckett, who graduated with honors from Indiana Wesleyan University in 2000, was among the 10 medical volunteers who were shot to death last week in Afghanistan by the Taliban. She was 32 years old.

“The entire Indiana Wesleyan University family is shocked and saddened to learn of the brutal death of this courageous young woman,” Dr. Henry Smith, IWU President, said.

“Those of us at IWU who are privileged to work with students such as Cheryl Beckett are overwhelmed and humbled by their desire to make our world a better place to live, whatever the personal costs may be,” he said.

A memorial service to celebrate Cheryl‘s life will be held sometime in September after fall semester classes begin on IWU’s Marion campus. The University also will establish a Cheryl Beckett Endowed Scholarship.

The body of Cheryl and nine other volunteers – five Americans, two Afghans, a German and a Briton – were discovered on Friday. The volunteers were killed as they returned from a three-week medical mission to the Nuristan province, about 160 miles north of Kabul.

The medical mission was organized by the International Assistance Mission (IAM), an international charitable organization, which has served the people of Afghanistan for three decades.

Cheryl was reared near Cincinnati, where she graduated as the valedictorian of her high school class. She graduated summa cum laude from IWU with a degree in biology.

During her four years at IWU, Cheryl developed a global passion for justice and love while on her travels to Honduras, Mexico, Kenya and Zimbabwe. After college, she worked with AmeriCorps at the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park in Vermont.

Cheryl’s Christian faith and compassion for people led her to the Florida-based Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization (ECHO) where she spent three years preparing for overseas humanitarian projects. She spent the last six years serving the people of Afghanistan through community development, focusing on nutritional gardening and mother-child health.

Cheryl had a deep love for the Afghan people and immersed herself in the local culture, including learning Pashtun and studying the Dari languages.

Cheryl’s parents, Charles and Mary Beckett, live in Knoxville, Tennessee, where her father is the senior pastor of Woodlawn Christian Church. The church supported Cheryl’s charitable missions work.

Memorial services are planned later at Woodlawn Christian Church in Knoxville and at Christian Fellowship Church in Evansville.

Memorials donations can be sent to:

Woodlawn Christian Church

Cheryl Beckett Memorial Fund

4339 Woodlawn Pike

Knoxville, TN 37920

The family of Cheryl Beckett released the following statement:

Cheryl loved and respected the Afghan people. She denied herself many freedoms in order to abide by Afghan law and custom. Her international co-workers and the Afghan Nationals with whom she served loved her. She was honored to be included in this most recent three-week medical journey to the remote populations of Northern Afghanistan.

The wickedness of terrorism is being conquered through daily acts of mercy. Peace in Afghanistan can be achieved by the establishment of just laws for all people and the continued sacrifice and selfless love of people working together.

Those who committed this act of terror should feel the utter shame and disgust that humanity feels for them. We share this pain with those who continue the difficult and dangerous work to which Cheryl committed her life.

We, as a family, will continue to love and pray for the Afghan people. We pray that Cheryl’s life and work will inspire existing and future ministries of mercy to press on.

Sally Cramer

Executive Assistant to

Dr. Henry L. Smith

President

Categories: Planet Home Education

Do you like the new header?

Sun, 08/08/2010 - 21:13

OK so I'm wondering if the picture behind the new header takes up to much room?
You are looking from a local mountain down toward our campus, with the buildings being just to the top right of this view.
Do you prefer the old heading with just words or this one? If we keep the photo we will probably put on a smaller version.
Please let me know. Thank you.
Have a great day in the Lord.

Categories: Planet Home Education

Pictures

Sat, 07/08/2010 - 01:11

I could not get the pictures to load for the last blog so will share them now.
Cory is happily climbing trees, planting and working on garden jobs today.
We are very close to being 3/4 done with our school year.
Colds slowly improving.
[Ripening bananas in the garden, the wedding, and friends visit from Port.]

Categories: Planet Home Education

Aug. 4th

Thu, 05/08/2010 - 05:58

Hot, muggy-yes August feels like summer. Thankfully this 'dry' season remains scattered with good rains for the gardens and trees. Two months from now we should be close to landing in the USA-the countdown draws nearer.
Cory enjoyed the wedding of one of Pastor Emmanuel's daughters on Tuesday morning. This morning school started late due to the delay of saying good bye to the Giles family, Rachel and Katlyn. While we shortened up school days this week we accomplished some work.
Tomorrow the National Church Conference will start in Ti Goave. Please pray as they elect a new National Superintendent and work through other issues.
Cory after working on office work and driving folks to the wedding enjoyed getting out and planting some plants today. The bananas in the garden will soon be ripe enough to start to enjoy.
We continue to share passion fruit and star fruits. Another shipment of banana plants will be arriving in August.
Please join us as well to pray as we work on arranging our speaking schedule. Some churches we wait on responses back from while others we need to get back to. With limited Sundays finding ones that fit with our supporting churches can be difficult at times.

Categories: Planet Home Education

August 1

Tue, 03/08/2010 - 05:18

The youth conference wound up yesterday and Pastor Rigo looks tired. He now travels 11+ hours south to the National Church Conference in Ti Goave which starts on Aug. 5th. Please pray for him and for the Conference.
My summer cold turned into a sinus infection but is responding well to medications and Artemesia. Saw 13 folks in clinic today and many folks had similar complaints. Hope I didn't pick up a new bug.
The Giles family and a couple young women arrived Saturday from Port-au-Prince for a short visit. Both our kids enjoy interacting with 'new' people. School was a bit short today because of busy clinic and play time with the Giles young daughters.
For those not friends with me on Facebook. Grandpa Louie went to be with the Lord on Saturday. There will be a memorial service on Aug. 15th. He was a good grandpa.

Categories: Planet Home Education

31 July Banana Update

Sat, 31/07/2010 - 20:57

Cory reports that ..August 17th 2009 shipped to Haiti the same size as this...

Planted in garden in October.Now stands about 15 feet tall.Looks to have 12 hands of bananas on it.Thin skin very sweet banana popular in India, Ceylon.
Youth conference appears to be going well. Cory helped out with the foot race to Port Margot and back by being the support vertical, had a couple of the leadership team and the drinks. He says the police even enjoyed it-they were informed before the race and asked to help out.
Every night the young people have enjoyed a video in French. School moved along nicely this week despite Eli and mom having head colds. Eli happily dissected a crayfish and completed another unit in Biology. Anna assisted.
Today we expect visitors from Port-au-Prince, the Giles. Anna is looking forward to girls to play with.
I'd like to ask you to pray for me-I've been fighting a head cold and headache all week. Yesterday I started antibiotics for ear pain.

Categories: Planet Home Education

28th July Youth Conference Kick Off.

Thu, 29/07/2010 - 06:48

The campus energy and noise levels jumped on Tuesday night.


This morning we took a break from school to watch the formal kick off of the Youth Conference. The mini-parade started on our front lawn. The band led followed by the leadership and then the young people.
Cory and I guess that over 100 young people attended the first session where we were introduced to the group. This would almost double to those who attended last year.
The week's schedule starts their days at 5 a.m. and keeps them occupied until 10 p.m.
Some traveled between 3-4 hours to come to conference where at least 10 of the Districts Churches have representatives.
School continues to go well for Eli and Anna. Cory's plants received a needed drink last night with a rain shower and continue to grow rapidly in the summer heat. A few more events now fill days on our calender for the USA visit. New prayer cards to be ordered soon [still working on the wording of the back.]

Categories: Planet Home Education

26 July. Weekend News. 10 weeks and counting.

Tue, 27/07/2010 - 06:33

We managed to all smile with eyes open for a prayer card photo. So when we return to the USA will have new cards showing off our growing kids.






More harvesting of star fruit [John Pierre really likes it] to share with the ladies. Some told Cory that they would be bringing this new fruit home to share with their families.
Many will plant the seeds and try to grow their own trees. Wouldn't it be neat if in 3 years 100 families have their own star fruit trees!

Sharing the Lord's love through sharing knowledge and trees-the reason we are here.
Sunday church started at 6 a.m. [we made it by 6:30 so not to bad] Of the 24 women's missionary groups in the North 22 church representatives attended this year's conference.
Ladies stayed in class rooms and the House of Hope. The final service rang with praise and admonishments to be right with the Lord and about His business.

Here the presidents from the different churches came in singing to place small cloth bags, each unique, in the offering.
Cory and I each gave greetings and comments. Some of the ladies received banana trees and star fruit trees.

Kid's club met outside because of the Conference. Thankfully no afternoon rains fell. More birthday celebrations.
More and more our thoughts and plans turn to Michigan and the fall. Our pace in school motivated by the countdown picked up last week.


A few events now reside in ink on our calender for the USA trip. Work on tickets and arranging speaking dates continues. Thank you for your prayers.

Categories: Planet Home Education

Page two. Text. Thede's Summer Update

Sun, 25/07/2010 - 07:31

Life Lessons From Quake

-Life is unpredictable, use wisely.

-People matter most. Love them.

-Focus on the eternal.

-Be generous.

-Help when you can.

-Good can come from ‘bad’.

-There is POWER in Prayer.

-Do no harm

-Be flexible but plan smart.

-People are strong. Life goes on.

Equipping the Team

Little Bits of Health Wisdom is the working title of a booklet Kris compiled to help the Haitian people improve their own health. The extremely limited and often inaccurate health information available in

Creole motivated the work on this booklet. Translation work is in progress as well as plans for printing and distribution.

Health enables people to reach out to the needy both physically and spiritually, in their local community and beyond. The clinic, the agricultural ministry, the church, and the school all strive to help people live heathy productive lives. A few spots remain on the Fauche campus for plants but Cory continues to visit local gardens and share with folks from other areas the plants we have ready for distribution. A shipment of about 1,700 banana corms purchased in the Dominican Republic were distributed in May. Star fruit trees are being distributed now. Patients seen at the clinic may return home with a Moringa tree, Katuk, or False Roselle plant.

Cory’s internet shopping skills continue to be a blessing. Videos, projector, diesel generator, parts for a lightning struck inverter, new printer, tracts, lawn mower blade, banana and pineapple plants, movie screen, roof coating..items that would be very hard to locate here or expensive. Cory finds items on line, arranges for the shipping, and pick up at the airport after getting them cleared through customs. The equipment is then put into service for the Lord.

The most important and invaluable tool of the team’s ministry is prayer. With newsletters, updates, the blog and E-mails we’re able to update and connect teammates in various countries of current prayer needs. Joining each other in prayer unities us in a special way that empowers each one to do the task that the Lord has given. By joining us in prayer for Haiti you equip us and the Haitian church

with hope, encouragement, strength, wisdom and joy. THANK YOU!

PRAYER REQUESTS

Government Stability & Elections - November 2010

Thede Trip to USA October 4 - December 2010.

Connect with support team. Anna’s orthodontic work.

Summer Haiti church conferences: All districts.

Election of new National Superintendent.

Rebuilding of Haiti - lives, homes, churches, hospital.

Transition of 3 new families to Haiti. Support teams.

Ministry Priorities. Best use of time, money, energy.

Home Ministries. Our speaking schedule will be on E-

mail updates or on GP’s webpage. We hope to see you!

LaGonave Agricultural Update.

The demand for Moringa

powder is outpacing production. Older moringa trees have been replanted. A

newly planted area increases the number of moringa trees in production.

Gardens and moringa replace the non-producing date palms. The nutritious

leaf powder supplies the hospital, a local orphanage and a school. A few

producing date palms continue to fruit to the enjoyment of the local children.

Cory transferred 75 potted date palms from LaGonave to the North.

WISH missionaries enjoy sweet mulberries and fruits from our old yard.

Seeing the ‘fruit’ of our nine years on LaGonave encourages us and

emphasizes the importance of teaching people to insure the sustainability of

the work after moving on.-Thank you for your support that

made this and all the other work possible.

Categories: Planet Home Education