Sawing Logs

Dear family and friends;

Thank you for your prayers, encouragement and support. We really enjoy hearing from you!

We are very excited to have completed the construction of our sawmill area. Many thanks to Duane and Dan from Grand Rapids for all the building materials that they sent.

The Woodmizer sawmill works great and saves so much wood as compared to cutting by hand, which they still do here in Haiti.

Thanks so much to our friend Verlon Thompson from Missouri who came down for the week to help me set up and show me how to use the sawmill. Verlon is 75 yrs old and runs his own Woodmizer sawmill.

We started showing some of our Haitian staff how to use the sawmill. They were all amazed at the beautiful straight, uniform boards that it produces.

Lord willing, we plan to begin building wood items with the boards that we cut.

Here is a mango wood slab that should make a beautiful live edge coffee table.

We have been busy here at Camp Mahanaim hosting numerous groups which come to the camp for a day of activities and a meal.

All of the groups are enjoying the water slides and water activity area. Many people have mentioned that they are so thankful for a fun place that they can enjoy right here in Haiti.

There are 41 steps to reach the top of the water slides, and some of the kids climb those steps over and over without stopping for hours on end.

Deb does an amazing job of organizing all the kitchen staff and helping them serve beautiful meals to our visitors. Many of our Angels volleyball girls work for Deb on a regular basis.

We never get tired of watching the kids have fun.

We would really appreciate your prayers as we head into the very busy camp time these next two months. Please pray for safety for all the campers and that God would work in the hearts and lives of the children and young people who come here. Please pray also for Deb, Katie and I and for the teams that will be coming to help with camp, that the Lord would use us all and keep us healthy and strong. Thanks, so much,
bye for now,

Love Rod, Debbie and Katie

Bursting at the seams

Dear family and friends;

Thank you for your support and prayers for us and for the Renault Sunday school. We had over 2,000 children attend this past Sunday (56 boxes of Manna Packs with 36 packs in a box) and we feel that the Sunday school is bursting.

We would  appreciate your continued prayers for the Renault Sunday school as even the addition is overflowing and we are having to turn children away on some Sundays.

We have a visiting team from Alabama here and it was fun to do a wedding for 20 Haitian couples today.

Deb does a great job of coordinating these weddings.

The local kids that live near us at Camp Mahanaim love it whenever we do weddings, as they usually get a leftover sandwich every time we return from doing a wedding. We have trained them to line up nicely.

This dear lady and her husband were the oldest couple married today, and they had many, many grandchildren. She was so thankful to the Lord for the opportunity to finally be married.

We are making progress on projects around the camp. We are just about ready to put the roof on the new sawmill area.

Our faithful young workers; Roro and Nadair are doing a great job of building a gazebo on the Island near the watersides.

Thanks again for your prayers and support. We have some openings for teams in July and early August, if you would like to bring a team and help us do camps for the Renault Sunday school kids this summer.

bye for now,

Love Rod, Deb and Katie

God’s faithfulness

Dear family and friends;

We are so thankful for the continued ministry of the Missouri medical team which began 14 years ago through the efforts of one man; our dear friend Dr. Jon Roberts. Over the years, he has brought more than 150 different people to Haiti, mostly in the medical field. This year we did medical clinics in 4 different locations and served about 3,400 patients.

 

It has been fun to have several of the Haitian young people from volleyball work with us, not only in translating, but learning about the medical field.

For many of the poor Haitian people in our area, the Missouri medical team is their one opportunity each year to see a doctor and receive medical care.

We are sad that this Easter Sunday will be the last Sunday at Renault with our friends and co-workers the Yordys, They will be returning to Illinois next week, so we ask for your prayers for them as they travel and get settled back home.

We had a special farewell for the Yordys here at Camp Mahanaim a couple of weeks ago and many people attended. Katie will especially miss her friends Chloe and Gabby.

We were sorry that our second German Shepherd died in February, but with the help of some very kind friends, and Agape Flights, we were able to bring in “Sandy” from Florida. Sandy is a 12 week old purebred English Mastiff puppy and Katie loves her.

We continue to thank the Lord for Jeanette who has been with us for 15 years now, since we moved to Haiti in 2003.

We recently had the Athletes in Action Canadian volleyball players here and we had a great time of fun and ministry together with them. They really connected with the kids in our rec volleyball program.

The Athletes in Action young people had opportunities to minister in several ways, not only by playing volleyball. In one of the small Haitian homes we found an older man lying on the cement floor, naked, and curled up, just waiting to die.

Katie has tried to keep up with her online school even while hosting teams, but it isn’t always easy and the other day, she fell asleep while studying. We are so thankful for Katie’s help in hosting teams and her heart for serving the Lord. She is a great partner in ministry.

Thanks so much for your continued support and prayers.
bye for now,

Love Rod, Deb and Katie

Camp Mahanaim Waterslides

We finally completed the rebuilding of the water slides here at Camp Mahanaim and they have already been very well used. If you would like to watch some videos of the water slides in action you can click on this link: Camp Mahanaim Water slides

It is very exciting to see the Haitian kids enjoying the slides so much and one of the favorites is the new tube slide.

On the first Sunday in March, Lord willing, we plan to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Renault Sunday school program.

10 years ago we started out with one small tent and a group of about 50 children. Many of the children that now attend, have come faithfully for ten years.

With the help of visiting teams we have done several weddings these past few weeks. The couples have been especially thankful for the opportunity to get married. I believe it was this couple that had 17 children and had been together for many years.

Katie has done an amazing job of dressing the brides. She has a great ability to pick out just the right dress for each bride. Several of her friends from the Angels volleyball team help in ministry also, which makes it fun for all.

The brides were beautiful.

One of the pastors insisted that Deb and I speak in the church as the couples were being married. I was wearing jean shorts and a white t-shirt, so the pastor loaned me his suit jacket and I hid behind the pulpit so people couldn’t see my jean shorts. Deb looked great as always.

Thanks to the help and partnership of teams, we had a great camp last week with about 150 Haitian young people.

It was a week full of fun activities for us all.

They jam about 75 kids in each bus for the two hour trip to get home.

Thank you so much for your support and prayers! We are thankful that the Woodmizer sawmill has arrived and we look forward to putting it to work.

bye for now,

Love Rod, Deb and Katie

Katie to the rescue

Dear family and friends;

Summer camps have begun here at Camp Mahanaim and the visiting teams have done a great job of helping out, including bringing amazing crafts for the campers to do. We were surprised three weeks ago when our dear friend and long time co-worker Myrlande resigned. She left some big holes to fill, including the leading of the Renault Sunday school program and we are so thankful that Katie has stepped up and helped out.

Katie helping lead the Renault Sunday school

Katie translating at camp

Katie helping lead singing at camp

Katie helping kids do crafts at camp

Katie also leads the “Angels” volleyball team as the setter and last month, our Angels beat the Haiti national Under 20 volleyball team, and several of our girls are very young like Katie (14 years old).

Deb has also done great, and is giving jobs to our “Angels” volleyball girls more and more, not only as workers but as camp counselors too.

Deb has many visitors who love and depend on her every week

Please pray for us as we seek the Lord’s will for the Renault Sunday school which continues to grow.

Also, we would appreciate your prayers as we are working with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes to take the Angels volleyball team to the Dominican Republic for games and ministry in early July.

Thanks, bye for now,

Love Rod, Deb and Katie