Couple of Updates...

Hello

Mary and I have been enjoying time together as we spend Time at home. Mary's neck is doing great now and the Doctor has released her. We have been spending much of our time with friends and family. Over the past two weeks, we have spent time with our daughter Lori and husband Scott in NC, visited friends of Haiti in Galax Va. and Franklin WV. This past weekend we were able to spend time with our son Justin and also visited friends of Haiti in Darien and Blackshear Ga. Below are a couple of updates from Kathy Brooks. It has been such a blessing having her and Beaver work in Gonaives while we are away. We love you and continue to thank you for your prayers and support of what God is doing in Haiti. You can see more about Haiti at the following sites; http://love4haiti.blogspot.com/ muchministries.org

With love in Christ

Emory and Mary

Sept 7 2010 Gonaives Haiti

This small community of jubilee is undergoing a metamorphosis. God knows when it began.. When did the first prayers go up on behalf of this small corner of the world? What nameless faceless child of faith began to speak LIFE and HOPE over this community,.

I believe those words brought Emory and Mary Wilson here….and now so many others that have added their love and prayers and action to the Speaking of Life and Hope.

The school opened to over 100 students…up from 40 something last year. What a difference in the students who began last year and can now read full sentences in English! Laura Lynn has a staff of five..3 Haitian teachers and 2 Americans. They work together to see the kids learn letters, sounds, songs. And countries of the world.

We enjoyed the PTA meeting last week. The attendance by the parents was extraordinary. Many of them work as volunteers to help pay their child‘s tuition. ( which is very very small ) The parents heartily expressed the difference in their kids…they were bringing home what they were learning at school.

I think sometimes it is difficult for us to understand how important this is. Communities left to ignorance can be so easily manipulated by fear and violence. Education opens minds to truth and real communication the very words themselves giving people a different way to think about things. .

We’ve started a composting area for local people to toss their peelings and paper scraps.The salty soil here msut be ammended to creat "bon ter" good earth for planting.... It is right in what has always been the “dump” area….beside the dysfunctional toilets that were built by the government 3 years ago. IT has begun! We bought Banana trees from a local grower and planted them near by to aid the idea of growing things….we hope to start many plants and share them with the community and good soil becomes available.

Of course I’ve found it necessary to paint a simple garden mural on the back side of the dysfunctional toilets….I will find a way to slap some paint on something!

T he new building that will house classrooms, bathrooms, and a clinic are well under way. We are waiting for the iron worker to complete the doors and windows so we can begin to move classrooms into this space.

Today Beaver is beginning the construction of a simple Gazebo type structure…a meeting place…that offers shade and a simple benches . This will give the community a place to gather that is not inside the classrooms where children are trying to learn! It will also give us a place to hold training opportunities in the future. The idea is a six sides concrete slab with simple block and concrete slab benches, built in…the roof with be thatch and extend out to create the most shade possible. It is amazing how much shade has to do with what you can do here. Literally , you just can’t stand for long without it.

Makes me really appreciate God giving the Israelites that Cloud by day!

Terri Ann Stokes and Rachel Greene have come as teachers . Each day they return back to the house with stories and triumph …and stories that would break your heart. ! They are exhausted after teaching 6 classes in the heat and dust…but after a rest, some dinner and a cool shower, each night they are pulling out ideas, making lessons, drawing charts, and hand making writing assignments for the next day..

Simply , going way above and beyond the call of duty. These two are not “trained” teachers..yet they are acting like they have been leading classrooms for years.. I am a teacher and I know what I am talking about here ! They are taking this job seriously…and having a ball , I might add. Last week they had three of their students over after school to draw, play soccer and to eat dinner ….I think this was their favorite part. One little tiiny guy ate three huge platefuls! We thought he would literally pop!

“Tia” (Terri’s new name.). was beyond happy with herself…this particular little guy is an orphan living with his aunt and the youngest in the household of 10 kids. Last on the food chain, so to speak…

The phrase…this is what it looks like …continually runs through my mind. It’s not flashy, it’s not big, it could be missed if one wasn’t looking for it but I believe that this is what it looks like when the kingdom of Heaven expands…the meek are blessed, the hungry fed, the naked clothed , the sick made well …honor among brothers and sisters who speak different languages. Transformation of us all !

For all that financially and prayerfully support this work...it is a sound worthy investment! Thank you for being a crucial part to what God is doing here!

from Jubillee

Kathy Brooks

Emory, this is a post i wrote a week ago

hello friends, Aug 30.2010

from Kathy brooks in Gonaives., Haiti.

i was explaining to a little guy the other day how his actions were louder than his words. in a learning moment, we were discussing that he was communicating his choices .through his actions... he was telling me what he wanted ,by what i saw him do.

interesting how true.

I've thought a lot about how our every movement is a prayer..communication....how God can see what we "want" by what we do. We are both shouting and whispering through our actions each day.

a few years ago on a trip to Gonaives with Emory and Mary we all walked out onto the salt flats of Jubilee blanc and cried out for life. And abundance of food, ..for destiny of its children and for growing things to spring up out of the ground.....these i remember.

today there is a school with over 100 students, these are young kids who would otherwise not be learning how to put sounds together and form words and make sentences and very soon begin to read books and eventually write papers that will stun the world.!

It is messy and it is loud, , it is sometimes hot , though usually there is a breeze blowing mercifully through the tin walls. Dust collects on every surface.

And under nourished kids get fed and loved here. this simply constructed space was built as a corporate prayer of many showing what we really want. And it is changing the destiny of thee children, their families, this community and of a nation.

Laura Lynn Nichols, the school administrator, head teacher, handy man, youth group leader, community nurse, construction overseer ( at times) Creole speaker, tender hearted , ( but will chase you down if you back-talk her), young woman that wears two miss matched flip flops, one of which is held together with bright orange duct tape.. and travels via motorcycle. .. is beyond compare...really.

Her actions sing a song to this community and to God and to all who can see. She ain't playin" either,... yesterday i watched her make a hand washing facility (to put beside the new 4 stall toilette ) out of a five gallon bucket and a water tap...BRILLIANT ! , so people can wash their hands after "twalet".that to me, is a prayer that says," God, i don't want babies to die from bacteria and disease, that can easily be washed off of their brothers and sisters hands each day.

One of my prayers, this trip is that beauty and life giving calories would grow in this salty soil in the modest yards of the homes here. That "bon ter" good earth would be "re created" literally in the middle of the garbage pile. I am no expert on composting…Natasha coaches me from the Marketplace phone…will it work? I don’t know..I do know it wont work if I don’t try….so i look like a fool and dig pits and paint on the back of stopped up toilets to pray my prayer for plant life to grow here in this place.

on the plane flying here we filled out our custom forms. one of the questions asked our reason for visiting Haiti. Rebecca asked…“should i check the box for recreation.?“ which she read to me as RE-creation... i laughed and said yes baby, yes.

this is our prayer.

　

Grace and Peace!

Kathy Brooks