Where God is Working, Satan Attacks

It has been a challenging few weeks. I'm tired. Ron is tired. The kids are tired. 

 

I teach on sustainability for missionaries, but I'm not always a good student. We are trying to pace ourselves, so please be patient with us. We don't normally get a ton of donations. There are few consistent people that have been such a huge blessing to our family, but for the most part, we really don't know how we will even feed our family each month. I traveled waaaay too much last year leading teams to Latin America and then stopping through the States in order to work as much as possible to allow us to continue to live here. 

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It took a huge leap of faith for our family to just hop on a plane with no return tickets and without paid work or a concrete plan for funding. Somehow the Lord has worked miraculously and we continue to have enough to get by. But this has come with a fair share of challenges. In fact, I am now being reminded that the things that frustrate me the most in Haiti are exactly the type of things that got us here in the first place.

 

Here's an example: The pastor is AMAZING! We love him and he has such a heart for the Lord, but starting a project without knowing how you are going to pay for the whole thing is frustrating. He simply relies on the Lord that the rest will come in. Americans don't exactly think that way. If the building is going to cost 20K and you have 10K, you don't start it until you have the money. So....with the school....that was a HUGE issue. The school was started and then the roof needed to be done because structurally you compromise the safety of the building if you piece it together. It was also raining and ruining the desks that had just been made. We had part of the roof funding, but not all of it. The pastor rented some material and hocked his vehicle.  I dunno. It was a nightmare, but we do now have a roof on the school. 

What do we do when we have faith, but things are not as we imagined they would be? But then again, who am I to complain about this "live for the moment" strategy when we ourselves had 14 one way tickets and stepped out in faith that the Lord would provide?

 

We are also told "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?" Matthew 6:25

hmm....hmm...ugh. I'm not always good at this! I would not say I am a worry wart by any means. I am not up pacing around worrying about what we will eat or worrying about life, but it does occupy much more of my thought process then it really should. 

I'm sure I could also pull scripture on planning, and being strategic, and prudent and on and on. I don't think God promotes simply moving forward randomly without a plan, but those plans should not be OUR plans, but the Lord's plans. Sometimes it feels like meeting the Lord's plan is like hitting a moving target. 

And do not worry about what we will eat or about life? hmm...people are starving around us. Food is a big thing here. Just the expense to feed our family on a Haitian diet of rice and beans is not only tremendously expensive, but it takes a ton of work. Going to the market, bartering, finding food, cooking food, having fuel to cook that food, having electricity to store some kinds of food, keeping mice and rats and ants and cockroaches out of food. These are all things that weren't such a challenge stateside.

 

On this last team, we were blessed with a specific donation by my friend Vanessa's mother-in-law. She wanted to do something to help our family and maybe buy each child gifts. I said that it would really be helpful to have a dryer because everything is molding up here. It takes forever to dry. Anyway....HUGE blessing to be given funds to get a propane dryer. I was all teary over this and I'm usually not so teary over things. 

 

We still had wet stuff here from the team after a week. Then you get wet again and it's a never ending process. So, we went on the journey to Port au Prince to locate a dryer. And praise God that we not only were able to find a dryer, but bought a washer and dryer for the donated amount. We've had a string of challenges trying to keep a washing machine. Our system was struck by lightening and we had a power surge before that which took out our original washing machine and well....numerous other things have been an issue to where we have not had a working washing machine for quite a while now. But there was another blessing, Operation Blessing donated some food and building supplies, so we have been hauling some of that stuff as well. 

 

Our truck has been used so much. We are thankful to have it, but security continues to be a issue here in a country of have's and have not's.  We had two big boxes strapped down with thick tie downs in the back of the truck. We were driving over by the US Embassy and people started yelling and pointing. This is a bumpy and congested dirt road in a smoldering hot area. 

 

One box had flipped out of the truck.  We didn't know how that was possible, but we had to deal with the crisis at hand. People were helping to put the box back in the truck. For anyone that has been to Haiti, you understand what happens at the airport: people swarm you and want to help you because they want money. 

 

It turns out the tie down had been deliberately cut in order to pop the box out and possibly get paid to put it back in or maybe to steal it, but the box was too heavy to just pack off.  A swarm of people gathered quickly. Maybe over 20 guys and they got a hold of Ron and were shaking him and yelling. They all wanted money. We gave one guy some money so that the rest would take off after that one guy. A few still stayed. A UN truck happened to be passing next to us and the rest of the guys took off, but not before one of the guys pulled a knife on Ron. The whole time our younger two kids, Naomi and Steevenson, were witnessing this whole event. 

This is normal. We are exposed to violence regularly. We are exposed to trauma. All of our kids have seen people die- many people. All of our kids have also seen people killed in front of us. The reality of this and how to wrap your mind around scripture of " Do not worry" and " God is in control" is complex. We as missionaries only feel a small part of this danger and feeling of not being in control. In comparison to the rest of the population, we actually live quite well here. Everyone is ok though. Praise God! I got in the back of the truck with Steevenson (one of our 12 year olds) to hold onto the stuff. We strapped it down again after we got out of the immediate area. 

 

Ron's arms are messed up. Not only from this instance, but from laying on the ground in Nouvelle Terrain. And maybe because we're getting old. This life we have is aging us. Would appreciate prayers for strength and perseverance.

 

BUT...My friend Vanessa was there and said she is beginning to get a better glimpse of what it is like to live in Haiti. Yes, this is Haiti. The good and the bad. This is not abnormal and I know we do not have the control that we "think" we have in the States either. It's just that it seems to be a little more blatant and in your face here in Haiti.  Being on guard continually from being robbed or injured or killed takes a toll on a person. The kind of counseling I do here for expats and NGO workers often revolves around trauma of rape, hostage, shootings, etc. This is deep stuff.

 

We then dropped Vanessa at the airport. I came home and put my head in a bucket of cold water to wash the grime out of my hair. I wrapped my hair in a towel and a cockroach landed on the floor. He was on my head, but then I crunched him on the ground. I left him there. The ants would drag him off.  

 

 

I went to get some coffee and put some sugar in it. After all, it was a tough day. I wanted some sugar! But....the ants had invaded our sugar. So, I scooped some sugar into my coffee and drank it anyway. These are the questions you ask yourself on days like this: How many ants are too many? One time ants got into our cinnamon rolls (which we rarely ever have). We put them in the freezer and picked most of them off. These are things that in the states you may just throw out, but here certain things (most thing) are precious and not easily or cheaply replaced. I respect that and appreciate the real-ness about Haiti, but it's still hard. I miss easy at times. And then I go back to the States, and I feel like a fish out of water. I don't understand the materialism and the ease of hopping in your car to get a Starbucks. Don't people realize that people are dying from starvation as they sit there drinking coffee? I wish I was less aware of that fact at times. I know actually that people do care and people do realize, but it's much more complex and it's not something people can fix.

Actually, there are moments I wish I just worked at Starbucks. I think that would be fun and rewarding. The employees always seem so happy and maybe they could pay off my 100k doctorate education.

And well....I guess I didn't understand the whole propane dryer deal. I "thought" that since it was propane it would run on gas, but it only kinda sorta does. We have to also have electricity for part of this "running the dyer" process, which we don't exactly have because it's overcast and our solar is not working well this time of year.  Plus solar power is not all I had hoped it would be. We can sort of run the washer and dryer, but it's drastically limited depending on the day.

 

But I am reminded that these are just details meant to distract us from doing the work the Lord has called us to do. Thank you everyone for your continued prayers and your continued support! We really need your prayers. It gives us strength to know so many are thinking of us and praying for not only the country of Haiti, but for our family as well.

Ephesians 6:12: "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

Building, Medical Care, and Food/Water Distribution in Two Villages

Thank you for your patience. We are doing the best we can to get food/water, shelter, and medical care to the villagers in Belot and Nouvelle Terrain. Due to the urgency in this process, it has been challenging to provide detailed updates. Internet speed here is not like it is in the states and often we do not have internet at all. It has been raining pretty much nonstop since the hurricane. This has caused flooding and mudslides throughout many areas in Haiti. Our solar is not all that helpful in this kind of overcast weather, which means by midday we often do not have power unless we run the generator. We don't choose to run the generator most of the time due to the expense.

The village of Belot

We are incredibly overwhelmed by the support. It's humbling to see so many people step up in a time of need. Please know that we appreciate your support and we are working strategically to make sure your funds serve as many people possible in this time of need. If I have not thanked you personally, please forgive me. I am getting messages from our kids back home on the various donations and I also see various donations coming through paypal. The team helped create a spreadsheet in order for us to better calculate how many homes we could begin with the various funds. The originally calculations did not include labor, but God has been miraculously providing the funding needed to build these homes! It's not an easy process that maybe we can explain in the future, but please understand that we are working as fast as we can in a country where time is quite a bit different then in the USA.

Medical Care

Junior doing dental work

Jordan in clinic- was helping with dental care

Last week we were blessed to have an amazing medical team lead by our good friend and nurse practitioner Vanessa. We saw hundreds of patients in Belot. Some of these cases were life threatening conditions, so it was encouraging to be able to get the help to people in need. We also had a young 4 year old with severe malnutrion. We were able to transport him and his parents to a malnutrition center in Thomassin. Praise God! Thank you Rhyan and Espwa Berlancia for the work you are doing to help families! It's wonderful to see organizations coming together to help those in need.

Vanessa's last day in Haiti (with Linda and Naomi)

A grandma holding her little grandbaby

Love this picture with our niece Jamie (nurse) doing medical care and our son David translating

I have to mention this sweet little old man. We have a sustainability plan with the village of Belot, which means that the church body has come together and decided a price that people will pay to come to clinic. This way, they begin to develop a medical fund and in the future, they will be able to run their own clinic by paying local medical providers and purchasing medication. Currently, medical care and education and a range of things are subsidized by outside funding, but all that we do in the village has a contribution by the people. People generally pay 20 gourdes to come to clinic, which is equivalent to about 30 cents. BUT..there are some exceptions. This sweet little old many with a cane put his hand out with 7 gourdes and we let that slide.

David translating - sweet old man

Mr Excellent is also an exception. Mr Excellent is still farming his land at over 80 years old. He is an amazing person who comes to the truck and gives us potatoes and sometimes a live chicken. We don't make him walk to the clinic even though he would be happy to walk the long distance.

Mr Excellent by his home

Ann- He misses you and asks about you frequently!

Coming up to Ron in the truck

Building/Shelter

Rosemarie working with the crew on building her new home

The foundation is done on Rosemarie's house. They will begin putting the blocks in for the walls. We are making a new plan for windows and doors. Ron was going to weld them, but there's an issue with locating the right kind of wire. Anyway....always something, but we're working on a new plan. It's important to have plan A and B and C in your head when living in a country with very limited resources.

damage done to trees in Belot during the hurricane

We have five homes in process currently in Belot. We are hoping to start on the other nine soon.  There are many others in Noevelle Terrain that need to be rebuilt, but the mudslides has changed some of our plans. We will need to assess further damage and figure out a new plan on getting the help to that area. We are not able to access that village at this time. Please keep the village in prayer! The conditions are extreme and the needs are great.

Beginning stages of new home being built

Food/Water

With various general donations, we have been able to purchase rice/beans for families in need. We also had a donation of Aquatabs for immediate need with cleaning water. We were able to do various training on cholera and for the patients waiting in line for medical care. Operation Blessing has also donated various supplies to us. We are in process of getting water filters and chlorine production devices to both villages. The pastor from Nouvelle Terrain will be picking up some more food supplies tomorrow.

As always, thank you so much for the continued prayers and support! To donate any amount, please go to www.thechancetodream.com and designate for Haiti relief. Please follow the blog for pictures of the completed homes and homes in process. We appreciate your patience with information. We do not have any paid staff with The Chance to Dream. It is just our family here in Haiti. We're doing the best we can to get information to donors, but it is difficult when we are out in the villages serving. The speed of internet in order to post updates (and especially to upload pictures) is challenging. We could not do what we are doing without the support and prayers of so many people back in the States and Canada. We also want to say how thankful we are for a specific group of people: We have been contacted by many people that we went to high school with that we haven't spoken to in over 25 years. Thank you! Thank you! Your support is appreciated. (yes, that shows how old we really are)...

God Bless,

The Sheppard Family

Hurricane Matthew Update Village of Nouvelle Terrain

The hurricane has done some significant damage to this little village. Please keep the villagers in your thoughts and prayers! I've listed some specific details below. We will fill in more details when we have them

1. This is a young couple in their 20's named Franquet Miro and Elaine Ticharle. Their children are pictured. One is Franguelson Miro who is three years old. The other sweet baby is Lovemica Miro who is only 6 months old. There are other family members that live in the home as well. It's more like a community home with at least eight others that are living there as well. Please keep the family in prayer!

Family gathering the remains of their home

As you can see, the family is actively lining up the sticks that did hold up their home and trying to salvage as much as possible. They are very remote and poor farmers in the village of 
Nouvelle Terrain.

The house has completely come down. Much of the pieces are broken.

Franguelson Miro- 3 years old

Lovemica Miro- 6 months old

 The picture below shows the cleared area where the house used to be. The house seen still standing in the background is a different family home. The families are pitching in together to help each other out, but there are many people already crammed in their stick and mud homes. They simply do not have room to add a family of another ten or more people to their already crammed mud homes.

 

Our son Billy is standing in the middle of where the house used to be (pictured below). The mat in front of his feet is one of their beds. On a different trip where we did medical, I actually was down for the count for two days. I couldn't even lift my head up without throwing up.  The villagers were amazing to plop me on one of their grass mats when I was sick. But I will say those mats are generally filled with bedbugs. It's a very difficult life in the remote areas. Poverty is extreme already without these kinds of natural disasters added on top of an already challenging existence.

 

 Ron, Kyle, and Billy really struggled to get to this home. The trail was difficult and there were small waterfalls they had to jump over on slippery rocks. Ron said they couldn't pack their packs in or they wouldn't have made it, but then they saw a little three year old girl skipping along in a church dress and dress shoes  having no problem on the trail. They are survivors and accustomed to the terrain.

2. This is the home of Alianna Cherise and Alteran Lictor. Their children are Jean Frise who is 20 years old, Margarite who is 18 years old, and Jean Claude who is nine years old. Much of their home was destroyed by the high winds in the hurricane. Their grass roof has been mostly torn off which exposed all the people and items inside to flooding. The side of it has fallen down. 

grass roof of family home

much of the protection of mud has blown off ...

This family is still living in the home. The children help to farm the land. They have no other family in the area and nowhere else to go.

The house is exposed. Ron did go inside the home. The back third of the house is exposed. All the clothes are piled over by the door to protect them from the rain that is currently pouring in.

You can see through the walls because the mud has come off. We will have to develop a plan to help repair this home. Please keep the family in prayer!!

damage from mudslide and wind

3. This is the home of Jonell Louisy and Nadej Louis. Their children are Jonnellson age nine and Celo age six.  Part of their home was damaged by mud and wind. This home is right next to the church that collapsed.

 This picture shows the damage of the roof on their home.

This shows some of how the home is constructed. The primary issue though is that the kitchen (which was separate) was entirely destroyed. People make their kitchens separate from their home for safety in case of fire and also due to smoke inhalation.







The picture below shoes the wife Nadej Louis. She is helping to distribute the cooking oil that we brought to the village along with the rice and beans. She is an active member of the church and has helped us with medical and educational training when we have hiked previously to the village. She also cooks for our teams when we go in.

The picture below shows the pieces of the kitchen that they have salvaged to make a temporary kitchen. The husband's mom is in the yard. There are always other extended family that lives in the homes as well as the ones listed.

 

4. This the home of Elisa Francois. She has two children, Denise age twelve and Naptan age ten. Much of her home was destroyed in the hurricane. Mostly the whole porch roof flew off.  This would be the area that they previously cooked so that they were separated from the smoke in their home.  The family wasn't actually there when we visited. They were out in the fields trying to salvage their crops. This house is not near the church. It is a very long walk from the main village and is extremely remote.

5. This is the home of Emmanuel Pierre who is the Pastor's brother. The family lost at least half of their roof.  They have six girls ages nine to twenty three years old. Their names are Belle (23), Neviea (20), Annette (18),  Christella (16), Juanita (12), and Rose who is only nine years old.

6. This is the home of Cheristil Mortel. The family has two girls ages ten and eight and three boys ages fourteen, twelve, and six years old. Ron said they were trying to rebuild when they were there. They are working on reconstructing the frame. The children were in the fields working the pastor showed up with our small scouting group.












7. This is the home of Elise Pierre and Felisia Gala. Their children are Estanile (20), Geda (18), Tonya (17), Elleva (15), Yanik (12), Maxi (9), Dalina (5), Marielov (3), and Lona (2). This home is very remote, but it is on the way to the main village. It is on a hill and there is a little trail, but it is difficult to get to. The family is actively trying to do repairs.

8. This is the home of Jacqueline Exil and Derino Deresil. The mud walls are broken and a pole is keeping the house from falling over. Multiple people live in this home, but we didn't get all the names. Their children are Kisnel age twenty-five, Krispison age nine, Manez age seven, Azia age four, and Modeline who is twenty months old.



Apparently these are called Kay Pay houses. They are basically mud and stick homes with grass roofs. As you can see, high winds would easily take these homes down or significantly damage them.

9. This is the home of John Baptist Dolce and Marie Cheri. Their children are Juanise (17), Molica (13), Misnade (10), Chistof (8), Mariecanel (5), and Obens (1). This is closer to the pastor's brother's home. The family wasn't there. They were in the fields working on salvaging their crops. We'll also show pictures of the crops that have been destroyed. The houses are a small piece actually of the damage to these villagers. If their livelihood is destroyed, they cannot feed their families and survive.

10. This is the home of Tifanm and children Maybrizan (20), Madila (18), Janiciera (14), and Islande (12). This home is closer to the main road. This is probably why you see different kind of construction because the other homes really have an inability to get building material into the location. The roof is gone and most of the walls are down.

This picture shows the material they were trying to salvage, but most of this cannot be salvaged. It's OSB (oriented strand board) which is damaged when it's wet. You should not build a house like this with this kind of material because when it gets wet it comes apart. They probably just used whatever they could get, but it will not be able to be rebuilt with this material that they tried to salvage.

11.  This is the home of Rosemen Orasil and Marizlov Renald. Their children are Rosemita (28), Sonja (25), Ellfie (18), and Jennette (16). Much of the roof has flown off. Some of the material is salvageable, but much of it is completely destroyed.  This home is also closer to the road which is why it is made of different material. Even though I say "closer to the road" the road is not an easy trek. We could not drive our truck all the way to the "road" because much of it is washed out. The people in the villages are working on fixing the road because it is how they get their vegetables to market, but this road has never been much of a road.


As you can see, some of the roof has blown off and the material is damaged for some of the walls. The material they used to build with is not made to get wet, so the house is not safe the way it is standing now.

12. This is the home of Aristan Johnfrit. Him and his wife have two boys. The house is under the landslide. They have done the best they can to salvage the sticks that were originally holding up their home. They are very poor and remote farmers in the village. This is the family where the dad heard the mud starting to move, so he took his family and got out of the house.





It is difficult to tell, but if you look carefully on the top right of the picture below, you can see the door of the home peeking out of the mud.

















This is the church. There are additional pictures on facebook of the church, but haven't trouble loading them now. Please feel free to friend me Linda Shine Sheppard to have access to what I post on FB. I will say that Pastor Saint Pierre is an amazing man of God. He lives near the road and drives a motto (motorcyle) for a living basically packing supplies in and out for the villagers. He then also with his own time and resources hikes into Nouvelle Terrain to help this village- which is a good four hour hike one way. We have been assisting him for a while now and find him to be very honorable. He is very deliberate in everything that he does. We have given him rice and beans, jugs to hold water for the community, and a range of other necessary items for the community after we have done educational training. He calculates out and gives us exact lists of the distribution of the food (who it went to, where they were located, names, etc) without us even asking for that much detail.

 

This is the church closer to the road that has let our teams hang out there under cover when the rain has stormed in and we've gotten soaked.

We would like to add that the destruction of crops and livestock is probably one of the most damaging aspects to this village. I will work on posting pictures of that as well. At this point, this is just the building damage. Please keep the village in prayer. Any and all funds that you can donate would be greatly appreciated. We are working on estimates and will add more details as we have them. For a tax deductible donation you can go to: www.thechancetodream.com and click on the donate link. Please specify Haiti relief and send me a message if you have specific requests for the donation such as this specific village, building, medical, etc.  Or you can mail to Sheppard, 160 NW Merle Drive, Hillsboro OR 97124 with a check addressed to The Chance to Dream and Haiti in the memo line. Some of our adult children are depositing the checks into the non-profit account for us and letting us know what they are specifically designated for. You can add a post it note with specific details. That information will be forwarded to us here in Haiti as well as the funds.

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions: HaitiMissionaries@gmail.com

Thank you for all of your love, your prayers, and your continued support for the people of Haiti. 

~Linda, Ron, and family