Sou Boy

Hello,
This place is a beehive of activities these days. We've been blessed with a different team each week in Jan, and lots of work has gotten done here. The new team this last Sat consists of about 16 people, plus 3 or 4 that stayed over from the last team. They're leaving on Friday. Then last night we got 13 more, who'll be here till around the 21st. This last group is a group of young people that are in the "World Race". They go to a new country every month for 11 months and do all kinds of things at different mission places, etc. They came from the Dominican Republic and are in the second month. It sounds like such an interesting thing to do - there goes my sense of adventure.
At the clinic it seems to be picking up again. My new nurse was doing good but then I realized I let her go on her own too soon, so now I need to focus on training her more before I leave in 2 weeks. Then one of my steady "translators and helpers" Fabiola, left this last weekend - don't know if she's coming back. We miss her. Now I need to continually look for someone (I do still have one fairly steady one). One of the ladies from the team is a nurse so she's been helping me, which has been great, especially since yesterday we broke the record again in the amount of people we saw. Bobi's also leaving on Thursday so that'll make it busier for me. But again, God provides (He is ever faithful). Some people in this new group will be coming down to help.

Today we had a busy Mamba day. Bobi went around Montrouis the other day recruiting, and today we had like 23 people show up, despite the fact she only told 6 of them to come get checked. Sometimes word of mouth is best. Thankfully not all of them were malnourished, but we did admit 6 little ones to our program.

One new thing that is happening here, and it's exciting to think what God is going to be doing with it. It's about what's happening with the young people of Sou Boy. Sou Boy is the little village at the foot of our hill. Up until now they haven't been the most friendly - after all some of them are squatting on our land. But a bunch of the young people got it into their heads that they want an education, and they want to learn vocational skills, so they've had a few meetings with S. Gladys (about 150 people one time). We're looking into starting classes for: Spanish, English, mechanics, construction, plumbing, art, secretarial skills, typing, computer, etc etc (who wants to come teach???) We have this abandoned building in the middle of a field that used to be used for a school, but is in bad shape. S. Gladys told them we can use that but it's their responsible to get it ready. So the last few days I've been watching from a distance as about 10-30 young men (many between 18-22 yrs) are working there - chopping, sweeping the roof, burning brushes, etc. Tomorrow they're starting on the soccer field. It does my heart good to see their energy and passion to learn something practical. Not just that, but sunday a bunch of them came to church, and I saw a passion in some of them that was awesome to see. It's even challenging the kids here. Please pray for all this. We don't know how or who is going to be doing all this but the need and passion is there, and it's a start to changing Haiti - one person at a time.

Sister Gladys is also leaving this week, and that means a few more responsibilities may befall me, esp. with all the people here. (Pastor Henri went to the States for a couple months - we miss him) Life continues to be interesting here. Thankfully she'll be back before I leave on the 19th for a much anticipated 3 wk. vacation with my family in Costa Rica. I haven't left the country since April, and I feel the need for a break. (don't get me wrong, I love the work here and it's going good!)

Ok, it's getting late, there's a lot of people around and I can't remember all the things I wanted to say, so I better go before I just ramble on.

Thanks for your prayerful support for me here!!!
Elsie

p.s.
please continue praying for a Medika Mamba vehicle - we've got more than a quarter of the funds that we expect we'll need, raised already. We went to look at a vehicle the other day - exactly what we need, but I think it's too nice. Funny how that's an issue, right? But considering we're serving the malnourished, poor, we don't want one that screams "rich". So pray we'll find the right one. And if God lays it on your heart to help financially too, well... you know :)