The Maine Mission Team Keeps Rolling On

It is hard to believe but Wednesday is drawing to a close. The weeks go by so quickly when teams are at NVM. And today was a good day and I have included lots of photos!

First the men. They completed their woodworking projects and one of them is shown below. For some time people have asked us to post a map of Haiti. So the men built a nice frame and hung it in the dining hall. They also replanted some watermelon seedlings in a garden in the children's home. Mid afternoon they joined the ladies for the special time with a group of Haitian women. More on that later.

The ladies continued work counting and repackaging medications. There also did some baking to produce goodies for the afternoon session.

Then at 3 pm they hosted an event for a group of special Haitian ladies. Cheryl gave a great devotional, the ladies created a cellphone holder and played a rousing game of bingo. Fun was had by all. And given that we are moving back to Dallas soon, it was hard to say good bye. These ladies are indeed special to Cheryl. In the first photo you see Deanne Pierre, one of the Haitian church leaders, Cheryl and Tina. Tina will be taking over Cheryl's responsibilities when we leave.

And while most of the team members are from Maine, there are two couples hailing from someplace else. Pat and Joe live in Pennsylvania and David and Louanne live in Minnesota. We have been ministering with Pat and Joe for many years. And Jim worked with David to ten years prior to joining CRU.

Joe and Pat

David and Louanne

David made an interesting and encouraging comment to me this afternoon. He noticed that our ministry at NVM is based on close personal relationships. He is exactly correct. Both of us have dear friends here and it has been a privilege to ministry alongside so many wonderful people.

God was good today. Much was accomplished and hearts were touched. Thanks for your prayers and we will check in with you again tomorrow.

Serving on your behalf in Haiti,
Jim & Cheryl Warner

NVM's "Maine" Mission Team!!

The mission team from Maine is well into Tuesday and things are going well. The men have been working on construction projects. As you can see below they are building shelving units for the homes of US staff and framed boards. These boards will be used to mount photos of the Haitian staff and project information. We are mounting the photos so that visiting mission team members can be introduced to the Haitian staff working alongside them and to learn their names. The men are doing a great job.

The women have been sorting clothing in one of our storage containers. I will try to include photos of that work tomorrow. They also joined Cheryl for her final class with a group of Haitian ladies from Chambrun who are now making rolled beaded jewelry. It was a great opportunity for the team members to see the production process and to meet the ladies. It was also emotional for Cheryl as the ladies are saying thank you.

And late yesterday the team had the chance to visit some of our friends living in the nearby community of Chambrun. As we have reported before, these dear people are very poor physically. However, many of them are rich emotionally and spiritually. We had a wonderful couple of hours visiting and playing with the children.

We love to see what God does through the lives of the team members who come to visit us and to ministry alongside us. And we are so thankful for this team, as well. We will continue to report to you on their activities for the rest of the week!

Serving on your behalf in Haiti,
Jim & Cheryl Warner

The team from Maine is hard at work in Haiti

Our friends from Maine have returned to Haiti. The team, led by David and Amber Larochelle, are hard at work. They have been joined by our dear friends from Minnesota, David and Louanne Prin. The team arrived Saturday, had a wonderful time of worship and rest on Sunday and are hard at work on projects this morning.

The ladies have already helped Cheryl cut fabric in preparation for the basket-making class this Wednesday and are now opening, counting and sorting medications for the NVM clinic.

The men are utilizing their construction and painting skills constructing shelves for staff housing.

These jobs are so critical to the ministries of NVM and to the quality of life for the staff who live in Haiti on the compound. We will report in a few more times this week to document their additional activities.

Thanks for checking in and may the Lord richly bless you all.

Serving on your behalf in Haiti,
Jim & Cheryl Warner

The Mission Week is Passing Quickly

The two mission teams on the NVM compound are having a great week and it is passing quickly. Here is a brief update on their activities over the past two days.

The teams have accomplished much work on the compound to get us ready for the 2014 mission team year. They did organizing in the warehouse and put up shelving units. They sorted clothing so that distribution will be much easier. They put up two tents outside of the church. The 5th anniversary of the church is this Sunday and the tents are for the overflow crowd. The ladies helped Cheryl with a special afternoon with a group of Haitian ladies from the church and with the basket making class in Onaville. They also helped make new drapes for the church to make it look great for the anniversary Sunday and a variety of other projects on the compound.  Here are some of the sights of their work. They have worked hard with a tremendous attitude. Thanks for your help!

Helping with the special ladies event at church

Helping the ladies make aprons at the event

The ladies had a great time!

They took the apron making seriously

The ladies love to play musical chairs

Michelle gave her personal testimony at the event

Each lady received a skirt when they left the event

Showing off her newly made apron

The students putting up the overflow tent near the church

Pounding stakes into the hard ground

The ladies helped Cheryl at the basket making class in Onaville

Everyone received a free skirt

The ladies sang a couple of songs before we left

Standing on the side of a hill in Onaville, the largest distribution camp in Haiti

And the men were hard at work on the compound doing a variety of projects

The teams purchased and made the new drapes for the church

And there is always time for fun and games - Corn Hole was a big hit

We have a day off tomorrow and the the teams head for home on Saturday morning. Both these teams have been wonderful and so much work has been done. We want to thank them so much for their hard work and wonderful attitudes. May the Lord richly bless you all. And we hope to see you all again soon.

We also want to say thank those of you at home who have been praying. Your prayers make all the difference in what we do in Haiti. Thank you and we will keep you posted on future teams and projects.

Serving on your behalf in Haiti,
Jim & Cheryl Warner