Updates and Events!

I know many of you are wondering about how the Schwindlings, Elgins, and children are doing in the face of Hurricane Sandy.  I talked with Tommy this morning and Martie received a text from Charley yesterday.  They are all safe but it is raining and raining and raining!  The electricity is out and internet is down.  Fortunately, there is a generator at the Alabama House and at Children's Hope.  School was let out yesterday and today.  Hopefully, this will be the last day of rain for Haiti and the country can begin to dry out.  As always, please pray for all of the Haitians who are still living in tents and most of the rest of the population who live in substandard housing.  So thankful for our dry and secure home and reliable utilities! 

This week, I watched the movie, "October Baby."  I highly recommend that you rent this movie as soon as possible and let the Holy Spirit speak to you in regards to abortion.  It is a powerful story!

Also, St. James United Methodist Church is hosting:  Compassion: Change the Story.  Many of you are familiar with Compassion International that focuses on bringing children our of poverty and giving them hope through opportunities but most importantly, through the Hope of Christ.  Compassion has set up an assimilation of the lives of three different children and their stories who were sponsored through their ministry.  You walk through rooms that depict their lives and listen to them tell their stories on an ipod.  It is a very moving and convicting experience.   This opportunity will continue through this Sunday, Oct. 28th.  You do not have to reserve a time unless you will be bringing a large group.  To see specific times, go to:  www.forms-compassion.com.  This takes place in the front parking lot of the church on Vaughn Road.

Also, I would like to tell you about a special birthday party.  Parker Cook turned seven years old last week and he along with his mom and dad, Chad and Sharon, decided to do something for CH.  Instead of gifts, Parker asked his friends to bring flipflops and Crocs to his party for the children at CH.  Parker collected over 60 pairs and $100 in cash!  Thank you Parker for learning at any early age that "it is better to give than receive."

Parker with over 60 pairs of flipflops and Crocs

Finally, Nicole got her cast off last week and is completely healed.  Praises to our Lord!  You can tell that she is one happy girl!  For those of you wondering about Myrlande (staff member at CH in a motorcycle accident who broke her leg), she is walking on her leg some but still needs to build strength back up.

Nicole without a cast!

Charley (right) with Dave Bird discussing plans for CH.  Of course, Hurricane Sandy has caused delays!  Otherwise, great progress is being made.

Mission Teams Making a Difference

This week, the Alabama House has the privilege of hosting a team of six men from Grace Life Baptist Church.  Johnye Horton is the team leader.  The team has worked part of the time with Charley in the construction of CH.  They have also been working on other projects set up by the Schwindlings.  One particular project is portrayed in the pictures below.  It is true that a picture is worth a thousand words and these pics tell the story well!  What an improvement!  Thank you Grace Life!

Pastor Marc's church pews before!

New pews for Pastor Marc's church that Grace Life built

Jacmel Update!

Please see the following two emails from Charley.  God is moving in a mighty way.  Also, please remember to pray for Martie and Charley through their time of separation.  Martie will not be able to join Charley in Jacmel until Nov. 27th due to the risk of infection following her hip replacement.

Thanks so much to Danny, Kim, Joyce, and Shay for their hard work in Jacmel this past week and gathering 400 backpacks plus school supplies for the children in the church schools.

10-12-12

Kim and Danny spent their lunch time sharing the gospel with the Haitian men they are working with ... 9 men accepted Christ ... they will receive Creole Bibles next Monday from the team coming in and have already been connected to local churches  ... Did Kim and Danny miss a meal?  They have food that you do not know about ...

John 4:31-36 "Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”  Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”  “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. "

A total of 13 have accepted Christ this week. 

10-13-12

Of the 9 men who received Christ yesterday, one was deaf.  As Kim explained God’s plan for salvation and their need for a Savior, Nicholas translated into Creole .. another Believer, a deaf man, read Nicholas lips and translated his Creole words into the sign language … incredible … that man cannot hear our words, but he can hear God speaking to him … and did.  It was a great day …  If you are counting men in the picture, you will see there are only 8 … the guy with the yellow hat and pink shirt is the 9^th one. 

Continue to make progress on the Maintenance building … finishing up the outer walls and building an interior wall.  On one side will be a generator, battery bank and water filtration system.  On the other side will be food storage for the schools.  I am supposed to meet with Pastor Jean Claude and Pastor Paul…. To talk about food for the children in the schools.

The school Directors met with Joyce yesterday to talk about administration issues in the schools;attendance, record keeping, grades, and lesson plans … They all asked when the kitchens would be built … guess I need to get moving on that …

Traveled to LaValle yesterday .. quite a trek .. even got to drive on some foot paths … glad I had 4-wheel drive

Took photo of landscape from the bucket of the tractor … what a transformation … the guys have named the tractor .. Desert Sandals .. because it refuses to wear out .. even though we are using it for something it was never intended to be used for .. a farm tractor for construction .. of course it helps to have experts at the controls …..

Mudding of Maintenance Building

Site of six homes from the bucket of the tractor

Haitian workers digging footings

Kim and Danny with eight Haitian workers who accepted Christ

Side of maintenance building almost complete

Desert Sandals

Deaf worker on the right who came to know Christ

October Mission Trip, Part 2

After a great day on Friday, the team prepared for a Block Party on Saturday.  They set up six stations of activity including sack races, Tommy grilled hotdogs, and Joy, Evelyn, and Dawn manned the tables and assembly lines.  The Teels and the Bishops along with Payton worked the different stations.  There were over 100 children from three different orphanages that attended.  It was a great success and everyone had a great time.  Thanks to this team for giving the kids a day of fun and being the hands and feet of Jesus!   The team will depart early Monday morning and not get home until very late Monday night, so please pray them home.

I have also included some pictures of progress from the new Children's Hope site.  Please be in prayer as Charley leads this construction.  Construction in the U.S. certainly has its challenges, so one can only imagine the challenges in a third world country.

Nathalie, Anne Louise, and Christine

Emma Beth

The Grilling Machine and Tommy

Kids breaking for lunch - Paul Bishop in front

Mary Conley and Myson

Sack races

Payton officiating in the background

"Coach Troy" with Silmaine

Road to new security wall

Slab - getting ready to build!

water storage

October Mission Trip, Part 1

A 16 (including Charley Elgin and granddaughter, Jessica) member team left for Birmingham Wednesday night for a very short night stay in a hotel and then on to Miami and then Port au Prince on Thursday morning.  They arrived in PAP expecting to take a nine seater plane, a five seater plane, and Charley and Jess were riding over the mountains in a truck.  However, as with any mission trip, flexibility is a must since the nine seater plane wasn't available!  They all made it fine though...just took a little longer.  The team was carrying in 16 checked bags of supplies plus their own luggage.  Ten of the bags were backpacks for the church schools.  Friends in Georgia collected 400  backpacks for children in five church schools.  We still have four duffle bags of backpacks to get down!

Let me back up a little.  In addition to providing our 23 kids at Children's Hope with tuition, uniforms, books and school suppliest, we help support five schools that are held in churches of local Baptist churches in Jacmel.  As you can see below, most of the kids do not have uniforms yet, books or supplies but they are still learning.  The government will issue books soon for us to purchase, blackboards will be finished and so will uniforms.  Despite this, the children are getting a wonderful gift of an education which so many children do not have.  This is easy to see when you see all of the children on the streets when others are in school.

On Friday morning, the team went to two church schools: Pastor Davidson's and Pastor Paul's.  They presented a Bible story and gave them coloring sheets and they shared a box of colored pencils.  And I do mean shared!  They each had one pencil and they all shared theirs so everyone could use different colors.  This was not in a greedy and snatching way but very selflessly.

Friday afternoon was spent taking out 23 kids to the beach.  This is always such a treat for them as it is with all children.  I asked how Estherline (our newest and youngest) did and was told she couldn't stop smiling.  She is the child who was beaten and then brought to CH last month.  I am so thankful that this precious child has found a loving and safe home at CH.  

I saved the best for last!  Nicholas brought a young woman to meet Charley, because she was battling a "troubled spirit."  Charley and Nicholas explained to her about Jesus and she prayed to receive Christ.  So thankful that CH is not only taking care of the "least of these" but God is using CH to expand His Kingdom!!!

Enjoy the pics!

School at Pastor Paul's Church

Troy telling the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 with five loaves or bread (Ritz crackers)
and two fish (Swedish fish - gummies)

Edith doing the limbo

Watching a very intense basketball game at CH

Beth and Estherline

Nicolas brought a lady to Charley who had a "troubled spirit."  She is now a Sister in Christ!

School at Pastor Davidson's church - blackboards were not ready, so they are using paper taped to the wall

Davidson's church

School at Pastor Paul's Church