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The Roof in the Morning… Please Pray
Good morning everyone! I hope you have as beautiful a spring morning as we do here in TN!
I want you to let you all know that tomorrow is the big day for pouring the roof of the house in Haiti. Daddy and Timothy went down to Haiti on Wednesday to join Michael and two other men already there. My brother-in-law Jacob went down a week ago and helped get the forming done. The crew finished the re-bar, put in the wiring, and finished pouring the walls yesterday. Today they are finishing up the last few things and tomorrow they plan to pour the roof! Please pray with us for a safe and successful job. Please pray for clouds without rain, so the concrete does not dry too quickly. Please pray for God’s glory to be shown in the lives of those gathered together for the job.
Thank you for your support in prayer and your interest in the work. God bless you today!
Picture Tour of the House
We can call it a house now, it has walls. No roof yet, but that is coming too!
First, I thank God for prospering the work. Without His gracious blessing the job probably wouldn’t have gotten done. No one was hurt, and they had everything they needed.
The men worked so hard, starting at 7 each morning. Wilmon made them lunch, and every day they worked till dusk. Actually, the last two evenings they laid block with headlamps; the first time because they wanted to use up the mortar they had, and the second time to finish the job. Timothy said “We refused to walk away till the job was done.” I asked him if they cheered when the last block was laid at 8:17pm on Saturday, and he said, “No, we just wanted to clean up the tools and go home.”
Every day they prayed for no rain, and they only had one shower that made them take cover. Then Saturday night after they were finished, it poured rain. The mission in Allegue was totally out of water, and had to haul it from the river, so they were very thankful for the rain!
Saturday was the most difficult day. They ran out of gas for the cement mixer, so they took some out of the 4 wheeler. In the afternoon they need a little more, so they drained the generator.
They had to put up framing in the doorways to lay block across the tops, and the drill ran out of battery with 4 concrete screws left to put in. A few minutes of charge at a time back and forth between the two batteries finished that job up.
Thank you, Timothy and Christen for all the hard work you put in this past week. Thank you Michael for all the hard work you put into the house day after day. Thank you Daddy for all the planning and supplies and support you have put into the whole project. Thank you to each one who prays, and gives, and helps in your own particular way. We truly are grateful!
Now for the pictures!
This is the starting point for the week.
A good start
Back wall done!
Three sides done, one to go. Then the inner walls…
It’s done! (They got too busy to take pictures…)
The front, and the north end which is the master bedroom.
The back of the house faces west.
From L to R – master bedroom, second bedroom, kitchen, shower room, restroom
Welcome! Come on in friends…
This looks out from the left side of the door, in the entryway/laundry area
Straight in the front door- on the left is the restroom, on the right is the shower room. We kept them separate to free things up…
To the right of the entryway is the door to the living room/kitchen
Living room window looking out to the driveway
The gorgeous view out the kitchen window… the sunsets are beautiful!
The second bedroom, off the kitchen
Short hall to the master bedroom, we will have shelves on the one side
The window in the north wall, looking up to the road
Western view from the master bedroom (I love it!)
From the road above you can see the layout of the house
Parting shot… this is the best overall view you can get of the property and it’s setting
Sorry Christen, I don’t have a better picture! Thanks for all your hard work! (He is covered in cement dust from cutting blocks. All the blocks on the top layer had to be cut so the roof slants to one corner, where the rain water will be collected.)
My brothers – thank you Timothy and Michael! I am looking forward to living in this house!
Completed Walls!!!
1800 blocks.
5 days.
62 hours.
5 men.
The walls are totally laid up, all the way to the last block on the last row! Each block in the top row was cut precisely so the roof slopes at the right angle. The outside walls, and the inner walls, all done! Praise God for His goodness in helping the crew complete this stage of the building. My brother Timothy, and Christen Beiler went down to help Michael this past week, and we didn’t quite believe they could get the job TOTALLY finished. But they did!
They are worn out, but I am sure they are feeling even more jubilant than I am. Thank you to all who have prayed for them this week.
I will post pictures later after Timothy gets home.
Pastor’s Conference in Fourby, Haiti
Time: January 18-21, 2014
Place: Fourby, Haiti (Near Jean Rabel)
Team Members: Philip Rudolph, Glen Yoder, Michael Rudolph, two Haitian translators & the local coordinator
On Friday morning, January 17, Philip, Glen, and Michael were packed, and leaving Port au Prince for the north! This trip was highly anticipated for 2 years now by the pastors and leaders in Fourby, Haiti. The journey from Port au Prince to Fourby in nice weather with “good” roads is approximately 9 ½ hours (with a stop for supplies). On this trip the team was pleased to find that the roads were passable, though there were some pot holes large enough to drive a truck into, and the dust was 6” thick in some areas. 🙂 However, they did not have breakdowns or get stuck, which was a huge blessing.
Let me give some background and information on Fourby, Haiti…
Fourby is about an hour south of the larger region of Jean Rabel. This area is one of the poorest regions in northwestern Haiti. The community of Fourby itself is very isolated, and the poverty extreme. Approximately three years ago (in 2011), AFH had their first pastor’s conference in Fourby. Shortly thereafter, some leaders and pastors from this area requested that AFH return to teach them further from the Word of God. They stated that they had a list of 70 men interested in attending another conference for pastors. Since then, Michael has been contacted by these leaders numerous times, and was told that these 70 men were still eagerly waiting! God provided AFH with the financial capabilities, as well as other open doors to make it possible to return this January.
Friday evening, the team arrived in Fourby – freshly coated in dust! They set up the projector, prepared the meeting building for sessions, and got their living area arranged for the next several days, then went to bed. This was no luxury suite – there were 5 men with all their supplies in about an 8′ x 10′ room, and that made for very crowded quarters!
Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday each had 3 sessions plus a question and answer time, with Philip and Glen preaching through translators.
Glen is from Kentucky; he is an elder in a sister church to Philip’s assembly in TN. Philip has known him for 14 years. Glen was in Haiti with a work team in 2013, and he agreed to go along to help teach at this pastor’s conference. He very quickly adapted to teaching through a translator. His series on “The Man of God” focused on character qualifications and abilities that are required in order to be effective as a leader. At one point while he was teaching about the various duties that need to be performed by leaders in the church, he began to pull balls out of his pocket and juggle them, to the delight of the men! While he was juggling, he told them that while they’re fulfilling their task as a teacher, they must also fulfill it as an example; and while they are teaching and being an example, they must also be guarding against the dangers from outside the church. A leader must not drop the ball in any area. It was truly an electric moment, and he was able to reach their hearts through his demonstration and teachings.
Glen and Pastor Bono
Philip taught eight sessions answering the question, “What is the Gospel?” He was able to cover this subject in depth, beginning with man’s responsibility to God as his Creator and reckoning with His holiness. They covered the subject of man – who he is as a sinner, and his separation from God. They looked in depth at the substitutionary death of Christ as the answer to the guilt and sin of man. They concluded the sessions with man’s response; “…repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” Acts 20:21
One of the highlights of the conference was the level of maturity found in the men. This is AFH’s 9th pastor training week. Usually there are younger men that attend, if there is room. However this time, it was middle aged and older men, which added a universal maturity and wisdom that is typically uncommon for such a large group. This gave the teachers the opportunity to dive into deeper issues and levels of teaching. Another highlight was simply the fact that attendance to the sessions was nearly perfect – the men were faithful and so interested in all they could take in. Such commitment was a huge blessing and encouragement to the team!
These men were noticed between sessions talking about what they were learning, going over their notes, and discussing Scripture. The older man is a deacon and he was explaining more about the lessons they had covered.
Voodoo is deeply ingrained amongst the people in the Fourby area. The local church has faced some persecution, especially during its beginning years ago as the Christians were starting to step away from the traditions of their community. When they began to build their first meeting house – they would plant and set the first poles of the building into the ground. During the night, someone opposed to them (probably the witchdoctor’s cronies) would come and tear them out, ruining their day’s work and preventing building progression. This event took place a number of times. Pastor Bono had some people tell him that if he doesn’t stop trying to have a church there, they would put a spell on him and kill him. But he was determined to press on, and said he didn’t care about their threats – he had to move ahead. He said that actually, all the men who tried to put a spell on him died within a year.
On this trip to Fourby, the local elders from this assembly requested to have a meeting with Glen, Philip and Michael. They explained that their church separated from another larger denomination some time ago. They felt it was time to get away from the hierarchy type of church government that they were a part of; that they were being controlled by a denomination rather than the New Testament. When they were a part of that denomination, they did not have the liberty to pursue their responsibilities as a local church separate from the organization that was over them. They have a vision to be completely under the headship of Christ and His Word. So they asked for Glen and Philip’s input on a few issues. For one thing, they are having problems with the Haitian government not recognizing them as a registered church. This means that they cannot provide birth certificates or wedding certificates for individuals in the congregation. Philip and Glen were able to encourage them to be patient and continue on. They were also able to speak with another friend of theirs to help get permission for this assembly to be a local, New Testament church, and hopefully become recognized by the department of religious affairs in Haiti. Please pray for God to open doors so that this could happen.
These are some of the primary people who helped make the conference possible – food/lodging/translating/local coordinating.
Wednesday morning, the conference was finished and the team headed south to Port au Prince to fly home the next day. They are excited about what God did in Fourby, and ask that you join us in prayer for the men who were able to study the Word of God with them. Pray that God would use what the men discussed and learned to further His kingdom for His glory and honor. The men that attended the conference actually come from many small communities in the Jean Rabel/Fourby area. They have the potential to impact many people, by God’s grace. Pray that they would be able to effectively communicate truth and God’s Word in their homes, assemblies, and schools. Pray that God would open hearts as people hear the Gospel and the truth of the Scriptures.
Rising walls
The walls on the house are slowly going up! Michael and our cousin Don worked on this a while back, it was before Christmas. We hope to have a few guys go down in February to help finish laying them up. It is a work of trust and faith that God will provide, because there has been a bit of difficulty in finding people willing to go who have the ability to go. So please pray with us that God would open doors and provide what and who is needed.
God bless your day!
Fencing Team – My Family!
On November 13, my family and I and my friend Breanna, who is staying with us right now, went to Haiti to put up the fence around the property. We had a wonderful time working together with Michael, and by the grace of God we got the fence totally hung before we had to leave. Just in time though, and the last 2 days we had to work in the rain! Thankfully it only poured off and on, so we were able to finish up.
I am going to post a lot of pictures, and hopefully by them and the captions for them, you will be able to get a good overall picture of the project. Enjoy! If you have any specific questions, please leave a comment and I’ll do my best to answer them.
The crew of us! The fence is all done.
We had so much luggage space with all of us going, so we took down most of the things we need to outfit the kitchen. But it did make for a lot of suitcases to deal with.
Waiting in the Haitian airport while the luggage came in.
At Leogane, before heading up the mountain… we were so happy to be there as a family!
Ready to roll…
At my cousins Don’s place in the mountains, they were so gracious to loan us their new house for the week.
We had lots of chadeck on our place, and it made some lovely juice.
Trying out the new juicer
Two gallons of juice every day… umm it was so good!
Getting started on the fence, we had to level out the ground along the first stretch.
Some posts were too tall and had to be trimmed off
Then a load of block came and had to be unloaded.
Brace bands, tension bands and rail cups had to be put on the end posts before anything else.
Meanwhile, Michael was making a porta john…
There it goes
Nicely camouflaged, not?
The first length of fence – we rolled it all out in one place, and carried it to where it needed to go.
Time for lunch
Rice and sauce for lunches… Wilmon is a good cook.
Rolling out the next fence section
Stretching the fabric with ratchet straps worked really well.
Putting up the fence on the wall at the back corner of the land was a difficult job. Where we had to walk was terribly rough and the rocks were slippery, but we got it done with everyone working together!
“Hang on tight till they get it stretched and fastened”
Time for supper, back up at Don’s house.
I was glad we had figured out all the meals and made sure we had the ingredients before we got there.
![Heading down to Granfon for another day; the 4-wheelers were so fun! [And we had to use them as transportation :) ]](http://lafwa.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/dscn4624.jpg)
Heading down to Granfon for another day; the 4-wheelers were so fun! (And we HAD to use them as transportation) 🙂
Figuring out the first bias cut; Michael and Papa got it down to a pretty good science!
There are tons of biting ants all over our land. It was awful if you stepped in them, and the bites itched worse than mosquito bites.
We got bit so many times that we decided to try to get rid of the biggest hills. Used diesel and a bit of paper and a match… that ought to help the problem. It did a little, but we ran out of diesel before the ants were gone.
Closing the gap in the longest stretch of fence, down the right side.
This small section was on a hard slant, it took quite a bit of work to get it right; and we had to work on top of a sharply sloping wall!
See the “ti moun yo” (children) above the wall? We often had people watching from the road above, and once a young man came walking by and stood with his mouth open, staring for 10-15 min. Then he went on his way, never said a word. I really wonder what he was thinking!
Jackson (in the purple shirt) and Wilmon were excellent help. They both work for Michael, and they were easy to work with even with the culture/language barrier.
Fastening the fence to the post where it was hard slant took a while.
Lovely pure water from the well. We drank it without filtering it and never got sick. We are very grateful to God for giving us good water in the well.
A beautiful Sunday morning! Not too many times you have view like that while you get ready for church!
My Mama… 🙂
Waiting for Sunday dinner, and cold cokes!
Making bars, à la degaje.
Meaning- we didn’t have everything we needed, so you add a bit of this and that and hope it turns out!
They did turn out, and were almost better than the original recipe!
Christina is making the juice for the next day. That juicer is worth the cost. If you know someone in Haiti that makes a lot of juice, this would be a wonderful present for them! It saves hours of time. Literally.
Rebekah kept a fairly thorough journal during the trip. I’m glad she enjoys it. I like to try, but it normally takes too much time, in my opinion, so I never can keep it up. 🙂
Tripping over a stump is never fun, so when this one caught several people by surprise, it was time to do something about it.
Ready to go for another day…
… but first you have to wipe the clouds off of the windshield. Cool your head with a damp hat – this is a two for one deal!
As we pulled up, you can’t see what has been done, but progress has been good so far.
Laying out the bottom tension wire…
… and stretching it tight. Ratchet straps are great tools.
Duck under and around… we looked like a caterpillar walking.
The back line
Weaving together two fabric pieces… it was so easy and looked perfectly seamless when finished.
Dressing the fence. You had to space out, grab it firmly and shake hard while Michael tightened the ratchet straps.
This line of fence had a slope at one end, she is ready to hold down the tension wire so they don’t tie it off too tightly.
Fastening down the wire so we don’t trip over it as we carry the fabric across the line.
Screw this cap fast, it wants to pop off the top of the post!
#1 Rule – Don’t step on the neighbor’s cabbages growing 6″ from the fence line! (I think we managed it, but it was tough.)
That slope at the end of the section of fence was hard to deal with. We had to hold the fence down while fastening it with wires to the top bar.
Time to quit for the day, but let’s mark out the lines for the walls of the house before we head up to Don’s.
Nathaniel and Jackson had so much fun catching and playing with lizards. Jackson caught them, Nathaniel played with them.
I don’t exactly want to put it on my ear, Jared, but the hat works just as well and doesn’t have blood! (Those lizards have a hard bite!)
Bananas from our banana grove. They ripen evenly in the basement.
They were so good! Right, Susanna?
See the face looking up?
A clear view of the valley looking from Don’s land. This is the last nice sunset we saw up there, it started raining the next day.
Oh Yay! We got to see a tarantula! Unfortunately it was a baby one.
Rebekah does most of our laundry at home, but not this way! “It was fun for something different…”
“… but it doesn’t get the clothes as dry as spinning them out.”
Within 30 minutes of hanging it all up, it started to rain. So rig up a line in the basement. (The clothes never did dry till we got to Port. It rained the rest of the time we were in the mountains.)
Let’s keep going, a little water won’t hurt us.
But a lot of water might! “Take cover till it slacks off.”
Cute little frog! I really like those critters.
Living in the clouds… This is Don’s house where we stayed. It wasn’t always cloudy, but it could be sunny, then a thick fog within 15 min.
It was so much fun to be together as a family!
We were glad to have running water, even if it was in an unconventional way.
Anybody home??? This sight always made me grin.
Uh oh. Black veilings and rain… it stained her dress! But thankfully boiling water did the trick to clean it up.
Don’s son came up to stay with us for two days. It poured rain, so he and Nathaniel played all kinds of games, and talked mostly nonstop. 🙂
So damp and cold. Anyone want some coffee?
Ahhh… perfect! (Who cares if it was made in a kettle instead of a coffee pot? It was SO good, just don’t drink the last swallow unless you like grounds.)
Waiting for the rain to stop… should we just go and get wet? Finish your coffee, then we will decide.
Dig out the raincoats and let’s just do it! “Let me get a picture, you all look hilarious!”
It was just across the front that needed done…
… can we finish it? We will do our best despite the…
… rain…
… and curious school children and adults…
… and a little sunshine coming through the clouds helps make the wet, cold feeling seem not too bad! Right, Breanna? Actually, we all enjoyed the challenge of working in the rain.
“Hold me up someone! This is slick!” (This particular piece didn’t get the bias cut quite right, and we had to wrestle it a bit to get it hooked up. I guess that is what happens when you have to work under a tarp in the pouring rain.)
The last stretch to be done!
Let’s go!
“Shake it!” We were so excited to be almost done.
Tightening the last nuts… What is he using? We put the drill in a bag to keep it from getting wet. it worked beautifully!
The next day it cleared off and we had a nice day for the trip to Port. This is the finished job! Of course there is still some things to do, hang the gate, string the wire around the top, and put on all the fasteners we didn’t get done. But the fence is all hung!
Looking towards the back line from the end of the driveway
This is what it looks like from the road above. I think it looks nice, not too conspicuous, but definitely doing it’s job.
And that, my friends, concludes this post. I hope you enjoyed the pictures, and I would love to hear your comments. I’m sorry it took so long to get them on here, but we have been very busy and going through the 1000+ pictures that my sisters took is no small job!
Have a Merry Christmas! God bless us, everyone!
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John Doe
Foundation Done!
A week and a half ago, my Dad, my brother Timothy and Glen Yoder came back from a strenuous week in Haiti. They left on the 14th, spent Sunday with Pastor Bruce, and arrived in the mountains that evening. The purpose of the trip was to get as much of the foundation of the house laid as was possible. God really blessed them and prospered the work, and by Thursday night, they had accomplished all that Papa thought they could get done in the week. So they were able to do a little more than what they thought was possible! I have a lot of pictures to share; thanks to Papa and Timothy. If you want to see the pictures bigger, just click on them.
One of the first jobs was to cut down a dead palm that was messing up the view.
Foundation walls going up, and Michael clearing the space for the basement floor.
Looking from the front of the building – see where the basement door will be on the back left?
One of the inner basement walls done.
The floor leveled and graveled.
Laying up the other two inner basement walls.
Almost ready to pour the basement floor.
Looking in the basement door… Timothy is finishing the concrete.
Straight in the basement door – you can see the septic lid, they lifted it out and Michael was able to go in to take apart the forms from pouring that cap.
The block windows in the basement for ventilation; Papa laid those in with re-bar and plenty of cement. They are pretty fragile blocks.
The end of the house closest to the fence.
Pouring the foundation walls full of concrete…
The foundation walls done, and the basement door installed.
Filling in between the walls…
The foundation is done!
Glen, Timothy, and the Haitian crew. Papa took the picture, and I don’t know where Michael was at the time. Those men worked really hard, and did a great job!
Of course, you have to date it!
From the road above…
You can see the back of the house, but not the front. That makes me happy!
At the end of the week, Papa found Michael’s tarantula that had gone missing from his room earlier in the week… in his carry-on. Thinking back, Papa realized that was what he had brushed off his arm one night, it had been too dark to see…
Michael with his pet… the critters eat roaches. Don’t YOU want one?
Timothy wanted to hold it, do you see it waving Hi with its leg? (Friendly little thing.)
Glen decided to brave his natural dislike of spiders and have a go at it too. He was fine till it started crawling around his neck, then Michael was obliged to take it back again. 🙂
That is all the news for now, folks! Thanks for checking in and being interested in the work. Papa plans on going down the 19th to help Michael pour the floor. If you do concrete work, or want to help with that, please let us know. It is a blessing to have others pitch in and help with all the work that is to be done. God bless you, and please keep praying for us and the work God has called us to do. Pray that through our lives many Haitians would come to know and serve our great God.
Flora and Fauna, and Friends
I love the variety of plants that we have on our land. There are quite a few things that we don’t have, but those we will try to transplant over time. First of all, we have a whole patch/bunch of bananas. These are not plantains, but real bananas. Michael got quite a few hangers this year. It takes around three years for a plant to grow and bear, then you chop down the stalk and little plants push up from the root.
We also have grenadia vines which is a yellow passion fruit. They make the most delicious juice, and I have made jelly out of it. It is the strongest flavored jelly I’ve ever eaten, and I am looking forward to making more jelly and juice combinations with them.
Here are some pictures of other fruits and edible plants that are currently growing on the land.
Pumpkins
Abriko – it has a firm orange flesh and tastes slightly like an apricot/peach (but still is very different), the tree is very tall
Malanga – the root is edible. The best way to eat it is to grate it up and add a few things and then deep fry it. I think it is far better than hush-puppies!
Chadek – a type of grapefruit like citrus. It is most commonly used for making juice.
Coffee!
This is an avocado tree I planted before the land was bought. I got the seed from a huge, delicious yellow/green avocado, and I hope it produces the exact same kind!
This is a coconut that makes good coconut water for drinking. If you let them on the tree long enough, they will make coconut too. Michael sprouted about ten of them in a dirt plie, and we had to transplant one while I was there. Those 3 holes at the top of a coconut? That is where the roots and sprout come out.
I was so happy when I saw there was a big stand of bamboo right in the middle of the land. It is HUGE! It is so pretty too!
That is it, sticking way up above the other trees.
The shoots come up as big around as the stalk will be.
Average size
A slight comparison
A few other pretty things.
Four o’clocks
The driveway. It is so pretty and shady. In the center in the back, you can see the abriko tree.
Wilmon’s house out by the road
Our view out back
Two of our neighbors down the hill, Shana and little Cherie. Everybody loves those two!
This little one is a special child. Her parent’s story has a rough beginning, and she is a special gift from God to them. I had to add her here because she is so cute!
Then there are the critters of every shape and form. Take a look at this…
Two gigantic pigs going to town on the back of motos! The one pig’s nose was only inches above the ground, the other pig was getting singed on the muffler. The driver stopped to readjust it, and was lifting it by it’s tail making it squeal! I felt sorry for the pigs, but it was a funny sight!
Some more…
A blind snake we found in the dirt pile. It had no eyes, but a mouth and scales.
The ever present cockroaches… UGH. Except they are normally alive. These met their death by bug spray when I had to help some friends clean out a storage place. No exaggeration, there were thousands of them. This isn’t anything compared to what there were!
That, my friends, concludes the updates from my past trip. My dad and older brother are going down next week to lay the foundations of the house. Please keep them in your prayers. If you are a block layer, and would like to help for a week sometime, please let us know!
A bonus picture for you…
One of the many breathtaking views along the road to Ti Goave
