Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Transforming a school

Can you imagine what it would be like to have a school of 380 kids and only 1 outhouse?  Well, perhaps you don’t want that mental image in your head.  Let’s just say that it’s not pretty.

One Sister Church wanted to show their love and concern for the kids in their Sister Church’s school by building them a deluxe, solid outhouse.  What does building an outhouse in Haiti look like?  This will help give you an idea…

Step 1:  Frame the hole and line the sides with cement.

1 frame the hole

Step 2:  Make it a very, very deep hole!

2 a very deep hole

Step 3:  Frame the roof of the hole which will serve as the floor of the outhouse itself.

4 frame the roof of the hole - floor of the bathroom

Step 4:  Bring in more cement.

8 bring in more cement

Step 5:  Have a good place nearby to mix the cement…by hand.

5 mix the cement

Step 6:  Pour the roof / floor.

6 pour the roof - floor

Step 6:  Make sure the place holders are there (yes those are 5 gallon buckets and yes, they’ll came out once the cement set up).  3 girls’ spots, 3 boys’ spots and 2 private teacher spots.  Put the finishing touches on the cement – many feet will be using this floor.

7 let it set up and dry

Step 7:  Bring in the blocks for the walls.

3 bring in block

Step 8:  Put the walls up. 

9 start putting the walls up

Step 9:  Frame the ceiling and pour it.

12 frame up the roof

Step 10:  Plaster the whole thing and Viola! you have a brand new deluxe outhouse!

RMI’s value of life transformation comes in many forms.  This is one practical way to help transform a school.

Friday, February 08, 2013

Good News on a Friday afternoon

Mart and Jules croppedFor those of you who know Jules Gedna…we have good news to report.

He has been taking a new medicine which is experimental.  This is pretty much his last hope for help.  He went in last week to get tested to see how things were going.  The doctor was so excited with the results that he called Jules Wednesday evening.  His blood results had been going up up up and were at 2.1.  The doctor had said that Jules needed a 1.2 reading to be where he should be. 

The new medicine has worked!  PTL!  His tests came back at 1.2, which is amazing!  He has only been on this medication for a short while so for it to be working so well is awesome!  This is a big answer to prayer for him.   We need to continue to pray that the meds will continue to keep the cancer at bay and keep things stable at this level.  Only time will tell how well the medication will continue to control the cancer. 

Jules was very excited and understandably so. 

His phone number is 407-545-9370.  Feel free to call him!  Your calls to him are very encouraging to him.