Beginning of June Snapshot

Family and Friends,

Things are going really well here in Jacmel. Faith and I just got back from the States for a long weekend to get her 4 month shots. We had a great time with Grandma & Grandpa Hills back in NY. We loaded up 3 50lbs suitcases packed with food and supplies for us as well as the kids for the GG orphanage. Faith did great flying and was keeping lots of people around us entertained (for the most part).

We got in Tuesday afternoon into Port Au Prince and spent the night with Michelle at the HAF house there in PAP. Then on Wednesday we were able to turn in all the paperwork for our Residency Papers!! YAY! You have no idea how much of a burden that takes off our shoulders. We just have to go back in a month to get our papers because it takes them a while to process them. But we’ve submitted all the paperwork- so it’s all done on our end- PRAISE THE LORD!!!!

Then we went to Grand Goave last night so we could meet with Pastor Lex & Renee early this morning. Our time with them was great! We were able to talk to them about some logistics about how many nannies and staff members they have now, how much they get paid as well as the story about how we got these 31 kids in the first place. I just want to give you a little background about these kids, so you can know how to better pray for us. Basically about three years ago, there were 229 children living in an orphanage with very little supervision. They didn’t have three meals a day or abundant clean water. The people in charge of these children told Lex that they all went to school, but they were always there when he showed up to visit them. He then hired a lady from his church to work as a nanny at that orphanage to help provide continuous loving care for these kids who had been emotionally and physically abused. Pastor Lex ended up taking 31 of the most malnourished children. They gave them a place to live, food to eat, water to drink, nannies and pastors to watch over them, as well as a place to go to school. That is why some of our older boys (16 years old) are only in 1^st grade. But they all seem to be doing well in school. They are going to the Christian school that Pastor Lex built and they also attend his church in Grand Goave. Currently, they are living in a building on the property of the school and church. The problem with keeping them there is that they are in the process of building a new church/school building right in the center of that property. This makes it pretty dangerous for 31 kids to be running around with big heavy equipment all day long (especially since school is almost out.) All that to say, that we are still shooting for our date of June 20^th to move the kids into the new site (a mile down the road).

Our plan is to finish up our language classes here in Jacmel the first part of next week and then move over to Grand Goave Tuesday or Wednesday next week for good!! YAY! We would love to be able to stay over at the new site to be able to help out a little more and also start to get things ready to move in the next week with the kids. We still have a long ways to go with our buildings though. We’ve got the fence up, the septic lines in, a few foundations poured and the bathhouse is up (no plywood on the outside for walls yet.) The problem has been that it’s been raining almost every day for the past 5 days in GG, so it’s been impossible to pour anything. Anyways- all that to say, PRAY FOR US and that the weather would hold off so we can keep working. So between now and next week- we’ve got a lot of packing to do and lots of things to get ready for the new site.

Praises:

- Safe travels for Faith & I as we went back to get her shots. She’s doing great! We also had great time in NY with family and friends.

- We have such a great resource to have Pastor Lex (who is Haitian) and Renee (American) to be so close by and so involved and willing to help out!!! They are truly an amazing couple- praise the LORD!

- We turned our residency papers in on Wednesday and we had everything that we needed- praise God!!

Prayer:

- Transition time for the kids. We heard today from Lex & Renee, that the kids might be a little resistant at first to the change. They like living at the school and church because they’re in the center of it all. She said that it will be a little challenging for them to move down the road to their own place. But just be praying for them to have a smooth transition and that we’d be gracious and understanding during this time.

- Please be praying for us as we prepare this next week to have the kids move in. Pray that God would give us wisdom and understanding of the Haitian culture as we prepare to be parents to these 31 children. Pray that we would know how to best raise these children up in the Lord.

- Pray that the construction would continue to move forward at a fast pace, so we can move these kids in to a safe place. Also pray that the weather would remain clear for us to be able to pour some more foundations and get some more houses up!

- Pray that we would continue to set aside time as a family to get into His Word. Pray that even in the midst of all this change that we would make sure that our priorities are where they need to be!!

Thank you guys so much for all your help and support! We can feel your prayers in a tremendous way- thanks for holding the ropes!!!

For His Glory,

~The Suttons

Our house will go under that big mango tree on the far left of this picture. You can see the frame for the bath house in the back center. The slab on the far right is for the boys dorm. And in this front corner we'll put the girls dorm. The kitchen house/dining room will be to the far left (you can't see in this picture.)