Sunday, February 8, 2009

Another cistern for Pestel!

I just learned today that a local Kiwanis group (Upper Allen) has donated money so that we can provide another cisterns for Pestel!  

That makes 5 new cisterns to be installed!

Jen and I have had the pleasure of meeting with the Kiwanis on a number of occasions over the past 2 years, and they have been very supportive and eager to help the people of Haiti.  

Thanks again to all who have made this effort possible.  
Great thanks to God for His mercy which is again being evidenced through these gifts.

Ben


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My Blog
http://haitimedical.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Cisterns for Pestel!!

Hi everyone,

I just got an email from Dr. John Leininger who has been working out in the Pestel-area (a bit south, actually) for about 25+ years.  We have been emailing each other for the past year or so. 
Dr. Leininger has been installing the plastic cisterns in his area (Jole Gilbert), and he just got back from another trip to that area.  During that time a couple of really neat things happened:

1.  He and his team worked out some of the bugs, and now they are ready to begin installing them in Pestel!!  So we'll be starting out by installing 4 of the large cisterns in Pestel!  The cost of a cistern is $1000 which is cheaper than the cement/rock version (by about $500).  And hopefully these cisterns will prove to be more durable (because the cement versions can crack during drought, as they did last year, rendering them useless).    So this is very exciting!!!  

2.  Dr. Leininger and Sister Fidelis were able to meet up!!  They talked about a number of things (I can't wait to hear about their conversation), and this is clearly God moving two wonderful people into greater conversation for the purposes of helping the poor and needy, and of showing how great God is for his compassion.  God can use us as His hands-and-feet in this, and that's just amazing.

3.  I'll be flying down to Haiti March 21st with my brother-in-law, Jon.  We'll be meeting up with Anderson in PAP!  And the three of us will travel by plane out to Cayes. I've not been to Cayes before, so this will be an adventure (as always!).  But more importantly, there are some folks out there that I'm very interested in meeting up with.  In particular, a Baptist organization called MEBSH has some key personnel in Cayes, and MEBSH is involved in a number of church-schools in Pestel.  I have been emailing with folks with MEBSH and they are interested in also working together with us (that includes you!), Sister Fidelis and her church (Sisters of St. Francis in Ohio), KPA (Pestel's development group), John Leininger (with Harvest International and Jesus' Wells), Odelin Francois and his education-focused organization (GNP)....and there may be others coming down the pike, but more on that when/if it unfolds.

Wow!
Ben