Dear Friends,
Glenn & I spent half of July in Haiti. While there I worked with Norius, our school director, on the school budget for the upcoming year. Due to the anticipated increase in enrollment in our current 26 elementary schools Norius asked for 13 additional teachers. We budget for teachers at the ratio of one teacher for every 40 students so that equates to an additional 520 children in these schools. Without adding any more schools that would put us at almost 6500 students in September. However, many requests have come in for us to start new schools and we have made commitments to two additional villages which will add another 200 children in September. We are excited about the opportunity to serve these 28 villages with education for their children. And ultimately it opens the door to reach more people with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Over the past several months the people of the Corail village have been asking for a church. It is evident that God is working in these lives as many non-Christians are the ones so open to a church being planted there. As I write this letter an evangelistic crusade is going on in Corail. A team of 40 from the Tricotte and Port-au-Prince churches are camping out in Corail for the week. Their mornings are spent worshiping and praying for the lost people of the village, the afternoons are used to go throughout the village inviting the people to come to the evening meetings, and at night there’s worship, testimonies and preaching for two to three hours. In a remote village like Corail, with no other activities going on, the people come, some just curious, some more interested in spiritual things, but all of them having the opportunity to hear the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. Thank you for praying with us for a great harvest of souls in Corail.
A highlight of our July trip was the fitting of a prosthetic leg for the director of our school in Bethel, who had recently had her leg amputated. A friend, Dick Rutgers, missionary to Guatemala, had told me about a prosthetic company in Nevada. During our last trip in May, Dr David ( a real God send) and I had made a plaster cast of this women’s limb. We sent this cast along with photos and measurements to the prosthetic company. Can you imagine the curiosity in the village as Glenn and I went to work giving her instructions and fitting her with this new leg? It was so good to see the smile on her face as she stood for the first time without the aid of her crutches.
Thank you for your prayers and support for Smailine. We are still working toward getting her a medical visa to come to Florida for kidney stone surgery. The good news is that the pain has been bearable over the past few weeks. Please continue to pray for her and for the visa process.
It is simply amazing as I think of all the things that God has allowed us to be involved in. Who would have ever thought that we would have the opportunity to make a difference in the life of a Haitian woman needing a prosthetic leg and also in Smailine’s surgery. As God is at work in the lives of the people in Haiti, He invites us to join Him. He alone is the One who puts all the pieces together. We trust that God will use this also to advance His Kingdom as these women give testimony of the work of God in there lives. Thank you so much for partnering with us in each of these events as you pray and support this ministry.
As we prepare for school to begin again this fall, we can use a number of items to send on the next container. These can be dropped off at our office on the north side of our house at any time. We live at 1811 Main St, Lynden.
- Pencils, Pens (crayons & colored pencils are not needed)
- Notebooks
- Geometric items such as rulers, shapes, and compasses
- Chalk
- Soccer balls and jump ropes
Serving the Lord together,
Bernie & Sheryl Bovenkamp
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