Campus Update

I realized today that I rarely ever write about what is going on with our ministry here on campus. I typically share family happenings and cultural issues I struggle with. So today I thought I would give a little update on the NVM campus. This summer has been BUSY! We have had multiple mission teams every week for the entire summer. Although the school is out for summer break we continue to run English classes, beading classes, sewing classes, church services, youth services, and the medical clinic. Not to mention all the construction going on!

 This week, we have four fabulous teams on campus. Of course I am a bit biased about one of the teams since they are from my home church!  The team from Grace Community Church is made up of high school students and their 4 fearless leaders. They have been a HUGE blessing here and have spent days organizing and inventorying our large, and quite full, warehouse... amongst other things. Today they attended the on-site English class we offer to help with one-on-one practice for the Haitians. And last night two of the leaders got engaged! Ryan Graves and Leslie Sell were engaged up on the mountain - our first engagement here at NVM! And Leslie is staying on for the next 2 months as a nurse in our clinic.

Grace High School students help Rodney practice English in class

More English practice

 We also have a team from Georgia that we fondly refer to as the "Macon Marines" because of their ability to conquer anything we throw at them. They have done too many odd jobs to list, as well as work on the hospital construction. A few of the guys have become favorites at the children's home as well.

Cutting the concrete block for electrical wiring in the hospital

Hospital under construction

We also have a great family team here that have been helping out and putting on a dance clinic for some of the girls in the village. I always love when people come to focus on the girls here and do something that gives them a sense of individuality and joy. Girls here grow up too quickly, often having children in their early teens, and are responsible for so much. It makes me so happy to see them do something different and fun! On Sunday the daughter of the family did a tap routine in church. She was really good! And as she walked off the stage and down the isle to her seat all the Haitians stared at her shoes in amazement trying to figure out how they made such noises!

 The other team we have this week on campus is from Saddleback church in California. Today they are out in the hot sun working on our new office! We have outgrown our current office space (which is really taking up part of the school's classrooms) so we are all excited for this new office to get up and running! It will provide us with a meeting space (something we currently lack), office spaces for long term staff, and a place for interns and other short term staff.

The Saddleback team works on the new office building

Also under construction are two new children's homes right here on campus. Each will house 32 children. We have a hired Haitian crew working on them to get them done ASAP.

Children's home construction

So, that is the skinny on campus. Lots of people on campus as usual, and lots of things going on as usual!

This ministry wouldn't be what it is without all the help we get from short term teams that come in! We currently have around 60 Haitian staff (including all the school staff) and about 10 short term staff (interns and people like us). There is no way we could accomplish all the things we do without our volunteers.