Hello,
Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
This is a familiar verse to most of us, and we have a certain security that we get from reading it, or having someone recite it over us. But what an amazing thing for an 11 year old orphan in a third world country to be rescued from the streets into a loving Christian orphanage. Able to see a real doctor in a real medical care clinic and find this, literal time bomb, inside him. And then be able to go to the Capital City to have major surgery, which successfully removed the bomb, and then be resting peacefully as he recovers back with his friends at the orphanage. I wonder truly what plans our Lord has for this boy, and what hope and future is in store for him. Mike

Jephley was doing so well in the hospital that he was released this morning to go back up to the orphanage. Praise God and thanks for all of your prayers. Please continue to pray for complete healing and no infection. Also for him to be able to stay somewhat quiet and calm while being surrounded by 55 children. Yes, 55 children, we had IBESR bring us a young boy that was removed from his fathers house because of abuse. This is very significant as Haiti has a lot of abuse cases, for IBESR to step in means that the abuse was very extreme. It also means that they recognize the orphanage as a safe place, as they would have passed other orphanages as they traveled with him to get to ours. When he was brought in Caitlin took one look at him and stripped him down in front of the authorities and took photos to document his wounds so that no one at the orphanage could be accused of anything. Please pray for healing for him, physical, spiritual and emotional. Also please continue to pray for Caitlin, she is loving it in the orphanage and says she is not ready to leave. It is a hard place to be, wanting to be with family and wanting to reach out to the hurting and lost. We so appreciate her and her desire to serve the children.
Blessings,
Chris

Hello,
We just got off the phone with Nathan, he said the surgery went well. Nathan was able to talk with Jephly and he seems to be okay, and not afraid. Nadine is with Jephly now and will stay with him. Mike talked with Dr. Ralph also, he said that the surgery was successful and that they checked the testicle in the surgery room and no cancer was found. Praise the Lord! Thank you to everyone who fasted and prayed! We are so blessed by all of you! Please continue to pray for Jephly's recovery and Nadine and her helper as they care for Jephly! And remember to pray for Nathan and Dr. Ralph as they travel back home.
Many blessings,
Chris

Hello,

We wanted to update you in regards to how Jephly is doing. Caitlin, the girl that went down to Haiti with the May team and stayed as a nanny(keeper) wrote this in an e-mail to us.
" I just wanted to let you know that when Jephly left the kids
all got together to pray and held a special time of worship over him.
There is a general peace here, and the kids are going about their days
as usual. Jephly seemed to be doing good-- he literally had a peace
that passes understanding!! I can just tell that God is with him.
Nathan is very tired- he's been eating and drinking plenty of water,
but he's been doing a lot of traveling and it's starting to take its
toll on him. Pray for rejuvenation for him as well."

We talked to Nathan this evening, they arrived in Port-au-Prince safely and are settling down for the night. Nathan echoed Caitlin when explaining the prayer and worship time for Jephly. He said everyone felt peace and that Jephly obviously felt God's presence. Thanks so much for your prayers. Nathan said that Jephly wanted to talk to Mike, and Mike was able to tell Jephly that he loved him and that all of our friends are praying for him. Nathan said that the whole orphanage including everyone with Jephly in Port-au-Prince are fasting tomorrow morning until noon. He asked if Mike and I could fast, along with our friends. So we are asking all of you if you would consider fasting until 12:00 tomorrow. We also talked with Dr. Ralph from our clinic tonight, he said that he knows the doctor performing the surgery and asked if he could be the assistant in the surgery tomorrow. The surgeon consented. So Dr. Ralph will be helping with the surgery tomorrow morning.The surgery is scheduled for 6:30 in the morning, which is 4:30 AM our time. Please continue to lift Jephly, the doctors, caretakers and all involved up to God. Thank you so much we really appreciate the support.
Blessings,
Chris

Hello,
A while ago we asked for prayers for one of our orphan boys, named Jephly. We were told he needed surgery. The surgery is now scheduled for tomorrow in Port-au-Prince. Being in the hospital in Haiti is quite different then in developed countries. You are in a bare, simple, empty room. There are not nurses to care for you. You need to bring your own caretakers with you. Your own caretakers prepare food for you, they bathe you, and basically meet all of your needs. If Jephly had not been brought into the orphanage, he most likely would not have had the medical care he needs to survive. Dr. Ralph, the doctor in our medical clinic noticed during a physical check up that one of Jephly's testicles had not dropped from his abdomen. This is something in the US or Canada that would have been caught in a well-baby check up. In Haiti you usually wait until you are extremely sick before you go to a doctor. A lot of Haitians would go to a witch doctor first. We have found out that there is a high percentage of testicles still in the abdomen that become cancerous. The surgery will be in a hospital in Port-au-Prince. This will also mean a 4 hour trip to Port-au-Prince. The roads are slowly being improved, so at least the travel time is less now then it would have been a year or so ago. We do not own a vehicle in Haiti, so they will need to go to Port-au-Prince to rent a car and take it up to the orphanage and than take him to Port-au-Prince to the hospital. Then they will return the car and repeat the process when they bring him home. Port-a-Prince is far enough away that after they get him home they will not be able to get the car back to Port-au-Prince until the next day. At around $200 dollars per day to rent a car not including gas, this makes it impossible for most Haitians to even get to the hospital for surgery, much less having the ability to pay for the surgery. We are sending Nadine and another helper to care for him while he is in the hospital. He will most likely be taken to Madame Nathan's to be cared for after the 4-5 days in the hospital. Jephly has recently turned 11 years old, I know that this could be a scary age for a preteen boy to have a testicle operation. Also when people are sick in Haiti they usually die, so there is tremendous fear attached with surgery. One little boy in the orphanage was crying as I brought him from our Dr. back to the orphanage with cough syrup, extra vitamins, some antibiotic ointment and an appointment to get his eyes checked. I thought about it as I walked back to the school and felt like God was saying he was afraid he was going to die. I called the interpreter and we went back to talk with him and he was afraid he was going to die. Please pray for any fear Jephly has. Also please pray for the doctor performing the surgery and for Jephly's recovery. Please pray that the testicle is not found to be cancerous.
Please lift Nadine and the other worker up as they will be caring for him 24 hours a day in a city they are unfamiliar with. In Haiti you cannot just run to the grocery store and pick up the food or supplies you need.
If anyone wants to help with the cost of surgery or transportation or the cost for the extra helper we would greatly appreciate the help. Thank you so much for your prays, we will let everyone know how the surgery goes as soon as we can.
Blessings,
Chris
--

Hello,
We wanted to send an update, letting everyone know how Caitlin is doing in our orphanage. She has been having a great time and experiencing a lot. She is working in our orphanage as a keeper (the Haitian's call nanny's keepers). She is a keeper for our oldest girls, who are 12 to 15 years old. The girls love having Caitlin with them, they look at it like a privilege or special treat. The girls are teaching Caitlin Haitian Creole and she is teaching them English. She has been able to spend time with the girls who teach from Emory's. She also has had the opportunity to work with a dentist who came to our medical clinic. The dentist saw over 100 children and adults. All of our orphanage children were able to be checked by the dentist. Please keep praying for her health, safety and for good relationships to be built. Relationships are sometimes one of the hard parts of working in a foreign country. Different cultures obviously see things differently then we would and misunderstandings can happen easily. We also have some more exciting news. The rest of our beds from sweet sleep have been delivered to the orphanage. This is great news, as we now have 54 orphans, a little girl and her brother were brought to us on Monday bringing our total up to 54. Please also pray for more Keepers. We would like to keep the ratio of one adult to every 6 children. Also pray for the Keepers to be sponsored, we would like to be able to give them $60 per month, as they also help with laundry and cleaning and things. Thanks again for your continued prayers. Blessings,
Chris