This is from a friend of ours’ blog, Laura about her journey teaching in Haiti. They were hit by a Hurricane not long ago just before they were about to start their school year. The following is a letter explaining their journey and their needs for the future. If you care to leave her a message, or know of something that may benefit their journey, visit her blog at laurajeaninhaiti.blogspot.com Thank you!
I wanted to share a recent update on the progress of our school, the Liberty Academy I have a recent update on the progress of our school, the Liberty Academy, as well as a few prayer requests we would like to share with you. Due to the damage of Hurricane Hanna (the ever present mud and the roof being ripped off our school building), we have spent most of this last week restoring old supplies, trying to salvage what we can from our classrooms, and sorting out our curriculum that got thrown all together when the storm hit. Up to this point, wee have been working out of a back room on the base awaiting the final call on where school would actually be held. Classes were supposed to start on Sept 8th, but the hurricane wiped away any chance of actually starting around that date. With no location to hold 6 classrooms (combined pre-K & K, 2nd, 3rd, combined 4th & 5th, middle and high school and ESL 1-5), we teachers have been discouraged and unmotivated in working towards our starting date. During our teacher’s meeting last week we found out that 4 of our classes will be held in the sanctuary (just outside the main building) and 2 classes in the back room of the base where we had been sorting out supplies. Illioney, our highschool teacher and school director, has been working himself to the point of exhaustion trying to iron out all the details and make arrangements for our school to function through these tough times. He has such a heart and vision for the Liberty Academy and wants the students to suffer as little as possible with this temporary setup. He made the call to start Sept 29th, next Monday, and we met again today to discuss the new situation.
We brought up a lot of concerns at the meeting and spent a good part of the time lifting up prayer requests that we felt were burdening our hearts as we tried to envision the school year starting. Our main concern at this point is the heat and lack of air flow in the sanctuary building…it is stifling in there, even with the windows opened. Three of us teachers went in the buidling the other day around 8am to sort through some boxes. Before long, Shakinah was so drenched in sweat and feeling so overheated that she decided to leave the building and jump in the pool with her clothes on! (Thankfully it is clean again). Lindsay felt so hot she almost passed out and had to go lay down to keep herself from fainting. We do have plug-in fans, but they blow hot air, and in order to use the bathroom or get water (for teachers and students) you have to go outside and walk a ways in the mud to get across to the base facilities. Things are in progress for a walkway from the classrooms to the base, but even so, with the heat we’ll be working in, I can’t imagine two water breaks a day sufficing for the students. These are not ideal conditions for us to teach in, let alone for our students to stay focused and learn in.
All 6 of our teachers gathered today and prayed to the Lord for an air conditioning system. This is something that has been in discussion for awhile, but has never been a priority on the base. We will be holding classes in the hot sanctuary building at least until January of ’09 and while the AC would benefit our school as long as we’re there, it will will also be a blessing for all future services held in the building after we’re gone (including the DTS that will run for 5 months, beginning this January). We decided to believe in faith that the Lord would provide the system, the money for it, and the workers to install it. A good AC system for this particular building would cost between $3,500-5,000 and would take about two days to install. As we prayed for the AC funds to come in this morning, two teachers felt urged to give out of their personal support funds and donate $500 each. That’s a thousand dollars already knocked out!
There are other things we are in need of, but the AC is our biggest priority at this time. have been looking into school uniforms for the students and even wrote a letter explaining our situation to a uniform company, trusting the Lord would put that letter in the right hands. We already have two bean bags for a reading corner (from my old 4th grade classroom at LAMS) and we are praying for a couch or two to be added as well. Most of our library books were destroyed in the flood so we are also praying for more donated books to go towards the library.
With all these things and more we believe as a whole that The Almighty God is working a “new thing” in Haiti this year and something is stirring in the hearts of the people. The flood caused a lot of damage, but it also opened doors to many desperate people crying out to God to help them. We want to grab hold of that desperate cry and give God the Glory as He reaches down and touches our lives amidst the devastation. We want to join in faith and believe the scripture: Ask and you will recieve! Please join us in prayer as we petition our God for a miracle to take place and to literally breathe life into our new school.
Laura J. Hess
