June 2009

HALLELUAH  AMEN PRAISE THE LORD

Dear Friends,

We are thrilled to let you know that the purchase of the bulldozer took place Wednesday, June 3, 2009.  We are extremely humbled and pleased that even in these economic tough times the Lord has blessed our ministry through you who have not forgotten the needs of others.  Thank you so much for donating toward the bulldozer while continuing to give toward the day to day needs of the ministry.

We had people in three areas of the country looking for the right bulldozer for us.  Jean had certain criteria that he gave them and they gave us information on their searches.  There were a couple that were tempting, but thankfully the Lord held our hand until the perfect one was found that met our price requirements, but still had all the capabilities and attachments we thought will be needed.  It is being shipped to the Port of Miami and will be put on a boat from there to the nearest port city in Haiti to us in Miragoane.  We will keep you updated through the years of its effectiveness on the roads of Fond-des-Blancs and surrounding areas.

In school news 87 three year olds were registered to start pre-school this Fall.  After testing there are 57 kindergartners who passed the test to move up to first grade in the Fall.  The school year has not yet ended because of the late start as the result of the hurricanes at the beginning of this school year.  We ask for your prayers for our sixth graders who still have to take the State exams in order to move up to seventh grade.

The church is still in transition between pastors and needs your prayers.  We have a young man, Yves Labady, who is finishing Bible School in Haiti on whom the church will be voting.  He has been traveling from Port-au-Prince to Fond-des-Blancs one weekend a month to preach and confer with Jean Francois Thalon.  Please keep these two young men in your prayers.

This month we have two groups visiting us in Haiti.  We are still in the Atlanta area, but will go to Haiti to host these work teams.  One is from Florida and the other is from the church we are attending here in Atlanta.  They will both be working on the station church/school located in Savanne Henri and will also do some work on our new home.  Pray for their travel safety and time in Haiti.

Our son, Josiah, graduated from high school in May.  He has been accepted at Berea College where we took him last week for his orientation weekend.  He went there with the idea he was going to be a computer science major, but after visiting that department he has begun looking in other directions.  He loves the challenge of working with and fixing problems in software, but decided he can continue being self taught in that and major in something else.  He has time, but do pray for him as he makes that decision.

For me his graduation day was a great day.  I am nostalgic about him graduating and leaving home, but it was an amazing day because all his brothers and foster sisters made great efforts to be here together to help him celebrate.  Fonia came from New Orleans, Manise came from Nashville, Jacques, who hadn’t finished his responsibilities at Berea, drove down from Berea, and Lemec is already here with us; but made sure he had the time off to spend with us.  It has been eight years since we were all together in one place.

I have enjoyed being able to be a full-time mama for one last year, but I am looking forward to being back in Fond-des-Blancs once we get Josiah settled in his college dorm in August.  He and Jacques will have one year there together before Jacques graduates.  Jean and I have felt the hand of God blessing and guiding us this year.  Thank you for your prayers for our family and for the people of Fond-des-Blancs.  Please continue.

Yours in Christ,

Joy Thomas

I want to thank each and every one of you who prayed and contributed toward the purchase of the bulldozer. It is a very recent model (2004) with only 2254 hours of use. I did not want any bells and whistles but definitely needed the rear hydraulics and ripper; we even got an extra one for the front.

The bulldozer will be shipped to Miami over the next two weeks and from there on to Haiti. This unit cost us $40,000.00. With a couple of pledges due to come in anytime now, we will have stayed right within our projected budget for in terms of fundraising: $40,000.00 for purchase and $10,000.00 for shipping and custom fees.

If you are interested in more details on the bulldozer, you can follow this link: http://erseval.deere.com/ViewPublicEval?txtEvaluationId=74617&verId=1&txtLoc=1