Dear Friends,

Happy Greetings!

During the month of March Jean and I visited Fond-des-Blancs for two weeks. It was very fun to be there again and everyone made us feel very welcome. Upon our return in September we are planning to move into a smaller home. There are a couple of reasons for this. Josiah, our youngest, will be starting college in August so we will not have any children living with us anymore which means we will not need such a large house. Jean Francois and his family will live in it for another year and then we will use it as a training center for church leaders who want to learn to plant churches and do community development in other parts of Haiti.

Our new home will be much smaller, but will still have a guest room. It is located about a 7 to 10 minute walk from our first home. It will be off the main road, overlooking the creek, with a nice view. Jean used our first week in Fond-des-Blancs to trace out the house for the foundation trenches to be dug. By the time we left all of the rooms were marked so the walls can go up while we are away.

We went to Haiti because a large group of young people from Kansas were coming to spend their Spring Break there. The group was roughly divided into three groups. The main group worked on putting the roof on one of the satellite schools, another took group photos of the classes and individual photos of the students of L’Exode, and the third helped the children make Easter cards to send to their sponsors. Even though it was a large group everything went smoothly and everyone felt they had enough to do.

We were amazed and delighted when one of our supporting churches was kind enough and generous enough to finance a new (to us) SUV for HCDF for Jean Francois to use. Jean bought it and shipped it early enough for us to be able to use while the group was there. Evidently it did get there on time, but got lost after being unloaded from the ship. Everyone thought the ship hadn’t arrived yet.
After our return to Atlanta we got a call telling us it had been found and had been driven to in Fond-des-Blancs. That is a great relief and will be available in the future. We rented trucks to


transport the large Kansas group. Praise the Lord with us for the gift of this SUV and blessings on those who gave it.
During the month of May we are looking forward to Josiah’s high school graduation and a HCDF board meeting being held here in Atlanta.

We used a portion of Luke 24:6 on the card the students made for their sponsors. The portion we used says, “He is not here; He has risen!” We can all rejoice knowing our Savior is alive and well and looking after us in all ways. We are rejoicing for our trip to F-d-B where we were encouraged to see so much going well. We rejoice in the generous donations that have enabled us to continue our life and ministry there. We wish you all the blessings that come with knowing you are loved and cared for by our risen Lord.

Your sister in Christ,



Joy L Thomas