Lunch in Dumay!

Since the opening of the MTM Dumay school, we have faced many obstacles there. It's an area steeped in voodoo which has led to great poverty in the midst of wealth. Wealth of water, wealth of fertile, tillable ground & the wealth of other natural resources. When the heavy spring rains fall, the nearby river floods over & often time washes away part of the village with it leaving many homeless & not allowing our trucks to cross over with supplies & encouragement.

Despite the obstacles, MTM is extremely blessed to have good teachers that want to come to work each day & give to the children who attend the school. MTM is also extremely blessed to have good students who want to come to school each day to learn. We are also blessed to have good parents who understand the value of an education & that faithfully send their children to school each day.

Friday, March 28th, MTM was finally able to fulfill our committment (in full) to the families of Dumay & open our school cafeteria for full service to the students. Thank you Rice Raisers/Canada for the extra push to help us get this going! Before, we simply got by with a small pastry & whatever that could easily be prepared for the children. How wonderful it now is to give each child at the MTM Dumay school a big, hot plate of rice & beans & other nutrious sides to enjoy! Take a look at the pictures below to see how these children appreciate their new school lunch!

Class by class the students are served in the new cafeteria!

Faithfully sponsoring a student thru Mountain Top Ministries is a very simple way to help Haiti. For $25 each month, you can help a child recieve an education which includes school expenses, Biblical training, medical care & a nutrious hot lunch each day.

For more information about our student sponsorship program or any other information, please email us directly at wbcharles@hughes.net or contact Jimmy Metheos, CFRM, MTM Director of Develpment/Management at mtm@q.com or call 563-556-give.

Will somebody update me, please?....

Forgive us! Time has once again gotten away from us, but we want to take opportunity to back up & share with you!

January 9th-16th our friends & ministry partners, Brian & Sue Walsh, brought a 20 member medical team of friends, collegues & pediactric nurse practitioner senior students to minister to the children and adults of Gramothe & the surrounding villages. They quickly filled the MTM Gramothe medical clinic with supplies and began their tasks.


The children of Haiti are at the center of Sue's heart as she brings her associates to minister to their needs.


A stop at the MTM Laboule Children's Home is always on the team's agenda. All 13 of our children checked out A-ok!



Gail Randolph, a long time MTM student sponsorship partner, also arrived with the team. She delighted us by giving 2 weeks of her time to better understand our clinic records in an effort to keep those maintained for MTM. While here she helped with the clinic week, spent time with her sponsored student, help me to do "mommy" things for Stephen & David's school & a lot more. We enjoyed getting to know Gail better & were also encouraged by having her here with us.

Gail at church with her sponsored student.

Gail helping Stephen's classmates with a craft project during Read-A-Thon activity week.

One of my "mommy" projects for Stephen & David's school in January was being a part of their Read-A-Thon week. Our theme had an emphasis on Ancient Egypt, so having families from the Middle East at their school, those from that community contributed to the week's activities. In this picture, David has been dressed like a boy going to school in Egypt. It was a great & informative time for the children.

Last, but not least, we had puppies & kittens to start the new year off! What fun they were!

1 of 5 puppies

Fanny & family

Well, that's it for now, but do stay tuned because there's more to come!

Blessings abundant!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2007 at the Mountain Top Ministries Gramothe School

Jumping castle, hot dogs, popcorn, sno cone and lots of Christmas cheer!

Christmas 2007 at the Mountian Top Ministries Dumay School

A big thank you to our friends and ministry partners at the Zanesville United Methodist Church in Zanesville, IN.

Each year they see to it that our M-T-M Gramothe school has some kind of Christmas celebration. This year was no exception. Their vacation Bible school worked hard last summer to raise money for the jumping castle to return to our Gramothe school.

Canadian ministry partner, Ron Ediger also gave a donation that helped to pay the balance of the jumping castle as well as to help provide aditional gifts for the M-T-M Dumay school students.

Thanks to all of you who helped to make this Christmas a little more special for the children of Haiti.

May God bless each of you, our ministry partners, in the new year!

Thank you Deb!

We want to take time to say a special thanks to our ministry partner, Deb Williams, who recently came to Haiti to spend time to help with the student-sponsor correspondence for December. Deb and her husband, Bob, have been long time student sponsors and have made several trips to Mountain Top Ministries in Haiti. It was great to have Deb with us!

While she was here, Deb helped in a lot of ways and she got to see a lot too!

In September we were finally able to bring in over 2,000 pairs of shoes that Deb and her husband collected. She was thrilled to be able to help distribute some of the shoes to students at both our Gramothe and Dumay schools.

Deb in Dumay helping students find shoes that they like and that fit their feet!

Deb finds a pair of shoes for her own sponsored student at the M-T-M Dumay school.

Deb is able to send 2 pairs of shoes home with her husband's sponsored student from the M-T-M Gramothe school.

Students at theM-T-M Gramothe school have fun choosing a new pair of shoes.

While in at the M-T-M Dumay school, Deb got to visit the village and also see first hand some of the flood damage from recent tropical storm flooding.

I (Beth) was very grateful of the help that Deb provided in an effort to prepare and mail student correspondence to our sponsors for December. This involved going into the classrooms to collect writings and handprints from students to send to their sponsors, translating the writings and then putting it all together with a newsletter to mail. Deb had a great experience at both schools as students were receptive and excited to participate.

While here, Deb also helped me (Beth) to package up gifts for our Dumay students; over 300 bags! A huge thanks to Mr. Tim Jarvis for arranging to send all those wonderful Christmas bags with Deb!

The M-T-M Laboule Children's Home was another fun spot for us to visit with Deb. Stephen, David, Deb & I (Beth) loaded up the car and off we went to decorate the home with the children there. It was a fun time for all, see...

While some of us decorated the tree...

others helped the children to make paper chain decorations...

while others did some holiday coloring...

and we all enjoyed a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich when we were done!

Children of the M-T-M Laboule Children's Home.

Deb's week ended with attending Sunday church services at the M-T-M Church in Gramothe village. To her delight, Deb recognized many of the shoes that she'd given throughout the week, but moreso, the happy faces that are etched in her memory.

Thank you, Deb, for coming to serve with us, to encourage us and to love us.

God bless you always!

Your friends at Mountain Top Ministries, Gramothe and Dumay villages, Haiti.

One last look...

Hello again!

We couldn't resist giving you one last look at the week with the Ediger & Sons team from Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada. They were joined by our friends from Indiana: Matt, Babs, Grace & Vivian Edwards & also Maryann from Washington. Thanks for being a wonderful part of our family during the Thanksgiving holiday!

The village of Gramothe

~

M-T-M Gramothe High School Library

book shelves

computer stations

Some needed more rest than others...

Others need lots of help!

Friends...

...and a little lady in red!

Happy to give, happy to recieve!

The village of Dumay

~

Using guides to cross the river.

After tropical storm "Noel".

Eager helpers carry new benches to the cafeteria.

Good rewards!

Thank you Ediger & Sons!