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Nov 2007
Greetings from the rain drenched country of Haiti! We received a number of e-mails from friends who were concerned about our safety after learning of the devastation here in Haiti caused by tropical storm Noel. Flooding and mudslides were commonplace throughout Haiti. Homes within ½ mile of House of Compassion had three to five feet of water inside them and residents are still busy cleaning the mud out their houses. Noel caused a great deal of misery all across Haiti.
Fortunately, we didn’t suffer major damage here at House of Compassion, but the front acre of the property was under a foot of water. Now, a week later, the water level is slowly dropping, but there is still around eight inches of water on the yard. Thank you for your concern and thank you especially for your prayers.
We are really enjoying the new House of Compassion. Life is a little easier because of the modern conveniences and because of the large bathrooms with the proper number of showers and toilets! We genuinely appreciate the sacrifices that many of you made during the past two years to help us with the building project.
Now, we have another need that I reluctantly share with you. We have outgrown our mid-sized Nissan pickup truck. We added two more children to House of Compassion yesterday and it proved extremely difficult for us to get all twenty-six of us in and on the vehicle. Every morning I haul twenty-two children, two staff members and Davy and myself into Port-au-Prince to attend school. Ten of us ride in the cab of the truck and the other sixteen pile in the back of the truck for the eight mile, 45 minute trip. At 1:00PM each day, I hire a vehicle to take the kids home from school because my job here at the ACE school requires me to be here until 3:30PM. This is an extra $100.00 expense each week. Seven of our children home school, so on Sundays we have thirty three people to transport to and from Church!
I have been praying and studying the options and I have found the solution to the problem. I located a brand new three-ton flat bed truck for $19,900.00. We will have to add sides and a roof to the bed of the truck and we will need benches for the kids to sit on. This will add another $1,500.00, bringing the total price to $21,400.00. This will provide us with the perfect vehicle for hauling the kids to and from school and to and from Church. I can have one of our staff members drive the truck to pick up the kids in the afternoon, eliminating the $100.00 weekly expense for hauling the kids home each day after school.
Please pray with us about this need. I have $10,000.00 that could be used toward the purchase of the truck leaving a balance needed of $11,400.00.
Thank you for your prayers and support. You are a valuable partner in our work here in Haiti and we really appreciate all that you do for us. God bless you.
David Lloyd
