September Update

Update from Grand Goave September 2012

A Little R&R.  Well the Sutton (and HAF) family is really excited to tell you that our crazy hectic summer is now over!!  We want to praise the Lord for giving us the strength and patience to get through 12 weeks straight of hosting teams.  We are so grateful for all the help and all the people that have started sponsoring our kids as a result of a trip this summer!  On the other hand, we are also really excited to have a little rest and relaxation from having to entertain 24/7 :-).  We have been able to hang out and have fun with the kids these past few weeks before they head back to school, October 3rd.  Our kids were supposed to start back September 3rd, but because of the hurricane- they have pushed back the start date to give those who lost homes up in the mountains time to figure out what they're going to do. Isaac Damage We are extremly blessed here at Hands and Feet.  The only damage we had to our property during the hurricane was 2 big limbs down on some of our trees.  Other than that, we had no other damage- praise the Lord!!  We have a huge mountain range right behind our house that takes most of the wind in hurricanes- which is a huge blessing!  We got a call at 1am from our Jacmel HAF site saying that we needed to get out of there.  The winds were crazy strong in Jacmel (causing several of their large trees to fall down and the tin generator roof to blow off.)  So we got all of the kids and staff up and drove down in 3 car loads down to our Pastor's guest house (concrete building).  When we came back the next day, we found only a few limbs down in the yard and our houses were all still completely intact :-).  Thank you, Jesus!!  This is a picture of the river thta runs through town, the day after the hurricane- it usually is small enough to jump over- not today :-) Progress on the Mountain. We have officially started the foundation up at our mountain property, Ikondo.  They are done digging the foundation out for our first phase and have just finished tying the rebar together for the foundation.  They actualy just finished pouring the basement floor yesterday (well, it's actually a plumbing & electrical corridor).  We have a solar powered well pump up there right now that allows the neighbors to come and get water during the day- which they love!  We are almost finished on our "Haitian style fence" around the property up there.  We've taken small 1-2" diameter sticks put them in the ground and connected them with barbed wire.  It doesn't feel as closed off from the neighbors as a 9' concrete wall does.  Andrew has been making lots of trips up in the Deuce with almost 300 bags of cement, plywood (for the forms) and rebar.  We had no idea when we got it, how much we'd use the Deuce- but it's been extremely handy these past few weeks!!!   Our Trip Back. We are planning on coming back in a few weeks to the states to visit family and friends.  We will be flying into SC on September 20th and staying in the Columbia area until the 29th.  We will then drive up to NY on the 30th for Angie's sister's wedding and stay until October 9th.  We would love to meet and catch up with whoever is available, so please email us and let us know if you have some free time those weeks.  We will be at Northside (SC)- Sept 23rd and the following Sunday, we will be visiting a supporting church up in NC.