September 2003

Children: God’s gift to us.
Praise: Our gift to God.

We give praise to God for the children He has touched through CODEP. We continue to pray for the PC(USA), the Episcopal Church of Haiti, and the continuous help each of you make to spread God’s Word throughout Haiti.

I’ve always liked saying that children are God’s gift to us. They’re so trusting, innocent, full of curiosity, full of the love of life. That certainly is the case with the children who attended the summer school program high in the Cormier mountains of Haiti.

Summertime fun for kids in CODEP

This summer CODEP again conducted a summer vacation Bible camp for kids. One hundred eighty-five kids, preschool through grade six, plus twenty-one teachers gathered the week of June 16, 2003. The gala three-month event began. Our focus this year was learning new things: new names, new faces, new Bible stories, academic subjects taught with a new twist, new teaching techniques, new everything. Almost half the kids were from outside the normal CODEP outreaches, almost all the teachers were as well. What a noisy, exciting time they all had learning about God’s world.

Teachers

We had a wonderful staff of teachers. Each was dedicated to the kids, and they were excellent role models. Teachers were eager to learn new teaching techniques and new ways to share with the students. Each ended the summer session with happy memories of a fun, productive time, many new teaching skills, and lots of helpful information. Much information was gleaned during the teacher training sessions held daily after school. Much experience was gathered during the school day. Many new friendships were formed as this new teaching staff joined the CODEP team focusing on reaching out to the kids. Each teacher shared the vision of a better tomorrow with this year’s crop of CODEP kids.

Students

The student body was new and unique as well. There were about 40 children and two teachers from the Bwa Goch/Gro Mon areas who arrived each Sunday evening (so they wouldn’t be late for school on Monday morning). They slept in a very modest rented shack slated for demolition. On Friday afternoons they walked the three to five hours on a goat path to spend the weekend at home.

Most came from the new Bwa Goch school started last year by Pastor Dures as his church’s mission outreach to a more needy area. Others came from local area schools or from “far-away” cities like Leogane and Port-au-Prince. The Siloe school students were gracious hosts enjoying the company of their new summer friends.

U.S. church groups

We were very fortunate to have five U.S. church groups spend time with the kids, sharing their expertise in many diverse ways. They brought fun crafts. They brought bright, new school materials and great lessons on topics like the organs of the human body and English classes. They sang with us in Creole and we sang with them in English. They joined in recess fun, jumped rope, blew bubbles, played memory games and clapping games. They helped us cut, glue, string, and count. They shared with the teachers as well as the children. Everyone was glad they had come to share in the summer fun.

Subjects tackled were the usual ones: grammer, math, geography, science, social studies, reading, plus Bible class, agriculture, English, and arts. All of this was exciting but nothing could compete with the marvelous field trip, a beach day at L’Acul! We even had classes that day with each class group rotating to a different teaching station: lessons from a local stone carver, lessons about tilapia fish using the L’Acul research and development facilities, lessons about sea life and God’s diverse creation.

CODEP’s summer program for kids and teachers ended September 5. It was immediately followed by a week of teacher training for the Siloe school teachers, many of whom are new this year. Siloe school opened for its first day on September 15. And your church’s outreach to the future of Haiti continues.

To see more pictures of our summer fun visit the CODEP website at www.Haitifundinc.org.

Once again, we would like to thank you all for your continued interest and support of the people of Haiti through the CODEP project.

Serving Christ with you in Haiti,

Rodney and Sharyn

The 2003 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 250