We celebrated Sabrina's second birthday on Sept. 5 at the creche with other kids.
A message from Keith:
Dear Friends and Family in ministry,
After 11 years of living in Haiti, I've realized we could have done this better. From the first we have depended on generators to provide the basic electrical needs of our home and later the mission buildings. Through those 11 years the cost of gasoline and diesel fuel has continually climbed. I've always just bought gas or fuel, or we did without, thinking the money was better spent on food and other needed supplies though it often left the mission without even security lights in order to keep diapers on our babies.
The recent years of crisis after crisis has compounded the problem. Why did I never put in place wind, solar, or even a really good inverter system in the mission? Recently we were given a donation that allowed us to put in a good inverter system in our mission house. This is a blessing that has finally made me realizeI could have saved thousands of dollars over the years and I could have used those thousands of dollars to help many more people. Right now we are paying $47 per night to run our generator for 12 hours of power. That is $329 a week, $1,316 a month, or, a whopping $15,792 a year. That's a pretty hefty electric bill. Oh, the money I have lost over the years. And, in times like now when there is no gas or fuel to be had due to the hurricane washing out the delivery routes, my wife and children will spend the night in the dark in a country that is full of the darkness of evil.
I can't go back and do it over, not that I would want to, but we can certainly do better in the future. Many people have talked to me about the different options for generating and storing electricity. The best option by far is wind. We ALWAYS have a breeze, usually a strong breeze, at the mission. We have looked at this option occasionally but because of the expense we've not pursued it. At current prices , we see that this could easily pay for itself in short order. Had we set this up in the beginning, we would now be enjoying free power and perhaps even selling power to others and using that extra money to help even more people in Haiti. When I look at the money spent on what could have been free and dependable power I cringe. We must pursue this option. We must stop wasting money on fuel when God is giving us plenty of wind to produce the needed power.
But, we don't have the knowledge and we don't have the money to set up this system. We know there is someone out there in our network who does know about wind generation of power and we are praying God is calling someone to be willing to fund this huge project or help us in financing it.
I'll be pursuing this idea everywhere I go in my travels over the next few weeks; just a warning.... here I come.
It's in the Father's Hand,
Keith
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