Jean, Rubens and Julian: Haitian students enjoying Thanksgiving at the Bible Training Center

We currently have 4 Haitian men in the Bible training. Racial relationships between Bahamians and Haitians are a source of tension and Haitians are generally discriminated against. These men are only allowed to make half of what a Bahamian working the same job will make. They faithfully travel every night from Tarpum Bay which is about a 60 mile drive. This is a huge financial sacrifice for these men. They also consistently pay the full tuition for the class, and have never asked for a lower price or any special treatment. As a matter of fact, they have great joy when they hand in their tuition check! The Bahamian students are friendly, but not overly interactive with these men. They always sit at a table by themselves, during dinner time, and appear to feel inferior. Despite my (Mike Fastzkie) attempt to mingle during meal time, others in the class do not do the same.  During the most recent class, however, a Bahamian student named Roscoe, sat down at the table with the Haitian students. When I walked up, they were all enjoying good conversation. After a few minutes Rosco pulled out his wallet and offered the men $15 to help with gas for their journey. The men were very touched by this gesture, this was a moment that I will never forget and reminds me of why we are here and why we do what we do.  In April we celebrate the graduation of this, the 10^th class to graduate from the Eleuthera Bible Training Center a true testament to the many who have served and a true example of God’s glory being made known on the island of Eleuthera and throughout the Caribbean.

We are not living in a 3^rd world country…yet this is such a basic need that is not widely available or affordable. In the US, even someone without means can go to a public drinking fountain and get fresh water.  I consider the fact that this is much like my faith. I have it available to me, but am not thrilled by it because it is just there, I take it for granted. Like the children, I need to be excited about the living water that feeds my faith and I need to share this water with others. I am always willing to share my resources with others, I need to be just as willing to share my faith.

Bess and Lexi, age 4, in 2005

At that time, I had no idea how I was going to do this, but the special ed teacher in me, always believes that I can find a way to reach a child. This time, I found that Bess, who at the time was just about to turn 13, was much better at reaching Lexi than I was. So…I coached Bess on how to do it, and she worked with Lexi. Ultimately, it was this experience that has led Bess, now a Sophmore at Anderson University, to pursue a career in elementary and special education.

In May of 2005, it became clear to our family that we would only spend a year in the Bahamas and would then be returning to the US. But, before we left, in August of 2005, I made a promise to the Johnson family, that I would find a way to help Lexi, to get assistance for her hearing. Little did I know that His plan would take 6 years to come to fruition!

Fast forward to summer of 2009: our first summer back on Eleuthera. Our family moved to Eleuthera for the summer, to lead the mission teams for Caribbean Ministries Association, at The Eleuthera Bible Training Center.  James Cistern, our settlement, is a very smalltown, and of course, we once again made a connection with Lexi, now 8 yearsold, still vivacious, inquisitive and oh so very bright! The Holy Spirit began to work in my heart. Nudging me to remember the promise I made to the Johnson family and nudging Bess and Lydia too. We all decided it was time to do something more for Lexi, but what and how?

Enter Keith Doster, who happened to be having lunch with Mike and the topic of Lexi arose, since Keith had met her the summer of 2009, on a short term mission trip, with the Grace Chruch, student ministry. Keith just happened to have a long time friend, who is an audiologist in Florida. Many conversations later…the audiologist agreed to see Lexi for free and provide services that might be required to assist with her hearing. We just had to raise the money for her travel to Florida. Bess and Lydia did this by organizing a Wii Tournament with the Grace Church student ministry that raised enough money for Lexi and her mother to travel to Florida.

We now move to November of 2010, Lexi is now 9 years old and we go to board the plane in Governor’s Harbour, and find that Alexia’s passport expired less than one month before the travel date. Very discouraged, we left hoping that we could make arrangements to get a new passport. In the Bahamas you can generally count on at least 3 months to get anything done for any type of important paperwork.

In February of 2010, we still did not have the documents needed for Lexi’s travel, and in the meantime, an audiologist from Nassau came to Eleuthera and determined that Lexi no longer had any residual hearing left. An evaluation in the US would not help much, unless the intention is for Cochlear Implant.

Once again, the special ed teacher in me, which I have come to determine is how the Holy Spirit works through me, resigned me to the fact that there must be some way to get Lexi to a place where she can communicate with the hearing world, so that she can learn in school. In my mind it was tragic that this child was not able to function on grade level, just because she was deaf!

Enter, the Jacobs family, (Dave, Sharon, Sarah and Alex). Sharon, also a special education teacher, came to visit in February, to work with the students at the Center for Exceptional Learners, the only school that Lexi is allowed to attend. This school consists of 11 students varying in age from 6-15 and mainly of low academic achievement and ability. Sharon was also struck by the dire circumstances for a very bright and intelligent girl to be placed  in a school with low functioning students, and not to be learning.

Fast forward to October 2011: Lexi is now 10 years old, through much hard work and determination we have been able to get a passport/visa, and proper medical documentation from Nassau and the US through many individuals who have volunteered and donated time both medically and legally.

Lexi and her mother, with the new visa!

As a result, Lexi traveled with us in the month of October, she spent 2 weeks with the Jacobs family who have agreed  along with the permission of the Johnson family, to assume custody of her for 1 year, so that she can receive medical care including speech and language therapy and very likely Cochlear Implant. During her stay in October, Lexi was evaluated by an audiologist and ENT specialist that will oversee the surgery and she met with a Guardian Ad litem to determine if this is the best for her.

Lexi with Sharon and Sarah Jacobs Oct 2011

Praise to the Father for all that He has done to bring Lexi this far! Please pray for His continued blessing and guidance for all the people that He has worked through, and will be working through, to make this happen, and that it will be to His Glory!

-Thank you for your faithfulness in praying for this situation-

The Johnson, Jacobs and Fastzkie families

On Thursday August 24th at 3AM
Hurricane Irene, a category 3 hurricane that lasted 26 hours, hit Eleuthera
Island. The first part of the storm came off the Atlantic and during the eye of
the storm around 8:15 AM we walked outside to survey the damage. At this point
in the storm, things looked pretty good. Mike climbed up on the roof to check
the plywood that was covering our solar panels, he found that the clips needed
tightening, but that was about it. At 7:45 AM the next part of the storm began
to rage, and it was coming off the Caribbean, in front of our home. This time
the wind was much stronger and sounded much scarier. We began to see from the
one un-shuttered window at the back of our house, shingles and tar paper
blowing over the house. We were praying that the roof would hold and the
plywood would stay on! We knew that many of you were praying for us, and we
were praying too!

There wasn’t much we could do since we had lost power the previous
evening. Lydia and I were in her room working on some school work for as long
as the computer battery would allow us, and Mike was napping in our bedroom.
The noise did not bother him, he was exhausted after spending the first part of
the week boarding up our facilities, the clinic and people’s homes in the
community.

The wind was getting stronger and stronger and then it began to rain, as
the rain came down it was pouring into the front of our house. I went to the
bedroom and told Mike to get up! He and the dog were sound asleep even thought
the rain was dripping from the ceiling all around them! We then began to move
all of our furniture to the back of the house. We then spent the next 12 hours
taking turns mopping up the water to keep it from coming to the back of the
house.

Following the hurricane help soon arrived! Paul Voss, Director of CMA,
flew down to bring supplies and tarps. He was only with us for the day, but was
able to assess the damage and assist us in getting the tarp on our house, so
that we would stay dry until the roof repairs could be completed. Still more
help arrived, for the following 2 weekends we hosted 2 teams of 5 guys that
assisted us and others from th community to strip and re-shingle our much
damaged roof. We replaced half of the roof and used 60 bundles of shingles! The
2^nd team was also able to work in the community to replace a roof
that had to be replaced.  This was the
home of an elderly Haitian couple that had neither the resources or the ability
to do the work.

There are many roofs that are still under tarps, Mike and our good friend
and colleague Martin Gaitor put tarps on at least 50 roofs, and people are
still coming to us after rainstorms, with a need for a tarp. There is still
much work to be done!

*Anyone interested in donating money, supplies or volunteering, can
contact CMA at 423-894-2827.

Stocking the Allendale Food Bank

Lydia, is a very enterprising girl. By selling jewelery to our mission teams and babysitting, she raised enough money to pay for her ticket (and mine) to the US so that she could participate in the trip to Allendale County in the lower part of the state of South Carolina. This is the poorest county in the state and is a place where our church is partnering with a church that has few financial resources to minister in their own community.

I often consider the common charecteristics, of rampant sexual abuse of children, and girls. Women with children from multiple fathers, and men that are not motivated to provide for their multiple children. All of which are common in the culture of poverty.

We from our middle class perspective become enraged that everyone has a cell phone no matter how impoverished, even people who are homeless have cell phones! What? This just doesn’t make sense to us in our middle class mindset…we would never spend money on a cell phone if we didn’t have a home to live in, or a job!

Yet, when we stop to consider the mind set that drives what people in poverty do…it is often immediate gratification. If the guy on the street has $1 he will spend it on some small item like a bag of chips, rather than save it up so that he can buy enough to get a meal.

Oh, but wait a minute…are we so different? What do you do with that extra $25 you saved because you went to the store with coupons in hand? Go to the movies or maybe eat out that night? Immediate gratification.

Conclusion: Poverty is the condition that afflicts each and every one of us, even though it may be reflected differently in the physical realm it is all the same in the spiritual realm. A matter of the heart searching for gratification in something physical, when the only real peace is the Spirit of Jesus Christ living in us.

What a way to counteract the spirit of poverty in all situations…the church with a lot of money working with the church with a little money to combat the poverty in both circumstances. All the same church body in the eyes of Christ.

We will spend the month of January raising support and on January 25th, we hope to be in Florida with Lexi and her mother Yolanda Johnson for a hearing evaluation and possible surgery (Lexi is pictured above with Bess).

We praise our Lord for being so faithful to bring just the right people together to accomplish this long awaited task and answer 5 years of prayer. Friends Keith and Lori Doster and the generous audiology staff at University of South Florida are a bkessing to us and to Lexi Johnson’s family. Of course, our Bahamian brother Martin Gaitor, is putting the details together on Eleuthera. As ususal communication is a bit of a challenge, sometimes the phones and email work and sometimes not. Please pray that all will go smoothly in this area.

Mike will be heading to Eleuthera in February for the first mission team of 2010. We are scheduled to host 15 teams this year. Please keep the mission teams in your prayers and watch for updates on our projects over the next several months.