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Our October 2007 mission trip took place from October 22nd through November 3rd, 2007 - one day longer than we planned (more on that later...). This team of 12 was made up of members from Maine and California who performed a record-breaking work project!
 Our team's three "newbies" - Karen, Steve and Mandy - as we prepare to leave Florida with MFI in the pre-dawn hours. As we were leaving the US, the San Diego wildfires were raging in California. The neighborhoods of Karen and Steve (our two Californians) had been evacuated and there was no word on the condition of their homes. We later learned that God was gracious to them and their homes were spared, although 3 homes in Karen's neighborhood were destroyed by fire. (right) The team waiting for the hotel shuttle at Palm Beach International airport. It takes an incredible amount of planning and cooperation to get 12 people, all their belongings, and all the team's supplies to our destination safely - and all at the same time! As usual, our primary purpose on this trip was to add new children and to update many of the children in the Sponsorship Program. Because we had such a heavy work load planned for this trip, we divided the team into 2 "squads", each with its own interviewer, measurers and photographers. In this way we were able to interview, measure and photograph a record-breaking 671 children on this trip!  (left) Matt and Jamie working on interviews with Luvrance Paul, the principal of the primary school in Terrier Rouge. Matt was being trained to be the interviewer for Squad B and was also helping Jamie write since she had a broken right thumb and was unable to write with that hand.  (right) Shayla and Mandy - measurers for Squad B. Note how Shayla is multi-tasking to save time - she is measuring this boy while he stands on the scale!  (left) Karen and Steve - photography team for Squad A - taking a break between children.  Don't let the apparent calm in these photos fool you! What you don't see are the lines of children, holding their interview forms, waiting to be measured.....  ...or the crush of other children and even adults, curious to see what we are doing, like this photo taken in Ouvray showing Laura helping Jamie with interviews.  Most often, at the end of a morning's work, this is what the team would look like - exhausted! While most of us were working with the children, two of our team members, Vince and Rock, were helping with a construction project at the Center of Protection. This year the 5 year old class had 90 students - way too many for one classroom. So Pastor Noel was adding another room onto the building so this huge class could be divided up into two classrooms.  (left) The area in front of the left wing of the Center of Protection being prepared for the additional classroom.  (right) Rock and Vince helping dig the trench for the foundation for the addition.  (left) Haitian workers mixing cement by hand for blocks and for the concrete foundation for the addition.  (right) The use of power tools is made possible only by using the church's generator. You can see how necessary this new addition is when you look inside the existing 5 year old classroom! It will be great for them to be able to split up this huge class.
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While Squad A was busy seeing the 156 children in Paulette and Phaeton combined, Squad B was VERY busy seeing the children in Danda. No, don't adjust your computer monitor - this photo is not exactly in focus. But it is the only photo in existence of the chaotic scene in the room in Danda where Squad B was extremely busy seeing the 76 children in Danda. This was Matt's first time interviewing on his own and the team did a fantastic job working without more experienced help. 
We made great use of this extra time! We spent some time with one of our friends in Cap-Haitien, Pastor Julio Jean-Gilles of Eglise Evangelique Bethesda de Madeline.
