It's official...Evelyne Cherenfant is going to attend Lindsey Wilson College in Columbia, Kentucky www.lindsey.edu AND
Pascal Florival is going to attend Harrisburg Area Community College in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania www.hacc.edu

Clarel Algere from the 2012 graduating class is going to attend WESLI and then Madison Area Technical College. www.wesli.com and www.madisoncollege.edu

There is much to be done now and we are all scurrying to get the dossiers complete before the Embassy interviews. 
And, of course I continue to work on securing opportunities for the remaining five english-proficient students, as well as another Philo student who has found a host to live with, yet needs financial sponsorship. And, I continue to work with two other of the 2012 graduates.

Pray please, that even though now many may wait until January to enter a college, that all will have the opportunity to do so.

It is with overwhelming joy and gratitude, that I am able to announce that we have secured a donor for the Lindsey Wilson College offer. All praise to God, that someone has come forward to be part of changing this student's life. I am unable to disclose who the student will be as it has not publicly been announced, but expect to soon.
Thank you dear ones for you prayers over this matter, and thank you to the sponsor who will just fall in love with this student. Easy to do!!
More later, as I am in the throws of making Embassy appointment requests, Embassy paperwork, and follow through on some new opportunities.
Two prayer requests, my kidney infection has flared up again in the last 24 hours. I need energy and a focused head.
Secondly, we need more families to host in their homes and financially support one or two ESL students in Northeast Ohio in August 2013. I have 2 of the 4 weeks committed. Please comment on this blog page, or email me for more information. It is a $425 per student per week commitment. Thank you for your prayerful consideration. We are on a tight timeline, so please get back to me as soon as you can.
Thank you, and Love,
Marylee
I Samuel 2:1-2
Then Hannah prayed and said,

“My heart exults in the Lord;
My ^[a]horn is exalted in the Lord,
My mouth ^[b]speaks boldly against my enemies,
Because I rejoice in Your salvation.
² “There is no one holy like the Lord,
Indeed, there is no one besides You,
Nor is there any rock like our God.

I have an update regarding the Lindsey Wilson College offer. I have someone who has taken a step of faith to offer to pay $7,450 this year for the student to attend Lindsey Wilson and $6,200 thereafter for the remaining three years. What we now are asking is for someone to share the other half of $7,450 this year, and $6,200 in the forthcoming years. PLEASE share this information with your circle of influence. As Pastor Dave said, upon the news of this benefactor, "We are half way there!"
Here's the blog post again, so you can consider the offer from Lindsey Wilson College:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There is opportunity I want to present to you, for you to discuss with your circles of influence.

The Kentucky-Haiti (Doctor's) Foundation, (Dr. Pat Duff, who heads it up brings medical teams to Univers Medical Centre) currently supports four Institution Univers graduates at the U of Kentucky. They have secured a very strong offer for a student to attend Lindsey Wilson College, www.lindsey.edu, this coming Fall 2013. But, after securing the offer the doctor's Foundation Board met this past Wednesday night and voted to defer their required financial commitment of the offer until Fall 2014.

Here's the offer that the college is making: "...our president, Dr. Luckey. Dr. Luckey has agreed to offer one full tuition scholarship each year to a Haitian student if the foundation would then provide the students room and board fees.  Lindsey Wilson's tuition for this fall is 22,070.  The room and board fees combined are $8,400 for the year.  This would include 19 meals a week of all you can eat meals and of course the room, all utilities, wireless Internet access etc. We would sponsor a new student each year, so conceivably by the fourth year in the cycle we would have 4 Haitian students here at the same time--a freshman, sophomore, junior and senior." We are looking for someone to commit to this first student, so we don't lose this offer. The doctors Foundation is looking to then pick up the future three students of this offer. The financial sponsor commitment needed for this coming year is $14,900, and future three years $12,400 (without room/board increase taken into consideration).  The breakdown costs of the commitment needed is a one time $2,500 for Student Visa; Recurring costs include Travel, which includes one trip home to Haiti per year, plus books, health insurance, class fees and clothing which runs about $4,000 per year (info provided by D Mann).

Thus far, I have contacted mission teamer to I.U. who lives and works in the same city as the college, to present this offer to his congregation to see if the student could live in someone's home therefore save on the room and board fees, and then the remaining outstanding financial commitment will be the Visa one-time expense and living expenses each year. I also have put the word out to my parents for them to make people aware of this need in their church and community in Naples, Florida to raise awareness of this need. I now present this to you. The offer is too good to just give up, taking the chance it will not to be offered next year if it's deferred for a year, and more importantly God is leading me not to give up but rather get the word out about this offer. 

The Kentucky Foundation is a 501(c)3 and is willing to allow the donor to pay these costs through the Foundation, therefore the donor will receive a favorable charitable tax donation for the costs. The Foundation is just unable to financially commit to a fifth student this coming Fall. The donor can be an individual, group of individuals, a church, a corporation, etc. so I look to you to prayerfully consider if you should participate or who you may approach regarding this opportunity, to be part of changing a life, a family, a community, and a country.

For those of you who may attend a Methodist Church, this is a United Methodist Church affiliated college. Here's an important webpage from their website: http://www.lindsey.edu/campus-life/spiritual-life.aspx

Please contact me with further questions. Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you.

All for Him,

 

Marylee

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Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Galatians 6:9

It feels so good to be on my veranda, while the sun is still up. It's been an extremely busy week with a team here, staying and visiting until 7:30pm or so, and coming home in the dark, to then try to work on "home" related items...I am tired as this week closes. Mostly, because I've contracted an infection. On antibiotics. It will get better. But, in the meantime I become really tired in the late afternoons. So, today I was able to come home at 4:45pm and relax on my veranda. Of course, I updated my "action items" list as I like to call it, as I sat and looked at "my" mountains; that is not work to me.
Looking at the mountains, the colors, the late afternoon shift of colors in preparation for the setting sun reminds me of all the provisions, blessings, and richness we have in our lives.
Oh, may I never, ever take it for granted.
I'm excited! I found out that the book I wrote for the American Bar Association in affiliation with M Financial Group (written in 2011) is published! Better late than never!! I am thankful for the insight not to put time sensitive material in the book, as best as I could, in the volatile long-term care planning and insurance industry we've experienced these past few years! When I told Hugues that the book was published, he was excited thinking people will be buying the book, as if it was going to be a bestseller! I didn't want to quench his enthusiasm for me, so I didn't tell him that it's a very-limited-audience book for advisors counseling their clients on long-term care planning. I don't think it will make it on the New York Times list...but who knows!!! It was sweet that he was excited about it!
We are still waiting for someone, or a group, to wrap their arms around the offer from Lindsey Wilson College (see last week's blog post). Please pray, if you or someone you know is being called to be "the one". Thank you and love,
Marylee

Two of our Philo students, Evelyne and Anaychilove, with Ohio mission team members, Kim and Beth

There is opportunity I want to present to you, for you to discuss with your circles of influence.

The Kentucky-Haiti (Doctor's) Foundation, (Dr. Pat Duff, who heads it up brings medical teams to Univers Medical Centre) currently supports four Institution Univers graduates at the U of Kentucky. They have secured a very strong offer for a student to attend Lindsey Wilson College, www.lindsey.edu, this coming Fall 2013. But, after securing the offer the doctor's Foundation Board met this past Wednesday night and voted to defer their required financial commitment of the offer until Fall 2014.

Here's the offer that the college is making: "...our president, Dr. Luckey. Dr. Luckey has agreed to offer one full tuition scholarship each year to a Haitian student if the foundation would then provide the students room and board fees.  Lindsey Wilson's tuition for this fall is 22,070.  The room and board fees combined are $8,400 for the year.  This would include 19 meals a week of all you can eat meals and of course the room, all utilities, wireless Internet access etc. We would sponsor a new student each year, so conceivably by the fourth year in the cycle we would have 4 Haitian students here at the same time--a freshman, sophomore, junior and senior." We are looking for someone to commit to this first student, so we don't lose this offer. The doctors Foundation is looking to then pick up the future three students of this offer. The financial sponsor commitment needed for this coming year is $14,900, and future three years $12,400 (without room/board increase taken into consideration).  The breakdown costs of the commitment needed is a one time $2,500 for Student Visa; Recurring costs include Travel, which includes one trip home to Haiti per year, plus books, health insurance, class fees and clothing which runs about $4,000 per year (info provided by D Mann).

Thus far, I have contacted mission teamer to I.U. who lives and works in the same city as the college, to present this offer to his congregation to see if the student could live in someone's home therefore save on the room and board fees, and then the remaining outstanding financial commitment will be the Visa one-time expense and living expenses each year. I also have put the word out to my parents for them to make people aware of this need in their church and community in Naples, Florida to raise awareness of this need. I now present this to you. The offer is too good to just give up, taking the chance it will not to be offered next year if it's deferred for a year, and more importantly God is leading me not to give up but rather get the word out about this offer. 

The Kentucky Foundation is a 501(c)3 and is willing to allow the donor to pay these costs through the Foundation, therefore the donor will receive a favorable charitable tax donation for the costs. The Foundation is just unable to financially commit to a fifth student this coming Fall. The donor can be an individual, group of individuals, a church, a corporation, etc. so I look to you to prayerfully consider if you should participate or who you may approach regarding this opportunity, to be part of changing a life, a family, a community, and a country.

For those of you who may attend a Methodist Church, this is a United Methodist Church affiliated college. Here's an important webpage from their website: http://www.lindsey.edu/campus-life/spiritual-life.aspx

Please contact me with further questions. Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you.

All for Him,

 

Marylee

There is a really big flying bug in my kitchen right now. Like it sounds like a bat crashing into the walls, but everytime I look to see, it's so stinking fast I can't see it. This is so weird! I'm sitting now in the kitchen, at the table, ready to catch up on some computer work, hoping I'll see it, and use my handy-dandy tupperware lid to kill this jinormous (not really a word!) bug, but now that I'm sitting and writing you, of course there is no more sound. I do have "fly swatters" on the way with the next mission team, in a supply box they are bringing me. I was given a "set" of swatters after I mentioned on Facebook that I kill bugs with tupperware lids! But since they have not yet arrived, I will resort to my original defensive weapon...still, no sound of the "creature". HA - he thinks he's smarter than me...just wait, I'm patient!

Photos from Evelyne's SURPRISE 18th Birthday party at Pleziers Gourmand in Ouanaminthe. Such a wonderful afternoon and evening! Good fun, food and fellowship. It was a celebration for all of the guests! As this is a treat that they didn't expect and I was so happy to be the host! 

Here's me ready to greet the guests 

 First to arrive, Imelda

 Second to arrive, Billow

After the SURPRISE arrival of the birthday "lady" with Bilou

Imelda and Billow

Marylee's vegetarian pizza. Too much for me, I shared it with everyone! As they all had chicken.

 Imelda and Evens

 Cutting the cake...Make a wish-don't tell anyone your wish!

 Imelda and Anaychilove

 My favorite photo!

 Beautiful Birthday "lady"

Clarel, Evelyne, and me 

It was so good to be back with the students for Bible Study this afternoon. We started out with the subject "we are broken", and it turned into such a dynamic discussion, that lasted for 1 and 1/2 hours. One thing I love is that there is so much intensity with the students thought and questions that there is no limit on time to them.
As we were having our fellowship time after Bible Study the team from Florida and Colorado arrived at the apartment village as part of their "tour" of our facilities. So glad they have arrived safely! I had a chance to spend time with them at dinner tonight, as well as good conversation with the Rotary representatives from Columbus, OH who are here for the weekend to dedicate eight wells that Hugues and the Ouanaminthe Rotary Club have established in the vicinity of Ouanaminthe.
Tomorrow afternoon some of the students and I are going to celebrate Evelyne's 18th birthday with a lovely party at Pleziers Gourmand  - it's a surprise (not something that any of the students have ever experienced before, I love doing this for all of them!). All this equals one thing - a wonderfully exciting weekend back in Ouanaminthe!

Back in Haiti as of this afternoon.
The Board Meeting weekend was event-full, excellent-productive meeting and so, so good to be with our dedicated team of Board Members.
Monday March 26 through yesterday was non-stop fun with my children, Mark and Hannah, and Mom and Dad. Good rest and wonderful memory making week in Naples! I did slip in a few opportunities to meet with a college and two churches. As well as talk up our students wherever and whenever possible.
We are praying about an opportunity that has come up, for one of our students to attend Lindsey-Wilson College in Kentucky. We will have the decision by the financial benefactors after April 7. So please be praying this comes through, as the seven students who went through the application process at Bowdoin, Trinity, and College of the Atlantic were not accepted at any of the schools. Very disheartening for our students; God knows where they are supposed to be.

This is a reminder to check out the tabs on this blog to see how you may be able to "serve alongside" our students. We need financial supporters for our three Florida Gulf Coast University applicants. A financial affidavit will need to be submitted vouching for the student financially, although that does NOT mean it's the amount that one needs to actually pay since we have applied and continue to apply for scholarships. The U.S. government needs this requirement to be met in order to apply for a Student Visa: http://enrollment.fgcu.edu/admissions/financialforms.htm
Contact me with your questions, please!

Be sure to check out our "new and improved" website: www.haiticocina.org. Thank you, to Jillian Forbes (Board Member/V.P. - Communications) for all your hard work to bring this to fruition. It is beautiful!

George Washington Carver - "Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom."