Hello friends,

Just wanted to thank you all  for your prayers, support, and encouragement these past several
months!  I have felt through your prayers Gods Grace, peace, and comfort.

To those who may not know I had to return from Haiti due to a lump on my neck. I was diagnosed
with Lymphoma. I'm thankful to share Gods healing hand and faithfulness in my life. Yesterday I
started my 2nd round of chemo therapy. Before I started I visited with the doctor about my progress.
I 'm so excited to share the good report of how well I am responding to the treatments.

Even though I am far away form Haiti, my heart never left! The children are constantly on my mind.
My prayers for them are continuous.

The verse that has so blessed me and I hope blesses you regardless of what you are going through
is Isa 49:15b & 16 "I will not forget you! See I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Your
walls are ever before me!" Since learning about the cancer I have felt like I am laying in the palm of
HIS hand! HIS total peace, comfort and love overwhelms me!

With much love to you all!!

Mickey and Jewel

We've had internet problems so, I haven't been able to keep up with the Blogging. So I will give you a update of these last few weeks!

For the first time, Jewel and I went with the water truck to City Solei.  It is there that we  helped to fill up  buckets  with water to the poorest of the poor.  Since then I have had so many questions, emotions, and feelings as to what we had seen. 

Nothing can quite prepare a person to see the poverty that we saw that day! Words cannot explain, pictures cannot show or even come close as to how it really was.  You have to see it and experience it your self. What we saw, where we walked, what we walked in and through, and to just smell the smells is an experience I will never forget.

No human should ever have to live in those conditions. This was the worst place I have ever seen. It was at one point that I could no longer hold in my tears and I began to cry. The children who were around me  looked at me with their beautiful eyes.  They were confused and did not understand why I was crying. They had no idea of the place that they were living in. My next thought why them and not me!!  How can you see such a place and go back home with out that effecting you!!

When you see all the needs of these hurting people, mothers with children and no income. Elderly without families to care for them, children working as slaves just for food, the homeless, the sick, the orphaned, and those who are just hungry, it just breaks my heart!! But I know the God I serve will help to change this nation around.

Please keep us in your prayers!!

Love Mickey and Jewel

Our week here in Haiti....

Hi!

We had the water baptism here last week at Grace Village, what a beautiful day!! Seeing all the joy the children had as they publicly proclaimed Jesus as their Lord and Saviour!!!It was great to see Gretchen baptized, seeing the touch of God on her as she was baptized too. The worship team was here with all their instruments as we sang praises together!! It was great to have some of the elders here too as they all watched and then ate lunch with the children.

The best part of the day was when the team brought another girl to live here at Grace Village. She was brought from one of the worst places in Haiti!!! Getting to know her this week and seeing her heart has brought me such joy and happiness!! I have watched her reach out to the other children in such tender ways when someone else is hurt or crying. Making sure that they are comforted or helped!! Even at the doctors clinic this week a baby was crying, and she reached into my backpack and gave the infant her treat. Within moments the baby had stopped crying and the others in the clinic just watched her with smiles.  

This week has kept us busy with doctor visits and lab results. As we are working on keeping the children all strong and healthy. We learned of another huge blessing for our little Joseph! He just came to live with us two weeks ago. He has a problem with his legs that bend inward. He will be able to be fit with braces free of charge to help correct his legs. We are so excited to see the hand of God as he meets the needs of his dear children. I have enjoyed getting to meet other ministries and see how the Lord is working all around us!! We are not alone, we are here to help support and encourage each other!!!

Please continue to pray for these dear children here at Grace Village. They are our future in Haiti, our leaders. Pray that others will see a difference in them where ever they go. That Jesus will shine through them and use them to bring Glory to God!!

Can you please pray for me too, as I have had some kind of a allergic reaction and have hives all over my body. He is my healer!!

Love to you all, Have a blessed week!!
Mickey and Jewel

Hi!
 These last 2 weeks have just flown by!!! We have had some internet problems so I have not been able to update! Sorry! We have been keeping busy, learning new rules and structures set in place these last 3 months!! Gretchen has been doing a great job with the children, and it has been so much fun working with her. It will be hard to see her go. I know she will have a hard time leaving, as she loves the children at Grace Village. Please pray for here as she goes back home and adjusts back to America!!!

We have been making new contacts with other ministries and orphanages nearby, which has been good! We are all here to support and encourage each other, and meeting new friends nearby has been fun. We visited Mission of Hopes other 2 facilities about 20 minutes away. It is exciting to see what others are doing to further the kingdom.

Our little Joseph has been doing so well in adjusting here at Grace Village!! He loves going to school, and playing on the swings. Andy has stayed close to him, helping him with dressing, bathing and getting to meals on time. Seeing him raise his little hands in worship for the first time brought us all smiles!

We are have the worship team here this week and tomorrow they will baptize 37 young children. What a exciting day that will be!!!

We have a new girl interpreter here at Grace Village! She will be a great help to us when Fan Fan is away at school!! Of course we will also use her to help us in learning Creole!!!

I pray you all have a wonderful blessed week!!!

Mickey and Jewel

Back in Haiti!

We are back home again in Grace Village!!!

These last 2 ½ months of preparation with packing up our apartment, giving notice to our jobs, raising monthly support, and the hardest saying good-bye to family and friends came to an end on Wednesday!

We are so excited for this new journey and chapter in our lives here in Haiti!!

When we arrived in Haiti on Thursday we drove right out to Grace Village!!! What an exciting and joyous time it was to have all the children run out screaming and then hugging us!!! We sure missed them!!! We settled in unpacking, and just resting a little as we were really tired!!

We met Gretchen, who has been here these last 2 ½ months! What a sweet and hard working woman she has been!!! She has done a great job in enforcing rules, and discipline!! ( and a lot more) To hear her speak Creole is amazing in such a short amount of time!!!

We will all work together these next 10 days to keep things flowing smoothly. She will then fly home and Jewel and I will be here to continue to oversee Grace Village!!

Please pray for us that Creole will come easy like it seemed to have for Gretchen!!

Today we brought a new little boy to Grace Village! His name is Joseph and he is 5 years old. ( He looks about 3) Both of his parents have died, and he was living with his Grandparents. It was so apparent he was not eating daily meals. So when we fed him, he ate more food than I have ever seen a little 5 year old eat!!! They will eat lots of food at first until he realizes he will always be eating 3 meals a day!!! Is that not so sad!! It is so easy to take for granted our daily food, our electricity, our water, our instant internet, our transportation, our schools, restaurants, the list goes on and on!! God has blessed us and for that we should be to grateful and thankful!!! But the majority of the world and Haiti does not live the way we do in the states!!! We are so close in distance to the states but yet so very far apart in our daily conveniences.

Love to all of you at home! Mickey and Jewel

If God puts it on your heart...

If God puts on your heart the desire to sponsor Jewel and I in a one-time donation or a monthly commitment, you can write out a check to:

Healing Haiti

P.O. Box 265

Champlin, MN 55316

Write Michelle Soderlund/Jewel Hernandez in the Memo Line on your check.

Thank you!

Preparing for a year in Haiti

Whew! We are so busy packing up our apartment!  I'm sure you all have had to move, so the sorting through everything, deciding what can go, what to keep, what to give away, is familiar to you all. But we  also have the drastic climate change from Minnesota to Haiti to think about, won't need those winter coats and boots for a long time! It's just cool clothes and sandals for us.

We will be leaving Minnesota on April 12th to return to Grace Village.  We are excited to see all the children at the orphange, we have missed them terribly since leaving at the beginning of February.

God has been faithful to provide the majority of our monthly support needs and a group of friends here in Minnesota to make sure we have all the things we can't purchase in Haiti.  We hope to blog as often as possible and hope you will follow the blog.  Days start early and end late and internet connections are spoty.

Please keep Jewel, the children and myself in your prayers.