The Good News and the Bad News.

For those of you who have struggled with deciding what to tell first and what to tell second if you have both good news and bad, you will relate to this...but I have decided to start with the bad news.

As of late, the hospital at Diquini has become a very familiar sight for me.  I have been visiting there often for a couple of reasons.  Yesterday, it was to visit the emergency room.  For myself.  I was napping yesterday afternoon and woke up to some commotion outside.  I quickly jumped out of bed, thought I took a step, and fell immediately to the floor.  My legs were sleeping and could not hold me.  I cried out and Al came to my rescue--what a great guy--and rushed me away to the ER to find no broken bones, but damaged ligaments in my left ankle.

I am on crutches now and in what they call and air cast for anywhere between 2-4 weeks.  I never realize how difficult things can become until I had to climb, no crawl, up three stairs to get to the bathroom and try to figure out how to get down without falling. It's kind of a funny way to end up injured, but I'm thinking that God has a plan for this...as He always does.

Let's rewind a little bit, yesterday was the ER, but before that I was already fairly familiar with the processes of the hospital at Diquini.  Why?  Because I have been going there for the past month because we are expecting a BABY!  This is GREAT news!  We are so excited for this new chapter in our lives and would really appreciate your prayers as we prepare for the baby and as God continues to create this little one before he or she is born.

So, as we are preparing for teams coming in the next month and as we are making decisions regarding my role with these teams, be praying for my health, for wisdom and guidance, and for God to be glorified above all things!

Focusing on Something Else...

With our car still in the shop and much work that is ahead of us to do, we are taking a step back and focusing on something else for a little while.  February 11 is just a little over a day away and that day holds a lot of significance to me and Al--it will mark one full year of marriage.  We know we have been blessed.

After our beautiful wedding and week long honeymoon, we figured out that it didn't take us long to forget what it felt like to be single.  We enjoyed working together, cooking together(we have created a wonderful meal of a mixture of cultures), taking long work road trips together, and simply living life together.  Our life, we noticed, isn't a very steady one.  We would get used to the routine of being home and working from here, then it would be time to share each other with the teams that we spent weeks with.  When we got used to how those weeks went, it was time to go to the states for a while.  When we got used to the routine in the states, back to trips we went.

The lack of a normal routine is evident, but we have enjoyed all the little adventures in and through each of our "normals" and we can't believe a year has already gone by since Almando jumped off the platform at our church here in Haiti with excitement as he saw me walking towards him.

We know that every year will bring challenges (like the car) and adventures and joys.  And we look forward to many more years serving the Lord together.

Please be praying for us as we enter into our second year of sharing life and serving the Lord together!

I used a passage in Ephesians 3 in my vows to Almando a year ago and in verse 20 and 21 it says, "Now to .Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power that is at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.  Amen"

All for His Glory as He has already done far more abundantly than all than I could have asked for or thought of--All of this for His glory!

Back to the TapTap

Al with the timing belt that has broken 3 times...

Good day everyone!  This morning finds us working from home because we have been finding it hard to get around lately.  Our car has been in the shop a number of times in the last couple of weeks and has been resting there for the past 4 or 5 days.  This means that we are back to taking the taptaps around.

Taptaps are a big part of the public transportation system here in Haiti.  They could be school buses, 15 passenger vans, or--the most common--pickups with benches running along the bed.  Each taptap has a route that it runs multiple times each day, so if it is going the direction you want to go you flag it down and hop in. It may stop multiple times to let people get in or let people get out and sometimes those pickups have well over 20 people in them.  Drivers seem to think that there is always room for one more...

Taking the taptaps around is rather inconvenient because it takes us a LOT longer to get where we need to go, so we find that it's difficult to do our job.  We have many trips coming up in March and really need to be able to make sure each team is hosted well and each pastor finds encouragement from these teams.

As interesting and calming it is to be taking public transportation, we really need our car to be able to what we need to do.  Please be praying that we can find the parts and the funds to get our car fixed.  Pray for the mechanics that they would know how to fix it.  Pray that we are able to get much accomplished in the meantime.