What was just a request...

All of us have vehicle woes from time to time.  Our vehicle was diagnosed yesterday as being broken.  The engine will have to be completely taken apart and hopefully put back together so it will work, but   that means that a request for prayers for our vehicle situation has turned into more of an urgent prayer request.  This vehicle has become increasingly unreliable and, when we are on the road so much, it isn't a good combination.

Please, join us in praying that God would provide another vehicle for us.  A reliable, durable one that will last us a long time and give us fewer "woes".  We know that He can provide and will provide all that we need, so pray with us friends!  

He is faithful!

Where does that leave me?

This week, Almando is in Pignon which is far away from Port-au-Prince and the road isn't the best.  He is leading a group of 25 people who are building a house for a beautiful little family and are working with the kids showing them the love of Jesus.  But, if Almando is there, where does that leave me?

I am in Petionville staying at Haiti Christian Orphanage with my missionary friend Marlo and working on my Creole with the boys here.  When I am not with the boys or sleeping (which I do a lot of), I am doing a variety of things.  Much different than what I do at home and sometimes similar.

On Sunday, I walked to church with Marlo and some of the boys.  But, it was a very different church than what I am used to.  We didn't use the hymnals, but we sang songs like "Majesty" and "Lord, Reign in Me" that had been translated into French and printed in the bulletin.  Sunday afternoon found me cooking my Easter meal.  It wasn't quite what mom would have prepared, but still very American.  Baked chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, and peas (the steamfresh ones you cook in the microwave).

After Marlo and I finished eating we headed to the bus terminal to meet the team (and see Almando) as they were passing through town. It was a quick visit, but so good.  We headed back up the hill by taptap to the orphanage and I finished the day with chocolate pudding.

My morning, yesterday, was full of taptaps and wandering uphill for what seemed like forever and then wandering back down after my business there was finished by noon.  Uno, laughter, language learning, and debates filled the afternoon as the boys filtered in and out.

The sounds are different here, the sights are different here, the atmosphere is different here.  A little change is doing me good.  For a little while.  I am working on some office stuff here and there this week and trying to help Al out as much as I can from here.  I know I will be ready to go home at the end of the week.  For this little while, I am glad for many distractions and many new things.  So, that's where I find myself this week.

Please be praying for Almando and the team while they are serving in Pignon and be praying for me as I am having a completely different set of experiences here in Petionville.  I look forward to the end of the week when we can be together again, but I know God is working on and in and through both of us separately right now.

The Sounds of My Day

My days are starting to sound familiar to me.  Different from a lot of you, so I thought I would take this opportunity to share the sounds of my day.

I wake up in the morning to a buzzing sound. It only lasts a couple of seconds before it turns off again, then it starts again.  What is this sound?  It's my husband's cell phone.  Who is calling so early in the morning?  It could be a pastor, a friend, or family member.  This morning, it was a family member who wanted to borrow the drill.

Then, whenever the phone is silent again, we hear the roosters (they keep crowing all day long), and then our cat.  Meowing.  Begging us to let her in so she can have some food and cuddle time before it's light outside and the dogs get fed.  We let her in and quickly become annoyed with her trying to get our attention and we know that it is time to get up.

The voices from next door start rising as the morning goes on.  We hear the guitar's "Jing, jing, jing" and the voice of Daniel singing whatever song he is working on perfecting.  Lately, it's been "Allelujah".  We hear someone walk towards the house and the sound of "M'vin achte" (I've come to buy) followed by the response coming from the inside of Al's parents house saying "Sa ou vle" (What did you want).

The conversation voices continue along with new sounds.  The sounds of people working.  Construction of some kind happening in the area.  The mixing of cement, the pounding of nails.  The ladies laughing while they are doing laundry with the squishing of soap suds and water and cloth.  Then, the sound of cooking comes.  The pounding of spices, boiling water, frying foods in oil.

There's the random Mack truck that comes rolling by, the motorcycle with speakers that play music much louder than it's engine, and the ice cream truck.  I hear people calling out for each other or calling out greetings. The knocks on metal doors and horns honking in the distance.

As the day comes to a close, the work sounds die down, as does the conversation and the visiting friends stop coming.  The neighbor kids may decide it is a great time to come visit me though.  They knock at the door to my house and yell "Pa gen moun?" (which is the equivalent of "Anyone home?").  They come in and watch whatever it is that I am doing and, of course, ask for candy.

Finally, at the end of the day, I either hear silence and the quiet whirring of the fan above our bed, or I hear our generator faithfully giving us light until it's time to sleep.

My day is full of noises.  There are noises at night too...but maybe that's for another day!  :)

Realization: Things will (and must) change.

For those of you who are friends with me on facebook--or hear the news from people who are, you already know that the past couple of days have found me incredibly ill.  I haven't been able to get even much liquid down--much less food, but God is faithful and has been showing me, in a variety of ways, that things will change in the coming months and years.

For example, while I have been unable to do much of anything, my wonderful husband along with some great staff has been able to host a team of 50+ people who are doing some amazing ministry.  If you have a couple of minutes check out what they have been doing by clicking Here for Living Faith Fellowship and Here for First Baptist Church of Terry.  It's interesting that I haven't been able to be a part of this trip, up to this point, and that is incredibly difficult for me.  Why?  I really do love what we do and love to see lives changed--because so many lives are changed.  I know, though, that in the coming months, things must change and I am getting a taste of that now...

So, what have I been doing today?  For a long time, I stared at a calendar and scheduled events I knew were going to take place such as trips for the summer, meetings in the states, and places we need to visit for setting up trips.  Most of that ends in mid-August. I stared at the months that follow and noticed that very little was scheduled.  Birthdays, weddings, and Christmas were all there, but I realized that things will change.  Things must change.  I decided to keep looking ahead to the next year which is currently blank and I wondered what that year will look like.

I simply don't know.  God does.  And He will continue to guide our steps through the coming months and years. I know things must change and have realized that even this week is different than I would have expected.  God knows what He is doing and I know that I will continue to trust in Him.  While the ministry that is going on around me is glorifying to Him, so is my realization of this truth:  Things will change, but God remains the same.

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.