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.

The Man with Heart

Last week with our team, we served with a man Almando and I love dearly.  His name is Pastor Jacky and he is the kind of guy you call when you are having a hard day.  He is the guy Almando calls "My heart" because Pastor Jacky has a lot of heart.

We met Pastor Jacky a long time ago it seems.  He is like an uncle--he calls us his kids.  Last summer, we brought a group to serve at his church and he was so grateful for the help they were able to give and the ministry they had with the kids.  Last week, it was a smaller team made up of college students from the south and "farmers" from the north.  It was a joy to see them serving together and hearing them talk about Pastor Jacky.  Many of them wanted to take him home with them because he is such a passionate, joy-filled preacher who walks completely by faith.

On the first day of "work" on the trip, it was almost lunch time and the team had been passing bucket after bucket of sand to use for cement later in the week.  Pastor Jacky came to me when lunch was ready and asked me if the team had finished washing their hands to be ready to eat.  I told him we had used Germ-X.  He looked at me and told me that Germ-X wouldn't be good enough.  He would bring water and soap to wash their hands.

About 5 minutes later he came back and said he was ready.  The team lined up and were amazed--as I was--as Pastor Jacky stood over a basin with a gallon of water, a bar of soap, and a towel.  He washed their hands.  It reminded me of the story of Jesus washing the disciples' feet.  He washed our hands and it was a blessing to have clean smelling, dirt-free hands before lunch.

This man has heart.  This man has vision.  This man has faith.  He knows he is nothing without God.  We are so blessed to know Pastor Jacky and to serve along side him and encourage him in the ministry God has entrusted to him. May his life continue to be reflecting the God he serves.

Pray for Pastor Jacky, his wife, their 4 kids and the ministry God has given to them.  They have many challenges, but they know they serve a great God!

Busy Days!

Hello friends!

Almando and I are leading trips this week, so these are busy days with finalizing logistics and spending time in fellowship with the team and the community we are partnering with.  Please check out what our teams are up to by clicking Here! 

There are always challenges during these weeks, so be praying for us and that we find enough time for each other as well as for the ministry.

In Reality

I have had "remember to blog" written on my calendar every day since Christmas this week and each of those days, I even had something to blog about.  

On Christmas, the blog was going to be called "Christmas at Our House" and it was going to talk about all the festivities that took place whether it was getting over a sickness or cooking the second Christmas dinner (Al had to cook two because I was in bed with the flu), exchanging gifts and sharing the Christmas story here or skyping into the Christmas gathering my family was having in the states.  

The next day, the blog would have been called "No Balance" as Almando and I crashed hard that day and didn't know what to do with ourselves because we weren't working and didn't have anything to build.  We slept.  We learned that we don't have a balance and need to figure that out in the near future--so you can be praying for us.

Thursday night we went to church and I was reminded of how important it was to be filled up before serving and pouring out.  "You can't give" would have been the blog title that day, because when you don't have anything, you can't give anything.  That night, I watched a 5 year old worship the Lord with such innocence, passion, and joy and I prayed that I would be drawn into that place.  Filled with the love, joy, peace, passion, and Spirit of the Lord.

Friday would have been called "Changed Plans" as we were helping out another PPM Trip Leader with an airport pick up that was delayed so we couldn't make it home that night.  But, the conversations I had with the group that evening were refreshing and a blessing that made the changed plans look not so  bad.

Yesterday--if you saw my facebook status, you would already know--would have been called "Long Day".  From the car breaking down to cooking food all day long for a group of hungry people from the church, it was a humorously long day.  In the end, all was completed, everyone was happy and had a wonderful time of fellowship (and food), and we rested.

In reality, today is Sunday, and I am much too late to write all of these blogs, but you can see bits and pieces from these little snippets!  So, today's blog is called "In Reality" where sometimes life gets too busy and sometimes you just need to rest because tomorrow is another day.  And in this reality we live, for now.  It's fitting because it's almost the end of the year and it's time to look again and see how we spend our days and our limited time.  I want to learn to balance my time better and learn to keep things in perspective so I am not easily stressed or overwhelmed.

The pastor today preached on Psalm 90.  Verse 12 stuck out to me and it will be my prayer.  "So teach us to number our days so we may get a heart of wisdom."  Wisdom to know how to use our days for the glory of God.  Wisdom to know when to rest.  Wisdom to know when to speak and when to be silent.  This week showed me that I need this wisdom.  Maybe some of you do too.  

It's my prayer today.  Please join me in praying too!  

The Middle of the Sandwich

We all know that the middle of the sandwich is always the best part.  This is definitely true for our trip to the DR.  You may have read about our adventure on the way there and our time on the way back was a learning experience to say the least, but our time with Pastor Espady in Santo Domingo was phenomenal!

When we woke up the morning after the day like no other, we met Pastor Espady for real.  He was ready to share his vision and he did.  He went to the DR as a missionary in the 80s and has been there ever since.  He planted a church in a bad part of town and prayed.  The church started with 7 people (including him and his wife) and 5 of them left.  They prayed and prayed.  Three more people came and in 1991 the church grew a lot.  Now, they have over 400 members and so many more that want to come to their church.

Pastor's heart is for the Haitians who have moved from Haiti to the DR, so he has programs for the children to help them transition into a Spanish speaking school environment.  He welcomes individuals and families into the church when they first arrive and have no where to go.  Many people sleep in the church every night.  He helps with finding lodging, clothing, and schooling.  He gives all the glory to God.

In our time with Pastor Espady and his family, we were blessed beyond what we could have imagined. We felt like members of the family by the second day.  Almando and Giovanni (Pastor's son) were fast friends as they had so much in common with drumming, loving the Lord, and languages.  The fun didn't stop as we explored the city and helped our friends from the states catch Pastor's vision for his community.

We packed so much into the time that we were there and were so blessed by our time that we didn't notice we were tired until we got home.  Then, it was time to rest.

We never know what our week will bring, but we are glad that in the middle of the bread is the best part of the sandwich!