Team Day One

A very nice day with a slight wind, big fluffy white clouds and lots of sunshine.

The team enjoyed breakfast and I think everyone slept well.

Helps after traveling a couple of days that makes one very tired.

Cory showed the the school and then called me when they headed over to clinic.

On the way we stopped in the big depo [storage barn] and looked at the stuff in it.


At least one of the new nurses reported she did not realize any medical supplies had been stored there.










Goals:

• Sort through the boxes.
• Identify the supplies that could be used
• Sort
• Clean
• Rebox
•  and move over to clinic where the nurse can sort, organize and store
• Dump the bad stuff
• Clean the depo in preparation for storing the Konsey II books

The morning's project occupied most of us.

We did not complete the job but sent a pick-up truck's worth of supplies down to clinic and at least a second truck's worth to the dump.

Office work, school and some Bible school preparations also occurred before lunch.

This afternoon the team met with the Fauche children on campus.

Per normal there were about 20 kids on time at 3 p.m. but an hour later a few were still arriving and the numbers were close to 100.

The story for the day with puppets covered David and Goliath.

The normal Haitian leaders review the story after the team to make sure everyone understood.

They learned Hebrews 13:6. So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?"

Action songs like Father Abraham and head,shoulders, knees & toes....always a big hit.

Everyone left with a sticker and a paper with the verse in Creole.


Tonight supper will be traditional Haitian pumpkin soup and some rice & beans left from yesterday.

The coconut candy topped off our lunch of spaghetti and coleslaw.

Good first day. Thanks for the prayers.

Team Day and prayers

Well our Warsaw Team of 5 should begin the air heading our direction.

Cory and Jean Pierre left a bit ago heading for Cap Haitian to fit in some shopping before the airport run.

Enjoyed a light rain last night that totaled less than an inch. We did not really need rain but it will help the newly planted peach palms and flowers.

Anna's feeling better. She decided not to play on the school's volleyball team as she does not attend the school but Jean Pierre informed her that they already obtained permission and she should play in Saturday afternoon's game.

Cleaning, organizing, paperwork and school filled the end of last week and yesterday. Our updated adoption paperwork sits signed, notarized, and copied. Only a family photo needs to be printed and added to the pile so that it can be mailed to the USA.

Looking into tickets for the trip to the USA. Permission granted to purchase once we find the right flights. Sobering to realize there will be only 3 return tickets.

Cory's grandfather passed away yesterday. Thankful for good hospice care which kept him comfortable. Please be in prayer for the family.

Jean Pierre checked on the Konsey II books and they arrived in Haiti. No news yet when they will clear customs but knowing that they will need to be picked up the same day they clear we will prepare the storage areas.

Please continue to pray for Haiti's government and people.  Multiple areas with protests. We hear that the public school teachers, mailmen and doctors have not been payed the last couple of months. Tensions remain high between Haiti and the Dominican as well due to immigration policies. A general [national?] transportation strike may occur on Monday and Tuesday.

[pictures from the peach palm garden walk/location]

Will try to blog later but if it's raining like last night may not be possible, then expect the first team blog sometime tomorrow, Lord willing.

Good, good or good?

I have been thinking about the flower garden make-over. Last night, Cory and I planted some ground cover in the bare ugly spots.  Looking forward to seeing the area fill in with attractive plants and flowers.

I find it easier to pull out ugly weeds than pretty flowers.

 An easy word picture as well with weeds representing the bad or sinful things/attitudes in my life.

 NO question that those need to go or should not be present in my life. 

No one questions the harmfulness and ugly that enter our lives with sin. 

While it still may be hard to weed them out identifying them remains easy in the majority of cases.

But what if we change the word picture up a bit.

 To pull up pretty flowers can be hard. 

Much harder than pulling up ugly weeds.

While I thought about changing the flowers long and hard, the motivation to switch things up did not occur until I had new plants waiting for a place.

Life too can be crowed and overgrown with good things. 

So many positive, valid things that we do not have the time, energy or motivation to change. 

Change or should we say 'pruning' hurts. It causes ugly bare spots in our lives that take time to become pretty again. 

For a season things will look and feel strange, weird and or unsightly. 

We may not meet other's expectations, especially when we say 'no' to something we've done a long time or when folks know us to say 'yes', often. 

We may want to turn back the clock and return to the 'normal' feeling and looking old way.

Nevertheless, many times new is better.

Sometimes the 'normal, old way' no longer really fits our lives or goals.

Possibly we've out grown that job or task.

 Maybe we need a change to recapture joy and excitement in our lives.


Maybe by stepping out or jumping out of our comfort zones, we will experience the Lord in a new and powerful way.

 I know my prayer life gets stimulated when I'm facing unknowns and questions.

The bare ugly dirt can represent potential: potential for growth, capacity for improvement, the possiblety for beauty, capability to develop further the good parts of our lives that have been stunted due to overcrowding.

 Stripped, empty, exposed, unattractive dirt can also look like margin.

Margin means having bare dirt, empty time or space in your life to handle the unexpected in a excellent, healthy fashion.

Maintaining healthy, nourishing margins in your life takes work, takes self-care, takes saying no to decent things.

A book I return to every now and then to remind me about the importance of margin.

[Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives by Richard Swenson helped me in this area link to more information/reviews]

Pulling up flowers rarely happens accidentally or by mistake. To make a real difference one needs to be intentional. Deciding between good, good, and good can be hard. There's often a better choice, but we need the Lord to know what it looks like for us.

Courage my friend! The Lord gives direction and wisdom to those who ask Him and then listen carefully for His answer. 

Flower garden make-over

School. Taxes. E-mail update. Adoption update. Negotiations completed for the 'rehab' garden land rental.

Perspective a bit off...the sidewalk is fairly straight and you can see both ends in this picture. 

Lots of office type work this week but also some physical work.

Sorting through some of the house stuff, gifting to others from the bounty we have been blessed with recently.

Also started Eli sorting items that he wants in the USA vs. give away vs. storage.

One of my coping mechanisms when I cannot control life or it gets to the point that I feel overwhelmed is to organize and give away.

Makes me calmer and happy!

Guests coming next week so that helps to increase the motivation.

Another thing making my heart happy today is that Cory worked hard to redo our flowers/plants near the side walk.

Some of the plants will be moved and shared with other spots on campus.

Sure looks different than when we visited here 8 years ago in the spring!

Started to battle the last couple of years with a few of the aggressive plants who attempted to take over the area and were repressing the other plants.

For instance the blue flowers in the top picture:did move a few to a new area as Anna likes them.

They should fill in under the hibiscus in time.

Last week Cory traded for some new plants and flowers which raised the question of where we would be planting them.

So a major change for the side flower garden.

Will take a bit to fill in but the plants should be growing well before we leave for our trip to the USA.

While waiting for these pictures to load the list arrived from Global Partners of what we need to do during our time in the USA so that we can return to Haiti for another term.

Hard to believe that we moved to Haiti one week after Eli turned one and this year we will return after seeing him settled into college.

So a new to-do list [thankfully not real different than our last 'Partnership Development training.]

Think I need to go organize some more!

Carnival Report and Anna update

The sun shines brightly this morning and the campus once again rings with the sounds of school children.

Last week with Carnival, national mourning and rain they did not attend school.

Heard a great story from Carnival weekend this morning from a church lady who I think cooked for the youth's get-away weekend.

Most evangelical churches try to plan a weekend retreat for their young people to get them out of the cities and away from Carnival events.

Mme. "D" reported that 400 young people gathered for worship and praise and two people with Carnival masks came into the church [not sure if they were together or at different times.]

She noted how some of the young people ran out of fear and how thankful everyone was that in the end nothing violent occurred. A nurse unmasked one while a pastor did the second.

Everyone saw the face of the young man who the nurse unmasked and he reported how embarrassed he felt. But the bigger impact - as he looked around at the other young people he realized that he could fit in as part of this group.

He not only realized this, he made the life-changing choice to join and became a member of the Lord's family! The second masked person also accepted the Lord!

Praise the Lord. Please join us in prayer for these young Christians.

Mme. D also noted how after the Carnival electrocution accident and deaths in Port-au-Prince that the Lord allowed the President to totally shut down Carnival and she speculated that many lives were saved with that decision.

Carnival in Haiti tends to be an opportunity for folks to violently seek revenge on enemies.

Anna's road to recovery after last weeks GI issues and IV experienced a detour this week with a nasty looking infection on her arm and return of fevers. We celebrated her birthday in the middle of her health issues and thankfully she's feeling better today as she continues to treat her arm.