Happy American Thanksgiving.

A week ago the routine of 10 months ended. 

The majority of our days this year included: school, study, rock or garden work; cooking; and weeding. 

Other than worshiping with the Agape House children and a couple staff on some Sundays we rarely saw anyone other than Cory's four workers.

Tuesday Fritz and I traveled down the mountain for the first time in 2020.

We put on our masks like the rest of the world. We did not accompany Cory on his shopping trips this year so this was the first time for us.

With the truck parked at a clinic at the base of the mountains, we loaded into a second truck and enjoyed Judain's driving.

Following visiting the grocery store for some treats for Eli and Anna, along with some vanilla requested by family, we picked up our mail from MFI, stopped at DHL  to try to ship out a small box of seeds, and then arrived at the hotel.

Wed. morning we headed to the airport. Other than a quick temperature check, generous dollop of hand sanitizer before heading up to the counter, everyone wearing masks, having our fingerprints scanned and picture taken, the rest of the travel remained very familiar.

Short layovers in both Miami and Chicago had our hearts and legs pumping but thankfully we made all flights.

First time to be picked up by one of our adult kids. We then dropped Anna off and drove her car to the store-for some late night grocery shopping before heading to bed.

Then a day of unpacking and some cleaning.

Friday Fritzlin enjoyed some Eli time while we went shopping; enjoyed a short time meeting some of Anna's friends-outside in the cool Michigan sun, and then returned with her and a friend.

Nothing quit like the blessing of being together as a family.

Three of them enjoyed Saturday's sunrise from the woods...and then the Calvin students returned to finish up a few days of on-line classes before moving home for the holidays and finishing up the term from home.

We're looking forward to Thanksgiving even if not the normal large family gatherings. 

Thankful that we're all feeling well. While not in quarantine as medical folks define it-we're keeping our interactions with people very limited and being careful.

Hugs from Eli and Anna but none from others...sadly. 

Enjoying high speed unlimited internet, a HUGE variety of foods, HOT showers, and crisp Michigan-fall skies. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Haiti Anniversary Reflection

 22 years ago my focus, once we arrived to our apartment on LaGonave, was to unpack and organize our new home. Cory’s mom traveled with us and helped with Eli who had just celebrated his first birthday the week before. 

A dream that first began for me as an eight year old living on LaGonave and watching the work at the hospital finally returned me to the starting place. 

I’d spent 22 years of my life up to that point learning in classrooms and 3 years working/learning in residency. The last 22 years I’ve continued to learn and grow in this classroom of my Dearest Haiti. My teachers include many people, events and situations that I never dreamed of when we moved.

Big and small, hard and harder, the Lord changed me, molded me, chipped away hard unwanted parts, burnt away some of the garbage, replaced some of the holes with healing, softened trauma scars with time. Thankful that He continues to work on me through His love, His plan. 

Through it all He remains faithful, holding me with love scared hands while I cry, laugh, moan, praise, or beg. While confusion and questions may swirl around me like a hurricane He understands. He knows. He sees me. 

We moved from the little apartment about 6 months later across the yard. After 9 years of island life we followed the Lord’s direction to the rainforest-like climate of Fauche in the north, and then 10 years later up into the mountain air of Délice.

Roughly new land boundaries

 Through hurricanes, a major earthquake, 2 evacuations for political instability, years of adoption paperwork, lots of Global Partners changes, writing/putting together a couple books in Creole, building a house on a mountain ridge,  all the the ups-downs-ins-outs of precious relationships with broken people, all the unexpected twists and turns of life… He is still leading. 

Anna and Fritzlin both joined the family; Eli and Anna transitioned to college life at Calvin; many family and support team members left this life for their heavenly home. 20 years of residential visas. 3 GP logo changes. 3 director changes. Too many teammates and partners to list, including 29 current churches. Thousands upon thousands of prayers for us and by us. 

Back at the beginning I started writing major events on a large index card for every year and reviewing them shows how far we’ve come and highlights many changes. 

This year’s card clearly shows a difference-NO Visitors. NO in-person connection with anyone from GP  since the end of June 2019 due to restricted travel and canceled meetings.

 Fritz and I have remained on the mountain for the last eight months, that does not mean I'm the same person. 

Our marriage started off on a solid base of God’s love and faith in Him but was thrust within days into the challenges of surviving medical residency.  Eli joined the family during my last  year. 

I moved to Haiti as a wounded person with a tendency to lash out and hurt others when overwhelmed, spread to thin, lacking margin and filter [sadly most of my life during those years and too many times since] 

I apologize to those who were caught by my bad attitudes and sharp tongueand i hurt. 

Thank you to those who prayed and called me on bad behavior and words-a true friend really does sharpen others and because of you and the Lord, I’m a better person today. 

Please continue to do so.

With HIs continued grace, mercy, faithfulness, and LOVE I will continue to change and grow into the person He created me to be.

Rains, garden work, and coffee

 

One more coat of sealant

September tends to bring more rain up here in the mountains and we've even had a few mornings wrapped up in cloudy mists.

Most afternoons this month the guys hurried down to their homes in the village trying to beat the rains.

 Nothing like a few hours of continuous mopping up from leaky walls to motivate us to pull out the partial gallons of sealant and once again start painting around the rocks by the kitchen, trying to get them water proof to protect our nice plywood cupboards.

The guys continued work on the yard behind the house; moving rocks, building short rock walls, removing piles of gravel or dirt left from the house construction, and finally planting in the newly uncovered good topsoil.

Happy to find good topsoil after hauling out much gravel

They also weeded some of the corn today.

With only a couple of months or so left before dry season, some of the work is winding down.

So the guys are only working part time now for us. 

Fortunately for them a neighbor down the road has some work digging gravel.

Coffee plant, need more than 1,000

After waiting a year, and continuing to ask, we finally received not only coffee seeds to plant but also 37 baby coffee plants! 

We were told that this type of coffee is 'old coffee' probably left  from the days when the plantation produced coffee. 

So while the few coffee plants in the village have ripe beans, we will try to get seeds planted so trees are ready for planting at the beginning of next rainy season, hopefully on the new property once it is surrounded by a fence. 

A newer coffee variety started producing in two years in the neighbors garden. This old variety is a larger tree and will take longer, but will likely prove much more profitable.

Squash

Rutabega

Recent harvest

Coffee, avocado (which we are also planting) and tomato

Cabbage doing great!

New Land

Not much rain in the last week so Cory is watering some of the plants and trees.

The guys continue to work on moving dirt and gravel from piles behind the house. 

The area by the kitchen now contains poinsettia, bouganvillia and lots of sweet potato plants.

As the gravel and dirt move, the path becomes smoother and more level. 

Additional trees will be planted by the path.

On Saturday a small group came up to discuss, walk/ measure boundaries and come to an agreement on a new land purchase.

We are pleasantly surprised by the size of the land available to the west of the house. 

Cory is dreaming of planting the less rocky, better wind protected acreage as soon as: the current owners harvest the corn crop; the paperwork is completed transferring ownership to the Wesleyan Church of Haiti; and we fence in the land. 

He continues to wait as well for the coffee beans growing in the village to mature so that we can start coffee trees. 

On Sunday we walked over to the Agape house for worship. 

We harvested our first rutabega this week, also more turnips, lots of tomatoes, and a pumpkin.

Fritz and I continue with 4th grade and Anna started her junior year at Calvin. 

Tropical Storm Laura

 This weekend saw us preparing for tropical storm Laura.

Caulked around windows, lowered the shade house, and harvested the garden produce on Saturday.

Throughout the night we awoke frequently listening for the wind and rain.

At dawn on Sunday the rain started and soon it seeped in around windows and through the rock walls.

We did some reading at the beginning but soon all three of us were busy mopping.

For a number  of hours we spent most of the time mopping up between 15-20 gallons of water an hour from our bedroom, bathroom and the kitchen.

Fritz worked hard right along with us.

Two of his butterflies hatched and spent the day hanging on the gladiolus.

He released them on Monday morning.

We took pictures of the leaking around rocks so that we can work to seal the walls before our next big storm.

Thankfully by around 3 p.m. the rain was letting up but the winds continued throughout the night.

Much of the corn and banana plants leaves were shredded and the guys report more wind damage down in the village, especially of the corn.

We only had 2.6" of rain but other parts of Haiti saw severe flooding, loss of property and lives. 

On Monday we took the day off to hear a sermon, read, and rest up.

Part of a rock wall along the driveway collapsed, and the guys repaired it today. 

Thank you to those who prayed. We continue to pray for any other major storms to remain out to sea for the remainder of 2020's hurricane season.

 

Beans and a new terrace

Threshing beans

We are thankful tropical storm Isaias is passing north of us and we had a mild, partly sunny day.

The strong winds are on the north side of the storm, which is moving at 20mph today. 40mph rotation  = 60mph sustained winds on north side and about 20mph on south side.

The bean harvest yielded 35 pounds, we planted 5 pounds.

Planting sweet potato

Cory and Fritz planted corn in the newest terrace by our solar panels yesterday and the workers planted sweet potato but Cory decided to wait until  after the storm to plant trees in case we get high winds with heavy rains.

So far we've only had clouds with a bit of sun and last night moderate winds.

This week Fritzlin and I complete our third month of 4th grade. 

Learning cooking skills takes up a bit more of his time and he's grateful to be able to not have to wash the meal dishes as much in exchange. 

Fresh, dry butter beans!

More weeding, more planting. 

We are very thankful that not only did Fritz's school books and Cory's ordered seeds cleared customs but Judain delivered them to Pastor Clotaire to bring to us Saturday. 

He had planned a trip up the mountain today but with the storm coming he delayed his trip.

Three sunflowers bloomed this week..last night's windy weather blew off a few petals.

Kale

Fritz's Monarch waiting for weather to clear

Problems and protests

"Painting" regular sand/cement mix onto the walls to prepare for the
 final, more expensive cement based sealant

We've learned over the years not to plan any travel Carnival weekend to Ash Wednesday.

The past few days the number of warnings from the US Embassy about protests, road blocks and other violence has increased.

This morning an article in the Miami Herald talked about a shoot-out in Port-au-Prince between gangs and police yesterday which caused the government to cancel the rest of the official Carnival activities.

We pray daily for Haiti's leaders [as well as the USA], police, missionaries and staff. Those of you who watched the video link we posted in the last blog will understand why we have increased our prayers for leaders. 

Fritz likes to climb the wall sometimes

Each of us hold some kind of power over others-to be used for good or evil.

Hearing about increasing trouble again in Port and advice for people to stay at home causes anxiety.

Intentionally I have to pick up my Bible, turn on the praise music and pray. I also feel increased pressure to work on projects.

 I'm very thankful that Cory recognizes that I find this calming and is helping me see some progress today by having the guys start a new project that's near and dear to my heart, starting on the small room outside our kitchen door.  

Currently the door opens to a drop off. We plan to build a small room with rock walls, the roof of which will double as the entranceway into the kitchen. 

Will be exciting to see the large pile of rocks outside the kitchen turn into useful walls-and hold back the dirt when rainy season comes. The room will be used to store garden tools, helping with the organization of downstairs.

Thankful that last week the guys made a short rock wall around the satellite dish to protect it. So very thankful to the Lord for allowing us to figure out internet at the house!

This weeks projects also include: finishing up the bottom of the agricultural pond, watering/plant care, school, correspondence, and figuring out how to reduce the very loud noise of rain on the tin roof in our bedrooms before rainy season starts.

We are hopeful that left-over tin and styrofoam sheets will be an easy temporary fix.

Praying extra for Anna who has a very busy week this week with extra practices preparing for Calvin's International Talent show Rangeela this coming weekend. She is in the India act.

Pond, wall, dry season

Sorry for the silence. Time got away from us.

The guys have worked on the pond now and then when we have cement.

They have also been hired by our neighbors working on road repairs the last couple of weeks.

Cory's been doing a wonderful job putting in our rock wall.

Over the past couple of years, when we found interesting rocks with fossils or large gypsum crystals from the work on the driveway we put them in the basement in a pile.

We continue to work on school work, character building and working through some of the effects of early trauma in Fritz's life.

Some days are better than others..as they are for any human.

So we're increasing our time talking, reading the Bible, praying. Please pray for us when the Lord brings us to mind.

Phone calls to those in Fauche reveal that they continue to lack rain now in the middle of the rainy season. The river is dry. People continue to wait to plant their gardens. We remember years ago a February with 40" of rain.

Here at Délice the people continue to prepare the land to plant when the rains start here as well.


The local pond used to water livestock is almost dry.

We are very thankful that our cistern contains enough water for us and to water the trees and plants.

Recently Cory and I were asked to watch a video. I watched it once.

Then loaded bits and pieces so I could take detailed notes.

Powerful words and advice especially for those in Christian leadership.

We all have power.

Power can be used for good or evil.

35 minutes well worth spending when you have some time to think and ponder.

Let the Lord speak to you. Listen well. Repentance. Redeemption. Motivation. Warning. Challenge to do better. Courage.

Power, Deception & the Church

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncii2Hf3ouQ&t=183s