Returning to 'Normal'

The team left three mornings ago and things continue to return to post-team normal.

The team made it safely to their homes very late on Wednesday!

Mme. Charles who requested prayer.

Laundry on Wednesday sunshine allowed three loads and Thursday we managed four loads.

Still a couple loads remain but doubtful that they will be completed today.

We learned on Thursday that the pastor training originally scheduled for next week needed to be postponed.

This gives Eli and Anna an extra week to clean the House of Hope in preparation for the KCC [Kentwood Community Church, Grand Rapids, MI] team.

Kid's Club home visit

Cory found this out when he called Pastor Carl to ask if his timber bamboo could possibly get a ride from Irvine's to our place.

So we pondered how to get the plants up before they got too big to be easily transported in a normal size truck.

A call to Pastor Denord asking if he knew anyone making the trip occurred right on time.

He and 5 pastors were leaving on Friday morning for Irvine's.

They headed South in our truck yesterday morning and should return today along with the bamboo!

Cory received a package of rare fruit seeds from Puerto Rico on Thursday including: candle fruit, randia formosa berry, gondo berry, cuachilote  (looks like oakra and reported to taste like sugar cane) and a mangosteen relative with fruit that tastes something like tart mango/apricot.

Eli's received 32 library cards for his Book Herder project.

He signed these family cards and we will number and laminate them.

Friday the weather turned wet and cold.

This morning when the Fauche volleyball teams heading to Cap Haitian for a day of matches the temperature was 70˚ and wet.

Thankful for sweatshirts and blankets. Cory was asked if he thought it was cold when taking the volleyball team photos here.

Correspondence, cleaning up in-boxes, school work, putting stuff away, writing an e-mail update, working on taxes, correcting school-work, studying round out our days and the week.

Post-team glow and fatigue.

Team left the dark compound shortly after 5:30 a.m. after we enjoyed a last meal together.

They were checked in at the airport by close to 7:30 for their 9 a.m. flight to the USA.

We assume all is well!

If you went to camp as a kid, or take a vacation away as an adult you know what I'm feeling.

A great time with the team. Lots of interesting, positive, memory making experiences while getting to know old and new friends better takes energy.

Lots of energy!


Energy's expending with: the change of routine, making sure everyone's experiences go as well as possible, dealing with the multitude of small decisions needed to be made to feed and care for 7 or more additional people, answering questions and inter-personal interactions, additional language translation, shorter sleeping, and change in diet.....

Getting back to 'normal' also takes energy and time. Second load of team laundry in the washer and I plan to get a third in yet today, sheets as they dry faster than clothes or towels.

 I've spent some time putting tools and stuff back into their normal locations. I've started to sort some of the donated items so that they can be distributed soon.

Even our bedrooms require some straightening and cleaning as with the business of the team we just cannot quit get things put away like we do normally in my house.  Priorities shift position when the addition responsibilities of hosting fall on each of our shoulders.

Yesterday's older couple's kitchen.

Hosting teams = positive? YES!
Hosting teams = time and energy consuming? YES!
Hosting teams = enjoyable? YES!
Hosting teams = full time? NOPE!

We need to recharge. I know some folks can do this close to every day of the year and I'm thankful to have been blessed by many of them who run great guest houses! Thank you!

The Lord did not call us to run a guest house and therefore did not equip us with the personalities and skills to host teams full time. We realize this and make an intentional effort to limit teams and space them out so we can recharge and be ready to give 100% to the next group who comes for a visit.

We also know that many of you pray extra when we have teams and your prayers provide us with the extra energy and organizational skills we need to do a good job hosting visitors. Thank you!


So for the next couple of weeks I'll drop back to my normal level of blogging. We will spend more time on school, office work, translation, and preparing for the Kentwood Community Church team [Cory's mom's team] to come the day before Easter.

We want to thank again each person who supported this team with prayer. The sending churches. The families who gave up time with the team members so they could come. Those who stepped up and took on additional responsibilities to cover so that the different team members could come.

Still smiling at 92. 

Thank you. We enjoyed every one and every day of this team. Thank you for helping make this possible.

Thank you in the name of the Northern District of the Wesleyan Church of Haiti, for the Fauche community, for our staff and our family.

Full, Final Team Day.

Pastor Jonas

 WHEW!!! Everyone's walk speed slowed down today especially this afternoon.

After breakfast Pastor Jonas can up and talked about his jobs [Pastor, District treasurer, Grade school administrator, in charge of campus, on hospital board, student of education ......

After answering questions from the team we prayed for him.



Then I headed out with the team following John Pierre to visit the 6 homes he'd prioritiezed as needing prayers for illness and health.

Several of the people were young people who's health issues [head aches, foot swelling, abdominal pain] kept them from going to school or forced them to return home after starting college in bigger cities.

 After singing a short, Christian song or sharing a verse we'd pray [one in English followed by one in Creole] and then take pictures if folks were willing, which all today were.

Leaving the first house we met the next door neighbor by the gate who requested we come to her house for a moment and pray for her and her family.

So we did.

We made a total of 7 visits during the morning walk.

We prayed for one lady who's 92 years old and suffers from sores that open monthly and from body weakness and pain.

We also prayed for a couple. He's been sick for over 9 years following 20 days of 'uncousiouness' I'd guess he had a stroke.

He's 80 and the wife is 70. They live alone in a partially build house because all of their 7 children live in bigger towns. They accepted the Lord as young people.

Because we'd passed the rice/corn mill on our 2 hours prayer walk we stopped in for a quick look before returning to campus.

Lunch. Put laundry out. Rested a bit.

At 2 Fre. Dieucel who works with the school stopped in to tell the team thank you and pray with them.

His jobs include school administration, pastor of a church in Cap Haitian, a college student in seminary with over  a year to go, Kid's club leader and a new position on the Book Herder's commiett.

Following today's pattern after asking for specific prayer requests we prayed in both languages.

Pastor Jonas's family.

Then we visited Pastor Jonus's house and prayed with his wife and three children.

Next Pastor Emmanuel's home and prayed with his wife, one son, grandson and himself.

Then just after 3 p.m. we arrived at the church for the last Bible class. Only the children who lived on campus had arrived and each received a small banana.

To fill a bit of time while we waited we did a bit of question and answer with John Pierre and he took the opportunity to thank the team for all that they did.

 Even the Kid's Club leaders appeared to be on low energy but once we started and more children arrived the pace picked up.

Today's story consisted of the firely furnace. Then they learned a verse. To the delight of all the children each one of the team was called up one by one to lead 'Head, shoulders, knees and toes' first slow and then fast.

When we finished as a whole group the 20th time we still needed more energy to get through several verses of Father Abramam and Deep and Wide.

Stickers and then one young lady thanked the team and a second one prayed for their trip tomorrow.

Cory took part of the team up with the truck to the cell tower while the others started to pack and put things away.

I'll share tonight about prayer and we will have a wrap up time with the team.

Tomorrow they need to leave campus at 5:30 a.m. to go to the airport. Please keep them in your prayers. Thank you to the sending churches and families who shared these special people with us.

W/M Team Monday.

The sun is setting over the mountains as another day draws to an end.

This morning we started off a bit cloudy and we questioned if the weather would be good enough for drying laundry but with small amounts of sun two loads did dry.

The dental tool cupboard now stands proudly in his consulting room. Dr. Winick should of went with the Starfysh team to the mountains of LaGonave.

His wife has been helping out most afternoons with the Bible classes as a monitor.

Painting occurred in the Child Surviver Program's new office.

Cory and I worked on paperwork while Eli and Anna worked on school. Other's cleaned up the guest house.

Before lunch Pastor Rigo stopped in to share about the medical ministry, his church and working with the youth.

 He shared how he ended up with all three of these important jobs.

How he prayed for a way to help this community get dental care.

Anna and Peggy made brownies.

Massage class in the gazebo started out with 2 ladies, then two nursing students joined and finally about a dozen ladies and one gentleman from the adult literacy class.

This ended up overlapping a bit with the Bible class but all worked out.

Following the story of Daniel and the lion's den we learned a verse and passed out stickers.

Prayer walks in two groups covered 9 of the Kid's Club families.

At each house we greeted the families, asked for prayer requests, prayed and took photos.

Cathy returned to a house that she visited last year in the yard where the witch doctor's family lived.

While the same people were not present this year we shared with those who were that she'd remember during the last year to pray for the gardens.

One of the directors of Kid's Club and his family.

Many folks asked for prayers for a home or house, protection, God's blessings, and that children do well in school.

Eli and Anna will be sharing devotions this evening following brownies and supper dishes.

The team did confirm their flight out of Cap Haitian on Wednesday morning.

Team Sunday

Supper completed but not yet the dishes.

An interesting day with the time change as our local folks did not realize the change until their radio programs came on early.

I suspected that we would heading to church to early when I saw our pastor still not ready for church when he should of been.

So after an early breakfast we then were told that because no announcements were made service would be held at the old time.....after 45 minutes we received a phone call to come down to church.

Everyone said a few words during the visitor greeting time and I think enjoyed the service.

A visiting pastor talked on Matt 15:21-28, on being persistent with our prayers when we know that only the Lord can help you with your problems.

We need to know Him, believe and put all our confidence in Him and He will met our needs.

Lunch of stir fry chicken/vegetables on rice and coconut cream pie.

After a bit of a rest we headed for Bible class.

Although we'd been told the Fauche would be first because Port Margot started at 2 and on time we ended up going there first giving the local children a chance to come.

Pastor Denord heading to a meeting at Limbeé turned around to greet the team and then continued on his way.

After sharing the story of Jonah and the whale [complete with a water spray bottle spraying the crowd during the storm], singing head/shoulders/knees/toes, introductions and passing out verses and bracelets we loaded up again and returned to Fauche.

The children were waiting and sang a couple of songs while we set up. Again they enjoyed the story and learned the verse.

Tonight's supper cleaned up some leftovers and the team enjoyed Cory's stove top bread pudding.

Dr. Winick called again from LaGonave to let us know that he's enjoying his first visit to LaGonave and working with the team.

Saw today a news article about the team he joined, check it out Starfysh Dental Team

Sea salt, cutting and cooking.

A cloudy, cool day but still we headed to the beach. 

The big truck arrived shortly after 8 a.m. and we gave a ride to members of three different Fauche volleyball teams, dropping them off for their day of matches in Port Margot.

We enjoyed the green scenery along the river and stopped to see two of the Wesleyan churches, Nazaret and Galilee, before stopping at the beach.

 Due to the cloudy, cool weather we enjoyed the beach all by our selves. 

This beach adventure included waves, unlike every other time we visited Shooshoo when the water remained calm. 

All but Cory and Eli ventured into the water to test their strength against the waves and most of us experienced the full taste of sea swimming! 

Yuck...still salty. 

At one point Anna began to yell and put her foot above the water. 

She thought she'd stepped on a sea urchin but a small white crab with strong pinchers was stuck between her toes!!

She then played with him a short while after faking the dramatic photo until he got away.

Chilly ride back to Fauche but the sun occasionally poked through the clouds. 

Lunch we managed on our own which didn't take much as it consisted of warming up left overs. 

We turned around just ahead where the sea's on the right! Not much room to spare.

Think Cory's 15 person limit was stretched. 5 up front.

This afternoon the guys and Peggy went to Port Margot with Cory. 

While he shopped they cheered on the local volleyball teams. Port Margot won their match!

Those who didn't go washed dishes, filtered water, prepared vegetables for stir fry tomorrow after church, made two kinds of coconut pie, took in laundry, helped with supper and prepared for two locations of Bible class tomorrow afternoon. 

Genner blocking anyone else from getting on the truck. Thankfully the trip home is less than 2 miles. 

Team Friday. Massages, paint, garden tour...

 
Another nice morning start.

After breakfast the team split up a bit. Kimberly we set up in the gazebo to give some massages.

Both the ladies cooking for us went down and really enjoyed their massages.

They remarked it did not hurt like when they've had massages before and was very relaxing.


Mme. Rosemary reported that her son-in-law Dr. Winick called to let them know he arrived safely on LaGonave.

Most of the team spent the morning painting the new office space and the dividers.

 Interesting that this office already benefited from three teams: GLCC helped with the roof, His Hands made the dividers and now W/M making it look great with the paint.

No school today because of the Volleyball matches in Port Margot so they can sing to their hearts content [not that I've heard them yet].

The dental cabinet received it's final coat of paint this morning as well.

Other small jobs like laundry, cleaning of the guest house, filtering water, burning trash, watering plants, correspondence [mine] and school work filled up the rest of the morning.

Lunch consisted of our traditional Friday pizza and some coleslaw.

 Last night at supper the educational spotlight shown on bread nuts and included the opportunity to try some semi-mature ones.


 The cooks did the work of peeling them though so they did not get the whole bread nut experience.

After lunch the team looked over some souvenirs from a couple vendors who made arrangements to show items to the team.

 [Check the other blog for today for an interesting afternoon event]

As Anna, Kimberly and I went down for massage class those who wanted a garden tour followed Cory.

 One older lady who'd received a massage in the morning was the only one in church so she received a second massage.

 I'd prayed with her in the morning after she shared how hungry she was [also shared a couple bananas] and how her knees hurt and how much help she needed.

 I'd told her then to see one of the Pastors on campus as she reported her normal church wasn't helping but she hadn't seen a pastor.

 So after her massage one of the children hanging out brought her to Pastor Jonus's house.

After a while about 7 nursing students came for the class. A few volunteered to have demonstration massages and I also received one.

By the end of class we covered most of the body and asked the nurses to practice on each other this weekend so that if any questions come up Kimberly can answer them early next week.

Throughout the day we also enjoy getting time to know the team members better chatting at meals, in-between projects and after supper.

Dentist visit, paint and more cute children!

Today started sunny outside but windy through out the day with afternoon clouds. The team's attitudes remain sunny!






This morning following breakfast they headed down to met our new local dentist, Dr. Winick.

They talked with him a bit, saw his space [my old examination room] and prayed with him.

This afternoon Dr. Winick heads to Port-au-Prince so he can catch an MAF charter tomorrow morning to LaGonave.

This will not only be his first ever plane ride but also his first time joining a Starfysh work team.

The majority of the team started a new project of painting the new office space for Compassion's Child Surviver Program.





 Being in the middle of classrooms and the school day they could not enjoy boisterous singing or loud music but they painted well despite this limitation.



During the morning preparations occurred for Bible class number two. David and Goliath.

Last night we discussed some slight changes that may improve the class so we will see....


Lunch consisted of Haiti's traditional Independence Day meal of pumpkin soup paired with fried breadfruit and a soursop /corossol milk drink.

This afternoon I'll estimate we between 165-175 children.

We sang, enjoyed the story of David and Goliath, sang, worked on a verse and prayed.

A few of the children like yesterday asked to pray to accept the Lord.


The handing out of stickers worked 100% better as we had folks at the doors while other's handed out stickers row by row.

Once you received your sticker you could quietly leave and walk to the volleyball court for a game of musical chairs.

We needed to stop a couple times for noise control and try to get the children to listen quietly but all and all everything went well.

Massage class set for 2 p.m. on Friday and more painting. Because of afternoon volleyball matches in Port Margot there will be no Bible class. Some people asked for massages so will see how that goes tomorrow morning and a class at 2 p.m.



Supper tonight consists of leftover beef potpie, pumpkin soup, salad and a new dish for the team of sweet potato casserole.

We enjoy the devotional time with the team and hearing different people's special 'God moments' of the day