A thought for today

Greetings,

I was going through some older emails, trying to find some that have simply vanished...and I've found that NO it's NOT the operator, as my son thinks...there is a problem in my computer. But, be that as it may, I found an email he had sent a while ago, and it brought to mind how we respond to things in our life. I thought I'd share that with you today, and let you think on things in your life and how God used them. Some of you may have read this one before, but it's still something to ponder on. The title is: WHEN YOUR LITTLE HUT IS ON FIRE.

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him. Every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming. Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect him from the elements, and to store his few possessions.

One day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, with smoke rolling up to the sky. He felt the worst had happened, and everything was lost. He was stunned with disbelief, grief, and anger. He cried out, "God! How could you do this to me?"

Early the next day, he was awakened by the sound of a ship approaching the island! It had come to rescue him!

"How did you know I was here?" asked the weary man of his rescuers.

"We saw your smoke signal," they replied.

The Moral of This Story: It's easy to get discouraged when things are going bad, but we shouldn't lose heart, because God is at work in our lives, even in the midst of our pain and suffering. Remember that the next time your little hut seems to be burning to the ground...it just may be a smoke signal that summons the Grace of God!!

Again, we come back to the praise element. In all things, PRAISE GOD!!! Even when it looks like all is lost, God is still in control!!

Have a super Jesus filled day!!!

URGENT prayer request

This will be short, but very, very important. On February 21st, I put on a couple of pictures of Rose Shirley on the day of her dedication. I mentioned then that she had a heart problem. Well, things have gotten to a point of urgent prayers. Carolyn, our good friend in Florida, is like a grandmother to this child. She was here a few weeks ago, and took copies of the doctors report back with her to have someone in the US look at them. Carolyn and her husband are not in a position financially, to do a lot. But her heart is with Mama and Rose Shirley. She has been trying to get some input from different sources. She finally found someone who could read the papers. It is in French so it's been a trial. Here is part of the email I received today:

I just got off the phone from talking with the echo cardiogram technician, and boy, is it serious. She gave me a lot of info, but the main thing is that our baby has severe pulmonary hypertension and global hypokenesis. The blood is not moving right, and the pressure on the right exceeds the pressure on the left. She said there is a hole between the right and left parts of the top of the heart, so the valves are leaking. She said some more stuff, but basically the bottom line is that this is extremely urgent to get her to a pediatric cardiologist. She didn't even think I should wait until the doctor gets back on Monday, and gave me the numbers for two local medical translation services.

The urgency is that Rose Shirley will go into right heart failure and her lungs will fill with fluid - and it will be fatal. So, I will be calling the translation services and proceeding as quickly as possible. At this point, I think I will get back to the advocacy group Amy found, since it seems none of my leads here have panned out. I'm sure it will cost for the translation, ...but I will come up with whatever it takes to get this process moving.

So, now you know the situation and how to pray. Keep not only Rose, but her mama and her "adopted" grandma, Carolyn, in prayer. We are all feeling the pain and urgency of this whole thing. So, PLEASE PRAY, and add Rose Shirley to your prayer chains. She is only three months old and this is a very difficult time for all. I will keep you posted as we know what is happening.

I am going to start praising God for what He is going to do in and through this whole situation. He has little Rose in His Hands and He can move mountains to help her. Pray with us for God to intervene and be there for Rose. Thank you.

Do you need a chuckle

I just figured that everyone, every once in a while, needs to chuckle at something. Now you have to understand, this is really NOT something funny, but as long I was the one taking pictures, I thought it was.

I'll backtrack a bit here. MFI now has one plane in the air. The problem was that they had 33 people scheduled out on Thursday. They cannot take that many in ONE plane. The second plane will be flying soon, we hope, but not quite yet. So, here was the problem. How to get all of those people back to the US. MFI contacted one team and asked them if they would be willing to cut their stay short by one day. It was agreeable to them. SOOOO..... MFI flew in on Tuesday with the regular load. Then two pilots spent the night here with us, and the plane at the airport. When we came home, the ground was VERY dry, in fact it almost looked like we had been through a draught. So, being good conscientious people, they put the plane down off the tarmac on the lower level, in the dirt. Yes, you guessed it, we had rain...we had RAIN...we had torrential rains...ALL NIGHT LONG. DC-3's do not do well in slimy, yucky, thick MUD. Now Don, being the brilliant person he is, woke in the middle of the night and decided they needed to take some garbage bags along to protect their shoes. So, before 6:30 AM, I headed to the airport with the pilots. It rained until we got about 2/3's of the way there. Then all of a sudden, we had beautiful sunshine and blue skies, and a fantastic rainbow. So, at least they didn't have to get the plane READY in the rain. They did their pre-flight things and got in the plane. Praise God they didn't have any trouble getting out of the slush, oops, that's snow, isn't it? Well, then the muck. And they brought the plane up on the ramp to load the passengers. They were not soaked, didn't ruin shoes, but they sure did get some weird looks from the Haitians standing watching them in the mud. So, to conclude, I am praising God that the plane started, and was able to get the team back to the US. And the pilots were none the worse for wear.
You can see the standing water up on the top side by the tarmac. We ususally walk across this area.

Still waiting on container news. So, keep praying the cost will come down and things will go smoothly.

Some of my praises today? The plane and pilots are safe and dry. My virus is getting less and less, I think. MFI is at least up and flying with ONE DC-3. And last, but definitely not least, God knows what is going on and He is in control!!!!!!!!!!!!

End of one week... whew....

Today is a good day....I am up and about. Not doing much but UP and ABOUT!! Somehow I contacted a virus that totally wiped me out. I was so sick the first day I think I only woke up a couple of times. The second day was one of trying to stay awake and keep things down. Didn't put much in, so didn't have a lot of problem with that. Yesterday I tried to get things moving again with the Christmas Bags...but shouldn't have. That set me back again. Today, sitting at the computer and trying to stay upright was an accomplishment. So, YES, IT'S A GOOD DAY!!

Last weekend one of "our kids"...one of the older EBAC girls, had her newest baby dedicated. As you can see, they go ALL out for it. Rose Shirley is a real cutie. But we are asking for prayers for her. She is three months old and has an enlarged heart. There are a couple of people in the US trying to get the information gathered and finding a way to get her treated in the US. Such a cute little mite, and having such a hard time breathing and simply living. Please keep her in prayer, along with her family.Then, of course, there is Abbie!! She is always at the front of our minds. She is a real piece of work. When Don and I were in Washington state last May, some very good friends, Bill and Laurie, got Abbie a tea set. Well, everyone week or so, I get hit with, "We have to have a tea party grandma!!" This time she got everyone involved. There was mom, Betty (who had never experienced this before), Grandpa and Grandma. She really loves these times. It's HER time with whoever she chooses. And she really lives it up. Do you realize how hard it is for grandpa to drink out of a tiny little tea cup like this? But we do it for the kiddo, anyway.We got word that our container paperwork should be worked on either next Thursday or Friday. That means we could have it the week after that. Pray with us that hearts will be softened and they will realize we do not have a lot of money to get this through. It would be different if we sold anything, but we give away (FREE) everything on that container. And most important is the scriptures and food coming in. There are other things as well, but those are the two most important items. So, pray with us that the cost will come down.

Okay, out of time and energy...have to take a break. I just keep praising God that He is there with us through all things. And I'm thankful I can feel His Hand on me through it all. Keep your chin up and a smile on your face...you are reflecting the Lord!!

Update...

Hello to all,
I just wanted to get a real quick update on the MFI situation here. Please keep them in prayer. Today we have 2 groups of passengers flying out on two different airplanes. One is a charter, the other is a commercial flight, with seats purchased. Then we have another plane coming in with only three boxes of cargo, but they will take all the baggage from the chartered plane on their plane. It should be a real fun day, but that's just life in Haiti. We will work through all of this, but MFI sure can use a lot of uplifted prayers for the situation there.

I shared at English church, here on Sunday. God spoke to my heart that we need to be praising Him, and not concentrating on our problems. So, the songs we sang and the scripture I read, all centered on praise. This has all come about after reading a book my sister-in-law shared with me back in December. The book, "90 Minutes In Heaven" by Don Piper, tells his story of being dead for 90 minutes, and spending that time in heaven. Everything there was centered on praising God. (If you haven't read the book, it's awesome!!) But that is what the Lord has been working on, in my heart since I read it.

I decided to share one huge praise with you, since I am now centering on praise... we received some photos of one of our "heart babies", that is with her family in Pennsylvania. Oh, for those of you who do not know what our "heart babies" are, over a ten year period we took in infants who were either abandoned or their mother died in child birth and there was no family to be found. Most of those precious babies were adopted out. Five went to the US, one to Canada, one to Argentina, and three are still here in Haiti. Anyway, back to the pictures... Rachel was our third "heart baby". Don said if we had kept her one more week, we would not have let her go. We had her 19 months. But God had other plans for her. She went to her new mom and dad and was raised in such a loving Christian home. And she is REALLY, REALLY something to be proud of. She will graduate this year and head on to college. God has had His hands on this beautiful gal for all these years. We may be prejudiced, but isn't she a beauty??? So, YES, she is a praise item, and so are her parents. They have done a phenomenal job of raising this wonderful young lady!!!Well, time to leave for the airport. You all have a really blessed day in the Lord. And remember, PRAISE HIM every day for what He has done for you!!!

Update and pictures

Hi again,
Well, I did promise some photos of Disney and an update, so here goes....
We thought we'd get a rest after our last team left, but we've been REALLY busy trying to catch up on things that didn't get done while we had teams. Never ending, huh? One of the problems we have had was 13 days straight of heavy rains. A couple of times we thought it had finished, but we got it full force later in the day. Today we had a FULL day of clear skies and sunshine. What a wonderful treat!! And it is surprising how quickly the roads dried out, even if the ground everywhere else is still over saturated. And the road...well, what can I say. We had thought we were doing so well, they had graded it, and it was pretty smooth. Then the rains came...oh did they come. In over 25 years of being here we have NEVER seen the road to town so bad. One or two miles per hour is about the limit in some of the places, and then you are thrown all over the vehicle.

We are quickly distributing the Christmas Bags...and there are a lot of happy people. The reason we are really pushing this is because we have received word that "possibly" we will be ready for inspection on our next 40 foot container. Keep praying. Somehow the paperwork got messed up. Our broker has been trying really hard to get this all straightened out. (A note: this is our second December container). We should have had this one the end of December or the first of January...well, we are in Haiti...and things are just never easy or quick. But we can praise the Lord it IS on the docks here and things MAY be working out!!

Well, on to some photos from my trip to Disney with our daughter and her boys. This was a special trip arranged for Donny. He has CP and a group in central Wisconsin called, "Every Child Has A Dream" put Donny on the list, and we had 6 days at a Disney resort and access to all parks. For grandma, 6 days is a LONG time to do parks, but we sure did enjoy the time together. This first picture is the group goofing off trying on hats...But it was fun, anyway.
This one is our first day at the Magic Kingdom. Abbie claims the castle as HER house. Every Disney movie we have, when it comes up, she says it's her house. So, she was thrilled I got so many pictures of it for her. And she tells me on every pictures of the family, who is who. When we still had Skype, she would talk to each of them, and now she has pictures to identify them with.
Donny ended up "smitten" with Minnie Mouse. Everywhere we went, she paid special attention to him. He didn't like Goofy, maybe because he was so tall and overbearing, but he sure did like Minnie and Donald Duck.
Within a week of when we were there, it was Christine's birthday. They gave her a birthday pin, and everywhere we went, she had staff wishing her the best. Then at breakfast with Goofy, all of the characters wanted everyone to sing happy birthday. Donald Duck was the one who brought her a cupcake with a candle and then everyone in the place sang to her.We got to the Egyptian area and the boys wanted a picture of mom and grandma. I guess to prove I was there with them. On the Safari trip, we got pretty close to the lion and lioness. Glad they were tired and sleeping. But it was awesome to see the things so close up. Even the alligators and rhinos were pretty close. Glad we were in a moving truck!!
Well, I should include our prayer list here. The first is for the paperwork to move along on the adoption of our grandson. The frustration is getting to everyone. And they want him HOME. Put that at the top of your list.

The next one is for Missionary Flights. They have had one plane in the Bahamas for the last 6 months, waiting for an engine for it. HIGH PRIORITY!! And the turbine was down for an inspection and had a part that needed replacing... HUGE cost...and have to wait for it to get there. Then last Tuesday, the last working DC-3 headed home and landed in Exuma for fuel on one engine. Additional cost of getting the passengers to the US on a commercial flight, then getting the plane home the next day. They have to do some work on that now. AND, add to that, passengers and cargo that need to get to Haiti and home from Haiti. Dick came down with a couple of passengers in the small plane (N911MF), but they had to charter Lynx Air to bring the teams down, and pick up the ones heading home. Another HUGE expense. Well, circumstances never run like expected here. There was no avgas for the Lynx plane. They had to stop in Exuma for fuel, and they didn't get in here until AFTER 5 last night. (The airport closes at dusk, 5:45 PM). Today, one last passenger had to get to Pignon, and I went to the airport with him and to get his cargo out of customs and cleared, so he could fly up there. With these roads so bad, this has been really hard on me. Not only MFI needs major prayers, but I do for my back and neck.

Don has been delivering food and scriptures and hauling sand for a home being built. And he is on those awful roads, too. So, keep him in prayer.

Like every other American, we are in the process of doing taxes...yuck. That ends up on my plate, so I have my work cut out for me for the next few days. But it has to be done in between pastors and missionaries coming in for their Christmas Bags. I have to keep a count of all that goes out and who gets it. The same with the food we deliver for "Feed My Starving Children". As you can see, we are really busy and trying to catch up, and keep up with the things the Lord has us doing.

Keep all of our family in prayer. It seems each child has some major problems, and my sister's health is not good at all. We really thought we were losing her two weeks ago. But God is good, as always. She is ready to go meet the Lord, but wants to see her son and his family come to know Jesus as their savior.

We do have so much to be thankful for. God is keeping His hands on us and helping us in so many ways. And He is providing in ways we could not comprehend. We have learned to totally trust Him to provide for the things He has called us to do. It was a hard lesson, but we are learning.

For now, keep your eyes on Jesus, and we pray you will learn to trust Him for all things, too. It's in Him we live, and breathe and have our being!!!

Wow, what a Januray

I know it's February, but I have to do a "catch-up" on January. Wow...we are in awe how the Lord works. I think the place to start is a HUGE PRAISE THE LORD!!! Our first container (which was supposed to be delivered on Dec. 3rd), has now arrived. We had a team here at the time, and they came from their work project to help unload and sort, and stack and separate all the items on that 40 foot container. It was a HUGE job, but with the help of our regular crew and the team, it was accomplished in a little over 2 and a half hours. What was on that container??? The Christmas Bags and food and all sorts of other things to give out to help the people here. The team had their work cut out for them. We not only had to stack the Christmas bags in the dorm, we had to COUNT them, and put them in separate piles, so when it's time to deliver them, we can go to each stack and get the ones we need at that time. Praise God we had several missions and national pastors come and get their boxes full of bags. That saved us tremendous work and space. Here is just a sample of what went on...The guys worked really hard that day, there were a ton (actually, many tons) of boxes to unload. We took a break about half way through for some rest and drinks. And then one of our team had to show us what happens when a pile of boxes causes an avalanche. We had one in each side of the dorm...from the boxes being handled so many times, they were not the solid straight things they used to be, and it was hard to keep the piles from tipping over.
On the container was also a lot of boxes of food from Feed My Starving Children. And once we were done unloading, it was time to start delivering them. So, Christmas Bags and food went out to quite a few places in the 2 days after we unloaded. So many happy faces everywhere we went.
You have to understand that with the Christmas Bags, we also include scripture (a book of John and Romans, and tracts), but also, the kids get a special coloring book with the message of salvation in it. This tool has won many to the Lord.
These next two pictures speak for themselves. That dog he is holding is a puppet. When you move his mouth, he sings songs. This thrilled the pastor as well as the kids.
These happy faces were all over the place when they got their Christmas Bags. This is such a wonderful project, and so many benefit from it. I'll write more on that in another entry.
This is a picture of a new orphanage we have taken on. Don went out with Stan to give them some Christmas Bags and food. The director and her husband came to spend time with us tonight. Don and I both feel this is a very worthy project. So we will be helping them in any way we can. This woman took these kids off the street, gave them a place to live, puts them in school, and teaches them about the Lord. Can you picture these kids on the streets? Such a sad situation. But Praise God, they now have Miss Lynda to help them. Her husband is a pastor and they both have huge hearts for the children. Pray with us as God puts yet another project on our plate. But what a worthy one it is.

Now, this next photo is one of our team members. Who can resist such a sweet baby? The team were all taken with the children around the project site. They came to work on the other orphanage project we back, IDADEE. They did a great job on ALL they did while they were here.
Our team left today and we are now "teamless" for the first time since Dec. 30th. It's been a long haul, but a great one, too. We have had some fantastic teams who did so much. They were all blessings in so many areas. Truly God's Servants in a lot of ways. Our special thanks go out to all of those hard working teams, including the MFI team who did the retreat for the missionaries and nationals. We are worn out, but awesomely blessed by what was accomplished.

For now, I'll close and probably send more photos in the very near future. God has been good, as always, and we are so happy to be where He wants us to be.

Blessing to all of you. Until next time, keep your eyes on the Lord and keep praying and praising Him, for all He has done!!!!!!!!!!!!!