Monday, October 21, 2013

Smiling through the problems

Greetings again, and again, late.  Right now I am praising God that I am on the internet with my computer.  It's been a real trial and we haven't been able to find the problem yet, but are working on it.  So please pray, as all of my info is on here to get things accomplished.

Well, let's see, it's almost the end of October and a lot is going on.  Our biggest blessing is that Anna has come.  Well, she is here in Haiti and is experiencing a lot of Haiti.  She is such a sweet gal, and such a willing worker.  She was able to spend time with Jane, another missionary, going to schools and teaching....yes she was teaching in English, or trying to anyway.  Sounds like she was able to get through to them and that is a huge plus.  Actually she went to 2 different schools with Jane and really saw a lot of Haiti in the process.  She is now at Ray and Bonnie's orphanage.  Those kids are learning in English, too, so she'll be a HUGE help out there.  And she will be with the kids pretty much of the time.  But pray for her....she is COVERED with mosquito bites.  A lot of people who come for the first time are fresh meat for mosquitoes.  The rest of us must taste pretty yucky by now.  So we are praying they decide she doesn't taste quite so good by tomorrow.

Here are our two girls, reading, writing and coloring.  They make a good pair.

 With Anna here, we were able to get some buckets filled and Don has been delivering them all over.  And he has been busy delivering sand and gravel to a lot of people.  The list of those waiting keeps growing.  Pray for strength for Don and pray the truck keeps running good and no problems are encountered.  
  
 Here is Anna cleaning buckets, getting ready to fill them.  Note she had some help.  Which probably made the work twice as long.  Then Don and Anna had to take the soup mix given to us by another missionary, and divide it up into smaller packs.  Cooking for 100 people is not what these individual buckets needed.  They worked hard and got it all done.  And then they filled the buckets with food, (both the soup and some Manna packs from Feed My Starving Children), scripture coloring books, crayons, colored pencils, and John and Romans, and also one New Testament in each bucket.
 



 Our prayer meetings, both on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings are going great.  The most awesome thing is to see so many answers to prayers.  God has been fantastic in answering them.  Intercessory prayer is such a forgotten thing now.  So to see the results of our small groups seeing so many answers is inspiring. And it's not just little, "bless me or someone" prayers.  It's healing, it's salvation, it's jobs and it's family.  Praying together has been a blessing for us, too.  We share a bond in coming before the Lord for others.  

Last Wednesday was Savanah's 2nd birthday.  She is such a little nut.  We had some friends over and had cake.  Not the traditional birthday cake, since I was missing things to make it, but a pineapple upside down cake.  And since we had no birthday candles, we had two big candles beside the cake.  But like last year, she didn't want to get close to the candles to blow them out.  Abbie helped her blow them out and then she would blow, once the flames were gone.  I had made mini cream puffs, and filled them with, yes, cream, but some with egg salad and some with tuna salad.  And we had carrots and tomatoes.  All Savanah's favorite foods.  And she did them justice.  You can see her cake and looking at one of her presents.  She got a new baby to love on, some clothes, toys and a book.  She really likes books, but does not have the patience to sit through a whole book yet.  She'll get there.
 These last two pictures are just an added thing.  We went to town, and took Anna out to lunch.  Wanted to show her a couple of "sites".  The first one, which isn't real close, is a huge truck load of bananas.  Can you imagine the ones on the bottom of that truck?  Don't think I'd want them.  The last one is a boat, as it was coming in to unload it's catch for the day.  I wanted Anna to see how they use anything, including the banners over the street, to make their sails.  We are in a "make do" society.

Well, I think I'll close this out and try to download it.  I'll be on when I can get on and prayerfully it will be soon.  Until then, praise God for who He is, and what He has done for you.  I know we are praising God for all His blessings in our lives.