Some photos, praises and prayer requests

Hello again,

Well the Lord has allowed me to get on here for a bit, so wanted to share some of the good time we had in Alabama with you.

These photos won't be in order, but I'll explain as they come up, and praise God if they load!!

This is just two pictures from inside the great farm house we stayed in.  Seven bedrooms, a lot of bathrooms, two dining rooms, kitchen, music room, 2 great rooms, a library and screened in porch... 

 

 

 This is OUTSIDE the farmhouse.  Way in the back is a great building, with a chapel and professional kitchen on the ground floor and 2 dorm rooms/bathrooms able to sleep 20 each on the upper level.  You can see the wonderful area around the pond, too.  Our "house" was off the the left of this first picture.  Then there were also 3 "cabins" (more like homes) there too.  Oh, it's called "The Wilderness". 

 

 This is the only picture we have of the house.  It's the back screened in porch.  Awesome place!!

 These are our totally fantastic hosts, Ray and Bobbie.  They were superb people!!

 The ones above and below are of a unique thrift store.  The gal above started it in a garage, moved to this place and the day after we left had to move to a larger place.  Forgive me for forgetting her name (those who know me know names simply don't stick in my brain.)  She attends Wills Valley Community Church and all her proceeds from this enterprise go to them for the mission fund.  Her and her volunteers are really super special people!!!  You are looking at only some of the clothing they GAVE to Vero for her orphanage. TOTALLY AWESOME!!

 The first picture below is our display at the church, for the conference.  They had set up a display already for us (we didn't know), so they told us to add what we had brought.  The second picture is Vero at her display. 

 

 Well, I was able to download pictures, now I pray I can upload it to the web.  I just wanted to share with you just a few of God's blessings to us that week in Fort Payne, Alabama.  The people, the church, the pastors, all of it, made up for the 28 degree weather.  They are such a great church.  It's an Acts 8: 1 church, and they are totally following God's leading in what they do.

Till the next time I'm able to get on the internet, God's blessings!  Keep your eyes on Him in everything you do!!

On our way home from the conference

I just sent out an email, and I'll share what I wrote, here.  Then I'll try and add some photos at the end.  
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 Well, here we are in Georgia again.  On our way back to Fort Pierce and then home on Thursday!

To say this conference was AWESOME is way short of how it effected us.  God blessed us SO much this week.

We were hosted by a great couple, Ray and Bobbie Zakary.  They have a fantastic retreat place and we were so blessed by their friendship.  Our son Tim and his wife came for 2 days.   I think the Lord sent them to meet Ray and Bobbie, not necessarily to be with us.  But it was good to be with them anyway.  We had a good time.  And Tim and Amy were also impressed with Wills Valley Community Church, just as we have been.  God has a super great group of people there.  They treated us as royalty.  And we were able to spend some time with other missionaries too. What a great time of fellowship and also to hear some over the top teaching. 

It is REALLY hard to put into words how much we were effected by it all.  Our hearts and lives have been changed and we praise God for giving us the opportunity to go.

What a great time we had.  The fellowship, teaching and sharing were such an insight into so many lives.  The neat thing is we were able to spend time not only with new friends, but with those from years gone by.  The reunion was great.  We really praise God for all the effort that was put into the conference.  And the people who organized and made things happen was something beyond our imagination.  The fellowship was great, the food was fantastic, the teaching superior...well, it just goes on and on. 

Having Vero there was such a neat thing, too.  She touched so many hearts.  And won over some neat kids in the process.  She has made some wonderful friends once again.   She did such a great job of sharing.  I think she was overwhelmed by all that went on.  It may take us a few weeks to get our minds back on track again.

So, pray with us that the Lord will not only use this to help us in serving HIM but that all that was said and done there will have an impact in the hearts of those who attended and also will have an impact around the world in missions.

Thank you so much for praying for us, and for keeping your focus on the Lord and all He is doing everywhere! 
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This is our display....

 And Vero's display....

 And we were blessed to have Pastor Saint Ange there, too....

 Our FANTASTIC hosts, Ray and Bobbie....

 Vero and some of her friends....

 This great place was started by an awesome woman in church... ALL proceeds go to missions.  They do a phenomenal job and blessed us by letting us choose things to take back.  God REALLY uses this ministry!

 This was just a quick overview of some of our friends and fun!

Blessings to all and keep Jesus at the front and center of all you do!!  And keep praying, not only for us, but for all missionaries...INCLUDING YOU!!!  Sharing the love of the Lord is ALL OF OUR ministry!!!

Smile Jesus Loves you!!
 

A quick update from Georgia

This was what I had typed on March 8th, while we had no internet.  More after it.
 

Greetings,

Just a quick update to let you know what is happening in our lives.  We were invited to a missions conference in northern Alabama.  So the couple of weeks prior to it, I spent trying to get ready… well in a lot of ways.

Vero is going with us, so we got pictures of all her orphans, the IDADEE orphanage and all it’s projects.  Then made a display board for it all.  The first set of photos of the kids were not great, by any means.  I asked Vero if she could do them for me (someone else had done them).  She did a fantastic job with them.  And we found a lot of our photos and made another board for ourselves.  But since then have found out we probably won’t need it since the ones in charge of the conference are REALLY organized and have things ready for us.  But it is done anyway.  

We were not sure what we were going to do with Savanah and Abbie while we were gone.  When I had mentioned it to Savanah adoptive mom, she made arrangements to come and stay.  She, Guerline, and her youngest daughter Lexi (8 months younger than Savanah) flew down from Canada to be in Haiti.  When they arrived, Savanah and Lexi (her new sister) hugged and held hands and were great.  Savanah wasn’t sure about Guerline, but she warmed up to her after a bit.  This will be a great bonding time for them in the 2 weeks we are away. 

 

So, we flew out on Thursday the 6^th.  Poor Abbie was convinced that Vero would not come back to her.  So we will be trying to call and assure her we will be back.  Our flight was pretty uneventful until we found out a bad storm was headed toward our flight path, just as we were to be landing.  We had a little turbulence, but nothing bad at all.  And we didn’t get the storm.  

We were able to spend a day and part of an evening with Carolyn and Rodney, our good friends in West Palm Beach.  We went to a resale place and Vero was able to get a lot of needed clothing items for the orphanage.  Not all she needed, but lots at a good price.  Today Vero and I went searching for places to get some inexpensive items to try and get close to what she needs.  She is definitely NOT used to shopping in the states.  But she’ll get used to it soon.  Just trying to find inexpensive things is a real challenge.  But we had fun trying to find things anyway.

But the one thing that is a bit hard is the weather here.  We sure aren’t used to the cold.  It was down in the low 50’s.  Now I know for a LOT of you, that would be nice and warm, but to us “Haitians”, this is REALLY cold.  And we’ve seen the Floridians here all wrapped up and trying to keep warm.  Had Dick, from MFI stop this morning (when on the way to see his brand new granddaughter), to see if he could get the heater working.   But no idea why it’s not working.  So, we’ll just put on more and more layers to keep warm tonight.  Just a small thing to deal with.  Actually sort of funny, too.  We heard we will be heading into cold weather for the conference, so this is just a “get used to cold” time.  Yes, we will do fine, it’s just an added thing to the trip. 

That was our time two days ago....

We left Fort Pierce this morning (the 10th) and headed north.  We are now about 20 miles south of Macon, GA.  A little chilly, but not bad yet.  We left a lot behind, that we decided we didn't need.  Good thing we did, the car is FULL!  Been having a great time though.  Vero rides in front with me and Don is in back, studying.  So our 8 hours today was not bad at all.  We stopped at a rest area and there were two police vehicles with lights going, and they had a fellow sitting on the curb.  When we came back out they were trying to get him to walk a straight line...he just had a dazed look on his face.  Guess he was a bit out of it all.  Had to go around the police car to get out of the rest area.  Other than that, we've been doing good.  Prayerfully we'll be in Fort Payne, Alabama tomorrow afternoon, or evening some time.  Looking forward to see some friends who had been to Haiti several times.  

So, until we find internet again, keep praying for us.  God's been good and He keeps His hands on us all the time.  Keep smiling and keep trusting the Lord in all you do!!

Blessings to you all!