A Rainy update

I know there are some of you out there who are not on our mailing list, so I wanted to send this update to you, too.  I have added a few photos that were not in the update, so you have a bit more then that.  

Please remember to keep praying...as in 1 Thess. 5: 16-18 

Blessings!!!

 

Greetings,

Very sad to say that the rains are continuing.  We had thought maybe this was over, but guess not.  Each day we have had some sunshine, though.  That is an improvement.  Don did manage to get a hole in the wall so we are not flooded here in our yard.  Another improvement.  But the situation all over this area is not good.  People are coming every day with stories that break our hearts.  Please pray for this whole situation the rains have caused.

An up side to this is that we had a family come for a visit.  The six of them were able to fill 100 buckets in less than 4 days.  And with this load of buckets, we had Vero help decide where to take them.  Her heart was touch by many of those older people and large families who have nothing.  This is where over 50 of those buckets went.  The rest of them will be going out to some of Don's people who are in dire straights, and also to some of those who are really suffering from these muddy flood waters around here.  We have a team coming from our home church in January and most of those buckets will be going out to the victims of these floods.  So please keep praying that the Lord will work in all of these situations.

The family team we had here was awesome.  Such a caring, loving family.  And their hearts were in the right place.  They were able to spend some time at the IDADEE orphanage and were able to help deliver those buckets that went out.  But other than that, they didn't get to do much else.  The rains have kept to a minimum where we can go and what we can do.  But we are really praising God for the help this group has done.  Abbie and Savanah were sorry to see them leave (along with us), because they made good friends.  It isn't everyone the girls draw that close to in such a short time, but they sure did this time.  We are praying blessings on this family as they continue to follow the Lord.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with our group.  They left on Friday, and then Saturday we had our Thanksgiving meal for English Bible Fellowship.  We had a great time there, too.  Today is definitely a day of rest, then in the next couple of days the girls are anxiously waiting to start decorating for Christmas. 

We are at an impasse with Savanah's passport.  We found out yesterday from someone who has been talking with officials that Haiti doesn't have passport booklets, so they aren't being made at this time.  We have no idea how/when/what will happen now with all of this.  So that is a HUGE prayer request, that these booklets would arrive and things would progress quickly once they are here.  (THAT is a HUGE request...something being done in the government quickly)!!  Savanah had her heart set on being with Mommy, Daddy, Ruby, Lexi and Natalia by Christmas.  I just keep telling her we have to wait until that passport comes.  So, pray for her, for us, but definitely for that passport!!

I have included a picture of the family and the buckets they worked on.  Please pray that these buckets, with God's word in them, will touch lives and draw people to Him, through them.

For now, blessing to everyone and keep praying.   A little song we learned just after we turned our lives over is one that keeps coming to mind now....

Put your hands in the Hands of the Man who stilled the waters,

Put your hands in the Hand of the Man who calmed the sea,

Take a look at yourself and you will look at others differently,

So put your hands in the Hands of the Man from Galilee. 

I think this brings to my mind that by looking at ourselves, we need to change our lives to look more like Jesus, so others seeing us, will see HIM.

These are the extra photos I have put on.  The first one is of them filling zip lock bags ready for buckets. 

 

 This is a completed bucket and it's contents, some of the items they brought along.

 Ready to head out to deliver buckets... with Vero and Jovnel, our driver.

 The following are places they delivered and some of the people they helped.

 And then the IDADEE orphanage and playing with the kids there.

 Have a super great, God filled, Christ centered day!!!!

33 years of blessings

Well, we keep thinking the rains have stopped and then another cloud pops up and dumps a bit more....but torrential and constant rains have gone.  We are SO very thankful for that at least.  We hear more and more stories of destruction.  But we haven't heard a whole lot on how many people have perished.  Seems everyone has heard different numbers.  But the most we have heard was 30 and we have no idea if that was fact or supposition.  The physical destruction is pretty heavy though.  They are still cleaning streets to make them passable.  I guess on a straight, flat, paved road we may end up simply having to deal with elongated speed bumps for a LONG time.  Slows traffic down which in some ways is good, others, causing traffic jams.  I guess now, it's learning how to live with things the way they are and going on from there. 

A really bright note here, Savanah's grandma Bibiana is here for a night.  I had to laugh last night.  It was dark, we were on our generator watching a movie.  It was over about 8:30.  Savanah said, "It's NOT bedtime yet, right?"  We said, "Well, it's really close."  The no's and not yet started up.  I finally told her, "Do you know, the sooner you go to sleep, the sooner Grandma Bibiana will be here?"  She looked at me, told grandpa to turn off the generator and told me to go to bed, NOW!  That was the easiest and quickest bed time we have ever had.  And today she has been so thrilled to have her grandma here.  It's been awesome.  Too bad it's only for the one night.  She then leaves to go do some teaching. 

And no passport or word on it, yet.  Just praying and waiting on it.

Today is "the" day... it's our 33rd anniversary of being here in Haiti.  We had been here before that on teams, but we actually moved here on November 12, 1983.  I look around and think, wow, doesn't seem that long at all.  Then I think, well, our baby who was 11 when we got here, now has 3 sons over 21 years old.  Yup, it's been a while.  We brought our 5 children with us, and now we have 14 grand kids and 7 great grand kids. 

There is so much here to celebrate, and yet so much here to pray for and about, too.  We have been working with some awesome Haitian people.  We have ended up with a whole lot of "kids" here who call me mom.  And they do seem like our kids.  Watching these kids grow and become God inspired young adults has been one of the blessings.  And some of the pastors that we work with are really neat and God fearing men.  God HAS blessed us in these years here.  Oh there have been trials, for sure... the night of one of the overthrows when thieves came to burn us out, but God intervened...the hi-jacking...the tough times of no gas and road blocks....they have all been there.  But those are the minor times, not times that took away the joy or peace the Lord gave.  We have always felt the peace of the Lord with us and surrounding us through it all.  And God has brought some totally awesome people into our lives through the people here and those that were on teams.  We do serve a fantastic, wonderful, loving God. 

We pray you are clinging to that same loving God.  That you are holding on to Him in both the great and not so great times.  That that same God is with you on a daily basis, His presence felt and known in all you do.  AND that those who look at you exclaim that the joy of the Lord is shinning in your life. 

Till next time, blessings beyond measure!!!

Update and RAINS...and RAINS....

Hello from rain drenched northern Haiti!!

First, before the rain situation, I wanted to include an update on Savanah and the on going adoption.  Vero and Savanah did go to Port and did all the paperwork for the passport... the only word they were given on WHEN it will come, was, we'll call you.  So, AGAIN we are in the waiting mode.  I keep thinking back to when we had first talked to the lawyer (I think Savanah was only a few months old)... and he said, "this adoption will be quick since it's a family adoption."  With her biological aunt adopting her, it SHOULD have been.  Now she is 5 years and a couple of weeks old... hummm.. so this is quick?  As you can tell we need some prayers.  This waiting is so hard.  She keeps saying, "now mommy's coming and I can go home to Canana...?"  She doesn't put the D in Canada, it's another N.  When she was getting ready to go on the plane to Port au Prince, she asked if she was going to Canada then.  This kiddo wants to be with her family.  So you can see why prayers are needed, a LOT!

Tomorrow I may try to get some photos of the area here.  The rains have been horrid here in the north.  For the past week we have had a LOT of rain.  Mostly heavy but have also had some "gully washers" too.  There are so many, many homes flooded out, but also those that were washed away in the flooding.  And there have been lives lost, too.  It's a hard, hard time here in Haiti.  The roads are bad.  Last week we had been so happy to see they finally picked up the garbage on the roads... now all of the garbage from the mountain have washed down and it is even worse than before.  Back roads are about impassable.  And the airport is flooded.  The runway and tarmac are fine, but the rest is under water.  The MFI container is flooded out.  We have no idea about the boxes in it.  There are boxes for 20 different mission in there.  But the water is so high that security won't let us get near the container.  It's a safety situation right now. I've spent the morning trying to figure out how to deal with this.  Yes, we could pray the water didn't get into the container, but that doesn't see realistic. But we are still praying... we serve an awesome and willing God who can do things we simply can't believe.  So, that is where we are at... standing back and letting God deal with things till HE sees fit to let us continue with it.  So, pray with us for all of the above.

We were gearing up with buckets and now it seems we may have more needs than we had first thought.  But the Lord knows all about that too, so we will be working toward getting the buckets going and getting things organized to that end.  We have a family coming in, in 9 days who will be helping us with this and we praise God for that help. 

We've given you a lot to pray about, but we also want to add some praises, too.  We are thankful for the safe trip Vero and Savanah had to Port, even thought we aren't seeing the results yet.  We know God does.  We are praising God for the team at the dorm right now.  It's a medical team and they have seen so many people.  We praise God for simply being with us through all the situations we face on a daily basis here.  I just can't imagine doing it without Him at the helm.  Our electric has become very sporadic...but we praise him for our generator.  No, we don't have electricity as often as we did have, but we do have it enough to get some things done.  And we simply praise Him for all He does for us on a daily basis and how He cares for us even when we fail Him.  

Thank you for being there for us and for praying for us... it really, really is what keeps us going here on the mission field!!  Have a super, God blessed, God directed and God inspired day!!!