They day after Christmas

I hope your Christmas was wonderful. We had a good time. Christmas Eve we opened the few presents we had here. (Thanks to a good friend in West Palm Beach). We did have a couple of things here, but they weren't the highlight of the evening. We read the first part of Luke chapter 2. It is amazing watching Abbie absorb all of the truths set forth in scripture. A definite plus from her mama. Aside from doing "homework" every evening, they do scripture reading and memorizing. It sure is paying off with Abbie. She loves to tell you what she "knows" from the Bible. Yes, she does mix some things up, but listens when you correct her. And her mama loves to impart these scripture lessons to her.

Then Christmas day we had our open house and fellowship with the missionaries who could come. Not a lot came, but we enjoyed the time we had with those who were here. It was a time of reflection and reminiscing on a lot of things. From Christmases past, when we were younger, and our Christmas times here in Haiti. And we had snacks to help us along with that. It was a wonderful time of fellowship and sharing. God is good and He shows forth in the times we have had together here.

Now that the "Big Day" is over, we are working toward the New Years celebration. That is the really big time here. Being so close to the radio station here (like right next door), we have listened to so many things going on. This is a time of year that many, many people want to get married and the station (upstairs) is busy every day for two weeks. The night before Christmas Eve, whatever was going on went on until 5 AM. And people celebrate LOUDLY here. Each day there have been at least 2 or 3 things going on at the station. And they are gearing up for New Year's. Most of it is good and we can enjoy the singing and joyous music. Some, but mostly on the streets, can get wild. But that is the minority of things. Stands are set up all along the roads and someone always has CD players, playing through a sound system and it is LOUD. Sort of like competing. But thankfully this only lasts for about 2 weeks, then it will settle down again. You hear Christmas music mainly, but in English, French, Spanish and sometimes other languages. Anything they can find, they play.

On the container...well, I guess we are doing a normal thing...in some respects. WAITING!!! They have started working on the papers, but now we have to have MORE things done. Have to have some sort of accountant doing things at the offices now, too. So, although we were supposed to have the container the first week of November, they are just starting on doing the paperwork. And with their big holiday coming up, things will come to a halt. So, maybe we will get it the second week of January...we'll see. But we sure can use some major prayers on this one. Both on getting it cleared and on the cost factor. The costs are raising and we haven't even gotten to the inspection yet. This is discouraging, but we know God is in control and He can do things we cannot. So, please pray with us on this, and ask others to storm the gates of Heaven for us, too. God can work on hearts and move the paperwork along and bring the cost down. Let's pray He will do that for us.

We are anxious for our upcoming teams. January is always a busy time and a lot is accomplished by the teams. The first four months are busy with teams, and that is good. Tiring, but great for the country here. Please pray for strength, peace, and wisdom in all we do. We have to lean heavily on the Lord when we are so busy.

Let us know how you are doing and keep us informed on your prayer requests, too. Until next time....God bless and keep you.

Getting close to Christmas

Merry Christmas to Everyone!!

I know this next week is going to very busy for us, so I wanted to get our Christmas greetings out to you before the hectic times start. I'm sending along some pictures. Just to give you a quick idea of our Christmas this year. But a few explanations are in order here. To start with, I decided this year to let Abbie "help" decorate. And you can see the results. As we set up the tree, SHE wanted to hand me the branches to put in the tree. Consequently, some of smaller ones (for the top) are on the bottom and bottom on top. It is definitely a "uniquely" shaped tree. But Abbie was SO thrilled with it. Then she wanted to put every ornament on it. Well, I did stop there since a lot were breakable, but she told me WHERE to put them.
This next one is a village our oldest son gave us. I haven't set it up for the last few years because of Abbie. I didn't want to break any of it. She did help me with this, too, but only sparingly. Her job every morning is to turn the lights on, on both the tree and the village. She just sits and stares at both of them. Oh, the gifts under the tree I mentioned before I think. Several of them are boxes that hold the ornaments and looked like wrapped gifts. She still insists those are our presents to Jesus. Like I said before, our hearts should be in those boxes as a gift to Him.
This picture is of a manger scene I made in ceramics class way back in 1978. You can't see the little imperfections in it now, like where a rat bit the butt of Jesus when it was in storage, or where Mary's cloak is cracked and broken. But it holds a lot of memories for me. But this is up high where Abbie can't get to it. She has her other ones she can look at.
This one is just some of the decorations around the house. The beautiful red and white doilies are some the girls here made for me over the years.
This coming week we will really be busy. We were only supposed to have one MFI flight day this week. Well, we were to have two planes that day. One of them has engine problems, so, we will have 2 days. One with passengers and one with cargo. Then I will have Christmas Eve day to prepare for the party we are having here at the dorm on Christmas Day. We were just having any missionaries who wanted to come, bring cookies and we'd share cookies and drinks and sing and have a great time of fellowship. Well, I decided it's Christmas, so I am going to decorate the dorm, too. Once I get it done, I'll try to put some pictures on here of it. Quite a few missionaries have already let me know they are thrilled and will be here. We don't have "family" with us, so we share each others families and enjoy the time together. Then on Saturday, several of our Haitian "kids" have said they want to come and visit. So, the week will be full. Then next week is New Year's. That is the BIG holiday here, celebrating Christmas, New Year's and Haitian Independence Day. That is the day most Haitians celebrate with pumpkin soup all day long. And they keep it as a family affair. We've been blessed through the years to be included in many of these "families".

Many of the families that Don has been taking food buckets to have been so thankful that they will have something with which to celebrate on their combined holiday. But on Christmas Eve, almost all of the churches have special services and they last for HOURS, with singing, preaching, skits and more singing and praying. They truly Celebrate Jesus!!

We pray that your CHRISTmas is Christ centered and happy. Again, we are baking a Birthday Cake for Jesus. Give it some thought...it brings Jesus closer to hearts and the kids have a deeper understanding of what we are celebrating.

May the Lord bless you this year at this special time. And may you walk with Him and serve Him this coming year!!!

Into December

Not a lot to write about, yet a lot going on. We've been calling and checking and praying for the container. At this point, the boat is in...not sure if our container is off yet or not. But we can't do anything until we get our Quintus updated. Can't do that until the man who has to put his signature on it is back. Supposed to be early this week... we'll see. So, that is a prayer request. Pray for the container to come in, our Quintus to be signed and the inspection done. And then the HUGE prayers... pray for the cost to be lower than before. We really, really need to have these costs come down so we can get these things to the people more quickly. This container has most of our Christmas Bags on it, and we are SO praying it will get here BEFORE Christmas so we can distribute some of these gifts. We don't have an increase in numbers on the bags, but we sure do on the number of churches and schools who would like to get them. Another huge prayer request.

We've had a busy week with catching up and getting ready for our January teams. Trying to get things in order and get plans made. keep all of our future teams in prayer. They are planning to accomplish so much and giving of their time and money to do it is awesome. We pray that the Lord will bless them beyond measure for this sacrifice for Him.

Keep MFI in your prayers as well. The coming 3 flight days will be very hectic. They have a warehouse full of packages for the missionaries and we are praying they will be able to deliver all of them before Christmas. From here to April is a VERY busy time for them, and they will need all the prayers you can send up for them. Without them we would be floundering here, so we depend on them a LOT for everything.

For now, I'll close and pray that the Lord will bless your holidays... please remember to keep Christ at the center of your CHRISTmas.

Christmas Blessings

This last week has been VERY busy and very good. Don has been out delivering food (praise God for the buckets)!! We had a really great Thanksgiving meal with the fellowship from English church. And Christmas decorations are up, here at least.

Our personal Thanksgiving day was grilled cheese sandwiches, but on Saturday, we had a Thanksgiving meal at the radio station (where English Bible Fellowship meets). It was not all Americans, it was Canadians and Haitians as well. Our whole attitude with it was to simply Give God Thanks for all things. We had a good turn out. About 64 people, I think. Great food and great fellowship. Yes, lots of work went into it, but it was worth it.

Then the following week Don delivered more buckets and I was able to catch up on a lot of the work left undone over the last month. We also wrote, printed, stuffed, sealed and got ready to send, our Christmas news letter. And then, much to Vero and Abbie's delight, got out the Christmas decorations. Abbie is such a delight...no matter what I pulled out of the boxes, she said, "Oh, that is SO beautiful." After about the tenth time it became a bit overdone, but she was still so excited. And her reflection on things was unique. Plugging in and checking lights... her comment was, "Oh, Jesus' lights...like we are supposed to be for Him." And with each manger scene (I have many), she would make me stop and tell her the Christmas story again. After the second one, I told her I had already told her the story. She said, "Oh but Grandma, I LOVE to hear it again and again." One year I had put my ornaments in some of the gift boxes, for safe keeping. So, now, after the tree is up, I simply put those already decorated, empty boxes, under the tree. For effect I guess. She sat and looked at them and said, "Oh, presents for Jesus?" I said, "no, empty boxes, you saw me take the ornaments out, remember?" She simply said, "But it's Jesus birthday, so those are presents for him." I guess our hearts should be in those boxes. That would be a great present, wouldn't it? Not so much for Him, but for us. I had told Vero about our first Christmas as Christians, and how we had NOTHING at all, since Don had been laid off. But we had a birthday party for Jesus that year. Had a cake for Him, and a party, FOR HIM. Well, Abbie picked up on that, and now wants to have a birthday party for Jesus on Christmas. So, we will. I'll make a birthday cake for Him and we'll celebrate HIS birth.

Christmas day we will be having an open house for the mission community. Several people had asked what we were going to do, so the committee at English church asked if we could do that, at the dorm. I said sure, why not. So, I'll also make a "Birthday Cake for Jesus" for that, too. It will be fun to be with the mission community and celebrate the day.

Yesterday we had one of the missionaries that we know only a bit speak. He was SO good. As missionaries in a foreign land, we all experience those times of "why am I here, am I really doing any good for the Lord, and am I making a difference". His message was one that was such an uplift and encouragement for us all. I thought it was just for me, until I heard after church, others saying, boy was that for ME. He used the scripture in Exodus chapter 2, where Pharaoh's daughter took in Moses. He said it was ONE act of kindness and compassion, that changed history. Then he related it to us, not only here on the field, but to all Christians, who share the love and compassion of Christ, and how it could make a difference in even ONE life. That is history changing for that person. And how many do we share with, and how many lives will have their history changed by doing simply what the Lord asked us to do? We are to be encouraged by what Pharaoh's daughter accomplished, without her knowing or seeing what the future held. And how the Lord can use us, even when we can't see or foresee the future. When God guides, we can abide in Him. So even when YOU are discouraged, and can't see any results of your witness, trust the Lord to use it to His glory and let Him take over.

Well, it's back to work and getting things done here. In only 4 weeks, our busiest time of the year starts... teams and blessings for a whole lot of people. So, need to get things organized on this end and start working out schedules. Till next time, be encouraged that God can use you wherever you are. Know we are praying for God to bless and take care of you. And remember, on His birthday, WE got the gift... life everlasting when we accept Him.

A quick update

Well, Don made more deliveries of buckets...what a sad, sad country we live in. The house below (and yes, you are seeing ALL of the house), has 3 adults and 6 kids in it. And no way to earn any money. And as you can see, no place for a garden. It's has a dirt floor. And one double bed...the rest sleep on the floor. And there, but for the grace of God, go I. We really are glad God has put us in a position to help others, especially in situations like these.Sure makes you think of Christmas and all the gifts that get broken the first day, or aren't appreciated or wanted, doesn't it? God's gift is all we really need, His Son. And these people are the ones turning to Him.

Not a lot of other news here right now. We are working hard at all the little things, to get caught up. And then the airport, of course. Had to laugh today. Got to the airport, and I said, "Wow, everyone is in uniform and working hard today. What's up?" The head guy at the airport for the UN said, "Well, a division of Homeland Security is here. Since US planes land here, they have to check things out. Like security and how bags are checked, and things like that." It was just sort of a shock to see things working as they should. Wonder if it will last...maybe it will, and things will look up.

For now, I'll close with our prayer that your holiday season, yes, the CHRISTMAS season will be blessed beyond measure with the Gift of God's Son!!! (I'm not into "political correctness" when it reflects on the Lord.) This IS Christmas, and Jesus IS the reason for the season, and I won't leave HIM out of it.

Sorry for sounding off, but it does upset me that they are taking the real reason for Christmas out of Christmas. But those of us who know Him, can keep Him at the forefront of all things in our lives. Because He came, died and rose again, we have an eternal future with Him. AMEN!!!

Still hanging on

Hello again,
Well, I'm not doing as well as I had planned on keeping this updated. But there are reasons. We have another great team here and they are doing wonders. I think I should start off with a "Thanksgiving List" for the last year, actually.

We have had 16 teams this year...that's a lot, considering no teams in May, June or December. Each and every team has done so much for so many here...it's awesome. And yet, no two teams have been the same, or had the same work project. We (and the Haitians) have been so VERY blessed by teams. It's hard to single out one team and say they did the best, because they have ALL reached out and touched a lot of people.

We are thankful for all the people we were able to see while stateside in May and June. We are thankful that Bev, my sister-in-law pulled through her really rough time. And, yes, I am even thankful that my sister has gone to be with the Lord. She is now pain free and celebrating with Jesus!!

We're thankful we have had no major lasting illness. Yes, there have been "times", but God has been, and continues to be, with us. There have been missionaries that have had to leave the field because of ongoing illness. God has kept us from that.

We are REALLY, REALLY thankful for our faithful prayer warriors. That is what keeps us going here. And we DO realize how many prayers have gone out on our behalf. Our financial partners have kept us here, doing what we need to do, and we are very thankful for those faithful people.

We are thankful for Stan and Gloria Curtis for all their continued work on behalf of us and the Haitian people. Without them, our ministry would be really difficult. They are a blessing, in many ways. Leg work in the US to get supplies for the containers, constant work with teams, and a friendship that means a tremendous amount to us, personally.

We are thankful for the many Haitians who have become a part of not only our ministry but our lives. What a blessing for us to have those we can depend on here.

And we are thankful for those of you who keep in touch, through the blog, emails, and letters. You all keep our spirits up and help us to focus on why we are here.

In our newsletter, Don shared about a pastor we have been helping for quite some time. Don had helped his wife through school, to some extent, and helped him at times through Bible School. Now he has been working for years in the church he established in a very rough area. The pastor needs your prayers, too, as he faces challenges we never even think of. His name is Pastor Wagner Wasembeck. He and his wife and two children have been working in a very small house they converted into a church. His needs are many and the challenges great. Please keep him in prayer.
The team that is here now has done an awesome job on many things. Finished our fence, cleared the dorm roof and took down a branch that was a huge problem. And to top it all off, they went over their goal for filling buckets for us. They completed 201 buckets. PLUS they bagged a LOT of other things to put in future buckets. Some of the items for buckets we cannot get here, so have to wait on the next container, which SHOULD come on the 30th. Today and Monday they are out helping Don deliver some of those buckets. They can see the fruit of their labors. Pray with us that these will be a blessing to many, many families.
This is bucket number 201...what a celebration. We were all so pleased they accomplished so much!!

And now...time to get to work and catch up on some of the things left undone while teams are here. Keep us, and all of the things we do, in your prayers...we want to keep focused on the Lord and what HE wants us to do. Pray for strength and wisdom in what we do. And say an added prayer for us, as we will be missing our granddaughter's wedding in December. It's a heartache, but there is no way we can go. Our hearts will be there, but we wish it could be our bodies, as well.

We pray you will have a really wonderful Thanksgiving, and remember to put the Lord at the front of all those "thankful" things. He has done SO much for all of us. We need to remember to praise and thank Him, constantly.

Busy as always

Trying to catch up seems to be the normal here now. But with work and teams, time is precious. Add Abbie into that equation and you can see busy is the word.

We had another team...and man did they work. We had 9 people, but two left for another trip after a day and a half. So, we had 7. Two were the gals (one mom and one daughter) who did the cooking, so it was 5 men working. Let me fill you in on just a little of what these guys did while here....Completed a roof for a Sunday school building; put in 3 (yes THREE) septic systems, one for a home, two for churches; made a tool to put in the fence posts for our yard, and put the posts in; worked on a vehicle that had some problems; and did other odd jobs around here. So, busy did not quite fit...they were ULTRA busy. And yet, had a morning at the Citadel. And to top it off, they were a great bunch of guys (and gals) who were fun to be with. Here are just a couple of their work projects...We have another team coming in next week. We are praying they will be able to help with the buckets again. They did such a fantastic job last year and it helped SO MANY, that we are more than happy to have them work on this again. Of course, there will probably be other projects for them, too...we'll see.

Every time we head to town, Abbie wants to take the camera. Her and Grandma like to get boat pictures. These pictures are a couple we both liked. The one is the fishermen bringing in a catch, like they did in Jesus time. The other is just unique sails...from banners across the road.
I'll keep this post short, but hope to keep you all updated again soon. Don will be making some food and water runs this week, so have to help get ready for that.

God bless, and keep Jesus at the center of your life!!