I thought I'd post a few more photos and do a small catch up on the last week.  Dale's only been gone 2 days, but already it's lonely without one of our kids here.  Just a few of the things he accomplished while here:
  Ceiling and light in Vero's kitchen.  Gas line hooked up for stove.  Sink installed and water hooked up.....

 Put in a new electric box because of mud doppers (those wasp like things) making nests in it.  Now it's covered.  (Note the "helpers" behind him.)

 Oh, this was a fun time, not work.  One of our good friends had twins and she brought them to show Dale.  A boy and a girl.  When they were born, we didn't think the little girl would live.  They are both doing great now at 3 months old.

 Dale helped Don work on one of the generators. 

 I got a quick picture of Dale before English church, while he was going over his notes.

 Dale working on the gas line for the stove...note his helpers again.

 I guess the best way to let you know what's been going on for the last few days is to simply post my latest email.  If you have already received it, sorry for the repeat, but enjoy the pictures anyway!!

Greetings from WINDY Haiti,

Our rains seem to have eased off, but the winds are strong.  And for us, it's rather chilly at night, down in the very low 70's or upper 60's.  But we will make it.  It's just funny seeing so many Haitians with winter caps and jackets on here.  But "spring" is on the way.  We don't get to see the seasons change as we used to in Wisconsin, but they do change, in their own way.  Our son sends pictures of fall and spring "changes" so we don't totally miss them anyway. 

We were blessed to have our son with us for 2 weeks.  He really came at the right time, too.  Don pulled a muscle in his lower stomach and the doc told him to simply "take it easy and not do much".  RIGHT...sure, like that would happen.  Of course, after a couple severe pain episodes, he finally listened.  And that just happened to be when Dale came in. The problem was that Don felt so bad, having Dale working so hard and he couldn't help him.  But the Lord knew and so much was accomplished.  The first blessing was that we were able to spend time with Dale.  The next was that he worked himself into exhaustion.  When you only see your kids once a year, you want to simply sit and absorb their presence.  But we didn't get to do a lot of that, with him working so much.  And he also shared at Pastor Codo's Haitian church two Sundays and then at English church two Sundays.  A real blessing.  I won't list all the projects he worked on and completed, I'd be on here for hours.  But know that Don and Vero, too, are so pleased with all he accomplished.  He brought a friend along as a "go-fer" , too.  It was sad when we had to say good bye on Tuesday.  But he needed to get back and find a job.  So, pray with us that the Lord will walk before him and he will get a good job.

We seem to be sitting on 'hold' with the adoption.  Not sure where it is or how it is, or where it's going.  We are praying it will be soon.  Savanah needs to be at her new home.  She talks about her sisters, Ruby and Lexi, all the time.  When grandma Bibi came to visit, she thought she was bringing them with her.  She just keeps saying, "I'm going to see Ruby and Lexi now."  So that is another prayer request... that the Lord will speed up the process and get this child to her new home.

I'm back at the airport each time the plane comes in now.  With Don unable to lift anything, there isn't much he can do, so he stays home.  Vero has been taking Savanah out to the IDADEE orphanage on the days we go to the airport, and she loves being there with all the kids. 

We praise God that He is with us in each and every situation we face.  There are times when we almost feel like giving up, then some blessing (like Dale coming) comes along and we know He is seeing to our needs.  It is so wonderful to know we serve a loving, caring, all powerful God who walks with us and stays with us all the time.

I'll close with one of my life verses, Isaiah 40: 31, "but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.  The will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." (NIV Edition)

 

Only a few days left

We are in the down mode...only a few days left and our son leaves...what a sad thing for us.  He has accomplished SO much while here already.  I think we have worn him out and he is ready for a break and ready to go back and get a REAL job, where they don't work him into exhaustion.  Actually he keeps saying he doesn't think he has done so much, but oh yes, he sure has.  Even though some were little to him, they were huge to us.  We just keep praising God that he was here and helped, but not only that, the time we were able to spend with him was precious to us.  (Oh I know, guys don't want to use that word, but they sure are precious times for us.)

Today is Don's birthday, but we celebrated yesterday, sort of.  At our age, you sort of leave those things behind.  I had a meeting in the morning with the airport officials and heads of other airlines here.  So, Vero and I went in for that and then met the fellows and Abbie after the meeting to have lunch and ice cream to celebrate.  Dale worked all morning until time to leave to meet us, and I think he was sort of reluctant to "leave work" to go play, even for a couple of hours.  

 

 To those of you from our home town, Dale has already taken over a thousand pictures, so ask him to share a "few" with you.  After lunch yesterday, Don took the guys out to the IDADEE orphanage for a visit.  Vero was excited for them to see it again. Notice the kids climbing all over Dale?  He had them hanging on him the whole time out there. (He's the white faced dude in the first picture!)

 

I am only sharing a few photos here with you, but there are MANY, MANY more!!!

Here is Jim, putting strings on our tags for Missionary Flights baggage.  It's time consuming and our guys end up doing it as they put the tags on.  They will be more than pleased to have that done already.

 Dale finally figured out his time was running out and he wouldn't get the tile laid on Vero's house.  So we hired a man to do it for us.  This is happening today.  Dale and Don are both happy with his work and it should be finished before the guys leave!! YEAH!!

 Dale came in with the new converter for the dorm. (Thanks to Chuck O'Connor and TCR).  They have it hooked up and it is working great!!  Teams will sure be pleased it is up and running again!

 Dale caught Savanah is one of her good moods.  She was feeding her baby and wanted a picture of the baby eating!

 Dale was able to put up the tiles we have in the kitchen at Vero's house.  We ran out of the ceiling tiles or he would have had that project done, too.

Last Sunday Dale share at Pastor Codo's church in the morning and then at English Bible Fellowship (EBF) in the afternoon.  We had more positive comments on his message at EBF then I have heard in a long time.  It was a very timely message for all of us.  He will be doing the final one in both services tomorrow.  Everyone is looking forward to it.  Pastor Codo sure loves to have him come and teach, too!!

So there you have a short "catch-up" on what's happened this week.  We will be sad when Tuesday comes around, though.  It's been such a blessing to so many having Dale here.  His knowledge of the language and his love of the people shines in all he does.  And believe me, they all soak it up, including us!!  So we'll ask you all to pray for us as he goes back.  A gap will be there for sure.  The good news is our oldest son is trying to make plans to come down right after summer.  The Lord knows what we need and when we need it, right?  HE is always on time, even if we think He is late, or wrong, HE knows what we need, when we need it, and how to get it to us!!!  God is always faithful and always THERE for us.  And yes, again, HE IS AWESOME!!!!!

Late February and VERY late posting

I have to apologize yet again for this being so late.  I have been helping other groups with their blogs and now have a horrible time getting into mine.  I guess this computer doesn't like me to have more than one blog on it, who knows.  But then again, this is me, the computer illiterate trying to do it, so that may explain it all.

I was simply going to post the email I had sent out, but decided I'd like to post some photos and share a bit more here.  If you have not gotten my latest (late) email, let me know and I'll forward it to you.

We have been really busy and happy to be that way.  But it does create some other problems, like getting on here and sharing what's going on.  So, we'll start with the here and now and work backward.  Sounds a bit crazy, huh?  But I want to make sure I can share it all.  

First and foremost our son, Dale has come for a visit.  Nope, not a visit, he came to work with/for his dad.  And he sure has been doing that in the short time he has been here.  He brought along another friend and a lot is being accomplished.  I'll share some photos and let  you in on the progress.

The first couple of days were getting the ceiling fan up in Vero's bedroom, and some of the tile with it, then cutting tile for the counter top in the kitchen.  Thanks to a good friend who had the saw to make things work a bit easier.  

 Vero wasn't feeling well, but she sure was happy to see so much being accomplished in the house. 

 Then the work began on getting the electric from the pole in the driveway to the dorm.  That way the dorm will have power when city is on, and so will Vero's house.  This was a job Don thought may take 2 or 3 days, and Dale got the major part of it done in one day with the help of a couple of Haitian workers.  They dug the trench, but the wire through PVC pipe, put sand in the bottom of the trench, put the pipe then filled the trench back in.  Don and I were able to help a little, but the major work was done by Dale and the two Haitians.  Jim has been Dale's go-fer and doing a lot of pick up work for him. 

 Getting the wire through the pipe wasn't easy, but they worked on it.

 Unbelievable how quickly these guys worked (or is that showing age on my part?).

 Getting the wires connected to existing wire was Dale's project, we just watched.

 I know you can't see it in these pictures, but a lot of the work that was done, was done in the rain.  The guys told Dale to go wait on the porch at the dorm, but he stayed right in there with them, rain and all.

 Then on to the final leg of outside work on this project.  In the next day or two it will all be up and working, with the connections to boxes finished.  The fellows were muddy and wet, but proud of their work in a timely manner.

 We've been so blessed by the amount of work that has already been done!  These are things Don would have had a hard time getting done, while trying to keep other things going.  

I ended up leading at English church last Sunday, because of Mardi Gras.  Our leaders were all off with Christian groups, to give them the alternative to this wild celebration.  We had a couple staying with us for 5 days who are going to be working with Missionary Flights in Florida.  They wanted to see what Haiti was like.  We didn't get to take them many places, but they saw some of Haiti.  And I had asked Dan if he would share at English church, since we didn't have a speaker.  It ended up being Dan, his wife, Heather, and I (the only white people) and three rows of Haitians.  We had an awesome time.  The Lord just opened up hearts and we had a great time praising God for His goodness and care.  Having the young men share and be a real part of the service was awesome.  God was moving and we were rejoicing.

We were blessed again with Savanah's soon to be grandma in Canada come for a visit.  Dr. Bibiana is such a blessing to us and always so uplifting.  And Savanah just clung to her this time.  We had been talking about Savanah's family waiting for her to come.  So when Grandma Bibi came, Savanah thought she was bringing her sisters, Ruby and Lexi with her.  She was a bit disappointed, but seeing and hugging Grandma Bibi was so much fun for her.  Keep praying for the completion of the adoption, and that the Lord will bring it about VERY soon!!

I will ask that you keep praying that the Lord will reach out and touch some of the women and men who are always at our door.  Some of the needs are so desperate and beyond what we can help.  But we do what we can.  Some of those coming are simply nasty and think all Americans are rich and just won't give out money.  Those are the ones we are fervently praying for the Lord to touch.  They aren't Christian and they only see money in foreigners.  Pray with us that the Lord will reach out and touch hearts and minds of those who come here.  

Well, better close out and get ready for English church.  Dale will be sharing for the next two Sundays and I'll be leading.  Please keep it all in prayer.  And remember, the Lord is there for you, just as He is for us, so just reach out and hold on to Him!!
Blessings beyond measure!!!!

In addition to New Year's blessings

  I decided to share some photos, since I can get on the internet right now.  These are special ones for us.

This is Grandma Bibiana when she came to visit.  Obviously Savanah loves her!!

 The kiddo loves to go in the car, anywhere!

 

 She was playing very nice while I was in the other room.  Don called and said come and see what she did.  I was a bit apprehensive, but when I saw this, I laughed.  She made supper, with her blocks and the pans she took out of the cupboard.  Each section of the cupcake pan had a block in it.  Silverware placed just so.  She was SO proud of herself.

 

 This was her social worker.  Savanah was a bit shy with her, but did warm up.

 And the psychologist...he had a phone so he won her heart. She was saying praise the Lord and it made him smile!

 Our girls, Vero and Abbie for Christmas.  They were heading out for Abbie's Christmas program.

  Obviously Abbie, ready to go and do her speaking part in the program.

Savanah had to show off her dress that our friend Carolyn had brought for her almost a year ago.  She loves to twirl and show how high it can go, too.

 Abbie wanted a doll house so bad.  She said, "Grandma, I'll give you all my money to help get it, PLEASE?"  I had told her sorry, but didn't think we could.  She was really happy with it when she got it.

 

 Savanah got her kitchen dishes and pots and pans, aside from other things.  But she sure does love them.  And she is very precise how to set things up, as you can see with the "silverware". 

 

 Then Grandpa dug down to get to the pipes that were plugged.  This was just the start, but he had help doing it.  She loves to be in the center of anything going on.

 

 

 So there were some of the good times we had.  I thought we should share some of the happy times since I had shared the hard times with you!!

We pray you are having a blessed new year and that the Lord is the center of it all!

Blessing and Happy New Year

Greetings in this New Year for the Lord!!

Wow, maybe we are glad 2014 is over and we can head into a New Year of better things.  We have had a lot of "situations" this last year and are praying this new year will bring much better circumstances.  God has been faithful through all of the problems we have had and we praise Him totally!!!  One of our good friends has labeled our house, "Job's House".   It sure seemed that way for a long time.  But we are now praying we are on the up side of things.

A small recap of some of the situations.... our internet went down...we purchased "sticks" for the internet from 2 (yup two) different cell phone companies.  They each work for a few minutes, but not enough to actually do any work on the internet.  I have had a horrible time doing MFI work, Embassy forwarding work, and just general communications.  Then our trucks needed new license plates....well, that amount of money staggered us.  We finally sent someone in to get them...the interenet between the office here and in Port has had major problems...so we still don't have the plates, but they are applied for anyway.  And our residency papers were due.  Don't have the funds for that yet, but will shortly.  After we sent all of the needed paperwork for Savanah's adoption to Port, we got a phone call.  The doctor here spelled her name wrong and the government wouldn't accept the papers.  So we have to wait until January 11th for him to return and redo them.  We had a team scheduled for the dorm, (not for us, but for another mission), but we didn't have the funds to get the gas for the stove.  The Lord used several ways to get that accomplished.  The first night this team was here was our next problem.  They asked Don to come and make sure they were doing the generator there the right way.  So, when power went off, they started it.  Then came running over...something was wrong.  Well, it blew out our inverter system over there and our floor fans, too.  But this team was SO VERY gracious.  They said don't worry, we'll make due.  When we thought we were about done with "things"... our toilets backed up.  We couldn't figure that out.  We knew the tanks were not full and that the rains had quit, so it wasn't a saturation issue.  After a week and a half, we finally were able to dig up the pipe...here close to the house.  Took a whole day to find out Savanah had put a whole roll of toilet paper and a chap stick tube down the toilet and flushed.  She was SO proud...she said, "Yes, I did it!!".  She simply didn't realize how bad it was.

But the blessings came in amongst all the other things.  God supplied what we needed in so many ways.  One of our MFI pilots offered to order what we needed for the internet.  We couldn't get on to do it here.  That is on the way.  God provided a way to get gas for the dorm.  And when Don checked out all things electrical at the dorm, he found it was not the dorm, but the connection to the generator that was the problem.  One wire had not been tightened enough and came loose and caused all the problems.  A simple fix, but we'll have to replace the blown out things now.  We know God will find a way to do that, too. 

An added real blessing was our piano player from English church came this morning and said he wanted to check HIS internet connection here to see if it would help us.  WOW...it works wonderful and he left it for the day so we could use it until he is done with work!!  THANK YOU ENOCH!!

This last Sunday the team here did special music, a skit, and the preaching at English Church.  What a blessing and uplift they have been!!  The pastor preached on many different verses, but all referring to trusting in God ALONE for things.  It SO fit with what we were going through.  We DO trust in Him alone.  And He has come through for us constantly!!  We don't know the reasons for all of this to happen, but we do know the ONE who can get us through it!!  And we may be living in Job's house, but we also know we have the same God that Job had and that He is faithful and is there for us always!!!  We will continue to praise and glorify Him in all ways and in all things!!!

And now in this New Year, we know God will guide and direct us in all ways.  It's back to doing our calling here now that the holidays are over and all the hype is over.  We were blessed to have 2 different people give us the traditional "pumpkin soup" for New Year's.  What a blessing!!! And what a GREAT start to the new year!!  Pray with us on all the above, but also pray that God's direction will be very clear as we enter into the new year for HIM!

We are praying you are in that place where God can richly bless and keep you, too!!  Until next time... keep your eyes, ears and hearts centered on Jesus.  And follow where He leads you!!   Blessings beyond measure to you all!!!   May your New Year be blessed and focused on the Lord!

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

Greetings and VERY MERRY  CHRISTMAS!!!

Here in Haiti we don’t have this situation of not being able to say Merry Christmas or Christmas Blessings, but it gets me a bit upset when I see so much of the controversy in the US over a holiday that started and is centered on Jesus Christ being fought over.  I mean, why don’t people get a grip and realized that CHRISTmas is what it is.  A celebration of the birth of our Savior?  No one, including us, seem to get upset with the Jewish people celebrating their holy day, or even the Muslims or other religions celebrating their special days.  No one has said these people have to celebrate OUR holy day if they don’t want to.  But why try to put a stop to it?  Well, that is really a rhetorical question isn’t it?  But I will say, no one will stop me from proclaiming Jesus,  be it at Christmas, Easter or any other time.  I am proud to be a Christian!

Starting this Sunday, Haiti will celebrate the Christmas season.  There will be plays and services from now until New Year’s day.  They DO celebrated Christmas but not as we do.  Their church services are really Christ centered and filled with love and laughter.  You see some decorations around, but nothing like America.  Few people have the money for these extra things.  But they celebrate by having family and friends over for a small meal.  It’s more of a time of fellowship and sharing.  And this follows through until New Year’s which is their independence day.  On January 1^st, it’s pumpkin soup and family time.  If you’ve never tasted pumpkin soup, you are missing a lot.  I know some Americans have tried to make it, but it’s simply not the same.  I tease the kids here that I love the soup, but not the “weeds” in it.  Their spices are right from the garden, not from a small container from the store.  That may be the reason for the difference in taste.  But they use whole stalks of different seasonings.  

We’ve been busy, busy, busy these last few weeks.  Working on Vero’s house, and trying to get food and water out to the hard hit areas from flooding are just a couple of the situations.  We are still having rains, but not the overwhelming ones we had before.  It’s just hard to get the ground to dry out at all right now.  But gardens are starting to grow and people are starting to see an end to the over-wet problems.  But it takes time for a garden to grow, so there is still the problem of food, and also for decent water.  

I’ve been leading service at English Bible Fellowship.  This year I was trying to get people to consider not only the birth of Jesus, but what Mary, Joseph and their families faced with the whole situation.  Mary was NOT married, but pregnant.  Joseph could have had her stoned to death.  The whole family had to face public criticism and all that went with it.  It was a GREAT time, but a hard time, too, for them.  One of my really favorite Christmas songs is “Mary Did You Know”.   This Sunday I will be playing the song and sharing from a book by Mark Lowery, who first sang that song.  DID Mary fully understand just who her “special heaven sent baby” was?  And what He would do and what He would become.  My favorite line in the song is, “When you kissed your little baby, you kissed the face of God!”  Wow, what an awesome Baby Mary held!!  We are also doing something special this week in the service.  We will be giving everyone who comes a small bag with “Happy birthday Jesus” items in it.  And challenging them to use some of them to reach others with the real reason for this season!  And with each bag, they will get a Bible.  We have a fairly small congregation, but we are praying we will encourage them to share the Love of God with others. 

I have also been working on flowers for a wedding this weekend.   It’s for one of the girls who had been at the EBAC orphanage.  Then the week between Christmas and New Year’s we have a team scheduled for the dorm.  Not our team, but for another mission, but it’s still preparation time to get it ready. And we really enjoy the team leaders so much.  

Of course our volunteer work with MFI is challenging this time of year, too.  Especially with the airport situation now.  We have had some huge loads of cargo and once American Airline comes, we have to take a back seat to them.  Wish there were some way to get around it, but…we just keep praying.  When American lands and comes in, it’s a zoo.  There is no room for anything.  Today one of our planes came in, went to another city here (Pignon), then returned to Cap to clear out of the country and clear out the passengers both from here and from Pignon.  Normally not a big deal.  But when our plane came back, it was while the people from American were trying to clear their baggage at customs.  I had to climb OVER baggage to get out to our plane.  Then we had to try and get our passengers (and their baggage) from Pignon, who were flying out, through that mess and into the other area of the airport to clear immigration and back out to the plane.  I still kept smiling and tried very hard to be polite.  But it IS a challenge.  Looking forward to be back to our normal hectic schedule.  

We were also able to send the last of the paperwork (we think) that is required for the adoption to Port today.  Got the medical report and 16 passport photos done and sent down with the MFI plane.  The lawyer had told me a year, but I was shocked…then he said he’d try to get it done by May when we leave for the states.  We’ll see.  I know the Lord could get it done sooner, but I am laying it totally in HIS hands and simply praying it’s sooner.  Savanah needs to be with her new family soon.  

Savanah can be a real stinker, but she can be a real charmer, too.  Then when you combine the two… well, here is one instance.  She does like to help me with housework.  But in HER way.  She was being a real stinker the other day and threw her blanket on the floor.  I told her to pick it up and put it on the couch, so it wouldn’t get dirty.  (My mistake).   A bit later, she took my hand and said, “come, see.”  She had taken her blanket into the laundry room, put it in the washing machine and STARTED the machine.  It was half way through the cycle when I got in there.  When she does something she shouldn’t, she makes sure we know it.  She can run the DVD player, and she can work ANY phone.  She finds the camera on a phone with no problem.  And she takes pictures.  When someone comes to visit we have to warn them to NOT let her have their phone.  She also likes games on the phones.  I have NO idea how she does it or where she learned it.  She is a bit too smart for a 3 year old.  

Well, I had better close out.  We have had major problems with internet and have gone through so much trying to find the problem.  And we finally did.  It’s the cables outside that are the problem.  So, until we can get new ones, we are using a “stick” from the cell phone company here for internet.  These are NOT fun.  But we can get on once in a while with it anyway.  

So, blessings and sincere Christmas wishes.  We are praying Christ is the center of your holidays.  And that you share the real reason of this season with others who do not realize what the true meaning of Christmas is. 

Mid November heading toward Thanksgiving

I just looked at the date... Nov. 12th.   It is 31 years ago today that we moved to Haiti.  Time flies when you're having fun, doesn't it?  And when you are following the Lord's leading!  It's been 31 years of learning and failing and getting up and redoing things.  And also making new friends and expanding the family.  At this point in time, we have 5 birth children, 14 grandkids (one a Haitian by birth, but American by love), 7 great grandkids (all of the above are US based).  Then there is our family here... well let's see, 11 grandkids (Haitian and adopted), maybe 14 kids we claim, and a LOT more who are simply friends.  

A while back I was looking through photos from time past.  I found one of our 5 kids taken 15 1/2 years ago when they were all together.  Wow, what a difference, yet they still look the same.  

I just received some photos from a group that was here at our place in June (while we were in the states).  The reason it was so long for me to get them is that I had a whole box of mail when we got back, then I got sick, and just the last week or so have I gotten to completely go through the mail.  I had wanted to put a whole string of photos on here to show you what some of the teams do while here.  I'll see if they will download.  It would be a "travel with a team" type thing.  This team was a wonderful example of what teams accomplish while here.   

 Above is the MFI hanger, where you get on the plane to make the trip to Haiti.

 

Okay, this is a REAL mango.  See the size?

 

First impressions of the roads are pretty good now.  Then they had to go where the clinics were and on the "normal" roads.

 Check out the "cane" this fellow had.  And look at his face...then look at his face after he was given a GREAT gift...The Lord put many smiles on faces with this team.

 Praying with the patients is a blessing for both the team and the patients. 

 REALLY?  Medicine for free?  Love the smile!!

 Some of the means of transportation are a bit ... well... "rugged".  Below are the fearless team leaders and GREAT people.

I loved this one... they "body spelled" H-A-I-T-I.  
 
The last couple of weeks here have been really hard and devastating.  We have had an overabundance of rain again.  One of "our kids" came today.  She lives in one of the heavily affected areas.  She said she left her house and walked in water to the top of her thighs. During the worst of the storms, she and her family slept on their roof in a tent.  We had thought the worst was over, but had another really heavy storm yesterday afternoon and evening.  There are now a lot of homeless people.  And so many have lost everything.  Please keep them all in prayer.  A lot of lives were lost and families are suffering from that loss too.  All schools in the area were closed all last week.  Not only because of people not being able to get there, but as a show of support for them.  Many schools gathered food and cleaning items to help those in need.  

I have started working with another group of young people (young to me, you understand).  They are former orphans who are reaching out to an area where there is no schooling for kids.  And they want to eventually set up a training center to help the older ones out.  They came to me for advice on different things.  And I'm helping them set up a pamphlet and letter to describe their ministry.  They are a great group of young adults.  

Don has been hauling food out to a lot of people. With the flooding, there are so many needs, and food is one of the top ones.  He's also hauled water to some areas.  Yes, we have LOTS of water but nothing they can drink.  So that is a priority now, too.

We were blessed last week with having MFI overnight for two nights.  The first night was because they took so long in the Dominican to get fuel.  It was raining and they would not put fuel into the plane till it stopped.  So they got here to Haiti late.  The second night was because they had a mechanical problem.  We felt bad for them, but happy for us.  Before the turbines, when we only had radial aircraft, we'd have pilots overnight maybe once every 6 to 8 weeks while they repaired planes.  We've missed getting to know and spend quality time with them.  We had some fun times with Ray and Ben.  Their trouble, our blessing.

We can still use a LOT of prayers for the adoption.  Not sure just where we are at this point, but know we need our prayer warriors to stand with us and pray the adoption goes through soon.  God can and will work miracles and we are believing He will work in this area.  Pray with us!!

We had a great service Sunday.  The Haitian pastor shared about the end times and how although no one knows the exact day or month, the Lord said we would know the season.  Mark 13: 5-8 was the main text he used.  Then he ended with verses 32 through 37.  The summery of it all is to be prepared, be vigilant, do not be deceived, and WATCH.  So that is where we are, trying to absorb all God has for us, so we are prepared.  And we are to be vigilant and not let false teachings get into our thinking. And we are to make sure we are not deceived (using God's word and direction to made sure).  And lastly, in verse 37, Jesus says, "What I say to you, I say to everyone; 'Watch'!"   I pray we are all doing that... drawing closer to the Lord and using his word and guidance to keep our eyes focused on Him and follow where HE leads.

Well, it's time to close out and get ready for generator off and get to bed.  As we usually do, we pray you are in that place where God can richly bless you and keep you.  We pray your walk with the Lord is as awesome as our Lord.  The little ditty we learned when we were first saved is so true... "when you walk with the Lord, you don't get bored."   God sure does keep us on our toes, and blesses us in areas we never expected.  Blessing to you and your family!!!  Hang onto the hand of the Lord and He'll get you through whatever you are facing!!