Bumps, Blessings, and Back Up Plans

Bumps
We have had our fare share in the last month since returning to this little island. Getting resettled and adjusting to life back in Haiti has been an expected adjustment. Little things like re-teaching ourselves that the toilet paper doesn't go in the toilet, bucket bathing outside, fighting mosquitos constantly and remembering what it feels like to sweat are among the small bumps experienced (though sweating off seven pounds of U.S. fast food in two weeks is a plus for me). A larger bump has been trying to get settled back in our St. Marc rental home while trying to work things out with the owner of this house. I have not at all nice words I could use to refer to him right now, but I will spare you. God knows and is working on my heart regarding my nasty thoughts about the giant jerk and justice factor. The owner has been promising to come see his house and the issues we moved into that he promised and we paid to have fixed in our original contract for the past year and 1/2. He lives in the states and speaks English making the situation even more ridiculous because we have been communicating with him the entire time we were stateside about a new contract and getting him paid. He refused to make a new contract nor give us his info to wire him the money for the past 5 months saying that he wanted to come and see the house first. He finally came and arrived unannounced on our doorstep one week after the kids and I arrived in Haiti. Then he practically moved in for the next week to "fix" the issues. We were thankful for the trying to fix part but were less thankful about his brutality during the 15 + face to face hours spent trying to negotiate anything reasonable with him demanding payment for the things not fixed that we have lived with and refusing to budge. Though it is unjust and we certainly want to make sure we are good stewards with the money God gives us through support, being good stewards of our time and energy is also important. It takes money, time, and lots of energy to move somewhere else. So we worked up a contract and a payment plan (most of which had already been agreed to by the owner) and tried our best to get it to him so he could sign it before he returned to the states a week after his arrival. We missed him by only a minute passing him on the road and calling his name and phone to no avail. We were 30 min late for our appointment due to getting caught in the rain and needing gas to get back from trying to translate a contract that was his responsibility to write up in the first place. We had to go somewhere else to plug in because there is no electricity at the house. Go figure. He blames our lateness on the current ugly state of affairs not remotely taking into consideration the 100+ hours we have waited over the past year for workers to show up at the house and his own hour and 1/2 tardiness the previous week after we rushed back for the meeting at the time he had set and kept the others attending the meeting waiting as well. The slightest consideration of others has not come into play. I called him two days after he returned to Florida apologizing for missing him (even though he was at the house all week and did not produce a contract and has had 5 months to produce a contract) and explained that we would send the money as soon as he signed the contract I would e-mail him. I explained what was in the contract most of which he had already agreed to and told him we had left some fill in the blanks and had a few questions before we sent it to make sure it was ok. He of course was not ok with us suggesting anything other than meeting his demands. Eric and I were praying about what we should do for two days after that phone conversation in order to send a contract that the owner might agree with even if it was not in our favor. We were not looking for favors or justice for us at that point but just to be able to get past this issue. The day we were planning to e-mail the contract for him to sign (and then subsequently send the remainder of the money he demanded) we were served a subpoena to appear at court in 3 days with allegations that we had not finished paying from last year (we have his signature and bank statements for that) among other bogus and simply threatening statements. So Eric got to spend yesterday finding a lawyer and is scheduled to spend tomorrow going to pick up that lawyer two hours away, driving him to the St. Marc courthouse, and then driving the lawyer two hours back after the hearing. Supposedly the judge is coming to our house as well. Um. Okay. Hoping the street has electricity when he shows up so we can prove that we don't. We are praying and asking for prayers that the judge will see the facts of the case and not just foreigners money OR better yet that the owner comes to his senses beforehand and accepts one out of the many reasonable offers we have given him. This has been our biggest bump so far the past month. We do not expect justice as we did not expect to just settle in and have everything go smoothly. Whether it is Satan's ploy to distract us from ministry or simply another learning experience we need in order to prepare us for a future battle, these bumps don't surprise us. But they do stretch and stress us!

"In Christ, we are a grain of corn in a clear bottle.

Satan comes like a chicken and pecks for the corn,

but never reaches it."

Haitian Proverb

Blessings
"You survived." This was what we got to hear each time we asked the owner of our rental house to consider what we have been through at our expense and his benefit. We argued that we did not pay to simply "survive" but after thinking about it a lot (not nice thoughts) I have realized that what he said is true. I think maybe he was surprised as others have been that we actually came back knowing what it is like to live this survival life. We survived and are still surviving despite lots of stretching and stress. This is not because we are super saints that love being insulted, accused, used, and unnecessarily forced to sweat buckets because the owner had the electrical wires detached but then neglected to pay for the company to hook up the meter he promised to hook up 18 months ago (in the same way he has neglected to pay for other promised essential things like windows, doors, and plumbing). Therefore, while the rest of our humble neighborhood has enjoyed some electricity the past two weeks, none has come to our house. It is easy to feel deflated and depressed in these times, but we are reminded daily to "count it all joy" and keep on surviving. There are days it feels like suffering. This is in the blessings section because it would be a blessing to suffer for Christ sake. Yet compared to our brothers and sisters around the world who are truly suffering in chains and/or facing death for the sake of the gospel, it is no comparison to our silly circumstances. It is a blessing to sweat and survive faithfully. Our sweating and surviving has made us extra excited as we continue to anticipate the day when we will be able to hook up our biggest blessings (at least in size and costs) of the month...our new generator, batteries, inverter, and one of a kind transformer! We are blown away and super encouraged by God's provision for these things through many of you who gave money to purchase them, to the friend who surprised us by building and shipping us a one of a kind inside the house mount transformer (which fixes the voltage problem so that when city electricity is available we can access it without burning up our appliances and save money on generator fuel), to missionary and Haitian friends and workers who have helped us purchase and prepare all these things for the day we will be able to fully enjoy them! The biggest blessings we have been able to already enjoy this month are being reunited with dear friends and continuing ministries in Haiti, having sweet and servant hearted Miguel live with us and join our family in ministry for the next few months (at least). He has been a huge blessing and help with the kids in the midst of the bumps of the past few weeks. Another blessing in disguise (that we all thought was a bump) is that the Pfaff family of five who has also planned to come and live with us has been delayed due to the contract on the sale of their house falling through and fund raising being a slower process than they had expected. But God knew what we would face when we got here and it has been a good thing that they are not here just yet. We are praying to be blessed with their presence and introduce you to them at the end of this month if those plans line up with His!
Another blessing that I know many have been praying for is that we are all healthy and functioning well despite the heat and mosquitos. We do not know for sure if the chikungunya mosquito virus has complete run its course on the island, but we are counting our blessings that we have not been its latest victims.

"Don't put your load of trouble in a basket on your head.

Put them on Jesus head.

You won't have headaches."

Haitian Proverb

Back up plans
Of course we didn't know any of this would happen with our house situation the past month and don't know what the resolution will be. When plans fail due to unforeseen circumstances, it is often difficult to know how to progress beyond the daily "we survived". Ministry has continued as we plan and pursue but is easily caught up in the daily grind. Every missionary book we have read has listed this as one of the top reasons missionaries leave the field. They tire of  leading the "simple life" while simultaneously trying to type a newsletter without electricity. We are thankful to remember that while we make our plans, the Lord directs our steps. We continue to have peace in trusting that whenever our plans falter, He always has a back up plan that is always better. We have a potential back up plan for another house not far away should we end up having to move. Perhaps if that was God's plan all along, we will soon see how much better it is! If His plan is for us to stay right where we are, that will be better too (at least once we get our generator delivered after this house mess is settled)! Prayers appreciated for protection as we pursue progress and backup plans!

"Lord,

Your servant doesn't know left from right.

Even now I don't know which one of your hands I am in.

Whether I am in the left or the right, it doesn't matter.

I am in Your hands.

That's enough."

Haitian Proverb

About that Generator.......

Most days in Haiti feel just like this looks...
You can row your boat all day and not get very far.

$20,000 for a generator? Really? We understand this question that we have asked ourselves and tried to get around several ways without success the past year since moving to our neighborhood in St. Marc. Our first year in Haiti we lived on a compound that had its own generators. Our second year in Haiti we lived on another compound with many power sources for a few months before moving to St. Marc where we were able to live on the school property using that generator for another four months until we were able to secure our own housing. We have struggled to live as simply as possible while meeting many needs without sufficient electricity to our home the past year. Though it is very hard at times, living among our Haitian neighbors has been the very best way for us to build relationships with them. In many ways it has been a blessing in disguise to live like our neighbors who mostly do not have sufficient power. These have been trying but wonderful learning experiences that God allowed us to have so that we could understand the people and culture we came to serve a little better. We better understand why things are the way they are and why people behave the way they do. We know they watch us and have seen us struggle alongside them. We feel the same joy and cheer from the porch along with our neighbors on the rare occasions the lights come on. We also know they think we are crazy for choosing this life. The poor do not like living in poverty. It is not fun and there is no romanticizing it away even with cherished memories of joyful cheers. Our choosing to live in a poor Haitian neighborhood is a world of difference away from the abject involuntary poverty that surrounds us. However, we did not choose to move and serve in Haiti so that we could live like the poor around us but to help them improve their lives spiritually, emotionally, and physically through a variety of ways. The district we live in only rarely receives even scant electricity that accompanies an imbalanced voltage problem. This voltage issue (which we have tried to remedy with regulators in the past) causes severe brownout and our appliances have already suffered its blows. Due to the scarcity of even the low voltage electricity received and location of our house, the option to install a transformer (not a cheap option either) has been ruled out. Solar panels are always suggested. We would love to be able to purchase and install large solar panels instead of a generator. While purchasing enough solar panels to store electricity would most likely cost as much as a generator, they would definitely save on expensive fuel required to run the generator. Unfortunately we cannot at this time figure out a way to install solar panels without a very high risk that those expensive panels will be stolen. Our neighbors can walk on to our house from their roof. If we were away from the house for only a few hours (not to mention a few days or months) we know we would face the sad experience other missionaries who have lived in this area have coming home to stolen solar panels. The generator must be delivered by a crane into our back yard. It weighs half a ton. It would be extremely difficult for someone to steal. Even when we lived on a secure compound with two 24 hr. armed security guards on patrol, we had all our batteries that store the electricity from the generator walk away from our house. We have not had this issue with our batteries at our new house because they are locked up securely inside our caged front porch. However, due to having very limited funds to purchase long lasting batteries (still were not cheap at a couple thousand dollars) when we arrived in St. Marc, our past battery investment bit the dust after only one year of use. We have maintained our $2,000 inverter which inverts the stored power from the batteries that are charged by the power source (city power, generator, or solar panels). Due to the severity of damage done to appliances (mostly our computers as we kept everything else unplugged) from the limited city power that does come in, we need to be able to get off the grid completely and only use our own source of electricity. Since solar panels are out for the time being, our only option is a generator and better batteries.
Several people have asked why we cannot simply purchase the same generator for $5,000 less in the states and ship it to Haiti? Well, we could. But...by the time we purchase, pay for shipping, processing, customs, and wait (possibly months) and then figure out how to somehow get the 1,000 pound generator off the boat with most likely a lot of fuss and hassle and more monies demanded, we will have spent close to or more than the $13,000 the generator costs to purchase in Haiti.
Others have asked why we need this particular expensive generator? If we were to purchase a different brand that may be cheaper we would have major issues on a regular basis and spend more time and money on parts and labor. We say this based on the testimonies of many others we have watched go through this who have advised and encouraged us what would give us the best output for the money without us continually having to put more money, time, and energy into it. Some have suggested purchasing a good brand but maybe a smaller generator that we would have to run more often. We have a large house in Haiti. We have had an average of 9-20 people living/staying in this house consistently. All of these people have needs in order to keep them fed, rested, clean and healthy. It is not possible to provide refrigeration to keep foods fresh, fans to combat the extreme heat and mosquitos we live with year round, or running water without electricity. The only way to provide sufficient electricity to such a large household that will allow us to run all of our appliances and charge the batteries at the same time (therefore saving expensive gas and time spent facilitating the running of all these things) is to purchase a large generator that can handle that load. It will blow the breaker if we run it on a smaller generator.
We hope this answers any questions and concerns about why we are budgeting so much for this need. We have researched what will work best to run the household and be most cost effective in the long run. After checking on current pricing we have budgeted $13,000 to purchase the generator in Haiti, $5,000 for 12 good batteries costing $400 each, and are estimating that it may cost up to another $2,000 for delivery of the generator from Port au Prince to St. Marc, purchasing cords and attachments and installation. This is where we are getting the $20,000 budget.

Elisabeth and the kids are scheduled to return to Haiti in less than a month. Eric needs to book his ticket to arrive in Haiti even earlier in the next three weeks in order to be able to get personal affairs (such as repairs and Lord willing the purchase and installation of a generator) completed at the house before teacher workshops, trainings, and the start of school commences in early September and our family and five others preparing to come live and serve with us arrive on the scene. We honestly do not know how this is going to happen but we are trusting that God will provide a way, one way or another. While the HOW? is our biggest unknown, our knowns are much bigger this time around. Perhaps that is the problem. It is easier not to know. When we first left for Haiti we didn't know what we were getting into exactly and it was exciting. We didn't much know what to expect so we didn't expect much. Gone is the exhilarating enchantment of venturing into unknown adventure.

We know that what we easily expect could happen is much scarier than this dude that roams our street selling machetes to our neighbors who would chop our dogs in two without a second thought.
We know cause this has almost happened more than once.

Dogs are one thing. People are another. We won't go into what we personally have experienced in the way of scares here. Perhaps that will be for a later book at a much later time when our mothers are no longer with us. When friends and family voiced their fears of Eric going to Israel in the midst of a war this past month, we were thinking, "do you have any idea what where we live?" Israel executes self defense forces and has bomb shelters everywhere. Have you ever seen Israel ranking in the top 10-15 most dangerous countries in the world? Haiti tops the charts in several Google searches over recent years at numbers 4, 9, and 13. A bit unnerving if one focuses on this. We don't...most of the time. It isn't machete man but Chikungunya which "has been merciless in Haiti" that is our most fearful concern with returning in the next few weeks. While nearly everyone on the island has suffered the Chikungunya epidemic in the months we have been away and it is said to be declining, we know there is still a high risk our family could be added to the victim list. We have sought wisdom from other missionaries/medically knowledgeable friends in Haiti who have been battling and researching this personally. We are going to do everything we can to up our immune systems and prevent getting bitten by mosquitos carrying this debilitating virus when we return. We are moving ahead with plans to return as scheduled because Haiti is our home where God has us and we need to be back there as soon as possible. While it is difficult not to fear the ramifications and lingering damage from this new physical threat that will be very difficult to avoid, it is not having the means to deal with the sickness should we get it that we will not be able to handle well under our current situation. It is that knowing thing again. It is one thing for unforeseeable sickness to come upon you. It is another thing to walk into it knowing what it will be like. We imagine what it will be like if (and likely, but Lord please no, when) we have 6 members of our family unable to move from bone crushing pain, covered in fever and rash, along with the 5 others coming to live with us down with this sickness...WITH NO FANS TO COOL US OFF, NO RUNNING WATER TO CLEAN US OFF, ETC. ETC. ETC. While we know that a generator will not necessarily prevent us getting sick from mosquito born illnesses (though it could lessen our chances if we are able to keep mosquitos at bay with fans), we know that in the event we get sick we will be able to survive it with much better if we have a generator at our home.

We are not asking for luxuries like air conditioning and hot water (although that would be nice). We would just like running water that doesn't come directly from this hole in the ground. The water will still come from this hole but it is possible (with a generator) that it can be pumped up to the roof and down through an actual shower in a real bathroom!

We have never before been afraid to visit or live in Haiti. But we are there now. God always finds new ways to stretch us doesn't He? We know we can camp in heat and mosquitos. We have done it before and we can do it again (though by God's grace we have never yet done it sick). We are still planning to head back to our Haiti home in the next month. We are really hoping we can head back knowing that we can purchase a generator and batteries for our home. We know it will take a small miracle for that to happen. We have been busy speaking at churches, to individuals and groups all summer and fundraising for our return to Haiti. We have raised $6,516.44 that has been designated specifically for the generator and batteries. We still have places to go and people to visit in the upcoming weeks. We are pretty travel weary to say the least after just returning to Texas last night. We know that our meager efforts to come up with another $13,483.56 in the next 3 weeks is not going to happen without a miracle. We are praying for that and asking you to join us please! We would like to ask you to share with your friends, family, Sunday school classes, clubs and groups about any possible fundraising projects to help us reach our goal of purchasing a generator and batteries before September. Click THIS LINK for more information on how to give a tax deductible donation in whatever way is best for you. Please continue to pray for us and that we would have a peace that surpasses our understanding (fears and known threats) even if this funding is not fully met before we need to return to Haiti.

We are tempted to feel stranded, to give in to sinking fear.
But we must, we must remember...

"Hold us in quiet through the age-long minute

While Thou art silent, and the wind is shrill:

Can the boat sink while Thou, dear Lord, art in it?

Can the heart faint that waiteth on Thy will?"

 

Amy Carmichael

 

***All photos in this post were taken by us in our Haiti neighborhood.

Where God Guides...

"Where God Guides, He Provides...So Trust God" was the theme of a VBS at one of our special stops this summer spending time and serving with our friends in Crossroads, TN. It has continued as the theme of our summer as God continues to guide us all over the place! We have enjoyed our time with everyone we have been able to see in eleven states and three countries so far! We are so thankful for these relationships and the time so many you of have invested to share your lives with us. God has created us for relationships. He uses relationships at all levels to draw us closer to Him and through that relationship draw us closer to one another. Oh how we wish we'd been able to blog about all the places God has guided and provided for us during our travels in detail. Everyone has been so wonderful. We truly have the best friends and family in the world...all over the world. My grandma who is now with Jesus used to say everything was the best. "He is the best baby! This the best cake! That was the best sermon! Oh honey, it is just the best!" She said that about every baby and every thing she experienced everywhere she went! Everywhere we have been we have felt that it was just the very best. And then we enter another home and that was the best too! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to all of you who have loved and served us the past few months! You're the best!

"I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now." Philippians 1:3-5

Through you God has provided the following answered prayers!
-One family decided that they could do without their suburban for two months and graciously allowed us to use it to travel from Illinois to Canada and back.
-Another family added phones on their family phone plan and mailed the phones where we first landed so we could use them for the summer. These phones also served as our GPS to get us everywhere we needed to go.
-Another family used their job benefits to help us get cheap flights on standby that got all of us and our many bags back to Texas after we returned the borrowed vehicle.
-Several friends and supporting churches have provided homes and hotels, food, fun, fellowship, and many additional treats (Disney World, zoo, beach, the gift of new family photos, Braves game, Gatlinburg/Smoky Mountains, drive in theatre double features, Summer camp for kids in Canada, Six Flags) along the way. Anything our children may have felt they missed the past three years spent in Haiti was made up for all in one summer and our girls got to relive a great deal of the childhood they never had. These special times have meant so much to us!
Because of your amazing hospitality we have been able to save a good portion of what we thought we would need to spend on the road and regular monthly expenses. We have saved nearly enough to pay the yearly rent on our Haiti house. We are very thankful for this and that our landlord has been gracious in granting us extra time.
Right now we have raised 1/3 of our fully funded monthly budget to be able to serve in Haiti well for the long haul. We are praising God for His provision and trusting Him to continue to provide for where He guides our family and yours in His perfect plan.

Other praises...
-There is a strong possibility we have a family of four and another young man coming to serve alongside us this upcoming semester in Haiti! We are excited about what God has in the works! 
-Kofael continues to progress and the loans needed for the rest of the summer are fully funded from donations and as the women have been faithful in paying back their loans. A team led by our mission organization assisted with the Kofael meeting in Haiti this past month. We are thrilled they were able to be there to encourage the women and be encouraged by this ministry.

Prayer request...
-Eric will be traveling to Israel July 22nd-August 5th. This trip has been planned for a long time. If you have been watching the news you know this is not the best time to go. However, Eric, Scott (who is traveling with Eric and leaving for Africa straight from Israel), and the HGIM leadership team believe they will be able to accomplish the goals of the trip. We have many contacts in Israel that will be able to help them do so as safely as possible. Please pray for their travels and safe return as you pray for the peace of Jerusalem!
-A terrible new mosquito virus called "chikungunya", "chickV", and also "the bone crushing disease" has been plaguing the entire island of Haiti since around the time we left. Nearly every person we know in Haiti has suffered from this virus and most everyone who has suffered continues to have severe on-going pain from relapses weeks and months later. Please pray for their full recoveries and for this epidemic to end. Pray also for wisdom as we plan to return to Haiti soon with our family and do all we can to stay healthy so that we can continue to serve well.
-Pray for the funds to be able to purchase a large generator and batteries to come in the next month so that we can get this set up as soon as we return to meet the needs of our family and the five others coming to live and serve with us in Haiti. We do not see how it will be possible to function well and stay healthy (mosquitos stay away from fans but fans need electricity) to provide for such a large household without any electricity or running water. We have set up a separate fundraiser page for the generator. Please check it out HERE and pray with us for this big expensive need!

-Please pray for continued traveling mercies for us, for healing and direction for some of our family members going through difficult times, for the new partnerships God is bringing us in Haiti and financial provision for them as well, for us to trust God with all of these. Remembering, "Where God Guides, He Provides...SO TRUST GOD!"

Thanks to Lyndsey East for our first photos as a family in the U.S.!

Wherever Our Feet May Roam...

Three weeks in the US and three weeks in Haiti have the Ream Team split.  I am in Haiti.  My family, as many of you know, is in the US.  It is difficult to be separated as a family. Part of who I am is in two worlds not far apart geographically, but far apart in every other way.  It feels like I have one foot in Haiti and one foot in the USA.

Our family of six traveled to the USA for the first time together after waiting four years to be able to do so.  Watching my daughter Esmée as the plane started to move brought us all joy and excitement and tears to my eyes. 

Esmée is an American citizen!

We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, where Elisabeth and Esmée finished immigration in record time and met the rest of us who were still waiting for our luggage. We finally make our way to the front of the customs line and the immigration officer pulls us out of the moving line and asks us to wait. We explained that we were going to miss our connecting flight if we were detained any longer. They basically said they didn’t care and left us standing there for what seemed like forever before being escorted upstairs and detained further in the same room we had just completed our daughter’s immigration process. The officer who had just processed our paperwork argued, “A family of six? Wait! These two were just in here and I cleared their paperwork! What are they doing back in here?” Surely he must have known how many background checks we have been through in the past 4 years! The other officer said that something had come up and that they were waiting for their supervisor. We did our best to tame wild imaginings racking through our minds over what that “something” could possibly be while four wild and hungry children kept asking what the police were going to do to us and if we were still going to Texas. After an hour of waiting with knotted stomachs, I am pulled into an office and questioned about Haiti, the what, the why and the how of what I do and the same questions for every other country that is stamped on my passport (Israel, Jordan, Turkey, Dominican Republic, Mexico).  The officer questioning me was genial and seemed interested professionally and personally in my travels and what I was doing in those countries.  I had a great opportunity to share who God is and why my feet have been in several countries.  In a frustrating situation, I thank God that He helped me offer a kind response to the interrogating officer, and to plant or water a seed for the gospel.  Our long ago missed connecting flight began our separation as a family early. The rest of the day was almost as wild as we scrambled to make separate standby flights with kids perched all over the plane. Elisabeth and the kids made it to meet several supportive friends at the airport just a little later than scheduled. Thank you friends and family who welcomed us with smiles, signs and hugs increasing our joy to end this long wild ride with you. I eventually made it to Texas later that night. Though Chick-fil-A was already closed, I rejoiced that a double portion had been saved for me.

Our time in Texas reunited us with amazing friends and family, churches, eating too much food, making doctor visits and getting paperwork and evidence ready for another court proceeding pertaining to the girls' adoptions. The adoptions and citizenship had been completed but we needed to register both foreign decrees stateside in order to receive new birth certificates with their name changes and correct an error on Esmée’s birth date. This also allows us to no longer tote a large dossier of adoption paperwork with another stack of translations around with us! Our court appointment went well and everything is finished now.  Thank you to our family, friends, doctor, lawyers and God’s Littlest Angels for each step you walked with us to make this dream become a reality.

I arrived home in Haiti on April 8^th to the inconveniences of having no power for over two weeks at our house, major plumbing issues still not fixed, rainy season beginning and huge leaks in the roof. But never fear because help is on the way! Or so I thought. Our landlord was supposed to come over two weeks ago to assess and deal with the situation. We have not heard from him or anyone who was scheduled to fix some of these big issues in the house.  This is such a huge prayer request. We need to get these issues fixed and make a new contract before I leave in three weeks. Please pray that all these details will come together this week. We need to pay for at least one year’s rent at the signing of the new contract.  We need help, prayers, and participation right now to meet this need. We need 12 people that could commit to give a one time gift of $650.00 this month. Please contact us and/or visit our donate page on this blog if you desire to help. 

My foot in Haiti has been accomplishing some other more exciting things in the last few weeks.  I participated in my first graduating class as a volunteer principal at El Shaddai Learning Center. While it is hard to be away from my family, there are different things I am able to do when my family is not with me that are additional blessings.  I have had many great spiritual conversations with several of the 20 -30 year olds in our neighborhood while hanging outside late at night.  These guys said, “Eric, you hardly ever do this with us when your family is here” (late night conversations). That gave me another great opportunity to talk about the responsibility of a husband and a father in the home.  Please pray for these men who are not yet believers and are so open.  God is working!  I have been able to take some of them with me as I have traveled to other parts of Haiti since I do not have a car full of family.  For many of the guys it was their first time to visit these places even so close to home in their own country.  I had part of my discipleship group over to the house and took some of them to play tennis and swim one day.  Some had never been in a swimming pool, a nice grocery store, and definitely had never played tennis before. 

Guys in my discipleship group hanging at our house!

Fun times learning and loving on students!

Discipleship guys play tennis for the first time!

Thank you for helping us minister here and offer the gospel and a life devoted to serving the Lord! It is a wonderful blessing to build relationships with our neighbors, students and friends through fun experiences too! We pray that as they look back on these fun times they will always remember the conversations about the Savior that took place and remember to look to Him.

Our neighbor Stanley's first time in a pool!

I spent last Saturday with the women of our KOFAEL program. It is always an encouragement to see those with what looks like little praising our Lord for so much! This ministry continues to grow and be a blessing of provision for many Haitian families. Please continue in prayers and support for them. There is an immediate need for $2,400 in donations to provide for the next round of business loans that the women expect and have worked to receive. We need to be able to grant this money by next months meeting on May 31st. The women have been faithful to pay back their loans and sustain their businesses and families. This lack of funds is a deficit from the $250 per member we must raise to grant the loans in the first place. If you are interested in learning more about this ministry program and/or a tax deductible donation please visit kofael.org.

KOFAEL women praying together at the April meeting.

I felt your prayers this morning as I led school chapel. Two students confessed that they needed Christ and several more were strengthened in their desire to walk in Christ!  The Holy Spirit is busy working!

Both of my feet will be in the USA by the end of May.  We will be traveling in IL, FL, GA, TN, KY, IN, OH, NY, TX and Canada among other countries that I will travel to this summer.  We would love to see you and connect with you, your family, small group and church this summer. Our schedule is filling up quickly, but we will do our best to make room for you! Thank you for making room for us in your hearts and homes as we partner together to glorify God and make Him known around the world.

May your feet and ours be beautiful as we share the gospel of Jesus Christ wherever our feet may roam!

Romans 10: 14-15

 Eric

Ream Team Itinerary...We can't wait to see you!

Want to be the first to see us? This Tuesday, March 18th, is the big day! We invite friends and family to come to the Austin airport (see flight itinerary below) and welcome us back as a family of six! We would love to hug your necks! We plan to stop off and eat somewhere inexpensive, convenient, and kid friendly (if Eric gets his way it will be Chick-fil-A) nearby and can visit some more there! If you can't make it to the airport on a school night, we hope to see you soon! Here is the plan in a nutshell. We will all be around San Marcos/New Braunfels for the first two weeks after arrival and then spend the last week in the DFW area before Eric heads back to Haiti on April 8th. Elisabeth and the kids will be in San Marcos, TX, until they fly to VA on April 16th, and will then travel to KY and IL where Eric will rejoin us May 13th. We begin our journeys to FL, GA, TN, OH, NY and Canada between the end of May-mid July. Then we head back to TX, and Eric heads to Israel with our mission Heart of God International Ministries. He will return from Israel in mid August and we will have a few weeks in TX, before we head back to Haiti! Please pray for us to finish packing the next few days, for our hearts and others that we are saying hard good byes to, for the people and ministries that we are leaving behind during these months, for safe travels, that immigration will go smoothly in Ft. Lauderdale (we only have about an hour to get through or we will miss our next flight), and for all of us to do well with all these travels and transitions! Please read THIS post if you have not done so and plan to see us! Thank you for your faithful prayers over the past four years that we have waited for this day! We cannot wait to share our joy with you!

Your Itinerary

Carrier	Flight Number	Departing		Arriving		Booking Code	Meals
		City	Date & Time	City	Time
AMERICAN AIRLINES	1158	PAP Port Au Prince	Mar 18, 2014 09:15 AM	FLL Fort Lauderdale	Mar 18, 2014 11:30 AM	N	N/A
AMERICAN AIRLINES	1337	FLL Fort Lauderdale	Mar 18, 2014 12:50 PM	DFW Dallas/ Fort Worth	Mar 18, 2014 03:05 PM	O	Food for Purchase
AMERICAN AIRLINES	1670	DFW Dallas/ Fort Worth	Mar 18, 2014 05:35 PM	AUS Austin	Mar 18, 2014 06:30 PM

"Can I flush the toilet paper?"...some thoughts, fears, and hopes about coming "home".

The other night my youngest crawled in bed with me. He had a lot going on inside his little head. We all do right now.

“Mommy, I am sad to leave Haiti because I am really going to miss my friends at school. I will miss Daly and Brownie too. I’m scared. What if my friends don’t remember me when I come back? What if our dogs don’t remember us?”
I say, “They will remember you. You are one hard boy to forget!”
“But mommy, my friend Z didn’t remember me when I saw him at the beach. I spent all of Kindergarten and some of first grade with him and he didn’t even know me!”
I reminded Evan that Ethan didn’t remember most of his first grade class when we went back to visit the U.S. sixteen months later. I reminded him that a lot of people come to visit us in Haiti and we sometimes have a hard time remembering their names too. This didn’t make reassurances any better. This is the bittersweet reality that generally plays out when you live and have friends all over the world. Having friends all over the world is awesome. Wondering where you fit in when you re-enter your friend’s world can sometimes be sad and scary. Your old spots have been taken and many things have changed. We want to feel the welcome in “welcome home” but to be honest the home part seems really awkward. We probably won’t feel “home”. The reality is that we will be living out of suitcases for the next five months, away from our norm, away from our home. We believe it will be good. But it will be weird. Our girls have spent very little (as in only five weeks) to zero time in their entire lives away from our Haiti home. Our boys don’t remember as much as one might expect them to and certainly aren’t up to speed with all the changes that have happened since they left.

"Friendship is a place where we go to grow

where it is safe to sprout wings,

and shed old skins,

and try our voices

in new, uncertain notes."



People change. We spent a lot of time with my sister Erin and her husband Jesse before we move to Haiti. There are many memories still fresh and frozen in our minds exactly as we left them. Auntie Erin and Uncle Jesse have moved twice and have had a baby since then. Jesse also recently lost two of his fingers in an accident at work so he is unable to do some of the things (like play guitar with Evan) that the boys remember fondly. As much as we have talked about the miracle of baby Hannah and that now we can help Auntie Erin and not just let her cater to our every whim, it is hard to imagine things different than they were before. I am thinking of many others whose families and lives have changed quite a bit as well. We tend to freeze frame the people and places that are super special to us at the time we leave them. I remind the boys they also have added two sisters and that most of our friends and family have never witnessed us in our dramatic life changes either. I think part of the scary is the anticipation that we are coming “home” after waiting so long to do so with both of our girls. It isn’t how we first imagined it and we don’t know exactly how it will be. But we know it will be so great to all be together…finally!

Places change. The last time I was home with three of the kids we traveled through several states. We got lost in DFW, Texas looking for the dentist that should have been right where I left it when we moved from there eight years ago. It was. I just didn’t recognize any of the roads. They had all changed so much! Elita Marguerite remarked, “But mom, I thought you knew Texas!” I felt like saying, “Do you know every road in Haiti??? Well, Haiti is just a speck on the map compared to Texas!”

Our current little corner of the world is so…little. We are used to little. We are certain to feel like specks in America, especially since we plan to take the road trip a great deal farther this time around. We are currently scheduling travels in not only the giant state of TX, but then VA, IL, KY, FL, GA, TN, OH, NY, and Canada. The majority of us have been to less than half or none of all these places. Think fish out of water. That will be us.

"Friendship is a ship

where we may search together

the same horizons;

one seeing sky,

the other water,

where they meet."

Think about if you were to come to Haiti. Almost everything looks and feels different. But it is pretty normal to us now. So you may hear us ask silly things like all of the following that have actually been asked by us (so I'm suspecting it could happen again).
“Oh you are from Oregon? (Long pause after a “yes” response.) What country is that?”, “Do you have a shower?”, “Is there hot water here?”, “Can I flush the toilet paper?”, “Is it ok to use the microwave?”, “Is it ok to use the hair dryer?”, “You know how to pump gas?”

We all might do things you might think are really weird or even possibly rude.

For example, in America we always took our shoes off inside our house and many friends houses. In Haiti we almost always leave our shoes on inside the house. In America we always flushed the toilet after use. In Haiti we only flush the toilet when we can no longer stomach the smell. In Haiti kids are on the rougher side. They have to be to survive. Our kids live around and go to school with rough kids. Sometimes our kids are overly rough too. Haiti is really loud. So are we. Our kids have been conditioned (against their parents will) to believe that in the event we are blessed with electricity, video games and movies should be taken advantage of during the entirely of this blessed time. Therefore they are very much looking forward to 24/7 electricity. I greatly fear their minds have concocted the notion that they will be electronically stimulated 24/7 when we enter America for the entirety of our stay. This is a completely normal notion and response for a Haitian. Whenever the electricity comes on, everyone who was outside sitting, selling or just yelling goes inside to watch television and movies and do nothing else (other than maybe some ironing or hair straightening/curling while watching television). I kid you not. Don’t think that because Haiti is poor that almost everyone doesn’t own a television. They do. Or they are at their neighbors watching.

Different sometimes scares us. I remember dealing with this when Elita Marguerite arrived stateside and both girls asking questions when they were alarmed at seeing their grandparents fenceless four acre yard on Skype. Although you might not feel safe if you come to Haiti, our kids may not feel safe at your house if you have neither a tall concrete wall with barbed wire or broken bottles patrolling the top or a security guard with a machete and gun (or at least a dog that growls and barks a lot like we do).

Our kids might refer to money as “one dollar Ameriken?, Haitian dolla?, or gourde. They might be freezing in air conditioning in July in Texas. Our girls have little to zero experience with machines that do the work of people for things like laundry or dishes. I’m sure that none of these things will be an overly obvious big deal. But we will be adapting and processing them all, just like you would be adapting to the cold water cup bath in December if you came to Haiti then. It’s still a shock to your system no matter how much you think you are prepared for it. I’m imagining that we will all be in a similar state of shock that will be prolonged by five months. Five months is about as long as it took me to begin getting used to Haiti. Though I think the U.S. and Canada will probably afford much softer blows, it will be hard to adjust to each new place and then readjust to Haiti all over again. Giant prayer request that we will all do well with this.



"Friendship is a place to hide in,

to abide in-

not to escape the world,

but to face it well."



I know we will be tired. Traveling is tiring. Plus we are not used to leading the busy American life. We are busy in Haiti but it is different. There is an end at the end of the day. We hardly ever go out at night. We simply can’t do some things or get anything else accomplished due to a blocked road, a closed shop, a limited supply of water or gasoline, a political manifestation, and not having electricity to run anything. We don’t have 10-10,000 options like 24 hour Wal-Mart. I can’t even think of a single place in our town to go plug in my computer to charge. As I write this I have traveled to the next town over and have plugged in at a beach resort (lucky me to have such an excuse as consecutive days without electricity). While this is super frustrating at times it is also very freeing. We sit and read nearly every night with our family by flashlight or candles. We go to bed early. There is nothing more we can do and little pressure to do the impossible that very moment. I know we won’t have these “freedoms” in the states in the same way. A lot of effort goes into “finding time”. We are already feeling this pressure begin to creep in while just penciling out our tentative summer schedule. There is the tendency to leave almost no margin. We know we are going to have to push through to accomplish our goals and be able to come back to Haiti by September. We believe it is ok to have seasons of push and pressure. We are looking forward to having a ton of fun too but the truth is, when I look back at the intensely pressure yet productively filled seasons in my life, those get-you-to-the-next-thing times, I don’t wish to come home to them. I’m thankful for those times but more thankful that I survived them and that they are over. I am trying really hard to be more excited about this trip than that. I just don’t have much of a reference point (other than focusing on the faces I desperately long to see again). So we shall see. The scary part for me stems from my warped childhood observances of many a missionary family that came to stay with our family. All I could see was that the parents looked incredibly exhausted. The mom's looked unraveled and homely. Their tyrant children were climbing the walls, breaking our toys, abusing our pets, and constantly asking if there was more food or turning their noses up at what was served. I remember staring at the floor and seeing the toenails of one missionary man. The few that remained were hideously long and so thick I gathered they refused to be cut. These are the memories that stuck in my head of missionary families. If there was anything I didn't want to be it was a missionary. My childhood perceptions of missionaries were critically warped and not based on anything they did on the mission field. I was only judging what I saw in my own home, in my own comfort zone, with no compassion to the fact that they were not in theirs. In hindsight I understand why parents were tired, children went crazy at our house that had five children, lots of toys, and was a place they could let loose after traveling for days, weeks, or months by the point they reached us.

And now I know this could easily be us.

Whether it is out of my own insecurities of what others might think due to potential weird and wild behavior by our tribe, or the simple desire to not turn others off to missions and therefore the Great Commission, I just really don't want that to be us. It is probably one of my worst fears because since childhood I have dreaded becoming "one of those". But here I am. Here we come. Heaven help us!

Change is hard anywhere. Whether we feel ready or not, we are about to embrace it head on! We are way more excited than scared but please bear with us in the process and love us even if we are really weird in all your homes away from home. We are all most excited about seeing dear friends and family…especially those who have helped keep us going through many encouragements these past years as Haiti became our home. We are excited to visit your homes and lives and learn from you. We hope to encourage you too.
In all honesty, while Haiti is our current home, we don’t always feel at home here either. Our family looks different than others. We act different from our neighbors. Expats are spread out. Even those friends that we relate to most we don’t get to see often if ever in Haiti. We are almost always odd man out. The other day my daughter came home from school and said, “I don’t feel like I belong anywhere anymore.” I told her I knew how she felt. She believed me. We talked about how Jesus traveled around and how he didn’t feel welcome when he visited his home town of Nazareth. If the One who made the whole earth felt that way then we should expect to feel this way too. Our journey is not about us. It is about Him. Our ambition is that we will bring honor and glory to our Savior wherever we are. Thank you for being part of our journey until the day we can say we are truly finally home..."for our citizenship is in heaven" (Philippians 3:20). We eagerly await being present with you all soon!

"Therefore we make it our aim,

whether present or absent,

to be well pleasing to Him."

2 Corinthians 5:9

*Quotes are taken from the book Friend Raising by Betty Barnett

Countdown

We are exactly one month away from our highly anticipated trip to the U.S.A. for the first time as a family of six! We are so excited to be reunited with loved ones and experience new things as a family. The plan is for Eric to be with us for a few weeks and then return to work in Haiti until at least mid May. He will then join our family for our summer furlough and fundraising. Our need and commitment is to return to Haiti sometime around the end of August or early September. We have been working through planning an intensely packed travel schedule that we believe will allow us to connect with both current and hopefully new supporting friends, family, and churches. Our goal is to come back to Haiti fully funded with a support system that will enable us to continue full time ministry in Haiti. Our home is still in Haiti. Our house (and everything in it), pets, and the Haitians that live and work with us will stay behind and take care of everything while we are away. KOFAEL women’s microloan ministry will continue under the leadership of our friends and Haitian co-founders. We will continue regular meetings with them through phone and computer. Eric will be with us over Spring Break but is returning to Haiti to help wrap up the school year admin duties at El Shaddai Learning Center, preach at a couple of churches, teach pastors and English classes and finish up some discipleship responsibilities. Then he will make sure everything else at home is ready to leave for the remainder of the summer months. The students and teachers at El Shaddai will be out of school for the summer months and will resume in September. English classes and discipleship ministries will resume after the summer months.

There are some needs we will have when we first arrive in Texas and throughout our summer travels. We are looking for friends and family who can help us out with any of the following.

 

Immediate needs upon arrival in Texas:

Large vehicle that can seat at least our family of six with seatbelts. We would need use of the vehicle March 18^th-April 8^th (or at least some of that time). We will arrive in Austin and will be traveling no farther than the Dallas area between these dates. The vehicle would need to come from the Austin-San Antonio area.

 

U.S. phones and service plan.  If you have an old smart phone (unlocked iphone would be best so we could later use it in Haiti as well)you are not using or have room on your current plan just to add us through the summer this would be very helpful.

 

Clothes and shoes for each member of our family. We will not be bringing much with us from Haiti. The clothes and shoes we arrived with or have acquired are mostly completely worn out or no longer fit our children. If anyone has hand-me-down children’s clothes and shoes or wants to take us shopping or gift us clothing store gift cards that would be awesome!

 *Girl’s clothes sizes junior 12-14. Girl’s shoes size 6.

 *Boy’s clothes sizes 6/7, 7/8, and 8/10. Boy’s shoes sizes (Need to wait on this one. They keep growing so this could change in the next month.)

 

Haiti ministry video. We need help from someone who has the computer software and knowhow to take our Haiti video recordings and pictures and create (alongside Eric) a well done ministry video that we can present at churches during our summer travels. This needs to be accomplished between March 20^th-April 1^st by someone living in the Austin-San Antonio region. San Marcos or New Braunfels would be preferable since that is where we will be staying.

 

Other big needs:

 

Yearly rent on Haiti house due. The rent for our house in Haiti has to be paid on a yearly basis. Rent for our house from May 2014-May 2015 is $8,000. We need to pay for this as well as 3 months of bills and supplies to keep the house running before Eric comes back to the states in May. We are praying for provision to help meet this upcoming financial need. The monthly amount for this payment is in our budget in order to save for this payment each year. However, our current monthly support is only at 17% of meeting our total budget making paying this in full very difficult.

 

Large vehicle (needs to seat 6-8 with plenty of room for luggage) to rent or borrow for our long ministry road trip. We will begin and conclude (if needed to return vehicle) our road trip in Illinois. If you are in central Illinois area and happen to have such a vehicle that would be available for us to use May 21^st-second week in July or you have connections with a company that rents vehicles that could give us a super deal, this would bless us tremendously.

 

Place for our family to stay near Venice, Florida May 22-31^st.

 

Please pray for our upcoming travels and transitions. We have some other prayer request regarding transitioning our family back to the states and will share our thoughts on that soon. We are committing in the next month to pray and do our best to prepare our kids for what is to come. Please pray for us during this time of planning and preparing to the best of our ability. We look forward to seeing many of you very soon!

When You Walk by the Way (Part 2)





I rose to my alarm clock of roosters and dogs early Monday morning. Eric was getting ready to head out the door to leave for the Port au Prince airport. The boys asked to tag along and I scrambled to find something for their breakfast in a hurry. "Cereal?" "Nope, cause someone forgot to chill the fake boxed milk." "Oatmeal?" "Too much of that our first year in Haiti". "Peanut butter and bread?" "Nope, we are out of peanut butter." "Will it be just bread then?" "Eggs! We have a few eggs!" Scrambled eggs to fit our scrambled lives. Plans had changed this morning. Eric was supposed to be picking up luggage in the cargo van for the Walker's large team arriving and then waiting with the luggage to pick up our Heart of God team arriving later in the afternoon. However, the polar vortex decided to reroute the schedules of almost everyone this week, even those of us who can't keep ice from melting in our freezer! Flights were canceled and now the team is coming Sat.-Mon. instead of Mon.-Wed. No problem. We are all about being flexible around here. So Eric and the boys took off and I was left with the girls and our plans to prepare for guests which we could not do because food doesn't last that long around here, nor does a clean house. I had been in quite a grumpy funk (see part 1 of THIS post) for the better part of the last week. One more reason not listed in grumpy funk post is that my children have been out of school for 3 weeks. I love my children dearly and spending lots of time with them. But 3 weeks spent primarily in a house in a Haitian neighborhood (lots of sensory overload going on) without much electricity and not enough planned structure leaves at least half my children climbing the walls and me wanting to climb out of my skin. But today would be different. The unplanned opportunity to get out of the house instead of cooking and cleaning the morning away seemed too good to be true. I truly do love hosting guests in our home, but this change of plans was definitely what we needed this week.




So the girls and I headed out for a 3 mile walk around our community. We love this beautiful walk. But sometimes the things we see, hear, and experience on these walks take a few days, sometimes weeks to process before we do it again. There are realities that are so hard here that you just don't ever get used to them. I think I understand better than I once did. But the longer I am here the more I understand that I really don't know and will never fully understand.

One thing we see a lot of is naked people. The word for person in creole is "moun". We often joke about the moun moons. I am constantly reminded of the story of David and Bathsheba in the Bible and how as a child I couldn't quite comprehend how King David just happened to see this woman bathing on her roof. Now that is something that I do understand fully. What I don't understand is how with so much unavoidable anatomical education going around how sex education could be so lacking...at least for my girls. Don't get me wrong. I am VERY thankful to get to be the one who does the educating. We are somewhat surprised at how little they actually understand given where they have lived the majority of their lives. There are many things they may have seen but just blocked. They blocked a lot. We were thankful that they wanted and needed to still be little girls when they joined our family two years ago and they were definitely not ready for certain conversations. Also because of the way our girls have been manipulated spiritually and watched those in positions of spiritual authority abuse others and preach a false Gospel for the majority of their lives, we have been very cautious in giving them time to grow and discern spiritual things, the Gospel according to Scripture, and what they believe and embrace for themselves. We always hope for opportunities where our children feel free to ask questions and pray we be able to answer in the right way at the right time. But like Jesus, we sometimes have to get away and ask questions to get them to ask questions.

And I'm off on a tangent. And that tangent does have a point. But I'm having a hard time making connections. Obviously. Like I said, sometimes those walks take a few days-weeks to process.

So we set off on our walk, the girls and I. It was a beautiful day and we all remarked how good it felt just to get out. I told them I was sorry for being so grumpy lately and that I was really happy to just spend the day with them. We made small talk as we climbed the hill overlooking the ocean and came around the bend past the beach. We came upon a mother goat who had just given birth. I was excited. The girls were like, "What? It's not like we haven't seen a goat before." But then the mama goat turned around and they noticed something hanging from the goats behind. It was the sack the baby just came out of. They said, "Eeeewwww! That is SO gross!" The mother goat was licking the afterbirth off the baby when all of a sudden another baby begin to emerge. The girls and I stood a few feet away watching the wondrous event. I was mesmerized for a brief moment until I heard Elita shriek, "I can't see! Oh! I can't stand! I can't see!" Knowing the drama queen that she can be I responded with, "just drink some water" and handed her my bottle while still watching the goat birthing process. When two sacks hung from the goats behind I looked over to see her swaying back and forth with her eyes rolling back in her head. I caught her just in time and made her sit on the side of the path with her face to the ocean and her back to the goats. Esmée and I stood and watched some more and talked to Elita over our shoulders. I said, "I know we have talked about it before, but now you have seen how a baby is born." "And it is disgusting!" returned Esmée. "And I am never having a baby! If that goat having a baby almost made me go to heaven, then I know I can't do that!" returned Elita. "Well I think it is about time you girls leaned about the birds and the bees" said I. "Oh I already learned all about those." said Elita. "Oh really?" said I. "Yes the birds fly..." continued Elita. "Not THOSE birds and bees. It's an expression used to talk about something else." "What else?" "Well, I know you know how the baby comes out but do you know how the baby gets in?" "Um. No." they say. "Do you want to know?" I ask. "Um. No." they say. "Well, Dad and I think it is about time you know before someone else tells you who might not tell you in the best way. And since when are my girls who used to pluck their own eating chickens so squeamish?" "What does squeamish mean?" "It means you can't watch a baby goat being born without almost passing out!"


We didn't talk all about the birds and the bees on Monday and I am still praying about the "best way". But I was reminded in those moments as I allowed myself to be fully present that God will grant us opportunities to teach our children as we walk along the way if our eyes and hearts are open and ready to receive these gifts. As we continued to watch the beautiful gift of life in our moments with those goats and talk about it this verse came to the front of my mind.


"You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up." Deuteronomy 11:19

 

Welcome to the world baby goat!

I'll spare you the behind shot that proves these two were just born.
Here mama is cleaning off the second born and the firstborn is nursing for the first time.

This group of boys approached as we were getting ready to leave. They whispered to each other trying to determine which one would ask the white lady with the camera for money. The smallest boy was selected from the group and bravely approached me with the one thing every Haitian has learned in English, "You give me one dolla".



Many times when we walk along the way we get open doors to teach others children too! These boys learned that the verb "to give" in Creole does not exactly translate as nicely in English. They learned that it would be better to ask, "May I please have". They learned that not every white person has "dolla" on their person at all times nor is it nice to ask at all times in all places to all white people. So they settled for asking for a picture (actually a few until I showed them one they liked) which was much more appropriate for the occasion. They also got to learn all about the goat birthing experience they had just missed!

As we walked home I asked Elita what she meant when she said, "that goat almost made me go to heaven" because a few weeks ago she said she didn't think she would go to heaven and since has been studying more about that subject. She answered, "because if I went into a coma from passing out from that goat and I didn't wake up again I would go to heaven". I asked, "what makes you think you would go to heaven"? She said, "because I believe that Jesus died for MY sins and was buried and rose again...and I don't just believe it but I decided to accept and trust it with all my heart". Trying to fight the tears I asked, "when did you decide that?" and she answered, "I've been deciding it for awhile but now I really know for sure". "That's SO wonderful honey! I can't wait to talk about it more!" She said, "yeah, I was kind of waiting till we go to the states because I figured I would get a bigger celebration there, but then I just couldn't wait anymore". LOL!




I wonder how long we would have gone without having this conversation if our schedule would have gone as originally planned and we had not taken this walk this day. Thank you Lord for orchestrating our days and opening our hearts to accept changed plans as gifts from you.




The next day Elita came home from school and the first thing she said was, "Mom, everyone at school kept asking me all day why I always had such a big smile all the time and I told them it is because I have the joy of Jesus in my heart!"

I pray this all over the place post rambling about rooster and dogs, what's for breakfast, scrambled schedules, naked people, baby goats, and beggar boys helps someone else think through their days and how God can bring all these things together to fill us up with the joy of Jesus ..."when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up" too. As you celebrate the gift of life today, find ways to talk about His ultimate gift of eternal life that is our hope and source of joy as we walk along the way.