Thanksgiving in December

With the mixed up feeling of the holidays this just seems to blend right in...

It may be Christmas-time now, but we seem to be reliving Thanksgiving this month. Your outpouring of love & support has knocked us over!!!! We’ve bounced continuously between tearful & speechless over the past week, with God’s faithfulness and provision!

He has provided ALL that we need to cover the rent advance by World Orphans and a nice chunk to start the house repairs with. We also have new supporters and some current ones increasing to help keep us on the field this coming year. In addition, a whirlwind holiday plan has risen up that is completely unexpected, but something that is making us each smile!

Rebecca got a short notice call to fly to CA for a nursing strike over the holidays. It is all expenses paid and lands her in Northern CA for a week of work that gives us an extra boost on the early 2013 monthly lack (if needed), or allows a tiny bit of “savings” for a rainy day, or whatever else God reveals... We find that He ALWAYS has plans for His resources here in Haiti!

While none of us wants to be away from home for long, we have all been needing a brief period of rest & renewal. As you might know, Ana is flying Ted up to Germany for a much needed visit with her & Oliver. (He thinks he will like the “cold” weather – at least he used to!) I have been REALLY missing family in CA & feeling a need to share with family, friends & supporters there, what God has been doing here.  Tynan was just saying how he wished that he could see his college-aged friends in TX, while they are all home on break & Em began starting to pray a month ago over how she might afford a trip to see her cousins in Rhode Island  this spring, for a time of fellowship & encouragement.

Well it very unexpectedly looks like all of that is going to happen! It also (God is so monumentally cool) means that we (the kids & I) won’t have to be here on our own without Ted & in a new place that isn’t up & running smoothly yet. That was a small concern that we can lay aside now. Waldring, or co-worker has even agreed to “house-sit” and care for the animals for a short time while we're away.

So, as of tomorrow, I will head out first for a week of work then up to spend time with my parents, siblings, family & friends…  Ted & the kids will have a quiet Christmas here with Callie, our intern and get our stuff moved over to the new house. Then on Dec 27^th they will fly to FL together. Ted will go on to Germany. Tynan has a friend that will fly down to help him drive our truck back up to TX for inspection & registration (another small concern that will be taken care of!) and longer term storage. Em is confidently waiting to hear back from the “cousins” about a trip north. We will all meet up on January 7^th in FL again ready to fly home with a fresh start & to host Wheaton Academy - our first (& biggest) team of the year!

It may sound a little complicated & crazy, but we are TRULY excited about each getting to spend a little personal time nourishing our souls.

We are feeling washed anew by both the generosity and the joy of renewed fellowship the rest of this month. We hope & pray that your holidays will be a season of deep refreshment & blessing too.

Merry Christmas!!!!

Rebecca (journalling for us all...)

Art class for orphans - self portraits

World Orphans puts a high value on holistic care for the orphans in their programs - so going beyond the essentials and making sure that the kids' needs are being met spiritually, emotionally and physically.

It's been fabulous to have Callie Himsl here as our current long term intern. Callie came on a Journey 117 trip last year and had it laid on her heart to do more. At the end of August, she packed up life in So. California, left her job and moved here. She lives & works with us here as we reach out to children, churches, and communities to help stop the cycle of the orphan.

Here is a glimpse of her work in one of our churches yesterday:

 Art class - part 1

Art class - part 2

Art class worship

Art work slide show

The first Safe Birth training follow up

One of our goals this month is to get around to each of the churches that sent ladies to the Safe Birth training at the end of October.  I am hoping to meet up with them in a more personal setting to touch base and see what their feedback is from the training, what skills they have been able to use, what they are struggling with and answer any questions.

Today was my first chance to get to sit down with a few of them!

Meet…the Safe Birth team from Pastor Gaston's church:

(left to right) Mickerline, Ginette, Celiane & Jeannise, known as “FiFi”

So, I opened our time together by asking them how things were going.

Celiane, sitting in the middle, quickly, but timidly raised her hand. Her face lit up as she stated that 8 days after the training...she delivered her niece’s baby. Wow!  

C's niece considered going to the hospital, but didn’t because she was scared (the hospitals here are known for extremely rude & disrespectful treatment of patients) Then her labor progressed too far for her to travel safely. Celiane said that she was nervous, but remembered everything, even how to deliver the placenta which was "a little challenging". It was her first time even attending a birth!! She glowed as she shared the details of bringing her “great niece” into the world.

Two other women had been using their blood pressure monitoring skills. Ginette helped her neighbor who had mild blood pressure issues. Mickerline said that her mom (Ginette) wasn’t feeling well, so she took her blood pressure and found it was dangerously high according to what we had taught. She knew to take her mom to the doctor immediately & said that the MD confirmed the BP reading, gave her medicine & now she is much better.

We talked further about various health issues, continuing skills development, and teamwork. Then I prayed over them and asked God to go before them with wisdom and protection as ministry opportunities arose. One of their greatest concerns is that while they are willing to serve, they have seen others in their culture blamed & killed when something went wrong - even when it couldn’t be helped. They know not to offer any care beyond their basic training and only as a last resort for women that would otherwise be delivering alone. Yet they boldly trust God with the fact that every circumstance of providing help may put them at risk for retaliation.

Please keep all of these brave women in your prayers!

What a fabulous follow up. I can't wait to hear what the other 60 women have been up to now...

Rebecca

"Renovation Realities" - Haiti style

Some may be aware of our housing drama from a few facebook posts over the past week. For everyone else, here is the whole “scoop”…

Over the summer, we decided that at the end of our lease we needed to find a place that would be more suitable for the long term. In September, we located and began negotiating a contract on a different house to live in, that is very close to the current guest house.  It takes a long time here to finalize these things, so we got started early. Finally at the end of October, we gave our initial deposit, made a list of the needed repairs (it was an incomplete remodel from earthquake damage) and had the owner sign off his agreement to finish it out. We asked to move into the house by Nov 15^th, while fully prepared to give until the end of the month.

So, November 15^th came & went – NO surprise to us – then we began checking more frequently & found out that little to none of the repairs had been finished. We met again with the owner to find out when it would be done and were promised it would be ready by the end of the month.

Last week we were given notice that the owner of our original house wanted us out immediately. We had signed the rental agreement last year in November, but didn’t move in until Dec 28^th, so weren’t sure exactly when he expected us out, until the ultimatum came. We scrambled and put everything into moving out. Thankfully we had the guest house to fall back on, & no guests scheduled at the time!!

A double move is never ideal, but we find very few GOOD reasons to complain about our life here in comparison to others’.  So began the wait…more visits to the owner …to the house…moments of frustration, rawness & re-evaluation surfaced as other realities that we have been facing here crept in. We went to look at the “progress” which seemed to be picking up, and found more piece-it-together, messy workmanship. Finally we came to our limit. The owner blamed it on his workers, but he owns a hardware store, so we couldn’t figure out why he didn’t have a list of reliable craftsmen.  

On Friday, we decided to see if the owner would discount the remainder of our annual rent and just let us do the rest of the work ourselves. There is a large team coming in early January, so we have to be out of the guest house by then. To add more to the mix, we had developed a plan with World Orphans to house the overflow of this upcoming team (18 high school boys) in our new place, since it is only a few blocks away. This agreement covered our difference in rent for the year. Everything seemed held in the balance with the house timing and ability to pay rent.

That brings us up to today. This morning, we found out what was really going on. The owner has been putting little to no resources into the house repairs, because he wanted us to ask for our deposit back - he admitted to having had an offer and a full advance by another party to rent the place for a year at $5k more than he had agreed to from us. They were also taking it "as is". He said since he didn’t know us, that he figured he would rent it to us for just a year & then push us out with a huge rent increase next year.  After looking all day yesterday at what else was available & the prices for rent, we decided to step out on faith & offer to take it at the agreed upon price with no further repairs. He said that he would honor the initial agreement & since we were going to do the work now, he would (verbally) agree to rent it to us continuing on in the future, rather than pushing us out next year.

Not at all a perfect situation, but we have a deep peace about this house & the potential that it brings for our ministry here. We are excited to see how God’s plans for its use continue to unfold as we move in. There are several interesting ideas in the works…

In the meantime, we now have a monumental task ahead of us. While we have a good amount of remodeling experience, we have never done it here in Haiti! Ted has tiled floors & kitchen countertops, but never bathroom walls. Looking at the current work, it’s not hard to do better, but if anyone who has experience would like to take an impromptu trip down to help out we would gladly welcome it! We’re going to spend the holidays putting our spirit of adventure – and the hundreds of “This Old House” reruns we’ve watched – to the test!  Our own version of HGTV's Renovation Realities, is going down this month, right here in Haiti.

Thank you all for your prayers the past few weeks. It sounds much easier as I type this out, than it has truthfully been for us. Another layer has been stripped away. We continue to be made new every moment here.

Right now we're just glad to have a home to move into before the holidays!

...more "before" photos here.

Going around in circles...

At least that is the theme that we have come up for regarding life here lately.

First of all we drive A LOT. Sometimes it feels like all we do with 13 church partners spread across the greater Port Au Prince area. We are constantly making "round trips" to check on projects, deliver supplies, or to serve the communities that we work in. 

This week, we are truly back at the beginning again. We just passed our 1 year mark.

What were we doing 1 year ago today? We were living in the guest house, waiting for our house to be ready.

What are we doing right now? As of yesterday, we are back living at the guest house, waiting for our new house to be ready to move into! The agreement was for it to be done by Nov 15th, but it wasn't, and we're not quite sure when it will be. Not to mention the fact that Ted has to address why the floor tile repairs were done with pink grout...?

In the midst of it all, my head has literally, felt like it's been spinning, as I'm suffering from vertigo due to a sinus infection. Thank heaven for over the counter antibiotics!

Please keep us in your prayers as we seek answers to the housing issue and also as we review the past year and prepare for the coming one. We treasure His guidance.