Hello Again...

I just took a quick look at the calendar and realized that it has been 3 weeks since my last post.  A lot has happened during the last three weeks and my absence as a Blogger is mostly due to not having an Internet connection that allowed me to get online.  I will try to give a brief recap of the last few weeks.


On August 28th we loaded up the belongings we had in Cayes and moved up to Bonne Fin.  Unfortunately, we were not able to move into our house yet.  The doors still needed to be hung on the cabinets and closets, the new windows still needed to be installed and Rick wanted to redo some of the tile work.  He wasn't satisfied with some of the tile work that was done by the Haitian Bos,so he cut out a few pieces and fixed it himself.  The tile does look much better and I guess Rick has experience laying tile now. 

The first few days up here were rather difficult for me.  We came up on a Thursday; Rick took off the next day for meetings in Port-Au-Prince and was gone until late on Saturday. The kids and I were staying in the Couple's Cottage and living out of suitcases and boxes without hot water or internet. I was hesitant to do to much unpacking because we planned to move into our house as soon as possible.  I know that Satan used this time and circumstance to discourage me. Even though work was progressing on our home, it appeared that so much still needed to be done and everything was covered in a thick layer of dust and dirt.  The best word to describe my emotional state would be overwhelmed.  For those of you that like pictures, I wish I had taken some of the mess that was in our house, but I simply did not even think of it.

On that Sunday, Mara, Krae and I went to the beach with some of the other missionaries and had a much needed relaxing and fun afternoon.

The first week of September, things really started progressing.  The window Bos and his crew chipped out (the windows are set in the concrete walls) the old windows.  Imagine chunks of cement laying around below the window on the inside and outside of the house.  They worked quickly and had the new windows in by the end of the week, but they did not get screens in until the following Wednesday.  Rick and some of the other Haitian laborers worked very hard to get other details done so we could start cleaning up the mess.  There were several tense moments (the showers have been a continual issue), some blood (Rick bumped his head and put a nice little gouge in it) and just a few tears.

By Thursday, most of the dirty work was done and I was able to work with some day laborers on the cleaning process.  The dirt and dust was so thick, that we began with a dry wiping (so as not to make mud) of walls, fans, lights, windows and floors and then followed up with soap and water on Friday.  By the end of Friday, we were starting to unpack!  What a great feeling!!

During this week, Mara and Krae started school.  Their first day was September 5th and I did remember to snap a few pics of them in their classroom.

They are enjoying school with Miss Desma and the other missionary children.  Their classroom is varied by age and grade level, but Miss Desma and her teaching assistant, Beth, (Desma's 19 year old daughter who is studying education) seem to have a good system for working with all of the children and keeping them all busy.

On Saturday, September 7th we spent the first night in our new house.  We still had a living room of boxes to be unpacked, but the beds were set-up, the kitchen was unpacked and I found some towels for showers.

Unfortunately, I started feeling ill after church on Sunday and then spent the rest of Sunday and Monday in bed.  Rick was a hero; he took care of the kids, made meals and even did the laundry even though he had many projects that needed to be done on the house.  By Tuesday, I was feeling better and the unpacking commenced.

It is now a week later and we are mostly unpacked.  We are still missing some furniture that did not get put on the sea container that came in July.  Our living room furniture, piano, mattress for the master bedroom, and a few other miscellaneous items are on a container that is currently enroute and we are looking forward to its arrival.  

In closing this post, I do have a couple of prayer requests.

1.  First, Rick is planning to travel back to the states on Wednesday, Sept. 18th for a meeting with the HLGB.  There have been some violent protests and hijackings on the road to Port-Au-Prince between Petit Goave and Grand Goave.  Rick will have to travel this road to get to the airport in Port.  He plans to ride on a large bus and it appears that the bandits are targeting cars and vans that are transporting teams.  Rick feels he will be safe on the bus, but we would appreciate prayers for his travels.

Rick will return on Sept. 23rd with several of the HLGB members and his parents.  Again, they plan to travel out to southern Haiti on a large bus, but prayers are needed.

2.  Second, I will be hiring our household workers soon and I would appreciate prayers for God's direction.  The ladies we hire for cooking and cleaning will spend a lot of time in our home and I ask you to join me in praying that God will provide Christian women who have a heart to follow Jesus.

Living here, I could easily fall into the snare of fear.  When ever I start to feel fearful, this verse from Timothy gives me encouragement.

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.     II Timothy 1:7


Here are a couple of fun pictures to wrap it up:

This rooster usually wakes us up in the morning.  Fortunately, he crows at about 6 AM instead of at 2:30 AM like the rooster who lives by the Couple's Cottage.  He likes to strut around our yard looking for bugs and such.  Mara refers to him as our "friendly neighborhood rooster".  

This tarantula used to live in the drain pipe under our back patio.  When I wash laundry and the washer drains, he usually comes scrambling out to get away from the water.  We've seen him a few times and were thinking of a name for him (Ted, Fuzzy, George).  Unfortunately, he met his demise today when Mr. Daryl stomped on him .  As long as he was outside, I was happy to let him hang out in the drain pipe and eat bugs. Daryl gave me the funniest look when I said, "Oh, we didn't even get to name him!"  :)