Took this pic before church on Sunday. After that I forgot the camera so I can't show you the pics of Children's church. But it went great! We had 72 kids and learned about Jesus feeding the five thousand with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. They had fun drawing their craft project too.

I have to tell you a cute story that happened during craft time. First remember that the kids in this village have no toys, crayons, TV-most don't have electricity at the house. So the looks on their faces are awesome when craft time comes during children's church. When we did the sticker craft for Christmas Sunday we had to show them how to peel the stickers off the sheets. They had never seen stickers before. This Sunday we gave them all a half sheet of construction paper and they had to share crayons to draw a picture of the 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread on one side of the page and on the other side draw as many as they could to represent all the food Jesus multiplied from the original.

When they were done we were collecting crayons and came up way short. I explained to the kids they needed to return ALL of them or we wouldn't have more next Sunday and then craft time would be eventually disappear. They all sat in silence. No one spoke up. I showed them the box of crayons that was almost empty and said how it was full so I know the crayons are here. Finally a little boy about 6 or 7 yrs old stood up and reached into his pockets (which were bulging!) and pull out about 20 crayons. His eyes filled with tears and he said,

"I was going to bring them back next Sunday. I knew no one was going to use them before then."

How hard is it for these kids to come in and see the crafts and supplies and have fun using them and then give them back. It's not like they have more at home. And it must look like so much to them. Like we have a ton!

How many times in our lives are we tempted to do the same thing? For example at work-Will they really notice if I just take some pens home? We can justify it by saying ,"They have so many." Or, "This place has so much money they can just buy more." The devil has all kinds of excuses ready for us to use. But don't give him a foothold. Not an inch. Not a pen. Not a crayon.

Sorry about the lack of pics. Once again, I am the lucky one who got to be here and see it first hand thanks to your support and God's faithfulness.

More Children's church pics coming. When you see them you won't be disappointed!

A little encouragement

So we all need a little encouragement, pat on the back and recognition for the jobs we do. I think back to bosses I have had and the best one ever was the boss I had while working at Subway in college. She knew how to encourage and when she did it made me be a better "sandwich artist." She made me feel like a valued member of the team and truly appreciated my sandwich making skills.

With all that said, lately I saw that the teachers who work in the school in Peredo needed some encouraging. They work everyday with the kids and really put their hearts into trying to give them a good education. Some of the school kids are literally living in banana leave shacks, some come to school with uniforms in disarray, and some just don't get the love and attention they need at home. I am assuming this is a lot like the issues teachers in the states deal with. They bring kids who are sick to me during school hours, point out the kids who are sitting at home on a school day b/c they don't have the required shoes to come, and tell me which kids families are having a rough time at home. They really care about their students. So I started looking for a way to encourage them to continue to be great teachers for our school kids.

Going out to eat in Haiti is a luxury. Those of you who have been here on mission trips know that we try to go to the beach one evening and sit right on the ocean shore and eat fresh, grilled fish. Whenever I am missing pizza or PF Chang's here I remember that for $4 or 5 American I can go down and sit on the Carribean Ocean and eat seafood that was caught a few hours before. You do not see the common Haitian eating at the beach. Definitely the wealthier class, UN soldiers and American missionary groups. So I thought it would be fun to take the teachers and lunch ladies out to eat.-their spouses were invited too.

We went after church on a Sunday and had a great time. Not one of them had ever been there before to eat. They really didn't know how to act sitting around the table while we were waiting for food. David, one of the drivers for HCO and my friend went with us and he suggested they go around the table and every couple talk about how they met. One of the lunch ladies is married to the preacher at the church and they have been married for a long time so it was neat to hear their story how she refused his marriage proposal several times before saying yes! This lightened up the mood and we had a great time.

I told them how much we all appreciate what they do for our school kids and how they truly are helping make a difference in the village of Peredo. I got a text message from one of the teachers the next day that said, "Thank you for raising our spirits and seeing that sometimes people become discouraged when they are not encouraged." WOW! How true. I receive so much encouragement from people and churches in the states-now I need to focus on doing my part to encourage others more.

Thank you for your support of the mission. Without your financial support we could not encourage our "front line" Haitian workers here on the mission field.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

So I see a lot of other bloggers doing "Wordless Wednesday" where they only post a picture every Wednesday. So I think I'll try it to. But I'm pretty wordy-so this won't be easy!

Homestudy needed

We are so close to having all of Odessa's paperwork finished to file with the Haitian government!

That being said, we are lacking a homestudy done by someone licensed in the United States. If anyone reading this blog knows someone who can complete this service while they are in Haiti please let me know so I can contact them.

I am posting this on the off chance someone who does this for a living is coming to Haiti on a mission or humanitarian trip.

I so want to go home for a break-with Odessa of course! So excited for everyone back home to meet her!