Bread from the heart, for the heart, from the Father

I sit down to write and don’t really know where to start.  It seems like so long since we last talked but I keep telling myself it’s been less than a week!  It’s almost like in the last 5 days we have been squeezed until almost breathless, and frustrated to the point that we just weren't very nice people.  But then, in only a moment, we were refreshed and our spirits renewed.  It is a sweet thing to experience the presence of God when you least expect it.  It’s given us a new perspective on how David was feeling when he wrote many of his Psalms.  To find yourself in despair wondering if God is sleeping or something, only to see Him break through is a spectacular way and reveal Himself as a One who knows and cares about every detail of your life.  We’ve been working our way through the Psalms in our morning devotions, and the events of the week have made them seem really real.  

Our days usually start about 6:00 am with me (Pat) getting up, putting the solar panels out, making coffee and and enjoying some quiet time while Cheryl gets up, sweeps and mops the floor and then joins me for our morning meditations.  Quite time in the 'kay blah' (white's house) is rarely uninterrupted and even more rarely quiet for very long.  Daily life in Haiti begins before the sun comes up, and sometimes it seems like some peoples day cannot start unless they run over and interrupt Patch &Cheloes morning devotions.  Even writing about it, I feel my attitude starting to rise up and I can relate to how David felt when he was standing beside a sleeping Saul and couldn't kill him.  

So we’re sitting, trying to enjoy our morning meditation and the little voices keep calling from outside.  We try to ignore them, and they keep calling.  We tell them to wait, and they keep calling.  Our attitudes start to rise up, Cheryl makes a comment, I say something unkind and all of a sudden our quiet time is full of noise and the day has started all wrong.  Of course we powered on through our devotions and prayer time, but our hearts weren't in it because our minds were occupied with how to silence the voices outside the window.  And the voices inside the window (ours) didn't sound much like loving, ‘simple servants’ either.  This tension carried on most of the morning.  The more we wished they would go away, the more persistently they hung around.  I was doing my thing in the garden and Cheryl was doing her thing in the house and we were doing our best to avoid any interaction.  It was nearing noon and Cheryl was looking out the window as I passed by.  I looked up and said, ‘let’s feed them.’  She looked at me like I’d grown a second nose and I explained that the Spirit had prompted me to feed them. 

They could pick congo beans from the garden, ‘kaylee’ them (congos are like peas, they need to be shelled by hand) 

them and make a pot of rice and beans and we’ll feed whoever is here.  This went over pretty well, that is until I noticed the 12 year old girl (the one who is always hungry!) picking the Moringa leaves out of her rice and spitting them on the ground.  She was ashamed to give us her bowl when it wasn’t empty, so she gave it to her brother to finish.  This prompted more unkind comments both to the kids and toward each other and our rotten attitudes carried us into the evening.  Our house was not a fun place to be.  Sniping and complaining at each other until it was bed time. 

Wednesday dawned and started much like Tuesday with the solar panels, coffee, sweeping and mopping, but it was quiet this morning.  There was no traffic on the road because of the ‘grev’, a protest against the government for their slow reaction to fixing the roads and the enactment of new taxes on licenses and vehicles.  This also prevented the teachers from coming to school, so school had been canceled for the week.  We were both feeling convicted about apologizing to each other and our Psalms for the day were 40 & 41 and they added to our conviction.  Verses like 41:9, ‘Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.’ Really spoke to our hearts but there was still an emptiness that we both felt, but didn’t understand enough to communicate.  We took a walk to a friend’s house in search of bread because we didn’t have any.  She didn’t have any either, but she did have a ‘pwa nwa’ (black beans) spread out in the sun to dry and graciously scooped up a ‘mamit’ (measuring cup) full and graciously handed them to us as a gift.  We returned home and Cheryl decided to make bread since there wasn’t any to be found from our friends.  No sooner than she had started, we hear ‘Kaufman, bon jor!’ and our friend Charlot appeared at the door.  He had braved the ‘grev’ to come up from Fond Parisien just to see how we were doing.

.  And in his hand he had a bag of bread from market.  A gift for us! Something about this act of caring and generosity just touched our hearts and really turned our week around.  He sat and chatted for a while and headed back to town, but left behind an aroma of life (and fresh bread!).  As he was heading up the path, Cheryl said with a tear in her eye, ‘you don’t know how much that spoke to me.  God really does know.’  And being the understanding husband I am, I responded, ‘huh?’  She says, ‘you know, that verse from this morning.’ And she read Ps. 40:17, ‘As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God!’ (my italics).   Bread from a friend, for our hearts, from the Father was the Lord revealing that He really does take thought for us, even when we least deserve it.  It really changed our attitudes!  It didn't make the challenges go away, but He gave us the strength to deal with them.  Of course, the kids were hungry again the next day, but the biggest challenge popped up when Cheryl went to start supper and there was no propane left in the tank.  No cooking on the stove tonight, and with the 'grev' it's hard to tell when we'd be able to fill our tank.   We had to shift to cooking over a fire, something we had very little experience doing.  And of course it was another opportunity for the curious neighbors to watch and laugh as the 'blahs' were cooking outside.  We made soup that night, coffee in the morning

and I was doing rice for supper when I looked up and there was Charlot.....again...... with a propane tank on his shoulder!  God came through again!  He really does take thought for us! 

Hope you weren’t too bored but that was our week.  Maybe you’re not feeling the greatest today.  Take heart, the Lord takes thought for you too!  Love you all!  Maybe the Grace of God our Father fill your hearts and the Holy Spirit power you through the challenges that lie ahead! 

Oh yeah, one last thing.  Our friends Brian and Sandy Stull and Duane Wilson are in Africa for the next two weeks.  They are there in response to and invitation  to teach at a church leaders conference there.  Join us in prayer for safety as they travel and wisdom as they teach the Word of God.  Pray that they will be instruments in God's hands and allow the Holy Spirit to work through them.  Thanks!

Thanksgiving away from home!

As we live day to day, we know we are to be thankful.  We are taught from little up to say ‘Thank you’ when we receive something.  The Apostle Paul instructs us to be thankful in all things.  But today is Thanksgiving Day at home, and it is more than a little strange to be celebrating when life is just going on around you.  We are enjoying an ‘American style’ thanksgiving with Vladimy and Ashly at the mission house in Fond Parisian and we are truly thankful for that.

  But there is so much more to be thankful for!!!!  First of all we are thankful for a loving God who is always Faithful and full of Grace.  We have also been blessed with an awesome family who we miss so much, and our friends and supporters  who are the world’s greatest.  You always come through with the prayers, finances, notes and packages just when we need them the most.  Yes, we are abundantly blessed with material things, but relationships are head and shoulders above anything else.  We thank God today and every day for all of you, for your steadfastness and grace, and pray also that God will continue to abundantly Bless you every day.

 ___________________________

Yes, as we live every day, it occurred to me that we talk about the house, the school, the gardens and the area like you all know what we are talking about.  We’ve been here, but few of you have!  Some have seen pictures, but I thought we’d just give a pictorial tour of the property and our house so when we talk about some of these things you’ll have a better understanding of what we are talking about.

Whenever you hear about Haiti, the poverty is what first comes to mind.  It does to us too, but then something will break through and remind us we are on a tropical island that at one time was close to paradise!   

This is the front of our house, and you probably didn’t even notice the green plants to the left of the step.  They came with the house and I’ve never seen them do anything but sit there and be green. No one seemed to know what they even were.

Well, we found out in a big way this week as these huge blooms just seemed to burst from the plant in just a couple days.  First there was only one, but they just keep coming with 3 coming out now.  We have a lot of surprises here, but few are as welcome as a beautiful flower bursting forth just for the Glory of it’s Creator!

Let's back up a little to show you most of the property.

It’s kind of pie shaped with the house at the pointy end and then goes uphill with the bathroom (kinda in the center of the picture) marking one corner and the administration building for the school (top left) marking the other. The school is between them and the slope below the school is what I fondly refer to as my garden. 

This is my workshop, the only flat, level spot on the
property.  Our solar collectors and water supply are
up here too.  Not much protection from the sun, but the
view is awesome!

Oh,here comes a water delivery now!

It comes just like that, 5 gal. at a time from a spring nearly
a 1/2 mile away.  About $5.00 US per barrel, that's 10 trips
to the spring and back!

Looking uphill from the workshop, up the path past
the tree, the little building to the right is the bathroom.

Looking the other way is the path leading to the laundry room.
Yes, it looks like it just drops off into nowhere.  That's
about what it does.  Down about 100', across a ravine,
up a small hill and on down the ravine to the spring.

It's not very convenient, but it is absolutely beautiful!  
You're surrounded by the sound of rushing water and
lush greenery.  You have to watch so not to step in the
manure, but the surroundings take your mind off
the labor.  There's always someone around to give 'motherly'
advice.

It's all in the wrist action.  The locals don't think I'll ever get
it right!

And then a leisurely walk home!  

Inside the house there is one main room -

The kitchen is on the one end with the table in the center -

with the sitting area at the other.

The other half of the house is separated into three rooms

Our bedroom

Pat just put the shelves it the utility room.  Everything fits
and has it's place. Organization is good!

And this is your room when you come to visit.  We have a
queen size inflatable mattress. The rest of the furnishings
are in process but it's clean and dry and we do our best to
keep the spiders out!

The shower is out front not far from the front path.  It can get a little chilly and dark
if you don't get it done before the sun goes down. Adjusting the water temp isn't difficult
either, if it's the day the barrel was filled, you get cold.  If it's been a couple days, it's a
little warmer.  The faucet by the door is the hand washing station.  All the waste water is
collected for irrigation.

My little personal garden is just in front of the house.

This is where it all starts.  The first things I've planted are
growing pretty well.  The trellis has vining spinach planted
at each leg with carrots growing underneath.  The black
bags are tree seedlings that are just about ready to go into
the big garden.

This is my soil mixing station.  No sterile bagged potting
soil here.  The black stuff is collected topsoil, the pile in
the center is fresh horse manure the kids collected for
me and the pile to the right is compost I've made.  The green
stuff is leaves  off a Neem tree.  I cut them up and mix them in.  It's a
natural insecticide.  Everything gets mulched with
Neem leaves too.

 

Well, that's the nickel tour.  Hope it helps make sense of some of what we have talked about before and future posts as well.  It's still a month or so from bean harvest so I'm running out of places to plant things.  We have eaten some of our own green beans and lettuce.  The carrots aren't too far off and there are little cucumbers on that just showed up yesterday.  We're finding out that the bugs like sweet corn more than we do.  That crop isn't going to amount to anything.  The language is coming, very slowly, but we are getting braver in venturing out and trying to engage people in conversation.  Our next goal is to become emersers, venturing out and making new friends.  The plan is to take a walk every day to discover new friends and learn more of their language and history.  Pray that God would remove the scales from our ears and loosen our tongues so we can really become a part of the lives of our neighbors and begin to understand their culture.  

'Si Bondye vle!' (If God wills!)   Our neighbor Memin, bread baker and mother of 7

Yeah we're still here!

Wow!  It seems like so long since we've talked to you all!  The last couple weeks have been really frustrating.  Not really ministry/life things so much, more things we had taken for granted at home that just really don't work the same here.  But before we go any further, there are some things we are really thankful for.  We were without internet service for about 10 days and were really feeling isolated.  Our budget doesn't allow a lot of time on the phone so text messages were our only contact.  Almost....Good ole' snail mail came through!!!! We just want to send thanks to some people that really came through for us and brought some huge smiles.  Joan, you are the best sister in the world!!!  You're note and the treats were a huge bright spot!  Josie Hicks and the kids at The Gathering Place really lightened our house with your pictures and knowing you remember us!  We have some really great supporters for Heart of Compassion, too.  We'd shared about the needs for some upgrades at the school and several have stepped up to really make it look like we can get the work done.  Thank you so much, you know who you are.

Ok, now to catch up a little. This will be pretty random, because that is what our life is like here.  The frustrations come when you expect things to turn out your way and work the way you want them to. God wants us to depend on Him and be content with the way He works things out.  It's a hard lesson to learn, right up there with learning a new language, but we're getting there slowly. 

My days have been filled more with projects than farming.  I'm kinda out of room to plant stuff till the black bean harvest and we're heading into the dry season, so I've been in my workshop on the roof.  

Building benches for the school.  The cordless drill is a
blessing until the batteries are gone.

Had to rip some boards to make
shutters for the front of the house.

Hanging shutters.

Did I tell you what a blessing a cordless drill is?  Yeah,
I'm drilling in concrete! 

Cheryl's days are probably more random than mine!  I just wear a floppy hat to protect my brain from the sun.  She's more talented than I, and can multi task way better than me, so she wears LOTS of hats!

She's now 'Godmother' to Samyell, the new son of our
friends Tinom and Klotid.  He's a cutie!

She counsels people that appear at the door.  Headaches,
body aches and heartaches.  She's a good listener!

She spends a lot of time at the school, especially helping
with the meals

She's gets her hands dirty occasionally.  This is her herb
garden that is slowly providing some culinary herbs.
Lots of weeds too!

There's lots to learn about cooking in the mountains!

The neighbor ladies like learning to cook on the gas
stove too!

And of course the 'Front Step Medical Clinic' seems to
always be open!

There has been considerable work done on the road since the hurricane, but it's still pretty iffy a lot of places.  There were 3 of the big 'top top' trucks that fell over this week but there were no injuries we heard of.  The people are scared to ride on them.  Can't see as I blame them. Instead, they have to walk, in some cases several hours through the riverbed to and from the markets with their wares on their heads or backs. 

The way they load these things, they are really top heavy with cargo and then they usually put a layer of passengers on top and hanging on the sides!  A truck like this one would usually carry 30 or more people on top of the load you see.  And that's the new road you see behind it.  There is still a lot of water running, and you can see how brown it still is in the main river to the right.  It is unbelievable how much soil was lost in this one storm.  It is heartbreaking, but there is hope.  We are terracing our ground and hoping it will catch on to our neighbors to keep some of this soil on the mountain, but that is a story for another day.

Sunday came and we hiked down the mountain with visions of good company and internet service.  Oops, better not get my expectations up too high! It did work out though.  There are a lot of stories that will come at another time as we continue to adjust to life on the mountain and learn to be more self sufficient in doing some of the things that cause inconveniences and frustrations.  Life is good.  We are slowly learning how to communicate. Maybe I should say that our neighbors are adjusting to our version of Kreole!  This trip down holds a special treat because we have been invited to an ag ministry conference with other missionaries in the area doing the same things we are.  A day with English speakers that are experiencing the same things we are.  We're really looking forward to that!

So, we caught a moto and headed to Fond Parisienne for a night with Vlad and Ashly before heading on into Coix des Boquets for the conference.  This had really been fun, working on a fast internet connection!  It's only 3G, but seems lightning fast compared to what we work with on the mountain.  Thanks to you all for your prayers and support.  God is doing some really neat things on the mountain we share with Him.  Stay tuned and we'll tell you more about the school, the church and everyday life in Soliette!  Love you ALL!
pnc

"God is my friend." Masouk, age 15

A friend living on his own since age 11!

Here Comes the Sun!

I guess hurricane Sandy is the news for today.  It seems that is all we've talked about.  The whole situation was kind of surreal!  It all started on Tues. afternoon and it was like in the old western movies where everyone know the gunslinger was coming into town but they were afraid to talk about it or go out in the streets or anything.  We'd heard about this weather system that might be coming, but didn't have any real information.  We had exhausted the last of our computer batteries Monday night looking for information on the storm and all we found out was there was a storm that was heading for Jamaica and might hit Haiti.  The skies were lowering and it started raining in the early afternoon.

We didn't see the sun again until Saturday.  This was our first experience with a big storm, but from what we had heard, Sandy wasn't supposed to be a real big deal.  She didn't really start to kick in until Wednesday afternoon.  The rain didn't really increase a lot, but the winds picked up gusting to about 40 mph.  That was enough to rattle the tin covering our windows and put the tarps around the school to the test.

We had been having some trouble with water coming into the house and I'd done some digging around the back and side and that seemed to be helping a lot.  Long about dark, the rain really started picking up and the water problems in the house started showing up.  We mopped until we saw that we would never keep up and went to bed, not really knowing what we would find come morning.  I got up about 10:00 and stepped into a puddle in the bedroom and most of the floor in the house was covered in water.  

We swept and mopped until after midnight and again saw we were not going to keep up so back to bed we go.  Actually we slept pretty good amidst the banging of the window coverings and the thoughts of rising water.   Morning was really better than we thought.  Without the interference of our mops and brooms, the water kinda channeled and pooled until it reached the level that it overflowed under the front door.  Thursday was pretty much a battle between getting caught up when the rain slowed and trying to catch back up when it picked up again.  Through out the day occasionally someone would stop by and we baked and cooked, mainly because that was something we could do and something we could share with people as they stopped by.  By Friday afternoon we had to get out of the house and the rain was down to a drizzle.  18" had fallen to this point and we were curious about what the river looked like because we knew that it usually flooded after significant rain events.  Massouk, one of our young friends that speaks some English came by and walked down with us.  He'd been down and just kept saying, 'big, big water!'  He was right, big, big water!  That is the real story of this storm. The river was a raging torrent of big, brown water carving away at everything in it's path.

The big brown river in the back is usually less than 10' wide!

It's hard to get a good feel without hearing the roar!

By morning this tree was completely gone!

The gravel in the foreground is the road up to the trailhead
to our house.  The water in the background is where the
road used to be!

Tons of soil on it's way to the Dominican Republic!

Friday night was still off and on rain, but we woke up Saturday to dry floors, blue skies and bright sunshine!

After three days of cold and dampness, the sun felt
sooooo good!

Thank you Lord for the sun!  

All the earth rejoices in to see the sun!

Saturday we walked back down to see how much the water had gone down.  It had dramatically, but a lot of the landscape and road had gone down with it!

This is the road, or what's left of it at the just down hill from
the trailhead to our house

People were struggling to get from point 'A' to point 'B'.

Unless you have been here, it's really hard to understand the impact of this storm.  Overall, over 20" of rain had fallen in 72 hrs.  The runnoff of this water is what really has made the impact.  The road we are talking about is the only road north to south through the mountains.  Right now, and for probably a couple weeks at least, commerce and traffic has come to a complete standstill.  The markets south of us will only have what is available locally or carried in on mules or motos.  It's a hungry time in the mountains already.  This will not help at all!  Sunday, we decided to come to Fond Parisienne to see what the rest of the road was like, visit Vlad and Ashly, charge our batteries and catch up on emails and posts.  Moto's were plentiful, and business was good for them because there was no other way out of the mountains.  

The road is washed out in many places, but we've heard that the government is moving quickly to rebuild it.  Other roads have been washed out too.  Two bridges on the main (the only) road from Fond Parisienne to Port au Prince are out.  Motos are running between washed out places and you have to walk across the water to get through.  But that's life in Haiti.  Sandy blew out of here 3 days ago now and conditions are what they are.  Is it inconvenient? Yes! Is there anything you can do about it?  No!  It is what it is and that's life in Haiti.  Not a lot is different than every other day.  Here, everything is on hold every day until you have what you need to do what you want to do.  In the mean time you work in the garden if you have a garden.  You talk if you have someone to talk to.  You just take life one day at a time and thank God for that!

There are things going on that I'd like to tell you about, but this is getting pretty long.  One thing I do want to share is one of our friends had her baby last Sunday and Cheryl has been checking on her. Her name is Klotid (pronounced clotseed with a long 'o') and she appreciated Cheryl's visits so much, she asked Cheryl to name her son.  So this is Klotid and Samyell (Samuel).

Thanks also to our friend at Hopewell Methodist Church outside of Bellefontaine for the layette kit they sent.  She really appreciated it.  Momma and baby are doing fine.  I'll let Cheryl fill you in on that experience next time.  Love you all!  Without your prayers, we would be lost!  Drop us a note if you get a minute.  It get's kinda lonely here and words from home are precious!  God Bless you all!  Rest in His Peace.