Saturday, September 29, 2012


Well hello friends!!!! You’ve probably been wondering about us!  Actually, we’ve been wondering a lot too!  Wondering if our batteries will ever charge. Wondering if we can connect to the internet. Wondering if this page will ever load….. Lack of electricity and snail slow internet has really challenged our communications!  But as we ponder the whole situation, it’s just another step in God stripping from us what we think is normal and necessary, and filling those spaces with Himself!  Finding contentment outside of your expectations is like going on a scavenger hunt deep in the forest without a flashlight.  I could give you all the details, but then my screen would just go blank and another post would go unposted so those stories will have to wait for another day. 

The real story is our adjustment to a culture that thinks totally differently than we are used to.  More differently than we ever dreamed it would be.  Here, the future doesn’t really exist past sundown.  Take the school for example.  School starts Monday.  Everyone knows that you cannot get into school without shoes with no holes.  Well, a lot of the students didn’t even think about that until this week, knowing they couldn’t afford to just run out and buy them.  There is no money (we hear that a LOT!).  The concept of saving to purchase something you know you are going to need, either never occurs to them or they know the hopelessness of the situation and just dismiss it.  We’re not talking about a lot of money, either.   Yes, they are second hand shoes, but a good pair could be bought for about $5.00 US.  And the burden seems to rest on the children.  The parents seem very separated from providing in this way.  There must be more going on than we see.  We have soooo much to learn.  So the questions we struggle with are many!  How do you help?  When do you help?  Who do you help?  Is it better not to help?  Some come begging at your door.  Some just pass through with a warm ‘bon jour’ and warm smile that tries to say everything is ok but their eyes betray the reality they live.  We think we’ve given up a lot, but we will never know what it is like to crawl into a 12; x 15’ hut at night with 7 or more other family members hoping that it doesn’t rain because there is no escaping the leaky roof!

Daily life for me (Pat) is mostly in the garden or helping friends in theirs.  I’ve been making trellises for Malibar spinach which should be sprouting any day.  I also have green beans up and several other things in the ground that should be sprouting soon.  Lettuce, sweet corn, several herbs, hundreds of Moringa trees and some other trees I got from ECHO are things I’m looking forward to.  Not sure what will grow and what won’t but you never know until you try.
Cheryl is kept pretty busy ministering to whoever appears at the door.  Some are sick, some think they are sick, some want to be sick so she will give them something and some are just visiting and some just like hanging around.  And then there are the kids! There are always kids at the doorstep. 

The language is coming slowly, but you never get far away from the Creole-English dictionary!  It’s the #2 book at our house.  God’s Word reigns as #1, but that little dictionary is pretty valuable!  When you pray, pray for our ears and tongues with the language.  Pray for contentment.  Pray for discernment.  And pray that God would give us His eyes to really see how to ‘simply serve’ our neighbors.

Friday, September 21, 2012


We’ve figured out a little bit of how things work here, so we’re going to try and post some pics along with text this time.  We’re still trying to settle into a schedule on when is best to do what, so that will take a little time.  We’re not used to being in bed at 8:30 and being wide awake at 3:00 am, so that’s what I’m talking about.  Do you get up at 4 and work till it gets hot? Try to stay up later so you sleep later? Anyhow, we just wanted to add a little color to this post if the internet will let us. So….


Hello from the ‘blanche kay la’ ( the white’s house) in Soliette. 


 We’ve taken over the house from the tarantula’s,



, and done some little things to make it a little homier.  Pat got to use some of his new tools. He was really impressed with the performance of the concrete drill!  Got the shelves up!  Really, it worked better than you think.  Of course, drilling through stucco and Haitian concrete block is different than drilling into American concrete.


We have the basic outside cleanup around the house done, and have planted some veges.  Not sure what will grow and what won’t so we’re just going to experiment. Today we planted green beans, tomatoes, lettuce and some herbs.  We’ll keep you posted on how it turns out.  We’ve got a few more things to try, but more preparation is necessary first.  Most of the area around the house, I mean right up to the house, was planted in black beans by a friend that didn’t know we were comming.  You hate to just dig everything up, so we’ll do a little bit at a time.  We’ll, the batteries are getting low, so we gotta go.  Love you all.  We’re anxious to see if we can really upload all this too.  Talk to you soon!




Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Here at last!

Well, it’s great to finally greet you from Soliette.  This will be pretty short because our batteries are limited.  There’s a lot to share about the last week but really, that would probably be pretty boring for you.  The last few days at home were such a whirlwind of activity, that it felt really good to settle into our seats and close our eyes when we were finally on the plane.  All the packing, sorting, storing, visiting and good-byes had left us exhausted and now it was all about the reality that we were really doing this!!!!! One last good-bye, good-bye USA, hello Haiti!  One really almost overwhelming good-bye!
Really that rest of the trip to Port, and even to Fond Parisian was very uneventful. We spent the weekend with Vladimy and Ashly Mardy in the HOC base mission house just getting connected, shopping for necessities, working on the truck, plumbing the kitchen and mostly trying to keep cool.  It was just incredibly HOT the whole time.  Tuesday morning couldn’t come soon enough as far as that is concerned.  Here in Soliette, it is way less humid and probably about 10 degrees cooler with a breeze.  We got started fairly early with the usual anxieties of truck troubles and how are we gonna get all this stuff up the mountain.  We had over 400 pounds of food and gear that had to move about a mile up the mountain on someone’s (preferably not mine!) head.  You all must have been praying hard, because the truck performed flawlessly and everything was delivered to our doorstep by 10:00 am.  Now the fun begins!  No one had been in the house since we left in January, so there was a nice accumulation of insects, insect poop and even a couple HUGE tarantulas!  One was so big, it had gotten caught in the mouse trap and died!  As soon as we can find a hotter spot for our internet connection we’ll send photographic proof.  He was a world class bug!!!  Everything came out of the house, everything was swept and mopped, and as we moved things back in they got washed too.  By 5:00, we were pretty much done. Done unpacking and done physically!!!!  Dinner and bed was all that was left of Tuesday.
Today was a day of getting settled in, doing the things that make a house a home and getting interrupted every time you turn around.  That is a way of life here, and that’s why we are here.  A servants heart finds joy in interruptions by choosing to serve and not minding.  We have a lot to learn. 
My battery is fading so I’ll close.  We so much appreciate your prayers and support.  We’ll do our best to keep you involved in God’s work here. 

Sunday, September 9, 2012

No more good byes....Please!
We've been quiet here, but not because we haven't had anything to share.  It's just been busy like crazy!  It's been a month of visiting family and friends.  It's been a bittersweet time with lots of laughs, lots of tears and learning to deal with emotions that in some cases you didn't even want to admit you had.  It's been an incredible time of bonding like we've never experienced, but through it have been encouraged beyond description by the most awesome group of family and friends a person could ask for.  There were trips to 

Wisconsin, 


Florida

and Tennessee.  

Meals and coffee, phone calls and meetings and times of prayer that will be precious memories for us and a source of much encouragement. 
We have been truly humbled by the testimony of friends on how we have touched their lives, and overwhelmed by the promises of support, both financial and prayer, from you all.  We would love to list names and thank you all publicly for how you have Blessed us, but you know who you are and you each have a special place in our hearts.  We remember when September 13th seemed like so far into the future.  Sitting here now and realizing it is only 4 days away makes your head spin!!!  Everywhere we look, there is more stuff that needs to be stored, given away or thrown and a never ending list of details that need to be tended to.  Oh, and the brakes on the car started grinding today so there's one more task on Pat's list for tomorrow.  One of the highlights of this time was the Leland concert Friday night!  The message of their songs is so much about service and surrendering to God's will, that is was like a 2 hr. confirmation that we were really doing what He is calling us to do. We arrived home with a such a sense of Peace, that we knew it was time to turn this page.  Unfortunately, to turn this page, we have had to say good bye over and over again.  To be blunt, saying good bye stinks!  But as we cling to each other, there is a bonding that occurs that gives us confidence that you are partners with us and will be with us every step of the way.  We are tired of saying good bye, but through it we have been built up by the expressions of genuine love you have shared.  We prefer to say,


 'see you later' 
because that is where our confidence is.  Whether it is here or with the Lord, we WILL see you later.  God Bless you all!  We couldn't turn this page without you!