THE LAST INTERRUPTION

It started as any other day… “Pat.. Pat.. Pat “

Someone was at our door at 6am needing a shoe repair… well Pat had a busy day scheduled & didn’t have time to glue & stitch this shoe so he told them to come back later in the afternoon.

Then off to make coffee (which was his morning ritual while I stayed on bed for a while yet).

As I laid there in bed trying to get a few more minutes of shut eye I could hear him out in the main room praying… His time with God was his lifeline & rock. He depended on the strength he got from The LORD for his strength for the day & this day he was gonna need it all. That Wednesday he was working with some of  the other men from the community on the road where rains had washed it out. We had been planning this for a while & he was praying for patience & strength. The Lord had been impressing on him & making a real difference in his life & attitude to give each day to him – All the interruptions- the cares- the many needs that came to our door. To meet each with joy & a servants heart because we were there to SERVE…..

                                      Simply serving .serving simply

I got up finally & we had our devotion reading time together & our pray time together- which I will forever treasure. Pat was my leader & was always able to share with me what the LORD was convicting him of & teaching him thru His Word.

Then it was off to do the work for the day … fixing the road with his neighbors. He jumped on the Gator loaded with his tools & about 3 boys . I started getting the food ready that we were going to fix for lunch. I walked to the road site & found a few ladies to cook for us – Pat was making trips down to the river loading up big rocks to use for the road. 

The last interaction with Pat was me asking if he had any extra bread so I could give to the woman cooking -2 pieces were left in the bag that he threw to me as he went past by.

  Then JESUS made that final 

                   

                                  INTERRUPTION… 

Yes Pat meet it with JOY  I’m sure of it, The day he had been living for.

 I can’t help but think of him as he was flying off the cliff 75 ft down he just flew into the arms of JESUS HIS LORD & SAVIOR ..

My world is shaken , turned upside down, a mess ..

But I have the ROCK still- the JESUS that is in control of ALL things- who holds me & cares for me. The assurance of heaven & being reunited with Pat again – whatever that really looks like.

As so many people in Haiti reached out to help me to make arrangements , to care for Pat, to get the Gator, to LOVE me, to cry with me, to LOVE me , to pray for & with me, to LOVE me… I am so grateful & blessed .

 My many Haitian friends standing along the path & road as I left- crying, praying. Those that came to the house helping me pack a few things, again praying with me, singing, CARING loving me- us. I was so blessed.

 Hearing the repeated words offered-

           Be strong- have courage- God knows

Then getting home with my family on Friday was another blessing- Beth & Phil caring & standing along side the whole way.

  I was so blessed by ALL those who helped with meals, finances, serving, singing, sharing. My GOD is so faithful- HE NEVER LEAVES YOU OR FORSAKES YOU- He cares.

 “Church “ you will never know how much you encouraged me & how thankful me & my family are for all that each of you contributed.

Now life will be forever changed for me….

 What will I do... 

               where will I live...

                             How will I manage… 

                                   how can I go on …

                                          I feel I have nothing here – physical anyway ? 

Many questions- but I TRUST & I want to PRAISE Jesus even though ‘he slays me.’

                         

                        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyUPz6_TciY

HE does have a plan not just for me BUT for each of us- It may not look like we ever envisioned or in our earthly eyes ‘how we think things should be’.

                      But it is PERFECT …. 

One of Pats favorite verses that he always reminded me of is this:

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.      Matt 6:34

So as I looked at the blog post I had just written 3 days before Pat died – It was all about thanksgiving –even in the hard stuff-

     

              WOW little did I know….

BUT I am so thankful for a husband that had a passion for JESUS, that loved me & our family & that sweet little Fenner, that wanted to tell others about Jesus & the good life living for HIM , for the step of faith we were able to make together surrendering life as we knew it to a year & 4 months we got to live in Haiti together serving – much close, sweet time that I will forever cherish.

AND I am thankful that I do have a Savior I can count on … that has my future in his hands bringing joy, tears, excitement, joy, uncertainty, trials, joy…

                AND  INTERRUPTIONS  AND JOY

These are not just words … they are truths!

I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.    Psm 34:1

To end I want to write what Pat most always put in his closing of his emails

                      PEACE IS IN JESUS ALONE

The love of my life...

If you don’t know HIS peace... pray to GOD & ask Him to show you.. accept Him as the LORD & KING of your life … & live for HIM !!!!!

Allow JESUS to come & INTERRUPT YOUR life –

Because you never know when it might be the LAST INTERRUPTION.

Thank you all again & May God bless each abundantly

Love cher


For anyone interested you can view Pats memorial service on youtube 
                   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwgBF99AAiI.  part 1

                        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SLGw3RwN3k. part 2

Yes we are Blessed…

 The one thing we must pray to be great at is THANKSGIVING- because it’s the only thing that makes GOD great in our lives.         Ann Volscamp

As I smell my burning tortilla chips in the oven I rush to get them out- they just needed a few more minutes but I forgot them ... 

Thanksgiving? I feel like I just wasted my precious ingredients.

As I look back over my day- Starting out early with a young man here because he has the “gripp” a cold & wondered if I could give him any meds.

 Or the pregnant mom that walked down & back up the mountain with her 2 children that had fever & coughs..could I help?

Then there was a mother who came by asking for more meds for her young child… She was here last week too. Her husband had died in Sept- her house was broken, she has nothing…  After visiting her rented home down by the river – she has a small room for her 5 children – a charcoal burner to cook with , a small pile of clothes in the corner & a few avocados. But she also has Jesus & a faith He would provide.  As I handed her a small bag of health care goodies & clothes she raised her hands toward heaven & said “Mesi Jesi- God will put it in my hand” Still having a large debt to pay from her husband’s funeral… no gardens this year to sell produce because there wasn't money to buy seed..

Thanksgiving?   ….

Or the young boy with temp 104.. . requesting his mama to come too, & finding out she is the same mama of a friend who just gave birth in her home Tues. to a 7 month preemie that weighed less than 4 lbs. 

How in this primitive area do children this little survive..

Thanksgiving? !..

Then there was the older lady that ...

 you guessed it had fever & the “gripp” .. everyone up here has it now - it’s that time of year.. Drink plenty of water .. I’ll give you eucalyptus & lemongrass leaves for tea. 

Cool mornings & hot days, dirt floors & drafty small rooms, sleeping wherever you can find a spot to lay, makes for sickness.

THANKSGIVING!!!!!!! Yes we must be thankful in all things

Open our hands- receive what God gives – AND GIVE THANKS. Our life is opened & we get JOY.              (adapted from Ann Volscamp)

Yes Thanksgiving.. In the hard times & in the good times..

When called to go to a consultation at 6 am & not knowing just what I’d find.. a mama in labor with her 9^th child & not progressing.. a house full of woman & her children . A community coming together to help when needed – get the other children off to school.. say a pray, hold a hand, laugh , pack a bag. Yes she needed to go down to the hospital..

The gator arrived the week before & needing gas – someone went in search of gas.. 

2 men carried mama up the hill to the gator & 5 others all climbed in the back of the bed.. about 4 ft wide & 5 ft long.. 

Community support & helping.. but 2 - 5 gal buckets of beans needed to be picked & shelled for school lunch the next day.  I WAS thankful for friends  to help get that job done.

About 3 hrs later a beautiful healthy baby boy was born….

Thanksgiving!!!!!  

Missing family from home .. but having a “family” to spend the day with & eat a large yummy thanksgiving meal together. The road down the mountain is very dusty to say the least & we are totally covered with dust when we arrive on the gator … 

but so thankful to have it .

These are some of the reflections of thanksgiving I’ve been pondering.. a busy day with many “needs” & not always feeling the thankfulness I SHOULD..

If you let something steal your THANKSGIVING - you let something steal your JOY & if you let something steal your joy you let something steal your STRENGTH  (Ann Volscamp)

S0....don't let ANYTHING steal your Joy!  Look to be thankful in EVERYTHING!  Even the hard stuff!

New challenges every day!

Rain is pattering on the roof, thunder is rolling in the distance and we’re sitting here hoping that we have to mop water in the house tonight.  Things are pretty dry and a good all night rain would be a very good thing!

One challenge we've faced is trying to get rid of a rat that keeps invading our house at night!!  He’s found my seed stash and the corn we have stored and just making a pig of himself.  He’s trying to gnaw his way into some of our food storage tubs too, and that really gets on Cheryl’s nerves.  

He’s coming in under the door so we spent a couple nights with an assortment of traps in front of the door to no avail.  Installed a wood strip on the bottom of the door yesterday and seems to have done the trick – for one night at least.  We’ll know more tonight!

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School is open here and we’ve had the pleasure of sharing all the school supplies and bags that were so generously shared by our Canadian friends and the Hopewell Methodist Church.

The teachers were thrilled with the bags and supplies also sent from the Hopewell Church.  You are all a real blessing to us! 

Cheryl is busy with the children writing thank you letters to their sponsors.  We still have over 40 kids without sponsors.  We’d love it if all the kids could write thank yous!

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Vlad and Ashly have been in the states for a month, so we’ve been on our own learning how to do some things that need to be done for the school.  That has meant we’ve spent a little more time off the mountain. But that also means we were able to do some visiting.  One highlight was meeting up with a short term team from Cheryl’s mom’s church in Florida.  We had tried to meet up with them last November but things didn’t work out.  It was fun to get together with them for an evening.  Of course free food (lasagna! Yum!) is always a great way to build a relationship, but we almost felt like we were old friends from the beginning. Thanks Trevor and team for a great evening!  Looking forward to seeing you all again soon!

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We are learning to get around better and our network of friends continues to grow.  There is exciting news!  Our Gator is in port at St Marc!!!!  We’re waiting to hear from the ‘big chef’ about how much it will cost to get it out of customs.  Hopeful to have it in the next couple weeks!

If we can throw in a prayer request, pray that we would adjust better to life here after being home on furlough.  It just seems tougher than it was before. 

Maybe it’s just that there are a lot of things going on at home that we’re used to being a part of and helping out with.  The 

internet here has been really lousy and that doesn’t help much. It’s hard to get messages back and forth and Skype won’t work.  That makes our time on the telephone pretty precious!  It’s harder on our budget, but the resulting smiles are worth it!

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My reputation as the ‘gwo boss’ has expanded into shoe repair man! 

I’d brought a set of upholstery needles and some ‘Fire Wire’ fishing line back from furlough thinking it would come in handy. 

That and a couple bottles of super glue have made me pretty popular if you need to have your shoes fixed for school.  I’ve learned to stitch on some book bags too.  It’s good practice for tying suture knots.  Cheryl says I get the next cut needing stitches.

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People are still getting our house confused for a clinic.  People just showing up wanting a consultation, whatever that means.  If you’re pregnant, it’s pretty obvious, but it’s really hard to tell what is wrong with many of the ‘patients’.  Cheryl has way more patience with them than I do!!! 

 She’ll sit them down, sometimes the whole family, and try to figure out what the problems are.  Recently, there has been a lot of legitimate fevers and flu like symptoms.Rainy season dampness and really hot days followed by cooler nights has lots of people sniffling around.   

Our available meds for these things are very limited, so usually what they get is a couple bundles of leaves, eucalyptus and citronel grass, to brew teas.  The eucalyptus is great for opening stuffy noses and congestion and the citronel works good for fevers.  We’re thankful to have a little cough suppressant and some Tylenol for fevers, but we try to get them to use what’s available in the garden instead of giving them a bag of pills.  

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I know the suspense is killing you, but no we didn't have to mop any water.  We've installed a drainage pipe to divert some of the water (we hope, we haven't had a significant rain since) so maybe that won't happen, but the patter of rain and distant thunder was just that.  Got a little over a tenth of an inch.  God knows what we need and we are slowly learning to be content with what He gives.  We count our blessings daily and our cups are overflowing!!!  A lot of that is because we have the greatest supporters in the world!!  The prayers of our friends are sweeter than honey!  We love you all and are forever thankful for your participation in the work God is doing here. He will surely Bless you!

Pickin an grennen!

So wow, we’ve been back here for 3 weeks and yeah, it’s time to catch you up a bit.  The trip back was uneventful except for not finding 4 flash drives that were in the outside pocket of our one carry-ons. I hate carrying a bunch of luggage in the airport and trying to pack it in the overhead bins. Our flight from Seattle to Dallas was full so they offered to check any carry-ons through to our destination free.  I love it when that happens.  It didn’t work out so well this time though.  Someone looked through the outside pockets of the bag and scooped out 4 memory sticks, including a brand new 16 gig and one that a friend had loaded with teaching CDs for us.  It’s nothing valuable or irreplaceable, but it’s pretty disappointing.  Lesson learned.

We spent Thursday night at the mission house in Fond Parisiene, and waited Friday for Clint Bower to swing by and pick us and all our stuff up and haul us up the mountain to Soliette.  

Clint has been working on a goat house up here, to eventually help the locals with improving the quality of their goats.  He was bringing up a load of materials for that and stayed with us for a couple nights while we worked on it.  He’d brought a generator and electric hand saw and boy did it attract the attention.  I ended up being his cutter for flooring and rafters and in 2 days had it ready for roofing. 

The government had finally settled October 1 as the start date for all schools. I spent most of a week putting skirt boards around the school to attach the tarps to and putting up the tarps.

First you had to lay the tarps out and cut them in half.

Screws with pieces of plastic bottle
 to keep them from tearing holds everything on.

This is a yearly process and pretty much a pain.  I think this is the first year since the earthquake that we’ve started with all new tarps all around the outside. 

Looks pretty good, fresh and new.  Hoping to
be hurricane free for the rest of the year.
'Canes are tough on tarps!

Hopefully, this will be the last one too.  If you don’t mind a little commercial right here I’ll elaborate.  Our prayer is to put up block walls around the perimeter this winter to include steel doors and windows with bars and shutters.  The cost for this project is $3500 – 4000.00.  We’d love for you to participate in that need.  Also we are in need of laborers!  Surely a couple weeks on a beautiful Caribbean island in January or February sounds delightful, doesn’t it? 

Now it's up to the director to decide where to
put the classroom dividers.

We are looking for 2 or 3 small groups (3-4 couples or a mix of maybe 5 men & 2 or 3 women) to come help us lay block and make our school look like a school.  If you’d like more information, you can contact me on Facebook or email (pkaufman3@gmail.com) or call Jen Wagoner @ 574-8634931, 260-5784957 or jdwagoner@kconline.  We’d love to see you here to work together with us.  After an exhausting day laying block, to lay under the beautiful Haitian stars at night it the ultimate refreshment.  We pray that you will be obedient to the calling that God lays on your heart to help us!  We also have 40 of our 170 students needing sponsors.  We are discovering just how valuable an education is!  You can help change a nation by sponsoring one of our kids for only $25.00/month.  It’s easy to do from our website, hoc-haiti.org.  On the home page, click on ‘Sponsor a student’ and you can pick out the one (one’s J) you want. 

In between working on the school, I had corn that needed harvested.  I’d planted about ¾ acre of corn in April and had depended on a friend to purchase the seed.  Turns out, he didn’t buy the best seed.  I’d

 really feel bad if his corn looked even a little better than mine, but it didn’t. My expectations were not very high, thinking I’d be really happy with a bushel of corn from the whole field.  Well, a friend helped me pick and that didn’t take but about an hour and a half.  I have a shoulder harvest basket and the entire harvest fit in that basket.  The next day, I scattered the ears on the roof to dry and in the evening Cheryl and I ‘grennen’ (shelled) it.  We ended up with 2 ice cream buckets of corn.  If I had to live on what I grew I’d starve to death!  It gives a new perspective to the reports of record yields coming from home. 

I was a 'picker/sheller.  Cheryl was just the sheller.

The little ones make the big one look
pretty impressive but it's only about 7" long.

For us, this is enough corn and we’ll probably have it ground and give most of it away.  We’re still learning to prepare and like some of the traditional Haitian dishes that use a lot of ground corn, but visitors are always thankful for the gift.  They can make a meal out of 2 cups of corn!  But when you look at the ears that came from my field and compare it to many of the stalks in your fields that this year had multiple ears on them, you wonder how our worlds can be so different.  How cutting edge farming science can exist in the same time space as stone age technology.  Most of my neighbor’s corn looked better than mine, but there would be rejoicing for 5 bushel/acre!  Life is hard here, that’s just a fact.  There is a contentment that comes with the acceptance of that fact that is just beautiful.  The Lord gives, the Lord takes away, Blessed be the name of the Lord!

Several of the boys up here are taking music lessons.  This is exciting!  Their goal is to form a band to lead worship.  One is studying keyboard, one wants to be a drummer and several are taking guitar

I've invested nearly an entire bottle of
super glue in holding this guitar together.

lessons.  If you’ll allow another commercial, I’d like to talk to you guitar junkies out there.  Right now there is one guitar (and it’s a real honey!) being shared by at least 4 boys.  I’m not asking for a guitar, that would be really exciting, but maybe a few of you could get together and send me a set of strings.  This guitar has an assortment of nylon and steel strings and none of them are the right size.  I think one of them is even off a bass guitar.  If you’re feeling extra generous, you could include a spare or two for the smaller strings, they seem to break easier.

I don't know much about guitars, but with these big
strings the have to crank it so tight to tune it that
they're breaking the neck off!

The boys would be so thrilled to actually be able to tune their guitar and hear what it’s really supposed to sound like!!!!!!  God Bless you!  If it works out for you, just mail them to

Pat Kaufman

Unit 2052 Heart

3170 Airmans DR

Fort Pierce, FL 34946

We’ll send you a pic of the smiles!!!!

Of course, life here has it’s little annoyances.  It seems the bugs are a little over the top for Cheryl.  She must have gotten too used to living in screened and air conditioned places while we were home and forgot what it was like to get back to nature.  The main thing during the day are the ants (sorry no pic, will get one for a later post).  Little, tiny, swarming buggers that get into EVERYTHING!  Any little piece of food that hits the floor or left on the counter is attacked by them in short order.  You can’t leave anything out or unprotected for long or you’re picking those creepy little things out of your food or throwing it away.  Not much gets thrown away, nuff said on that.  But they get into everything! 

Rain bug flying circus!

The night is a different story.  If we’d choose to leave the lights off and go to bed at 8:00 there would be no problems.  But the lights add a whole new element to night life in our house.  Of course it enables us to do things, but Haitian bugs have never seen lights before and come swarming in to see this new thing!  If you get a rain after dark it’s the rain bugs.  A 30-45 minute phenomenon of bugs swarming everywhere, swirling around the lights, their wings falling off and covering the floor & every other surface with dead carcasses!  Endure it and sweep them out the door when it’s over and it’s not a big deal, but they are everywhere and that is one long half hour when they are swarming around! 

Moths of assorted sizes abound too.  Most are harmless ceiling dwellers while others bomb your computer screen and get in everything.

  Others are bird size and cause quite a commotion while you chase it around with a fly swatter trying to knock it out of the air.  You take your entertainment where you can get it, but this is not Cheryl’s favorite creature.  But given the choice, I think she’d rather chase moths than look up to see a tarantula crawling down the inside of the shutter. They’re easier to kill than the moths, but way creepier!

Well, this is long enough. For those of you that are still with me, the church is doing well, the garden is starting to produce again. Been planting things and patching people up today.  Cheryl just relit the stove under our supper after consulting an expectant mother and one of her daughters.  She's counted 7 consultations (pregnancies, babies, blood pressure, blood sugar, various sicknesses) today,a couple small wounds and now she’s headed to a neighbor’s house for her second home visit of the day to check a blood pressure while the rice is simmering on the stove.  Along with helping at school this morning and doing laundry, she’s had a busy day.  Pretty soon it’ll be dark and things will quiet down.    We’re learning to take things as they come, and if we don’t get to what we’d planned, well, that’s ok.  It’s nice to eat and shower before dark, but that’s the exception rather than the rule. And we’re learning that that’s OK too. “ He must increase and I must decrease.” John 3:30

Just pickin and 'grennen'! See ya next time.  Make your plans now
to visit us this winter!

Furlough Fun!

We love you all, but getting to know
this little guy was best of all!

Well here we are, are back in Haiti after 5 ½ weeks In the states- It is good to be back here, but as a young man just asked me today – “Which is better USA or Haiti” ? I answered –“ USA is better because my family & friends are there”!! And that is exactly the reason why !!!!

 Oh yea I got to put clothes in a washer – no scrubbing by hand but no beautiful scenery either.

We had WARM showers & COLD drinks, even ICED COFFEE!! J

I got drive & drive & drive – its been a whole year ! Just like riding a bike – comes right back to ya!

The stores were so many  & so full of food & things to buy !!!

A fun night out with good friends

We even had places to get dressed up for & go. Like really go someplace besides up or down the mountain!

There were times to just act silly!

And just being together made us smile!

BUT the best part was being with you  family & friends!! NOTHING, I mean NOTHING can take the place of that. We had no idea how much we really missed you all. And that little grandson was the highlight!

Lovin' hanging with the guys!

 We have been so blessed by the encouragement & support that you all showed us. We are sorry we couldn’t have been with each of you personally , but it was a treat to see so many of you at church or in your homes or at the church camp or lunch, or early morning meetings, or at the clinic or hospital. The time went fast & I was sure I was gonna be bored- you know, NOT having a job for ALL that time . Well bored I was NOT! I think we had to come back here to “pose”- rest a little !! J Each one of you have been a part of what is going on here in Soliette- we couldn’t do the little we do here without your part- praying , sending, encouraging, financing! SO THANK YOU!!!

Kaufman reunion with Mom & Butch (someone had to take the picture)
and Mike &  Brenda

We were  able to spend time at many family gatherings, time in TN with Pats family, 

Thanks mom for making the trip up to see us. Loved our time together.

my mom came up to OH, many soccer games, 

Had to get a picture of the 'whole family'

Brandin' calves in flip flops.  A modern day cowboy!

out to WA to see Cole,& many church gatherings, WE truly are blessed !

God also confirmed His faithfulness to us – that He cares for our needs

 … O you of little faith? Therefore don’t be anxious, saying , “ what shall we eat?”or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?”  

We were blessed with medical care, dental work, meals, finances, ice cream J, telephone service, coffee by the bag & by the cup ,meals paid for mysteriously, a great room to live in,  things to bring back like  saw blades, supplies, pics from little friends to cheer our home, a world map,

Can't wait to see this 'gator' crawling up
the mountain to our house!

   a gator – the 4 wheel type to make our hauling & travels easier. 

But most of all by your prayers & gift of time. We serve an AWESOME GOD who is sovereign & cares for each one of us & provides for us when we obey & walk with HIM. This was just such a confirmation & encouragement to us. Now back here I need to keep reminding & remembering ALL HE did for us & trust HIM with our future & lives, & the lives of those we love back in the US. !

Just had to get one more pic of this little guy in!

We just want to say a BIG THANK YOU again  to each one of you for being an encourager to us.  We return ‘home’ with great memories and a few extra pounds. We all need each other & up here on the mountain this has been soo evident to us. Blessings to you . May God continue to direct each of our lives in the way we should walk- close to HIM, trusting & loving HIM.