Sharing the path.

As I settle in for the evening, to think back across the last few weeks for what you might be interested in, if anything.  Cheryl is emailing home and we kinda have a race to see if I can get this done before she can write a note to her mom and sister. She’ll probably win, but it might be close.  I can type faster, but I tend to use more words, so we’ll let you know the outcome in a little bit.

 It’s been a busy time since we’ve talked last. Busy, but not necessarily noteworthy J.  I need to be more diligent in using my camera because it has a better memory than I do.  As I scroll back through the pics it helps me keep things in some kind of order and refreshes my memory of other little things that happen in between.

  The guy that Cheryl stitched together came to have his stitches out and it is healing beautifully.  No infection and it seems to be totally knit together.   Praise the LORD & Way to go Cheryl!

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Cheryl and Sean teaming up on a diagnosis

Probably the highlight of this time was the opportunity to help out in a mobile clinic that came to our area.  We first thought they would come to our school, but they decided that they could see more people at a site closer to the road.  Two local missions were working together to bring doctors and medicine to our area.  Soliette is a part of the Fond Verrettes district and just to throw out some statistics, there are about 45,000 people in this district and there are no full time medical facilities in the whole district.  We want to thank International Faith Missions (IFM) and Love a Child for their interest in the community up here. 

Counting, packaging & labeling meds,
 '1 gren, 2 fwa pa jou' (1 tab 2 times a day)

IFM has the closest clinic to us and it’s about an hour by tap-tap ride away in Fond Parisienne.    IFM has a full time staff with a doctor, but they aren’t a 24 hour facility.  There is one 24 hour facility in Fond Parisienne, but those are the only options down hill.  The next closest full time clinic is in Orione which is about 2 hours the other way .  We haven’t visited the Orione clinic, but it’s a small place run buy a nurse.  We’ve been invited to visit for a few days and Cheryl’s pretty pumped about that.  Anyhow, Cheryl got to help with exams, doing labs and floating around to whatever was interesting with 3 docs examining patients.

Cheryl and a local  pastor.  His feet were so infected
He couldn't stand to preach!

 I helped out in the pharmacy counting meds and handing out tracts.  In 3 days we saw over 600 patients.  It was good for us to see a lot of people we knew come through and to learn some new faces.  There are a couple patients that Cheryl is still doing follow up care with too.  It was a very fruitful 3 days.  Thanks again to the visiting teams.  Praise God for their caring hearts.  The people of Fond Verrettes are in desperate need of a medical facility.  Pray with us that God will move these missions to return with regular mobile clinics that could eventually become a full time facility!

Daniella from Love a Child was a beautician
on the side.  Cheryl's hair hadn't been touched
 for 7 months!  'A little off the sides please.'

Love a Child sent us home with a generous
stash of meds and vitamins to share with
our neighbors.  God Bless you Shawn and friends!

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Last time we talked, rain was a big topic.  Well we finally got a nice week of rain!  Thank you God!!!!!  We woke up on Sunday night 3 weeks ago to the sound of rain on the roof. 

Jeano planting corn and congo beans.

By dawn, we could hear people working in their fields!  I started planting in the afternoon.  Well really I started planting that morning because overnight a neighbor’s mule invaded my garden and pulled up a whole row of carrots!  We hadn’t eaten any of them yet and I knew they were getting close.   When I got up, there were the remains of some 8” long carrots on the ground.  My first crop was all about 3” long so this was a really disappointing loss.  Seeing these results I replanted the carrots first and started in the field in the afternoon but got rained out.  I got an early start on Tuesday and with the help of a school kid in the afternoon, we finished just before the afternoon rain started. 

Jeano's grandma doing her part getting
 the seeds in the ground.

They plant corn and beans in the same hole!
The corn is harvested in July and the congos
in December.

Planting Moringa trees on the contour ridges.

Between the 2 days we got a little over 2” and with a soil temp of about 75 degrees we had plants coming up in 4 days!!! We’re praying again because it’s been dry for 2 weeks and pretty hot.  But, Bondye Konnen!  God has it all under control. Still learning to live by Faith not by sight!

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Day to day ministry is still one surprise after another.  

Oh to fully understand her story!

A lot of it is just sitting and listening ....

Pastor Beniswa's new baby girl.  Mom's all
bundled up and it is ROASTING HOT in
their house!

or stopping to see a new baby.... 

Mona and her 'Epina'.  I gave her the seed and 3 weeks
later they are starting to eat it!  The thorny branches
are to protect the plants from the turkeys and goats!

or checking out how the plants you gave someone are doing.   These things take a huge amount of time and really clash with my American mindset, but they really mean a lot to the people if you take time and show an interest in them.  There is so much to learn from them and about them, and it's and important part of relationship building.  And you always come away refreshed, even if you have to rearrange your schedule for the rest of the day. 

These are frequent visitors to our house and love
to have their picture taken.  

Some neighbor kids that love to borrow our song books
and sing on our steps!

Often, people just stop in and sit.  There’s not a lot of conversation because we still struggle hugely with the language.  Usually though, someone sees that someone else stops in and they come too.  Then you have 2 or more people sitting in your house, holding a conversation that you have very little idea what they are talking about.  Sharing your home, your time, your food and most everything else is all part of building relationships and becoming part of the community.  It doesn't blend in well with most of what we knew in our culture.  God is teaching us it is His time and stuff and we are learning to find joy in these interruptions. 

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Cheryl’s birthday was last week (happy birthday honey!) and we celebrated with my English class.

Happy Birthday Yvolouis and Cheryl!

The boys making Yvo and Cheryl feel special.

Cheryl’s birthday was the 29^th and one of the students was the 27^th, so we celebrated both with juice, popcorn and cake. They love cake!  No one has ovens, so anything baked is a real treat.  It’s a really special group of boys in this class.  I don’t know if they are learning anything, but I’m learning a lot! 

Bethany and Cheryl celebrating on the roof to
escape the invasion of the beetles!

Bethany brought special food for a special
birthday meal.  Thanks Beth!

These little beetles just swarmed any kind of light!
All the lights were out in the house except for
the little blue power lights on our speakers.
Really creeped Cheryl out!

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Clint and Brenda came up Friday with a load of Vetiver grass to plant along our new road to help combat erosion. 

We planted clumps of Vetiver grass along the
edges of the road to help keep it from washing
over the cliff.

 

Some of it needed a little touching up, but the kids did
a great job!

Had about 1/3 of the kids from school helping plant and we were done before Cheryl got down to take any pics.  It was neat to see them work together and they got a lot done quickly.  Thanks Clint and thanks to the kids. 

I’m thankful too for a big pile of grass to use for mulch and compost.

Well, Cheryl has been done for a little while so I lose this time.  Next time I’ll have to be more prepared before we start or something.  It’s a good feeling to be up to date.  Unfortunately, tomorrow I’ll be behind again.  Better get out the camera!  Love you all! pnc

No! No! The path is not easy,
but Jesus walks with us.
From a common Creole hymn.