Recap & Update

Since the last post a lot has happened:

Tim returned: On November 17, Tim returned to the US after a couple long return flights back from Haiti.  He traveled back with a short-term team who had been on the Mission Haiti property the week before.  The girls and I anticipated Tim's return for a long time and it was great to have him back.  When the girls saw him for the first time there was a lot of bear hugs and happy tears!  It took us all a little bit to find our rhythm as a family again, but since then we have enjoyed a lot of quality time together.
Tim has spent some of his time while back in the US a part of a number of meetings having to do with Mission Haiti which were important to take place while he was present.  We are thankful for this time that allows us some flexibility to take care of things that need to be prepared on this end, in order to keep many things moving in Haiti when we return.

Mom's Prognosis:  On December 17, my mom had a surgery to remove any remaining cancer tumors left after her 3 rounds of chemotherapy.  We are completely humbled and grateful to report that after we were told by her Dr. that "no cancer can be visibly seen."  It is so hard to put into words what this news means to our family.  She will take the next 5 weeks to recover from the surgery, and then go through another 3 rounds of chemo to completely wipe out any microscopic cells that might be left in her body.  She has handled this all very well, with very few significant side effects.  We are very opptomistic that in a few months she will be cancer free and be able to put this behind her (this is something we didn't know if we would have ever been able to say, and praise God we are able to now.)  We have so many of you, who are reading this, to thank for how well you have cared for our mom and family during this time.  It is such a clear reflection of the body of Christ in so many ways.

Time in US:  Our family returned to the US on September 30, after learning of our Mom's diagnosis.  During this time we have had a lot of great opportunities, as well as moments of being stretched because of our current set of curcumstances.  The girls have handled this time well, we are proud them for this, and are again grateful to God for His provision in their lives.  We spent a lot of time doing schoolwork, visiting friends, but most of the time we went about the day-to-day while helping out at our parent's house as much as we could.  I think one of the best things that happened while we were here was the fact the girls were allowed to fill up our parent's house with a lot of energy, smiles, laughter and silliness to keep all our minds off of a cancer diagnosis.

(October birthdays, 9, 6 & 4!)

MH update:  Many things are happening within the ministry.  The new Christian academy is currently looking for Christian, American teachers who have a French speaking background or the desire to learn!  The block plant is making great progress and has been blessed with a construction crew who has been working hard and does quality work.  There are a number of other new ideas and possibilities on the horizon that have been in the works for a while, and it is our hope some of these become a reality in 2015.

(Block plant wall construction project)

Return trip:  It will be 3 months, almost to the day, that the girls and I have spent in the US after spending 7 weeks in Haiti.  As I have written, we have done a lot of things and taken time to learn in ways we hadn't originally planned.  But as I have stated before in this blog, we can do our best to make plans but ultimately we have very little control over what God puts in our path.  As our family approaches our return to Haiti on December 30, we are again faced with similar feeling as we had the first time we had to say goodbye to so much that is familiar, and so many whom we love.  Although the goodbyes are still going to be tough, and we are currently doing our best to spend quality time with family during this Advent season, all while still accomplishing things needing to be done on our to-do lists.... we are grateful the transition and culture shock will be somewhat less than it was in August.  We are also extremely grateful that our girls are looking forward to returning to Haiti and re-establishing friendships they began months ago.  This was a concern of ours for a long time.  I feared that we would be pulling them back when they were not wanting to.  This would be very hard on our hearts as parents.  So once again we are thankful that God has been working in their hearts to be ready for yet another period of change.  A good friend reminded me a while back that I had written in a blog post almost 9 months ago, how the Mulder family was not real great with transitions.... well, we are learning : )

So we would like to ask you to continue to pray for us.  In the next week, there will be a lot of emotions for us and our families as we have to say goodbye for a while again.  We are not exactly sure of our timeline moving forward.  For now we have to get back to Haiti as a family of 5 and continue in the relationships and life of Mission Haiti.  There is a lot of exciting things ahead that have great potential within the ministry, please pray for these few things if you will.

* Hearts to be protected through transition
* My Mom's treatment and recovery to continue to be blessed.
* Safety during travel
* Mission Haiti and its ministry within SW part of Haiti
* Unity to continue within the Mission Haiti staff
* Short-term teams scheduled to visit (it is going to be a busy 6 months on the property)
* Health
* That our family may be a blessing in any way possible to the people in Haiti.

(I hope to update the blog again after our first week back in Haiti.  We have a short-term team traveling with us, along with our other American team-mates, and so there will be a lot going on, but we will be anxious to report how the transition went!)

Ephesions 3:20-21Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Block Plant Update

About a week ago Tim sent me an email about the progress on the block company.  It had been a while since things had really taken any strides forward, and so any momentum is very welcome.  The timing is great as an investment group, along with the Mission Haiti board will be traveling for a visit on November 11-16.  Please pray for a fruitful visit while those who have stood beside our team are on location experiencing the in's-and-out's of the ministry.

Here is Tim's email about the block plant:

I wanted to shoot you a quick update on the block company.  It seems like in Haiti every time we take two steps forward, we follow that up with taking another step back.  All of you are well aware of how Haiti works. Concerning the block company, this week was “two steps forward”, so that’s when I love to send an email update.

 

The construction boss we hired to do the wall and bridge for the block company started working this week. They have been working in our yard all week cutting and preparing the re-bar for the bridge and the wall of the block company. I’ve attached a couple pictures showing the work. The boss and his crew have worked about 10 hour days this entire week, so that has been great to see.

 

In addition, today we met with the gentleman from Port-A-Prince who will be training our guys how to run the block machine. He has agreed to a two month contract in which we will pay him and one other worker from PAP to train our guys. It was nice to hear that this man is a Christian and has a family (wife and two boys).

This was wonderful to read that things have been moving in this department.  Tim has done a great job being patient, while knowing this is a big part of what his role in Haiti should include.  We have been able to also see how the time up until now, as work on the block plant has been slow, has allowed Tim to begin understanding how business works, how to hire personnel, and how to enter into contracts within the Haitian culture.

Continue to pray for this area of the Mission Haiti ministry.  There aren't always the emotional stories involved with this side of things, like there is when talking of  our orphanage care, or mountain ministry.  But prayer is needed for safety, protection and integrity for all those who work on site to build this plant, and work with each other during long days of difficult manual labor.

Investments

'...where you invest your love, you invest your life.'

A couple weeks ago, I asked Tim if he could send me a quick update about what he has been doing in Haiti.  We know we need to keep all of you informed as best we can and yet it sometimes is difficult to accurately explain what is going on in our lives especially now as our family is in two separate 'worlds' so-to-speak.

But here it goes anyway...

The following is a summery from Tim, and following that I will do my best to fill in information from times he and I have talked.

* New Christian Academy - We have been making some great progress on the new Christian academy in the last several weeks. A road leading from the top of a hill down to the school has been constructed. This was a huge undertaking that required a lot of construction materials and manpower.  Our unseasonably dry October weather allowed us to finish the work. The next stage of construction will be to finish one of the school buildings so we are ready for school next year.

*  Block Plant - Progress on the block plant has been slow. We have land purchased and all the paperwork is in-line. We also have a contract in place with a construction company to build a bridge to the property and a wall around the property.  As soon as the bridge is built we can work on getting a well dug for water. A large water tank was recently purchased so we can store water for the various construction projects. 

*  Financial - Mission Haiti recently purchased a new financial software system. The new system will allow for greater flexibility and better financial reporting. Transferring all of our information over to a new system has proved to be a time intensive task. 

- Creole lessons - I've been taking creole lessons for the last several weeks. I'm SLOWLY picking up the language.

 From talking with Tim I know that this list is not all that he has done in the past 3 weeks.  While he has been there the Mission-Haiti orphanage has taken in a couple new faces.  He has also been along with other team members to visit a new 'family' who Mission Haiti has been trying to help.  It is a situation where two sets of brother and sister orphans were living in one house taking care of each other with next to nothing.  Tim sent me a couple pictures and a list of clothing items they needed, and asked me to do what I could.  It was nice for me to still be able to play a small role while away.  Tim has also been helping with youth group, keeping up on the day-to-day on the property along with all the team members (which sounds simple but is amazing how busy that can make a person) and of course doing all the chores around our house cause we are not there to assist.....

The girls and I are doing well living with my parents in Sioux Center, IA.  We have fallen into a flexible routine and another period of transition seems to be accepted.  I am also happy to report that my mom has now had two rounds of chemo treatments and has handled it all with much grace.  She got great news last week just before they started her chemo drugs, reporting that her 'tumor markers' had decreased by almost 2/3's.  This tells us that her body is responding to the treatments and the amount of cancer tumors in her body is much less!  Please help us praise God for this answer to prayers, and we ask that you diligently continue to pray these numbers continue to decline.  

A few last thoughts and I will be finished for now. 

A couple weeks ago I heard a sermon preached titled "Living an Everyday Missional Life (That Saves the World and Us from Ourselves.)  It was preached by Pastor Aaron Baart, dean of chapel at Dordt College in Sioux Center, IA.  There were many points in the words he spoke that morning that stuck out and really challenged my thinking. 

One point in particular was about how we who claim to be Christians should always be giving our testimonies, not as something that had happened in the past, but we should speak of our present-tense testimony.  I considered that for our family.  Our present tense situation is drastically different within the five members who make up the Mulder family.  Tim is on a tropical island amongst new relationships and challenges, I am helping to care for our Mom who is battling a dreaded disease, our girls are rolling with home-school while adding a bit of distraction and joy in a setting that might be a bit too quiet when facing very real health concerns.  I tried to imagine if each of us had to speak our testimony how different they would sound... but then I realized instead how intensely similar they would be.

I heard a song playing in our van that next week which helped me realize this.  It is by Momford & Sons called "Awake My Soul." In this song the phrase "... where you invest your love, you invest your life" struck me.  Although the song is not new to me, that phrase helped me shape what our present-tense testimony is.  Think about it for yourself.  Where do you invest your love?  Because I believe it is true, that is what your life is about.  So although our family faces very different circumstances from day-to-day, we are confident we are investing in the people we have been asked to love right now as best we can. 

We want to also take this opportunity to also say thank you for loving our family so well.  Tim, myself and the girls have been so well taken care of in both big and small ways through a time of more changes.  So many of you have also expressed care and offered prayers for my Mom and Dad.  We could never adequately tell you how much we value this, but we humbly ask that you continue.

"The Land Between"

We wanted to give you a little insight into what has been going on in our adventure lately. 
Many of you might know already, but on September 30, our family of 5 traveled back to the Sioux Falls airport.  We made the decision for the 3 girls and I, Sara, to temporarily return and move in with our parents after learning of my mother's stage 3 ovarian cancer diagnosis the week prior.  So we all returned and spent a week with our families, after which we sent Tim off again to return to Haiti and resume his work with Mission Haiti.  We are happy to say he returned to the property safely on October 8, and is again busy.

While we were home all together, we moved into my parent's house in Sioux Center/Rock Valley, and will share time between both sets of our parents.  We had originally planned to return to the states on November 23 with the other American team members and remain until December 30 for a good long holiday break.  So we look forward to the end of November when Tim will return again, and are praying we can return to Haiti at the end of December with the rest of our Mission Haiti team members.  We have learned to be diligently praying for peace, unity and obedience when it comes to making plans...,

This was not an easy decision for us to make and yet we know and have peace it is what we need to do right now.  Our team in Haiti was very supportive of us and prayed diligently that we would be led to do what we needed.  Tim and I talked a lot together as well as consulting with family and friends that we knew would give us honest, and wise advice.  My parents never told us that we needed to come home, or made us feel guilty in any way.  What we kept coming back to was that fact that we would never regret spending time with our family during a diagnosis like this, whatever way this road leads our mom.  We also knew, after spending 7 weeks in Haiti, what it takes to serve and live well there.  I knew for myself that my heart would be wanting to be with my mom and so would not be 'all in' where we were in serving with Mission Haiti. 

We also have been led to take the perspective that had we not moved to Haiti, we would be working jobs and attending school, in which case a diagnosis like my mom has received would have added to our life... now, we had the ability to be flexible because of home-schooling and make helping our family our first priority.

So... here we are, more transition and more adjustments for us all.  We feel blessed to be where we are and for the people both in Haiti and in the U.S. who have supported us through this time.  It is definitely not what we intended, or how we planned things to go, but we know this is right for now.  After returning the first week to the US, we were at a friend's house and he was giving Tim some books to return to Haiti with that he thought would be good for him to read.  One of the books was titled The Land Between, by Jeff Manion.  The tag line of the book reads, "Finding God in Difficult Transitions.'  When I read that I asked Tim if it was okay if I kept it to read while he returned. 

After starting read a little bit of the book, I identified with a lot of what was being said.  One phrase I want to share talks about a choice we all have when any of us face transition.

'The Land Between can be profoundly disorienting.  It also provides the space for God to do some of His deepest work in our lives.  God intends for us to emerge from this land radically reshaped.  But the process of transformational growth will not occur automatically.  Our response to God while in the Land Between is what will determine whether our journey through this desert will result in deep, positive growth or spiritual decline.  We choose.' 

I feel this is what our family is facing after leaving Haiti.  With seven weeks in to our adventure, we were just feeling acclimated to life there.  We were being allowed to see purpose and value in our being a part of Mission Haiti and the people we lived amongst.  And I feel this Land Between is what my Mother is facing as she heads into cancer treatment.  This disease snuck up on our family and yet has revealed already what the body of Christ looks like when they give so unselfishly in so many ways.

So as I said before, we are where we need to be for now.  We will battle this cancer disease however we need to for as long as we need to, and are thankful to have the ability to spend time with our families. 
Keep praying for all involved.  Pray for Mission Haiti, for Tim as we are away from each other, for my Mom and Dad as they walk the cancer road, and a prayer of thanks for all of you who have already reached out to us in some way.  We are grateful and humbled by your willingness to meet our needs and pray us through.

Contrast - Weeks 5-7

It has been a few weeks again and we want to let you all know what has been going on around the MH property.

Tim – He has been working steadily on plans for the block company.  Right now this involves sitting down with various people and making sure the land is dealt with properly.  The piece of land has needed to be surveyed, boundaries staked, neighbors talked to and former owners notified of any plantain trees that they might want to remove before construction begins.  The next steps will involve finalizing construction plans, which sometimes move quickly here and at other times not so much.  Otherwise Tim stays busy with keeping track of all financial aspects of the ministry, helping with various ministry decisions and co-lead teacher of our girls’ homeschool education.

Sara – I have been spending time figuring out ways to keep our homeschooling experience interesting.  I have come to love the flexibility it gives us but it takes diligence to keep from just trying to finish pages or concepts.  We need to make sure we are not just crossing off our lists, but also teaching for understanding and knowledge to sink in.  Before we moved, it was my concern that Aubrey needed to begin reading this year and I am thankful to say she is making great strides at it.  Otherwise, I have been keeping up with daily life stuff… laundry day is still a day I need to mentally prepare for here, but very satisfying when finished.  I have also been helping get pictures taken for the school sponsorship program.  This involves accompanying Paul and Pam to the schools MH assists… I always sleep well at night on the days I hike with them.

Logan, Aubrey & Regan – The girls are adjusting well.  It is good to see people continuing to embrace them. 

    Logan has been reading a couple books per week.  She is our daughter who keeps to herself the most which has been the case even in America.  She does well and is happy playing by herself and continues to have a big imagination.  Logan got to accompany Pam and Bethany to AWANA class Saturday morning as well as take part in a recorder lesson… so now we have a recorder in our house 

: )

   Aubrey would prefer to be around people and we have to kindly remind her to not hover or overwhelm others! Haha.  Most of the time Aubrey is found carrying around her latest precious stone or piece of wood that she has turned into some pretend object.  The other day, she saw me through out a stone I found inside our house, and immediately she was reduced to tears cause that was her ‘most special one.’  Big news for Aubrey is that she has lost her two front teeth!  We told her the ‘tooth fairy’ (she knows the truth about the tooth fairy… sorry, we are realists) would buy her something at the airport on our return trip.

   Regan… well, she is the same ‘full of life,’ Regan!  Her knees are perpetually skinned because of her inability to move at any speed other than full speed.  It has been fun listening to some of her thoughts and/or reasoning about things, we can tell she is able to understand and process more than she could even 6 months ago.  Amazed at how fast she is growing up. 

Last blog entry I said I would do my best to explain the state of our hearts at some point too… so here it goes.

During my years as an art teacher I often taught and spoke to my students about contrast as an element of art.  Visually speaking, contrast is the difference between a light value and a dark value.  When referring to contrast with my students, a lot of times it was something added to a piece of artwork to really make the art come to life; something that visually intensified a project.  In the past 6 weeks in Haiti, contrast has been on my mind again, but for very different reasons.

In our first few weeks here I am sure our family was perceived as having a ‘deer in the headlights’ look about us.  The environment we were placed in had a lot of contrasts, everything from obvious things like language to not so obvious things like what you do at night if it is raining and you have to use the bathroom (our bathroom is about 20 steps from our house and has no roof!)  As I have stated before though, our family has been embraced and cared for well.

Now for a bit of a confession… Before we moved, Tim and I spent a lot of time talking about how this wasn’t in OUR plan for our life, and yet we were confident of what we put in front of us.  And God affirmed, in many ways, this call.   So the word surrender became a very real part of our life.  But until we lived here a couple weeks did we really understand what surrender meant.  In America, we said we were surrendering and yet deceived ourselves at the amount of control we still tried to hold

After being here now for about a month and a half, it is clearer to us that we have NO control of our life (we never really have, we just thought we did), it is not up to us to know what will happen from moment-to-moment. This fact breaks all language or geographical barriers.  All that is asked is obedience and trust.

Tim and I are often amazed and humbled by the team members God has placed around us as part of Mission Haiti.  They are an example of truly living by faith alone, not worrying about what the day has brought, or what tomorrow will bring.

I was emailing a friend the other night and describing to her about a couple events that had taken place that day.  I commented that if these things had happened in the first few weeks of us being here, our family would have had a tough time processing or dealing with these situations.  I understand 7 weeks is not that long to be living in this country, but we are so grateful for God’s gift of grace and mercy when it comes to us being able to see Him, even in the events that don’t always make sense.  I am not sure I am making sense right now!  I will wrap it up.

(As I am writing this our Director, Pam, walked by and I told her there is so much in my head that I could write but I don’t want to write 3 pages of stuff that is not written down well! I wish words were my gift!)

Almost daily, we find ourselves, in one way or another, saying thank you to God for His mighty presence amongst all the contrast right now in our life.  Just as in art, this contrast has brought to life things God has planned to reveal in a very specific way for us and for those He puts in front of us.  Keep praying our eyes see what He wants us to see, hear what He wants us to hear, and say only what will bring Him glory. 

Love to you all from the Mulders.

Alright… first off, apologies for this being a very belated entry.  It is amazing where the days go and how much we take for granted in America the fact we are connected to wi-fi almost everywhere we go.  I had typed this entry 3 days ago, and when I was finished with it and ready to post, our wireless on the property was not running well and my computer froze.  We also try not over stay our welcome at our teammates house where the wireless is, and so our time to use the internet is often rushed a bit.  Lastly, the wireless here is touch and go.  Sometimes it depends on what day it is, what time of day it is, if it is windy, if it is cloudy or a number other of factors.  So there are my excuses, sorry to begin the entry this way, but do know that I will do my best to update more regularly.

There is a lot to write about, but in this entry I will just attempt to give you a picture of how our days here are beginning to take shape.

• ·      Our day usually begins between  6:30 & 7:30 (Regan is the alarm clock)
• ·      Breakfast, getting dressed and doing hair takes about another half hour
• o   Breakfasts consist of a rotation of granola bars, pancakes, scrambled eggs, cereal or oatmeal throughout a week.
• o   During this time Tim is often retrieving our water for dishes, cooking, bathroom needs and drinking, from large barrels at the end of our property about 50 yards away.
• ·      then we do a variety of chores like sweeping, mopping, laundry, dishes, picking up fallen leaves, and straightening up the house
• ·      Homeschool is also often accomplished in the morning which takes anywhere from 1 ½  to 2 hours.
• o   Logan is a diligent worker when it comes to school.  She likes accomplishing pages in her workbooks and generally enjoys learning… it also helps she can read all the instructions to herself!
• o   Aubrey has flat out told us she would rather be outside helping whomever is in the yard.  This is a wonderful thing, but makes her attention span on schoolwork very hard when there is often a constant flow of busyness outside our door.
• o   Regan actually does pretty well staying focused… forgive me for sounding surprised.  The only thing we have all had to get used to is her CONSTANT chatter.  For real… it is CONSTANT! (Today we literally practiced holding still and being quiet. Honestly, I wrote that in my lesson plan book for her!)
• ·      Then it is about time to play a bit while we wait for our lunch to be prepared for us by our cook Kanel.  He is a wonderful cook who makes healthy, traditional Haitian meals for us and our 3 other teammates.  (Our girls have done very well trying all the new foods and like the majority of it.)
• ·      After lunch the girls try to nap or rest for a bit
• ·      About mid to late afternoon we are often greeted by a number of kids from the orphanage, located just behind our house, who are asking for the girls to come play.  (The girls have also done well getting used playing with the kids and I think it goes both ways, that it works best to be around each other in small doses.)
• ·      We try to then eat a small supper which is often something put together without turning on the stove, as by this time of day it is a cooker in our house.
• ·      At 6:00 each day we gather as a Mission Haiti staff to pray, sing, read scripture and talk about how our days have been.  This has been a learning and refreshing experience during our time here and something we look forward to in our day.
• ·      After prayer time we accomplish showers, which are in a shower stall with no ceiling.  This has been a high point so far for us all.  It is a very refreshing thing to dump a bucket of water over us and wash away the heat of the day.
• ·      About 7:30 the sun has set, and we either let the girls watch a part of a movie or we head to bed by 8:30 cause we are all usually exhausted.
•  

This is a very rough outline of what has generally happened here.  While we are going about our day, there is always a lot going around our property.  Tim has become busier with maintaining the financial side of the ministry, and is starting to get the ball rolling with the new block plant.  He also is hoping to develop a business education class to those who desire a bit more knowledge about managing money or developing a business plan. 

We all help out whenever and however we can.  Sometime for me that is just making sure the team members have eaten and drank enough for the day.  Other times it is simply being a good listener for people, and making sure they are able to do their job well… lots of behind the scenes work which has been good for me.  I also am helping out with an art class every Friday afternoon to create items for our youth to sell to short-term team members from America, as well as helping with the formula program for new moms, and assisting with a garden.  There is so much to do here, and we are doing our best to simply help lighten the load for others.

Here are a few other bits of information that might give a little perspective into our daily life:

·     

           Water – This is a basic and necessity of life anywhere in the world.  We have our water pumped for us most days into large barrels.  The water straight from our well can be used for bathing and washing dishes, but otherwise we need to run it through a water purification system to be used for drinking and cooking.  Most of the time, Tim is the one running to get our water which includes a jug for drinking, a couple buckets for dishes, a couple buckets for flushing our toilet and a couple for showers each night.  So as you can see, water is a big part of our day.

·                 Electricity – There is very little that we can call predictable when it comes to the government giving us power.  For a while we thought we recognized a routine, but now we have simply stopped trying to figure it out.  I think the longest we have gone without power is close to 4 days.  This means the inverter in our house kicks on which runs 4 fans, a couple outlets and 2 lights.  But after 4 days of no power, even our inverter needs charging so we have experienced a couple days of getting by with very little airflow, low computer batteries and lots of flashlights used.

·                 Privacy – There is simply very little.  I will leave it at that for now : )

·                 Health – We have had our bumps in the road already since being here; a few colds, a few fevers, one ear infection and plenty of upset stomachs.  But we have felt we have had what we needed to treat symptoms and keep comfortable through this all.

·                 Haitian People – We have loved getting to know the people we see on a day-to-day basis.  There are many people around our property that are regular visitors and we feel relationships are beginning to be built.  It is very interesting to learn about cultural differences here, what is ‘normal’ or what is traditionally done in any given situation.  We have also felt extremely cared for and watched out for by those who know us.  And the girls are given a lot of attention by a variety of people which they of course do not mind : )

I just re-read what I have written and I hope the picture I painted is not one of how different or difficult life is here.  We have truly felt supported, prayed for and loved during our time here.  I will write more, hopefully soon, about the condition of all of our hearts, as for now this entry is already quit long.  I hope to also include images on Facebook, it takes about 1/10 of the time to upload there than it does to upload to our blog.  Until I get something else figured out with this, I think this is the best option.

Keep praying, and check out our prayer journal for an update for specific things that we would appreciate covered.

Ti Riviere, Haiti - Week 1

Hello from Ti Riviere!

Well we have made the trip and we are here.  All our travel went as well as we could have hoped and all our luggage also arrived safely.  The girls did well and we were so thankful for Bethany Perissien, one of our team members, who traveled the whole way with us from Sioux Falls to the property.  This allowed us to have one adult for each daughter while managing luggage, an overnight stay, and a few flights.

First impression from the girls was that this is going to be a good place.  They were excited to see the kids in the MH orphanage, they loved the palm trees, their room was nicely set up for them with bunkbeds, and the fact they get to play outside all day with an abundance of people willing to play has shaped up to be a good experience thus far.

Logan, being the oldest, is perceptive to more and so has taken a bit more to jump in with both feet but she has a very willing and kind heart.  Logan really enjoys the food and takes her time to be by herself and read.  She is willing to jump in and help when needed and has warmed up to the kids who are around throughout the day.  Logan said the other day how she has come to love showers in Haiti because they do not have a roof and we can look at the stars… plus there are moments of feeling chilled from the water!

Aubrey is our little social butterfly.  Kids are always asking where she is so they can play.  She just giggles and smiles which is the language that breaks all barriers here.  Just as in SD, Aubrey has her piles of “junk” lying around which she claims are treasures… I (Sara) am working on being okay with this as we continue to find order in our new surroundings.

Regan is the same old “full of life” Regan.  Her comment they other day was how her favorite thing so far was that ‘everyone thinks I am great here.’  Oh dear, oh dear.  The Haitian students think she is hilarious and have often commented how they like to hear her talk… well, we will see how soon that wears off.  Regan too is making fast friends but requires a watchful eye until we can establish where she should and should not be.

For Tim and I, we are just trying to get adjusted.  We knew this would take a while but it is much easier to say than to do.  We feel we need to be more helpful at this point, but the daily tasks of our day are taking a lot of thought and effort right now.  Our house is pretty well organized… for now.  It seems we keep finding better organizational systems or locations to put things to make our day more efficient.  It is also going to take us a bit to become acquainted with living on a property with people around a lot of the day.  Privacy is something I have noticed I miss at times throughout the day.   Each day little things are getting to become more normal.  We are thankful for small victories throughout our days.

We sent a team off Saturday morning, and so now will come the time for Tim to sit down with the rest of the team and figure out his role.  This all takes time and for now we are doing our best to make sure the girls are doing well.

The rest of the Mission Haiti staff has been great.  They have helped us transition and have been a source of encouragement in lots of ways.  At 6:00 each day we all get together for a time of singing, prayer and sharing of how we have seen God work in our day.  It is a time we learn a lot from and are thankful for how they maintain focus on God’s faithfulness amidst things that can be so discouraging.

We are so thankful we have made it this far and I made the comment to our team the other day that I feel like we are going to look back at this time and say “remember when…”   This first week has stretched us, grown us, challenged us and encouraged us to place all control in God’s plan, not ours.  Please continue to pray that this time of transition continues to go smoothly.  There have been bumps, but our hearts can rest in knowing our Lord is the all sovereign God who is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Keep praying for us and the entire ministry of Mission Haiti.  There is so much potential here, we just need to make sure we are seeking wisdom and discernment from God in the direction He leads our efforts.  Planning and preparations are such an interesting concept in a country like Haiti.  At times it seems like we need to over prepare, only to learn that our best efforts were not intended to work out how we thought they would.

Please also keep Lucy, one of the MH orphanage girls, in your prayers.  She has decided after a decade of living here to return to Port au Prince with her mother.  This is not a good situation.  Please pray and army of God's angels to surround her right now.

Here are a few pictures that I hope can shed some light on what our first week has looked like.

Logan and Aubrey playing a game on Aubrey's bed.  They think the bug nets are awesome.

More legos

Aubrey and Dolkey playing tic-tac-toe.  He is one of the oldest in the MH orphanage.

Regan has found feathered friends in Haiti.

Aubrey and Logan helping out with distribution

The view out our bedroom window

I promise more pictures soon... but right now the speed to upload a picture is not real great.  I hope to try again soon though.