Here is a link to our latest MAF newsletter (July 2009) which includes pictures and tiny snippets about each of the airplanes and three of the guys that Todd works with at the hangar.
Todd left today with Michael Broyles for HH-PTL's engine change in FL. They should be back in about three weeks, just in time for Kyle and Megan to start school!!! :)
www.maf.org/edgerton
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Miscellaneous Notes...
The Spanish Bible Study is officially suspended for the summer since most everyone is gone. However Liz (the leader of the group) has continued meeting each week with Monica (a new lady) and going through the book Purpose Driven Life. Thursday, the kids and I went too. Monica is a studier. She has studied one of the ancient Aztec languages spoken in Mexico (Naguat???) and just devours books, especially about history. Very interesting... She reads in English and French...and Spanish, of course. Her husband knows some of the difficult languages like Russian and Chinese. It was neat to hear all she gleaned from the book. I think we all learned. She invited me to come back another time so that she could teach me more about the Naguat people/language.
The pool here at our house has been leaking a lot of water, so Sunday night Todd added a chemical which is supposed to find and stop leaks. There were warnings on the bottle about not ingesting it and even about touching the stuff so we decided to close the pool, just to be safe. Of course it has been SO hot this week. :) The sun just beats down on our concrete roof and heats up the upstairs. Fortunately we have a few trees to give a little shade and FANS!!!! But the kids have been sweating like crazy and getting heat rash....especially Kyle.
Last night we finally filtered out the chemical, so the kids were in the pool as soon as they had breakfast this morning....Todd too!!! :)
There is a large hole/drop off at the end of our road where it adjoins a more main road. Yesterday the kids and I filled it in with rocks and gravel. Kyle and Megan are such good little helpers. It was fun to hear advice about what we needed to do and how it should be done from several people hanging out down there. :) I know it will be back the way it was in just a few days, but it was a fun little project.
The pool here at our house has been leaking a lot of water, so Sunday night Todd added a chemical which is supposed to find and stop leaks. There were warnings on the bottle about not ingesting it and even about touching the stuff so we decided to close the pool, just to be safe. Of course it has been SO hot this week. :) The sun just beats down on our concrete roof and heats up the upstairs. Fortunately we have a few trees to give a little shade and FANS!!!! But the kids have been sweating like crazy and getting heat rash....especially Kyle.
Last night we finally filtered out the chemical, so the kids were in the pool as soon as they had breakfast this morning....Todd too!!! :)
There is a large hole/drop off at the end of our road where it adjoins a more main road. Yesterday the kids and I filled it in with rocks and gravel. Kyle and Megan are such good little helpers. It was fun to hear advice about what we needed to do and how it should be done from several people hanging out down there. :) I know it will be back the way it was in just a few days, but it was a fun little project.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Winds.....and other obstacles
Monday afternoon we noticed that the sky looked like there was a chance of rain. 
Suddenly winds picked up. The kids and I went outside when we heard some noise, probably when two of the neighbor's trees fell.
The MAF Haiti offices at the airport receive their internet signal from an antenna on our house. Tuesday morning, Todd called from the airport to see if I could reset the modem which controls MAF-Haiti internet because they were offline. I tried all of the normal tricks, but nothing worked. Finally I went up to the roof to make sure everything was OK. The antenna had toppled over in the strong winds, and several of the guy wires had snapped. Fortunately it had fallen on a rack of solar panels, so that saved the antennas, but the pole was bent and one of the middle solar panels was cracked.
Todd raced home to try to sort things out so the office could get back on line as quickly as possible. Because Jason Krul had a day off,
he was at home nearby. He brought his wife Willhelmina and another guy Arnon to help us lift and guide the heavy pole back into place. George was at our house sweeping at the time, so he also helped Todd and the rest of us lift and steady. Soon the antennae was transmitting again.
Yesterday morning when Todd got up he found that the server was down and would not respond to the typical quick fixes. Around noon he had things back up and running. As he started out for the airport in the MAF truck, he realized that the clutch had gone out. He fixed that by bleeding the hydraulic clutch, but by that time it was not worth it to go clear to the airport just to turn around and come back. Instead he restrang some of the guy wires on our antenna pole. That of course made me nervous since the ladder he climbed was leaning against the pole that was mostly ripped out of the concrete when it fell, just hanging on by a little piece. Apparently it was enough.
By that time Mark returned from the airport with the ticketing office's computer which has been plagued by viruses that leave it virtually unusable. We ate supper, had a little family time until the kids went to bed, and then Todd started in with trouble-shooting the office computer problems again until way past time for us to go to bed.......
There will always be those delays, the unexpected, ....sometimes to hinder our progress, but other times to keep us from something which could cause more damage. Please pray for us to have the correct response in the face of obstacles like these, to always seek God's wisdom and not just settle for second best in the urgency of the moment.
Suddenly winds picked up. The kids and I went outside when we heard some noise, probably when two of the neighbor's trees fell.The MAF Haiti offices at the airport receive their internet signal from an antenna on our house. Tuesday morning, Todd called from the airport to see if I could reset the modem which controls MAF-Haiti internet because they were offline. I tried all of the normal tricks, but nothing worked. Finally I went up to the roof to make sure everything was OK. The antenna had toppled over in the strong winds, and several of the guy wires had snapped. Fortunately it had fallen on a rack of solar panels, so that saved the antennas, but the pole was bent and one of the middle solar panels was cracked.
Todd raced home to try to sort things out so the office could get back on line as quickly as possible. Because Jason Krul had a day off,
he was at home nearby. He brought his wife Willhelmina and another guy Arnon to help us lift and guide the heavy pole back into place. George was at our house sweeping at the time, so he also helped Todd and the rest of us lift and steady. Soon the antennae was transmitting again.
Yesterday morning when Todd got up he found that the server was down and would not respond to the typical quick fixes. Around noon he had things back up and running. As he started out for the airport in the MAF truck, he realized that the clutch had gone out. He fixed that by bleeding the hydraulic clutch, but by that time it was not worth it to go clear to the airport just to turn around and come back. Instead he restrang some of the guy wires on our antenna pole. That of course made me nervous since the ladder he climbed was leaning against the pole that was mostly ripped out of the concrete when it fell, just hanging on by a little piece. Apparently it was enough.By that time Mark returned from the airport with the ticketing office's computer which has been plagued by viruses that leave it virtually unusable. We ate supper, had a little family time until the kids went to bed, and then Todd started in with trouble-shooting the office computer problems again until way past time for us to go to bed.......
There will always be those delays, the unexpected, ....sometimes to hinder our progress, but other times to keep us from something which could cause more damage. Please pray for us to have the correct response in the face of obstacles like these, to always seek God's wisdom and not just settle for second best in the urgency of the moment.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Ants!!!
Live ants carrying oatmeal and almond crumbs
Dead ants, after my can of Raid and I found themSummer = ants in Haiti, apparently. :) Just last night I found hundreds of the little creatures munching on almonds and oatmeal up in our baking cupboard. They had walked right past all of the sugars! A friend says they are health nuts. :)
This is something Todd wrote for the blog back when the kids and I were in the States. Just today I took our sheets out of the washer and noticed tiny holes all over the brand new sheets mom had gotten us for our anniversary just about a month ago!!! (Supposedly 12th anniversary is linen.) Those little guys were eating our sheets, not just invading our bed!!!!
Today is Sunday, a day of rest. Somebody forgot to tell the ants. I wake up not quite as early as a normal work weekday, but it’s early for a Sunday. I read John 16, where Jesus encourages his disciples just hours before that last night in the Garden of Gethsemane. Oswald Chambers challenges me in My Utmost for His Highest. I eat a leisurely breakfast. It is very quite around here since Jennifer and the kids are in Florida for a week, attending a bit of the Nazarene church’s General Assembly. I head upstairs to get ready for church.
As I start to make the bed, I notice quite a few ants are on the bottom sheet on my side of the bed. I lift the blanket (Jennifer uses it to shield herself from my fan at night) and see thousands of ants who have decided to move in. I lift the top sheet and see even more. I start to squish them but, yeow, these ones bite. Rats! It’s the kind of bite that continues to itch much longer than most mosquito bites.
I wrap them up in the sheet and decide to do some laundry. I grab the whites as I go downstairs, and throw everything in the wash. The sheets are colored, but maybe a little bit of bleach won’t do them harm. I hope it will harm the ants, and Jennifer isn’t around to dissuade me. City electricity is still on which means our water pump will supply enough water to do a good rinse. I set the machine for an extra rinse, just for good measure.
I’m home from church now, and I open the washer. What? Still there? It looks like at least some of them made it. Into the dryer they go. I turn our gas dryer up to high heat. I am afraid to set it on MAX for fear I will damage some article of clothing that I maybe should have sorted out but didn’t. This will be the first test of our new inverter that I installed yesterday. Even though our dryer’s heat comes from propane gas, it still draws quite a bit of current to turn the drum and ignite the gas. No problem for the new workhorse inverter.
Fifty minutes pass. Are my little visitors toasted or have I just treated them to a relaxing spin at the sauna? Dead ants around the door and in the lint trap. This is good. One fella seems quite active, but a quick squash takes care of him. I spread out the sheets and clothes, looking for more extreme survivors. If there are more, they are good at hiding. Just in case, I leave the clothes spread out for a while.
Hmm, seems like there are some clothes to be folded around here someplace.
Today is Sunday, a day of rest. Somebody forgot to tell the ants. I wake up not quite as early as a normal work weekday, but it’s early for a Sunday. I read John 16, where Jesus encourages his disciples just hours before that last night in the Garden of Gethsemane. Oswald Chambers challenges me in My Utmost for His Highest. I eat a leisurely breakfast. It is very quite around here since Jennifer and the kids are in Florida for a week, attending a bit of the Nazarene church’s General Assembly. I head upstairs to get ready for church.
As I start to make the bed, I notice quite a few ants are on the bottom sheet on my side of the bed. I lift the blanket (Jennifer uses it to shield herself from my fan at night) and see thousands of ants who have decided to move in. I lift the top sheet and see even more. I start to squish them but, yeow, these ones bite. Rats! It’s the kind of bite that continues to itch much longer than most mosquito bites.
I wrap them up in the sheet and decide to do some laundry. I grab the whites as I go downstairs, and throw everything in the wash. The sheets are colored, but maybe a little bit of bleach won’t do them harm. I hope it will harm the ants, and Jennifer isn’t around to dissuade me. City electricity is still on which means our water pump will supply enough water to do a good rinse. I set the machine for an extra rinse, just for good measure.
I’m home from church now, and I open the washer. What? Still there? It looks like at least some of them made it. Into the dryer they go. I turn our gas dryer up to high heat. I am afraid to set it on MAX for fear I will damage some article of clothing that I maybe should have sorted out but didn’t. This will be the first test of our new inverter that I installed yesterday. Even though our dryer’s heat comes from propane gas, it still draws quite a bit of current to turn the drum and ignite the gas. No problem for the new workhorse inverter.
Fifty minutes pass. Are my little visitors toasted or have I just treated them to a relaxing spin at the sauna? Dead ants around the door and in the lint trap. This is good. One fella seems quite active, but a quick squash takes care of him. I spread out the sheets and clothes, looking for more extreme survivors. If there are more, they are good at hiding. Just in case, I leave the clothes spread out for a while.
Hmm, seems like there are some clothes to be folded around here someplace.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Backtracking--June Birthdays/Celebrations
For about a week, from the end of May to the beginning of June our family has much to celebrate!!!
This year the kids were done with school May 27. In an attempt to spread out the parties, 
Todd and I celebrated our May 31 anniversary by going out to eat at a cute little gardenish restaurant while other MAF friends the Munsells had the kids on Todd's birthday, June 5. Although we love to be together as a family, it was fun to have a date night. :)
The following Saturday we took a trip to the beach to celebrate school's finish and Kyle's & Todd's birthdays (June 4th & 5th). 
Our neighbors Zach and Hans went with us, and we got to try out our new-to-us car on some real roads. :)Hans has become quite a little fish in our pool, but it was fun to watch him experience salt water for the first time. YUCK!!!! The kids all swam fairly near the shore and played in the sand most of the morning...finding cool animals, burying each other, jumping off of a floating platform, swimming with masks....
After lunch, everyone except Todd took a ride in a small boat to some of the nearby beaches. The guy rowing us sang and talked to us in about five different languages!! 
Then Todd took Zach and Kyle off to a shallow reef to snorkel while Hans, Megan and I continued playing on the beach. The big guys came back with tales of cool fish and plants.We headed back to Port around 4 and got home in less than 2 hrs.....even before nightfall. What a fun, relaxing day we all enjoyed! It was nice that the boys let all of us in on their birthday celebration. :)
Florida, Family and General Assembly
This year the Church of the Nazarene's General Assembly which happens every four years was in Orlando, FL. Since we are so close to the FL coast Kyle, Megan and I (Jennifer) made the trip. What a busy but fun time we had connecting with family and friends!!!
We arrived Tuesday afternoon at the Fort Lauderdale airport, picked up our rental car (which they upgraded at no charge from a little tiny car to this sporty machine), picked up a GPS that Todd's dad had sent to some friends, and drove the 5 hours up to Jacksonville to stay the night with my aunt and her family. They waited up for us until we arrived at 11 and actually visited with us until the early morning. :) Wednesday we woke up early and picked blueberries and then spent the rest of the day at the zoo. We rode the train around, played in the mist to cool off, and of course saw lots and lots of animals. What a special day with family!!
Kyle really wanted to see the sting rays, but they were charging to just look at them. We decided to skip it since we had done some other extras. Wouldn't you know, when we arrived at the registration for General Assembly in Orlando, there were some reps from Sea World with an aquarium of four small.....you guessed it.....STING RAYS!!! The kids got to touch them and enjoy them while we got registered.
That night (still Wed.) we had dinner with their daughter, my cousin Lisa and her son whom I have not seen very much in years. We enjoyed catching up a bit, and then we went to church. They had a really neat prayer service. The pastor read a passage of Scripture and then gave his sermon or devotional points one at a time.
Between points, he gave time for personal reflection and finally time for individuals to pray aloud as they felt led. We closed with corporate prayer and communion at the altar.
Thursday morning the kids and I traveled from Jacksonville to Orlando where we spent a couple hours walking through the exhibit hall at General Assembly. We saw many friends from Trevecca, Idaho, Tennessee, Guatemala and the MAC Region, Ecuador, Oklahoma.... That night we traveled to Port Orange (Daytona) and spent the night with my friend from college, Peggy, and her family. The kids had SUCH a great time together.
Friday morning we went to General Assembly together.
Fortunately there were quite a few things to entertain the kids....since there were five of them and just Peggy and me. :) We saw the sting rays while we were registering Peggy and her kids. The kids got their faces painted. The MAC region gave out balloons. They played on the little indoor playground. 
Toward the end when all of the little legs were getting tired we sat in the tent where they were showing the Jesus film. That was pretty neat.
When we left GA, we headed toward my sister Sarah's house near Lakeland. Right now she is in dental school in Gainsville and comes home on weekends to spend time with her husband Craig and daughter Dorothy. She arrived at her house with my mom, sister Hannah and brother Carl who had driven down from TN about 10 minutes after we did! :)
The cousins (Kyle, Megan and Dorothy) had a great time together!
Saturday I spent the day with my mom and siblings, mostly at the Ikea store. Of course shipping their wonderful furniture down to Haiti with us would not be so practical, but I did get a few plastic bins and things for the kids' room. Mostly we just had fun being together. :) Kyle and Megan stayed home with Uncle Craig and cousin "D" (Dorothy).
Sunday morning, my mom and the kids and I set out for the service at General Assembly. According to the GPS we were supposed to arrive 20 minutes early, but by the time we spent about 40 minutes stuck in the line of traffic waiting to get into the convention center, we ended up getting there about 30 minutes late...just as they were singing the last song before the message. Fortunately Dad and Mom's neighbor Lynn saved us seats, and we were able to join the other 23,000 people there in listening to the message and then participating in communion.
We enjoyed that service so much, but then they announced that a Haitian choir would be singing in the afternoon service, so we had to stay to hear that!!! :) We all walked to Olive Garden for lunch. Delicious!!! I am so glad we decided to stay for the second service. People prayed, read the Bible passage and sang in several different languages. Then after the message, people representing the 155 world areas (mostly countries) where there are Nazarene Churches walked in carrying their flags in the order in which the church entered. Quite interesting. Pastor Wallier, the one who showed us the Haitian church where we now attend was the one carrying the Haitian flag. We got to visit with him for a few minutes. :)
We went back to Sarah's house to stay one more night and left
Monday morning. It was just so nice to be with part of the fam, even for such a short time!! :) Monday afternoon we spent some time with Todd's cousin Lee and family. The cousins (Kyle, Megan, Jordan and Katelyn) hit the pool together and had a great time while Lee and Anne and I visited a bit. That night God provided a wonderful place for us to stay. We were planning to just get a hotel in the area, but Lynn and her sister allowed us to spend both Mon. and Tues. in their condo since they went home a couple days early. What a fun blessing!
Tuesday we finally hit the WalMart and Target and got a few things to bring back which are SO much more expensive or hard to find here in Haiti. It was fun just looking. :) We spent that afternoon with my friend Peggy and her family. This time they were vacationing in Orlando and were staying in a hotel that had a pirate ship pool!!! They let our kids swim with them, and then we ate dinner together, too. Kyle and Megan had a blast going down the twisty pirate's plunge slide and just swimming around. It was so nice that they have gotten so much swimming practice here. They are now little fish!
That night each of us took baths in the jaccuzzi there in our room (separately, of course) with water as hot as we could stand it!! That was special! :)
Wednesday morning we struck out bright and early in order to make it back to Fort Lauderdale in time to turn in the rental car, get the GPS sent back to Todd's parents and catch our flight. I do not think we would have made it if it was not for Joe and Virginia Roberts who live right there in Fort Lauderdale....the ones who had let us pick up the GPS at their house in the first place. They agreed to send the GPS back to ID, weighed our suitcases (all 3 of which turned out to be 49 lbs.), told us how to get to the airport, and even had a goody bag of treats made up for us!!
To make a long story short, I got lost several times on the way to the airport due to different names for the same roads!!!! Each time I called Joe, and each time he knew exactly where I was and told me where to go. I think that guy has a GPS in his head!!! We made it to the airport and to our gate even before they began boarding (by about 5 minutes!!!). The flight to Port au Prince was beautiful, and we arrived a few minutes early. Todd met us at the gate, and now....it is just good to be HOME!!!!
We arrived Tuesday afternoon at the Fort Lauderdale airport, picked up our rental car (which they upgraded at no charge from a little tiny car to this sporty machine), picked up a GPS that Todd's dad had sent to some friends, and drove the 5 hours up to Jacksonville to stay the night with my aunt and her family. They waited up for us until we arrived at 11 and actually visited with us until the early morning. :) Wednesday we woke up early and picked blueberries and then spent the rest of the day at the zoo. We rode the train around, played in the mist to cool off, and of course saw lots and lots of animals. What a special day with family!!
Kyle really wanted to see the sting rays, but they were charging to just look at them. We decided to skip it since we had done some other extras. Wouldn't you know, when we arrived at the registration for General Assembly in Orlando, there were some reps from Sea World with an aquarium of four small.....you guessed it.....STING RAYS!!! The kids got to touch them and enjoy them while we got registered.That night (still Wed.) we had dinner with their daughter, my cousin Lisa and her son whom I have not seen very much in years. We enjoyed catching up a bit, and then we went to church. They had a really neat prayer service. The pastor read a passage of Scripture and then gave his sermon or devotional points one at a time.
Between points, he gave time for personal reflection and finally time for individuals to pray aloud as they felt led. We closed with corporate prayer and communion at the altar.Thursday morning the kids and I traveled from Jacksonville to Orlando where we spent a couple hours walking through the exhibit hall at General Assembly. We saw many friends from Trevecca, Idaho, Tennessee, Guatemala and the MAC Region, Ecuador, Oklahoma.... That night we traveled to Port Orange (Daytona) and spent the night with my friend from college, Peggy, and her family. The kids had SUCH a great time together.
Friday morning we went to General Assembly together.
Fortunately there were quite a few things to entertain the kids....since there were five of them and just Peggy and me. :) We saw the sting rays while we were registering Peggy and her kids. The kids got their faces painted. The MAC region gave out balloons. They played on the little indoor playground. 
Toward the end when all of the little legs were getting tired we sat in the tent where they were showing the Jesus film. That was pretty neat.When we left GA, we headed toward my sister Sarah's house near Lakeland. Right now she is in dental school in Gainsville and comes home on weekends to spend time with her husband Craig and daughter Dorothy. She arrived at her house with my mom, sister Hannah and brother Carl who had driven down from TN about 10 minutes after we did! :)
The cousins (Kyle, Megan and Dorothy) had a great time together!Saturday I spent the day with my mom and siblings, mostly at the Ikea store. Of course shipping their wonderful furniture down to Haiti with us would not be so practical, but I did get a few plastic bins and things for the kids' room. Mostly we just had fun being together. :) Kyle and Megan stayed home with Uncle Craig and cousin "D" (Dorothy).
Sunday morning, my mom and the kids and I set out for the service at General Assembly. According to the GPS we were supposed to arrive 20 minutes early, but by the time we spent about 40 minutes stuck in the line of traffic waiting to get into the convention center, we ended up getting there about 30 minutes late...just as they were singing the last song before the message. Fortunately Dad and Mom's neighbor Lynn saved us seats, and we were able to join the other 23,000 people there in listening to the message and then participating in communion.
We enjoyed that service so much, but then they announced that a Haitian choir would be singing in the afternoon service, so we had to stay to hear that!!! :) We all walked to Olive Garden for lunch. Delicious!!! I am so glad we decided to stay for the second service. People prayed, read the Bible passage and sang in several different languages. Then after the message, people representing the 155 world areas (mostly countries) where there are Nazarene Churches walked in carrying their flags in the order in which the church entered. Quite interesting. Pastor Wallier, the one who showed us the Haitian church where we now attend was the one carrying the Haitian flag. We got to visit with him for a few minutes. :)We went back to Sarah's house to stay one more night and left
Monday morning. It was just so nice to be with part of the fam, even for such a short time!! :) Monday afternoon we spent some time with Todd's cousin Lee and family. The cousins (Kyle, Megan, Jordan and Katelyn) hit the pool together and had a great time while Lee and Anne and I visited a bit. That night God provided a wonderful place for us to stay. We were planning to just get a hotel in the area, but Lynn and her sister allowed us to spend both Mon. and Tues. in their condo since they went home a couple days early. What a fun blessing!
Tuesday we finally hit the WalMart and Target and got a few things to bring back which are SO much more expensive or hard to find here in Haiti. It was fun just looking. :) We spent that afternoon with my friend Peggy and her family. This time they were vacationing in Orlando and were staying in a hotel that had a pirate ship pool!!! They let our kids swim with them, and then we ate dinner together, too. Kyle and Megan had a blast going down the twisty pirate's plunge slide and just swimming around. It was so nice that they have gotten so much swimming practice here. They are now little fish!
That night each of us took baths in the jaccuzzi there in our room (separately, of course) with water as hot as we could stand it!! That was special! :)Wednesday morning we struck out bright and early in order to make it back to Fort Lauderdale in time to turn in the rental car, get the GPS sent back to Todd's parents and catch our flight. I do not think we would have made it if it was not for Joe and Virginia Roberts who live right there in Fort Lauderdale....the ones who had let us pick up the GPS at their house in the first place. They agreed to send the GPS back to ID, weighed our suitcases (all 3 of which turned out to be 49 lbs.), told us how to get to the airport, and even had a goody bag of treats made up for us!!
To make a long story short, I got lost several times on the way to the airport due to different names for the same roads!!!! Each time I called Joe, and each time he knew exactly where I was and told me where to go. I think that guy has a GPS in his head!!! We made it to the airport and to our gate even before they began boarding (by about 5 minutes!!!). The flight to Port au Prince was beautiful, and we arrived a few minutes early. Todd met us at the gate, and now....it is just good to be HOME!!!!
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