My Shop-From-Home Vegetable Market

Each Friday morning around 9 AM I listen for the sound of Natasha outside our gate, banging on her "mamit." A mamit is a large tin can used as a unit of measure in the market. I quickly grab my pen & paper, some grocery sacks and 500 goudes...usually the amount I spend....and race down the stairs to let her into our garage area. Since she carries about 30-40 lbs. of veggies on her head, I do not like to make her wait long. We chit-chat a bit as we go back and forth about which vegetables I will choose, how much of each and what the price will be. I write down all I am getting as she keeps track of everything in her head. Usually I buy 1/2 (demi) mamit of potatoes (pómdeté), some onions (zonyon), carrots (kawót), tomaotes (tomat) if they are pretty, sometimes a cabbage (chou--pronounced shoe), lettuce (leti), a couple green peppers (piman dous), green onions (pwawo), parsley (pesil), and a fragrant little herb called te. I do NOT buy eggplant, beets or spinach even though she offers them to me each time. Sometimes I buy broccoli if it does not have worm holes. :) She usually also has small limes, hot peppers and other leafy things. It is amazing to see all she packs into her baskets!! What a strong neck and back it would take to walk up and down the hills to our house!!!
Our neighbor Sharon King has been purchasing vegetables from Natasha for a while, so she introduced me to her a couple months ago. Most of my shopping is done at a regular grocery store, but now I buy nearly all of my fresh produce from her. A few times Natasha has brought her niece??? Stefany when there is a holiday at school....very sweet girl. I know God has brought these ladies into my life for a reason.....

Spanish Bible Study

Thursday has come to be one of my favorite days of the week. When we arrived in Port I attended a Spanish Bible study with a missionary visiting from Ecuador. Now I am hooked!!! Each Thursday between 6-12 of us meet in different ladies' homes and study a chapter of the Bible. When we started we were studying Exodus, and now we have moved on to Psalms. There are 3 or 4 who have been walking with the Lord for a while, a few others who have recently accepted Christ and now have a relationship with Him, and several others who come for fellowship and are now exploring all that it means to live for Christ. It is quite exciting to hear the testimonies each week, to see people just growing and learning and then bringing their friends.
Just two weeks ago one girl was sharing about the way her dad's mom (grandmother) mistreats her mom. Her dad and mom have moved to be close to the grandmother and help take care of her, but that has only brought more grief to the mom. She, in turn, responds in love, but it is difficult to continue. Recently the grandmother screamed at her and she has not wanted to be around her since.
We prayed, and God worked!!! The next week she reported that her grandmother had attended a special service at their church where her dad was appointed as an elder. The grandmother was teary, and her mom reached out to comfort her and even had a civil conversation with her. There was kind of a healing for both ladies that took place there. I know things in that relationship are not perfect yet, but it is neat to see God at work when things look humanly impossible.
Please remember to pray for the other ladies from all over Central and South America who are away from their families, in different situations here and in different stages in their walk with the Lord.

Todd's World

Usually I write about our life here and things going on with the kids or our family in general. I thought it might be interesting to know what a typical day for Todd is like now that he is working at the hangar each day.
He carpools each morning with Will White, Jason Krul, Mark Williams, and other office workers that they pick up along the way.
Last week he worked with John Munsell on an inspection for HH-MAF. Normally MAF aircraft need a major inspection every 1000 hours of flight time, which means that the airplane is out of commission for a long time. MAF Haiti (and a lot of the MAF programs) does a progressive inspection on the planes, so each 50 hours something on the airplane is closely examined. Every 100 hours (or every other 50 hr. inspection) the engine is examined. This time they were inspecting the cabin and fuselage.
As part of the inspection Thursday he changed a seat track and riveted. The landing strip in Hinche is very rocky, so often the belly of the plane has gashes from rocks that fly up. The hole that John was patching was quite large...about an inch long. Friday he painted the plane's interior panels and fixed a small broken antenna.
Along with aircraft maintenance and inspections, Todd has been able to work on MAF computers and cars.

Answered Prayers...

It has been neat to see the Lord at work just since I posted the last prayer requests.
We felt like we were supposed to help with Hans's glasses, so Friday when I gave Crismen what I felt the Lord wanted us to give, she said it was over half of what they needed to have by Wednesday!! She said that she has not been worrying about it because her pastor's wife once told her to take problems to the Lord and then let them "kouche"--rest or lie. Situations like this always build my faith in the fact that God KNOWS our needs even before anyone else and He cares about them and answers in miraculous ways when it is His will/time.
Then this morning I got a note from Flori. She sounded upbeat, but please continue to pray for her to feel peace and fulfillment in the place God has her now.
Thanks again for praying for us and all those God puts in our path.

A Few Prayer Requests

We are so grateful for those who have committed to pray for us as we are here in Haiti. Some of the things we pray for on an ongoing basis are for our family to stay close and strong together, that our relationship with the Lord would continue to deepen each day, and that we would reflect His love and grace in all of our dealings with others.
Here in Haiti we are continually surrounded by great need, both physical and spiritual. There are many complications with just always giving handouts. That can create a dependency on us and take away a person's dignity and incentive to work and provide for themselves. The need is so great at times that it can be overwhelming, but we are SO blessed and know that God wants us to pass those blessings along. Please pray for us to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Also, the son of the people who work for us (Hans) has been having trouble with his eyes. They have been red and irritated in the afternoons especially. They took him to the doctor and think he may need glasses. Please pray that this will soon be corrected.
Flori, our wonderful friend who watched Kyle and Megan in Guatemala, seems to have suffered some loss and difficulty lately. Please pray that the Lord would encourage her heart and send people to help and comfort her. We do not know the entire situation, but we know that God has a special plan for her life.
Thank you so much for your prayers and encouragement.

Mangos

We have heard that Haiti grows anywhere from 100-200 varieties of mangos which are harvested nearly year round, from January to September. Mangoes are one of Haiti's leading exports and one of our favorite fruits. Right now, you can find mangos being sold just about EVERYWHERE!!! They are so sweet and juicy, usually ripened right on the tree. They sell for about 10 goudes each (less if you buy in quantity), or 25 cents US. What a nice treat on a hot day!

Frogs

Every time it rains I feel like we are in Egypt back in Moses's time during the second plague. :) The neighbor frogs start croaking and come swimming in the pool---thankfully not in our house!!! Back in ID for Kyle's birthday he had gotten a frog habitat container, and we had mail ordered a couple of tadpoles, but they died before we moved here. We brought the container along just in case...
One night right after the pool had been filled, we found hundreds, maybe thousands of tiny frog eggs all over the bottom of the pool. Todd scooped up about 20 eggs that were on the steps and we have been watching them ever since. Now they are much bigger tadpoles. Still have not seen legs peeking out, but when they start hopping, I think we will release them. :) Pictured above are a few of the tadpoles and this is a pic of a couple of the croaking swimmers we caught with a net.

History Class

Here in Haiti apparently seventh grade history can be pretty exciting! Our neighbors at the end of our street, the Van Dams, were out catapulting rocks when we got home from picking Todd up at the airport last Sunday night. Natasha VanDam's teacher Glee Williams, who happens to live in the house between ours, had given the class an assignment to build a replica of a catapult or a variety of other things. The neighbors were out watching as they tested this massive thing with rocks and then with water balloons!!! :) In the picture they have the long arm pulled back and ready for release. We took advantage of the fact that we were together and got a picture of the neighbor boys (Zach, Micah, Hans (hiding), William, & Kyle) who many times play together and the ladies (Julie, Jennifer, Glee & Ruth).
The next day after school they did a few more throws with water balloons, and one shot clear across the soccer field! It was reported that this was by far the biggest and best working model in the class.

Baptist Mission

Last Saturday Todd was able to ride along with another non-MAF pilot as he ferried a plane to FL. Along with the very unique experience of flying over the ocean, this provided him with the opportunity to maintain his license currency and gave him several hours of flight time. Being a maintenance specialist (mechanic), he will not have many opportunities like this!!
While he was gone, the kids and I went with the Kings (missionaries with CWRC) and Kruls (family we did language school with in Piyon) to the Baptist Mission up in the mountains. I am sure there is much more to it than this because the campus looked quite extensive, but we visited a gift shop, a small museum, a bakery, a mini-zoo, played on the playground, and ate lunch at their little open-air, caffeteria-style restaurant that overlooks the valley. I know they also have a clinic, a chapel (where some people were singing), a greenhouse, and some kind of mechanic shop.
The kids had such a great time seeing all of the animals and playing on the playground. They were not quite so excited as I was about time spent in the gift shop. :) In the "zoo" they have lots of rabbits, a crocodile, a monkey, peacocks, guinnea fowl, goats, a small coy fish pond, and a big snake that used to live in our house!!!! The snake supposedly belonged to the Ryles who lived here before us. Crismen still gets the heeby jeebies when she talks about it. :) At the playground they found a snail and a couple friends from school.
I discovered that several Creole books we bought before coming to Haiti were written by the Turnbulls who worked at the Baptist mission for years. In the gift shop, I bought a Haitian cookbook by Betty Turnbull, the Creole hymnal Chants D'Esperance, a few post cards, some hot & fluffy cinnamon raisin bread, dinner rolls and a plant from their greenhouse. I was SO happy to have my little hymnal when we went to church Sunday!
*This last picture shows a pile of sticks which will most likely be firewood, but possibly building material. The cute, little lady was resting on her bucket, so I did not want to disturb her.

Quisqueya Chapel- Middle School Swim

Saturday from 11:00-noon the pool was filled with the happy sound of about 30 middle schoolers from Quisqueya Chapel (where we have been worshipping) who were finishing an overnight retreat. I got some fun pictures and video.

Firsts....

Last month, Mary Forrester was our first overnight guest (besides my parents and sis, who were here in early March). We still did not have a proper bed for her, but she was very gracious about the air mattress and makeshift accommodations as she got in late (after a day of waiting for American Airlines to make their flight from FL to Port) and left early in the morning for the first MAF flight out to the village of Piyon where she worked with a medical group for a few days. We now have a real bed, by the way. :)
Abby White, Megan's friend across the street, spent the night for the first time on Friday night. The girls had chocolate chip snowman pancakes and went swimming in the morning.
Last weekend we went with the Kings and Kruls to the famous (in Haiti) Baptist mission for the first time, a fun and relaxing place for kids and adults.
Sunday we went with Haiti's Compassionate Ministries Coordinator, Pastor Wallier, to three different Nazarene churches in different parts of Port au Prince. It was neat to see the variety. One church of about 4,000 members was just bursting at the seams. Another church downtown has probably 1,000 people who attend. Then lastly, we went to a little country church up in the mountains where about 100 people were worshipping. We arrived at the end of that service in time to hear a lady concluding her talk about the family and participate in communion. Special...