PS 34:3

Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together! ~Psalm 34:3

Saturday, May 28, 2011

End of May Snapshot

Friends and Family,

Well we wanted to give you guys a quick (well maybe not so quick) update on what we’ve been up to the past few weeks. We’ve been going to Grand Goave Tuesdays-Thursday mornings and the internet is pretty slow there, so we haven’t updated in a while- sorry about that. Anyways, so here we go:

This past Sunday morning we watched the babies early and then were done in time to go to church with the kids. We finally bought some hymn books so we could follow along with the worship. Their hymn books are pretty crazy- they’ve got 7 different colored sections. So even if you are able to catch what number they’re talking about, you still have to know what section. Part of it is in French, the other part is in Creole. About 75% of the songs they sing are in French. We don’t know how to pronounce anything in French, but it at least helps to be able to follow along. Some of the words seam to be similar to the Creole ones. We could tell that this line is talking about the cross, and this line is about God’s faithfulness- better than nothing! We’re also starting to pick up more and more out of Pastor Maxie’s sermon, which is exciting. Faith was a little fussy during church, but I think it was because it was really hot in there. The lady next to me helped hold her for a while. It was pretty funny though, because this Haitian Grandma tried to calm her down by carrying her up and down the aisle during the message. (I was just going to carry her out to the back.) But she was walking up and down the aisle with a crying white baby :-). It was kind of funny, I thought.

Then on Monday we had the feeding program (as usual). It was a little crazy this week though! We are only budgeted to have 50 babies on the program- but lately (since Emi, who usually does it, has been gone), we’ve had 69 kids show up the past few weeks! The problem is that some of the kids have been cut from the program (because they are older than 2 or they are at a healthy weight). But these moms still have their cards, so they’re taking advantage of the fact that Emi is not here to tell them that they’re not on the program. Anyways- all that to say that it was pretty stressful on Monday when we had people coming back twice for more food (saying that they didn’t get any)- even though I had their name checked off the list. So we’re working on putting a better system together. Later that afternoon, we had our language class, which is going really well. We’re learning so much! It’s hard to believe we’ll be done with it in 4 weeks though.

Tuesday we got up early and left for GG (at 5AM!) It’s really early, but you don’t see a lot of other crazy Haitian drivers on the extremely windy mountain road, so it’s actually a lot better for us to leave early. We got there and found out that there was a team of college students from Ohio staying in GG, to help Pastor Lex with some projects. When they didn’t have any other projects with him, a few of them helped us out at our new site- which was awesome! We put up the rest of the fence (with 2 strands of barbed wire across the top), and they also dug out some lines for the septic. So we made quite a lot of progress this week. I heard that they poured the cement slab for the kids bath house today and they’ve got the gate on the fence! YAY! So it’s coming right along.

Wednesday we got our Deuce- praise the LORD! What a huge answer to prayer!!! The only thing that we can’t find (and think might have been stolen) is Faith’s car seat. It was in the cab of the truck, which you can’t really lock from the outside, so it was pretty easy to take (either at the shipyard in Miami or in customs.) But, that’s all- everything else is there. They even opened up the computer box out of the truck in customs and that was all still in there- praise the Lord! So Wednesday we were able to get into the back and get some of our stuff out- it was so exciting! It was like Christmas in May! We quickly got out Faith’s walker and a few other toys for her. Unfortunately, just like her mom, she’s got short legs – so she’s a little too short to reach the floor. But she still is enjoying it and can push herself off if she really reaches!

Ok, so I need to preface this next story with this statement: we serve an AMAZING and LOVING God! So, Wednesday Faith and I stayed back at the beach house while Andrew went to help at the site because she hadn’t been sleeping well at the job site (imagine that :-). Our bed there is made up of 2 twin beds put together about 2 feet off the ground. I went in to lay her down for her nap, when I found the cat in her pack n’ play! So I decided, if she’s got my allergies, I probably should lay her down in the middle of the two beds. So she slept for about 3 hours- which is pretty long for her. But I was out on the porch when I heard her start crying. I walked into the bedroom and started to panic- she wasn’t on the bed!!! OH MY WORD! I looked on the floor, and there she was laying on the tile floor face up. Just to give you a little picture of what happened- there was about 1 foot between the mattress and the concrete wall. Then, there was also a little doorway right near our bed with a tile step going up into the bathroom. So, not only was there a concrete wall a foot away, but there was also a little tile step for her to hit. Anyways…..when I picked her up- I miraculously found a towel all bunched up laying perfectly centered under her head! The towel was on the bed with her and “just so happened” to fall off with her (when she rolled over not once, but twice!) I was shaking like crazy - oh my word! She seamed to be fine though- she was eating fine within 5 minutes. But I am absolutely convinced that God protected her from any serious injuries!! The only injury you can see on her body is a little abrasion to her right upper arm- which is really small- no bruises or scrapes on her head at all!! WOW! I’m sure this has happened to lots of kids before, but I was just amazed at the hand of God and how He was watching over and protecting our little Faith!!

Thursday we left GG about 6am and drove back to Jacmel. Then we did a bunch of random things (booking plane tickets for July, catching up on emails, checking out all the sick kids, homework, class…) Then we had our weekly meeting that evening after dinner.

Friday we did a few more random things. We’re working on getting our “Permit de Sejour” (residency papers), so we don’t have to leave Haiti every 90 days. There are about 12 different steps you have to do before you can turn it in to the immigration office in PAP. So anyways, you need 2 “passport like” photos. So we went into town today to get them done. We went into this TINY room (about 3’x8’) with about a 12’x12’ room attached in the back. This guy took our pictures (with his really nice camera) and printed them out right there for us. He also gave us a little discount (I’m pretty sure it was because Faith was making friends there :-). It was supposed to be $15 total, but he gave it to us for $8! Wow- maybe we should take Faith with us more often :-). Then we had our language class that afternoon. We also went out for ice cream right after that, because it’s Friday night and the staff usually goes out to eat. We chose ice cream – imagine that.

When we got home, Andrew set it up so the kids could watch a movie in the dining area. It was kind of funny because every week they fight over who gets to pick out the movie. So a few of the older boys picked out “Chariots of Fire” this week. About 30 minutes into the movie two of the boys who helped pick the movie said to me, “Angie, we don’t love this movie. We want to pick a different one.” Hahaha- I guess it was a little boring for them, but I told them they had to keep watching it or go to bed. It was just really funny to see that kids are kids anywhere!

I think that pretty much sums up our week. I will let you know that Faith and I are flying to NY this upcoming Thursday (June 2-7) to get her 4 month shots. So that will be fun for us (well not the shots), poor Andrew has to stay here. It will be his first time away from Faith for more than 10 hours!


Praise the Lord:

- Praise the Lord that our Deuce made it through customs and it is now at Pastor Lex’s beach property!!!

- Praise the Lord for His protection over Faith in her fall this week! It could have been so much worse but our God is so good and He was looking out for her! Thank you, Jesus.

- Language classes are going well and we are learning so much. We are finally able to communicate a little bit with the people of Haiti!

Prayer requests:

- Pray for Faith and myself as we travel back to NY June 2-7 to get her shots. Pray for safe travels and that it would be a sweet time of fellowship with family and friends back home.

- Please continue to pray for our 31 kids at Grand Goave. They are almost out of school (end of June?). Pray for this time of transition that it would be as smooth as possible.

- Pray for God to bring us a Haitian construction foreman. We are still looking for someone to help us oversee some of the construction projects that knows how Haitians think and work.

- Unity among our team down here- “fulfill my joy by thinking the same way, having the same love, sharing the same feelings, focusing on one goal…” ~Phil 2:2

- Pray that we would continue to rely on His strength and His provision for our every need. Pray that our lives would truly reflect a life of faith and complete dependence upon Christ.

- Pray that as we make preparations to move over to GG (around June 13th) that God would show us how He wants this orphanage to be run. We need His wisdom and His guidance. Pray that we wouldn’t take things into our own hands, but that we would continually seek Him and His will in all that we do.

- Continued protection and good health for Faith. She is doing great- but I know that God protected her this past week because of your prayers! So THANK YOU!!!

- Pray for us to get our residency papers done and turned in. Pray that will be a smooth and relatively quick process.

- Continue to pray for our language learning. Pray especially for Andrew. He is doing a lot better and is even starting to speak to some of the cooks and nannies. Pray that we would be able to make the most of these last 4 weeks of class before we move to GG, where we’re on our own.

Thank you guys so much for all of your prayers and support!!! You have no idea, but we feel them in amazing ways down here- so thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Also, just to let you guys know, all of us are coming back to the States July 11-25. We will be flying into Charlotte on the 11th and staying in Columbia from July 12-18. Then we will be driving up to NY on the 18th. I know summer plans are always crazy and booked months in advance, but we just wanted to let you guys know when we’ll be back.


Much love,

~The Suttons

No comments:

Post a Comment