Sorry this one is coming so late, we’ve been really busy here. Anyways, no excuses for not keeping you updated! So, in a nutshell: we moved to Grand Goave two weeks ago. Everything with the move went smoothly and we’re settled in to our place at Pastor Lex’s beach house. We are still working on our new site to get it ready to move in. We’re hoping that by the end of next week we will be able to move into our new house:-). Our little 12x12 room for the 3 of us is getting a little cramped
Zac has been our “Big Boss” (as they call it in Haiti) on the construction site. So far, we’ve got the boys and girls dorms framed with roofs, wires are run for electricity and plywood on the girls dorm. We’ve also got our house framed, roofed, almost all of the plywood on and Faith’s footprints in front of our door with her name underneath it in the concrete slab. They’ve also got the bath house slab poured and framed in and roof on. So, we’re getting there. It has taken me a few weeks to realize that nothing goes as planned in Haiti. If you think you’re going to be done next week- you should just add on an extra 2 weeks. Supplies aren’t as readily available and even if they are- they’re not what you’re used to, places are closed certain days, your friends need your help with their car on the side of the road…the list goes on. (For example, they have no ladders down here, you make your own. So we’re thankful that we brought some down in our truck!) Anyways, we’re learning what it looks like to be flexible- which is hard for me as a task and time oriented person :-)
Anyways, so the plan: we are hoping to be done next week with our house to be able to move in (enough to be able to make do.) Then we are hoping shortly after that, to be able to move the 7 girls over with a nanny. Then, after a few more days, move the 24 boys over. We thought it would be a little easier to move them over in groups- so we’ll see how that goes. The hardest part is going to be moving the kids in right before we leave to go back to the States for our two week furlough. We’ll have them for a little over a week and then we’ll leave them. Zac (an intern) is still here until the end of July. So he will be here to help oversee things, as well as some of our staff from the States.
We’re so excited and ready to move in. Each day after school a few of our boys will show up at the job site and help. It amazes me how much the teenagers love Faith! Even Romy (15 years old) seems like he has a little attitude when you first meet him, but he is the one who always holds Faith to let me work. He loves to play with her and hold her- which is awesome! So she’s already got 31 new older brothers and sisters who are going to look out for her!!! I was talking to them the other day and they are so excited to be able to have their own bed, their own space as well as a fan. They are also helping me with my Creole- which is great! They’ll correct me and they’ll also speak a little slower so I can understand them, which helps so much!!
Last week we were also able to attend the graduation for the Christian school that our kids go to. Two of our little boys (Jean Bernard and Egen) graduated from kindergarten. Boy was this a cultural experience or what?! We were told that it was supposed to start at 9am. So we get there about 9:30 because we got word that it would start late. We still waited until 10:15 for those graduating to actually start walking down the aisle. They had the K, 6th graders, and seniors graduating altogether. The craziest difference is that they walked down the aisle to some really slow music and did a little “dance-type” step, then they would pause. The 6th graders also did this little arm wave thing to the music too- it was pretty neat to watch. It literally took 30 students 20 minutes to get down this little aisle!!! That’s when I knew it was going to be long! Haha- little did I know it was a 3 hour ceremony! I thought graduations in the States were boring- try attending one in a different language when it’s about 90 degrees outside (with no fans :-). I’m glad we were able to go though because it was a great cultural experience for us and more importantly, we got to support two of our own kids. The rest of our kids just finished up with their exams this week, so now they’re on summer break.
Praises:
- Praise the Lord that the weather has been holding up for us. We have been able to make a lot of progress on the construction these past 2 weeks.
- We don’t ever want to take our health for granted- so praise the Lord for good health, especially with Faith.
- Praise God for the encouragement that we’ve received from teams that are coming in and out of Mission of Hope (Pastor Lex’s ministry). These teams stay at the same place we are, so we share lots of meals together and they’ve been an encouragement to us.
- We’re understanding more and more of the Creole language, thank you Lord. Andrew’s even speaking to our Haitian workers in Creole!!!
Prayer:
- Continue to pray for the transition time for these kids from where they’re at now to the new site. Pray for God’s wisdom and guidance on our part as well as patience and understanding for the kids.
- Pray for the construction that it would keep moving along smoothly and that we’d be able to get these kids moved in within the next few weeks.
- Pray that we would continue to make Christ a priority in our lives. It’s easy to get distracted with all this construction (even in Haiti J), so pray that we would continue to seek Christ wholeheartedly and that we would live our lives in a manner worthy of the Gospel (Philippians 1:27).
- There are a lot of little details that need to be taken care of before we move in, so pray that God would work all of those out in His perfect timing (ie getting internet, power, water filtration system, plates & utensils for the kids).
- Please pray for our financial support. We are extremely blessed to have 80% of our support!!! But please pray that God would continue to lay it on people's hearts to help us further His Kingdom as we serve these orphans here in Haiti.
No comments:
Post a Comment