updates

A story we shared with a lot of you this summer has just been published on the front page of OMS International's website...You can check it out by going to www.omsinternational.org. When you open the page, there is a slideshow of four different pictures and stories....the third has a picture of a man carrying a bundle on his head that I took last year (pictured above). If you click on that picture, you'll get the whole story, titled "And the Lame Shall Walk." The story and several photos are also being used in a promotional calendar a printing company is doing on several different missions organizations!

Several people have been asking about Lisa, my little sister who just started teaching 5th grade in inner city Chicago. Her first few weeks in the classroom have been difficult, but she is so patient and perseverant! Please keep praying for her as she ministers there, and as we continue to be a part in each other's lives at such a huge, undesirable distance. I MISS HER!

We have EXCELLENT (and a little bad) news about our truck! Due to the unavailability of the Mitsubishi Sportero, the truck our mission had intended for us to purchase, the leadership has made an exception and allowed us to move ahead on the purchase of a Ford Ranger instead. These are much more widely seen in Cap-Haitian, and we are really excited about finally having some reliable and available transportation! There are several available in Port-au-Prince right now, and so we were able to make the final purchase! Normally, this would mean that we would have the truck in a few days, but (this is the bad news:), due to the complete destruction of almost all the roads and bridges between here and Port-au-Prince from the hurricanes...let's just say it could be a while! However, we do, technically, HAVE a truck! THANK YOU ALL again for helping to make this possible. We'll let you know as soon as it's on the move!

We finished our first session at the Seminary today, and our director finally made it in! Can't believe we're on session two already. We're getting to know our students more and more, which is always such a joy. Today in my English class we were reading through a list of phrases to work on pronunciation. One phrase: "A fat man holds a bat with both hands." Whenever the annual, "What is fat?" question came up, I made sure THIS YEAR, having learned the hard way last year, to instruct everyone that it is NOT polite, in English, to tell someone they are fat.

While telling someone they are fat is quite the compliment in Haitian culture (fat = healthy and beautiful), I think I made it quite clear this year that it is not a compliment in most English speaking cultures, so hopefully there will be no angry visitors this year :)

We've also been blessed to observe several students already this year encouraging others to respect, accountability, being on time, staying awake, studying hard, being kind to each other...etc. It's such a joy to see these men and women take what they're learning and what the Bible's taught them and encourage each other in these things!

Final update...several people have been asking about my student Alfred. He has still heard nothing of or from his family, and has thus determined that they did all indeed lose their lives in the most recent hurricane. Please continue to pray for the many Haitians who lost loved ones in the hurricanes, and for the thousands of Haitians now living without food, shelter, water, medical care, etc...

Thank you for all of your prayers for Haiti, for us, and for the men and women we are living alongside. As my class sang at 8 am yesterday morning before taking their first test, "It is a beautiful day because of Jesus lives."