29 October 2008

cups of water


It's been two busy busy days!

I know we keep saying this, but the Lord really seems to be actively at work right now in our students, in the Seminary, and in Haiti!

Matt had a great afternoon with Met Son and one of his graduates from last year on Tuesday. Once they finally arrived where they were going, the speaker spoke about the church's responsibility to address the problems in Haitian society. Matt was really impressed with the conference. It took them several hours to actually get to the conference, however, as Matt learned about another evangelical tactic Met Son has. From the moment they left the compound to head into town, Met Son picked up every single person standing along the side of the road that they could fit, dropping people off and picking them up along the way.

The moment each person got in the car, Met Son posed question number one:
"Are you a Christian?"
If yes, "When were you baptized?"
If so, "Have you ever shared your testimony?"
And no matter what the response, "Share it with us!"

After each person shared their testimony, Met Son confronted several with the idea that there was no actual conversion in their testimonies, and then asked if they wanted to become a Christian.

No matter what anyone said, he made sure that every single person they picked up had a chance to become a Christian and hear more about Jesus. They then stopped at a random high school on the way to the conference, entered a classroom, and Met Son shared with the a class for about 20 minutes about being a "new creation", not just becoming converted.

Finally, they arrived at the conference, and got home again around 5:30. Matt had a blast and was reminded that evangelism doesn't have to be nearly as eloquent or complicated or scary as we sometimes think. He also had a great time just watching the Lord work in these guys and in the conference...Matt wasn't leading or making anything happening, just along for the ride with men that are feeling the Lord push them to bring His change in Haiti.

Tonight was another blessing for us both, as we were a part of the Wednesday Night Seminary Presentation for visiting teams. Four different students shared testimonies and songs, and one of our fellow staff members shared a message that really encouraged us both. He preached from Mark 9, using the verse in which Jesus tells John that anyone that gives even a cup of water in His name will not lose his reward.

Guenson spoke about the Lord blessing what we give in His name, even something as simple and as inexpensive as a cup of water. He was speaking to the team about their sacrifices in coming and working at the new seminary this week, and mentioned that the Lord WOULD bless them, not necessarily by fulfilling their Christmas lists or healing a loved one, but sometimes also in more subtle ways.

"Maybe you were feeling really discontent with what you have before you came, and maybe that blessing will be true joy, or true peace whenever you go home. Maybe the Lord will bless you with contentment, with encouragement, with a stretching experience, but He promises to bless you for all that you've done in His name."

Thinking through this made Matt and I both realize how much God truly HAS blessed us for various times we've sought to serve Him: with so many stretching experiences, with joy, with contentment, with hope...in so many ways. AND, we have such confidence and joy in the knowledge that He IS blessing you as well, not just for all the ways you are serving Him where you are, but for all the ways you are serving Him here through us, through the students, through the pastors, through OMS in Haiti.

It truly is a joy, even on the hot, hard, lonely, exhausting days, to be His children.

On a completely different note, Matt is GLUED to the Phillies web-site, as he follows the final minute of the World Series by 30-second online one sentence updates. Not quite like watching the big game, but, he is still REALLY excited, and cheering on...the computer screen. Op, they just won. Matt is sitting at the desk, fists raised victoriously with a huge grin on his face :) Ahhhh, even from Haiti :)

have a great evening!

27 October 2008

it is fall.



There, we said it. With or without signs or symptoms, we have declared it fall!

We have been waiting and waiting for it to begin to cool down so it would seem like fall, but are starting to doubt that this is ever going to happen! So, Sunday after church we spent a few hours together making fall cookies and listening to fall-y music! The Phillies are in the World Series, and Penn State just beat OSU, (Matt's team and my team, doing well!), so we're following the scores online, and calling that a "fall activity" as well!

At church yesterday I had the rare (and mandatory) privilege of standing up in the middle of the service and turning a few 360's so that everyone could "see how big Madame Matt is!!!" That was fun :) Yesterday was "Reformation Sunday" for the Haitian church, and so we headed to a church near the new Seminary to hear one of Matt's graduates from last year preach.

This also gave us a chance to try out the newly finished "cage" on the truck...We had 8 adults and 4 children, no problem. Our friend Gord helped Matt finish the grill (NOT for cat-cooking, Charlie!!!) on Saturday, so the truck is finished!



Meanwhile, life is busy (and feeling busier...is this possible?) and we're trying to enjoy last few sweltering weeks together and at work before I leave November 17th. Teaching continues to be such a joy for us both...even today whenever questions of "McCain vs. Obama" came up in English! Tomorrow Matt is heading out with Met Son for a conference that is being held in Cap-Haitian on Voodooism in Haiti...should be interesting!

24 October 2008

people are planning to eat your cat


I know that our friend meant well by telling us this, but we'd be lying if we said it made us feel better knowing of the plot. A group of ladies from the seminary came to the door today to make sure that we knew that there has been talk among several "people" of stealing our cat and eating him, because, as they said, "he is beautiful".

I asked what they suggested, and they suggested that I make sure he stays very close to our house. Now, for the first six months of his life, Bundy was an indoor cat, and he was miserable, we were miserable, and everyone that helped us chase him every time he got out was miserable. We tried that for 6 months to make sure that he didn't "disappear." However, since becoming an outdoor/indoor cat, he's been MUCH happier, and we have been too...no litter box to clean, and when he comes in, he is happy and lovey, and when he wants to play, he goes out!

However, I'm pretty sure that when we tell him to "please stay close to the house", he will shoot us his normal "you've got to be kidding me" glance, and do what he wants.

So, we're not quite sure what to do, having never faced the pending threat of your pet being eaten, by people, before. If anyone has any ideas... :)
Tomorrow we are off to get the grill for the front of the truck finished, and then Matt's got a lot of work to do for his masters and I have a lot of work to do to prepare for being gone for 6-8 weeks. Can't believe it's the weekend again already!

22 October 2008

so many are so ready

Sorry we've been off with our updating. Monday Matt started to feel a cold coming on, Tuesday he was sick, and today I've been sick...nothing major, just some fever and coughing and general not feeling well. It is still SO hot here, and when you have a fever, man...feels like the sun is hanging out on our roof!

But, we're trying to get lots of rest, and life goes on! Today was week 2 of evangelism training for Matt, in which Met Son taught he and 25 students some more evangelistic methods that have seemed to work well here culturally. Matt and I both took different courses in college about evangelism, but it has been interesting to learn about what works well HERE. It's also been fun to be involved in something as participants, instead of leading.

Last week, in an effort to get going on "taking the Word out into Haiti", Matt drove down the road to the house of an elderly blind woman, the mother of one of the employees at the Seminary. Matt asked her about the Bible, and she told him that since she began to lose her sight, she's lost the Bible as well.

So, Matt started last week just by reading Mark 1 to her, and by the time he finished, her entire family and parts of the community had gathered around to hear (the first time many of them had seemed to have heard the Bible.) Afterwards, Matt prayed for her, and they talked for a bit.

Today Matt headed back, this time with two new missionaries and one of the Seminary students. They read Mark 2 and Mark 3, this time to an even larger group, and as the woman had requested, Matt spent a little bit of time after each chapter explaining the context and themes and its application for our lives.

Matt's been blown away by how interested everyone is in this, and how excited everyone was becoming today as he explained what the Scripture was saying. Afterwards, they prayed for Edlin's mother again, and another woman asked for prayer as well.

No handouts and no promises...just the Bible and prayer and a little bit of time...we're excited to see what an impact just the Scripture is going to have on this area.

Thanks for your continued prayers! So many are so ready for our Jesus!

19 October 2008

just another branch







Matt left Lily and I as he ventured out...WAY out...for church this morning. With our new truck full of passengers, he drove about an hour out into the mountains, and then hiked another 30 minutes past that to attend this small mountain church. I love going to these rural churches, and was quite disappointed to miss out on the adventure ("Just one small sacrifice of many to come for the baby," my dad said.)

Matt preached alongside of Pastor Job from Exodus 3 about God's individual call on our lives and our calling as the Body of Christ, the church, to be outwardly focused...our call to be Jesus's hands and feet to those who are suffering, lost, hopeless, helpless and hurting.

Afterwards, he was given a "tour" of the church and schoolroom (pictured below). Imagine how crowded this must look when there are children in it!!!

Wherever you were for church this morning, now you know of just another branch of Christ's body, worshiping the same God this morning alongside of you!



16 October 2008

the hope that Haiti has...

Matt and I both continue to see, amidst all of the struggle and hardship here, the Hope of Jesus Christ being carried everywhere. It is unbelievably touching, inspiring, exciting, and humbling to see it carried by the men and women at EBS! I have the privilege as the marketing person at Emmaus Biblical Seminary to translate each student's testimony, and then pair it with their photo to create sponsorship material.

This past week I translated one testimony that really blessed me: not just by this man's life, but also by how the Lord got a hold of him. We get to work and praise and sing and eat and live alongside these men and women each day, hearing and sharing in their stories, and I thought that sharing this testimony might be one way I could share some of this with you!

Please continue to pray (and praise the Lord) for these brothers and sisters as they literally carry His Hope throughout Haiti!

(pictured: one of our brothers who continues to share Jesus to the many seeking Hope in Gonaives)

“Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ!

I would like to share with you my testimony. I was born into a non-Christian family, and not just a family that was not Christian, but a family that believed heavily in demons and Satan. So, whenever we were all children, it was habitual for us to participate in Voodoo ceremonies, doing the Voodoo dances and eating the Voodoo sacrifices.

It was when I was living in these sins that God chose me, right out of the middle. There were two different times that I had a revelation. In this revelation, I was always standing in the middle of darkness and rain, falling from the sky, and then I saw a light descend from the sky and fix itself on me through the rain.

When this light fixed itself on me, I kept trying to hide from it. But then I realized these that the light was something I should desire, not something I should hide from. I thought about this revelation all the time, and thought that perhaps approaching that light was the same thing as approaching holiness, goodness, wholeness.

Finally, in 1997, I was invited into a Christian environment for a three day program at an evangelical church in Vertieres, Haiti. During these services, especially during the first and the third days, I heard two different voices speaking to me, one telling me to go to the pastor and become a Christian and one telling me not to.

“Don’t you already know about the Bible?” the second voice said. “Don’t you already work with children?” (in Voodoo). “You’re already religious! You're on the right path!”

So, I stayed in my seat. Despite the voice that was trying to give me peace about where I was, I was very very troubled, and I didn’t know what to do. An idea came to my head…I would go to the house of the pastor and ask him to pray for me.

I asked my sister-in-law to take me to the pastors house and to pray with me, and as he spoke to me about God, I knew that God was The Light from my revelations, and that the voice telling me that nothing needed to change was Satan. I accepted Jesus and the suffering he underwent at Calvary that moment. After this, I went home and shared the message of salvation with my whole family, converting everyone that would listen.

I have a great vision and desire to share the need we have for Jesus in Haiti.

I promised to raise my children in Jesus, so that they would have a different life than I had.

After this, I was baptized and God signed a contract with me through Psalm 23 vs. 6 that says: “surely goodness and loving kindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever!”

14 October 2008

Gonaives Update



(pronounced G-oh-naive) was the area in Haiti that seems to have been hit the hardest during the hurricanes and tropical storms of last month. While areas even this far north have dealt with a lot of lost property and animals, large areas of Gonaives, as you can tell in these pictures, are still underwater.

(all that is left of a sister church in Gonaives. The benches, pulpit, everything was washed away.)

Our friend and fellow professor headed South to survey the damage on Saturday, taking with him our camera and $2000 Haitian (a little under $300 US) that he and several other mission employees had given from their salaries for churches there. They visited three different pastors of three different churches. Upon his return, Guenson could not say enough: "You just wouldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it. I've never seen such widespread devastation."

There are still many people living there, all relocated to roof-tops, living in muddy makeshift tents and trying to find and salvage all that they can.

"I'd like to leave," one of the pastors told him. "I have family in Cap-Haitien, and want to go there. But I am a shepherd. And my people, the people in my church, they are still here. And many of them have no place to go. If I leave, who will guide and encourage them?"

(A makeshift tent built on the roof of a pastor's now unlivable home. He, his wife, several children and several friends and neighbors live here.)

Another pastor told him the story of their "hurricane plan", which included moving his family up through the house, level by level, as the water rose. When they stood on their roof, and the water rose around their feet, he didn't know what they were going to do. He saw a man sweep by the house, and took he and his family stopped worrying about what they were going to do and began fishing people out of the water around them, gathering several people who then lived on the roof with them for three days until they could descend.



"Everyone is hungry," Guenson said, "and everything everyone has is gone or destroyed. Everyone is also worried about sickness and malaria, with mud and corpses and water and garbage everywhere. How do you start over when everything looks like this?"

( a washed out bridge that is still being used as the main route between Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haitien)

The pastors and churches, however, were thrilled by Guenson's presence and help, greatly encouraged by any small amount of help or encouragement and prayer from brothers in Christ.



As soon as an effective and safe method of taking larger amounts of aid to these areas is determined, we'll let you know. Meanwhile, please continue to be in prayer for our brothers and sisters in Gonaives and across Haiti, especially those who are seeking to be Christ's hands and feet to many hopeless people.

12 October 2008

sending you in

Hello from the long lost Ayars! We have been three days now with NO internet, and after hours of frustrating work, Matt’s finally got it going again! It occurred to my blond self a few days ago that I should at least publish a short blog and let you all know that our internet was down…until I realized that you must have internet to publish a short blog, too!

So, to fill you in…Matt made it home safely Saturday morning and we enjoyed his birthday (again ☺) with his gifts that finally came while he was gone. It is SO very good to have him back, and he brought Lily, me and the guys at the seminary who were supposed to have traveled with him all sorts of gifts from Target and Wesley Biblical Seminary. His room-mate, whom he had just met, gave us a $200 Target baby gift card, and so I got to do some fun baby shopping through Matt while he was there! (THANK YOU, Rob!!!)

The Lord used a lot of different people to encourage Matt, guide him, and to challenge him. One professor spent almost a full week talking about parenting and Christian family, and about the parents full responsibility in the Old Testament, New Testament, and NOW to be teaching their children about our Christian heritage, about the Bible, about God, about Christian living, and about becoming the vessels that God made them to be. What perfect timing to be through a course like this, and Matt came home with lots of materials and ideas concerning Godly parenting for us to discuss and pray about!

He was also challenged, more through some amazing prayer times than anything else, to be going through a shift in our work here in Haiti. He feels strongly that after a year of language study, cultural study, ministry and adjustment, the Lord is calling he and I into a much more active form of evangelism than just teaching at the Seminary.

On the plane ride back into Haiti, he was praying earnestly that the Lord would direct him on what God wants our lives to look like here. “I’m sending you in,” he felt the Lord say clearly to his heart.

“Sending me in?” Matt asked immediately. “Sending me in…what?”

“Sending you in, like Moses, to deliver My people” the Lord spoke to his heart strongly.

Since the truck coming this past Friday, I have felt similarly…that the Lord didn’t just provide this beautiful and reliable new vehicle so that we could safely go to the grocery store, but so that we could TAKE Christ to Haiti, not just share him here at the seminary and on an occasional day out.

Friday morning during an hour of prayer for all of the ministries, a godly older man named Met Son whose sole work in life is to bring people to Jesus, that also happens to also be our next door neighbor, stood up to share some “counsel.” He discussed the feeling on his heart that God was ready to move in Haiti, and that several different things have affirmed it. He also mentioned Friday that he was going to start working with several of our students to train them, pray with them, and then practice them in Evangelism. I thought to myself, "I've got to talk to Matt about this."

As soon as Matt came back and spoke to me about what the Lord was speaking to him about spreading the gospel in Haiti, I told him about everything that this "father in the faith" had shared on Friday. So, today after church, Matt went and spent some time with our neighbor, and together they prayed and about discussed God's heart for His people here. Matt told him that whatever we could do to be a part of this and to help him, we were prepared to do.

"I saw that you have new truck," Met Son said slowly. "The day it came, and I saw that new truck, the Lord said something to me. He said, 'THAT truck is going to bring the Gospel to Haiti.' You have affirmed everything that the Lord has been saying to me, and I think you and that truck are going to be a part of this transformation." This was all said without Matt or I having ever mentioned the truck, or the idea that we felt God gave it to us for evangelism.

If you don't feel the Lord at work yet, I don't know what it would take! Matt and I are very excited about the ways God is speaking to a lot of different people, our students and us included, about being actively going out to spread the Gospel. While you'd think this would be a normal part of Christian or Missionary life, we've learned that, like everything else, it only happens with great intentionality, sacrifice and effort.

Please be praying with us for God's people here and around the world that do not yet know that they are His. Please be praying for us, for Met Son, for our students and for several pastors who are feeling led to TAKE Christ out into Haiti. Please be praying for clarity and direction as this begins to take place. This Wednesday Matt will be meeting with all of them for their first hours of training, preparing and prayer. We're going to work hard these next few weeks to get the truck ready to go...benches in the back and a cage for protection of passengers. Please pray that the Lord would be preparing many people across this dark land to hear His word through these men (Matt has insisted that Lily and I are not joining him for any evangelical treks until after she comes :)

Thank you for your prayers and for your support and encouragement.

08 October 2008

good-byes, rock stars & days off

First it was Amy who left...Monday concluded her one year term serving in our clinic here! She has been SUCH a good friend and been a part of so many of our evenings and weekends and I am already missing her terribly. Our cat loves her, and so do Matt and I!

Then Saturday our doctor is leaving, having completed his three year term here!



Then my dad left this morning :( I am SO glad he was able to come, and we had SUCH a good time. I am trying to dwell on those two facts and not on the fact that now he is gone, but it was awfully hard to come back to an empty house after having such a great week with him. Monday he worked on the new seminary project again, and Tuesday he worked on about 10 errands I had for him at the house AND taught me how to drive stick shift! He must be a good teacher, because I drove all the way down the road, filled up the tank and all the way back without problem.

Well, without problem until we arrived at the front gate of our compound. There is a slight hill coming into the compound, which I never really noticed before yesterday. I pulled up the hill, Jacob opened the gate, the 20 or 30 "regulars" who congregate around the gate stood watching, and I stalled. And stalled. And stalled. And finally got so flustered that, much to everyone's amusement, dad and I had to switch places. Watching a foreign, pregnant WOMAN drive was amusing enough, but watching her NOT be able to drive was even more interesting!

I'll have to keep working :)

Matt is finishing up his days in Jackson, Mississippi and continues to have such a good time. They are participating in a special lecture series this week on Holiness, and he's gotten to hear from some great speakers, who are, in Matt's Bible and Theology world, equivalent to rock stars and famous actors. He's also gotten some great one on one time with several of them, switched from a Masters of the Arts to a Masters in Divinity with an Honors in research (doesn't that sound fun?) and gotten to go to Target. TWICE.

Tonight he's playing in the worship band for a final lecture, tomorrow participates in a large debate, has a farewell banquet, and Friday will start his trek back home, and not a minute too soon...I am READY to have him back, as is everyone else, who after the one week mark, started asking "Is Met Matt coming back?"

Four-year-old Alanna has promised, whether Matt or Amy or Dr. Gavin or Dad are here or not, that she will take care of me and the baby anytime she "has a day off."

06 October 2008

Attack of the Penguins

I wish you all could have been here on Friday, not just to welcome the arrival of our truck, but for my English class!

In an effort to once-and-for-all convince my class of 12 older men and 1 woman that Antarctica DOES indeed exist and is NOT a figment of my imagination, Friday we watched 20 minutes of "March of the Penguins."

They had never heard of Antarctica whenever we were learning the 7 continents last week. In all fairness, my explanation of a "snowy, icy place that where people don't really live" must have sounded something like a version of Santa's workshop at the North Pole. They had also never heard of penguins ("are they like ostriches?") nor of mountains made of ice ("are you trying to trick us?").

So I turned on "March of the Penguins" first thing Friday morning, and sat in the back of the class for a highly amusing 20 minutes of watching my students watch the film.
Apparently at some point Benjamin had seen the movie "Titanic", and he rapidly became the head instructor as the class fired thousands of questions in the 20 minutes.

"ICEBERG!" he kept saying. "Everybody dies!"

They couldn't believe the penguins, all laughing at their strange ways and commenting over and over about their "suits...they're going to chapel!" and about how much they looked like people whenever they are all lined up and marching across the "white sand." "Look, they're talking!" "Look, they're kissing!" "Look! They're playing soccer!"

The wide range shots of the icy glaciers just blew everyone away (including me), and I overheard my eldest student explain to the rest that once whenever he was young it was that cold in Haiti, and that sometimes, in the mountains, they get that much snow. "But no penguins."

"Everybody dies!" our expert kept saying, as they continued to watch the penguins with utter fascination. Finally, I skipped to the credits, where the film finally shows a few shots of the men making the film. As soon as the first man, head to toe in orange snow gear, appeared, everyone yelled, "He's going to DIE!" and then were completely disappointed whenever the penguins just peered curiously into his camera instead of devouring him.

"Aren't they evil?" someone finally asked to no one in particular. "I don't think so," someone said. "I think they're just like short men."

When I finally turned off the movie, everyone was quite sure they had never seen so much white sand (no matter HOW many times I said 'SNOW') and that if penguins were just short men after all, they would like to meet some, but not if they had to wear orange clothes and goggles. ("Do they need those glasses to see the penguins?")

Last year, I insulted everyone as a woman by trying to correct them whenever it came to things like this. This year, I just let everyone enjoy their own perspectives of a place that I cannot really imagine either. Sometimes I wish so badly I could put everyone on a plane and spend just one day somewhere completely different than here. Growing up a the Columbus Zoo, traveling, going to camp, swimming in the ocean and hiking the Grand Canyon automatically gave me such a capacity to imagine things I have not seen!

However, I realize too, as I watch them interact and hear them preach and see them love each other, love their country, love their people, praise the Lord, and ask day after day in class that I pray that they KNOW God MORE...that whether they believe in Antarctica or penguins, icy roads or water parks, Jupiter, bears, Wal-Mart or mega-churches REALLY makes no difference at all.

If you ever come and visit, bring a National Geographic film of ANYTHING, and we'll all watch it with you...I'm pretty sure they, and me with them, haven't laughed so hard in weeks. We all serve a mighty God!

03 October 2008

!!!!


January 1st we felt led to step out on faith and ask for permission to begin funding for a vehicle. Terrible roads, unreliable, unsafe and unavailable mission vehicles, and hopes to start a family inspired the request, and we were granted permission. TODAY, with the help of dozens of you, only nine months, several truck model changes due to unavailability, a month delay due to the hurricanes and one long muddy trip from Port-au-Prince to here, WE HAVE A TRUCK!!! And it is BEAUTIFUL!!!

Our field leader pulled up to the house in it right around lunch time, and while Matt and I are both CRUSHED that Matt isn't here, we are SO thrilled that IT finally IS!

We were never able to see exactly what we were buying, just knew that it would be a Ford Ranger. But it is perfect...with a beautiful interior, shiny white paint, a spray on bed liner, AIR CONDITIONING, four-wheel drive...and Haiti Extras, like seat belts that work, windows that go DOWN and UP, locks that LOCK, a muffler, a rear view mirror, a spare tire, a bumper...everything!

We are feeling giddily blessed and so thankful to so many of you that helped to make this possible! Having a reliable and available vehicle to visit our student's churches and homes, make trips to the airport and to town, to safely transport our children and for emergencies is such an important part of life and ministry here! So many of you gave SO generously to help fulfill this need, and we are praising the Lord and so grateful to you for this...The Lord used you in such a practical and vital way to make this possible, and we're tremendously blessed and thankful!

He continues to provide for us and encourage us in big and small ways, and we pray that He does the same for you today!

THANK YOU!!! I'll have more pictures once Matt gets back :)

02 October 2008

all at work!



(pictured: the first year class endured their "orientation" yesterday, an annual "baptism" :)

Wednesday Matt was in class all day, followed by an evening Freshman orientation service. I spent most of the day at the seminary, and Dad spent the whole day out at the new seminary site, laying tile in the library! Today was similar for Matt, but Dad came to class with me for the morning to meet my new students and catch up with some of my old students. We had a great time, each student introducing themselves, practicing their English, and many asking Dad different questions.

As soon as he entered the room to meet everyone, the entire class stood, and then no one would sit down until he did. Then, as each student addressed him, they each stood again while they spoke...all signs of respect here. Their questions varied from "What are your hobbies", "What do you like about Haiti" and "Have you been to Antarctica" to "Why does your money say, 'In God We Trust" and "Is there a law in the United States that says after 5 years of marriage you can get divorced if you want to?"

It was a very interesting and fun class, and a big blessing to hear them each thank Dad for supporting my being here. "You know Haiti has many problems," one of them said, "and she is helping us to help our people. Thank you." It was really touching sharing him with them!

Then, Dad spent the rest of the day patching holes in the baby's room and prepping it for paint! At 12:30 he headed out to cut the compound grass, which was starting to look like a jungle. He spent all day cutting grass, and tonight we are off to have dinner with some other missionaries down at the new Seminary compound!