go out with joy

Gordon and Doreen left this morning after one final meal together...they will be missed! Gordon has spent the last 3 years working to build the new seminary...Please be praying as we search for men and women to finish the project!

EBS is now officially on Easter Break, and Lily and I had the privilege Tuesday afternoon of meeting with each student that has committed to evangelizing the people God has placed on their hearts and minds. They each stopped by the house on their way "out" to pick up Bibles...not 10 or 20 like Matt and I had predicted we would need, but 97. As Bibles were put into each of their hands, I was filled with excitement, first, to be SEEING God's Word go out into Haiti in such a practical way, and to imagine, instead of 97 Bibles, the 97 Haitians they represent who will be directly told about Jesus in the next two weeks!

I gave each student an "Evangelism Report" and can hardly wait to be reunited with them in two weeks to see and hear the names and stories of those they were able to tell about Christ. In Isaiah 55, God tells us that

"My word, which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to Me without accomplishing what I desire,
and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.
For you will go out with joy
and be led forth with peace;
the mountains and the hills will break forth
into shouts of joy before you,
and all the trees will clap their hands.
Instead of thorn bushes, great trees will come up,
Instead of the nettle,
sweet flowers will come up,
And it will be a memorial to the Lord!

And these dear students DID go out with joy...balancing boxes of God's Word on their heads while they walked or on their knees while they rode away on bikes. What an exciting day! Please pray with us as we seek to change Haiti for Christ this Easter...Please join us to change the World for Christ this Easter...He is the one Hope that we have! Go out with Joy!

choosing our blocks

Matt is in Port-au-Prince, having driven the whole way there on Saturday with a few other missionaries and a group of pastors for a retreat. They are hoping to establish a clear vision for the churches that are a part of OMS here in Haiti. Matt was able to spend some precious time with dear friends yesterday, and today they all dove into meetings.

So, Lily and I are here alone again! Tomorrow is the last day of school before Easter Break, so everyone was quite wired at the Seminary today. Tomorrow is also the day that Gordon and Doreen, two of our friends and fellow missionaries here, are leaving, after working in Haiti for 15 years! They were so instrumental in helping Matt and I settle in here, and were friends of mine from years ago when I worked in Port-au-Prince.

Matt's pastor from home is coming in with his wife and son Friday, who will be joining all of the OMS missionaries in Haiti for our annual "Field Retreat", a time of spiritual feeding and restoration. This year we're heading across the border for a few days in the Dominican, where we'll be met by another New Jersey couple who is coming to work with the kids while we're in sessions.

Then my sister and her boyfriend fly in before we even get back from the retreat on Tuesday for a week during her spring break! Matt starts teaching another course the first day back from break, right after Lisa and Adam leave...

AS you can tell...Now is a REALLY busy time! Please be praying for Matt, especially, as he is feeling the weight of responsibility in a lot of different areas, and as our field is going through a rather heavy time of under-staffed-ness (don't think that's a word!) and overwhelmed-ness (also, not a word).

Lily, meanwhile, will be THREE months old this week and happy as can be. As long as she has her cow, her thumb and lots of attention, she doesn't seem to care what's happening on the field or where we're going!

What a great time this is for the Lord to help us re-assess our priorities and focus and remember that HE is our foundation.

"Each man must be careful how he builds on it.
For NO man can lay a foundation other than the one which is already laid--
and THAT is Jesus Crhsit.

Man chooses what he builds with on this foundation,
whether with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay or straw

Each man's work will become evident-
for the day will come when it is revealed with fire
The fire will test the quality of each man's work...

Do you not know that you are a temple of the Holy Spirit!" 1 Cor. 3:10

Even during these crazy times, we know that He IS our foundation, and that we are only responsible for what WE build with...may we living in ways of great value.

the moon beach and other natural phenomenon

There is so much going on right now that I need to start blogging everyday!

First, HAPPY BIRTHDAY CASEY! Wish you were here for a Haitian Celebration Sensation!

Second, we are in the middle of my favorite English unit of the year, Space Exploration! Why this is in the Unit 1 Christian English text book, I do not know, but it is SUCH a blast, and we all know how important it is that beginning English speakers know vocabulary such as "lunar module" and the difference between "space shuttle" and "rocket."

The students are SO interested in EVERYTHING space-centered, and have had SO little education regarding the universe (or the WRONG education) that it is always highly amusing for me, as well.

Yesterday's big discussion was the moon. "Why" I asked, "Is the moon sometimes big and sometimes little?" Last year, my class was convinced that the moon actually shrinks and grows, but this year's class had a different theory. "It is the BEACH!" my one female student said.
"Oh, yes yes." everyone agreed.

"The beach?" I asked. "WHAT?"

"It is the beach on the moon!" She explained. "When the water comes up, it covers most of the moon, and sometimes covers ALL of the moon, and when the water goes back, we see more of the moon. All the oceans on the moon cover it!"

So, without saying, "Um...NO. That is wrong" I managed to just say, "OR, maybe it is because..." and explained the line of the moon and the sun and the earth.

We have an ongoing joke in our class...Whenever someone is able to answer a really difficult question correctly, or asks a really good question in perfect English, I "high-five" them and say: "Bonus points!" Everyone laughs, realizing now that they've earned no points for these episodes. But yesterday, when I finished explaining the phases of the moon, and "understanding" began to dawn on their faces, my quickest student jumped up and ran over to my desk, hand outstretched, rather startling me.

"OH, Teacher!" he exclaimed. "VERY GOOD. Bonus points!!!"

We also watched a video today about Apollo 11's trip to the moon and Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldriges first steps...Wish you all could have been there to see everyone's faces and hear the questions and comments. They saw for themselves the absence of a moon beach, and one thing they ALL agreed on when it was over: they would NEVER go to the moon, even if someone paid them, not in an airplane that shoots fire everywhere.

Then today was our very first English chapel service in the history of Emmaus Biblical Seminary (as far as I know!) Every student has taken at least 6 months of English and are always asking for more English exposure, so we decided to give it a try. It was SO FUN! Luke printed out a program for everyone, and led the service, refusing to speak any Creole.

The first song we sang was "It Is Well With My Soul." While we had to sing it 10 times too slow in order to keep together as the students labored through each line, everyone was so pleased to be able to sing in English that they sang as loudly as possible, almost deafening me and waking Lily. It was such a blessing to hear these beautiful voices rise in harmony for the millionth time, but THIS time, in MY language...

Then, it is traditional to have a reading of the Scripture. There is ONE translation of the Bible in Haiti: Creole. So, each day, the leader chooses a passage, and he will read verse one, and we will all read verse two, back and forth.

Even though most of the students had English Bibles, however, there were 10 different translations. So, today, Luke read verse one, and then everyone read THEIR version of verse two, and so on...Talk about chaotic :)

The whole service was a lot of fun, and while my students admitted afterwards to having understood very little, they enjoyed it, and each shook Lily's outstretched hand heartily as they filed out the door, commenting on how good it was to have a chapel service that she could understand!

because He Lives!

While my dear English students cannot understand WHY Easter doesn't mean "More East" if "smaller" means "more small" and "taller" means "more tall", they DO understand full well that Easter means everything to Christians. Before coming to Haiti I had never experienced a culture whose Christians put so much emphasis on evangelizing during Easter.

So, it seems quite fitting that the campus would be buzzing of evangelical ideas and projects for our upcoming 2-week Easter Break. I shared with you a story last year of a 4th year student who did nothing BUT evangelize the whole two weeks, carrying "reports" with him and recording every person he sat down with and shared Jesus, noting their names, locations, and responses. He spoke to almost 500 people about Jesus that "vacation" and brought 123 men, woman and children to the Lord!
After hearing his testimonies of this "project", I have often thought about how very practical his approach was. Every morning he went out, and every person he saw, he asked to sit with. And every person he sat and talked with, he told about Jesus. And every person he told all about Jesus and His coming to the world, death and resurrection, he invited to become a Christian. And more than a fifth of the people he spoke to, he recorded as "genuine, life-transforming conversions."
I began praying about this a few weeks ago, watching as my class of 10 men and 1 woman were continually asking for prayer for unconverted family members, friends, and neighbors...over and over and over. Finally, one day two weeks ago, I asked each of them: "Your parents. Are they Christians? Your sisters, your brothers?" For these 11 students, there were probably 60-70 lost immediate family members. As the last student finished his list of unconverted loved ones, the room fell silent, everyone heavily aware of this devastating revelation. We began to pray about what to do, and a few days later made a list of loved ones, family members, and neighbors the Lord was putting on our hearts.

"One problem," a student shared, "Is that when I tell some one about Jesus, whether they are converted or not, they may have NO Christian friends and NO way to hear MORE."

So, Matt and I made a commitment...if my 11 students would "go out into all the world" over vacation and talk to the people the Lord had put on their hearts, even those who had refused Christ 100 times, or who were living lives full of Satan and darkness, then we would do whatever it took to send them out with God's Word. As I am praying, I am realizing that this simple project could have MAJOR impact on the kingdom...Haiti and the world are hungry for the Lord and for His Word, and this Easter, we're committed alongside of my 11 students to give it to them. Matt brought home the first two boxes of Bibles today...

Please be praying about this fervently with us! Tomorrow I'll tell you what Matt and his class have come up with!

Barb (Matt's mom), Marcelle (Matt's cousin) and Shirl have arrived and are enjoying life in Haiti! They're working hard to bless the missionaries with haircuts, massages and manicures, and we're enjoying having "Grammy" with us! It's been raining a lot, but we've been able to get out and about, too!

we want to stay with YOU this summer...

I admit, this usually only applies to those who promise freezers full of ice cream! But this summer, we're looking for a different kind of place to stay. From around June 2nd until around July 15th, we are looking for places to speak!

This is the situation: We have 45 men and women at Emmaus Biblical Seminary that pay 1/5 of what it costs to educate, feed, and house them. If we charged the students more than 20% of these costs, many, if not all, of our brothers and sisters would be unable to attend. The other 80% of each students tuition, roughly $2000 US a year (significantly less than Matt and I paid for a year at Bible school!), has to be raised.

A large part of my job here is focused on this. I get to know the students, take their pictures, document and translate their testimonies, create promotional material for each them, and try to partner each student with one full, or several partial, scholarships.

The students cannot afford the full cost, and Emmaus cannot continue to train pastors, missionaries, evangelists, Bible teachers and Christian leaders without the full cost coming in.


SO, this summer, Matt, Lily and I are hoping to speak (or gurgle, as is the case with Lily) absolutely everywhere we can on behalf of the students of Emmaus Biblical Seminary. We are looking for churches, families, organizations, businesses, camps, small groups, etc. to allow us to come and share what God is doing here in Haiti, at EBS, and in the lives of our students with the intention of partnering (in ANY amount or frequency) with one or more of these 45 students!

Not only is this an awesome opportunity to form a partnership with one of the men or women God is using here to spread His Light in this dark country, but it also will allow Emmaus to continue to to spread the much-needed Gospel throughout Haiti. We have JUST enough support right now to get by, and no-where-near enough support to move to the new seminary site next year or to expand any kind of ministry.

Matt and I believe wholeheartedly that this work is God's work...He's got His fingerprint all over the school and the lives of our students and staff, and we need your help to make this ministry blossom and continue. We cannot even put into words what a blessing it has been, and continues to be, to work alongside of these Godly men and women...We want to offer you that same opportunity.

PLEASE talk to your churches, your families, your co-workers and friends, and email me if we can come and share this awesome ministry with you this summer! staceyhaiti@gmail.com

For more information: www.ebshaiti.org

$166 dollars a month for Bible courses, room and board may not be a lot of money...But we are seeing it, firsthand, make life-transforming differences for hundreds and hundreds of people across Haiti.

(besides, we want to see you!!!)

Matt's mom made it here safely today along with two other women to share with the missionaries in Cap-Haitien a "Spa Week" of haircuts, massages, and manicures!

We also have some exciting projects brewing with our students for Easter Break....stay tuned!

won't settle for anything less

You're probably getting tired of hearing from Oswald Chambers through our blog, but I am continually convinced that the Lord is using his works to speak directly to Matt and I right now.

We learned this past week that our field is losing yet another two missionaries the beginning of April. Watching four missionaries leave within two weeks of each other whenever we are so understaffed is difficult! Our missionary family is shrinking! In turn, Matt and I have realized how easy it is to slip into "Crisis Mode."

"What are we going to do? Who is going to do this, and this, and this? What about such-and-such? How is this all going to pan out? How is thing going to work?

Despite the fact that we are both assured that God is as very much in control as He was last week, last year, and the last century, this is an easy time to let that which is most important slip.

In comes "My Utmost for His Highest", March 17th.

We make it our aim to be well pleasing to Him. 2 Cor. 5:9

"It requires a conscious decision and effort to keep our primary goal constantly in front of us. It means holding ourselves to the highest priority year in and year out; NOT making our first priority to win souls, or to establish churches, or to have revivals, but seeking only 'to be well pleasing to Him.'

"It is not a lack of spiritual experience that leads to failure, but a lack of working to keep our eyes focused and on the RIGHT goal. Examine yourself before God to see if your life is measuring up to the standard He has for you.

"I must learn to relate everything to the primary goal, maintaining it without interruption. My worth to God publicly is measured by what I REALLY am in my private life. Is my primary goal in life to please Him and to be acceptable to Him, or is it something LESS, no matter how lofty it may sound?"

What a "non-human" way to think! That even wonderful things: winning souls, starting churches, having revivals, are indeed LESS compared to what should be our primary goal--to please Him!

Matt often says that our main mission and ministry here is NOT to teach, NOT to revolutionize the church, NOT to bring thousands to Christ, but simply to BE redeemed people among the unredeemed. To BE free amid slaves. To BE light against the darkness. To BE pleasing in His sight. It's all about that relationship, isn't it? It's all about the relationship we have, as Chambers says, NOT in public, but in private, with our Lord.

Just as the very most important thing in Lily's life will not be what things we gave her, where we lived, or what we taught her, but instead what we put into our RELATIONSHIP with her.

Pray with us for this current "crisis": for the lack of missionaries, the lack of funds, the lack of answers.

But most, please be praying that we might turn to Him: NOT first for help, money, and solutions, but simply because of our great love for the Father. Pray that our personal relationship with Him might blossom despite all else, and that we might CLING to our first priority: the pleasure of our God.

the Price is Right!

At 4:30 Saturday we picked up a very tired, noticeably heavier, happy group of men at the Cap-Haitien aiport! Luke, Matt, Paul and Bright have returned safely from their stateside adventure with dozens of stories, hundreds of pictures (almost HALF of them of overpasses, bridges, the interstate, parking lots and other roads!), and glowing from two weeks of spiritual (and physical :) feeding. They are all thrilled to be back home, and were loaded down with gifts for their families.

Their first story to share was of their most recent adventure. They boarded their plane from Texas to Florida only to discover that they had all been bumped up to first class! For two hours they were waited on hand and foot, given hot towels, a four-course meal, endless drinks, and sat in huge comfy chairs. "Every time I took a sip," Luke said, "that lady would come back and say, 'Could I get you some more? Can I get you anything else?' and I was confused, because when I flew the other times, the lady never asked me that!"

To add to the fun, when Matt came out of the bathroom, there stood Bob Barker, of "The Price is Right" !!! They guys didn't know who that was, but were quite excited to be flying with an American celebrity!

They have all decided that "In the Front!" is the only way to fly :)

Luke said that the "empty" roads were the hardest thing to get used to...no bikes, no wheelbarrows, no school children, no goats! One of his favorite things was the new idea of a "buffet". Because they ate most of their meals in the cafeteria, for the first time ever the guys saw endless amounts of food, and were allowed to take as much as they wanted!

"There was this place," Luke told me wide-eyed, "Where there were EIGHT types of ice cream, and you could get as much as you wanted of any kind after ANY meal you wanted! When I found that special place, I went there after every single meal!" AH, ice cream bars are something I just cannot think about without becoming homesick! I'm glad someone took full advantage of the opportunity...I would have been right there with him!

They also loved the zoo, which was labeled "so cool and huge!"

"Was two weeks too long or too short?" I asked, and the guys all agreed that it was too long to be away from their loved ones, and too short to absorb all of the teaching they received at Wesley. Luke, Paul and Bright heartily agreed with Matt that Wesley Biblical Seminary is a really special place, "healthy, spiritually saturated and dedicated to the study of Scripture." I think they may have all loved that, and the people they met there, the most (even more than the ice cream bar.)

They still have many stories to share, but I wanted you to know they are home safely and thank you for your prayers! What an awesome opportunity, not just for them, but for all of us who stayed here to glean from all that they learned, and are still learning, about the Bible and our Savior!

I'm not going to post the all the pictures they took, but here is a sampling of what they all did the past two weeks and of America from their perspective :)

quick to testify

"To say a thing is the sure way of thinking it. That is why it is so necessary to testify to what Jesus Christ has done for us. A testimony gets hold of the mind as it has hold of the heart." -O Chambers, If Thou Wilt Be Perfect

One of the great privileges that comes with serving the Lord here is hearing and taking part in the testimonies of what God has been and done and what God is and is doing in the lives of so many. Something I LOVE about the Haitian culture: There is ALWAYS time to share your life with someone. If I allowed our sharing time before prayer to last until my students were finished each morning, we would never learn a word of English. Walking a few hundred feet to the mission office always takes 10-15 minutes, because each person you pass would love to have a good conversation. Matt's "quick errand, I'll be right back!" always takes 30 minutes...and I know he's talking!

So yesterday was an especially blessed day, in that dad and I spent a few hours with one past graduate, hearing of what the Lord has been doing in his tiny far-away mountain church. And yesterday evening, the seminary presented a program to a visiting team, giving me the opportunity to hear the testimony of a second year student that I had never heard.

I don't have nearly the space to share with you all the details, but wanted to share a taste of the Lord in the lives of your brothers and sisters here.

Petit Sauvelt's parents gave him to an aunt whenever he was very young because they couldn't afford to keep him (a very common practice). He lived with his aunt for several years, but she had no children, and he was lonely. He began running away, but she always brought him back. It finally occurred to him that if he began causing trouble, his aunt would send him back to his parents. So, Petit began stealing things from neighbors, and sure enough, she sent him away.

He retuned to his parents, who abandoned him a second time, unable and unwilling to help a child that destroyed the one connection they created for him. So, at the age of 11, he was homeless, unsupported, starving and had no place to go.

Desperate, there was one place he found food. In the courtyard of a voodoo temple, a witchdoctor and his servants daily sacrificed food to Satan, and Petit, though he remembers disliking very much what they were doing, liked the food they were sacrificing. He survived off of eating this way for a long time, helping them serve Satan and eating the food. He also attended the Catholic church (frequently a very different kind of church here than Catholic churches in the States!) and didn't like many of their practices either.

"Finally," he shared last night, "I began going to a Christian church, because I liked the way they lived." One evening, the pastor (a graduate from Emmaus Biblical Seminary some 30 years ago) began preaching, and "it was like every word he said came right to me!"
He knew that when the pastor invited the congregation to come to Christ, he had no choice but to give Jesus his life. He is now 44 years old, and says that through all of the places he has been since then, he has never turned back or strayed from this decision. After dozens of moves, many more difficult, hungry and homeless years, he married a Christian woman. Year after year, they became pregnant, and she bore four children, each one dying not long after being born. They served faithful, beginning a church, ministering to children, and finally had a son, who is now 10, Samuel.

He is now a second year student at EBS, and pastor a church of 75 in a very remote area, studying all week at seminary and returning home of the weekends to support his wife, son and to work in his church.

How very bright the light of the Lord shines in this humble, gentle and joyful man, and I am so touched just to think of how the Lord has carried him from abandonment at that dark voodoo temple, stealing meat from Satan, to where he is today, carrying many children to the arms of Christ.

Enick graduated from Emmaus last year and was one of Matt's Hebrew students and someone that I tutored in English. He is now diligently serving at another very distant small mountain church that is only able to pay him $25 US each month, less than it costs for him to travel to Cap-Haitien twice a month to take care of his mother and younger brothers and sisters. "I'm actually PAYING money to serve in that church," he told us with a grin yesterday..."Please don't tell my mother!"

The faith this vibrant young man has is unbelievable. Last time we offered him money, he refused it, saying that the Lord was teaching him what it was to be content in ALL circumstances. (you may have gathered by now that this is not something that happens often!)

He came yesterday, however, to tell us about a young woman that he first brought to the Lord, and then has been battling for. Spiritual warfare looks significantly different in Haiti than it seems to in our home culture, so for compatibilities sake, this girl was frequently possessed by demons, fighting to keep her serving Satan instead of embracing her new life in Christ. The stories of her battles are extensive, but the part that touched me the most about her story was Enick's utter confidence in the victory we ALREADY have in Christ.

November is a heightened month of voodoo practices in Haiti, and it was this past November that she was struggling with these evil spirits the most (I recognize this may sound strange, but you've read of such things in the Bible! Matt. 8,9 Mark 1,3,5,7,16 Luke 4,8,9,11 1 Tim. 4...) As Enick and several other church leaders prayed for her, sometimes for days without ceasing, one of the demons spoke to Enick. "Don't you know," it leered, "what month this is? This is OUR month."

"OUR God," Enick shouted back with a smile, "HAS no month of power. He has EVERY month, EVERY day, EVERY moment. I don't care what day it is, OUR God has the power over this woman, and He ALWAYS has the power over you!" (I'm hoping for an 'amen' here!)

I could write a short novel about the rest of the battle for this woman, from flaming shoes to the resurrection of the dead, but what touched me the most was that with each confrontation, she ALWAYS had a choice, and Satan was never able to MAKE her choose him. When she choose NOT to do what Satan told her to do, he HAD to release her. When she refused to serve him over and over and over again, he finally stopped pursing her.

Isn't it the similar with our God? As all-powerful as He is, He cannot MAKE us love Him, won't MAKE us serve Him, won't MAKE us peaceful, won't MAKE us love our brothers, won't MAKE us patient. The choice is ours to GIVE ourselves fully to Him, every moment of every day. The choice is ours to constantly be allowing Him to transform us, to chip away at all that is unholy, impure, or simply not for His glory, in our lives. And when we do, though Satan still works, still tempts, still attacks, God will help us to ALWAYS have the power to refuse Satan. And the more we refuse him, the less interested in us he becomes!

What beautiful freedom we have in Christ! "Let NOT the grace of God you have received be in vain!" 2 Cor. 6:1.

grandpa's little sidekick

Grandpa made it in safely on Sunday and hit the ground running! Monday he watched Lily while I taught, and then spent the day laying tile and working at the new seminary site. Today, he played with Lil again while I taught, helped me with several things around the house, spent time again with Lily while I gave a tour to a new team, watched her again while I had our Tuesday missionary prayer meeting, had dinner with the field, then helped me get Lily to bed. It was a crazy day, and the next few days promise to be even crazier! I'm really not sure how I would have done this week alone, and am SO GRATEFUL that he is able to be here, not just to help, but because he's one of my best friends! Lily is loving her time with him, too, as you can see :)
Matt and the guys are going just as crazy, attending classes and seminars, participating in debates and projects, meeting with professors and several contacts, and going to Target as often as they can :) The first two things all three of our Haitian brothers bought were hair clippers and clothing irons, two things impossible to come by in-country.

They had a GREAT time at the zoo, loved the monkeys, especially, and took a ton of pictures. (Wait till they all get back...I'll have some fun photos on the blog :)

Some big answers to prayer: Matt met with the author of the Hebrew text that he uses to teach, and has received permission to translate the book into Haitian Creole, and to have it published. This has been a long-term goal and project of Matt's as part of our effort to "work ourselves out of a job" and to provide seminaries, pastors and scholars across Haiti a Hebrew textbook in their own language. Then, Matt met with a man who is very interested in helping to fund this project...both meetings, such an encouragement and God-send for Matt. He has also had the opportunity to spend a large amount of time with someone that may be interested in working here at Emmaus, and had the chance to meet with the missions board of a local church to discuss partnering with our seminary students!

It's been a busy busy time for all of them, but Matt continues to affirm how clearly He is seeing the Lord work in them and in many different people He has brought across their paths! I cannot wait to hear more from all of them about this adventure! I also cannot wait until they come home :)

Tomorrow, my anxiously-awaiting English class will have some time to "show father-Stacey how much English we now speak", I'm helping translate for a visiting professor (again, cannot wait until the four guys are back!), and tomorrow evening have a presentation to give on the Seminary for a visiting team...translation: lots more time for Grandpa and Lily! Thank you all for your prayers and encouraging emails while for all of us while Matt is away!

They will, Lord willing, return on Saturday night!

Squirrels, flesh-eating Slugs and the Day of Salvation

It is SUCH a gorgeous day today! Not too hot, super sunny, breezy...you should all come join me :) Grandpa is coming tomorrow, and Lily and I are very excited!

The guys are having an AMAZING time in Jackson...attending classes and lectures, school BBQ's and evenings out with new friends exploring the Americas :) There were several school trips available to attend today: the Natural Science Museum, Vicksburg Battlefield Park, the Old Capitol Museum...but finally one of our Haitian brothers spoke up and said, "I would really like to see what a zoo is, someday!" So instead, a group of pastors and seminary students from around the United States are taking Paul, Brightner and Lucner to the Jackson Zoo. Not only will they be seeing giraffes, penguins, elephants and zebras for the first time, but they will also be seeing a bear for the first time...squirrels, deer...maybe a raccoon or two...

Should be a wonderful day, and Matt is looking forward to experiencing it with them as much as they are looking forward to going! Matt is feeling incredibly better, than you for all your prayers!

Lily and I have been doing well, battling off a HUGE flesh-eating slug (at least I think it was flesh eating!), groups of people that have started insisting that now that Lily is "big", I should be feeding her Tampico, a juice drink similar to Sunny-D, and four days of chilly rain. Having Matt gone has given me some great times with the Lord, for which I am so thankful...Having Matt gone reminds me that it is the LORD that takes care of us, not Matt, the LORD that sustains us, not Matt, the LORD that provides joy and satisfaction in my life, not Matt. Don't get me wrong, I miss him desperately, but it has been a good chance to re-focus on the Lord as THE Lord of my life.

This passage, especially, has been working on me big time this week..

"Don't receive the grace of God in vain!
For He says,
'At the acceptable time, I listened to you,
And on the day of salvation, I helped you.'
Behold, NOW is the 'acceptable time',
Behold, NOW is the 'day of salvation.'
Give NO cause for offense in anything,
so that the ministry will not be discredited,
but in EVERYTHING committing ourselves as servants of God
in much endurance
in afflictions
in hardships
in distresses
in beatings
in imprisonment
in tumults
in labors
in sleeplessness (speaking to me, right here :)
in hunger
in purity
in knowledge
in patience
in kindness
in the Holy Spirit
in GENUINE love
in the Word of TRuth
in the power of God
by the weapons of righteousness
by glory and dishonor
by evil report and good report
regarded as deceivers, and yet true
as unknown yet well-known
as dying yet behold, WE LIVE
as punished, yet not put to death
as sorrowful yet ALWAYS rejoicing
as poor yet making many rich
as having nothing yet possessing all things."
2 Corinthians 6:1-10

In ALL of these things, committing myself as a servant of God...Powerful words to live by in this inspired piece of Scripture.

Behold, now is the time, now, the day of salvation...Praise God!

Have an awesome Saturday, Beloved of the Father!

where is everybody?

Continues to be the question the guys have for Matt. Monday they drove twenty minutes from the airport to the campus, and didn't see one person (outside of a car). As you've seen in our pictures of Haiti, there are ALWAYS people EVERYWHERE, eating, sleeping, working and even hanging out in the road, so that must have been quite an eerie drive!

They made it to Jackson, and their luggage made it there eventually, too :) All four of them are having a great time, though Matt has become sick all over again and doing really poorly today. So far, the luggage carousel, "key cards" at the hotel and Target have been among the most interesting things.

Matt is also learning more about Haitian culture, just from being in America. Things are usually much less rushed here than they are in the States, and the guys have been struggling to understand why everything and everyone is moving so quickly! Matt took them to Logan's Steakhouse last night to give the four of them a chance to "un-overwhelm", and while the guys were not at all impressed with steak ("where is all the sauce? why is it in one big hunk? what do I put on it?"), they had a really good time.

The best part for all of them has been being at Wesley...they are all loving their classes, enjoying being IN the classroom and meeting the professors that have been teaching them for over a year now, and thriving with new insight and passions to bring Christ to Haiti!

Meanwhile, Lily and I are holding down the fort, missing Matt and SO thankful that my dad is coming on Sunday!

praises and prayers

We spent our last day together as a family taking Lily to the beach for the first time, which she adored! It was a fun day, and we got some great shots overlooking Cap-Haitien, which looks quite a bit different from above.
Matt, Luke, Paul and Bright have arrived safely in Jackson, Mississippi after 2 very long travel days! Both times I've talked to Matt it has been while boarding a plane or waiting for a plane, so their trip so far has been rather uneventful, but I'll keep you updated as I hear!So Lily and I are going it alone, but happily not without the help of friends. My dad is coming on Sunday to spend the second week of Matt's absence with Lily and I, and I am really looking forward to that!

Meanwhile, one of our student's fathers died this morning after a fall on Thursday that sounds a bit like he may have had a stroke. Please be praying for Charitab, and for one other student we have that is really struggling in his marriage of five years to a woman who seems to suffer from spiritual and mental issues. We have met with her and prayed with him many times, but the home situation for him and his two little daughters is increasingly tense. Thank you for your prayers for these loved ones.