blessed.

Our blog had it's 20,000th hit today! Man alive...grateful for all of your support and encouragement that comes from taking interest in our lives and in the lives of our Haitian family!

We had such a wonderful time in Kansas! We met up with so many friends from our last trip to NorthRidge, friends from Haiti at one time or another, and made some new friends, too...We're just so thankful for this sincere, sacrificial, generous, loving and gracious body of believers.

In this church and community of Sabetha, Matt and I were able to see a rare living out of true God-honoring Christian community, and it was a blessing to be a part of and was an inspiring example for us as Christians who also live in community in Haiti.

Sharon and Martin were our loving hosts, who showered us with love, friendship, good coffee, good food, shared their home, bathroom, car and motorcycle with us, gave us lots of time with different friends, loved on Lily, gave us good encouragement and advice...their home was just such a wonderful place to be. THANK YOU, guys! (Look, Martin, I made you LOOK like you are sleeping again!)

It was hard to say goodbye to the Aberle's, especially when Lily continues to ask for "Ahhh-zeeee!" over and over, but I am so thankful that they made the 15 hour (yes! at 10 days-till-due-date) drive to come and see us...we are so blessed by your precious family!

Jane, Robert, Luke, Anna and Issac had us out to their lovely home Saturday night along with a bunch of other friends, and we had such a good time....thank you for this encouraging and fun time! (They also might be our most rigid blog stalkers...we love your family! :)

BLESSED.

People keep asking how we feel about heading back to Haiti, and that is my first thought, just BLESSED. We have been so blessed by our time here, and by the love and sacrifice and prayers and friendship of so many friends and family around the States.

We have spoken to literally thousands of you this summer about our friends, family, churches, students, testimonies, communities and ministry in Haiti, and we feel so incredibly blessed to be a part of His kingdom in Haiti. We are ready! After speaking for 7 weeks dozens of times about how we feel led to live and love in Haiti, we are ready to get back to it! We want to see if Jil's house is finished, want to worship next to Pehpay, want to hear about the ministry packed summers of our students. We want to get back to Bible training, catch up with good friends, get back into the Word with my Saturday class and encourage our neighbors.

We'll have our chance soon! Saturday afternoon we arrive home, and start officially with Emmaus on September 1st. This week we have packing, laundry, a presentation in Northern Ohio on Wednesday, final runs to Wal-Mart, final shots, final DQ runs, final phone calls, and final time with family! Please be praying for His presence and preparation these next days...

We'd also love to ask for your prayers for Pop-Pop, Matt's grandpa, who has been a joyful, encouraging and loving part of Matt, Lily and my life. He has been fighting cancer and other health issues for several years now, and the last few times we have seen him we have made sure to have good time with him and made sure to say good-bye, just in case. These last few days his health has taken a major turn for the worse, and while he has told us countless times that he is very ready to be with the Lord and out of pain, we are heartbroken thinking about Mom-Mom and thinking that his time with us might be finishing on earth.

Please be praying for Pop-Pop and for the whole family...thank you!