a day in the life for Stacey and Lily

Since Matt wrote about his daily life, we've had lots of requests about what Lily and I are up to...

Not many families get to live and work and minister together as closely as ours does.  My office is three doors down from Matt’s, we teach in classrooms next to each other, I get to watch Lily play outside my office window, he gets to come home for a few minutes on his lunch break, we work with all of the same people and with all of the same students, Lily (and Sofie!) go evangelizing with me, and all of the ministry we do outside of the classroom is done as a family.

Obviously, living where you work has its definite stresses and downsides, especially in a foreign culture, but I feel incredibly blessed  to be a part of Matt’s life that he shared with you a few days ago, and that he gets to be an intimate part of my life, and that Lily gets to be involved at such a young age in His daily calling for our family.

Because Matt and I both start teaching at 7:30, mornings are a bit rushed!  After Lily comes to see me and gives me my morning kiss, she is off for Daddy time while I have my devotional time.  As you’re always reading, I love using Oswald Chambers “My Utmost for His Highest” or “Devotions for a Deeper Life” to supplement my Bible reading.  I often let these devotions direct where I’m reading, too.  For example, if the passage the study is based on is Matthew 19: 16-22, I’ll spend the majority of my time working through Matthew 18,19,20 and time in prayer.

Yep, that means I have about 20 minutes to shower, get dressed and eat breakfast!  (Our life is no beauty pageant!)  Gertha usually arrives around 7, and Matt and Lily have already eaten, so it’s doable. 

At 7:15-7:20 we kiss Lily while she is busily working with Gertha to feed the cat, color or work on her room (some of her favorite chores.) 

At 7:30, I’m either teaching 20 first and second year students English grammar and basics, or 20 second and third  year students English conversation and English in a Biblical/Theological context.  Teaching, though I fought it hard before moving to Haiti, is truly one of the best times I have each day.  Having the same students every day means that by now, we’ve developed some good relationships, and teaching and learning with friends is so much fun.

A few weeks ago, we were discussing various professions in my ESL1 class.  “What do you call someone who cleans?” Napoleon asked. 

“A cleaner, I guess” I told him.

“Well,” Brave said, “then what to you call someone who only cleans toilets?”

“Ummm,” I thought, “I guess still just a cleaner, or a janitor.”

“OK,” Samson chimed in.  “So what do you call someone who only washes your back?”   

what????  These are obviously Creole words I have yet to learn.

I was cracking up at this point, as was everyone…Or today, for example, when Samson reads his entire conversation as character, Sarah, in a hilarious falsetto voice.  

From joking to discussing politics to working through Biblical and cultural issues, these hours with these 40 men and women are precious times.

Everyone pictured here, minus staff and 5 students, are in one of my English classes

After class, and before I go back home to Lily, I crunch!  I have from 8:50 – 11:00 to do everything else:  prepare lessons, grade paper, create tests and worksheets, translate student testimonies, meet with students/staff, create promotional materials (seminary blog, seminary newsletters, thank-you letters), and manage the EBS finances.  This financial part has been a new responsibility for me.

 The "office" that Belony, Fan Fan, Elizay and I share.

In September, EBS took a major step towards being more financially independent and responsible by naming a Business Manager (me J), having a member of the EBS board set up our own financial system, and training me to keep track of every penny budgeted, spent and coming in through QuickBooks. 

This means that each week, I spend a few hours on billing, tracking receipts, keeping track of each student account and creating their invoices, creating reports for the OMS Haiti field, headquarters and the EBS board, and “translating” everything through three varying currency conversions (Haiti uses two financial methods of counting money, and then we usually use the US dollar for reporting.)

At 11, finished or not, I head home to Lily, the best part of my day.  No matter HOW much fun she is having in the seminary kitchen sorting beans with the cooks, playing in the hose with Gertha, or riding on the food carts in the cafeteria, she is always thrilled that I am done with work. 

From 11-12:30, she and I play, and “work” on things like her alphabet, colors, learning children’s Sunday School songs, dancing, reading books, painting, etc.  At 12:30, she is ready to start winding down for her nap, and we have lunch, get in bed, read books (her favorite’s right now are anything with Winnie “the Pooh-Pooh", and Are You My Mother?), and she is asleep everyday at 1:15.

1:15-3:15 again, is crunch time, but this time, in the house.  As soon as she nods off, I hang out laundry, clean up the house, and most often, work on dinner.  Two days a week, our dear friend Micheline joins me from 11-3, helping with dishes, laundry, sweeping and mopping. 

As you know, we have nothing that you would actually consider a "grocery store."  We buy most of our food from women in the street with stacks of mangoes or piles of potatoes, and cannot buy many of the food items we could in the States.  This means that if we want bagels, I get out the flour and start boiling water.  Since coming to Haiti, I have learned to make my own bread, rolls, tortillas, English muffins, bagels, cinnamon rolls, muffins, noodles, pizza dough, spaghetti sauce, cake, cookies, enchilada sauce, taco seasoning, salad dressing…everything, from scratch. 

While it’s all GOOD stuff, it takes F-O-R-E-V-E-R.  So I spend this time while Lily sleeps baking, (usually in bulk and freezing), kneading, and preparing the evenings casserole, stew, soup, or at least doing all of the prep work (bleaching and chopping all the vegetables, making the salad or preparing the fruit, cutting up the meat, making the broth or the milk) so that once Lily wakes up, I don’t have to spend the whole afternoon pushing her off while I cook.

She wakes up every day around 3:15, and our afternoons are varied.  Sometimes, we spend time with Bubba and Dodo, or Rachelle, Jacob and Josephine.  Sometimes, we’ll make cookies together or put away laundry.  At least 2 days a week, we go “out.”  These are both of our favorite afternoons, giving Lily a chance to play hard with the neighbor kids, chase goats and chickens, and giving me a chance to maintain relationships with a lot of the women and families in the community. 

These afternoons, sitting with families, watching the kids, talking about daily life and sharing Jesus are precious.  There are a lot of days lately when the heat, distance and carrying/helping Lily and my fatigue make me want to stay home, but EVERY time we go out, I am greatly blessed.  Blessed to share Him, blessed to be reminded of His love for those around us, blessed to be welcomed into anyone’s home (and we are ALWAYS welcomed) and blessed to be a part of His kingdom in Haiti.

Wednesday afternoon’s we all load up and drive to Vaudreil for missionary prayer meeting.  One other night each week we pack up again and drive to Vaudreil to eat with and share the Seminary ministry with teams staying on OMS’s main compound. 

The other nights, we have dinner together as a family in our home at 5:30, frequently joined by visitors, visiting professors, other foreign friends or Haitian friends.  This is usually Matt’s and my first chance to catch up with each other, and we can talk about work and ministry, and then try to move away from that for the rest of our evening.

We’ve had some great friend time and great family time around our table, "solving" and pondering the problems of the world, telling stories, remembering, dreaming, counseling and receiving counsel,  and laughing.

When we don’t have any guests, Matt, Lily and I talk a walk each evening after dinner.  We talk with the guys, chase frogs, follow Shay, look at the stars and sing songs together, and let Lily use up her last energy.

At 7, it’s bath time and jammie time and at 7:30 we read Lily a few books, say prayers and sing her a few songs before she conks out. 

As Matt shared with you, we then have about an hour together.  Some nights, that’s an hour grading papers, Matt working on his masters or me working on the blog or emailing.  Other nights involve coffee, The Office or part of a movie (we can NEVER make it through a whole movie anymore J) or just talking.  I am so blessed to be working and living alongside of my best friend.  ANY time that we have just the two of us or together with Lily is very precious to me.

We continue to rely on His faithfulness and the faithfulness of your prayers!