American/Haitian/His.

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but soon, face to face;

now I know in part, but soon I will know fully

just as I also have been fully known.

1 Corinthians 13:12

These past two weeks have been interesting, making me realize what a weird situation we live in daily!

We grew up in America around Americans, and therefore have many American mindsets and cultural "norms" built into our DNA.  We've lived in Haiti for five years now, and find that we have not only added many Haitian cultural norms to our personal culture, but have even replaced some.  So today we find that we have a unique cultural DNA.

When we're in the States, we feel weird.  When we're here, we feel weird.  No situation ever feels 100% "normal" any more, and then we throw our girls into the mix, who are both growing up in Haiti, with 98% of their friends and daily acquaintances being Haitian, in a semi-American home to semi-Americans.

These past two weeks, Matt was in the States but traveling and living with Haitians, and I was here, but with my American dad and sister living with me.  And with new Canadian neighbors :)

To top it all off, both our worlds have proven to be largely secular, without-god cultures, and we have both taken on an entirely new and different Christ-culture, changing the way we see and experience and believe things, all the more.

Having so many visitors in the house while I was so sick was really hard for my sister...and by the end of the week, really hard for me!

However, a good friend did not come and see me when I was sick (as I had thought I wished everyone would do) and I was genuinely hurt.

When Lisa and I were driving to town on Friday we saw something really painful, and saw a group of young children laughing at it...and instead of being appalled as I would have been years before, I found a sense of cultural understanding: life is too painful and has been far too ugly for small children to accept, and thus the cultural norm of laughing at misfortune or heartbreak is born.

But when a group at Wesley shared a presentation and were rather "ripped up" by their professor, Matt was surprised that all four of his Haitian classmates were laughing hilariously.

Having the man behind them in Starbucks say some rude and hurtful things (rather normal in any culture, I guess) to Luke and Vilmer about "how things are done in America" was really painful and embarrassing for Matt, but at the airport in Cap-Haitien when dozens of people were fighting Matt for his suitcase, Matt was quite at ease.

In the jumble of it all, I am so thankful that I am not at the mercy of any culture, nor must be defined by any.  I am happy to be well-grounded and identified in Him as His, belittling the importance of "cultural" norms and where I am from.

We should be strange here...not because we're Americans seeking our American culture, but because we are His and seeking His.  And we should be strange in the States because we look like Christ, who I'm pretty sure never looked too "American".  And as we work in both cultures AS both cultures, we always want and need to have people in our lives who share our Host Culture: Christ.

Very thankful to have people like that here and there and everywhere.

Once again, as we struggled these past weeks with "what we are" and "what is normal", our peace has come from what He describes as His 'normal' in His Word and as He describes how we are to act, respond, live and think, regardless of country.  We'd be lost without it!

Prayers for the Week:
   -continued healing for Matt and I both
   -a great return and re-dedication to Biblical study for our students
   -my women's Bible study begins THURSDAY on Christian Character!
   -the 2 weeks away helped Matt identify some changes that need to be made...praying for strength and wisdom as he does so!
   -for Lily, who is struggling with Grandpa in and out, Lisa in and out, Dad being gone for two weeks...instability
   -for the 6 visiting professors and/or friends coming in this weekend to help at EBS!