working from a place of rest

...was the theme of this year's much-needed retreat, based on John 4 when a worn-out Jesus rested, asked for water, and shared living water with the Samaritan woman.  

And these are the people that we work from rest together with, apart.  We may only see each other once a week, but we are so blessed to find ourselves a part of this household of faith and one-minded community!  From 86 to 6 months, Oregon to Delaware, we are praising the Lord tonight for such a family!  (And this was AFTER four days and 15 hours in the car together :)

(l to r: Maury, treasury, Marilyn and Dave, treasury and acting field leader, Erica, elementary teacher, Bud and Cindy, maintenance and child sponsorship program, Kate, elementary teacher)

Crossing the border...never easy.  We somehow managed to do it on foot this time, and were charged $0 douane for all the stuff (namely dairy products and frozen turkeys!) we bought in the DR...great news!  

 The DR and Haiti might share the same island, but the moment you cross the border going either way, you're in a whole new world...Creole to Spanish, soccer to baseball, African culture to Latino culture, bicycles to millions of mopeds, mangoes and papaya to grapes and tangerines.  

 And Sousoua, DR, was ever so beautiful.  

To help gap the literal dozens of languages represented at the hotel where we stayed, buffets were simplified with a photo of whatever animal was in the pan...Lily thought this was delightful.  The ex-vegetarian in me had a bit more trouble.  

 It is debatable whether it was Lily or Sofie who enjoyed the pool more.  Mommy and Poppy would have enjoyed it more if it had been 10 degrees warmer.  Haitian heat has ruined us.  

 Just being in such a quiet and beautiful place helped us relocate that healthy place of inner rest in Him...we also found a lot of opportunities to laugh, from shopping trauma to fishing tales, cross-cultural stories to those of days long past, it was good to laugh with a North American sense of humor :)

 Then we shared in several different sessions of Bible study, prayer, praise and singing, and we are So Grateful for Miss Sue, who played with Lily and most often with Sofia, too, so that we could share this time with our team without forming playdough or being chewed on (Sof is teething like crazy!) at the same time.

 We're just as grateful for her husband, Jim, for guiding these times together.

 There may not be any other kids on the field right now, but Lily was gleeful all weekend to have so much time with "my friends."  Mr. Silly Bud is one of her favorites.

The guys had a great fishing trip, though somehow after 6 hours, there was not ONE fish to be caught (I suggested they should have tried casting their nets on the other side, but...) and the girls returned after a much more productive shopping trip :)

Was shopping with options in a packed-out Dominican store in Spanish and with Peso pricing really overwhelming?  Yes.  

Did every single one of our credit cards get shut down for "Irregular Card Activity"?  Yes.  

Did our American or Haitian cash work?  No.  

Did we almost have to put back a cart-full of groceries?  Yes.  

Did we finally get everything paid for yet end up with 10,000 pesos that are no good in Haiti?  Yes.  

Did we do all of this in several languages?  Yes.  

Did we do all of this with 2 babies?  Yes.

Did we finally get everything loaded up only to discover the battery of the van was dead?  Yes.

Are we really glad Matt skipped the fishing trip to take the ladies shopping?

oh yeah.

 Getting a good picture of BOTH girls is starting to prove impossible...

 impossible.

Another 7 hour car trip/border crossing today has us admittedly exhausted tonight, but very grateful to have been met by Him, to be blessed by family and to be safely home and back to work tomorrow!