a day away

After five wedding Saturday, Matt preached in the Vaudreil church Sunday morning.  It's "Family Month" in Haiti, with Mother's Day at the end of the month and Children's Day somewhere in there, and so Matt was asked to preach on the role and value of women.

Two hours into the service, when Matt still hadn't started preaching, I was figuring the value of women was displayed in managing to keep 2 toddlers quiet on a bench for 120 minutes...and counting! :)  However, it was a great service, with a great sermon coming from the creation story of women in Genesis 2!  (Have you ever noticed that after naming so many things "Good", the first thing God said was "not good" was men without women? :)

 As soon as the service ended and we greeted friends, we headed for Shoo-Shoo Bay for a few hours AWAY.  We have admittedly not been doing a good job scheduling family and down time!  

As always, even with the clouds, it was beautiful.

The sand is just beautiful, making gorgeous artwork that changes with every wave.

Sofie is never happier than she is at the beach.

Lily is going to terribly miss her best friend Danielle.  The reality that these dear friends will soon be moving out and moving on with their lives is a hard one to grasp!

Same for Sofie and her best, "Nay-Nay".  Our dear missionary friends in Burkina Faso said their 7 year old was waving good-bye to a team a few weeks ago, and yelled!  "Good-bye!  We love you!  We will never see you again!"

Sigh, missionary kid living.  We can relate!

I quite accidentally and with much shrieking caught a starfish...I am still a teenage girl when it comes to creepy crawlies.

And Matt and Don found this big 'ole hermit crab when they were out snorkeling...

Then, Mark and Sarah's truck got stuck again in the sand, which turned into a community service project :)  

The long trip home was spent sharing fun memories with Don, talking about the best places to eat in all of New Orleans, and staring in awe at the gorgeous island God has brought us to.  It's easy to just look at what's right in front of you...the poverty, the need, the work, the broken-ness, and never even raise your eyes to the majesty of the mountains all around us.

But then you're missing out on a huge part of seeing God in Haiti.

Super thankful for the afternoon off to remind us that our up-close perspective this week isn't the only one.  He's got the whole picture before Him, and continues to be so worthy of our Trust!