Happy Valentine's Day!

Lily got twin love monkeys from Aunt Lisa, which were quickly named "Mippy" and "Jelly", and now she is stoked that today is "Happy Birthday, Valentines".  If there are presents, it is Birthday.  Now she wants a cake and candles.  Thanks to Jenn, Lydia and Erika, hopefully a Valentine's cake will be in the works for tonight!

We had torrential downpours of rain all night and morning, so she was the ONLY thrilled person in Haiti this morning... stomping through the rivers of rain in the yard.  Everyone else is rather grouchy, wet and muddy :)

February's EBS "Missions Trip of the Month" was a great success, and everyone is safely home.  I have an awesome report to give you and the guys took along my camera, making the report all the better.  I'll share it all with you tomorrow, but for now...

This is just one of seven rivers the guys had to ford during their 2 hour hike (following a 4 hour motorcycle ride) to the zone where they would be working...  WITH all their things, 12 Bibles, a projector, a screen, speakers, fuel for a small generator and food.

 This is the house where all seven guys, along with the family already living there, stayed for the weekend.

Several new Christians and five new converts received precious cargo from these VERY rare visitors: Bibles.

We also had a good ministry weekend with Matt preaching at a Gesner's church (2nd year student) on Sunday in Grisongaurd.  This church proved to be QUITE far away and was an early morning for all of us (the service STARTED at 6:30 am).  We left the house at 6:30 and it took over 90 minutes on terrible roads to arrive.  

However, we had a great time and were blessed to see where Gesner works, were able to share the day with Maxi, Kerline and several of the students, and were blessed to worship with yet another group of people excited about Christ in their lives.  

Gesner (2nd year), bottom left, is the associate pastor of this church, with the children's choir, Matt and Lily, and Jean Marie (2nd year, tall guy in the blue shirt) and other members of the church leadership.

catch up...

1) Internet is 100 times better, ever since I screamed at it!  Thank you for your help praying for this situation!

2) Check out the EBS blog for some pictures of the past week...

3) Praise.  Gesner was able to return to class yesterday and is feeling a hundred times better.  Thank you for your prayers!

4) For your prayers...This Friday, Saturday and Sunday 7 of our students will be participating in EBS's "Missions Trip of the Month".  

The student body selected and suggested several areas and ministries that are in great need of some kind of help, either teaching, evangelism, encouragement for Christians, children's ministry, etc.  Belony, the Assistant Director for Student Ministry, is co-leading each trip with students volunteering and going out each month.

Friday they head to an area past Promago, about 2 hours from here, and will be working in a zone where Brave's (1st year) family lives.  There is no church in the area and very few Christians, so they are planning to do a lot of door-to-door evangelism, show The Life of Christ film Saturday night, and hold an outdoor church service Sunday morning.  

Please be praying for this group as they go...for their provision, safety, work and for many to hear about Jesus.  We're praying the Spirit will be working in hearts even now preparing for this trip!  I'll have a full report next week.

5) A few photos from the last days...

 Lily and "Baby Shesha" (Alisha), Dr. Rodney's youngest.  We had a great supper with their family and Luke's Saturday night, with lots of laughter about cultural comparisons :)

Sunday, we attended a little church down the road, a split several years ago from the Saccanville church. It was great to worship with this body of believers, and to be there for the "presentation" of one of our baby friends, pronounced "Abby-guy-ee."  

 These are all from class last week.  Above, Paul Vilmer, Discipleship with 3rd year...

 VP John Jording, 1st and 2nd Samuel with 2nd year...

 VP Pam Simpson with fourth year, teaching General Epistles...

and VP Jerry Caskey teaching 1st year the Synoptic Gospels.

full speed ahead

STILL such poor internet that I can't do photos, or post 23 of the 24 hours out of the day!  Hopefully, we'll get things worked out before too long.

Gesner is still really not doing well, and is still at home, trying to rest.  Please keep praying for him and his severe breathing issues.  This is one of those times that having SO few medical options/opportunities is truly frightening.  The inhaler we gave him seems to be helping, but obviously no one prescribed this inhaler for Gesner.  It seems to be better than nothing...Thankful that the Great Physician knows exactly what is wrong with Gesner and knows best how to care for him.  Thank you for your continued prayers.

We have a busy weekend ahead, with the students watching Davy Crockett tonight (thanks to Craig's new mailing of culturally inoffensive EBS films! Thanks, Craig!!) and our missionary body watching "Waking Ned Divine" (one of Matt's favorites) with the visiting professors before they head off tomorrow morning  (pictures to come).

Tomorrow morning at 5:30 am Matt and John are going kayaking in the bay for John's birthday, getting back by 7:30 so that Bubba can take the VP's to the airport and Matt can watch Lily so I can teach the miracles of Jesus from 8-10.  Tomorrow afternoon I'll be interviewing Junior for a church awareness video, and then tomorrow evening a few of our good friends from Vaudreil are coming for supper and the evening...Lucner and Luna and Dr. Rodney, his wife Vidan and their three little ones.  (pictures, again, to come.)

Sunday morning we'll be at Maxi's church, then assisting Junior Sunday afternoon as he begins a "Front Gate" Bible study  for community members that are interested in what he has to say about Jesus, but NOT in church or in Christians.  (yeah, a lot of people feel that way here, too!) Junior has a way of preaching the Gospel without strings attached and with abandonment, and everywhere he preaches, people that are not interested in "Christianity" seem to become hooked by the Truth and want to hear more.

We're really excited about this new ministry venture, and are looking forward to this first Sunday.  Please be praying...

golf, beds and being part of His plan

Finally, a group shot of our students joining us from Port-au-Prince. They've now been with Emmaus for over four months, and have become a beautiful, passionate, intelligent and driven part of the student body. Please continue to pray for this group of Our Family, as they continue to heal, continue to have great concern for their siblings, parents and friends still living in tents in Port-au-Prince, and as they continue to seek the Lord's will for their futures.

THANK YOU to the many of you that have made their presence, transformation, growth and care at EBS possible...
We don't have enough English speakers this week to do our normal Wednesday night "English Conversation" Night, so last night Don and Matt did a special "Sports of the World in English" seminar for interested students. Here, Don is trying to explain the world of baseball, and later, Matt introduced them to an entirely new sport: golf.

The fact that someone could make a million dollars in just a few hours for playing ANY sport was just overwhelming to the first year class (and albeit, to me!), but ESPECIALLY for hitting a little white ball in a little hole. They had a really good time, and asked this morning if we could replace the daily 5:00-5:30 soccer match with whiffle ball, golf, or frisbee instruction some days. Now THAT would be fun...

However, the World Cup starts tomorrow, so it is still soccer that is capturing everyone's attention. My Saturday English class even requested its' first cancellation due to the Saturday morning match! As always, Brazil is Haiti's favored team, especially since Haiti won't be represented this World Cup.

Yesterday, Abel purchased and delivered more than mattresses to Jil's family, but metal bed frames, too. While we hated to miss out on seeing Jil's reaction, we try to stay "behind" giving as much as possible, so just took Abel's word for it that they were THRILLED. Looking out into the night sky last night, I felt SUCH joy and praise KNOWING that tonight, for the first time, Jil and his wife and their children all were sleeping two feet above the mud and on clean, soft beds. Thank you SO much to the many of you that helped to make this possible.

What a gift, huh, that He uses us! What a gift, family, that He has chosen to use each of us to be His hands and feet to the World...giving a glass of water to the thirsty, beds for the weary, medicine for the sick, clothes for the naked, freedom for the prisoners, and BEST, HOPE for the hopeless, light for the darkness, new life for the dying. Maybe we'll never know how He uses each prayer, each dollar, each sacrifice, each work, each act...

....But we know that He has chosen to use those things to pursue His creation, to adopt His children, and THAT is beautiful enough for me. Thanks for being a part of that with us!