love and prayers

We are just having internet issues galore!  It's been down for several days and I'm finally able to get on the blog but am struggling to post it and can't receive email...ah.  What can you do?  We may soon be relying upon smoke signals.

So, 10 Random Things to Share...

1) Eric and Jeremiah successfully determined the problem of generator 2, which has been down for 6 months, and fixed it...Praise the Lord and THANK YOU.  

2) We also had a new generator that we've been waiting a long time for make it in on Wednesday, and Uncle Don and Sam are working on hooking it up as we speak.  This new energy efficient generator should save us a gallon of fuel an hour, which saves around $68 dollars a day...$476 dollars a week....Yeah, this could be BIG!  Electricity (and anything that most people don't have) is SO EXPENSIVE!

3)  Sunday at Coup-a-David was fabulous.  Rick and Carol joined us for their first trek up, and we all had a great time seeing “the world” and walking through peoples lives.  I also got to see the triplets who were new born last time we came through, and they are pudgy and happy and blessed. 

Enick preached a powerful and humbling sermon on the widow who had just enough flour and oil left in her jar for two last loaves and made bread, instead, for Elijah, from 1^st Kings 17.  Oh man, it was good.  We don’t have to have much to give it, and to trust Him with the results.

It was a great and MUDDY mud day, great worship, good fellowship, and the feeling (for me, anyway) that it was a good day to be in Haiti.

4)  Sofie very proudly and happily brought me a dead bird today.  Like, was flinging it around happily and tried to hand it to me, pronouncing "GUCK!".  What if we had had boys???

5)  Random made-me-crack-up of the day Monday: 

Eric:  “I was welding the gate, and then a couple kids showed up.  They wanted me to sharpen their machetes and knives, so I did, and before I knew it, there were TONS of kids.”

Me:  “So what’d you do?”

Eric:  “I sharpened all the knives.”

Me:  “So….You sharpened knives for small children today?”

Eric:  “A dull knife is very dangerous!  This will help them so much.”

If you’re not laughing here, remember this is a very different culture.  Every little boy is wielding a machet by 5.  You can laugh…

Plus, in the midst of fist-bumps and machetes, check out that loaded banana truck!

6) Bible study: The women’s Bible Study I’m a part of on Monday’s continues to be a really powerful and touching time.  We studied the end of 1 Corinthians 1 yesterday, in which we’re reminded that the wisdom of God is seen as foolishness to the world, and vice versa.  I asked if anyone had any examples of this, and one woman shared a very common story.

Her husband left her and her five small children a few years ago for another woman…and soon left that woman for another.  My friend worked and struggled to care for their five children, and shared with us painstaking and sacrificial ways she had managed to get some of them some education.

After three years, her husband came back…three years with NO word to her or their children, with not a penny to help.  He returned with NOTHING, deathly ill, hungry.

I was devastated at this point to hear her share this dark time.

And do you know what she did?  Wisdom of the world: Kick his mangy butt to the curb.  (or Stacey wisdom.)  Wisdom of God, Word of God: She took him in.  She cared for him.   She bought him medicine, fed him their food, took care of him. 

This man who had damaged and abandoned their family and her heart entirely.  Who had caused such suffering.  She cared for him, and restored him to health.  Because she felt this was what the Bible told her to do.  Love endlessly.  Care for the sick.  BE the Good Samaritan.

I can’t even imagine.  To close, I asked if their relationship has been restored.

“Once he got his feet under him again,” she told us, “He left with another woman.  Now I see the Bible is also telling me to forgive, so I’m trying to do that.  Can you pray for me?”

It’s a good hour.

7)  Eric and Jeremiah left Wednesday (Thank you guys and your families SO much!) but much to Lily's relief, Uncle Don is still here for another week. She told me today when upset with me for making her take a nap, "When I grow up, I'm living at Uncle Don's house!"

8)   This is our road.  The guys weren't supper impressed.  We think it's getting better.

9) Lily...I'm just so proud of Lily.  When I wait outside the gate for her each afternoon, and see her come around the bend, meshed in a huge crowd of kiddos, grinning and chattering...ah, it just kills me.  She has done it.  The impossible.  The cross-cultural.  The bi-lingual.  The terrifying.

With joy.  

Despite her worry-wort mother.  She's singing her sha-la-la, writing her A's and O's, eating her Chico's and busting out her classic Haitian kid camera pose.  She's chatting in Creole, she's playing with 200 kids on three swings and a balance beam, she's sporting her ribbons...

With joy.

  

10.  It has been MONTHS, months months since Matt and I have had a meal together by ourselves...or had anything that comes close to a date.  And today, we finally just put the girls down for their naps and went out for lunch, and yes, it was rice and beans and the road is bad and it was only 90 minutes...but the girls never even knew we were gone and it was GREAT to have some time together.  

We've got to stop neglecting that.  Someone remind me :)

Love and Prayers and Joy for today!

I've got friends.

There are two things I detest about being sick:  One, feeling so awful that it's hard to think about anything else.  Two, needing help.


I'm a missionary, but I'm also from the White family.  


That means that I am here to help.  And that I don't need any myself.  


I have been sick since Friday.  When I woke up this morning still feeling unbearably terrible, I was in tears with disappointment and frustration.  I still have little voice, my head is pounding, my throat still aches, I have a major sinus migraine and my nose is raw from constant blowing.  (oh yeah.  I'm beautiful these days.)


And as you probably know, Sofie isn't content and sleepy all day because I feel like I'd like to be hit by a truck.  Lily doesn't want to sit quietly in her room, looking at books.  They want, and need, Mommy: friend, healer, cook, cleaner, playmate, feeder, snuggler, chaser, reader, teacher, entertainer Mommy.  I've still had a lot of classes to teach.  Today was still payday to prepare.  Everybody's still gotta eat!


I headed to class at 7:30 grouchy, and by 9:30 I did something we White's never do: quit.  I just couldn't grade papers, sort payroll, meet with students and process invoices anymore.  But I also couldn't go home and get jumped on and spilled on and fussied.  


My head hurt so badly that I had to squint walking home, but I snuck around to the back door, hoping to make it to the bedroom without the girls seeing me.  Gertha and Micheline were supposed to work until 11, so I could lay down for a good hour without encroaching on them.


"MOMMY!" screamed Lily and Sofie started to cry the moment she saw me..."Ma-Ma!"


And you know what?  Gertha and Micheline helped me.  I didn't even ask them to.  They saw how much I was struggling, swooped the girls up and happily took them to the cafeteria to eat fried chicken and to ride on the food cart "tap-tap".  


I woke up feeling even more congested when they returned at 11:15.  I fed the baby and put her down, only to realize that my women's Bible study was at the door, to begin NOW.  


"Oh, my goodness," I apologized, trying to figure out how I could possibly lead.  


"What are you doing up?" Granny asked immediately, pushing past me into the house and pointing down the hall.  "Go to bed!"


"But I want to study..." I said weakly.  


"What?  Go to bed!" Jezula demanded.  "We'll do it on our own!"  She came right in, grabbed Bibles and hymnals off our bookshelf and headed for the porch.  


"Lily!" Gertha asked.  "Wanna watch Dora?"


I fell asleep to the sweet sound of friends singing praise on the porch and Lily responding happily to all of Dora's questions, the first time I remembered today how Great and Beautiful He is.  


My seven friends met without me (hip-hip-hooray for having a Bible study that is not dependent on me!), and Noel came and sat on the bed with me before leaving, putting her cool long hand on my head and praying for me.    


Micheline and Gertha fed Lily lunch and stayed an extra two hours until Matt came home to help with Sofia.


My head in a painful, stuffy fog, I didn't learn much today.  But I did realize that I have friends...real ones.  


And I realized that by being so helpful, helpful, helpful all the time and refusing to be helped or ask for help might just be keeping friends from getting to love me the way I am always getting to love them.


I wish it hadn't taken 5 days of feeling terrible to realize it.  I commit to allow love once I get better...and until then, too.


Let someone love you today!

etid

Having Matt watch the girls while I led women's Bible study (etid) was just not working out.  He had too much work to do and was missing chapel.  

And while I was really liking the material from a book on Christian character I was using to lead, it seemed that as long as I had the book, or even just information from the book that the women couldn't see in their Bibles, I was always going to be "in charge."  The ladies sat poised with pens in hand waiting to dutifully scribble down whatever I said.

By Christmas break, we were all frustrated by ever-changing meeting times, missed sessions, and a classroom-type atmosphere.  We called it quits for the month's vacation, vowing to try again in the new year.  

I stewed and prayed and prayed and stewed over break, wondering how I could lead a stretching, open, intentional, personal, intimate, meaningful Bible study with a group of women from age 20-60, from five different areas, in varying stages of life, in varying "levels" of work, some of which can not read, in Creole as a SISTER in Christ...not as a missionary or foreigner...WITH 2 little girls and no child care (because I wanted the child care to be IN the study).  

Man.  

I put the book away, changed the location to our home, chose Sofie's nap time, asked someone else to lead all the welcoming words, singing, and prayer time (truly cultural elements that I'm just not ever going to get quite right), and we began again.

The first week I truly felt like a terrible mom for 'making' Lily be a participant, or at least present, at a Bible study not aimed for her level.  But you know what?  As soon as I spread Bibles across the table and got out my hymnal, Lily disappeared into her bedroom and came back out with her Bible.  She picked a chair around the table, and as women came, she ran to the door, opened it, and greeted each one.  

I felt so humbled...I had regretted and intentionally avoided having to expose my child to women gathering together to study the Word...and had kept her from joining in!  

ouch.  

After my first sister Haitian-properly set the stage, we started in a very small chunk of Philippians 1 (short for my non-readers).  We read the passage, then read it again verse by verse, with me asking short questions after each verse....What do you think that means?  Why do you think he said that? What else does the Bible say about that?  How can we apply that to our own lives?  What does this mean for us?

Everyone was very pensive the first week.  The second week's conversation got wildly out of hand and then mostly focused on why women wearing pants is a sin, even if you have a very large derrière and they are just much more comfortable for you.

But today?

Today was awesome.

We got to verse 12:  I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the Gospel.

I shared with my sisters that I want to be able to say this: that whatever I have been through or am going through, however I have suffered or rejoiced, that I have lived it in a way that advances the Gospel.  

We talked for a few moments, I could see everyone thinking about their own lives, and then one of the women shared a time in her life when her young daughter died of cancer.  

"I didn't go to church, I didn't sing in the choir, I didn't do anything for a whole year.  I felt like God had let my daughter die.  I wanted to hurt Him like He had hurt me.  

"I repented later and got back to church, but I just now realized that my children, my neighbors and everyone else watched me turn away from God.

"For an entire year I did nothing to bless Him, and I never once took advantage of my suffering to give Him glory or to bring others to Him.  I'm so sorry!"

I watched as the other women quickly gathered around her and shared encouragement and prayers.  

And that was it.  Everyone shared trials and heartbreaks, times they had given Him glory, and times they had turned their backs on our Heavenly Father.  We read more of His Word, and it was SO GOOD.  His Word is so good.  It is convicting.  Restoring.  Encouraging.  Inspiring.  No help needed.

When we all lifted up our voices together to pray for each other at the end of our second hour, we were all praising the Lord for our time together.  We had studied the Word together and He had fed us and spoken through our experiences to grow closer to Him.  

As I closed my English Bible and Lily closed her toddler Bible and Creole Bibles closed all around, I was so thankful that His Word is alive and speaks, that He does stuff every day that only HE can do, and that He has given us each other to share it with.  

limitless confidence

Yesterday we kicked off the EBS Women's Bible Study : Christian Character.  The highlight was just sitting (and sweating) around the table with all the female cooks, housecleaners, secretaries and students.   With women from 18-60, no education to a master's candidate, from all over Haiti, with all different giftings and passions, it was exciting to realize as we sang our opening hymn that we were sisters.

As I tried to share my Bible with Roselore, I quickly realized that she could not read, embarrassed that I may have embarrassed her.  Then there was Rosejezula busting out some Greek...one of our biggest challenges may just be staying together!  It was challenging to study God's Word together when several participants were unable to READ God's Word!  Pray for me as I work to find ways to "study" verses in an oral, repetitive fashion instead of saying, "What do we see in verse 18?"

We began the base of this 12 week study on Christian Character with Romans, discussing how we are "Freed to Serve God", though none of us were found righteous, no, not one.  We spoke about His justification, and about things that still seek to enslave us, though we are now justified and free.  The women had tons to contribute and the hour flew by all too fast, followed by a few minutes to pray for and with each other.

Please be praying for this study and for wisdom and creativity on my part as I seek to facilitate.  My "plan" is to lead this Christian Character study these 12 weeks, and then ask who would like to lead the next study after...there is no reason why I need to be at the reigns with women who have followed the Lord, many, their whole lives.

Meanwhile, I am heartbroken over the women who have loved Jesus for years and have hidden His Word in their hearts, but who must be dependent upon others to receive it due to illiteracy.  There just seems to be NO END to all of the ways one could minister here...I'd love to start teaching them to read!  But unless the Lord unexpectedly gives me the gift of "no sleep needed", I just cannot do one more thing!  (remind me of this!)

On another note, we have two friends and one visiting professor (who is also our friend, of course! :) coming tomorrow, then another VP and another friend on Sunday.  Our third VP who was set to teach on Monday cancelled at the last moment, so it's been a busy time trying to re-schedule and register all the students with other courses!

We had a great service in chapel today in which a VERY nervous Junior (1000th time preaching, but first time preaching in chapel to his peers) shared from 2 Peter 1 about what holiness looks like.  It was a great, practical and challenging message, and I was blessed to hear the Lord put on his heart to share some of the same issues that Matt and I have been praying for regarding the students...and ourselves!  Junior is just such an ernest, passionate and humble man that I love to hear the Word through his lens.

The Lord has done some pretty neat things this week to encourage our hearts, and I am so thankful.

My O. Chambers reading from the other day asked this:  Am I abandoning the great supernatural position of limitless confidence in Christ Jesus, which is really God's only call for a missionary?


As life and all it brings has passed this week, I keep finding myself asking "What would unlimited confidence in Christ look like in this situation?"

I have fallen short in most cases, but in the rare moments where I was utterly abandoned to trust in Him, the process to His faithfulness was much sweeter.

He is good.

updates...

Man alive.  Friday evening or Saturday I must have picked up some kind of parasite, because it was a miserable weekend.  VERY thankfully, Matt and the girls didn't get whatever "Haitian Happiness" I did, and once Matt got home from preaching Sunday afternoon, he was just dad and husband of the year...diapers, dishes, princess parties, dinner.

Very thankful that "I think I'm going to die" turned into a 24 hour thing, and very thankful this morning to be feeling almost myself again, and down 6 pounds.

For some answers to several of you and updates...

-Belony is still sick, and after a visit to Milo clinic, still unsure of what is wrong.  He's not the only one who is starting to feel concerned over this ongoing "sickness".

-Elizay did NOT have surgery last week because whenever he went to the hospital, the price he had previously been given for the surgery went up 9x's.  He was told that that was the new price.  Corruption + no medical insurance in existence = no surgery.  He's looking into some other clinics...

-I've been doing lots of investigation through different Bible studies many of you have presented, and a lot of them seem fantastic.  With some of the women I'd like to do the study with being unable to read and none of the women being able to read in English, I am feeling a tad limited!  Use a study and translate the lessons and study into Creole?   Use the Creole Bible and try to facilitate good questions that will help the woman find meaning and application on their own?  Still praying and researching...

-Oswald Chambers.  I most often use two different devotionals by him...Either "My Utmost for His Highest" or "Devotions for a Deeper Life."   Both of them go through the calendar with a passage and a meditative thought for the day.  Both of them are just fantastic, and I've been using "My Utmost" for years now.

-No, there are no other missionaries living with us right now.  We are NOT on the main OMS compound in Vaudreil (about 45 minutes from down town Cap-Haitien), but are 30 minutes from there (about 1:15 minutes from Cap-Haitien).  While OMS Haiti has 6-8 short or long-term missionaries in Haiti right now, we are currently the only ones at the Seminary, which is where we live (on the Seminary campus).  But, 75 of our Haitian brothers and sisters are on campus with us all day, 50 live with us all week, and 4-6 stay with us on the weekends.

-ice cream.

Ok, so nobody asked anything with the answer ice cream.  But goodness.  I can't stop thinking about it all the same.  Dairy Queen buster bar.  or Blizzard.  or Ben and Jerry's anything.  I need to stop.

Matthew 5:16, another well known verse that is hitting me in a new way right now:

Let your light shine before men
in such away 
that they may see your good works
and glorify your Father


What way IS that?  What way can I better be letting Him shine through me that causes people to glorify Him?  How can I be more absent!?

thank you all for your prayers

a new endeavor INSIDE

About a month ago, a good friend sent me an article about Motherhood as a Mission Field, which spoke namely about the importance of the work of a mother if used by God, done for God.  It talked about our homes being "the headwaters of mission", and the eternal souls, our children, that are our mission field.

This article came just a few days after my not so fantastic attempt to keep up visiting members of the community while toting two little ones. Since then, I have had so many questions regarding what He has for ministry and I this year.

Physically, I canNOT carry both Lily and Sofia a mile from our house to share Jesus in someone's lakou (yard.)  I just can't.  I can no longer leave for the afternoon for hours to do this, carrying just Lily and a water bottle.

Emotionally, Lily can't handle being at the mercy of every passing child and stranger, and I can't help her when I'm caring for Sofie and trying to share the Gospel and trying to pray with for people.  I thought about having someone else watch the girls so I could go and do this, but they are already with Micheline or Gertha all morning, every day, so that I can work and teach at the Seminary.

I read through Acts, and I want to be like Paul.  I want to go out and preach the Gospel completely to every man, especially in Saccanville, where it continues to be SO dark despite this shining light in the middle.  I LOVE getting off the seminary campus, visiting witchdoctors with Belony, sitting in yards with families snapping beans, sharing times of prayer with people in desperate need.

Feeling incapable of ministering like this frequently right now feels so frustrating! But the Lord gently reminded me the other day that Paul did not have two babies clinging to his robe.  He wasn't battling with strangers not to breast-feed his infant while boldly proclaiming the mysteries of Christ.  Paul wasn't keeping a close eye on his toddler not falling into a cactus fence or being mobbed by children enamored with her skin color.

While I can, and should, always be in prayer about what He is calling me to do and what ministry and calling He is giving me, I don't need to pray about whether He's given me Lily and Sofia, or about whether He wants ministering to them to be one of my very top priorities.

Lily and Sofia are gifts from God given to me, and they are the greatest mission field I will ever have the privilege of living in and working on.

"SO, there you are Lord" I've prayed with my hands thrown up in the air many times this past month.  "WHAT do you want me to do?  Show me what you want me to do, and how."

At the same time, it seems that the Lord has been quietly allowing my attention to keep being drawn to the same thing a lot lately...major holiness issues among those who claim to be the body of Christ in Haiti.

Several pregnancies out of wedlock among staff and friends who walk in the church.  Manipulation and unkindness between members of Bible studies.  Theft and lying from presidents of churches.  Grumbling, complaining and arguing among those who claim to be brothers and sisters in Christ.  Many, and I mean MANY marriages that are split, and full of rage, lying, stealing, backstabbing and abuse among men and women we have lived with and served with for years now.

Darkness where there claims to be light.  Injury where there claims to be healing.  Stealing and lying where there claims to be trust.  Sin where there claims to be holiness.

For the last several years, I have been very excited and passionate about ministering to the darkness "outside the gates."  Lately, I am wondering if He's trying to tell me something about INSIDE.

There is a LOT happening that shouldn't be among those that I never really preached the Gospel to because I thought they already knew it.  There's a lot of deliberate darkness being dwelled in among those that I never really dwelt on ministerially because I thought they were alive in Christ already.

Men and women that have accepted Christ, who have claimed the cross, but have missed the whole purpose of life...not for happiness, not for health...but for holiness.

"God has only one intended destiny for mankind--holiness" says O. Chambers.

"His only goal is to produce holy people.  God is not some eternal blessing-machine for people to use, and He did NOT save us out of pity--He came to save us because He created us to be holy.  The Cross of Christ means that God can put me back into perfect one-ness with Himself through the death of Jesus."

"Never tolerate, because of sympathy for yourself or others, any practice that is not in keeping with a holy God."

This is the still-fuzzy plan starting to form out of what He's showing me, the necessity of where I am in life right now with two little ones, and the great need Haiti, even "Christian" Haiti, needs for true change, true Lordship, true holiness (Besides, why would "Voodoo" Haiti want to have anything to do with a God whose followers are just as angry, deceptive, miserable and divisive as as they?):  Deliberate community study of the Bible.  

Culturally: with women.

Specifically: the women of Emmaus Biblical Seminary (staff, kitchen, laundry and students), the women who help me in my house and with the other currently empty missionary houses, and the women in Saccanville who are leaders in its' two churches.

I may not be able to go far from home right now, but there is a missionfield that isn't but a step away.

I'd love to work through a study (with just the Bible, since we don't have any materials and we're working in Haitian Creole) that will focus in on being Godly women, Godly wives, Godly moms, Godly sisters, Godly influences...on being Holy in an unholy day and place...  In our home, once or twice a week while the girls are sleeping (hopefully).

Which is where you come in:
      1...any ideas?  any suggestions?  any resources that can help me do this?  help!  don't want to reinvent the wheel if there are already some great studies out there.
      2...any interest?  This season of school beginning is a great time to get something like a Bible study started...with co-workers, neighbors, family, friends, strangers, those "outside your gate" or maybe those "inside."  Would you spend a bit of time this week and ask the Lord if there is a mission-field at your doorstep that He is calling you to?

"The preaching of the gospel awakens an intense resentment because it is designed to reveal my unholiness.  But it also awakens an intense yearning and desire within me." O.C.

Please be praying with me as He leads and as I pray for wisdom and courage to share His offensive, intolerant, beautiful,  life-giving and life-transforming Gospel with those who already know Him...or maybe just think they do.

harvest on the hard road

I felt the same way at least four or five times a day. Mona needed help. No question. She was desperate, tears in her puffy eyes, her head wearily resting in well-worn hands.

This time, it wasn’t money or food that was needed. In fact, this time it wasn’t even anything that I could give. Her mother is dying, wasting away before her eyes, not eating, not speaking, silently dying day by day, the end obviously near.

“I don’t know how to understand it,” Mona told me with a sigh. “The woman who raised me, by herself…the woman who never slept, who cooked and worked and cleaned and cared, first for me and my brothers and sisters, and then for my children while I worked…she is shriveled and immobile and…Finished. She has quit fighting, she is done. How can I live with this? I cannot stop crying. I cannot imagine life without my mother.”

My heart broke for her yesterday morning, and a bit frustrated at my inability to help, I left for class after holding her hand for a moment and giving her my heartfelt prayers.

(pictured: a few of the women from our Tuesday morning Bible study)

A few hours later, she and 7 other women and I sat around sticky topped picnic table in the seminary cafeteria, singing our weekly opening song-prayer:

“My Father, this morning I sit before you

With my Bible open before me

And I ask you to please open my spirit

So that I can understand what is in Your Word

So that I can remember that you are my Father

So that I can always do what you tell me

I need your Spirit so much

So that I can always stay in Your Way.

Wash me with living water

Tie me to the living Word

So that I can serve a living God

For you, I want to be living for You.”

Then together we nine studied His Word, the Psalms of Ascent, dwelling this week on Psalm 126. We talked about all the beautiful things God has done in our lives in the past with verse 1-3. We talked about the hopes that we have for seeing His hand work in the future with verse 4-6.

We talked about the times we have laughed because of His great love, laughed in light of His great miracles. “Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with joyful shouting…the Lord has done great things for us! (vs 2).

We wrote down our many hopes and our prayers, writing in confidence that He who carries us will bring these things to completion in His perfect time and way. Those of us that didn't know how to write just lifted our hands and muttered our dreams.

And then we talked about the road where we are TODAY. The part in the middle. We remember all that He has done. We hope for all that we will do. But today, we were all just struggling with the long hard stretch of road in the middle. The “sowing in tears” part. The “weeping, carrying his bag of seed” part.

With joy, God helped me take vs. 4,5,6 a step further. “Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting,” gives the condition, gives the promise. “He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed, shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him,” another condition, another promise.

The joyful shouting comes from the sowing! The bountiful harvest and shouts of joy come with the planting in tears! When we are struggling, when we are hurting, it is easy to just cling to each promise the Lord has given us…easy to hold fast to our Light, desperately hording His Spirit to help us make it through each day.

But we can’t! The joyful harvest doesn’t come from our endurance as we cling to The Hope…it comes from our SHARING our light, even in the weeping moments. It comes from planting His hope, giving His love, in the midst of our hard-road times.

While we talked, studied and prayed, I felt my own spirit lift, and with joy I watched Mona’s face transform. Completely. I promise you, I could SEE the Lord take her burden from her. I saw her shoulders lift and her eyes widen as she saw something in His Word that she had never seen before.

I could see her overflow with love for her Lord, the kind of love she couldn’t contain, but MUST share with those living around her in darkness, despite the dark time in her life.

A few minutes later we finished in prayer, and eyes brimming in joyful, free tears, Mona gave me a huge kiss, and I laughed out loud at her newfound joy.

He is more than enough, and all the Help, the perfect Help, that we need.

“The Lord has done great things for us; We are Glad.” (vs 3).

I know this is already a long blog, but due to the fact that we won't have internet again until Monday, here's a few pictures from a beautiful Thanksgiving Day yesterday, full of good food (thanks to many of you!), family in Christ, and MUCH to be Thankful for! (Thank you, Brenda and Sue, for persevering without your husbands yesterday!) Lily had a fever and slept most of the afternoon, but woke up JUST in time for her first Thanksgiving food.

Matt's 'family', my family, growth!

Matt has safely arrived in Jackson, happy to be in a cooler climate with people that love to study the Bible, dead languages and theology as much as he does :) I always tell the Lord that He did not make many people like Matt, who takes a 500 page book on Old Testament Theology to the beach on his honeymoon, or who takes "Hebrew Grammar" books with him everywhere in case he gets a spare moment of 'free time'! And yet, Matt heads to Jackson and finds himself in the midst of dozens of people just like him: bliss :)

It's been a bit sad without him, especially for Lily, who continues to crawl around the house, room to room, calling "Dah-dah-dah!" which usually brings him running!

However, I have a BEAUTIFUL praise: Tomorrow my father and sister are flying into Port-au-Prince and then up to Cap-Haitien, and are scheduled to arrive around 2:30! Lily and I are SO excited, and it will be wonderful to not only have their help with Lily and life (already, I need my dad to open 2 containers for me), but I am also excited about the joy and encouragement of their wonderful presence. Aside from Matt, these are my two dearest friends in world, and I cannot WAIT to have 5 (Lisa) and 7 (Dad) days with them!

Praise the Lord for family being there for you when you need them the most!

Tomorrow morning, I will plunge into the Psalms of Ascent (Psalms 120-134) alongside of 12 other women! Preparing this study has been quite the challenge: first, because the Lord is working on my own heart as I prepare, and second, because of the language! Teaching a Bible study in Creole is not only challenging because of teaching in a second language, but also because of the Creole Bible. It is frequently quite different than any version of English Bibles, and it is taking quite a bit of extra work comparing the two texts and trying to use the texts to bring about the same basic meaning (I'm understanding again why Matt teaching the ORIGINAL language of the OT is so important!)

Anyway, please be praying for us around 9 am Tuesday morning, that the Lord would give us understanding of His Word (and our languages) and that we might be able to do what Hebrews 6:1 instructs us to do: Press on towards maturity in Christ.