Joan’s Journal
May 19, 2008
I thought I would make some time to write a note as things have settled down a little this week and we are taking a breather. This has been the busy season, (Jan. – April), and we have been going full blast since early in January. We are enjoying the fellowship the teams bring with them, though, and it’s great to meet new friends and get reacquainted with some old ones. 

 As the work season comes to a close, we have one more construction team in June and then that is it for the 2007-08 season. We can’t believe how fast the time has gone. As of this Thursday, it will be one year ago exactly that we came to Haiti. It has been a year of huge change and growth.  Starting to learn the Haitian language and culture, has been the primary focus of this year, but the actual work teams coming down have been an experience in itself.  Each one is unique with its situations, people, experiences, travel, and the actual roofing projects. We have worked on 19 different projects so far and have traveled in many different directions.  From mountaintops to coastal towns to islands, from beautiful stonewalls to posts holding up the top course for the roof to set on, each place and the people there leave an impression that is not quickly forgotten. For Sarah and Bethany, who went out with almost all of the teams, it has truly been an unforgettable year. 

Early in February, we did enjoy a short break during the annual Missionary Retreat. It was held at Wahoo Bay, which is about 40 minutes north of Port-au-Prince.  This was an enjoyable time and a time of encouragement as we had a special speaker who had been a missionary himself for over 40 years. The children had a special program with a group called Barb & Friends which they thoroughly loved going on at the same time as our speaker.  They still sing some of the songs that they learned.

Everyone has been doing fairly well health wise and for that we are thankful.  We had one incident where Faith drank some gasoline that the older kids had just put in a cup to use for something, but after giving her as much water in an hour as we could, her throwing up about 5 times in that hour, and 2 chest x-rays, it was determined that she is fine, praise the Lord. She is quite grown up now and walking everywhere and starting to talk and make her requests known. Gabriel is just about to finish his time of school, which has been three days a week for an hour and a half with two Haitian children who have come to our house to work on their English.  He learned to ride his bike, without training wheels, the week after he turned four and he thinks he is pretty big stuff and gets frustrated when he isn’t allowed to do everything that the others do.  Hannah will be done with school on Friday and she is counting down the days.  She has worked very hard this year to stay on track and not get behind even when we would go out with the teams.  We have all decided that we will have to plan differently next year because of the teams since Sarah and Bethany will have to continue school over the summer

Now we are starting to think one thought…...furlough!  The kids and I are leaving a little ahead of Tim to be able to join in some activities that are early in June and then he will be following on June 14.  We are all excited and the talk around the dinner table has definitely taken on new topics with McDonald’s and Wal-Mart being pretty much top on the list. (Okay, family is on the list, too, so we’ve got a lot to be excited about.)   We have really missed everyone and are looking forward to spending some time with everyone this summer. 

We will be going to MTI, (Mission Training International) for most of the month of August out in Colorado and we are looking forward to that, also.  It will be an opportunity for our whole family to learn more about cross-cultural living and working on the mission field and we have all decided that we are glad to learn all we can. 

We have Mike, (Tim’s brother) and Sherice and their baby Erica here this week, so we are enjoying some family now and Mike is going, each day, with the well drillers that are here to learn about how wells are drilled here in Haiti.  Yesterday, Sunday, we went to the big Simon church in the afternoon for some baptisms.  Christophe, who works here with us, and Mdm. Maxone, the lady who makes and sells peanut butter to the groups, were baptized along with about 40 other people. After a short service at the church, the congregation all walked, singing, down to the river and continued to stand on the bank and sing while the pastor and one of the deacons stood in the river and people filed down to be baptized by them. The thought went through our minds that this could very well be how it was in John the Baptist’s time when Jesus was baptized.  I hope to send some photos soon of this and some of the family and the teams, so when I get that done I’ll let everyone know to check the web site to see them there.  Bye for now.

Joan

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