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Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Back in the Blogging World!

Sigh.... what a year!!!  I have been so remiss about posting and there are so many things on my mind and in my heart to share.

This past year has been a whirlwind of change....
...from school to no school, from one State to another State, from finishing a house to starting on another, from one teenager to two.... from one job to another... from changes in directors, changes in friends lives, changes in trips.... changes, changes.... changes!!!  [Another great BIG siiiigggghhhhh...]

However, there is an itching in my fingers....

So soon, dear friends.... SOON!

I will try and catch you up on this years adventures and let you in on some hints for the coming year.

One little reminder that you probably already know: God is the same. Amen. And somehow, He has all this change under control and is not surprised by one bit of it. He's so awesome!  :o)


Hebrews 13:8

Common English Bible (CEB)
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever!

Friday, March 11, 2011

Love & Respect

So I picked up this book thinking I understood what was in it. I didn't.
Wow. If you are male or female, you should read it. It may change your life.

[Warning #1: you may throw it across the room a time or two before you finish it, but that is o.k. God understands. Just do not throw it at your spouse.]
[Warning #2: for the women, you must make it through to the last half of the book because he predominantly writes towards the women first. I found that difficult. Skip to the back chapters for a while if you need to. It is o.k. It is not a novel and will not spoil the end.]


Happy Spring 2011!
Do not forget to change those clocks Saturday night.
Hugs and prayers to all of lovely friends and family.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Haiti - Part 2

Welcome to your continued tour of Haiti!
The picture below gives you a view down the street where Arise Haiti is located.

How would you like to go deep sea fishing in a boat this size?
Makes me wonder what the boat Jesus fell asleep in looked like on the inside.

The team! Look at those smiling happy missionaries "suffering" for Jesus.

Not really a bank on the side of the road. It's a (ahem...) place to stop and play some "numbers."
On a forty-five minute drive the team counted 185 such "banks".

Sweet 'taters!  They grown them next to the beach in Haiti!
Guess you don't need salt when you cook them.

Ever wondered what the inside of a dug out canoe looks like?
Well, now you know.

A foreigner on the beach getting ready to do some crazy wild kite surfing!

Most places you see a lot of glass on top of the fence. 
Creative folks in Haiti use conch shells!

My neice taught me how to play mancala.
On the beach you do not even need a board!
Just dig some shallow holes and gather rocks. 

Paul getting the missionary children addicted to his favorite passtime... farkle!
He taught them to play and left the game for them.
Poor parents!

The watch dog. (Really!)

Get ready.... get set.... and....

.... GO!!!!
This is what happens when you have kids club every Friday. 
Oh, missionary James... come to my neighborhood next! Please.

There were over 300 kids who came this week!

When the children leave the teaching, they take home a bag of food for their family.

Well you know you have to always have a cute kid picture in the mix.
(Dr. Jim had to get in the pic too.)

Isaiah 25:4
You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat...

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Haiti 2011 - Part 1

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. So I figured I would let the pictures do the talking for this trip. Missionary Man (MM) standing next to a boat.  The creole name translates into "God is Able!"
It was a long row to Haiti, but MM finally arrived.
Flying into the bay area is a magnificent view. Such a beautiful Caribbean ocean and island. From the air you cannot see the devastation and poverty.
Port Au Prince
 Look at the front center area of the picture.  Can you see the "tent city"? These were set up after the earthquake. Look throughout the entire picture and see how many "tent cities" you can locate in this picture alone.

Arise Haiti is a medical mission ran by the Courters (an awesome couple with 4 kids).



















When you can't get the bag open and you have no kitchen shears, what do you do? Use a machete', of course!
 

While MM (a/k/a machete' man) set up the pharmacy, the doc, PA, nurses, PT set up  the clinic in a church.

Crossing the beautiful countryside to get to another clinic site.

MM said this is called a Haitian "standoff". Which one will backup first?
O.K. since the med-mission team was in the back of the white truck, they acquiesced first.

I wonder if they called these guys "island cowboys"?

Just a note about this picture: according to the locals, the lady in the pink dress... is 100 years old!

The next clinic was at a school. They were in session and stopped when the med team arrived.  Notice the cute little children all dressed alike in this classroom. It is a privilege to go to school in a country where you have to pay to go.
What no machete'??

Always the curious children looking through the window.

It did not take long for these smart people to set up an awning while waiting in the sun at the clinic.

The school building with people waiting out front and to the side. More people waited down the hill under a few palm trees.

Setting up another clinic in another town. The rafters in the building were phenomenal. See if you can see the tree trunks in the picture.

That beautiful Caribbean ocean again.

Back at the main building of Arise Haiti, doing what the man does.

Look at that multi-talented guy.

You can see Paul (another HCM Missionary Associate) running the eye clinic.

Arise Haiti's compound.

Waiting just inside the compound to be seen at the clinic.

Is not God just amazing. I look at the photos and see an ocean, land and culture completely unfamiliar to myself. Yet, the Creator of the World made it all and blessed it. He knows each person, place, culture and part of nature intimately.

Psalm 113


1 Praise the LORD.[a]
Praise the LORD, you his servants;
praise the name of the LORD.
2 Let the name of the LORD be praised,
both now and forevermore.
3 From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets,
the name of the LORD is to be praised.


4 The LORD is exalted over all the nations,
his glory above the heavens.
5 Who is like the LORD our God,
the One who sits enthroned on high,
6 who stoops down to look
on the heavens and the earth?

7 He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the ash heap;
8 he seats them with princes,
with the princes of his people.
9 He settles the childless woman in her home

as a happy mother of children.
Praise the LORD.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Just to whet your appetite...

Care package.
No real details yet, but fun tidbits of info from another culture to read about! And pictures of Missionary Man (and other things).

Tuesday Clinic:
"Went to another clinic today. This was about a 45 min drive over very rough roads into the country. Off the power grid. There was a small 4 room building the kids are going to school in. They stopped class when we showed up. We saw over 100 plus people there today. The missionaries are still all about relationships. This community has a small church there and James met the pastor and the struck up a friend ship. This clinic is the first such out reach into this area. Just to let you know how off the grid this place is, let me tell you what happened today."

Must have a pharmacy pic.

"A church sent to the missionaries several boxes of care packages to be used for an outreach like this. Each care package consisted of a ziplock gallon bag containing the following to be given away: a small terry cloth towel, a bar of soap, a hair pick, tooth brush and tooth paste, and a big bottle of shampoo. Every one coming to the clinic was to receive one of these ziplock care packages. The people handing out the bags found out that they had to tell people what to use the shampoo for!!, some of the people thought it was a beverage to drink......."

Slide into the ocean.


Wednesday Clinic: 
"Had a clinic today further along the coast. Had to drive almost an hour up the mountain and around a few hills, across a few rivers (small ones) and over some very rough roads. The building is a church. It doubles as school... So, James and Rachel started going to church there off an on and started visiting once per month doing a clinic... the church people are used to having clinics. This is the site the next team in 2 weeks will be going to... today we just say church members... There is even radio advertisement for the next clinic. It will be huge. "

"[Today's clinic] only went till mid-afternoon.... Then we went to... a restaurant that sits next to the ocean. The pavilion sits on the rocks over looking the ocean. The boys would have loved it because it had a slide (didn't work) that you could walk out onto (again slide part not working) and jump about 15 to 20 feet into the ocean. The water was that Caribbean color teal green... We didn't stay there long - just long enough to say we swam in the ocean. And yes, I jumped off the slide twice....No I didn't break anything." [Yea, he knew what I'd think when I read that last sentence. ;o) ] 
 
Always a dog picture.


Tuesday, February 22, 2011

A Different Kind of Testimony

Some of you on Facebook may have heard about the neat testimony in Mexico this week. God never ceases to amaze me. This was a trip that we were concerned about getting medications into the country. The missionaries sent out a request for prayer coverage. The meds arrived safely, then an unusual thing happened. The missionaries were robbed that night! Read below.
From J.P.
Mexico: Mon. treated 250 patients, at least 50 responded to gospel. Someone broke into church & stole several things (amazing not med equip). Next day a man came to clinic asking for a Bible, spoke w/ missionary, broke down, started crying, & confessed to breaking into the church. Missionary told him he was forgiven, shared the gospel w/ him, & he asked Jesus into his heart. He brought everything back! PTL!
"He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or imagine, according to His power that is working in us." Eph.3:20

As one of my kids would say... "Cool beans!" :o)

Friday, February 18, 2011

Jealous, Zealous and Suitcases

How can something make you so proud and so sad all in the same moment?
I walk in the bedroom to look at stacks of stuff meticulously packed to use every inch of space possible in the suitcase. All the excitement of getting things ready for another medical trip suddenly makes me realize.... "I'm going to miss that guy while he is gone!" The kids are already hovering around him many times a day and asking when he will get back. Hugs get longer... (Sigh).

It is a strange mix of emotions to say the least. We are extremely proud that MM does what he does. We just are, well... jealous for his time and attention. We long for fellowship with our dad/ husband/ friend/chief breakfast cook/ and dishwasher. (Gotta' love a man not afraid to do dishes.) We are vigilantly protective of our time with him.



Feeling a little guilty of my jealous feelings this morning, I was praying and contemplating that term. The scriptures that kept coming to my mind were the ones proclaiming God as "jealous.” So, I looked them up....

Exodus 34:14 "For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:"

Exodus 20:5 (King James Version)
"Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God..."

Then being the researcher I am, I had to look up the definition of "jealous." One of the definitions of jealous says... that it is to be "vigilant in protecting something" and "intolerant of disloyalty." The word comes from the Latin word for "ZEAL!" Then it hit me....

Our God is so zealous for our love that He jealously protects it.
We are so zealous for our love for MM that we jealously protect and long for it.

OK... guilt trip over. I am still sending him on an airplane soon to share his talents in another country where people are hurting. However, I feel just fine now knowing that I shall be jealously waiting at the terminal when he gets back with four kids in tow ready to pounce on him with hugs and kisses.

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NOTE: several trips heading out in the next couple of weeks, pray for all the teams in the various countries. Check out the www.hopethatheals.org for more details on trips.