God's Beauty

I took this of the Hydrangea that the Taylor's got me for Mother's Day. It's just a beautiful reminder to me of how much nature is a gift from God!

Easter Carnival

Even with the weather a bit overcast, that didn't stop Abby and Holli from taking the kids out to celebrate Easter around El Dorado. In the morning they went to the hospital egg hunt and then I met them at the Presbyterian Church for the Easter Carnival. Logan had just woke up and Payton and Grayson were asleep when they arrived. We colored coloring pages, crafted crosses and bookmarks, hunted eggs, threw bean bags at the animals in Noah's Ark and found all the wonderful bubble blowing wands. Logan doesn't quite have the keep the wand flat in the bubble solution but he liked trying all the different wands. The kids had a great time but Nana had the best time. Logan is going to church with me in the morning!

Update

Since our team returned to the states, Jan has purchased a house 3 blocks from her current house to begin an orphanage. 11 children from St Marc will be residing there. One of the children has tested positive for HIV and has started on meds. Stephanie will be headed back there to help the team learn how to provide for this special child. Christopher's Hope is such a blessing to these children.
On this Easter weekend, we are so blessed to have Jesus's saving grace and love. What a great God we serve to give his only Son to die on the cross for us so we can have peace and joy! Victory in the cross that Jesus bore.

Playing in the Dirt

So yesterday Diana and I went to the ranch and pulled on the tiller to turn over some dirt. Planted some fabulous onion plants that Wayne had started. The four different varites should be yummy! It was so beautiful out in the pasture and the ranch is so neat! I'm waiting to see the deer and all the snakes that will be coming out soon. I got to sit on the big John Deere and imagine myself as a country girl. Later Ethi had a cookout and the storm blew in which was beautiful colorful. The grass fire was beautiful from a distance!

Sarah and the Children of the Mountain Orphange

All the children of Haiti moved my heart. Precious gifts from God. Sarah the little one I am holding, stole my heart and we colored her picture with her brother Eziekel. The artwork of the children's feet on the wall behind us was created by a team that came in before us.

This is what a typical orphange in Haiti looks like. It had seperate rooms for the boys and girls and they shared beds. They cook outside over an open fire of sticks and eat standing at the long tables we were coloring at. There were no chairs. They did have clothing and worn shoes. They did have a water system so they didn't hve to carry water. Most children have never taken a shower.

In the group picture, that is Jiffy our Translator, who was singing with the children.

We were able to bless them with suckers, jump ropes,bubbles, frisbees, flip flops along with coloring books, crayons and some oatmeal. Stephanie was having a great time with Sarah and the bubbles. To be the hands and feet of God and the love He has for us will forever be an experience that will bless me.

Precious Logan

Holli was at work and Steve asked if I could keep Logan for a few hours! We had such a good time and he is fascinated with my sewing machine and all the things in my craft room. Today the button jar caught his attention. It was fun to see him look at the different sizes and colors. He had a good time just spooning them into the jar. We did make a necklace with the ones that were his favorite such as a duck, large tan and blue button. He even put a couple of red beads that were in the mix. He loves playing the piano. How precious are our children and grandchildren. We didn't go outside as he had a hacky cough. Holli took him to the doctor but it just needs to run it's course. Good times just reading and playing. It was great to see Christopher this week and he came with Steve to pick Logan up. Christopher is getting so tall and will start High School next year. He will be 14 this year.

I'm looking forward to the new babies to come in our family and hope that these babies will be raised in the church so they know God.

Working for God

Thanks for all the many prayers, support and love you have given me for my minstry in Haiti and with Christopher's Hope Ministry. The team arrived home on Friday night around 9:30pm in Wichita and there at the airport to pick me up were Mom and Dad and Deanna and Les. I had forgotten only for a moment how cold it was here and I have a cold or something now. Of course I always get something when I fly as the togetherness on a plane lends that.

What a great experience to serve God with 9 other people on the team. Kirk Day is an awesome team leader and made sure that we were safe and taken care of the whole time. He has a passion to serve the Lord with Jan in Haiti and did a marvelous job. I especially praised his driving abilities in Haiti. Mike and Jane Dauwer were from Oxford Kansas and were the senior members on the team. You wouldn't have known as they were serving as hard and long as the other members. Other members of the team were Barbara Day, who is Kirk's Mom and a co worker at Butler. Her daughter Angie and husband Dr. Marcus went and they own Art of Life Chiropratic in El Dorado. Stephanie McCreary was from the Augusta area but lives now in San Diego, California. Jodi Bailey is from El Dorado and she and Stephanie are friends and also nurses. It was such a blessing to get to know these brothers and sisters in Christ and see the talents each one gave. Shelby Humig also traveled with us from El Dorado.

When we didn't arrive the first day and had to stay in Miami because our plane had mechanical problems in Dallas, I was so disappointed but at the same time I knew God had a plan for us. We flew American Airlines going and coming back and they placed us in a hotel near the airport and we had a nice meal in the Doubletree Hotel.

We arrived at the Port Au Prince Airport and what an experience. There were so many baggage handlers that wanted to "help" us get our 20 tubs and luggage to the vehicles. They had made some improvements to the outside pavement so it wasn't as hard to push as I had anticipated.

Our translators for the trip were Jiffy, Nahomie, Victor and Jay. They are Haitian and really worked hard to help us understand and be understood. Shelby, who is Jan Thompson's daughter, traveled from Kansas with the group and also translated for us. After living in Haiti she had the insight and knew some of the people we were ministering to. She is expecting Jan's first grandchild and this trip was really rough on her especially in the mornings.

We started for Gonaives which is a 3 hour trip from Port Au Prince. The city of Port Au Prince was alive with traffic both in vehicles and people on the street. People everywhere selling everything from oil to food. There were goats in the State Agriculture yard. I was sadden to see all the tent cities and mass burial grave from the victims of the earthquake. In a lot of places it is just like you see on TV. They use whatever they can find to build "shelter." Some used blue tarps, some sheet metal and others wood. There were some that used gray tarps with UNAID stamped on them. The road was very rough most of the way to St. Marc where we stopped for lunch at a place that is equivlaent to our McDonalds. It was up the stairs above a store. There were cakes and pastries that were in baker cases. I ordered a cheeseburger and fries and Sprite. They acutally had ice for the drinks which is such a luxury in Haiti. While we were there, young people arrived after school to "hang out." Of course these young people have much more than the children we would soon see. They were dressed very nice and clean and one even brought his laptop. We sat where we could see the van with our luggage on it so at this point I knew we were in a danger area. There was a lady selling rice and beans sauce. A big helping of the rice with sauce would cost about $2.00 US money. After eating we went down to the store and looked around. There were many American items such as cereal, Valentine items and even a big TV. We bought some Haitian chips to take to the beach for our lunch the next day. While waiting for the team to gather we stood outside taking in the sights of the streets and being yelled at and waving back, I realized that you can't be "friendly" as we would at home. Culture shock had set in. We traveled on to Gonaives and I was so overwhelmed with the way they "drive" in Haiti. Since my degree is in organizational leadership, the whole trip I was trying to put this chaos into some form of normalcy but gave up the second day there. They have no road rules so the motorcycles, big trucks and tap taps were all moving and honking at the same time in many directions. Kirk was an excellent driver. The only time I was afraid was at checkpoint outside the headquarters of the police station when someone was waving us down to stop and he asked Jiffy if we should. From the back seat driving I was doing, I yelled NO! It was so different. From that point on, I just looked out the side windows of the van instead of the front window. After getting to Jan's house, I was tired and ready for a break of processing all that I had seen. We unloaded all our stuff and the food that was in the tubs still was frozen so that was good news. I helped unloaded the frozen and other food in the kitchen before settling into the room where I stayed with Jodi and Stephanie. It was the Faith Room and welcomed us with quilts on the beds which made me feel right at home. This area wasn't attached to the house it was a seperate area in the back of the house. It had a cubby with shelves where we could store our personal items and 2 fans. The concrete floor was painted.

God blessed me to meet some children of His in a foreign country. They are beautiful people. The little girl I am holding is Sarah and her brother beside me is Eziekel. They were children living at the orphanage in the mountains. The road was very hard and rough to travel. For those of you who live in El Dorado and have ever experienced Towanda Street, I will never complain again. Some of the boys were waiting to greet us and when I stepped out of the van, I was so excited to see them that I hardly noticed the swarm of bees. We quickly went in and were introduced to the children. They sang for us and then we colored with them and blessed them with shoes, bubbles and jumpropes. Outside the neighborhood boys were playing frisbie with Kirk, Jake and Jane.

I will post more later when I get my strength back, I'm still trying to recover from the trip home and my cold. I really enjoyed the warm weather there!