OUR FAMILY missed HALLOWEEN TONIGHT ...

... but I didn't MISS Halloween, if you know what I mean.

The only costumes I have seen this fall have been in photos on Facebook.

Not a single spooky decoration in a single yard or business window. No black cats, skeletons, mummies, or vampires.

(The scariest thing I've seen recently was a rather large cockroach in the school library this morning.)

The only discussions over whether or not a Christian should "celebrate" Halloween that I witnessed were also on-line and I wasn't involved.  I just eavesdropped out of curiosity.

Because, this year, I didn't HAVE to do anything about Halloween at all.  It was like it was non-existent.  Call me a Halloween Scrooge, but it was beautiful.

When Caleb and Hannah were real small, they got a kick out of seeing people come to the door but never gave a thought to dressing up and going door to door themselves.  But then, as a new parent, you see a stinking cute lion costume or an adorable little bumble bee and you "just have to buy it". Then you "just have to parade your darling little bee all over the neighborhood and to the homes of grandparents".

And within a couple of years those same kids are now dragging you to the Halloween aisle every time you pop into Target throughout September and October for a new stick of deodorant.  And then you're walking rows upon rows of literally thousands of pounds of sugary candy ... and, of course, a couple of bags end up in the cart because "you can only get _____ this one time of year".  And then you hit the costumes and props and you're trying to let your kids browse a bit while you shield their eyes from every gory or skimpy outfit on the shelf.  (And you're hoping your little boy doesn't ask if nurses really dress like THAT.) 

And don't get me started on pumpkins.  Each of the four kids has to have his or her own.  Their part of this cherished "family activity": take 45 minutes to pick out the perfect pumpkin, say "Now can we carve the pumpkins?" five times each, and ultimately use a permanent marker to draw ridiculously small - or physically impossible - face designs for me to cut.  My part: take four pumpkins one at a time and cut them open (nobody else has the muscle for it), scoop out all the slimy guts and seeds (nobody else has the stomach for it) and then attempt to cut the designs as drawn while listening to "Do mine next!"  in my ear repeatedly. 

And then all of a sudden your kids are the age where they all assume they will be dressing up for Halloween and their imagination is unlimited.  And you are left trying to figure out a "cool" costume that is not gross or gory and, most importantly, doesn't cost anything. 

And it's impossible. 

So a day before Halloween, you break down and spend several hours and at least 60 or 80 bucks as you pick through the leftovers in several department stores to piece together four passable costumes.

Then on the big night, you take the kids out to collect more candy in two hours than they should eat in a decade and you answer "Can I eat one more piece?" and "How about this one- it's small?" a dozen times in the affirmative and then at least four times with "No more... stop asking me" and ... oh yeah ... it's freezing cold outside but you haven't gotten around to digging out your winter coat yet.  And one more thing: even though you believe your kids have tons of common sense usually, you're not convinced that the hope of a full-size candy bar on the other side of the street isn't enough to cause them to dart, without looking, into oncoming traffic. 

Which seems to be oncoming at twice the normal speed of any other night.

After two hours the kids are bloated, whiny and shivering ... but they still want "one more house".  Eventually you drag them home and forcibly strap them into their beds where, several hours later, they slip into a peaceful sugar coma. 

But listen, I am not a COMPLETE Halloween Scrooge.  There are a few things I miss.

I miss the leaves changing colors and the shortening of days.  I miss catching "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" on TV. And I miss WHOM we trick-or-treated with.  We had a 6 or 7 year long tradition running of joining Steve and Keri Combs and their four kids for dinner, pictures of the 8 kids together in their outfits on the front lawn, and then a long pass through the neighborhood for some candy-begging. 

Yeah, we all missed THAT this year.  Even me.  As I write, Caleb and Samuel and Hannah are Skyping with Matthew Combs and it's not quite the same ... but it's something.

And a good friend sent a care package last week which included a bundle of artificial flowers in an array of Autumn colors.  Which is something.  Melissa put them in her favorite vase.

And we've received as much candy in the mail recently as the kids generally bring home from a full evening of trick-or-treating.  So the kids are sugared up.  Which is something. 

AND the kids have been more generous with THIS candy than we could have dreamed of in past years. 

Which is really something. 

Ruysdael, for example, recently enjoyed a blue ring pop:

So, all in all, not a bad Halloween.  God is good and we are content.  Which is really something.

It almost gets me excited about the "holiday season" in a way I haven't experienced since I was much younger!  Can't wait.

RE-HYDRATED

A few weeks back now, I told Melissa that I feared I wasn't adjusting to the Haitian heat.

If anything, I was "maladjusting"! 

It started as a tired feeling in the early afternoon.  As days went by, the afternoon feeling was downgraded to "run down" and then to "nearly immobile".  And then the feeling started to spread to other parts of the day.  I would wake up feeling tired, feel relatively clear-headed through the morning hours at school, then grow comatose after lunch.  From that point to the close of the day, I couldn't trust my thinking to be sharp.  Will power alone carried me through any after-school activities like teaching my adult English class, then dinner and evening dish duties or school planning.  I'd finish the day with a cold shower before crawling into bed.

THEN, over the next few days, it got even worse. I got achy.  My back was hurting and I started getting headaches.  I could raise a sweat by sitting in an easy chair. 

One day, in the "cool" of the evening, I was soaking my second shirt of the day.  Since a stomach bug had swept through the rest of the family a few days before, I decided to take my temperature. 100.5 degrees. 

There was something about that fever that finally got my attention.  The thermometer seemed to say to me, "Hey... bonehead - you're not getting enough water." 

Now that the word "dehydration" was in my consciousness, I began to review the last few days and weeks in my head.  I had been noticing that many days I would lose nearly three pounds between my morning shower and my evening shower. And I had been carrying a water bottle but I didn't often need to refill it during the day.  And I was in the habit of starting most mornings drinking nothing but a hot mug full of a powerful diuretic.  And I couldn't remember the last time I got up in the middle of the night to answer Mother Nature's call.

Hmmm.  Need more water.  Could it really be that simple? 

In the few hours remaining before bed that night, I drank a Gatorade, several glasses of water and an ice-creamless "milkshake" that Melissa made for me. 

The next morning... voila!  Back to feeling ALIVE.  No more headaches, no more afternoon blahs.

Long ago I discovered that there are often parallels between our physical experiences and our spiritual experiences.  Jesus acknowledged such when He spoke with the woman at the well as recorded in John 4, offering her "living water".  It seems to me that I am supposed to gain some lessons from my gradual dehydration - lessons beyond "drink more H2O".  Deeper and more lasting lessons.

“Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”

How many times has spiritual dryness crept up on me?  Do I even notice when the spring becomes a trickle?  How many days have I gotten just enough Jesus to function in Christian circles, but not enough to keep me flourishing and healthy and fully ALIVE?

And haven't I seen how spiritual dehydration leaves me listless and tired, dragging myself through church and Bible study and prayer?  And doesn't it leave my spiritual discernment utterly foggy and untrustworthy? 

If I had had eyes to see it, I am sure there have been times when my spiritual life resembled an arrangement of cut flowers.  Perhaps appealing to outsiders but removed from the Source and sitting in stagnant water.  No hope of producing vibrant new blossoms, but desperately hanging on to old blooms - blooms whose beauty is fading day by day. 

Bleccchhh.  I've been there ... too often.  That's undoubtedly where I was three years ago when I was first introduced to Haiti and God sent our lives in a new direction. 

It's raining tonight and it reminds me of an evening about a week or so ago when Melissa wanted to go for a walk.  We've been trying to re-establish an exercise routine and so we started out for a loop around the mission grounds even though the sky threatened rain.  By the end of the first loop, a few sprinkles were hitting us and we considered ducking inside the house, but instead we agreed that it didn't feel too bad and we kept walking.  Before long the sky really opened and we were wiping trickles of rainwater out of our eyes in order to see the puddles to dodge.  We did another three laps - until we were completely soaked through and through.

And it felt so GOOD.  It felt like two months of heat and sweat and body odor were being washed away.  It was glorious. 

And you know what?  That's what our move to Haiti has felt like to me.  I am feeling more spiritually alive than I have in years.  I am aware of Jesus' presence - morning, noon and night - in ways I have never known before.  Even in the midst of all the little hassles that come with the territory - power outages and bugs in the food and dirt everywhere - there is so much LIVING to do.  And it's not that spiritual struggles and questions are absent, in fact they are more intense than ever.  It's just that I am seeing anew how GOOD God is and how much He loves us.  And how much he loves this fallen world.

So I'm thinking it's about time to sprout some new blooms. Thank God, I'm re-hydrated.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. ² He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. ³ You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. ⁴ Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. ⁵ I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. ⁷ If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. ⁹ As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. ¹¹ I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.  (John 15:1-11)

A HOME FOR THE LONELY

Yesterday morning Melissa and the kids and I had the privilege of being invited along to share in the moment when the kids from The Potter's House got their first glimpse of their home-to-be.  Jane knew we'd want to be a part of it and, besides, she needed another driver and vehicle to help transport the adult workers and 19 orphans about three miles down the road.

We were excited to bring along Ethan, whose parents work at the Emmaus Biblical Seminary.  Ethan had stayed the night at our house and he jumped right in with the orphans - then again, they didn't give him any other option!



After receiving a warm greeting from the kids, we loaded them all up and went for a drive.

This was our first look at the house, too, and it is so much better than the one that fell through a couple of weeks ago.  The landlord gave the director a good rental price when he found out the house was going to be used for orphans.  He was even in the process of having walls inside and out repainted when we showed up.

 

 

 

The house is gorgeous, really.  Inside and out.

 

 

 

 The boys were excited about how much roomier and brighter their bedroom will be.  And how they will have their own bathroom - indoors!

The second floor has a balcony that the boys might use for extra sleeping space. And it has a wonderful view of the surrounding area.

The kids were feeling pretty content with their new home, to say the least.  This little guy seems to be thinking, "Yeah, I can picture myself living here."

Jane sat all the orphans down and gave them a lecture about how, with all the extra space, they would all have greater responsibilities in helping to keep their new home clean and orderly.  They all agreed.

 The kids seemed mostly quiet and thoughtful as they explored their new surrounding...

 

But once they had scattered to look in every closet and behind every door, they slowly gathered down in front of the house again.

 

Several kids spent some time caressing the hair on my arms for some reason!

 



And they swamped Samuel...

And then they all got downright playful ... like I had never seen them before. I mean, they always like to mug for the camera, but this time ...

 

 

 There was a party breaking out, complete with games and dancing and stunts before the whole crowd.

 

 

Even the Director got in on the action, showing the kids how he could hold his right toe in his left hand and then (almost) jump over it with his left leg.

Sing to God, sing praises to His name;
Lift up a song for Him who rides through the deserts,
Whose name is the Lord, and exult before Him.
A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows,
Is God in His holy habitation.
God makes a home for the lonely;
He leads out the prisoners into prosperity,
Only the rebellious dwell in a parched land.  (Psalm 68:4-6)



And then the kids "lifted up a song for Him who rides through the deserts" and they prayed.  I am constantly amazed by these kids.  God HAS made a home for these kids already, regardless of where the house may be.

What a joyful morning!  It's going to be a good change for them. 

 

TAP-TAPS AND BOOKS

Over a week into school and Ruysdael and Johnny told me this past Tuesday that they have no books.  What?? Ruysdael shyly added that a couple of his teachers order him out of the room each day for not having the proper book for class! 

And the thing is, I had asked them a long time ago whether they needed books.  "Oh no, we have books." But then again, I would have known what books were required by reading their school papers ... in French.  The language and cultural barriers get a bit frustrating at times.

Since time was wasting and Cowman was off today (Friday), I asked Mikenn if he would accompany me into town to buy the books his two friends needed.  (Mikenn is finished with high school and is planning to attend a medical technician school starting in November, so he's got lots of free time currently while his buddies are now in class each day.)

So today I got my first tap-tap ride.  For the uninitiated, tap-taps are group taxis, usually pickups or vans, jammed full of human bodies and then driven at lightning speeds up and down the major thoroughfares of Haiti.

And everything about driving in this country suddenly became a LOT clearer.  Because I learned something very fundamental:

The roads BELONG to the tap-taps.  Everyone else - private vehicle, motorcycle, pedestrian, cow - is a guest.  So get out of the tap-taps' way.

I met Mikenn at 8:00 am.  He had said the booksellers wouldn't open until 9:00, but I think he just didn't want to get up early. It took him about 16 seconds to flag down a tap-tap.  This one was a van. 

I will have to depend on words since I was unable to take any pictures because 1) I feared losing my grip on the camera and having it disappear out the open door and 2) as the only "blanc" on the tap-tap I was already attracting enough attention to myself without whipping out a camera and going all touristy and 3) no pictures can really do the experience justice anyway.  (There are other pictures down below, though!)

So Mikenn slides into a rear bench seat and I scoot beside him and the driver hits the gas and jerks the van back into traffic.  Caribbean-style music blares through the sound system.  The man in front of me bobs his head to the drumbeat.  Someone behind me is singing along ... and must be belting it out at alone-in-the-shower volume for me to be able to hear him beneath the music. 

A young boy (maybe ten or eleven) wearing a maroon polo hangs out the open side door of the van.  His job is to keep an eye out for potential passengers and tap the roof of the van when he sees one.  That's the signal to the man behind the wheel ... and it's the ONLY thing that will make a tap-tap driver slow down.  The boy will jump out and even help a customer cross from the other side of the street if necessary.  He's also the one to collect the fare: 10 goudes to travel from Vaudreuil to downtown Cap Haitien.  That's a deal for the 5 or 6 mile trip.  The equivalent of a quarter.

I keep thinking, 'This kid's a hard worker.  I wonder how much he earns each day. Shouldn't he be in school?"

Somebody jumps on that Mikenn knows.  It's amazing how often I have recognized people out and about in this city of 200,000 myself, even after just two months.  Before long, we're all elbow to elbow and I'm wondering how many more might join us.  But then passengers one by one alert the boy to their stops.  And I learn that if you're trapped in the seat farthest from the door, you don't wait for people to move aside to let you out, you just climb on over them. 

After about twenty minutes of loud music and near misses and stops and starts, Mikenn and I make it to our destination.  Downtown Cap...

... which is gorgeous in the morning sun.

And then the book market.

 

It didn't sink in until the end of our shopping how my presence was preventing any good deals. There's a price for "blancs" and a different price for locals.  We were having trouble finding our final book.  As I looked over his shoulder, Mikenn asked a guy with a wheelbarrow full of books if he had the physical science book we needed.  Yes - for 300 goudes. 

 

Mikenn made a little sound of disgust and told the man it was too expensive.  I decided to hang back about ten feet and 'browse" elsewhere before Mikenn's next stop.  He found the book and this time the price was 150 goudes!

 

 

 

 

The boys' school was just a couple of blocks away and so we figured we should just drop the books with Johnny and Ruysdael before we headed back home.  No reason for either one to spend one more class sitting in the hallway!

 

 

Ruysdael was all smiles.  Johnny too.  Thank you again to the folks who are helping to foot the bill for these boys' education!  I was privileged to be your messenger today.

 

 

Our return trip was in one of the pickup style tap-taps.  Much breezier and no music.  We arrived back home by 10:30.  Just in time ...

 

 

... for some homemade donuts, courtesy of Melissa!  That's what you call a good morning.

 

 

 

Two last pictures and two last words:

 

1)  To those who gave special gifts to help the boys with their schooling and for all of you who support us generally month by month with finances and prayer, you have our never-ending gratitude. I truly cannot express our thanks strongly enough.  God bless you! 

Through you, the light of Christ is shining in dark places.

 

 And 2) I think I am falling in love with this place and its beautiful people more deeply every day.  You need to come visit us! 

 Seriously.

 

I SPOKE TOO SOON...

... regarding the orphans' new home.  When Jane returned to the potential landlord a week later with the down payment he had requested, he attempted to jack up the price of rent AND demanded two years' rent in advance.  Even if that kind of money could be raised up front, you wouldn't be too smart to place it in the hands of a man who has proven himself so fickle and untrustworthy. 

So it's back to square one in the search for a new orphanage location.  Please lift the Director and Jane in prayer as they seek leads for a new place to house the orphans.  I am hoping the house God has in store will be even better than the one that fell through.  These kids deserve running water and electricity at the very least.

[Instant Update: Before I even finished writing this post, Jane called to say they had found another house - with running water, electricity and even more space!  Praise the Lord!  Please do pray, though, that this deal would go through to completion... I'm not going to assume it's a done deal until the orphans are moved in.]

We got to see the kids again this past Saturday morning for Bible Club.  Caleb hadn't been feeling well so he and Samuel stayed home.  All the orphans asked about them.  Vernel even made sure that when it came time to work on name tags, he completed the one Caleb had started two weeks before.

These kids continue to impress and inspire us with each visit.  Their smiles, their songs, their sincerity in learning Bible verses.  Even the way they handled the suckers we brought: placing them carefully on the table in front of them until everyone was served and they were given permission to enjoy them. 

Jane again led the kids in a Bible lesson.  This time explaining about placing faith in the great gift of God's Son and being welcomed into the family of God.

The most exciting part, by far, was the fact that two of the adult volunteers and one of the girls professed faith in Christ for the first time!  Jane led us all in prayer over them.

There is such a sweet spirit of unity within the house and among the kids - it is something I wish all my friends and relatives could experience firsthand.  I recently posted on Facebook a picture of one of three tarantulas living outside our back door and had many friends comment about how they would not ever be visiting us as a result.  I hope they were joking because, if nothing else, a trip to The Potter's House ... even a short one ... would be worth enduring a hundred tarantulas. 

To close, I have to share some other recent photos.  These kids really mug it up for the camera sometimes!

They laughed their heads off when I showed them this one!

And a few photos from two weeks ago of drawings the kids did.  They were so proud of their creations - as they should be!

 

 

 

God IS Good, indeed!

Market Day

The days are full and I will need to do a catch-all post soon to get current, but I thought I'd take a few moments tonight to share some pictures from our trip to the market in Cap Haitien yesterday. (Melissa let me get a nap this afternoon and now, even though it's 11:00 pm, I'm still pretty awake!)

I haven't said a thing here yet about a pretty significant person in our family's life here: Ma Louis.  She cooks for us three nights a week - typically Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday - and goes to market for us on Fridays and brings all the fresh fruits and veggies back to the house afterward.  She is a fantastic cook and has such a sweet spirit and we all feel incredibly blessed to have her working with us.  (Since everything is cooked from scratch and there's no such thing as a Kroger a few blocks down the street, it would be literally impossible for Melissa and I to both work fulltime at Cowman and keep our family fed without Ma Louis' help.)

But Melissa has been itching to visit the downtown market firsthand and to see with her own eyes what is available in town and what is not.  Let me assure you, we both came home yesterday afternoon with a new appreciation for what Ma Louis accomplishes every Friday!

With our limited understanding of Creole and my timidity about driving in downtown traffic, our trip would not have been possible without the help of Melissa's teacher's aide (and friend!), Rose, and her husband, David.  With them as our tour guides, we were bound both to go elbow to elbow with the locals and yet avoid having to pay a much higher "foreigner price" for the food we wanted.

Rose and Melissa, ready to start shopping.

Most of the sellers had sidewalk space to spread out their wares while others walked among the crowd.  Most were not smiling - this was serious business and you can't smile and haggle over price at the same time!

Dried fish.  They smelled about as appetizing as they looked.  ;-)

Lots of careful consultation - and slow mental math - went into each purchase.  Figuring exchange rates does not yet come naturally to us and it's all a bit extra-confused by the fact that sometimes you are given a price in "goudes" and sometimes in "Haitian dollars".  There are five goudes in a Haitian dollar and 43 goudes to the American dollar.

Melissa considered getting a papaya, since we haven't had any yet, but the price wasn't right.

Almost burned my ankle on this makeshift grill - those are the tips of my shoes in the lower left hand corner. If this had been Indiana corn, I would have bought the whole lot.

After lunch at a bakery downtown and then saying goodbye to Rose and David, we came home with plenty of fruits and veggies to get us through the next week. 

Every bit of produce here has to be soaked at least ten minutes in bleach water before being stashed away in the freezer or fridge.  Here we have some peppers, tomatoes, green onions, limes and eggs all bathing together.

Nothing quick and easy about any part of the process, but a sense of accomplishment when we were done!

And I used to gripe about going to Walmart!  ;-)