POTENTIAL

One of the things I love about Cowman School - and there are many - is what an interesting mix of students we have here.  Our student population is predominantly Haitian, but we have students of American, Canadian, Korean, Dominican and Indian background.  When it comes to socio-economic status, too, our students run the gamut. Ages: three years old to teenagers. Different personalities. Different learning styles. And VERY different paths that all led, by God's grace, to Cowman.

And each morning Ms. Kate rings her bell at eight sharp and this crazy mix of kids spreads into eight different classrooms, each a place where Scripture is revered and proclaimed and Jesus Christ is lifted up.

It is, indeed, a beautiful thing.  We are a big, unusual family, striving to live under the headship of Christ. Together.

Today I am feeling a bit of excitement over something that is becoming an increasingly common occurrence here - the possibility of adding a few more students to the family mid-year.  At 1:30, I am scheduled to do some testing with a couple of brothers who are prospective students for my class.  They were born and raised in the U.S. but their father is Haitian and has answered a call from his father to return to Haiti and take over as director of a small university in Cap Haitien.  

After the testing is complete this afternoon, a school committee will review all the relevant information and decide 'yay' or 'nay'. The boys could be in class by this coming Monday. 

For my part, I am hoping and praying that Cowman and these young men will be a good fit. There's potential for a win/win scenario - the new students adding their unique personalities and gifts to the Cowman family and Cowman providing a valuable service to the brothers' immediate family.  

(By the way, it's not a lack of humility to say Cowman's service is valuable - there aren't any other schools in the north of Haiti offering a full-time English language-based education.  Or doing it in a Christian context. Some of our students travel an hour each way to learn at Cowman.) 

 Who can predict the POTENTIAL latent when God crosses peoples' paths? THAT is what gets me excited today.  

Praying for wisdom and discernment and that His will would be done.

It's like planting seeds and seeing what grows ...

PRE-RETREAT

It was quite strange to sit down to breakfast this morning with just the family.  The whole house felt quiet and empty.

It was a week and a half ago that I picked Phil and Connie Dicks up at the Cap Haiten airport. (And just yesterday that they flew back to the States after a bonus day in Haiti brought about by heavy rains and cloud cover over the airport on Friday.)

Phil is the pastor of the Grundy Center UM Church - a wonderful and generous group of brothers and sisters in Christ which we have had the pleasure of getting to know over the past two years or so. Connie works with the Disciples of Christ camping program.  

I have known these two since I was just out of college, working as a rookie youth pastor in LeMars, Iowa. Back then, I spent a couple of summers working under their guidance at Lake Okoboji UM Camp.  I always appreciated Connie's soft heart, deep spirit, patience and ability to listen well.  And Phil?  His love for people, sense of humor and passion for life are legendary.

When Melissa and I started the funding process to get our family to Haiti a few years ago, it was my pleasure to rekindle this old friendship and to introduce Phil and Connie to Melissa and the kids, and vice versa!  And they have been supportive of our family and work in innumerable ways ever since.

About a year ago, Melissa and I floated the idea of having Phil and Connie come lead our 2015 OMS Haiti Field Retreat to be held in the Dominican Republic. When they said Yes a few months ago, we rejoiced!

The day after Phil and Connie arrived, another couple, Hannah and Nathan Rosensteel, showed up, also to help with Retreat.

We first met them about a year ago when they came with a group from their home church, The Refuge, in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.  We quickly grew to love them - especially our little Sarah - and, knowing them to be a talented couple, asked them also to come to retreat, to lead the children.

Since we had a few days of school before Retreat would start, we put the four of them to work at Cowman.

Phil spoke to my students about their need to display a "God Attitude"...

While Connie delivered and read some new classroom books from our Grundy Center UMC friends.

While Nathan and Hannah went from class to class teaching some new songs.

In our spare time outside of Cowman, we went through some of the suitcases of supplies Phil and Connie brought from our Grundy Center UMC friends - things for us, the other missionaries, and supplies for the school and the Retreat. (I consumed nearly the entire bag of cheese puffs by Melissa's left hand in the picture below - with very little help from anyone else - before the evening was over.)

Phil also chatted up students in one of my afternoon adult English classes.  It was a rainy day and very few students showed up - which meant plenty of practice in conversational English for them and a chance for me to get to know them better as individuals.

We also had time to explore the mission grounds and sample some FRESH produce - such as this pod we pulled off the cocoa tree in our backyard.

Phil gets excited about ANYTHING food related!

And THEN, on Friday, we had one of the most energetic and enthusiastic chapel services Cowman has ever seen.  

Here Hannah and Nathan lead in a little song called "I Think I'm Gonna Throw Up ... My Hands to the Lord".  Catchy tune.  Sticks in your head.



And this student is "gonna hurl ... his sins out the door".

And Pastor Phil's rendition of "Whose Side are You Leaning On?" got more and more riotous as it went.

What a blessing these four friends proved to be even before the Retreat got off the ground!

Once I get all my pictures to load properly, I will show you a bit of what took place once we were actually on Retreat ...

THE HOUSE ... AGAIN

Last time I wrote, I related several good things that have been happening and hinted at one thing that has us concerned.  I have had a couple of people asking what that one thing was and I should have made the time sooner to let you know the details - not mainly to satisfy curiosity, but rather to gather prayer.

It's our house again. It seems that our renter has fallen on hard times financially.  Please lift her up in prayer.  I am sure she is in a lot of turmoil right now.  She is anticipating moving out at the end of February.

I am asking for prayer for us as well. 

And it's a simple prayer really: wisdom in moving forward and, ultimately, a solution to our "house problem".

The "wisdom" come in knowing whether to look for a renter or a buyer. Sitting empty is definitely not an option.  

The "solution" could be either ...

A) A new renter who can immediately move in, take good care of the property and stay put a good long time or ...

B) A buyer for the house who would be ready to act quickly in purchasing the house at a price where we break even or ...

C) (and this is my favorite) Some unforeseen other possibility that only God currently knows is even an option.

Even in the midst of this hassle, there are blessings though.  First, by all accounts the current renter has kept the house in good shape - hopefully that means we won't need to hire someone to go in and buff cigarette burns out of the hardwood floors or replace stained carpets to prep it for the next occupant. Secondly, it seems the local real estate market has recovered enough to make it possible - even without an act of God - for us to sell and break even (assuming a sale happens quickly).  And thirdly, we've recently had a couple of incredibly generous personal gifts, sent from old friends out of the blue, that have made up for some of the rent that is not currently coming in.  

And finally, though it's painful, there is the blessing of stretched faith.  "Rubber meeting the road." We've had a bumpy ride with this house over the last few years, but God has always provided.

I'm kind of hoping it turns out to be Option C - I am mindful that when the Israelites cried out for meat in the desert, they weren't anticipating a "quailnado".

We would certainly appreciate your willingness to remember this situation in prayer!

(By the way, there's more good stuff on the horizon here: Our friends Phil and Connie Dicks arrived Tuesday.  And two more friends, Hannah and Nathan Rosensteel, arrived yesterday.  Even better, the four of them are going with us to the Dominican Republic on Saturday to lead our annual field retreat. We feel so blessed and are looking forward to what the Lord has in store for all of us over our five days there.)

UPS AND ... MORE UPS

I have really let my updates pile up since the first of the year, so here are some quick ups and downs from January.  

Actually, I sat down to record the "ups and downs" and found that the "downs" were mostly inconsequential things in light of so many "ups", praise the Lord!

UP: The first Saturday in January brought my first opportunity to witness a Haitian wedding.  My friend Joab, after ten years of engagement, finally married his best girl.

UP: Electric work is getting done around campus.  Many visiting teams have put a lot of effort into burying our electric lines, which will ultimately bring down our electric costs.  Also, some of these fine men were able to find the problem - a two inch segment of aluminum wire that had corroded away - causing power pulsations throughout our house for the previous week.  It also took care of a scary nuisance we had grown used to over the past year and a half: getting a nasty little shock just by grabbing the refrigerator door while barefoot!

UP: Our little Sarah turned a big EIGHT years old!  Her birthday was on a Friday and she was nearly hyperventilating for the entire week leading up to the big day.  

The celebration included a new birthday outfit:

A party with friends from school and the mission:

A "Frozen" themed party with games like "Pin the Nose on Olaf":

Pizza:

And chocolate cake:

And, of course, presents:

UP: Our friend Storly returned for a few days to lead some further celebration of the recent radio project - a lot of work and expense and prayer that put our beloved Radio 4VEH back on the air at full strength, both AM and FM.  There was a special worship service of praise and testimony at the large church next to the mission.

And afterwards, our family was invited to tag along for lunch and we got to meet some great new friends. (Thanks for the hospitality, John and Karine!)

UP: After lunch, Storly showed us where to find relatively cheap ice cream downtown Cap Haitien.  How did we not know about this before now??

UP: The work Melissa and I are doing here in Vaudreuil was featured in the latest Outreach Magazine, a quarterly OMS publication.  

UP: Hannah is slowly regaining strength after suffering from a couple of weeks of pneumonia in her right lung.  She missed a lot of school but now she's back.

UP: Our good friend Lee came to visit for a few days.  He spent a day at the medical clinic and then a couple of unusually rainy days with us at Cowman School, hopping around from class to class and doing impromptu science lessons with the kids.  Here he is in my classroom:

And Melissa's:

It was so good to have some unhurried time together around the table in the evenings.



And on the last night, Lee shared his recipe for strawberry frosting - which we all proceeded to make ourselves sick on.

On Friday morning, he got just a few minutes to recharge his Vitamin D before he headed back to complete an Indiana winter.

SUPER UP: The purpose for Lee's quick trip was to scout out the possibilities of bringing his family over their upcoming spring break.  Well, he must have like what he saw because he left Friday and the day after he got home his family reserved their flights for March!  We can't wait to have the whole family come down!

(Actually, there is one fairly major "down" that is getting under our skin a bit and we'd like to ask prayer for, but I'll give that headache its own post.)