A LITTLE TASTE OF AUTUMN ...

... then right back into full-on summer.

Five days of our last week in the States was spent with Grandma Trudy on a family trip to northern Michigan. No sharing about Haiti on the schedule, just (chilly) pool time, sleeping in, and a day trip to Mackinac Island.

The ferry to the island was quite cool in the morning, but by afternoon, it felt like a mild autumn day - perfect for biking and exploring (and eating fudge).

A Norman Rockwell kind of day in a Thomas Kinkade kind of place!

 One evening, we managed to find a hayride.

And even smores!  The only things missing from our mini-autumn were a trip to an apple orchard and pumpkin-flavored everything.

We even got to hit the ski slopes...



That Thursday evening we spent poking around the cute little town of Petoskey on the shores of Lake Michigan, providing a gorgeous, peaceful, (physically and aesthetically) cool sunset for our last day in Michigan.

We drove back to Indiana and hit the ground running in a frantic effort to tie up loose ends and finish packing and saying goodbyes. We even managed to overlap a visit from my Seattle brother for a Sunday afternoon.  First time all four brothers have been together since I don't remember when...

(And, yes, I am the short one.)

We let Mom hang out with us too...

And we had a fantastic brothers verses offspring basketball match. Like good Hoosiers. 

We totally dominated those kids on the court.*  (*Not technically true.)

On Monday, Melissa and I said some goodbyes and ran a couple of dozen last minute errands - any one of which would have taken half a day to complete in Haiti. (Ah, the CONVENIENCE of it all!)

In a blink of an eye, my brother Russ and his wife Alecia were dropping us off early Tuesday morning at the Indianapolis airport. With our carry on bags and 14 suitcases. (Yes, FOURTEEN. Melissa LITERALLY tried to bring a kitchen sink but couldn't get it to fit in our largest suitcase. We're hoping it comes in a few weeks on a crate being packed for Bethesda Medical Clinic. Thanks to brother Spencer for the new sink and faucet!)

And then, with the new daily flights provided by American Airlines, just six or so hours later, we were touching down in Cap Haitien.  That's fast enough to give you cultural whiplash, BAD!

But my Haitian sons were waiting outside our house and other friends came by and we were HOME and everything was OK.

Have I mentioned how HOT it has been since we arrived? Alanna Bundy (the goof on the left below) took one look at my sweat-stained t-shirt our first day back and concluded, "I see you got used to the air conditioning over the summer."

Yes, I did.

It's kind of hard not to...

Now we are a full week and a half back into our life in Haiti and my body has not yet shaken the air conditioning. It's been three-showers-a-day kind of hot ever since we returned and we're all drooping a bit. 

We were hoping for some good, drenching rain from Danny or Erika this past week and got about one hour's worth. Enough to have the kids dancing in the puddles.

Melissa and I got caught in it and didn't mind a bit.

Wednesday begins a new school year and we're all chomping at the bit. I promise to show you some of the new construction at Cowman School in the next couple of days.

It is ... not quite what we expected.

COWMAN'S NEW HIRE

So much has happened since we returned to Haiti a week ago and I still have so many thank yous to relate and stories to tell (and setup to do in my classroom), but I JUST HAVE TO POST a quick "Hallelujah!" for what took place this afternoon.

The picture below is of a meeting in my new classroom during which our principal, Angie Bundy, offered a full-time job to one of my "Haitian sons", Johnny Placide!

Now two of my three Haitian sons are employed at Cowman. (Mikenn finished a successful first year as a teacher's aide and is back for year two.) And I couldn't be happier!

If you've visited us in Haiti, you've undoubtedly met Johnny and maybe you've been blessed to hang around him enough to get a glimpse of his sweet nature, easy smile, and heart for Jesus.

I have been hoping for the possibility of Cowman hiring Johnny for the last year and a half after Melissa and I witnessed Johnny's (super)natural gifts for teaching during our first Christmas party in Daniel's Cap Haitien neighborhood. 

The Lord keeps sending Teachers to Cowman who have the gifting even if they don't have the training, and we were convinced that Johnny could become one of those Teachers. (We've discovered the gifting is way more important than any degree.)

Johnny is 22, and a year from finishing high school. His plan was to go back to school this fall to finish his schooling, but he jumped at the opportunity to get started in a career in teaching and to start bringing some money home to his family. He and I are going to explore online possibilities for finishing his diploma, and Melissa, no doubt, will provide plenty of practical guidance along the way as Johnny works in the classroom. 

He'll be working as an aide with the 3-year-olds in the morning and the 4-year-olds in the afternoon. An excellent place to start.

His first official day will be tomorrow when all the teachers gather for staff meetings.  The first day of class is still a week away. I am sure he would appreciate any prayers you lifted on his behalf.

Thank you, Jesus, for open doors!

THE "YELLOW" LIGHT!

I hesitate to call it a "green" light, but praise the Lord, we are going to keep our August 18th flights to head back to Cap Haitien, Haiti.  

Our family is going home. On time.

Melissa and I met with folks at Headquarters Thursday and they, like us, had done a lot of praying and crunching numbers and talking through possibilities.  They had reached the conclusion that putting us back on the field in time to prepare for the coming school year was a necessity, BUT it was going to be possible only by shifting part of our financial burden onto the field itself.

Believe me, Melissa and I were incredibly relieved at the prospect of getting back to Haiti in time to start our third year at Cowman, but we certainly didn't want to inflict our stresses on an already strapped mission field. I assured HR that we were seeing some incredible support coming in, consisting of both one time gifts and new monthly pledges - and that Melissa and I felt confident that our support account would soon be healthy and would not be dependent on, nor infringe upon, other valuable ministries in Haiti.

After all, we had already seen a number of friends and churches respond with generous financial support for our ministry. We were seeing progress... 

A few hours after the meeting, Headquarters received word of a very generous new gift! We all rejoiced at the timing of this encouragement; it seemed to confirm that we were on the right track and that the Lord was intending to provide for our ministry in such a way as to not draw down from Cowman's limited funds.

God is so good. And the generosity and love of friends, family and complete strangers continues to overwhelm us. Thank you - to all who have given for years and to those who have recently joined our support team. THANK YOU on our behalf and on behalf of the precious Haitian friends we are privileged to work among. 

While hosting our family recently in Grundy Center, Iowa, our dear friends (and some time surrogate grandparents to our kids!), Phil and Connie, treated us to some of the best Chinese food I've ever tasted. (Yes ... in Grundy Center, Iowa!)

Now, I am not superstitious about fortune cookies, but I have learned over the years that God knows how to get my attention, especially when anxiety has risen in my heart and I need a glimpse of hope. So when I cracked open my fortune cookie at the end of the meal to see this fortune, I felt justified in allowing it to lift my hopes:

You couldn't find a more concise description of our home in Haiti. (The English word "Haiti", in fact, is a derivative of the original "Ayiti", which means "Land of Many Mountains"!)

There is still support to raise, but with God's help, and the generosity of many brothers and sisters in Christ, we are moving forward! God bless you and God bless Haiti!

[If you have not given yet, but the Lord has been prompting you to do so, please visit our OMS page and follow the instructions there. We'd be so grateful!]

PROGRESS BUT NOT HOME YET

Here's the text of a letter we put in snail mail this week as we continue to seek additional support in order to return our family to ministry in Haiti on time to start our third school year. I include it here in an effort to reach folks whose address may be missing from my list. Thank you to all who have already responded so generously!

 *******************************************************************************

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression … and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.” Isaiah 58:9-10



 Dear Friends, For the sake of brevity, I will start this letter with our main point: The authorities at OMS sat us down recently to say that without a substantial increase in our support account, we cannot return to our work in Haiti on August 18, as we had currently planned. 

• This by no means threatens an end to our service in Haiti, only a delay; we will return to Haiti as soon as sufficient funds are in place. The Lord willing, we’ll keep our August 18 flights. 

• We are concerned about the confusion our delay could cause Cowman School, where classes will begin early September. If we are not back, our principal will need to somehow stretch current staff to cover grades 3, 8, and 9, and the daily teacher training and guiding that Melissa has developed this past year will be halted. 

• If you have supported us in any way in the past, we thank you deeply – on our behalf and on behalf of the precious people among whom we are privileged to work. I haven’t always been good at putting our gratitude in writing in a timely fashion, but know that we often think of you and pray for you … and recognize daily our spiritual indebtedness to you! 

• If you have supported us with an occasional large gift, your generosity has kept us afloat these two years! Thank you! 

• If you have supported us with monthly pledges, you have given our support account (and our own hearts) a much-needed sense of stability! Thank you! 

• If you have supported us with prayer, we will never know this side of Heaven what guidance and blessings you have procured and what schemes you have thwarted. Without a doubt, we have been protected, provided for and blessed. Thank you! 

Sometimes I have been overly timid about asking for help. This happens when I get focused on the earthly – I know you have bills to pay, daily demands for your attention, and a future to plan for. I get a lot bolder when the Lord reminds me that you also care for the needy and have a desire to see Christ’s “Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven.” 


So what am I (boldly) asking of you? OMS headquarters is closely monitoring our progress on two fronts: both monthly pledges and special gifts. Would you prayerfully consider one of the following options? 

• 1) New “special gifts” help insure our presence in Haiti during any shortfalls in monthly pledges. 

• 2) A “Faith Promise” pledge to give monthly ($25, $50, $100 or any amount of your choosing) puts our entire account on firmer footing. And increasing an existing monthly gift by $25 or $50 is just as valuable as a whole new one. 

• 3) If you made a faith promise in the past and, over time, it has slipped away, would you consider renewing it? (We understand if circumstances prevent this.) OMS offers the option of using electronic withdrawal if that would help simplify your giving.

Since time is of the essence and headquarters sees immediately what happens online, we are encouraging those who are willing to give by going soon to onemissionsociety.org/give/TheGrosses and following the instructions there. Thank you for your generosity and faithfulness! 

In Christ and for His Kingdom, 
Steve and Melissa Gross

WEEKEND WHIRLWIND

We had a wonderfully crazy weekend as we continue to share about our family's work in Haiti and invite friends, old and new, to join with us in the endeavor.

Saturday afternoon we drove to Mt. Carmel, Illinois to meet up with an old friend from my Free Methodist youth pastoring days, Julie.  

This continues to be one of the best parts of the whole fundraising process: reconnecting with old friends and getting to catch up on (sometimes years of) the "in between".  Julie is married now to a great guy, Matt, and they have four beautiful kids.

Their youngest, twin boys, were especially cute - and quite entertaining - throughout the time we spent in their home.

At this point in the summer, our kids are a bit pooped out, but even as tired as they were, they couldn't resist being pulled in by these new young friends.

Julie and Matt were gracious enough to host a pool party at their place Saturday night to give us a platform to share with some of their friends. In one of those "It's a Small World" moments, one of the men in attendance had actually been to our neck of Haiti just a few months ago, working on the air conditioning units at Radio 4 VEH!

Sunday morning, Pastor Jeremy warmly welcomed our family at the Evangelical United Methodist Church of Mt. Carmel. 

A beautiful place to share God's concern for the poor and oppressed: "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and to break every yoke?" (Isaiah 58:6)

The morning light shining through the windows before the service started ...

After the service, the church served us a pizza lunch and, even better, we had the chance to visit with some of the members one on one. Again, a small world - finding among them a number of mutual friends, from OMS and Asbury connections to some relatives of Melissa's beloved grade school librarian from years ago!

In the afternoon we trucked two hours back into Indiana just in time to join in an ice cream social at one of our favorite supporting churches, Shiloh Wesleyan UMC just north of Spencer. These folks have stood with us for several years now and it is always a joy to catch up with them.

And enjoy a sugar buffet...

Pastor Diane and the congregation not only support us financially and prayerfully, they have also gone out of their way to collect school supplies for Cowman School and shoes for Daniel's neighbors. It was a privilege to be able to share an update on our past year in Haiti.

Today we're back to home base: Columbus, Indiana.  IF we get the green light from OMS headquarters, our flight back to Haiti will be two weeks from tomorrow. We've been greatly encouraged by so many who have stepped up to financially support our ministry in Haiti. I wish that meant we were in the clear, but we're not quite yet.  

If you have thought about giving, but haven't made it official yet, please head over to our page on the OMS website (right HERE) in order to let the folks at headquarters know of your intentions! 

Thanks so much for all the wonderful support you all have shown and continue to show. It means the world to us.

Even though our flight date is not yet certain, we continue to pack and tie up loose ends as if we head out August 18th, because, God willing, we certainly intend to!

(P.S. - If you are local, keep next Sunday August 9th afternoon open if possible! We'd like to see you at the "Gathering with the Grosses" in Donner Park, 1 to 5 pm. Check out the Facebook even page for more details RIGHT HERE.)