A BIRTHDAY AND OTHER CELEBRATIONS

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
Praise Him all creatures here below!

The days have been hot and sticky and, as a result, I tend to deflate irreversibly in the evenings as soon as I sit down at home. As a result, very little blogging gets done, even with so much to celebrate from day to day. Most evenings, my only accomplishment tends to be keeping on top of grading papers and lesson plans - and even that raises a sweat.

So I sit before my bug-covered laptop screen tonight (as a rainstorm rolls in with a cool breeze), looking at some recent pictures and I am reminded of so many relationships and milestones we've had to celebrate lately. ALL from the Lord's hand.

A few days back, for instance, my three Haitian sons accompanied me into Cap Haitien on a mission to find a couple of items. (I love these guys!) The most pressing need was YEAST. Melissa bakes all of our bread from scratch and so running out of yeast is a huge emergency. Although she wasn't convinced that sending four guys to the market to shop for food items could possibly be successful, we proved her wrong.

After tracking down the yeast, our other major purchase of the day was a live chicken. Mikenn was instrumental in finding the biggest one in all of Cap Haitien, negotiating a fair price (about $10) and then wrestling it all the way back home.

It even had lunch with us inside a local restaurant.

Back home, Samuel grabbed my phone and made sure the execution was extremely well-documented. Killing and dressing a fresh chicken was a new experience for us, but I will spare you the pictures. 

Although Johnny refused to "do the deed" itself, he was more than happy to teach me the techniques for preparing the chicken for the oven.

And Rusydael was more than happy to take home the feet for his own enjoyment.

Mmmmm.

The next day, Melissa stuffed that bird full of carrots and onions and baked it up and we had half the meat left over. It was one, big old (tough!) bird.

But it made one heck of a Sunday lunch. And Melissa was glad to have chicken breast to enjoy. (Drumsticks are plentiful here, but this is the only way to get white meat locally.)

Another celebration - the oldest three kids and Melissa and I got to enjoy the recent lunar eclipse. (It was a bit past Sarah's bedtime.)

An amazing sight and a memorable testimony to God's incredible handiwork.

At Cowman, we celebrated the addition of a partial, temporary roof over some of the new construction. Now the kids can eat without fear of being bombed by the birds perched in the mango trees.

The roof didn't prove to be rain-proof, but we celebrated the rain anyway: a wonderful break from the heat late last week as the clouds on the back side of Joaquin provided an all-day sprinkling.

Some of our Haitian friends were complaining about how "cold" it was. But to me it was perfection.

Last weekend brought us to a birthday celebration - Samuel turned 12, and THAT called for a day at the beach. 

Burgers and fries all around.

We are also celebrating a new friendship with a family who joined us for the day at the beach. The Mokmas live and work at a local orphanage, Children of the Promise.

As always, the beach was gorgeous and refreshing. Joaquin was kicking up bigger waves than we typically see.

Back home the next morning, Sam's actual birthday, Melissa spent several hours in the kitchen making ... a huge mess.

AND homemade donuts. Better than Krispy Kremes!

With lunch, Samuel was excited to enjoy some root beer we found in the market a few weeks ago. A rare treat!

It was so sweet to watch little Sarah celebrate her big brother. She gave him a present of her own choosing - a pack of Old Maid cards. (Every 12 year old boy's dream gift!) And she created her own little "pinata" for him to whack at. She even filled it with some candies from her own stash before tying some yellow yarn around it for hanging.

The "pinata" made me a bit nervous, but I survived without injury even though Sarah insisted each family member needed to take three whacks at it with the empty root beer bottle.

We topped the day off with homemade ice cream and a giant chocolate chip cookie!

That's one happy 12 year old...

A couple of other reasons to celebrate:

* After sitting empty (for one reason or another) for most of 2015 so far, our house is FINALLY rented out again. Thank you for all who have been praying for this. We pray it will be a win/win situation for both the family moving in and for us. 

* And speaking of answers to prayers... Many of our Haitian friends and co-workers have spent the last two weeks praying for a dear young man who is part of our church back in Indiana. Cameron is a high school senior who is simply on fire for Jesus and so gifted in communicating the Gospel to his classmates (and, actually, all of Columbus).  After a horrific accident resulting in a severe brain injury two weeks ago, doctors were preparing his family for the possibility of years of long term care and unimaginable disability. But now we're praising God, who has answered the prayers of so many people around the world. Cameron is conscious and speaking and ready to enter rehabilitation! And the doctors are amazed...

* Another celebration for our family - this week we have hosted our first visitors of the new school year: Dr. Lee and his daughter Maelyn. They are great friends and so supportive of our family and our only complaint is the shortness of their visit. I will have to share some pictures from their few days with us next time.

* Also still to come - I am celebrating another new hire at Cowman recently....

As always, also celebrating all of you who make it possible for us to be ministering here in Haiti. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

FIRST WEEKS OF SCHOOL

Looking sharp and bright eyed, our four were ready for the first day of 8th grade (Hannah), 7th grade (Samuel), 3rd grade (Sarah) and 9th grade (Caleb).

With our long summer in the States followed by their parents working every day prepping at school for the previous two weeks (and often requiring THEIR help), our kids had definitely hit the point where they were ready to get back into the school routine.

Of course, every new school year reveals lots of changes, one of which brings Mr. Ben, Melissa's protege from last year, into the position of lead teacher for first grade, with Mr. Mikenn by his side as an aide.

This change has freed Melissa to move to 3rd grade where she will be training a new teacher - Mr. Walnique, a recent graduate from Emmaus Biblical Seminary just down the road. 

Familiar faces filed through a brand new hallway, created by the outer wall of my new classroom.

Another Emmaus connection: Ms. Rosa is an intern at EBS but will be joining us each Wednesday to teach Spanish to our students.

Of course, I have to include a photo (or two) of my favorite change around Cowman for the new year. Just look at how Johnny was beaming the first day! And he has quickly become a favorite of the 3 and 4-year-olds that he is working with each day.

Here's Mrs. Z, back for her 13th year of "retirement", helping her new 2nd graders get settled into their desks.

A major change for my schedule: with Ms. Valorie here to take on math and science for the upper grades, I am free to focus on Bible for 8th and 9th graders, Social Studies for 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th, and English for 5th through 9th.  I've never taught 5th graders before - I might be calling on the Lord for extra patience and wisdom this year! ;-)

There are many VERY familiar faces among my 8th and 9th graders, seeing as how I have been with this group for two solid years now.  But we are sad at the absence of some who moved away over the summer. On the bright side, it has left me with a very manageable-sized class (just 11 at the moment) as we head into the heavier academics oh high school.

There are plenty of new students enrolled this year, but none of them more precious to us than this little guy in the 3-year-old class. Believe it or not, this is "baby Sammy"! I won't go into his story here and now, but suffice it to say that the Lord has a great plan for this little guy's life.

Our first Friday of the new school year brought our first chapel and introduction of our year-long theme: "Let Kingdom Come!" For now, we are gathering under the shade of mango trees for lunch and chapel (where the playground equipment used to be), though it's a temporary solution at best since, among other things, the birds in the branches overhead have proven to have little self control over bodily functions.

Johnny couldn't escape one of his new friends during the introduction of staff members before chapel began.

It feels so RIGHT to be praising God together again!

Hannah joined some of the other students in teaching motions for a brand new worship song.

Even though Melissa is a full-time third grade teacher, she continues her role as full-time teacher trainer as well. Here's some after-hours practice for the preschool teachers on the proper way to lead the students in forming the letters of the alphabet!

As we were just beginning to settle into our new school routines, the crate arrived that we packed in Greenwood, Indiana six weeks earlier, jammed full of our new (to us) reading curriculum and various school supplies.

It all went against the back wall of my room until we had the chance to sort through all the boxes.

Here the three princesses are admiring some of the "prize box" items and water coolers that came from our friends at Shiloh Wesleyan Church of Spencer, Indiana.

Our second week of classes ended with a half day for students, followed by an evening Open House for parents. Which, of course, makes for a very FULL day for the teachers. Here our principal, Angie Bundy, gives instructions to the teaching staff regarding the Open House schedule.

We had a great crowd of parents show up a few hours later to meet teachers and to hear about what they and their kids can expect from the new year at Cowman.

I can't resist posting this picture of Samuel taken after our first few days back to school.  This is pretty much how we've all been feeling at the end of each day ...TIRED! 

But it's a GOOD tired! 

(On top of the strain of starting back into routine and dealing with changes, it's been in the 90s every day and often not much lower than the low 80s at night. Lots of sunshine and precious little rain. It does take its toll over time!)

Again, we are so thankful to be here and I remember in my prayers often all of you who have enabled us to be here and who have supported us along the way. Cowman School is doing good work  - Kingdom building work - and it's a privilege to be a part of it.

GROWING PAINS - A CONSTRUCTION UPDATE

I apologize for keeping you in suspense over seeing the results of this summer's construction project at Cowman School.  

There were two main parts to what was built:

Project #1: The patio which used to function as our cafeteria and large group gathering area for chapel was walled in and converted into a new classroom - the largest on campus.



And it's MINE. ;-)


Rating: Excellent. 

Everything is painted, inside and out ...



 The five windows allow plenty of cross breezes.

The door to Angie's office was moved to the outside ..

(View from inside Angie's office - old door being filled, new door to the right.)

... and a visiting team made sure I had outlets as of last Friday.

Six men working for six hours ...



And voila!

(Still waiting on ceiling fans and overhead lighting, but they are coming!)

Project #2: To replace the eating and gathering space that was lost to the new classroom, the ground floor of what we hope will eventually become a two story building was constructed.  With a covered space for eating, a kitchen, and two new bathrooms, it was going to be a vast improvement over what we had been using.

Rating: What happened???

(You're looking at the two new bathrooms!)

It's just not quite there yet, that's all.

So what DID happen? Well, it's complicated, but the simplified version is something like this: the structure was made super sturdy (a good thing) and that ate up more of the budget than expected (a bad thing). And there was simply no room for going over budget.



On the bright side, this will definitely be the place to be during an earthquake. 

And someday it may become the first skyscraper in Cap Haitien. 

But for now, each afternoon as we leave the school grounds and head down the lane towards the main road, this sight seems to be a word from God:

Ahhhh, yes. Patience.

Speaking of preparations for the students' arrival, here are some Before and After pics.

First, my room:

Before...

After...

And Melissa's room (she's now teaching 3rd grade):

Before...


After..

Another angle...

 The most important preparation we've done over the past week and a half:



Ready or not, the kids come tomorrow morning. We thank the Lord for each child coming, each staff member, and the privilege to minister in this place.

If I have an ounce of energy left tomorrow evening, I will try to post some opening day pics!