A Lonely Week Ahead

You would think that after 10 years of marriage, one would be perfectly fine with their spouse's departure for a few days......well, I am not that spouse! I hate to be alone and rely so much on Brandon, that this next week is going to be a hard one. Brandon will leave on Saturday to attend a few meetings and the annual football camp in Dwight, IL. I am happy for him that he will be reporting to some new churches, as well as, seeing many supporting pastors, happy that he will get to see old friends and make new ones, happy that he will get some "guy" time. But even though I am happy in all of these areas, I am sad that I will not have him here with me! To watch him tuck the girls in at night, to watch him pray with Kofee as he puts him to bed, to snuggle me after a long day of hard work! All things, of course, happen for a reason. Maybe I will not take him for granted and learn to do a few things on my own. The old saying goes like this..."absence makes the heart grow fonder". It will be good for us to be apart, for our appreciation and love for each other to grow even deeper; but I will miss that man of mine sooo much!!

Crazy Monday!

Mondays! They are always so fast and crazy! After a Sunday of sickness, we de-germed the house and beds before getting new people in our home. After a couple loads of laundry, I started fixing our "healthy" meal. We have several of us, here on staff, who are trying to eat right; so, I offered to make the meal for tonight. I have been using many of the "hungry girl" recipes and they are so yummy! I made barbeque bacon wrapped chicken breast, potato salad, green salad, and cinnamon banana muffins. It was a big hit with everyone! We got our guest settled in and enjoyed an evening of fellowship. Still trying to get the kids better. Kofee's fever seems to be gone just some diarhea left. He is laying on my lap as I type this! Some of my favorite moments are when he wakes up crying and we just snuggle for a while. I guess I know that these moments will be gone too fast and I cherish our snuggle time! So, crazy Monday has come to an end and I say good night!

Fun in the Sun

Thanks to a recent team who brought the kids a blow up swimming pool, they have been able to have some fun days in the sun! It is fun to stand in the kitchen and hear them out back giggling and yelling and splashing around. Kofee is so funny; he loves the water and could stay in the pool forever!

Jay Bickel, Holli and Pat's son, had his 11th birthday at a hotel here in Haiti. You can pay to swim for the day. This morning, Kofee woke up with fever and diarrhea and Kylee was running a fever. I was a little disappointed because I was looking forward to a day in the sun! My wonderful husband sent me and Bailee and stayed with the two sickies! It was nice to have some mother/daughter time with my oldest child. Sometimes, I am sure she feels overlooked with two smaller siblings, but today I focused on her! She is such a wonderful child and shines wherever she goes. She made two friends instantly and played with them all day! At times, I look at her and wish that I could be more like her in my Christian walk. Love others regardless of what they look like or where they come from. Love them as I love myself without fear of what someone may think of me. WoW! What a thought to end on!!!

Good Friends are medicine to the Soul

We have ran the guesthouse for GLA now for a little over a year, and now have the opportunity to host previous teams. This team in particular come from Illinois and is the hometown of John and Dixie, the founders of the orphanage. I have been looking forward to this team coming and am enjoying their visit immensely! We bonded with them when they were here a year ago and it seems like we have known each other for years!! Tim and Melissa are a dear couple whom were on that team last year and it is great to sit with Melissa in the evenings and just chat! Good friends are hard to come by and I thank the Lord for the position He has given us to meet so many wonderful people!

A Busy Productive Week

What a week! They all seem to fly by so quickly now a days! We had a great team in our home this weeks with such servant's hearts. They worked all week up at Ft Jacque on a home that will house a staff couple. Every evening, tired and weary, they would enter our home with just as much joy as they had left with in the morning; never a complaint, never a cross word. It is weeks like these that are so truly a blessing to us as we host them. At times, it is difficult when we have a team that complains of the work being too hard or that they didn't come to clean and paint, they came to play with babies. Teams like the one we had this week is what makes running a guesthouse easy on the soul; however, there are days that seem to be long when having people in and out of the house and you just want to run to a quiet place with no phones, no people, no questions, and no complaints! It weighs harder on me than Brandon and he seems to always carry it on his shoulders that is why I sucked it up and told him that I really wanted him to be able to go to Football Camp in Dwight, IL. I did so well and tried to cover the feelings of so desperately wanting to be the one to "get away" until the night he booked his ticket. I found myself crying! The next morning, Brandon and I had such a wonderful conversation and it helped me realize that none of us are perfect. So many times, I feel sooo guilty for those feeling; feelings of needing a break, or to get away, or to want to go shoe or clothes shopping. God is so gracious and loves us in spite of our selfishness! The rest of my weekend was wonderful as I looked past my selfishness and looked on others! I know that these things maybe aren't necessarily things that you may want to read about, but I want to be honest in all that I blog about!

4th of July Weekend

Saturday was a relaxing day at home. Sunday morning was a great service at Hope BaptistChurch. Brandon was able to share communion with the church and it was great to see their reaction. Brandon has been telling the people of the church that we are not a ritualistic church. We do not do things based on the rituals of the country but when God leads us to do them. Brandon had been praying about The Lord's Supper and felt like God would have us do it this Sunday. It really felt like a light came on with several of our members, and God moved among the people! Please continue to pray for these new Christians as we train them in the Word and not in rituals of a country. English service up on the mountain was a wonderful time to share with GLA staff and others who join each week to worship!

After church, we decided to join many of the staff on a ride up, up, up the beautiful mountain side to a log cabin retreat called "The Lodge"; it was absolutely breath taking! It was so relaxing to be away for a little while and bask in the beauty of God's creation! We had a wonderful lunch with our friends!

I love holidays! Every holiday is my favorite and so as the 4th rolled around I made sure I ordered my Old Navy t-shirts ahead of time! We proudly matched in our shirts! It is fun as the girls get older and know what holidays we are celebrating! They were so excited to get our matching outfits out to wear! After our team arrived that will be staying with us this week arrived, we had a light lunch and a little rest and then headed up to our Ft Jacque property for some fun, food, and fireworks! It is so awesome to have a family to share these moments with! Our GLA family have been such a blessing to us and we had a great time celebrating our independance with all of them! Happy 4th of July to all of our friends and family!!

Some past happenings

To bring everyone up to date, I thought I would blog a little this evening on a few happenings since my last post. The new year brought many great things for our family and ministry. On January 12, I had the awesome opportunity to sing for a crusade that a missionary friend of ours had. It marked the year anniversary of the tragic earthquake that took place in the country. However, we didn't focus on the loss, we celebrated the life that we are so thankful to still have to serve God in an even bigger capacity. Going into this experience, I truly felt inadequate to sing in front of so many people, but I felt like God would have me do it. As I thought about this, I joked with a couple friends of mine who are awesome vocalist and told them that they needed to come and help me sing; next thing I know they are coming! I prepared a medley in English/Kreyol of a song written by my friend Betsy, who was on her way to sing with me along with another dear friend Nathan. Their plane was delayed and I had to take the stage by myself; I was amazed at the peace and confidence that God gave me. On one part of the song I had incorporated "Amazing Grace" and it was amazing to hear thousands upon thousands of Haitians, those who had lost loved ones, homes, and everything that they had, join me in singing. God showed me that day thay He uses any and all talents that we have if we allow Him! Betsy, Nathan, Melissa, and I were able to touch many lives with our voices. We were able to share the love, healing and hope that we have in Jesus Christ!

February brought in some great teams and friends that we have made. One team came not knowing where they were staying or who they were staying with. We built a strong bond with them as they told us of their love for church planting. They were such a blessing to our family as we sat with them on the final night of their stay and heard their blessing and prayers for each one of our family members.

March we were able to take a short vacation for 9 days to Orlando. Disney World is alot of hard work but it was worth it to see the excitement on the children's faces!

Since the beginning of the year, we have held 2 baptisms, baptizing 8 precious haitian people. Our church continues to grow and we are running out of room. We have so many faithful members. I have, also, started a ladies singing group. It is exciting to me to be able to start this group and get to know the young ladies who come each week to practice.

April brought a broken leg for our little girl Kylee. I now do not like trampolines very well! Thankfully we are surrounded by great nurses and doctors who were able to help us in every possible way, even in casting it!

May 26th, I was able to share 10 years with my wonderful husband. We had a staff outing planned that fell on the weekend of our anniversary so we spent the weekend at the beach! It was so nice and relaxing to get away from the busyness of life!

Two weeks ago, we had a team of college students who helped us conduct a teen conference and a VBS! It was great to have the help with these activities!

Summer is here and busy, but I will definitely try to keep up the blogging! Just in this blog, it is encourgaging to see the accomplishments!!

A Lazy Saturday

Not often do we just sit around on a Saturday. We usually have a house full of people seeing as our home is a guesthouse; but on this lovely Saturday, our house is empty and a team won't arrive until Monday. So, we took advantage of the opportunity and slept in, sat around and drank coffee, and made cupcakes for Sunday School. Then daddy decided he wanted to treat the family to dinner at the Baptist Haiti Mission! So, off we went to eat some hamburgers and french fries. We all wanted to splurge on some icecream but the machine wasn't working (bummer!). We came home and got things ready for tomorrow's church service and played some ball on the balcony, enjoying the beauty of this country. Children are bathed and I am sitting enjoying the cool breeze and the quietness of the evening! Mood - Content!

Better Late than Never

Someone once told me that I should keep a journal so I could look back and see how far the Lord has brought us in our ministry....I thought to myself, "Sure, in all my free time!" But as I thought about it more, I remembered that I had started this blog! I loved when I was taking time out to blog about the day to day things that happen in our lives and in our ministry. So, as the saying goes, "it is better late than never"; here I go again with trying to capture my favorite moments, not so good days, and day to day life in a third-world country.