we heart summer staff

posted by sharla, wishing she was a summer staffer

we have a great crew of summer staff working with us now. you may wonder why you don't hear from them more on this blog, and frankly, I wonder the same thing. I think they are too busy having fun to take the time to post on a dial-up connection. can we blame them?

we are blessed to have all of these people working with us this summer (in order of appearance): Chris Patterson, Constance Dykhuizen, Kristen Dobson, Mike Mehlan, Jill McCleary, Byron French, and Jenn Noll. they're all awesome and I wish I could be there to experience it all with them!

a few highlights:
Chris, Constance, and Kristen were all there when we first heard about/got Jacob. Chris named him Chris (it didn't stick), and Kristen was the first to feed him. Constance said she cannot be left in charge of a plant so please don't give her baby responsibilities.

Chris and Constance went to the island directly west of the DR. I cannot say the name because they may or may not have had permission to be there.

Kristen and Mike went to Jarabacoa, where I can only assume they jumped off of waterfalls and did not drown. I almost drown there last summer, so I consider that a sizeable feat.

All of them were there for the Chichigua well digging, which I am extremely jealous to have missed! I love that story.

Jill just got there yesterday, so no news yet, but I can tell you she has a motorcycle, so watch out.

Byron and Jenn arrive tomorrow and then their adventure will begin.

Please pray for their safety and their ministry. God is doing awesome things all over the world, and I am particularly excited about what he's doing on our little island!

ADORABLE!

here's a recent picture of jacob - so cute!

land

posted by sharla

we are very excited that we have received money to buy land! yay land! and more importantly, yay God! we are planning to use the land to build a house for our staff and groups as well as a meeting center for a variety of our activites. part of the money that we received was from a grant for a farm. we have a project planned in which we would teach farming skills and provide affordable produce for the people in our villages.

since we are building a house, we need builders! if you'd like to come down with some friends and build, please let me know! we'd like to do as much of the building as we can this fall.

water for chichigua

this is taken from an email from Constance, summer staffer extraorinaire:

today, we worked on digging a well for this small village- chi chi
gua. so we're digging. it's kinda discouraging after a awhile, cause
the people of the village are just sitting there watching the
americans dig a hole in the ground for no apparent reason. haitian men
work harder than probably anyone cutting sugarcane in the fields (at
the rate of $2 per ton- most cannot get 2 tons in a day), but for
whatever reason, they do very little about their living conditions.
but this one woman motions that she would like a pair of gloves and,
in her white dress, jumps into the hole and begins chucking dirt out
of the hole with her hands. all of a sudden, she sees that there is
water seeping in through the bottom and it dawns on her that this is a
well and she will have a water source in her village for the first
time (water is usually brought a few times weekly and strictly
rationed) and she gets this huge grin on her face and yells "gracias a
dios!" here she was, completely willing to help the gringoes just dig
a big hole in the ground, and she is really taking part in bringing
water to her village. so kids start jumping in, panning out water and
people in the village hear and start coming to see the water well up
in the ground. beautiful. and to top it off, it started raining and
it just felt like god was blessing this village with water from all
over.

jacob and isaac

The twins together at last

Sharla has been updating everyone on Jacob , Isaac's twin, who has been staying with us the past week. He will be with us for another week. He is such a sweet baby and loves to talk and smile. We decided to have Isaac come spend the night with us last night so that they could meet each other. They haven't seen each other since they were born. They were very cute together. We aren't able to post pictures from this computer but we did send Sharla some pictures of them so maybe she'll post them. THey look so much alike but also are very different. Jacob is a little taller and has chubbier cheeks. Their personalities are also different. Jacob is a little more laid back than Isaac. Both are so cute and precious in their own unique way. We had fun with the two of them. Keep praying for these little guys and for the adoption papers to go through.

posted by Bethany

your comments

posted by sharla

if you've posted a comment recently and it hasn't shown up, i just figured out why and fixed it. sorry about that! comment away!

in God we trust

posted by sharla

mares, a haitian pastor that we work with, started an english program a few years ago. the problem is he doesn't speak much english and neither do the other guys that teach. sometimes we find funny things written on the board after one of their classes, but sometimes it's good stuff. one day on the top of the black board it said: today is wednesday. in God we trust.

in the midst of all this craziness - trying to get two abandoned babies adopted, no water running to the house, staff leaving, new people coming - it's so good to know that God is our rock. I am memorizing these verses:

I Corinthians 4:16-18

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

just when you thought things were already pretty exciting...enter baby #2

posted by sharla

may i first comment on the value of a good night's sleep. it makes all the difference. kind of like the difference between drying your towels in a drier vs outside on a line. one is nice and cozy and one is scratchy and stiff.

this time around, Isaac was sleeping a lot better at night. sometimes he even slept through the night. last thursday I returned him to Faith, who watches him when I'm not there. I came back here saturday and was planning on helping make plans for his adoption on monday through a contact that we have in haiti. and then i got an email from Jana, Faith's mom - the one who found Isaac in the hospital. she had heard from Isaac's dad saying that Isaac's mom had taken off, leaving him with Isaac's twin, who he didn't want.

today, brian and bethany picked up the baby - we're calling him Jakob for now (yes, with a k) but that'll probably change. we have several summer staff at the house now, so they'll help take care of him until they pass him along to someone else who can take care of him more long term. we're still working on the details of that. and now we have two babies that need adopting!