The first weekend of December we planned an impromptu pool party for the middle school girls from the Liberty Academy. I know that sounds like a bit of an oxymoron (planning an impromptu event) but... this is Haiti =) That Friday, we had closed our morning chapel with a time of prayer and ministry for our students. Many of them were in tears, confessing hurts and pains that they've carried with them for too many of their young years. Many of the teachers were moved to tears as well, as we watched God bring healing to the hearts of these children. Children who have not known the love of their earthly fathers, let alone the pure love of a heavenly Father. Children who have heard the voice of the enemy more often than the voice of truth, speaking into their impressionable young minds...
So after this special morning together, which overflowed into countless conversations with our students throughout the rest of the day, I felt God nudging me to invite the middle school girls (and my Woodeline, who is friends with many of them) over on Saturday morning for an impromptu pool party. The invitations went home (written in the 5 minutes after our Christmas practice), and by 10am the next morning, we had five hyper teenage girls in our small apartment, drinking coffee and chatting before we ventured over to the pool.
The water was quite chilly ... despite the hot mid-day temperatures, the evenings are quite cool this time of year. So very few of us actually swam ;) But we had some great time to just talk, paint toenails (Myriam and Rachelle made some beautiful designs on our feet!), eat Doritos, drink Tang, and catch a few rays of sunshine. It was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday morning. And I know it was the only social activity most of those girls had planned for the entire weekend. Thank you, Lord, for such a wonderful idea!
Shelly and Ingvild, studying the "Greentree" book (a Christmas study that Shakinah's dad wrote) that we're going through with our women's small group. It has been a very special month of going through this study together. We spend time each evening singing a Christmas carol together, sharing memories and traditions from our own family Christmases (this has been especial meaningful for us when Carline is there and she shares from her experiences of growing up in Haiti), and even playing fun Christmas games. We always end the evening by doing the study, digging into the scriptures to get a fresh perspective on the Christmas story (Pete Bertolero, Shakinah's father, does an amazing job of doing this for us in his book), and then closing with a time of prayer and ministry for each other.
It was neat to see how this book impacted some of our families right on the base. Rhodes, having grown up in a very Catholic nation (the Dominican Republic), had never known anything about Advent before. Her family, and her church, were quite opposed to anything that was too 'Catholic,' because they assumed it was not strongly rooted in scripture. But many things that are rooted in Christian tradition ARE rooted in scripture. And she was thrilled to discover the joys of preparing her own family for the Christmas holiday by spending time together in family devotions during these weeks of Advent.
Shakinah leads our small group studies from this book, and Lucy (we are so glad to have her back!) is our faithful translator, so that when Carline or Evodie join us, we can all understand each other. I am starting to wish for a magic Creole potion that I could take so I could speak and understand this beautiful language... I've been working on it ever since my trip to Haiti in March, but it doesn't not come easily. Especially since I didn't study French in high school, AND I am surrounded by English speakers for most of the day. I am very thankful for my class of ESL students though, because as I am teaching them English, they are teaching me Creole! We need both languages to truly span the language gap, so I'm taking advantage of it =) I was encouraged the other day after school, when Katia (the girl who cleans our school every day) and I had a 10 minute conversation with each other. In Creole! I have been trying to take some time on the weekends to intentionally study from my little blue grammar book that I bought in March, but it is difficult. I also love listening to the translation in all of our staff meetings and worship services. That is helping me pick up the language the most ... Lord willing, I will be able to communicate with these people by the time I leave in June =)
Junior (Juhn) and Patrick - two awesome brothers who are faithful, dedicated, hard-workers on this base. Junior is our new head cook and Patrick is in charge of our grounds-maintenance. After the PA team came in October to fix the roof on our old school, Junior has been wearing a 100% authentic Amish outfit to every party and celebration we have on the base. Apparently, one of the young Amish men in the group gave it to him before they left! I get such a kick out of seeing it ... you don't see many Amish in Haiti =)
Luke (staff member on the St. Croix YWAM base) saying farewell to some dear friends, Jude and Carline. We were so blessed to have a DTS from St. Croix come to our base for their mini-outreach. It was a blessing to see God at work in their lives and they helped us out with many things around the base - delivering food to the 5th section, teaching kid's church, sharing dramas and testimonies at our Sunday evening service, and even helping out in the classrooms the day before our Thanksgiving break.
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