Once upon a Friday...

Some of my students on their way to chapel. Jephte is carrying our music bag (the kids LOVE playing these during our time of worship ... they are so rhythmically gifted!), Scheydline is showing off her pretty pink-polka-dot dress, and Valens is lookin' like Mr. Cool =)



Scheydline posing with her friend Donna, from Mr. Claudy's 2nd grade class



My two birthday boys, Mario and Valens. They both had birthdays the weekend before school started on October 6, so we celebrated them together the last Friday of the month. We had a fun party, complete with a game of "Pin the Tail on the Horse" =)


Woodeline (my little translator, who's getting quite good, by the way!) spinning Scheydline for her turn in the horse game.



Some of Mr. Illioney's students hanging out together after school. Eli (on the left) is definitely one of my favorite kids at the school ... he's already 16, but because of the nature of the Haitian school system, he never did very well in school and has been held back quite a few grades. But he's a brilliantly gifted kid - very artistic and musical, a natural leader (helps teach P.E. class with Lizzy), and an amazing friend to everyone. Tamara (the one in the middle) is a beautiful young woman with a sensitive heart and aspirations to become either a doctor or an interior designer. And Lizzy (Terry's one and only daughter) is just an all-around wonderful girl. She and Eli are close friends and they hang out all the time on the base, along with Samuel, her younger brother.

barn party in Haiti!

Monthly birthday parties are one of our favorite things to do here on the base... but Shelly Nettles is usually the one to plan them and bake the amazing cakes for them, and she is in the states for two months! So that put the three of us women on 'party duty' this month. It was a bit of a challenge with our busy teaching schedules, but we managed to pull it off. A Haitian style barn party =)

Here's Daryl, carefully transporting our October birthday cake to the party in the cafeteria. Shakinah and I baked it (a delicious chocolate fudge cake) after school and then Lindsay mixed up her mom's tasty icing, which Daryl graciously added to the cake for us. We added some gummy pumpkins (courtesy of Stu) and candy corn for the festive autumn look.



Me, Shakinah, and Lindsay - proud of our cake and our fall decorations. Even though they seemed a bit out of place on this tropical Haitian evening...


Ingvild and Terry Snow, lookin' the part for our countrified evenin' =) We even sang a rendition of "Happy Birthday" with southern Texan drawls and the accompaniment of my fiddle! We taught everyone how to play Train Wreck (minus the bales of hay) too, and they LOVED it!


Rhodes, Lilly and me learning how to line dance. Lindsay was a good teacher, but she was also having a blast herself =) I like seeing the farm and country side of her coming out...



Our night ended with the traditional 'pool throw.' Lindsay got wet for a second time, and so did Richard (on the right) and all the other birthday boys =)

lesson time again

I came to Haiti to teach English - to start an EFL (English as a Foreign Language) at the Liberty Academy. I know that God has called me here for this school year, and I'm not sure what his plans are for who will take my place in the coming one ... I'm still praying that he will make that clear to me, in enough time for me to be able to pass on my curriculum and year's experiences with that new teacher. But God has surprised me in opening up other doors and opportunities for teaching as well!

After several weeks of living in Haiti, I found out that the Gephart family had several guitars that were coming on their truck load of house supplies AND that they would let me borrow one for the year! I also found out that their son, Kai, really wanted to learn the guitar. He'd already had a few lessons, but was eager to learn more. During my first WEEK here, Patrick, one of the guys here on staff, approached me about guitar lessons as well. So I prayed about it and decided that I would try giving group guitar lessons once a week for whoever was interested. Even thought I've never had guitar lessons myself, I love to play, and God had given me confidence and experience in teaching guitar over the last two years as I've taught guitar lessons to students after school at LAMS. So, as I felt God's nudging to do so, I offered to give lessons every Wednesday night at 6:30 pm in my classroom.

The class varies every week. Our first week, there were four young Haitian men from on staff who came, eager to learn the basics of their first ever instrument. Kai and Samuel, missionary kids on the base, also came and even helped me teach some of the first chords that we learned that night. The next week, Lindsay came as well so that she could learn the guitar - something she's always wanted to do. After a few weeks, Eli, one of the students from the Liberty Academy, and one of Samuel's best friends, came as well.

It has been so much fun learning together with this group of budding musicians. I know that God has many plans and purposes for bringing together and raising up so much musical talent on this base. I'm excited to see what some of those plans are =) I'm also praying about how to better use music in my own classroom. Just last week, I had the students learn their first memory verse - to the familiar tune of a Steve Green "Hide 'Em in Your Heart" song that I learned as a child, after Mom purchased the tape to help us learn scripture verses. It was from Philippians 4:13: "I can do all things through Christ who strenghthens me."

What a joy it was, just this past Friday, to hear every ONE of my dear students - confident fifth grader down to little first grader - not saying, but SINGing their memory verse to me. God has already given me another excellent verse for this coming week, and the week after that. I know that he has a reason for each one. I was trying to teach my students that the vocabulary "I can't" is NOT allowed in my classroom. I want them to learn to face life's difficulties with a positive attitude and a confidence that, with God's help, they CAN do so much more than they'd ever hope or imagine. This verse fit perfectly in with that lesson. And apparently, because of our thin blue tarp 'walls,' the entire school has learned this verse along with my students ;) So Shakinah asked me yesterday if her 4th and 5th graders could also learn our memory verses along with us each week - something I was very excited about! It will be great for my kids to hear this children, whose English is much better than theirs, singing the same memory verses week after week. Thank you, Lord, for helping to hide your Word in their hearts!



Week two of guitar class was a small one, but a LOT of fun! Kai, Lindsay, and Eli - getting ready to learn the chords for "Lord, I Lift Your Name on High."



Another opportunity for lessons and teaching that I was NOT expecting during my year down here in Haiti, came to me through Terry Snow. One night at dinner he told me that perhaps we should try giving English lessons to the entire city of St. Marc - on television! Now, he had already proposed (via email) to me the possibility of offering English lessons to adults in the community, perhaps in the evenings or on weekends. But I was concerned about having enough time and energy to do that AND to give what I needed to give to my students at the Liberty Academy each week. So I told him that I wanted to wait until Christmas ...

Well, just weeks after we arrived here in Haiti, during one of our Friday night dinners of fried chicken and rice (when Terry and Ingvild join the staff for dinner in the cafeteria), Terry mentioned this possibility of using the one-hour YWAM slot on Dynasty TV for teaching English lessons to the city of St. Marc! Lindsay and I started to get excited about this opportunity, especially if we could tag-team it and find a way to make the lessons fun and interactive ...

But then Hurricane Hanna struck. All of our time and energies were focused on cleaning up the base and reopening the school. But now, the Liberty Academy has been opened for three full weeks, AND we have aired three short programs on Friday night television! The first week of school, Lindsay and I simply introduced ourselves as Carline (the young woman in the picture) interviewed us. We told the people of St. Marc that we will be offering 15 minute conversational English lessons each Friday, and that they should tune in every week if they are interested in learning! Last week we taught some basic greetings and simple conversation for introducing yourself and getting to know another person. Jean Wilgard, another young Haitian man on staff here, who works for Dynasty TV, does our video recording for us. Carline helps with the introductions and Richard serves as our translator. Kristian Snow then uses this video recording and weaves together a beautiful and somewhat entertaining version of our "English Lessons With Laura and Lindsay" and airs it on Dynasty TV.

This past week we taught how to tell time, and specific greetings (like "Good evening") that are used only at certain times of the day. It is fun having my students come into school on a Monday morning and telling me that they saw me on TV over the weekend! And Lindsay and I have even had the experience of random people walking up to us, sometimes after the church service here on the base, to tell us that they saw us on TV.

As they say here on the base, if you want to be famous, you just have to come to Haiti =)

We use the chalkboard in my classroom to post the words or phrases that we teach each week. It is not very snazzy or tech-savvy, but it works. It is better to do something simply and actually make it happen, then not to do it at all ...

Miss Laura, feeling completely worn out after a day of teaching and trying to get refocused and energized for our recording session. Thankfully, with modern technology, we can rerecord our English lessons to cover up all the bumbles and bloopers we make. This past week was full of them, as Lindsay and I were both exhausted after our day of teaching on Wednesday, when we recorded it. But God came through and gave us the strength and energy we needed.

As we say at the end of our lessons, "This has been English Lessons with Laura and Lindsay. See you next week!"

The team of two

MacKendy chatting with the guys as they load their luggage onto the bus. They could not believe how long or bumpy the two hour ride back to St. Marc was ... I guess I'm getting used to it by now, since this is the 7th time I've been on it!


Since this team of 2 is not large enough to convince the kitchen to open up and serve meals on weekends, we offered to feed the guys on Saturdays and Sundays. This was the scrumptious
Sunday lunch I came home to after worship practice. Hamburgers on the grill, fresh lettuce, cucumber, and tomato, and grilled buns. It was amazing!



Lindsay and Shakinah also got the guys to help out with their lesson for kids' church on Sunday. I think they helped to act out a skit about Satan ... ;) I don't think that says anything about their character though. They've been amazingly hard workers from day 1 and have jumped in to everything that happens here on the base.



Here they are putting a real ceiling in our apartment. This might seem like a somewhat 'selfish' project, but Lindsay and I were determined to leave this staff apartment in better condition than when we came. We are hoping to bless the next residents with air conditioning as well (thus, the need to have a ceiling, so all the cool air doesn't escape through the gaps in the tin roofing).



AND they mounted an exhaust fan in our school! This has definitely helped cool things off for us and for the students. But the hot weather continues to persist, so we keep praying that God will show us the best way to move forward from here with the plans for air conditioning. Apparently, there is a unit coming down on one of the trailers. A donated unit. But we also raised the funds to purchase one, and if we were to get one here in Port-au-Prince, it would be installed several weeks before the trailer would get here. Please join us as we pray for wisdom in making this decision... The students at the Liberty Academy are learning many lessons these days. Focus and perseverance in their learning is high on the list, as they fight off the frustrations of sweat dripping into their eyes as they learn, papers constantly blowing onto the floor, and sometimes even into other classrooms (under the blue tarp dividers)!, and the intense heat which forces us to take water breaks every hour or so, to keep the kids from getting dehydrated. But God is teaching us to live with all of this and STILL learn and grow and enjoy doing it! When this air conditioning is finally installed, we will know just how much to appreciate and give thanks for it.

Waiting ...

After all of our shopping and errand-running was finished, we still had about an hour to kill before Daryl and Jay's plane came in. So we found a nice motel restaurant, with a beautiful pool on the upper deck, and chilled while we killed time. Actually, we spent that hour very leisurely and enjoyed every moment of it. Some of us found souvenirs to bring home with us at Christmas, some of us ordered drinks to help cool us off in the hot afternoon hours, and some of us stuck our feet in the pool. And some of us took naps (MacKendy). ;) I guess he earned it though, after driving us all the way to Port and up and down those mountainous roads in town ...

Waiting some more. At the airport. Lindsay's anxious anticipation, and Shakinah's and my shared excitement, were hard to miss as we stood along the railing, singing loudly and getting very giddy about the arrival of our new visitors. It was quite the drama. By the time Jay and Daryl walked out of the doors of the airport, I was surprised the whole crowd didn't erupt in applause! They nearly did ... but it was fun to share our joy. And I think the Haitians like being part of it =)


This young man, a friend of MacKendy's, got permission for Lindsay to go inside and wait in there to personally greet Daryl and Jay. She was MORE than eager to take him up on his offer!



And here he is!!! Safe and sound. And Jay is here too =) And the four brightly-colored suitcases (I had my eye on the orange one, as I knew it carried some special care packages that were for Lindsay and me...).

The happy couple. It's been fun seeing Daryl connect with people here on the base - staff, young people at church, and students at the Liberty Academy. He even taught Math for Lindsay's 3rd graders on Friday, and they loved it! He did too =) Maybe we have another teacher recruited for the Liberty Academy ...

Ladies' Day Out...

6:30 am comes far to soon on a Saturday morning ... Rhodes, Lilly, and Lindsay. Looking bright eyed and bushy tailed and read for a day in Port-au-Prince. It was also Rhodes' birthday, so we bought her a cake when we made our lunch stop (and had her convinced it was a welcome cake for the boys, Daryl and Jay). It was a special day. Especially for a mother-daughter outing =)

Rhodes, doing some plant shopping for her new house. It is so refreshing to see lush green plants in this dry, dusty land! Even thought it's still technically rainy season, we don't see much rain these days. When it rains, rivers appear from nowhere in the dusty earth, but hours later, the fierce sun parches the ground and sucks all the moisture right back into the clouds where it came from. One of these days I want to visit the greenhouse that Rhodes discovered here in St. Marc to purchase some plants for my classroom...



The reliable white bus had a bit too much uphill driving for it's liking on this trip ... you can see the smoke coming from the engine. Thankfully, it was just overheated, so after resting for a while at the Lynx post office stop, it was refreshed and ready to go again. But we definitely prayed our way to and from Port that day!



The ladies, looking very hopeful as they stand outside the post office. We await letters and packages from home like they were worth more than their weight in gold! And sometimes it feels like we have to PAY more than their weight in gold, with the $1.50 per pound fee that they slap on to already-paid postage ... But we have all come to agree that it worth the cost. And to anyone who has ever sent a real piece of mail or a care package, ALL the way to Haiti, just to brighten our day, THANK YOU! You have been a huge blessing. More than you know ...



The mail room. We spent almost an hour in here, trying to convince the men who sort through boxes in the back room that Shakinah DID indeed have more than one box with her name on it. They finally agreed to look again and found one. Then another. By the time we left, we decided that we were going to pray over that box room every time a package comes in. Because somehow or other, these boxes seem to be MIA, until we persist in our questioning and convince the workers (sometimes doing this completely on faith) that there IS something there with our name on it. Up to this point, they've always found it =)

Bon fet, Lindsay!

On Monday, October 13th, Lindsay celebrated her 21st birthday. Haitian style! She was blessed to have the PA team arrive just weeks before her birthday, so they brought a suitcase stuffed full of gifts and cards (from a special card shower her mom coordinated) from home. I was amazed at her patience as she obeyed the rule on her gifts ... "Do not open UNTIL your birthday." This beautiful outfit (and the bag) was a gift from her sister. It was the perfect gift, because she was just telling me the night before how she had no IDEA what to wear for her birthday, and then this was the first gift she opened in the morning. Problem solved =)



After school, Lindsay's third graders enjoyed participating in the long-standing tradition of throwing people in the swimming pool on their birthday.



Shak, enjoying Lindz's new lighter a bit TOO much ... We tried to make a 21 out of our twelve candles. Don't know if you can see it or not, but it's there! The cake was also a gift from Lindsay's sister - a cake mix in a glass jar, with chocolate and butterscotch chips already mixed in. It was delicious! See? ...





Lilly came over after school to enjoy a swim with her teacher, Miss Lindsay, and to help her open the hundred plus birthday cards that she had received. What a bundle of encouragement! I'll pass on a HUGE thank you in Lindsay's behalf. This was one of the best birthday's she's had in a while, even so far from home, family, and friends... God is good. ALL the time.

a trip to town

When our stash of bread, powdered milk, and eggs begins to diminish, we know what's in store ... a ride in the pack of a pick-up truck! Since we don't have our own car down here, or the courage (or craziness?) to pursue our international driver's license so that we COULD drive, we have to track down someone on the base who can. And last weekend that someone was Rodney Gephart. And since Rhodes was in need of some groceries as well, we all jumped into the white Toyota and made a fun day of it =) Ethan Snow decided to come along too. I guess he didn't want to miss out on the adventure of a shopping trip at S.D. By the way, I'm really gonna miss riding in the back of trucks when I get home to the states ...



A view of Ethan's arm. And the streets of St. Marc. I never cease to be amazed how many women wear white down here! In the midst of all the dust and/or mud, they proudly show off their beautiful dark skin and white smiles as they wear the most starch-white blouses, skirts, and dresses. I don't think I'd have the courage to do that. Every now and then I wear my favorite white skirt to our Sunday evening church services. But the last time I did that, we had a pretty heavy evening thunder shower and it received a new brown polka dot pattern all over the bottom edge of ruffles... It's clean again, thanks to the nice washer and dryer we have while we're house sitting for the Nettles. But it definitely makes me not want to wear much other than denims and blacks and browns!



The one and only stoplight in the city of St. Marc. It does seem to bring some order to the chaos of these city streets... However, last weekend, when we were picking up Daryl (Lindsay's boyfriend) and Jay (his coworker and friend, and ironically and old acquaintance from Ephrata Mennonite School days!) in Port-au-Prince, we ran straight THROUGH one of these! I think it had something to do with the fact that our bus engine was overheated, we were driving down a VERY steep section of the mountainous Petionville, and our driver, MacKendy, did not want the bus to break down as it had during his last trip to Port. Thankfully, there was no cross-traffic. So we ran the light, no cops showed up (not that they would for something so menial, especially here in Haiti...), and we continued on our merry way to the Lynx post office.



A typical view of the mid-day traffic in downtown St. Marc. Motor bikes abound, and they do NOT follow any system of traffic rules. At least not any system that makes sense to our Western mentality of order and respect! When Jay and Daryl went into down this week to find wood to install a ceiling in our apartment, they witnessed a motor bike accident right in front of the store. There were two men on the bike, and as they careened around the corner, a young boy (who was innocently crossing the street) was suddenly in their path. They slammed on their brakes, but proceeded to hit him pretty hard, sending him sprawling several yards up the dusty street. Daryl said that the man on the back of the bike ALSO flew onto the ground, but the 'gentleman' driving simply sat on his padded seat, waved his fist in the air, and yelled at the young boy who 'got in his way.' Talk about crazy drivers! Thankfully, the young boy was fine and he jumped up and ran off, with no injuries to accompany him. When Lindsay, Shakinah and I heard this story, after our day of teaching, all we could say was, "TIH." This is Haiti. We find ourselves saying that a lot these days...

Just as a side note, this phrase comes from the movie "Blood Diamond" - a powerful story of the diamond smuggling that goes in many African nations, in this particular story, the nation of Sierra Leone. Throughout the movie, they keep saying, "TIA. This is Africa." We liked the phrase and decided to adapt to our own experiences in this crazy, beautiful nation of Haiti =)

More school pictures

Mrs. Rhodes and Mr. Claudy with their young 'uns - the preschool and 2nd grade class. They have their rooms temporarily set up in the meeting room, but as soon as the old school is repaired, they will move back in there until the New Liberty Academy opens its doors!



Krystal, Donna, and Stacy acting shy on during their first Friday morning chapel. I LOVED watching these kids worship together - what a dynamic group! Their singing, dancing, and clapping would put many of us stiff northerners to shame...


Miss Lindsay's class putting their newly made fans to work =) Thanks, mom for giving us this brilliant idea for art class on the second day of school. It made the day MUCH more bearable!


Donna, our 'mother' from the PA team who helped to clean our school for day one AND who kept going all week as the rains flooded our rooms time and time again. At least it was clean water this time around! And thankfully we have had a very dry start to week two, with no wet floors and no wet posters falling off the walls. As much as we need the rain, I am thankful for the clear skies and dry ground right now...


Lilly, doing her math homework and interviewing one of our Amish workers from the PA team. I think she was asking him what his favorite flavor of jello is for the tally chart that Miss Lindsay assigned them. =) So what is YOUR favorite? Lime green, orange, or pink?

the first day of school!

Since the mold ruined so many of our library books, this shelf was sitting empty. The night before our first day of school, we had a LOT of mud on the walkway leading up to the sanctuary and no time to remove it (and many more rainstorms on the way to keep it there...). So I tried to put on my thinking cap - my Haitian "thinking outside of the box" cap - and decided that we should use it as a shoe rack! While it adds a bit more time into our schedule when we come and go from the school (for snack, lunch, and P.E.), it has been the perfect solution for keeping our classroom floors clean!


Miriam, Lilly, and Stacy visiting with each other in Miss Lindsay's room on the first day of school.


Opening day assembly - Mr. Illioney greets the troops!


Our mini-skit series on each attribute of the classroom constitution. Here, Kai and Lilly prepare us for a lesson on attentiveness ...


And, here it isn't. Miss B, Miss Lindsay, and Miss Laura are showing the students how NOT to behave, while Miss Rhodes is the picture of obedience and attention =)

new beginnings at the Liberty Aademy

These piles of mud were our attempt to keep the flood waters out of our school each time it rains. If it only rains a little bit, they do the trick. But when we get one of those heavy downpours, the water comes in at so many different places that this mud does very little to keep our rooms dry. The pile by the door also forced us to change our main entrance to the OTHER side of the sanctuary, where we now have a make-shift sidewalk of broken bits of concrete block. At least the students can get in without too much labou (mud) on their shoes. And we've made a 'no shoes' policy in the classrooms now, so we get to learn and teach barefoot (or sock-footed)!


The first of two PA teams to come help us rebuild this fall arrived on October 2nd. Not a day to early. We put them to work repairing the roof of our old school, so that three of the rooms can still be used (2 for classrooms, one for storage). They also helped mount large ceiling fans in the sanctuary to help temper the sauna-like climate in there. It was such a blessing to have that for the first few weeks of school - even though our students' papers are flying all over the place now! One of the first English phrases I had to teach my students was "hand on paper" - so that they didn't lose their work every time I handed it out to them =) We are praying for the details of our AC installation to get worked out asap so that the classrooms aren't so distracting for the rest of the year...


Lookin' good, Miss Lindsay! This 3rd grade classroom is ready to go =)


I did what I could to add a bit of life to the mud and water-stained walls of my classroom.


Miss B (Shakinah) and her two fifth grade boys, ready for day 1 of school!

food for the hungry...

The food ticket distribution line - as it neared lunchtime, we moved out of the sun and into the shade of the sports arena. After 2 weeks of food distro experience, our system was running very smoothly. This particular day seemed very blessed ... God had laid it on Philipson's heart to share scripture with each group of flood victims that entered our gate (we were bringing them in about 30 at a time to cut down on the pushing and rioting). During our staff meeting that morning, Rhodes shared an email from a YWAM base in Brazil ... apparently, God had laid it on their hearts to pray Isaiah 61 over the nation of Haiti and our YWAM base in particular. So before receiving their tickets for the food their physical bodies so needed, Philipson read this passage out of his Bib La and these Haitian brothers and sisters received spiritual food as well.

At this point, over 14,000 hot meals have been provided for the sinistre (flood victims) of St. Marc! Praise the Lord. And a HUGE thank you to everyone who has helped to support this food distribution with your financial gifts and your prayers.

The ticket booth, manned by our wonderful Tyler Texas team (only 3 strong, but definitely one of the hardest working groups I've seen yet!).

Carline (a recently-returned and very much missed DTS student!), Rhodes and I chatting in between distribution times. Carline is holding Philipson's guitar for him, as our music was also on hold ... On this particular morning of food distribution, God was at work using music to bring blessing and peace on the usually agitated crowds of sinistre. He had laid it on my heart during prayer that morning to ask Rodney if I could play or sing as the people waited in line... but God beat me to it! As I walked up to see how things were going at the arena, Philipson was standing there with his guitar and he asked me if I'd like to join him in playing music for people to listen to. I told him that God had laid that very thing on my heart (reminding me of how young David played his harp to calm the agitated spirit of King Saul so many years ago in the kingdom of Israel...), so I ran to get the violin I've been borrowing from the Snows, and we enjoyed improvising worship for the next hour and an half. At the end of the day, Rodney said he'd never seen food distribution run so smoothly before ... we could tell who was REALLY in charge that day! The God of peace. =)

Lindsay and I with two young women we met during the food ticket distribution. All because of some pink flip flops...

And here they are =) Lindsay's new pink pair are now on the feet of the dear woman whose own pink pair were wired together and far too worn-out to give her any kind of support or protection. Once again, I have been so encouraged and blessed to see God using Lindsay's generous spirit to share with those in need around her. I love you, Lindz! God is certainly blessing you to BE a blessing. Keep on giving. He WILL reward you.

Moving the school, again

So after moving everything from our old classrooms into the cafeteria, and then into the meeting room, we moved them once more to the sanctuary. Our new school for the next few months. The missionary kids on the base were a great help, as they lent their muscles and tireless energy to the cause at hand.


See? They look pretty strong, don't they =) And these are the 'mud flats' that they carried everything across. This used to be a beautiful green field of grass, and I know it's hiding under there somewhere, because here and there the determined green blades are beginning to push their way up to the sunlight.


Mission accomplished! Lindsay was supervising the fine work of these young 'uns and when they were finished, she rewarded them with a Twizzlers from her newly received care package.



April enjoying a ride on the skid loader with her dad, Freeman Nettles. This skid loader has been such a blessing on the base ... we hear it running every day, as it takes load after load of mud from our base.

so it rained again last night...

Yesterday was quite the emotional roller coaster ride ... After a very discouraging day on Wednesday (not feeling well, getting very little accomplished in my classroom, feeling literally drained of any kind of energy or motivation), I was praying that God would strengthen my hands and lift my spirits so that I could get back to work in preparing for the new school year. The start of school has been postponed so many times now I've almost lost count, and I KNOW that Satan would love for us to never get around to the business of shaping these young minds and hearts for the Lord's purposes. But the date is set. October 6th - our last 'official' starting date. I know that NOTHING is going to keep us from opening our doors for the young children of St. Marc to come and learn at 8 o'clock on Monday morning. NOTHING.

I spent about 3 hours in my classroom yesterday morning (before it got too hot and sticky in there), putting up posters, arranging the reading corner in the sanctuary, cleaning up the school entrance area ... it was a very productive 3 hours and I was so encouraged by the time lunch rolled around. My corner of the sanctuary looked like a real classroom! It actually looked a LOT better than my old room in the school ever could've looked ... with two large windows, the room is very well lit and with the bright tile floors, the room has such a polished look about it. The enthusiasm that had been washed away with the floodwaters of Hurricane Hanna was starting to creep back into my spirit again.

And then ... another little surprise. A turn in the road that I wasn't expecting. But really, what was I expecting? Life on the mission field is FULL of opportunities for growth in the areas of trust and flexibility. Right? Four days before school is supposed to start, I find out that I am supposed to teach math for the 4th and 5th grade classes, because their teacher is not very comfortable teaching that subject, and I am technically 'free' during that time because that is the one subject my ESL students would be most capable of learning IN English. So I spent the next several hours browsing through two Saxon Math textbooks and trying to come up with a teaching structure that would allow me to teach math to two 4th graders (one who knows very little English) and two 5th graders (again, one who knows little English) during the same 40 minute block of time. Thankfully, God gave me the insight and creativity I needed to come up with something that will work, and it all came together before the dinner bell rang! God keeps reminding me, in all of my preparation for teaching this year, that HE is the one who called me to this task and so HE is the one who will provide what I need to complete it. To His glory.

Ok. Dinner time ... it was spaghetti and salami again. Actually, one of my favorite meals on the base. As much as I love rice and beans, it starts to look less appetizing after eating it 5 times a week! Dinner was a tad more exciting than usual last night because we were awaiting the arrival of our next work team. A team from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania! And not only that, Lindsay and I both had a suitcase of goodies (teaching supplies, small gifts, and other personal stuff) that were arriving WITH the team! We got word during dinner though, that the bus had broken down about 20 minutes from the base. Our 'dump truck' was already on the way to pick them up so it could tow them the rest of the way to St. Marc. So we had to wait again... another lesson of life on the mission field. Patience. But by 7pm, in the middle of my guitar lessons with Samuel Snow and Kai Gephart, we heard the bus horn honking! We dropped our things and RAN. Back from my classroom in the sanctuary, across the 'mud field' (what used to be our lush green grassy field), and to the cafeteria. There we met and enjoyed chatting with a very travel weary, but energetic group of PA folk. I tracked down the six Dell laptops that they hand-delivered for us (thank you to Stu Metzler and Chris Scott for making this possible!), and put them in the safety of our office. Then I enjoyed a home-made chocoloate cookie from Shirley Horning (Lindsay's mom), and started the search for my black duffel. Lindsay's face lit up when she saw her piece of luggage - a bright orange suitcase - making its way down the stairway from the dorms. And we started asking around to see if anyone knew who had carried mine in ... But much to my sadness, I found out that two pieces of luggage were still somewhere in the baggage claim at the airport in Port au Prince. And mine was one of them. Lord, keep granting me patience ... Thankfully, God gave me more than enough joy for one evening by just giving me the opportunity to meet and talk with some people from my hometown. And on top of that, I had the joy of looking through Lindsay's suitcase with her and doubling her joy by getting excited about every little thing that her family and friends sent along for her. Twizzlers, Raspberry Mint Orbit Gum, a new flashlight, a cute pairt of black rubber boots with colored polka dots ... and much to my surprise, a small card and gift for ME! I cannot thank Lindsay's mom ENOUGH for her thoughtfulness. There were three photographs of my family at the Haiti Banquet last Thursday, including a really special one of my two grandfathers and my parents talking and laughing with Terry Snow. And to top it all off, she had a lovely picture of Stu (also taken, somewhat surreptitiously I might add!, at the banquet) - blown up and set in a silver frame. THAT made my night =)

But it was not long after dark that the rains started. It was just an innocent thunderstorm. The kind of storm you'd expect at the end of a hot day here in Haiti, especially during rainy season. I was enjoying the sound of rain again, as I sat in the Nettles living room typing up my Classroom Chores chart. It's been getting so dry and dusty, since the floodwaters receded several weeks ago. So I thought nothing of it. But when Lindsay was finished Skyping and getting ready to hit the sack, she asked me if my classroom windows were closed. I knew that they weren't, as I always keep them open to help cool down and air out the hut stuffyness that is my classroom. But since it was coming down pretty hard, I decided to be on the safe side and go close them up. After all, my teacher desk sits right inside one of them, and I had just finished organizing it and had all manner of papers and school supplies sitting on top of it. I didn't really want the rain splashing onto them ... I had experienced enough damp and moldy school supplies for one year.

Lindsay offered to come with me, so we grabbed her new red flashlight and made our way to the sanctuary. I was wearing my flip-flops, but Lindsay decided to try out her new black boots (she had just finished telling me that she didn't think she would ever get to use them, now that they had arrived). As we walked into the school, our eyes met an all too familiar sight. Water was dripping down the walls, wrinkling my newly mounted "Days of the Week" and "Weather" posters (How ironic, eh? I still had the little arrows pointing at the picture for ... "Today's weather is SUNNY!"). It was dripping from the poorly sealed corners and edges of the tin roof, puddling up on the floor, and before long, pouring in from the side door by the apartments (this is the lowest area here on our base). Suddenly, the adrenaline kicked in and we found ourselves in survival mode again. Lindsay grabbed a stick and began pushing away the dirt and cement blocks that were making the water puddle up inside the door and I grabbed a broom to start sweeping the water out into the yard. The water level was obviously rising, so Lindsay ran to alert Illioney while I continued trying to keep the water out of our newly set-up classrooms. It wasn't long before the water was level with the sanctuary floor... so I grabbed some bags of cement that were already wet, and with all the strength I could muster, formed a barrier around the door. By the time I finished this, Illioney and a whole crew of the staff had come to our rescue. They got the skid loader up and running and starting pushing mud up against the sanctuary door. They also grabbed shovels and widened the ditches and waterways that we spent so much time digging in the weeks after the flood. Around 11:30, after about an hour of this excitement, the rain slowed to a drizzle and the newly formed river that was running through our base again had gone from above boot-level down to about 4 inches. Thank God. I know that a lot of us were beginning to fear a repeat of last month's flood. Not to mention a repeat of our month-long clean-up efforts. But by God's grace (and I know many of us were praying our way through that thunderstorm...), we have been spared.

This morning, the sun came out. There is a lot of mud on our once-clean sidewalks, but it is now only inches. Not the foot plus we had before. And we now have a wonderful team of workers from PA, with fresh energy and enthusiasm, to start the clean-up process once again. As I write this, the two women who came with the team are mopping the mud out of our school and organizing the chaos on our library bookshelves. The skid loaders are running, carrying load after load of our mud mountains and depositing them into the back of the dump truck. Some men are up on the old school roof, assessing the damage and making plans to salvage part of it so that we can cover three of our old classrooms. God is good. He never gives us more than we can handle. But sometimes, I wonder just how strong he thinks we are ...

I am happy to say though, that even as Lindsay and I were standing in mud and water in our NEW school last night, pondering what this might mean for the start of the school year on Monday morning, we declared again that NOTHING is going to stop us now. Even if the rains continue and we find ourselves teaching in an inch or two of water, we are going to sieze every moment we have as a teachable moment and show these children what an AWESOME God they have, what AMAZING people He has created them to be, and what INCREDIBLE plans He has for their lives. Satan, no matter what you bring our way to try to discourage us and keep us from fighting for the lives of these children and for the future of their nation, WE WILL NOT GIVE UP THE FIGHT!

"We are pressed, but not crushed. Persecuted, not abandoned. Struck down, but not destroyed. We are BLESSED BEYOND THE CURSE, for His promise will endure. HIS JOY'S GONNA BE OUR STRENGTH! Though the sorrow may last for the night, His joy comes in the morning."

Thank you Lord for all of your goodness to us. For all of your blessings. You are GOOD.