2009: A Year of New Beginnings

After the amazing two weeks I spent at home, I couldn't believe how ready I was to come 'home' to Haiti. The flight was smooth, we had beautiful views to enjoy out the airplane window, there was plenty of time for conversation and catching up with Lindsay ... we even had the chance to meet our new housemate, Esther Dodge, because she ended up sitting in the seat right in front of us! God is good.


I don't think I will ever get over the amazing colors of the Caribbean waters ...



Or the rugged beauty of Haiti's mountainous landscape.



When we arrived in Port-au-Prince, we found ourselves in and out of custom and baggage claim in less than thirty minutes. It was almost miraculous! We actually had to wait for Freeman and Roberteau to come back and pick us up, because they didn't think we'd be out so soon and had left the parking lot for awhile. When we got in the bus, we enjoy meeting Wes, a young man from Tennesse who is here for a few months for Season of Service (SOS) - the same program that Lindsay and I are with for our term of teaching with the Liberty Academy.

As always, I enjoyed the sights, sounds and smells of our two hour ride up to St. Marc. However, this ride had a few more surprises than those I've experienced in the past. One is shown in the picture above. We had just left the road from Port and had turned left on National Highway Route 1 when a rock came flying out of nowhere and slammed into our windshield. It hit with such force that we were sure it would come through the glass ... but it didn't! And we found ourselves thanking God for his protection, even in this little things, because the rock would have come straight for my head (or Lindsay's or Wes's) if it DID.

Just minutes later, when our hearts had slowed down again and we were closing our eyes for a big of a rest, Roberteau slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting the car in front of us, who was slamming on their brakes to avoid hitting a cow that was crossing the road! There were three or four who had already crossed over to the other side, and were up on the embankment. But this one wasn't so lucky. She ended up UNDER the car in front of us, which did everything it could to get OFF the cow (backing up, pulling forward...), and somehow, after all this, the cow clambered to her feet on the other side of the vehicle and limped up the embankment to join her friends. They say that cats have nine lives, but I would venture to add to that saying that Haitian cows have at least two!


After settling into my room, I enjoyed looking at some emails that I had downloaded onto Outlook when I was home, but never had the chance to read. I am finding that keeping up with correspondence is even more challenging here in Haiti than it is at home ... but thankfully, with this blog, I can keep a lotof my friends and family updated in one fell swoop. Yay for blogs!



It is good to be with my girls again. Esther, our new 4th and 5th grade teacher (and housemate, and prayer partner, and running partner, and bridge to the people and ways of St. Marc...) is on my left. You should already know Lindsay and Lucy from previous stories and blog posts =)

Esther has been such a blessing in our life these past few weeks, and an answer to so many of my prayers. She taught here at the Liberty Academy two years ago, and after hearing God call her to Haiti at age twelve, has always had a real love for the people of this nation - a nation with a tragic past, a devastated land, and a non-exisistent infrastructure. But despite all that the Haitian people have come through and been shaped by, God is making it clear to his people that this nation is HIS treasure. And he is calling them to take on a new identity - t0 embrace his promise of hope and a future, that he spoke so many years ago through the Prophet Jeremiah.

The last few weeks have been a very exciting time here on the base, as we are beginning to see God at work in fulfilling those promises. A lot of that is happening right now through a renewed sense of brokennes and surrender to God and His ways. We have seen him refining us in countless ways over the last several months, and now he is beginning to reveal some of his dreams and plans for this city and nation, as we seek him in prayer and fasting. I think this might need to be another entry ... so more on that later =) Keep praying!



And here is Wes, surrounded by children. The kids on this base love Wes to death - and I'm just glad he can handle it! He has also stepped into the role of PE teacher for our students at the Liberty Academy, so that has been a huge blessing to us as teachers as well. He recently decided to join the DTS (Discipleship Training School) that began the second week in January. So he is one of two young people who are NOT from Haiti (Mike, a Canadian, is the other one) that are being trained and discipled along with 9 of their Haitian brothers and sisters. It is a really neat group of young people and they have brought a lot of life and energy to our base - along with the many work teams and outreach teams that come and go here on a pretty regular basis.



PE class has even included a few swimming lessons in the pool! While the kids love it, there is not enough supervision right now for us to feel safe with so many inexperienced swimmers in the water. Lindsay has had to jump in after a flailing child on more than one occasion, and so she and Wes decided that we are going to put these lessons on hold for awhile....



I will NOT be lonely or suffer for lack of new friendships this spring! After the hurricanes of last fall, Haiti became a hot spot for mission trips and emergency relief efforts (and now more long-term efforts). As missionaries, we are all receiving the blessings of this new season. I am SO thankful that God has not left us alone. He is bringing to world to us! I pray that we, along with the people of Haiti, can be a blessing to all those who come.

This picture shows some of the girls from the Guadeloupe team who have been with us for three whole weeks now. They are leaving tomorrow, headed for Gonaives and then Jacmel. They have done much good in this town and so we will be sorry to see them go. But I know God will continue using them to bless this nation!

You might wonder what is up with the teachers in this picture ... We just came from a birthday party for Rebekah Nettles, who hosted an "Opposite Personality" theme party for her 13th birthday. Here you see Esther, the 80's work-out show host; Laura, the ghetto teen; and Lindsay, a quiet and withdrawn Muslim woman. We have certainly had our share of fun and fellowship here in the past few weeks ...



Lindsay brought a kite back with her after Christmas (you can see Eli running with it, behind me), and so we took all of our students outside last Friday to take advantage of the stiff breezes that have been blowing off and on the last several weeks and to try it out. It was so much fun to do this as a school ... and in the process, we found and a stray Haitian kite that was caught on the electric wires. It didn't take long for our neighbors, on the other side of the wall, to notice that we now had THEIR kite, and they soon hopped up on the wall and communicated with our students that they wanted it back! So we flew it back over to them =)



This week, as we were trying to teach our morning math lessons, these noisy skidloaders started to dig up the dirt piles right outside our classroom windows. But we did NOT complain about the noise. We just shut our windows, dealt with the stuffy heat, and praised God that we were getting rid of the very LAST dirt pile on this base! Now, the sun finally shines into our classrooms again, brightening up what had been some very dark rooms (due to the limited fuel and electricity around here, we have the choice of fans or lights during the school day ... we usually choose the fans ;)



Lindsay and I discuss our hopes for the future of the Liberty Academy as we walk up the long dusty path to the north property of our base, where the new school is being built. We really need rain around here ... it was so dry and dusty when we came back from break that I came down with a very bad cough. It is still hanging on! But as we and the students prayed for rain every day, we saw God answer our prayers. On Sunday night, we were sitting in the computer lab catching up on emails after church when Lindsay suddenly interrupted our thoughts and said, "Guys! What's that noise?!" We ran outside to see a gentle rain falling on the dry ground. I never knew that something as simple as rainfall could make a person so happy. Esther and I ran outside in it and started dancing around - and the students were all raising their hands on Monday morning when we asked for praises, to share THEIR excitement of God answering our prayers and sending the rain. Lindsay told me later that night that it was the first time since the flood that she heard rain and was actually happy to hear it ... Before that, a lot of negative memories and emotions were attached to that sound.

So thank you, Lord, for rain. And for your goodness in sending it when we most needed it.



And here you see some local men from St. Marc, working very hard in the hot sun, to finish the foundation and pillars for our new school. I have NEVER seen a building go up this fast in any of the third world countries I've visited or lived in before ... God is definitely giving us the man power and the motivation needed to get this thing finished so that we can move our students out of the stifling heat of the sanctuary and into this new Liberty Academy.

If things continue as planned, the PA team that is coming next Saturday will bring the needed supplies and skills for putting up the roof. Then, this same team of Haitian men will finish putting up the cement block walls and we will be one step closer to have a new school! Please pray with us that we can move our students in before the school year is over ...

Another big answer to prayer came a days ago. The base has been waiting for months now (ever since the flood) for three 'new' vehicles to come to our base. The wait was prolonged, however, because the vehicles were sent on a different shipping container than the other supplies that arrived here just before our Christmas break. In early January, the vehicles finally came in as well, but they were held up in customs, where we were informed that the 'laws' had changed and we were only allowed to have two vehicles at a time. The other one (which had our air conditioning unit for the sanctuary inside of it...) was probably going to be liquidated. This was NOT the kind of news we wanted to hear! Especially after all of our prayers and fundraising efforts to make the AC a reality for our students =( So, we kept praying and asking, in faith, for this vehicle to get into our hands and out of the hands of these corrupt government officials.



Some of the Mexico team, cleaning up the two 'new' vehicles that arrived safely from the US. They have been such a huge blessing to us already, as we usually find ourselves with only one working vehicle on a given day. Fuel is also becoming a problem for us ... last week, our Port Run was canceled because we didn't have enough many for gas. So we had to wait until TODAY for our first real Port Run since we arrived back from Christmas break. I am so excited to get mail today! And hopefully some celery from the Caribeean market, so that I can do a science experiment with my students =)

As of yesterday, I heard that the 3rd vehicle and the AC are also on their way! We will need to pay a large fee to get them both out of customs, but I believe that this is the door God opened for us, and so we are going to walk through it, trusting that God will provide the necessary funds.



This young man must've come to work with his dad at the construction site for the day. He loved watching a bunch of 'blans' walking around, taking pictures of these guys working on their new school =)


Esther and her friend, Tamar, discussing the blueprints and plans for the new school and administrative offices. Esther met Tamar when she was living here before, and she introduced me to her our second weekend here. Last Sunday, we attended her father's church, which is just on the other side of the wall from the new school. It was such a neat experience ... after attending just our family night worship services on the base during the fall, I loved meeting and worshiping with some brothers and sisters in Christ who are OUTside our base walls. It is about time I started getting outside of this bubble, and Esther has been helping me to do that in so many ways ... Thank you! And thank you, God, for bringing her here for such a time as this.

Esther and I enjoy running in the mornings before staff prayer, and I love starting my day off like this. We run down by the water's edge, amidst street vendors, goats, chickens, sleeping dogs, and roaming pigs. Our ankles are getting stronger from having to run on such uneven terrain, and we enjoy seeing the varied responses to these two white girls, running in St. Marc at 6 o'clock in the morning. My favorite are the old men who start running with us, quickly lose steam, and then wish us a good morning as we continue on =)



Guitar lessons have started up again - and it is so exciting to see how things have developed! I am just working with Eli and Samuel on Wednesday evenings now (my more advanced 'class'), but we often have other friends and staff members join us. It is more of a jam session, than a formal 'lesson' and I LOVE it! We all teach each other new things, whether it be new chord progressions or new strumming patterns ... and we enjoy worshiping God as we play and sing together. Our first Wednesday back from break, our 'lesson' ran for almost an hour and a half! It was wonderful =)


This week, I started up Saturday lessons for my intermediate class (Kai, Lindsay, and Esther) and for my two little beginners (Levi and April). It is a lot of fun seeing so many people realize their dreams to play an instrument, right here on our base. God is GOOD!



With the new year, Lizzie Snow also started up her dance lessons aginawith some of the young girls from town. I LOVE hearing them practice, as they



Me, Levi, and Caleb, full of smiles at our January birthday party. These little boys bring a smile to so many faces in the course of one week ... Thank you Lord, for children, and the many lessons they have to teach us.



The Mexico team had fun showing us their birthday tradition of smashing cake in the faces of the lucky birthday girls (or boys). Thankfully, we followed this up with our tradition of 'baptizing' the birthday people in our swimming pool. =)