more of Him

This my friends, is a short story about a bull.

This (was) a bull that wasn’t very happy to get shocked by an electric fence as soon as it arrived last week. And this (was) a bull who, because of that electric shock, ran around the seminary campus chasing a few guys with the intent to get some payback with his horns. [[Luckily he wasn’t successful!]]

This (was) a bull who I’m sure didn’t know that he only had a few short days left of life after his arrival…

This (was) a bull who was slaughtered with a machete under a shady tree right 50 feet from our apartment.

And, lastly, this (was) a bull that served as a not-so-gentle reminder that we don’t have the ability to hop in a car and drive to the closest butcher (or Sam’s Club) to buy beef in bulk.

Nope, both the bull and butchers come to us, at the cost of a pretty penny. However, the butchers don’t have guns or electrical prongs – they come to do their job simply with machetes and hammers (and wheelbarrows?), which makes the process seem even more ugly than it already is.

This bull was a not-so-gentle reminder that:

• Ø  one cup of butter costs $4
• Ø  one tub of Crisco costs $10
• Ø  one small bottle of parmesan cheese costs $7
• Ø  one dinky roll of paper towels costs $4
• Ø  one box of noodles costs $6
• Ø  one large box of crummy toilet paper costs $75
• Ø  one large can of powdered milk costs $30
• Ø  one gallons of gas costs $5
• Ø  the list goes on for outrageously priced conveniences…

Buying things here take effort and they are definitely not cheap! Items have to get shipped here which results in an enormous mark up on the price.

I haven’t been here for long but there are already a lot of new (old) ways of doing things that I am getting used to. (I’m sure some of these might make some people laugh… especially those of you who grew up doing these things!)

Things like:

• Ø  drinking powdered milk
• Ø  making everything from scratch - my own bread and cereal and sauces and… well, basically everything
• Ø  starting dinner hours before you hope for it to be ready
• Ø  defrosting a 50-pound chunk of icy chicken legs (which thankfully will last us a long time!)
• Ø  trying to do laundry on a cloudy day, resulting in still-damp, soggy clothes
• Ø  going into the street markets, hunting for what you need and then bargaining for the right price (Pure craziness! It’s going to take a while to get used to that one!)

I must admit there are moments where I wonder how it can possibly feel like I’m going so far back in time when it is the year 2014!

And then I quickly remember that a large proportion of the beautiful people living in this country don’t even have clean water. They don’t have sewer systems. They don’t have trashcans and special trash days where guys in big fancy dump trucks drive around and pick up their trash along the curb of a smooth, paved, pothole free road. Some might not have enough food to feed their entire family for the day. Many are living in huts or crumbling buildings without roofs. My heart aches for those people, in particular, when a big storm hits. Where do they go to hide from the rain? Where do they find shelter?

And yet in the midst of what looks to me (visually) like there is so much that is lacking here, when I look around I see friendly faces with happy smiles. I see moms and dads who are trying to provide for their families. I see brothers and sisters and school friends who are joyfully playing together without the need for a Nintendo DS or iPhone to keep them entertained.

I see people worshiping the same God of our bible and praising Him for the little things in life. Things that I take for granted or things that (let’s be honest) I don’t even appreciate.

I see people edifying one another and praying for each other, that God would give them each the ability to carry out His mission. That He would fill them with the Holy Spirit and guide them and be with them as they share the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout Haiti.

What fills me up even more is that I see people not only praying for these things… I see them DOING these things! I see this especially in the students here at Emmaus!

When they hear the good news, believe and repent from their old ways, they are ready to LIVE the Christian life, and a huge part of that is simply sharing about who Christ is. That is a simple (yet very important) commandment that so many people have a hard time doing (the Lord knows that I am included in this generalization!). So many come to Christ and then want to keep Him to themselves or are just too nervous to tell others about him. But we aren’t commanded to keep Him to ourselves – we are commanded to spread the good news! And part of that good news for us is that Christ is there in our hearts and beside us, helping us calm our nerves. And we are also called to live in community with other Christians so that we can build one another up and keep one another accountable.

These are all things that I see in the body of Christ here in Haiti.

These are beautiful things.

So seeing a bull slaughtered right outside of my door was not the best way to start out my morning. It was rather “inconvenient.” I would prefer to go to a store and pick up a prepackaged case of meat that doesn’t resemble a cow anymore. But while I’m here, I don’t have the luxury of doing that. And that’s okay.

Things like the bull (or a $7 block of butter) make me realize that even though the people of Haiti might not have the materialistic things [or even simple conveniences] I tend to think of as normal, those who follow Christ do not seem to be lacking spiritually.

I am thankful for my ability to see how greatly God is working in the lives of his followers here; without it, I think my ability to live here would diminish. Even though Haiti isn’t a developed country, if the followers of Christ continue to multiply, Haiti would have something that other developed countries don’t: fullness. Haiti would have fullness of the Holy Spirit, unclouded by the seemingly omnipresent materialism of our so-called ways of American life.

And that, my friends, is [one of the many] things that I think we could take away from the Haitian culture and integrate into our own. We could use a little less convenience and a little more a lot more of Him.

Relax.

Woah, I just realized how long its been since I last posted! I haven't even share a post about the OMS retreat to the Dominican. It’s been a little crazy around here since then, to say the least!

 At the beginning of March, the entire OMS Haiti team got to spend a few days of rest and relaxation in the DR with sand in our toes and delicious food in our bellies.

Since we got back (on March 4^th or 5^th? – I can hardly remember!) everyone at EBS has been working hard to catch up on the things we left behind and get back into the swing of daily life here at Emmaus. It seems that this last week has been especially exhausting for all of us. By the time Friday came, we were all ready for some down time and needed some rest, time to clear our minds, and time to allow God to refill our cups, so to speak, which seemed a little drained of the Holy Spirit.

It’s crazy to think that tomorrow marks 5 weeks since we arrived. In those 5 weeks we have been blessed by so many and now that we are moved into the loft (apartment) we really feel at home. What an amazing feeling! It’s been a long time coming and I am praising God daily for placing His call for us to come to Haiti.

I’ve really gotten into the swing of things in the finance office and it didn’t take me long to realize that this “finance office” really should be renamed to the “smorgasbord office” – or something along those lines. :) We are involved with so much more than bookkeeping! Basically everything on the entire campus that has to do with money (everything – errands, mail, food, bills - and everyone – including missionaries, staff and students!) makes their way to our office. Which is great practice for my creole, although things would go much smoother if I already knew the language fluently and knew all of everything I need to know concerning the office.

I cannot even count on both hands how many times people have come into the office and handed me money (or asked for some) and rattled off what its for in Creole and I just sit there with a funny, confused look on my face. Thankfully I understand enough of the language and most of the students know enough English for me to get by and figure things out!

But the thing that really gets me is wondering how on earth Stacey managed to balance the finance office with teaching and homeschooling and being a mommy and everything else she has going on! The only conclusion I have come to is that it is by God’s grace (and Him discreetly giving her more hours in the day than the rest of us) that she has been able to do it all without going off the deep end. Is that your secret, Stace? :)

On another note about language, I have some exciting news! Ryan is teaching his class in CREOLE on Tuesday, for the first time! I think he is a little nervous and he has been preparing for it this weekend, but I’m so excited to see how it goes. So you can definitely be praying for that situation, that he will find the words he needs to say and that the class will go well.

The weather has been BEAUTIFUL lately! Haiti has gotten some much-needed rain; the grass is green and the gardens are soaking it up. The rain has brought some cloudy, breezy skies, which has made the weather not only bearable but nearly perfect. If only it could stay like this all year round. :) All of Haiti has been praying for rain for months and everyone is now praising God for sending rain the last few weeks.

Last weekend we went to Dhaloo Beach with a large team of visitors. It was my first time there and I loved it! First, you have to ride on these awesome boats to get to the beach:

 Which I loved every minute of, of course!

Then we ate lunch there and I ordered pwasson gros-sel and it looked very unappetizing yet it was quite DELICIOUS. :)

These last few days have been fantastic, too. We have all been resting and are regaining the strength needed to start a new week of crazy. Saturday morning the OMS ladies held a bible study and it was refreshing to sit together over breakfast and talk with one another, praise the Lord and lift up our prayers for one another.

Then this morning we went to Abel’s church (he is staff here are EBS) within walking distance of Emmaus. It was a great experience and I can’t help but gladly notice that each week I am understanding more and more at the church services. As first time visitors, Abel asked us to introduce ourselves, which led to an embarrassingly funny story of Ryan’s introduction of us. He stood up and in Creole he introduced himself and said that we were happy to be there to worship our Heavenly Father with them.

Then he proceeded to introduce me by telling them, “You can call her my wife…. or Cheyenne.” This doesn’t really make as much sense in our English language or our American culture, but here it is culturally acceptable and is definitely the norm to call a woman “________’s wife” – such as Ryan’s wife. But it was pretty hysterical (and embarrassing) because instead of saying that they could call me “Ryan’s wife,” he was saying everyone could call me “my wife” (aka their wife) – and everyone was cracking up. Ryan assures me that it was a planned joke all along and everyone else seemed to take it as a joke and laughed. I was trying to laugh along with everyone else, and it made me feel better that they thought it was just a funny joke by a foreigner, but that didn’t keep my from turning beet red from having so many people staring at me! All in all, it was pretty funny and I can only imagine that every time we go there from now on everyone will have forgotten my actual name but will surely remember that introduction. :)

It’s safe to say there have been a lot of language funnies since we arrived. I am thankful that we are surrounded by our many brothers and sisters in Christ who are just happy that we are taking Creole seriously, even if we do make funny and embarrassing mistakes! Our new friends seem to be much more confident in our language abilities than we are, which is encouraging and makes us excited to continue our learning.

Definitely keep our language acquisition in your prayers! That is our biggest concern for now, especially since Ryan is going to begin teaching in Creole. I have been feeling so thankful that God blesses us with the desire and ability to learn different languages so that we can reach out to different nations, all for His glory.

And for those of you wondering how we are settling in, we are finally completely unpacked and I figured I would show a few pictures of our apartment! There are a few minor things that still need done (like doorknobs and screen doors) and the guys are working on the porch, but it is absolutely BEAUTIFUL and after a few months of feeling like nomads it feels so much like home!

Below is the current progress of the porch, which you get to through those glass doors in the kitchen. Doesn't it have such a beautiful view?!

 Here's the closet organizer that was just built a few days ago. I love it and as of yesterday we are completely unpacked and no longer living out of our suitcases. It's official. :)

 Below is the spare bedroom/office/drying room. Haha - yesterday I decided to do laundry but since it was cool and cloudy all day our clothes didn't dry before the rain hit! So I turned that room into the laundry drying room. :)

We are BEYOND happy to be moved in! 

Speaking of moving in, there are some other critters who call this place their home as well. The frogs and lizards I don't mind and actually smile when I find them hopping around and climbing the walls. But these on the other hand......

These are not cute and I do NOT welcome them in here. This HUGE, scary thing greeted me by jumping off of a pineapple that I picked up to cut. I nearly grabbed onto the thing!

I spent the rest of the afternoon worrying about this thing jumping on me or imagining myself finding it under the bed sheets. But thankfully these two guys came to the rescue... bug vacuums and all.

That day, Ryan and Ethan were my super heros. I told Ethan that if he ever hears me scream from across the campus it means to come QUICK with the bug-sucker-vacuum-thing because a spider is most likely trying to attack me!!! 

So, that's life for us the past few weeks. I am so happy that I was able to get in contact with some family and friends this weekend over Skype. I feel like I am so behind on all of the news back in Nebraska and Kansas but it is so wonderful to have the ability to talk to everyone and see how they are doing! I can assure you that our silence for the past few weeks means that things are going smoothly for us and we are very content! We miss you guys and we thank you all for keeping us in your prayers!