Upcoming Travel!

It’s about time to head back to the States! The past week we’ve been finishing up what needs to be done before we leave and now we’ve got some deep cleaning and a lot of packing to do.

It’s been a quiet summer here and we are so thrilled to have the chance to go back to Kansas and Nebraska for a while before the school year starts back up.

I’ve been thinking of all of the things I’m looking forward to when we get there. Some of them are obvious and most of the others probably sound silly, but either way I can’t wait!

Love being here in Haiti, but really looking forward to:

First doctor appointment for the baby à we find out if I’ve got a boy or a girl growing in there!

Spending time with family and friends. That’s a given!

Big brother’s wedding! à also means I get to see my other brother for 48 hours :)

Worshiping the Lord in our own language

à at our home church with people we love

à for at least three Sundays in a row

            à thank the Lord. We need this one badly!

Speaking in English everywhere we go

            à not fumbling for words

à not stressing out about getting gas or having to buy anything

            à prices already labeled on everything
            à everything priced in the American dollar

Road systems
            à Smooth roads, highways with lanes and driving laws
              à country back roads that do not have holes big enough to fit our vehicle

                    inside of :)

American Food, including but not limited to:

            à fast food (TACO BELL, here we come!)

            à steak and potatoes

            à restaurants of every kind

            à JUNK FOOD AT MY FINGERTIPS

            à fruit (watermelon and strawberries!)

            à broccoli and spinach

            à chips and dip and salsa

            à …really, any kind of food that I want!

Shopping!

            à grocery shopping…. In a real grocery store. Oh, I miss grocery shopping!

            à clothes shopping

            à WINDOW shopping (my favorite kind of entertainment:)

Fishing, fishing, fishing

            à need I say more?

Entertainment for my dear husband

            à dirtbikes!

We must admit that we are most excited for the doctor’s appointment. We will land in Kansas around midnight and have our appointment scheduled for 8:30 that morning! What do you guys think… is it a boy or girl?

WE CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU ALL!

           

The Kaebs are here!

This last Saturday (July 5), we very happily gave Duane and Amanda Kaeb a warm (hot?) welcome to Haiti, the place we call home. 

While waiting for them at the airport, I enjoyed my first cold Mountain Dew in almost 6 months! Courtesy of the Kokiaj market. :)

Yay! They've arrived! 

We are SO happy to have these two in our home for the week! They are our good friends from NorthRidge that we've been lucky to walk alongside in Christ this past year. It's a real blessing to have our friends come all the way here to support and encourage us, and just live alongside us for a week. 

Before they came, they asked what things we might need or want that they could bring. I mentioned a few necessities like Tylenol to help our friends who are battling through the Chikungunya fever and some diabetic lancets and test strips for one of our good friends. I also hinted that Ryan would love to be surprised by a Monster energy drink.

Well --- they didn't take that hint lightly. Looks like they bought out the store in Sabetha and filled an entire suitcase! Ryan went nuts. And they didn't forget about me, either! They brought three jars of pickles and Amanda made me the cutest pregnancy gift bag that included some maternity shirts, comfort food, lotions and other items to help with sickness. It was such a sweet surprise!

We and the Heckman family spent Sunday morning at the church out in the village of Grison Guard (spelling?). 

 Of course we didn't leave without being spoiled by Granny - she thanked us for coming to worship with her, her family and friends by giving us some fresh coconuts!

This lady is a true gem. She is a beautiful woman of Christ and I am so thankful to have the opportunity to get to know her and have her in my life.

After church, we all went for a swim at the Christophe! It was a great way to spend the afternoon of a hot summer day before the Heckman family left for the summer.

It's only Tuesday, but it has been a great week already. While we are missing the Ayars and were so sad to see the Heckmans leave this morning, I am so thankful to have the Kaebs here. Can't wait to take them to the Dahloo beach and share some more of the beauty of Haiti! 

meet Claudin!

Repost from Stacey's blog. 
27 June 2014

Confession. Apology. Clean Slate.

You are missing out.

And it is my fault.

I was sharing with you student testimonies every Tuesday that are so powerful and so personal and so insightful and inspiring!  We found fantastic people ready to partner with the first few without any problems, but as time went on, I heard nothing from anyone several students in a row.  I was so very busy with the end of the year, interest seemed to be waning, so I just stopped.  Discouraged.  

Quite unfaithfully, I discourage easily.

And this isn't a post to tell you that suddenly, we heard from 90 people and now all the students are covered.  

Nope.  

But as I was reading through more testimonies this afternoon, singling out a good one to share this Sunday at church, I was floored and challenged and blessed, once again, by the stories of our students.  Of our Brothers and Sisters.  

Louis, who enrolled himself in first grade at NINETEEN.  Jean, who seemed to be one in a hopeless million, but whom God choose.  Moliere, who was destined to be a witchdoctor and who is now attending seminary on behalf of the small group who has become his family.  Jorgia, who says Emmaus  has become the family who abandoned her.

God's hand is MIGHTY in their stories, His faithfulness FAITHFUL, His call and heart LOUD.  

And because we weren't seeing the "results" it felt like we really needed  to see, I just gave up.

How sad.  I am sorry.

I'm picking it right back up, even thought it's not Tuesday, NOT because we have to find friends and family for these men and women to help pay to feed and care for and train them--though we do.

I'm sharing their stories because they are HIS stories of HIS hand and He is worthy of praise for them.  The stories of God at work in peoples lives MUST be shared, not for a result, but for Him.

You can always check the page at the top, "Meet First Year!" to read about lots of students in our first year class.  If you are ever passionate to partner one of them, just email meand I'll get you going!  

But even if you're not, read on, and be touched by His hand in the life of Louis.

Student: Louis Claudin

Family: married, baby on the way

Ministry Focus: mountain ministry

Testimony Highlights:

I was born in St. Michel into a Catholic family who was very very poor.  They explained to me when I was still very small how I had been born into misery.  I was born after four daughters, and my family had always hoped for a boy so that they would have a child who could provide for them.

In my whole family, everyone had girls and girls and girls, so while my mom and dad were very happy to have a son, my extended family became jealous.

Many people in the family were cursing me and spending time at the voodoo temple, trying to lift the curses in their own families.

After weeks of this, I finally died, or that is what my family told me.  All night, they screamed and cried for me, but in the morning, they ran and got my mother, and told her, “He is playing!  He isn’t dead anymore!  Come see!”

So I was alive again, they said, and even when I was little, they always told me about this.  They always had me in the Haitian Catholic Church, and finally I asked my mom when I was small, “How did I live when I was dead?  Was it God?”

“Yes,” she told me, “But we've never seen anything like that, so I guess it was THE God.”

“Then, I guess I can’t stay in the Haitian Catholic Church anymore, because there are many gods there and it seems that there is only one true.”

I left the Catholic church, and all of my sisters and my brother, born after me, all thought my reasoning was very sound, and left the Haitian Catholic church together…everyone but my mom.

I was so used to being in church, that when we left the Catholic Church we all started going to the community Gospel church. The first time I heard the true Gospel, I wanted it, and went to the front, asked them to pray for me, and became a Christian. 

When I led the family away from our tradition, my parents put me out, and I moved to Port-au-Prince to live with my uncle, who was a Christian pastor there. 

I didn’t like life in Port-au-Prince.  Life was very harsh and ugly there, and I came back to Fort-St. Michel and moved in with another cousin who lived in Cap-Haitian, and found a little work. 

I’ve always been a simple person.  What I find to do, I do. 

I had never been to school.  Ever.  Never been sent, never had a chance.

So, when I was 19, and I found this small job to clean a school, I took every penny I made and sent myself to school at the same place. 

At nineteen, I started first grade. 

I put myself through a few years of school, and then the school where I worked went under, and I lost my job.  There was a missionary in Cap-Haitian at the time, Vanessa, and when she saw I lost my job but wanted to keep getting my education, she helped me pay my tuition so that I could continue. 

Everytime things got incredibly difficult for me, all my friends told me to leave church, to leave God.  But I couldn’t.  He had given me my life, and even if I didn’t have 5 pennies to ride to church, I would walk an hour to be there.  I started teaching a Sunday school group in my church, and was finally baptized.  

I finally finished my schooling in 2011. 

I asked God what I should do, and in a vision that night a group of people came to me and said, “You work.  God gave you back your life for a reason.  Go find those people and tell them.”

I came and shared that with my pastor, and he started praying with me for my future.

In September 2013 I got married, and that was the same month I started in the Seminary.  There was a group people who knew Vanessa, and when Cholera passed over Haiti, I was helping them, and they were helping people in Haiti with Ambassador Medical.

When I felt called to Seminary, it was them who helped me find Emmaus and helped me come to the Seminary.

I would really like to work in the mountains.  I have always been a timid and gentle spirited person, and the city is hard for me.  I have a big heart for people living simpler lives in the mountains, to share the Gospel with them. 

There have been many challenges I my life.  The little bit that I have found has been stolen.  The difficulties in my life are huge.  But God helps me to forget these things and stay focused on Him and on studying His Word.  My wife and I live in Cap-Haitian. 

My wife is five months pregnant, and we are in the church near our house, working there with Pastor St-Il Joseph.

Pray for my family.  Pray for my family who still does not know Jesus.  Pray for God to continue to make ways for me to provide for my wife and to help with my family.  My mom is still deeply engrained in the Haitian Catholic Church, and I keep sharing. 

Join LOUIS now

(with 365693 LOUIS as your project)

Day at Dahloo

It may only be Tuesday, but we were all more than ready to go to the beach. There’s been a lot going on project-wise on campus the past few weeks in order to prepare for the big team to come in on Saturday… and I could make some more excuses, but do we really need an excuse to go to the beach on a scorching hot day when our brains are all fried? I don’t think so. :)

I’m so glad that we went. Tuesday or not, it was a GREAT day to be at the beach.

It was a great day to clear our minds, and renew our spirits while being in the midst of God’s beautiful creation.

The view of the beach, endless water, and cascading mountains? BEAUTIFUL.

The view of all of that from a kayak? EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL.

This may have been the best beach day everrrrr. Not only because we had such a great time, but also because the Royal Caribbean landed their cruise ship at Labadee today. That means WE GOT HAMBURGERS! AND SLICED CHEESE! And I even got a bag of 12 soft hamburger buns. AWESOME! Which also means that dinner for eight of us tonight was easy and delicious. :D

 We even encountered multiple jellyfish without getting stung, which is pretty impressive. I was at the front of the kayak with my legs in the water for about 5 minutes before I noticed that there were tons of jellies floating all around us!

That made me a little nervous, so I decided to put my feet back on the kayak. :)

So, that was our day. Not much to say but thought I'd share some of the fun pictures I got while we were out on the water!

P.S. --- Unfortunately we didn’t catch a single fish… It could have been because we only had fresh water jigs and have no idea how to fish in the ocean, but it was worth a try! Besides, Ryan caught a jellyfish. How much cooler is that? Can't find those back in Kansas! :)

Update: Sweat, food, babies, cats...

Well, friends – I don’t know about what weather is like back in the States, but it is getting HOT in Haiti!

All of the missionary stories I’ve heard about being constantly sweaty? It’s true. In the morning, afternoon, evening, all night long… You can’t escape the heat and humidity! I’m afraid it’s only going to get hotter… I really feel for all of the maintenance guys who spend their entire days outside doing hard work. I sweat just sitting in the house or at the office – I can’t even imagine! Bless those guys. Seriously! They deserve some ice cream.

Prepare yourself for a long update:

Things around campus have been really quiet since all of the students and staff left. I miss those daily interactions, and I really miss having a big plate of rice and beans for lunch every day.

Ryan and I? We’re starving over here without those amazing cooks! Okay, starving is a bit of an exaggeration. But really, we’re living off of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and/or fried eggs for lunch. And if Ryan is feeling extra hungry, I’ll throw together a quesadilla using the precious tortillas that have been sent to us. Those things are worth their weight in gold! We ration those. :)

I haven’t written in a while. There’s so much to say! I haven’t even gotten the chance to publicly thank EVERY SINGLE PERSON who sent goodies to us when Galen and Sharon came for board meetings.  You guys (and ladies) --- you have no idea how much that meant to us.

Jeez, we were overwhelmed with the amount of amazing stuff that was packed in Galen and Sharon’s suitcases in May. Candy, chocolate, PICKLES, lima beans, paint, beef jerky, just to name a few. I really can't believe I didn't take a picture of the suitcase they brought in. It was a lovely surprise!

I can’t repeat this enough – if you want to show your love to a missionary in Haiti, sending American food is one of the easiest ways to do it! We were/still are blessed by everything that you all sent to us. We can’t thank you enough!

This might sound really silly from the outside, but the hardest part about living in Haiti (for us) is the food. I’ll be the first to say that I really love eating Haitian food. But it’s gotta be authentic and it has to be cooked by a Haitian. (Thank you, EBS cooks!!!)

Let me tell you a little about the two dinky grocery stores in all of Cap Haitien. First, those two stores, dinky as they may be, are a real blessing to us missionaries. Depending on the day, they have some novelty items like pringles and jelly and sometimes oreos and one time I even saw a can of mountain dew.

But to give you a better picture of what the stores are like, they have maybe 7 aisles in them.  And half of which includes powdered milk, canned corn and peas, drinks, rice, pasta, flour, sugar, etc. Things that you can generally find in the markets. The main item that we usually make a trip there for is butter or margarine. The better of the two stores is a good 45 minute drive from us, so we only make it there when we are already that far into town or on our way to the airport. Basically, these two stores are all we’ve got. The rest of the food we can get is fresh produce, which includes most of your tropical fruits and lots of veggies.

Oh, and I have to mention one thing that is pretty darn cool: apparently we have land crabs on the campus. Yummy :)

My point is that most of the food that is readily available here is great for making Haitian food, which is delicious – but not a cooking adventure that I’m ready to tackle. And all of the food, Haitian or not, has to be made from scratch. Which was a fun adventure for a while, but now that I’ve been having some extreme fatigue and morning sickness for the past few months (SURPRISE! If you didn’t already know, we’re due with our first baby in December!), I haven’t had the energy or will to do much cooking/baking. It just takes so much time! So my poor husband has pretty much been living off of ramen noodles, PB&J’s and some Captain Crunch that we ordered from Amazon. I’m thanking the Lord every day that he has been really understanding about my lack of energy/desire to make much! And I am also thanking the Lord for all of you who sent yummy food for him (us) to snack on. It’s amazing. You’re amazing. He’s amazing. :)

Needless to say, I’m REALLY EXCITED for all of the delicious, convenient, greasy AMERICAN FOOD when we come back for a 3-week visit in August. I’m really really excited to see all of our friends and family, too  - but am thankful that there are 3 meals a day (plus snacks!) that can be both filled with deliciousness AND shared with our loved ones. :) So…. If you want to take us out to eat while we are back, I’ve got a list of places I’d love to go. Don’t worry – I’m a cheap date, I promise. :) Taco Bell and Chick fil A are at the top of my list! Mmmmm. And I’m looking forward to many evenings filled with friendship and chips and salsa. And watermelon. And ice cream. What a lovely combination! Hehe.

So….. I’ll end my very long rant about food with this: Other missionaries continue to tell me that most of my cravings are just because I am in a foreign country with foreign food, but I really believe this pregnancy is amplifying those cravings to be at least one million times more than normal. For reals. I’m practically drooling over here at the thought of all of the food possibilities I will get to encounter two months from now.

[Here's our announcement photo in case you missed it on FB!]

Okay – so I realize that was all me just rambling on about food and I haven’t really given an update yet.

We’re both doing well!

Other than feeling really crummy throughout the first trimester of pregnancy, I’m doing well. I’m sad that I am missing out on being able to go to the doctor and have checkups and sonograms and all of that fun stuff that comes along with pregnancy – but amidst what I’m missing out on, I’m gaining so much from this experience. (And not just weight, hehe:) I’ve got no choice but to put all of my trust in God and believe with all of my heart that He is in control. That He is protecting our baby. That things will be okay. I truly believe that, and that makes things a lot easier. I appreciate all of your prayers with us throughout the next months leading up to December. :)

Ryan’s been keeping busy with a heavy workload of summer classes, and he’s been spending a lot of time looking into furthering his education next year. When he’s not writing papers or reading books, he’s been helping work on some of the projects around campus. You can pray with him about all of the decisions to be made about what to do once he finishes his masters degree in August! He's also been busy rescuing cats in his spare time.

I’ve been really busy between the finance office and working on a huge library project. Not to mention that I often have to find time for mandatory naps during the day, although the heat puts a damper on those plans quite often. ;)

Again, it’s really quiet here this summer without everyone here. We are really missing the Ayars family since they are gone for the summer. At least their cat is keeping us company (sort of) while they are gone. She even takes cat naps with me on occasion. :)

When we aren’t working, things are pretty boring around here. We are really thankful that the Heckman family is here for another month, but I think we are all getting a little restless as there are only so many movies you can watch before you start looking elsewhere for entertainment, which there isn’t a whole lot of here. :P

We’ve got a big team of 19 people coming in on Saturday. They’ll be here for a week and they have a really full schedule! I think they will leave here with a great experience and I hope that they are able to build relationships among the people that they will be working with all week. They are going to lead a youth retreat at Prudence and Prodell’s church for a few days and they will be working on the construction for a new hangout/worship place for the students here at Emmaus. Be praying for this team as they come ready and willing to serve God and His Haitian people.

I think that’s all for now. In the midst of ordinary day-to-day things, I always feel like I don’t have anything to write about. I guess I have more on my mind than I thought!

We just want to thank you all so much for the love and support you have given us. We love hearing from you! Please let me know how we can be praying for you this summer.