Just Living

Chris is down playing some basketball this morning, so I have a moment to do a little blogging. (I opted to stay at the house instead of taking on a group of Haitian men in basketball in a skirt) Chris and I had an interesting conversation yesterday that I think I’ll share a bit of. We were talking about how we have always kind of wondered…what do missionaries do all day, exactly? Do they ever rest? Do they actually like where they are? Questions like that. While we are far from knowing the answers and realize there are lots of different ways to do missions, we are learning that being a missionary sometimes means doing life in the country God’s called you to…much like how a Christian would do life back in the states. Living one day at a time, in obedience to whatever God’s asking you to do that day. And God does not always require us to be doing. He’s already blessed us with times of relaxing, fellowship with other believers, and just chillin! (though we are most likely sweating during that time) In other words, though we are in a totally different setting, the call to daily obedience is still the same. That was random but there ya go!

This week has been a good one so far. Monday Chris and Dr. Kris went down to the clinic and saw 9 patients, and another 4 yesterday. Chris is soaking in all the learning! We have had 2 more Creole classes, and are working on learning verbs and little conversations. (Bonjou! Komman ou ye? Byen, e ou menm? Pa pi mal! Hi! How are you? I'm well, an you? Not bad!) We have met a few other English speaking kids this week, who are very interested in learning English and practicing by talking with us. Hopefully we will also set up our English classes sometime this week.This is our teacher, David.

Though we still can’t walk much with the kids, it is becoming easier to communicate with them through body language and in playing sports. Haitians love to joke and laugh and so we have to be ready to laugh at ourselves and we laugh a lot just to fill the awkward silences that often happen when we have no idea what they're saying! We are trying to figure out how to best relate to them. They are great kids, but as any kids they can get a bit pushy at times. We aren’t really able to give them things either…because there would never be enough for everyone. This leaves us feeling helpless sometimes…but right now we will just continue to play with them until the Lord might lead to something more…or different. The Thede's continue to be a great blessing to us. They have a lot of wisdom to share about Haiti and missions and life. We are really thankful for their friendships.

Please pray for the two oldest boys in the back right of the picture especially, their names are Walfie and Roberto. They seem to especially like Chris and are around all the time. Thanks so much for your support and prayer, it's a huge encouragement! (Pictures to come...we couldn't get them uploaded right now!)