God's Goodness

Happy Wednesday! This has been a good, busy week so far. Between going to the clinic and then back down to see the results of the lab tests, Chris and I have begun a new project: the re-painting of the clinic's sign along the road! I will have to take a picture of it now so we can have a before and after...right now it looks a bit rough. We have been scraping the old paint (about 4 layers I think) off in hopes of getting our new paint to last a while. Unfortunately this scraping has come after we painted the first two layers, only to have them rust through in one night and show some signs of peeling! But at least we didn't start painting the letters on yet. We are having fun although I have been a little stressed about whether it will turn out okay....but Kris assures me that anything is better than what was there! And scraping has definitely been a bit of a character building experience for one of us at least. (well, for Chris too I guess as he has to deal with some of my struggling moments!)
Anyway, the team is still trucking along and getting work done...projects for the school, building a new roof on one of the school buildings, new benches, painting clinic rooms, and more. On Sunday we all enjoyed the huge kid's program that happened on the compound, of over 600 kids! It was quite something. We went on a parade, listened to different singing groups, and enjoyed some popcorn. It was incredible to see how many kids came and how happy everyone was to be there. It really stuck out to me during that time how beautiful Haiti is and how beautiful the Haitians are. Thank you Lord for letting us see the beauty and not just the negative things about this country.
God has shown his goodness so clearly lately. I want to share a few of the ways, though there are more. As you will see in the picture Chris got to help with another delivery on Sunday. He really wanted to deliver a baby while here and has gotten to help with 4. So cool! Since the team has been here, Chris and I have become less famous with the kids, which in some ways is nice and in others is a little bittersweet. It's great to see how much the team loves the kids and vise-versa, they are really enjoying the time playing and trying to communicate! So in the midst of the new excitement there's one little boy (Loubens) who has brought us a new picture he drew almost every other day. Each one has both our names on it, some flowers, and the last one even had some Creole words with English translation :) It's meant a lot to me! Tonight as we were walking back from dinner we stopped and watched a huge thunderhead rolling by against some blue sky with lighting going through it and it looked so cool. In the distance I could hear a group of Haitian women singing Come Thou Fount (in Creole, but I recognized the tune) A neat God moment. Even up on the ladder scraping that paint away I thought, How blessed am I, to be here working beside my husband? Thank you Jesus! Despite the team being here, and family members no less, we have had some good time with Kris and Cory, as Kris has gone to the clinic with Chris, we have looked at wedding and family pics, chatting while scraping paint, and adding more experiences to a friendship started over two years ago now. And as Anna and Eli are having a blast with their cousins and helping with projects, we're thankful for the two weeks we got to hang out with them before everyone came! Finally, and like I said, this is an inconclusive list, a neighbor just knocked at our door and said, Fre Chris, Anana! Which means, Chris, pineapple! And gave us a pineapple.
Well, that is my spiel for the evening. Have a great night!
"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! Matthew 7:9-11