P3

Tina is having a bad day. When I came back for lunch, Tina told me that it has been a day full of the P3 (poop, pee, puke). Normally I like to take pictures to share what we are going through, but this time I'll trust that you can get the picture without a picture.

After lunch it got worse. She put him down for a nap and checked on him a little later and he had poo all over him, his blanket and on the mesh of the playpen. He was sleeping in it. She called to have me come and help. She thought that I was just playing with the four-wheeler because that's what Carter and I went to do. I was there for about 5 mins when someone wanted help with their car (boring car stuff later). So I worked as fast and best as I could to get back and help her clean up. Carter didn't get to work on the four-wheeler and nor did I. We cleaned up and now Lou is banned from anything with fabric (good thing we don't have carpet). He is sitting on the concrete with a disposable diaper. I know that sounds kinda crappy (pun intended), but that's the way it'll have to be for at least the day until we can catch up and get our fingers to smell of something better.

The kitten is doing well. Slept with Kayla and us last night, so we didn't get the greatest sleep. Hopefully tonight will be better and tomorrow will bring less P3.

Boring car stuff...

I bled the brakes on the Canter, but didn't have enough brake fluid to finish. The brake pedal still goes to the floor. The guy who goes to buy stuff just got back with the goods, so I have fluid waiting for me in the morning. That gave me time to de-Haitianize the Canter. There were parts tied with rope and wire that took very little time to find the right parts to hold it on correctly. The parking brake doesn't work on it, so I have been trouble shooting that. The brake is actually on the rear portion of the driveshaft and not near the wheels at all - I wasn't expecting that. I think that I'll have to take that portion of the axle off to figure out what is wrong. It looks like the cable isn't going back into the axle part so I am guessing that it is a bad spring or something similar.

During the poo incident, I was working on one of the lead doctor's car. He got a new battery and after he started it, I noticed that the alternator was wobbling. Another hack job was done putting that on using the wrong bolts and a half a belt. It was basically just resting there (probably why the old battery died) and was wearing a hole in the timing belt cover (it's a Hyundai Accent). A little longer and it could have destroyed the engine by breaking the timing belt.

I also continued to clean up one of the back rooms. It has parts laying all over that no one would use again because they are too busted up. I am playing the role of a trash man.

The four-wheeler may be a bit of work. The frame is a little rusty and has been welded in one spot at least. It will be fun to just mess around with it a bit. It's a USAID vehicle which means that once I fix it, they can do with it what they want - it's not the Mission's.

The Mitsubishi Montero (diesel) needs its belts tightened (tomorrow hopefully).

A Good Day

I got a lot done today.

If you read yesterday's post, you may remember that there were some people here and I fixed their bumper. They stayed over night at the Mission and headed out to Cap Hatian early this morning. I happened to go to the shop early this morning at 7am and ran into them as they were leaving. I chatted quickly with them and then noticed that their tires looked low. I checked them all and they all had only about 25 psi in them. So I had them pull around and made sure that there was enough air in the tires. I talked with the leader of the group a bit and he asked me if I was fully funded. I told him that I was not and that we just started working here. I told him that we were working on raising funds and that we were going to be here as long as our own funds lasted (at least) and then figure out what the Lord wants us to do then. He asked me if I had a card and told him that I did not (I know Dad...I should have taken some of your cards). I wrote down our information for him and then he handed me a tip. I didn't look at it until after he left. He gave me a $100 bill! What a blessing from the Lord that is! I couldn't believe that he gave that much. I pray that the Lord blesses his generosity in return!

Boring car stuff...

I changed oil, oil filter and air filter in both the Ranger and a Mitsubishi Montero IO. I also replaced the driver's side rear drum brake cylinders in the Canter. It decided to downpour while I was working on it - it was really nice to be in a covered area! I have to bleed the brakes yet tomorrow morning and then it will be all done. I also tightened down the header-to-downpipe bolts. They were so loose it sounded like it didn't have a muffler and it was getting everything all black and sooty.


I had to move the motorcycles around a bit and so I obviously had to play a little. I drove up to the house and took the kids around a little bit. The ground was still wet and the small patches of concrete were slick. I did a couple burnouts to make sure it was working OK. And then I had to put it away... :-(

Snickers

Wait...I know what some of you are thinking...but this is important mission work. There used to be a number of cats around here helping to keep the mice and rats at bay, but they are gone. So...this kitten and a few others were going to be made mousers. And someone had to take care of them. We are going to propogate them so we have more here. This one, Snickers, is going to remain in our place to make sure the mice don't come here. She is a very sweet cat. Normally I prefer boy cats - but this is work not pleasure (OK...some pleasure will be involved - she is a big time lap cat). I am not so sure that the kids are excited...what do you think?

The Day's Work

Boring car stuff here...

Ford Ranger - I replaced the front shocks because the lower bushing was bad. The passenger side blot holding the bottom on was bent. I put it in a vice and hit it with a big sledge and it worked great after that. I rotated the tires on the passenger side and have to do the driver's side after I get the radiator fixed. The part for the radiator comes in later today so I will fix it and rotate the tires tomorrow.

Mitsubishi IO - One quart low of oil (out of four). The battery was loose and the belts were loose.

International Steakbed - tried to find a way to have the headlight stay in the broken fiberglass hood. This was my second attempt at it and I have little confidence that it will work on these roads.

Nissan Pathfinder - drilled a hole in the lower driver's side quarter panel to mount it to the frame. The normal parts that would hold it on are broken. The cars made for America are not as tough and this one proves it.

There are some people here (about 14) staying overnight at the Mission. They are checking things out here for some people. They had two car issues. They locked their keys in their rental vehicle (Nissan Patrol) with it running. I helped them to unlock it. Their second vehicle (same model) had a dented rear plastic bumper. They wanted me to do what I could with it. I ended up taking it down to my shop and removing the bumper so I could pound it out from the inside. It ended up looking pretty good except for the scrapes on the outside plastic which I wouldn't be able to conceal.

Non-car stuff here...

I also took Kayla's bedroom door off because it was making a loud noise as it scraped the bottom on the concrete floor. I shaved the wood off with a chisel (found a termite town within) and put it back on. Now it doesn't make noise and it should wake anyone up.

Tina is working on planning for homeschooling. With Lou, she is trying to figure out when the poop chute is operating so she can put on a disposable diaper. She is going to start working on potty training. Lou seems perfectly capable so we'll see what happens. Kayla has been helping out quite a bit - cooking hard boiled eggs and doing various other things. Carter still needs help with seeing what needs to be done.

Not much too interesting happened today. I am looking forward to finding out who has donated financial support to us so we can thank them. I feel bad that there have been people who donated about a month ago and we don't know who it is.

Oh...one more thing. I hope that by the end of the week we'll have an account to which you can mail letters and whatever to us. You pay to get it to Florida and we pay to get it from Florida to here - by the pound, so please, no box of rocks or Olympic weight sets. I am looking forward to getting things like Tabletalk Magazine (which I think we have to renew) and misc. mail that we are familiar with.

Thoughts Regarding Conveniences

I am missing some things of home:

Our church, pastors, and teachings

The conveniences of America like being able to run to a store and get virtually anything you are looking for (and what you are not looking for)

Cribbage with my Dad

Playing Pegs and Jokers with my parents and sister & brother-in-law

Watching movies with my in-laws at my in-laws

Going hiking at a park

Cheap groceries

Pizza and Italian food

Las Margaritas

DQ

Easy access to tools

High speed internet

My motorcycle

Driving faster than 30 MPH

Driving RC trucks with Carter

I wanted to create this post to encourage you to not take for granted the blessings that are available in America or in other places. The conveniences that are available are very nice and comforting - they make life easier. Yet, those conveniences can also become a distraction from our true purpose in life. I can recall times when there were so many distractions and so many conveniences that relying on our all powerful Lord seems unnecessary. I felt so in control of everything because everything was so easily do-able, accessible, and at my finger tips. Being here has really made me depend more on God and less on the "things" that are around me that I can get "whenever I want." And yet, we are still very blessed to be where we are as there are many others in Haiti and elsewhere who do not have close to what we have here now. It is very humbling.

Notice how few of the things that I have listed truly honor God. Church and fellowship with family are the only things that comes close. I still have work to do.

This is Haiti - Superglued Petcock

One of the things that I worked on yesterday was removing that petcock that drains the radiator. This thing was superglued to stop a leak. It didn't stop the leak, so I had to remove the plug and try to fix it right. It was very difficult to remove the superglue. The vehicle is a Ford Ranger (turbo intercooler - yes, Mr. Storm, I am tempted to modify it and make it faster - - I already scoped out where the wastegate is and how to modify the air intake) and the design of the petcock is poor to begin with and the glue made it worse. After about an hour I stripped out the phillips head of the petcock and so I got out the drill and started drilling. I broke the head of the plastic phillips screw right off. Fortunately, after sticking a small standard screwdriver in and twisting, the remaining part of the plastic screw came right out. This was a great blessing as well as the fact that my drilling didn't touch the radiator at all. So, now we are a couple US dollars away from solving this problem.

This is Haiti - Axle

It only took one day to have another "this is Haiti" moment. I was working on finding and fixing a brake leak on our Mistubishi Canter and the former lead mechanic (who was a former driver for the Mission and is becoming a driver once again) showed me how he took the back wheels off on the driver's side (and probably both sides. He told me that I didn't have to remove the wheels. So I sat back and watched. He removed the cap from the hub, removed the axle, bearings, shims and everything that held the hub together. After that, the wheel and drum for the brake came right off. I questioned him on whether it would have been faster to remove the six lugs from the inner wheel and he said no. It was definitely dirtier/greasier to do it this way. I took pictures, but only so I could remember how it went back together so they wouldn't be interesting enough for the blog.

The next time I do this, I'll find out for myself what is easier because I'll try it my way. My feeling is that this is something that was demonstrated to him and he never thought about a better, easier way to do it. He was/is a driver, after all, and not a mechanic. For a driver, I think he may make a decent mechanic.

The Start of "This is Haiti"

Quite some time ago, some friends of ours (the Livesay's) seemed to coin the term "this is Haiti" on their blog. After being here about 1-2 weeks, I have heard numerous people say "this is Haiti" that would not know the Livesay's. This leads me to believe that it is a common phrase here in Haiti.

It is usually used when things are otherwise unexplainable. I have decided to keep a list of the things that I run into that lead me to say "this is Haiti" and label the post as such. This will be the first post of "this is Haiti" and will contain some of the things that I can remember saying it in regards to.

1. Super gluing a radiator drain petcock - something that will need to be removed in the future.

2. Welding bolts and nuts together that will need to be removed some day.

3. One of the items that bothered me the most was on our Canter. The transmission had a piece of wood jammed against another part holding a sliding rod that selects the gear. Without this piece of wood, a few gears were not available. With the piece of wood, neutral was unavailable. The part that was missing was a simple, flat metal lever. One of the guys here made one that looked like it was either working or going to work. The next day, I looked at it and they had simply welded it together affectively making the metal do the same as the wood and rendering all the work and effort he did useless and neutral was still unavailable.

4. We have one truck that is out for the count. The other truck just like it was missing a driver's side mirror. The mirror was being taken from the working truck to another working truck back and forth as they needed to use the truck. I showed them that they could take the mirror from the non-working truck and use that and not have to switch back and forth. They were very happy about this.

5. Wire is used to repair just about everything from quarter panels to windshield wipers.

There are more, but this is a good start. I'll try to take pictures of things as I see them.

More Photos

While we were at camp, we did get some time to enjoy the beautiful beach and ocean. I went snorkling for the first time and saw some neat things: moray eel, sea urchins, and jelly fish to name a few. Here are a few beach and misc. pictures:





Kayla and Carter had fun collecting hermit crabs. Every shell here has a crab in it:


They like football (soccer) and had a competition. They take it real serious!



Here are some shots from the market area. These two boys were near the place we backed up into for water so I saw and tried to talk with them a number of times.


Goat meat anyone?


Now that's a fish!

Some Further Thoughts About Camp

Since we have come back from camp, we have been processing what we went through. We have been thinking about those in attendance and the affect that it will most likely have on the church's leaders in attendance and their church's youth.

We were thinking of the limited resources that most of the youth leaders have access to - specifically biblical resources. There are few bookstores, few libraries (I have yet to see either of those), and little access to the internet. Their resources for biblical information come in limited forms. In the US, we have so many options (both good and bad, biblical and misleading). We used to take many of those things for granted. I pray that we never take them for granted again. These are blessings from God - and there are many, many others.

This camp has given the youth leaders new information and new ways to deliver information to the members of their respective churches affiliated with the Baptist Haiti Mission. The support that they receive from the Mission is extremely and eternally valuable!

The support of these churches comes in various forms. From teachings like those provided at this camp to working on vehicles. When I am working on the trucks and other vehicles, it is these churches affiliated with the mission that are being supported. The trucks deliver chairs, tables, food, equipment, supplies, etc... This is how the Lord is currently leading me to glorify Him - by fixing vehicles for the mission. God is glorified and made much of in the churches of the Baptist Haiti Mission whether it be through education camps, vehicles, or otherwise. We are so happy to be here and helping out!

Steady...

Before we left for camp, I had to replace the bushings at the end of the leaf springs of the Canter. Rarely will I have to get the truck this high to get the frame off the axle and get the axle up off the ground, so I should not have to be in this precarious position again. I just had to get a picture because not only does it look scary, but it was scary to be under it. I had quite a few Haitians stop by to see what in the world I was doing (I could tell what they were thinking by the look on their faces).



I had two jacks as you can see in the picture and a jack stand. The jack on the right didn't stay - it slowly let the vehicle down so I had to pump it up every once in a while. The replacement of the bushings went pretty smoothly.

Back from Camp

We are back from camp. If we wanted to come back we had one chance because this was the last trip back to the mission until everyone left at the end of the week. Tina never really got better after being sick when we left. She had stomach troubles the whole time with occasional headaches and feeling wiped out. I didn't want her to stay another week and be out for the count because this illness was combined with much higher temperatures and a more difficult living situation. When we woke up the temperatures were in the mid 80s and it was humid all the time. By the end of the day it was easily in the 90s if not higher. The house was always hotter than outside and the fans didn't work very often because of the electricity, so there was nowhere for Tina to rest. She was also helping out during the camp by assisting with team building activities and being the first aid station even though she was sick.

The living conditions consisted of:
• random electricity from the city (the generator was run from 7pm until about 10pm)
• in-house plumbing - most plumbing fixtures (including all toilets) had issues
• most things were very dirty and gritty (and hard to clean)
• rather poor food (although we were happy to have food)
• various other difficulties

Here are a few shots of our room:







We slept fairly well on the beds, but had various interruptions. The worst of which was when two people barged into our room at about 10:30pm and we were sleeping with no sheets and just our underwear. Tina didn't have a bra on, but was fortunately sleeping on her stomach (she would cover up with a sheet so the kids weren't affected so don't worry). Our room contained the batteries to run some lights on battery/inverter power and there was apparently an issue with the batteries. Instead of knocking, a Haitian guy with one of two Americans who came to help with the came right in with flashlights. From a good sleep this was quite confusing and upsetting, but we didn't make an issue of it (we just locked the door to our room from then on).

We realize that many people living in Haiti would love to have what we had and are far worse off than we were at the camp, so it is very hard to complain. We were simply not used to it. It makes living at the Mission now feel a whole lot better than it did (which is one of the many excellent side benefits of going). Other benefits include a few new revelations that I had regarding my own salvation and walk with Christ. I learned these things about myself and my past during my preparation for a talk that I gave to the campers on Wednesday. What I learned was very positive and reassuring that I am on track now as opposed to where I was 3-4 years ago.

I was the official driver after the first day, going out with two Haitians named Johnnie and Sorel and various other people in the back of a caged pickup. We would go and get filtered water for the campers and Culligan water for the support staff. We would also get ice and whatever else we needed. We took one trip about an hour away to refill a large tank of LP. Toward the end of the week, the ice truck started delivering ice to the camp and it was cheaper. We used a wheelbarrow to bring it down.


Here is the truck I drove and one of the places we had to stop at (to get water). I had to back it in there from a busy road over a sidewalk with people and buses with crazy drivers.


Len and I worked on the plumbing every day the whole week and Len is still working on them after we left.

As the first aid station, Tina helped out with everything from headaches to sea urchin spikes in feet to numerous cuts and scrapes. We had one girl feeling so sick that I was asked to drive her to the clinic. She ended up having typhoid and malaria and went home after about three days of being at the camp.

Carter got stung for the first time by a wasp. It swelled up, but he was fine. He was very afraid of wasps after that, yet I think he is getting over it slowly.

The first week of camp was for the youth leaders and it appeared to be a great success according to the person running the camp.

I'll write more later...

I have to show you this - this thing dropped down on Tina's head when she opened one of the closets in our place. The scale/size is hard to see but it was 3-4 inches in length:

B Day

Happy Birthday Papa Schilling!!

Tina is not feeling well and Kayla may be getting whatever Tina has, too. We may not be going to the camp tomorrow.

We attempted to go to the doctor today...it didn't work. We went down there, but realized that we didn't bring the paper. After calling back to the mission and back to the doctor, we figured out that it is only on Monday's that we can go. I have no idea how this happened. A doctor told us that he set up an appointment for today at 9:30 to 10. Frustrating. The good news is that Lou waited until we got home to have a huge diaper blow out all over his pants. It was horrible. It happened right before lunch. I cleaned him up in the shower and his pants. That made my lunch taste like poopoo - even after washing my hands three times.

Tina is sick and not feeling well - she may not be going to camp. We have to figure out how this will work. We have 18 hours.

On Saturday at 6am we leave to go to help set-up, organize, and present at the youth camp that is being put on by the Baptist Haiti Mission (the topic is Salvation). We have to pack up the vehicles in the morning, it will be an early start! We will be staying at the camp which has been described to us as “roughing it” for two weeks – we’ll be coming back August 2nd or 3rd. We will not be able to post any blog updates during that period. When we get back, I’ll get everyone up-to-date with what happened at the camp. Take care and may God bless you all!

The Life of a Wife Through the Eye of a Guy

I was thinking about my wife last night/this morning at around midnight (we woke up because of the stinkiest diaper I have ever experienced - we started Lou on medicine last night that has a side affect of diarrhea). I thought about writing what I Tina has been going through on a typical day. I'll start when she wakes up:

She is very tired from the typical interrupted sleep from either a mosquito buzzing in her ear, dogs barking, kids waking up for various reasons, or any number of other things. Getting up quickly to read and spend time with the Lord is the most important thing, so she gets up quietly before Lou wakes up (he is always the first child to wake up). She gets anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes before I bring Lou out to where she sits and I, too, read.

As soon as Lou is out and in the room and after about 5 to 10 minutes (and after changing his diaper), he is demanding food by staring at her, grunting, and pointing to the kitchen. She tries hard to bring as much variety as she can to the table during each meal. After cleaning the counter tops from termite wings and while making the food, she gets tired of Lou's demands and brings him to the other side of the house, so she can get stuff done in the kitchen. We ask the Kayla and Carter to play with him to distract him - it rarely works (oh, the food joys we experience just as most people do adopting from Haiti...).

When it is time for breakfast, we wash hands and sit down. After praying and with Lou on her lap, we all eat and she begins to feed herself and Lou. He doesn't like to drink much, but she tries to get him to drink (there is a reason that the saying goes: "You can bring a horse to water..."). She tries to mask the flavor of the medicine in various foods with some success (drinks don't work). As she feeds him, his reflux causes him to throw up in his mouth and most of the time he just eats it. It is cleaner that way, but either way it causes his breath to smell really bad. After a while, her food tastes like either vomit or poop. Lou smells unpleasant most of the time in spite of showers. It makes it difficult to day after day because he is being carried by her most of the day.

After breakfast, she cleans up with some help from Kayla and Carter. Dad leaves for work. She does not get much time to clean herself up to help her to feel better about beginning the day. After getting some things done and ready in the kitchen, it seems as if it is snack time already and time to get Kayla and Carter in. After settling an argument or two over things like swords or toys or food, she prepares a snack and then cleans up. If there is laundry to do, she tries to get that going. More times than not, there is someone else's clothes in there which adds to the struggle. Further adding to the struggle is my dirty clothes. She is also keeping them going on some class/schoolwork.

She checks with me to find out when I am going to be ready to do lunch and then she gets it ready in time for why I come home. When I get home for lunch, Lou wants me to hold him, but the best I can do is wash my hands and not get him near my dirty clothes. This means that Tina is left holding him again while he eats. Once again, I eat and run without helping clean up much. Kayla and Carter are helping to clean up.

Once lunch is done, she begins thinking of dinner. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays she has to come up with something to eat for dinner. If she isn't doing laundry as well, she is mopping the floor, cleaning up the house, figuring out what to order for food, and managing the activities of the children. Cleaning up diapers and vomit are also part of the routine. It's not always as simple as it sounds as Lou will throw up in a bucket of toys or on a rug. That adds to the work.

When I get home from work, I immediately take a shower after running away from Lou (because he wants to hug my dirty and greasy pants). If we are eating with the group we barely have time to shower (and Tina often doesn't have time) before we have to go to dinner at 5:30. That will usually last until 7:30 or 8:00. Then we get ready for bed, read, and then crash - and then start from the beginning again.

If we are not eating with the group we have a little more time and Tina can relax a bit more. These nights seemed to get filled up with visitors or other miscellaneous things where we often don't find ourselves relaxing alone. Then we get ready for bed, read, and then crash - and then start from the beginning again.

Tina and I haven't been getting much time to talk. I usually try to type on this blog with Lou on my lap and she is making dinner or early in the morning. Time to chat with Tina and then get back to work. I am looking forward to not having anywhere to go tonight - although I did agree to speak for an hour during the camp, so I have to get ready tonight...

Motorcycle and Misc.

Here is a motorcycle that I just started working on yesterday. It was a bit of a slack-off day as there is no real good reason to get this cycle working, yet I worked on it most of the day. Part of the reason for this is because most of the vehicles were out running errands so I had little to work on. I have to figure out a good time to work on them because they are used during the day. I may start working at 6am or so, but with the electricity not being on until 7:30 I may be limited. Anyway, I got this thing running yesterday by taking good parts off of three other cycles. It hadn't been run in years. I took it around the mission a little bit with Carter and Christopher on the back separately. It needs a little more work yet - it chokes and dies going up steep hills. It is a USAID vehicle (just like the four wheelers), so I am not sure that the Mission will be able to keep it. :-(


Last night was one of the worse nights for the dogs barking. They like to hang out by our place and bark. Closing the windows would do no good since the windows are like mini blinds of glass. I have a feeling that the director is tired of the dogs, too, and is waiting for the other missionary couple to come back so they can talk about the dogs - they are his dogs.

The director and his wife came over last night to talk about how things were going. They stayed for about two hours. We talked about what is currently going on at the mission and about and questions that we had. There are still plenty of things for us to learn, but we are doing very good in their eyes. They said that we are a breath of fresh air to them because of the busy, crazy stuff they have going on. They agreed with us in that it feels like we have been here for more than two weeks. The Lord has made a great match with us and all of them - we suspected this from the very beginning as we felt like we knew them all well.

Tina is doing well. Every morning she cleans the termite wings off the cupboards (they are a goofy insect). Last night she squished another cockroach (that makes three total). She must have gotten bitten somehow by something and now her ankle is swollen up. After two days it is no better and no worse. She says that it feels like the tendons and all the internal parts are sore. Her nose/cough/allergies have gotten better (there was a cold going around here when we first got here). Tina has cooked some new dishes, but we really haven't had any new food. There hasn't been too many new things to eat besides goat meat and various fruits. (Speaking of fruits, there are all sorts of fruit trees on the mission and everything is free for the picking.) Tina says that this is the hardest thing that she has done. I think most of that is because of the constant housework stuff and not having the best tools for the job and having to be more careful.

I hope you all are doing well! I thank each and every one of you who have donated to us to help us do the Lord's work here in Haiti. I do plan to send a note of appreciation to those who have donated. The only problem is that it might be later than normally expected because it can take up to a month or more for us to get the information about who donated. Please know that we appreciate all of your prayers and financial support! By the end of September, I will mail out a letter of how things are going here and what we are working on here as a Mission. There truly are great things happening here at the Baptist Haiti Mission and it affects many people throughout Haiti!

The Dirt

This is what I look like after work:



Tina is magical at getting my clothes clean. I wear them three days and then she washes them.

I replaced shocks on the Canter and, just like everything else, there is more to it than it appears. As I took the shocks off, the bushings were toast because there was no washer protecting them from getting cut up. After I found washers, I went to put them on and one stud was stripped and the nut was too. I had to rethread them and then I got it on. By the time I was done, the guy had to go and so I didn't get the fronts replaced. Who know what waits for me there.

I then fixed the front driver's side shock because the mount was half off and the shock was completely out of the mount. Someone half-way fixed it with wire. The wire was on there in such a way that it would have taken longer to get the wire set up than to find the right parts to do it right. It's done right now at least. Then I lubed the truck all up and had trouble getting grease in the grease gun and I got it all over - all over!

I started at 7am and by the time I was done with those things, it was 10am. I then started working on getting the speedometer/odometer and the parking brake to work in a Nissan Pathfinder.

During lunch I tried to search for a picture or information regarding the fuse locations in a 1999 Mitsubishi Montero. Any help would be appreciated - I need help finding it, so I can resolve an issue with a drain that we have on the battery. I need the diagram for the engine compartment fuses and the passenger compartment fuses.

From about 2pm until 4pm I worked on a 4-wheeler that had taken a tumble down the mountain. There were few good parts left. It went from square corners to round corners. The block was broke where it mounts to the frame and many other parts were toast. This vehicle is a USAID vehicle and there are two here. This one is gone, but the other is broke too. Between the two of them, I hope to have one in working condition in a little while.

I should get going now. I just wanted to get a quick post out.

Family Status Update

Due to a number of requests, I’ll write about some things that are more interesting to Tina’s friends - the women readers. Tina doesn’t like to blog because her thoughts don’t come out on paper too well and it takes her too long to write.

Tina and I woke up both thinking the same thing (she said it out loud first): “another day on the mission field...”

Tina is doing better – almost rid of the cold or used to the air here, one or the other. Lou and Carter seem to get up when we do which virtually eliminates the 1+ hour of quiet time we used to get. Carter can find something to do quietly, but Lou is pretty demanding. He wants food right away, yet is slowly getting better about his demands.

An unfortunate aspect of his health: Tina and I (Tina more so because she is with him 99% of the day) is getting tired of smelling either like poop and diapers or, if that’s not it, than smelling his breath which always smells of vomit. It makes it hard to hold him – especially when he likes to stare at us and smile (which does make it better). We have a paper from a doctor at the mission to go visit another doctor and are told to plan the whole day for it. It is first come, first served. It won’t be the highlight of the week. We have to do it before we leave for camp for two weeks on Saturday.

Camp is looking to be an adventure for sure. Tina has been asked to help prepare some activities and she is working through how to handle any additional responsibility on top of the wife, mother and house necessities. We really don’t want her to have anything else to do at this point: getting used to the way of doing things, taking care of Lou, and adjusting should be her top priorities. She may be able to get more involved later. I am going to be keeping a close watch on this, so she doesn’t get overwhelmed.

Back to topic of the camp: There is an outhouse. It is going to be real hot (which is not something that we are real used to because the temperature up here in the mountains is very comfortable). The beds are not too great. There are two diesel generators – one that works. The other is completely apart and not all the parts are there supposedly. We’ll be bringing that back for me to work on here at the Mission. Part of me would rather stay here and help out because so many missionaries are going to the camp (6 of us and 8 children – which leaves the director and his wife). But, it will be good to go and help out and see what it is like. They have great training planned and fun activities including swimming in the ocean. They told us to be prepared to help remove sea urchin stingers…

Kayla and Carter have been having a great time with the kids here – almost too great. There are days where we don’t see them much because they are out playing or upstairs playing at their house (which has more toys – we don’t have much and aren’t looking to add to what we have). They play with a couple kittens that live up there, play hide and seek, tag, capture the flag, and things like that. They are told to play only where the grounds are marked private and not where the public can go, but I don’t know that they are following that – we need to have constant discussions with them. We have heard too many stories here that are concerning regarding kidnapping. Also, some of the guards are not Navy Seal quality. Some of the night guards will apparently sometimes find places to sleep during their job. When the dogs are barking like crazy, the guards should be coming to check it out, but they are not. They need to be reminded of their responsibility once in a while. Here is a picture of the kids enjoying the airport (they really enjoyed the plane ride):


a picture of Tina and Kayla having to go potty (they had to wake this big guy up):


The church service is good, but it is hard to praise God when you are trying to read a french psalm book. The message is in creole, so we don't get much out of it. It is real nice to be others and here and see how they do church service. I'll try to get a picture next week.

We are probably going to download our St. Paul home church's messages, but it will take over an hour to download it. I'll be attempting to get yesterday's this week. I do have some older messages on my iPod to listen to so we can get some Bible learning in on Sundays. Also, on Sunday evenings we go to the directors house for bible study. We have been going over revelations and did chapter 11 yesterday.

Len and I replaced a recepticle to the water pump at the church after service Sunday. It was totally fried and melted. No job is too big or too small... :-)

Today, Tina will be working on finding out how we get to the doctor (which is an hour away in Port-au-Prince). I will be working on replacing four shocks and eight bushings on a Mitsubishi Canter (ours isn't nearly this new and nice):


A number of people have asked about sending things to us. There is another missionary family from the Mission that has been gone on furlough for a few weeks/months and will arrive back in 2-3 weeks. They are the ones that will set up an account for us with a service that brings us mail (MFI). If you wanted to mail something to us, you would mail it to a Florida address and then they will make sure it gets to us. We pay for the shipping from Port-au-Prince to here which amounts to about US$1.50 per pound. We'll have this information near the middle of August.

There are more things that I was going to write, but I have to go eat now. I'll give more family updates later.

Sardines

On our way to church today, we had 10 people in a Nissan Pathfinder designed for 5. I think we still had some more room...

Interrupted Sleep

We had a run of about 2-3 nights without interrupted sleep, but that ended with Friday night and last night. Last night we woke up to some sort of dog fight. There was a lot of snarling and growing and then quite a bit of yelping. I was expecting to wake up to a dead dog on the property - it was that bad. Belle (the black one) is in heat so that may have attracked some testosterone attention to the neighborhood. Perhaps the dog that came wasn't very healthy and couldn't take the dogs here at the mission. The mission dogs look small, but after having our Great Dane Tifi back in the States everything looks small.

Then at 5:30 this morning Belle started barking. They like hanging out at our front door, so we hear the brunt of the noise. We tried to get her to be quite by feeding her sticky peanut butter and crackers but that lasted only a couple minutes. She was back to barking quickly. I went out to pet her for about 5 minutes and that worked. I am so sick of dogs barking. Do dog whistles stop dogs from barking or keep them going? If it stops them, it will be my next purchase.

Today will be a little less hectic than last Sunday. We are going to only one service. After service we'll be going to the grocery store again, but buying less because we just went last week and we are going to camp next Saturday and will be away for two weeks.

I pray that you all are well and that you have a great Sunday! Our Lord is good! Here is a shot of the sun shining through a hole in the clouds that I took after football last night:

Hail

We played a quick pick-up game of flag football and the clouds started to roll in again. It sprinkled a little and then started to hail. Chris said that's the second time that has happened in four years. It was pretty neat!

Work

I have to get used to this 6 day work week (of about 9 hours per day except for Saturday) - I thought that I'd try to take this afternoon off but that didn't happen. There is no shortage of work here. Even some work that has been recently done has to be redone because it was done with short-term thinking: just get it working is the mentality sometimes. That's OK if you are stuck on the road, but it is not OK for daily driving. There are throttle linkages that look like they're about to get stuck, brake lines that look like they are about worn through, shocks and bushings that are nearly inoperable, u-joints that wobble, oil that looks as if it were only added to instead of changed, etc... I am slowly getting used to working around here in terms of where parts are and where tools are that I didn't bring or didn't have. I am also learning some good Creole because the drivers have to explain to me what is wrong and what is right. An additional thing that I am learning is that I am the big, big boss around here - which I am not used to. I don't want to be the big, big boss, but that's the way things are working out. I hope to train a Haitian to be the big, big boss so I am not doing it.

Last night we ate as a group and as we were finishing up, the mountain on the other side of the valley disappeared behind clouds and then the clouds came to us. It was pretty cool looking - being in a cloud. We then went to the director's house to try our hand at pinochle. It'll take a few more Fridays for us to figure that game out.

Also last night I got a little sick, but it wasn't too bad. I expected it sooner and didn't think that I would be the first. I have been spending quite a bit of time in the hospital trying to fix that phone line. Len and I got locked in the operating room (that's what happens when padlocks are used on most of the doors from the outside (can't unlock them from the inside). I think that my sickness was more food related, but again it's barely worth mentioning as it wasn't too bad.

Tomorrow is Sunday!! No work (or I will attempt not to work)!!

This dog lives near the workshop. I am no vet, but I think there may be one or two things wrong with this dog...

The Prosperity Gospel

This is our pastor speaking (we miss our pastor!):

Undisclosed Trials

After spending some time with God this morning, I felt that I should disclose something. There have been a few trials that we have had while being here that I do not feel I should disclose on the blog because of their nature or their possible unintended results. Life here has not been, and will not be, all roses. This is no vacation.

I ask that you pray for those things that go unmentioned - that they be resolved so that God can do his work through us (and that we continue to follow Him). None of these things involve my personal family's relationships, but rather they are with people here in Haiti that I have occasion to speak with the last few days (none of the people are current missionaries - the current missionaries are AWESOME!) and with the local environment.

Your prayers are appreciated!

Early to Rise...

I woke up around 2 AM this morning and had too many thoughts going through my head to just lay there. So I wanted to check out the internet connection at this time of the day (it is a little faster), post to the blog including pictures (this is the last post), and spend some time with God (that is coming up next although it is my priority).

Yesterday, I didn't feel as productive. There was trouble with the phone line in the Hospital Admin office that we didn't resolve. I still haven't figured out the new Landcruiser's signal issue. I had to grease up a Mitsubishi Canter truck and had a difficult time finding a decent grease gun and when I found one it was empty. The second one was empty, too. The one that I wanted to use wouldn't work right. So, I had to use one that was as easy to use...anyway, we all have troubles sometimes and yesterday was one of my days (although it certainly could have been much worse).

After dinner, I started working on what I hope will be an Access database of the vehicle and related maintenance (scheduled and unscheduled). I started the tables in Excel and hope to bring them into Access. One problem...I don't have access on my Vista Machine with the Student version of Microsoft Office... :-( Earlier in the morning, Carter and I went around to all the vehicles while Kayla stayed back to plug the vehicles VIN into the spreadsheets. We used the walkie talkies and it worked great! Kayla was a big help and Carter was, too!

At 6:45, I was just sitting with the family when a call came in from the director. He will take advantage of an American mechanic here locally when things get tough. Before I got here, he had taken a Nissan Pathfinder to this guy and he was bringing it back. The director wanted me to meet him and talk with him about this vehicle and a couple others (including the Landcruisers which he couldn't figure out either after looking at it). He is a really nice guy and seems to do good work (I'll check it out later this morning at a more reasonable time). He can do some things that I cannot - like weld the frame up which was bad). It was great to meet him and make a connection with another mechanic-type fellow. He gave me his phone number so I could bounce things off him. I got back around 8PM and everyone was sleeping - I headed off to bed, too.

Madame Ken (which is what the Haitians call Tina) made some great cookies yesterday (inbetween keeping the kids fresh with schooling)! I am looking forward to eating them later today!

One more thing that I wanted to mention just so you get an idea of our life here. We separate garbage here quite a bit - just like in the States. But, it's a little different. We burn paper in a fireplace, we collect food scraps for the three pigs here at the mission (No, not the three pigs with the wolf), we let the bull cow lick the pig bowl clean, and then we throw the stuff that doesn't fit into those catergories into a bucket to be tossed elsewhere. That bucket gets picked up by some workers and brought somewhere...where I do not know.

I hope you enjoy the pictures that I posted in today's postings!

I ran into Dr. Bernard while troubleshooting the phone system with Len (Take a look - this is not easy to figure out and we didn't by the end of the day yesterday. Heath, if you are reading this blog...HELP!!! - haha!):


Anyway, Dr. Bernard gave me further information regarding a pediatrician to see here locally - or somewhat locally. So Lou will be going to the doctor officially soon:


Also, while we were troubleshooting the phone line at the hospital and climbing on roofs and scaling walls, I walked past a number of sick and injured people. One person that I walked by a couple times had his hand in a cut off antifreeze jug with some icky looking water. The last time that I walked by, he had his hand out and I saw why he came. He had a compound fracture of his wrist (bone sticking out) and it looked to be a couple days old. He didn't look comfortable. I have seen pictures, but being here and seeing this stuff in real life is a bit different. I feel more compassion being here. That's gotta hurt. I should have asked if I could take a picture, but I didn't think of it at the time.

Eye Matie, Me Timbers Are Shivered

I am not sure who needs eye correction the most: 1) Lou, so he can regain depth perception or 2) Mom, so she can put the eye patch on straight. (I hope she doesn't get too mad at me for posting this - it is 2:37 AM after all...)

Schlorf SOCOM

I know that many of you are thinking that I started this, but the Airsoft guns were introduced to BHM before I got here. Christopher and Carter are taking aim at each other here - can you find them? Carter used his money to buy a gun (because other people had them) and then Kayla bought me one (I thanked her and told her that she could use it any time). One of these days that I find enough free time, I'll show them how it's done...

La Cucaracha

Look what I found! He was in the bathroom and I tried to help him into the kitchen (because we all know that is the best place - food!), but when I went to help him out I accidentally lopped his head off... I am so clumsy sometimes!

Lou, Mechanic, and Blessing

The Internet connection was down last night so I didn’t get to post a message. It is still down this morning.

Lou has been loosening up every day. We were just playing on the bed with all of us and he was having a good time. Here is a picture:


Yesterday I got to work early (a little too early because the electricity doesn’t turn on until 7:30 AM with Len turns the generators on). I started work by finishing up the two new Landcruisers. For some reason the signals lights (and hazards) do not work and I cannot figure it out. I have to test the relays next – I am out of ideas.

I also worked on a bunch of rattling front end parts to a Nissan Pathfinder that we have. We’ll have to find a number of parts for that thing, too. The bushings on the bottom of both shocks in front are completely shot – nothing left.

I did all that by 9 AM which was when our weekly devotional time started. We had 5 American and 5 Haitians in attendance. One of the head hospital Haitian guys brought up a topic that we talked about for the whole time until 10 AM. At 10 AM, we had another meeting with the youth counselors to go over the camp topics and agenda. The camp will be taking place in about two weeks. The topic (I may have mentioned it already) is regarding salvation and personal testimonies. This meeting went until after 1 PM. It was a long meeting and there was good conversation. We had one of the Haitians translating some of it for us.

After lunch, I got to work on a fairly new Honda 200XL motorcycle. I had to clean it up and replace the battery. Of course I had to test drive it around - among other things, I lubed the chain and had to adjust the idle speed. It was working really well – it’s going to be hard to see it go, but it will be going to a Haitian director who oversees a number of churches. It will do better in service on the field instead of for our own personal entertainment.

Tina and I were talking this morning after getting up at 4:30 AM and we agreed to something that we have both been feeling since a couple days after we got here. Every day goes by so very fast. Every day we are so very tired. Every day we wake up feeling so well refreshed. We are not stressed – simply busy. It’s been a week and a half and it only feels like a couple days. I personally can remember back to days at work where I would watch, almost literally, every minute go by. Things are so different for me now. I feel so very blessed!

Carter is improving – thank you for your prayers! He is being more thoughtful and respectful. We have all had quite a significant change the last few months.

Today's activities

Tina baked some awesome bread today! It was very good and tasty! We ate spaghetti for dinner and it was good as well. She is really getting her stuff down now.

I spent most of the day in the mechanics garage. I had to find a way to fix an end link on a swaybar to a Nissan Pathfinder. The fix I came up with worked well – they had attempted to fix it prior, but the fix broke. I took two Haitian guys with me down the road a couple miles and it felt much better according to the driver (even though I was driving). There were a number of rattles (I found one reason – a missing bushing – no doubt worn out from these horrible roads – we hardly ever get into third gear). The rattles could be solved and it felt really squishy, but the driver said that I fixed it and it was better.

They had two new vehicles that needed to be prepped. They are both Toyota Landcruisers, but not the kind you see in the US. These are utility vehicles with bare-bones, get-r-done equipment like chains to hold the tailgate up, fire extinguisher, AM-only radio, and a full-size (and very heavy) spare tire. They have rubber flooring just like our good old Suburban. I had to put together a rear bumper that was in parts and I had a Haitian guy named Jeff (who drove us around to find Lou) help me. It didn’t come with installation instructions and it was a little challenging – we only had to take it off once and put it back on.

Lou is grunting a lot today – not sure if that is stomach troubles or if it is something else (he is sitting on my lap now and is urping a lot – it stinks!). He is laughing and interacting a lot more every day. It is fun to have him around! We just have to figure out the tummy stuff.

We found out more about the camp that we are leaving to on the 18th or 19th for two weeks. It sounds like it will be really roughing it (I thought we were already roughing it… actually, it is very nice here in spite of the limited electricity, water, and food, expensive food, hard to get parts for broken things, and misc. things.

Quick Update

Just a quick update:

I got a Haitian cell phone now so it will be easier for others to contact me and for me to contact others. Tina and I use walkie-talkies while on the grounds, but others are not using them. Instead if someone needs someone, they'll call them on their cell phone. The total acres of the grounds here are around 30-40 acres (from what I was told).

We swapped beds out yesterday and slept on a king size bed last night. It was GREAT! I got some good sleep. Tina slept better, but still not great. She either has a bad cold or this air is causing her grief.

My language learning is progressing pretty well because of working in the shop. It is necessary to learn the language when things come up and we have to solve problems. For example, one of the dump trucks has a driveshaft that is too long and I was working with a Haitian who thought just a little bit needed to be cut off. I measured it and showed him that more needed to be cut off for it to work. He then agreed and took it to get done, but it was in the struggle of the commuincating that a lot of language is learned. The more I use it, the more I will remember it.

I'll bore you with more of what I have been doing to help out later...

Tina has been doing an awesome job figuring out how to cook (cleanly) and how to manage the laundry. She has stated a few times that this is the hardest thing that she has ever done. I do have to agree with her.

Lou is really loosening up. He is laughing and playing more. Kayla and Carter are playing and trying to include him. I am sure that he has very little experience with playing and with toys.

Kayla and Carter were out playing with the girls yesterday and had a garder snake. They were having a lot of fun with it (and so was I). I should have taken a picture of them with it in their hair for Grandma Schilling! :-)

Our First Week

We have been here for a week now and have not had any big surprises. There are some things that we have to adjust to or put up with that we didn’t expect that may take some getting used to. Some of those things are:

• Poor water pressure
• The water heater is in the bathroom near Kayla and Carter. That means that the hot water in the kitchen has a ways to travel and is nearly useless by the time it makes its way to the sink combined with the low water pressure.
• There is an electric showerhead in the master bath, but it isn’t working (I’ll have to take it apart or get a new one – cold showers are getting old fast.
• Rinsing and washing dishes in special water because of bacteria adds quite a bit of work to the eating process.
• Termites in the kitchen means that every time we want to use the countertops, we have to wash them (they leave their little wings all over the place). The kitchen is one of the few places with a lot of wood for them to dine on.
• Food prices are incredibly high here. I cannot imagine how many Haitians pay for food. We will probably end up spending twice as much on food here compared to the States and eat half as much. It’s the new Haitian weight-loss program.
• Washing our hands after everything.
• The bed is super stiff (we may get this changed out today for a softer, non-fragranced version).
• The internet is SUPER SLOW!!! I thought dial-up was bad… that would be a treat now.
• Dogs barking for 45 minutes until about 4am… again.

These are mostly things that we’ll have to get used to. It adds quite a bit to the overall significance of the changes that we have made in the recent months and to the mental stress. Tina has either a cold, bad allergies, or something is up with our mildew-bed. She is pretty drained.

Our Sunday wasn’t as restful as I had planned. It is difficult to sit through a 1.5+ hour service in a different language and we did it twice – once at 6:30am and again at 9:00am at a different church down the road. During the first service, someone came to sit in between Tina and I to translate the message. During the second, Chris (one of the missionaries here at BHM) was translating a little for me, but Tina couldn’t hear it. The kids did amazingly well – that’s a lot of sitting without being able to understand anything.

Immediately after the second church we went grocery shopping. That took quite some time. After shopping, we ate at Len and Adele’s place – they invited us over for lunch. Right after lunch, there was a mission vehicle that needed working on. I played with the kids for a half hour, ate dinner and then at 5:30pm we went to the Mission’s Sunday night study and prayer time. This lasted until 8:00pm.

Right now, we need more down time to process things in our brain. We cannot be doing that many things any longer. We are getting little sleep and need to find ways to relax more. We don’t (and we didn’t) plan on going to two services every Sunday and I think that unless it is something MAJOR, I will not work on Sunday (Saturday is pretty much just like Monday through Friday). That should help our Sundays to feel a little more relaxing.

We thought that electricity was something that we all split, but yesterday we found out that we have to pay for our own (it is metered). That changes the way we do things around here. We have very little plugged in and it means that I will no longer leave the computer on all the time (which I did so I could receive phone calls via Skype).

Time to get going…

Grocery prices

Prices of some items of food from our recent trip to the market:

$6.46 - Half gallon of “from concentrate” orange juice (next time - concentrate)
$2.83 – Normal size brown sugar bag
$3.74 – Two sticks of butter
$3.09 – Saltine crackers
$4.52 – Normal size block of cheese
$3.87 – One box of Pop-Tarts (as a treat - won't happen again soon)
$7.25 – Wheat Germ
$6.20 – 20 Diapers
$6.86 – Normal size canola oil
$9.45 – 5 lbs. red beans (not sure what we are going to do here next time)
$7.11 – 10 lbs. long grain rice
$4.12 - Frozen bag of peas and corn

A Good Day

Our internet was down this morning so I couldn't post until now...

Carter and I tossed the football around a little bit yesterday morning. I then headed over to find work. We continued to work on a number of batteries, moving two batteries from one truck to another truck. In the middle of working on that, two guys called called me over to listen to a noise that a truck was making. So I had him back up and go forward a couple times. It turned out to be a bad U-joint. He told me that he had to go somewhere that was 3-hours away. I later found out that he only had to go about 45 minutes away. The U-joint probably would have lasted 45 minutes, but was hesitant to say that it would last for a 3-hour trip.

I took a look at the dump truck because someone else had asked and it, too, had a bad U-joint. It had a bit of lateral slack in it, but little rotational slack. It also looked like it had been that way for a while. When I was in one of the shop rooms, I noticed a bunch of U-joint parts – used no doubt. It seems as if very little is thrown away. I have to figure out their normal procedure: Do they replace with new parts or replace with old, used parts? We have to figure out whether it is beneficial to use used parts and break down more often or buy new parts and have less breakdowns.

We worked until noon when we were supposed to meet Troy (one of the people we met at the market on Tuesday) and Randy (who was in town from MN – World Wide Village). They didn’t come by 12:30 so we started eating. After lunch, we went back and then I found Len who mentioned that they were going for a hike. Since I follow Len around all the time and he has the keys to everything that I would help out with, I went with him and some others. When I got back, I found out that Troy and Randy made their way to our place and spent some time talking with Tina. I was very disappointed that I missed them!

In spite of my disappointment, I had a great time on the hike. We went about a mile out and down a very, very steep hill (650 feet according Google Earth). About 100 of that was walking downhill and the remaining 550 was so steep you couldn’t stand up and you had to watch out for falling rocks loosed by people coming down behind you. It was a great trip and I have awesome pictures! I was very tired from the hike – climbing back up was long and steep.





I washed up and we went to dinner with the group. We had a great time together. They brought in some singers called the Union Brother Singers and they were awesome! And then after dinner on Fridays, everyone is invited to Chris’s place (above our place) for games and fun. The Kayla, Carter, and I went while Tina and Lou stayed back because Lou was tired. We only stayed a half-hour because I was very tired.

This morning we have to work on finishing up the battery work on one truck (we had to replace half the terminals) because someone will be taking it right away this morning. I am still tired because the guard dogs here were barking almost all night – I wanted to show the dogs a nice place where I could give them a dirt nap.

First Day of Work

Len, one of the missionaries here, came up around 9AM yesterday morning and asked if I wanted to go help him with some things. Here is a list of what we did:

1) fixed a toilet that was leaking (we have to save all the water we can)
2) checked, tested, replaced batteries that are used while the generators are off
3) tested and checked a few problem car/truck batteries
4) replaced a circuit board on an X-ray imager
5) checked out the new construction area of the hospital - there will be work needed here in the near future (probably today)

The most interesting thing that I worked on yesterday was the generator. We replaced the oil in one of the two generators. That involved replacing two oil filters, two diesel fuel filters and the 4 gallons of oil. This engine was LARGE and in the generator room it was HOT, HOT, HOT. I am tempted to take my thermometer in there with me next time because it has to be pushing 130 degrees or more. Ear plugs were a must, too!!

In the near future, I will be helping Len with the electical in the new construction of an apartment that the doctors stay in here and checking out a couple Mission vehicles. I have to figure out how I am going to store my tools. Either I bring them back and forth with me all the time or I find a locked cabinet in a locked room to store it. Things disappear here - the dogs took a couple towels we left out to dry two nights ago. The dogs are "guard dogs" and are quite young. I don't really trust either of them, but they are locked up during the day. They make good guard dogs if you don't trust them, right? :-)

Here is a picture to the west from the roof of the three story medical clinic:



Tina worked on laudry yesterday as well. I am not sure that Lou liked his new hat...


Some of my French is coming back to me (after I weed out the Japanese) and more people understand French than English. I have to work on my Creole more.

Kayla and Carter are doing well. Lou is still having some tummy troubles (it comes up and he eats it again in his mouth), but he is better than the last time we saw him. He requires a bit of attention and is slowly getting used to a new routine. Tina is doing well. I am just really concerned about keeping everyone in good spirits and feeling good. We played UNO and Yahtzee last night (games that travel easy).

Tina and I are going to be tired today - sleep wasn't that good. We would like a new matress or some padding on top of what we got... We'll see what happens.

A Couple Pictures From our Place

The view to the North:


The view to the West (just before a passing thunderstorm):

God is Amazing!

First thing is first - giving all the glory to God:

As if it wasn't amazing enough that we ran into Troy and Tara at the market when we went to pick up Lou, you have to read their comment to see how God really works all things out - He is just amazing. These things cannot be merely coincidences.

OK, now to our day: Our first night with Lou went really well. He slept all night (if you call getting up at 4 AM "all night"). Tina worked on getting the kitchen set most of the day and did finish it up. We have a number of things that we would like to get (food and otherwise), but we don't have anything that we cannot live without. I want to be careful, too, not to get caught up in materialism here. The things that I want/need are things like a mop for the concrete floor, a stopper for the sink (I am using a shaving cream cap), etc... Things that we should be able to get here, but just haven't had much time to go out yet.

I was invited on Tuesday to a devotional/Bible study time on Wednesdays. Because there is so much going on right now at the Mission, I was told that there were fewer than normal people attending. There were 5 people total including myself. One of the Missionaries, Len, led the study and there were three Haitian workers there as well. We went through part of one of the chapters in Romans. It was good and interesting to read various verses and see the differences in thinking between the Americans and Haitians. I was trying to observe the differences as much as possible to help me to understand things better. We closed in prayer after about an hour and said goodbye until next week.

Yesterday afternoon after speaking with one of the other missionaries (Chris), I headed up to the church to watch as they taught about 230 Haitian school directors a "walk through" of the Bible. This was so incredible to watch. There was a gentleman from Canada speaking English up front with a translator speaking French. What they were doing was showing how to put the Bible stories in memory using a physical, body movement method as a memorization technique. It took me about 10 minutes of watching (probably with my mouth hanging open), to realize that something like that is not dependent upon language - all the body motions apply to whatever language you are familiar with. Adam and Eve, Noah and the flood, David and Goliath. But it wasn't just the major aspectes of the Bible they were memorizing - they were talking numbers of years and locations around Isreal. They were memorizing a lot. And every once in a while they would get up and practice it. So you had about 230 people (mostly men) talking loudly and going through the motions. I brought Kayla with me to watch the walk-through of the Bible training and she seemed impressed.



This training was not only incredible from the standpoint of it being just cool to watch, but in addition, these 230 folks will be going back home and teaching these methods and Biblical accounts to the teachers and student of the school they provide direction for. This is what Biblical-based teaching is all about. These are the types of things that the Baptist Haiti Mission puts on that affects many, many people's lives. And this is only the beginning. Chris is running an accredited masters degree program here at the Mission as well.

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays all the missionaries get together for dinner. We ate with the person teaching the 230 people, the translator, the photographer, and the coordinator of that event as well. It was a very good time! We had fried plantains (like bananas), beans & rice, bread, fried acra (not sure what that was exactly, but it was good), and banana bread for dessert.

Doing dinner this way is a great way to continue to get to know people and for the women to catch a break from cooking. They bring a cook in and each family is charged a small fee for each person eating. At the end we read a little from the Bible, took prayer requests and prayed to close the evening.

After dinner, I spoke with Pastor Baker, the director, and he was getting a sense for how we were doing. He told me of some things that he had that need to get done some time and that when I was ready to take a look and start working, that I should let him know. I am guessing that this will be pretty soon because I am struggling with not helping out when I know that they are all very busy with a number of things.

I have one prayer request that I would like to pass on: Carter has been having a little trouble paying attention and following direction (he is 8). It is for his safety and benefit, but I would like your prayers for both his understanding and mine on how we can get him to settle in here and focus on what his responsibilities are. Most of this is typical kid stuff, but I have been struggling with it the last few days. Thank you in advance!

The picture here is a full resolution picture of the house we are living in. We are in the lower level and Chris and his family is in the upper level. The internet connection is very, very slow so this will most likely be one of the few full resolution pictures that I will post on this blog.