Fifi, Bike, BCS, White Collar, Lister

Eleanor Turnbull, who started the Baptist Mission with her husband more than a half a century ago, was at the zoo this afternoon and had taken the monkey, Fifi, out. Carter went over to where she was and Mrs. Turnbull showed Carter how to care for Fifi. The next thing I knew, Carter had a new friend.



Bike

Carter got a new (used) bike in the last shipment that we received from Cliff (the former mechanic of the Mission whom I recently mentioned on the bhm.org Field Journal blog post). I'll get a picture of Carter on the bike later in the week. This was a great blessing - Thank you, Cliff! Carter loves to ride the bike!


Boring Car Stuff...

Since this section is already called "Boring" I won't apologize for the boring nature of the material in here. I replaced the Pathfinder alternator today because we finally got the right one. I changed the oil and filter in the big International steakbed (the oil filter for that thing holds one gallon of oil - I filled it up before I installed it). I changed oil in our '08 Landcruiser pickup and repaired the cage as well. I cleaned my shop up a bit and moved things around so that it looked better.

White Collar

Mr. Kyrk has been gone since Tuesday AM and is scheduled to come back tomorrow. Pastor Rob has been overseeing me as I run the office in the morning. It's been a little slower (thank you Lord!) because of the Carnival/Mardi Gras celebrations. My Creole is coming along pretty good. I just need a little work on some sentence structure and my vocabulary (which will come with time). I am starting to get to the point where I don't have to translate everything into English and can just go with the Creole that I hear.

Lister

A few days ago Mr. Chris brought the non-functional old Lister generator from the beach house up north. There are two of the same make and model and the one that was left there isn't in the greatest shape, but it is working. This thing will be a MAJOR project. I hope to be able to find the manual for it, but there is a possiblity that it became rat food a while back. I'll be looking for it tomorrow. You can see the parts on the bench in the picture. The right 2/3 of the stuff on the bench is for the generator.


Our generator seems to be having issues as well. The oil pressure in #1 is pegging the needle - way too high. I read the manual and it says that the high pressure relief valve may be the problem. It appears that I may have to drop the oil pan to check that out to see if that is problem. To be certain, first I will remove and swap the oil pressure sensors to make sure that it isn't simply the sensor and to do that, I will have to get up early to do the swap. We'll see what happens tomorrow - with 10,000 hours, they are probably due for an overhaul...so do we do that if I drop the pan...?

Bunnies, BCS

We have rabbits here at the Baptist Haiti Mission zoo. What do rabbits do best? Multiply of course! Here are a few new ones. Carter asked me if he could have a rabbit. I said sure! As long as you keep it at the zoo. He was so excited (I don't think that he realized that nothing would be different except that now he calls it his).

The little gray one that Carter is holding really likes him. He'll lick his neck and sit comfortably. The brown one that Kayla is holding is "her bunny." (the camera focused on the fence instead of their faces, but you get the point.)



Boring Car Stuff...

Things seem to happen in streaks here. If it's not tires, it's batteries. If it's not batteries, it's fender-benders. Late last week started "alternator week." The white Pathfinder had issues first, then the big white International steakbed, and last (but not least) it's the Mitsubishi Montero. One of the workers brought an alternator in for the pathfinder, but it was the wrong one (I had it 80% installed before I could tell that it wasn't the right one). I replaced the International alternator today and tomorrow I'll take out the Montero's to go buy the right one.

I fixed a flat in the Patrol, replaced a ball joint in the old Landcruiser, and tried to change oil in the Isuzu N series truck (someone bought the wrong oil filter). I changed the oil in the generator today (and fried a spot on my balding/shaved head using the exhaust of the running generator - - ouch!). I even went to the hospital (not for my burned head) to fix the autoclave (for sterilization) and found that the wiring was bad at the plug and it had a couple bad fuses. All in a day's work.

Friends Visiting

Yesterday we had Randy and Pat Mortensen from World Wide Village visit us. They were such a blessing to us yesterday as they brought (and bought) some shaving cream, tooth brushes, and (the family favorite) beef jerky. They also blessed us by buying lunch.

We first met Randy and Pat at the Visa Lodge in January of 2008. It was our second trip to Haiti to visit Lou and check out what missionary work was about. They introduced themselves while we ate at the restaurant and we found out that they were from MN and we knew some of the same people. God brought them into our lives and we appreciate having friends like the Mortensens. Thank you for blessing us Randy and Pat!

Future Aspirations?

New Welder/Generator, Remains

Yesterday, Mr. Kyrk and I worked on making our new welder/generator a bit more mobile. It had little 4-5 inch wheels under it that made it good for only smooth concrete. Any welder that we have needs to go off road - an ATW, if you will (All-terrain Welder). Mr. Kyrk and I decided on this wheel-barrow-like design with a knobby air filled tire (with bearings). It is a better design than the old one which had two wheels on the end opposite of the handle. The handles for this one were taken from the old one (various modifications were made to make it fit). We have to put the rear legs on it so that it sets down level and then it'll be done and ready for use. It is diesel instead of gasoline which is a much cheaper fuel. The yellow machine is the welder/generator:


Here is Oreo enjoying the remains of the bull.


Here is Oreo chilling out on Carter (she is a real sweet dog and always has to be touching her family - she was a good find).



I have some more updates that I would like to give, but I have to get going right now. I'll try to post them later today.

Full of Darkness

Luke 11: 34-36

Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.

I am a sinner. My eye is not always healthy and, thus, my body is not always full of light. As Christians, sometimes we struggle to see the light - often it is dim and difficult to find in various situations. There is light in everything and something to be learned from every situation that the Lord puts us in. Whether it is in an incident of traffic, with a neighbor, or with a child or spouse, we must always strive to see the light in the situation and not let the darkness taint our reactions (yielding sinful actions) or our make us spiritually unhealthy. When our eye is dark, we cannot reflect the true light of Jesus and display the great glory of God.

Phillipians 4:8

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Our daily evening reading for yesterday puts a nightcap on my post from yesterday. Specifically, "Many tradesmen export their best commodities--the Christian should not. He should have all his conversation everywhere of the best savour; but let him have a care to put forth the sweetest fruit of spiritual life and testimony in his own family." - - from Morning and Evening by Charles H. Spurgeon

Facebook, Bull vs. Cow

Just two quick things to mention:

Facebook

I have deactivated my Facebook account. This isn't because of any particular friend request, but rather because I have to whittle away at things that take up my time from doing things that I need to do and should be doing. I am still friends with you all, it just won't be posted on the internet. If anyone wants to know if I am still their friend, just send me an email and I'll let you know. And if you want me to post that you are my friend on my blog for whomever reads this blog to see, let me know and I will.

We continue to plow because we love the Lord and His people...

Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” - - Luke 9:62 (ESV)

...and pray that we are fit.

This is by no means saying that we are working for our salvation...

"yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified." - - Galations 2: 16 (ESV)

We continue to put great effort into the current season in our life. The season that the Lord has chosen for us is a season of family. Our family is our primary focus. We just happen to be doing it on the mission field - an added challenge. We ask for your prayers that we can continue to keep this as our focus until this season ends and a new one begins.

We are trying to put much of our effort into ensuring our children are brought up under the guidance of the Lord and are well mannered. Tina and I know the wonderful benefits of being a slave to, and having faith in, a Great King and want to pass this understanding onto our children.

Bull vs. Cow

I am the grandson of a farmer (Grandpa - thank you so much for having a farm! I have such great memories of you and your farm. I enjoy thinking about those days gone by!). My sister is a granddaughter of a farmer. She is still somewhat involved in farming in a more removed sense, but still involved nonetheless. She corrected my terminology and sent me an email. The animal that we butchered is a bull, not a cow. Thank you, Becky, for the great detail of body parts that allowed me to properly analyze what animal we had before us. I love my sister!

Internet Issues, Butchering

We have had internet issues and it may continue for a few days. If we are slow to reply to emails or post new stories, please forgive us.

Butchering

The butchering went great today (especially for me since I only helped for 1/4 of the bull). Mr. Kryk and Mme. Kyrk did most of the work (I feel like rhyming now) and it took just about all day. We'll all get lots of meat out of it. There will be another cow on the way soon I am sure.

We left to go shopping around 1:30 for groceries and just before we left, we found out that one of our drivers was stuck on the side of the road. We spent over an hour with him trying to fix the issues. I am glad that we had one extra brand new battery and I am glad that I brought it along. It appears now that the alternator is shot on that truck, so we'll be working on it tomorrow.

I am not sure that I could find missionary work that would allow it full time, but I sure do enjoy driving in the craziness of Haiti and downtown. Tina feels differently. Much differently.

A Bullish Disaster - And We're Not Talking About the Stock Market

Yesterday was the cow's turn to be butchered. He was a great cow! Our family loved to go down, feed the pig, and then let the cow lick the bucket. He was so nice and he let you pet him all he wanted. We love God's creation and this bull was one of our favorite animals. We will miss him! Which makes this story all the more difficult to write about.

And now...for the story behind the first day of the butchering procedure. If you like animals and cry when reading sad stories about how an animal could die, do NOT read this. It did not go as expected.

It started by unleashing the cow. He walked well up to the same place where we butchered the pig. We started to tie him up to a tree, but it was decided to move him to the same cement post closer to where he would be field-dressed. They didn't tie his head real tight and that meant that he could move around a bit (too much, as you will soon see).

All of the other cows that have been butchered here lately have been killed with, at most, two .22 shots from the same old revolver used on the pig last time. But this time, the first six shots from that gun, didn't have much of an affect. Mr. Kyrk had to go back home and get more. The bull started to realize that he didn't like guns pointed at him. Pastor Baker came down (he could see us working from his office window) to talk to Mr. Kyrk about using a larger gun.

Mr. Kyrk got a .38 handgun from Pastor Baker and after one shot in the head (the 7th overall - or it may have been the 8th or 9th), the cow started to get a little more upset. I got blood splattered on my face after this shot. People gathered around to watch what was happening - it was a spectacle. All of the shots went in between either the eyes or into near the ear. He tangled his legs a little in the barb wire and then ended up pulling the cement post out of the ground. At this point people started to get away rather quickly.

We gave chase and followed him all of the way back to his home/pen (about 200-300 yards). Once there, Mr. Kyrk fired a shot from about 10 feet away and then he moved a little and laid down - right into his pen. It was as if he wanted to start the whole day over back in his pen - he was home now. Mr. Kyrk got closer and fired another shot. The bull got up and then started to go down the terraced mountain - just about the worst thing for us that he could do.

He was close to a deep pit so we had to get him away. Through much effort and determining what to do, we got him away from the pit in the side of the mountain. I was sure that we would have to figure a way to get him up the side of the mountain after he died here. I was thinking that he might die and roll all the way down the mountain. He was still standing and showing that he had enough energy left, so we tied a rope to him and led him up the mountain using the best path possible.

He came willingly. We went straight to the big tree we almost tied him to initially and tied his head real close to the tree so he couldn't move. One shot in the head behind the horns and he went down real fast. It was finally over.

They then field dressed him.

Somewhere in my story I missed a few shots, but there was a total of 13 shots (if I remember correctly) that went into his head and the last one was the best one. The story in my head is, of course, much more in depth and there is no way that I can convey the feelings of how things went. A number of us had put ourselves in harms way a few times - who's to know how a bull shot in the head a dozen times should or will act. It did not go as we planned. After every shot, we were thinking that it would be the last one. It could have been much worse - he could have done some very bad things when he got lose.

Here are some pictures (the videos are too big to load).

Here is one right before the final shot:



Here is a good shot of the four stomachs all together - now you know why their stomach is so large:


Today we'll put our butchering hats on.

Go Ahead, Laugh - I Can Take It

Yesterday Mr. Kyrk and I worked to get more diesel out of the tank that is broken. It is never an easy straight-forward task to get the pump all hooked up - there are always problems. We got it pumping to a point where we didn't have to hold things by hand (because it was going to take another set of hours to get it done).

We were babysitting the pump and talking when I saw a rat behind Mr. Kyrk. I mentioned it to him and he went to get a pellet rifle to take care of it. He shot and, because the scope was off, he missed.

Because we were babysitting, we had nothing better to do so we marked a target and started to line up the sight. He shot a few times and got the sight very close. Then I took a turn.

Now, I have played games using a scope (killed too much time playing SOCOM), but it's not the same thing (I found out - duh!). I have a decent imagination and have always wondered how well I would do as a long-range distance sniper (had the Lord put me in one of the armed services). I may have just smashed my dreams and found out how I would have done...

I was lining up the sight and pulling the trigger (which had a real hard pull). Then it fired. I think I remember a little hit in the head, but it didn't hurt all the much. The next thing I know, blood is dripping down the outside of my nose. I could make all sorts of excuses (I think I came up with some good ones, didn't I Mr. Kyrk?), but the simple fact of the matter is that I had my face too close to the scope and the kickback rammed the scope into my face. Lesson learned...

In this picture, it doesn't look too bad. I think that it is deep enough to maybe have stitches, but it should stay together OK (we'll see). Ignore the dirt on my face and head - this is after a full days work and breathing in lots of diesel fumes.


I think that God has made me more of a mechanic than a pest control novice. Perhaps if the gun needs to be fixed, I could be of some use...

Eureka! Food Issue Solved!

I think we may have found out what the food issue with Lou is (Praise God!). It may be a little early to tell, but we think we have figured out what is going on. It's something that you won't find in a medical book and we attribute it to the orphanage situation and little food available there (if not, perhaps, simply a down syndrome thing).

We think that we have figured out that his refulx issue is completely intentional and under his control. If we sit with him after he eats and pay attention to what he is doing, he will not reflux. If we put a bowl under him, he will not reflux.

It started because we didn't want him to recycle his food. We wanted him to spit his vomit into the bowl. When we gave him the bowl, he didn't reflux. It took a little while to figure this out, but now he is eating everything that we are eating and he is not refluxing - he seems to have a lot more energy. He was actually starting to get too thin and look malnourished.

It appears that it was a habit of his and now we are trying to break it - and fast! We hope that he starts to put on the pounds (muscle, not water or whatever he had before). He certainly seems to be doing better now that we aren't feeding him the things that we THOUGHT he wouldn't reflux on (which we never figured out because it was at his will). The fact that he did it when he wanted to caused Tina a great deal of stress. Making two meals at every meal was also causing her stress. The whole family hopes that she is on the road to recovery, too! Please pray for Lou and Tina!

Relaxed

We arrived Friday around 10AM and relaxed. We had fun in the pool Friday afternoon & Saturday morning and we had fun watching Little House on DVD before we went to bed. We forgot how annoying and public/cable TV is with the commercials they display - we shut it off, walked away, and hope to not turn back.





We ended up leaving on Saturday afternoon, because Tina didn't sleep to well (the bed was really hard and stiff - it was two twin sized put together to form a queen so there was a seam in the middle). Tina, Kayla, and I were on that bed and Carter got to sleep on a cot all by himself.

The orange juice at the restaurant was greatly improved (a blessing to me because I LOVE ORANGE JUICE and I don't get it much here at all). We ate their free breakfast which was very good and I ordered a cheese omelet because I had it last time and it was really good (and they still make it very good).

Since the internet connection was AMAZINGLY FAST at the hotel (it about 4x faster than at the Mission on a good day), I took the liberty to display a few videos for your viewing pleasure. This one is of Lou when we sing one of our Bible memory verses (we did a real bad job singing in this video). Why he makes this face we have no idea, but he does pretty good making the clicking noise with his tongue at the end!



I put on YouTube because it worked better and faster for me. It is one of the baby pig that we got to replace the butchered pig. He was LOUD!!



Coming back was nice and, at the same time, not so nice. It was good to come to the realization that the Mission is feeling like home and we aren't as comfortable just anywhere. It was not so nice because we came back and I was torn between continuing my rest and working with Cliff. Since Cliff is leaving Monday and we don't work Sunday, it was my last time with him to go over the vehicles more with him around. So I went and worked the whole afternoon. It was good that I did, but it kinda took the "relaxing" out of the "relaxing weekend." The real vacation will come when we go back to visit friends and family back in the States after the adoption is complete (of which we have NO IDEA or NO INDICATION of when it will be done).

Thank you, again, Mom and Dad for this great Christmas gift of being able to get out and away for a little while! If it comes to it, we'll use our second day in a few months and stay for just one night again.

Vacation

We're going on vacation today - a quick weekend trip (thank you Mom and Dad for this Christmas gift!). This will be our first "vacation" since arriving on June 30th. We're going to a local hotel and will be resting, reading, and praying with the kids. They are so very excited to go and spend some time in a pool (in warmer weather than up here in the mountains where we have been dreaming about not wearing sweatshirts all the time).

The other thing that the kids are excited to do is watch TV. They are looking forward to watching Myth Busters and some Animal Planet on the cable TV at the hotel.

We should have access to the internet at the hotel, too, so I'll post some pictures as we spend time there.

Have a great weekend!

Canter Apart and Together, Turkey, Sweet

Here are shots of the canter dump portion removed (which is much heavier than just a plain bed) and the truck section separated. Mr. Kyrk and I worked on it about half a day yesterday and all of today. We (including Mr. Cliff, the mechanic who used to work here and comes every-so-often is here to help with things) welded it back together this afternoon and we'll further support it tomorrow. I hope that we can have it all back together by the end of the week.



Turkey

Here is a thirsty turkey (I thought it was funny today when I saw him):


Sweet

Last night, Kayla and Carter treated us real nicely. They got our clothes ready, gave us chocolate, got our toothbrushes ready, and gave us a nice note. We had a staff meeting, so they were home alone for a while.

Diesel Flood, Split in Two: Canter

We have three diesel tanks that were just filled up on Wednesday with an additional total of 3000 gallons. One tank holds 4300 gallons, a second holds 1000 gallons, and the third holds 1300 gallons (we also have a 2000 gallon gasoline tank). The 1000 gallon tank had a leak in a couple unions/joints that we have wanted to replace for a while. Yesterday, we had one of the Canadian Baptist Haiti Mission board members (the Canadian President) working on it (thank you, Mr. Martin!). When he went to replace the joints, he loosened a couple fittings and then had to temporarily tighten them back up. When he went to tighten them, the joint at the bottom of the tank broke and there was no way to shut it off - 1000 gallons were starting to pour out (this was just waiting to break for whomever worked on it - it wasn't anything that Mr. Martin did that broke it). He ran to tell Mr. Kyrk and then ran back to the tank. He quickly grabbed a plastic bag and held his hand to "stop the bleeding." Mr. Kyrk called me to tell me we had an emergency at the Diesel tanks so I ran over there (this was at 4:30-5:00PM). I saw Mr. Martin left "holding the bag."


Mr. Kyrk went to the woodshop to make a wooden plug for the tank. When I got to Mr. Martin (after taking a picture) I grabbed the bag to take over for him. He loosened the connections and Mr. Kyrk got ready to pound the wood plug in. We counted to three, yanked the pipe off and plugged the hole. The first part of the emergency mission was complete.

The second part was to somehow empty the 1000 gallons. We started by topping off all of the diesel vehicles that we could (only 5 of them either needed diesel or were available). Then we decided to use a water pump to pump diesel into the other almost-full tanks (this stuff sounds easy, like we just went to grab the pump and start, but nothing is as easy as it sounds. We needed to disconnect the pump from where it was connected, we needed connections for the garden hoses we had (praise God that we had them), we need to create a new extension cord end because of a mismatch, and I am sure there was more. We started to pump into the tank that we had been using for the generator and vehicles - it was three days worth of use emptier (not much). While pumping we had a break in the line and had to stop to find a replacement hose (we ended up cutting off the other end of the output).

After a few more issues, we got about 500 of the 1000 gallons into the two other tanks. Until about 9:30PM it was Mr. Kyrk and I babysitting the pumping job. We then called it a night, because there was nowhere else to put the rest of the diesel - the wood plug would hopefully hold for a few days until we made space for the remaining 500 gallons.

Boring Car Stuff...

I think that it was Thursday that I found out the Canter's frame was cracked right in the middle between the front wheels and the back wheels. They had welded it before I knew about it and had gotten a chance to look at it. When saw what they had done, I didn't think that it would be OK. They only welded it on the outside and didn't give it more support. Well, it broke completely apart on Friday a little ways further up the mountain. The inside basically caved in. We found the best of the thickest metal we had and drilled a bunch of holes in it. The Haitian guys then headed off to try to put it back together. They were successful enough to get it pulled back to the mission last night and here are the pictures.


The windshield is busted out:




This will be a big project in the upcoming days (weeks?). I think we may try to get the frame back together to see how it holds. Then we will see about fixing everything else. There are brake lines, the exhaust, the drive shaft, the hydraulics for the dump, and I am sure more, that goes to the back half, so all of that will have to be checked out. Job security (once again).