Communion

Praises:  we are all much better!  Stomach virus went around the family for about 3 weeks

Nicky took me out for my 39th birthday-  we got to have a date!

It has been a little cooler these past few days- only mid 90's

Prayers:  Nicky has been working really hard getting the very large gates up- continue to pray for safety and strength as he works out in the hot sun

Wisdom and guidance for me as I homeschool.  I truly enjoy it but somedays are exhausting, especially with teams here to take care of.

The kids will never forget this communion a few Sundays ago at church!  We went to one of our local churches that Dave Heady was preaching at.  This isn't out of the ordinary since a team is here.

At the end of the service we participated in communion which the kids have done before but this time as they picked up the "grape juice" I could see both kids bring the liquid to their noses and then an expression I have seen many times came across their faces.

But neither commented or protested.  At the appointed time we all drank the juice.  I am actually proud of my kids for their reactions, they both made the face of disgust but they didn't verbalize or make any comment that proved their dislike.  Luckily we were seated behind the pulpit so the congregation could not see us entirely.

Ellie was sitting beside me.  Very discretely she leaned over to me and said "what was that stuff."  I informed her that that was wine.  In turn she matter of factly said "Now I know wine tastes nasty!"

A team member was really brave.

My Birthday date!

Setting up the gates

Our new member of the family.  She was intended to be a shop cat , to catch mice and rats, but I don't think the kids are going to part with her. And at the point I have seen rats bigger than she is.

A rare night that the wind died down enough to make a little fire and we made s'mores.  

Back Home

Prayers:  I am not whining but it has been extremely hot here the last few days- today the high has          been 110 degrees

Continue to pray for our family as a whole.  We can get so busy that we don't take time as a family.

Praises:  I am not saying we have enough help but we have more families/ staff helping ease the work loads thru middle of Sept

5 good wells were drilled, bring fresh, clean water to lots of people.  

I don't say this enough,  I am so proud of my husband!  He loves The Lord and has a passion for being the man God wants him to be!

Many days he was leaving the house at 6:30 am to travel more than an hour to work with Curt King a well driller with Healing Hands International.  They were blessed with 5 good, clean wells and one dry hole.

Getting to the last area they drilled was tricky. This was a really steep road.  As they reached the top people were cheering at their arrival. Unfortunately, even to 300 ft was dry.  As they were packing up to go back down the mountain a rainstorm came making the trip more difficult. 

The kids enjoyed playing and spending time with friends and family while we were in the States. But we were all glad to get back home. The lady that runs our conference center kitchen had her grand kids here for a few weeks.  They come every summer. They are such good kids! They speak a little English so it is great to see Xander and Ellie learning and practicing more creole with them.

Most of the time I had anywhere from 9-15 kids at one time. They loved riding bicycles and playing with tennis rackets. The girls loved to help me bake cookies and cakes.

My main job last week was to get receipts turned in and get caught up on sending out thank you notes. I hand wrote 54 in 3 days.  We had a team leaving on Saturday so they needed to go with them back to the states.

We started school Monday.  I was so ready to get back into somewhat of a routine.

We were also encouraged by family, the Turner's, that were here for 10 days on a mission trip.  They are fellow Global Outreach missionaries from Costa Rica.

this well produced over 30 gallon a minute

men watching us drill as most women work in the markets everyday

hard to drink water in front of all these people when we couldnt find water as we drove up the mountain they were cheering with such excitement

this was steeper than it looks to get a few miles up and back down with a 4 cylinder truck with 22,000 lbs and a rain storm coming back down 

people stop for a minute to watch the drilling carrying such loads on their heads

a market we drilled in with over 5,000 people in it 2 days a week

being boys

being girls

The Last Three Months

Prayer requests:
                          We can get our conference center booked
                           We are able to bring glory to God through our actions and words


Praises:        We have received all the things we shipped down in March
                    We have been making intentional family time
                    We got our Visa's (permis)!!


The end of January we were blessed by another ministry organization as well, by lending us a teacher, a painter and a mechanic for a week.  The teacher gave Kristie a much needed break for the week and the painter and mechanic helped cross off a lot on Nicky's to do list.

Our visiting teams have been doing construction, working on dorms on the compound, building a new church, and doing some welding and generator work, along with bringing a much needed welder and supplies.

Another ministry we partner with brought down a professional painter to do much needed painting on our volunteers quarters.

A team of three from our home church, FBC Hendersonville, came in April.  We were blessed by them helping us start a carport for our house, helping teach the kids (while Kristie painted), and did lots of photography for upcoming gran moun and teacher sponsorship.  What an encouragement to have friends come and work along side you!

Helping start our carport

Visiting our kindergarten

Gran moun feeding program

Xander learning to weld

Our boom lift arrived!!

One team had asked us weeks before if we had any personal supply needs and they went above and beyond in blessing all of us missionaries on the compound, especially the kids, 42 suit cases.  It was like Christmas time.  Just being blessed with the everyday items like ziplock bags, honey, and candy/ snacks.

During the egg hunt

The most recent team was here over Easter.  They brought in lots of supplies along with candy and plastic eggs for all the kids on the compound and other missionary families to enjoy an egg hunt before bible study.

The kids were all smiles after receiving their prizes.

 We love having teams who work selflessly to invest in God' s kingdom.  Teams have worked ministering to our gran moun (old people),  patients in the burn clinic, kids in the schools, building a new church, drilling and repairing wells, and encouraging us. Without teams we couldn't get much done behind the scenes, bringing in parts and supplies keeping us going when things are broken. And the people we get to meet and have relationships with that continue, especially if teams come back year after year.

We continue to pray for more missionaries to come full or part time to minister alongside us keeping our compound maintained and running well.

The kindergarden girls love playing with Ellie's hair.

Brian and Carla Tyndale were here for 2 weeks doing revivals

More loads heading up the mountain.

A load getting ready to go the new church building site.

A son dedicating this new church to his deceased father.

Our mission built a church 1 1/2 hours up the mountain in a place overwhelmed by voodoo. Forty-two truck loads of materials and water were taken to get it done.  This kept Nicky busy repairing trucks and tires along with everything else going. This church was dedicated to a young father of 3 young kids that lost his life in a accident.  He came to Haiti years ago with Global on a team and that started his love for Haiti.  This man's parents, younger brother, and 12 yr old son came to dedicate the church.  It was a sweet ceremony, so many Haitians hungry for God 's word.

A new church built in a place overwhelmed by voodoo.

Youth Dorms being built

A team member being baptized  in the pool, not all our ministry is to Haitians

Fun in the Kitchen!

Well drilling a mile from the compound.

Xander hard at work.

That boom lift can't get here soon enough.

It's here!!  Nicky has used it almost everyday since it arrived.

Welding a dozer that was working on the new soccer fields for a new ministry her on the compound

Youth leaders conference.

Fighting fires next to our compound.

January

A quick blog, Kristie is teaching the girls how to bake.

We are praying before drilling a new well in a new village for clean water. There is not a clean well for miles of this place.  They have to walk to our compound or buy water to get it.  Pray we hit good water , as we are drilling close to 2 dry holes we drilled here last year. 

By the time I posted this we broke the cable and the drill was left in the hole, but  we were able to retrieve it and we will try again as soon as I get caught up. 

We are starting a new church building in the mountains this week, in a village that's the voodoo capital in the area.  Satan will be and is fighting us hard in this place, dedicated to satan, as we build this place of worship. This is our local church that has bought the land and planting this church, so glad to see the church growing here! Keep praying hard for us in this, he won't give up easy. 

Took this picture as I dumped the 3rd load of materials just before dark Thursday, don't like driving down the mountain after dark, but sometimes we run out of daylight.

Pray for us as we have 5 building projects going on, and needing to hire a welder full time to keep up with the building of trusses, gates, and maintenance, and we are down to 1 good welding machine as 2 are broken. 

PRAYER REQUESTS: Continued strength and energy
                                        Continuing to learn the language
                                        Our family as it is hard to do things as a family, satan tries
                                         to do whatever he can to separate us.                                  



PRAISES:  Boom lift purchased and delivered to Nashville
                   Nicky baptized Ellie while we were in the States
                   New family arrived to work with us
                    Good well was drilled for school with 800 kids
                   Crusade went well in our village during voodoo holidays Halloween in the states

We pasted our 1 year mark for living in Haiti.  In some ways it seems like a year has flown by and other ways it seems like we have been here for much longer.  Either way we are blessed to be able to serve the Lord as a family.

Sorry for the late post.  I have many excuses that I could tell you but the fact that I am a procrastinator should say enough.  I know people want to here what is going on down here but to me it is just normal everyday stuff that doesn't seem important.  I have realized I need to get over that because no matter how small and unimportant our daily lives seem, they are so important to God and His will for the future and furthering His kingdom.

For the past month we have had back to back teams and guest housing.  We are able to be such a blessing to other ministries, providing them a place to stay and meals.  (One night we had over 30 people to feed).   I thank the Lord for our Haitian ladies that do most of the cooking.  I just make sure the meals are planned out and they have the food they need, and help with some of the cooking, making  some deserts.

I was able to give our ladies in the kitchen a cake decorating class with some of the supplies that brought down with me.

Carlene's son turned ten that day.  This was the 1st birthday cake he has ever had.

The boom lift was delivered to Nashville and is awaiting transport, when Nicky can fly back in and load a container. (We have to get our list of things going on the container approved by customs first)

We had a new family move down a month ago.  The Todd family, they have 4 children, ages 4-16.  Xander and Ellie are so excited to have more kids to play with and we are very appreciative of the additional help and fellowship.

Since the time has changed it gets dark at about 5:30pm and gets light about 5:45 am.  Most nights we struggle to stay up till 8:30pm and some nights I have gone to bed at 7:30.  But we do get up early, making you feel that you are more accomplished, plus it is cooler earlier in the mornings.

While we were guest housing both kids were up before I was to make sure they could go help make breakfast for them.  Xander usually is up early but Ellie likes to sleep.  Even she wanted to help even if it was to sit and read a book while Xander, Carrie, and I made breakfast.

Xander is a pro at making scrambled eggs by 6am

We had two well drillers from the states come down with Healing Hands.  They were able to help drill a well for us at a school for about 800 kids, the great thing about that is our kid supporters paid to have this well drilled! From Refuge, Mountain view, Central Baptist churches VBS fund raising along with a few other children that have supported us. We want to give children a opportunity to give clean water and the living water to kids here in Haiti!

Happy kids excited about other kids from the states giving them clean water! We were pumping out the well getting the drilling mud out allowing the clean water to flow!

Doing some maintenance on the well drilling rig replacing seals in the jacks

Got a flat tire on the way to the school to drill the well.

Some of the older students at the school praying for good water.

We had a 4 night crusade for all souls day, similar to Halloween in the states, but it is a 2 day national holiday, not trick or treating, ( people here that are into voodoo love to hear about Americans delving into their dark side on halloween) there was over 1000 people here each night 80% were young teens and children at our crudsade, this picture was taken from the far behind.

One of the holes washed from heavy rains, Nickys trying to get the water diverted as we build a wall around the compound so it wont keep washing these ravines.