Last week was a very busy one for us as we began a new school year with new responsibilities for all of us. Lee and Daniel started out the work week early Monday morning. They met several other RMI staff at the Depot at 4am to pack up two vehicles and head into Port au Prince to build a house for a Haitian Pastor. The trip to Port au Prince is a five hour ride over some of the better roads of Haiti, but that doesn’t mean that they are easy roads to
travel, by any means. Once arriving in Port, they constructed a metal home on a less than desirable foundation, but in Haiti you accept what you have and make it work (in Creole, they would say, “degaje”). Upon finishing up with the house at 4pm or so, they headed out to get some lunch and arrived home that evening just after 9pm. Needless to say, they were both exhausted and ready for showers and bed.
While they had a very busy day in Port, the rest of us were starting our first day of homeschooling. Normally, we start our schedule a few weeks ahead of this, but we decided to wait to get started since we are still adjusting to our new home and environment. Our homeschool schedule is looking a little different this year since I (Tina) have been asked to help at Cite Lumiere Christian School (CLCS), here on the mission center, from 11:30am-1pm by teaching Bible with the second graders and helping them finish out their school day. Monday was also the first day of school at CLCS. Since Isaac is also in second grade, he goes along and joins the three other students for the last portion of their day, as part of his school schedule. Last Monday, however, they started the CLCS school day with opening chapel at the Bible School and then we all went back to CLCS for the first day of classes. Nathan went along with Isaac and I since we were spending the day there so that we could better understand what is expected of us in this new school setting. It made for a full day since we finished up at the school and then came home to work on our normal homeschooling work, as well. The rest of the week was not quite as busy, but we were still kept on our toes as we worked at getting all of our schoolwork accomplished. As most years, Mom realized that she has been a little overzealous with her lesson planning and is going to have to make some adaptations to our schooling schedule in the coming weeks.
Since we were all so busy on Monday, we cancelled our Creole classes for that day, but we picked them up again on Wednesday and Friday of this past week with our teacher Pastor Jean Clod Mezi. The rest of the week went well, but we were exhausted at the end of each day with trying to get used to the new schedule. RMI also had two teams on the ground in Haiti this past week. We were able to spend some time with the team from Schuykill Valley Bible Chapel Thursday, after they returned from spending a few days with their sister church at Camp Perrin Baptist Church. Then, Saturday Lee rode along with Rob Thompson, Haiti Field Director for RMI, to the Les Cayes airport to visit with the Creekside team briefly before they flew home, after spending a few days in Baradere, Haiti this week.
In addition to all of the busyness of the week, we still had time for a little fun, as well. Friday evening the missionary community gets together to play volleyball. The younger boys are always running around the mission center with their new friends, and Daniel went to a youth/young adult Bible study at one of the other missionary family’s home on Friday evening, as well. There are also the adventurous things like finding tarantulas in our beds, after the lights go out, or how about looking down to find a big tarantula on your chest when you are using a chainsaw to trim the bushes around the property?? Yes, well, maybe some of these things are not so much fun, but we are creating memories and growing more accustomed to life here in Haiti, for sure!!
This new week brings us some changes to our schedule as our Creole teacher, Pastor Jean Clod Mezi, is also a professor for the American University in Les Cayes. He starts teaching classes there this week, so our Creole lesson time is changing. We will be startingwith him every morning at 7am so that he can leave by 8am to be at the university to start his teaching. This will mean that we will need to have our brains awake and ready for our Creole workouts earlier than they are used to being challenged. We covet your prayers as we make this change. Another prayer request for this week is for Lee as he will be teaching on integrity in leadership at a pastor’s conference that RMI is holding for pastors who are involved in our sister church partnership programs.
We feel truly blessed to have the opportunity to serve here in Haiti. Thank you to each of you who have played a role in helping us along this journey. Through all of the adjustments and challenges, God has made it clear to us that this is exactly where he wants us to be.
on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings for our two hour lessons. Tuesday and Thursdays we set the mornings aside for studying as well. During this time, we try to share some of our Creole words and lessons with Nathan and Isaac, but they often spend this time playing with some of their new friends. During this time, Madame Lala and Emilye are also here to do the preparations for lunch (this is the main meal of the day) and work on our laundry and cleaning of the house. 
What a blessing it was to meet with the Pastor and to see how God is using him to reach the community and teach the children in his care that attend the church. Every Friday, during the school year the church brings in an agriculturalist to teach the children about gardening. They have turned their church yard into a huge garden, filled with peppers, corn, grapefruit, pineapples, sour oranges, mangoes, yams, sweet potatoes and a whole bunch of other items (I can’t remember or have no idea what they were :)
What a joy it was for the Pastor to show us what God is doing on his hill and through his ministry. To top it all off, he blessed us with a fresh pineapple, straight from his garden.
It has been such a joy for me to be able to meet new people, to sit with them, talk with them, encourage them and pray with them. (through an interpreter of course). Thanks to each of you who go with me in Spirit and get to join in on what God is doing!
After a brief rest and a refreshing drink of juice, it was time to return home. Upon returning to our house late this afternoon, I came to find out that the rest of my family had an adventure of their own. Some of the electric wires feeding our house had been rubbed through by some branches. When the sparks began, they fell to our very dry grass and started a fire. When my wife instinctively went for the hose and began dragging it out, the main water line feeding our house snapped! So. . . using the bubbling spring coming from the yard, basins, and a shovel, eventually the fire was put out.
Here’s the best part. . . Another missionary serving with RMI, Joel Sutton, was already here when we arrived and was rounding up all the pieces needed to fix the water line, was working on fixing the electric lines and trimming the branches. It is great to be a part of the family of God!
Haiti with us will, no doubt, remember this great spot of beauty. The Thompson family, Joanna (a friend of Tessa Thompson), and our family left Friday afternoon for the trip. Zanglais is a forty-five minute ride from where we live, so we loaded a twelve passenger van full of twelve people, two dogs, and all the things that we needed for the weekend. This was no small feat, for sure!!! Especially since the dogs were not initially to happy with one another; Tobi is just a little intimidating for anyone bigger than him, let alone for Jersey, a dog half his size. Both dogs were excited, however, to be able to join their families on this trip. Tobi sat right up front between Lee and Rob the whole trip, amazing passersby with his size. One Haitian phrase that we have learned very well over the past two weeks is “chen gwo”, which means “big dog”. It was fun for all of us to see the responses of people as we drove by. We arrived at the retreat center with no problems and while Becky and I took some quiet time for reading and preparing for dinner; the guys took the kids and the dogs to the beach for some fun. Tobi was in his glory since he grew up near the beach and had been able to visit the beach daily until he came to live with us almost two weeks ago. He enjoyed jumping the waves and playing with anyone who wasn’t intimidated by his size, but he also did a good job of standing guard to protect his family, as well. 
Saturday morning, we packed lunches, loaded up all of our beach equipment, and tied the dogs up at the retreat center (which did not make them one bit happy), and headed to the beach where we met two men with their boats. We loaded up and headed to an island which we can see from Zanglais beach, called “Gwo Kay”, meaning “Big House”. We had a half hour or so boat ride to the nice little beach cove where we set up for the day and began playing in the blue water. Rob, Lee, and the older boys all decided to go for a hike, while the younger four children, Becky, and I stayed at our beach spot for some nice reading and play time. The guy’s one and a half hour hike turned into a three hour hike, but everyone came back safe and sound with only a few scratches and blisters to show for all the hard work that they did on their adventure. It was a beautiful day of fun in the sun and many of us look like we spent a day in the sun . . . lots of red cheeks and shoulders in this clan. 
Sunday morning we had breakfast, visited with some new friends, had a little informal church service
of our own, and then packed up and headed back down to Zanglais beach for some more fun in the sun. This time, Jersey and Tobi were more than happy to join us for the fun. Tobi, again, took his position of guard dog and playmate . . . he had a great time running and playing in the waves with everyone, but all the time making sure that everyone was safe, as well. He even helped with the building of some sandcastles and digging of holes . . . or at least he thought he was helping. 
I guess it is about time for us to update those of you who are not following us on Facebook. Tomorrow we will have been in Haiti for a total of three weeks. It is feeling like home and we are growing accustomed to the hot, sticky weather and everything that comes with life here. We moved into our house on July 24 with some help from several of our RMI teammates and our cook, Madam Lala. We are so thankful for the sacrifices of each of them in helping us to settle in and begin to understand the language and the culture. 
This past week, two other wonderful ladies started working alongside of us. Emilye works as
our housekeeper during the week and Madam TiJean comes on Friday afternoon to pick up our market shopping list so that she can do the shopping on Saturday and bring the fresh produce back to the house for us. Some of you may remember Madam TiJean as the cook who made all of our wonderful meals when we were down for short term missions trips. She still works for RMI in that capacity, but has also offered to do our market shopping for us. We are so thankful for these ladies and all of their hard work, which enables us to focus on learning our Creole and adjusting to the life and work that we have here now. Did I mention what wonderful teachers they are for us, as they help us in our language study and better understanding their life and country? They are such an incredible blessing to us!!! 
We have been encouraged to do some sightseeing as we grow accustomed to life here, so we have been taking some time on the weekends
to do just that with our RMI teammates and other missionaries at the center. Our first weekend, we went to the beach in Port Salut for the day and took some time during that day to meet a dog in need of a home, since his missionary family is moving back to the states. That meeting went well and Tobi has moved to our home and become a part of our family. Last Saturday, we went for a hike along the Glas (Ice) River. No, there was no ice in the river . . . but we enjoyed some of God’s beautiful handiwork!!! Then on Sunday afternoon, we took a cycle/four-wheeler ride to some nearby points to experience the beauty and wonder of Haiti. We rode to a two different spots to enjoy the views from some great lookout points and then hiked down to a little fishing village to experience a glimpse into life there.
This weekend, we have opted to stick around the mission center since Haiti has elections today (Sunday) for a number of government officials. We were told by some of RMI’s Haitian staff, as well as, missionaries, that it may be good to not make any big plans this weekend since life is a little stressful here with the political climate. We enjoyed visiting with Tobi’s “foster mom” as she came to see how he is doing at his new home and last evening we enjoyed watching a movie on the big outdoor screen at our field director’s home with several other missionaries and their families.
part in making this a reality, no matter how big or small your contribution, you have been an incredible blessing to our family!!!
high school graduation, and some fun family moments as we visited some favorite places for one more time before our move. We were all extremely excited to see that our container arrived in Les Cayes, Haiti and was unloaded into our new home this past weekend. Words cannot express the excitement that we experienced in seeing our piles of personal belongings stacked in our new home:)