Hello from sunny and green Michigan,
I had forgotten how much I missed spring! Our renters moved in February and we spent a few weeks cleaning and painting and I spent the last month cleaning and raking the yard, my favorite job. All the perennials around the house have been growing and those little green sprouts coming out of the ground are beautiful. The little things that I’ve learned to appreciate so much now. Doesn’t take much to make me happy
The house was only vacant three weeks before we found new renters so we only had to come up with money for one house payment. God’s timing (just as we were starting to fret and be concerned), is always just right! It’s a relief to know that financial responsibility is taken care of for the next 18 months.
We traveled this week to Washington, DC to World Hope headquarters. It was great, we shared a nice lunch with all the staff and got to meet many of the people (we didn’t know) “behind” the email addresses. I finally got to meet the infamous Yaw, the accountant. Boyd and Fines from WHIZ were always working on some kind of report for him and at times he was “the bad guy”. He’s charming and was a delight to talk to, we laughed as I shared stories with him from Zambia. We met with various people about our responsibilities in Haiti. There are many teams scheduled to travel to Haiti during the next several months. Besides work teams, one of the most exciting things we will be doing is assisting teams in working with children. Day camps, VBS and lots of other activities to involve the kids. Imagine how much more traumatic the earthquake must have been to small children, who didn’t even understand what was happening. We will be leading teams and David will begin to ascertain what needs to be done first, and second and third… He may begin work on completing a wall around the Wesleyan compound. So many obstacles, where do you put the debris, not to mention who owns it, where to get supplies ? Most of the schools in Haiti were damaged or destroyed and it’s so important to get them repaired or replaced quickly. The list goes on…
This move to Haiti will be quite a lifestyle change from Zambia. In looking back, I see how God has been preparing us for the next adventure… We went from our home in the US, to a comfortable home in Zambia, on to a hotel room for two months and then finally to our one room studio apartment in Blissfield. Our future home in Haiti will be a room, part of a room or a tent Depends on how heavy duty a tent we find, rainy season has started and hurricane season is coming. Packing will certainly be easier…tent, cot, air mattress, couple of towels… God was preparing us for future work as we learned how little we needed in Zambia. Speaking of Zambia, we still miss it very much and think of people daily. I wonder how Zumba is, his wife was due to have a baby.. I miss “my Jeff” and his gorgeous smile, Chabota or Baby Boyd as I used to call her, we were becoming good friends when we left. David misses Ivy and Ethel not to mention hundreds of other kids Mrs. Botha, I miss the most.. she was/is one of my best friends… I miss that beautiful smile of hers. Sad as it is, what a honor it was to share their lives and learn to love them. I can close my eyes and see Beenzu at the reception desk, Boyd in his office, Benjamin at his desk and Raphael laughing and joking and Mrs. Mkonde so kind and quiet. Those memories will never leave us…
I wanted to share a few of Gods’ blessings we experienced this month. As I mentioned before, money has been really tight since we’ve been home for four months with no pay. When our little old Toyota started making ugly noises when applying the brakes, David made an appointment with a mechanic that used to help us out a number of years ago. The latch had broken on the hood latch so we had been using a bunge cord to keep the “lid” on David took the car in and spent some time talking to Mark (mechanic) about what we had been up to the last few years while he was working on the car. Five hours later, new brakes and a new hood latch Mark presented David with the bill….$14.83, cost of the brake pads. He told David he just “felt” he needed to do this for us. We all know what that feeling is
When we spent those 60 odd days at the Holiday Inn, we were earning points in their reward program (even though the insurance paid the bill) and have been able to use those points for free nights lodging in cities where we were scheduled to speak. A friend of Davids’ has given him the opportunity to do some construction work to help ends meet. Our dear friend Nick has lent us his car when we worried the Toyota wouldn’t make a long journey. He has allowed us to store our few remaining possessions in the basement of his business since we left and that has saved us paying storage fees. My dear friends Kathy, Mary Ellen (yes you), Lou Ann and Kevin who have provided much love and comic relief since we’ve been home, they are beautiful strong women of God I’ve been blessed to call friends. Reconciling with old friends, Amy and Sam and renewing friendships. Gracious churches taking love offerings to help meet our needs and cover our traveling costs. An absolutely wonderful home church, Whiteford Wesleyan Church in Ottawa Lake, MI part of the East Michigan District that has been there for us no matter what the need. They have helped us on our journey from short term missions trips, longer term trips and now to full time field work. The love and encouragement we receive from the members and our pastors is spectacular.. Pastor Rick is awesome and I forget exactly how much I miss him until we set down in the pew and he begins to speak. He married David and I, (I’ll have to tell you sometime the story about how he and David thought the bride was never coming down the aisle..) But the best of all… being called Grandma and Grandpa by the most beautiful little girl, we now know what everyone meant when they talked about the wonders of being grandparents. It is wonderful!
We are off soon to three weeks of training in Colorado at Missionary Training Institute. David and I are looking forward to absorbing all we can, in hopes we will be emotionally and spiritually prepared for the work God has commissioned us to do. It’s exciting and we are really looking forward to it. After training we will shoot up to South Dakota to visit one of our favorite churches, Countryside, in Spearfish. The church sent two mission teams to Zambia and we were thrilled to make many new friends. It will be great to visit with them! They are also planning trips to Haiti.. Our oldest son lives in Colorado and we’ll also have the opportunity to spend a few days with him. See… God plans everything so well!
Our tentative leave date for Haiti is around May 12th. We currently have 85% of our support in place. World Hope requires that we be 100% funded, through cash contributions and pledges, before we leave for Haiti and we really need your help! If God has been laying our work on your heart, please consider making a financial contribution to help us reach our support goal. You can partner with us by following these instructions. You may send them to World Hope International, P O Box 96338 , Washington, D.C. 20090. Please remember to enter our constituent number 28163 on the memo line of your check. You may also donate by credit/debit card and if you have questions please call 1-888-466-4673 and ask for donor services. You may donate on- line at www.worldhope.org, please make sure you designate your contribution with our name and number to ensure proper crediting to our account.
What a blessing it has been for us to travel to new churches, make new friends and we have acquired a number of new prayer partners. At times during the last four months we have felt under attack, Satan uses whatever he can to discourage, anger or derail us. Isn’t it wonderful when we can claim Gods’ protection and know that Satan wouldn’t be interested in us if we weren’t doing Gods’ work? Thank you for your support and prayers, we couldn’t do it without you.
Benediksyon (Creole for Blessings),
Beth and David
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