Think About These Things

This week we held the "Remise de Carnet" - literally the remitting of report cards. Each student has to have a parent or responsible adult present to receive the report card. The school director addresses the parents, basically giving a State of the Union...er...School address. He encourages the parents to remain actively involved in their children's education and to continue sending them to school regularly (lest chores take the place of school). He also shares expectations and changes for the new school year. The parents receive their child's report card and, for the preschoolers, a packet of their creative work from the semester.

We are planning to go from partial school days (mornings for preschool and primary grades/afternoons for high school classes) to full school days. We are excited to have more time to invest in the students each day and hope to work more on critical thinking and introduce more of the arts and sports.

Having full school days will require an additional 4 classrooms be constructed in order to accommodate all the students (approximately 600 at the Thozin campus) at once. We estimate the classrooms will cost $5,000 each. We are trusting the Lord will provide for these students to continue expanding their horizons and learning to trust in God for their futures.

The medical and dental clinics are such a blessing to our community. This week the staff did an outreach clinic in Petit-Goave, too.

Twice a week, people from the mountains surrounding Grand-Goave make their way (some walking as much as 8 hours!) to the Grand-Goave open market. Some hire motorcycles to carry their wares.

Others use a beast of burden.

Still others use their heads.

The mountains are cooler than the city and we are so grateful for the wonderful fruits and vegetables grown there.

I remember when we started the mission. There were no cell service. We used to wait at the telephone station to make or receive phone calls. There were no private conversations, either, as everyone listened to everyone else's conversations while waiting their turn.

Today we have high speed internet, in addition to 4G and LTE cellular service. This enables us to keep in close contact with folks in the US, publish posts on this blog, organize teams, and so much more. We have a small group of missionary women who are doing a book study together. It's wonderful to have fellowship together when we're all in Haiti. It's amazing that we can continue, even when we are spread out over the globe. There's just something so special about enjoying fellowship with others who live so similarly to me and have multi-cultural understanding.

The men and women in Thozin are actively serving their church and community. They meet regularly for fellowship and instruction, too.

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Sometimes, I hate to admit, I take the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures, for granted. Sometimes the busyness of my life, the needs presented all around me, and my own flesh are so loud that I can forget to "be still and know that I am God." (Psalm 46:10)

I'm so grateful for the people (brothers, sisters, elders, pastors, advisers, friends) the Lord has placed in my life to help wake me up and remind me to lift my eyes, to listen to His voice, to consider the Word of God before stepping out into the traffic of my world.

Today I've been considering this verse from Philippians 4:8. It's so contrary to the cultures of this world. We've been trained to be suspicious, assume things are too good to be true, be prepared for the worst... It makes sense, considering the world in which we live. But God certainly had a reason for telling us what sorts of things to think about. Yes? Today, I dare to believe that this little verse of scripture was intended to impact my life enough to change me. What about you? Will you choose to act on these words and change your thinking along with me?

There's a saying that truth is in the eye of the beholder, but I say truth is Jesus. Circumstances of life can be deceiving. Only the Lord sees the whole picture through the perspective of TRUTH. Today I choose to look at my circumstances through my Holy Spirit "filter" - not through assumptions of appearances and past experiences, but trusting what the Word of God, Christ Himself, has to say.

Thank you for joining us in serving Jesus and being a blessing to the people of Haiti.