Excitement in the Air

It's been a good while since we've spent more than a few weeks in Haiti at a time. Pastor Lex and I are both beside ourselves with anticipation and now rushing around a bit in our preparations to return.

Our annual Christian Leadership Academy will be kicking off on Thursday with our dear friend, board member, adviser, and international prophetic minister, Dan Lee serving up the spiritual food for the attendees. We are so excited to see Dan's wife, Tammy return. Her first time visiting us was just before she received the news that they were expecting a long awaited child. Now she will be returning with that "child" - 15 year old Daniel and his younger brother, James. It's going to be great fun introducing them to our beloved country and friends. We are anticipating good things from God for all those who come expecting to meet with Him.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas celebration this past week!

While our kids were with us in Haiti, we never came back to the States for Christmas. Gift giving was minimal (I remember making a birthday cake for Jesus and purchasing packaged cookies for the kids), but it was a highly celebrated holiday for our church. Christmas Eve was the main part of the celebration, with church services late into the night, followed by visiting family and friends even later and then on Christmas Day, as well.

This year we joined our friends at Chair City Church for a beautiful candlelight Christmas Eve service. It lasted from 4:30 - 5:30 (unlike the late night Haitian Christmas Eve celebrations). We also enjoyed their children and youth program last Sunday. The children's choir was definitely the highlight of the morning for me!

We thoroughly enjoyed having our children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, cousins, and future in-laws join us for Christmas night. The place was definitely packed, but it was a great time of food, fellowship, loving on each other, and exchanging gifts.

Christmas in Haiti this year wasn't what it normally is, but I do believe there is a bit of expectancy present that has been missing these past few months. Hope is returning and that thrills me. Some of our students worked with their tutors right through the holidays.

The clinics still had plenty of patients this week, too.

We are grateful for those of you who have continued to make donations toward purchasing rice in Haiti. Thank you for being so generous!

As 2019 quickly comes to a close, I want to wish you a joyous, blessed New Year. I encourage you to reflect over this past year and take note of the many ways in which you experienced the Lord's blessing. Let's lift our eyes to the heavens as we welcome in the new year!