Lessons In Ugly!

Today we had lessons in ugly!
No, not ugly people....ugly fabric!
Today we had a "no sewing day"!
It started a few weeks ago when I came across a bag made out of purple Barbie fabric.
It wasn't the purple Barbie fabric per say, it was the combination of the yellow, orange, green, red, blue fabric that was with the purple Barbie fabric.
Here are the new fabric rules...
1. No more blue cows
2. No more purple Barbie fabric
3. No more blue hearts with red cows
4. No cows period!
5. Roosters are pretty "iffy"
6. no more red, white and black plaid with monster size black roses
7. If it looks like a brides maid dress it most likely was and it can't be a purse
8. curtains make fine fabric and we will be showing the Sound of Music to drive our point home

What is a spirit of poverty?
It is the fear of not having enough.
Therefore holding on to things so tightly that we shut down the process of giving or receiving.

Igemene's Wedding

The goal for our ladies is to sew well enough so that when they graduate we can offer them a sewing contract for six months.
Each lady that sews with us has a business account that she puts half of her money in as she learns to manage what she has.
A year ago when they started saving money I would think about what the ladies would want to spend their money on.
I thought of things like food, medicine, school, stoves or something really crazy like a television.
Never did I think of a real church wedding.
So a few months ago when Igemene came to me and said she needed all her money I was thinking... this is gonna be good.
What on earth is she going to tell me she needs $950 U.S. for?
(Yes, she really had saved two to three times what an average family lives on here in less than a year.)
I will admit I already had the answer in my head before she started!
No!
No, you can not take all your money out of your business account for something crazy!
But, it wasn't crazy.
It was every girls dream.
A real church wedding and a pretty dress.
Last week I got a real printed invitation!
Thursday, April 9th at 12:00 Igemene is getting married in a real church wedding with money from her very own business account!
She is paying for it all by herself!
I am so proud of her!

Saturday Ride

Technically I consider this ratting on myself.
I am not trying to defend my actions on Saturday, I am merely explaining why I reacted the way I did. Some say I have a sickness or I am s-i-c-k! Well, it is sorta a sickness.
Laughter is said to be medicine for the soul, just not laughter when someone gets hurt.
Especially your husband, friends or children. This is where the s-i-c-k part comes in.

03/27/08
CAR CATCHER:....................... The car catcher is a cement ditch on the side of the road that is about waist deep. It not only catches cars if you get too close it can catch you. It catches water, trash, food, mud and of course it is also where all the pee-pee ends up. For months on end all of these things collect in the car catcher creating a wicked nasty black slim/trash mixture that you can smell for blocks - as seen in the picture.



Now (maybe) you can see why I broke out in laughter as Dan stood at the gate soaking wet. I knew instantly what happened.
He ended up in the car catcher on Saturday morning on his way to meet the guys for another guys day out on his motorcycle.
I did try NOT to laugh.
Honestly!
I really tried not to laugh but when I looked closer he had car catcher "stuff" sticking to him.
He was soaked from head to toe and kept spitting. This is the guy who folds his dirty laundry and makes the bed in the hotel. I mean of all people that could end up head first in the car catcher swimming with every form of hepatitis on the plant.
To make it worse (or funnier) it all happened because a guy was riding on a motorcycle tap-tap with his legs up in the air trying not to get his pants dirty from all the pot holes full of mud from the rain the night before.

Ted and John prayed for him. Maybe they should have prayed for me?
John said, I have only heard about this part of your personality, I have never seen it in action.

This is my story and I'm stickin' to it.

Deye mon gen mon

The first book I ever read about Haiti was Mountains Beyond Mountains. It is about the work and life of Paul Farmer.
You don't have to be in Haiti long before you hear this Haitian proverb.

Deye mon gen mon
Mountains Beyond Mountains

Although it applies perfectly to the landscape, it is talking about life and it's layers of complication.
I understand life is complicated everywhere.
Complicated here can feel like someone threw a dark, wet, heavy, cold blanket over you.
Leaving you feeling like you can't breath and you can't find your way out.

Mountain number one.
Natacha didn't feel she could take care of her children any longer.
She asked if we would take the youngest.
No, but we would give her birth control so she wouldn't have anymore children and she could come to literacy classes.
We did a quick test just to make sure she wasn't pregnant only to find she was in fact going to have another baby.
She was crushed.
If the people she was living with found out they would kick her out on the street. She had no place to go.

Mountain number two.
She now needed a place for her and her children to live before any one knew her secert.
She didn't want to come to our classes because people would talk and tell everyone she was going to have another baby.
We would help her by taking the next baby and placing it for adoption but she would need to work with us to correct some things in her life. She needed to get back on her feet.
She needed to start coming to literacy classes and come each week to early childhood development so we could give her eggs, milk and vitamins without exposing her.
Thanks to the help of a church we soon had her rent money.
With housing solved and some food for her and her children she could now think about what she would do with her life.
She could now come to prenatal class without the fear of living on the street.
Life for Natacha and her children seemed like it was better.

Mountain number three.
Lab work. As part of her prenatal care we would take her for labs to make sure everything was ok.
Natacha tested HIV positive.
Reading those words left me in tears.
Telling her would have to wait a few days until we could do it together supporting her so she wouldn't be alone.
First Beth explained she had malairia and would need to start on medication right away.
Two, she tested positive for HIV.
You could literally see the brakes slam on in her mind as it stopped working and taking in information.
We sat in silence as she began to cry.
We all would need time to catch our breath.
We explained we would keep all our promises to her and continue to help her.

Mountain number four.
Living with HIV.
Test number two positive. Her children tested negative.

I hope that the next mountain in Natacha's life is called Calvary. The mountain where Jesus died for her and her children. The mountain where she will find life and catch her breath again knowing that no weapon formed against her shall prosper.

Not even HIV.

Our Deepest Fear...

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

- Nelson Mandela

Mom, This Is A Perfect Blog

Last weekend the truck broke down in the river bed. Monday Curt fixed the truck.
With our newly fixed truck we planned to go and see Chris, Leslie and Miss Olivia. The plan was to just hang out and get the motorcycle that they planned to give Dan.
On the way out to see them the newly fixed truck became the newly broken truck as the back end locked up and began bouncing out of control.

We called Chris, he was on his way. We called Curt, he was going to the airport but would be on his way shortly. We had just enough time to say hi, see the new digs for Chris, Leslie and Miss Olivia, give Dan a quick lesson on the bike and eat our hamburgers, hotdogs and pasta salad when the phone rang.
It was Curt, he was at the truck.

Dan left ahead of us, I told him he looked like that guy from the Flintstone's. As we drove, Chris and I talked about Clean Water For Haiti and my friend Laura's "green house" they are building in Atlanta. My mind was still on Dan so I started talking about how crazy the tap-tap motorcycle guys are here. No sooner had we rounded the curve and you guessed it, a motorcycle tap-tap rounded the curve from the other direction at the same time. There was no way he could stop or get out of the way plus he was going too fast. He ended up laying it down slamming his bike into us.

Bike trashed, van fine, girl on back of bike fine, bike driver...one bad case of road rash, crowd gathered. Chris was talking fast, checking out the van hoping we could catch up with Dan and move on. No such luck. Next thing you know the driver was picking up a rock getting ready to trash the windshield. We had no choice we had to get the police.

As we waited my phone rang....one small problem, I have the keys to the truck. Curt and Dan now have no way to get the truck on the trailer. We now have two police officers with us and we are going back to the road rash, rock throwing guy and the crowd. The police look around and ask a few questions. Chris says nothing.

As we make our way back to the police station, we now have two police officers, the passanger and the road rash, rock thrower with. I could see this could take hours because the road rash, rock thrower is now talking hospital and doctor bills.

I still have the keys.

Curt can't come and get us because he can't turn the truck around in the detour.
Not to worry, we will start walking. We walk across the bridge in Montrious so we could wait on the other side for Dan to get us since the brige is still out after the hurricanes.

We carried one purse, one unused beach bag, unused snorkle equipment, large random Tupperware of pasta salad all past the hungry on lookers who found the whole thing very funny. We couldn't however manage the two spare tires and the box of spare parts. Maybe we will try again next weekend!

As we walked across the river bed walk way Maddie said Mom, this day is a perfect blog. Maddie, to tell you the truth, I am kinda over living the perfect blog day.

One by one Dan would give us a ride to the truck. First Parker, than Maddie and finally me. I stood there looking at him with all the extra bags and random Tupperware of pasta salad. There was no way! Finally I asked a guy to help me hold all the stuff so I could get on. One by one he handed me back the stuff. Just as we got ready to pull away from the crowd, you guessed it...the bike killed on us. I handed the guy back all the stuff so Dan could kick start the bike again. We repeated the whole thing just for grins and off we went.

When we finally hooked up with Curt, it only took a few minutes to get the truck up on the trailer and get on the road. We drove back into Port and left the newly fixed now broken truck on the trailer until Monday and got a ride home with John.

When we finally got home, Dan called Chris to see what happened on his side of the bridge. He got two tickets. One for "stopping" in the middle of the road and one for driving too fast, not while we was stopping of course. He almost got one for leaving the accident. Don't get me started!

I have laughed many times about the random Tupperware with pasta salad. I hope that the newly fixed, once broken truck is now really going to be a newly fixed truck.

Tune in next weekend for details.

Habakkuk

The first time I really read the book of Habakkuk I was attending a ladies morning bible study with two of my three children. It wasn't an easy time in my life and I wasn't thrilled about doing a bible study on this book, not to mention I couldn't say the guys name right if you paid me. As we moved through the study each week the heart of the prophet unfolded and soon it became a book I loved.

Today as I was talking with a group of students from Judson University on spring break here in Haiti about our program. They had questions about vision, ministry and goals. I told them I wondered what Habakkuk would think of my interputation of his conversation with the Lord.

Then the LORD replied: "Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. Habakkuk 2:2 NIV

I'm sure the idea of a web site, the internet and treadle sewing machines wasn't what he was thinking when he said make it plain. I'm guessing he was thinking more along the lines of the Flinstone's with a stone tablet, a nail type thing and a hammer or some funky paper, a crummy pen and black ink that gets all over everything after you have two words written down.

Our vision however looks like this with our new web site up and running. We are now standing on the rampart, so to speak, declaring...EMPOWER, REBUILD and RESTORE!

We hope that you will be apart of our vision and visit the web site and help the women and children of Haiti.

Please visit www.haitiancreations.com

Stuff

Thought you guys would like to see what the yard guys do here in their spare time. Dan, John, Ted and Rod (not in photo) went riding in the mountains while we had spring break. The girls went to Visa Lodge, ordered pizza and went swimming.

* Monday was John's birthday so we are going to Byron and Shelley's for dinner. We will have corned beef and cabbage for an early St. Patty's day thanks to Shelley. On her last trip out she picked up the corned beef (we are happy it didn't go to Argentina with my apples) we are also having icecream cake, apple pie and a pumpkin cake.

* John Kelley is in the hospital getting iv meds to help clear up the infection in his leg.

* The little boy with the head injury (Daniel) is going well but still needs healing for the fluid draining from his ear.

* We have fixed the back end of the truck - woot!

* We are not sure what is happening with the front end.....?

* We got in the money for two tires - three to go!

* The Deli Mart lady was walking on the street today as I went out for my morning walk/jog. I stopped and walked behind her for awhile wondering if I could ever understand what it would be like to walk in her foot steps.

* The web site is up and running. Please visit - www.haitiancreations.com

* Bill Clinton was in Haiti this week and said that ’Haiti is a good place to invest. We agree...

Why Answers Take So Long

These may look like boxes and bins, for us they are answers to prayer.
As I thought about the stuff that came in on Thursday it reminded me of what our prayers look like in action.
In the boxes are an amplification system needed for Maddie and her special school needs.
At Christmas time, I talked to my friend June about the needs we had. I told her I was clueless where to start. I asked her to point me in the right direction to get me started. Instead, she said, I'm on it! I'll take care of it!
She called her friend Gloria, who called her friend Tina who said, I got it! Turns out she just happened to know how to get everything we needed. They boxed it up and got it ready to ship off to Minnesota so that Dan and I could bring it back with us in February.
I am not sure it had anything to do with rain, sleet or snow but the post office didn't come through with our boxes. Our departure date came and we returned to Haiti with out the system. I thought about it awhile and emailed Tara asking if she knew of a team coming in from Minnesota, who would agree to bring it in. She emailed Jeff who hooked up with Dan's brother Mike and got all the boxes packed and ready to come to Haiti.
Prayer answered after several weeks.

The other answer worked like this. I got an email from Kathy saying she had just bought 500 rolls of fabric on Craig's List for $2.00 each. She had them all at her house ready to ship to Haiti. She would just have to find a team coming in. As it turns out, the very next day Beth got an email from a team living near Kathy, saying they had extra room in their bags and wondered if we happened to need anything brought in?
Did we ever!
Within a couple of days from her purchase, 200 pounds of Kathy's fabric had made it's way here and was now sitting in the sewing school right here in Haiti.
Prayer answered in less than a week.

It seems to me that Gods answers are already there for us it just depends how many people the baton is handed off to in order for us to get the answer you need. Scripture talks about warfare in the heavens happening while our answers work their way to us. I understand that whole deal. I live it all the time as I am sure you do. Here on earth, it may only be two people who pass the baton or sometimes it is twenty-two people, but the answer is always on it's way and no matter how crazy it may seem in order for it to find its way to you.

One thing for sure... it will never be what you think.

Big Wheels

When we first started the process of moving to Haiti I had asked a few people what are the most important things we should have in order to live in Haiti.
Someone said, a good mattress and a good vehicle.
I completely agree!
You need a good night sleep and you don't want to be stuck on the side of the road here.
The mattress part we have covered but we need help with the truck....
Our truck needs new tires - five of them as a matter a fact.
They are $175.00 each.
We also need some front end work done on the four wheel drive.
(Noted in the adventure with Zack!)
We think the front and back end work will run a couple hundred ($300 to $500) dollars...

If you can help us with the truck, please send your donations to us at:
God's Plumbline Ministries
P.O. Box 2812
Acworth, GA 30102

Thanks!