Congrats James and Ashley!

There is a perfect time and a not perfect time to be in Minnesota.
In case you don't know that would be summer = perfect and winter = not so perfect!
I got to be in Minnesota with my family for the wedding of James and Ashley.
I loved this wedding.
Simple - Unique - Sweet!
There wasn't one thing that didn't have part of their personalities in it, from the decorations, the vows and the cake.
It was so fun to sit and talk with family I haven't seen in years.
Someday, I hope James and Ashley can work with us.

One of My Favorite People

Port is crazy crowded.
Houses, cars and people overlap.
Long before the earthquake I said, Haiti has no room for weakness.
Everyone is in survival mode.
While living in survival mode, there is no room for a handicapped child.
They are often left to die in the trash.
Sad to say, I have met many children who have been thrown away.
Haitians are very superstitious causing them to be fearful of children like this.
I have watched many Americans so overwhelmed with emotion they can not play with these children.
I am not sure why?
It seems to me they are just trapped in a broken body.
They are one of my favorite stops when I have time to visit.
Over the years, I have learned many things about myself on these visits.
I too have found myself in tears, knowing that a child in a broken body can remember my name and can say, I love you.

Way Too Much Fabric

We continue to collect fabric for the sewing school in Haiti.
Thank you to everyone who has contacted us.
We are working with Agape Flights to get the fabric to Haiti.
Soon, we will be making a trip to Venice Florida with a load of fabric.


Bob and Carol used to own a fabric store.
They had tons of fabric that they didn't need any longer and it needed a home.
Carol has had several strokes and physically can't work any longer.
It is now part of what we are shipping to Haiti.

"The Madster"

Here are a few facts about Maddie......

1. Her Daddy calls her "The Madster".

2. We almost named her Madison Rose vs Madisen Grace.

3. She is often heard saying "why, why the third child, mother"?

4. She is major crabby in the morning and we call her "Jim Lynch" after her uncle Jim who isn't know for talking or smiling too much.

5. Today is "officially" a teenager!!

6. We happen to think she is pretty awesome!

Happy 13th Birthday Madisen Grace

Pushing Part II

The previous post is the closest thing I know to the truth about working in Haiti.

The burn out rate among missionaries in Haiti is three years.

Why?

It's not all that complicated, really.
The needs are suffocating and can paralyze you if you take your eyes off of being obedient, doing only what you are called to do. There is a reason Haitians say "Mountain beyond Mountain".

Here is one thought, mine, for what it's worth......

Haiti is like living life on the devils door step, wondering why you can't seem to break down the gate. When, truth be told, you are only called to NOT let others in the gate. Meeting them before the gate.


We all have our mountain, our rocks, that thing that stands in our way.
This is what I know, it will be important to speak "grace to your mountain....." or your rock in this case.

Pushing vs Moving

A man was sleeping one night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light, and God appeared.
The Lord told the man he had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin.
The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might.
So, this the man did, day after day.
For many years he toiled from sun up to sun down, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all of his might.
Each night the man returned to his cabin sore and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain.
Since the man was showing discouragement, the Adversary (Satan) decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into his weary mind: “You have been pushing against that rock for a long time, and it hasn’t moved.”
Thus, he gave the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure.
These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man.
Satan said, “Why kill yourself over this? Just put in your time, giving just the minimum effort; and that will be good enough.” That’s what the weary man planned to do, but decided to make it a matter of prayer and to take his troubled thoughts to the Lord. “
Lord,” he said, “I have labored long and hard in your service, putting all my strength to do that which you have asked.
Yet, after all this time, I have not even budged that rock by half a millimeter.
What is wrong?
Why am I failing?”
The Lord responded compassionately,”My friend, when I asked you to serve Me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all of your strength, which you have done.
Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it.
Your task was to push.
And now you come to Me with your strength spent, thinking that you have failed.
But, is that really so?
Look at yourself.
Your arms are strong and muscled, your back sinewy and brown; your hands are callused from constant pressure, your legs have become massive and hard.
Through opposition you have grown much, and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have.
True, you haven’t moved the rock.
But your calling was to be obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and trust in My wisdom.
That you have done.
Now I, my friend, will move the rock.
At times, when we hear a word from God, we tend to use our own intellect to decipher what He wants, when actually what God wants is just simple obedience and faith in Him.
By all means, exercise the faith that moves mountains, but know that it is still God who moves the mountains.
God calls us to obedience.

Happy.......

I saw more clearly than ever that the first great primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord . . . not how much I might serve the Lord, . . . but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers . . . and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit. Before this time my practice had been . . . to give myself to prayer after having dressed myself in the morning.
Now, I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God, and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, by means of the Word of God, whilst meditating on it, my heart might be brought into experimental communion with the Lord.

- George Muller