Live a Life of Love

Don has been having devotions with the little girls in the morning, since Dou and Trish are in Ohio. He decided to make a study on The Ten Commandments. Each morning he took a different commandment and talked about it with the little girls, (using Cristelle as an interpreter. They also worked at memorizing the Ten Commandments and said them together.

After he finished the list of ten.. he pointed out several verses in the Bible that talked about the “greatest” commandment. The greatest commandments, Jesus said, are these.. to love the Lord God with ALL your heart, ALL your soul, and ALL of your mind and to LOVE your neighbor as yourself.!..

Perhaps we think it is easy to love God with all our being. But Jesus did not stop there… He told us to love others as we do ourselves. That is where the real test comes in!

By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love for one another.

Let us ask God to fill us with His love and to share it with those around us. This is my desire… Let us love the simple.. the ugly.. the unkind..the “underdog”.. Let us accept each other as Christ accepts us.

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I would like to share some recent pictures with you… They tell you a bit about our lives here in Haiti.  This is Dale.. he enjoys being a big brother to the little girls that live here and they love to “carry on” with him!

Dale doesn’t spend all his time playing with the little girls.. he does a lot of work around here as well… This past week a native was hired to fix the pavilion’s thatch. Dale “hauled off” with the old thatch and burned it.

Don has been very busy like usual.. One of his recent projects are building a small shower house and jiffy jon in preparation for our youth group that is planning to come in January. Our youth decided that they want to help us with a project on the land that we bought here in Haiti.. (in hopes of building a children’s home someday.) While our youth are in Haiti, we plan to build fence around some of the property. There are no buildings on the land and we thought perhaps they would appreciate a jiffy… :)

The little girls have taken advantage of these “new houses” and were happy to move in!

It is fun watching them play! And interesting too how some of the simplest things can provide them with hours of entertainment!

We have a well with a pump on the mission property and you can guess… children love water! I managed to get several good pictures of some of the little girls playing with the water.

Doesn’t that look refreshing?? :)

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The mission here has had a number of changes recently… Several of the workers decided to terminate.  Because of that,  the mission has hired three new ladies. We are enjoying them a lot and they seem to enjoy their new jobs.

They also enjoy my camera!

Here is a picture that I took of Erik and Annette:

 

We had a Christmas celebration this last week.. After I edit those pictures I want to share some more pictures with you all…

 

Thanks again for visiting our blog.

Wishing you a blest week!

Love to all~

Karole for the Weaver family

Sunday Morning

 

Dear friends,

I know it has been awhile since I did a blog and perhaps you have forgotten about us, but we are still here and we covet your prayers more than ever!

Our love for Haiti and the people of Haiti has only strengthened. But our burden has become heavier. In spite of the beautiful sunny days, there is a spiritual darkness that seems to overshadow this country. A spiritual darkness that only God and His mighty army of angels can pierce.

Please, please continue to pray for us as we seek God and His PERFECT will for our lives and as we continue to reach out and minister to the needs of children in Haiti. We have no doubt that God lead us here on a mission to help children but sometimes it is hard to know exactly how He wants us to fulfill that mission.

Yesterday was Sunday. I decided to start on my blog by taking some pictures. The first pictures I took were of palm trees and the blue, blue sky above.

It was a lovely morning, not a cloud in the sky, just a beautiful, breathtaking blue.

I also decided to take a few pictures of Karlee, patiently waiting on “Daddy Don” to pick her up and carry her over to church.

This is the smile that she gave “Daddy Don” when he came for her! She has a special spot in her heart for him! :) And shouldn’t she? He does a great job fulfilling his role as daddy. Keep praying for Karlee and her situation… Her adoptive parents are very eager to have her adoption finalized and have the hopes of a January- February completion.

Since the church that we attend is next door to our compound, we can walk to church. This is the path outside our walls, leading to church…

And this is the entrance….

We enjoy the singing at our church but are not able to understand the preacher! He talks a mixture of Creole and French, (at least that is what they tell us!).

Since I cannot understand very much of what is being said, I like to read my Bible and quietly commune with God. Sometimes it is rather hard to focus because of the loud preaching…. :)

Yesterday I was reading my Bible and looking for a verse to “hang onto” this week.. I found many good verses but finally decided to use the verse on the wall in front of the church. I could not read or understand the verse but I looked up the reference in my English Bible and I liked it very much!

I used the picture that I took of the blue sky and wrote this special verse on it… in English:

 

However, I didn’t stop with that verse… the next one spoke to me as well.

I am going to end this blog here.. with the hopes and plans of doing another one very soon! Perhaps tomorrow! :) I want to take some pictures of the little girls that we love to care for etc… and share a few changes that have been going on here.

I hope and pray that these verses speak to each person that reads this blog. Wishing you all PEACE IN CHRIST JESUS!

Love to all,

Karole ~ for the Weavers

Friends are One of Life’s Greatest Blessings!

No one is happy or free who lives only for himself.
Friends encourage you..  inspire you.. love you.. laugh with you. Friends will listen to your dreams.. inspire you to dream on.. Friends will love you for who you are. Friends will not only listen with their ears.. they will listen with their hearts.
Our family was refreshed when a breath of fresh air flew into Haiti, in the form of friends, this month. We were  happy to welcome Jess and Carol Myer from “home”. One does miss friends when you move and live so far away from the place you called home for many years.. Along with them came many goodies from our friends in the USA.  A special THANK YOU to all of you.. It is nice to know you care! Our personal refrigerator now holds many tasty items to satisfy our cravings! … and that box full of Tupperware was a huge blessing…  I am enjoying it very much. Thanks again.
One of Jess and Carol’s main reasons for coming to Haiti was to visit the sweet little girl, Karlee, who is presently living in our home. They have been working at adopting her ever since she was a “wee one”. Nice thing about it all is that we share a special friendship with this fun loving, young couple…

They spent almost two weeks with us. During their stay we did some fun things together as well as some work projects. One day, Carol and I enjoyed the  forenoon at a typical Haitian market, shopping for fabric. One of our goals was to find a piece of fabric that we both liked and sew ourselves matching dresses!

 
 
Another day we drove  the winding road across the mountain to the little town of Jacmel. Jacmel is located along the coast of Haiti. The day was gorgeous, with plenty of sunshine and tropical breezes. What better way is there to “unwind” and forget about the stresses of life, than to listen to the ocean’s waves and to sit on a comfortable lawn chair and have the water swirl around your feet? Or to set out a picnic lunch and enjoy homemade hoagies with friends?

The kitchen here at the Leogane Girls’ home got a facelift while Jess and Carol were here visiting! The dusty ceiling fans got a good scrubbing and the cupboards were cleaned and organized. Don even made a new shelf to put into one of the cupboards… a great help to our organizing process!  By the end of the day we had changed the looks and the smell of the kitchen…. :) I was happy with the results… and thanks to Carol for her good ideas and for the candles and string lights that she brought along!

Carol also sewed up some nice new curtains for the windows while here.
Another highlight of their visit here was the interaction with the resident girls. We love the girls here and I think that love was contagious!! Jess and Carol “fell in love” with them as well.

Since I was on duty a Saturday during their visit, Carol and I decided to have a sewing class with the girls here. Several of the girls  have been “itching” to sew. Carol cut out patches for the girls to make nine patch pillows. The girls were very excited to begin this new adventure.  Some of the girls obviously have excellent talent and took a great interest in the project at hand.

As you can see there IS talent here…. Our desire is to find and utilize their  talents and to help the girls become all they can be.
As nice as it is to have friends, I think it is just as important to BE a friend! One of our heartfelt desires is to be the kind of  friend that these girls need.. to be a loving Mom and Dad to them… to be understanding and caring. And to prepare them to help minister to the needs in Haiti as they grow older. Pray with us that we would have the divine wisdom that comes from God alone as we continue serving here.
Continue to pray for the work here… Pray that God would strengthen the hedge of protection around this mission.  Pray that God could be glorified through this work and that His perfect will could be accomplished.
When God’s joy invades our lives, it spills over into everything we do and onto everyone we touch. We will find true joy right where God has placed us….
Thanks for visiting our blog.. God Bless you as you follow Him.
Sincerely,
Karole for the Weavers

The First Day of School

We had an excited group of girls on Monday morning, October 3. They were happy because it was the first day of school for them…. and happy for all the new things that were given them. They each received new uniforms, new shoes, new socks, new backpacks, and new books! It was like Christmas is for American children!

We all gathered in the “Anba Pisla” for morning devotions. Don was asked to share something for the children and Dou gave the interpretation.

I thought Don shared some very inspirational thoughts with all of us. He read the story about the sick man that was brought, by his friends, to Jesus to be healed. His friends needed to work hard to present him to Jesus, because Jesus was in a house, crowded with people…  The throng of people evidently made no way  for these caring men to present their friend to Jesus. In desperation, they climbed to the top of the house and tore a hole in the roof. Through this hole they lowered their ailing friend!! … (what dedicated friends!) Jesus saw the faith and sincerity of these men and was pleased. He chose to grant their request and healed their friend.

Don encouraged us to be like these dedicated men. We should go to great efforts to help others  find Jesus. We should think less of ourselves and think about  the needs of others. He specifically told the little girls to help each other during this school year… He also pointed out the fact that it took four men to help one person. A unified group of people can do more in meeting  the needs of  humanity than one person alone.

What an inspiration!

The older girls go to a nearby school so their uniforms are different from the little girls’ uniforms.

The girls looked so pretty that morning!.. I can say that God has put a love within my heart for each one. That love is a feeling too not just a choice! :)

The mission hired a native lady to teach the girls here within the walls of our compound. She too looked happy and eager to start the new school year.

After devotions, the girls headed to school!

 

Lest I leave you under the impression that the girls are always happy, I will hasten to tell you that the little girls are typical little girls and their smiles sometimes change to tears! By evening, they were grouchy instead of happy and crying instead of smiling! They had gotten up earlier than they were used to getting up… therefore were overly tired.. I think they were “plum” exhausted with their “stimulating” day!

Once again.. Thank you for your interest in the work here and God bless you richly as you continue praying for us!

Karole~ for the Weaver family