Monday, October 31, 2011

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…
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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!
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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?
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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

Monday, October 10, 2011

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.

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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!

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

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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! :)

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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!

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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

Sunday, October 2, 2011

A Typical Saturday

 

A special “hi” to all of you from Haiti… where the weather is warm and the sun shines most of the time! I know it has been awhile since I did a blog.. sometimes the inspiration to do one just doesn’t strike me!

Well and inspiration struck yesterday…. so I decided to act upon it and take some pictures while on duty.

Yesterday was Saturday and since I was on duty I could not sleep in like I normally enjoy doing on a Saturday!  I was responsible to ring the “get up and get out” bell at 6:00 AM.

I was downstairs before 6:00 so I could get a head start on my work load.. There are two water jugs outside that I filled with fresh water and a chunk of ice. The jugs are placed on a shelf that Don made and painted especially for them. This is where the girls get water to drink anytime they want during the day.

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Next I got the cleaning buckets ready for the girls and set out the items that they needed to do laundry. Before breakfast the girls each have morning chores to do (except on their days off) . They are in charge of cleaning their dorms, helping in the kitchen, and doing laundry.  They also rake the yard and pick up trash on a daily basis.

Presently, there are 17 energetic girls here…. The girls usually greet me with smiling faces and a cheery “bonjou” (good morning). I like to give the girls a morning kiss and ask them how their night was… They seem to love the special attention and cooperate very well for me. (most times!)

After their breakfast of Haitian coffee and rolls they start the big job of washing their hair and combing it. I took several pictures of this procedure! The “lesiv”  laundry area is a busy place on Saturday mornings.

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After they wash their hair they sit out in the Anba Pisla and comb each other’s hair.

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I found a bit of time to mix together a batch of my version of homemade donuts.. … I used my butterhorn recipe and they turned out rather tasty!

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I took the opportunity to “pop” a donut hole into the girls’ mouths while they were patiently waiting as their hair was being combed… :)

Every Saturday for lunch one of our native workers prepares Haitian spaghetti for everyone to eat. The Haitian spaghetti is different from Italian spaghetti and is different from what we’ve been used to in the states but it is good. The girls love to eat it with ketchup and mayonaise!! What a combination!!

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Karlee loves water… and  took the opportunity to play with the hose yesterday.  I managed to snap a few pictures of her… in spite of her dislike of posing… :)

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She ended up having her bath outside…

Don and Dale have been working hard at getting the school ready for the ten new little girls. Tomorrow is the first day of school here in Haiti. The ten “little” girls will be having school within the walls of our compound and will be taught by a native school teacher. The older girls will be going to school “outside”.

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Don redid some shelving for the office of the school… and Dale painted them.

By last evening the school room was almost ready to be inhabited!

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Thanks for visiting our blog.. I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Continue to pray for as we serve God here!

With lots of love,

Karole for the Weaver family