Saturday is always a market day in Haiti. So before we got up there were the typical noises of a market day in progress! We had to go see for ourselves, of course!

It seems like everyone is selling about the same thing. The smells are very interesting!

The meat market where you can get about anything!

By this time we even started recognizing some of the locals!

Work on the church addition was going strong again. It was so interesting to watch how they build the rock foundations. It was basically a lot of cement mixing, rock carrying and skillful rock stacking! Grant decided to get into the action today.

The entire foundation for the church addition was completed by the time we left!

Chiseling and piling rocks all day in the hot sun to create the foundation walls!

Experienced enough at roof construction, Grant tries his hand at foundation work.

We had been given a nice size stack of pillowcase dresses to give away, and we had also shipped down buckets of bagged rice pilaf from Ohio…so we brought one of those. Madam Pasté knew who needed these things so we saw some smiles as they were distributed through the week.

This was the sweetest girl, and we have special thoughts of her and prayers for her in her need.

A picture is worth a thousands words! Thank you for sharing your talents to clothe a child!

There was even a small pillowcase dress for the little girl they all called “Baby!”

These bags of rice pilaf serve ten people! Thanks to so many of you for sharing your time and talents to prepare these gifts for a needy family!

Thank you for sharing the love of Jesus Christ in word and in deed!

Good morning! We found out quickly what Haitians love to eat for breakfast…pumpkin soup!

After breakfast we took a walk through the town and out to the river. It was hot, but better wherever we found shady spots to stop. It was nice to just get away and be together as a family!

We are suckers for palm trees. They are so large in the tropics!

We finally found the Cavillon River. It seemed very pure compared to most rivers we have viewed here already!

A great shot of how close people live to the rivers. The river is very low right now. This might be a picture of poverty, but notice how the yard is swept absolutely spotless!

When we returned, we sat on the front porch, studying, working on the computer, etc. Soon, no matter what we started to do, the Haitians were right there at our elbows. If you tried to study the Bible, you would turn your head and one would show up next to you. They were very interested in what we were doing and especially interested in wanting to learn English. We had English/Creole studies more than a couple of times. We enjoyed teaching each other! We loved interacting and developing relationships with all ages. God created language!

Finding a good chance to make friends and try to communicate…

This is what we started seeing every afternoon as Grant conducted impromptu English classes!

There was always somebody asking questions about English or Creole! Notice an ENGLISH sign in this photo!

After lunch, we sat on the porch with the Haitians. We got the game “Zingo” out for the kids to play. It is a Bingo type game that uses pictures. The kids loved it! Trinity was playing the game with them but they were wild. It was hard for them to sit and play a game. We worked with Haitians on English again all through the afternoon.

After school the kids flooded in again! It was impossible to get them to understand they could sit down to play a game!

We ended up showing half of the “Jesus” film one night and half the following night. Several of us had to go into town and “talk it up” as we invited people to come! We love to see and hear the people’s reactions as they follow the life of Christ through his early ministry to his death and resurrection. It touched people every time! We hope we can plant seeds for eternity as we share the life and word of Jesus together.

Here is a sign posted near the side door of the church. We are still wondering what went wrong in translation?! Seems like we can help each other out this week!

On the second day, breakfast was very filling with fried eggs, white bread, cassava bread (flat bread), yams, large apricots, mangos, and very sweet coffee. After breakfast I went to help wash dishes. They washed mounds of dishes outside all day long on a long table. Haitians enjoy being hosts so I found I really had to assert myself to help.

I was walking up a hill of dirt to get across the construction area and I totally wiped out! This ended up being the perfect thing to happen…it broke the ice with one lady! She said to me later, “Ou tonbe!” (You fell!) I started to laugh and then she started rolling with laughter. We connected! This was the beginning of our friendship and it provided an entrance into the workers club!

There are no automatic dishwashers in Haiti. This is something we are still getting used to!

The dishes are never done!

Shelling beans in the shade was such fun! You can see the outside showers behind us.

Another time I was able to help shell beans with them. I sat down next to the ladies and shelled and enjoyed listening to them speak back and forth with each other. Soon one started singing then they all jumped in and started singing. It was very enjoyable to just listen and watch. Even though they like to host they did seem to appreciate me making the effort to help and also understand their culture. They would always say to each other in Creole, “L’ap travay!” (She is working!)

How do they prepare food?

I really enjoyed watching the food being prepared. One “kitchen” was inside and one was outside, but there was so much to prepare they also cooked in several outside areas. Usually, they had other pots cooking over charcoal in the inside kitchen along with the outside pots over fires. Haitians work so hard. My eyes were opened to how long it takes to cook anything. And they stick together…they are like one big family working together. First they have to get the wood and get that fire going. Many of the young teenagers or young adults were either peeling fruit or vegetables or carrying the water.

Haitians do a lot of food preparation by squatting. We like our countertops! Here they are making black bean sauce.

Placing the rice onto the woven baskets for sifting out dirt!

Rice and beans were served hot for lunch and then reserved cold for supper nearly every day.

The lunch that day was very good with rice with beans, millet, fried plantains and okra, mangos, abriko, and 7Up. After lunch I tried to help with dishes, but it didn’t happen so I went and watched the ladies cutting up goat meat and chopping spices for supper! Womens work is never done! Supper was delicious with rice and beans, goat, papaya, mango, and grapefruit juice.

What was it like hearing the Haitian language at full capacity?

It was a good challenge! We tried our best to listen and understand, but it was difficult unless they slowed down. They speak fast like we do and it is hard to catch the whole thing. Yes, many times we said in Creole, “Slow down.” Having an entirely Creole immersion gave us a better grasp of the everyday language and common expressions they use. The repetition was good for us. Many times they would stop talking and ask, “Konprann?” (Understand?) That was always a very difficult question for us to answer!  They really wanted you so much to understand everything they were saying.

The area kids started dropping by after school. We played all sorts of games with them…just hanging out with the Haitian kids was very enjoyable. Then Madam Pasté took us for a walk across the road to see a few houses and introduce us to her neighbors. The kids followed along as we held their hands. It is always interesting to see how the Haitians live.

Balloons were always a favorite way to interact with the kids.

This was a spontaneous group that showed up every afternoon!

This is one of our favorite photos! Grant got to teach these boys a few sports moves and they often came looking for him.

View of downtown Maniche, where we visited the Tuesday and Saturday markets and took a few walks.

Some missionaries here made the suggestion that we should try a one-week “total immersion experience” into the Haitian culture and language. So last week that was what we did! We were blessed as a family to visit the village of Maniche, about 40 minutes north of Les Cayes, where a MEBSH pastor, Enock Jean, and his wife, Francine, hosted us gladly for an entire non-English week! It was long and hot at times, but at other times things just happened that were unexpected, amazing, and totally inspiring! We all agreed that overall it was a great experience.

The front gate to the street — a very busy area at times! The parsonage is at left and the church visible at right.

The parsonage was a large 4-bedroom house. All the rooms lined up and you had to walk through one to get to another.

The friendly Maniche MEBSH church where the men and women still sit separately for services!

Pastor and his wife (Madam Pasté) said we became part of their family. They made us feel so welcome from the start. Every day they had much activity and people coming and going as they worked on a large addition to the back of the church. Lots of volunteers were there to help with construction; ladies made food, washed dishes, did laundry, etc.; kids helped out wherever there was something to do, from peeling fruit or vegetables to carrying buckets of water where needed. Madam Pasté was a very good manager, directing all the activity of making food to cleaning.

What was it like our first day in the Haitian culture?

We arrived in the afternoon from the bumpy ride up a mountain, then down into a river valley where the village of Maniche sits. It was obvious we arrived earlier then they expected. Some of the ladies were ironing sheets to make our beds. Other ladies were busy with making food in a separate area from the house. It turned out the Pastor and his wife actually emptied out their entire house, made up beds and put fresh linens and little decorations on top of tables in every room…and then slept in the room we didn’t take! As were checking out the rooms, we saw a large cockroach crawl under a bed. We were all thinking the same thing…we didn’t want those things crawling over us at night. Yikes! This is going to be an experience we will not forget, just with the bugs alone! (It ended up we didn’t see that many, they must have just disturbed a few as they cleaned and swept every corner. And there was a can of roach spray there too so we were all set!)

The doors and windows were shutter-style and had large hooks to secure them shut! See that clock? On Sunday morning it got moved into the church so the preacher wouldn’t go overtime!

The center room which served as dining and living room. You can see how they keep the food covered on the table at all times.

One of the bedrooms where the kids slept. The windows were kept closed all the time and it was usually dark and hot!

We decided to take a walk out to the market. We were surely noticed as we walked the streets! We were definitely stared out, “white fish out of the water!” We tried to be friendly as possible, saying “Bonswa!” (Good afternoon!) The majority of them were very friendly and receptive. Others we weren’t sure. We really felt uncomfortable taking pictures and some said “no.” We kept walking the streets of this town and Grant started talking to some Haitian boys about his age. Many were standing around. Soon there was a crowd of people surrounding us. We made conversation as best as we could. They seemed to enjoy our conversations, and then gave a friendly goodbye when we felt we needed to move along. We were stared at again all the way back to the Pastor’s house.

After a supper of fried chicken, rice with beans and mangos, we went to their church to observe a prayer meeting. We sang a few songs with them and introduced ourselves. After the singing, we were directed to pray. This was when we had our first experience in Haiti where everyone got on their knees and prayed together at the same time…out loud! It was very interesting as we heard the sound of many voices going up and down, up and down in prayer. This wouldn’t be the only time we would experience it that week! They seem to be quite fond of doing it that way.

What was a Haitian house like?

In a Haitian house, there are usually no screens so you have to get used to all kinds of bugs that will enter. Our first night was surprising so we knew what to expect (dread) the other nights. It was especially difficult with the mosquitos or other tiny little bugs. We sure did itch and itch, to say the least. At night I would write on my journal before bed. If a light was left on, you had beetles flying around, bugs nipping at your legs, and those irritating mosquitos. We crawled under our sheets and covered up well so we would less interaction with any bugs. The last night, I finally wore socks to bed to keep those critters off my feet.

The doors and windows are shut at night and most of the day. Not only to keep out intruders and bugs, but we found out the cultural mindset is to close everything up to keep out evil spirits! So, needless to say we had some long, hot nights trying to stay covered up! We did have a fan in every room which was wonderful…until the electricity went out.

We had to adjust to only having electricity at night, not during the day. We charged all our phones, cameras, and laptop at night, ready for the next day. We also had to adjust to using the outhouses and no sink. There was three outhouses next to each other out back and it was always a struggle to use them. You tried not to breathe too deeply or you might pass out. One thing we remembered quickly: don’t forget your own toilet paper! It was hard to get used to not having a sink either, which made it more difficult to brush your teeth at night. We adjusted to using the outside faucet by the house to wash our hands and brush our teeth. There were outside showers that we could use. They had some privacy with a wrap-around wall. But luxury of luxuries…one inside shower! When you are hot and sweaty, even a cold shower isn’t too bad. You just get used to taking fewer and quicker showers!

We could never find a trash can in any of the rooms. We found out quickly all trash goes outside! You see litter everywhere. But here they had a large barrel close to the dish washing table. Once that gets full they burn it back behind the house. We got used to collecting our trash in a corner inside the house and then taking it outside. We don’t realize how accustomed we become to having a trash can in every room in our home in America.

This little kitty was the perfect companion for Grace when she needed something to escape to. Madam Pasté is here with her.

Here is the pastor, in charge of an entire district of MEBSH churches and schools. He was a very warm, kind man.

These eager food samplers decided this was the best rice and beans yet!

Recently Grant and Trinity accompanied us to a nearby school (Torbeck) to see a Haiti lunch program in motion. One of their first comments was, “No one in the U.S. would be content eating the same thing every day like this!” The kids we saw were not only content with their school lunch, there was not one piece of evidence left that there WAS any lunch! Contrast that with the times we ate with Ohio 1st graders and saw almost entire lunches get tossed into the garbage!

World Relief currently supports four MEBSH school lunch programs in fairly close proximity to the Child Care office, and many other school directors are begging for this as well. The children we observed waited patiently until everyone was served, sat through a prayer and then thankfully finished off everything on their plate. It touches us every time we see this.

An expertly managed fire, float some hot peppers in there for flavor and it soon smells great!

The perfect water to rice ratio produces fluffy rice!

Hot and nutritious — the ideal Haitian school lunch!

Proper hygiene before meals!

Making a few little friends!

Being thankful for today’s lunch!

Thank You Jesus for my food!

God cares for me!

Be content with such things as ye have!

(A note to Rittman/Smithville: recognize those white things?)

We also recently visited the local MEBSH elementary school in Simon which feeds 265 students every day. The cost for each student is $16 per year. Over and over you hear how thankful the administration and kids are for the food — the same meal every day, every week, every year!

This is a mountain of rice to make every day!

Everywhere you see such thankfulness for the food!

Thank you for helping us in Haiti!

Ready for the roof!

The finished product with God’s stamp of blessing!

We had a wonderful opportunity to help out at the Cancer Redemption Project (CRP) last weekend when a team came from Roanoke to add a large roof on the building that will house the church and school. It was one of the largest roofs to date (139 x 74 ft) and the construction department put months of preparation into the whole project before this weekend. 3-1/2 miles of lumber were used, and 27,000 total lbs of material!

Months of careful planning for the graduated trusses that would produce the hip roof.

On Saturday Mike and Grant worked together with the team assembling trusses (that just means pounding nails) in the hot sun. Trinity and I worked on benches and desks and we had our eyes open to all the work that goes into a finished bench or desk. Even Grace got to be one of the water girls! It was enjoyable to work together and to get to know the team from Roanoke. Grant also helped on the roof once some of the trusses started going up. A lot of prayer went up for the men that worked high off the ground!

We thought of Zach often as we were there working, and just marvel at how God is giving the increase to the vision He gave Zach. So many are being blessed by his time, effort, and work on this center. We are sure Zach can see from Heaven the progress being made. Could he be one of the cloud of witnesses cheering us on for the work of the Kingdom?

Working with friends created a special day!

The stacks of benches grew quickly!

Precut lumber had to be moved to assembly areas.

Mike was not used to hammering an entire day!

Taking a break from the heat!

The first trusses are being placed over the two-story sanctuary end.

Moving the pieces around on the ground was hard enough…

The short storms that came up each day were awesome to see!

A really busy yard and the first trusses going up!

Two days later…the roof takes shape!

Three days later…let it rain!

On Sunday we had another opportunity to go to CRP for their church service. The kids from each of the four current Homes of Hope sang. What a blessing to see these kids being well taken care of and have a loving home! God be praised and glorified! We couldn’t help but think again of Zach and Jenny and their time invested, and their heart’s desire to place orphans in Christian homes, and how God provided for funds for this all to come to pass. What a God we serve!

Making new friends and sharing God’s love!

Grace doesn’t really like anyone doing her hair, but she was patient this time…

Too cute for words!

We often get open-ended questions like the following:

What is the BIGGEST challenge your family has faced moving to Haiti?

What is the BEST thing that has happened to you there so far?

What is your family’s FAVORITE thing about Haiti?

What is your LEAST FAVORITE thing?

While it is hard for a family to find one answer to these types of questions, they do have to get answered because they will probably keep coming!

BIGGEST challenges? Language training and language barriers (this affects everything you do and especially going to church!), trying to figure out who to trust.

BEST things to happen? To get away from the U.S. mindset to see what life is really about — serving others and not ourselves, and to discover that Haiti is a great fit for us.

FAVORITE things? Interaction with the Haitians (especially Madam Yadley our cook), sharing God’s Word and His salvation, feeding the poor who come to the door, seeing the ocean often!

LEAST FAVORITE things? Less privacy and more disruptions than what we were used to (I guess without these things we couldn’t have our FAVORITE list, could we?).

Opportunity — The Jesus film: Last summer we were given this film in Creole and the sound equipment to share the gospel in Haiti! We are desiring to do this as a family long term, wherever God would open the door. Recently, God provided a wonderful group of young people who are very interested in helping with the work and handing out gospel tracts in Creole. We are praying that God will direct our steps where He wants the movie to be shown so that seeds can be planted for the gospel. God will ultimately give the increase!

We want to thank everyone for the prayers and support we feel. Thanks for the cards, the care packages and every email too! We know God cares for us because He certainly shows it through all of you.

“But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”    Isaiah 40:31

This is how you manage when you don’t have a truck!

In Haiti you can’t avoid getting up close and personal with animals…they are everywhere. I don’t have a picture of it, but once a carful of us were returning from a cave adventure and passing by the ocean we came upon two pigs sitting on the beach. A big one and a medium sized one — Mama and Papa — just having a grand time sitting side by side with their toes in the surf! Everyone who saw it just roared!

Everything creepy and crawly seems bigger here. The crickets don’t just chirp, they also fly! The wasps and beetles are super sized! One day we looked behind the couch cushions for something we lost and there was a rhinoceros beetle, just hanging out! And you already know about our spiders…or do you? We knew about tarantulas before we moved, but we didn’t realize that there are other huge spiders here too. We didn’t have the presence of mind to snap a photo at the time, but we can still remember the 6-inch diameter wolf spider that was hanging from the ceiling in the girl’s room (had to be that room!). Sarah Reinhard came to our rescue and with a broom chased it across the walls and out the front door!

Finally, a tarantula came to visit one day too…there it was hanging on the screen door…just waiting to be let in! From inside the house, with the end of a broom we popped it off the screen. When it landed it started heading back towards us again! And do you know how loudly five people can yell at the same time? When we get to Heaven we will be sure to ask God why He made these things!

We see a lot of baby tarantulas around the door and in the house. This must be the mother!

These cute little guys are everywhere and we have become used to seeing them in the house. This one decided to warm his belly on the phone charger!

Pastor Jean-Claude comes for language classes three days a week. We start each session by reading a verse in Creole and then he prays for our ability to learn!

We have been allowed three months to study Creole. It has been very interesting to learn a new language as a family! We feel like we are back in Kindergarten in some ways. Or think of how a baby starts talking and you get the picture…

Creole is one of  Haiti’s two official languages, along with French. It is a language spoken by about 8.5 million people here (90% of the country), while the remaining 10% percent is bilingual in both Creole and French. The Creole language is based largely on French, with influences from Portuguese, Spanish, Taino, and West African languages. Haitian Creole emerged from contact between French settlers and African slaves during the Atlantic Slave Trade in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti). Creole resulted from African slaves’ efforts to speak the French that they heard when they arrived in the colony. Slaves came from all over West Africa and spoke many different languages. More than 90% of the vocabulary of Creole is of French origin, yet French people can’t understand Creole. This is because the grammars of the two languages are very different.

Mamis teaches both Grant and Trinity one on one.

We feel we have only started scratching the surface, but are probably farther along than we think. Listening is the the hardest for us because Haitians shorten so many of their words, making them hard to catch. One word can also have several meanings, so you have to understand the context to catch the definition. When Haitians speak quickly the words tend to run together and it’s hard to tell if they are saying several short words or one longer word. We know the phrase well in Creole, “Please speak slowly.” It is good for us when Haitians come to our door and can’t speak English very well. It is sometimes challenging to figure out what they want! It can be somewhat humbling when we are corrected, but I guess it happens to every language learner in the land of the native language they are learning. We tell our kids, “Now you know what it feels like!”

Dinold, a new Haitian friend, comes to help us learn Creole and also get a bite to eat!

Our (Mike & Susie) teacher, Pastor Jean-Claude, tells us of some funny stories from the past when missionaries chose to use the wrong word…then he can’t stop laughing! He comes to our house three days a week. We really enjoy him! He has such a warm personality and has so much patience. He also explains the Haitian culture by sharing common phrases and stories. He is an English professor at the American University and a public high school here in Les Cayes and has taught many, many missionaries the language. He also pastors a MEBSH church nearby, so he is very busy. Trinity and Grant have a teacher, Mamis, who comes almost every afternoon (she also cleans and cooks for the Yordy’s who live above us). We also have a young man, Dinold, who comes before school to help us out, which is also a good way for him to earn extra money. One of the best paying jobs here is language instruction. Those that can speak English well have an advantage over the rest.

Pastor Jean-Claude preaching in his church near the airport north of Les Cayes. That is one very pink sanctuary!

A recent visitor gave us this encouragement about learning a new language and adapting to a new culture: “Strong trees grow slow.” We often remind each other of that when we feel challenged. Besides, we have only been here three months!

Kaliko Beach Resort was where the 2014 missionary retreat was held.

We enjoyed spending a few days with local missionaries and their families at a resort north of Port-au-Prince. It was truly an uplifting spiritual weekend. The adults explored the Bible on the subject “Jesus is God,” and Grant joined our class, which he thoroughly enjoyed too. In this class, we all went away with “true worship is costly worship.” The emphasis was: God doesn’t want to be included in your plan, He wants you to be included in His plan. What is His plan? To disciple the nations. (Matthew 28:18-20)

The kids were blessed with a Bible School that a group comes down from the States every year to hold for them. Trinity expressed how much she appreciated her teacher praying over each kid in her class and it brought many tears. Trinity said it was such a humbling and yet beautiful experience that she will never forget! Grace enjoyed her Bible class too and said the best part was learning more about God and Jesus, and His disciples. The kids even presented a program to our families at the end!

Other events were swimming, snorkeling, jet skiing and sand volleyball. Snorkeling was a whole new experience for us! It brought to life God’s amazing creativity that basically goes unnoticed until you take time to see for yourself. Wow! Sometimes there is a price to pay to see such beauty – Grant got his first encounter with a jelly fish. It stung him on his foot, but we don’t think it will stop him from going again!

It was hard to imagine how people could exist in this barren and treeless area.

The trip left us with conflicting emotions. While we enjoyed a stay at a top-quality resort on the sea, we had to pass through some difficult scenes before reaching our destination. Another missionary pointed out we were passing close by the mass graves where the dead were brought out from Port-au-Prince following the 2010 earthquake. We passed by this location north of Port-au-Prince and saw where many of the displaced survivors from the quake were now squatters on the barren and rocky hillsides all around. Who are we to deserve any luxuries when you see the absolute desperation for survival? On the way home someone mentioned being at the resort was like experiencing a mirage in the desert. Quite true!

The beach consisted of white rock instead of sand. We chose to wait and swim where there are plenty of sandy beaches!

Lazy afternoons offered plenty of time to cool down at the pool! Notice the light switch and plug on the palm tree!

We enjoy the unusual forms that God creates here in Haiti!

Even a little family time? (Grant really enjoyed being with friends for an extended time!)

The Bible School program was set to music but one song was performed in sign language!