Update Email from the Mission Teams in Haiti this week!

Hi All,

I wanted to give you a quick update for the week so far:

Both teams are doing great and have jumped right into ministering to the kids in the communities we are serving. 

Grace Destin Team Update:

Edner had the service clubs go around the community and invite kids to the VBS. We started with 60 kids and have had extras that the team gladly brought into the mix. About 15 students from Human Care School are helping.

The team decided to use a portion of their food distribution money to provide lunch to the kids at VBS since they were not in HOB's orphan feeding program and this would be the only healthy meal most of them will get each day.

Fish and Loaves

On Day 1 we feed 60 kids, 15 boys from Human Care School, and a few stragglers for a total of 80 people.

On Day 2, we feed 100 people combined. God has truly multiplied the rice and beans and it is a meaningful gesture to these hungry children. It will be interesting to see how many more show up today. Praying that God will continue to multiply the food for all those that need it.

The kids from VBS are adorable (of course) and seem to be enjoying the lessons and the crafts.

Grace Baptist Team Update: 

The Grace Baptist team has been spending lots of time with Pastor Austern’s kids. It has been great to see how quickly old relationships were renewed and that the team is well remembered from last year. There have been many smiles from the kids and they are having fun with the team.

The bunk beds are coming along very well and everything is cut and ready to assemble. The beds are certainly needed.

Tammy's sewing class kicked off Tuesday with 20 students (8 returned from last year) and she is excited about their potential.

Pastor Jeff has been preaching a revival each night this week and we have enjoyed lots of beautiful worship in Creole. We will wrap up the revival by showing the Jesus film at the church thursday evening. Plese pray that we will reach those who are not saved and strengthen the faith of those who are.

Tuesday was market day and we were able to combine our money and purchase an amazing amount of food for distribution to needy families Pastor Austern is ministering to. We will be able to feed 42 families for a month! What a blessing it will be.

Hands and Feet 

Tuesday we were given an unexpected opportunity to be Jesus' hands and feet.

Judy from Grace Destin was holding this very frail little girl who did not move for 1 hr and 45 min. She clearly heard God tell her that if we did not intervene this little girl would die. She has had diarrhea and vomiting and was severely dehydrated. We started giving her Gatorade and took the girl to the clinic (after hours) and they determined she was not serious enough for admission and sent her home with medicine. She will return today for diagnostic tests.

We went and checked on her early this morning and she stood up on her own when we came in her room! She was still lethargic but it was truly amazing to see the difference in just 12 hours. We were meant to be here if for no other reason than this. It was a humbling experience.

Thats all for now. Everyone is eating well and the weather has still been cooler than expected!

Greater things are yet to come. Greater things are still to be done in this city.

The section highlighted in yellow is Greg's team.  Sounds like they are having a wonderful week.  He called 2 days ago and we got to talk for about 2 minutes. He says its hot, muggy and much like Honduras.  Please pray for the Lord to bless the rest of their week.

Weddings

I've got a wedding taking up a great majority of my thinking time.  We've spent hours at JoAnn's, Bed, Bath & Beyond & Belk's.  Katie has chosen some beautiful items for her and Bryant's first home as a married couple.  Its been lots of fun watching her chose, helping her make decisions, and taking part in this process.

Our JoAnn's trips have yeilded the fabric, lace, thread, buttons, baskets and flowers for the 3 flower girls (Bryant's younger sisters).  We've bought some gorgeous for Katie's going away dress.  We've found a beautiful blue satiny fabric for the Bridesmaids (Amy & Brytni).  We've got lace, ribbons, and pearls for Katie's headpiece and ribbon for all the girls.  We've also bought flowers and ribbon to make bouquets for the bride and bridesmaids (never done that before but we are giving it a try).  Greg wants us to make the ties for the ushers and dads & we've bought the same blue satiny fabric for those.  This will be my first attempt at making ties also.  

I looked online for a top for me and found exactly what I wanted.  Then I bought blue suedecloth to make a skirt to match.  We are on the hunt now for shoes for Katie & I.  Tues. will find us at Mall of GA where they are holding a pair of shoes for the bride to try on. 

I've cut out the 3 dresses for the littlest girls.  The first step was to pleat the sleeves, then hem & put the lace on the sleeves.  Then I sewed the arm pieces to the fronts and backs of the dresses.  Next will come pleating all the dresses.  I forgot to bring my pleater, so my sister brought hers over for me to borrow.   Aunt Brenda is also fixing the sleeves on Katie's bridal dress and adding lace.  We are anxious to have the gown completed so we can mark it off our list.

We've made lots and lots of lists.  Then as things are accomplished we've redone the lists.   Having a good, complete list was extremely helpful on our 2 JoAnn's trips.

  I know that everyone has different plans and priorities for their daughters big days.  Our plans are different than most.  We are trying to do as much of the preparations for the wedding ourselves.  All the planning, buying, sewing, flower arranging, food, etc.  I am looking on it as a big party.  I've done big elaborate birthday parties and just 6 years ago, planned mine & Greg's wedding (in 6 weeks).  We had a wonderful fun time with all our family & friends and didn't break the bank.  Thats our plan for our daughters.  We want it to be special and everything they've dreamed about for a wedding but not take out a 2nd mortgage to do it.  Katie is on board and enthusiastic about all we've done and come up with great ideas we didn't think of.  We would much rather gift my children with wonderful things than go overboard on just one day.  (I've been called cheap for my approach but thats their problem not mine).


As the time goes on it keeps rolling over and over in my mind, that Katie is an adult.  She is making adult sized decisions.  The Lord has brought a wonderful, Christian young man into her life to share her future with, make dreams with, and to love.  Its going to be hard for her Mom and Dad to let her go.  But she will always be my Katie Lynn!

Another Rejected Wedding Idea

Greg's come up with another "brilliant" idea...

Wedding in the round.  We rearrange all the chairs in the sanctuary and the Pastor, Kate, and Bryant stand in the middle of the circle (like a concert in the round)  To make sure everyone can see them, they will be standing on a large lazy susan type pedestal.  Then Brady and Will are going to spin the lazy susan pedestal so that everyone can see everything.

Barf bags will be provided.

Next will be Allen's ideas from supper tonight.....  it just gets better and better!

Haiti

Greg is leaving for Haiti tomorrow.  This will really be a long 9 days for both of us.  I agree with him going to minister and serve the orphans down there ~ but I am jealous that I'm not going.  Since we've never been there, he wanted to go first and check out the area & safety of making the trip, etc.  I understand all of that ~ but I've helped him get ready, been in all the team meetings, and shopped for the crafts and orphans clothes.  It doesn't help that several people keep asking me why I am not going or don't I want to go.  The latest one was last night ~ lets just say sorrowful is one of the emotions going through me right now.

Here is what they get to do while there....build bunkbeds for the orphange ~ this may be the first bed some of these children have ever slept in, buying bulk bags of rice & beans and delivering in the village people along with oil, conducting bible school for children, preaching in revivals at night, ministering wherever and whenever possible.

We are headed to my Mom's for a week of wedding planning, shopping, visiting, hugging Allen, and crafting.  We've got dresses to buy fabric for and shoes to get ~ a trip to JoAnn's for the fabric!  Going out to eat and hopefully some lazy time too!

Rejected Wedding Theme #1

Greg and I feel its our duty to HELP plan this wedding, after all we are the parents.  Last night Greg came up with a brilliant idea.  Instead of tuxes the guys could wear Chef jackets ~ in black of course, this is a fancy schmancy affair.  The gals could wear pink chef jackets.  We were going to get the Pastor a chefs hat so he would look different from the rest of the wedding party.  Bouquets could be edibles...carrots with to leafy tops still attached, heads of brocolli or cauliflower, etc.  These bouquets could serve 2 purposes ~ bouquet and munchie if the ceremony goes on too long.  Gifts for the attendants could be carving knife sets, or something else to match the foodie theme.

Then we were going to help stock their pantry by tossing edibles instead of just birdseed after the reception.  We thought of having them carry open gallon ziploc bags to catch the rice in.  And then Amy got into the planning and came up with some really wonderful ideas ~ throwing packs of Ramen noodles, canned goods, frozen turkeys, and cases of water bottles (Amy is all heart & extremely creative).  We figured instead of everyone yelling...good luck, we love you, call us soon  ~ we could yell...watch out, incoming, duck~

Somehow, Katie did not catch the vision for this idea.  I'm not sure why, but it was all thought of with love and concern for the new couple setting up their first home!!!!!!!!!

Can anyone else see a problem with this?  Or is Katie just being really sensitive?

(I sincerely hope and pray that anyone who read this idiotic rambling knows that I was kidding!  But it did give me a great post for the blog ~ and yes, the above coversation really happened.)

Riding in the RV

What can you do while riding in the RV between St. Louis and central Miss.?  Glad you asked....you can make lists of wedding to do stuff.  You can plan all the food for the "after the ceremony party" (know in some circles as the reception but thats too stuffy and formal, we are having a party).  You can take your daughter to one of her grandmothers house to try on her 1st Mom's wedding gown.  You can Praise the Lord that the dress fits almost perfectly...just needs a little taken off the length.  You can get teary eyed when you see how beautiful she looks (sorry, no pictures can be posted ~ but I can tell you its long and white!)  You can stop at some outlets on the way home and buy some wedding goodies to go with the dress.  You can list everything you need to buy for the wedding to start a budget.  You can make bunches of phone calls to set more plans in motion ~ Amy Kate and Sarah are going to be our wedding ceremony coordinators...so no one walk down the aisle till they tell you to.  You can pray.  You can laugh.  You realize that YES you can plan a great, wonderful, memorable, full of love day for your Daughter and Future Son in Law in just 12 weeks.

You can talk to grandparents.  You can smock.  You can listen to sermon's on the CD's.  You can drink caffeinated beverages to help stay awake.  You can listen to Granny's plans to be a bridesmaid ~ haha, she gets to be the wedding Granny.  You can make plans to shop for fabric, shoes, napkins, plates, invites, etc.

Then you can pray some more and know that with the Lord's help and guidance this is going to be a magnificent day in our daughter's life!

Engagement

We had a very full, blessed Saturday in St. Louis.  Bryant took Greg out to eat breakfast and to ask his permission to marry Katie ~ which Greg gave him.  They talked for several hours about budgets, apartments, college, marriage, etc.

Late that afternoon, Greg & I, Katie & Bryant took a driving tour of the area to look at the college, see different apartment complexes and walked around Bryant's work place.  Then his parents and the rest of the kids came to meet us on the banks of the Missouri River at their river walk and went to eat dinner.  During the dinner, B & K went for a walk (yes, alone) and he popped the question.  They came back into the restaurant all smiles and cheery faces.

Bryant's dad ordered a bottle of champagne to toast the happy couple ~ Katie was not impressed with champagne.  After the dinner, we all walked over to "the proposal spot" for more pictures..but my camera battery decided to die.  Greg took a couple of pictures on his phone, so we will try to get them loaded onto the computer.

After our church time this morning/afternoon, we headed to the grocery store and to pick up pizza.  There were some horribly, angry, nasty clouds in the sky which resulted in a big wind/rain storm and a 4+ hour power outage.  We spent the afternoon in the darkened rooms, planning a wedding. 

We gave them the option of a wedding in Oct. or Nov.  which resulted in a wedding date of Oct. 1...in just 12 weeks.  They are all smiles and excited, I am slightly overwhelmed, we are praying for lots of guidance and wisdom.