details

I am lucky enough to live in a beautiful, green and lush pocket of this island. Despite all the scenery around me though, sometimes I find myself getting lost in the little details of my new home.

January Newsletter

Happy New Year!! I hope everyone has had a great start to 2013! It was about a year ago when I wrote my first support letter for long term service in Haiti - now I've been in Haiti for over a month and am looking forward to many more. 

Adjusting to life in Haiti has taken time, but I feel more at home each day. The holidays made for an unusual schedule, but the slower pace allowed me to acclimate in my own time. Currently, I spend a lot of time working on learning Creole. I study on my own, work with a Haitian tutor and work with the Wilson's daughters to improve my language skills. I can understand far more than I can manage to say most of the time. I am so thankful for my very patient tutor, Phanette, who is improving my Creole tremendously. 

It didn't take long to settle into my house. The living room and spare room still need to be painted, so I'm living in the back half of the house - but I have more than enough space. I become more comfortable here every day. I've also opened up a bank account and received my first piece of mail and first package through MFI. God continues to help me feel settled in small and big ways. 

Right after the new year HAFF hosted a team of high school and college students from Ada, Michigan, led by a former board president. I was thankful to have people to speak English with - but I was also encouraged by their willingness to serve. It was a busy week, jam packed with activities , many of which were new to me. Their visit was exhausting but so rewarding for the American and Haitian staff here. They kept a detailed blog of their trip here. 

The new school term started for our students last week and I began visiting classes. Instead of jumping into teaching right away, I took some time to sit in and observe our different courses and teachers. It is a great chance to work on my Creole and to get to know the way a Haitian high school functions. School in Haiti is so different from any classroom in America. This week, I began working with our Haitian teacher in some of the English classes. I knew a few of these students prior to teaching and I am excited that I have already formed some relationships with them. I am also spending time brainstorming ways HAFF can further invest in the lives of our high school students. We are in the beginning stages of working on an after school program. It is my prayer that this program would flourish and give our students joy, value and hopefully improve their performance in school. 

I am also working on social media for HAFF. I am beginning to craft and write blog posts in partnership with Connie, our stateside co-coordinator. Soon I'll have our Facebook page updated as well as a new Twitter page. We hope incorporating more social media into HAFF will allow our supporters and visitors to stay more connected to our work here. Part of this work for me is taking lots of photos, something I love to do. I love the opportunity to capture what is happening here in Central Haiti. The chance to show and tell peoples stories of this beautiful country is a privilege. I am so excited to help bridge the gap between people who pray and support Haiti and Haitians themselves. Stay tuned here and to the HAFF blog - and check your mail boxes for the latests addition of HAFF Happenings soon!

As you can tell, I am keeping busy - and will continue to do so in the coming months. I look forward to updating you on everything happening here in Haiti.
Thank you for your continued support. You are each a part of my journey, you helped to get me here and you are so special to me. Thank you for being a part of what God is doing in Haiti!

All my Love,
April

Prayer Requests:

For me:

- I would learn Creole at a rapid speed
- I would begin to see how I can best fit into teaching English - and working with our high schoolers
- The Lord would open up ways for me to serve the young children in our community
- My adjustment of being away from family and friends - as well as their adjustment

For HAFF:
- HAFF would see a growth in partners and financial supporters this year
- Wisdom and boldness for the HAFF Executive Committee as they make ministry decisions
- God would continue to provide for each ministry need

l'ap vini

It started out like any other task. I was sent to give our clinic nurse, Madame Te, three packs of gauze, and ask her if it was enough. She said "plu" - meaning "more" and I wondered what it was for. I came back with three more packs, in my limited Kreyol I understood that she didn't have anything for cleaning. I went and told Carla who went to discuss with her in Kreyol what she needed. I was sent to get my camera, Carla gave me a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and told me a little boy was at the clinic and he had been badly burned from falling into a fire. I walked quickly, camera and medical supplies in hand, having no idea what I would see. Falling into a fire…I kept thinking how fire is a necessary part of life here. Gas stoves are scarce, and electric stoves are unheard of. To feed your family, to get clean water - you must have fire. Falling into a fire is not shocking here - it's not necessarily careless. It's a little boy, being a little boy and going one or two steps further than he should when you turn your back for just one second. 

As I approached the clinic I saw the little boy with his mother and father, not jumping for joy but still quietly content standing with his head in his mothers lap. The night before the family went to a different clinic where they were told they couldn't be helped and their little boy would die. Without the proper care the wound could have been infected and easily led to death. Coming to the HAFF clinic was all they knew to do. We had explained to his mother and father that we were going to take pictures - so our supporters could see the kind of services being offered at the clinic - and now we can hopefully see the stages the wound goes through. So, I took photos of the wound and braced myself for whatever was ahead. 

I followed everyone inside where the nurse and his parents placed him on the exam table on his hands and knees. The nurse began to clean the wound, which covered most of his back. The crying began and this precious little one wailed out in pain. The nurse was gentle and tender and his parents were loving. I held back tears hearing his screams and watching the distress on his innocent little face. The nurse was done cleaning, but then she took a pair of scissors and gently peeled off a few small pieces of skin. His mother had tears streaming down her face as I fought the urge to leave the room and throw-up, cry - or both. Instead, I put my camera down and rubbed his mothers back, silently crying "God help". God help this little boy and his parents. God help this family that couldn't drive to an American ER to have a staff carefully watch over them until the burn was healed. God help this mother and father as they tenderly apply and reapply Silvadine burn cream cream for the next several days. God. Help. 

The nurse worked gently to apply a thick layer of cream, another nurse fanned the little one, his father wiped the tears from his face and I prayed with every fiber of my being for his relief. When the family walked outside to wait for their medicine the little boy stayed with mom and dad went inside - he kept crying, "Papa, papa, papa!!" His mother said "L'ap vini, l'ap vini" - "He is coming, he is coming." My heart cried the same thing - Papa, come soon. We need you. We need you when innocent little boys fall into a fire and their parents have to walk to find care. We need you when hydrogen peroxide is hard to find and this big wound on this little boy needs to be clean. We need YOU to cleanse us Father. Cleanse us from the inside out so we can better serve you while we wait - while we eagerly wait for you to come. 

The family collected their things, a loving papa held his son and slipped his sandals on. They opened the umbrella used to cover his back from the heat of the Caribbean sun and walked off as I said I would pray for them…and pray I have. Prayed, cried, agonized - and I have been thankful that they did find their way to the HAFF clinic. Thankful that we had enough gauze to give Madame Te, thankful Carla had the hydrogen peroxide we needed and I am thankful that God let me see suffering and his provision and his healing all in an hours time. 

Papa, come soon. 

our brave little man

sad mama

applying the Silvadine burn cream

safe in the arms of his papa 

roll call

Today, God transformed a small, random task into a big feeling for me and I thought you'd appreciate me sharing...

The plane landed at the airport...otherwise known as a field of grass while I was talking with some area missionaries I had just been introduced to. A short term American team began figuring out how their luggage was loaded on this tiny plane as we got the mail bag off. Another missionary got the bag open and began shuffling through the papers. The mail was all organized in bundles, by organization and my new friend began calling out names as people came over to get their bundle of news from America. While I was standing there I was so - happy. There wasn't any cargo delivered today or even any mail for me, but being there to collect it somehow made me feel...like a real life missionary. A task that took such little time had such an impact. It was something about the unity of waiting with others of like mind - the reality that a big task in the week on our ministry is to go pick up mail - the gratitude that there is a missionary flight organization that will deliver just about anything we need. Somehow this task was packed with emotion and transformed some of my feelings from surreal to concrete. There is no major change in how I will do ministry, no improvement in my work here - just a gift from God in the unlikeliest of places.

"You belong here, you have a place here, rest in exactly where I have you and begin to flourish."

Let God move you in the small moments.