Blog - Haitian Children's Home: May 16, 2009 Update

Dear friends,

This morning as I was reading in Psalm 43, I read this, “Give me your lantern and compass, give me a map, so I can find my way to the sacred mountain, to the place of your presence…” And those words became my prayer. The past two weeks have been filled with highs and lows as we have made numerous (too numerous to count) changes in our lives. Nick and I have made sure all the batteries in our flashlights and lanterns are good, since the electricity not always a sure thing. We've checked the map dozens of times to try to figure out how to get places... Everything is just so... well, foreign. Even though we’ve visited Haiti several times, the eyes with which we look at things are so different knowing this is a long-term home. Today I prayed that even as I put a lot of energy in to learn how to live in a totally different place, I would spend an equal or greater amount of energy trying to learn how to walk with and love my God. It’s not easy when the distractions are so many—and I am learning that I will have to fight for it if it’s going to happen.

These past two weeks have been filled with many events—
-We watched the HCH house for nearly a week while Danny and Leann took some time for much-needed refreshment together on a vacation. We love their family and was glad to be able to serve in this way. Being substitute “parents” to 20+ kids was constantly busy and it seemed there was always some sort of figurative “fire to put out.” Good training!

-We helped welcome a team from our home church, Crosspointe, shortly after Danny and Leann came home. THEY WERE SO MUCH FUN. I honestly do not know if I have EVER laughed as hard as I did during their time here. They were a very flexible group of people—taking on a whole new project after we determined we’d NOT be able to completely occupy our Jacmel house due to landlord struggles. (More on that below.) But even with a last-minute change of projects, this team came in and loved and served and showed us Jesus in very real ways. THANK YOU! Please pray for this team as they readjust back to life in the US. Pray that God would use this experience to spur them on to love and know God better.

- One of the reasons that it was SO good that this team was so flexible is because on their second day here (last Saturday), one of the Pye’s sons, Woody, was in a bad motorcycle accident and badly broke his leg. The closest hospital able to deal with this kind of injury is 3 hours away in Port Au Prince. So that night Nick and Danny drove Woody into a Doctors Without Borders hospital. He has since had one of two surgeries necessary to correct the damage. He has had a few complications since the first surgery and is in a lot of pain. We hope his next surgery will be early next week. Danny has been in Port with Woody since the accident and he is ready to be back with his family in Jacmel. Please pray for Woody. Please pray for his complete healing. Please pray for Danny as he’s had to be away from his family for such a long stretch of time. Please pray for Leann, as she’s had to run the home (of 23 kids) without Danny’s physical presence. Please pray for provision to cover this unexpected and costly event. The Pye’s anticipate that the surgery and all related costs will be over $2000. If you’d like to make a special gift to help with this need, please donate online, or via mail at: Haitian Children’s Home, PO Box 968, Ellenton, FL 34222. (Be sure to write “Woody’s surgery” in the memo so the funds are correctly designated.)

- We STILL do not have full occupancy of the home we’ve rented in Jacmel as there is a tenant downstairs who has over-stayed his lease and doesn’t seem too motivated to move out. It’s incredibly frustrating. I am thankful to the Pye’s for letting us crash with them while we wait on this. We’re hoping for some movement this weekend. Please pray that the downstairs tenant would vacate the house and that we could be given full occupancy of our house this weekend. Please also pray that the landlord will quickly honor her end of the agreement and complete projects she has agreed to complete before we can move in. (Putting up razor-wire and getting electricity hooked up.)

-Yesterday we moved into our home in Port Au Prince where we will live for the next six weeks (during the week—weekends we will return to Jacmel.) Here we will be attending classes for 3.5 hours a day to learn Creole. We start Monday. We’re excited and nervous at the same time… (which pretty much describes all of our experiences in this country so far.) Please pray that we’d come to understand how to do life here in Port Au Prince. Pray that we’d continue to connect well with Naomi (the woman we have hired to help our family with our children and home while we are in school). Pray that God would knit her into our family beautifully. Please pray that our generator here in Port Au Prince could be repaired so that we can have reliable 24-hour a day electricity.

-Today we had our family’s first “medical need” since coming to Haiti. Josiah woke up with a 104.6F temperature this AM. Because of where we now live, our first thought was malaria and so we made arrangements to see a team of US doctors that had just arrived at CSI in Port Au Prince. They were amazing and the care was quick and efficient. It turned out it was NOT malaria, just a bad ear infection. He was prescribed antibiotics and started them today. This does not OVER-concern us, but it does concern us since Josiah has had to have ear tubes in the past because of recurring ear infections. He recently lost the tube in that ear, (which is to be expected over time.) We’d like to try to obtain a quality otoscope to monitor this in the future. (Plus, it would be great in a house full of 23 kids to have one!) Please let us know if you’d be able to help meet this need. Please pray that Josiah would quickly and completely heal from this infection without need for further medical intervention.

Thank you for your prayers and support. We are ALWAYS mindful that we are here because of your faithfulness to us.

With very grateful hearts,

Gwenn, Nick, Nia, Nico + Josiah (and Naomi!)