School Visits and Children's Program

Wow, has it really been 2 1/2 weeks since I last wrote.  Sorry for the absence. 

Things went really well with the school visits and it was great to continue to learn about these other districts and what they are doing.  There are still a few schools from the Atrel area and Port-de-Paix that he needs to visit, so hopefully these happen soon.
Here are a few pictures from the Herbe A Fleche school, just to give you some more idea of the type of schools that he was visiting.

What does God want us to do?
Over the past few weeks I have really been struggling with what God wants us to do here.  We know that we have been called to work with the local people to make a training center become a reality in this area, but what does that mean for today and the next months.  We have been blessed with some great pastors that we have been talking with and starting to get their ideas, but still I must admit that it is difficult to just wait.
There are so many ideas that we have of what we would like to see and do, but we don't want to do something just for the sake of "doing."  We want to be sure that it is what God is wanting us to do.  Join us to praying that God's will would be so clear to us and that we would be obedient to His will in what ever little steps He wants us to take.

Saturday afternoon kids time:
Our children have really wanted to start making friends with the local children.  Last Saturday the kids and I all went for a walk to see if we could find some kids to play with.  Armed with a tennis ball and a football, we set out.  By the end of an hour we had a group of about 15 boys that we played with.  These boys really enjoyed it and said that they would come back again this week.  We are praying that this will become a weekly event, with games and a Bible story time.

Count it all Joy

James 1:2-4 "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,  knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.  But let patience have it perfect work that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing."

These verses have been going through my mind quite often during the past few weeks.  I must admit that I have had a very hard time "counting it all joy" as I have battled ANTS. 
I think I should start by fully explaining just what an ant problem we have had.  You know that ants are bad in your house when....
- you have to throw away one of your favorite kinds of cereal since it is filled with thousands of ants
- there are ants floating in your cup of coffee
- the bread that was rising on the counter has hundreds of ants crawling on it
- there are ants biting you in your bed

I could go one with this list, but I think you get the idea.
To try and look at the positive side of all of this and count it all joy has not been easy.  But God has been working on me and most days I can say that I am thankful that the ants have forced me to keep my counters and floors really clean.  They have also helped me to scrub all of my cupboards at least once in the past few weeks.

Ants on the bread.  I just cooked them and brushed them off when it was cooked.

Now I know that ants are just a little thing in the big picture, but I'm thankful that God can use even little creatures like ants to teach us to stay close to Him and rely on Him.

Ants in a heart shape

Kitchen really coming along
Last week Kyrk did not have any meetings with pastors so he was able to get a lot of work completed on the kitchen.  He made all the kitchen drawers, which is a huge blessing.  There were also several other little projects that were completed.  I am so thankful for the progress that continues to take place on our house.

This week:
Today Kyrk along with Pastor Fleurilien, had the opportunity to travel to Vincent to deliver school supplies.  The little school that they went to was very thankful for the gifts.

Tomorrow he will be visiting some of the churches and schools in the area of L'Arbre along with the pastor for that area.  These visits are a time to meet the school director and teachers and start to get to know the people in these areas.

Wednesday there is a regional meeting for all the church leaders, in the surrounding areas at the Atrel church.  There will be about 40-50 BHM affiliated churches represented.  We are praying that this will be another time of learning what is happening in the churches and continuing to learn how God wants us to come along side these leaders.