Catch-Up.

I am writing this post in shame because it's been three months since we've written any type of update, and now so much life has happened that I feel it's almost impossible to catch you all up on it. In spite of that, I will do my best to give you a glimpse of what our lives have looked like for the past little while.

February and March were a blur of short-term mission teams. Life was busier for Kristen and I than we anticipated because Bethany had to return to the States to finish out her pregnancy because of the Zika virus. That left Paul, Kristen and I to hold down the fort here- and also meant Kristen and I stepping into the gap to take over the work that Bethany would have done with the short term teams here. I know a lot of people have their opinions about short-term mission teams and whether or not they do more harm than good. But as I've mentioned in other blog posts, if there's one thing we miss greatly here, it's the fellowship and community with other believers [who speak our language]. These teams have fed us emotionally and spiritually, and given us the "oomph" we needed to keep on keeping on down here. In a strange sort of way, having these people down here has also given us a different perspective on our lives down here and the work that we're doing. It's really, really hard to explain missionary life to those who haven't lived it, but it's really easy to feel burned out and lack insight into the difference your work is making. So to have people come down and affirm that God is using you to make a difference that they can tangibly see is a huge, huge deal. Short-term teams make a big difference for long-term missionaries that live here. They're the encouragement we need, and the voice our ministry needs to keep and gain support.

Kristen and I had Spring break at the end of March, but we opted not to travel home to Canada for two reasons: number 1, there was a short-term team of high school students coming and we wanted to be able to experience a short-term team without having to teach at school at the same time and we hadn't had a younger team come yet since we had moved here, and number 2, we were going to be travelling to the States at the beginning of April anyway.

That brings me to our next adventure. Kristen and I had the honour of travelling to Sioux Falls, South Dakota where Mission Haiti is based out of in the States at the beginning of April to attend a fundraising dinner and dessert auction to raise support for the ministry. We were particularly excited for this for a multitude of reasons: we were intensely craving American food, wanted to get out of skirts for a week and wear a pair of jeans, we wanted to be able to speak English and have someone understand and speak fluent English back to us, and we wanted to be able to meet the huge community of people that make Mission Haiti happen. We both had to make a speech, and contrary to popular belief, giving a speech is ten thousand times more nerve-wracking than teaching a class of students.

Right now, our major focus is finishing out the school year well. We're also planning our Kindergarten graduation party, so things have been busy, busy, busy. We've both been feeling some pressure lately to push our students in English because they're at grade-level in French but below grade-level in English in some areas simply because Creole is so similar to French that they had a huge advantage going into the school year. For the past month and a half I've been trying to teach my students to read in English, and that was a challenge in and of itself. But some of them are starting to read and apply strategies by themselves to figure out words, and it's just the most exciting glimpse of the opportunities that our school is going to open up for these students when they finish school.

In other news, Paul and Bethany are both in the States right now [awaiting the birth of their daughter as I type this], leaving Kristen and I to fend for ourselves here at the compound. It's so strange being here by ourselves, yet at the same time so normal- just like ordinary life. Yesterday we went to the basketball court to watch a game [which is right beside the ocean], and it hit me again as I was watching the sailboats head out to sea, and the kids running around without shoes on that I'm really truly living on a tropical island doing exactly what I had always dreamed of doing. I'm so thankful for those out-of-the-blue moments that remind me of where I am and why I'm doing what I'm doing.

This is getting a little too long already, but I want to close with one horror story to make you glad you work where you work. A month or two ago as I was teaching, my class went into an uproar because there was a humongous rat running along the top wall of my classroom up by the roof. It disappeared and I hadn't seen it for a couple of months. Well, the other week when it was raining outside, the rat showed up and was sitting at the top of the wall again. It was right above where I was standing to teach and I was praying that it wouldn't fall on me. Well, low and behold, it decided to die and fell literally 3 inches from my head. I hate to admit that I ran screaming out of the class, and then realized I had left my class behind to fend for themselves. When I went back in, my Haitian co-teacher Angely was standing with her foot on the rat's head in case it wasn't actually dead. Then she wrapped her hand in Kleenex, picked the rat up by the tail, and threw it over the wall of the school property. So nasty. If it would have fallen on my head I would have ran home and had the longest shower of my life.

Our school finishes at the end of June, and then Kristen and I will be heading home to spend the month of July back in Canada. Thanks to everyone for being patient with our lack of updates!

Sending Haitian love!

January Madness.

February. It's just as hard to type the word as it is to say it out loud. January started and ended before we even knew what was happening. It's almost hard to believe how busy the past month actually was. Our three student teachers left the last week in January, and it was with some very mixed emotions. We haven't had any teams to the compound since the summer [because of elections that were supposed to happen in December but never did], so having girls around our age to talk to and live with and work with for a month was a huge, huge, blessing. In January, our Mission Haiti Board also visited, and prior to this trip we had not even had the chance to meet our Board since moving to Haiti. It was so great to be able to put names to faces and connect with them.

If I had to sum up January in a few words it would be: school, school, school, sports camps, broken buses and weekend beach trips. School has been super busy, and as all of our teacher friends will know, January to April-ish is push-time. Our students have been exposed to 5 months of English now, and we're trying to cram as much into their heads as we can. Once you get into May, students go downhill, and downhill fast. We're also trying to think ahead to our next report card period, which is coming up in March. The beginning of January was also fun because our bus broke down. Probably 94% of our students rely on the bus to get to school, and so we had to pick up and drop off the students in our Mission Haiti dump truck. Yes, a dump truck. You know you live in Haiti when...

Life has slowly returned to normal after the busyness of last month- normal school routines, normal after school routines, and normal weekend routines. It's good- Kristen and I really needed a break before more short-term teams start arriving in a couple of weeks. We've also started after-school tutoring on Wednesdays and Thursdays for students who need extra help and are below grade-level. Wednesdays are for French and Thursdays are for English. The first week we started, some of the kids absolutely howled like we were keeping them for torture [and some still do]. So I started calling it "game time" at dismissal, and now the whole class wants to stay [and no, I don't consider that deception, exactly]. I would say our biggest focus right now has been Language Development first, and Math second. We've been reading a lot of English books to our classes, and the kids are so enraptured by books that I don't think even an explosion would break their focus. They LOVE books. I'm sure they've never had books to look at in their life. Their favourite lately has been The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, and we made some caterpillar and butterfly puppets with googley eyes. Oh, how they love googley eyes. 

Carnival is this week, so we have Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off of school. Can anyone say 5-day weekend?! We are so super, duper pumped because we really needed a break. School had been kind of rough lately, and Kristen and I are feeling drained physically, emotionally and mentally. The point of our school is to be radically different from all the other schools in Haiti- to create a completely different school culture filled with Jesus and respect and learning and self-control and love. Let me tell you, it's hard being a culture-changer. We feel like we're hitting a cement wall right now. But if there's one thing I've learned from my teaching job last year, it's that the school year is like a roller-coaster ride... ups and downs, and ups and downs. So we are just praying that this is one of those downs that is eventually going to turn into an up. We continue to ask for your faithful prayers as we try to do our best to teach these precious kiddos, because in all honesty, Kindergarten is EXHAUSTING. Between tantrums, and sicknesses that work their way through the whole school, and shoes that come untied then thousand times a day, and little hands that yank on your clothes, and feet that trample your toes and erasers and crayons disappearing because kids are eating them and every student tattling in Creole 5-10 times a day... it's kind of a miracle that we're still sane.

Enough about school, though. We have an exciting update. Kristen and I have decided that we are going to stay in Haiti for another year for the 2016-2017 school year. It was a surprisingly easy decision- no stress, no sleepless nights. We know that this is where God wants us, we know in our hearts that His work for us in Haiti isn't finished yet, and so we're trusting in His sovereignty because we're only half-way through this school year. Haiti has become home, and the people have become our family, and it's nice to know we won't be saying good-bye anytime soon.

I also realize that we haven't updated our prayer section in a really, really long time. So here's a quick list:

- health and safety for Kristen and I

- health for our students as it's cold and flu season in Haiti right now and all of our students are sick

- endurance to push through this tough time at school

- a close relationship for Kristen and I to continue, as we are each other's only source of encouragement and friendship [aside from Bethany]  right now

Sending love from Haiti!

PS. We actually got to watch the Superbowl on the weekend. We took our Internet stick to our Coffee Shop Ministry Center, set up a table and chairs, and ate sausages, pasta salad and Oreos under the starts while we watched Denver win. Sometimes life here is pretty okay. :)

A New Year in Haiti.

It's crazy to think we've been back in Haiti for a week already since our Christmas vacation in Canada. A lot has happened in the past several weeks. We had another report card period and parent conferences just before we left for Christmas vacation, and of course our school Christmas party. I think our Christmas vacation is worth a mention too- simply for the fact that it was awful. Kristen had a fantastic vacation, and got to spend time with her much-missed friends, but I got seriously ill... first of all, I got myself dehydrated from travelling and then not drinking enough water once we got home because it wasn't hot. Then I ended up getting the flu with a fever, and combined with the dehydration, I ended up in the ER. I spent almost a week and a half in bed. I'm not going to lie, I felt really frustrated with God, and didn't understand why He would let me get sick when I hadn't been home in 5 months. It sounds crazy, but God had some really important lessons to teach me, and I don't think I would have listened if I had been healthy and running hither and yon with all of my vacation plans. Plus, I'm so thankful that I was sick in Canada and not Haiti, where any health concern is ten times more stressful.

January is going to be a month of crazy busyness; that's the only way I can think of to describe it. We have three Education students from Sioux Falls, South Dakota doing a month-long placement at our school. Krist and I get to be their "den mothers" as they jump into life here in Haiti and try to navigate the language barrier and a completely different school culture.

 In all truth, we have been anticipating their arrival for months. As many awesome things as there are about living here, there are definitely some big challenges, one of them being the lack of fellowship with friends. Even though there are times when we are surrounded by people all day long, being able to talk to people who fluently know your own language is something that we miss a lot, especially because we haven't had teams since the summer. It's also encouraging for us because as hard as we try to explain our life and what school is like to other people, if you don't live it you don't quite understand what we're going through, and these girls are going to get a good taste of what our life is really like. 

This week has been non-stop busyness as well. We traveled Saturday and Sunday, had a teacher meeting on Monday, and started school on Tuesday. [We definitely need some down time that doesn't really seem anywhere in sight]. We've definitely had some funny moment so far as well, especially with five white girls at the school now, instead of just two. The other day we were all getting off the bus, and one of my students didn't remember any of their names so he just shouted in Creole, "Bye all the Cassie's!!" Close enough buddy, close enough. On Tuesday after school we took the girls to Cayes and stopped at our favourite grocery market to stock up on some food necessities and fix our Internet. They certainly got a good taste of the chaos that is Haiti- on the way back we had to stop for gas, and there was such a long line up that we ended up waiting for almost an hour. On Thursday Kristen and I took them for a walk through the village, and we went to the soccer field to watch some of the guys play. Their field is right by the ocean, and there's a small pool of water right behind the one goalie net. When the ball fell in the water, they would have to take the top pole off the net and fish it out. Some of them were also playing on a rocky field in completely bare feet. I'm sure Haitians are born with three inch callouses on their feet.

All in all, I can't complain because we made it through our first week back, and anytime school starts after a vacation, it's always a little chaotic. The kids have adjusted really well to having three new white teachers at the school. For the most part they remember the girls' names, and are loving the extra attention as well. Kristen and I also gave the girls a Creole lesson the other day to help them get by, which made us feel kind of good, because it made us realize how far we've come with the language in the time that we've been here.

Kristen and I also have a really big decision to make soon, and would really appreciate your prayers. We need to figure out if we're supposed to stay in Haiti for another school year, and we have to know this month, because if we don't stay, Mission Haiti has to find teachers that speak French to fill our places. Ultimately we just want to do what God is calling us to, no matter how hard or daunting it seems. We've learned a lot of incredible lessons since moving here, and we know that the only thing that matters is that our lives glorify God and further His Kingdom- loving the people that He wants us to love and sharing Who He is with those who need to know Him. Life is not supposed to be easy all the time- if it's easy you're getting too comfortable, and if you're getting too comfortable you're missing the adventure that God is calling you to. Adventure doesn't mean sunshine and rainbows, adventure means walking the unknown road and trusting God to provide for what you can't see.

Thanks for all the love and support! Sending love from Haiti!

PS. Yes, Peterson is wearing an O Canada hat.

Parties and Painting.

Hey, hey, hey from our little Caribbean island! Things have been busy, busy, busy around here. Krist and I head home for Christmas vacation in exactly two weeks. When we moved here in the summer we weren't quite sure if we'd still be alive by Christmas, but I think it's safe to say that we'll be back and hating the snow in no time.

Krist and I have definitely been spoiled this year. We got Canadian Thanksgiving and an American Thanksgiving. It was decided that we were going to throw a Thanksgiving party last week at the compound for the workers at our new school and Mission Haiti staff... which turned into around 80 people. Thank goodness we didn't have to cook for that many people by ourselves. We offered to do mashed potatoes, corn, bread and some dessert. Wednesday Krist and I had a huge dessert fiasco. We cook on propane burners that burn things almost instantly if you're not careful. Well, we needed to melt chocolate chips, and nothing happened when we put a bowl on top of a pot of boiling water. We ended up trying to melt them in a pan, and let's just say that our house smelled like burned chocolate for several hours (but at least the dessert turned out to be delicious).

Thursday after school we raced home to start cooking potatoes, and I had arm pain for a couple of days after mashing that many potatoes by hand without a potato masher. In the end we had a magical Thanksgiving feast under twinkling lights with enough food to feed a small army.

Other news from our neck of the woods: we have started doing English class with the kiddos at the orphanage every Sunday afternoon. We do a lesson, some games on our iPads, and a craft or part of a movie. Most of them know at least a little bit of English just from having mission teams come down so often, but we're loving having quality time with all of them on the weekend. We're also realizing how mentally exhausting it is to be translating in our heads all day at school or the compound. Our days are a confusing mix of Creole, French and English. We've been starting to talk what we fondly refer to as "Creolish" (an amusing mix of English and Creole). But we're still faithfully taking Creole classes and prying that the good Lord gives us some extra grace for our language learning ventures.

This past Sunday was the start of a tropical storm that lasted from Sunday at noon and didn't stop until sometime in the middle of the night on Tuesday. That meant RAIN DAY for us on Monday... the only unfortunate part is that we were cooped up inside for two days because everything was wet and flooded and it literally did not stop raining for more than 10 minutes at a time. It got so cold that we were wearing socks, sweatpants, sweaters, and drinking ridiculous amounts of tea. To pass the time we watched a lot of movies, slept, read books, did a thorough reorganization of our tiny house, and baked some dessert snacks with our limited food selection.

Yesterday was probably one of the funnest days we've had at school so far. Krist and I taught our classes about Christmas in Canada and how we get so much snow, and decorate Christmas trees. Then we did an activity where they got to paint Christmas trees by stamping egg cartons onto a triangle. Most of them have never been able to do any type of activity like painting crafts, and they were so excited they could hardly control themselves. It was precious enough seeing them in their little art aprons and I'm sure some of them would have been content to just wear their apron around the class for the rest of the day. It's kind of humbling to realize that something as simple as an art apron can make a child so excited.

One last thought before I finish writing for today. It has been really strange not being surrounded by the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season. It's officially December and the closest we've gotten to the "holiday season" is seeing pictures of Christmas trees on Facebook and listening to some occasional Christmas songs. We miss it. We absolutely love Christmas, and decorating and baking sugar cookies, and wearing ugly Christmas sweaters. But ultimately I think what we're really looking forward to is spending deep, quality time with our family and friends, loving and being loved for two short weeks, and getting our fill of Starbucks.

There's a lot that's going to be happening in the next two weeks before we leave for Christmas: Christmas activities at school, testing and another report card period, and a Christmas party for the students and parents at school. But at least we don't have snow!

Sending lots of warm, holiday cheer from Haiti!

Rest, Routines and Realizations.

After a little vacation and rest away from school, the first week back to school from a vacation is always exhausting. I can say that I missed the kids and I was ready to see them again, but this week was very exhausting and was filled with trying to get back into school routines. Even after a small vacation, it seems like the children forget what routine is, and how to sit with self-control in a classroom. Thankfully by Friday, the kids were finally realizing that they were in school again.

Before we had our little vacation, where we enjoyed some much needed relaxation time in Florida with Paul's family and friends, we finished our English testing with our students. We have now finished report cards and had our parent meeting this past Tuesday where we discussed one on one with the parents about their child's success. Thankfully, we had a translator with us for our parent meetings and we were able to communicate with the parents exactly what we needed and wanted to say about their child and how they were doing in school. Both mine and Cassie's students are doing amazing in English. Better than we thought they would, and we are learning that small victories are glorious victories. Although it is very encouraging that they are learning English and enjoying it, I am being reminded that it is not just about teaching them English, it is about investing in their lives, taking time to ask them how they are doing, taking time to hug them and love them, taking time to smile and be silly with them, and taking time to make sure they know they are special, and so loved by Our Creator.

While we were in Florida, we enjoyed some time shopping for jeans, which doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but to someone who has been living in skirts for the past 4 months, putting on a pair of jeans feels pretty amazing. We enjoyed wearing our hair down without sweating to death and enjoyed being outside without being eaten by mosquitoes. We enjoyed a lot of American food, which included Chic-Fil-A that we tried for the first time, burgers, pizza, ice cream, and lots of salad. We went to a restaurant, and I decided to order a salad since we don't have the liberty of eating salad here, so I was very excited to have a caesar salad. The waitress came and asked how my salad was, just like every polite and good waitress would do, and I responded with a very exuberant, "IT TASTES AMAZING! THANK YOU SO MUCH!" Little did she know how sincere and truly thankful I was for that salad.

On the second last day of our time in Florida, I noticed that I was getting a little bit of a rash on my face and on my chest. I didn't really think anything of it until the day we arrived back in Haiti. My whole body broke out into a huge rash. We had no idea what it was. We were going through our options of chicken pox, measles, or an allergic reaction. With the limited internet that we have here, we tried to look up symptoms of each and tried to matdt it to how I was feeling. We realized how much we took for granted by having doctors and clinics nearby and readily available to us in Canada. In situation like this, there's really not much we can do except trust that God is our ultimate Healer. Both Cass and I were very scared because we didn't know if it was something very serious or something minor. As I was stuck inside my room praying to the good Lord that He would miraculously heal me, my wonderful sister was contacting family and friends back home trying to figure out what was wrong with me, and speaking loads of creole with people around here to try and help me. The next day, it still didn't go away so we got in contact with a Haitian doctor that worked in the United States for a bit. He came over and looked at what was wrong with me and gave me some medication to help my cause. Cass and I both learned a lot of patience, how to trust God with everything we have, and that God will always be our help in times on trouble. Thank you Jesus for doctors, people with willing hearts to help and for medication. We still don't know exactly what it was, but we are assuming it was an allergic reaction to some type of food.

One of my best friends shared this devotion with me and it seems to best explain where my heart is. The devotion is called "Changed Expectations."

Acts 1:1-11; v.6 "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the Kingdom of Israel?"
You've been waiting for God to restore your Kingdom. That's probably not how you understand your deepest longings, but that's what they amount to, in a sense. You have desire for fruitful and satisfying work, deep and lasting relationships, peace and purpose in your heart and fulfillment in your vision and dreams. Much of what you do in life is based on realizing these goals. You know deep down that you were built for fulfillment, and you are waiting for God to fulfill. In other words, you are waiting for Him to restore the kingdom you envision. Jesus' answer to you will probably be as indirect as the one He gave the disciples. "It is not for you to know" (v.7), He will say about whatever specifics fill your heart. What we are to know is that He is at work and we are His coworkers. We are to be about His agenda. The Kingdom is in His hands, and our fulfillment will come in its proper time. Meanwhile, by taking our eyes off our own agendas and fixing them on His, we find that He fulfills us anyways. That's almost always the way of Jesus. That's why He told His disciples to "lose" themselves in order to "find" true life. That's how they can carry their cross of death and still truly live. The paradox is consistent throughout Scripture: those who abandon themselves to God find themselves completely embraced. What Kingdom have you been expecting? Whatever is it, stop striving for it. Live instead for the agenda of Jesus' Kingdom. Be His Witness, live in His Spirit, seek His will on earth as it is in Heaven. In abandoning your own idea of the Kingdom for His, you'll find that His includes everything you deeply desired anyway. That may be a long way down the road or that may be soon. Either way, you'll be satisfied. The real Kingdom will be much more fulfilling than you own. Before we can pray "Thy Kingdom come" we must be willing to pray, "My Kingdom go."

For the next week, I encourage you to wake up every morning and before you even get out of bed, to pray this short prayer;"MY KINGDOM GO." We must be eager to pray these dangerous yet powerful prayers, and expect God to move in our lives. I encourage you to put aside your own agenda, your own things that need to be done, and listen to the plans God has for you in this week. Maybe God's agenda will line up with what you had planned, or maybe unimaginable things will happen.

Thank you to everyone who is supporting us through encouragement and prayer. We cannot thank you enough for how you have uplifted our souls and encouraged us on our journey here. Please continue to pray for us and for the mission as a whole.

Sending lots of love from Haiti!

Gratitude and Canadian Thanksgiving.

Seeing as Canadian Thanksgiving is this weekend, I think a little blurb on gratitude is entirely appropriate. If there's one really big thing that I've learned about gratitude over the past several years, it's this: gratitude is a decision, not an emotion. Thanksgiving is not something that should be the sole result of a particularly amazing day, or even a season of life with few difficulties and struggles. When it comes down to it, thanksgiving is a daily, conscious choice.

"In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." -1 Thessalonians 5:18

This verse makes it uncomfortably difficult to ignore the times when life is hard, when we face temptations, or when the trials seem never-ending... which sometimes make it so hard to feel grateful. In times when I can't bring myself to be thankful for a trial itself, I am learning that there are dozens of things I can be thankful for while I am walking through the trial. Often though, my eyes are so blinded to everything else around me because my focus is so glued to my problems.

Especially in a place like Haiti when life itself can sometimes just be plain difficult, where our focus is can literally be life or death to our spirits. The highs can be really high, and the lows can be really low. Discouragement is probably one of our biggest enemies here, and the one reason why gratitude is so important. I think it's one of the commands in the Bible too, because it forces us to recognize God's faithfulness every single day; there is always, always something that God has put in your day to be thankful for. The amazing thing is that once you make gratitude a habit, it starts to become a lifestyle. A life of gratitude is a life of recognizing God's faithful companionship everyday of your life, even when the "feeling" of God's presence might not be there.

September was so busy with school that we took a break from Creole classes, but we started up again last week. This week, our teacher taught us a Haitian proverb: "Deye mon gen mon." Literally it means: Behind mountains there are mountains." It's supposed to mean that there are always going to be troubles and trials in life; once you solve one, another one will always pop up. Behind one trouble there is always another trouble. It was so fitting to learn this proverb this week because this week wasn't the easiest. Trouble after trouble seemed to pop up- some related to school, some not. Often when I would pray about them throughout the day, my answer would simply be to find- to literally actively search out- the little moment I could be grateful for; to recognize the blessings, however small, that are continuously being poured out on me to help me through each day.

On Friday, Krist and I had a real treat. We had been talking for a while about how Canadian Thanksgiving was coming up and how this would be the very first Thanksgiving with our family we've ever missed. So Bethany, bless her dear heart, concocted a plan to give us a Thanksgiving feast. She our cook Kenold slaved all day while we were at school, making turkey, real mashed potatoes, corn, macaroni casserole, beet salad (which is a Haitian thing), bread, and dessert made with canned apple filling (which is as close to apple pie as we're ever going to get here). They cooked enough food for an army, and we got to share Thanksgiving with all of the youth guys that make up our Haitian family here. What a blessing to have a little taste of our Canadian home here in our new Haitian home.

In other news, life here is moving along as usual. We are starting to form deeper relationships with our students as they come to trust us more and more. On Thursday, we had a parent meeting at the school in the afternoon. We had seen many parents before school started, but it was so neat to be able to associate parents with their kids now that we know them so well. We had many parents tell us that their kids are speaking English at home that they are learning at school, and are even trying to teach their parents some words.

The weather has been brutally hot this week. Last week was super overcast and rainy, and was a lovely little break from the heat. This week has been relentless and scorching and sweaty, and makes us wish for fall all over again. Once winter hits and you all are sitting in 3 feet of snow, I know I'll be grateful for the sun.

On a completely different note, I think our village has become accustomed to our presence. If you come to Haiti and you're White, you're called "blan" (pronounced blah but with a nasal vowel sound). When we first got here, that's all we heard when we left the compound. Now, we can walk to school or to the ministry center, and only hear an occasional "blan" from a little kid. It's a weird thing to be excited about, I know. I don't think we really think about being an extreme minority anymore either. We feel so home here with these people. But the one thing that is sometimes hard is the gender imbalance on the compound. There are really no girls that come to hang out here (which is something I don't really understand so I'm not going to attempt to explain), and so there will be days where there are 15 youth guys here with just Kristen, Bethany and I... it can get a little overwhelming if you know what I mean. Nonetheless, we love them all the same.

To our Canadian friends and family, we love and miss you, and hope you have such a blessed Thanksgiving. We are thankful for you all!

Sending love from Haiti!

Ps. Sometimes we're not sure what to write about, so if you have any burning curiosities, let us know and we'll share what we can. :)

Week One... CHECK!

We survived our first week of Haitian school.... thank the good Lord! It's scary to think about how fast time has gone- that it's been two months since we moved to Haiti. We've put in a lot of sweat and a lot of tears since being here, and it doesn't feel like real life that months and months of planning on our part (and years of planning on Mission Haiti's part) has culminated in the first week of school being finished already.

It's been quite a journey to get to this point, and in all honesty there are times when we question God's timing in relation to being here in Haiti. We have such a huge task ahead of us: teaching at a brand new school with teachers and students who don't speak our language. There are times we doubt God's timing and wonder if we truly are ready for this task ahead of us. But it's in those times of doubting that this line from a book seems to suddenly come to mind: You may not FEEL ready for what is ahead of you, but God KNOWS you are ready because He has placed it in front of you. So we rest in that and try to take one day at a time.

Here's a little snapshot of what school looks like for us here. There are two Haitian teachers that will be teaching preschool. Kristen and a Haitian teacher (who also happens to be the mother at our orphanage) are teaching Junior Kindergarten. Cassie and another Haitian teacher are teaching Senior Kindergarten. Each morning students will be fed breakfast at the school at 7:30. School will officially start at 8:00. We have two hours of class and then the school feeds the students "lunch" as well at 10:00. They get a short recess and then we have about an hour and a half of classes before school officially gets out at 12:30. That may seem early, but all schools in Haiti get out early because they don't have all the fluff and fillers that we're used to. Monday to Wednesday the Haitian teachers teach in French, and we co-teach with them as much as we can. Thursday and Friday, we teach in English (which isn't entirely accurate; it's more like a funny mix of English, French and Creole, and by the time we get home from school we can't speak proper English anymore).

We want to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who covered us with so much prayer during our first week. It honestly worked wonders on our behalf. Our first day went about as well as could be expected. We had a lot of cry-ers and pee-ers and runners, but they all looked stinkin' adorable in their little uniforms. By Friday, the kids could pretty much remember our names, pronounce simple English words like hello, please and thank you, and were starting to figure out the routines of the school.

It's also worth a mention that it is ridiculous how much love these kids pour out on us, considering we only had four days of school last week (Wednesday was a rain day). They latch onto us like we're going to run away at any moment, and smile with so much joy shining out of their little dark eyes that we want to take them all home. It's kind of humbling at the same time. They fill us up with so much love, yet at the same time they are starving for love and attention themselves. I think sometimes we get so caught up in curriculum and planning and pedagogy that we forget that pure Jesus-love can sometimes make the biggest difference of all.

Week one is done, and week two is upon us. It's so true that the beginning of anything is always the hardest, and this year as a whole is probably going to be one of the most challenging of our lives. In spite of that, neither one of us would trade places with any of you. Haiti and its kids are weaving their way into the deep, deep places of our hearts.

Here are just a couple pictures of the school and classrooms.

This is our little school office.

This is our primary hallway with nine classrooms.

Senior Kindergarten class.

Front of a classroom.

Our little cafeteria where the kiddos eat breakfast and lunch.

Toy shelves in each class.

Sending love from Haiti!