Archive for September, 2010

Tyler and I, would like to introduce to you our very first grandchild, Nathalee Grace, who made her appearance at 2:59 on Sunday September 26, weighing in at 8.68 pounds.

She was welcomed by her parents Nathan and Annsie, her Auntie Magnalie and her grand”mother” Kathy.  Shortly after birth, she was lovingly greeted by her own special prayer team which consisted of Great Auntie Debbie, Great Auntie Wendy, and Grand”father” Tyler, who waited in the waiting room and prayed for Annsie and Nathalee throughout a very long labor.

To say we are proud, happy, thrilled, elated would merely be an understatement.  Here are some pictures of our little princess.

http://livesayhaiti.blogspot.com/

Scroll down to Clinging.

If you haven’t checked out the Livesay’s Blog you have missed out on something really special.  Today, Tara posted about safety and she put up a video.  Watch the video as it is quite enlightening.

Add the Livesay’s blog to your toolbar or favorites so you can check on it often.  Tyler and I read it every day.  It’s definitely worth the effort.

This is just a small portion of the shoes donated.  Here they are drying after a vigorous machine washing. 

Thank you Creation Church of Thompson, Ct for your generous outpouring of clothing for Homebound Missions and the people of Haiti. 

 It has taken 2 days to process the huge amount of clothing that was donated and I am happy to report I am finished. 

There were so many beautiful items.  Darlene Hurst, our sewing coordinator will be thrilled when she see the bin full of items for her to transform.  Items like t-shirts, shirts and shorts that are too short get a remake into dresses and skirts.  They are truly awesome when she and her group of sewing friends get finished with them.

Again, thank you Creation Church for your love and encouragement.

Thank you, Jay Baptist Church, Jay Maine for creating the lovely baby bundles that I was able to deliver to Beth at Heartline.  They will be given to the new moms who give birth at the birthcenter.

The baby bundles consist of an assortment of diapers, pins, T-shirts, and receiving blankets and they were just adorable.  Beth says, “Thank you, the mom’s will love them.”

People often mistake missions as being something that missionaries do; something that requires ministerial skill and or a calling, but missions is really just taking what you have and using it to serve others.

That is how we came about our, Day of Beauty.  While we were preparing to go to Haiti, Magnalie came to me wanting  to serve or give to the people in Haiti.  She had a vague idea of what she might do and then I offered this, “Let’s take what you have and use that to serve.”  What does Magnalie have?  Well, she has hairdressing skills and can also do manicures and pedicures.   I then suggested, “How about if we do a day of beauty for the ladies who are going to the Women’s Program at Heartline?”  We had our idea and presented it to Beth who runs the Women’s Program.  She loved it, so we set off to get all the things we would need for our day of beauty.

We purchased shampoo, condition, hair emollients, nail polish, soaking salts, nail clippers and more.  We had everything we needed to love on these ladies and make them feel like they were truly daughters of the Most High.

Magnalie, along with the help of her sisters Rebecca and Alexandria did the shampoo and conditioning treatments.  They also did the beautiful braiding.  Debbie in an instant became the manicurist, soaking the ladies fingertips, moisturizing their hands and applying polish.  I washed the ladies feet and gave them a trim and polish.

Here is the thing; we just had a great time as you will see by the photos below.   They are compliments of Beth, who graciously took them for us.  When your busy working, you miss a lot of details and looking at the photos was such a joy for us.  We are so thankful that we have them to remember our day.

On this trip to Haiti we stayed at the Heartline Guest House.  When we first made the decision to stay there our thoughts were that we would be encouraging and supporting Heartline.  This was not to be the case.  As soon as John learned we had booked our stay he had all our moneys refunded to us and insisted that Debbie and I stay compliments of them.  It was a WOW moment for me.

We were not only blessed by the fact that we didn’t have to pay, but in my opinion we stayed at a place that rated better than a five star hotel.  Debbie and I referred to it as our home the entire week, as this is what it felt like to us.

The moment we arrived you couldn’t help but notice the sparkle and clean.  The guest house was nicely decorated with lots of fans in each room.  We were greeted by Chris and Bev, who graciously poured ice water for us.  We were dehydrated by the excessive heat at the airport.

Each morning we awakened to breakfast set out at the table; each evening we arrived home in time for dinner at 6:00pm.  The meals were fabulous.  My sister teased me the entire trip that I have people and when I got home everyone was going to have to remind me, I no longer have people, but honestly the only people I was grieving was Bev and her delicious cooking.  The meals were enjoyable every evening.

The beds were comfortable.  The bathrooms were spacious and clean.  Each room had at least 2 fans and we did not miss the air conditioning of the hotel at all.

Chris and Bev truly did make our stay over the top.  What great host and hostess they are.  They are fun and interesting to talk to, they will even indulge you (a later story), and they feel like friends you have had your entire life.

Thank you Heartline Ministries; thank you Chris and Bev, your gracious hospitality will not be forgotten.

Photo:  Junior, Jean DeNeu, Rebecca, Magnalie, and Mimose at Mimose’s home.

In our recent newsletter, I mentioned that Mimose was told by her landlord she needs to move.  I asked you to pray because we surely needed God’s intervention here.

Magnalie just received a call from her mom who told her that she went out looking for a place and couldn’t find one.  When she told her landlord, the landlord told her she could stay.  God is good all the time.  This is truly a miracle.  Tent cities are not set up everywhere because there are housing options.  Thank you Lord!

By Haitian standards Hyppolite has a very nice home.  It consists of a main house, a wood and tin roofed extra space, and a laundry, personal facilities section.  The view from his home is spectacular; the ocean, the port in PAP, and blues skies.  The only down side would be the hike to get to it; up the mountainside on steep narrow path which sometimes go straight up and other times turn abruptly.

I do not know if they have running water.  I saw many people coming up the hill with large buckets of water on their heads; children and older people.

Here are some pictures of Hyppolite’s home.  I wanted to share them because they speak so much about the kind of man Hyppolite is.  When he finished the repairs to his home, he made sure that it was freshly painted.  This is the way he takes care of his family.

Tyler and I have known Hyppolite for many years.  He has a wife, Rebecca and three children; Danika (a girl 7 years old), Joveny (a girl 11 years old), and Berlin ( a young man 14 years old).  They live in the Bizoton area of Carrefour, PAP, Haiti.

Hyppolite is a very hard worker.  We have known this about him since the very beginning.  When you watch Hyppolite you notice he is different; he cares about his work, is diligent, and dependable.  To earn a living for his family he sells trinkets to tourists.  This is a very hard way to make a living as tourist are few and often not interested.

On this trip to Haiti, we took a large supply of jewelry that was made in Haiti, through our WORK Haiti program that is no longer in existance.  This is to give him more inventory.  We also talked with him about supporting his family through vending.  Hyppolite tells us that he has no skills and the vending is all he knows.  He hopes to set his wife up so she can also sell.  However, when we visited their home I saw how hard she works there and I do not know how she would do both.

Hyppolite owns his own home.  This is a major accomplishment in Haiti.  His three children are in school.  Homebound Missions sent the girls to school and recently Coastal Haiti Mission has sent us the funds to send his son to school.  After the earthquake his house needed some repairs which HM’s gladly sent the funds for.  We visited his house to see that the house is in good repair.

Hyppolite for the most part needs very little support.  Typically he asks for help with school tuition, but is very thankful and hates to ask for anything else.  Please pray for Hyppolite that his business will improve so that he can better provide for his family.

If you are looking for entertainment for your children that instills Christian character and values, then you will want to know about www.lifeatthepond.com There you can listen to the radio show, watch video clips, play games, or visit their store.

You might even want to purchase their latest episode, 19,000 Frogs and Counting.  If this sounds familiar then maybe you have seen the Duggar family on TLC.   In this episode, everyone in the Duggar family played a part.  The story line is that Jackson takes Tony the frog home…well I can’t tell you more than that or I would give it away.

Check out life at the pond.