Author: Eric & Elisabeth

We have been reading about the life of George Muller with our family the past month. Tonight we read about how George Muller prayed for yet more money to be raised for another house to meet the needs of those in his care. God had already provided so much more than he could ever imagine and yet here he was asking for more. But he had seen God provide over and over and over again and George knew God could do it again. We believe that too and pray that we will continue to learn to have that kind of faith.

Honestly my prayers lately have come from a place of weariness and desperation more than faith, but I know God understands that too. We moved several times in Haiti (um. exhausting.) in the past four months while waiting to move to St. Marc in January. We are still living out of suitcases. None of us really want to unpack because we do not want to have to repack–again. We are living in the house that was previously the elementary school building before the new school building opened in January. It needs a lot of work and we have found that this house isn’t working very well for us and the Haitian family that moved here with us. We thought there were three bathrooms. There are three. One is an outhouse, one does not work, and the other is the one that the 8 of us are sharing and also where all of our laundry is washed daily. This doesn’t work out well too much of the time. Today the girls came and reported (in a humiliated tone) that Evan had resorted to Haitian style peeing on the street outside.

However, we are truly thankful for this house and to experience what it is like to use an outhouse! Landing here has provided an opportunity to get to know our community and live as inexpensively as possible while scoping out other options before the rent needs to be renewed for the year come April. We do not desire to renew the rent. My frustration with utter disorganization, tons of dust, millions of mosquitoes and the many dogs that are very drawn to this house led me to almost immediately start searching for an alternative. Nothing seemed right. I sensed God saying, “think about where you are, who you are, what I have called you to do, and what is best considering all these”.
Continue reading “Haiti Hospitality House”

A walk around our block is always a walk to remember. Sometimes I just want to forget that we live here. Sometimes I just want to do something about it…faster than it can be done. Other times I just want to walk and watch, learn and listen but most of all love however we can along the way. This was one of those walks.

We set out. The street dog that won’t leave our house because we loved it a little tags along too. The biggest pig I’ve ever seen stands in our path. A mommy goat and her two babies shuffle along beside us. We attempt to cross a patch of road covered by trash and sewer water almost stepping on a mother hen and her chicks pecking along in front of us. A baby cries loudly in the house across the way. I try not to think about why she might be crying. We hear a mother down the street tell her child to go ask the white people for some food. The child obeys and tells us he is hungry. We tell the child to go tell his mother. He looks at us confused. Then we tell him to tell the mother to come talk to us herself. The mother hears us speaking Creole and realizes we heard her before. A few kids who have been watching us curiously for the past few weeks point at us calling us the “blan hatian”. I first take this as a complement that the word “hatian” followed the usual “blan” but then wonder if the kids have labeled us real “white haitians”–as in the lighter skinned Haitians that are not foreigners like us– or if we were being labeled as bourgeoisie. Wait. Never mind.
Continue reading “A walk around our block”

Last night I went to bed pondering answered prayers. Sometimes answered prayers seem monumental and other times they are tiny nudges reminding us that God truly cares about the little details of our daily lives. While thanking God for both the big and small petitions He has answered the past year, I prayed that we will never cease to remember all He has done for us. God has stretched us and grown our faith in ways I never could have imagined. Walking by faith and not by sight is a privilege of freedom. We are often asked if we actually like living in Haiti. We and our children always answer “yes”. Then follows “why?” That is really hard to explain because our “yes” has come with experience. We experience a lot of ugly in Haiti but it comes alongside a beautiful freedom. We wish everyone could experience this freedom. But freedom always comes with a price tag. Freedom comes either after experiencing significant loss or at the expense of someone paying the price of your freedom. There are many people and things that in my heart I have felt we have lost or have been forced to let go in the past year. We gave up many things we used to feel were important when we moved to Haiti. We sacrificed many freedoms in order to give freedom to our adopted girls. We sacrificed jobs, money, friends, houses, cars, and almost everything that used to make daily life easier…not just when we moved to Haiti but as God stretched us continually after we got here. Many days I wake up and wonder how we got here. I don’t want to forget. I want my children to remember how we got here. I want my children to tell these stories to their children someday. We never want to forget that Jesus paid the ultimate price for our freedom. There is nothing we will experience in this life that compares to His sacrifice for us.
Continue reading “Memorial Stones”

Eric and Evan rode up front.
I should have sooner than I did.
This was the first time I have ever felt very car sick in Haiti.
I didn’t know if I was going to make it.
But we did!
I thought more than once, “If I never have to do this again it will be too soon”!
Then we got to the house.
And I thought…”Surely I will have to do this again.”

Never again will I let my husband pick out a house!
He sort of didn’t mention that THERE IS NO KITCHEN!

Continue reading “Kwizin and Counting”