Author: Eric & Elisabeth

Written by Elisabeth

This time last year we were in the trenches of dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew on many of our friends, neighbors, ministry partners and program participants whom were deeply affected. Prior to the hurricane we had prayed about possibly relocating now that Eric was no longer working at the school in Saint Marc and our children had started the new school year primarily as homeschoolers. We have always liked the noble idea of homeschooling and have attempted a few rounds of it out of necessity in the past. But truthfully, the reality of homeschooling terrifies all of us even under best case scenarios. Even those who are well suited for this brave endeavor find homeschooling in Haiti a daunting task.  We had concerns about how homeschooling would be accomplished with the many unavoidable dilemmas demanding our attention throughout each day and distractions in and around our home. However, we had prayed about whether we should stay and try to make it work and believed that was the right thing to do at that time. Trusting God’s timing is easier said than done. Looking back now, we are in awe of what He had in store, the doors opened and the journey still ahead of us.

Continue reading “Reasons for Relocating: Family and Focus”

 

Several titles for this news have been forming in my head over the past two months. Perhaps it should have been, “A Kay for Kanna” which would have been a funny-ish post about my goat called Kanna needing a bigger space and us needing a smaller space. I seem to like to shift attention to my pet goat distraction whenever life gets tough and I don’t want to talk about the other more serious things. Serious things abound. So on that note I thought about the title, “Moving Mountains” which would be about the mountain we are moving to and how God has definitely moved mountains to take us there. So now you might have guessed that we are moving. I guess I’m not really good at suspense. But “Moving ____ (insert anything)” doesn’t seem to fit what I want to say either. Maybe because I am so very sick of moving already. Because while we are all very at peace with this move happening, moving isn’t ever peaceful. Is it? I have moved lots and lots of times and no, I don’t believe it is ever a process of peace. Because even if all goes wonderfully well and super smooth (throw a little Haiti in that equation and you pretty much have the opposite of that), there is still the missing. We are very much looking forward to the other side of moving. Lord willing that will be accomplished in the next week. Yet the pros and cons of this decision seem to have vanished in these jam packed days. I still remember the very clear reasons we are moving. I was clearly aware that there would be a lot of missing. Continue reading “Missing Macdonald”

A few weeks ago I was sitting in the backseat of a rental car with my mom in the Arab quarter of Jerusalem. My father needed to mail a parcel and we sat waiting for him outside the post office watching a wealth of diversity pass by. During my time in Israel I was constantly in awe of this diversity; so many people from so many backgrounds and belief systems residing in such a small place. Everyone seemed so very different, and yet much the same. That morning we had breakfast with a Jewish mother and daughter and watched their interactions. Now we sat in the silence of our rental car watching a Muslim mother communicate with her well covered daughter. We observed the obvious differences in dress, mannerisms, languages, etc. and I quietly thought about the different struggles each passerby must face. As I was pondering these things my mother began a story as she so often does.

“Do you remember when we were here in the 90’s and visited our friend who was working as an undercover journalist living in the Old City? When later asked to share her observations of the many struggles Muslim women face she was expected to give a long list of grievances on that subject. But she only said this. ‘All women share the same struggles. In every country our struggles are the same.’

Continue reading “Same Kind of Different–Our Common Struggle”