Birthdays and the Blahs

Things have been quiet since Tuesday. Thank you for your prayers for our family and the mission and our workers. We have all felt it. We are seeing God working, but I’ll be honest and share that Wednesday was a hard day. I just felt really discouraged and wiped out. Turns out I was getting sick. Some sort of cold. I think it’s the tiredness from not sleeping well (it’s a full moon right now and it shines right in the window by my side of the bed and wakes me up every night) and having my system get run down from that. I’m going to be trying to get a lot of rest this weekend because I have lots of fun stuff to do next week! Please pray for good health for all of us. We are tired and those seem to be the times where we end up getting sick. We want to enjoy the holidays with family here.

Wednesday was Chris’ birthday, the big 3-5. We had several friends over for dinner and enjoyed a nice evening with them. It was a nice reprieve from the last few days. Kind of felt normal again. We had a delicious dinner and an even yummier dessert that Chris picked out – cheesecake pumpkin pie. Yes, you read that right. I had a magazine here from a friend that had a picture of it on the cover. He saw it and said, “Can I have THAT for my birthday?” :) It was delicious. Pie crust, layer of cheesecake, layer of chopped chocolate, then pumpkin pie, all baked together, then topped with more chopped chocolate. If you want the recipe let me know.

It was great to have wonderful people here to celebrate Chris’ day with. Adele shared a verse with Chris at breakfast that was so very fitting for him right now. I love this man so much and see that he is becoming my best friend more and more each day. I love his character and his desire to stand for what is right. I see how God is growing and changing him. I feel so blessed to be his wife, and even in the hard times, can see that God definitely knew what he was doing when he brought us both to Haiti for the first time in 2003. Only God knew then what we know now – that two people who can be very stubborn and independent needed each other and that they would perfectly compliment each other. Those are fun things to learn :)

I was really excited for Christmas and then got a bit waylayed with that last week. BUT, it’s time to get back in the game and look forward to GOOD things again. Earlier this week Adele wanted to do some baking, so she made us some cookies and made some vanilla wafer dough for me so I could bake them up this weekend. Need those for something else :)

Last year I made our family an Advent calendar. It’s up on the wall and each pocket has a candy for Chris and I to take out each day. We don’t give Liv much sugar so I wanted to do something that she could enjoy too, and that would grow with our family as the years go by. I made 25 flour & salt dough ornaments the other day, baked them, painted them, varnished them and tied a ribbon to each one. Each one has a number, a count down until Christmas.

Each morning Olivia gets to pull the ornament out of the calendar (with a little parental help of course) and then we go to her room where we hang it on her “Advent tree” (the top of the tree my mom brought last year). The first morning she got mad when she had to leave it on the tree. The second day she got excited when it was time to do it and as Chris and I stood there with her and hung it she pointed to the tree and said, “What’s it for?” Not only were we baffled that she had asked the question, but it made it really special for us as a family because we were able to tell her we were counting down to Christmas, when we celebrate Jesus birth. I realized that kids are never too young to start hearing about big person concepts. In the future I’m going to write a verse on the back of the ornaments so that we can do a bit of a family devotional every day leading up to Christmas.

One thing that got done Wednesday was that Doug and I built a new table top. We love our kitchen/dining table and chairs, but since we’ve moved up to the apartment our seating has been limited. Before, we would just move the table on the deck and bump it together with the deck table. Our kitchen is a good size, so after some thought I realized the easiest way to remedy the situation was to make a removable top.

We had a piece of press board plywood left over from fixing the shop roof after the generator fire last year that Chris was wondering what to do with, so we used that. I cut it down to 4×6 feet, cut some strips of 3/4″ plywood (same thickness as the table) and then Doug and I brought it upstairs and set it on the table. Doug centered it, then we started screwing the plywood strips/blocks around the table – 2 on each side, one on each end. The result is a snug fitting, much bigger table top that we can pop on or off when needed.

Our seating capacity went from 4 to 8-10 in about an hour. Super easy! Sometime in the future it’ll get a few coats of varnish so it’s more wipeable. The great thing is that when we don’t need to use the top we can lean it up against the wall in the storage room. It’s nice to know we can have friends over, or groups visit and that we won’t need to be eating on our laps anymore :) I love it when a simple, creative idea works out. It’s so satisfying.

Answers to questions and more things Haiti

I realized that I haven’t answered my Mother in Law’s question about what happened last Friday. I thought I would do that here because others might have the same questions.

Thank you so much for the full update. Just to clarify though, today’s decision was to delay the actual trial of the defendant? And before his trial, the others will be arrested and questioned? And only then will there be a trial? And meantime the defendant will be kept in jail?
Continuing to pray for all of you and your staff,
Gramma Rolling

Yes, the decision on Friday was to delay the actual trial of the defendant, Asne.

Yes, before his trial the others need to be arrested and investigated.

Yes, only after all of that is done with there be a trial.

Yes, he will stay in prison until then. At least he’s supposed to.

That’s the short of it :) If you have any more questions, please fire away.

Today while I was up doing Medika Manba Chris called me and said, “Don’t come home! There’s a manifestation!” I wasn’t ready to come home, but I appreciated that he called.

A manifestation is a protest, but in Haiti they often end up getting violent. The manifestation was to protest Asne still being in prison. The road was blocked and it’s just not a good idea to be around during a manifestation. We were stressed. Chris called the UN RCMP (Canadian police) officer that we have as a contact and found out that he was already there. After it was all over Chris found out that it was actually a peaceful, if not loud, protest. They had arranged for the police to come and for UN police to be there to keep things under control.

I fully believe that people have the right to free speech, and that they should be able to protest, if it’s peaceful. I was happy to hear that this was the case today. Yes, it was against us, but it gave people a chance to voice their thoughts and frustrations. That’s a good thing. I appreciate that they planned it out and chose to do it in a peaceful way. To our knowledge this has never happened in our community. The fact that they chose to do it that way is something that we consider to be a step forward.

**Late edit: Okay, so after talking to some credible sources apparently the manifestation wasn’t peaceful. There were people throwing rocks etc. The police came to break it up and unblock the road along with the UN. They came really fast. The most interesting part is that Asne’s family paid for people to come from St. Marc to start the manifestation.

Please keep praying. Pray for our community, that God would open eyes, ears and hearts to hear the truth. Pray for those that are responsible, that God would move in them and that through this they might find Him. Pray that we will be able to stand strong. I think we are feeling more hopeful and more at peace. We know that God is on the throne and that he IS doing something, many things.

~Leslie

And the beat goes on…

Yesterday evening two SUV’s pulled up to the driveway and a bunch of people got out. It was a community delegation that had come to talk. I was upstairs trying to get dinner started so Chris went and sat down with the dozen or so people that were here. They wanted Doug present too, probably because they thought he would like what they had to say.

Chris wanted to receive them well and to try to give them a fair chance. After I brought some water down and sat in we both realized that what they were saying they were there for – to talk and find a solution to the situation with Asne being in prison – and what they were really there for were two entirely different things.

I want to preface the rest of this by saying that situations like this are hard for us. We want to respect people and to hear them, to listen and try to work with them. After the introductions were done and they launched into things it became clear that they were really there to try and pressure Chris into letting Asne out of prison, to make him feel like he should drop things. Chris asked them, “Do you believe that someone who is suffering because of actions like this should find justice?” One person, one out of over a dozen, said yes. One out of a dozen or more? That made me sad. It made me sad because people in our area have gotten so used to living without justice that they don’t even consider it an option. What was more important to these people is that their friend was released from prison. Not that anyone should be held accountable for a crime if they’ve committed it. Not that they don’t want this kind of thing to continue in their community. There was talk to of there being two victims here – us because we’ve had this offense done against us and him because he’s spent 90 days in prison. Chris reminded them that there is a justice system and that there is a course of action that needs to be followed. If they are unhappy that their friend is in prison, that is not our fault, it is the fault of those who are not pushing the arrests of the others so the investigation can continue, and so the case can go to trial.

At one point one of the main speakers told us that they were here to help us too, not just to help Asne. Chris asked them where they’ve been for the last 8+ months. Where were they the day after the fire when we needed to have the community rally around us? I eventually got tired of hearing the same thing over and over and finally just said, “I bet you Asne hasn’t told you all of the things we did for his family!” and started listing off all of the things that we have done in the past. I told them that the last time we had a problem with him, over a speed bump that he put in the driveway that we couldn’t even get over, that we invited him and his wife over to talk it out so we could try to find a solution and be on good terms with him. That was when he told Chris he needed to watch his back because someone could come and “deserke” us – basically attack our home and family. It was pretty quiet for a second there. I also told everyone that we know that people talk badly about Chris and I and the mission in the community, and I asked them how many of those people actually know us face to face. The truth is that it’s not very many. I asked them why it is that when I walk down the road no one greets me unless I greet them first, and why that was. Nothing.

We have been praying that God would use this entire situation to change the whole community, not just change things for us or our workers. We know that will only happen one person at a time, and that it will happen as people hear the truth. We eventually asked the group to leave because we knew they were just there to try and pressure us. We got some attitude from several of them, but we appreciated the one woman who said, “He said we need to go, so we need to go. ” It was the same woman that said yes, she believed that people who have suffered should have justice.

The whole situation was a bit overwhelming and we camped on it for a long time last night. It was good to have Doug and Adele here to talk through things with, and for one of our board members to see what Chris and I get to deal with on a regular basis, what our life is like here. One of our neighbors was also here to visit just before the group arrived, so he stayed to listen in on things. When Chris talked to him after wards he said that he agreed with everything we said. He’s Haitian and runs a mission down the road from us and has had similar problems from the community. Part of the reason that we’re following through on this is because of the problems he’s had before. People have attacked his mission at gun point and run the foreigners out of town.

I know this sounds like a bit of a rant. Call it more of a venting explanation. After we came up last night Adele said that one thing she’s realized is that they don’t pray often enough for us. Life here is hard and sometimes it’s hard to share what it is that makes it so hard.

I keep waking up early in the morning because my mind gets going and I can’t sleep. I find I’m going through conversations in my head, things I would like to say to people. Things that might make them think. One thing I want to ask/say to people is, “Haitians say that foreigners need to come and help their country, but when we get here we get harassed, we get robbed, we get threatened, our homes and vehicles get destroyed and we get told to go back to our own country. Why? Why do you say one thing, then do the opposite. What do you really want?” I know that not all Haitians are like this, but there are many in our area who are. There are many people here who speak poorly of the mission or of us, but they have never actually had a conversation with us, they don’t know us.

Please know that I’m not writing this to speak poorly of Haiti, just to share some of our reality. The Bible says that we are to pray for those who persecute us, for those that want to do harm. We are praying for Asne and the others implicated in this. As we sat in court the other day I looked at him and felt so sad, and prayed that God would change his heart. We are praying for our community, that people would realize that they don’t need to live in fear of their neighbors, that they can live differently. We are praying that God will take everything that is intended for evil, and turn it on it’s head and use it for good. That he will change this entire community so that people can live in peace.

We know that a big part of seeing that change happen is being willing to talk, and to share the things that God is putting on our hearts. After our meeting last night Chris said that he believed God was speaking through him because the things he was saying were not things he would normally say. They were things that needed to be said, that people needed to hear. We are seeing that crowds of people in a court room may be intimidating, or having people show up at our gate can be intimidating, but that those are also opportunities for the truth to be heard. The truth will be known one person at a time. We are hoping for many more opportunities to talk with people so that they can know our side, so that they can understand why we are continuing on, because right now most of them don’t know why. They only hear one side telling them that we are bad, that we are here to take advantage etc.

I had a good conversation with one of our workers on Thursday after work. We were talking about everything that was going on. I told her that I know that people don’t like us, but that most of them probably don’t really know why. That they are making their judgements on lies. We talked about why people are upset. Things like we can’t give jobs to everyone is one of those issues. But, to expect that is unrealistic. I asked her why she thought there wasn’t more work coming into Haiti. We agreed that instability is probably the biggest part of that. I told her that I knew that the government wasn’t good, and that customs needed to be cleaned up, but that there are people trying to work on that. But, on a community level there is still too much instability around the country. People won’t invest in the country and bring work in if they know that the locals will steal from them, destroy their buildings and equipment and threaten those in charge. So if there is instability on a community level, who’s responsibility is that to fix it? Is it mine, as a foreigner? No. I can’t do it. I told her that it’s the responsibility of every single person in each community in Haiti to make a choice. They need to choose to live in peace with their neighbors, they need to choose things that are good for the whole community. I told her that many people look at developed countries and say that Haiti needs to be like that, or complain that Haiti is not like that. What gets forgotten though is that those countries weren’t always that way. It took many people working together, choosing what was good for everyone to get there. And, many times it took a few to stand up courageously for what they knew was right, even when everyone else was against them. If there is to be true change in Haiti it needs to happen on the community level. People need to stand up for what they know is right, they need to let those that are only out for their own interests and out to do harm know that those things are no longer wanted or accepted. I can’t do that for people here. We can try and help by setting an example for people.

These are the conversations that are so important, we’re realizing. We are so grateful for the opportunities that we are getting to have them. We know they are God moments, and we know that they are providing people with things to think about. Maybe those will be things that lead to big change. We don’t know. We just know that our role in all of this is to keep moving forward one day, one step at a time, as God leads us.

We talked for a long time last night about the things we see God doing through this. This has been one of the hardest situations that either of us has had to deal with, yet through it we see how God is using it. He is changing Chris and I as people. We’re developing more character. Our convictions are deepening. We’re seeing more of his calling in our lives. He’s deepening our marriage. That one’s a tough one because this whole thing has definitely worn on us, but we’ve made a choice to move through it and we are stronger. Chris is my best friend. I respect him so much for the way he has chosen to stand up for what he knows is right, even when it feels like the whole world is against us. He thanked me for being so supportive through a situation where most wives would probably want to leave. We are seeing our relationships with our workers change. We are seeing that dynamic change too – they are more unified as a group. People are being called to pray for us in a way that they haven’t been before. And, in a time when we could be completely distracted by all of this, we have seen the mission be more effective than ever. In the next week we will be installing almost 140 filters. We are getting stronger, and we are reaching farther than we ever have before. Having Doug here has given us a chance to hash through some mission stuff and we’re excited because we see that God is growing the mission, that we are moving into a new season. Those changes don’t ever come without growing pains though. We know we need to slug through until God says stop. So far he hasn’t said that so we move forward. Our God is a very big God. So big that a whisper from him can move a mountain or part a sea. We know that he is moving and we’re hopeful and excited to see where we’re going, how he’s going to change this community and what it’ll mean in the future.

Phew. That was a brain spew. Thanks for reading and following life with us. In the last week we’ve felt more closely connected to you through what we’ve been able to share and through knowing that you were fighting with us through prayer. We are here not to destroy, but to be part of renewing and rebuilding. Thanks for your support in that.

~Leslie

Updates on everything

Okay, first things first. Doug and Adele arrived safely. I said I would post so their kids knew they were here. They had a good trip, got here just fine. I’ll have them email you tomorrow morning. They’re tired and turned in early.

Now, court.

Wow. There are a ton of things rolling around in our heads and hearts right now. The short version is that there are some very upset people in Pierre Payen tonight. But, we’re not them.

Before I get into the good parts we want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who was praying for us. We know many of you have been over the last week, and more so last night and today. I also know that many of you were praying right as we were waiting in the court house this morning. I say that because there was a very distinct moment where my stomach stopped flipping and my heart stopped thudding and I felt an overwhelming peace wash over me. I know it was because you were praying at that moment. Court was running late and when we should have been going in we were still waiting and that’s when I felt it. Chris said that he knew people were praying because he slept well last night and wasn’t stressed. Thank you so much for lifting all of us up this way. Thank you.

Now, onto the court proceedings.

First off, our lawyer was amazing. He told us he was confident going in, but he ROCKED the court room. He put up with nothing. He was aiming to go in there to argue against having the trial today and to have it pushed back. We were thinking “we didn’t have enough notice” etc. But no. He went down into every inch of how everything was improperly handled. Every. Single. Thing. And he wasn’t just yelling loud and blowing smoke so that it sounded like he was knowing what he was talking about. He knows his stuff in and out, and he knows it well. We are so very thankful for him and that he is taking this seriously.

The judge ruled in our favor, after much argument between sides. There were documents that weren’t handled properly, and most of all there was a definite course of action that should have been taken, but it wasn’t. Mainly, that there are a few other people that we have arrest mandates for, that were supposed to be arrested and questioned and investigated before anyone went to trial. That wasn’t done.

There were reps from the UN anti-corruption unit in St. Marc present to watch over the session which we were thankful for. It’s always good to have people around that remind those in positions of responsibility what their jobs are.

Now, all seriousness aside there were some highlight or surreal moments of the day.

• One of our all time faves was when one of the defense lawyers was arguing that the first judge that had seen the case should be removed from his position because the case had been handled improperly (not his fault, but rather the investigative judge). The defense attorney was very animated. And I think probably a little upset. It might have had something to do with the fact that our lawyer was laughing out loud. The judge that he was saying should be dismissed was laughing out loud. And the main judge was looking at the ceiling the entire time trying to stifle laughter. Chris and I were biting our lips because the whole moment was so surreal and funny.
• After our lawyers initial push to have the trial moved the defense was able to give a rebuttal. The last thing he said was, “And then he goes and hires a lawyer from Port au Prince. He’s not even from St. Marc” and the whole court room broke out in a huge cheer and applause. Normally this kind of thing would be used to pressure the judge, but the judge looked at the court room, pointed his finger at them and said, “That’s the last time. If it happens again everyone is out.” That was also when more police officers moved around the room. For a good part of the proceedings after that I had the butt of a PNH officer bumping the back of my chair and all I could think when it would happen was, “Huh, there’s a police officer bumping me with his butt and his shotgun is only about 12 inches away from my head area. That’s a bit surreal.”
• After the outbreak our lawyer had a chance to talk again and at one point he pointed at the accused, looked at the rest of the courtroom and said, “He’s a delinquent and I don’t know why you would want to support someone who is stopping the progress of Pierre Payen!” The court room was quiet. Our lawyer was that good. We like him.
• Our lawyer is a former senator. I rode in with him and I just kept thinking, “Our life is SO weird. I mean, I’m riding with our lawyer, and he’s a former senator.” There are definite moments where I look at our life here and think about how so very far away it is from anything that our life would be like back in Canada. It’s so strange when I have those stand back moments and realize that aside from being interesting, it’s just plain old strange. I mean, I grew up in Armstrong. We’re known for making cheese. And that’s about it. I am ordinary. And I’m living this oh-so-not-ordinary life.
• One of the other comical moments was when Chris got a phone call from our old lawyer 20 minutes before we were supposed to be in court and he said to Chris, “The dossier is in a big mess.” Chris said, “Yeah, I’ve known all week. You’re not my lawyer anymore.” THEN, we got to the court house and were waiting in a lobby where they ended up trying a civil case because of overflow, and guess who shows up??? Yep. Our lawyer wanders in and sees us and smiles and waves. We just looked at him. Turns out he was there to try the civil case. I wonder how he was planning on being in two places at once? Oh, wait. That wasn’t his plan at all.
• After everything was done people started to leave. The police vehicle was out front and they had the accused in it. There was a big crowd around and lots of yelling and wailing. I forgot to mention that there were a couple hundred people that showed up for him. We had about 20, but it was a good 20. Anyway. There were a TON of people in the streets and very quickly things got animated and people started to manifest. The police started to come out and do “crowd control” which was crazy. Another very surreal moment. We thought that everyone on the street was upset about our case, but later found out that most of the people there were upset about another one that had just finished. They were the ones that were manifesting. It was just so crazy to watch.
• One of the things that just really resonated with me today was the irony of the whole situation. The accused’s family spent a lot of money to get papers pushed etc, and in the end that was what it came down to today. Due diligence wasn’t followed, and that’s why he’s still in prison tonight. I know that they will never look at themselves as having had a part in that, that it will still be our “fault”, but we know. And God knows. And he is ultimately in control.
• A poster on the courtroom wall, all big and green with white lettering said (in French), “The Bible says that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the world.” I thought it was really cool that it was plastered up there on the wall to remind me that it is so very true and that God is still on the throne and that he is the perfect judge and jury. He knows everything about this case and was in it and around it the whole time, and will continue to be.

Well, I’m starting to come down and I think it’s time to go crawl in bed with my new jammies that my mom sent. I LOVE new pajamas.

Thanks again for the prayers. And thanks for walking with us through this so very crazy journey that we call our lives. We love you for it!

~Leslie

PS – I forgot to tell you that the staff members that were going to take legal action didn’t have to because their stuff was tied up in our stuff and it got dealt with.

Court

We will be going to court tomorrow – Friday – at 10 am eastern time. We would love it if you would pause for a moment tomorrow morning and pray for us and our workers.

Please pray that justice will be done in this situation. Pray that the truth will be seen.

We believe that God is in this and that he is in control. We have no idea what his plan is in this situation, but we believe that he is good, that he wants what is good and right.

Facing the Beast

There are times where Haiti makes me feel really sad. I had one of those yesterday.

We are in the midst of dealing with some big stuff surrounding our case. Yesterday I had a chance to talk to a friend of ours who has been a big support here. At one point he said, “I am sorry my country is doing this to you.“

I am sorry my country is doing this to you.

As a Canadian I have always had a deep sense of pride for my country. I like being Canadian. I like it when I travel and people get excited that I’m Canadian. I know every country has it’s problems, and Canada definitely has its, but I love my country. And I have never felt like I needed or wanted to apologize to a visitor for my country. As I talked with our friend I was hit with a sadness, not only for him but for so many people here in Haiti who are stuck in the midst of so much “stuff”. Stuff that they can’t control. Stuff that they can’t get away from. Stuff that leaves them feeling helpless and hopeless. Stuff that is so much bigger than they are.

The other day another friend of ours said, “Peyi mwen pa bon.” My country is not good. And with it came a deep sense of sadness and that same helplessness. That sense of being stuck, of having no control, and no one that is really on your side. The government systems are not there to help the people but rather to see how much money can be made. Justice is just a word for many. Yes, there are those that are trying to change that, but they have a heavy burden to carry and a lot of work to do.

Would you pray for Haiti? Yesterday I felt led to get on my knees and pour a bunch of stuff at Gods feet. I know they are things he already knows, but the process of coming before him, and asking for his wisdom and guidance was so good. My heart is breaking for this place, for our staff, for the people here who have no hope. I am praying that God will turn Haiti on it’s head. He has parted seas and he has turned water into wine. He can change a country, he can change hearts. He wants to do something big for Haiti, for this community, for each and every person that lives here. He can remove that sadness and give people hope. He can wipe out corruption. He can make the truth shine clearly before men. He can silence people who aim to do harm. HE CAN.

If you are feeling led to pray please let us know. It’s encouraging to know that people are joining us. If you feel God leading you to pray for specific things we would love to know that as well. I’m always amazed at how he moves in the hearts of people to join them together. Wouldn’t it be exciting to see how God is moving through his people? To see how he speaks through people? You can leave a comment after any post. We would love to hear from you.

~Leslie

Prayers

I want to thank you for your prayers, and for the comments left by some. The whole situation is hard to explain in depth because of a lot of cultural stuff and I appreciate that you’re willing to pray even when we can’t give you a lot of info. After reading the comments from the last post I realized that there may be people out there that would like to pray more specifically for our workers and everyone involved with Clean Water for Haiti. I thought that maybe having a list of who’s who would help you in that, and that it might be interesting to see what God is laying on your hearts for our staff and who he leads you to pray for. I would also love to be able to tell them that people all around the world are praying for them by name.

Jean (project manager)
Evens (welder, plumber, electrician)
Ricardo (welder, auto repair guy)
Fristner (filter technician, educator)
Julie (educator)
Richard (filter technician, educator)
Jan Philipe (filter construction & material prep)
Kelele (filter construction & material prep)
Ludovic (filter construction & material prep)
Michelet (filter construction & material prep)
Melix (filter technician & construction)
Edmond (filter technician & construction)
Kenson (filter technician & construction)
Thony (filter technician & construction)
Israel (filter technician & construction)
Preval (filter technician & construction)
Daniel (filter technician & construction)
Yonese (house help & cook for classes)

Our security guards: Blaise, Camar, Ramy and Renel

Our board of directors in Canada and the US

Chris and I

Peter and Sara Craig as they prepare to move here in January

This week is going to be a big week for us as far as stuff to manage and take care of. Chris has to take a day or two to deal with some of the stuff going on with this particular situation. This stuff can fill our heads and leave us stressed or worried and wondering how to proceed. There is a phrase in Creole – “tet chaje” – full head. It’s very applicable in situations like this.

On Friday our board president and his wife are flying in for a week. This will be their first visit and we’re really excited that they’re coming. I’ve known them for quite a while as they go to my home church and live near my family. Whenever Chris and I are home we always enjoy a good visit with them and so very much appreciate their pastoral hearts for us. We’re looking forward to lots of time to talk and process and to have them see the ins and outs of everyday life here. I know they would appreciate prayer as they’re both still recovering from swine flu earlier this month. Pray their travels are good and that their time here is a good experience.

Whenever we have visitors coming in it seems that it leaves the mission open for something to go wrong or blow up or just plain happen. Pray that the next week or so, and heck, the next month and a half (we have family coming later in December) are calm and peaceful.

Thanks for lifting us up!

~Leslie

Please Pray

When the whole situation with the van fire escalated to having an arrest a couple of months ago many of us at the mission exhaled a bit in relief. I wish things were simple enough here that people accepted due process and were willing to let the justice system work. They aren’t though.

Over the past however many months it’s been now since the fire many of our workers have had to put up with harassment from the community, or rather certain people in the community. It’s been very hard for our employees because people here really care about what others think and say about them.

We are taking steps that will allow us to make more progress with our case. We think that those steps have made some people realize that this will not be dropped and that it is being taken seriously by people higher up. It won’t just slide and people won’t just be let go as was anticipated. Because of this the level of harassment has increased.

A couple months ago some of the workers being most affected by this were ready to throw in the towel, to separate themselves from the situation and be of no help, because they thought it would make life easier for them. Chris had many conversations along the lines of needing to present a unified front to send the message that this kind of thing isn’t a healthy or wanted way of going about life. We spent a lot of time praying for our workers, that they would have a change of heart.

Yesterday evening one of them came to our house to talk. Things have escalated again to a point where something should be done, but we can’t make those choices for people. Last night one particular family that has been most affected by this made a decision to pursue a legal process, which you can do here, to make it stop. Chris and I told them they have whatever support we can offer them, that we will help them however we can.

I’m really happy about this. We have known for a while that if there is to be any change on a community level here that it can’t just be us that fight against this. Standing up against threats is a very, very hard thing to do here. The stand that this family is taking is an incredibly important one, but a very scary one for them.

Please be praying for our staff, and for this whole situation. Pray that things will work in their favor, that those that are threatening them will once and for all realize that it needs to stop, pray for the right lawyers and others to be involved, and pray that we all have wisdom around the whole situation. And most of all pray for God’s hand of protection and an overwhelming sense of peace over all of them.

Just to Confirm What You Probably Already Know

Okay, because writing about how I wanted to get myself organized for the next couple of months isn’t enough, I’m going to actually post a picture of the calendar. Because I’m that much of a goon.

I did it up in Publisher. I knew I needed it big enough to write several types of things in. It’s two pages, with one trimmed and glued to the other. I printed two copies – a working copy and a “good” copy.

In the planning stages I just made lists of a) the “chores” I needed to do, and b) the stuff that needs to get done, or that I want to get done before Christmas. Most of it’s fun. The “chores” were either things that needed to be done weekly, like cleaning the bathroom and laundry, or special stuff to get ready for company like making beds etc. The “Christmas” stuff is things like baking cookies, ordering gifts, etc.

I also decided to do a meal plan. When things get busy around here it’s so nice to not have to think about that. Chris did a big grocery shop a week ago so I planned for the next couple of weeks based on what we have. We will have to do a minor shop next week, and then another big one when I get back from Missouri while I’m in town, but that will take us through until after Christmas.

I don’t always have a meal plan for just us, but when we have company coming I always do one. Part of it is that it makes the grocery shopping so much easier. The other part is that when we’re busy hosting people I don’t have to think about that part of things. I just look at the plan, know that we have everything because I made the shopping list off the plan, and cook. It’s almost like being on auto pilot. The meal plan is always flexible in the sense that sometimes we have a lot of left overs so we’ll eat those instead of me making something new.

After I did all of that “rough” work, I went through and designated a color to everything (I have a friend who keeps me supplied with fun things like super fine Sharpees that don’t bleed through :)).

• Everything that was an “event” like people arriving or going, or a significant day got written in BLUE.
• Meals got written at the bottom of each square in BLACK.
• Chores got written at the top of the box in GREEN. They are the first things to get done every day, then the fun stuff.
• The “Christmas” type stuff got written in RED, of course.

I felt lighter after I got it done because all of the sudden I didn’t have all of this stuff running around in my head. And the nice thing is that I can see where I can add extras in. If I think of something else I need/want to do before the holidays, I can see where it’ll best fit. Extra “chores” to do? Same thing.

The most fun thing? Chris looked at it and said, “Are you going to do one of these for every month next year?” Because he liked it.

If you like the idea, but don’t want to put the work into making the calendar shoot me an email and I can send you a copy that you can print and fill in for your family. I can send it in Publisher or as an Adobe file. If you’d like one for all of next year, just let me know :)

 

 

For My Granny

I talked to my parents yesterday and apparently my Granny is wondering where the heck the promised pictures of the finished quilt are. Umm, I’ve had them taken for a couple of weeks. I’m just not so on the ball of getting them on the blog.

Without further ado…

After a good washing…

(That’s just a bit of water on the bottom)

Technically the front…

…and technically the back…

…but since I have a hard time with a) decisiveness, and b) wanting to make things go as far as possible I thought it would be fun to make the quilt reversible. I mean, why have a plain back when you can have a pretty one that people might think is the front? What I love about it is that so far it never stays on one side for more than a couple of days at a time. I flip it depending on my mood at the time of bed making. I LOVE having options :)

I liked the way the back came together, but when I started quilting it it just didn’t flow. I was using white thread on the front, and originally on the back but it looked wrong on the brown. I spent a lot of time looking at it and then decided to go with a loose plan. I went through my thread stash and found 9 different colors that matched the colors in the blocks and decided to do a graduated color flow across the quilt based on the colors of the blocks. There was no designated number of lines per color, I just did lines until I thought it was time to change. I love this about the quilt. It’s unique and fun. Someone actually saw it and said, “Leslie, if I would have known you needed thread I could have brought you some!” because they thought I didn’t have enough of one color :) I really like the finished product. It’s a bit unexpected.

The binding. Wow about the binding. I thought about that for a while and just wasn’t sure about what to do then got inspired by some quilts I had seen that all had binding with character. So, I thought, why not go with bright green and white polka dots. I literally searched Ebay until I found it, then ordered it and hoped that it would look good. When I pulled everything out to get back to work on it I realized the green was REALLY bright, so I discharged it, which is a fancy way of saying I soaked it in bleach water for about 5-10 minutes. It worked really well. I rinsed, then hung it to dry. I still wasn’t sure about it until I was at the hand sewing stage, and even then, I still wasn’t sure about it. When I was finally about half done I started to like it. I’m happy with it. I may have chosen something different if I had more options, but since I have to order stuff in, it works. I really like it with the white and it’s just such a contrast with the brown, but works really well with the colored squares that it’s fun.

***************

And, as you probably remember from seeing this photo before, someone was really excited about the quilt and tried to be an active participant throughout the process.

Out of all of us she’s the one that gets the most excited about the quilt. When I brought it out of storage to work on it I laid it out on the floor and she couldn’t help but run all over it and lay on it. Now that it’s on the bed she loves to jump on it and roll around. Silly kid. I guess I know what I need to make for her next year :)

Final thoughts:

1) This was only my second quilt. Yeah, crazy. Hey Leslie, why don’t you make a queen sized quilt on your second go round?

2) I thought about stippling it, but the thought of moving such a huge quilt through the machine like that made me want to cry, so I went with straight lines. I also liked that it played off the linearness of the blocks. Lots of straight edges.

3) I like that the “front” gives the feel of a traditional patchwork quilt and the “back” is modern feeling. I have both of those likes in me so it works with my indecisiveness.

4) The blocks are MODA Nest, all quilters cotton, which I love the feeling of. The white and brown are actually a cotton poplin, which is what I can get here in the “fabric store”. I had a hard time initially deciding on what color to do on the “back”, and well, my choices were limited. I basically went to the store and knew I would just know when I was there. I like it. The filling is just a lightweight batting. It’s actually quite thin, perfect for Haiti in the winter.

5) There are some puckers, mostly on the last edge to be quilted. It was hard working with two different types of cotton. I think there was a bit of shifting because of that. I realized that all the puckering was there as I finished the very last line of stitching. Fixing it would have meant taking out 6-7 rows, which I just wasn’t up for. I decided it was an exercise in not being a perfectionist to leave it as is and accept it as a learning process. This quilt was made to be used and used well. Our lives have puckers and imperfections in them, so why not sleep under a quilt with some.

6) Yes, we are actually using it! Some nights it’s still too warm and it ends up on the floor at the foot of the bed. Some nights one of us is under and the other isn’t. Some nights we’re both under and quite happy. I didn’t know how much I missed sleeping under a quilt! It’s like hibernating. My body loves it too. When it’s cool enough to sleep under it I sleep so much better :) Chris’ only request with the quilt, aside from me actually making one, was that it was big enough to cover both of us nicely so we didn’t have to fight over the covers. It does that well and so far no fights!