A Wonderful Haiti Welcome!

We are HERE!!!!


We arrived in Haiti on Thursday afternoon of last week and now, after 5 days, we are officially unpacked, settled in, and getting into a routine! Here are some pictures of our NEW home!

A peak inside...

Our living room, dining room and work space...

Our AWESOME hospitality-friendly kitchen!!!

Haylie and Ethan in their room

When we arrived we found out that Stacey (EBS missionary, neighbor, and friend!) blessed us with evening meals for an entire week!!! Our fellow missionaries here at EBS and at the Vaudreil campus are taking care of us and feeding us WELL!!!   The inside of our house had also been freshly painted, the fridge stocked with Cokes and some other necessities :), and an order of produce arrived the next day! We have yet to be hungry and are feeling welcomed beyond words!  SOOO thankful for the Ayars family and for the MANY other people who have been and are still making this a very special arrival!

On Saturday we jumped right in!  We had our EBS staff retreat in the morning.  It was a great time to hear the vision of the seminary, to get to know the employees and to have Matt introduce us and share about what we will be doing.  After retreat, Cammie (my other neighbor and fellow EBS missionary!) took me along for a trip to some local grocery stores... which was lots of fun!  The visiting professors arrived and settled in as well and we all ate dinner together at the Ayars home- ANOTHER delicious meal! It was a great day!

Sunday we went to church in Cap Haitien and then to a hotel for lunch and some time around the pool together.  It was a great time of relaxing and rest for the coming week of activities!

This is inside the church service in Cap Haitien.  Vilmer, the VP of Emmaus Biblical Seminary and pastor of the church, is sharing before one of the graduates from Emmaus comes to give the message.

Monday morning Phil started right in on maintenance stuff around the house and some landscaping outside.  I organized our homeschooling supplies (school for the kids begins next week!), worked on some language studying (A HUGE PRAYER REQUEST is for us to QUICKLY learn the language!), and did some more laundry and odds and ends around the house!  We also headed over for the first chapel of the school year...  a great opportunity to meet students, try to pick up some more Creole, and spend time in worship!

The students enjoyed playing Ethan's drum set (you can kind of see it in the back right corner!) and led a great time of worship!

And yesterday afternoon Ethan and Lily (as well as all of the other kids here!) had a BLAST in the sprinkler that Phil set up!  The Gross Family also stopped by for tutoring and the kids had a great time (as always) with their new and very special friends! [We also had an AMAZING dinner with the Grosses at their new home in Vaudreil (the other OMS campus) on Friday evening.  Melissa made delicious fajitas and Steve made some awesome homemade taco sauce!  We spent some time catching up after being away from each other since Indiana- we had LOTS to talk about!  It was a great time for both kids and adults!  We are SO going to enjoy getting together with them here in Haiti!]

It has been a FABULOUS 5 days here in Haiti.  We are SO excited to get started in ministry and to see all that God has in store.  Yesterday, as Phil was reading in his devotion time, a verse popped right off the page that has been stuck in my mind ever since he shared it with me.  I wrote it on our marker board in the kitchen and have read it over and over again... and every time it brings me to tears.  I will leave you with this verse, as it has become so special...  and a constant reminder of why we are here!

Proverbs 25:25- "Like cold water to a weary soul is Good News from a distant land"

THIS is why we have come...  2Haiti4Him