Thanksgiving Haiti Style

Our First Haiti Thanksgiving

What a great day we enjoyed celebrating Thanksgiving with our missionary family. We had all the Haiti traditional foods - rice, beans, pineapple, fried plantains, roasted goat, barbecued rat, tarantula skewers...ok, ok, I'm pulling your leg - except for the part about the wonderful celebration with our missionary family! Actually, we had a wonderful turkey and ham meal with all the American traditional foods including stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn and green bean casserole, and of course pumpkin (and apple) pie. When we called home and our family asked about our meal we told them the only thing we were missing was the whipped topping for the pie. It was a lovely day filled with sunshine and blue skies. We ate our meal at a beautifully-decorated table with handmade "place setting" turkeys thanks to Stacey and Lily. We shared stories about our most memorable Thanksgiving and there were some pretty tough ones to beat! Although it was hard to be away from our family at home, I realized as I looked around the table that we were ALL away from our families at home and yet, God had provided a lovely meal and an even more lovely and diverse group of people to share it with.

Our Cute Turkey Name Place Tags

Of course, there was no football to sleep to after the meal, but most of us (ok, mostly the women) decided that was just fine with us. 

Thanks to everyone who blessed us so much with emails, cards, letters or Facebook posts wishing us a blessed Thanksgiving - we truly had a wonderful day.

Love and miss you all,

Bud and Cindy

Great Retreat in the Dominican

Departure Day!

The missionary team left the field loaded in the van Thursday, November 17, for a much anticipated four days in the Dominican for our annual missionary retreat. Being our first, Bud and I were both excited and full of anticipation as to all the new experiences ahead. For Bud, a day deep sea fishing, and for me, a day shopping in the closest thing to a SUPER WALMART Hispanola has to offer. In addition, it was just a blessing to get to spend time refreshing in God's Word with others who, while we live and work together on the field, don't always have a lot of time to just "be together". God also blessed us with a great couple, Jim and Sue Smith, who are from headquarters in Greenwood and who spent several years as missionaries serving in Equador. As only God would provide - they were excited to get to use their Spanish again!

SUPER WALMART D.R. Style

The four days were wonderful! Filled with sunshine (except for the day Bud, Dave and Maury headed out for a full day of fishing and were soaked to the skin...), gorgeous blue skies, lots of wonderful food, hair cuts, pedicures, and yes...shopping! Of course we all had our "lists" and with Thanksgiving around the corner, we had extra things we wanted to find. There were six women, two children, and one very brave husband (thanks again Matt!) who headed out and arrived without incident. We all shopped, loading our carts with all those "special things" you can't readily find in Haiti, and then headed to the check out lines. We had been told we could use U.S. money. I, for one, had left my credit card at the hotel thinking I had plenty of cash. Marilyn was the first to go through and pay, only to be told we couldn't use our U.S. currency. Really? Who doesn't take U.S. money?! Marilyn found me in time to pay for my goodies with her credit card. As others tried to pay, we also found our credit cards only worked "one time" and then had a "hold" put on them since we were "out of the country" (security you know!) Matt patiently helped us figure it all out and get everyone checked out with their treasures in hand. We loaded the van and as we tried to start the van realized the battery was dead. 
 - dead as the proverbial door knob. Matt, ever the trooper, found the first Dominican he could and asked for a "jump start". He kindly obliged and we were on our way. All this for a trip to a pseudo SUPER WALMART! None of us would have died without the items in our carts, but it would have been a bit disappointing.



Lily patiently waiting for someone to fix 
the "generator" so the van will work :)

Later that evening as Jim led us in our Bible session, we all shared how thankful we were to have each other to depend on and lean on. I know it sounds funny, but it's just such a blessing to have others around who really know and can relate to living in this, or any other, culture. What we share on the Haiti field is unique in that there is more than one or two or three of us...and although we are very unique in our age, backgrounds, ministries on the field, life experiences, etc. we are all ONE in the call of serving Christ in Haiti.

Jim encouraged us through the Scriptures to work from a place of rest. To take time to rest, as exampled by Jesus, filling ourselves with the Spirit and trusting the Lord in all the details. Not to run ahead and then wonder WHY things aren't working, but to go to the Lord first, trusting Him for wisdom, discernment, direction and, of course, renewal and rest. It was a great time of fun and fellowship, but it was an even better time to build relationships together, laugh together, build one another up, and to be reminded that the Lord is the source for everything we are - not such what we do.



Do We Look Rested?

On a side note, there was another young couple at the same resort from Finland. He was a pastor as well and she was a nurse from Estonia. They joined us for "church" this morning. As we chatted afterward, we found that she had attending the One Mission Society seminary in Estonia and that she knew people from there who others on the field here knew! What an amazingly small world it is!

We are looking forward to a wonderful Thanksgiving meal together and pray you will all enjoy one with those you love too. We miss you all and thank God for His goodness, provision, love, care and faithfulness whether we're sitting beside you at the table in Oregon, or missing you from the sunny Caribbean.

Love and Prayers,

Bud and Cindy