Updates from Florida and the Home Front...

Kami, Joshua, Silas and Callie have been doing great.  However, Kami started feeling like she was getting sick yesterday and Silas started getting a cold last night.  We are hoping these will pass very quickly and not turn into anything lingering nor severe.

Josh finally got his glasses and he looks great!  I am so glad he can see!  Here they are all ready for church.  Silas love dressing in his "Preacher" outfit! 

Josh has been working hard at saving money to purchase a laptop.  He will be needing one for school next year as he will be taking a technical course on Microsoft programs like Publisher, Word, Excel, etc.  He finally bought one last night and he is excited.  There is nothing like working hard and purchasing something that you need and want!  Way to go Josh! 

Things here on the home front are going great.  Brenna is working hard at trying to finish school by mid-April so that it will be easier on "momma & teacher" when the baby arrives.  We are taking care of getting everything ready for when Momma and baby come home.  We have been Spring Cleaning and the place is looking great!  We will have our last Sunday service this Sunday as we will be leaving for Florida next Tuesday.  We will recommence the Sunday Bible studies when we get back.  Please continue to pray for Bruno that he will still be excited about his salvation and his new Christian life when we get back.  Until next time...

Thank you for praying...a blind man finally is able to see spiritually!

We have asked you to pray for Bruno, the blind man to whom we gave the "blind" clock and who came to our Sunday service for the first time last week.

He decided to surprise us again today and came to our Sunday service for the second time in a row.  We had a great service and Bible study today.  We did a review of the subjects from the past 9 months in which we started our Bible studies.  Afterwards, I was able to give a brief sermon on salvation.  At the end, Bruno raised his hand and said that he wanted to get saved and put his trust in Christ!
He was so sincere as he prayed and accepted Christ as his Saviour!  I asked him afterwards, "Where would you go if you died today?"   He said, "Heaven, because I am saved now!" 

We have prayed for him for a long time now and we are so glad that he put his faith in Jesus Christ.  As we took him home, he said that he wants to be faithful to come every time he can so that he can grow as a Christian.  He also said that he would gladly listen to the Bible on CD if I got him a CD player and the CD's! 

Words cannot express our joy as he finally understood what it means to trust Christ!  Praise the Lord!

Safe-n-sound and women fighting on planes...another update

I forgot to send out an update letting everyone know that Kami, Joshua, Silas and Callie all made it safely to Florida.  Their first stop after arriving in Ft. Lauderdale....McDonald's! (apart from the woman on the plane cursing and hitting another woman over the head with her bag...the flight went well...don't you just love when your kids get to learn new vocabulary :(
They made it to Ft. Myers on Monday night (morning!) at 12:30.  We just praise the Lord for safety!

Josh can finally see now!  He went to the eye doctor first thing on Tuesday and received his first pair of glasses!  He thinks the world is amazing now and can't believe how clear things are supposed to look.  He got a great deal on 2-for-1 glasses and we are so thankful he finally has his glasses. 

Silas and Callie had their doctor's appointments yesterday as well.  They were so excited for their appointments.  They have an episode of The Berestein Bears called The Doctor's Visit and they have watched it so many times.  They were so excited to have their own doctor's visit!  Well, I think the excitement is gone....Callie got 4 shots and Silas had his finger pricked...Kami said he still isn't using that hand!

Kami also had her midwife appointment.  Everything is fine and on schedule.....Kami is so excited that the midwife told her that she is measuring small for this stage in her pregnancy...Josh and I think the midwife needs glasses too!

The girls and I are having a great time.  We are getting  a lot of work done as Brenna is working hard at finishing school, Elisabeth is done for the year!, and I am touch-up painting the house and finally fixed our water-pressure problem...(a kinked water line from the pump, Yea for water pressure!)

Until next time...

Great Sunday!

We had a great day at our Sunday service yesterday!  We had 5 people attend the Bible study which made for a total of 12!  We also had a great surprise yesterday, Bruno (the blind man that we have asked you to you pray for) came yesterday to our Bible study!   We praise the Lord that Bruno, Mariane, Maria, Mama (my grandmother), and Eliane we all able to come.

After the Bible study, we have a meal together and a time of fellowship.   For the first time in several months, we were able to eat outside on the terrace.  We have not had enough water to be able to wash the terrace for us to be able to use, but praise the Lord, we now have access to city water.  We prayed that the landlord would want to put in city water and he did!  It is not hooked up to the house, but I can hook up a hose to the spigot by the road and add water to our cistern!  This is a great blessing!

 

We also celebrated two of the ladies' birthdays after our Sunday meal.  Kami made this cake and we tried to sing Happy Birthday in French but we couldn't get started on the right tune so we just sang in English!  Afterwards, we took Bruno and Maria to the voting precinct.  Yesterday was also the day to vote for the new president of St. Barthelemy!  We were able to help Bruno into the building and help him cast his vote.  It is always a blessing for us to help people.  As we drove Bruno and Maria home, Bruno said that he had a great time and wants to come back again when we get back from Florida with the new baby.  All we can do is thank God for answered prayer and continue to pray that one day, Bruno and many others here will accept Christ as their Saviour and become true born-again Christians. (By the way, Bruno said that he loves his clock and pushes the button many times a day to "tell" him the time!)

As a side note, Kami made this great "tent" in our living room and furnished it with fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies, pillows and blankets. 

For our Family Fun Night, we all gathered under the tent for cookies and stories!  (Although I do have to admit, I am getting old...It's not easy to still get under a tent and try to get back up after sitting like that for a while!)

Happy Birthday Elisabeth!

Yesterday was Elisabeth's Birthday...she turned 14!  We love our "Bethy" and we are so glad that God has allowed us to be her parents.

Kami and the girls went to Shell Beach yesterday morning to take Beth's birthday pictures and did a great job. 

We had a wonderful day for her birthday!   In our family, our birthday is really a special day.  The birthday person gets to plan out the day.  You can choose anytime to opens your gifts (which is normally first thing in the morning!) and you get to decide when you want to have your birthday cake...for some, it's for breakfast and for others it is later in the day.  The birthday person gets to choose the meals for the day and also gets to choose the kind of birthday cake/pie that they want their momma to make.  There is no school in honor of the birthday person (our kids really love celebrating their siblings' birthdays because they also get to skip school!) and the birthday person also gets out of all of their chores for the day.  We play the games they want to play and watch any special movie that they want to watch.  It always makes for a fun "family" day!

Here was Beth's Day:
-she ordered chocolate mousse cheesecake for her birthday which she ate after dinner.
-she opened her gifts first thing in the morning
-for lunch she chose fresh subs and frito corn salad
-for dinner she chose baked potatoes, Arkansas green beans, and grilled steak strips.
-we played the family game Cadoo and watched Little House on the Prairie
-Beth then chose to have some quiet time to read a book


It was a great day!  Happy Birthday Elisabeth!

Plenty of things to do...and plenty of things received!

We are getting closer to the due date for the new baby and we have been very busy preparing for our trip to Florida.  There are so many things to get done and appointments to make as we will take advantage of our trip back to the States:
- We have made doctor's visits for all of the kids back in Florida.  They are so excited to get caught up on their shots & vaccinations! (Okay, maybe not!)  But it is a blessing to get their check-ups and immunizations up to date.
-We will be making an appointment at the eye doctor for Joshua for the day after he, Kami, Silas and Callie arrive in Ft. Myers.  He desperately needs glasses as he cannot even read something just ten feet away!  The only reason we have not done it by now is that we cannot afford an exam and glasses here.  At first he was against getting glasses, but now he is ready to "see" again!

-Kami will be making her appointment with her mid-wife upon her return.  We are hoping that the baby will come just shortly after I and the two girls arrive in Ft. Myers and we are really hoping that the baby does not decide to take his/her time and come late!  We are already anxious to return back here to St. Barthelemy as soon as we can.

-Being back in Florida will give us the chance to restock on some much needed items that we cannot get here.  For example, the kids have grown up so much in just a year that they all need new clothes and shoes.  We cannot buy these things here as they are too expensive to purchase.  So we will be stocking up on undergarments, shoes, and clothes.   Kami and the kids are already planning several thrift store trips to try to find some good second-hand clothing...we love thrift stores!

-On a final note, we did not have anything for a newborn and we have been praying that the Lord would provide for all of the things that we would need for a new baby.  On Saturday, our landlord passed by with his truck loaded down with all the supplies for a newborn!  These are all things that we didn't have and what a blessing it was to receive them:  an infant car seat, an infant bassinet, infant swing, infant bath tub and stand, infant play mats, a bag full of infant toys, baby reclining seat, baby crib with mattress, infant sling and several other things!  What a huge blessing! (What a blessing it is to also have all of the things for a church nursery as well!)

Here are the bassinet, car seat, and swing!

Here are some of the toys!

Praise the Lord for His great provision!  Kami, Josh, Silas and Callie will be leaving next Monday so please be in prayer for them as they travel!  Until next time...

Great visit and Cowboy Invasion!

Yesterday, Joshua and I went to pick up Bruno for a ride around the island and a coke.  Bruno is a man here that is blind.  A few years ago when he lived on the island of St. Croix, he was shot in the head as he came out of the bank after cashing his check.  He lost his sight but is thankful to still be alive.

He is Maria's brother and Maria has such a burden for her family.  We have been visiting this family and hope that one day they will accept Christ as their Saviour.  The last time I visited Bruno, I asked him if he knew what time it was.  He responded that he never knows what time of day it is unless he askes someone.  

One of my prayer requests has been of asking God to show me ways that I can help people personally.  He immediately showed me that Bruno needed a clock made for blind people.  So I bought a clock on Ebay and had it delivered here.  When Josh and I went to pick up Bruno for a time of fellowship yesterday, I gave him the clock.  As I had him feel the clock to find out what it was, he pushed the big button that verbally announces the time.  The look on his face was worth it all.  He exclaimed, "You bought me something to tell me the time!"  He was so thrilled and he immediately went to put the clock on his shelf near his bed. 

We had a great time of talking and visiting.  He enjoyed getting out and going for a ride which he rarely ever gets to do.  At the end of the afternoon, he said that one day he would like to come to our Bible studies.  It was a great afternoon!

On a side note, we were invaded by cowboys today!  We all love running around the house playing cowboys and indians.  Even Kami gets in on the shooting, but she turns out to be a very bad shot!

 Josh outfitted Silas and Callie for another raid on the indians today.

They are taking their roles very seriously, you never know when the indians might win!

But what's a hug between cowboys!

Passports, Taxes, and Lucky's Car Rental!

This past week has been filled with answered prayers, blessings, and more prayer requests as well.  We had a great day on Sunday and shared the wonderful news as seen in the picture below :

(We showed these 6 answers to faithful prayer in services yesterday!  Yes, that's right, we now have 6 French Passports in hand!  We picked up Callie's last Monday which means all of the kids have their French Passports....which leads us to the next picture...)

(Kami and I had to take our trip to St. Martin for her "Government Medical Exam".  As we packed, we found something very unusual in our suitcase!)

(We were hoping to make this trip not only for taking care of "VISA business" but also a small 1-night romantic getaway for Kami and I.   So we removed this hide-away child from the suitcase and left her behind!) 

Our trip to St. Martin went well.  We rented a car from Lucky's Car Rental.  When the guy picked us up from the Airport, he took us just down the street to another rental car agency and said he would give us the little white car.  He also said, "I don't have a contract for you to sign."  I told him that I wanted to put the car rental on my credit card so that we could be covered by our card's rental car insurance.  Of course he wasn't able to put the car on the credit card so he said to just take the car and we would settle up the next day when I dropped it off at another airport across the island.  So basically we had a car with no contract agreement and no money paid.  When we dropped off the car, we called the car agency and they said to just leave the car on the side of the road near the airport and to put the keys and 30 Euros in the trunk!  Welcome to island life... the company is probably called Lucky's because you are lucky if you do not get arrested for "renting" a stolen car!  (We have used this company before and always had a rental contract so they knew us and we trusted them as well!)

Kami's government appointment went well.  We arrived at the hospital at 7:40 A.M. and the office was supposed to open at 8:00.   Kami was the fifth person in line.  However, when the office actually opened up at 8:40, the room was full of people.  The nurse came out and said, "Who is first?!"  No joke, everyone in the room ran up to her yelling, "I was first, no I was here waiting first!"  What a mess!  Kami did push her way through and managed to convince the lady that she was fifth in line.  The doctor finally showed up at 11 A.M. and spent approximately 1 minute with Kami and signed her papers!  (We paid over $500 for airplane tickets, hotel, rental car, and meals for 1 minute with a doctor!)  But that's okay, the memories and benefits of being  missionaries are things we wouldn't trade for anything!

Today we went to the government office here on St. Barths to turn in the signed papers and were told our next step is to pay the tax....tax?...what tax?...we were never told about a tax....But it's true, we have to pay $468 immediately to progress in the next step of registering Kami's VISA.  (ouch!..)  So this is where the prayer request comes in...please be in prayer for the Lord's provision in all of these "unexpected-to-us" taxes and fees.

We do praise the Lord that Maria was back in services yesterday.  She still has to go back to Martinique for triple bypass surgery.  The doctors told her to expect to stay in the hospital for 3-4 months after this procedure is done! 

We had a great service yesterday and Joshua is doing a great job.  Each week he presents a different topic in French.  He is now giving a presentation on different books of the Bible.  This week was the book of John.  Great job Josh!

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support.  Until next time....