Blessings!

The team this week blessed our family by inviting us to Wahoo Beach! It was an amazing time to recharge, have fun, and enjoy the beauty of Haiti. 

Our kiddos first experience in the ocean. 

A sea creature...Landen wanted a pic with it but wouldn't touch it. 

I sure like this guy. 

Beautiful! Wish you where here!

Alot of people ask us what our job is at Grace Village so I thought I would take a minute to share. Shane and I are still trying to figure out exactly what our job entails here, but so far this is what we have come up with. Our title is Grace Village Directors, this means that we are to oversee all of the many different aspects of Grace Village. Grace has an orphanage, a school, a church, a medical clinic, a feeding center, and aquaponics system. We are kind of like the mayor of this little town; we are here to help with job accountability, budgets, hiring and firing, encouraging, building a team atmosphere, and sharing God's love. We are also to act as an information bridge between those in America and those of us in Haiti. There are wonderful things happening here and we feel honored to be a part of it all.  

One thing that surprised me how quickly something can become a job. You would think that as missionaries it would be all about God all the time. You would think it would be easy to keep focused on God. But its not true. Our human nature kicks in and we find it is easy to forget that our mission in life is to glorify God daily. So...even as missionaries we have to remind ourselves daily to dedicate the next 24 hours to God. 

"Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name." Hebrew 13:15

To do this, we are finding it takes intentionality. We have to read our Bible every morning and spend time in prayer daily. We want to live our lives with God's grace and love surrounding all of our contacts with others. We want to be able to deliver truth with respect and that same love. Its a tall order but we want to cling to those three truths; God's love, grace, and truth. I don't think there is any way to do this unless we spend time daily with Him. We want our ministry to ooze God's love. So Lord, let us glorify you today! 

Allison has been our nanny for the last two years. We loved seeing her!

We visited Gertrude's Special needs orphanage:

We have started a new program for the kiddos. We have a handful of games that the kids can come over and play. When they return the game to me, I count the pieces to make sure that all of the pieces are accounted for. The rules are that if all the pieces are returned they can play with them the next day, but if they are not all returned...no playing the next day. So far twice there have been missing pieces. Everyone knows the rules so eventually I get all of the pieces back because the kids love playing with the games. We are using this to teach about taking care of their things, about responsibility, about owning up to mistakes and taking consequences, and about forgiveness. Plus I love to hear their little voices playing.

Could they be any cuter? 

Solid Rock

God knew my personality and supplied us with missionary friends from the states, Minnesota actually. Our first Sunday at Grace Village they came and picked us up and brought us to the compound they live on for a Bible study with about 7 other missionary couples. While we learned more about heaven and earth and what the coming connection of those could possibly look like, all of our children were outside playing hide-and-seek. We have only met with this group one time but I can tell you it was a huge blessing to us as a family. To be surrounded by people who love Jesus, who love Haiti and who are all serving in different organizations was like water to a plant, life giving. Already I am looking forward to tomorrow when we get to sit next to them, connect, and learn together.

Last week at this Bible study, upon introduction, one of them men stated, "Grace Village? I was just contacted by our funders and they wanted pictures of the well we dug at Grace Village. I told them I didn't know if I could even get in the gates but that I would try." Of course we told him to come on up anytime, we would love to share what we do with our water on a daily business. Two days later, Tim came driving up our little mountain and brought a wealth of information. 

Tim was so excited to see how Grace Village has grown since he was here. He said that the last time he was here there were only three buildings, nothing was painted and no one lived here. The place is alive now. He told us of how his team came in with their drilling equipment as a last ditch effort to bring water to Grace Village. How there had been many drillings before, but they had produced nothing. 

To understand the importance of water, I think I need to explain a few things. There is not a solid government system so there is no water company, I don't even think there are any undergroud pipes to homes. To get water; you have your own water pump, you have a systern above your house that a water truck delivers to your house, or you bring your 5 gallon bucket to the nearest hand pump and pump and carry your water to your house. Those are the options. 

Tim continued his story about how his team stood over the spot they were planning on drilling and prayed feverently. He called the spot 'holy ground'. Titanyen is in a desert part of Haiti, where they were drilling was the highest point of our little mountain, and they had already tried multiple times to drill for water, it didn't look hopeful. He said they drilled in this unlikely place and found 'sweet water'. What a miracle! 

His perspective was great because he was reminding us of how important a water source is. Without it, we could never have built Grace Village into the place it is today. Today there is an orphanage, a feeding center, a school, a church, an aquaponics system, and a medical clinic on the grounds. God is good!

Another piece Tim talked about was the rockiness of the ground. Grace Village is build on solid rock...solid. I had heard a story that when Jeff and Alyn came and looked at this spot as a possible location for the dream God had given them. Jean tried to convince them that it was unwise to buy because the ground was too hard and it would make building difficult. Alyn would not be convinced to change her mind. From the stories I hear, she was determined to bring the children she had come to love to a place with an amazing view, fresh air, and hope. The rest is history. 

I got to thinking about the fact that we are build on solid rock. 

Matthew 7:24-27

"Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the wind beats against that house, it won't collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn't obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash." 

Haiti has hurricanes and earthquakes, but Grace Village has been build on solid rock and that foundation keeps us relatively safe. It was harder in the beginning, but so worth it now. Grace Village was, more importantly, built on the solid foundation of Jesus' teaching. We as an organization and we as the Imsland family cling to the teachings of Jesus as our rock in all things in life. We know that when we listen and follow God, we are protected. That protection doesn't always mean things will be easy nor does it mean bad things won't happen to us. But we know that no matter what happens, we have a solid foundation that NEVER leaves us. 

I am posting a couple of pics since you made it to the end of this pretty long blog. :) 

Fun with a deck of cards.

Two of our beautiful ladies. 

This picture doesn't do this justice! Just a beautiful country. 

I am so grateful my kids get along...mostly.

Friday movie time!

Some silliness from Sierra. Ha!

How to feed a family of five in Haiti

There are too many things to share, so I plan on breaking things down by ways thing are different than the states. One of those is our living situation, so I have taken a few pictures to show you. 

Living room and dining room

Kitchen...boys' turn for the dishes.

We live in a beautiful three bedroom, two bathroom house. We have running water and electricity. To be honest it isn't all that different than homes in the states except there is no warm water, a baby gecko lives in my kitchen, and if I accidentally leave something on the counter there is a line of ants doing the conga within 20 minutes. 

Bedroom & bathroom

We have been settling and finding our rythm this last week. One area of that takes considerable amount of time is feeding my family. There is a market, very much like MN's farmer's market, on Tuesday and Friday. I have gone there twice and think its great. The cleaning lady kindly goes with me and another LT so that we have some help figuring out what is a good deal. The funny thing is I have no idea what many of the veggetables are. I have been buying one of many of them to give them a try and see if we would like more in the future. If you have ever been to the farmers' market  you know they do not like to sell things individually, well its the same here. Add in the language barrier and Friday I bought 15 zorangs. They thoughts I was making juice, I just wanted to see how close to oranges they were. If you are wondering, they aren't. They taste more like grapefruit than orange. Good, but 15 may be a few too many. 

I was told the trick is to go very early in the morining, before it gets too hot. We walk down our little mountain and into the market of Titanyen. Lucette, our Haitian leader, brings us to the bananas (figs) first because they are hard to come by. They are at the opposite end of Grace and at the beginning of the market. Then we each go through our list to find all of the things we need for the next 4 days. We pile them into our reusable shopping bags and walk back up to Grace. This can take anywhere from 1 1/2-2 hours. 

Austin came with yesterday to help. He said his favorite part was when we had stopped to buy something and a man made a loud noise behind us. It was his signal to have us move because he was carrying a slaughtered pig across his shoulder. This pig was huge, dripping blood, and a crazy sight to see!

Yesterday I went to the Deli Mart to pick up some items that are unavailble in the Titanyen market. This takes a driver (I'm not quite ready to drive in Haiti) and apparently takes 3 hours. No, it didn't take me that long to shop. Traffic was crazy yesterday! So, lesson learned; buy enough for a couple of weeks and don't go on Saturday. 

I mentioned last time that the kiddos were struggling with lunches in the feeding center. We are finding that often the breakfasts or dinners work better for their tummies. Today it was bananas, bread rolls and something else. My kids thought it was pretty tasty. 

All in all, we're settling. Keep your prayers coming. We always pray that we can be a tool used to shine God's light here. We want to be able to exude God's grace and to deliver truth with that grace. We love your prayers, we litterally can't do it without them. 

Thank you to each of you who support us!

Jennifer 

We made it to Haiti!!!

We made it to Haiti! 

We began our journey at 3am as we woke from the place we have called home for the last 5 weeks and got ready to board our plane.

 

Our boys have never been on a plane so this was another kind of adventure too. They thought that it was the coolest thing ever! Their favorite part was taking off and how it pushed them back in their seats. 

We landed in Haiti at 4:30pm. I have been to Haiti many times with a team, however this is only the second time I have come to Haiti as a mom. It was with joy that I watched my kids take in the scene of Haiti as our plane landed. They were just amazed at everything they saw and they hadn't even gotten off the plane yet! They navigated the airport like pros and even to the taptap. At one point, I stood in front of Austin and Landen and explained to them that Haitians tend to yell because they don't have a lot of different words to express how important something is. This means that if they feel strongly they will yell, but it doesn't mean they are fighting. (Sometimes the guys that like to 'help' with our luggage like to yell). Our kiddos took it in stride, as if they had been here many times. 

We loaded our stuff in the taptap and drove to the guesthouse, our temporary home in Haiti. We are living in a room with two bunk beds and our luggage, and its a blast...mostly. We also get to see the teams and my kids are being loved up by Tom and Shelley Gacek's team. Its really fun to watch as they allow my kids to be part of their team and welcomed into their meals and time together. My kids now consider Tom their Haiti Grandpa. 

We have been traveling the last two days to Grace Village with the medical team that is putting together the clinic. We get there around 9:30am and stay until about 5pm. Austin, Sierra and Landen have amazed me. They have jumped right into playing with the kids and working on making friends. The Haitian kids are in school right now so they get recess at 10:30am and then their school ends around 1ish. My kids wait around until those times and then run over to the playground to make new friends. This has been tricky, but mostly good. 

One of the ways we are saving money and making sure we are integrating in the culture is to eat lunch at the feeding center. It does not taste bad, it does however, taste different. My youngest doesn't like different. If he could live on PBHoney sandwiches, pizza, and macaroni and cheese he would be happy. He has decided that beans make him puke. In spite of this he is eating his food and even chose to eat leftovers from yesterday instead of the bean soup...impressive if you could have seen him eat the meal yesterday...its all relative. All around its an adjustment, but fun to be able to begin our entry into the Haitian culture.