Thankful

On this Thanksgiving day I am thankful for:
God's forgivness
His presence in my life
My eternal security
All He has given me
My family
My friends
My job
I pray you all have a blessed Thanksgiving Day,
Stephanie

UPDATE ON JOHN

These are the three guys in Haiti that work for Nehemiah Vision Ministries every day. They are extremely loyal and hard working. They will do anything for Pastor and us when we are there.
John is on the left. I had written about him shortly after my last trip. He has sever epilepsy and high blood pressure. I am raising money for him to go to the doctor. He is from an extremely poor family.
I have received a donation for him but it is not enough to pay for all his medical care. Pastor was able to take him to the doctor with the money I did receive to get him started at least. I dont have any more info than that yet. Thank you for for the donation and we are hopeful that his siezures can get undercontrol. If anyone else feels lead to donate to his medical care you can email me.
God takes care of everything!
Stephanie

FOLLOWING JESUS CALL

This post is from an american girl that lives in Haiti with her family, she is probably 12 or 13. I follow their blog regularly it is the Livsay Family. Their link is on my page. I wanted to share this post because it is awesome to see a child following her leading from God. Her boldness is a lesson to me to step out and do what God is asking you even if it is scary or you are afraid of what might happen. As you all know the children of Haiti are my passion and knowing there are people there full time reaching out to the least of these who may not have ever experienced love makes me happy. This family is amazing to me what they are doing.
Steph

Paige's Post:
Hi everyone,
I am writing to fill you all in on my kids group.
A few weeks ago I went and talked to John McHoul about a Children’s club I wanted to start, talking to him really helped me. I feel like God has been prompting me to start this kids club. I am so excited.
On Saturday we (two other girls from church are going to help me) went out and asked around at a few houses if there kids would be interested in coming. There was one house that I have seen a little boy at before… he looked so sad and I wondered if he felt loved.
So I went to this house first looking for that little boy and there was no answer. After about 5 minutes of hitting their gate hard with a rock so they would hear we moved on down the street and went to Gorge's little shop (he’s the one with no eyes and not very many fingers) and I asked him if he had any kids and if they were interested in coming. He asked me to come back when his mom was home which would be the next day at 2. So we were heading on our way back home with no success.
That was really discouraging, but I felt like we should go back to the first house and just hit their gate really loud. We did, and this time a woman called down from her porch asking who it was - I didn’t know what to say; so I just said “some girls that want to talk to you” which I think made her interested enough to come and talk.
A teenage girl came and I started telling her a little about the club and she looked very un-interested. So she said “Just come in and talk to my mom.” Now, when she said this I was thinking like we would step in the drive way and she would call her mom for us. But no, she insisted that we followed her to her mother. We went ALL the way around the house, through a pile of dirty clothes that were being hand washed while we walked through; and up a flight of stairs, and finally in their living room. The girl told us to sit and wait on the couch.
Her mom came out and was SUCH a sweet woman… for some reason it was this house that I felt super nervous about but she came out and was so sweet. I started talking to her about the club a little and she said she had one son, she said that she would be interested in letting him come, so that was exciting.
But I had to ask her if there was another little boy - that maybe worked for her or something (because her son was not the same boy I saw before). She said no and that he was her only son. I was bummed about not having the first little boy that I had seen but maybe God will open another door in the future for me to see that other little boy and he can also come.
I then went back to Gorge's house on Sunday and talked to his mom. She said that there are five children she was able to send but she made a comment about how one of the girls that worked for her was young, stupid, and dirty. This made me feel so sad. I desperately wanted to tell the woman that she was so wrong about this girl! I told her that I WANTED that girl to come. I am really excited to meet her because it's these kind of kids that I wonder if they ever feel loved. My goal is to show me that I love them - but not only me -- Jesus loves them even more.
It starts this Sunday the 30th (My birthday!) at 3pm with 6 kids coming. Please keep this in your prayers that it will go well! We plan to meet each Sunday from 3-5 pm for games, snacks and story time. Some of the kids coming are kids that work for families in our neighborhood (restavek) and are in need of love.

1,500

I was just looking at my blog tracker and couldn't believe that I have had that many views of my blog since I started it. That is amazing to me. I do this to keep my family updated on what is going on here in Indy and the work I am doing in Haiti. I am happy though to spread more awarness about life in Haiti to others that might stumble on my posts.
I am not going back to Haiti again until April unless God shows me the right opportunity in Jan or Feb. that he wants me to serve on. I had planned on going in Feb. but am not going on the trip now I had thought I was going on. I know if God needs and wants me there somewhere it will happen. If not I will be back in April to run another medical clinic for Nehemiah Vision Ministries.
During Thanksgiving time I think now about how truly blessed we are in the U.S. seeing first hand true suffering for basic life needs really puts in perspective how spoiled we are. I pray we never take for granted what we have here and that God continues to allow me and use me to help those less fortunate. I am blessed to have an immediate and extended family that support me in going on mission trips. I couldnt do it without them.
Steph

NINE

My baby is nine years old today. I cant hardly believe it! Time goes so fast. What a blessing he is to us. We love you Nick!!!!

ON THE HOMEFRONT

Well things are back to normal around here. It did take me a little extra time to readjust after my trip this time and Tom was gone all last week with work so we are finally back to a regular schedule. The days are filled with school, homework, housework, and back to regular work.

Toms new hours are great. He is doing very well working nights.
Mom loves her job and the unit/babies are awesome.
Jeremy is doing well in school and is doing choir. He just got picked to perform a solo!
Nick is doing awesome at school. We made several changes to his day and it is all seeming to mesh for him now.
Praise the Lord,
Steph

OTHER THINGS YOU WILL SEE IN HAITI

From top to bottom

*White House where president lives

*Statue downtown PAP

*Statue downtown PAP

*Random street people

*Tap Tap (major means of transportation like a taxi)

*Busy market corner

TAKE THE GOOD WITH THE BAD

Another classic photo from Haiti. In the background are the beautiful mountains and cactus that surrond Haiti and in the foreground you see piles of garbage. I think if you focused only on the bad you would go crazy if you only saw the good you would be deluding yourself.
Steph

The Reality of Haiti

This is one of my favorite pic I took from this trip. It is exactly what you see on the streets everywhere. Garbage and dirt on the streets and people sitting. I wonder what they are doing. Do they have hope that something will happen. Something good maybe he is hoping for, or is he just passing time with no hope. I wonder what his circumstances are. I cant imagine what it must be like to live like this every day. Would I keep my hope that good could come. Being spoiled with the luxuries we have I dont think I would be strong enough. I wonder if he knows God.
Steph

THE BEAUTY OF HAITI

The last day of our trip we went to Calico. A beach resort that was beautiful. Haiti has beautiful mountains and the ocean was clear and warm. It was great to see the beauty of the island somewhere other than the people. They are very gracious and kind. Most every patient we saw in the clinic was extremely thankful for everything we could give them.
Stephanie

I just received an email that someone is sending me $100.00 to help Jean get some medical care. God is so faithful and good. We will use it to start a medical fund! Thank You

JEAN

This is Jean (pronounced like John). He is one of pastors workers. He is very kind and quiet and an extremely loyal and hard worker. He comes from a very poor family. On this trip I found out that Jean has epilepsy and his blood pressure has been high the last two times I was there. His family can only pray for him to get better. They have no money to take him to a doctor and the money he earns from Pastor is buying food and shelter. He has been having a lot of seizures lately. There is a good hospital not far from Pastors house. We would like to get treatment for Jean there. If anyone feels led to contribute to Jeans medical fund please email me.
Stephanie

ANOTHER LITTLE GIRL

This is my favorite picture from my trip. The older girl is Claudine who I sponsor and she was abandoned by her mother then her God Mother and is now living with another student and her mother. After my last trip there we prayed about whether or not we should adopt her. We didnt feel that was what we were supposed to do. I send her things and picutres of our family. I pray for her and consider her my daughter in Haiti. She asked me on this trip again if she could come and live with me. It is very difficult to not want to bring them all here knowing what their life is like there.
The little girl is TiBlan (little white). Her real name is Witlene I think. They call her TiBlan because she is so light skined. She was also abandoned by her mother and was living with her fathers sisters but they were not taking care of her. She scavenged around in the dirt by herself under bushes and in the roads until about 6 months ago when Pastor agreed to take her into the childrens home. She is so beautiful now. She is still very hesitant and not as open as the other children. I would love to add her to our family as well. Im sure God will lead us if we are to do that. There are so many children and if I knew all their stories Im sure I would want to adopt them all.

I am still trying to decompress after my trip. This one has been harder for me to get back to life here. I love it there so much and have such a huge desire to help these children.

Steph