Family and Friends,
Day 51 of our Haiti Adventure!
We are doing well here and hope to have regular internet access again, or at least fairly regular. We dream of the day when we can have it at home, but we know that will come soon enough. We hope you all enjoyed a great Christmas with family and friends. We heard you got some snow! Sounds like fun. We are looking forward to a great 2011, and some teams from our hometown of Sioux Center will be down here to visit soon. We'll be sure to keep you updated on everything that happens. Below are some adventures we experienced right before and after Christmas. Enjoy!
Dec. 23, 2010-
Today was a memorable day. We finished what we needed to do for homeschool yesterday and decided to take today off from school. It was also Elizabeth's turn to go with me to the market. She was excited to go, and we headed down to the road at about 8 o'clock.
Soon a tap-tap came along heading for the market. A tap-tap is a pickup truck with benches in the back for public transportation. I told Elizabeth earlier that day that we would probably be riding with 32 other people in the truck. I was wrong. There were actually 35 after we got in...and another four or five in the cab. Many of the people also had their produce to sell in the market stashed in various places. Amazing.
We arrived at the market and started looking for the supplies we will need for our Christmas dinner...potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, and some other items. Earlier this week someone came to the door and let us know they were slaughtering their pig...we agreed to buy a hunk of it, and that meat is waiting patiently in the freezer for the big day. Actually, we are preparing a big meal on the Sunday after Christmas. Patchouko and his wife, Jesoula, are preparing a Haitian meal for us on Christmas day.
There is always quite a commotion when I go to the market. Between the people just standing there gawking at me, the beggars trying to get my attention, and the various vendors trying to lure me in and rip me off, it is quite a scene. Then I took Kester to the market one day, and the hub-bub doubled. Today, with Elizabeth in tow, the response was even more remarkable. The people here are just fascinated by “white” kids, and especially by the girls. They love their hair and many come up and try to touch it. That drives Alexandra nuts, but Elizabeth handles it pretty well.
We found what we needed at the market and got ready to return home. One great thing you java-drinkers will appreciate is that the coffee here is actually very good. Before the US embargo of the 90s, it is said that Haiti's coffee was approaching the quality and reputation of Jamaican coffee, which today sells for as much as $50/pound in the US. So Haitian coffee is very good and it goes for around $2-$3/pound at the market. Just one of the many perks of being a missionary! I hope to one day buy a big bucket of beans which haven't been roasted yet and send them back to my brother Adam who has a coffee-shop and roasterie. I'll let you know if that ever happens and those are ever available to be sampled.
Later in the day we went to pray with a couple of families in the village. One is Starlan's family, whom Pam led to Christ recently (see the post "Here for a Purpose" from Dec. 13), and we have continued to meet with them and encourage them during their early days of following Christ. We were happy to hear that they attended church, and Starlan has been doing much better. They are always so pleased to see us, and the mother said something memorable. She was thanking us for helping Starlan, and she said, “My fingers weren't long enough to help my daughter.” I recognized right away she was speaking figuratively, and I always get a kick out of Haitian culture and how people here intertwine these language patterns and proverbs with everyday conversation.
Another key moment today was a walk I took with Patchouko. We went to look at an ocean-side property Pam had purchased this year for future development. We wanted to see if there was any fruit to pick there (there wasn't...people had stolen everything) and to look around at the land a little bit. The piece of property starts at the road and goes down to the ocean, where there is a pretty little beach. It is about 2 acres and one can only imagine and speculate what such a property would cost in Florida or other coastal regions in the US.
We began to wander down the beach toward a cliff overlooking the sea. I have always been fascinated with this little spot, because you can see it from the road and from anywhere in the bay. We climbed up the pasture and garden leading to the cliff and found it lined with bushes and trees. We followed the ridge to a small home and cooking shed near the road. If you have visited on one of the mission trips, this property I am describing is near the “Welcome to Ti-Rivier” sign.
It suddently dawned on me that this ridge leading to the cliff is almost perfectly level with the road. In other words, if someone had a vision to buy this property and construct a facility (let's say for a Bible school as an example), the main building could overhang the cliff and have a panoramic view of the ocean to the east and south and the mountains to the north and west. Not only that but the property could be easily accessible from the road for any students (or a professor's wife) who have limited mobility, and all of it could connect to the property already purchased by Pam for Mission Haiti.
It was just one of those moments when my imagination took over and I saw what “could be” with a little prayer and dreaming and perseverance. We'll see what God does with that, but all-in-all it was a very inspiring day.
Dec. 27, 2010-
We enjoyed a great Christmas here in Haiti. Tonight we will have one last celebration of food with our friends and neighbors. Yesterday we cooked a meal for Patchouko and Jesoula, our co-workers who live here in the Mission Haiti compound with us. We got our hands on some pork and put together a thoroughly American meal. The biggest difference was probably the portions of meat. Here you normally get a small portion of meat if you have meat, like maybe 5 people sharing 3 chicken legs or something like that, so it was nice to spoon several hunks of pork onto each person's plate.
Everyone really likes Lynn's homemade bread as well, and people want to learn how to bake it. She wants to perfect it a little bit more before teaching others. The dough has been very sticky here and has required more flour than normal. Also, even though the temperatures are high, the bread takes longer to rise before baking. To regulate the temperature on the propane oven takes some careful oversight as well. We are getting better at the whole process, and luckily Mission Haiti accidentally bought way too much flour recently (I was there when it happened but deny any and all responsibility for the mix-up) which needs to be used up before it rots. I guess we will be baking! Too bad butter costs about double in the US or we could stuff ourselves on cookies every day.
We hope your Christmas Adventure was great!
-Grimm Family Adventurers
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Busy About the Ministry
Family and Friends,
The following comes from Cory's journal about a week ago. It gives a picture of some of the work we are doing here...
Today Patchouko and I did the big hike. If you have attended a Mission Haiti trip and hiked to any of the schools, you will appreciate how far we traveled. We went to ALL of the mountain schools today! First of all we walked down the road to the market near St. John, confidently allowing the tap-taps to drive past us. Next we hiked up the steep mountain to the Jabouim school. I paused for a moment to take a picture of our sponsor child Katia, but soon we were on our way.
Our mission today was mostly to deliver a bunch of gifts from sponsors to their sponsor children, so Patchouko and I both had plenty to carry. After Jabouim we headed up the big scorched hill to Tousainte and stopped at the school. We dropped off some gifts and continued on our merry way. After that we travelled along the beautiful, scenic ridge toward the trail of death. I had forgotten how breath-taking it is up there, probably because most of the time you go up there you are literally out of breath, and the only thing you can concentrate on is how you are going to get down without dying.
We took a little break at a beautiful spot where you can see the ocean on both horizons. Pretty cool. Next came the trail of death. I won't say it is easier to go up the trail than down, but it is no picnic going down either. We finally reached the Baptist School, dropped off some gifts, and then continued on to the Mountain school. We arrived right around noon, so it was getting hot.
Yesterday a couple of women came down from the mountain and told us the director of the mountain school had kicked out all of the kids and told them not to come back unless they had more money to pay. We told the ladies we would go and talk to the director the next day, which worked out good because we were planning to deliver sponsor gifts anyway.
We began to talk to the mountain school director about the situation. Also present was Madame Saver, his famous mother, whom I mentioned in an earlier newsletter and/or blog entry. She is a prophetess of sorts whom many people respect and venerate in the area. She sees visions, and people believe they will come true. Anyway, they tried to explain the whole school situation to us, and I left there more confused than when I arrived.
Patchouko tried to explain the whole thing to me, but it still didn't add up. I have to admit I have plenty to learn about this culture. Patchouko reassured me that it is a complex culture to understand. I agreed. All I know is that the schools don't seem to be educating the kids all that well, and I wish we could do something to help. Pam has been trying for years to help, but it is a real struggle. Something to pray about.
On the way back we made two house visits. One was to a young family where the woman is a christian but the man is not. We want to help them talk about that and ideally lead the man to Christ. The husband was not there, so we made an appointment to return next week Tuesday. The other visit was to Aldoni, the young man who stole from Mission Haiti ealier this year and ended up spending three months in jail. He was the one I visited with Kiki and Patchouko and blogged about the experience (see "An Adventurous Adventure" written in October).
Aldoni had a hard time in prison, but God protected him. For one thing cholera hit hard there, and over forty men died. It probably didn't help that sometimes the guards don't give people water to drink for days at a time. Aldoni said there was one morning when he woke up and both of the men on either side of him had died in the night. Also, one time the prison flooded, I think during the hurricane, and everyone had to be relocated to the penitentiary in Port-au-Prince. The rumor is that when they transfer you there sometimes they forget about you entirely and your records can't be found. Then add to that the reality that many people in there are some of the hardest criminals on earth. Scary. Fortunately, Aldoni was protected again and was able to return to Les Cayes and be released on schedule on Dec. 14th. He and his family were so happy to see us and thankful for our earlier visit. We prayed together.
Patchouko and I finally arrived home at about 1:30. We had hiked around 6 ½ hours. Woo hoo! It was a good day. Tonight we will reward ourselves with pancakes and some little sausages (little smokies canned in the Netherlands) I found at the market. I hope they have real meat in them, but if it is even close to meat I'm sure it will taste good.
We hope YOUR adventure is going well!
-The Grimms
The following comes from Cory's journal about a week ago. It gives a picture of some of the work we are doing here...
Today Patchouko and I did the big hike. If you have attended a Mission Haiti trip and hiked to any of the schools, you will appreciate how far we traveled. We went to ALL of the mountain schools today! First of all we walked down the road to the market near St. John, confidently allowing the tap-taps to drive past us. Next we hiked up the steep mountain to the Jabouim school. I paused for a moment to take a picture of our sponsor child Katia, but soon we were on our way.
Our mission today was mostly to deliver a bunch of gifts from sponsors to their sponsor children, so Patchouko and I both had plenty to carry. After Jabouim we headed up the big scorched hill to Tousainte and stopped at the school. We dropped off some gifts and continued on our merry way. After that we travelled along the beautiful, scenic ridge toward the trail of death. I had forgotten how breath-taking it is up there, probably because most of the time you go up there you are literally out of breath, and the only thing you can concentrate on is how you are going to get down without dying.
We took a little break at a beautiful spot where you can see the ocean on both horizons. Pretty cool. Next came the trail of death. I won't say it is easier to go up the trail than down, but it is no picnic going down either. We finally reached the Baptist School, dropped off some gifts, and then continued on to the Mountain school. We arrived right around noon, so it was getting hot.
Yesterday a couple of women came down from the mountain and told us the director of the mountain school had kicked out all of the kids and told them not to come back unless they had more money to pay. We told the ladies we would go and talk to the director the next day, which worked out good because we were planning to deliver sponsor gifts anyway.
We began to talk to the mountain school director about the situation. Also present was Madame Saver, his famous mother, whom I mentioned in an earlier newsletter and/or blog entry. She is a prophetess of sorts whom many people respect and venerate in the area. She sees visions, and people believe they will come true. Anyway, they tried to explain the whole school situation to us, and I left there more confused than when I arrived.
Patchouko tried to explain the whole thing to me, but it still didn't add up. I have to admit I have plenty to learn about this culture. Patchouko reassured me that it is a complex culture to understand. I agreed. All I know is that the schools don't seem to be educating the kids all that well, and I wish we could do something to help. Pam has been trying for years to help, but it is a real struggle. Something to pray about.
On the way back we made two house visits. One was to a young family where the woman is a christian but the man is not. We want to help them talk about that and ideally lead the man to Christ. The husband was not there, so we made an appointment to return next week Tuesday. The other visit was to Aldoni, the young man who stole from Mission Haiti ealier this year and ended up spending three months in jail. He was the one I visited with Kiki and Patchouko and blogged about the experience (see "An Adventurous Adventure" written in October).
Aldoni had a hard time in prison, but God protected him. For one thing cholera hit hard there, and over forty men died. It probably didn't help that sometimes the guards don't give people water to drink for days at a time. Aldoni said there was one morning when he woke up and both of the men on either side of him had died in the night. Also, one time the prison flooded, I think during the hurricane, and everyone had to be relocated to the penitentiary in Port-au-Prince. The rumor is that when they transfer you there sometimes they forget about you entirely and your records can't be found. Then add to that the reality that many people in there are some of the hardest criminals on earth. Scary. Fortunately, Aldoni was protected again and was able to return to Les Cayes and be released on schedule on Dec. 14th. He and his family were so happy to see us and thankful for our earlier visit. We prayed together.
Patchouko and I finally arrived home at about 1:30. We had hiked around 6 ½ hours. Woo hoo! It was a good day. Tonight we will reward ourselves with pancakes and some little sausages (little smokies canned in the Netherlands) I found at the market. I hope they have real meat in them, but if it is even close to meat I'm sure it will taste good.
We hope YOUR adventure is going well!
-The Grimms
A Wide Open Door to Help People with Cholera
Family and Friends,
The following is a snippet from Cory's journal from a couple of weeks ago...just thought you would find this interesting...
Dec. 14, 2010- “A Wide Open Door” (I Cor. 15:9)
Today was one of those amazing days in ministry that only come along once in awhile. As you progress step-by-step through the day you are overwhelmed with a feeling that God is leading you at all times, and sure enough, at the end of our day a huge door for ministry was flung wide open. I'll get to that in a minute, but first I'll reflect on how we got to that point.
The last few days, as we have tried to recover physically and emotionally from helping the mission team that was stranded here and praying with them to be able to return home safely, our family members have all gone through times of “throwing fits” in the way the each of us does that. For Alexandra, she simply throws a real fit, like any preschool age kid. For the bigger kids it takes the form of disobedience and negative attitude. For us adults we are mainly just exhausted and annoyed with each other at times.
But we should have remembered that God always allows you to go through the desert in order to reach the promised land on the other side.
Today Patchouko and I needed to go to Les Cayes, the nearby large city, to get various groceries and supplies for our families and the orphanage. Both of our propane tanks ran out on the same day, which is actually kind of nice, because we went and got both of them filled at the same time. After that we went to a huge market and got fruit and vegetables. I really enjoyed doing that and wish I had more time to reflect on that experience. Sometime soon I will.
Next was a visit to the grocery store I mentioned in an earlier post. That place was pretty picked over after the recent political events. It seems people make a run on the grocery stores here when there are riots just like they do back home when a storm is coming. However, I was able to find some nice items to tide us over until the next teams come down with more food.
After that we went to look for a bike for Patchouko's son. He asked me to stay in the car until he was finished, because whenver a white person walks up the price doubles. He was able to get the bike.
Our final stop was at the general hospital to visit a sick girl from the village. The general hospital is run by the government for people who can't afford the “good” hospitals. I'm sure you can figure out from that statement that this hospital is not the best. I was there a week or so ago but couldnn't find the girl we were looking for at that time. We had the same problem today. You go around asking people in the hospital for information, but all they say is, “I don't know where she is. Why don't you look around in all the rooms and try to find her.” Gee thanks. The last time I was there we did look around in a lot of the rooms, and we stumbled upon so pretty grizzly scenes. We went into the ER and discovered several people sitting in pools of their own blood. Nice. I wasn't too anxious to repeat that experience again.
Pretty soon, though, we found ourselves standing outside the cholera ward, which turned out to be exactly where God wanted us to be. Zachary from Ti-Rivier had joined us at this point after running some errands in that area. The three of us decided we should pray for the sick people inside. At first I thought we would just stand outside the tents and pray for the people all at once, but pretty soon we decided to see if we could go inside and find people with no family to care for them.
We went to the entrance, and their was a guy stopping everyone who was going out or coming in to spray a mist of some chemical on them. We figured out that anyone could enter for no reason (which seems strange in retrospect), and soon we were standing in the midst of half a dozen tents filled with cholera patients. At first we were all a little bit stunned by the gravity of the situation. The smell was overwhelming, the traffic between the tents of medical staff and various people was somewhat frantic, and just peeking through the doors was enough to see that we better be emotionally prepared for whatever was about to happen to us.
We started at the back of the property and began looking for people to talk to. Right away we found a young man who was alone on a cot. He looked pretty rough. We talked to him for awhile and found out he had been there for almost three days but was given very little attention. He didn't even have an IV yet. The people without family members present don't get much attention, and the hospital has no program to offer them food. That is just standard procedure in Haiti in every hospital...if you don't have someone from the outside bringing you food and medicine and advocating for your care, you get nothing.
We gave him some bread and juice and helped him take his last three pills of pain medication. We prayed with him for awhile, and then Zachary and Patchouko started singing some well-known hymn in Creole. It was an inspiring moment...many of the staff and other patients and family members joined in and a kind of peace washed over the whole place for just a moment. After that I asked the guys to ask the young man if he had trusted Christ for salvation yet. He said he had and he thanked us profusely for asking and for sitting with him for awhile.
After that we went into some of the tents and saw many small children in various stages of dealing with Cholera. It was very sad and very difficult to look at. At one point I saw a couple of white doctors in a side room talking about something. I decided to duck my head inside and introduce myself. They said “hello” and we talked for a few minutes. One of the guys seems to be down here long-term, and the other one was on a mission team. I'm not sure if they are doctors or not, but they explained that they are the only ones working in the Cholera camp...the general hospital itself isn't the one working with these patients. Soon the mission team would be leaving, and that will leave only the one doctor. I would estimate that there was around 80 patients there with cholera.
We told the guys that we were there to encourage people, especially those with no family. They told us that most of the people don't have family there, because families are afraid to be in the camp, and many people have no access to any food at all. What the camp needed most was some food for the people, and he asked if we could help at all. I told him I would see what we could do to help. That was our wide-open door!
So on the way home Patchouko and I started scheming to find some solution to the problem. We have a whole depot filled with vitamin-packed rice and bean packets for the school program, so we coud dip into that resource quite a bit and still be fine. After all, the schools have barely met for the last month, so we have to be a little bit ahead on supplies. Of course the next step will be to talk to Pam and see if we can get the green light for doing that. Hopefully if we can tide the medical team over for a few weeks they can get some long-term program to help them out, such as World Relief. That is who they are trying to work with now.
Patchouko and I both agreed that whatever we may have been stressing about over the last few days, it didn't seem like such a big deal now. I hope we can help those patients with a little bit of food, and when we do we will go through family by family and make sure everyone hears the gospel message and has a chance to commit his/her life to Christ. God dumped this great opportunity in our lap and we are anxious to prove faithful.
Dec. 16, 2010-
Yesterday we went to the General Hospital to give the cholera patients some lunch. It went fairly well I think. About half of the people were able to eat. The other half were either too nauseated or unresponsive to eat. We saw some bodies off to the side, and a few others looked like they would be joining them soon if they didn't recover in the next day or so. The hardest to see, of course, was the children who were sick, especially those with no parents present.
The Doctor, a man named Patrick from the US, called us later and told us “Thank you” for the food. We left a whole 5-gallon bucket of rice for later, and he told me that at night more people were ready to eat, and it was a hit. He asked if we could continue to bring food. I told him I would see what we could do, but I had heard there might be more political demonstrations, and we are about 40 minutes drive away as well. Pam is contacting a large ministry in Les Cayes to see if they can take it from here. After that we are hoping a large international food relief program can supply the food until the cholera outbreak is over.
I will probably write more about that cholera experience sometime soon, but for now I think I'm still a little bit in shock over the whole thing.
To finish the story now 2 weeks later...
We never heard back again from Patrick, the American Doctor at General Hospital, and so we assumed he finally got a regular supply of food lined up. That was quite an experience. I was especially proud of the Haitian guys who went in there with me to do ministry. Everyone here is very scared of Cholera. That is why most of the family members don't even go in the hospital with their loved ones who are sick.
One other strange thing that happened...I was visiting someone's home recently and they had the TV on. The news was showing footage of the cholera ward at General Hospital, and I saw all the patients we had visited. The news report wasn't good, though. It seems they are just piling up the bodies of the victims and driving them in trucks out to who-knows-where. Sad. But it was nice to help out a little bit that one day. It kind of encapsulates ministry here...you can't fix everything but you can touch a few lives in the midst of the struggle.
God Bless,
-Grimm Family Adventurers
The following is a snippet from Cory's journal from a couple of weeks ago...just thought you would find this interesting...
Dec. 14, 2010- “A Wide Open Door” (I Cor. 15:9)
Today was one of those amazing days in ministry that only come along once in awhile. As you progress step-by-step through the day you are overwhelmed with a feeling that God is leading you at all times, and sure enough, at the end of our day a huge door for ministry was flung wide open. I'll get to that in a minute, but first I'll reflect on how we got to that point.
The last few days, as we have tried to recover physically and emotionally from helping the mission team that was stranded here and praying with them to be able to return home safely, our family members have all gone through times of “throwing fits” in the way the each of us does that. For Alexandra, she simply throws a real fit, like any preschool age kid. For the bigger kids it takes the form of disobedience and negative attitude. For us adults we are mainly just exhausted and annoyed with each other at times.
But we should have remembered that God always allows you to go through the desert in order to reach the promised land on the other side.
Today Patchouko and I needed to go to Les Cayes, the nearby large city, to get various groceries and supplies for our families and the orphanage. Both of our propane tanks ran out on the same day, which is actually kind of nice, because we went and got both of them filled at the same time. After that we went to a huge market and got fruit and vegetables. I really enjoyed doing that and wish I had more time to reflect on that experience. Sometime soon I will.
Next was a visit to the grocery store I mentioned in an earlier post. That place was pretty picked over after the recent political events. It seems people make a run on the grocery stores here when there are riots just like they do back home when a storm is coming. However, I was able to find some nice items to tide us over until the next teams come down with more food.
After that we went to look for a bike for Patchouko's son. He asked me to stay in the car until he was finished, because whenver a white person walks up the price doubles. He was able to get the bike.
Our final stop was at the general hospital to visit a sick girl from the village. The general hospital is run by the government for people who can't afford the “good” hospitals. I'm sure you can figure out from that statement that this hospital is not the best. I was there a week or so ago but couldnn't find the girl we were looking for at that time. We had the same problem today. You go around asking people in the hospital for information, but all they say is, “I don't know where she is. Why don't you look around in all the rooms and try to find her.” Gee thanks. The last time I was there we did look around in a lot of the rooms, and we stumbled upon so pretty grizzly scenes. We went into the ER and discovered several people sitting in pools of their own blood. Nice. I wasn't too anxious to repeat that experience again.
Pretty soon, though, we found ourselves standing outside the cholera ward, which turned out to be exactly where God wanted us to be. Zachary from Ti-Rivier had joined us at this point after running some errands in that area. The three of us decided we should pray for the sick people inside. At first I thought we would just stand outside the tents and pray for the people all at once, but pretty soon we decided to see if we could go inside and find people with no family to care for them.
We went to the entrance, and their was a guy stopping everyone who was going out or coming in to spray a mist of some chemical on them. We figured out that anyone could enter for no reason (which seems strange in retrospect), and soon we were standing in the midst of half a dozen tents filled with cholera patients. At first we were all a little bit stunned by the gravity of the situation. The smell was overwhelming, the traffic between the tents of medical staff and various people was somewhat frantic, and just peeking through the doors was enough to see that we better be emotionally prepared for whatever was about to happen to us.
We started at the back of the property and began looking for people to talk to. Right away we found a young man who was alone on a cot. He looked pretty rough. We talked to him for awhile and found out he had been there for almost three days but was given very little attention. He didn't even have an IV yet. The people without family members present don't get much attention, and the hospital has no program to offer them food. That is just standard procedure in Haiti in every hospital...if you don't have someone from the outside bringing you food and medicine and advocating for your care, you get nothing.
We gave him some bread and juice and helped him take his last three pills of pain medication. We prayed with him for awhile, and then Zachary and Patchouko started singing some well-known hymn in Creole. It was an inspiring moment...many of the staff and other patients and family members joined in and a kind of peace washed over the whole place for just a moment. After that I asked the guys to ask the young man if he had trusted Christ for salvation yet. He said he had and he thanked us profusely for asking and for sitting with him for awhile.
After that we went into some of the tents and saw many small children in various stages of dealing with Cholera. It was very sad and very difficult to look at. At one point I saw a couple of white doctors in a side room talking about something. I decided to duck my head inside and introduce myself. They said “hello” and we talked for a few minutes. One of the guys seems to be down here long-term, and the other one was on a mission team. I'm not sure if they are doctors or not, but they explained that they are the only ones working in the Cholera camp...the general hospital itself isn't the one working with these patients. Soon the mission team would be leaving, and that will leave only the one doctor. I would estimate that there was around 80 patients there with cholera.
We told the guys that we were there to encourage people, especially those with no family. They told us that most of the people don't have family there, because families are afraid to be in the camp, and many people have no access to any food at all. What the camp needed most was some food for the people, and he asked if we could help at all. I told him I would see what we could do to help. That was our wide-open door!
So on the way home Patchouko and I started scheming to find some solution to the problem. We have a whole depot filled with vitamin-packed rice and bean packets for the school program, so we coud dip into that resource quite a bit and still be fine. After all, the schools have barely met for the last month, so we have to be a little bit ahead on supplies. Of course the next step will be to talk to Pam and see if we can get the green light for doing that. Hopefully if we can tide the medical team over for a few weeks they can get some long-term program to help them out, such as World Relief. That is who they are trying to work with now.
Patchouko and I both agreed that whatever we may have been stressing about over the last few days, it didn't seem like such a big deal now. I hope we can help those patients with a little bit of food, and when we do we will go through family by family and make sure everyone hears the gospel message and has a chance to commit his/her life to Christ. God dumped this great opportunity in our lap and we are anxious to prove faithful.
Dec. 16, 2010-
Yesterday we went to the General Hospital to give the cholera patients some lunch. It went fairly well I think. About half of the people were able to eat. The other half were either too nauseated or unresponsive to eat. We saw some bodies off to the side, and a few others looked like they would be joining them soon if they didn't recover in the next day or so. The hardest to see, of course, was the children who were sick, especially those with no parents present.
The Doctor, a man named Patrick from the US, called us later and told us “Thank you” for the food. We left a whole 5-gallon bucket of rice for later, and he told me that at night more people were ready to eat, and it was a hit. He asked if we could continue to bring food. I told him I would see what we could do, but I had heard there might be more political demonstrations, and we are about 40 minutes drive away as well. Pam is contacting a large ministry in Les Cayes to see if they can take it from here. After that we are hoping a large international food relief program can supply the food until the cholera outbreak is over.
I will probably write more about that cholera experience sometime soon, but for now I think I'm still a little bit in shock over the whole thing.
To finish the story now 2 weeks later...
We never heard back again from Patrick, the American Doctor at General Hospital, and so we assumed he finally got a regular supply of food lined up. That was quite an experience. I was especially proud of the Haitian guys who went in there with me to do ministry. Everyone here is very scared of Cholera. That is why most of the family members don't even go in the hospital with their loved ones who are sick.
One other strange thing that happened...I was visiting someone's home recently and they had the TV on. The news was showing footage of the cholera ward at General Hospital, and I saw all the patients we had visited. The news report wasn't good, though. It seems they are just piling up the bodies of the victims and driving them in trucks out to who-knows-where. Sad. But it was nice to help out a little bit that one day. It kind of encapsulates ministry here...you can't fix everything but you can touch a few lives in the midst of the struggle.
God Bless,
-Grimm Family Adventurers
Monday, December 13, 2010
The Latest News and Merry Christmas!
Day 35 of our Adventure in Haiti!
Family and Friends,
This post will be somewhat shorter than normal, and it might be the last one for awhile. Adrian, the kind man who allows us to use his internet access, will be leaving tomorrow for a couple of weeks, so we will be out of contact until he returns. To make up for our lack of communication, I have posted a couple of journal entries from the last week for you to read..."Here for a Purpose" and "The Day After." Check those out below.
The mission team that was stuck with us was finally able to leave and travel safely to Port-au-Prince, where they will stay for a few days with Kiki and fly out on Wednesday. Those were some tense days, but it was also an opportunity to depend more on God for everything. Lynn and I agreed that we liked them more the longer they were here, yet it was a relief when they were able to go...both for their sake and for ours. Kind of like family at Christmas time, I guess.
Speaking of Christmas...we probably won't be able to be in touch until after that time, so we wish you all the best. We've heard about the hard weather up there, and we are praying that everyone drives safely and enjoys some quality time with family and a deep sense of God's love sent down to us through Christ in the weeks ahead.
Something else to pray about...
With the continued political situation down here Mike and Pam will have to make some hard decisions concerning upcoming mission teams, whether or not to change dates or go ahead as planned, etc... Please pray that God will give them and the leaders of those teams wisdom. There are three teams scheduled for January, including 2 from Sioux Center, so it will be a letdown if they can't come. However, God has the whole thing under control and will work it out in His perfect timing.
We will write again just as soon as we can.
Enjoy Your Christmas Adventure!
The Grimm Family
Family and Friends,
This post will be somewhat shorter than normal, and it might be the last one for awhile. Adrian, the kind man who allows us to use his internet access, will be leaving tomorrow for a couple of weeks, so we will be out of contact until he returns. To make up for our lack of communication, I have posted a couple of journal entries from the last week for you to read..."Here for a Purpose" and "The Day After." Check those out below.
The mission team that was stuck with us was finally able to leave and travel safely to Port-au-Prince, where they will stay for a few days with Kiki and fly out on Wednesday. Those were some tense days, but it was also an opportunity to depend more on God for everything. Lynn and I agreed that we liked them more the longer they were here, yet it was a relief when they were able to go...both for their sake and for ours. Kind of like family at Christmas time, I guess.
Speaking of Christmas...we probably won't be able to be in touch until after that time, so we wish you all the best. We've heard about the hard weather up there, and we are praying that everyone drives safely and enjoys some quality time with family and a deep sense of God's love sent down to us through Christ in the weeks ahead.
Something else to pray about...
With the continued political situation down here Mike and Pam will have to make some hard decisions concerning upcoming mission teams, whether or not to change dates or go ahead as planned, etc... Please pray that God will give them and the leaders of those teams wisdom. There are three teams scheduled for January, including 2 from Sioux Center, so it will be a letdown if they can't come. However, God has the whole thing under control and will work it out in His perfect timing.
We will write again just as soon as we can.
Enjoy Your Christmas Adventure!
The Grimm Family
Here for a Purpose
Family and Friends,
This blog post comes from Cory's journal entry on December 9th. It talks about the continued struggle of the mission team stuck down here and the adventures of our day. Enjoy.
Dec. 9, 2010-
What a day.
I'm so tired at the end of this day that I am walking around in a kind of fog. Here is what we did...
This morning we had a team meeting and talked through the possibilities for the next few days. In other words, the main thing going on here is that we are still trying to get this mission team home safely, and we discussed what we know for sure about the situation in Haiti, which is really not much. However, one key development today is that Pam spoke with a US Embassy worker who assured us they will help us in any way they can. Also, the embassy will be able to let us know when it is safe to travel, which helps a lot. They also told us that if we have an emergency, such as someone getting severely ill or the compound running out of food, they have ways to help us. That was nice to hear.
We had a lot of laughs this morning about the whole situation. For one thing we heard that one of the team members' mom blew the whole story up and even contacted the local news in Sioux Falls and told them things were really bad down here, which is not the truth, at least not for us. So we were making up all of our own stories about what is going on in Sioux Falls and comparing ourselves to the miners in Chile and other similar stories. Of course we really don't see it that way, but laughing has been a cathartic way for this team to deal with stress.
Knowing the team would probably be here for at least a couple more days, we made plans to do some more work projects and other ministry. I was impressed the team didn't just sit around and worry all day. Instead they said, "God has us here for a purpose." Inspiring.
First of all, we set out to do some home visits. One group went to visit Stanley, a young boy in the village who has a severe case of club feet and some other developmental issues. Pam is working on a medical visa for him, and the paperwork is getting close to finished. After that he may have some life-changing opportunities in the states. The team played with him and talked with his family. We'll keep you updated on that situation.
Most of the team went to the home of a young teenage girl who is fighting demon possession. I had met her earlier on another trip and immediately sensed there was something not right with her. We sat down with the family and Pam got to the bottom of what was going on. It seems the girl basically goes crazy about once a week and starts screaming at the voices in her head and trying to eat everything in sight, like grass and sticks and stuff like that. She is aware of what is going on and knows that it is a demon or demons tormenting her. Things had been getting worse lately and the attacks were more common.
Pam began leading them through a simple yet thorough time of discussion and sharing of the gospel. It turns out the family has been dabbling in both church and voodoo, trying to find help from any source possible. They even had some voodoo symbols in the house, hanging from the ceiling, which were believed to have special powers. This is very typical in Haiti. After the conversation the parents decided they were ready to trust Jesus alone for salvation and give their lives to him. Praise God!
They even told us someone in the community had a vision of their family all converting at the same time. After hearing that we decided to call in all of their children and get them up to speed on what was going on. Pam went through the gospel message with them as well (2 kids older than the sick sister, and one kid younger) and they too agreed to give their lives to Jesus. We led them through a time of prayer and repentence, and all of them asked Jesus to be Lord of their lives. All of them except the sick young girl, that is. She tried to pray the sinner's prayer with us, but she couldn't, so that was more evidence that evil spirits were controlling her. (As a side note several of the neighbor ladies were listening to the whole thing, and one of them decided to accept Christ as well!)
Then we did some other little ceremonies such as burning all of the voodoo stuff, anointing the house with oil and dedicating it to Christ, casting out any demons lurking on the property, and trying to cast out the demon from the young girl. Everything seemed successful except the final step. We prayed and prayed but couldn't get anything to happen. Sometimes I'm convinced that demons are under strict orders to just pretend they are not there whenever white Christians show up. They know that we don't have very much patience, so if they can just ignore a few minutes of prayer and worship they can stay. I don't know if that is true, but I suspect is has something to do with it.
So we are sending some of the Haitian youth soon to try again. They have a lot more persistence and intensity in their worship, so we'll see if God chooses to use that to free the girl. I hope so, because as I have blogged about earlier, sometimes I wonder about the peripheral damage we do as mission teams whenever we demonstrate powerful faith in God. That seems strange to say, but since the Haitians already think of themselves as inferior to us, I wonder what happens to their self-esteem whenever we do things for God they were unable to do. For that reason I hope God uses the Haitians this time to cast out the demon. Maybe I'm over analyzing the whole thing, but that is what I do.
Anyway, back to our day...
After that we returned back to the orphanage compound for a quick lunch of rice and beans...or maybe it was beans and rice...hard to tell. Soon we were ready to head out again and remodel the local soccer field. This is an idea the team came up with, and I really liked what ended up happening. The field is right along the beach, and people go and dump their garbage there. How sad. We picked up the garbage and then made a boundary to the field with rocks about a foot hight around the entire perimeter. I take that back...part of the boundary was made up of fallen coconut trees that were hauled into place. It really looked nice by the time we finished, and close to 100 people participated in the work, mostly kids. The team gave many of them soccer balls as a reward.
After that some of us headed to the home of the man who allows us to use his internet access. Unfortunately, today it isn't working. He has several family members visiting from Canada and the US, and they are in the same boat as our mission team. Their plan is to leave for Port-au-Prince tomorrow, but they also might have to miss their flights and wait for the roads to open up. We sat by the ocean for awhile enjoying the view and then headed back to the orphanage.
When we arrived home there were dozens of youth hanging out in the yard. By now it was getting dark, but we decided to do a short youth group meeting. How many youth pastors in the US have that problem? How many of them have their entire youth group showing up every night of the week just hoping to study the Bible and sing praise songs into the night? Not many. We had a great meeting, and a downpour started right in the middle. That only made the singing from the group grow louder. Love it down here!
Then it was time to get the kids to bed, and they were exhausted. Kester and Elizabeth helped with the soccer field clean-up, and they did a great job. Alexandra had another rough day, but we finally got all of them settled in for bed. Then the team had a meeting to sum up the day, pray, and talk about the day to come. Sound like we will be climbing the mountain to share Bible stories with the children up there. I'm too tired to think about that right now, but trusting that God will provide the energy when the time comes.
We asked for an adventure, and now we have it! Praise God.
missing everyone...
-Grimm Family Adventures
This blog post comes from Cory's journal entry on December 9th. It talks about the continued struggle of the mission team stuck down here and the adventures of our day. Enjoy.
Dec. 9, 2010-
What a day.
I'm so tired at the end of this day that I am walking around in a kind of fog. Here is what we did...
This morning we had a team meeting and talked through the possibilities for the next few days. In other words, the main thing going on here is that we are still trying to get this mission team home safely, and we discussed what we know for sure about the situation in Haiti, which is really not much. However, one key development today is that Pam spoke with a US Embassy worker who assured us they will help us in any way they can. Also, the embassy will be able to let us know when it is safe to travel, which helps a lot. They also told us that if we have an emergency, such as someone getting severely ill or the compound running out of food, they have ways to help us. That was nice to hear.
We had a lot of laughs this morning about the whole situation. For one thing we heard that one of the team members' mom blew the whole story up and even contacted the local news in Sioux Falls and told them things were really bad down here, which is not the truth, at least not for us. So we were making up all of our own stories about what is going on in Sioux Falls and comparing ourselves to the miners in Chile and other similar stories. Of course we really don't see it that way, but laughing has been a cathartic way for this team to deal with stress.
Knowing the team would probably be here for at least a couple more days, we made plans to do some more work projects and other ministry. I was impressed the team didn't just sit around and worry all day. Instead they said, "God has us here for a purpose." Inspiring.
First of all, we set out to do some home visits. One group went to visit Stanley, a young boy in the village who has a severe case of club feet and some other developmental issues. Pam is working on a medical visa for him, and the paperwork is getting close to finished. After that he may have some life-changing opportunities in the states. The team played with him and talked with his family. We'll keep you updated on that situation.
Most of the team went to the home of a young teenage girl who is fighting demon possession. I had met her earlier on another trip and immediately sensed there was something not right with her. We sat down with the family and Pam got to the bottom of what was going on. It seems the girl basically goes crazy about once a week and starts screaming at the voices in her head and trying to eat everything in sight, like grass and sticks and stuff like that. She is aware of what is going on and knows that it is a demon or demons tormenting her. Things had been getting worse lately and the attacks were more common.
Pam began leading them through a simple yet thorough time of discussion and sharing of the gospel. It turns out the family has been dabbling in both church and voodoo, trying to find help from any source possible. They even had some voodoo symbols in the house, hanging from the ceiling, which were believed to have special powers. This is very typical in Haiti. After the conversation the parents decided they were ready to trust Jesus alone for salvation and give their lives to him. Praise God!
They even told us someone in the community had a vision of their family all converting at the same time. After hearing that we decided to call in all of their children and get them up to speed on what was going on. Pam went through the gospel message with them as well (2 kids older than the sick sister, and one kid younger) and they too agreed to give their lives to Jesus. We led them through a time of prayer and repentence, and all of them asked Jesus to be Lord of their lives. All of them except the sick young girl, that is. She tried to pray the sinner's prayer with us, but she couldn't, so that was more evidence that evil spirits were controlling her. (As a side note several of the neighbor ladies were listening to the whole thing, and one of them decided to accept Christ as well!)
Then we did some other little ceremonies such as burning all of the voodoo stuff, anointing the house with oil and dedicating it to Christ, casting out any demons lurking on the property, and trying to cast out the demon from the young girl. Everything seemed successful except the final step. We prayed and prayed but couldn't get anything to happen. Sometimes I'm convinced that demons are under strict orders to just pretend they are not there whenever white Christians show up. They know that we don't have very much patience, so if they can just ignore a few minutes of prayer and worship they can stay. I don't know if that is true, but I suspect is has something to do with it.
So we are sending some of the Haitian youth soon to try again. They have a lot more persistence and intensity in their worship, so we'll see if God chooses to use that to free the girl. I hope so, because as I have blogged about earlier, sometimes I wonder about the peripheral damage we do as mission teams whenever we demonstrate powerful faith in God. That seems strange to say, but since the Haitians already think of themselves as inferior to us, I wonder what happens to their self-esteem whenever we do things for God they were unable to do. For that reason I hope God uses the Haitians this time to cast out the demon. Maybe I'm over analyzing the whole thing, but that is what I do.
Anyway, back to our day...
After that we returned back to the orphanage compound for a quick lunch of rice and beans...or maybe it was beans and rice...hard to tell. Soon we were ready to head out again and remodel the local soccer field. This is an idea the team came up with, and I really liked what ended up happening. The field is right along the beach, and people go and dump their garbage there. How sad. We picked up the garbage and then made a boundary to the field with rocks about a foot hight around the entire perimeter. I take that back...part of the boundary was made up of fallen coconut trees that were hauled into place. It really looked nice by the time we finished, and close to 100 people participated in the work, mostly kids. The team gave many of them soccer balls as a reward.
After that some of us headed to the home of the man who allows us to use his internet access. Unfortunately, today it isn't working. He has several family members visiting from Canada and the US, and they are in the same boat as our mission team. Their plan is to leave for Port-au-Prince tomorrow, but they also might have to miss their flights and wait for the roads to open up. We sat by the ocean for awhile enjoying the view and then headed back to the orphanage.
When we arrived home there were dozens of youth hanging out in the yard. By now it was getting dark, but we decided to do a short youth group meeting. How many youth pastors in the US have that problem? How many of them have their entire youth group showing up every night of the week just hoping to study the Bible and sing praise songs into the night? Not many. We had a great meeting, and a downpour started right in the middle. That only made the singing from the group grow louder. Love it down here!
Then it was time to get the kids to bed, and they were exhausted. Kester and Elizabeth helped with the soccer field clean-up, and they did a great job. Alexandra had another rough day, but we finally got all of them settled in for bed. Then the team had a meeting to sum up the day, pray, and talk about the day to come. Sound like we will be climbing the mountain to share Bible stories with the children up there. I'm too tired to think about that right now, but trusting that God will provide the energy when the time comes.
We asked for an adventure, and now we have it! Praise God.
missing everyone...
-Grimm Family Adventures
The Day After
Family and Friends,
This blog entry comes from Cory's journal and was written on December 8th. It is called "The Day After" because it was written after the mission team had to return to Ti-Rivier due to blocked roads and roving mobs of people demonstrating against the government in Haiti.
Dec. 8, 2010-
The current mission team is sitting in the eating area tonight, discussing the tense moments that occurred last night as they attempted to drive to Port-au-Prince for their flight and ended up having to turn back. I think it is good for them and a chance to process the feelings of fear and helplessness they must have felt in that moment as the rocks were hitting the bus and the windows were breaking. I'm sure that wasn't too much fun, but it is nice to see that they can already joke about it tonight. There is a lot of laughing over there.
What a privilege, though, to be able to share in some way with the Haitian people their frustration with corrupt governments and the daily struggle associated with living in an unstable land. I'm convicted today of every little headline I have read in my life and really not thought too much about...
“10,000 die in mud slide in China”
“Political uprising in Africa leaves hundreds dead”
“Unrest in the middle east could lead to increased violence”
"Child sex-slavery on the rise in Southeast Asia”
Headlines like these are always there in the back sections of the paper and at the bottom of the world news updates on whatever email site you use, but how often do they really hit home and cause us to feel the pain of the people affected by these tragedies? I have to admit that being in the middle of one of those situations today opens my eyes to my many years of apathy towards the situations people endure in developing countries on a regular basis. I've really missed out on a lot by not caring to look too far beyond the borders of the United States. I haven't really cared about what is going on, much less done something about it.
So maybe at least now we can actually do something to help the people of Haiti. After all, we live here! It is just like God to work like that...to give people like me, who consistently miss out on opportunities to care and serve, more and more chances to get it right. I'm so glad God is so patient with me. So the best thing now is to share the burdens of the people, to get it right, to look for those opportunities to help out and make a little difference in at least a few lives.
Lynn and I were frustrated with the kids this morning. The team tried to leave around 1:30AM, and they came back not too long after that. They got situated and tried to get some sleep for the remainder of the night. In the morning I could tell people were tense and exhausted, wondering what would happen next. I thought it would be nice to give them a hearty breakfast, so I started making pancakes.
I asked Kester to go out to the eating area and set up about fifteen plates with forks. He copped an attitude right away and didn't want to help. I said, “Fine, I'll ask someone who actually wants to help.” So I asked Alexandra, our 3-year old. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea either. She was willing to do it, and Elizabeth was willing to help her. About a minute later I heard them bickering out in the eating area. I went out there and saw them fighting with each other and yelling. To my horror I also saw the mission team about 15 feet away standing in a circle praying. So I quickly walked out there and tried to get the girls to be quiet, but instead they started dropping dishes and yelling louder. Meanwhile the crop of pancakes I had going on the griddle were getting nice and dark.
So we have some work to do on being servants to the mission teams that come down here. The kids are young, but I had hoped they had a better idea of what we are doing here and what is going on around them. Instead of being ready to help the team as they go through this trial, all they could think about was their own play time and fighting with each other. Sad. But I have to take the blame as the parent. I need to do a better job of carefully communicating to them, in ways they can understand, that we are here to serve people, both the Haitians and the mission teams that come down, and we always need to be on the lookout for ways to bless people.
On a more positive note, our kids have had a fun week playing with the kids that came down with the team. One family visiting here has a nine-year-old boy and a seven-year-old girl who have made friends with Kester, Elizabeth, and Alexandra. They spend time playing games together and swinging on the playground. I just hope there isn't too much of a barrier between the white and the black kids in the yard this week, but I understand their frustration at not being able to communicate as well with the kids in the orphanage. Complicated situations like these demonstrate how raising kids on the mission field is never simple or easy. However, we do enjoy many teaching opportunities and chances for all of us to grow in our faith. That is one of the big reasons we came here!
Some of the Haitians who visited today talked about being embarrassed and ashamed for their country. Some of the youth were genuinely sorry for the mission team, and they understood that the Americans miss their families and will have to deal with missing work and other responsibilities when they finally return. I never stop being amazed by the Highschool aged Christians here. Many of them are so much more emotionally and spiritually mature than their counterparts in the US. There is an upside to how many of the kids here basically raise themselves from a young age...they grow up fast. Of course that comes with both postives and negatives.
One reason growing up fast is bad is the atmosphere of rampant sexual abuse in Haiti, which I discussed in an early post. We touched on that in Youth Group again last night, because one of the mission team members was willing to share about being molested as a child and the process of recovering from that tragedy. It really got the youth thinking deeply, and hopefully it will lead to some opportunities to help kids get out of those situations. It is difficult for kids in the US to come forward and ask for help, and that feeling of shame is only multiplied here, but at least we continued to let people know last night that God has a better plan and there is hope for healing.
It is really quiet tonight in Ti-Rivier. One thing I have enjoyed doing lately is going up on the roof of the mission house and looking at the stars. As I mentioned earlier, they are building a little house up there for Sue, and they recently completed a staircase on the side of the main level, which makes it easy to head on up and take in the night sky. This would be a perfect night to spend a few minutes up there. All over Haiti people are rioting in the streets and doing who-knows-what. As we prayed with the kids tonight before bed, we simply prayed that God would move in the hearts of thousands of people and simply give them the idea to just stay home tonight. I hope that prayer was answered. And as I look at the stars I will be reminded that if God can create and arrange those enourmous balls of burning gas across an immense universe, He can surely find a way to work out this difficult and perplexing situation in Haiti for His purposes.
The adventure continues in the morning!
Good night.
-Grimm Family Adventurers
This blog entry comes from Cory's journal and was written on December 8th. It is called "The Day After" because it was written after the mission team had to return to Ti-Rivier due to blocked roads and roving mobs of people demonstrating against the government in Haiti.
Dec. 8, 2010-
The current mission team is sitting in the eating area tonight, discussing the tense moments that occurred last night as they attempted to drive to Port-au-Prince for their flight and ended up having to turn back. I think it is good for them and a chance to process the feelings of fear and helplessness they must have felt in that moment as the rocks were hitting the bus and the windows were breaking. I'm sure that wasn't too much fun, but it is nice to see that they can already joke about it tonight. There is a lot of laughing over there.
What a privilege, though, to be able to share in some way with the Haitian people their frustration with corrupt governments and the daily struggle associated with living in an unstable land. I'm convicted today of every little headline I have read in my life and really not thought too much about...
“10,000 die in mud slide in China”
“Political uprising in Africa leaves hundreds dead”
“Unrest in the middle east could lead to increased violence”
"Child sex-slavery on the rise in Southeast Asia”
Headlines like these are always there in the back sections of the paper and at the bottom of the world news updates on whatever email site you use, but how often do they really hit home and cause us to feel the pain of the people affected by these tragedies? I have to admit that being in the middle of one of those situations today opens my eyes to my many years of apathy towards the situations people endure in developing countries on a regular basis. I've really missed out on a lot by not caring to look too far beyond the borders of the United States. I haven't really cared about what is going on, much less done something about it.
So maybe at least now we can actually do something to help the people of Haiti. After all, we live here! It is just like God to work like that...to give people like me, who consistently miss out on opportunities to care and serve, more and more chances to get it right. I'm so glad God is so patient with me. So the best thing now is to share the burdens of the people, to get it right, to look for those opportunities to help out and make a little difference in at least a few lives.
Lynn and I were frustrated with the kids this morning. The team tried to leave around 1:30AM, and they came back not too long after that. They got situated and tried to get some sleep for the remainder of the night. In the morning I could tell people were tense and exhausted, wondering what would happen next. I thought it would be nice to give them a hearty breakfast, so I started making pancakes.
I asked Kester to go out to the eating area and set up about fifteen plates with forks. He copped an attitude right away and didn't want to help. I said, “Fine, I'll ask someone who actually wants to help.” So I asked Alexandra, our 3-year old. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea either. She was willing to do it, and Elizabeth was willing to help her. About a minute later I heard them bickering out in the eating area. I went out there and saw them fighting with each other and yelling. To my horror I also saw the mission team about 15 feet away standing in a circle praying. So I quickly walked out there and tried to get the girls to be quiet, but instead they started dropping dishes and yelling louder. Meanwhile the crop of pancakes I had going on the griddle were getting nice and dark.
So we have some work to do on being servants to the mission teams that come down here. The kids are young, but I had hoped they had a better idea of what we are doing here and what is going on around them. Instead of being ready to help the team as they go through this trial, all they could think about was their own play time and fighting with each other. Sad. But I have to take the blame as the parent. I need to do a better job of carefully communicating to them, in ways they can understand, that we are here to serve people, both the Haitians and the mission teams that come down, and we always need to be on the lookout for ways to bless people.
On a more positive note, our kids have had a fun week playing with the kids that came down with the team. One family visiting here has a nine-year-old boy and a seven-year-old girl who have made friends with Kester, Elizabeth, and Alexandra. They spend time playing games together and swinging on the playground. I just hope there isn't too much of a barrier between the white and the black kids in the yard this week, but I understand their frustration at not being able to communicate as well with the kids in the orphanage. Complicated situations like these demonstrate how raising kids on the mission field is never simple or easy. However, we do enjoy many teaching opportunities and chances for all of us to grow in our faith. That is one of the big reasons we came here!
Some of the Haitians who visited today talked about being embarrassed and ashamed for their country. Some of the youth were genuinely sorry for the mission team, and they understood that the Americans miss their families and will have to deal with missing work and other responsibilities when they finally return. I never stop being amazed by the Highschool aged Christians here. Many of them are so much more emotionally and spiritually mature than their counterparts in the US. There is an upside to how many of the kids here basically raise themselves from a young age...they grow up fast. Of course that comes with both postives and negatives.
One reason growing up fast is bad is the atmosphere of rampant sexual abuse in Haiti, which I discussed in an early post. We touched on that in Youth Group again last night, because one of the mission team members was willing to share about being molested as a child and the process of recovering from that tragedy. It really got the youth thinking deeply, and hopefully it will lead to some opportunities to help kids get out of those situations. It is difficult for kids in the US to come forward and ask for help, and that feeling of shame is only multiplied here, but at least we continued to let people know last night that God has a better plan and there is hope for healing.
It is really quiet tonight in Ti-Rivier. One thing I have enjoyed doing lately is going up on the roof of the mission house and looking at the stars. As I mentioned earlier, they are building a little house up there for Sue, and they recently completed a staircase on the side of the main level, which makes it easy to head on up and take in the night sky. This would be a perfect night to spend a few minutes up there. All over Haiti people are rioting in the streets and doing who-knows-what. As we prayed with the kids tonight before bed, we simply prayed that God would move in the hearts of thousands of people and simply give them the idea to just stay home tonight. I hope that prayer was answered. And as I look at the stars I will be reminded that if God can create and arrange those enourmous balls of burning gas across an immense universe, He can surely find a way to work out this difficult and perplexing situation in Haiti for His purposes.
The adventure continues in the morning!
Good night.
-Grimm Family Adventurers
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Urgent Prayer Request: Haiti Election Results
Day 30 of our Haiti Adventure!
Family and Friends,
I will make this brief, but we urge you to pray with us today for the difficult situation in Haiti. Maybe the political instability has not gotten much coverage there, but the whole country of Haiti is reacting to the announcement last night of the election results. There are manifestations everywhere, which are basically riots, where people are burning cars, blocking streets, attacking and burning government buildings, and demanding justice.
We are safe here in the little village of Ti-Rivier, so don't worry about us at all. Everything is really quiet here today, but in the bigger cities everything has come to a grinding halt. The biggest problem for Mission Haiti right now is that we have a mission team here from Sioux Falls who were supposed to fly out this morning. They tried to leave on the bus, but after only 4 or 5 miles they came to a roadblock they couldn't pass. There was an unruly mob there, and some rocks were thrown at the bus, breaking one of the windows and part of the windshield. The team turned around and returned to the orphanage. Everyone on the bus was fine, but a little shaken from the experience. Now they are hoping to be able to leave on Friday.
Right now all American Airline flights are cancelled until further notice, and the embassy and the UN are working to get Americans out of the country. There is a chance that the team will have an escort tomorrow during the day, which would be very nice. Pam and Mike are working on both sides to get that lined up. So please be praying for this team that would like to go home and see their families. They are holding up well, and we had a great time of prayer and praise this morning which put everyone at ease.
Again, our family is absolutely fine, and we have enough food here to last for years if it ever came down to something like that. We are in a secure compound, and outside the walls are hundreds of people who are on our side and would protect us from anyone who wanted to hurt us, so we are very safe. And of course God has us securely in the palm of His hand at all times. We are just praying for the country of Haiti to have justice and hope for the future, and we are praying that the mission team and other similar teams around Haiti will be able to go home safely.
What an Adventure!
I will make time to update the blog each day if possible for the next few days to keep you up to date on what is going on. Please join us in praying today!
God Bless,
The Grimm Family Adventurers
Family and Friends,
I will make this brief, but we urge you to pray with us today for the difficult situation in Haiti. Maybe the political instability has not gotten much coverage there, but the whole country of Haiti is reacting to the announcement last night of the election results. There are manifestations everywhere, which are basically riots, where people are burning cars, blocking streets, attacking and burning government buildings, and demanding justice.
We are safe here in the little village of Ti-Rivier, so don't worry about us at all. Everything is really quiet here today, but in the bigger cities everything has come to a grinding halt. The biggest problem for Mission Haiti right now is that we have a mission team here from Sioux Falls who were supposed to fly out this morning. They tried to leave on the bus, but after only 4 or 5 miles they came to a roadblock they couldn't pass. There was an unruly mob there, and some rocks were thrown at the bus, breaking one of the windows and part of the windshield. The team turned around and returned to the orphanage. Everyone on the bus was fine, but a little shaken from the experience. Now they are hoping to be able to leave on Friday.
Right now all American Airline flights are cancelled until further notice, and the embassy and the UN are working to get Americans out of the country. There is a chance that the team will have an escort tomorrow during the day, which would be very nice. Pam and Mike are working on both sides to get that lined up. So please be praying for this team that would like to go home and see their families. They are holding up well, and we had a great time of prayer and praise this morning which put everyone at ease.
Again, our family is absolutely fine, and we have enough food here to last for years if it ever came down to something like that. We are in a secure compound, and outside the walls are hundreds of people who are on our side and would protect us from anyone who wanted to hurt us, so we are very safe. And of course God has us securely in the palm of His hand at all times. We are just praying for the country of Haiti to have justice and hope for the future, and we are praying that the mission team and other similar teams around Haiti will be able to go home safely.
What an Adventure!
I will make time to update the blog each day if possible for the next few days to keep you up to date on what is going on. Please join us in praying today!
God Bless,
The Grimm Family Adventurers
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Queen Lynn Ascends the Mountain
Day 23 of our Haiti Adventure!
Fellow Adventurers,
We hope this update finds you doing well in your daily adventure with God. We are thriving down here in Haiti and looking forward to Pam and another mission team coming to join us tomorrow. They will do outreach in the schools and community, utilizing soccer matches as a rallying point to attract people. They are bringing over a dozen suitcases filled with soccer balls to give away! After the matches they will share messages from the Bible with the children who play and do other service and outreach as well. It should be a lot of fun and a great chance to meet some people in the community we don't know.
Do you remember that scene in various movies and books when missionaries or other westerners enter a village in some third-world country, and the natives think they are gods and carry them around on some throne? That happened to Lynn today...well, sort of. We were invited to visit a home in the mountains and have lunch with a family. So a few guys, including Cory, had to carry Lynn on her wheelchair up the mountain. It was quite the hike, and coming down was maybe even harder than going up. It made for some great laughs, a few tears from the kids, and unforgetable memories.
The hospitality of the people here is amazing. We are really spoiled any time we visit someone's house. They gave us an amazing meal and a desert of some amazing fruit juice, which we had been craving. The kids ate like wolves, and then we all went home and collapsed on the bed. It was quite the day.
Later on today or tomorrow I plan to go with Patchouko, the main leader of our ministry here, and the two of us will pray for another young woman with demon possession, so if you are reading this please lift up a little prayer for our safety. We aren't sure what to expect at this point, so we'll just go there and check it out. We may have to return many times, but we'll go with high hopes that God will change this little girl's life through the power of Jesus.
It may be difficult to update the blog when the team is here due to being extra busy, but please check back soon and continue to remember us in your prayers! We hope everyone's furnace is running properly back home...and we hope your Christmas season is off to a great start.
God Bless,
The Grimm Adventurers
Fellow Adventurers,
We hope this update finds you doing well in your daily adventure with God. We are thriving down here in Haiti and looking forward to Pam and another mission team coming to join us tomorrow. They will do outreach in the schools and community, utilizing soccer matches as a rallying point to attract people. They are bringing over a dozen suitcases filled with soccer balls to give away! After the matches they will share messages from the Bible with the children who play and do other service and outreach as well. It should be a lot of fun and a great chance to meet some people in the community we don't know.
Do you remember that scene in various movies and books when missionaries or other westerners enter a village in some third-world country, and the natives think they are gods and carry them around on some throne? That happened to Lynn today...well, sort of. We were invited to visit a home in the mountains and have lunch with a family. So a few guys, including Cory, had to carry Lynn on her wheelchair up the mountain. It was quite the hike, and coming down was maybe even harder than going up. It made for some great laughs, a few tears from the kids, and unforgetable memories.
The hospitality of the people here is amazing. We are really spoiled any time we visit someone's house. They gave us an amazing meal and a desert of some amazing fruit juice, which we had been craving. The kids ate like wolves, and then we all went home and collapsed on the bed. It was quite the day.
Later on today or tomorrow I plan to go with Patchouko, the main leader of our ministry here, and the two of us will pray for another young woman with demon possession, so if you are reading this please lift up a little prayer for our safety. We aren't sure what to expect at this point, so we'll just go there and check it out. We may have to return many times, but we'll go with high hopes that God will change this little girl's life through the power of Jesus.
It may be difficult to update the blog when the team is here due to being extra busy, but please check back soon and continue to remember us in your prayers! We hope everyone's furnace is running properly back home...and we hope your Christmas season is off to a great start.
God Bless,
The Grimm Adventurers
Monday, November 29, 2010
This Little Pig Went to Market
Day 21 of our Haiti Adventure!
Family and Friends,
Had a great time at the market today haggling for some fresh produce. I almost decided to try the shrimp but held back, not being sure if that was a good idea or not. They just looked so good! Anyway, we had a great weekend and are truly enjoying life down here in Haiti. It still gets up to about 90 every day, but it cools off pretty well at night for sleeping. The main bonus is the people. They always surprise you with their humor and love of life. As we learn the language the personalities become even more accessible to us.
The big election in Haiti was on Sunday. It is such a big deal here that they called off school on the Friday before the election and at least the first three days of the week following. The US Embassy sent out an email to us and the other Americans registered here letting us know to not travel in Port-au-Prince and to watch out for demonstrations and riots. Candidates have been known to do some strange things here, such as paying mobs of people to make a scene and prevent people from voting.
In youth group Saturday night we had a mock election with two of the guys pretenting to be presidential candidates. We even made posters for them like the ones plastered all over the countryside. They had a debate and at the end we had a vote. It came back tied. Good thing we aren't Florida in 2000 or Minnesota in 2008, or youth group would have come to a standstill for the next several months.
We learned what the Bible says about submitting to the leaders in power over your country, referring to Romans 13 and I Peter 2:13-17. We had a good discussion and ended the night praying for the election, the leaders, and the safety of everyone in the country in the days to come. It will be interesting to see the whole thing play out and how everyone responds to the results. This recent vote was actually like a primary, so the big one for President will be coming later.
Let's check in with the family and see how they are doing...
Cory: Kids, what have you been up to lately?
Kester: I play with the kids in the orphanage. We play with the football. I read them some books in english. We went to the ocean, and there were huge waves, taller than me. I had so much fun I wanted to swim more and more. I like the beans and rice with chicken. My best new friend is John. I gave him a bracelet and he said, “Thank you.” The thing I miss the most right now is pizza.
Elizabeth: I like to play with my stuffed animals. Sometimes I read to Rose. I play with Alexandra, and I take her to the bathroom. I like the bread a lot. I usually have just peanut butter on it. Kester and Alexandra have peanut butter and jelly. I miss pizza, too.
Alexandra: I've been waiting for my baby blankey to come back from her vacation. I like swinging on the swing with Dad and playing with Elizabeth and Kester. I'm getting less scared every day. I really like Lucy. She's nice. Rose is nice, too. I miss pizza, but I miss Baby even more.
Cory: Lynn, how has your week been?
Lynn: My week has been good. We've been picking up creole a little bit each day. I've been trying to be creative in the kitchen with limited supplies. Today I mixed a can of crushed tomatoes, a can of soup, and some spices to make a spaghetti sauce, and we put it on rotini pasta. Cory cut up some of the local bread into slices, spread on some butter, and added a little garlic salt. It was a nice little meal.
Cory: We keep having visitors at night...a cat and/or a dog who find some way to squeeze through the 3-inch opening that runs alongside the iron gate. They knock over the trash and look for scraps, leaving a nice mess to clean up each morning. We don't exactly want to put the garbage in the house and feed our army of ants either. So my plan is to buy a huge pot roast (or at least some fly-covered hunk of meat down at the market), cook it, and leave it outside one of these nights. I figure after the varmit eats all of that he won't be able to squeeze back through the gate and we'll have him caught!
God Bless You and Yours,
The Grimm Family Adventurers
Family and Friends,
Had a great time at the market today haggling for some fresh produce. I almost decided to try the shrimp but held back, not being sure if that was a good idea or not. They just looked so good! Anyway, we had a great weekend and are truly enjoying life down here in Haiti. It still gets up to about 90 every day, but it cools off pretty well at night for sleeping. The main bonus is the people. They always surprise you with their humor and love of life. As we learn the language the personalities become even more accessible to us.
The big election in Haiti was on Sunday. It is such a big deal here that they called off school on the Friday before the election and at least the first three days of the week following. The US Embassy sent out an email to us and the other Americans registered here letting us know to not travel in Port-au-Prince and to watch out for demonstrations and riots. Candidates have been known to do some strange things here, such as paying mobs of people to make a scene and prevent people from voting.
In youth group Saturday night we had a mock election with two of the guys pretenting to be presidential candidates. We even made posters for them like the ones plastered all over the countryside. They had a debate and at the end we had a vote. It came back tied. Good thing we aren't Florida in 2000 or Minnesota in 2008, or youth group would have come to a standstill for the next several months.
We learned what the Bible says about submitting to the leaders in power over your country, referring to Romans 13 and I Peter 2:13-17. We had a good discussion and ended the night praying for the election, the leaders, and the safety of everyone in the country in the days to come. It will be interesting to see the whole thing play out and how everyone responds to the results. This recent vote was actually like a primary, so the big one for President will be coming later.
Let's check in with the family and see how they are doing...
Cory: Kids, what have you been up to lately?
Kester: I play with the kids in the orphanage. We play with the football. I read them some books in english. We went to the ocean, and there were huge waves, taller than me. I had so much fun I wanted to swim more and more. I like the beans and rice with chicken. My best new friend is John. I gave him a bracelet and he said, “Thank you.” The thing I miss the most right now is pizza.
Elizabeth: I like to play with my stuffed animals. Sometimes I read to Rose. I play with Alexandra, and I take her to the bathroom. I like the bread a lot. I usually have just peanut butter on it. Kester and Alexandra have peanut butter and jelly. I miss pizza, too.
Alexandra: I've been waiting for my baby blankey to come back from her vacation. I like swinging on the swing with Dad and playing with Elizabeth and Kester. I'm getting less scared every day. I really like Lucy. She's nice. Rose is nice, too. I miss pizza, but I miss Baby even more.
Cory: Lynn, how has your week been?
Lynn: My week has been good. We've been picking up creole a little bit each day. I've been trying to be creative in the kitchen with limited supplies. Today I mixed a can of crushed tomatoes, a can of soup, and some spices to make a spaghetti sauce, and we put it on rotini pasta. Cory cut up some of the local bread into slices, spread on some butter, and added a little garlic salt. It was a nice little meal.
Cory: We keep having visitors at night...a cat and/or a dog who find some way to squeeze through the 3-inch opening that runs alongside the iron gate. They knock over the trash and look for scraps, leaving a nice mess to clean up each morning. We don't exactly want to put the garbage in the house and feed our army of ants either. So my plan is to buy a huge pot roast (or at least some fly-covered hunk of meat down at the market), cook it, and leave it outside one of these nights. I figure after the varmit eats all of that he won't be able to squeeze back through the gate and we'll have him caught!
 |
| Elizabeth with baby lizards |
 |
| Kester and John, best buddies |
God Bless You and Yours,
The Grimm Family Adventurers
Friday, November 26, 2010
FOOD in Haiti!
DAY 18 OF OUR ADVENTURE IN HAITI!
Family and Friends,
I tried to explain “Black Friday” to a Haitian person today. That was interesting. Haitians can definitely relate to shopping all day in order to get everything on your list, but their lists don't have a bunch of technology gadgets and toys and things like that.
Here are some thoughts about food in Haiti:
Everything that goes into obtaining, preparing, cleaning up after, and storing food is a big deal down here. This process can easily eat up big chunks of your day even with a hired cook preparing one of your meals. The market is a real challenge, and many foods are seasonal or just not available on any given day. People mainly cook over open flames here with charcoal or wood. It is amazing though how good they are at getting the pot to a perfect boil when they want to.
On Thanksgiving morning we were invited to a friend's house to learn how to make Pik Lis, which is basically Haitian cole slaw. I love that dish! It turned out that we sat and talked all morning and eventually ate a whole meal together around 1 o'clock. The kids did pretty well considering they had to sit there for five hours. Once in awhile they did get up to explore the yard or go to the outhouse, because several of us have diarhea now. Alexandra went five times at least. She's feeling better today.
It is just amazing to sit and watch someone patiently prepare all of the various foods. The cook meticulously cut each carrot and piece of cabbage into tiny little strips, something a food processor could have done in 10 seconds. We also watched her catch a chicken, kill it, pull the feathers off, butcher it, marinate it, boil it and eventually fry it with the plantains. Plantains look just like bananas, and they even call them “banan” here, but they are more like potatoes to eat. It was quite a meal and it was definitely made with a great deal of love and care. The key was the conversation that went on throughout the process. That is probably one of the best lessons we Americans can learn down here...how to enjoy doing hours of menial work while simultaneously building relationships with family and friends.
Meals are quite the production around the property where we live. A lot of times we end up eating in front of several hungry people who are working on the construction, waiting for shoes, or any number of other things. It is a hard to describe how that feels, but it motivates you to think, “If I am going to eat this food I better use the energy it provides to help these people.” Also, the cooks are like moms or grandmas to us...they watch us like hawks to see how much we are eating or not eating. We are very grateful for the food, but it just takes awhile to get used to eating hot food in the middle of the day outside in Haiti, and we aren't used to eating so much beans and rice yet either. We'll get there.
We don't have a fridge here, but we share a small freezer with the orphanage. Well, we have one for now anyway. I say that because the freezer has been having problems lately. The issue has to do with the local electricity, which is not only hit and miss, but the power it provides is much less than you get in the US. So even if it is on and it will run a CD player or something like that, it might not be enough for the freezer motor to kick on. So for the last couple of days we have had to run the generator in order to save the meat in the freezer. This won't be feasible long-term, but we are doing it until Pam comes in a few days and gives us some guidance on how to proceed with the situation.
You can't talk about food around here without thinking about bugs. The ants in our house have their own economy and network of communication and transport. Their scouting program is really the most impressive. I swear you could rub a little smudge of jelly anywhere in the house and they will be carrying it off one lick at a time 20 minutes later. Ants seem to each have their own personality, too. I watched a team of three of them walking near the sink this morning. The first two were walking steadily along, but the third one was suffering from a severe case of ADHD. He would get distracted and go look at something and then a few seconds later run to catch up with his comrades. This happened several times. Admiringly I named them Larry, Curly, and Mo. Then I killed them.
I finally got a picture to upload! Remember 1997? I just went there...or at least it feels like I did because of how long I had to wait for the internet to do something. One more way to learn patience in Haiti!
We'll write again soon. Keep living the adventure with Jesus!
God Bless,
the Grimms
Family and Friends,
I tried to explain “Black Friday” to a Haitian person today. That was interesting. Haitians can definitely relate to shopping all day in order to get everything on your list, but their lists don't have a bunch of technology gadgets and toys and things like that.
Here are some thoughts about food in Haiti:
Everything that goes into obtaining, preparing, cleaning up after, and storing food is a big deal down here. This process can easily eat up big chunks of your day even with a hired cook preparing one of your meals. The market is a real challenge, and many foods are seasonal or just not available on any given day. People mainly cook over open flames here with charcoal or wood. It is amazing though how good they are at getting the pot to a perfect boil when they want to.
On Thanksgiving morning we were invited to a friend's house to learn how to make Pik Lis, which is basically Haitian cole slaw. I love that dish! It turned out that we sat and talked all morning and eventually ate a whole meal together around 1 o'clock. The kids did pretty well considering they had to sit there for five hours. Once in awhile they did get up to explore the yard or go to the outhouse, because several of us have diarhea now. Alexandra went five times at least. She's feeling better today.
It is just amazing to sit and watch someone patiently prepare all of the various foods. The cook meticulously cut each carrot and piece of cabbage into tiny little strips, something a food processor could have done in 10 seconds. We also watched her catch a chicken, kill it, pull the feathers off, butcher it, marinate it, boil it and eventually fry it with the plantains. Plantains look just like bananas, and they even call them “banan” here, but they are more like potatoes to eat. It was quite a meal and it was definitely made with a great deal of love and care. The key was the conversation that went on throughout the process. That is probably one of the best lessons we Americans can learn down here...how to enjoy doing hours of menial work while simultaneously building relationships with family and friends.
Meals are quite the production around the property where we live. A lot of times we end up eating in front of several hungry people who are working on the construction, waiting for shoes, or any number of other things. It is a hard to describe how that feels, but it motivates you to think, “If I am going to eat this food I better use the energy it provides to help these people.” Also, the cooks are like moms or grandmas to us...they watch us like hawks to see how much we are eating or not eating. We are very grateful for the food, but it just takes awhile to get used to eating hot food in the middle of the day outside in Haiti, and we aren't used to eating so much beans and rice yet either. We'll get there.
We don't have a fridge here, but we share a small freezer with the orphanage. Well, we have one for now anyway. I say that because the freezer has been having problems lately. The issue has to do with the local electricity, which is not only hit and miss, but the power it provides is much less than you get in the US. So even if it is on and it will run a CD player or something like that, it might not be enough for the freezer motor to kick on. So for the last couple of days we have had to run the generator in order to save the meat in the freezer. This won't be feasible long-term, but we are doing it until Pam comes in a few days and gives us some guidance on how to proceed with the situation.
You can't talk about food around here without thinking about bugs. The ants in our house have their own economy and network of communication and transport. Their scouting program is really the most impressive. I swear you could rub a little smudge of jelly anywhere in the house and they will be carrying it off one lick at a time 20 minutes later. Ants seem to each have their own personality, too. I watched a team of three of them walking near the sink this morning. The first two were walking steadily along, but the third one was suffering from a severe case of ADHD. He would get distracted and go look at something and then a few seconds later run to catch up with his comrades. This happened several times. Admiringly I named them Larry, Curly, and Mo. Then I killed them.
 |
| Arriving in Ti-Rivier November 10th and unloading the Bus |
I finally got a picture to upload! Remember 1997? I just went there...or at least it feels like I did because of how long I had to wait for the internet to do something. One more way to learn patience in Haiti!
We'll write again soon. Keep living the adventure with Jesus!
God Bless,
the Grimms
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Running with the Bulls in Slow Motion
Day 16 of our Haiti Adventure!
Family and Friends,
Happy Thanksgiving!
We are doing great down here in Haiti. We have been enjoying a few quiet days between teams from the US. The last team led by Gretchen and Karen was a lot of fun, and many of them will return in the years to come. Next will be a group led by Pam and the Mission Ball people. They will do a lot of sports ministry down here early in December. Should be a great week!
Unfortunately I don't have a lot of time to write again, so I will copy/paste from my journal. But just know that we are thinking about everyone back home and praying for you every day. It will be hard to be gone over Thanksgiving and Christmas, of course, but we will enjoy some time on the beach and hopefully make all of you jealous. And even better we will discover what Christmas looks like in Haiti! How fun.
One quick story...
We have been having trouble getting fresh fruit and vegetables lately, so yesterday I decided to travel on public transportation to a large market about an hour away. It was quite the experience. One quick snapshot...I was walking down a side street at the market, and all around me were large bulls...in front, in back, and beside. I thought to myself, this is exactly like the running of the bulls in Spain, just in slow motion...but I definitely don't plan to stop and tie my shoes! I'm not sure exactly how I found myself in that predicament, but I turned to my friend who was with me and said, "this is really bad for business for the little stands along this street...even if we wanted to stop and buy something we couldn't." Anyway, it was quite the adventure, and it took forever to get home which was stressful for Lynn. But at least I brought some fruit and vegetables.
Okay, here is the entry from the journal...
November 21, 2010-
Today is the 13th day of our Haiti adventure. Thanksgiving will be in four days, but it doesn't feel normal to say that when you live in a climate where the temperature still gets up to 90s during the day. It would be nice to have a great big American feast, though. I could really go for some pumpkin pie and ice cream.
Speaking of ice cream...Mike (Pam Plasier's husband) is here and he took our whole family to Les Cayes for a special day yesterday, and we got ice cream! It was actually really good and could rival any brand from the grocery store in the US. It was about the same price too, or even more. We got it from a little store downtown that is similar to a very small grocery store in the US. You can get most of your food and supplies there if you want, but it is pricey.
What you can't get there is fresh vegetables and fruit. Those have to be bought from the various markets. One of my ongoing projects is learning how to get what we need at a fair price and carry out the process of bartering. This will take a long time, but I have one of the cooks from the orphanage helping us. John Rivier, our Creole tutor, has also offered to take me to some markets and show me around. Part of the problem is that people are notorious here for charging white folks double what they charge everyone else. I'm trying to look at this as a challenge and a chance to meet new people.
The kids have been doing really well. They like hunting for bugs, lizards, and tarantulas. They really love swimming in the ocean. I just hope they don't get stung by jelly fish. I got stung on the first day and it didn't hurt too bad, but I'm sure the kids would cry if it happened to them. I also had a run-in with a little colony of fire ants. Actually, I don't know for sure if they were fire ants. I didn't ask them or anything. But I know one thing for sure...THEY thought they were fire ants when I kicked over their nest on accident. Pretty soon there were several of them inside my sandal biting with all their might. I still have several open wounds on my feet from that adventure.
Kester is starting to use a couple of creole words in his speech, so it seems his year of spanish immersion is paying off, giving him confidence to learn another language. Alexandra even let one of the kids from the orphanage push her on the swing and braid her hair. She was very excited to find out that when her hair is braided she doesn't have to have it washed for a couple of days. The showers here are really cold. Basically you take a 5-gallon bucket of water and an old peanut butter jar and start dumping water on your head. Alexandra always cries, but when we don't wash her hair she doesn't get quite as cold.
The team visiting from the US right now has been a lot of fun. Gretchen Shafer and Karen Sumner are leading the team. Both of them have been here several times and do a lot for Mission Haiti back in the US. Some of the group members have been here before as well, so they know what they are doing. Tonight there will be a great big competition down by the beach between Haitians and Americans. First they will do some Haitian activities, like hauling buckets of water on their heads, and then they will compete with some American sports. It should be fun to watch. I think I'm supposed to be one of the referees. I'll probably let the Haitians bribe me to favor their team...that is the way everything works down here. When in Rome...
I'm just joking because obviously corruption is a huge issue here in every facet of life. Next Sunday will be the elections for the new president, the senators, and the deputies, which are equivalent to our House members. Their system is very similar to ours. Every time there are elections there are also various kinds of demonstrations and even riots. I will try to lead the youth group in doing some sort of prayer vigil that weekend, asking God to provide good leaders for Haiti as they move forward, and protection for everyone in the community as they try to vote and pray as well.
As we were preparing to move both Lynn and I read a book about missionary life called, “Through the Outhouse Floor.” It recounts a lot of the ups and downs of everyday life on the field in Africa. We have already had some similar little adventures. As mentioned before we didn't have Lynn's indoor toilet for the first week here, but it was nice to finally get it out of the back closet when Mike and the team arrived. However, the kids needed some special training on how to use it. Normally they will use the outhouse, but sometimes, like it in the middle of the night, it is just easier to stay inside and avoid confronting the bugs and potentially dropping the flashlight down the outhouse floor.
So Elizabeth decided to use the toilet. I was doing something with one of the suitcases we are living out of on the floor nearby. Elizabeth attempted to dismount from the toilet, and the Tupperware bowl that catches everything fell off and hit the floor. The contents previously donated by Lynn, Elizabeth, and possible others promptly splashed up and hit me directly in the face. Oh what fun. Everything else in the vicinity got wet as well and required a very detailed clean-up effort.
One day Alexandra locked herself in one of the two outhouses. Kester was helping her, so he told me she was locked in there. The latch was stuck. After figuring out she couldn't get it open even with some coaching, I tried to shove Kester through the little opening above the wall between the two outhouses. It was pretty small and the concrete was pretty rough, so maybe that wasn't a good idea. He was fine, but my hands got pretty scratched up reaching through there and trying to lower him down. Then Kester tried to undo the latch, and that still didn't work. Now the kids were getting a little panicky. Alexandra said, “Dad what are we going to do now?” and you could hear she was a little scared. Finally I handed a rock through the opening to Kester, and he was able to bang the latch open with that. Disaster averted. We do have a circular saw and the door is wooden, so we had other options if it came down to it.
The other day I read something inspiring in “Introduction to The History of Christianity”:
“Jesus has many who love his kingdom in heaven, but few who bear his cross. He has many who desire comfort, but few who desire suffering. He finds many to share his feast, but few his fasting. All desire to rejoice with him, but few are willing to suffer for his sake. Many admire his miracles, but few follow him to the humiliation of his cross. Many love Jesus as long as no hardship touches them... They who love Jesus for his own sake, and not for the sake of comfort for themselves, bless him in every trial and anguish of heart, no less than in the greatest joy. And were he never willing to bestow comfort on them, they would stil always praise him and give him thanks.”
-Thomas A Kempis, from “The Imitation of Christ” (written in the 1400s)
And...
“Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” (Gal. 6:2)
Wherever you are reading this, whether in the comfort of your home or in some coffeeshop or in a foreign land, look out the window and there you find see a world full of people waiting for you to take an interest in their life and tell/show them what Jesus is all about. Will you stay inside and seek your own comfort, or will you do the hard work of talking to them and listening to their story and taking on their burdens as your own?
May your life be an adventure for Jesus this week!
God Bless!
-The Grimms
Family and Friends,
Happy Thanksgiving!
We are doing great down here in Haiti. We have been enjoying a few quiet days between teams from the US. The last team led by Gretchen and Karen was a lot of fun, and many of them will return in the years to come. Next will be a group led by Pam and the Mission Ball people. They will do a lot of sports ministry down here early in December. Should be a great week!
Unfortunately I don't have a lot of time to write again, so I will copy/paste from my journal. But just know that we are thinking about everyone back home and praying for you every day. It will be hard to be gone over Thanksgiving and Christmas, of course, but we will enjoy some time on the beach and hopefully make all of you jealous. And even better we will discover what Christmas looks like in Haiti! How fun.
One quick story...
We have been having trouble getting fresh fruit and vegetables lately, so yesterday I decided to travel on public transportation to a large market about an hour away. It was quite the experience. One quick snapshot...I was walking down a side street at the market, and all around me were large bulls...in front, in back, and beside. I thought to myself, this is exactly like the running of the bulls in Spain, just in slow motion...but I definitely don't plan to stop and tie my shoes! I'm not sure exactly how I found myself in that predicament, but I turned to my friend who was with me and said, "this is really bad for business for the little stands along this street...even if we wanted to stop and buy something we couldn't." Anyway, it was quite the adventure, and it took forever to get home which was stressful for Lynn. But at least I brought some fruit and vegetables.
Okay, here is the entry from the journal...
November 21, 2010-
Today is the 13th day of our Haiti adventure. Thanksgiving will be in four days, but it doesn't feel normal to say that when you live in a climate where the temperature still gets up to 90s during the day. It would be nice to have a great big American feast, though. I could really go for some pumpkin pie and ice cream.
Speaking of ice cream...Mike (Pam Plasier's husband) is here and he took our whole family to Les Cayes for a special day yesterday, and we got ice cream! It was actually really good and could rival any brand from the grocery store in the US. It was about the same price too, or even more. We got it from a little store downtown that is similar to a very small grocery store in the US. You can get most of your food and supplies there if you want, but it is pricey.
What you can't get there is fresh vegetables and fruit. Those have to be bought from the various markets. One of my ongoing projects is learning how to get what we need at a fair price and carry out the process of bartering. This will take a long time, but I have one of the cooks from the orphanage helping us. John Rivier, our Creole tutor, has also offered to take me to some markets and show me around. Part of the problem is that people are notorious here for charging white folks double what they charge everyone else. I'm trying to look at this as a challenge and a chance to meet new people.
The kids have been doing really well. They like hunting for bugs, lizards, and tarantulas. They really love swimming in the ocean. I just hope they don't get stung by jelly fish. I got stung on the first day and it didn't hurt too bad, but I'm sure the kids would cry if it happened to them. I also had a run-in with a little colony of fire ants. Actually, I don't know for sure if they were fire ants. I didn't ask them or anything. But I know one thing for sure...THEY thought they were fire ants when I kicked over their nest on accident. Pretty soon there were several of them inside my sandal biting with all their might. I still have several open wounds on my feet from that adventure.
Kester is starting to use a couple of creole words in his speech, so it seems his year of spanish immersion is paying off, giving him confidence to learn another language. Alexandra even let one of the kids from the orphanage push her on the swing and braid her hair. She was very excited to find out that when her hair is braided she doesn't have to have it washed for a couple of days. The showers here are really cold. Basically you take a 5-gallon bucket of water and an old peanut butter jar and start dumping water on your head. Alexandra always cries, but when we don't wash her hair she doesn't get quite as cold.
The team visiting from the US right now has been a lot of fun. Gretchen Shafer and Karen Sumner are leading the team. Both of them have been here several times and do a lot for Mission Haiti back in the US. Some of the group members have been here before as well, so they know what they are doing. Tonight there will be a great big competition down by the beach between Haitians and Americans. First they will do some Haitian activities, like hauling buckets of water on their heads, and then they will compete with some American sports. It should be fun to watch. I think I'm supposed to be one of the referees. I'll probably let the Haitians bribe me to favor their team...that is the way everything works down here. When in Rome...
I'm just joking because obviously corruption is a huge issue here in every facet of life. Next Sunday will be the elections for the new president, the senators, and the deputies, which are equivalent to our House members. Their system is very similar to ours. Every time there are elections there are also various kinds of demonstrations and even riots. I will try to lead the youth group in doing some sort of prayer vigil that weekend, asking God to provide good leaders for Haiti as they move forward, and protection for everyone in the community as they try to vote and pray as well.
As we were preparing to move both Lynn and I read a book about missionary life called, “Through the Outhouse Floor.” It recounts a lot of the ups and downs of everyday life on the field in Africa. We have already had some similar little adventures. As mentioned before we didn't have Lynn's indoor toilet for the first week here, but it was nice to finally get it out of the back closet when Mike and the team arrived. However, the kids needed some special training on how to use it. Normally they will use the outhouse, but sometimes, like it in the middle of the night, it is just easier to stay inside and avoid confronting the bugs and potentially dropping the flashlight down the outhouse floor.
So Elizabeth decided to use the toilet. I was doing something with one of the suitcases we are living out of on the floor nearby. Elizabeth attempted to dismount from the toilet, and the Tupperware bowl that catches everything fell off and hit the floor. The contents previously donated by Lynn, Elizabeth, and possible others promptly splashed up and hit me directly in the face. Oh what fun. Everything else in the vicinity got wet as well and required a very detailed clean-up effort.
One day Alexandra locked herself in one of the two outhouses. Kester was helping her, so he told me she was locked in there. The latch was stuck. After figuring out she couldn't get it open even with some coaching, I tried to shove Kester through the little opening above the wall between the two outhouses. It was pretty small and the concrete was pretty rough, so maybe that wasn't a good idea. He was fine, but my hands got pretty scratched up reaching through there and trying to lower him down. Then Kester tried to undo the latch, and that still didn't work. Now the kids were getting a little panicky. Alexandra said, “Dad what are we going to do now?” and you could hear she was a little scared. Finally I handed a rock through the opening to Kester, and he was able to bang the latch open with that. Disaster averted. We do have a circular saw and the door is wooden, so we had other options if it came down to it.
The other day I read something inspiring in “Introduction to The History of Christianity”:
“Jesus has many who love his kingdom in heaven, but few who bear his cross. He has many who desire comfort, but few who desire suffering. He finds many to share his feast, but few his fasting. All desire to rejoice with him, but few are willing to suffer for his sake. Many admire his miracles, but few follow him to the humiliation of his cross. Many love Jesus as long as no hardship touches them... They who love Jesus for his own sake, and not for the sake of comfort for themselves, bless him in every trial and anguish of heart, no less than in the greatest joy. And were he never willing to bestow comfort on them, they would stil always praise him and give him thanks.”
-Thomas A Kempis, from “The Imitation of Christ” (written in the 1400s)
And...
“Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” (Gal. 6:2)
Wherever you are reading this, whether in the comfort of your home or in some coffeeshop or in a foreign land, look out the window and there you find see a world full of people waiting for you to take an interest in their life and tell/show them what Jesus is all about. Will you stay inside and seek your own comfort, or will you do the hard work of talking to them and listening to their story and taking on their burdens as your own?
May your life be an adventure for Jesus this week!
God Bless!
-The Grimms
Thursday, November 18, 2010
The Long-Awaited Update
Day 9 in Haiti!
Family and Friends,
So sorry to keep you waiting for so long, but here is the long-awaited update on our adventures in Haiti. We would have written sooner, but we don't have internet access on our property yet, and it might be awhile now. Fortunately, we should be able to have some limited access at a friend's house a couple of times a week until we get set up. Also, I can't upload pictures with the speed of this internet connection. We'll try again later. Below is something I journaled a few days ago:
Our adventure is nearly one week long already, and the days are already passing by quickly. It seems like a good time to sit down and journal, because we haven't had internet access yet for communicating with everyone back home and updating the blog. Actually, the only correspondance we have had so far is one email with our parents and one with Pam which we sent on someone's blackberry. So things have been quiet here. Well, as long as you don't count the roosters, countless bugs, donkeys, and other crazy noises you hear at night!
Actually the days are pretty loud too! Every day a work crew comes to build another level on the top of the house where we are living, so they do quite a bit of banging up there. When the kids in the orphanage are home, which is all the time other than school, the yard is buzzing with activity. Also, many other people from the community like to come and hang out in the yard for various reasons...youth group, food and shoe distribution, medical attention, and other business relating to the schools and other projects. There is also a team here from the US, so they are busy doing different things in and around the house which they are sharing with us.
But I'll back up to the beginning and try to tell the adventure in the order it has happened...
DAY 1 (Tue, Nov. 9):
Cory: Kester, what do you remember from our first day of driving from Sioux Center to Omaha and flying from Omaha to Chicago to Miami?
Kester: We got to see both sets of grandparents in the Omaha airport, and they said “goodbye” to us. I remember going fast in the airplane as it was taking off in Omaha. When we flew to Miami we got to see the ocean from the airplane, which was cool. In the motel we brushed our teeth after eating pizza and drinking pop. Dad and I slept in one bed, and mom and the girls slept together in another bed.
DAY 2 (Wed, Nov. 10):
Cory: Elizabeth and Alexandra, what do you remember from our second day, when we flew to Haiti and then drove for a long time in the bus to Ti-Rivier?
Elizabeth & Alexandra: On the plane we found out “Baby Kiki” (Alexandra's blankey) was left in the motel in Miami. We took a nap on the bus. Everything we saw was different than in Sioux Falls. The people had dark skin. The people spoke a different language. The house where we would live was nice (we are temporarily staying in one room of the Mission House). We ate different food, and we liked it.
Kester: Dad, I'm hungry right now. Can I have a snack?
Cory: Lynn, what do you remember from the first couple of days?
Lynn: It was fun to see the kids' reaction to flying for the first time...to see it through their eyes. At the same time I couldn't help thinking, “What are we doing? We're nuts!” I was proud of the kids and the dog for doing so well travelling. It went pretty smoothly. The biggest disappointment was arriving at the orphanage and finding out my indoor toilet accidentally got locked in the back closet and no one in Haiti had the key.
DAY 3-7 (Thur-Sun):
Cory: Everyone...what are some things you remember from the first few days of living here in Ti-Rivier?
Kester: I have liked meeting new friends and having them meet us. I have played with John the most so far. He knows English.
Elizabeth: Swimming in the ocean is fun, but it is salty.
Kester: I like the ocean because there are waves. I'm having fun learning how to swim in the ocean.
Alexandra: I hope I get Baby Kiki back. I like going in the ocean, too. I don't like all the people here wanting to hold me and touch me.
Kester: I like to play with the kids in the orphanage, because they know english. We play badminton. I like to play soccer with them...they play rough, but I don't care.
Lynn: It has been great seeing everyone again and getting settled in.
Alexandra: I like it in the ocean that it is salty.
Elizabeth: I don't like that it is salty.
Kester: I like to play with my new friends because they are really nice to me. I like to mee the adults, too. I like to see the little crabs on the beach.
Lynn: There was a little lizard in our room waiting to greet us.
Kester: Yesterday was the first time I saw a crab. I liked going hiking with Dad and Elizabeth and climbing the mountain. I like seeing the little lizards. I like to hear the new sounds, like donkeys. I like to live in a new country. I know the word, “Wi”, which means “yes.” I know “bonjou”, which means “good morning.”
Cory: Lynn, do you want to say anything else?
Lynn: I'm tired. I was happy to see the kids jump right in and get involved and try the new food. Cory said to the kids, “Who wants to try goat meat?” and all of them said, “Me!” Bruce Milliken was here from Sioux Falls, and we figured out that he is actually my 2nd cousin on my mom's side. He is a great woodworker, and the first morning we were here he built me a ramp into the Mission house. The main frustration has been not being able to be mom to my kids...I can't help them take a bath, use the bathroom, cook for them, or even get them a drink of water. I'm frustrated by what I can't do, and Cory is frustrated by having to do everything. But I will be able to do more things when we get our own space to live. It is also hard to be on display all the time with everyone gawking at us and watching what we do.
Cory: It is hard at this point to briefly give an overview of the first week because so much has happened. All of us have had our difficulties adjusting, but Pam was wise when she told us to not focus so much on “ministry” the first month and just work at adjusting to everyday life. The hard part in applying that each day is that people in the village still have their requests and their desires just to spend time with us. Also, the youth group always wants to meet every night, and the team working here often has questions about the work they are doing, etc... In addition to that the whole property is a construction zone and there always 11 orphans begging for attention.
Getting through each day is a small victory in and of itself and it brings us joy each time we feel a little bit more normal living here. I get really fired up each time I have a chance to be out in the community meeting people and practising creole. Learning how to do that with the kids tagging along is really the trick. Doing that will take years to perfect if it is even possible, finding ways to incorporate the kids into the minstry we are doing and yet balancing that out with adequate family time.
The youngest two members of our family, Alexandra and Cookie (our dog), have had the hardest time adjusting so far. We joke that at least Alexandra doesn't cry all the time...she takes regular breaks to whine, argue, pout, stomp her feet, fight with Kester and Elizabeth, and sometimes to eat or sleep. Cookie has had an even harder time...she didn't pee the first 24 hours we were here! But overall we are doing great and the adjustment process is going better than we could have hoped. We are very happy here and can see all the ministry opportunities available to us in the coming months and years.
Thanks again to everyone who is praying for us and helping us to live out this adventure for God. We truly appreciate it.
God Bless,
The Grimms
Family and Friends,
So sorry to keep you waiting for so long, but here is the long-awaited update on our adventures in Haiti. We would have written sooner, but we don't have internet access on our property yet, and it might be awhile now. Fortunately, we should be able to have some limited access at a friend's house a couple of times a week until we get set up. Also, I can't upload pictures with the speed of this internet connection. We'll try again later. Below is something I journaled a few days ago:
Our adventure is nearly one week long already, and the days are already passing by quickly. It seems like a good time to sit down and journal, because we haven't had internet access yet for communicating with everyone back home and updating the blog. Actually, the only correspondance we have had so far is one email with our parents and one with Pam which we sent on someone's blackberry. So things have been quiet here. Well, as long as you don't count the roosters, countless bugs, donkeys, and other crazy noises you hear at night!
Actually the days are pretty loud too! Every day a work crew comes to build another level on the top of the house where we are living, so they do quite a bit of banging up there. When the kids in the orphanage are home, which is all the time other than school, the yard is buzzing with activity. Also, many other people from the community like to come and hang out in the yard for various reasons...youth group, food and shoe distribution, medical attention, and other business relating to the schools and other projects. There is also a team here from the US, so they are busy doing different things in and around the house which they are sharing with us.
But I'll back up to the beginning and try to tell the adventure in the order it has happened...
DAY 1 (Tue, Nov. 9):
Cory: Kester, what do you remember from our first day of driving from Sioux Center to Omaha and flying from Omaha to Chicago to Miami?
Kester: We got to see both sets of grandparents in the Omaha airport, and they said “goodbye” to us. I remember going fast in the airplane as it was taking off in Omaha. When we flew to Miami we got to see the ocean from the airplane, which was cool. In the motel we brushed our teeth after eating pizza and drinking pop. Dad and I slept in one bed, and mom and the girls slept together in another bed.
DAY 2 (Wed, Nov. 10):
Cory: Elizabeth and Alexandra, what do you remember from our second day, when we flew to Haiti and then drove for a long time in the bus to Ti-Rivier?
Elizabeth & Alexandra: On the plane we found out “Baby Kiki” (Alexandra's blankey) was left in the motel in Miami. We took a nap on the bus. Everything we saw was different than in Sioux Falls. The people had dark skin. The people spoke a different language. The house where we would live was nice (we are temporarily staying in one room of the Mission House). We ate different food, and we liked it.
Kester: Dad, I'm hungry right now. Can I have a snack?
Cory: Lynn, what do you remember from the first couple of days?
Lynn: It was fun to see the kids' reaction to flying for the first time...to see it through their eyes. At the same time I couldn't help thinking, “What are we doing? We're nuts!” I was proud of the kids and the dog for doing so well travelling. It went pretty smoothly. The biggest disappointment was arriving at the orphanage and finding out my indoor toilet accidentally got locked in the back closet and no one in Haiti had the key.
DAY 3-7 (Thur-Sun):
Cory: Everyone...what are some things you remember from the first few days of living here in Ti-Rivier?
Kester: I have liked meeting new friends and having them meet us. I have played with John the most so far. He knows English.
Elizabeth: Swimming in the ocean is fun, but it is salty.
Kester: I like the ocean because there are waves. I'm having fun learning how to swim in the ocean.
Alexandra: I hope I get Baby Kiki back. I like going in the ocean, too. I don't like all the people here wanting to hold me and touch me.
Kester: I like to play with the kids in the orphanage, because they know english. We play badminton. I like to play soccer with them...they play rough, but I don't care.
Lynn: It has been great seeing everyone again and getting settled in.
Alexandra: I like it in the ocean that it is salty.
Elizabeth: I don't like that it is salty.
Kester: I like to play with my new friends because they are really nice to me. I like to mee the adults, too. I like to see the little crabs on the beach.
Lynn: There was a little lizard in our room waiting to greet us.
Kester: Yesterday was the first time I saw a crab. I liked going hiking with Dad and Elizabeth and climbing the mountain. I like seeing the little lizards. I like to hear the new sounds, like donkeys. I like to live in a new country. I know the word, “Wi”, which means “yes.” I know “bonjou”, which means “good morning.”
Cory: Lynn, do you want to say anything else?
Lynn: I'm tired. I was happy to see the kids jump right in and get involved and try the new food. Cory said to the kids, “Who wants to try goat meat?” and all of them said, “Me!” Bruce Milliken was here from Sioux Falls, and we figured out that he is actually my 2nd cousin on my mom's side. He is a great woodworker, and the first morning we were here he built me a ramp into the Mission house. The main frustration has been not being able to be mom to my kids...I can't help them take a bath, use the bathroom, cook for them, or even get them a drink of water. I'm frustrated by what I can't do, and Cory is frustrated by having to do everything. But I will be able to do more things when we get our own space to live. It is also hard to be on display all the time with everyone gawking at us and watching what we do.
Cory: It is hard at this point to briefly give an overview of the first week because so much has happened. All of us have had our difficulties adjusting, but Pam was wise when she told us to not focus so much on “ministry” the first month and just work at adjusting to everyday life. The hard part in applying that each day is that people in the village still have their requests and their desires just to spend time with us. Also, the youth group always wants to meet every night, and the team working here often has questions about the work they are doing, etc... In addition to that the whole property is a construction zone and there always 11 orphans begging for attention.
Getting through each day is a small victory in and of itself and it brings us joy each time we feel a little bit more normal living here. I get really fired up each time I have a chance to be out in the community meeting people and practising creole. Learning how to do that with the kids tagging along is really the trick. Doing that will take years to perfect if it is even possible, finding ways to incorporate the kids into the minstry we are doing and yet balancing that out with adequate family time.
The youngest two members of our family, Alexandra and Cookie (our dog), have had the hardest time adjusting so far. We joke that at least Alexandra doesn't cry all the time...she takes regular breaks to whine, argue, pout, stomp her feet, fight with Kester and Elizabeth, and sometimes to eat or sleep. Cookie has had an even harder time...she didn't pee the first 24 hours we were here! But overall we are doing great and the adjustment process is going better than we could have hoped. We are very happy here and can see all the ministry opportunities available to us in the coming months and years.
Thanks again to everyone who is praying for us and helping us to live out this adventure for God. We truly appreciate it.
God Bless,
The Grimms
Monday, November 8, 2010
Tomorrow is the Big Day!
Family and Friends,
We have finally arrived at the long-awaited date of departure! Tomorrow we board the plane for Haiti and life will never be the same. Thanks to everyone for all your help in getting us ready to go. We truly appreciate it. It has been a long and difficult process, but we go with confidence that we are firmly in God's will and He plans to change us and allow us to humbly help the people of Haiti. We'll do our best in the days ahead to keep you posted about everything that is happening. Cory's Dad sent us the following quote from Helen Keller the other day:
We have finally arrived at the long-awaited date of departure! Tomorrow we board the plane for Haiti and life will never be the same. Thanks to everyone for all your help in getting us ready to go. We truly appreciate it. It has been a long and difficult process, but we go with confidence that we are firmly in God's will and He plans to change us and allow us to humbly help the people of Haiti. We'll do our best in the days ahead to keep you posted about everything that is happening. Cory's Dad sent us the following quote from Helen Keller the other day:
"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do
children of men and women as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is
no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring
adventure or nothing."
Tomorrow the Adventure continues! God Bless,The Grimms
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Getting Ready to Go
6 Days Until the Big Move!
Family and Friends,
The big move is almost here! But we are also spending a lot of time on the small move...that is, moving everything out of our home in Sioux Falls and into storage. We are getting close, and the u-haul is reserved for tomorrow. If you care to help out, we could still use more volunteers:
2-5PM (Thur) in Sioux Falls (5501 W Misty Glen Pl.)
6:30PM in Sioux Center (391 13th Ave NE)
The last week has been a real roller-coaster ride. At one point we accepted an offer to buy our home, but that fell through in less than 24 hours. So we are still waiting, praying, hoping that God will send us a buyer or a renter soon. Otherwise we will be stuck in Haiti with no money for our return plane tickets next summer! Oh well, that might not be a bad thing either.
Other ups and downs have come as well. We have been confronted with many unforeseen expenses associated with medical bills, malaria medication, and immunizations. Also, trying to fit everything we need into 10 suitcases was quite the challenge. We packed other suitcases in hopes that Pam could send them with teams later on. And of course we have been saying "goodbye" to everyone we see with the knowledge that we probably won't see them again for a long time, which can be very emotional.
But through it all God has been with us as always, encouraging us to keep going. One tangible blessing was to hear that Alexandra's heart murmur shouldn't be a problem for us in going to Haiti. That was a relief. Also, the team down in Haiti right now is doing some work to the house where we will live to make it more accessible. They are also looking into setting up reliable Internet service, which will help us keep in touch with family, manage our bills and other correspondence well, access homeschooling resources, and allow me (Cory) to use online Bible commentaries for the classes I teach.
Well, back to work packing boxes. We'll try our best to blog during and after the move to let all of you know how everything is going. Please continue to pray for the people of Haiti as they face cholera, a hurricane, rebuilding, and all of their normal struggles as well.
God Bless,
-The Grimms
Family and Friends,
The big move is almost here! But we are also spending a lot of time on the small move...that is, moving everything out of our home in Sioux Falls and into storage. We are getting close, and the u-haul is reserved for tomorrow. If you care to help out, we could still use more volunteers:
2-5PM (Thur) in Sioux Falls (5501 W Misty Glen Pl.)
6:30PM in Sioux Center (391 13th Ave NE)
The last week has been a real roller-coaster ride. At one point we accepted an offer to buy our home, but that fell through in less than 24 hours. So we are still waiting, praying, hoping that God will send us a buyer or a renter soon. Otherwise we will be stuck in Haiti with no money for our return plane tickets next summer! Oh well, that might not be a bad thing either.
Other ups and downs have come as well. We have been confronted with many unforeseen expenses associated with medical bills, malaria medication, and immunizations. Also, trying to fit everything we need into 10 suitcases was quite the challenge. We packed other suitcases in hopes that Pam could send them with teams later on. And of course we have been saying "goodbye" to everyone we see with the knowledge that we probably won't see them again for a long time, which can be very emotional.
But through it all God has been with us as always, encouraging us to keep going. One tangible blessing was to hear that Alexandra's heart murmur shouldn't be a problem for us in going to Haiti. That was a relief. Also, the team down in Haiti right now is doing some work to the house where we will live to make it more accessible. They are also looking into setting up reliable Internet service, which will help us keep in touch with family, manage our bills and other correspondence well, access homeschooling resources, and allow me (Cory) to use online Bible commentaries for the classes I teach.
Well, back to work packing boxes. We'll try our best to blog during and after the move to let all of you know how everything is going. Please continue to pray for the people of Haiti as they face cholera, a hurricane, rebuilding, and all of their normal struggles as well.
God Bless,
-The Grimms
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Are Your Kids Excited to Go to Haiti?
13 Days Until the Big Move!
Family and Friends,
We often get asked the question, "Are your kids excited to go to Haiti?" We think they are. We hope they are. They even tell us they are. But let's be honest, they probably have a very limited concept of what we are getting into, and the adjustment will be an ongoing challenge for all of us. But we hope the daily struggles will lead to personal growth in our lives if we are patient and watch for those teachable moments.
To prepare for this transition we have been looking at pictures of people and places in Haiti, talking through different potentially challenging scenarios, and in general simply reassuring the kids that everything will be okay. For example, we acted out the airport security process and made the kids put their backpacks and shoes on the "belt", walk through the metal detector without Mom and Dad, and pretend to board the plane. They even got a snack and some juice out of the deal. Maybe God uses these activities to reassure us nervous adults as well!
We also have been spending our time working hard on homeschooling and taking time to do some fun activities that won't be available in Haiti. Please enjoy the pictures below to get to know our kids a little better and see what they have been up to during our last weeks in Sioux Falls.
May your day be an adventure for Jesus!
(The snow and wind might help make it happen!)
-The Grimms
Family and Friends,
We often get asked the question, "Are your kids excited to go to Haiti?" We think they are. We hope they are. They even tell us they are. But let's be honest, they probably have a very limited concept of what we are getting into, and the adjustment will be an ongoing challenge for all of us. But we hope the daily struggles will lead to personal growth in our lives if we are patient and watch for those teachable moments.
To prepare for this transition we have been looking at pictures of people and places in Haiti, talking through different potentially challenging scenarios, and in general simply reassuring the kids that everything will be okay. For example, we acted out the airport security process and made the kids put their backpacks and shoes on the "belt", walk through the metal detector without Mom and Dad, and pretend to board the plane. They even got a snack and some juice out of the deal. Maybe God uses these activities to reassure us nervous adults as well!
We also have been spending our time working hard on homeschooling and taking time to do some fun activities that won't be available in Haiti. Please enjoy the pictures below to get to know our kids a little better and see what they have been up to during our last weeks in Sioux Falls.
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| Kester reading to Elizabeth and one of her lions, Noil ("lion" backwards) |
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| Kester doing homework |
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| Elizabeth hard at work |
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| Alexandra working on handwriting |
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| We have enjoyed our Zoo membership the last 2 years...Elizabeth enjoys one final visit and a climb on the gorilla statue |
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| Alexandra on the turtle at the zoo |
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| Kester would have been a good missionary to South America... He likes llamas and alpacas |
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| Our kids have endless adventures with their "soft animals" One of the hard parts of moving is leaving most of them behind. This is Elizabeth with her herd of friends. Can you find bushy? |
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| Kester's Karnivorous Kingdom |
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| Alexandra's Amazing Amalgamation of Assorted Animals |
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| A sign by Dad and kids to welcome Lynn back from saying "goodbye" to some old friends over coffee Alexandra is nicknamed "DD", Elizabeth is "Wiz", and our dog Cookie who is going with us to Haiti. |
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| Grandpa and Grandma Bleeker invited us to swim at the Ramada in Sioux Falls. The kids are enjoying a break from the action. The sign says "no smoking", but it doesn't say anything about puppy chow! We had a great time! |
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| Alexandra tries to fight off the shark attacking Elizabeth |
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| The kids finally got to go to Chuck-E-Cheese after saving up good behavior points in school for over 2 months! |
May your day be an adventure for Jesus!
(The snow and wind might help make it happen!)
-The Grimms
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