Lynn's Typical Day

 Family and Friends,

Day 73 of our Adventure in Haiti!

Many people have asked what Lynn's typical day looks like. What does she do in Haiti? Well, first of all you have to understand that living in Haiti almost necessitates the removal of the word “typical” from your vocabulary, because things are always changing from day to day. However, there are some things that Lynn does on a regular basis that you might find interesting.

When we get up in the morning we start the process of feeding the kids breakfast, visiting the bathroom (outhouse), and getting dressed like any other family. The room has to be rearranged because our living quarters consists of a 12 X 14 (or so) room where we all sleep at night. The other day I finally found a decent mattress for Lynn and me, so now we are off the army cots. Each of the kids sleeps on a cot, and we sort of stack them on one side of the room to make room during the day. We lean the mattress against the wall.

All of these little chores take time and organization, and Lynn tries to help the kids keep moving and doing what they need to do. She also tries to find a few minutes early in the morning to have a cup of coffee and some devotional time. Sometimes she also takes her bath in the morning. I bring in a five-gallon bucket of water, and she uses a rubbermaid container as a bathtub.

On weekdays around 8 o'clock we try to start the homeschool activities which look something like this:

1. Devotions and prayer
2. Bible Study
3. Bible Memorization
4. History/Geography/Missionary stories
5. Math
6. Language Arts
7. Recess/Snack
8. Science
9. Special Activity (not every day...art, music, etc...)
10. Review Bible Memorization

Lynn overseas all of these classes and makes sure we are on track with everything. I just help out when I am home with a few of the things on the list. This program has been going well and we normally finish with plenty of time before lunch, long before the orphanage kids return home from their school in the village.

Here are some other things Lynn often does on a “typical” day:

1. Bake bread
2. Wash dishes
3. Read books to all 14 kids (3 of ours, 11 in the orphanage)
4. Give rides up and down the sidewalk
5. Meet with various members of the youth group to talk and practice Creole
6. Attend Youth Group Bible Study
7. Prepare Supper for family/team
8. Attend the Children's Bible Study in the afternoon

Lynn is also beginning to work with the distribution of the various “in-country” budget items for Mission Haiti. She attends church in the village on Sundays and occasionally gets out for a home visit or other special event.  She also helps with our new english class.  Sometimes team members ask us, “How can you stand having 50 people from the village on your yard all day every day without going nuts?” First of all, the crowds increase dramatically when a team is visiting, especially if Pam is with them, so normally it isn't like that. Also, having people come to us is really nice since Lynn is limited in her mobility.

I want to share something related to this post that you might find interesting. Three different Haitians came to us and told us they had dreams about Lynn being miraculously healed. They saw her get out of her wheelchair and walk. That would be amazing! Who knows, if God can speak and create the world out of nothing, every other miracle we can conceive of would be easy for Him. So we will be bold and crazy enough to pray for those dreams to come true, and my secret hope is that the youth group would be the ones who pray for her when she is healed, that their faith would be strengthened forever.

Have a great Adventure today!

God Bless,

The Grimms