Recent Update from Pam

Family and Friends,

We are enjoying a fun day of celebrating Kester's 8th birthday.  He got a keyboard we are hoping to take down with us to Haiti.  He started taking lessons this summer from Grandma Marlys and has really enjoyed it.  The rest of us have had a good time doing summer stuff and visiting various churches.  So far those meetings have gone fairly well. 

Below is a recent update from Pam, Director of Mission Haiti.  A couple of days ago she returned from leading several teams over the past month.  Enjoy...

Hello!

Our 5 weeks in Haiti went so fast. I felt bad that I was unable to
communicate more with everybody while I was in Haiti but the days were so
full. We really enjoyed all 3 of the teams that came to help us out. We
are happy to report all the children are living in the new orphanages and
transitioned well. It was fun to be there on moving day and share in their
excitement. The same day we moved the children out of the old orphanage, we
moved Torrey, Heather, Jaxon and Talix Babb into it. The Babbs will be
working in Haiti thru the summer. They are an answer to prayer so we could
continue our youth and discipleship programs over the summer. (The Grimms
are home for 3 months visiting family and churches) The Babbs have their own
mission called the Mission Ball. They use soccer to teach people about
Jesus. We had our first tournament on Saturday and it was a huge success.
It has been a great tool to grow our evening youth group.

One of my objectives for this trip was to find a home for 5 children that
were in slavery in Haiti. We found a house to rent but unfortunately a
family that was homeless had moved into the house so it would mean I would
have to throw them out in the streets if I wanted to use it. That just
didn't seem right so until we can find a place to rent/build we are going
with plan B, which is taking the youngest one into our orphanage and finding
families willing to take in the rest of the children temporarily.

Updates on a few people: Beenka and Sterlan are doing very well.(2 girls
that struggled with demon possession) They are attending youth group quite
often and we had several opportunities to pray for them and their family
members. Jesula (Patchouko's wife) is pregnant with number 2! Esperancia
(girl with the machete wounds) is home from the hospital. What a miracle!
She looks wonderful. She will have to have at least one more surgery on her
hand since she is unable to use it yet but it is a miracle that she still has both
of her hands and with her hair type, she is able to comb her hair so it covers
the scar. She wanted to say THANK YOU to everybody that prayed and
helped her stay alive.

Prayer requests:
Gertrude-     lady in charge of the orphanages, has asked for prayer for her
                    health. She said at times she does not feel well and it makes her afraid
                    that something serious could be wrong.
Antoine and Jesula-            They are expecting their first baby any day now. Jesula
                    is getting pretty nervous.
Stanley Bouloute-                 a 4 year old boy that we are bringing to the states for
                    surgery on his feet. He was expected to come home with us today but
                    Port-au-Prince had a small earthquake Friday morning that closed
                    everything down so we were unable to get his passport and visa.

More Pictures from the Past Year

Elizabeth using someone's outhouse during a home visit

Millenium High School, where Cory teaches English (Patchouko did this sign)

A naughty boy (Nesli) cleaning up his mistakes

Peterson (Kester's best friend) learning to be a carpenter

Another photo from our Christmas trip to Paradise Island

A photo taken moments after the now-famous photo at the top of our blog

Some Pics from Haiti We Couldn't Previously Upload to the Blog

The girls playing cards with Gertrude, the orphanage director

Lynn holding Stevenson, who was born one year ago and weighed only 2 pounds at birth...he is now a healthy one-year-old

Torrey baptizing Robinson.  Torrey and his family are staying in Haiti all summer, and Robinson is the young man who overcame cholera.

Kester was in the running for president in this past election...not really, but we made this poster to give everyone a laugh.  TRANSLATION:  We all agree, Kester Dean Grimm, President, He works here, he lives here, He will bring change here and now

Cory and Patchouko (on the right) baptizing Olgens (middle)

A rusty nail Cory pulled out of his foot...it went through the flip-flog

The Grimms...Coming Soon to a Church Near You

Gertrude teaches Alexandra to braid "black" hair

"Puggy" meets a real pug in the Dallas Airport on our return from Haiti

Family and Friends,

Day 214 of our Haiti Adventure!

It has been a lot of fun to look back through our pictures of our first year in Haiti and select a few to share with the churches where we will be speaking in the coming months.  Sometimes it is hard to choose which ones to leave out for the sake of time.  We can see in the pictures the process of development and adjustment that our children went through.  They were pretty scared those first few weeks, but by the end they were comfortable living in Haiti.  When we go back at the end of the summer they will probably have to go through all of those feelings again. 

We want to continue to extend an invitation to the readers of this blog to join us at one of the events listed above.  A few more dates have been added, and we have still a few more in the works.  We are praying that God will use those events to stir the hearts and faith of many people.  It isn't so much about the fundraising aspect for us.  We really don't even think about that part so much, because God has always provided one way or another.  It is more about seeing people grow in faith as they discover what God is doing around the world.  That is the moment when this whole thing comes full circle...when we get to see the senders of the missionaries receive a blessing from the people they have chosen to bless.

This weekend we will enjoy a big get-together of Grimms!  We are down in Newton, IA, and Cory's siblings and their children will all come together for a couple of days.  We will also enjoy seeing extended family on Sunday for Don Grimm's 60th birthday party (the oldest brother of Cory's Dad).  These are the moments you usually miss on the mission field, so we are glad to be here.

Northwest Iowa and the country of Haiti are both battling flooding today, so please lift both of them up in your prayers.  Things in this world are more connected than we know.

May God Bless You and Yours!
-The Grimm Family Adventurers 

Decompressing

Family and Friends,

Day 209 of our Haiti Adventure!

Well, I guess we'll continue to count the days even though we aren't in Haiti at the moment.  After all, we can already see that our breaks will be an important part of our ministry.  This time in the US is just as much an adventure as the heat and rain of Haiti.  We don't want to think of the United States as the good place we get to go once a year, the place of comfort and fun, and we have avoided that type of language with our kids.  We want to consider Haiti our home and think of it as a special place to live. 

All that being said, it has been really nice to be back here and spend time with family and decompress a little bit from the pressure of living in a developing country.  The kids have transitioned really well, both to living in Haiti and now to returning for a break.  As we had hoped, they actually were more friendly with their cousins than ever before, having learned how to play well with others while living near the orphanage children this past year.  We also appreciate the little things more than ever, of course.  Let's face it, hot showers, clothes washers and dryers, and safe drinking water out of a faucet are all conveniences that add a lot to life.

We are preparing to share our story with various churches and groups in the coming months.  We invite and encourage you, our prayer and financial supporters, to try to come out to one of the speaking engagements listed above.  There may be a couple more added soon, so check back.  It is really hard to summarize briefly our experiences and adventures in Haiti, but we will do our best to do just that each time we have the privilege to share.  We are eager to talk about what God is doing in Haiti.  

Today we visited Trinity Reformed Church in Orange City.  We didn't go there to share our slides or anything, but simply to attend church.  After all the places we have been in the last decade or so, that is still the church where we feel most at home.  We were rewarded with the opportunity to see some young people make profession of faith, a couple of whom we had known pretty well back in our Orange City years.

On Tuesday morning we plan to drive down to Newton, Ia, where Cory's parents live.  We will stay there for 5-6 weeks and then return to the NW Iowa area for the remainder of the summer.  Then we will depart on August 29 for another year in Haiti.  Right now that seems like a long time in the future, but it will be here soon enough.

Have a Powerful Adventure this week!
-The Grimms