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