Food and Fellowship

Sunday is never a true day off for our family between morning church service, rehearsals, afternoon youth service, Evening English service and all the meetings in between.  However, Sundays are always enjoyable!!!  Today was no exception.  Chris Youell blessed the church this morning with a message about loving like God loves and caring about people.  The youth choir practiced right after the service and I got to enjoy listening to my daughter’s solo from the privacy of my office (the music BLASTS in my office!!!) while I made my lunch.  I know I’m quite partial, but she has such a beautiful voice and can do all the things I’d always wished I could do with my voice.

I brought my lunch down to the Missionary Housing compound by the beach so that I could enjoy it with visitors and other missionaries.  We had lots of little ones today.  Renel and Rebecca from Heart to Heart (children’s home/church/school) came with their 4 1/2 month old daughter, Hasana.  Tony and Edna Jones from Seeds of Hope (mountain school supporters, panel house systems and coffee exporters) came with their two little ones, Ben and Caleb.  Andrew and Angie from the Hands and Feet Project, along with 31 children and a group of ten, also had their 16 month old Faith and 1 week old Glory with them.  Gamaniel and Angela Parayson (BLB and MOHI) and their son Nathan live at the mission compound and were a part of the fun today.  Our friends visiting MOHI were present also: Alan, Patti, Megan and Hannah Roseberry (Alan is working with Be Like Brit and MOHI both!), Chris and Joy Youell, Becca and McKenzie.  I got to enjoy babies, pick brains and share my okra.  What a FUN day!

I think back to when we first came to Grand-Goâve.  So often I longed to be back “home” where people understood the emotional stresses I was experiencing regularly, but I couldn’t just hop on a plane each day.  Today, we have so many “multi-cultural” friends who understand so many of the challenges we face.  Whether I am at the beach on any given Sunday or not, there’s meaningful fellowship happening around hotdogs and french fries and I’m thrilled that we’re able to provide a place for this to happen.

The Week in Pictures

We’re preparing to pour the first floor!!!!  It’ll take a few weeks, but we’re well on our way.  Does a picture paint a thousand words???

This plywood will hold in place the concrete and reinforcement bars

First Floor Formwork

Forming a place for all the reinforcement going into the first floor

Alan Roseberry and crew are laying plumbing in the ground floor of the school.

Impressive beam reinforcement

This week we harvested mangoes from a tree planted several years ago by Sri Lankan troops serving as UN Peacekeepers in our area.