My "new" car?

Goldilocks started this morning. A few more tweaks, a rotation of (or 2 more new) tires, and she may be juuuust right. (Well, enough).
Of course, she needs a renewed registration and license, too...

Tears @ the Dr.'s office

Children's screams take a different toll on a soul than other occurrences. There is something so obvious in the visible anguish of a 4-year old girl who's bleeding from a gash in her head than hunger, sadness, loss or other destructive blows to a life.
When a 7-year old boy lays keeled over in pain from a tetanus injection to his rear end - made necessary by stepping on glass or a nail lying around that penetrated the bottom of his leathery, calloused foot - there are no magic words to soften the blow. No matter how much I tell him to squeeze my hand, no matter how many times I say to watch me & talk to me and not pay attention to the needle, the pain still comes and is still all too real.
I guess sometimes I try to pretend the pain isn't real. I wish sometimes I could be more like a child so people might know my pain and come rushing to help, too.

www.

Waiting is the wreckage of my warped soul, wavering relentlessly in winds that wish to win over what once was found, where my wanderings remained within whispers of a wave of love that washed over me like grace: wondrously, worshipfully, and without ceasing.

We tried to kill the root.

My own two hands (and a sore back)

Something stirs in the soul when confronted with the reality of scrubbing clothes with your own two hands.
It's difficult to take things for granted when doing the same job a machine has done for me since - was 12 years old. But there is was, scrubbing & plunging, plungimg & scrubbing each article of clothing for a sum total of much, much longer than any wash cycle.
Even in Indonesia I had a washing machine, but not here, not anymore.
And to be honest it was kind of fun - briefly exhilarating, even - to know thay I had the power and ability to do the job.
Except, really, I didn't. Without Violet & Jerry to help me the job would've taken 3 hours, not one. And the clothes would probably still be a little dirty, or unrinsed, or not wrung out enough to finish drying on the line in a reasoable amount of time.
All of which tells me that: 1) I can't do this alone, and I'm glad I'm not, so I'm thankful for all my friends here and all the friends I miss for their genuine love & support I can feel and see. 2) knowing how to do the job by hand is a necessary, humbling, and motivating challenge/experience.

Seeds of change

Last week we held our very first vocational training program at the Center of Hope here in Haiti. Although it was packed with challenges (see below, IF you have the time :) the root of the fact is that an opportunity for lives to be changed AND impact others was made.
IYI is proud of and thankful to the teachers/trainers from Mosaic who taught experienced and wannabe teachers how to organoze a classroom, plan & prepare, ask better questions, improve communication & involvement from the students, and just how to further care about the overall welfare of their students. It was a training rooted on developing character & integrity, not just skills, for the 20+ participants.
We look forward to the next series of trainings for pastors, leaders, construction workers & other manufacturing vocational trainings as well as English language development.

--------the nitty-gritty of the conference-------
So, if you really wanna know, I learned more about the rules of shopping for 45 people on-site during the week, tried to oversee the preparation of meals, run any necessary tasks and, of course, almost get robbed in the process (another story ;)
It was great. Definitely tiring. Very rewarding. I'm excited for the future!

Going mobile, take 2

Ok, this should be the right picture....
Haiti direct: (+50938953360), BBM: 24B46DD9