Thanks, Friends!

Dear Friends!
Thank you for your sacrifices which make it possible for me to live and serve in Haiti. I am able to be here for at least two reasons. First, many of you are supporting me financially. Thank! you! I am in your debt and it’s my desire that God’s kingdom is the richer for it. Second (and I am increasingly beginning to believe, more significantly), you are praying for me, for Jack and Marcia, and for Three Angels. THANK! YOU! Please keep praying. God is honored by your prayers and takes great delight in them. I pray that we all grow in the delight that we take in spending time lingering in God’s presence and in laboring in intercession. Probably we are all ignorant on this side of heaven how effectual prayers for this ministry are. My prayer is that God will sweep back the curtain at intervals to reveal glimpses of the precious and powerful value of prayer. I know I need such glimpses to be encouraged to persevere in prayer and motivated to pray more! Here are some things that are on my heart for which you can pray...

· Praise God that I got to share the Gospel with the older six kids this week: Reece, Steeve, Daniel, Elmise, Bethany, and Naitile. PRAY for my sensitivity and obedience to pursue future opportunities. I know God will create them!
· PRAY I’ll slow down and serve more, especially making time for the kids individually. I want to invest into them outside of school “hours” and classroom “activities.”
· PRAY for God’s financial provision for Three Angels. This month Haiti passed into law a minimum wage increase that, unless God intercedes, will force us to let several workers go (and we don’t want to!). The wage increase is staggering- a woman who earned $75 US last month will this month and hereafter make $165 US! It’s just not sustainable. This law will lead to many economic problems here- already the gas companies have responded by limiting their operating hours to between 6 am and 2 pm daily because they can’t afford to pay their workers. God is sovereign.
· Praise God for Dave Voltz’s safe arrival this evening! We are excited about the week of teaching and sharing from God’s word ahead of us. PRAY for our staff who will be participating in the Bible studies and for our spiritual growth as well.
· Praise God that I am now enrolled in a twice a week Creole class! PRAY for my diligence to study and practice and that God will bless my efforts.

Love you my friends- anpil (a lot)!

-abbey mac

Teenagers! Surprise!

God is my good, generous, and giving Father! I received an incredible gift from Him this week.

I discovered shortly after arriving in Haiti that within walking distance of our orphanage is a Christian school compound called Quisqueya. (The church that Jack and Marcia attend, Port au Prince Fellowship, meets at the chapel on this compound.) It is a large school, K-12, that serves missionary families and the Haitian bourgeois in the Port au Prince area. After school sports like soccer and volley ball are offered for students and staff so I put on my running shoes a couple of times per week and head over for some competition and endorphins. Through these expeditions I’ve met a handful of other young people (teachers at Quisqueya) who, like myself, heard the call to drop their lives in the states to get to know God better and love people in Haiti. The friendships I’m making here are sharpening, encouraging, and are good, plain fun!

But it gets even better than that! Each high school class at Quisqueya volunteers monthly at an orphanage in the area. Last month Three Angels received a phone call asking could we use some help with our children? Mais oui! But of course! So we were assigned a class and it was arranged for them to come the first Thursday of each month. This week was our first encounter with our assigned class. Thirty-two teens and one leader descended upon us and I found myself welcoming more than a dozen familiar faces- teens I’d played sports with or seen on campus. And they recognized me (You’re the girl with the pig-tails! I’ve seen you running on Delmas… or, Hey, you played soccer with us!) What energizing feelings of love and acceptance! I was drinking liquid happiness the whole day.

But it gets even better than THAT. These teens are the tenth grade class. DREW IS IN TENTH GRADE. What a joy, what an unexpected, undeserved little jewel of a gift from God. My heart was bursting with joy the whole day, thinking thoughts as, that guy is like a Haitian Drew and, that kid would be my sister’s best friend! Thank You, Jesus, for these surrogate brothers and sisters throughout this year of being an ocean away from my own! And they are the cream of the crop- every teacher friend of mine at Quisqueya drips with praise for this class.

The ratio of teens to orphans is something like 1.13 to 1 so they will be doing a lot of interacting with our kids. Marcia elected to have each teen paired with a child- some children have two teens. The pairs are permanent for the year so each orphan will get to bond with their teen. This month the teens played group games with the kids, ate lunch with them, went crazy with stickers and face paint and a giant parachute, and decorated cupcakes. Next month they plan on doing learning and activity stations. The kids loved the attention and affection. I loved the teens.

GOD wrestled Jacob

The mountains heave under the weight of thousands of people and concrete houses

Some random thoughts...

• God, WHAT? were You thinking when You deposited me into a volitile city where I visibly stand out as foreigner? Culture SHOCK!
• Ahh, I get it! There are so many men just loitering about, sitting around, looking unproductive all the time because over 50% of the population is UNEMPLOYED!
• I will celebrate the day I can shoot the neighbor's dogs.
• The Quoteable Dr. Jack: On gaining passage to the Promised Land- "If I were a Haitian, I'd apply for a visa to Mexico and walk across the border into America!"
• On the criticism he's received by Haitians concerning his command of Creole- "Well, the way I see it is that, when I was a baby, I first spoke baby-talk. I then became coherent in my pronunciation. I then learned how to complete sentences. So, I figure that in two or three years I'll get the hang of this thing!"
• It is not generous of the neighbors to share their music with us at ungoldly hours of the night.
• The litter everywhere, the filth and noise of the city, and the cultural chasm between "them" and "us" cannot deter my ardent infatuation with this Carribean sky! Tres belle!
• My purpose in this Blog is to report on life here at an orphanage in Haiti, to be transparent about things between God and I, and to share my scribblings from the past and present, praying that God is glorified and His kids are encouraged by these offerings...
  

Sunday, 20 September, 2009


“Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh; so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him.” Genesis 32:24,25

Jesus!
Dezod.
You wrestle with this sinner’s heart.
Uhg. grr.
I shouldn’t be surprised to discover that my heart is sinful.
You told me that.
And I believed You.
But this?
Uhgrr.
You really do want everything.
I can’t blame You,
I reject the old notion that You are a cosmic killjoy, that You want to beat me into submission, stifling me, suffocating my personhood.
I choose to believe You are good, You gave me Jesus.
Oh but Jesus, my heart throws doubts upon Your generosity and kindness. I am stuck on me, my kingdom come.
Uhgrr.
You see me clinging tenaciously to This?
Please! help!
You know that song, Please take from me my life when I don’t have the strength to give it away to You. Hear me praying it now. Remember what I am made of. You made me a mere human girl- I’m not much.
But oh! You breathed the strength of Your Spirit into my own.
And that changes everything.
So, You know I’ve given You permission to batter my heart, Three-Personed-God.
*Sigh.
Yes, sigh.

Inside Karibe Hotel, the Paradise in Petionville at which Mr. Clinton and Mr. Preval recently spoke. We go there for lunch when we need an escape.

Check it Out!

Check out the amazing kids I get to live with, love on, and teach!

http://www.threeangelsorphanage.blogspot.com/

God bless these little sinners- It's to their advantage that they're so CUTE! :)

Pray that I will communicate God's truth & love to these kiddos.

O-R-E-O! (which I've been having too many of, thank you, Dr. Jack!) : Michelle, me, & Mikile. These ladies care for the upstairs babies.

Into the Hills!

On Sunday
I took my first trip

into the mountains! God knew I needed a respite from city life. Jack, Marcia, & I visited a Haitian-American woman named Gerta, whom Marcia met recently on a flight home from the states. Gerta is launching a village football program this fall and it looks like the 14 soccer balls that a friend of mine had the vision to collect for me will soon be serving Haitian villager children!

Gerta cooked pumkin soup for us! We enjoyed this hot meal as our skin breathed in the cool, damp mountain air. She showed us her home which has been under construction for the past 6 years. She is building it into the mountain out of cement blocks- the most common building material I've observed here (both in and out of the city).

The drive up the mountain took us an hour- too short! I could have driven days on that road! Each twist in it unveiled a richer feast for my eyes and in so doing nourished my soul. It was better than church! Dear little villages clung to the mountain sides. Extravagent homes boasted acres of land for their wealthy families. Hundreds of simple farm plots transformed neighboring mountains into a patchwork quilt of textured greens and browns, rows of earth and crops mingling with trees and rock. The mountains were mesmerizing- pure and dazzeling as the laughter of a young girl at first glance but a deeper gaze suggested the silvering wisdom and poise of a very, very old woman. So it was like a perplexing but very attractive riddle, or a good song to which you can't remember the words but the soul of the music gives your own soul a little thrill.

A Haitian staff member of Three Angels has been reported to have said that "There's nothing good about Haiti." Has he never been to the mountains? I now have and I will be returning there as soon as possible!

The People Behind the Girl

Jesus Is Lord!

Mardi 25 Aout 2009
Three Angels Children’s Relief,
Petionville, Haiti

Dear Centennial Family,
Hello! I am so exciting to be greeting you from my new home here in Haiti. For just over two weeks now I have been acclimating to life here and think that an update is appropriate. I hope to report to you all many of the things I have been experiencing, learning, and doing, as well as the general goings on of the Three Angels orphanage, school, and clinic.

The American “on the ground” staff here at 91 Delmas (our street address) consists of Dr. Jack & Marcia Nonweiler, Megan Haug, a twenty-something from Evansville, IN, and me. Jack & Marcia serve as the Field Managers of the orphanage and medical clinic. I am learning that a typical day for them begins at 5 am or earlier depending upon how early the sick babies need attention or how soon they are awakened by the crows of our neighboring roosters. They might even arise as early as 3 am, the time at which city power enables them to best access the internet! I have been enjoying my mornings with them, my newly “adoptive” parents (Marcia decided that I am to be their sixth daughter & claims that it will make Amy, their youngest, happy to no longer be the baby J). Their apartment, which includes a bathroom, pantry, kitchen/dining room, sitting room, and outside veranda, and my room share the upper floor of the orphanage, so we take most of our meals together upstairs. During the morning hours J & M read some scripture and pray, work on small projects (such as color-coding adoptive file folders), and overview their vision for the tasks of the day, which necessarily requires the flexibility to adopt Plans B through E! After breakfast they get right to it. Daily tasks include a variety of things. In the past two weeks they have wired the new office with electrical wire, daily treated +/-10 patients who visit us from the neighborhood with diverse medical needs, shopped twice at Mega Mart for orphanage supplies, and mucked through the adoptive process for our now 26 children, among other things!

I have been charged with the homeschooling of our 10 oldest orphans. Colleen Monfills (you’ll probably hear her name quite frequently so I had better introduce her) is an adoptive mom of two of our little guys here and serves as our stateside Orphanage Director. She and her husband Mike are based out of Chicago and she makes frequent trips down here, helping us immensely each time! Hers was the idea to pull the older orphans out of Three Angels Christian Academy, the on-site Haitian grade school, and teach them from a homeschooling program in order to better prepare them for their transition to American schools. She elected to use the A Beka home school curriculum- a choice for which I am praising God! It basically includes a “Teaching Preschool & Kindergarten for Dummies” manual on which I completely rely, being a dummy so far at teaching preschool and kindergarten. J Praise God that Marcia is helping me with the schooling! I am thankful for her experience as a mom and grandma, for her energy, and for her logistical help. Currently she is undertaking the mathematics and I the phonics, but we tweak and modify things as we go. I am learning that in Haiti, you have to be flexible.

Challenges that I continue to encounter in now our second week of school must be specific to teaching in an orphanage in Haiti. For several of my students language is a major barrier. Bless their hearts- I don’t yet speak Creole and they can’t yet fully communicate in English! Obviously the goal is for them to get up to speed in their English skills but it would be immensely helpful to them if I were able to speak both languages (and helpful to me as well). Several of my kids know their kindergarten basics in French and Creole but you can see on their faces their little minds searching desperately for the English terms. Another major challenge I’m facing at this time is 8 younger kids for whom (Haitian) school doesn’t begin until September 7th- these little guys are quite a distraction. For the next couple weeks until school begins for them my few schooling goals are to create a routine for my students and to instill within them the basics of sitting quietly, listening, and OBEYING!

Along with acclimating to orphanage life, I am laboring to develop a life outside the orphanage. I that think church will be a good outlet for this. Port au Prince Fellowship Church has been for me a breath of cool air on these hot August days. Services are held in English but 90% of the congregation is Haitian. Pastor John Mchoul and his wife, Beth, are ex-hippies who have been serving in Haiti for years. Their authenticity and their love for Jesus are very attractive. Recently Pastor John has been teaching on Elijah the prophet. I am encouraged that our God pursues us so specifically and that He is sympathetic with our human limitations and frailties. For me a highlight of the service is the worship music which lasts for no less than half an hour! What a delight to be praising our God in a foreign land together with men and women of so many shades! What a healthy thing for me to be in the minority!

It is evident that you all are praying for Jack, Marcia, myself, and the people we’re serving here. Thank! you! Keep praying for us. We are grateful for your support and have a lot of joy in praying for your needs as well. Here are some specific requests that are currently on my heart…

Disciplining the children. I’m trying to learn my boundaries as a non-parent responsible for so many little hearts and minds. These kids are good kids but when they disobey they need spanking! Pray that I will have wisdom and love to use discipline as an opportunity to share the Gospel with these little sinners!

Staff members. We’re seeking to serve the needs of the staff here & have a burden for their spiritual needs. Cultural disparities are cumbersome obstacles that make our tasks even more difficult. For example, when (as a cultural generality), Haitians “tell you what (they think) you want to hear,” how do you form authentic relationships? Whom do you really trust? Pray for wisdom and for God to go after our staff members’ hearts. Pray that we as Americans will not be a distraction to the Gospel we desire to communicate to the nationals. Also pray for the spiritual maturity of the believers who work for Three Angels.

I am indebted to you all for your friendship and support. You all, my fabulous family, are the reason I have been able to make the move to Three Angels and your prayers sustain me and the work God is doing in and through me. Love you my friends!
Abbey McArthur/ Jeremiah 17: 5-8

Obesity Observed

Yesterday I witnessed a sad but laughable spectacle. (Yes, I did laugh.) I was sitting on a Haitan form of public transportation, the tap-tap, comfortably squeezed in with 20 others- my sweaty best Haitian buddies. We were waiting for the driver to decide that there were enough passengers to go when a pleasantly oversized woman approached the vehicle. She walked toward us and the tap-tap slowly began to move forward. Not fast, but sllow-ly. She continued to waddle behind us. The driver continued to move forward- just out of her reach. The passengers around me began to wisper to one another and laugh quietly. Obviously, our driver wasn't willing to take this woman on board. Taking her he would lose money since her plus size would take up two seats. So this game continued for several meters until the defeated woman turned away. I had to think, America, obesity isn't uniquely your problem, although you have uniquely made it fashionable!