A Feeding Program

Some of the amazing work going on here... Shelly Clay and her husband, Corrigan, have a ministry to street kids and malnourished children. They invite them into their home for a meal & a movie on Saturdays. They have discovered that old silent slapsticks get the best reception from the kids on the entertainment front. The kids' favorite meal? Beans and rice. :)

The Clays started out a few months ago feeding a dozen or so children. They now get numbers in the fifties and have had to cap it off. Currently they purchase food for the kids from their own income but are looking for outside finanial support as they would like to expland the program.

Paradigm Shift

A typical city scape: A market in Petionville

This move to Haiti has involved an immersion into Missionarydom. My life is swarming with foreign missionaries! My friends are foreign missionaries! I go to church with foreign missionaries- the faces that hang on your fridges at home, “Pray for the _____s,” these are the folks with whom I converse, worship, work, and play. It makes life interesting indeed.

“What do you do?” is the common question at social engagements in the states. “I’m a teacher,” “I drive trucks,” “I’m a doctor,” “I stay at home with my kids…” The question and responses suit the context. Here, in this context, although we do not phrase the Question in this way, we could just as appropriately ask, “So in what way are you saving lives?” and the regular responses would include… “I run a feeding program,” “I nurse kids in the ghetto,” I’m teaching women about STDs and prenatal health,” “My husband and I train church leaders,” “We run an orphanage…”

What a humbling contrast to consider, one I can hardly get my mind around. These peoples’ daily work involves saving lives! And I find myself still thinking in stateside terms: “What am I going to be when I grow up?” …

Mom and Dad, meet Edward, my Haitian boyfriend.

Who would have thought a Snail would be so F.U.N.?

In Haiti, that’s how we roll.

I captured this little guy at the school (QCS) at which I spend so much of my free time. I thought he’d be a great creature to show my kids. These kiddos at Three Angels are so cloistered! No pets, no grass, only a few trees (which are not suitable for climbing L)… the highlight of my week with them is usually playing in the rain (or our impromptu Dance Parties)! I want so much for them to enjoy the amazing creativity of our God as evidenced in His creation so this week our learning moment was brought to us by a snail!

Edward, the Snail, was a dramatic guest during his stay at Three Angels. After his first night with us he disappeared and was feared dead. Upon his rediscovery, (which necessitated somewhat of a resuscitation since he was drying out) my elation prompted an Ode in his honor. Maybe I will share this piece of literature with you in the future. Mom and Dad, don't freak out. I did some soul searching, thought about the relationship, and Ed and I have since split. It's better this way. The cultural differences were just irreconcilable. :)

Reece was the only Haitian brave enough to hold Edward!

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.