Jan 23rd

Hello to you all,
It is Saturday afternoon, and another beautiful day. We’ve gone several days now without rain, and I am enjoying the sunshine. We’ve had a busy week with Bill mowing lots of grass. Mowing is a slow process here as the ground is covered with mahogany nuts that are about the size of a goose egg, and the roots of mango trees sticking up far enough to catch the blade of the lawn mower. He has also fixed the generator and drawn out the plans for the gazebo. This morning they staked out the base.
I’ve been continuing to get ready for the first team to come. I’ve been cleaning this house and helping Anna and Eli with their cleaning for grandma and grandpa to come. They are very excited. They not only get to spend a month with grandparents visiting, but they get to celebrate a late Christmas with them too.
We did have some good news today. Haiti has a good supply of gasoline and diesel, so we should not have a shortage. Cory told us that we can begin to run our refrigerator again during the day, and just turn it off at night. Electric refrigerators run down the batteries quickly.
Dr. Kris is safe and working at a hospital about ¼ mile from the palace. We don’t know when she will be returning home, but she is definitely being used.
Remember me telling you about Chris and Kathleen Sloan that live next door to us?
Chris’ father,Ron,is a medical doctor too, and has just arrived in Port Au Prince to volunteer for 10 days. He’s working in an Amway field hospital. Please keep both of them in your prayers.
Bill did have something interesting happen the other night. We have been having small rats on our kitchen counter, their droppings let you know. Just so you know, I do all of my food preparation at the dining room table!! We had set out traps 2 nights in a row and caught a rat both nights. This particular evening , about 8:30, Bill went out in the kitchen for some water. There was a huge spider on the wall at the end of the kitchen. Wolf spiders get to be about the size of your fist, like a tarantula. They really aren’t dangerous, but anything that big shouldn’t be running around in your house. Anyway, Bill grabbed the bug spray and sprayed it good. It ran very fast into our bottom cupboards, which do not have doors on them. He got closer and sprayed a direct shot at it. It just went crazy – zipping all over the place. Just as Bill was jumping back, not knowing where the spider would go next, a rat ran right past him on the cupboard and went down a hole in the wood. He was shook. He decided that we wouldn’t go into that kitchen for pills or water for brushing teeth that night. We went to bed shortly after that. In the morning the rat was dead beside the trap, and the spider had crawled out to the doorway of the kitchen, and was not quite dead yet. Bill took care of that!!! Now we look closely around the room before entering. The rats and the wolf spiders seem to be only in the kitchen, and the rats only come out at night. For those of you that know me well, you know why I don’t stay in the kitchen long. Cory is coming over this afternoon to try to plug some holes in a closet ceiling.
Everything else is quite peaceful here. Almost everyone has family or friends that have moved in with them from the PAP area. With the fuel supply available we are seeing trucks filled with people going back and forth on the road. The neighborhood is a lot noisier with the extra population, and there has been no school here since the earthquake. I’m not sure why.
Please pray for these people as they bravely go on with their lives and share their bread with others.Pray for those in the outlying areas where there is no help available yet. Pray that the believers in this country of Haiti will live their lives in such a way, that it will make people think bigger, better, grander thoughts of our Lord and Savior. Thank you Pastor Ben for those words.
Happy Birthday to our grandson Doug. We love you.