Thanks for praying!

If you prayed for this, thank you! Joy was accepted at Eastern University's Templeton Honors College and was offered a good scholarship. She has been accepted at 3 colleges and now it seems that the decision is down to 2 of them. It's a relief for her to know that she's done with the applications and she has good possibilities.

Prayer request

Please pray for our daughter Joy -
1. for God's guidance about which college to attend, and
2. for her to be able to attend a CNA training program in June-July so that she can work as a CNA throughout her college years. It's going to be hard to get everything set up with us not being in PA because the Department on Aging has a lot of requirements. We're planning to get to PA around June 13th (and the program starts the 16th) because Joy graduates May 30th and she wants to do one last medical missions trip before spending most of her time in the US for a while.

Pray for Joy on a Medical Missions Trip

Joy was thrilled to be invited to go on a medical missions trip to Ile A Vache, an island off the coast of southern Haiti. Our school has a requirement for community service, so this kind can be approved depending on the circumstances. She had a ton of books to bring with her, but she's so excited to be going on this trip, it's fine.
One great thing about it is that she is the only teenager in the group--she's with Physician's Assistants, a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, etc. So she'll probably learn a lot from them and maybe have a chance to hear about their careers, too.
I should have posted this before when I was praying for their safety driving down, etc. But it's not to late to join me. In spite of a flat tire, they made it down to Les Cayes just fine and the boat ride was fine too.
They actually get to stay in a nice hotel (with air conditioning!--I know "where can I sign up?" right?)
We really appreciate Ed Amos giving her this opportunity.
So...pray with us this week for the safety of the whole group, and for the patients they will see. She comes home Friday.

Pray for Joy - at a medical clinc

Our daughter, Joy, left yesterday to go to Seguin, up in the mountains, to help out in a medical clinic and learn more about what it's like to work in one. Teresa Murphy, who works in the Haitian Christian Outreach, often has college interns come and work with her, and we were really happy that she was willing to have Joy even though she's still in high school.

You can check out the website of this ministry at: wwww.haitianchristian.org look at the medical clinic page or the picture page.

Joy, the courageous

On Tuesday we drove Joy out to Cazale to work at a medical clinic. Wow, we were overwhelmed by the place. They do 3 clinic days a week and see about 250-300 people each of those days. The rescue mission there cares for a lot of kids. In fact, they hire about 65 Haitian people to take care of them 24 hours a day. We were amazed and impressed with the work that Lori Moise, her sister, Licia, their Dad and their husbands, along with all the Haitian workers do in that relatively small space, 11 kilometers away from civilization :).

We were a little queasy seeing the children with severe malnutrition and just being in the crowded, warm clinic. And of course, we've all been sick lately, so we weren't surprised when we called Joy on Wednesday morning and found out she had passed out. She said she was OK, though, and wanted to stay. The next day she felt sick, but she still wanted to stay to learn something and hopefully help out.

Yesterday she talked about witnessing stitches and putting an IV in a baby's arm. For those of you who don't know, Joy has wanted to help Haitian kids in some medical capacity, but she's never been anxious to deal with blood. But, I guess, she can't avoid some of that, and now she's got the opportunity to see what goes on first hand. Pray for her...that God would use this to give her direction...and for her protection.
Sorry, no pictures, yet, until she comes back, or puts some on facebook. But you can check out Lori's and Licia's blogs.
xanga.com/haitinurse4life
xanga.com/no_I'm_not_a_nurse

Girls Soccer Team Party

We hosted the QCS girls' soccer team party at our house yesterday. The girls had fun swimming, playing soccer, making up awards for each other (commemorating things like noses that attract soccer balls). Richard was the coach at the beginning of the season, then, Katie Broecker took over when Basketball was done. Joy's too modest to tell people that she was the captain, and that she scored several goals. I don't remember how many, but at least one in each of the last three games. They didn't win much, but they played some exciting games, improved their skills and mostly had fun.

Visit to an orphanage

UPDATE: We went back to the orphange yesterday afternoon (Tuesday) and did more of the same. Some of the girls hadn't had a chance to make necklaces and on Monday we didn't have any ink pads for the rubber stamps we brought. I continued reading with them in the books I had brought. Some of the girls stayed interested and stayed with me. But, there were several distractions and the empty tiled room echoes a lot. So, for some I think it was good.

One thing I really loved was helping some of the girls who were never in school before this orphanage started a couple months ago with their writing. One little girl couldn't write her name, so I wrote it and helped her copy the letters. At first one girl was embarrassed because I asked her if she could write the alphabet. Some of the girls who were probably between 9 and 12 years old, could write numbers, but needed help, or could recognize and copy the alphabet when I write it for them to copy. I was amazed by how happy they were to be given pencils and paper and how motivated they were to work on this.
Since we have off from school for Carnaval/Mardi Gras, and Richard and Ricky went on a 3 day bike hike, Joy and I went to an orphanage started by friends (Joy's good friend, Ari, and her family) just before Christmas.
We did crafts with them. (Yes, Joy did crafts--a true missionary willing to sacrifice!:)) We made necklaces and bracelets with foam beads and let them make pictures or cards. Then we started reading a comic-style booklet that tells the whole story of the Bible. These were given to us by the Frank & June Williams and the kids really like them. We read in French and translated into Creole. Only a few of the girls have been in school long enough to read or understand French. These girls were taken off the streets and given a place to live beginning just before Christmas by this wonderful family, The Manasserros (sp?).

I found this very accurate, sometimes funny entry on Joy's Facebook and wanted to republish here because she did such a good job with the visual imagery about which her English teacher just taught her. ;)
For those of you who don't know...Facebook is one of those places where Mom's just don't belong. (Neither do Mom's who are also your English teacher.) According to my girls, it's for young people. But I'm allowed to look and read, so I do. Usually I laugh and I feel closer to both of them. So, here is Joy's description of a beach trip we took on Nov. 1st.

The beach was absolutely GORGEOUS! Either I had forgotten how extravagantly beautiful they were, or this was the most luscious amazing beach I’ve ever been to. But first I must tell you that to get there it was quite the ride. I was so excited because we have the new pick up which has comfy seats, good air conditioning, and a CD player that mostly works. Plus I was like “yes! now it’s only two kids, Ricky and me. So we will have some room��? but then because we went with some teachers and staff from Quisqueya we ended up giving the 2nd grade teacher a ride. So Mom, Ricky, and I were all piled in the back. It was fun though, we snuggled, laughed, and listened to music; while screaming and wincing as Dad maneuvered around pot holes and recklessly passed everyone on the road 1) because we could and 2) because we were trying to keep up with the leader of the group. So after three hours of jostling around and getting all our insides scrambled up we finally… finally made it! Or so we thought, but instead this lady took us to her mission and was kind enough to give us the full tour and history complete with three generations of founders. Anyway, none of us were expecting that and it would have been fine if we weren’t so hot and anxious to get to the beach. We also didn’t know it would take sooo long to get there and we got a late start and we had to be back before dark which is difficult because it gets dark at like 5:30 pm so we only had like 3 hours at the beach! When she finished showing us all that, we then drove another few minutes to her beach house, got changed, and walked a little to get to this beach haven. It was a small piece of paradise enclosed by cliffs on each side, with glistening water of three shades of brilliant blue. It was breath taking. Like pretty much everyday in Haiti it was a beautiful sunny day with lots of nice ocean breeze. The water was warmish it was soo- soo tropical the whole scene. There were these nifty trees that had weird winding braches which came down low, so they were perfect for hanging all our stuff on them and things didn’t get sandy! Most times; I hate sand it drives me crazy, but there it was like white and soft and grainy sand there. It was smooth and pretty. Ok so the water was like unbelievable I think water in heaven will look something like it because it was soooo pure and clear BLUE! There were three shades which all faded into each other. Way on the horizon it was a deep royal blue really rich dark and majestic. Then there is like this greenish blue in the middle definitely like turquoise finally it’s just this bright lightish blue like the kind you see on Bahamas brochures or something it was really blue but you could still see strait through it and that fades until it’s just white clear as drinking water it was amazing!For a while I just laid on my stomach on a tube and just gazed into the ocean I could see everything! Without goggles and I went out fairly deep it was shells and stones and little fish I was mesmerized by the color and clarity of it all I was tanning on the shore just soaking it all up and you have to realize this beach was so perfect that the sand dune kinda curved up just like a tanning chair facing the sun it was just right! Yeah so anyway while I was sitting there it occurred to me and I was like this is perfect! The sun the ocean the sand there are no bugs, this is too good to be true but here I am writing you and the ride home makes me sure it wasn’t a dream all that bumping up and down would have woken me up! Oh yeah and the waves were just gentle and rolling back and forth back and forth the clear water just rolled up and washed over the sand so while I was floating in it bobbing up and down it was like a massage soothing out all the kinks and stress from the ride there… I could fall asleep just thinking about it. I am also happy to report that I successfully got one shade tanner and am not burnt except for the tiniest bit on my chest but I don’t think it will peel I used 25 on spots I burn and 8 on the part I thought would tan and it worked!!!! Horray!!! Oh and now I’m writing this from an air-conditioned room where we are spending the night yay! I love AC! Ok well I’m completely content for the moment and if and when you see the picture you have to realize that that it's a poor representation a mere skeleton compared to really life the camera messed up the colors the were brighter and more vibrant and I don’t know it just could capture the reality and pure beauty of God creation so you just have to come see for your self!