Tomas and More

I should probably start updating you when there is not some sort of something happening that may (or may not) cause you to be concerned.  Hurricane Tomas is hanging out in the Caribbean right now, and according to storm forecasters, it is headed toward Haiti by the end of the week.  There are lots of reports, but I stopped reading after the second one.  I don't need doom and gloom.
That being said, I'm simply going to ask you to pray.  I am in a safe place.  I have secure walls, and food and clean water, and access to more clean water should that run out.  If my tent were to blow away, and I were to loose all my Haiti earthly possessions, I still have the capability to buy new ones.  That is not the case for those living in tent cities all over.  And talking about people living in tent cities used to be something that I could talk fairly easily about, because I hadn't visited someone in their tent.  But now it's real to me.  One of my teachers is so proud and excited because last week he was able to build his own tent.  With wood and tarps.  A good one.  And he comes to school every day, clean and excited to teach.  He never asks for anything, and when I found out that he has to pay to use the bathroom in the tent city, I told him to come to the orphanage every day and use it as many times as he wants/needs.  So if you need a specific name to attach to prayers, Filder is someone who needs it.  Along with the 1.3 million others living in tents right now.
I've never been in a hurricane, and I don't plan to start this week.  Please pray with me that Tomas just disappears.  Not that the track changes, because no island here needs what Tomas has.  But that it would just cease to exist.

And on another note, :), good stuff has been happening here, I've just been too busy to talk about it.  We had 2 solid weeks of teams, one did an art camp with the kids (and lots of other awesome things), and another did a medical clinic for the children, nannies, workers, and workers families.  They had enough time and resources to serve 2 small tent cities as well.  We had a birth parent meeting yesterday, and it was awesome to see them love on their children.  It's far too easy for me to work on the paperwork part of things and never see the actual human part of the moms and dads with their children.  I was blessed to meet so many parents yesterday, and I took lots of pictures that I want to print and give to them at the next meeting.
This week I begin working w/ the nannies in the toddler room.  They'll have a new schedule, and new things to do, like music and movement, and gross and fine motor things.  We'll talk about child development, and they'll get to learn all sorts of new things.  I will too, as I've not been trained in this area, and my experience with a group of toddlers was in a far different setting.  God will do great things in this, I'm sure.

I attended church at Port au Prince fellowship today.  Every time I go there, something happens inside me, and I can literally feel the Spirit moving me to repent, return, renew, something.  Today was no different.  I am so continually blessed to be able to be part of that church family, and I pray God opens more doors for me to do that in a more intentional way than just on Sunday morning.
I took a small snooze in a hammock today (thanks Kelly!).  I hung it up inside the tent, and laid down with the fan blowing on me (city power came back after a week long vacation!!!!)  I almost felt like I was on vacation, since I could see the palm trees outside my window.
I started official Kreyol lessons this week with one of our teachers.  I can ask all sorts of questions about 'do you like...', 'do you want...' 'does he like....' do they want....'  It was a good lesson, and I did my homework right away, like a good Kreyol student.

We are facing more major staff cuts here in the next few weeks.  We are asking God for a miracle in providing funds to keep all the employees, but the bank account of For His Glory has enough for one more month.  It's an uncomfortable place to be, but we've watched God's faithfulness so many times before, that we are trusting him to do it again.  If you would like to be part of that by making a donation, or becoming a monthly donor, you can go to www.forhisgloryoutreach.org  It does cost roughly $300/child/month to run the place.  We have 73 children.  I'm not always good at math, but I can do that math problem, and realize we need a larger donor base.  Please pray about how you might become involved in this.