Something Only God Could Do

In the middle of my hometown there's a church that's been around for nearly 200 years. For most of my growing up years Fremont United Methodist Church was "home." If it takes a village to raise a child, then the people at FUMC were definitely the village that helped raise me. I remember singing songs during Sunday school time, having awesome VBS weeks, and drawing pictures of the choir during church. I also remember when the stained glass windows were donated to the church, and how exciting it was to be a part of the service when I was an accolade or the Scripture reader. But I also remember how specific people invested in my life and taught me to live God's way. Most importantly I remember the confirmation class at FUMC and how it was that class that caused me to surrender my life to Christ. I have so many good memories from FUMC, and recently I got to add one more.

On Sunday September 25th I was able to return to FUMC (after nearly 15 years) and share with the Sunday school classes about my year in Haiti. I showed a video from MTM, talked about life in Haiti, and answered questions. Then the pastor allowed me to use his entire sermon time to talk about how the Lord called me to Haiti and how he's been faithful to provide what I need to do his work there. After church I was able to talk to quite a few people.

It was such a blessing to see and talk to so many individuals who had such a great influence on my life. I was giddy with excitement looking out over the congregation from the pulpit. I am so blessed to have the people of Fremont United Methodist Church as partners in ministry. Who knew that the ministry of a small church in a small town could have such a global impact?

Something Only God Could Do

In the middle of my hometown there's a church that's been around for nearly 200 years. For most of my growing up years Fremont United Methodist Church was "home." If it takes a village to raise a child, then the people at FUMC were definitely the village that helped raise me. I remember singing songs during Sunday school time, having awesome VBS weeks, and drawing pictures of the choir during church. I also remember when the stained glass windows were donated to the church, and how exciting it was to be a part of the service when I was an accolade or the Scripture reader. But I also remember how specific people invested in my life and taught me to live God's way. Most importantly I remember the confirmation class at FUMC and how it was that class that caused me to surrender my life to Christ. I have so many good memories from FUMC, and recently I got to add one more.

On Sunday September 25th I was able to return to FUMC (after nearly 15 years) and share with the Sunday school classes about my year in Haiti. I showed a video from MTM, talked about life in Haiti, and answered questions. Then the pastor allowed me to use his entire sermon time to talk about how the Lord called me to Haiti and how he's been faithful to provide what I need to do his work there. After church I was able to talk to quite a few people.

It was such a blessing to see and talk to so many individuals who had such a great influence on my life. I was giddy with excitement looking out over the congregation from the pulpit. I am so blessed to have the people of Fremont United Methodist Church as partners in ministry. Who knew that the ministry of a small church in a small town could have such a global impact?

Student Writing: Sports

Here's another writing sample from last year's Rheto class. Lucson was the only Rheto student who retook the national exam and passed. He is now in the first Philo class at the MTM school.

If you can get over the broken English in this piece of writing, you'll find out why there are not a lot of sports teams in Haiti. In case you don't know football=soccer outside the U.S.

Student Writing: Sports

Here's another writing sample from last year's Rheto class. Lucson was the only Rheto student who retook the national exam and passed. He is now in the first Philo class at the MTM school.

If you can get over the broken English in this piece of writing, you'll find out why there are not a lot of sports teams in Haiti. In case you don't know football=soccer outside the U.S.

Rheto/Philo Update

I've talked about the Rheto exam before. On the first test 11 of our 26 kids passed and 5 failed--leaving 10 in limbo. Yesterday the principal received the results for the 10 students who retook the exam. Unfortunately, only one of them received a satisfactory score on the retake. I'm bummed that so many of our students will be repeating Rheto, but I also know that they will be better prepared for the test when they take it again next summer. In the meantime I suspect that they are highly motivated to study and learn what they missed the first time around. But I'll be able to tell you for sure in a few weeks when I'm back in Haiti (news about that will come in the next week or so).

Here is the Rheto class studying calculus and chemistry.

So the official class roster for Gramothe's Philo class, which is the final year in the Haitian education system, is 12 students. The 11 boys* and 1 girl in the class will take the Philo test at the end of the year. Those who pass will be the first graduating class from MTM's schools!


*Using the word boys to describe this class really isn't fair. The majority of them are older than 20 and they really are young men at this point. It makes me chuckle that I still consider them boys.

Rheto/Philo Update

I've talked about the Rheto exam before. On the first test 11 of our 26 kids passed and 5 failed--leaving 10 in limbo. Yesterday the principal received the results for the 10 students who retook the exam. Unfortunately, only one of them received a satisfactory score on the retake. I'm bummed that so many of our students will be repeating Rheto, but I also know that they will be better prepared for the test when they take it again next summer. In the meantime I suspect that they are highly motivated to study and learn what they missed the first time around. But I'll be able to tell you for sure in a few weeks when I'm back in Haiti (news about that will come in the next week or so).

Here is the Rheto class studying calculus and chemistry.

So the official class roster for Gramothe's Philo class, which is the final year in the Haitian education system, is 12 students. The 11 boys* and 1 girl in the class will take the Philo test at the end of the year. Those who pass will be the first graduating class from MTM's schools!


*Using the word boys to describe this class really isn't fair. The majority of them are older than 20 and they really are young men at this point. It makes me chuckle that I still consider them boys.

Patience & Faithfulness

My one word theme for the year 2011 is "patience." How fitting. Everything about my life has required patience this year. And here's the gut level honest truth: it sucks.

I have never had patience. People used to tell me "Patience is a virtue." I would instantly complete the sentence with, "I don't have." Unfortunately patience one of those skills you have to practice in order to get better at it, and my version of practicing doesn't generally end well. Most of the time this "practice" ends in prayers that go a little something like this, "Jesus, I need patience--NOW!"

In order to really get a handle on patience, I wrote several definitions of patience in my journal at the beginning of the year. They included the following:

• the quality of bearing provocation, annoyance, hardship, misfortune or pain without complaint, loss of temper, irritation or the like
• an ability to suppress restlessness and annoyance when confronted with delay
• quietly and steadily persevering

I think the one that has stuck with me the most is the second one. Sometimes when I'm in the store and I have to wait in line for *gasp* 10 minutes (generally less) to check out, I ask myself if I am suppressing my annoyance. I think what I like most about that definition is that I can still feel annoyed I just have to keep it from leaking out of me in visible ways. I tell myself that's the first step in mastering this thing called patience. I figure after I can keep my annoyance inside maybe I can start decreasing the amount of annoyance I feel until one day I just don't get annoyed at all.

In the midst of learning to be patient, I've realized that this time is about more than just developing a useful skill. Forcing myself to wait, to be patient, has opened my eyes to the faithfulness of God. When I'm busy checking items off a list or making myself crazy trying to plan all the details of my life (specifically the ones I don't have any control of anyway), I don't have time to see that God's got it in control, that he's faithful to do what he's promised. But when I step back and wait on the Lord--when I suppress my annoyance I'm able to see past myself and into the depths of Almighty God's faithfulness.