Been a While...

I have not yet learned how to keep up with emailing, blogging, Facebooking, while being a dad to five kids, a husband, and a missionary in a third world country. So with that said, here's some news you might like to hear.

1. Our board member, Leha, whom I wrote about over a month ago, gets to go home tomorrow (April 16th). She has spent the last forty days in the hospital and rehabilitation center. Praise God for her healing! She has been through a lot, and still needs our prayers.

2. I closed the door to our 40' long cargo container back in the middle of November. I finally got to open it on Monday! We had an appointment with the customs inspector, where we had to hire about ten guys to pull everything out and put it in another container so the inspector could look at everything. Hopefully soon we will be able to get the container released to us. It is going to be a huge blessing, not just to our family, but the orphanage, the people of Balan, and others as well!

Here's a picture of the beginning of the unloading process. It took them about two and a half hours to move everything from our container to the one sitting next to it.



Until next time (and I promise it will be sooner)
Eric

Please Pray!!

We learned on Tuesday evening that Leha Swentzel, one of the board members for New Hope Haiti Mission, was severely burned in a brush fire. We don't know all of the details, but that she was at her house cleaning up from the ice storm that hit Kentucky last month. She has burns on approx. 40% of her body. She has been an integral part of this mission for years, and has come on over twenty trips here.

Thanks for praying.

Re: A Very Busy Week

About a month ago, I wrote about a group that came with a professional videographer to create a video NHHM can use to get the word out about what we are doing. I am pleased to let you know, that after many hours of editing, the final cut is now finished. Here is the Youtube link to it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQwQdKatU3k

Hope you enjoy.
Eric

Newsletter

Here's our newest newsletter put out by our board:

http://nhhm.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/nhhmnewsletter1.pdf

Enjoy!

Fun Friday Night

Last night I made donuts. I have been thinking about it for a while, and finally decided to get on the internet and find out how to do it. I found a recipe, gathered together the necessary ingredients, and started making them.

I think they were a success. I've had better, but I am my own worst critic. Jennifer liked them, I think because they tasted good, but also because she didn't have to cook (although she did wash all of the dishes and clean up my mess). My kids loved them, and I took some downstairs to share with the staff. There weren't enough to take to all the kids downstairs...next time I'll plan ahead for that!

Here's a picture of our kids after breakfast today. You guessed it, leftover donuts. I think a couple of them went a little chocolate syrup crazy.



The best part of the whole donut making process was that it was some good family time. Our kids at one point were all standing at the table making their own little donuts, twisty-wistys (as they called them), and donut holes. It was one of the best family activities we have had in a long time!

If anyone has any donut recipes that they love, send them along. I'm going to keep trying different recipes until I find one that is phenomenal!

Until we fry again,
Eric

Sunday Church

This past Sunday, I had the honor of preaching at the First Christian Church of Balan (okay, the First part is just a joke, we're the Balan Christian Church). I preached on the Beatitudes, which will lead into a sermon series from the Sermon on the Mount because...Lionel, the Haitian pastor, asked me if I would like to start preaching every other week. I must have done at least a decent job, otherwise he would have said something like, "You said you went to Bible college?"

Actually, I was pretty amazed at how well it really went. Not only did my preaching go well, but we had a record 105 people there on Sunday. It was awesome! I'm looking into the cost of some new benches, so people can stop bringing their own chairs!

It was comforting to know that people were praying for me. I found out today that our church in Joplin prayed specifically for me on Sunday. Thanks FUMC!!

Next Sunday will be another great day at church. We're taking another trip to the lake, where three more people are going to be baptized! God is doing great things in Balan!

Eric

Language Difficulties

Okay, so the title of this post is a little misleading. It's not that I have been having problems communicating with Haitians, that has actually been going pretty well. A lot of Creole that I had forgotten has come back, and I have already learned so much more in the last two months. I think after another 20 years, I might be close to fluent (maybe a slight exaggeration).

The first real language difficulty came last Sunday. Jennifer and I and the kids were at the airport waiting for my mom, and there were a bunch of UN guys standing nearby in full body armor, with assault rifles looking very intimidating. So I told Wilson to go up and try to shake their hands. And so he did. They were, of course, very nice to him, shook his hand, smiled at him, and then Christa, Hannah, and Jett all followed suit. So I finally decided to walk over to them and find out where they were from, how they were doing, etc.

I started trying to communicate with a guy whose name was something like Andres, but I'm sure I butchered the spelling. I asked them where he was from. Actually, I didn't ask him. I pointed to the patch on his shoulder, which was the Brazilian flag. I said "Brazil?" He said "Wi." I tried to speak to him in Creole, but got nowhere fast. He said, "Franse?" wondering if I spoke French. Of course, I speak about as much French as I do Aramaic. So i said, "no I don't speak French," in Creole. Then I said something I wish I could have taken back immediately after it left my mouth. You ever do that, say something and then immediately think, "Doh, I'm an idiot!" Well, I told him, "I don't speak Spanish."

Well, immediately he gave this quizzical look, and I suddenly realized how big of an idiot I really am. I should have known better. I had a friend growing up whose dad was from Brazil. I know Spanish is not spoken in Brazil. And yet, because he looked Hispanic/South American, this dumb American blurted out, "I don't speak Spanish." He could have looked at me and just as well said, "And I don't speak Aramaic."

Actually he didn't say that, instead he raised his assault rifle, told me Americans are dumb and should be shot, and cursed me in Portuguese. Okay, he didn't do any of that either, but it would have made a better ending to the story. We finished our "conversation," and went our separate ways, me telling Jennifer how dumb I can be and I'm sure him telling his friends how dumb I am.

My second case of language difficulties has been going on periodically this week. You see, I'm preaching at the church in Balan on Sunday. I'll be preaching in Creole, which will be a lot of fun, I think. I've done it several times before at a church in Cap-Haitian, but never in Balan. What has been difficult, is preparing my sermon.

Okay, I had six semesters of Greek in Bible College. I am by no means an expert, but I at least have an appreciation for what the verse originally said, before being translated. Now in the front of the Creole Bible, it states that it was translated from the original Greek and Hebrew texts. I'm not so sure. In fact, I would bet money, it was not. It sounds like more of a translation of a paraphrase, sometimes strikingly familiar to "The Living Bible." Not the new version either, which is actually pretty good, the original.

I'm preaching on the Beatitudes. The problem is that I of course want to be true to the text, the Greek text that is. That is going to be difficult. For example, instead of "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness..." the Creole Bible says, "Blessings for those who desire to live the way God wants..." And instead of "Blessed are the pure in heart..." the Creole Bible says, "Blessings for people who do not have evil thoughts in their heads..." That's an entirely different body part!

I know not everything can be easily translated into Creole, as there are no words for certain things/feelings/ideas. Like the word "funny." There's no word for "funny." That is tragic.

I guess I'll just have to resort to praying that God will speak through me, a broken vessel. He'll use my broken Creole to tell people about his perfect love. That's what I've been praying anyway.

Until next time,
Eric