a few ramblings....

Once again we have to apologize for not being very consistent with our blog, it's always on our "to-do" list but it usually never gets done ... so since it's Sunday evening and it's only 7 and we still have electricity, which is a pretty amazing thing, I'd thought I'd do a little update.
First I'd better start off with Natalie, we tried to put a prayer request on for her about a week ago but as soon as I was done typing it the internet disconnected and I lost it then the next time I tried to put an update on about it we lost electricity when I was half way through... so once again I lost it... anyway that's not the important part. We would like you to remember in your prayers Andrew and Natalie Vanderheide and their three girls, Kirilee, Shiana and Ashlyn. Andrew and Nat and family are missionaries in PNG and work alongside Ian and Nad, currently they are on the other side of the island finishing up there three month training course. Just as the course was finishing Natalie got quite sick and soon found out that she had malaria, Her temperature was sky high and she had the chills and other symptoms of malaria. This past week she has been up and down but malaria can be really hard on your body. They were supposed to head home on Monday but due to car trouble and Nat being sick as far as we have been updated they are still in Madang. Please pray for strength for the famiy and especially healing for Nat and just a smooth ride home as it is a five hour drive and the roads aren't exactly smooth.
There was also a little boy that Coram Deo helped this past week that we ask you to pray for as well. His name is Angelo and I believe that he is six years old and Karen helped him to get his paperwork and arrange his flights so he could go to Ohio to get a brain tumour operated on. Unfortunatly on his way from Miami to Washington he stopped breathing and the flight had to make an emergence stopover in South Carolina. At the hospital there they put a shunt in to relieve the pressure in the brain and air ambulanced him over to Ohio. He is now with his host family in Ohio and preparing for his surgery tomorrow, the tumor is a big tumour and has caused a little bit of brain damage they believe. The child is an inspiration though, he wasnt' scared at all to leave Haiti, he told his mom that he was going to the states to get his head fixed and then he would be back. The night before he left he offered to pray and recited Psalm 23 off by heart. And when he awoke in Carolina he was a bit upset and told the nursing staff there that if they didn't fly him home he was going to walk home because he wanted to see his mother. Please pray for healing for him and also pray for his mother who is left behind in Haiti.
Things have been going well here, it's hard to believe it's been five weeks already! We caught the sourit (mouse) in our room so that was a happy day, I'm not sure if I can post pictures of dead mice or if the mice rights people will come after me.... but so far so good in our room, I haven't seen any other evidence of our nasty neighbours!
Randy and I went away for the weekend, we had a little getaway to Global Outreach which is about an hour out of Port-au-Prince in the province, the people that work there go to our church, the place is an oasis in the desert, a beautiful piece of property with some beautiful views of Haiti and some lovely quiet time for Randy and I. The room we stayed in even had air conditioning which is a beautiful luxury!
Well I'm starting to get scared that the electricity is going to go off soon so I think I will just quickly blabber off a bit more information, hopefully this all makes sense... our creole learning is coming along slowly, I think we know more than we let on, usually when I am finished trying to explain myself in English I realize that I knew every one of the words in Creole and I should have spoken creole, the problem is english is So much easier and a lot of people here speak it... but Randy and I both realize that we need to work on that. Randy has started doing Bible study with the guys on Sunday night, in English for now, they really enjoy the time and they have a lot of good questions. It's really encouraging to see! We've also heard recently that a misionary from the OPC church is coming to Haiti, they are visiting at the end of April beginning of May so we hope to meet them to, we're pretty excited about that. As well, we get to have a few more Canadians on the property this week, Ed Gringhuis and Grant Kottelenberg and Joel.... can't remember his last name and Ed's daughter Gwen are all coming down on Tuesday and staying for the week, we're excited about that, we've got lots of work lined up for them... wouldn't want them to get bored. And one more interesting tidbit I found out this week that it's rude to whistle in front of Haitians especially if an older Haitian is in the room... hope I haven't offended too many people... I am a part Scholtens and Scholtens just naturally whistle, I have to work on that one.
Well I think that that is enough of my ramblings, I've got butterflies in my stomach i'm so nervous that I am going to lose this due to the electricity! We pray that you are all doing well, we love you all and miss you all and we were singing amazing love this afternoon and a line really struck me "in all I do I honour you", what a confession to make, I pray that the Lord gives all of us the strength to honour him in everything that we do, may his name be glorified and praised in everything that He has planned for us this week!