Hi Friends,

I know, I know, it's been forever since I've done a journal entry and I'm even wondering if anyone will look at this. You have all probably given up on me since it has been 2 months since I've done this. I'll try to be more faithful and keep this going. I really love doing it and I hope that many of you enjoy hearing about our life here as well. So having apologized for my delinquency.......How are all of you?

We are doing great, there is so much to catch you up on, not sure where to actually start. I know I can't do it all in one entry...so will start with our vacation in the states and work my way through the last 2 months....you'll have lots to read and hear about.

We had a really great six weeks in the states. We began our time by flying in Seattle, Washington and spending the night at my daughter, Robin's, house. We left the next morning and traveled to the Oregon Coast...just south of Lincoln City, where Steve's mom lives for most of the year. She lives close to the beach and you can hear the waves and sit on her glass porch and watch the ocean. It is very peaceful and we love visiting her there. She is 83 and pretty healthy, a few heart problems and knee problems, but is still very independent and loves driving places. We spent 4 days with her before going over to Portland, Oregon together and attending Steve's youngest daughter's wedding. Beth was a beautiful bride and the wedding was wonderful. It was held in a botanical garden and she did a beautiful job of decorating and making things beautiful. This was the first time in about 20 years that Steve has had all 3 of his daughters in the same place. When we got married almost 14 years ago...only 2 could come, so this was a very special time for him and his girls. The day after the wedding we met Robin and her husband, Rhodel and their dog Oscar and traded Oscar for Steve's mom.....and the kids took his mom back to her house on the Coast and spent 2 nights visiting her. We had a great time together and enjoyed visiting with everyone. Robin and Rhodel, then came over the next weekend and picked up Oscar and spent a few days with us. My second son, Cory and his wife, Shanda also came over on that weekend so we had a great time with the kids while they were visiting!

We had a good time while we were home. Steve went hunting on the coldest weekend on record! That would have been okay, but the heater in the tent trailer that they used to camp in died after the second night and after 2 more nights of freezing weather...the guys decided to pack it in and come home! They had 1 1/2 days of hunting and didn't see a single animal...so the cold won...and they came home! He says, next time! He did enjoy being outside, camping and being in the woods, just would have been nice to shoot something! I spent much of my time getting ready for Christmas! I enjoy making a lot of my presents...so had many projects that I had partially done in Haiti, then finished when I got home. When Steve was gone I was able to get together with 2 friends for a sewing day and overnight! We had a great time and I got several projects finished, including a polar bear rug for my 6 year old grand daughter.....it was fun to make! Can't wait to get a picture with her laying on it!

Our 6 weeks at home just flew by. It was wonderful to spend time at our church and to attend events and Sunday Morning services. I was able to attend one of our Mission Committee meetings, it is always great to spend time with the people that help us out so much here. We miss our church family, so it was nice to be there. We got a little bit more work done on the addition to our house, one of these days it will be finished! We just aren't home enough to work on it much, little by little...it will get done! We enjoyed the cold weather, but were really glad to be back to the sunshine! This time of year is so pretty here in Haiti. The temperature is wonderful, mid-80's in the daytime and low 70's at night. By January, it will dip below 70 at night and actually feel cold! Hard do believe when most of you will be buried in snow, ice, and cold wind! It is still sticky and humid, but not so hot! It's nice to be back to the sun.

Four days after we returned to Marfranc, the Ridgley family arrived. Josh, Shawna and their kids, Rachel (13), Jacob (12) and Quinton (10) came to stay for a month to see what it is like to live here. They are considering becoming missionaries with NLH and wanted their kids to see what it was like and to evaluate whether they could do it permanently or not. We had a lot of events planned while they were here, including a team of 5 visitors that did a variety of projects for 6 days. Josh helped Steve with several projects, including putting up some clothes lines on the roof, helped to put in the pump for the well, made gates, got water from the spring, and made shelves and work bench in the depot...and then organized those areas. Several days a week the entire family spent an hour working on their Kreyol with Vilex. They had a great time and laughed a lot and between Vilex, the neighbor kids and our house help...they were able to communicate some with everyone. Shawna and I also did a Women's Appreciation Day for the women of the church in Marfranc. They were able to go to the beach twice while they were here, the kids had never been to the ocean, so they really enjoyed that. The kids were involved in helping us give away school supplies as well as spend a special morning with the Sunday School kids at the Marfranc church...making posters, hearing the Noah story and getting gifts. I'll write more about these events in my next journal and send pictures too.

When Pastor Fran and the team were here we had a Thanksgiving Celebration together. Fran brought a 22 lb. turkey with him and we invited Pastor Plaisir, his wife and Vilex as well as Dis, Mme. Asson and Benit (our house staff)and the Stockeland's who are missionaries in Jeremie. With the Ridgley's and the team and everyone else we had 21 people!!!! It was crowded, but so much fun. The team, Josh and Jacob went up to the village of Chameau the same morning to look at the roof on the church and parsonage that need to be replaced. It was a busy day, but we had a great time together. The turkey was great and all the trimmings to go with it, including Pumpkin pie!!! Yum.....It was the first time that our Haitian friends had eaten many of the things on the table...it was fun to watch them eat new food for a change!

We pray that all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving together with friends and family and that you are now preparing for the Christmas season. Our love and prayers are with you as you prepare your hearts for the celebration of Christ's birth. May you smile and enjoy the coming time together with your families. We will be in Haiti this year and will miss our loved ones and friends.....just know that we love you all and thank God each day for each of you!

Ke Bon Dieu beni ou!

Joline

Hello everyone!

It's nice to have so much news to share with you! I'm glad to be back doing the journals, I've missed all of you and sharing what we have going on in our lives here.

We had a great week and as much as I want to tell you about it, I still have so many past things to catch up with! So hopefully I'll remember what this week was like and get to it eventually!

First though I wanted to share with you something that I'm very proud of. Some of you will know that I love to quilt and create things. The last project I quilted was a queen size quilt for my daughter Robin. Probably 2 or more years ago, Robin asked me to make her a quilt. I told her she had to help me decide what it was to look like, so we went to a quilt shop and she found a quilt on the wall that she fell in love with. I had her help me pick the major colors and the back of it and then I either had the rest or bought material to go with it. It is made out of Batik material and it was so much fun to make. I pieced most of it in Haiti....and then brought it back to Idaho, where I put all of the pieces together. It was on my wall getting finished for quite awhile. I think Robin often wondered if it was ever going to get done. Anyway, I finished the top and then had it machine quilted for her. She finally received it when we were home last. I took pictures of it on our bed before I gave it to her, so thought I'd share the picture with all of you! I love to sew and it's fun to do things for other people.

Okay, back to Haiti!!!!! I mentioned last week that last month, we were able to go to the Sunday School class at the Marfranc church and spend a morning with all the kids doing some activities and handing out presents. Kids Helping Kids is a project that LifeSpring Community Church in Plainfield (Pastor Fran's church) is doing with their Sunday School kids. For the last 3 years, Kathy Kummer has been in charge of getting their kids excited about sharing things with the Marfranc kids. Many of the projects have gone to the entire school population, but sometimes the projects are just for the Sunday school classes. This year the kids stuffed 100 fabric turtles and put God Loves You notes in the pocket on the turtle. We had fun handing out turtles and taking pictures of the kids. I didn't get any pictures, but there were smiles all the way around. The kids also did several banners for their Haitian friends and we took pictures of the kids under that banner. The Haitian kids then did several posters for the kids in the states, which Fran took home to them! We also did a Noah's ark coloring page that the kids got to take home along with the crayon that they used. It was a fun project and I hope the kids in Plainfield know how much the Haitian kids enjoyed it. The Kids Helping Kids program also sent down a ton of school supplies and money to buy notebook paper for them! It was a huge project and so much fun to see how much fun the kids enjoyed receiving school supplies. They also sent down big pencil sharpeners for each class and good chalk board erasers, notebooks, and note pads, and chalk, lots and lots of things for the teachers and the kids! Thank you everyone....especially Kathy who supervises all of this.

One of the highlights for me last month was the Women's Appreciation Day that we did for the Women's Group at the Marfranc church. There is a group of married women at the Marfranc church that meet several times a week to sing and pray together. Earlier this year the ladies did a concert at the church. Typically, they have tickets made and sell them so that they can make some money and have a retreat day. They didn't plan very well or very far ahead and not very many tickets were sold. By the time they paid for expenses, they didn't have much of a profit, so the retreat or party went by the wayside. It broke my heart to know how hard these women work for their families and also for their church. They meet every Tuesday and Saturday morning and pray and sing and read the Bible together. They practice their songs on Sat. morning and sing at least twice a month in church for special music. They also meet 2 times a week at each other's houses and pray together. The women are the glue that hold their families together and they are such strong, strong Christian women! I love them. SO, I had a little money saved for a special occasion (yes, many of you have contributed to this stash I have, ha!) and so I put together a Women's retreat (appreciation) day. It was the first time anyone had done this for them and they were very excited. We held the event at the youth camp, next door to our house. The day consisted of lots and lots of singing (see the photo below) and praying as well as Pastor Plaisir giving a lesson from the Bible. I had some Salvation Bracelets left over from when we did Youth Camp last year, so each lady was able to make their own Salvation bracelet so they could all remember how to share the story of Salvation with those that asked about their bracelet. We saw these bracelets on lots of wrists the next Sunday and several on babies wrists. Then we did a craft activity. I had some left over crafts from Bible school and the ladies enjoyed making crosses that were decorated with birds, birdhouses and hearts. They were able to take those home to hang on their wall. We also were able to eat together! We had several different women cook for the women that day. I wouldn't allow any of them to work in the kitchen, they were to be served...it was hard for several of them, they are used to serving everyone, so it was great to see them enjoy singing and talking instead of working. Benit (our housekeeper), Sophonie (one of the youth) and Darline (Erlande's mom) were the cooks for the day, it was great!!! I hope that we can make this an annual event, it was so wonderful to hear their singing and praise for having such a wonderful day! I always pray that my faith will be as evident as theirs, they have so much to teach me!

Our house is looking a little bit like Christmas! We don't have a Christmas tree here, we never have. We have had live trees that we have decorated for several years, then planted in the yard, but not for the last 5 years or so. The Zurita's have their old 8' fake tree that they are going to send down on a container, so maybe next year we'll have a tree to decorate...then I laughed because I don’t have any decoration for it, ha! But, at least I'll have a tree, right? The lights that we put up are soooo pretty, the kids love coming to see them when we put them on. You have to realize that we are the "only" decorated house in the valley, so it is really something special. However, these wonderful little lights actually use a ton of energy, so we don't leave them on very long each night! We asked the Zurita's to look for some LED Christmas lights for us and they found some that are solar powered, yeah, pretty amazing. I think Leslie is going to try to get them on 1/2 price sale the day after Christmas. Can't wait to try those out! Mme. Asson and Benit helped me get what little Christmas decorations out that I had. We put our Haitian Nativity scene up...it is so pretty! So, yes, it is starting to feel like Christmas, even in Haiti and even if it is 85 degrees out and sunny!

We love you all, and Wish you a very Merry Christ-filled season!

OH,,,,,almost forgot. You haven't seen Bouki for weeks and weeks and he is getting soooo big. So here is a parting shot of Bouki. He is 9 months old now and very strong and sooooo cute!

Ke Bon Dieu Beni ou!

Joline

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!! and I should add a Happy New Year 2010.

We are spending a nice quiet Christmas eve here at Kay Bo Rivye. Guess I could say we are spending Christmas in the Caribbean, ha! I asked Steve if we could go on a Caribbean cruise one day and he said, "Why? you have lived in the Caribbean and swam in the Caribbean for 14 years!" Guess he's right, but he hasn't mentioned all the good food we have been missing out on 24/7 right? Maybe he'll take me on a cruise to Alaska?????

This will just be a short note, just wanted to wish you all a Christ filled Christmas. May you be blessed with family and friends, lots of wonderful food and great fellowship together. May you also remember those around you that are less fortunate, those that are sick, the elderly in the many "homes", and those that have no family close by to celebrate with. May you open your hearts and your homes to those that have less than you!

We may have a Christmas eve service tonight at the church, however, it has been raining for 3 days and rain cancels everything, including church services....so may not have one tonight after all. If we do, our house has decided to use our large nativity pieces and have Vilex read the birth of Christ as we walk up the aisle and lay the pieces on a table in front. There are 10 pieces and there are 5 of us that aren't reading, with 2 of Dis's kids, 2 of Mme. Asson's kids and Benit's niece! It should be wonderful, IF we have a service. We'll see. Steve said Pastor Plaisir wasn’t' sounding like it would happen...so who knows! If now, we will read the story ourselves tonight and celebrate Christ's birth!

We love you all....and pray that you have a great evening and day.

May God bless you all this coming year....

Joline!