Breathtaking

Still during our first week here,

we got to have dinner with our new friends-

the ones I met on the plane on the way here.

They were here purchasing a glorious piece of land for God's purposes.

They have yet to find out exactly what that purpose will look exactly like, but they graciously consider themselves mere caretakers of God's marvelous gift.

the view from the porch

more view

not at all breathtaking

Noah and new friends shootin' the breeze

Shepherd and his new friend playing on the porch

more friends

And friends

Seeing as they see this land as God's gift for His purposes, they were so generous to invite us and another missionary family from the states to have dinner and enjoy God's creation with them.

A Haitian man and his family of 8 live on the land and oversee it while they are away. He lives completely off of the land, only purchasing rice to accompany his mangoes,papayas, and numerous other home grown delicacies. He was kind enough to take our kids,along with Brunner children on donkey rides.

Noah's creole continues to get remarkably better with each week here. It always delights and surprises Haitians living in a spanish speaking country when a white person speaks the somewhat obscure language of their small country. Both Noah and Consealuse ( It's a name I can pronounce,but forget writing it) spent time talking. Noah learned a little about his life on the land and what brought him and his family to the DR. Turns out they had some friends in common from the communities where HaitiLove works, which was neat.

Meanwhile, our sweet friends prepared the most delicious feast for us.

This is a papaya grown right there on the land.

Our time was filled with generous hospitality shown to us by our new friends.

They had to leave at the end of the week but we look forward to staying connected and seeing them again.

It's always just sweet to sit back and experience the things and people that God has literally dropped in your lap as an act of His love towards you.

And so while our new friends headed back to the states, they left us with an introduction to another new friendship.

 The other family in the pic below is from the states but have been living in the DR for a year,working with a ministry that works with unadoptable boys/street kids from the area. Their family has been a great blessing to us and a quick friendship in a new place. Nothing makes a place feel like home the way friendships do.

We've had many chances to hang out with them since meeting and we continue to be blessed by their encouragement and learn from their experiences as missionaries here.

They've been great friends and also a great resource for understanding the culture of this place better,especially among "missionaries" and "aid workers."

Noah and I came here to spend these months soaking up the experiences and opportunities God would lay before us.

We came here to humbly learn.

We came here to see what God was doing here more clearly,

and to prayerfully see more clearly what our role in making much of Him looks like.

How have the things we have done in the past and the things HaitiLove hopes to do in the future be better done in humble obedience to our powerful God?

What is HIS plan for these people?

These people in Haiti?

These people living in the DR?

These people called the Joyners?

We still have many unanswered questions, but I know that in our time so far, we see one thing clearly.

And that is that God is answering our prayers.

His hand is without a doubt orchestrating our relationships and bringing some things to fruition while others are dying, all for the purpose of leading us to...

a place.

The place he wants us.

What more can I ask?

We'll keep waiting.

We'll keep praying.

I'll keep praying for my husband.

That God would lead him ever so clearly,

encourage him,empower him.

And that I would follow his leadership with humble,gentle,gracious ease.

As a woman who trusts her God.

As a woman who believes that her God is,indeed, even able to lead an entire family through a feeble but obedient man.

So, in many ways, we continue to do what is hardest of all...

wait.

Wait on God.

And keep following his clear,daily guidance.

So far,so good.