Between the Parenthesis

May I introduce you to the newest member of our clan?






Evan Andrew Grimes - number 11 grandchild - was born last June. He and I are hanging out together some of this week while momma Kelly and dad Drew are working. Sir and I came up for his baptism Sunday into the family of God.

Gotta get as much grandkid time in as we can, before next January.






We are now between the parenthesis - somewhere on the right side of when
we were appointed Global Partners Missionaries and to the left of when we will actually move to Haiti in January, when the parenthesis will close on this period of preparation and team building.

And the to-do list of what needs to be accomplished between one parenthetical mark and the other is quite long.

One of the things we learned at our orientation was the importance of getting the word out, of what we anticipate we will be doing in Haiti and how we are preparing to do it. Thus, this blog.

And, thus, our first "telling" of our journey and vision before our Sunday school class this week-end.

We have begun the process.

It will be January before we know it.

The Computer Guy and Orientation

August 15 – 19 found us at the Global Partners Orientation for newly appointed missionaries, held in the Indianapolis area.  This was the official start of our missionary experience! 

Here, among other great and useful bits of information, major and minor, we developed a team building presentation for sharing our story and what we would be doing in Haiti:   teaching English to adults who qualify (Marty) and computer skills to those who reach proficiency in English (Larry).   

First delivery of our talk was before the other novice missionaries and those training us, followed by feedback, constructive criticism, etc.  Very helpful. 

Second presentation, a couple of days later, before the whole Global Partners staff  – kind of a test to see how we had fine tuned, etc. It was then, when Larry and I walked up to podium, we saw that someone had shut the laptop.  

The computer guy realized his computer had failed!  Died!  Kaputz! 

Turns out, the computer guy handled this kind of crisis with good humor and set everyone at ease.  And, our listeners were quite gracious even though there was  good-natured ribbing, back and forth! 

But, can you imagine how VERY L O N G it seemed to take for a computer to get itself organized so that two novice missionaries could get on with it!?

All’s well that ends well.  And it was a good object lesson to the old adage – always have a back-up plan!!!  

 In fact, it will probably be a great example to be shared with the novice missionaries preparing presentations for a long time to come …  of what NOT to do!!!

(We'll have our hard copy before our next presentation!!)

A May Week-End at La Gonave

Quick trips are often stressful! 

But, this one was just what we needed it to be:  a first-hand taste, albeit limited, of Haiti.  From the dirt airstrip landing of the 6-seater airplane from Port-au-Prince, 

                          to life in the Wesleyan compound,  

to experiencing the early summer HEAT ...    

                                                   to loving on the happy kids at the orphanage,

to touring the Wesleyan hospital with the outdoor cholera ward,

 
       to meeting those who were faithfully serving the Haitian people through the Wesleyan church,
 

 
we got a taste of life on the island of La Gonave. 

When seeing homes on the salt flats, 

                 we were reminded that kids will be kids

no matter where they live;
                                                                                




 

                                  and the hand slap game is a favorite in La Gonave, too!

As we flew home after our Haitian week-end, we saw the country not through the lens of television cameras or a reporter's take on a devastated and hurting country, but the technicolor shots in our memory banks of beautiful people in a land of great need ..

..... and God began a work in our hearts.