Revision

So I've been thinking, many of my expectations about what I would be doing at the orphanage were inaccurate, and I'm not doing as much "work" as I expected.

What I have been doing, however, is loving kids. And loving kids is so much more than doing things for them. In fact, sometimes it means not doing things for them. Before I went to Haiti, I was thinking I would show the Haitians how much I love them by doing stuff, by "working". But after a few boring days, some days filled with supervising the library, and generally just being with the kids, I'm discovering lots of other ways to love them, not just through what I generally think of as "work". Loving by teaching. Loving by learning their language and culture. Loving by admitting my faults. Loving just through living in community with them.

So while I still believe work is a powerful way to show love, there are many other ways that love is "made visible" and many of those have been more prevalent in my work at the orphanage than what we might typically consider "work".  For all of us, we have some many more chances to show love than just by the "work" that we do.  So, with that, I'm just going to amputate the first two words from my blog title. I think that will make it a little more accurate.

On the topic of love, a few weeks ago, I taught a Bible study with the kids on 1 Corinthians 13. If you've ever gone to a Christian wedding, chances are good you've heard this passage before, particularly v. 4-7. It talks about what love is, and what it is not. Interestingly enough, it doesn't say, "love is hard-working." It is, however, lots of other things.

Pictures. 'Cause I have decent internet

I'm going to take advantage of a fast internet connection while I'm in the US to post some pictures.

First, here's a picture of the boys' house. Its right across the street from the other building that has the school and the girls dorms. My room is in the back left corner of the boys' house.

And this is the "living room" in the boys' house. We watch TV, hang out, and have devotions in this room.

Me sitting in my room reading. (Credits for this picture go to Renick. He likes taking pictures with my camera. Mostly of himself, but sometimes he takes pictures of other things. Like me.)

Here's a picture of all the kids minus three who were taking exams that day (some of them aren't cooperating really well) with me and Mark and Marsha (the other two white folks). We took this picture on the roof of the girls' house.

This is the kitchen in the boys' house. All the cooking is done in the other building, so this kitchen is mostly for storing and washing dishes. And blue thing on the right is our water filter.

I think that's good for now.

A time for grieving

Some of you know part of this story already, but I though everyone might like to know

A few weeks ago, my maternal grandmother passed away. She was sick and we knew it was coming, but it has still been very difficult for me being so far away. Then, this weekend, my paternal grandmother passed away as well. She had also been fighting cancer. All three of her children were with her this weekend, and I know they were glad they were there.

As I'm sure you can understand, this has been a very difficult few weeks for me, especially the past 24 hours. I will be going back to the US on the 23rd for the memorial service for my mom's mother, and will probably stay in the US until after my dad's mother's service, although we don't know for sure when that will be.

I ask now for your prayers for myself and my family, that we would be given strength and comfort in this time of sorrow and grief. I ask your prayers specifically for me, as it has been extremely difficult for me as I have struggled to deal with their deaths far away from my family, and for the last two weeks, without anyone I can really talk to about it.

I think I have shed tears in quantities to rival a Caribbean thunderstorm in the past four weeks.