Less then one week to go....

It's Friday today which means that by next week I will be back home in Portland! Its hard to believe that time has past by so quickly and that a trip that took almost 9 months to plan and save up for is almost over. wow!
The past two weeks have gone by especially quick. A new couple from Montreal had arrived in Pedernales while I was away to help  out in the Spanish. (They quickly got talked into helping out the creole too:) It has been really nice to get to know them, plus now I have a good contact for visiting Montreal! I was able to turn over some of my studies here in Pedernales to the the sister, Marisa. I also plan on drawing a map of all my good studies that I had in Anse-a-Pitre; hopefully soon we will be allowed to pass the border freely again as before and some of my studies over there will be taken care of.
I has a really nice experience last Saturday. Since we have been here I have always much preferred to work over in Anse-a-Pitre rather then here in Pedernales. We only worked here in Pedernales two mornings a week, all the rest of the time we were in Haiti. So after learning that we could not got cross over there for now, it was hard to have a positive attitude about having to stay in Pedernales. But of course, the need here is great too as my experience showed. We had all gone together, spanish and creole, to work in an area that is close to the border. There are a lot of Haitians and Domincans that live there. We all had a really great morning,  getting many new calls in spanish and creole. Towards the end of the morning we were all gathered around under a tree and were starting to beak away to do studies. A bunch a little kids gathered around us, all asking for something to read. I noticed a young girl, though, standing a little ways off, who was just watching us. Something about her seemed different and I decided that I wanted to talk to her. So I approached her and asked her name. I then asked her, since she seemed different then all the other kids, more withdrawn, if she had lived here long. She told me just 3 months. I asked her where she lived before and she told me she was a refugee from Port-a-Prince, a cause de the earthquake. Then it made sense why she was so much more timid and quite then the other children. I talked to her for a bit and ended asking her in the end if she wanted to study the bible with me. She said yes right away, she wanted too. So I arranged to come back on the following Monday. Well since then we have studied 3 times. I turned her over today to another sister here, Maria Ange. She is very quite and timid on her studies too, but she really seems to be understanding what we go over. Every time I have gone she is always ready to sit down and study. I hope she continues to learn after I leave!
Also too, this afternoon we had a nice experience. I was at another study which I had started with just one woman, Jocelyn. After the 2nd study, her neighbor, Roselyn, wanted to join in. Then a couple weeks ago, while having our study, an older lady nearby came up and was listening in. At the end she said that it wasn't fair that I was studying with just those two women and not her. So she then joined the study. Today I took Marisa on the study in order to turn it over to her. In the middle of it a young man came up and stood behind Jocelyn, listening in the entire time. Another young girl sat down nearby as well,  listening in. Well after we had finished, I asked the young man what his name was and where he lived. He pointed off behind us. I asked him if he too wanted to study the bible. He said yes. So I explained that Marisa's husband would be able to come back if he could show us where he lived. We followed him through the neighborhood to his own house. It turned out that his father was already a study of Jonas' but the young man had never met him. So now he would start studying too. And of course, the young girl who has sat down, she said that she also wanted her own study. It was a great ending to our day!
Tomorrow will be my last day in predication ici.  I think I will go to the beach as much as I can before I leave too. Soak up all the sun as I hear there is snow back home....Yikes!
Much looking forward to seeing all of my family and friends soon!
bisous



This is me with the 3 woman I studied with today.
The young man in the back is the one who we followed to his house!



This was me saying goodbye to some studies in Anse-a-Pitre

I know we are not supposed to have favorites, but the two girls on either side of me
were mine, Annanie and Annanemme. Sisters who live in Anse-a-Pitre

Snuck this photo while they were busy reading the paragraph!

Bittersweet day

It was a difficult afternoon today in Anse-a-Pitre. Last night at the meeting I found out that the border has become increasingly difficult to pass so the brothers were going to write a letter to the Dominican side requesting permission for us to continue to pass back and forth for preaching They has been allowing us to cross, but because of the difficulties for others the brothers wanted to make sure we had legit permission to cross in case anything more happened. This morning we normally would have gone over the border but the brothers wanted to wait for the letter to be processed and to receive an official response. Not going over this morning already bummed me out as I have not been there for almost 3 weeks and I had so many people I wanted to visit!
In any case, Jonas said we should be able to cross this afternoon so Verity, Valerie, and I met him at the border at 3pm. The guard at the gate saw us coming and automatically opened up the fence to allow us through. But before we went Jonas had to go and check in the status of our letter. He came back with bad news. They had not authorized the letter and were not going to allow us to continue to to cross freely as before. Thankfully, they did say they would allow us to cross this afternoon so we could let all of our visits (or as many as we could get to) know about us not being able to cross in the future and, too, about them not being able to come to the meetings in Pedernales. The brothers had seen this coming though, and had already arranged for a small meeting to take place in Anse-a-Pitre this sunday. I don't know if it will be a continuous thing or not, but at least we had some bit of good news to tell our visits.
Jonas stayed positive and remarked, as we all were crossing the bridge, "this is today. we don't know what will happen tomorrow!"
It was very hard afternoon. Not only because, combined, we had so many visits we could not possibly get to all of them, (plus we were also trying to visit other peoples visits if we knew them), but also it was just so hard to have to tell so many wonderful people that this might be the last time we would see them for awhile. All of us had sad faces and we had some really strong hugs of goodbyes. A lot of my visits, when they saw me, ran up to me with huge smiles on their faces, glad to have me back. Which just made it harder to have to tell them that I didn't know if or when I would be able to come again. I mean, I knew I would eventually have to say goodbye to all of them when I leave, but this was all just unexpected and too soon. 
I really hope that before I leave they will allow us to cross again!

Photos....

Made it back to Pedernales in one piece! My friend Verity flew into Santo Domingo yesterday and I am so glad she did as Ashley had to unexpetedly fly home last Wednesday. I was really sad to see my travelling partner go....sniff..sniff.... we had some great times!!
Verity will be here one week then after that I will be on my own till I leave Pedernales at the end of November. Time has passed so quickly!!
In any case, here are some photos from the past two weeks. Enjoy!


Ash & I in La Colonial, Santo Domingo




Robin & Terrie West with Janet Haisely in the middle




This was the line to get literature for the serivce day in Mirebalais




Brothers & Sisters on a "tap-tap" headed to the territory.
We had rented 2 of these for the day, plus we had 2 other cars!




View when we were working just south of Mirebalais.




Eating our coconuts while out in serivice!




Walking in the territory



After a long day, take a rest while waiting for the tap-tap to come!



Brother Marsailles teaching a young boy. It wasn't as serious as their expressions look!





Young children we met while working outside of San Cristobal, DR




Our service group from the creole congregation in San Cristobal, DR



Haiti Trip Summary

We made it back to Dominican Republic after an uneventful bus ride from Port-a-Prince. As promised, here is a brief overview of our past week. I will try to be a detailed as possible.
We arrived last Monday afternoon by bus into Port-a-Prince around 2pm. Robin and Terrie West and two special pioneer sisters, Luna & Nadine, picked is up at the bus station. As I mentioned in the previous post, the West's are a missionary couple living in Mirabalais. Ashley had met Robin about a year ago and I was able to meet both of them the weekend before we left, down in LA. What a difference meeting them made to our trip here! They really encouraged us towards considering Haiti as an option to visit. They also prepared us a lot for what to expect as far as the culture and the people of Haiti. By the end of our weekend in LA, we both were wondering why on earth we had chosen the DR and not Haiti to travel too! (of course, once getting to Pedernales and having such great experiences there it was hard for us to think to much about travelling to inner Haiti.)
In any case, we still wanted to visit and the West's welcomed us with wide open arms. After picking us up we drove to the Bethel Branch, which is about 20 minutes away. Once there we realized right away that we were with some of the best people you could be with when visiting Haiti. They had been at the bethel branch for over twenty years and had only just been sent to Mirabalais last spring. Walking around bethel as guests of the West's was like having celebrity status! Further proof of a really great couple:). We all had lunch in the room of another unique couple, Hugh & Janet Haisely. They have been here in Haiti for close to 30 years (I think) but have just recently been reassigned to Patterson, NY. It was a real privalege to meet and get to know them. After lunch we did a tour of the branch. It's very pretty!
We set off for Mirabalais just after 6 pm. By then it was dark outside. Haiti has a hour difference to the DR. I guess they used to be the same when Haiti recognized daylight savings. But then someone decided that for man to just change time like that twice a year is going against what God intended for timekeeping so they stopped........hmmmmmm.....;)
Anyways since it was dark we only got to see and experience crazy traffic as we left port-a-prince before heading north into the mountains towards Mirabalais.
On a side note, in case some of you have been reading the news and have put two and two together, Mirabalais is in fact the town that the cholera outbreak was traced too. The government thinks that it was caused by the dumping of human waste directly into the river by a UN Peace camp that is located just before the city. We took extra precautions while in the town itself, of course and everything went very well.
Tuesday was a holiday so the whole congregation had planned to work the day in a smaller area about 20 minutes away. Around 60 people showed up at the hall 7:30 am to get started! It was great to see so many. Plus, about 10-15 of them are just brand new publishers! I guess this is really normal. The congregation has regularly over 300 at each meeting. Anyways the service day was great. We walked really far. At one point three groups of two us treked up the side if this hill to visit some homes. Well in one of the homes there was a man who loved to talk about the bible. He gathered all 6 of us and sat us down, sending his young son to get all of us fresh coconuts to drink! We had a nice discussion with the man and he said that he looked forward to when we would visit again.
The rest of the week passed by way to quickly. We did the same schedule as Robin & Terrie normally do, which was being out all day wed, thur, sat. Friday they take off. We were going to go up to a nearby waterfall, but, as I am sure you all heard, there was a hurricane headed right towards port-a-prince. It ended up not hitting nearly as bad as everyone thought, just brought in a ton of rain. It was kind of funny though cause we didn't have any Internet and no other way really to read the news so I don't think the Wests would have even realized there was a bad storm coming if it had not been for several different people at bethel who called Terrie every few hours to update and check in!
The territory itself was very much the same as Anse-A-Pitre. Everyone is willing to listen! We had some really great experiences. One of the funnier ones was that at one house I started in  on my presentation and I asked the lady if if she could read the verse in the bible I was showing her. She said she couldn't read. I said it was no problem, i would read it for her. But then her young son, maybe 4 or 5 years old, interjected telling us that his mom could read, that she was lying. We all just kind of laughed, the woman too, and I just went ahead a read the verse. Then, after I had given her some magazines and we were getting ready to leave, the sister I was with started to explain to her how our work is voluntary and if the woman would like to contribute towards the cost of the magazines, then we would be happy to accept. Well the woman shyly shook her head no, saying she didn't have anything but then she ducked her head back in her house and brought out 2 gourds, which is  about 1cent. We gladly accepted it. Except then, out of the house, her little boy comes charging at us with a 200 gourd note in his hand, gives it to the sister, saying his mom was lying again; she did have money. We all started laughing, the mom included, as the little boy went back in the house and brought out a handful of more money, repeating to us that his mom was lying. It was a little awkward, of course, but we all just laughed at the little boy, mom included, and we gave the woman back her money. Out of the mouth of babes!
A little more on the congregation... Like I mentioned it has regular meeting attendance over 300. Many of the ones you invite to come show up, all dressed up. Bible students themselves progress very quickly...I met many students who were brand new publishers because they were out in service with us everyday! Really young ones progress fast too. I met two newly babtized young girls who were age 9 & 10. the ten year old already had atleast 2 studies and the 9 year old had 6!! It was so impressive though cause these girls knew their bible SO well. Because it is so easy to talk to everyone you meet, a new publishers learns quickly how to find key scriptures to many different points. It was a very humbling experience for me; in my time here i have learned so much!
The Sunday before we left some of the brothers in the congregation through us a small party after the meeting. It was really nice of them! Plus, I have never seen so many guys who loved to dance in one room! It seemed like the brothers outnumbered the sisters and I was literally being passed from one guy to the next as each song ended and  another one began. It was hard to leave!
The next day we had to say goobye to the Wests and travel back down to bethel. It was really hard to say goodbye! Just in one week we had both fallen in love with the area and the brothers and sisters, especially the Wests. They were so encouraging to us!
Monday evening we stayed a night at the bethel in Port-a-Prince. We were able to have dinner with the bethel family and also attend family study. After the study some bothers had a smaller gathering for us another two sisters who were visiting from Canada. It was a nice ending to our week!

Port A Prince, Haiti

Bonjou!!
Just a super quick update.... Ashley and I have spent the last week here in Haiti. It has been great! We stayed with a missionary couple in Mirebalais, about an hour north of the branch. We are now at the bethel and are staying the night before heading back to DR in the morning. I will post about are past week as soon as I have some more time (and am not using a Bethel computer!), this is just a post to let all know that we are safe, sound, and not sick with cholera. ;)
Bisous