God is Abundantly Good!

Thank you for your prayers!! Jaqueson (our orphan child with cleft palate on the right) not only got his surgery, but he got it done by one of the leading cosmetic and reconstructive surgeons in the U.S.! He is healing nicely and is starting to talk. It is so exciting!! So many prayers got answered on our trip to Hinche, Haiti. Tall prayers, small prayers, fat prayers and skinny prayers...God is abundantly good!! It was fantastic to see the scenery on the way to Hinche. Hinche is in the central plateau of Haiti and the landscape is so different there. On the way there we went over beautiful mountains, saw a huge beautiful lake, admired trees and valley's and smiled at little houses made with wood and stone. We met so many friends; both patients at the "camp" where we stayed and staff of Operation Smile. We spent sleepless nights, (if we weren't up with our little patient, it was noisy roosters, chicken or dogs), watched children and adults alike transform their looks, laughed, cried and ate cold meals in the truck. Throughout this experience we could feel God's hand over Jaqueson and we had a strong sense of the hundreds of people back home in Haiti and around the world praying for him. Thanks to those who were a part of this!

So many people are asking updates on a few things so we thought we would fill you in: 

Yes our dog made it here safely. Thanks to Heather Fretz who took fantastic care of him and loved him as her own, 

he made the trip OK. He is now settling into his new home and fits right in!

Yes we got our truck! Thanks to fantastic donors, we were able to purchase a much needed truck. 

We are really grateful for this provision, it has started to make things so much more efficient for us and the mission as well as making things a whole lot easier. 

For the buffs out there, it is a

  Toyota Hilux 4 x 4 ... yes this is a place where 4 wheel drive is a necessity ... even without curbs!

We had a great visit from our friends Ken, Debbie and Heather and it

 was so nice to have people from home visit. 

The kids are now on Christmas vacation and although Laurens and I are not, they are enjoying the visit from the 

Johnson kids (kids of our mission directors) who visit every Christmas. Photo: The Girls bottom, The Guys above.

As we approach Christmas, we have a lot to think about here. As we listened to the sermons from The Meeting House (our home church) these past weeks, it struck us that things are so different for us now. Bruxy and Joel our pastors were talking about Christmas and money and the commercialization of the season. They were challenging us all to think about how rich we all are in the global world. It occurred to us that this year we get to see this first hand. It really is TRUE! We (and you) are so wealthy in this world and we take for granted so very many things!

As we approach this Christmas, we do not have stores to buy our kids lots of presents at; we do not have a ton of Christmas decorations; we do not have to "keep up with the Jones'". We are now able to realize, how much we were affected in North America by commercialization. Although we knew this in principle before, we fully see the difference now that we have been removed from that culture. 

It is our Christmas wish that each person reading this is able to remember that Christ's birthday is not about how many gifts from the store that we can give each other. We pray that we all remember that Christ died for us and that He did not leave it at that.....He then told us to follow Him. Read, I mean really read the story behind Jesus' life and you will see how He wants you to do that. 

Merry Christmas!! (we miss you all)