Haiti

i just got back from haiti! i was there for 2 weeks and fell in love with the people there! they have soo little but they are so joyful because they have God in their lives. i saw so many horrible things there. people living on dirt floors with thatched roofs and still so happy. children that are bloated with red hair because of malnutrition and still so happy. people who own one shirt and one pair of pants and mismatched shoes and still so happy. the kids during kids camped just wanted to be loved on and thats all they needed. the youth during youth camp getting up at 4 in the morning to sing praises. everyone dancing because they are so filled with the holy spirit. i also saw and heard things that you can't really imagine in the states. saw voodoo alters, heard from a former witch doctor, saw a girl get a demon cast out of her. all so real but also impossible to imagine in sioux county let alone orange city. about 50 people came to know Christ during the 2 weeks i was there and many more recommitted their lives.

i saw mountains and valleys and caves and trees and animals that are all so beautiful that i don't know how you can't believe in God. a language barrier that seemed almost none existant at times. so many little things that God did that could only be God things as well as some big! kristies mom died while we were there. the beginning of the second week. so she and her family and vali and wreni left and so it was our youth group and the local haitian youth group and the translators led the youth conference. with little to no planning and a language barrier that was very obvious at that time. so many awesome things happened there with 40 people giving their lives to christ in just that 4-5 day time. so many things that could have gone wrong went right.

planning in haiti is impossible that is something we were told from the beginning. that only became a reality that second week when jean jean and kristie and family left. there were suppost to be crafts and games with the youth and it really turned more into a free time to try and hang out with them even though there was a language barrier. there were culteral differences that didn't make much sense to us americans.

through all of these differences you don't have to try to see God working. during my devo times in the morning i couldn't help but wonder why i couldn't see God working in the states. sure there are those obvious times of God things but never as much as in Haiti. during one of my devos times i found a ton of awesome verses that just kept telling my that i need to ask God and be intentional about seeing his works. then i looked at my usual quiet time at home with God. generally it consisted of 15-20 min of reading scripture in the morning with maybe 5 min in prayer and thats if i even remembered to have a quiet time. compared to the devo time we set aside in haiti. from 6:00 to 7:00ish or till breakfast was ready (on haitian time that usually meant closer to 7:30 or 8) most of that time spent in prayer for the people i was around and the place i was in. No wonder i felt closer to God. i was being so much more intentional and was really enjoying my devo time.

the day after that hit me was the day that one girl had a demon in her and cast it out during the youth conference. that was a big struggle for me bc i realized that satan and demons were real but i didn't like to picture them in orange city. our youth group had a great talk about what happened that night and how powerful satan really is and how in orange city we don't like to think about him, we like to imagine that he isn't real at all and has no effect on us, how we act, and the people around us.

a few days after this we talked with Price who is a former witch doctor. voodoo is basically devil worship, witch doctors are kind of like our pastors. they pray to the demons and bring curses upon people when they are paid for it. the first week i was there we had talked to him too but it hadn't really hit me that it was a real religion. after the demon being cast out i paid atttention when he talked. he said explained what he did as a witch doctor and how he lived his life. people would come to him to put curses on people, or have demons come into people. he also talked about they made people into "zombies" it was all very creepy and strange but also very real. the most amazing thing he told us was that whenever he came in contact with a true christian not a fake christian he couldn't do anything in worshiping the devil anymore. he couldn't call demons. the demons that were there had no power and that he couldn't curse or touch with any sort of voodoo a true christian. that was so cool! my mind kept wandering to the last bible study we had about demons an the devil and what leah had said about cj saying at some point in your life you will have some sort of demonic experience and it made me so excited to realize that bc i'm a true christian not a fake the devil can't touch me without Gods approval and God cares for me and won't let any harm come to me!

What a great trip! i may never be able to go back (though i would really love to) but i won't ever forget thoses lessons i learned during my 2 weeks there

History Lessons

Saint Basil’s Cathedral

            Today I went to Google to Google something as normal and I say that there was a different design on the website today. Today Google is honoring Saint Basil’s Cathedral. It is the 450^th birthday of the cathedral. I of course clicked on the picture to see what it was all about. And I started to read some interesting thins about this historic building. So I have decided to share it with you!

            Saint Basil’s Cathedral was constructed in 1561. It was hugely different from the architecture of the day. This Cathedral has 9 different domes that are all very brightly colored. It also has 2 spires. The inspiration for this church is unknown, but many guesses have been made. One such guess is that the architect’s inspiration came form the book of Revelation. There is a description of Heaven in the book that uses bright colors and this where the various colors came from.

“

And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.

”

      

This building is a very unique building. If you ever find yourself in the Red Square in Moscow, Russia make sure to check it out! Enjoy the colors and its wonderful rich history!

 Nancy

Weekend

How can one not love the weekend? It is so unpredictable and so much fun (unless, of course, you have to work). Here's a little peak into mine.

So, Saturday I decided to spend some time with my dysfunctional family. Mother Amando drove as father Drew poked her and messed with the radio. Twin brother Trev-Bot sat in the back with younger sister Young Driezy, and Jo (aka, Oops) sat next to me as we knit. As our parents fought, our pet TomTom led us to Sioux Falls safely somehow and we enjoyed a lovely morning at the zoo. After eating an economical sack lunch, mother decided we should to go the Washington Pavilion because the zoo was so small and we were done with it. We got to the pavilion and saw two Imax movies that scared the crap out of Oops and nauseated me, but it was fun. After spending the afternoon there, we decided to pull a sweet little prank on our pals Ginny and Jon Bon Jovi, and I think they quite enjoyed it. ;)

After a long day, we headed to little sis Young Driezy's house and watched little Harry Potter and friends in their first year at Hogwarts. I left early due to exhaustion. On the way home, I realized I had twin Trev-Bot's water bottle and decided to hold it hostage in my car until he feeds me music of the Owl City sort.

On Sunday I worked at the lovely Quizno's, and of course the Sunday we only have two people working a huge crowd decides they want toasty sandwiches. Yay for me. After a busy day until three, I headed home to read some Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and ended up finishing it. This is my conclusion of the book.

I

LOVE

SEVERUS

SNAPE.

And yes, he was my favorite from the beginning. I almost cried on page 658, but I manged to keep my eyes dry. All in all, a wonderful weekend.

And yes, Jo, like the rest of us admitted into the Circle of Knitting, you are a granny, and no one cares. ;)

Am I a Granny..?

Today I dug out my moms knitting bag. Yes, there was once a time that she attempted knitting, and failed. Lucky for me, though, I got her:

• T-pins
• circular needles
• patterns
• stitch book
• a few new pairs of needles
• some things that I don't know what they are OR what they do (but I WILL find out!)

I started a hat today! i can only wonder to myself as I knit my little blue hat.. am I a granny..? More importantly, do I care? :)

So I'm gonna remove the title image. And using our suggestions (add color, bold title, etc.), we can revise and edit it (sorry more writer than artist). Would anyone like to volunteer to draw the final draft? It must be in thin Sharpie marker, or the scanner will not read the image properly. You're going to want to make sure you have colored Sharpie markers as well. Let me know if you think of anything else I need to add to this post.

babysitting

so tonight i babysat a different family then i normally do. the father works with my dad and bought my night of babysitting from the haiti auction. when i got there, there was pizza and their father (kenton) gave me instructions for the night. the usual not to many snack, they can play with the neighbor kids, heres a movie thing. he said they don't watch to much tv but since they are home schooled i expected a few different things from what i had grown up with. so we watch dumbo, play a board game, play frisbee, jump on their trampoline, watch some brady bunch (on dvd of course), and do some art stuff. their parents come home and ask me how the night went. compared to what i'm used to babysitting it was marvelous! there was the small sibling spats of what game to play or what thing to do first outside but nowhere near what i'm used to for fighting! so when i get home i'm confused to get a call from their mom saying the youngest (caroline) wants to talk to me. when she gets on the phone she adamantly apologizes for being mean to me even after i assure her she was fine and not mean at all! i didn't know what to say when she first apologized! now the kids i'm used def. aren't horrible kids but they are brother and sister that are used to getting their way! these 2 girls i babysat are home schooled together and got along with each other just fine! i sure was surprised by that call and it got me thinking why aren't all kids home schooled and as perfect as these were! i mean if the sibling spat and occasionally going out of turn is being mean this world is a horrible place!

knitting=bribery

so today i had the miraculous experience of getting to babysit (my usual kids) but not having to give any time outs! usually Tierney is the the instigator of events that need a time out to fix so i was wondering why she was behaving so nicely today of all days. then i realized it. i was knitting when she was playing nicely with herself and/or gavin. she knew the scarf i was knitting was for her. she also quickly figured out that if she was naughty i stopped knitting and read if i was angry or punished her. neither of these options were ideal for her because she wanted the scarf as soon as possible. so even when i said we should go play outside since it was getting beautiful she knew that would mean i wasn't knitting, so she said she was going to go play with her friend Eden down the street. she even put off going to the pool! that is big for a 5 year old! so in retrospect she definitely knew that playing nice and not bothering me got herself a scarf, also she was playing with me to get something she wanted but overall i'm okay with that because it meant i got a day of peace and relative quiet (for babysitting a 5,7, and 12 year old) and i realized (rather quickly i might add) that she was doing this and now, in turn, i have a totally new weapon to use when she misbehaves! :)

American Stuborness at Its Finest

So just today my family, Laura, and I went to Perkin's by Okoboji for lunch. The place was pretty packed since it is the 4th of July. We finally got a table in back. Laura starts to go towards her chair, but our table is close to another table. Laura accidentally bumps an upside down babychair you find in restaurants with a babyseat in it. The seat with the baby in it slides down and hits the ground. Everyone is silent, but the baby is fine because the seat doesn't tip over. In fact when they put the seat back up there, the baby is just smiling. So Laura apologizes, and we all sit down and order and eat. When the family at the table next to us leaves, the mother does the exact same thing. The family tells the waitress that these babychairs are not safe to set babyseats in (so basically they were complaining and making a moderate scene about it). As they leave, I look at the upside down seat and notice a circle with a slash through the picture of a babyseat in an upside down babychair.