StephenByxbe.com

Today started out a little better. I woke up with much less of a headache but had to pee so bad I could barely move. I am able to get up and move around now so that helps a lot.  I had to take it farely easy today as to not get worn out.. but that was ok. I thought it would be a day to catch up.. HA.. I dont think catch up exist anymore. Today we got up and got going. Started the day by heading to the gas station so we could get the generator crankin’. We realized that the medical team that uses the clinic here needed the power (this med team is not part of HOM) but we didnt know they were using it. This explains some of the solar power issues. Anyways, we got the fuel and filled everything up then shipped the guys off to Pastor Leon’s house to fix the mosquito screens. I stayed at the compound with the ladies and we started painting the school. I did not get much painting done because I was constantly needed to do something else or solve some sort of problem… but that is what I am here for. I worked with Nadege a lot today on some administration stuff & budgeting.  Finally got a shower this afternoon… since yesterday I was physically unable and the day before I said I would take one on monday – 3 days without a shower :/
Had a great meeting with the team tonight. Did devotion and talked about the trip and Haiti and really dug deep on some topics. Not too much happened today that was crazy or exciting.
Keep in touch and keep reading.
Always with love,
Stephen

We have not had substantial internet now for almost 3 days so I am getting backed up a little, But if I make them short and upload them all at once it will just give you some good catching up on my life.
Once again… Monday… the start of a another beautiful day. I woke up with a slight headache that I thought was from the haitians burning plastic like it was going out of style. I took some meds and contuined on with the day. I ate a TON of food at breakfast – bananas, a mango, cereal, coffee and more. After breakfast we had the two guys on the team look at the generator and solar system. We came up with some ideas and started to run a test (long story short – after we left, someone went and turn the solar power on instead of letting it charge).
Anyways, we headed to Cite Soleil to do some sanding and block work. Our translator was late so that put us standing around doing nothing for a little while. By now my head was beginning to hurt really bad. I drank a lot of water and kept working and I also ate some food to try and help. After that I start to feel nausious. I stopped working and sat in the truck with our driver and took a nap. Around 11:30am we called it quits at Cite Soleil. We walked the team through the street market and the returned to Blanchard for lunch. Now – I am about to die. I get off the truck and I drop everything. I head straight for my bed. I took more meds and crashed. My head hurt so bad I could barely sleep. After about 2 hrs I had a bad fever and my stomach was very upset. I began making my way to the bathroom – holding onto the walls and everything I could just to make it there. After the restroom, I could barely open my eyes. I decided to head towards the hopsital/clinic. Pierre’s wife saw me coming and started having a creole conversation with me (which I could barely talk) so I just kept saying not good, not good. She then helped carry my to the DR where I just crashed on the floor in the corner.
From there, I was so out of it, I dont really know what went on.  Despite the amount of water I consumed and have always consumed, I was incredibly dehydrated and I also had some sort of stomach bug. They hooked me up to an IV and gave me 1 liter of fluids. I left the clinic around 5pm and crawled right back into bed.
The DR’s came by and visited me last night to see how I was doing (and to scope out our new bathrooms). I think they are secretly planning something.

-Stephen

well this seems like two blogs coming out really close but I want to stay on track and not get behind, and I know a lot of you are dying to know what we are up to Today is Sunday.. which means church day!!! or at least one of their church days. The service this morning was great.. led by Pastor Luc. We took a dictionary with us and looked things up occasionally.. but for the most part we were lost. We were much more attentive this week since we had actually had sleep.  After church we had to clean up some more and then go to the airport to get the team. Our tap tap driver was running late, so we were worried that the team was going to think we forgot about them but we got there just in time. We told all the teams to hold up a green peice of paper at the gate and we would find them – and this worked PERFECT! We walked right up and found them and got their stuff on the truck. So for all of you future teams.. remember your green paper!!!
After the airport we came back to the wonderful Blanchard compound and got the new team settled in, gave them the tour, introduced them to Pastor Luc and then took a nap. There is nothing like a good sunday afternoon nap after the nap we all gathered on the roof (my nap was actually on the roof) and relaxed some more and ate dinner on the roof.
This new team that has arrived is very nice and very relaxed. They are really our style (no offence med team). Also, med team, the heat has broken and we have been cold for the past few nights. We just had to come down off of the roof because we were too cold. Sorry… yall came a week too early!!
Tonight while we were on the roof we heard some of the haitian kids singing a song we wrote about haiti. We taught it to them last night during our music session, so it was fun to hear it already catching on.
Today was a great day to reset… to think about the past week… and to look forward and see what an awesome time the next year is going to be.
Time for bed,
Bonswa
Stephen

Alright.. well the power shut off last night before I even got a chance to start typing. One day we will get this power schedule figured out. My guess is that they wanted to make sure they had enough fuel saved up so the power could stay on all day for church, since church goes from 6:30 am until about 10pm. It is like an all day event here!

Well yesterday was awesome. We are becoming part of the community now. As we walk around we are beginning to fit in (as much as two white boys can in this place). Kids have stopped saying “Ay you” to us so much and people have started to recognize us.. probably as “those white guys” commonly called “blanc”.

Saturday morning I woke up sick… I was nauseated and did not feel well at all. Seeing as I fell asleep around 8:30pm and woke up at 6:30am I was already pushing 10 hours of sleep. I quickly pepto’d it up and laid back down. I was up by 9am working again and doing fine. I believe the sickeness came from a bell pepper that was in some sauce for the rice and beans. My gut said dont eat it.. but I had to try it Gut was right this time!!

After I re-woke up I started building some shelves to organize all of my stuff a little better. I will put a picture on facebook of my newly designed living area. I finished the shelves and then Nadege (Leon’s Daughter) arrived to escort me and Nathan to the supermarket. We walked about 2 miles to catch a Tap Tap, then hopped 2 tap taps to make it across Port au Prince to the market. We went through a Haiti style SAM’s called “Megamart” and then to the Deli Mart. We got the usual $10 jar of peanut butter, $5 (seems like a scoop) Jar of jelly, some cereal and other random necessities and then hopped the 2 tap taps back home. We convinced Nadege we could walk from the last tap tap to the compound alone and that no one would bother us and she agreed and continued on her way. As we started walking everyone either (1) wanted to help or (2) wanted what we had. Imagine thousands of starving people standing around.. and then two foreigners come walking along with bag fulls of groceries…. you get the picture. We got the “stink eye” from everyone!!! We heard “gimme one.. gimmee one” but we just smiled and said “bonswa” (and we walked a little faster everytime. No worries.. we made it home unharmed It was a fun experience, being out on our own.

When we were walking around the city, we were in one of the areas that was hit very hard by the earthquake. Me and Nathan were discussing a way to describe it to you. This is what we came up with. Imagine a wrecking ball went crazy on the local mall… destroying it – so there is stuff everywhere – bricks, metal, glass, merchandise, cars…. then dump a TJ MAX on top of the pile of rubble, release 1000 homeless people and have them set up shops. This is what it seems like walking down the roads. We walked past a block full off little venders set up in front of a 4 story collapsed building that is now 1.5 stories tall. They sit in front of it like nothing is wrong. We walked a little further to a University (nursing school) that completely collapsed into the road. This is the first time on this trip I have smelled death. It was gut wrenching. There were a pile of bones and skulls in the rubble by the road. Nadege told us she walked past this just after the earthquake and there were people crushed all in it just hanging everywhere. It is sad knowing that every pile of rubble on the side of the road has people buried in it, but life continues to go on.
Once we made it back (5pm), the internet was finally up! It had not been working since about 8pm the night before. I opened my computer and had about 100 emails, of which almost everyone needed a reply.. so I sat and replied to emails – all regarding Haiti – for an hour. I know this is all boring stuff but I am getting to the good stuff in a min – the cultural bonding moment. Supper was great, as usual. Rice, beans, chicken and potato crisps. Sooo good. We ate and relaxed and then did a lot of cleaning. We made a big mess in the dining hall, when making the bunk beds, that had to be cleaned by sunday. Then around 8pm the church meeting got out.. Boom.. power goes off.. normally we have until 10pm, but not last night.. so we didnt even try to type out blogs or anything.

We decided to get ready for bed so Nathan was headed to the shower and I was headed to the restroom when we ran into a bunch of people downstairs. They are Pierre’s kids. Pierre is the gate keeper and watchman at the compound. They live in the first floor of our building in a space the size of most people’s living rooms. Pierre’s kids are awesome. He has 2 children (Islan, Amos) and then 1 niece (Dolly) and nephew (Woodly) that live with him. They were asking us something from downstairs and we didnt know what it meant so we stopped by on the way to the bathroom. They were saying “Nou we veso.” We were trying to translate it but our dictionary is awful. We got “We see…..” and we kept asking them in creole “What is veso?” and “point to veso” and they kept pointing back at me and nathan. It made no sense.. finally a new kid showed up and was like “veso… manje” and acting like he was eating. Manje means food/eat. It made sense then. They saw our plates from dinner on the balcony rail and needed them. This “lost in translation” time took about 20 mins. This then led to all of us trying to talk for a few minutes and me and nathan having to translate and use our hands to explain. We just sat and laughed.  A friend of ours, Reginold, then walked up. He speaks a good bit of english and also plays the guitar. He had his mp3 player on and played some backstreet boys and other 90’s music for us. He wanted to hear us play and sing after we sang all the songs on his mp3 player. So we grabbed the guitar and started playing. This is where it got really awesome. As we were playing some worship songs they started singing in creole while we were singing in english. It was amazing how the two translations went together. They were amazed that we knew the songs and could sing along with them. I was amazed at how it sounded when we had both translations going at the same time. This led us to translate a song into creole so “maybe” one day we could lead worship at Blanchard Church and teach them a new song or two. It was so much fun sitting and talking with  them and singing songs that lift up the same amazing God in two different languages.

Church should be exciting today. It starts in just a few hours. I will give you an update when its over. We pick up the new team today around noon so the week starts again. Wish us luck and keep us in your prayers.

Always with love,

Stephen

Wow… so today went by incredibly fast. Me and Nathan have been locked up almost all day in the compound… the rain clouds have been out all day and just put a gloomy feeling in the air. However, this is the most productive day we have had yet! We started the day by taking the med team to the airport at 7:30 – then returned home and started building bunk beds for the dorms. We built 5 complete bunk beds and prepped everything for one more. This will finish out the guys dorm. We still have to build a few more for the womens dorm.

The haitians have been so entertained with our power tools and method of building. They will stop by and watch every now and then just to see what we are doing next. It is a lot of fun interacting with them.

There really isnt too much to say about today… I dont even think we left our building more than once or twice. Just getting things done! I like the sound of that.

This short blog will make up for some of the long ones!

Anyways, just a reminder. Adam Cole, the Exec Director of Join the Journey (jointhejourney.cc) contacted Me and Nathan about writing up a story on us and our trip. It is online now @ Join the Journey. Check it out and let me know what you think. He did an amazing job!

Thanks for all of your support! Everyone has been so great…

Keep us in your prayers,

Always with Love,

Stephen

So… another day has passed. And you all out there, mostly back in the states, are following along pretty close and want to know what is going on and how we feel. Well, today was tough. We had some things to do today that just didn’t seem like they were going to get done – and they didnt. So that kind of drug me down. Building the bunk beds is an ongoing task that takes a lot of time and a couple people. Right now, as we are still getting used to everything our days get soaked up by everything very quick. I got one bunk bed finished (minus the lag bolts) with the help of Byambison. Nathan made a lot of progress on the video with Nadege but not finished. Knowing that all of these projects have to be done very soon is tough. Also, we ran into a issue with the cooks. We had to figure out a per person price for food each day so I can set the money aside. This is where I began to get frustrated and worn out. Seeing as I can understand only a little of the language – 2 hours of translating and speaking is ROUGH! It will wear you out very quickly.

I finally wrapped up the meeting with the cooks – we settled on a price – and it was time to head to Cite Soleil to pay the translators and driver. When I got to C/S they still had people waiting to be seen by the Dr’s. This is the first time I have seen the patients at the clinic. To hear the stories and to see the people is completely different. I was correct when I said I didn’t want to be there. That is a very sad sight – our health is something we don’t even think about. It is beyond taking it for granted.. we know that we will be healthy (for the most part). We live in clean places and have everything we need within arms reach. A lot of these people suffer from things that are easily preventable.

I know that we will see more things that will open our eyes while we are here. I pray for the people here that they will have peace while things get back to normal and as the rebuild begins. And that they will see God’s love and power through the relief workers and minister in Haiti.

A good quote from one of the medical team members tonight… “I try to live simple so that other may simply live” – this hit home as it is what I struggled with for awhile. I saw how much I had – and didn’t deserve – and saw people in such great need. There is nothing wrong with having a lot… but when you have the ability to help/serve and you don’t, that’s where the problem arises.

Sorry for the sad post, but you all wanted to know the emotions and how I feel. So here it is.

ALWAYS with Love,

Stephen

Beautiful beautiful beautiful… today was great! The sky is so clear during the day! I slept well again last night… cant say too much about everyone else, but I was gone. Woke up nice and early ready for breakfast. The ability to have cold milk and cereal makes everything 100x better. Coffee and Cereal… it makes life go on.

After breakfast, Nathan wasnt feeling well so he took a nap (this was a well deserved, mid-morning nap) he had be up for 3 hours already. I joined in on the nap time for a little while, but then got up and took care of some business with Bill Glass and Linda Bates over email (I was also on facebook- I was multitasking, so dont think I was slacking ) After lunch we were able to take our first walk around town. We were accompanied by our translator, Byambison, and Leon’s Daughter, Naedege. We walked through Blanchard to the market and looked around. We then walked to Cite Soleil, which is about 2 miles away. We went to the market in Cite Soleil and picked up some grapefruits, carrots and some crackers. The markets were very busy and VERY dirty. There were flies all over the place. I told you before that Cite Soleil was built on a trash dump – well today we experienced that. There was a drainage ditch that runs through town that smelled awful. This is right by the market where you buy all of your food. Nastiness.. I dont know if that is a word, but I just used it.

On the positive side – the walk was great. We were able to get out and move around for once and see the town. We also got the see the houses up close. They are so small.. it makes me really appreciate my home in the US. Lots of homes dont even have all the walls or a roof. Some just have a sheet strung up and they just sit under it on the ground. It is very sad. However, it is fun to walk around because we stand out “just a little.” All the kids like to wave at us and the all scream out “Ay you… Ay you” and most of the time they ask for things like money and chocolate. Im not sure why they ask for chocolate – seeing how hot it is it would just be mush. We dont like to respond to the kids that say “Ay you” because it is very rude… we try to get them to greet people with “Bonjou or Bonswa” so we can talk back with them. maybe one day it will work..

Today was a very relaxed day. We made it to Cite Soleil and visited the Med Team. We scouted out some work that needed to be taken care of and talked with Pastor Profaite. We also ran to the store and got Haitian Coffee for the team.

Not much else to say about today other than God created a beautiful world. Even in the midst of chaos and destruction – it is beautiful down here. The mountains frame in every view and it is simply gorgeous.

Great news.. the current running water got fixed today so we can have a real shower now and flush the toilet!!!!

After my shower I realized I got some good sun today.. so my tan is on the way and like the title of the blog! Sunshine it is….. forever!

God is great… and I pray that He will continue to draw me closer to Him everyday and realize my purpose for being down here.

Keep me and Nathan in your prayers,

Always with love.

Stephen

It is truly amazing what is happening. I believe through mine and nathan’s blogs you will probably catch all excitement and other emotions. We both tend to leave out some things and not others but collectively we cover a lot.

Today – to me – was great. This blog will probably end up being a little long so bare with me.

Let me first give my setting of where I am typing my blog. I am sitting on the roof of the tallest building in Blanchard, staring at the mountains in the distance. I can see lights all up the mountain however the is no power around me for miles. I can hear military vehicles working on one of the many bases, people singing, talking, and the rustle of palm leaves. This is simple amazing. God has a wonderful way of making you feel and know that you are where He wants you to be.

People have constantly asked me if I knew for sure that I was supposed to go to Haiti… and sitting here tonight – seeing all of the stars in the sky – I know, for sure, that I am where I am supposed to be. I thank God for consistently pulling me closer and closer so that I would pick up on His will for me. God is Great!
Anyways, on with today. Today started out great. I woke up early to go try to talk with the cooks… failed attempt once again. I tried to ask for a thermas of hott water. However, it came across as “Yes, hott water is used to make coffee.” I did not want to say “No” because then I felt that we would not receive the coffee.. O well… no hot water. Good news though -  I finally communicated that they should not peel any fruit or foods that have a shell or need to be peeled. Just a cleanliness thing.. so that was great. But now that I think of it, they didn’t give us anymore eggs! I am working on my creole.. but as you can tell it is slow progress.
After breakfast we shipped the Med team off and we got to work. Nathan worked on a Promo video for HOM and Pastor Leon and I began screening in the women’s dorm. It is very hot working inside down here as air flow is limited, but outside today was beautiful. Clear open skies, no humidity and a bright shining sun! It was amazing.. we wanted to go to the beach – but we didnt so dont worry

Throughout the day we worked with our translator (Byambison) learning new phrases and finishing the screens. Nathan also finished the video which looks amazing. (check his blog out – harvestforhaiti.com for our latest Video Blog) We finally got the screens finished after lunch and we were able to clean up and start on some work in the men’s dorm. Our main focus has been on the women’s since we have a large group of women coming soon.

Around 4:30 the med team arrived back at the compound. They had gone around downtown port au prince and saw a lot of the destruction. They also had a pretty intense day at the clinic seeing over 150 patients each day. So when they got back to the compound you could see it on their faces. I could not be doing what they are doing – treating people who live in such poverty, that don’t need medicine as much as they need food. It is heartbreaking.  They have a debriefing each day to discuss what happened and go over some of the tough cases – which is important. It is amazing to see the work that they are doing and how much it is appreciated by the community.

We also met with Pastor Leon today and discuss some important issues about large teams coming down – so now we have everything under control!!! It will be amazing to see how everything works out over the next year. God is doing to some great things.

Tonight when everyone got back, we insisted on showers and relaxation. We got everyone on the roof to enjoy the view of the mountains and sit in the breeze. For a moment on the roof you can almost escape. You cannot see any destruction and all the noise is almost drowned out by the wind and the palm trees. Life is so simple here… and I love it.

Nathan and I are having a blast. Bill told us that we would be having a lot of rice and beans – and we are – but WE LOVE IT!!! the food is great and once again the people are amazing. There is so much to learn, I am glad I have at least a year to absorb all of it.

I hope everyone reading this is enjoying it. Hopefully you can connect with what is going on down here in Haiti. Sorry for how long this blog is but I want to give you as much info as I can. I really look forward to seeing some of you when you come on mission trips down to Haiti and stay at what we now call the “Blanchard Resort!”

Progress report on the bathrooms: they should be finished by the beginning of next week!! I cant wait!

Progress report on the power: I think we have it figured out.. it has been running backwards so tomorrow we will straighten it out. Generator should run at night not during the day!! Solar during the day not at night.

Great things are to come. Keep praying.. and remember the people of Haiti.

If you feel led to contribute towards this trip please contact me: stephen@stephenbyxbe.com

Shout out for the day: Everyone who gave us Tuna (Melanie, Laura, Lauren hopefully I am not forgetting anyone) … It is GREAT.. please send more!

Mom – Dad… send gatorade.. and tuna…

Thank you for your consistent support and love… We can definitely feel it here!

Always with Love,
Stephen

O yeah.. i spoke too soon on the power.. 10:45 – just lost it… looks like the blog will go up in the morning.

Hello Everyone,

I am coming to you live from Blanchard, Terre Noir, La Plain, Haiti!! Lots of names huh? Well today was great… My bed is pretty comfortable and has a nice bit of airflow so I had a difficult time waking up this morning.. Nathan, on the other hand.. has delayed moving into the better bed so he suffered a little last night in a pool of sweat. He was also up early moving around. Breakfast arrived early  (6:30am) so that helped our Medical crew.. they were able to get some coffee and then eat. We shipped the team out at 7:30am accompanied by Nathan, so they could get him some meds for a cough, and so he could make sure they had everything they needed.

Mean while back at the compound- I decided it was time to take some action and see what was up with the crazy solar system. I asked to look at it, and Bruno (local helper) was more than happy to take me up. They are doing construction work around the building where the panels are and in the process, stucco slush had landed on the panels. Yeah – thats why they arent working. So I began to scrub the panels down to get the concrete off. It wasnt too difficult and Nathan returned shortly and joined. We were supposed to go to the store on sunday but that got moved to today so we were waiting to go to the store (kinda like Africa – hurry up and wait)so we were cleaning up and organizing in the time being.

We were able to meet with Pastor Luc and talk about a lot of useful things today including power, transportation, phones and lots of other good things. During that time we sent someone to pick up some fuel for the generators so we could have power all night long!!!! finally!!! We are about to test this so tomorrow you will know how it worked.

After lunch we made it on the truck to go to the store. This was very exciting as we had to go to Leon’s house in Delmas to pick up Nadege (Leon’s daughter). Delmas is a “nicer” area of town. At least until after the earthquake. We saw store completely collapsed, Malls fallen apart, schools crumbled and people in tents EVERYWHERE. There are parks in town that are completely crammed with  tents. Not even any walking space. It doesnt make any sense.

Anyways we made it to Leon’s house and and picked up Nadege. The supermarket- if that is what you want to call it – is very small and only has the basic essentials. We were able to get milk and cereal, peanut butter and crackers. There were a few other things they had but it was no walmart or kroger. Think about shopping for everything you need in a gas station and thats it.

After shopping we made it back to the compound and unloaded. We also learned how to use the generator, how to refill the water tanks, and how to speak a little more creole. Today seems like it was a little bit slower but it ran non stop all day long. They are getting closer on our bathrooms so that day will be SUPER NICE.

Here are some creole phrases/ words we learned:

Manje = food/eat
ou se zanmi’m = you are my friend
pa antre la = no entrance/ do not enter
dlo = water

We have a few more but I cant give it all to you at once or you wont read anymore

Our next mission is t hook the batteries up to the generator so they charge while its running and to build 20 more bunk beds!!!

Keep us in your prayers.

Always with love,

Stephen

Earthquake pictures

Church in Blanchard is definitely eye opening. We complain about having to be at church at 9am and even 10am.. the Haitians living in this area are excited to be here by 6:30am!!! that is crazy! We were awake around 5:30 due to other reasons (dogs, roosters, no fans during the night) but that doesnt matter. We made it to church and did not understand anything that was being said but REALLY enjoyed the music. We were able to pick out a few familiar songs. We were invited to come up to the front and say a few things. We told them thank you for being so kind and we are excited to be here, to get to know them and work with them. Pastor Luc led up to us talking by saying “It is EVERY haitians dream to go to the USA…. not many people want to move to Haiti to live. These two young men have moved here to live with us for a year.” Their response was awesome…. Crazy applause and shouts from the thousands in attendance. It made us feel very welcome and God’s presence was definitely there.
After church we were able to change clothes and get all the medical supplies loaded into the “tap tap” (the local mode of transportation. They received their name by what you do when you want out.. beat on the side “Tap Tap.” We took the medical team and their supplies over to Cite Soleil and got them set up. There are so many children running around the compound, which was weird because all of the school children were in the school building. These are all street kids who just come inside because all the walls fell down around the compound. We gave them a soccer ball to play with – which was like Christmas came early – there were so many kids out playing futbol with Nathan. It was fun to watch them play and get so excited.
A little more information about Cite Soleil as we learn. Cite Soleil is a trash dump. No lie… imagine building a city on a trash dump.. now stop imagining.. and that’s Cite Soleil. It is awful – and there are hundreds of thousands of people living there. My heart is already breaking for these people. I apologize for some of the pictures that we will be uploading but they still dont communicate how things really are down here.
After we returned from Cite Soleil Nathan and I tried to do some organizing and finally got the interent working in our room. WOOOHOOO.. thats how you are reading this! I am having to type them out in advance and then upload them. We were able to take a nice nap and then take care of some business around the compound. We are still working on the power situation. Tonight we thought we had it figured out, however, we learned that the Solar batteries were dead and we had enough fuel for the generators for 30 mins. This first team is suffering a little bit as we get used to the setup. Good News tho! our showers and bathroom areas are almost finished.. i think we will have them up and running by the end of the week!
Once again tonight – food was amazing. We have a rice and beans meal. Seemed like fried rice… with some goat meat, avacado, tomatoes, and fried potato crisps (kinda like french fries but like small little pieces)
It gets very dark here around 6:30pm so life starts to shut down early. I got in bed around 8pm and read some of Hebrews and typed this up so my idea of lights out at 10 works well
I want to share a very familiar verse with all of you,
Hebrews 4:12-13 “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-egded sword. It penetrates to even dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitues of the heart. nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”
From this I just felt the desire to strive to live a life that is constantly and willingly laid bare before our Amazing God, and not fight for any of it. To have less of me and more of Him.
Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to lift us up.
Shout out of the day: Brandie Lee – Thanks for the mosquito nets. They are a life saver… and much better than what the other teams have!

Always with Love,

Stephen