Purchase made!

Thank you for those who sent prayers for the vehicle search. We purchased our family vehicle last Saturday and have appreciated driving a reliable vehicle around PAP. The kids are loving it because it is a pickup and here they can ride in the back. With no seatbelt laws, they feel very free in the car:)

Also, the team vehicle was chosen and just picked up today! The truck comes complete without... the bed...something very different from what we would ever dream up in the states. The frame for the bed is there, but no bed. Turns out the bed is an additional charge. Again we have to stop comparing things here to how things are done in the states, but this is just comical. So thankfully Max has found a place that will do the bed and enclose the back for safety then it also allows us to have a rack on top for supplies to travel with teams for considerably less than the dealership.

God is good. He provides. He knows our needs before we ask. He knows the timing and works through circumstances and blesses. This is just another example of his faithfulness to us and to this ministry he has laid before us! We trust the truck complete WITH the bed and caging will be ready for Team April coming April 1st.

On a completely different note, we received an invitation to go to Canaan Thursday evening for a church service. We expected to be there for several hours as haitian church services go so we left our children in the care/company of Max and Berothie and Jacques. We found out Saturday afternoon that there would be a wedding as well. With no idea what to expect, we loaded up along with Vanessa and Randie (a great friend of mine visiting who has not been to Canaan yet) and Margarette (who also has not yet been to Canaan).

We pull into Canaan and meet Pastor Nathan so we could follow him back to the specific community we are working with (Canaan is acres and acres with many communities within) so we still don't know our way completely. So we start going and the next thing we know we're stopping to say hello to a family. Only we're not just stopping to say hello, we're picking up the bride and groom and the wedding party. Everyone piles into Pastor Nathan's car and the back of our truck. Keep in mind, Canaan is all dirt, dusty roads so now we have all these people dressed to the hilt riding in the back of our truck.

We arrive to the community, the wedding party unloads and gets set and the church service turned wedding soon gets under way.

It's no surprise that the lights and sound system in the tent where the ceremony is taking place are operated by the noisy generator outside occassionally go on and off.

I was surprised though by the decor inside the tent. Silky bedspreads had been strung all around the inside of the tent in order to turn this ordinary tent/school into a beautiful surrounding for a wedding, how creative and practical!

We were informed that at any time we were very welcome to walk UP FRONT to take pictures as our presence there was very important...ok, awkward. I quickly walked up took a few shots and returned to my standing spot at the very back where I could hold my special little girl Mai Mai.

Turns out haitian weddings at least weddings done by Pastor Nathan are very interactive. He asks many questions of the bride/groom, wedding party and people in the congregation. To top it all off, I couldn't figure out why all the sudden some people started standing and moving closer to the front near the bride & groom. Madame Gerald (Mai Mai's mother) and I were trying to see and I commented in kreyol, we're both too short so the next thing I know, she grabed my hand and pulled me and pushed her way to the front. The crowd started moving in closer and closer and cheering/chanting. And now I'm holding onto Nadej who is just about getting knocked over and trampled. All this to see the bride and groom's first kiss. The crowd goes wild, celebrating, cheering, clapping. Then it is all over and everyone walks out and I'm left standing there wondering what in the world just happened.

How cool. All for a couple had never seen before. Only in Haiti!