Fall

Well dear readers, fall has come ~ for this year, in more ways than one!! Seems the economy is in free-fall and everyone is feeling a bit out of control of late. I can tell you that our retirement is all but gone and I warned our oldest son that he'll probably be providing the retirement house for his parents.. (Thankfully he didn't mind that.) I don't think the election will make much difference, unfortunately, but that's another topic for another time.

I've been spending the last few weeks in a free-fall of my own. On Sept. 17th our dear friend and brother, Pastor Geordany Joseph from LaJeune Haiti arrived. What joy to have him here with us for the last weeks. He is such a delight and has such a firm grasp on how the church "ought" to be. He brought with him letters for me from my "sons" (fre' mwen) and "daughter" (si' mwen) and some pictures and gifts. Of course, this old woman cried for those loved ones so far away. Since then we have been running quite a bit to get him into as many churches and homes as possible. Feeding the children is his first priority. One of the orphans is sick with malnutrition as I write :( Second priority is getting the new orphanage building finished, then a school. There is so much to do there and little money to do it with. He has received some help here, which I praise the Lord for. He wants us to come to his wedding in December, so we planned to do that until we saw the air fares. It'd cost us over 2000 just for the flights. Somehow I don't see that happening. BUT, there is agroup being formed to go the first part of Feb and I'll be on that plane, Lord willing. The fares drop substantially after Christmas. I had so hoped to be in that wedding though... What a joy to be included, and Pastor wanted the husband to act as a witness. Oh well, maybe God will have us go yet. Today the husband took Pastor for an eye exam. They discovered cateracts. He'll have them done at a clinic in Haiti (much to our chagrin), but there is no $$ for that kind of thing here. Monday we'll take him to the dentist. We want him to be as healthy as possible when he leaves to go home. I know he's homesick though. His betrothed texts and calls daily, as does the orphanage. I can't wait to meet her. I need to sharpen my creole, though.. We were able to set up a bank account here so that funds can be more readily available to him. That is great news and makes life much easier in the long run. Of course, now we must get the word out to churches to send funds to us instead of Haiti. We'll just deposit them in his account and he can draw them out down there via his own bank in Cap Haitien. Before he had to pay a premium to get American money.

On a sadder note, a dear sister and friend was found to have colon cancer on the 17th of September. Lisa was diagnosed with diverticulitis six months ago, but that's not what it was. We are all pretty disgusted that no follow up was made, but that's too typical. She is only 42 with a ten year old at home. Her fight will be long and tiring, but we are praying that God will heal her totally. HE is in that business, I know.

On the church end... the year is winding down. It's been a busy one. DIstrict Conference begins in just a few short weeks. I usually enjoy District Conference ~ we'll see this year. I have one more year on the Board and then will be off. I doubt I'll be re-elected the following year, but I've been fooled before... I've enjoyed my time on the Ministry Commission. The local church is puttering along well. We are praying that the Springs campaign will revive them to better and more willingly serve their Master.

Standing Committee is already pulling its hair out preparing for next Annual Conference in CA. I'm looking forward to going (I'd love to get a bunch of folks to go early on the train), but I'm not looking forward to the nasty business. What will become of our denomination I do not know. I know that not a few are getting tired of the battering. That does not bode well. On the upside, if the economy goes down the tubes it may solidify us more closely to the Word of God and the person/diety of Jesus. One can only hope.

So, for now, it's a lovely, fall day and I have clothes to hang out and ironing to do. I'll close and get my womens-work done so I can start on the important stuff... LOL

Til next time... keep the Faith that was given to you by Christ Jesus