Mackenson's Birthday:)

Jn Robert yelled, "wait", as I was gonna take the picture.

He wanted to be a part of the cake eating group too.

Left: Here are the shoes that they all

decided they should wear in honor of

Mackenson's birthday.

Mackenson had a wonderful birthday.

We ussually celebrate here in the home with cake and a small gift. There was marching and singing as they came up. What in the world!? The boys were wearing their "good" shoes in honor of the birthday. It was hilarious! These boys are so crazy but so wonderful. We had a great time.

I made Mackenson a nice cake. He was so funny making kind of a story out of his cake. He said it was the beach and that he was playing soccer on the beach and he had just head butted the ball. He was really tickled. And I was tickled too, remembering that Mackenson is 20 and still got a kick out of his cake.

"Madam Nixon made it just for me", he boasted.

Happy Birthday Mackenson! Elira's birthday is just around the corner. I think I will stick with the little men for their cakes since they really liked Mackenson's.

:) May God continue to Bless our boys.

CLICK ON THE BOY'S HOME LINK TO THE LEFT TO SEE WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON IN THE JOY IN HOPE BOY'S HOME. WE ARE OFF TO A GOOD START:)

What a DORK! (at least that is what my sister would have called me:)

The Innocent looking steamer. Her pretty silver
exterior is deceptive.

Leann has a steamer and I really didn't know what I could do with it. Madam Emeline had been doing nothing but storing flour in it and I found the manual lying around so I decided to look into it not too long ago. After seeing that you can cut down the cooking time by 70% I was sold.

"That would save a lot of propane," I thought. I told Madam Emeline to clean out the steamer because I had a plan. Smart right?

Well this morning was the morning. The result would be a nice big pot of pinto beans for a Mexican household.

Ok, so I read the instructions again and I had trouble figuring out when I could turn it off. Turns out I have to figure that out myself. The manual said 20 minutes for beans so I waited until 30 minutes had passed just to make sure.

After the time is completed I was supposed to turn the regulator valve to let out all the steam. I turned it a little and the steam began to come out. I figured I could open it completely. I figured it was ok.

As soon as I let go of the valve, I knew it was about to blow. It ruptured hissing brown liguid and steam. I heard my husband yell, "get back baby!"

I watched from a distance as the spray of steam mixed with brown bean water continued to shoot into the air. I so wish I would have taken a pictureof this. The spray continued for about 5 minutes as I helplessly looked on. It felt like a lot longer.

The aftermath was even sadder. Bean water ran down the walls, down the oven door, from my hanging utensils, from the ceiling, all over the floor and puddled in the stove.

I didn't know where to start cleaning up so I called Madam Emeline and she came to my rescue.

Madam Emeline chuckled to herself as she started to clean up the mess. I heard her say, "she said it would cook the food faster", and then she continued to laugh.

I was just trying to save propane!

How do you make homemade pizza?

That is a huge slice Nico!

Yummy!

Add some cheese

Put on the pepperoni

rollin out the dough

Veggie Pizza with jalapenos:)

Crispy pizza, I really liked this one.

It's sooooooo gooood!!!

Among my favorite things to make for dinner are a couple of homemade pizzas.

When you have that good ole American tickle for a pizza and there is absolutely NO PIZZERIA around, it is quite easy to make it yourself.

Nixon is Haitian and Haitians are picky eaters. But guess what? My husband actually asks me to make him some pizza. He loves it!

Actually, my husband loves my cooking. Maybe that is why he has gained a considerable amount of weight since we got married. Ooops.

The first time I decided I would make pizza was for Nixon's past birthday party.

I made 17 homemade pizzas. I must have been out of my mind. And yes I was in the kitchen from 8am-7pm. It was ridiculous. Needless to say, I considered myself pretty good after that.

LOL!

I use Jay's Signature Pizza Crust recipe found on all recipes.com

The recipe was submitted by Jason Sharp

Ingredients:

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

1/2 tsp brown sugar

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp olive oil (i use a tad less and use regular canola oil)

3 1/3 cups all purpose flour

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and brown sugar in the water, and let sit for 10 minutes.

Stir the salt and oil into the yeast solution. Mix in 2 1/2 cups of the flour.

Turn dough onto a clean, well floured surface and knead in more flour until the dough is no longer sticky. (You will probably end up adding 1/2 -2 cups by the time it is not sticky)

Place dough in a well oiled bowl and cover with a cloth. Let dough rise for about an hour.

Punch dough down and allow to relax for about 5 minutes and then roll out on a floured surface.

Preheat oven to 425 degreees F.

(I allow my pizza dough to bake a little before putting on my sauce and toppings. Otherwise it takes FOREVER. I bake it until almost done. You can feel the crust and almost feel it is done or leaves you wondering if it needs a little more time. About 15 minutes should do it. )

(Roll it out a little thick for more of a thick crust and thinner for a thin crust. Bake your crust longer for a crispy crust and don't bake so long for a softer crust. )

Then add a not so thick coat of pizza sauce and toppings of your choosing and pop in oven for about 10 minutes. (My favorite pizza toppings are pepperoni, onion, and jalapeno, with mozarella cheese.)

You'll love it! I like the not having much of a mess to clean up and paper plates and cups makes it really really nice. :)

I am wanting to have an HCH/JinH pizza gathering at my house soon. Yummy!

Of course I don't easily get my hands on pizza sauce around here so I make my own. Mine is basic and I am sure it can get a lot yummier than this.

I use 2 small cans of tomato paste, 8 oz each. I add two cans of water, Italian pizza seasoning or regular italian seasoning and 2 tbsp of brown sugar. It is ok but like I said, I am sure it can get a lot yummier. Anyone have a good sauce recipe to share. Keep in mind that tomato paste is really easy to find, not tomato sauce. Nor am I big in spending longer hours than necessary in the kitchen. Simple and yummy is what I like.

I really love that you can get the kids involved too. Check out the Mangine kids making their yummy pizzas. I think they really enjoyed themselves. Then we finished it off with a movie.

Nixon and I had a great time. Thank you Nick and Gwenn for lending us your kids. We love them so much!

Beach fun

Super Nia!

sitting in the well.

Wow, what a pic!

Get her Niko!

I met Fritzy a long time ago, glad she is finally

part of a loving home. She is truly blessed!

Check out Frandy and Elira's stands.

Get it baby!

Nixon and Josiah, sportmen!

My handsome boys.

After a very busy week I stayed up way too late for the preparation of Junior church this past Saturday. I almost passed up a trip to the beach on Sunday afternoon after church. Anyway, I did not and I am sooooo glad. I got to see our Boys Home boys in action (as well as my husband, I am his biggest fan). The boys had fun playing soccer and I had fun trying to get good pictures of them. I also got to spend some time with the Mangine kids, it is one of my FAVORITE things to do. After digging this really wimpy hole in the sand for Josiah to sit in, Nick built like a well for his kids. I excused myself from my embarassing hole digging efforts and took some great pics of them as well.

It was a beautiful afternoon. It was cloudy but still warm. It was just a really great afternoon. It was almost like I really wasn't part of the group, not the boys or the Mangine fam, I was on the outside looking in and I really enjoyed that. Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. Though I did miss Jn Robert and Gwen.

Creation

showing off their crafts

that is Toto behind the moon on the right:)

I layed down the law, "If I see glitter on your

faces, all over your arms, then I take your paper

away. Some of you know how crazy glitter can

get, especially in Haiti. We had no problems.

A couple of the girls singing a solo

They had a perfectly synchronized sway.

It was adorable.

I have actually known these twin boys for years.

I met them when they were at another orphanage.

Yflo and Yvyo love to sing duets. They sing some songs

that the Dominican team I was with taught them, about

5 years ago. How awesome is that?



I am preparing for Junior church again. We have about 60 children show up every Sunday.

At the beginning of the summer I started teaching a "Creation" series. It has had a few interruptions but that is something to expect in Haiti. All in all though, it has gone really really well. The children are learning a Creation song to the "London Bridge" tune. We made sun and moon and cloud and sea and tree paddles for the children to hold up during different parts of the song. They like this. When we talked about God creating plants the children decorated their banana tree with banana clusters and colored, learned some more of their song, and ate a piece of banana bread that I had made them. Nixon was really really proud of them the week before last. We talked about the earth and how it orbits the sun and how the earth turns on it's axis and the moon's orbit around the earth. I made a mobile for the kids to visualize and used kids dressed in yellow for the sun, green for the earth, white for the moon, and stuck a few planets in there to make a life size mobile. The children really understood and when I changed the position of the earth, they could tell us when it was day or night. It was really really cool.

Omega taught them their song, Leann helped the children make a basic mobile, and Nixon and I played a planet game with the kids.

This week I will be starting to show the kids pieces of the "Planet Earth" documentary. I am sure that this will be the first time for most of the kids to see such real images of sun, space, clouds, etc. I am really excited. I feel like we are incorporating the awesomeness of God with science(taught differently than just memorizing facts). Honestly, Nixon shared with me how this was the first time he really understood some concepts. Although he had memorized facts, now he understands. Yey!

Thanks to Leann and the HCH kids who have helped out a ton with Junior church. Thank you especially to my amazingly handsome, caring, and sensitive black man.

May God bless all those beautiful children and while we show them a peek of how amazing our Creator is, may their little hearts be hearts that beat for their Maker.

Anyway, I am really really excited!

The Journey

Losing weight is similar to the spiritual journey we find ourselves on.
During different times in my life I have succeeded to some point. I have succeeded to the point of losing over 60 lbs over a two year time period. At other times in my life I have hopped on a life changing diet only to lose 0-5 lbs and then quit.
The lack of discipline that leads some of us(those who carry that cross)to weight gain promises satisfaction but instead only delivers more entrapment. The piece of chocolate cake (such as the ones i make) is good at that moment but that savory treat delivers discouragement when seen on the scale. And the pounds creep up, they usually don't just instantly appear on the scale.
They sneak in, one by one, only to deliver a near heart attack shocker at a later point in time.
Spiritually, it is much the same.
The lack of discipline of keeping up with our daily time with the Lord (rushed prayers and reading of God's Word every Sunday don't really count)only delivers confusion, exhaustion, weakness, pits of depression and discouragement. That sin may be good at the moment but in the end delivers painful and discouraging consequences. Those days where the daily nourishment of God's Word are not taken in result in poor health.
Training is needed in both subjects, Spiritual growth and stability as well as physical health (being 50 lbs overweight is not healthy). Training spiritually helps increase our strength, our perseverance, and prepares us for those spiritual battles that come like huge waves. Training physically increases our physical strength, increases perseverance to do as much as we can, and prepares us for those physical challenges of climbing mountains and walking/running to get to those remote areas of the world.
I started my weight watcher challenge this week. I am doing it with something of a different mentality though. I am doing it for a lifetime this time. I want to think of it as this is how I am going to eat for the rest of my life. (Some of us carry that cross, that is just the way it is.)
Last week the HCH/JIH team went to Basin Bleu. I knew that it was going to be hard on me, being that I've gained 30 lbs since I got married, almost two years ago now. (Yep, that is a whopping 15 lbs/year.) It still amazes me. The Basin Bleu experience was hard, humiliating(though the clapping was meant in the kindest of ways), and showed me that it is time to stop playing around and get with it. Add in the amazing beauty of the mountains and the waterfall area, I am glad that I HAD to go.
Pray for me when you get a moment. Freedom in the Lord is to be closer than close to Him, Freedom (physically speaking) is to be in the best health possible(to me, losing a lot of weight).

I need Him as much as I needed Him then

Wow, it has been exactly a week since I last posted.
We have seen a team go and one is on the way. This is why I like to scrapbook our teams, it makes it hard to forget them.
One of the members of the team was a remarkable young man. He had such zeal when speaking of the Lord is truly gifted. Only 19 years old and a youth Pastor. He is mature and sober and yet is so anxious to learn more about the Lord and in turn, tell others all these exciting things.
I became a Christian more than 10 years ago and was at a time when I desperately needed Him. It seemed I had tried everything else to satisfy and to relieve my pain but nothing had worked. I remember I told the Lord one night, if you don't show yourself to me, I am going to take my life. It was quite simple, if life was just what was around me then I didn't want any more of it. I met Christ through some Campus Christians working on the University campus, evangelizing. I went to a couple of Bible Studies and then I remember realizing, kind of awestruck, as to how I could inherit heaven. "You mean there is more to life than my problems, than my desire to self destruct?" I remember thinking these things. I was amazed and I fell in love with the Lord Jesus right away. I gave myself completely to Him. I read my Bible like there was no tomorrow. I would take Christian articles and hide them in my books so I could read them instead of listening to the class lecture. I learned to witness and witnessed alongside my missionary friends. I met with girls who were interested in growing in the Lord. I felt so alive, so energetic, so excited. Don't get me wrong, my life was still falling apart. I was working, evangelizing, and filed for bankruptcy cause things were so bad. But I had joy, this incredible joy! I still remember.
I witnessed and shared with my family and one by one they all gave their life to Christ.
Jesus changed my life, he changed my heart, the way I viewed things,...everything.
Now, years later, I still love the Lord just as much. I want to be a woman after God's own heart. I want to impact the world for Jesus. I want to truly LIVE!
Some would say, "you are truly living, you are a missionary in Haiti." It is not that simple. Even in the missionary field we can get overwhelmed, feel lost, be depressed. In the end, I realize it is all quite simple. We need to stick close to the Lord, dig deep into His Word, spend time meditating on His truths, pray, so that He can fashion our character to be like Him. The same "basics" for Christian living then are the same "basics" for Christian living now. I think that sometimes I think that those "basics" are for baby Christians, not me.
Today, I find Proverbs 3:5-6 encouraging. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight." This is the truth, no ifs ands or buts. All I have to do is acknowledge Him in everything, and everything will take care of itself. This is the truth.

Even in the fullness of a day

Nixon and I were planning on sleeping in but it did not happen. I woke up about 6:30am and my husband was no longer in bed. I found him sitting on the floor in a patch of shade on the balcony,....thinking. God is teaching us a lot right now and so we are trying to be still and listen, even as we have a ton of other things to do since it is the beginning of the school year.
Yesterday we spent some time looking at kids we've helped in the past and looking at how we can still help them this year. We've let some go and we've found innovative ways to be able to help other students, even if it is just a little. We wish we could help so many more.
We've also been spending time looking at numbers together, not so fun. We've been going over costs and thinking about where we can cut back. We've been looking at our sponsorship and seen that it is pretty poor. So what have we been learning? That we need God.
Isn't it funny to realize that when things get tough we feel a more desperate need we have for the Lord.
Times of "need" draw us closer to God, or should anyway.
We both spent some time in prayer together crying out the Lord in different areas and just recognizing that we can do nothing without Him. It was wonderful and it made my heart glad.
Times of need, of suffering, of confusion, arent really so bad.
Those times can be used to draw closer to God and I realize that that is where I want my family to be. Praise the Lord for that. Blessings to you and yours.