Such is life... Busy as ever and getting busier! In less than 2 weeks I'll be headed for MMI, and in the meantime there's lots of studying and preparation!

So that's a very, VERY brief summary of my life right now :)


In Christ,
-nate

Go north, young man...

Today Steve and I are heading up to northern Haiti along with Pastor Levi! On Sunday He and his wife asked Steve to go along with them to Cap Haitian (almost on the northern shore) for a trip. They are doing something with Levi's brother up there...
So yesterday Steve asked if I wanted to go along with; of course, I'm always game for a road trip, you know :) so we're at pastor Levi's house right now, waiting to head out!




Pastor Levi is in the purple shirt, his wife is to his right :)
In Christ,
-nate

Location:Avenue Gaston,Petit-Goave,Haiti

A few people...

Some people around the mission...




Brian doing classes.
Here, he is teaching prenatal recessitation to Megan, Katie and Rhoda. They were on the first "team"



Mis Joselene, mis Lieda and Anita were on the second team.



Sweet little Cherie, playing with her baby :)



And helping with the cooking :)


More snapshots coming...

In Christ,
-nate

REAL Update...

Greetings to all! We have arrived back in Haiti again!

Our travels went well without difficulties.
















We met up with Brian and his team in Miami around 1am and "slept" on the floor and chairs until our scheduled departure at 6:40am.

After getting into Port we were promptly picked up by Steve and headed back to the mission. Grandpa Harold met us in Ti Guave and we put he, Ben and Abe and into his bobcat and went to Aleg...








Today Brian started his classes after clinic hours... It was really fun to listen in and learn with everyone.

Keep praying for rain, please. Things are really dry around here :)

In Christ,
-nate

Hijacked iPhone

First off, I must correct and clarify something by way of explanation...

Steve had my phone for a few minutes this morning and was messing around on it. I thought nothing of it, until Mom emailed me about a "blog post" I had done this morning...

I was unaware I had posted anything, so I went over to my blog and lo and behold, there was a blog post... In Steve's writing style...

So, just so you all know, the blog post made this morning was NOT mine, and it was a practical joke on Steve's part. I've removed it now... :)

A REAL post from me will be arriving sometime today...

Thanks for your understanding... :)

-nate

The week...

This last week we've been working more in the Methodist church nearby, only now we're remodeling the foyer underneath the belfry. We tore out the old paneling from off the wall and overlaid the lath and plaster with 1/4" drywall. Behind the old panels was some ANCIENT lead-based paint- it was nasty stuff, peeling off and coating everything in fine, black dust. Once the was chipped off, we could proceed. For added rigidity, we used PL-400 adhesive to adhere the new drywall to the wall. Cutting around the moldings and trim was a unique experience, but we didn't want to disturb the old, fragile varnish by removing it and putting it back on; so, we just carefully and meticulously cut around it and will put a fine bead of painter's caulk in there to finish it off.

First off... it's the end of March, and we're getting snow?

:)

And we continue to practice patience as we wait for spring :)

The garage job is now finished! 

Ryan installed the fixtures in the bathroom yesterday, while I completed the baseboard.

I like the vinyl floor they chose...

Before cleaning...

After cleaning :)

After cleaning Josh...

:)

To cap it off, there was a pretty sunset to greet us as we arrived home...

Today we're having a church "retreat" day- no, that doesn't mean we're going to be playing lots of silly games and that sort of thing. This is actually going to be a more serious time of sharing, prayer and fellowship. We'll be leaving for that in a few minutes, but I wanted to put up a post here before time went any further away :)

Also, of note, is that Ben and I will be going to Haiti with a few other people to deliver medical equipment to the clinic there. Please pray for safe travels and good opportunities to share the Gospel with people!

God bless!

-nate

High-stepping work...

Last week found us enclosing a church belfry in a little town not far from us. The church has been around since 1902 and the bell in the tower has been in existence since 1875. I was very intrigued by the architecture and construction of the place- the rough-cut lumber used for framing, the old fashioned craftsmanship of the trim in the belfry itself. It was amazing to look at the quality of work way up there: knowing that it would not have been seen by a soul except when maintaining the bell- yet the mitre joints were perfect. Talk about doing quality work for the sake of quality work! It was inspiring to look at...

The sanctuary

Ladder up

Ladder in

Ladder up again

Hatch open- we are up and in!

These window spaces were what we worked on.

Here's the bell- it had a good tone to it :)

Foam works very well to block and seal up bee hives :)

The view from the tower!

The view from the ground.

Hmmm... interesting... :-/

And here's what happens when it's below freezing and you don't plug your older diesel truck in overnight... you have to turn it over a lot more and inevitably run the batteries down.

Hence, you must charge the batteries... :)

Playing catch up.... again :)

Playing catch up is never fun, but when one is busy, it's all one can do at times :)

A job we have been working at in "Tenville" (a little town nearby us)

We are converting a garage into a living space...

We started by building a raised floor to level everything out- unfortunately the customer didn't like it, and we didn't find that out until we had finished it- so...

We had to tear out what we had done the previous day, and re-work our design. We ended up modifying our method and lowered the raised floor (does that make sense??) by 2 inches... we used our laser level and a combination of tape measurers to mark and custom-rip 2x4's for subfloor. It was challenging to have lost an entire day worth of work, but it was good for us :)

One evening, Dad made the mistake of putting me in charge of grilling some steaks-

I enjoy cooking and baking, but I've never really done much grilling...

Needless to say, they were... well done :)

At least we all ate that night :)

We've been remodeling a restroom at church.

The drywall finishing has been enjoyable.

Josh and Ben have been training in aviation, so we went to a friend of a friend's personal hangar and talked airplanes with him. It was really neat :)

Our Uncle Bernie and his wife Erin have adopted a baby from Ethiopia- it was her first birthday the other week, so we all had a celebration at their house for her :) Her name is Liya :)

One of the highlights of March was the Youth Bible Conference in Wellman, Iowa.

We stayed at Ray Garza's house and had a wonderful week.

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures until the last Sunday of the conference-

They had to rent a different facility for the weekend, so we found ourselves in a massive amphitheater-like building for services :) It wasn't ideal for a church service, but it worked, and was a really neat place to look around in :) In this picture Dad is preaching... I'm hoping to grab some pictures of YBC from a few other people and post them on here later on...

On the way back home we encountered some flood waters... no problem!

What's a little over-the-road water flow compared to hurricane-like weather in Haiti?

Maybe I shouldn't say much.... :-/

Remember that garage remodel above?

Here it is- with all the drywall up, almost finished.

Ryan, mudding too!

We did a knock-down texture on the ceiling, while doing a standard sputter texture on the walls.

I just love the way a freshly finished room looks-

before it's all painted and covered up, that is...

They say that "A drywall finisher's best work is never seen."

See the big patch there on the wall, right above the red thing?

Unfortunately, a forklift at Menards caused some damage to the drywall and the installers didn't realize it... thus, when it came time to mud, it wasn't sturdy enough to take the finishing. So, we cut out the bad place and patched it- hopefully it won't show too much :)

Playing around with the YBC chorus audio files...

Hoping to have it done and ready to mail out in a month or two...

Breathtaking Iowa sunrise, with mist hanging low in the valley... 

It's moments like this, in which I take some extra time to consider what the Lord has done for me, and the immense mercy He's poured into my life- undeserving, I give Him thanks!

And last, but not least, the other night Ryan's van got stuck in the thawing mud- we were able to push it out, though, so it wasn't too bad :)

***

On Sunday Ry preached an amazingly clear Gospel message, entitled "The Gospel of Jesus Christ" 

I was so blessed by it and am praying it really entered into the hearts of the unbelievers there...

I'm considering taking a break from online/internet stuff for a while, to help refocus some things in my life... I find I spend much time on my computer/phone, and want to take a break from it so I can better focus- to what extent I'll be doing this, I don't know yet :) For how long, I'm not sure, but I'm thinking for a month or so. So during that time, don't expect much from my blog here.

But, looking at my track record of posting stuff on here this last month, you'd think I was already doing that, right?? :D

God bless you all! Peace be with you!

-nate