Well, it has been a while since I lasted posted on the blog, but not because I haven’t wanted to.  My last post was about the craziness we encountered throughout the month of October and our longing for the craziness to end.  As it turned out, though, November and December proved to be crazier than October.  The only real question is where to begin?

In October, Sonlight’s issues with power began, but in November they were taken to the extreme.  Now, we didn’t go 19 straight days without power like last year, but there were a few days we were in danger of losing our refrigerated foods.  In fact, I feel as if we didn’t have power more than we did for the first two weeks or so of the month.  This is an adjustment that we gladly made, considering a majority of the people who live around us don’t have any power at all, but the lack of power meant lack of internet, which ultimately meant no faithful blog posting.

November, though, was not a month without great moments.  I had several very good moments with my students in November.  One that particularly comes to mind involves one of my Bible College students, Jean-Ricot.  Jean-Ricot is probably my best student as far as his understanding, his communication, and his writing.  He really got into and enjoyed my 1 Corinthians class; so much so, that after we finished he asked if I had time to meet with him one-on-one on Saturdays to teach and train him more.  The beautiful thing about this is that I had been asking for God to point out some students or a student to me that I could pour into a little bit more.  Not only did God prove faithful to me and my prayers, but he spoke the need and desire for it in Jean-Ricot’s heart.  Due to the timing of everything, I was unable to meet with him, but we have it set up to meet as soon as we get back in January.

The good thing about August-October is that I really experienced no health problems whatsoever.  After everything that happened last year, this was huge.  And I actually made it through most of November without getting sick; however, the end of November proved to be the worst sickness that I had had since I had been in Haiti.  The Sunday after Thanksgiving I got a bacterial infection called Shigella.  Lorraine had gotten this previously last year, but she didn’t really have it to badly.  For me, though, I started out with vomiting and diarrhea and a 104.3 fever.  This is by far the highest fever that I have had since I have been an adult.  Because of this high fever, Lorraine and I were convinced that I had malaria; and so at that point I began taking malaria medicine.  After a day or so, I realized that my symptom had moved beyond malaria, and that I must have something else instead.  This proved to be true and on Wednesday (it began on Sunday) I finally found out that I had Shigella and began taking antibiotics.  I was still very sick for the next few days, and thus it carried me over into the month of December.  December got off to a very rocky start with my battle with Shigella, but the month ended busily and wonderfully with our two visitors, and the wonderful Christmas program.

The last week of December marked the first time either Lorraine or my family came to visit and experience what we do and how we live in Haiti.  My mom came to visit and she brought one of our friends Adam Schuster.  Having them there for a week was wonderful for us: it helped us out in many ways and hopefully spoke to them in many ways as well.  Also, they were able to experience Sonlight in a way different from most visitors in that they were able to see the biggest thing that Sonlight does all year – the Christmas program.  The Christmas program is a way to see Sonlight students giving back, and it is time for all Sonlight staff (both Americans and Haitians) to come together and appreciate each other.  It truly is a wonderful time at Sonlight.

Although this semester had its ups and downs, as always the Lord is faithful to do some amazing things.  I can only hope that this will continue in this next semester.  Times aren’t always easy, but the Lord is teaching us lessons and using us to do amazing things in Haiti.  We are thankful for everyone’s faithful in supporting, believing, and praying for us.  Blessings!