Round-Trip

I'm flying home Monday the 16th. I was going to be coming home the 17th but I've changed the flight in order to be at my Grampa Ferguson's funeral.
I'd like to say that I will see dozens of people and do a million things, but I won't. I haven't even planned to do very much. It will be a fast week, I'm sure, and I really want to soak in my family.
I'll fly back to Haiti on the 24th of April.
Thanks for prayers for travel and family time and for comfort especially for my Gramma Ferguson. Thanks too for sharing in this journey and for being part of the story of reconciliation of relationships - us to God through Christ - because that's what we're doing here. Paul talks about it in one of the Corinthians. I should memorize that bit... I find this comforting and I find myself reminded of the hugeness of God (Hebrews 11:3 says that we serve a God who just COMMANDED things to BE out of what was not even visible) and of the closeness of Jesus (Psalm 25 says we can have friendship with God and Col 2 says we can be rooted in Christ actually drawing NOURISHMENT from him).
What a lovely picture. That Psalm 1 tree rooted by streams of living water...
I pray that if you read this you are driven to send your own roots down, get nourished, and then multiply that life-giving water in you to those around you in the name and in the power of the Risen Christ.

Greens

The first time (and the second and third) that I came to Mission of Hope everything was brown. It happened to be January the first three times I set foot on the mission and January, being winter, has distinct dry and dusty characteristics in this part of Haiti.
Brown, dry and dusty equals desolate in my mind. January 2011 I had a friend (Michel) visit from Port-Au-Prince and he seemed thoroughly unimpressed by the area's desert qualities. 'There are no trees for shade and cool. You're kind of on the edge of the desert ' he pointed out. It was exhausting to think about as I mulled over the idea of not having relief in a dry and desolate land. In my Ontario mind it was strange to be hot and see only browns and grays... no greens.
But we have a sweet and merciful God who created weather changes to take care of us - to take care of me - and my mind is so very limited and my thoughts so narrow that days like today are comical, really.
It is Good Friday. We are mid-rainy season. The flowers on the mission are blooming. The nights are cooled with rain. The trees are growing daily. Fruit ripening. Life is springing up and the greens and pinks and purples are so very green and pink and purple that you can SMELL the life in them.

Papayas gettin' ripe.

Outside our gate, steps from the playground, the gardener - Mr. Joseph - rakes up the fallen bougainnvillea flowers.

Our front yard area

This bloom hit me in the head on the way to breakfast this morning.

And life is here.
And so is shade and cool.
And relief.
And things are washed afresh each morning.
And we know that He is Risen!