Down time, time away, vacation, staycation, relaxation…call it what you may, but it’s critical for each of us to stay balanced, effective and to maintain relationships. This is especially important for us as we have very little down time in our day to day lives since we live on campus with our 60 kids!
During our time away this Fall, we’ve already been out to Arizona to see family and friends, and we’re currently in Florida visiting more of Denise’s family. It’s always hard to plan trips to the States because there’s never enough time to see all the people we want to see, and stopping in more than 2 places each trip gets expensive. During our visit to Arizona, we were blessed to be able to visit the Grand Canyon for a few days thanks to some special donations made. What an amazing show of God’s beauty and creativity! The pictures never do it justice. It’s so immense that it’s hard to describe. When we were in Arizona previously, we went as far north as Flagstaff but this was our first time to the Grand Canyon.
Here are a few of our Grand Canyon pictures.
Our time away continued with visiting our long-time friends, Jeff, Sheri and Mikeala (who, of course, we never managed to get any pictures of!) and Emily also came to visit with us for several days as well.
While we’re taking time away to refresh and renew ourselves, things in Haiti are a bit more unsettled than usual. Protesters continue to gather in the streets and block roads to voice their disagreement with the current government and the struggles in daily life. Many Haitians lack jobs and the challenges with fuel shortages and high inflation make it difficult. Add to that the obstacles that roadblocks cause with making it difficult or impossible to travel to the market, and the higher price that motorcycle taxis (simply called “motos”) are demanding continues to exacerbate the issues.
We’re still scheduled to return to Haiti on October 8. Please keep us and Haiti in your prayers…that peace would prevail to allow roads to be open so people can move around and purchase vital food and supplies. Thank you all for your prayers and ongoing support of the work we’re doing!