Where has the time gone!  It has been over a week since Mel or I have written!  There have been some major highs and lows this week.

Where should we begin the story?  One of our prayers is that the Guest House can be a safe-place.  A sanctuary where guests including visitors, missionaries, Canadian, US, Australian, Hawaiian (yes we had a Hawaiian stay with us last night), or anyone can stay.  It allows for people to rest in a safe neighborhood and hopefully process comfortably the time spent in Haiti.

Safe Place

Last week there was a situation with some friends of ours in which there were some threats made.  I cannot go into the details but a family with two younger kids along with a couple others were able to find refuge for themselves at the Guest House while they waited for the situation to settle down.

Refreshing

At the same time a long-term couple came from about 5hrs away on short notice looking to find a relaxing place to process and be refreshed.  They had recently had a very tragic situation in which the wife was shot during a robbery.  They are doing extremely well considering the circumstances they have endured.  They have four younger kids.  They are a terrific family and it has been such a privilege to get to know them over this last week.

Blessings in Disguise 

Few things I have noticed over this week while the family who had been robbed has been here:

• We have never had kids in the Guest House.  We asked the previous couple that ran the GH and they said during their last 6 months they had only a couple kids.  It has been so funny that all of a sudden we have had so many kids.  Then the family that had been robbed mentioned how amazing it was that the other families had kids the same age and could play with them.  Has to be God’s timing.

• One night a missionary group arrived with an 88 year old lady who had been a missionary in Haiti for 40+ years.  She was such a blessing to all the guests present.  She was able to relate with the wife who was shot and prayed over them.  What a huge blessing!

• Mel has such a hospitable heart.  One of the girl’s birthday was during their stay. Melissa arranged to have a birthday party for her by baking her cup cakes with candles.  Then she had the girl pick out a kid movie from our stash and then we projected it on the wall for the kids.  Just a little thing that hopefully helped the family be a family while away from home.

• Dinner on the roof.  Again a fantastic idea by Melissa.  She thought it would be nice to have the couple be away and by themselves for a bit so she arranged to have a small table and chairs set up on the roof and a special dinner for just them.  How does she come up with these ideas!  The couple later said that their counselor  recommended that they take some time to themselves. The wife asked Melissa if the counselor had called her!

Hopefully this GH can be a place that people can have time to reflect, process, and in the end, grow a little closer to our Savior.

God is a safe place to hide, ready to help when we need him. We stand fearless at the cliff-edge of doom, courageous in seastorm and earthquake, before the rush and roar of oceans, the tremors that shift mountains. – Psalm 46 (msg)