Christmas Greetings from the Plattners!

Love Divine, all love excelling, Joy of heav'n to earth come down!

  Fix in us Thy humble dwelling; All Thy faithful mercies crown. 

 Jesus, Thou art all compassion, Pure, unbounded love Thou art;

  Visit us with Thy salvation; enter every trembling heart.

-Charles Wesley-

Celebrating Christmas in Haiti is definitely different than 

IL, but one thing--the most important thing-- remains:

Jesus was born to redeem us!  Celebrate Him!

We wish you all a blessed Christmas!

The last couple months since the hurricane have been full.  Full of many stressful, difficult and hopeless times.  Thankfully God did not leave us there.  We have also been blessed with refreshing and relaxing times to spur us on in our work here.  As always, we will let the pictures do the talking!

This is how our church looked for at least a month after the hurricane.  With all the rain we received during and after the hurricane, you can imagine what a mess it was.  

The kids took advantage of all the extra water around here and found some new swimming holes!  Brenna is enjoying her ripstick at the Court.  

In mid November we enjoyed a visit from the Hartzler family who lived here during our first year.  Brenna and Grace were good friends, and they certainly picked up where they left off and had a great time together!

That same weekend, we were thankful to go to our annual missionary retreat at Coby Beach.  It's about a 2 hour drive from us.  We gather for a couple days of fellowship and learning (from wise speakers), and the encouragement and spiritual strength we receive is such a blessing!  This is a picture of all the HarvestCall missionaries from Bonne Fin and Cayes.

And then, our long awaited trip to the Dominican Republic!  We left on Thanksgiving day, drove 10 hours to Cape Haitian, and then about 5 more hours to our resort the next day.  DR is so different than Haiti!  It's almost hard to believe it's the same island.  The roads are better, there are more trees, they speak Spanish, and they have fast food restaurants!  Hooray for soft-serve ice cream at Burger King!

What kind of mother lets their child have ice cream and french fries for lunch??? :)

Are you seeing the trend?  Our trip was pretty much a food tour!  

The kids had a contest to see who could get the best picture of Kurt and me.  

Hadley won with this one!

We visited a beautiful Japanese garden!  (of course the kids and Kurt say the did it just for me:)

We drove through a town that had all these stations set up along the main road.  At first we thought it was deer season:)  Upon closer inspection, we realized this is how they sell goat in the DR!

We spent some time at the Three Eyes National Park in Santo Domingo.  There were 3 underground lakes with crystal clear water.  Beautiful place that we enjoyed visiting!

We returned home on December 4th and are now anticipating special Christmas visitors!  We are really looking forward to having some family here to celebrate with us!  In the meantime, we're trying to make it feel Christmassy here (even though it's 80 degrees) by putting up decorations, drinking hot chocolate, playing Christmas music, lighting candles, making cookies, singing, and reading A Christmas Carol aloud in the evenings.  Thanking God for simple pleasures!

Hurricane Matthew

Many thanks to those of you who having been praying for us before, during, and after hurricane Matthew!  We certainly feel carried by God's strength!  As you've probably noticed, I'm not much of a blog writer, but I do keep a personal journal, so I thought sharing some of my journal entries would be the best way to describe our life in the past 10 days or so....and of course, pictures!

Oct. 4- Yesterday got a little breezy and rainy, but not much happened.  This morning at 2 a.m. the winds got really strong.  Lost power about 3 a.m.  We didn't sleep much after 2.  Lots of trees down and leaves stripped from trees. Our house is flooding-the windows aren't keeping out all the rain and it's coming in the kitchen doorway.  We are safe, but it's a disaster for sure. Toby and I made and bagged a bunch of popcorn.  Then we all made our way through the fallen trees a brush to the hospital and passed out snacks.  The campus is unrecognizable!  The rain and wind just kept coming strong.  There are Haitians all over telling us their houses are gone.  A lot of homeless people are gathered in the hospital chapel.  Kurt was busy with the chainsaw in the afternoon trying to clear paths to the hospital so Drs and nurses can get to work.  He came home soaked to the bone.  No power, no water, and no cell service, but at least we are safe.

Oct. 5- Happy 12th birthday Hadley!  Kurt and the boys went out this morning to get brush cleared and try to find power lines so power can be restored to hospital.  Kurt was out working most of the day.  B and I found our way to Zimm's house and spent about an hour sweeping water out of their living room/dining room.  Trying to use up the food in our fridge before it gets warm.  The weather has been rainy off and on, but the wind has died down.  I keep thinking it reminds me of a fall day in IL.  Most of the leaves are off the trees, it's breezy, cloudy and foggy.  Seems like I should be able to cozy up with a cup of tea.  But, there's so much need, so much to do.  We are trying to ration water and making do with no electricity.  Thankful I can still use the stovetop.  Pancakes for supper for Hal's birthday.  Kurt didn't come home 'til 11 p.m, but they finally got power to the hospital!

Oct. 6- Today we had a phone signal, so I called my mom and mom P.  The boys went to help Bob clear the road so vehicles can get to the hospital.  I got some clorox and empty water bottles and helped Linonce fill those, so he could distribute them to people to treat their water.  Then B, Hal and I walked to the soccer field to check out the damage and see if it would be possible for a helicopter to land if needed.  The field was fairly clear but a lot of water rushing along the edge and down the road.  Stopped to talk to Madam Josef from church, and she wanted to show me her house.  So sad.  All I can do is hug people and show them I care.  

Oct. 7- We woke up to bright sunshine and clear blue skies!  Somehow that gives us more hope in the midst of chaos and disaster.  I started on our piles of wet, stinky laundry first.  It is so much work to wash laundry by hand, and we had to be creative finding places to hang it (because our wash lines were broken).  I felt so Haitian!  I was exhausted after a couple hours, and the kids were really grouchy when I had them help me wring it out.  In the afternoon we had a lot of visitors with the same story:  hungry, house broken, everything is wet etc.  

Oct. 8- I took a walk in the hills behind the hospital today.  The lady with the gold tooth offered to show me around.  I was really glad for her help, because a lot of the normal paths were impassable. We visited  many houses that were almost completely destroyed.  Everyone seemed very glad for my visit, even though I didn't have a tin roof in my back pocket to give them.  I didn't even have any food or water to give, but what they seemed to really want was to show me their houses and talk about what happened.  Later I took my computer to Kurt's office(only place with internet) to check my emails.  Kurt took a vehicle down the mountain today to talk to Geleme.  He also got gas in Cavaillon and got more eggs at the chicken farm.  The road was really bad, but passable.

Oct. 9- Decided to go to Haitian church this morning to support them.  Part of the roof was blown off, but they still had church.  Pastor read Job 1 which was very fitting for all of us right now.  Job lost everything, but he still worshipped God and trusted in Him.  Lots of cleanup efforts continued today with Haitians and missionaries.  Brenna and I took Goldfish around to the hospital patients and also sang a few songs for them.  We invited Bob and Sue and Pat for supper.  We ate by candle/flashlight.  It was good to relax together for awhile and talk about all we've been through the past week.  God also provide a beautiful sunset over the mountains.

We are very thankful that Rick, Komari and David returned on Monday along with Darrell and Lucas and an RN from OR.  Thankfully, power to our house was back on by Tuesday evening!

Please continue to pray for physical and emotional strength, and for wisdom as we move forward to know how to bring help to the Haitians both physically and spiritually.  Pray that they (and all of us) can hunger and thirst after righteousness.

New faces, farewells and hosting company

When we arrived back in Haiti, we were happy to meet a new family that was staying on the campus here for about a month.  Our kids really had fun playing and hanging out with Tucker (pictured with Toby and Hadley) and Layna!

Kurt turned 40 in July!  We enjoyed hosting a little party at our house to celebrate!

At the end of July we had to say good-bye to the Klops (Des and Lee are on the right).  Lee has put much time and talent into the hospital and will be greatly missed!  Desma tirelessly taught our kids school, and we appreciated her energy, enthusiasm and love for our kids!  Sheila (on the left) has been a dear friend and mentor to us, and we will really miss her when she moves to Cayes in September!  Also, I will be taking over her role managing the Doctor's Hotel that we have here on campus for the doctors on call.  Hopefully that will be a good experience for me:)

 We enjoyed having our friends Brent and Alisha (and son Silas) over for supper one evening.  They also brought a couple of our kids' friends along who then stayed the night and played with the boys the next day.

This was a fun day with friends, and the boys loved the air-soft wars:)

 Another night we invited the OB Dr. at the hospital and his wife and daughter to have supper with us.  Also, Patty is a new Dr. that has moved here to work at the hospital.  We are very thankful to have her here, and are enjoying getting to know her!

Before the Zimms head home for furlough, we wanted to have them for pizza on the grill.  We had a fun night together!

I found a recipe for copy-cat Chik-Fil-A nuggets---deep fried yumminess!  We have to get our little taste of America however we can!

Furlough-Fun-Family-Friends

We are so thankful to have had a safe, wonderful, refreshing vacation to Illinois, Florida, Canada, and Wisconsin!  Wow, we really fit a lot in!  We will let the pictures do the talking....

                  

Kurt and the boys spent a week in Canada on a fishing trip with Dad P. and the Plattner guys.

 They caught, ate, and brought home lots of fish!   

 

Since the guys went fishing, we girls thought it only fair to go on our own road trip!  We headed south the Destin, FL and spent a wonderful week of relaxing, swimming, eating, and just enjoying time together!  Many great memories were made!

 Brenna got to hold a fawn that we found on a jeep trail.       Supper on the porch at the Roth's!  (this was only one of the many meals and gatherings they hosted--thanks a million!).  So many great times!  

 We spent 3 beautiful days in Fish Creek, WI with my mom and dad!  Such sweet memories of biking, ice cream, swimming, sunsets over Lake Michigan and mini-golfing (my mother beat us all!).

Our next trip to WI was to St. Germaine with our good friends the Grimms!  We spent lots of time on the water and also found time for baseball, eating out, bag toss, and even a fire in the fireplace when it got cold!  Very special times!

Kurt and his bro!

Waiting for the 4th of July parade!

July 4 was a special day with the Plattner family!  This is Brenna and her cousins playing in the creek.

Steak n Shake is a family favorite for the Wiegands.  We enjoyed an adults-only night out!

It was so great to spend a day with Leah at her family's lake house!  Also, our friend Kirk came for the day, and we were so happy to see him.  Leah's dad flew the Haitian flag on their dock for the day in honor of us "Haitian" visitors!

Our boys spent so much time playing baseball this summer, and they loved it!

The Wiegand cousins and Dads had a campout at Evergreen Lake.  That's always a fun tradition the boys look forward to!

The line-up of cousins at my Uncle's cabin!  We spent a couple days there with my family and had more fun than I could ever write in this blog post!  We are hoping it becomes an annual event!  

Canoeing the Walnut Creek.

Dear, dear Grandma!  Brenna and I went to Hardee's with her one day and really appreciated the time we had together!  Kurt and I each have a grandma in Eureka, and they are both so special to us!

A special thanks to each of you hosted us, showered us with love, and bent over backward to make our trip so wonderful!  Praise God from whom all blessing flow!

We've been back in Haiti for 3 weeks now and definitely settling in to life here again.  

Here's a quick update on the situation in Bonne Fin.  Unfortunately, the first week we were back in Haiti, there were some roadblocks again in Bonne Fin.  Thankfully, it's been pretty quiet since then. We continue to see some benefits from the ongoing dialogue we've had with the community regarding the electricity situation.  In recent meetings, there seems to be a greater sense of reasonableness and more open, productive dialogue.   Last week, Kurt was visited by Minustah officers.  These officers are part of the United Nations (UN) presence here in Haiti.  They work along side of the Haitian National Police.  Kurt was thankful to have their support & was glad to know that they are available to help us if we have more difficulties in the future.  Thanks for the continued prayer support as we serve God here at our mission in southern Haiti.