White or Blue...or White and Blue with Sprinkles?

Yes, I'm talking about Christmas.

Not sure whether it'll still be white on Christmas day, but we've got several inches of snow outside right now. We've had mornings of ZERO degrees F, that’s minus 18 C (yikes!!!) Two days of school cancelled, and two days of two-hour delays (because it was so cold and icy at bus stops). And another several inches of snow coming tonight. 

We've lived in some crazy places but in terms of weather, Indiana gets the whole range of crazy. Last month, it was tornadoes (none in our town but plenty across the state). This month, it's winter storms, bitterly cold, ice and snow. 

It was chucking it down!

And Christmas is coming, and it's an emotional time, isn't it?

And it should be. It's about news of great joy for all people. Surely that's something to get emotional about. Deep, soul-stirring feelings of gratitude, love and adoration for the Saviour, the Hope of nations. Awesome times of singing, worshiping together, with carols that have been sung for generations...we'll be doing that at the Christmas Eve Candlelight service at church.

But those happy songs on the radio about families being together and having a jolly old time, and everyone being home for Christmas can just rub salt in the wounds for so many. It's a time when we do miss those we love, those we've lost. 

Every time I hear that Elvis song right now, it hits a chord - you know the one, the drool-y, cheesy, bluesy classic Christmas song, "I'll have a blue Christmas without you".

It hits a chord because family is a billion miles away.

And Storly will be away too. 

He leaves for Haiti on Tuesday, and he’ll be gone over Christmas. He'll be attending Cece’s wedding (she lived with us in Haiti, and is like family. Storly’s representing her family, giving her away, as he’s the closest older kind-of-family member to her). We’d all be going if we could, but finances won’t allow it, unfortunately...Christmas in Haitian sunshine sounds just perfect right now! But we're very excited for Cece and her hubby-to-be Newton, and for their new life together. (And Storly better come home with lots of details about the wedding!)

Storly will also be hosting a radio towers expert, who'll be checking out all specifications to replace the old radio towers at Petite Anse (the big project we're working on) and reconfigure all the technical stuff so that the radio signal from Radio 4VEH will be the best quality sound, reaching as far as possible across Haiti and beyond on 840 AM. Storly will be leading some year-end staff stuff, and is a part of the team to be presenting the live all-night Christmas Eve radio show. We’ll be listening (and you can too, at www.radio4veh.org/en click the Listen Live button).

So we're celebrating Christmas early - on Sunday, in fact, so it looks like it will be white, at least for us. 

And while Storly's away, I'll be finishing up work on some end-of-the-year fundraising (The Radio 4VEH Christmas Matching Gift Challenge especially), some Thank You's to those who have given, getting up to date on project plans and funding for the Petite Anse AM Towers restoration project, and sorting out more details on our 'becoming missionaries' process. 

I'll be walking through the last week of school with the girls, doing some fun stuff like making a gingerbread house with Esther. And then I'll be managing that delicate balance (for myself, and for the girls) of celebrating a beautiful, joyful HOLYday with my most-loved-one away. There may be meltdowns, but hopefully not all three of us at the same time. There'll probably be some snuggling on the sofa watching movies too. 

So, Christmas here might be white.....there'll probably be moments of blue, and knowing our girls, there will be plenty of red and green sprinkles (that we used to decorate some cookies a few days ago, and I later found some sprinkled all over presents under the Christmas tree), and an overdose of pink. 

But even before we celebrate Christmas, today, we celebrate Esther. On her 6th birthday. Wow, time is flying. What a blessing she is! 

Happy 6th birthday, Esther! 

We'd appreciate your thoughts and prayers over the next couple of weeks, for Storly's trip and for us at home. And however you'll be celebrating this Christmas, we hope you'll know the joy that only Jesus brings. 

Merry Christmas, Jwaye Nwèl, Joyeux Noël!

Storly's Staff, Toilet & Strategic Stuff

Wow, it's December already. And not one blog post from us during November. We must have been busy, huh?

Well, we were recovering from Storly's October trip to Haiti. And busy, yes. Bit sick, (cold, cough, nothing too serious but just yucky enough to feel yucky) yes. Busy writing materials that takes lots of mental energy. And a bit overwhelmed at times too. So, with all that, sorry for our silence here last month!

[Quick note - when we're not posting on our blog here, I'm often posting quick updates on Facebook. Hope you'll friend me - Kate on Facebook]

Storly's October trip to Haiti:

In our last post, we (me & the girls) were waiting for Storly to get back from Haiti. And he did get back at the end of October, but he's heading to Haiti again in less than two weeks, and will be away over Christmas (more on that in a bit)...For now, an update on his trip. And if you prayed for him (and for us) while he was away, thank you!

Before leaving, he needed help checking some new equipment. So, who did he ask for help?

On his way to Haiti, he spent a few days in Florida doing some training (using the new equipment) with our two 4VEH co-workers who are based in the US - Eutrope Samson, 4VEH representative among the Haitian community in North-East (New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts etc); and Gaudin Charles (representative in Florida).

These distinguished gentlemen both have a long history with 4VEH. Mèt Eutrope ('Mèt' means Master, as in teacher) came to the Lord after listening to 4VEH as he sat under a streetlight to do his homework as a student in Cap-Haitien, and has served the ministry for many, many years. Mèt Gaudin has also served with 4VEH for a long time; among many accomplishments, he was the first Haitian to be Station Manager (Storly is the only other Haitian to hold this position). As well as promoting the station in the US, both men have operational roles too: Mèt Eutrope records church services among the Haitian community in the US for re-broadcast on 4VEH across Haiti; and Mèt Gaudin presents a weekly Sunday school program. The new equipment - laptop, microphone & speakers that Hannah & Esther helped Storly test - was for Gaudin, who's been recording his programs to tape (yes, remember cassette tape!) and mailing them to Haiti for broadcasting. Time to upgrade to digital, so Gaudin's programs should sound much clearer as people listen in Haiti.

Here's Storly & Gaudin celebrating the International Radio Ministry 2013 award from NRB
at a Fundraising Gala arranged by Eutrope in March.
Not sure what this award is about? One of our proudest moments, check out more photos on Facebook

So, once Storly was in Haiti (a short flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Cap-Haitien, Haiti), this is some of what he did:

• Staff Stuff:  Part of his trip involved general leadership and management of the station, and being on site so Operations Manager Witny could take some time off. All HR/personnel stuff comes under Storly's responsibility (we don't have an HR person among the 25 or so staff members), so he had plenty of meetings with different staff members too. 

• Toilet Stuff: For those of you who came to Haiti this summer and worked on the construction of the wall at Petite Anse (the radio towers/AM transmission site), you may remember the one and only toilet at that site was overflowing all over the security guard's little room. It was, well, nasty. The whole little bathroom needed remodeling. Storly worked on plans and got that work going. You may remember that in August 2012, some thieves broke in to this 9-hectare property at Petite Anse and stole copper wiring. The result was that we were off the air on our AM frequency - the one that reaches all over northern Haiti, and about 70% of our listening audience listen on 840 AM - for about 4 months. So, the Petite Anse Restoration project (to restore the perimeter wall, replace two radio towers and tuning signal so that the AM frequency reaches as far as possible, with the best quality sound possible) came about as a result of that theft. Anyway, increasing security is part of this project, so having a clean, usable toilet for the guards and operators who work at the site, and for any visitors who happen to be there (like the teams working on the wall), is kind of important!

• Strategic Stuff: Part of our conversation on the way home from the airport as he talked me through his trip went something like this: "Woah.....really???" "That is AWESOME! I can't believe it! ....Next topic, ...."Oh my, are you serious?! That's amazing!" Two big strategic doors that have been shut for a very long time seem to be opening in ways that seem impossible to our eyes. God is making things happen - no details yet, but we would appreciate prayers for wisdom and direction.

He also got to enjoy seeing the Gross family, our good friends from Columbus who moved to Haiti in August as OMS missionaries, teaching at Cowman International School. I was sad I couldn't see them too!

Steve & Melissa (Gross) posted this on Facebook - thanks, guys! 

And he got to visit a coffee co-operative in Ranquitte, along with Wayne King (coffee roaster, friend of 4VEH and part of our Columbus family). The visit to Ranquitte area was also an exploratory visit for outreach with the solar radios, with Medson and Pastor Hérode. An excited Medson led several people to the Lord and made connections there with local pastors for return visits.

It was a good trip. Thanks again for your prayers. And I'm grateful too for friends taking Hannah & Esther for an hour or two (so I could clean carpets and sofa with no interruptions!)