A Junior High Banquet, A Birthday Party and a Graduation!

 These past few days have been chock full for our family! The fun began with Danny's parents coming in for a 3 day visit. We really enjoyed having them here and were glad that they were able to come. Thursday morning, Becca had her 7th/8th Grade Banquet. The theme was a Presidential Gala and Becca went as the Prime Minister of Paris, France.  She looked so grown up and us adults were a little emotional as we took pictures of her. Seems only yesterday she was a little toddler in pigtails!

           

 Posing pretty with G-pa & G-ma Dunn

 Kori and Rebecca are great friends. Kori went as the 

Princess of Iceland.

Becca wore the boots that I wore at our wedding..very special!

Loved that she wanted to wear them!

 Rebecca Grace before her Banquet.

 

    Thursday, the 24th, was also Abigail's 8th birthday. We had a combined party with one of her good friends, Katy Barr. Katy turns 8 on June 9th but we will be in Haiti and she wanted Abby to come to her party so we just had their parties together. There is a really nice park close by that we had their party at and the weather was perfect. We decorated with a Hawiaan theme, and lots of color. We had around 30-40 people attend. Hotdogs, cheese puffs, Doritos and potato salad were served. The kids enjoyed playing with our Candy Claw Machine to win treats, having their face painted, a water balloon toss and decorating their own cupcakes! Of course, Abby and Katy opened their presents and recieved lots of art and travel stuff :o) It was a fun time and we were glad that G-pa & G-ma Dunn were here to celebrate with us :o)

Our Hawaiin themed birthday party

  The cute birthday girls with their leis and matching outfits.

 Mrs. Brown is was the girl's 1st grade teacher.

They love her and she loves them!

                                     
                                        

 Happy party guests taking turns with the Candy Claw Machine.

 Abby posing with just one of the MANY gifts she recieved!

  Friday was a very busy day. I have a cleaning job with a sweet older couple and it was my last day to clean for them. It was also the kids last day of school and they had a half day. So, after I got home, we had some shopping to do to get stuff for Danny's graduation table. Then we went out with G-pa & G-ma for supper. Rushed back here and got ready for the Graduation. It was a wonderful night celebrating a huge accomplishment! We give God all the honor and glory for His help! Graduation has seemed to be soo far off and now it has come and gone. We know that we are ready to move on to the next phase that God is leading us into. It is exciting, scary and over-whelming at times yet he gives us a calming peace that assures us of His leading and will. Onward to Haiti!

 Walking down the aisle to recieve his long-awaited diploma!

Danny Flowers...2012 College Graduate! So proud of him!

Family picture time!

 Danny's Graduation table. My mother-in-law,

Becca and I enjoyed decorating it for him :o)

                                 
                                 

So proud of my man! <3 <3 <3 Love him!

Danny standing behind his table.

He greeted guests for a few hours.

 Mrs. B. has been his biggest cheerleader! We love her!

                                     

Dealing with our first broken bone

 We should probably feel blessed that for the first time in almost 13 yrs with 4 children that we are just now experiencing a child with a broken bone. Amazing, considering that our kids are very active and can be quite the daredevils at times! Rebeca, our oldest, was riding her scooter home from band and took a spill. She tried to catch herself with her left hand and according to the ER reports she bent and cracked her left wrist bone. You can see in the above picture how her wrist is bent. This happened thur. evening and they put a temporary cast on at the ER. We filled prescriptions for IBP and Tylenol 3 with codeine. I tried to make a friday appt. for her at the Orthopedic Surgeon but they don't have friday hours around here. So, she is going in first thing monday. She has been in considerable pain. Becca tried to go to school twice friday and ended up coming home in too much pain. We are trying to keep her as comfortable as possible and are curious if the Orthopedics report will match the ER's? Will up-date soon..thanks for your prayers!

Observations of the Haitian Church

 We have been privileged to be able to attend a wonderful Haitian church in West Palm Beach off and on for a month now. The people are so sweet, open and friendly toward us! They are so happy that we are going to THEIR country to tell THEIR people about Jesus! They have 'adopted' us as their missionaries. They have let us know over and over again that they are praying for us and today they took up a large love offering for us to put toward our trip that is coming up in June. I will tell you more about that in a minute.
   Watching the Haitians worship is a beautiful experience! I love how free they are....un-concerned about what other's are thinking of them. Swaying, they throw their hands up, raise their voices, close their eyes and worship their Saviour! The creole and sometimes french words they sing are simple yet have such a profound message to them. They repeat phrases frequently as they sing and God's presence can be felt through-out the room. It is glorious!  As they were singing today, God spoke to me and said, "These are the people I have called you to, they will be your people now."  Our response is, "Yes, Lord, teach us and show us your will in Haiti."
  They have been so kind to have translators come and sit beside us to help us understand the service better. This has been very helpful and we are beginning to pick up some creole words. We know around 20-30 from memory now :o) Their preacher, Pastor Lamour, has been giving us weekly creole lessons and that is also helping. Pastor Lamour is a good preacher, he speaks the Biblical truth to his congregation. He does not skirt around issues but talks directly about them and in a passionate way. It is obvious that he loves God and his congregation. We really appreciate him and his church and are truly beginning to feel a part of them. We are very thankful for the opportunities we have had and will have to worship with them.

Now to tell you about our up-coming trip:
 We are going to Carrefour, Haiti to stay with a long-time missionary who's name is Don Mobley.  Carrefour is a few hours away from Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. When we move to Haiti, possibly next Spring, we will be living in Grande Rivierre du Nord which is in Northern Haiti. It is a six hour drive from Carrefour and we will be going up to the Grande Rivierre to visit the orphanage. We will be serving in the HIM orphanage by helping with the orphan's care, both physically and spiritually. Danny will be doing lots of maintenance and hopes to teach the orphan boys mechanical skills. There are many other roles we will be filling and we won't fully know what we will be involved in until we get there. Needless to say, we are very excited to visit the orphanage and get to know the boys and Pastor Dominique and his family. Danny went to the orphanage 2 years ago and met all of them. The kids and I are looking forward to meeting them for the first time :o)
 We will be taking LOTS of pictures!
   The reason we are going on this trip is two-fold: First reason is to complete Danny's Internship for his degree. Secondly, so we can learn more creole from Mr. Mobley and get to know their culture and customs. We are trusting God to supply the $3,000 that we need for this trip to help cover airfare, food and transportation. God has already began to bring in the needed funds and we praise Him for His provision! Being a missionary is exciting! Thank-you for your continued prayers as we follow God's path for our family!

This is a common sight in our house these days! We change it each week, adding new words as we learn them :o)

May Happenings

  May is speeding by so fast and the end of May is jam packed for us! Last night Rebecca had her Band Concert performance. Becca plays the Clarinet and really enjoys playing in band. Today she went with her band class to Bush Gardens for an all day band trip. We are waiting for her to get home and I am sure she will have all kinds of fun stories to share about what she did and saw :o) Glad she was able to have this opportunity!
  Next week Danny will be taking his finals for the LAST time!! Praise the Lord! Keep him in your prayers! His graduation is May 25th. Rebecca has her 7th-8th grade Banquet on the 24th. They are dressing formal and she is very excited. May 24th is also Abigail's 8th birthday! So, we are going to try and have a little birthday party for her that night. We are also looking forward to Danny's stepdad and mother coming to visit for a few days during graduation. I will be taking lots of pictures and will be posting them soon :o)

      This is Caleb's new funny face that he came up with all by himself. His brother and sisters think it is hilarious and ask him to show it to them all the time!  Never a dull moment around here! ;o)
  

Confirmation!

I am so thankful that when God calls us to go a certain path that He is faithful to confirm it to our hearts!  When we moved here in the summer of 2010 it was a complete step of faith for our family. We had numerous yard sales to get rid of most of our larger items and gave away what we could not sell. We then packed everything we owned into a 15 passenger van and an enclosed trailer. We literally came with one soft chair, a set of bunk beds, two end tables, my curio cabinet and my cedar chest. Almost everything else was small enough to fit in boxes, which we had around 30. God was faithful to provide all our appliances, furniture and everything else we needed. He also provided jobs that I talked about in the previous post.
  Unfortunately, when we moved here, we brought a good-sized amount of business debt from the lawncare and landscaping business we ran in Indiana. We paid off small amounts as we could but really was not seeing it disappear as quickly as we had hoped. Anyone that lives or has lived in South Florida knows that the cost of living is pretty high. We had many times when we did not know how we were going to buy groceries/gas and other needs and EVERYTIME God was faithful to provide and meet that need! We have no complaints or sad stories, God has really helped us to learn what it means to totally depend on Him!
   Last November we went through HIM New Missionary Orientation and went before the board to discuss our recent application. We have always had two goals to reach before going to the mission field. One is for Danny to graduate with an AA in Missions and the second is for us to be debt free. We let the board know these goals and told them that we had $20,000 in debt that we planed to pay off in the next 2 yrs. They understood, yet wanted us to be debt-free before they accepted us. We completely understood and to be honest were a little discouraged wondering how in the world we were going to be able to pay off our debt. Our Caribbean Director, Frank Vaughn, and Danny and I began to pray and ask God to send us more jobs. At that time our income was pretty low and the mountain looked HUGE!  Then God began to work!
   To make a long story short, we had 2 anonymous donations from Christian people who told Bro. Vaughn that God had told them to help us. We were given a total of $8,000! And then God helped us to take a good amount of our tax return and apply another $5,000! Yes, that totals around $13,000.  Before calling our creditors to pay these bills, we prayed for God to soften their hearts and most of them settled for half or even less than the original amount owed! So dear friends, as I type this, we can now say that by the grace and help of our Lord Jesus Christ that we are DEBT FREE!!!!!
  As they say in creole..Bondye se bon! (God is good!)

And that is just one of the ways that God has CONFIRMED that this is His will for our lives and we joyfully answer His call!