click here for a PDF version of the February newsletter, including pictures

Dearest friends,

A new year…. so much to think about during these past few months. My house so full at Thanksgiving with my children and their friends. Then many children and their spouses came home to spend time at Christmas. My very pregnant daughter and her husband flew in two days before her due date, then four days before Christmas delivered a beautiful baby girl, Selah Joy. I was able to be with her as Selah came into this world. Such a reminder of the birth of Christ and the life He came to offer to us. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” Jn 1:14

My house is quiet now, but I continue to be very busy. I am planning three trips with teams to go into Haiti. The first one leaves in February and we will be climbing into the mountains of Kawo. We are all “in training” in hopes that we can make it into the mountains beyond mountains. This is a great team and I’m so excited to see my friends in the mountains once again. We have our tents, backpacks and water filters ready to go. We will be taking photos and updating information of about 400 children. Visiting homes of these children is something I’ve wanted to do, such a simple gesture shows we care. We will help float the walls on the church/school that Hope in Haiti has helped to build. We also are taking things to interact with the children, building relationships that will hopefully grow with time. We also want to put fluoride on each child’s teeth. I just pray that we can use our time well, build relationship, and share the love of Jesus. We come to love and to serve. The people in the mountains are unbelievably poor according to our standard of living. They suffer malnutrition, diseases, and are exposed to the elements of nature. Death becomes a part of life.

The land is beautiful, but harsh. They till the rocky soil with heavy handmade hoes on steep inclines. It’s amazing they can grow anything. And yet when I hear them sing and worship their God, it reaches deep into my heart. I stand humbled and feel privileged to be with them. So I ask for your prayers – yes, pray us up those mountains. Pray that God will cover us with His wisdom and peace. That we will be healthy and strong and able to endure the heat, humidity and hardships. That we might be such a blessing wherever we go. Many of you are not able to go, but we find strength because of your prayers and commitment to the poor in Haiti.

“May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us, (Selah) that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. Ps. 67:1,2 Selah – “interlude”; occurs seventy-one times in thirty-nine psalms and in Hab. 3:3,9,13; indicates the end of a main thought by a soft whispering of strings, followed by a clash of cymbals.

By His grace, Dixie