Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Haitians

Hello!

As I was walking across the ANIJA campus today I passed a Haitian lady whose huge smile showed her perfectly white teeth. I don't know why she was smiling but thanked God for allowing us to work with Haitian children as part of our ministry.

When we first came here over eight years ago, there were no Haitians at our school. Kids Alive's mission is to work with kids at risk but as we looked around we thought, "The kids who are most at risk here are the Haitian kids." They are often poorer than Dominicans and have come here looking for a better life. They often encounter prejudice. We returned to Canada and when we came back here a few years later we were excited to see that a literacy program had been started with Haitian children. Now they are fully integrated with our oldest Haitian student in Grade 4 this year.

On the week-end we had a chance to visit a Haitian village (called a Batey) on another part of the Island. I could not imagine having to live in such conditions.

By far, one of the nicest houses in the Batey
ELEVEN boys sleep on the two sets of bunk beds
Haitian girls in front of a wooden house
Haitian boy and his stuffed animal
It's just a matter of time before
this house is washed away over the cliff

Please pray for our new friends who are seeking God's direction for their ministry in that area.

And praise God with us for the smiles that we see on our campus.




Marcie Cooper

P.S. If you'd like to sponsor one of our children go to www.kidsalive.ca (in Canada) or www.kidsalive.org (in the United States.) Cute kids are waiting!



Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Adoption Days

Hello!

"So, how is your adoption going?" is a question that we are asked on a regular basis. "Slow" or "really slow" has been our answer for quite a while. Everything is based on when our file was logged into the system in China. January 29, 2007--almost six years ago! Every month (it used to be every couple weeks) files are matched with babies in China. For a long time now they have only been matching a few DAYS worth of files each month. From June to September this year they were only averaging 3 DAYS per month. They were up to September 24, 2006. People on an adoption blog that I follow started to speculate that China was going to close down the program we are in and just do special needs adoptions.  I was discouraged. Even at that rate, it would take YEARS for us to get a referral (name, picture, and info about a baby.)  I started to pray. I prayed that the program wouldn't close down before we got a baby and that things would speed up.

In October, China matched 13 DAYS worth of files! It brought them up to October 8, 2006. The statistics-keeping adoption website had only predicted that 1 DAY's worth of files would be matched. It was 13 TIMES what they predicted! Thank you, God! What an encouragement in a very long and often discouraging process.

I don't know if the speed-up will continue or if it was just making up for slower days in the previous months. But I do know that I will continue to pray and trust that God will bring us the right child in His perfect timing. 113 DAYS of files more to go.

Waiting and praying,

Marcie Cooper

Click here to read the beginning of our adoption story

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Robbed Again

Dear Friends,

I know that I told you that I would write an "answered prayers" message and, I promise, it will come. As you head to bed tonight though, I would like to ask you for your prayers.

Last night, at 3:00 am, I woke up to strange noises and a loud popping sound. Paul went to the living room to look around and noticed that our security camera was stolen out of its base. He also notice a pickaxe on the porch railing but, after bringing me the broken camera, noticed that the pickaxe was gone. We could not get back to sleep. I am a natural worrier and kept thinking that the thief would return. We were also trying to figure out what he was after (we think motorcycles) and were mad at ourselves because the camera was not actually working at the time so we have no recording to show for it. 

Just before going to bed I read 1 Peter 4:12-19 which talks about not being surprised when we face trials. I have also been doing a Bible study on Nehemiah and have been looking at how he faced opposition when rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. We are here sharing Jesus and bringing hope to kids. It is not surprising that we have been robbed multiple times even though our house is the smallest on the block. Yes, it might have to do with the colour of our skin and assumption that we have money. But it could also be that Satan does not want us here doing God's work.

Please pray for our safety and protection. Pray for peace and a good night's sleep without worry. And pray that the work here would make a difference and that children's lives would be changed.

Thank you!

Goodnight!

Marcie Cooper

Update 11/07/12: We slept well and our landlords are going to make our fence higher. We are also looking into other ways to increase our home's security. Thanks again for your prayers!

See Building up treasures in heaven to read about one of the other times we were robbed. 

Thursday, November 1, 2012

PiBoIdMo

Hello!

I decided to try something new today. Actually, I decided a long time ago but was about to cancel the whole plan when a few ideas came to me. You see, somehow in the middle of last November I read about Picture Book Idea Month ( PiBoIdMo) where the goal is to come up with thirty ideas for picture books in thirty days. I had published Meet the Teens through Tate Publishing but more ideas kept entering my mind. PiBoIdMo sounded like a fun challenge but I had missed the cut-off. I subscribed to the blog and waited for this year.

As you can see by my lack of blogging lately, I have not had much free time. I have a whole list of ideas for Marcie's Messages but hardly any of them materialize. By the end of long days with kids and homeschooling and ministry on top of a teething toddler and a preschooler that wants to come visit me in the middle of the night, I am just too tired. But here I am and hopefully it won't be so long before I'm back again.

Up until this morning, I did not know if I had time to fit in PiBoIdMo. I felt like I could barely make it through the all things I needed (or wanted?) to get done in a day. So how did I decide? I prayed about it. I prayed that I would have an idea for today, Day 1 of the challenge, if I was supposed to sign up. Silly? Maybe. But I wrote down six ideas! Most are about missionary kids and I don't know if they will ever get published but you never know!

I have another answer to prayer that I've been wanting to share with you too so check back in a day or two or sign up on the right of your screen to be notified of new posts by e-mail.

Happy November and Happy Picture Book Idea Month!

Marcie Cooper