Well it's happened, I'm another year older. 49 to be exact. I wonder where the time goes. In all reality over half my life is gone. I'm not done yet - there is so much I want to do. I'm not dwelling on this just an observation. I know that my life will be exactly what God wants it to be and nothing less. I had made grand plans for my birthday. I was going to take 60 people from Merger to the beach. Mostly young men who are the "bad boys" of the neighborhood -they just hang out with no real purpose and I wanted to try to encourage them. Pastor Johnny had them all for Christmas dinner and it really changed their attitudes so we thought this would be a good follow up. Alas the best laid plans never seem to work, especially here in Haiti. We have had horrible rain for the past week and yesterday was no execption. So the beach part of the day was cancelled. I had already paid for the food so I went and picked it up anyway. I was going to take it to Merger and share with the guys, but that didn't happen either. They have been joking around with me all week excited for the day at the beach. I had asked them to pay enough that I could buy the drinks for the day. I was supposed to collect the money on Wednesday night and it wasn't ready. They assured me I could have it Thursday morning. It didn't happen. I think they thought I would just come anyway and pay for it all, but I didn't. We had a realy long talk aobut how they let me down and that this is one of the reasons people won't give them a chance. If they can't follow through on the little things then how will someone trust them with the big ones - like giving them a job. They have had over 2 weeks to get the money gathered up and if one of them had come seriously and said they didn't have it that would have been fine. Instead they all said yeah, yeah, yeah it there, but it wasn't. So I explained to them again how they have to follow through and if they don't then there will be consequences - no special food. It may seem tough or mean but these guys are so lost. They don't have good family support and they say they want to get ahead but they have no means to do it. A little lesson in consequences hopefuly will show them that I mean what I say and they need to also. I'll give them another chance to get things together and hopefully in May we can have our day. Since I had all this food I shared it in a different way. I blessed my friends in Pax Villa, the 3 gas stations where I go, the young guys who sell cokes and bread and some police friends. I created a birthday wish on facebook to raise $1000.00 so I could buy goats for 10 kids and thanks to lots of generous people I raised $1055.00. Such a Blessing!!! Since the beach was out I decided to get a few things done. The rain slacked up for a bit and I went to get the new goats out of quarantine. We put them at the center for a few days before they will go out with the "herd". I'm not exactly sure what happened - but that's why they are called accidents, but the Boer, Billy put his horn in Pancho the Spanish's eye. So at 6PM I did an enucleation. That all went well and I was waiting on him to recover. The folks at the training center decided to make me a cake. WHen they lit the oven it didn't light right and they called me to ask me if I knew what was up. Anyway again not entirely sure why but all of the sudden WHHOOOSH and there was a big pop. I got a lot of hair singed off my head. Not so you can tell but I sure didn't smell good - burnt hair yuk!! So we had popcorn and apples instead. All in all a GREAT day! Although I don't want another one quite like it real soon :). I have started trying to use twitter, not posting just following some people. I am always trying to find ways to fill my mind with positive things to keep me "filled up". The day to day grind not to mention exceptional events here can wear you down. Joyce Meyer is one and she is always posting little quotes from her book "Battlefield of the Mind". I haven't read it yet but want to. Basically it is just like the saying you are what you eat. You will follow what you think. If you are always thinking negatively then you will start acting negatively too. Simple but profound advice. My other favorite and a MUST READ is Ann Voskamp's "1000 Gifts" - it is about finding joy and abundance right where you are. Ok enough of my ramblings...oh yeah hopefully new tires and wheels by Tuesday. The Ford place and insurance company are moving at a snails pace. Tonight and tomorrow there is a women's retreat!