Can you believe how time just flies! It has already been 3 weeks and Jason is due for his next round of treatment today at 3:15. Please pray that the medicine will continue to work and keep his cancer stable. Also, pray for his strength and that his fatigue will be limited.
Jason was able to up north and hunt this past weekend. Unfortunately, he didn't even see a deer let alone shoot one:( Oh well, that's how it goes sometimes. My parents came up here for the weekend. It was nice to spend some time with them. My mom and I went shopping for Christmas gifts and we were able to get a lot done. I don't think that I am going to go shopping on Black Friday because the stores were already busy enough and we haven't even hit Thanksgiving!
Have a blessed Thanksgiving and remember to give thanks to all the people and especially God for all that they have given you. Happy Thanksgiving Day! The Krenzke's
Monday, November 24, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Just busy
Sorry for the delay in posting but I've just been busy the last week. There is a Haitian dance troupe in Midland, and I have been working on that committee so the days have been filled. They are here for another week so if you would like to come out and see them perform--they are really good--here is the info:
Saturday, November 15th full dance performance at 4:00 pm at Messiah Lutheran Church--no charge, free-will offering accepted
Sunday, November 16th full dance performance at 4:00 pm at Bullock Creek High School Auditorium--admission fee of $5 for adults, $2 for students, and free for preschool and younger.
Jason has been feeling well since his last treatment. He has been fatigued quite a bit this last week but that is expected with his treatment. The fatigue will most likely continue and get worse as he continues his treatments. Otherwise, he feels good! Praise God!
Blessings on your week, Joslyn
Saturday, November 15th full dance performance at 4:00 pm at Messiah Lutheran Church--no charge, free-will offering accepted
Sunday, November 16th full dance performance at 4:00 pm at Bullock Creek High School Auditorium--admission fee of $5 for adults, $2 for students, and free for preschool and younger.
Jason has been feeling well since his last treatment. He has been fatigued quite a bit this last week but that is expected with his treatment. The fatigue will most likely continue and get worse as he continues his treatments. Otherwise, he feels good! Praise God!
Blessings on your week, Joslyn
Monday, November 3, 2008
Good news!
The doctor was pleased with the MRI--the scan looks good and everything is stable. Our appointment was scheduled for 10:30 this morning, yet we didn't get in until 2:45--it was a rather long wait but well worth it. We are now waiting to get into the treatment room --hoping to be out of here by 7:00 PM. We might have time for dinner tonight:)
The doctor was comfortable enough to allow us to just send him the next MRI in 6 weeks. We don't have to come back to Duke for 12 weeks--yeah! God is good all the time and all the time God is good! Blessings on your day, Jason & Joslyn
The doctor was comfortable enough to allow us to just send him the next MRI in 6 weeks. We don't have to come back to Duke for 12 weeks--yeah! God is good all the time and all the time God is good! Blessings on your day, Jason & Joslyn
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Off to Duke
Jason and I leave for Duke again today--six weeks really goes fast. His appointment is at 10:30 with the Doctor and then he has treatment at 11:45 on Monday. I will post as soon as I can with the results. We will return Tuesday afternoon.
Back to the Haiti stories:
Sunday, Oct. 19th, we went to Port Au Prince Fellowship for church and I must say "wow". Have you ever felt the Holy Spirit just pouring over you and out of you? That is what I felt during this service--I don't think that I have ever felt the Holy Spirit's presence like I did that day. The pastor is an American that has been in ministries in Haiti for 19 years and everything was spoken in English. The majority of the church members are Haitian and so is the worship band. We started the service with about 6 or 7 praise songs. Then, they had guest speakers from 2 areas that were hit extremely hard by the hurricanes, Gonieves & Caberet. It was heartwrenching to hear about the destruction and the loss that those people are experiencing right now. They spoke about everyone being the hands & feet of Jesus to those in need and that we needed to get to these areas literally and help them with food, water, and hope. After those 2 gentlemen spoke, the pastor spoke about missions during his sermon. How appropriate--here we are on a mission trip to help the people of Haiti and the people of Haiti are being encouraged to help others around the world like China & Africa. Then church ended with some more praise and worship songs. I could hardly contain myself--church had lasted 2 hours already and I could've gone another 2. Tears were pouring down my face while I was praising our Lord--arms in the air, dancing, singing (I don't have too great of a voice but this day I felt like I did:) smiling, and crying all at once and I didn't care who saw me or what they thought of me. I had complete joy--boy, do I wish that I could do those things here in my own church and not worry about what others are thinking of me or them thinking that I have become a complete nut about the Lord. I wish that my earthly mind would just diminish and that my soul would just open up to my Lord the way I want it to. I wish that I didn't care what others thought of me and only cared about what my Lord thinks of me--I pray for this kind of thinking. I pray for that true joy and happiness again. I believe that is why it is so hard to come home after time spent on a mission trip--you see and feel what true joy is and often recognize that you don't have that true joy in our every day living. Dear Lord, allow me the pleasure of basking in your love. Allow me to find true joy in my everyday living. Allow me to to seek your approval and not the approval of others. Amen. Blessings to all, Joslyn
Back to the Haiti stories:
Sunday, Oct. 19th, we went to Port Au Prince Fellowship for church and I must say "wow". Have you ever felt the Holy Spirit just pouring over you and out of you? That is what I felt during this service--I don't think that I have ever felt the Holy Spirit's presence like I did that day. The pastor is an American that has been in ministries in Haiti for 19 years and everything was spoken in English. The majority of the church members are Haitian and so is the worship band. We started the service with about 6 or 7 praise songs. Then, they had guest speakers from 2 areas that were hit extremely hard by the hurricanes, Gonieves & Caberet. It was heartwrenching to hear about the destruction and the loss that those people are experiencing right now. They spoke about everyone being the hands & feet of Jesus to those in need and that we needed to get to these areas literally and help them with food, water, and hope. After those 2 gentlemen spoke, the pastor spoke about missions during his sermon. How appropriate--here we are on a mission trip to help the people of Haiti and the people of Haiti are being encouraged to help others around the world like China & Africa. Then church ended with some more praise and worship songs. I could hardly contain myself--church had lasted 2 hours already and I could've gone another 2. Tears were pouring down my face while I was praising our Lord--arms in the air, dancing, singing (I don't have too great of a voice but this day I felt like I did:) smiling, and crying all at once and I didn't care who saw me or what they thought of me. I had complete joy--boy, do I wish that I could do those things here in my own church and not worry about what others are thinking of me or them thinking that I have become a complete nut about the Lord. I wish that my earthly mind would just diminish and that my soul would just open up to my Lord the way I want it to. I wish that I didn't care what others thought of me and only cared about what my Lord thinks of me--I pray for this kind of thinking. I pray for that true joy and happiness again. I believe that is why it is so hard to come home after time spent on a mission trip--you see and feel what true joy is and often recognize that you don't have that true joy in our every day living. Dear Lord, allow me the pleasure of basking in your love. Allow me to find true joy in my everyday living. Allow me to to seek your approval and not the approval of others. Amen. Blessings to all, Joslyn
Thursday, October 30, 2008
200 patients
On Wednesday, we went to another ministry called Heartline Ministries to hold a medical clinic for them. They have a women's center that teaches them about prenatal care, post partum care, family planning, birthcontrol, and a trade like sewing so the women can bring in some income for their families. This type of center is vital for the country of Haiti. This ministry also has an orphanage for boys & girls and they can have up to 20 kids. It was interesting to see how their orphanage was set up and ran--I'm sure it will give Three Angels some ideas to use at our orphanage.
We had told Heartline that we would be able to see about 70 patients so they handed out 200 tickets. We were able to see the 200 patients in about 6 hours with 3 providers--this was definitely God's doing and not our's. Just to put it in prospective on Monday we saw around 85 patients with 3 providers in 8 hours!
A family of 5 came in together to see the doctor's and they were tested for HIV because we knew that the mom was HIV positive. Unfortunately for this family, all of them tested positive--can you imagine finding out in one day that your entire family was HIV positive? Pray for this family, pray that they will be able to receive the treatment that they will need and pray that they would seek God for their hope during this most difficult time.
Blessings to all, Joslyn
We had told Heartline that we would be able to see about 70 patients so they handed out 200 tickets. We were able to see the 200 patients in about 6 hours with 3 providers--this was definitely God's doing and not our's. Just to put it in prospective on Monday we saw around 85 patients with 3 providers in 8 hours!
A family of 5 came in together to see the doctor's and they were tested for HIV because we knew that the mom was HIV positive. Unfortunately for this family, all of them tested positive--can you imagine finding out in one day that your entire family was HIV positive? Pray for this family, pray that they will be able to receive the treatment that they will need and pray that they would seek God for their hope during this most difficult time.
Blessings to all, Joslyn
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Back from Haiti
I've only been home from Haiti for 3 days, yet it feels like it was months since I was there. It is always so difficult to come back to the States after being in Haiti. Don't get me wrong, I am excited to see my husband and kids, but I wish I could stay longer. There are so many problems in Haiti like the lack of clean water, food, infrastructure, jobs, education, etc. The list could continue on and on. There seems to be no way out for the Haitians but that is when you rely on the only thing that can solve these problems and that is God. With God, all things are possible. Many people ask, "How was your trip to Haiti?" It is often hard to answer that question because one, there are so many different God stories that I could share--I could talk for hours about my trip and two, it is so hard to put these experiences into words that would truly describe what takes place in your heart. But the reality is that most people barely have time to hear about one story let alone hours worth of stories. So my hope is to share with you over the course of several blog entries some of the God stories that occured while we were on our mission trip.
God has blessed me so much over the course of my life, yet I still find things to complain about. Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere, and it is only 600 miles off the coast of Florida. I have never seen or experienced "need" in its truest form until I traveled to Haiti last July. Our mission trips take us to the capital of Haiti which is Port Au Prince. As soon as you get outside of the airport, you see need immediately. Yet, I have not even seen the worst of the needs because I have not been to the countryside in Haiti. I cannot even begin to imagine how bad it is in the countryside because what I see in the capital city is horrible already. Yet, with all their needs, the Haitian people still find ways to smile, greet you with "bon swa (good afternoon)", and to laugh. It truly is amazing to see how they live yet they are joyful and happy. Joy and happiness do not come from the things that we have--it comes from having the love of Jesus in us, and this is so evident in Haiti.
The first God story that I am going to share with you is about a boy named Fon Fon. We were first introduced to Fon Fon as we got out of our vans at the Brother's Hospital. It was not the normal introduction. We first heard Fon Fon from the second story of the hospital screaming out. If you have ever lost someone close to you, you know the scream that I am talking about. After the scream, I knew that someone had just learned about someone close to them passing away. My heart just dropped to the ground listening to the sobs of a young boy that just lost his mother. Many of the people on our team were already hesitant and dare I say scared about being at the hospital and then to get out of the vans to hear a little boy screaming because his mom just died--many probably wanted to climb back in the vans and head back to the medical clinic where we were working at, but God had different plans in mind. Before continuing on about Fon Fon, I need to give you some backgroud information.
This hospital was a hospital for the dying and no one on our team had been there before so we really didn't know what to expect. All we knew was there were people that were terminally ill from Aids and TB at the hospital, and we were going there to essentially be the hands and feet of Jesus. We did not know what we would be doing at the hospital and many on the team were very uncomfortable. Many were praying the night before as to whether or not it was God's plan for them to go. In the end, all of our team went and all of us were blessed for having done so.
After arriving at the hospital, we were told that we wouldn't be doing much medical work with the patients. They wanted us to give the patients massages, shave their faces, and cut their fingernails and toenails. Due to some hesitation on our part, it took us a few minutes to get warmed up to the idea of massaging and shaving people with HIV and TB. Women patients were on the second floor and men patients were on the first floor. The rooms were community style rooms with around 20 beds in each room. As we entered the room with our gloves and masks on, the women began taking their hospital gowns off so that we could massage them. Their faces and smiles said everything that needed to be said--we were being the hands and feet of Jesus to these patients and they were absolutely thrilled. The power of touch is amazing. These people long to be touched just like you and I do and I was so glad that God had chosen me to be a part of this. We continued giving massages and we went into another room filled with more patients. There was a girl around 19 years old that looked more like 12 lying in bed. As a couple of people began massaging her, she started to seize. I joined them a few minutes later not knowing what had just occured. All I knew was that one of our teammates asked me to go get Pastor Kurt to pray over this girl because they thought she was about to die. Several of us stood around the young lady laying our hands on her while Pastor prayed. After the prayer, Pastor saw a Haitian standing behind all of us--he was the girl's father. We had him come up by his daughter's head and he began to pray over his daughter. Right there, in front of all us, he began to pray to our Lord while watching his daughter struggle to stay here on earth. Then the most wonderful thing occured, the father started singing and praising the Lord. This touched my heart in such a way--here is a man about to lose his daughter yet he is praising the Lord, our Lord. The girl did not die that day, she slept peacefully through the night. We know this because her father talked with one of our translators on the phone the next day. He wanted to let us know that she was still alive and that he was grateful for our presence. I don't know if this girl has passed away yet, however, I do know that God was pleased and honored.
Meanwhile, another of our team members was spending time with Fon Fon and learning about him and his family. He is 12 years old and had been living with his mother at the hospital for 4 months. He has 3 brothers and 1 sister all younger than him that are living in the poorest and most dangerous city in the western hemisphere called City Sole. Their father does not work and barely takes care of the children. Can you imagine what was going through this boy's mind--essentially he was going to be the caretaker for his brothers and sister while being a kid himself.
It was not a coincidence that his mother passed away just as we were getting out of the vans--this was a God-incident. God could've taken her home the day before or the day after but He chose that time because He knew that our team was going to be there and He was calling many of our teammembers to help this boy and his family out. So that is what happened--in a nutshell. There are several details that need to be worked out, but Fon Fon and his brothers and sister are going to be taken care of. The first order of business was to find them a place to live--somewhere away from City Sole. Rent is already covered for the first year ($1200 US dollars) and the place is near where our Haitian clinic manager lives. He and another of our translators are going to be checking in on the kids and making sure they are ok. The next things on the agenda are food, clothing, and schooling for these kids which are in the process. God is good all the time and all the time God is good!
God has blessed me so much over the course of my life, yet I still find things to complain about. Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere, and it is only 600 miles off the coast of Florida. I have never seen or experienced "need" in its truest form until I traveled to Haiti last July. Our mission trips take us to the capital of Haiti which is Port Au Prince. As soon as you get outside of the airport, you see need immediately. Yet, I have not even seen the worst of the needs because I have not been to the countryside in Haiti. I cannot even begin to imagine how bad it is in the countryside because what I see in the capital city is horrible already. Yet, with all their needs, the Haitian people still find ways to smile, greet you with "bon swa (good afternoon)", and to laugh. It truly is amazing to see how they live yet they are joyful and happy. Joy and happiness do not come from the things that we have--it comes from having the love of Jesus in us, and this is so evident in Haiti.
The first God story that I am going to share with you is about a boy named Fon Fon. We were first introduced to Fon Fon as we got out of our vans at the Brother's Hospital. It was not the normal introduction. We first heard Fon Fon from the second story of the hospital screaming out. If you have ever lost someone close to you, you know the scream that I am talking about. After the scream, I knew that someone had just learned about someone close to them passing away. My heart just dropped to the ground listening to the sobs of a young boy that just lost his mother. Many of the people on our team were already hesitant and dare I say scared about being at the hospital and then to get out of the vans to hear a little boy screaming because his mom just died--many probably wanted to climb back in the vans and head back to the medical clinic where we were working at, but God had different plans in mind. Before continuing on about Fon Fon, I need to give you some backgroud information.
This hospital was a hospital for the dying and no one on our team had been there before so we really didn't know what to expect. All we knew was there were people that were terminally ill from Aids and TB at the hospital, and we were going there to essentially be the hands and feet of Jesus. We did not know what we would be doing at the hospital and many on the team were very uncomfortable. Many were praying the night before as to whether or not it was God's plan for them to go. In the end, all of our team went and all of us were blessed for having done so.
After arriving at the hospital, we were told that we wouldn't be doing much medical work with the patients. They wanted us to give the patients massages, shave their faces, and cut their fingernails and toenails. Due to some hesitation on our part, it took us a few minutes to get warmed up to the idea of massaging and shaving people with HIV and TB. Women patients were on the second floor and men patients were on the first floor. The rooms were community style rooms with around 20 beds in each room. As we entered the room with our gloves and masks on, the women began taking their hospital gowns off so that we could massage them. Their faces and smiles said everything that needed to be said--we were being the hands and feet of Jesus to these patients and they were absolutely thrilled. The power of touch is amazing. These people long to be touched just like you and I do and I was so glad that God had chosen me to be a part of this. We continued giving massages and we went into another room filled with more patients. There was a girl around 19 years old that looked more like 12 lying in bed. As a couple of people began massaging her, she started to seize. I joined them a few minutes later not knowing what had just occured. All I knew was that one of our teammates asked me to go get Pastor Kurt to pray over this girl because they thought she was about to die. Several of us stood around the young lady laying our hands on her while Pastor prayed. After the prayer, Pastor saw a Haitian standing behind all of us--he was the girl's father. We had him come up by his daughter's head and he began to pray over his daughter. Right there, in front of all us, he began to pray to our Lord while watching his daughter struggle to stay here on earth. Then the most wonderful thing occured, the father started singing and praising the Lord. This touched my heart in such a way--here is a man about to lose his daughter yet he is praising the Lord, our Lord. The girl did not die that day, she slept peacefully through the night. We know this because her father talked with one of our translators on the phone the next day. He wanted to let us know that she was still alive and that he was grateful for our presence. I don't know if this girl has passed away yet, however, I do know that God was pleased and honored.
Meanwhile, another of our team members was spending time with Fon Fon and learning about him and his family. He is 12 years old and had been living with his mother at the hospital for 4 months. He has 3 brothers and 1 sister all younger than him that are living in the poorest and most dangerous city in the western hemisphere called City Sole. Their father does not work and barely takes care of the children. Can you imagine what was going through this boy's mind--essentially he was going to be the caretaker for his brothers and sister while being a kid himself.
It was not a coincidence that his mother passed away just as we were getting out of the vans--this was a God-incident. God could've taken her home the day before or the day after but He chose that time because He knew that our team was going to be there and He was calling many of our teammembers to help this boy and his family out. So that is what happened--in a nutshell. There are several details that need to be worked out, but Fon Fon and his brothers and sister are going to be taken care of. The first order of business was to find them a place to live--somewhere away from City Sole. Rent is already covered for the first year ($1200 US dollars) and the place is near where our Haitian clinic manager lives. He and another of our translators are going to be checking in on the kids and making sure they are ok. The next things on the agenda are food, clothing, and schooling for these kids which are in the process. God is good all the time and all the time God is good!
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