{"id":3789,"date":"2013-11-20T02:33:00","date_gmt":"2013-11-20T02:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=3789"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:35:31","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:35:31","slug":"more-than-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=3789","title":{"rendered":"MORE THAN ENOUGH"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

School was out yesterday (Monday) for Vertieres Day – a Haitian holiday commemorating the last decisive battle in the slave revolution that led to the nation’s\u00a0independence from France. And since this coming November 28th will be just another work day here, we and our fellow missionaries took the opportunity to celebrate Thanksgiving a bit early (or late, for those Canadians among us).\u00a0 I didn’t know what to expect, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that the day\u00a0really felt like a HOLIDAY … with a few significant differences.SAME<\/strong>: Day off equals opportunity to run.\u00a0 DIFFERENT<\/strong>: Sweating profusely in November as I ran with Ruysdael and Mikenn on the main road into Cap Haitien, dodging goats, crazy people and cow pies in the middle of the sidewalk.<\/p>\n\n\n

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SAME<\/strong>: The rest of the morning was spent in the kitchen, prepping food for a big lunchtime pitch-in.\u00a0Melissa’s contributions\u00a0included homemade noodles …<\/p>\n\n\n

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Some of which got fried in butter, like my mom used to do.\u00a0 It was our kids’ first time to try noodles this way.\u00a0 They couldn’t get enough!<\/p>\n\n\n

DIFFERENT<\/strong>: Out with the pumpkin pie and in with the banana cream!<\/p>\n\n\n

SAME<\/strong>:\u00a0Working hard to keep ahead of the\u00a0dishes!<\/p>\n\n\n

SAME<\/strong>: Extra tables to seat a big crowd.\u00a0 Table set with great care.\u00a0 Matt and Stacey Ayars hosted at their home on the campus of Emmaus Biblical Seminary just 15 minutes down the road from where we live.<\/p>\n\n\n

SAME<\/strong>: Kids come running when lunch is announced.<\/p>\n\n\n

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SAME<\/strong>: An incredible spread of food.\u00a0 Turkey, ham, green bean casserole, yams, and pies.DIFFERENT<\/strong>: This was the first time in three months that we had enjoyed most of these foods.\u00a0 Much of it was special ordered or sent in care packages – right down to the fried onions on top of those green beans! This\u00a0results in\u00a0normal holiday overeating times two.<\/p>\n\n\n

SAME<\/strong>: Little kids’ table – with adorable, eager faces.<\/p>\n\n\n

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SAME<\/strong>: “Big” kids’ table – with hungry, growing tweens and teens.<\/p>\n\n\n

DIFFERENT<\/strong>: Our hostess, Stacey, had taken the time to\u00a0decorate our placemats with\u00a0quotes from famous people and verses from Scripture concerning Gratitude.\u00a0 Before the meal, we each read aloud the words at our spot.<\/p>\n\n\n

DIFFERENT<\/strong>: We weren’t with family. Many of these people we didn’t even know three months ago.SAME<\/strong>: Sure felt like family!DIFFERENT<\/strong>: Our host, Matt, led us in singing “Great is Thy Faithfulness” before the prayer.\u00a0 Beautiful and meaningful and perfect.SAME<\/strong>: Heartfelt prayer for all God has provided for us.SAME<\/strong>: Kids go first!SAME<\/strong>: I couldn’t eat another bite…SAME<\/strong>: When is dessert?SAME<\/strong>: Looking for a place to take a nap.DIFFERENT<\/strong>: It’s 80 degrees outside – go out and play.\u00a0 Frisbee, volleyball, badminton.<\/p>\n\n\n

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SAME<\/strong>: Somebody saved the turkey neck, heart, and liver for me! You can’t grasp how much I love turkey necks.\u00a0 It’s something I picked up from my father. It felt like a private little wink and nod from God just to me.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

SAME<\/strong>: Group picture!\u00a0 I love how perfectly imperfect this photo is. (If you’re looking for our kids in this herd, check out H, first upside down N, K and\u00a0second G.)DIFFERENT<\/strong>: Waking up early the next day to go back to work rather than to go shopping.\u00a0 Tougher than I thought it would be!SAME<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n

We thank God for all of you – on “special” days and “average” days – who lift us up in prayer, who encourage us with words and gifts, and who give sacrificially to allow us to minister in this special place.Thank you, thank you, thank you!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

School was out yesterday (Monday) for Vertieres Day – a Haitian holiday commemorating the last decisive battle in the slave revolution that led to the nation’s\u00a0independence from France. And since this coming November 28th will be just another work day here, we and our fellow missionaries took the opportunity to celebrate Thanksgiving a bit early […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3789"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3808,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3789\/revisions\/3808"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}