August Newsletter

Music In Haiti!

In July my father-in-law, Jim, and I brought 100 recorders, 10 music stands, 25 music books, and a whole lot of excitement to Haiti.  We spent two days working with the Haitian staff teaching them to read music and play the recorder and then empowering them to teach some of the children in the program to do the same.

When we started on the first day, I asked the adults I was teaching how many of them could read music.  None of them raised their hands.  Some of these people are very accomplished musicians so I was surprised that they didn't know how to read music.  We started at square one and built from there.  By lunch time, they were playing and reading three pitches in various rhythmic patterns.  After lunch, about 30 of the children in the program arrived.  I split them into small groups (two or three children to one supervisor) and set the supervisors loose to teach the children.  I wondered around the room and observed some amazing things!  These people who started the day not being able to read music, were teaching children to read music, and they were doing it very well!

By the end of two days, the supervisors were confident they could continue their learning and were excited about the opportunity to teach the children more regularly.  We ended our time by talking about where this could lead.  We are all very excited to see where God takes this.

My next trip will be sometime this fall.  My hope is do be able to do a Saturday camp with whomever can come (supervisors and children) to keep the spark alive.

Special thanks to Katie, the intern, for taking such great photos. To Doug Schmitt, from Schmitt Music for donating the recorders and to Dean Sorenson for arranging some local Haitian songs for recorder.  

A video of the supervisors teaching some of the children in the program.

A video of Adelcon and I playing one of the songs Dean arranged.

A video of the talented supervisors singing.  These amazing musicians didn't read a note of music.

The Team

Team Building

After our two days of music, all of the Haitian and American GlobalFingerprints staff spent two days at a beautiful resort focusing on our team.  We spent time talking about what it means to be a cross cultural team and how to collaborate more fully.  It was an encouraging time of team building, relationship building, and bonding.  

Prayer Requests and Praises

Praises

• For a highly successful first instrumental music trip to Haiti.
• For all of the Haitian staff and their commitment to the program, to these children, and to God.
• For the GlobalFingerprints staff and the exciting adventure God has called us to.
• For God's protection of my family while I was away. 
• For a husband who is such a huge support to me and an amazing dad to our children!

Requests

• Please pray for our team.  Both the Haitian and American teams.  
• Pray for the Haitian staff to feel supported, and heard by the leadership in Haiti.  
• Pray for wisdom for the American staff on how best we can come along side our Haitian friends in this kingdom building work.  Also, that God would provide more team members in the areas that we are still currently lacking.
• Pray specifically for Adelcon (Add el son).  He has a very difficult and a very important role for our Haitian team.  That God would grant him the wisdom, patience and peace to do his job each day.
• Pray for my family as we head into the back to school season.  Especially for Andy as marching band starts, and for Michael as he starts middle school!

June Newsletter

Gearing Up...

After a slow spring season, things are gearing up for the summer.  I’m about 6 weeks away from the first “music trip” to Haiti.  On July 20^th I will head down with my father-in-law, Jim.  We will have 100 recorders donated by Doug Schmitt at Schmitt Music Co., some newly transcribed Haitian folk songs arranged by Dean Sorenson, music stands and lesson plans.

With GlobalFingerprints, our goal is always to make whatever we do sustainable for the Haitians; every program we help them set up, every system we help them develop. This music program will be no different.  Jim and I will spend time working with the Haitian teachers and supervisors, teaching them how to teach the recorder.  Then, we will have an opportunity to watch them do it.  We’re hopeful that by doing things this way, they will be able to successfully teach the children recorder without depending on us. 

The goal is that after we leave, there will be one or two classes worth of students learning to read music and play the recorder.   When I go again in October, I’m hoping to take more instruments (trumpets, trombones, clarinets) so that the students who have been successful on recorder can upgrade to a more substantial instrument. 

Other Updates

Summer for the Richter family means Buffalo Marching Band and a really messy house!  Our children finished school on May 29^th this year.  I had a realization on about May 27^th, that this is the first summer that I’m working two part time jobs, and not working with Buffalo High School.  This realization quickly led to, “I’m going to be one busy Mama!”. 

In addition to my regular weekly routine, I’ve been jockeying kids to baseball, softball, t-ball, summer band and daycare.   While it’s busy, and sometimes overwhelming, I have to say that this is honestly my favorite “season” with our family so far.  I love watching my kids learning to love playing sports, learning to love music, reading and playing independently.  I love watching them use their imaginations and run around outside.  I love that they still need me, but in a less dependent way.   I am one happy Mama, who is thoroughly enjoying the bounty of God’s blessings in my life.

This is Andy’s 8^th season with the Buffalo Marching Band.  I am sad to not be as involved this year but thankful for the opportunity Andy has to work with them and the fulfillment he gets from doing so.   We will both, however, get the opportunity to go to Boston, MA with the band over the Fourth of July.  A good friend (and wife of a band director) once said, “Marry a band director, see the world.”

We’ve now been in our new house for one year.  It feels like home.  The basement is mostly finished.  It still needs trim and some other small details, but it’s livable and we are all enjoying our new space.  Most of our boxes are unpacked and we’re almost able to park our cars in the garage (that’s where we’ve been storing all of our stuff for the last year).  There are a lot of other kids in the neighborhood and it’s been fun to watch them become friends.  We’re so thankful to be here and are overwhelmed by God’s blessings!

Prayer Requests and Praises

Praises

• For one year in our home.
• For a successful completion of the school year.
• For the donations of the recorders and the transcribed music and for the people that donated    them.
• For God’s blessings on our family.

Requests

• That God would go before us on this trip in July.
• That all of the equipment we’re taking to Haiti with us would make it through customs with no problems.
• Peace during this very busy but joyful season of life.
• Safety for all of our family travels this summer. 
• For my team at ReachGlobal, for God’s protection as we work to serve Him in Haiti.
• For the children in the program.  That they would come to know how much God loves them.

March Newsletter

Steady as she goes...

There is not much news to bring you from the last month.   I am just steadily progressing along.  Here are a few updates on what's been happening.

I met with jazz composer, Dean Sorenson, last month.  We listened to a few Haitian children's songs that he is going to transcribe for recorder.  He is planning to write not only the recorder melodies, but also some rhythm section parts, and a background track (recorded on CD).  The plan is for me to be able to take these materials with me when I take the 100 recorders from Schmitt Music Co down in July.  I am still looking for a few people that would like to be a part of this team.  The travel dates are approximately July 18th-23rd and the cost would be around $1,500.00 (including lodging and airfare).   Please let me know ASAP if you are interested in this opportunity!

I submitted some articles for the April GlobalFingerprints newsletter as part of my interim communications duties.  

I purchased a cheap tablet to explore it's possible use with our supervisors in Haiti.  The supervisors are in charge of visiting the children throughout the month and collecting data and information about how they are doing (health, nutrition, housing, spirituality) and recording that data into a single document.  Right now, they are doing all of it via pencil and paper.  We're looking into how we could potentially use tablets to record and submit the data and possibly even to update the children's photos, and share the children's sponsors’ messages with the children in the program. I'm looking forward to this job... 

Other Travel Thoughts and Plans

Some of the other things I have been thinking about and working on this month have to do with my family and their involvement in this.  Andy and Abby would like to travel to Haiti with me in October.  Over the last few weeks I have been looking into getting Abby her passport and some of the other logistics involved with their travel.  You can be sure to look for support-raising letters from them as the trip gets closer.  

Every two years, the Latin America/Caribbean region of GlobalFingerprints has a conference.  This conference is a time of training and bonding for those of us that serve in this region, and our families.  In August of 2016 this conference will be held in Panama City, Panama and Andy and I are planning to take our family.  We are working hard to save sky miles to help with the purchase of airline tickets, but we will be seeking additional support to help fund this trip.  We think it is an amazing and safe opportunity for our children to learn about international travel, what mommy does in Haiti and how other families who live and work in other places are sharing the Gospel.  If you would be interested in helping us financially would you please send me an email.  Thanks for considering it.  

Prayer Requests and Praises

Praises

• For God's amazing love which was especially felt during this Easter season.
• For spring!
• That God is moving in this ministry, even if it's in His time, and not mine.
• For the amazing professionals God has drawn to this ministry.
• For the fantastic group of people I get to work with!

Requests

• That God would raise up a few more team members for this music trip in July.
• That I would retain everything I'm learning in my Creole lessons.  
• That God would be with my team as we work together to serve the "least of these" in Haiti.
• For the Haitians that work with us both at the church in Port-au-Price and at the guest house in Gressier.
• For the children in the program.  That they would come to know how much God loves them.

February Newsletter

Unless the Lord builds the house...

Psalm 127:1 says, "Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain."  

Since I've started this journey with GlobalFingerprints, it has been obvious that the Lord is building "this house".  The way things have come together with this has been amazing, and continues to be amazing.  

Every February, the Minnesota Music Educators Association holds a state-wide music education convention in Minneapolis.  It's a great time to get together with old friends and colleagues, learns some new tips and tricks and hear some outstanding performances.  It was after one of these outstanding performances (which happened to be by the Edina Concert Band - where Andy teaches and was asked to conduct one of the pieces) that I was enjoying a time of chatting with old friends, and well wishers of the Edina band program.  One of the people I had the pleasure of chatting with was Doug Schmitt (of the music store, Schmitt Music Co). While we were chatting, he asked what I do.  While I explained what I'm doing in Haiti, he shared that he had been to Haiti once before.  We had a nice conversation about some of our similar experiences there, what specifically I would be doing and whether or not the program would be successful given the social, political and climatic situations in Haiti.  It was in the middle of this conversation that he looked at me and asked, "How about if I donate 100 recorders for you take down there?"  I was astonished!  Recorders were at the top of my shopping list.  I thanked him and told him that would help tremendously!  Since that original conversation, Doug has also offered to help me try to find some recorder method books written in French and in his words, "hustle" them to donate some books.  I'm thankful for the way God is going before me in this ministry.  I'm working hard to remember that these are not things I need to do, but that these are things God is doing through me.  Two passages of scripture I lean on regularly to help me remember that are:

Exodus 14:14

The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

John 15:1-17

The Vine and the Branches

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.  You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.

(Emphasis added)

UPDATES/PRAISES/REQUESTS

•        The kids moved down to their new bedrooms!  We’ve started moving some things in the down stairs family room.  We can see the light at the end of this construction tunnel.  If I haven’t mentioned it before, my husband is amazing!
•         Creole lessons started back up last week.  Pray that what I’m learning would stick!
•          Pray that God would raise up a team of musicians to travel with me in July.
•          Pray that God would provide the people we need for the two positions we have open in the   GlobalFingerprints Haiti staff.
•          Praising the Lord that our time of transition seems to be coming to a close as we are starting to feel more settled as a family into our new normal.  Especially now that Andy isn’t spending all of his free time working on the basement.

Thank you for being a part of this journey with me!

God bless!

Lynn