Merry Christmas!

Joy to the World!
Its a command (Matt 28:19-20). Its hope (Matt 11:5). Its abundant life (John 10:10). Its for everyone (Acts 13:47). Etc.

Luke 2:8-20 in Patois

Click this link "Luke 2:8-20"

Nov/Dec Plattner Family Update

News Flash: We are expecting our 3rd Baby! During this Christmas season as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior we are also celebrating the gift of a new child in our family. We are praising the Lord for His faithfulness and provision in the blessing of a child. It was not long ago that I was teaching in Sunday School on campus and encouraging the students to trust God with their futures. Today, my heart is challenged to trust Him with the future of our family as we expect the arrival of a new son or daughter. We pray for grace to be able to give our pregnancy and the arrival of our child to God our Provider. We also pray for grace that we can grow in our understanding of the ultimate blessing of God sending His son to Earth to save us from our sins. Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice!

Life in the States has been SLIGHTLY different than our life in Jamaica. We are experiencing 0 degree weather as opposed to 80 degree weather. Snow instead of a beach. And, icy plains instead of green mountains. But, we are cherishing our time with family and friends. The warmth of the Christmas season is refreshing as we have been able to connect with so many that we love. We have been busy moving back and forth from our parent’s house as well as a weekend trip to our church home in Leo, IN. The support that we continue to feel is humbling and we pray that we can understand and appreciate it as we should. Ultimately, while we miss our home and friends in Jamaica, we are making the most of our time in the States and refreshing ourselves for the work ahead as we return on December 31st.

Our family has been blessed! We are expecting our 3rd child during the middle of July. Drew is growing up and we are seeing it especially in his vocabulary. He remains our little worship leader and continues to hold almost daily church services for his faithful parishioner, his little brother. And, we are confident that he will be even more excited about another little sibling as soon as he realizes that the baby will be a 2nd faithful church goer for maybe the first year. Truitt, the little brother, continues to play his role of little brother very faithfully. He imitates everything that his brother does and wants to play with everything that his brother is playing with. We rejoice and give thanks to the Father for their growth, development, and health.

Lord willing, on December 31st, we will be making the trip back to Jamaica. We are excited to get back to our home, see friends, and begin the work. It has been refreshing to step away from our work and experience the rejuvenation that comes from resting in Him. While we have been busy, we feel like we have been able to again find some more clarity in our work and we pray for a smooth transition back to Jamaica. As we anticipate the New Year, may we remember the gift on Christmas that led to the cross on Good Friday, which brought us the Resurrection on Easter. As we celebrate this Christmas season, may we not leave out any part of the story, may we not hold back any piece of our heart, and may we Praise Him for He is worthy!

Piece of Paradise - Sweet Lips

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder" And this is true for us when we are in Jamaica thinking of our family and friends back in the states. And, this is true for us as we are in the states thinking of our "paradise" back in Jamaica. So, in absence of things to report about in Jamaica, I decided to reminisce about a funny experience that we had before we left. Weekly, the "fish truck" pulls into Knockpatrick to sell fish. The truck has a cooler in the back and it is full of fish. They park their truck and people go up to the cooler and rummage through the fish and pick out what they want. Then, the fish man scales the fish and bags them up. Not wanting to be left out of a good experience, I decided that I wanted to buy some fish but I am still not able to eat the fish's head as my fellow Jamaicans. So, I went to the fish man and asked for a fish that could be filleted. They all laughed at me for not being able to look into the eye of a fish on my plate. But, I was still buying afish and was willing to take on some shame in order to experience buying a fish from the fish truck. So, he picked out the biggest fish he had and said he would fillet it up for us. I asked what kind of fish it was and he told me it was called a "Sweet Lips," due to the fish's big lips. So, Keri and I got our "Sweet Lips" and she made a nice recipe and we enjoyed our fish. While there is no exciting ending to the story, we still get a laugh out of the whole experience as we ate our Sweet Lips. Here are some pics for your enjoyment.

Lots of Love in Leo

Our trip out to Leo has been blessed. We were able to get the kids to their Doctor and we feel so blessed for their good health. We appreciate our doctor very much and were very thankful that we could see him. On Friday night we were able to attend church caroling. On Saturday we were able to meet with our former foster daughter and we are thankful that she is doing as well as she is. It has been great to catch up with friends and we feel so much support from the Leo church. Sunday was the Christmas program and it was a blessing to be in Leo to see the kids presentation of the Christmas story. Now, back to Illinois for time with family.

I'm a Wanderer

From Switzerland, to Germany, back to Switzerland, through London, safely to Chicago, down to Princeville, and on to Leo. We have been on the move. We are giving thanks for traveling mercies as we now begin the holiday rush. The boys did great with their grandparents and we are so thankful for parents who do such a great job with our kids. They are not only active in their lives, but they always give support, offer to babysit, and who amazing love for our kids. We thank the Lord for our parents. We will hopefully be able to give some updates on the end of our trip and now our US travels. While we do not do support raising in the traditional sense, we certainly have a desire to show our appreciation to all who show us so much support. This is why we are out to Leo for the weekend and will hopefully connect with many people over the next couple of weeks. Praise the Lord!

Switzerland Day 4

Day 4 found us traveling back down near the Italian border. We visited a castle, had a picnic, and walked through several cool towns. It was cool to see a different part of Switzerland that feels like a different country. Here is a pic of our lunch, it was beautiful.

Switzerland Day 3 - The Date

Day 3 in Switzerland consisted of Keri and I traveling north to a town called schaufhausen. It was a beautiful day, we took a nice long walk, and had a picnic by a beautiful waterfall. After getting slightly lost, we made it back and cherished our time together. We certainly prayed about this trip before coming and one of the aspects of those prayers involved refreshment. We are giving praise that we are finding that refreshment in the midst of the long days traveling. The beauty of nature, the time we have had together, and the adventures we have shared have been refreshing and we ultimately find that refreshment in Him.

Cool Runnings Part Zwei

Not that we are Jamaican, but there is a part of us that does not feel very removed from our normal lives. So, as I got the opportunity to have a day skiing in Switzerland, I could not help but think of a Jamaican ski team. We got up early in the morning and traveled all the way down to the southern part of Switzerland on the border with Italy. The town is Zermatt and it is home of the Matterhorn, which is a big rock/mountain that just looks cool in general. It is the big pointy thing in the center/left of the picture above. Anyway, Kasey and Keri spent the day in the town of Zermatt having a ladies day out. This involved eating pasteries, shopping, eating lunch, shopping, eating snack, shopping, etc. They had a great day. Me on the other hand, had the opportunity to have a day of skiing. As you can see from the picture above, the panarama view was amazing, the skiing was perfect, and it was a great time to have a day in nature with the maker. It was a beautiful day, but needless to say we caught a nap on the train ride back.

Switzerland Day 1

We survived day 1 in Switzerland. We did an all day tour through several cities that have difficult names to pronounce. The majesty of creation was shouting at us all day. There is so much power in the beauty of creation and it is awesome to think of the variety in creation as we think of our beautiful home in Jamaica. It is shocking and we have had a great start to our week. We did post a few pictures and will expound on them later.

Life Happens

And Life Happens to have us in Switzerland. Keri's sister lives in Switzerland. It has been our desire to make the trip to visit sometime during their time in Switzerland. We know better than ever the blessing of visitors and we really wanted to get to see their lives in Switzerland. So, as life happens, we ended up planning a last minute trip. We started doing the math on when we could visit and realized that time may be running short. We obviously have no idea how long they will be staying in Switzerland, but we also know that time is not free for us often in our schedule. As we looked forward, we knew that we couldnt do it in the summer and we dont see ourselves with so much time next Winter and so our window of opportunity was getting smaller and smaller. So, for some reason we had planned extra time home this holiday season and we decided to use part of that time to visit Switzerland. We arrived safely today and praise the Lord for wonderful travels. We stopped in London for a layover and then got to Zurich this evening. We hope to do a couple of updates on our experiences here. We are already sensing the shock of the Lord having directed Keri and I to a very diferent world than Kasey and Daniel. We praise the Lord for his Faithfulness in providing for each of us. The picture above is us in the train station immediately after arriving.