Update from Pastor Ronel

Pastor Ronel sent us an email today, thanking us for coming and to show us some pictures of the roof.  It's coming along, but they have yet to finish and still need to install the door.

My Brothers in Christ!

 

Thanks again for coming in Haiti to help us and  to make great difference in Haitian Life for the glory of the Lord. 

 

We finish the roof  and we will put door ASAP.  Your presence here was a blessing for us and for this ladie. After more than two years she will have a place to stay  because of your help.  She come to me this morning and ask me to thank you.

 

I share with you two pictures  about the roof.

 

Pastor Ronel Mesidor

Haiti Baptist Convention

Source of light Orphanage

We hope to see some last pictures as they finish the house and the lady moves into a permanent home after 2 1/2 years.  Maybe we'll get back there someday soon and see for ourselves...

...Maybe you will go with us...

In the meantime, please continue to pray for the Pastor, his family, and the children and workers at Source of Light Center.  

Taking Haiti Home

Friday after the tour, the pastor and his wife gave Ric and myself each a Haitian-made plaque/picture frame.  We took pictures and gave hugs and goodbyes, hoping to soon see them again.  The pastor offered to come to Virginia to our church, which we will hope to coordinate so that folks at home could hear directly of the needs there in Haiti.

We got a list of school supplies, medical supplies, and necessities for the orphanage/school and Ric is going to collect and send them to Pastor Ronel.  It would be wonderful if we could get First Baptist Woodbridge to sponsor the ministry in some way, but we'll have to work through it.

Some parting pictures from the Source of Light Center

Pastor Ronel and his wife

 A few parting shots from Port-Au-Prince as we head up the mountain to the missionary apartment.

One of the many mountain-side villages

As the evening sets, a panoramic view of Haiti from mountains to sea.  Incredible!

 An evening with Baptist missionaries Andy (England) and Jutta Comie (Germany) was enlightening, encouraging, and challenging...it was good to laugh, learn, and pray together with kindred spirit.  Much work is to be done here in serving, reaching, and helping the people of Haiti, so the Comies, along with the staff of Source of Light Center, need our prayers and support.





Saturday morning.

One last parting shot of the hot, brilliant sun rising over the mountain and we were off to the airport for the flight home.  I'm not sure either of us has figured out what all to think about this place, what of all the needs we can or should try to help meet, or even just how to pray.  We're very thankful for the people we have met, the work we were able to accomplish, and the opportunity to serve the Lord in such a personal way these past few days. 

I don't know in the grand economy of Christ just how much difference I made in what I did here.  And I don't know yet exactly how or how much God has changed me, but I return to the States full and overflowing with what God has done for me here.  He's refreshed my understanding of prayer, just like lugging those buckets down that alley over and over again not willing to give in.  He's renewed my commitment to character, having had nothing here but that to witness without language.  He's driven me to weep, wonder, and be amazed by the plight and the spirit I've seen and hope He can instill in me.  I can only pray that I live the rest of my life worthy enough to watch Him continue His work here.  For HE IS HERE, at work in the hearts and lives of these people, and He is so tangibly inhabiting the praises of His people in this place. 

Thank you for all your prayers and encouragement.  We pray you continue them and seek His will in providing and caring for Haiti. 

Thank You, Lord, most of all for Your faithfulness, Your mercies renewed every morning, and for this glimpse into Your passion for Your Glory...and for being allowed to be a part of singing it to You.

Day 6 Final Work Day

This is our last day on site.  We know the day will start with some intense work hauling sand, sifting, and mixing concrete.  We hope to give as much as we can our last day as we will leave the site around noon or so to go meet the Pastor for a tour of the city.

The first order of business is to finish the last of the main walls including the front window.  These window blocks are very delicate and very expensive.  Even one brick that was broken in half gets used to avoid another trip to the brick yard (and possibly pay a lot more the second time because one costs more than twenty).
 Wood planks are used to form the mold for the cross beams.  They make their own steel reinforcement bar (or "rebar") for over the doors and verticals, with more steel horizontally along each wall to hold the poured concrete in one sturdy slab. The bags the mix comes in are torn in sheets, dipped in water, and used to plug the gaps in the wood to

One last mix of concrete for us--the second most intense workout for us all week, shoveling and lifting buckets as fast as possible to create the vertical corners and beams.  With little breather, heart rate soars.  


It's a great way to end our work week.  It's going to be a whole different world going back to our regular work on Monday.  Walking down the corridors or carrying computers or files just aren't the same.  We gather all the guys for a team photo, one with Ric and one with Tim.  Considering I didn't speak a word of any language (other than point and make monosyllabic grunts) and never could figure out each of their names, I feel a kindred spirit to these men, some of which seems obvious they know the Lord.  All the guys laughed and joked all week, and once we showed our work ethic and energy level, they treated us as part of the team.  It was a genuine blessing to serve here. 

We didn't see the widow who would move in here before we left, but that's okay.  We were part of the process of moving her back into a home after more than two years of living in a tent. Hopefully, they'll send us pictures of the finished house next week and maybe we'll get back here to see how she's enjoying her new home.

After work we ate one last lunch--a Haitian pizza--got cleaned up, packed up, and went for a tour with the pastor.  It seemed every turn we made through the city was a whole other world than the one we just were on.  Some of the sites of earthquake devastation, the many people and street sales, and incredible poverty I don't think we'll soon be able to grasp completely.  Here are some of the sites:

Refuse and rubble are everywhere

Everyone sells something!

 

The Presidential Palace still sits in ruins. Government buildings are completely gone, leveled in the earthquake.  The President lives in a new building on the grounds.

Shanties, villages, not sure what to call them, but serve as homes on the sides of the hills, all are unbelievable living conditions.  Ric says there are villages like this in Mexico and other Central and South American countries.

So much to take in, and it's hard to just grasp the depths and breadths of what we've seen and heard.  I'm not sure I'll ever come to grips with it all, and I don't know what to make of my own life, living conditions, and way of life.  It's more than just appreciating what we have, more than wanting to do more for others.  In that village on the hill we saw the whole town gather together and hoot it up over a small soccer game.  People everywhere, regardless of conditions, find joy, and the Lord is prevalent in the lives of His people.  Can other say the same of us?  Is it harder to see Jesus in me when I have all I need and much, much more?  "How now shall we live?"  I don't know.

Day 5

We've had trouble getting internet, so this post is a few days late. 

On Thursday we formed more of the walls and put in the "windows".  Rather than mix the concrete in the street, we haul the sand to the house and sift the sand into finer grains and then mix on the floor.  The larger clods of sand are as hard as rocks and are used as fillers inside the cinder blocks and will be used in mixing the concrete for pouring the cross-beams and vertical corners.  Mixing the concrete is extremely taxing, adding sand, mix, and water and shoveling like crazy to stir the heavy material.
 

Ric shovels sand into a sifter

Two workers mix the concrete with shovels

Windows in this house are decorative blocks with holes in them for air flow.  Back on Monday when the foundation was laid, there was a little space left between the blocks and the walls of the adjacent houses.  So when the walls went in, there was space for airflow and a little cushion to reduce noise between houses. 

Our skilled mason waits for more concrete mix

The back part of the house will not go to the same height because the wall there actually belongs to the large house behind, so we can't build on top of it (yellow wall in the background).  Instead, this will be where the bathroom and the kitchen will go, with a wall between and a slanting roof overhead.

A couple local boys looking on.

 

Some of the neighbors keep an eye on us, too.

Today we'd thought we show you some more of the orphanage.  A couple interesting sites are pictured below.

Some of the boys hangin' with one of the house "dads"

 Here is a rare sighting of the rarely seen "garbage truck". Surprisingly this picture is clear as most sightings are grainy long-distance shots similar to those we see of "sasquatch."  Only three people came to meet this one, each carrying a bag about the size of a Taco Bell bag with one taco in it.  We're told it comes twice a week, but since it rained yesterday, not much to collect.



This is the "adopted" dog.  It has no name but is seen quite often around the compound, though it's trail is easily found on the concrete floors and in the driveway.

 Tomorrow we should finish the front window, the rest of the main walls, and start to build the cross-beams that will hold the roof.  We don't think we'll get the whole house done, but it will be good to put every bit of help we can in getting close.  Pastor Ronel has promised a tour of the city, and the missionaries Andy and Jutta (pronounced like the state, Utah) have offered to take us up to the CBF house up in the hills for a debrief dinner.  It's been an amazing week, hard to believe we're ramping down. 

Day 4



The neighbors have gotten used to us by now.



Still recovering from the intense work yesterday and trying our best to rehydrate and get as many carbs as we can, we set back out to start the walls.  It's cooler today after the storms, but it is still Haiti.



The alleyway we trudge back and forth between the sand pile in the street and the house we're building is flooded and muddy, but we tredge on.  By now we've made at least 200 trips with buckets of concrete either on our shoulders or in each hand.  Today we move the sand to the site and mix on the floor.  But first we have to sift the wet sand to a finer grain. The clods will be used as filler.   They don't waste anything.  Even the bags from the concrete mix are used. 

The smiling lady on the left is the widow who will live in the house we are building.  Big smiles and bojour each morning!



Before getting started on the walls, though, our first morning duty brought our military training to bear.  We had to dig out the "indoor plumbing."  

Our day was cut short due to rain, but the walls are taking shape.  We hope to make up all the lost ground tomorrow.

We wish we had more time to post some things about the orphanage and school.  We've watched and interacted with a lot of the kids and they staff has been so good to us.  The pastor's wife cooks our meals, and they are fantastic!  They make sure we have electricity for a fan at night and they go out of our way to see if we need anything (at least I think so, I don't understand a word, so I just smile.)  There is a missionary couple staying here, Andy and Uta.  They were to be in Africa to train people in mechanics and other things, but the place wasn't ready so they are here for a while.  They've told us a lot about the place as well.  We'll try to share more next time.

One thing is for sure, the boys love their soccer.  They've played in the large building they use as a chapel every day.  They're very talented, aggressive, and smile no matter how hard they hit the floor.   I was going to play with them, but I need to save my strength...

 








Tomorrow we try to finish the walls and continue to do what needs doing.

Day 3

 

We certainly earned our meals today.  Yesterday the work was completed on the foundation, so today we finished leveling the dirt and poured the concrete floor.  

Mixing and moving the concrete was an adventure. We carried water in buckets from a nearby storage tank to mix the concrete. Without the benefit of a power mixer, all mixing is done by hand. Then all of the concrete is carried in buckets by old guys like us. It felt like we were paving I-95 one bucket at a time! At first progress was slow, but as we all got in the swing of things, the pace picked up. Eight hours, a ton of sand, and a truckload of concrete mix later we managed to finish the floor.



Dieufue, the "foreman"

We finished off the day with an incredible storm that dumped an unbelievable amount of rain in a very short time. On the up side, it cleaned a lot of the trash out of the streets.  Plus, the kids at the orphanage enjoyed the makeshift swimming pool that formed in the parking area.

Tomorrow we will begin building the walls. We still have hopes of getting close to finishing before we leave, but we will see.

  



Summer 2012 Day 1 and 2

We made it to Haiti.  We thought we'd be disconnected from the world, but the orphanage staff has loaned us a laptop with internet access.  No power most of yesterday, water only runs when the generator is on, but we're online!

Day 1 Take 1.
The trip started Saturday morning with canceled flights (Ric guessed it was due to the tropical storm Ernesto, but I said it was because the Lord wanted  him to go with Alma to a wedding Saturday night.  Either way, it barely rained here). 

Day 1. Take 2.
So we got here just after noon on Sunday.  Coming in out of the clouds we saw those familiar mountains from pictures and satellite images.  Yep!  This is Haiti!  The airport was an experience!  We had to climb over bags and people to recover our luggage and then fight our way through a crowd of "helpful" people.  I should have played football rather than soccer in college!  I must have walked 20 paces with one guy pulling my bag.  We finally met our party and were off to the orphanage. 

   

Haiti is an amazing place, bustling all the time.  No lines on the road, though, so if there's room (in either direction), there's a lane.  So many people.  So many sights and sounds and smells.   Ric says it's a lot like Nicaragua, having been devastated years ago and just never recovered.  There are tents, there are tin shantys, there are motorcycles and beat up trucks.  There are taxis that are just pickups with cabs and people hanging off the back.  Crazy.

Haitian Taxi- Most decorated wins!

We arrived at the Source of Light Center orphanage/school and met some of the kids.  There are 28 here now, but it could hold up to 50 if they had the funds.  They turn children away now.  What a bunch of smiles we got!  In reality, these kids have far more hope than most of the kids even in the same neighborhood.  We've met some of them, and they are just as curious and happy to give you '5' or shake a hand!

Port-au-Prince Cathedral destroyed by the earthquake

Pastor Ronel came by about 4pm and said "let's go to church!"  So we met his parents and piled into his SUV and started across town to his house and then to two of his churches.  Along the way we saw even more devastation and poverty.  Even this ancient Catholic church is destroyed, never to be rebuilt.  At the first church they were having a youth service, all seemed to be having a great time.  They have a school there and are trying to build onto the church, but they just stopped work.  No more funds.  But instead of just stopping, they'll meet in whatever they can of the existing building until God sends more for the work.

We finally arrived at the second church and were immediately escorted to the front row (ok, Haiti is one thing, but I'm REALLY out of the comfort zone making me sit on the front row! Nevertheless, not my will but Thine be done...even on the front row...)  There were about three sentences I understood in the whole service--and those were mine as they asked us to say a simple greeting.  We had already been in the service for 20-30 minutes and the singing had been awe-inspiring.  I was looking at the hymnal of the man next to me (they each have their own, part French, part Creole, and they bring them with their Bibles).  I recognized words like grace, victory, Jesus, Calvary...Some songs I recognized and sang along in English.  I was on the front row so I'm not sure anyone was looking at me funny.  When I had the chance to say a couple words, I was pushed right back to Haggai.  Once more I will shake heaven and earth...I told them we weren't here because of the earthquake, we are here because God is here.  And when He said that the latter temple would be filled with His glory...and we experienced a little of what that might be in that church!  Ric said later that it was almost embarrassing or made us feel a little ashamed that we don't worship like that with our whole heart.  These people had nothing and even that was taken away, and they filled that temple with His glory!


You might say "oh what servants!"  But "OH, WHAT A MASTER!" 

It was great to get to go since we missed Sunday morning.  Being the first Sunday, they also had Lord's Supper.  I heard Pastor Erik's voice ringing in my ear "don't drink the local juice!"  I giggled a bit that the Lord immediately said "it's not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man..." so I drank it.  I thought it was wine, but when we had Mott's apple juice with dinner later, I realized it was just the heat fermentation.

We talked after with the pastor about the country.  We met a man who is a Gideon. Amazing. We hit the rack about 8pm, but we were so full we talked for a couple more hours about all that we had seen, all that the Lord was doing, all that we had left to taste and see that He was good.






Day 2.  Monday
We started work this morning.  It's a few blocks away down a side street and then down a 2 1/2 ft wide alley way, complete with sewer water running down the middle.  The home we are building is for a widow.  She "owns the land", an 8'x10' corner between other homes.  She hasn't had a home since the earthquake.  Five men, Ric, and I set to work after several minutes of hot debate of where to put the walls.  The lot is still a heap of rubble and trash left from the devastation 2 1/2 years ago.

taken from the back corner of the house space looking toward the front (alley). Notice all the rubble from what once was...

Later in the afternoon when the foundation was taking shape, the neighbors started a ruckus!  They were very upset.  They had grown used to the wider alleyway and believed the new house to be too big, even though it's on the exact same lines as before.  As the base line of bricks went in, I was tasked with taking this big heap of rubble and trash and spreading it level to be the basis of the new floor.  I found pot lids, bottles, a tablecloth, even hair rollers and a perfume bottle.  It shook me thinking of the people in Haggai rebuilding the temple foundation.  More importantly, it was a stark understanding of the spirit of this people because they are using the rubble of devastation as being the foundation for new things.  The old is swept under and concreted over.  Life and faith go on.

We mixed and carried buckets of concrete, broke rocks, hauled cinder blocks, and laid the foundation in one day.  All by hand.  And it was hot. Haiti hot.

The prayers you're sending us are sustaining us.  It is unreal what we've seen today.  It is overwhelming what God has shown us of Himself today.  When we returned the orphanage had turned on their big generator to give power and run the water pump.  We had brief, cold, but fabulous showers after two days of not pretty!  And we sat down to a meal prepared just for us, extravagant, the best they had to offer.  Here we are trying to serve the Lord and them, and we are being served.  How humbling.  How unforgettable. 

Tomorrow we will lay the floor. All by hand.