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.