Sunday, March 18, 2012

March 2012 Haiti Team Update #2


Sunday, March 18, 2012

Well, I had told the team that it never gets cold in Haiti, but I actually got cold while I was sleeping last night!  We woke up this morning and were treated to Sunday breakfast (huevos rancheros) that was actually served to us at the table by Chef Ernie. 
Then we went to church at the Haitian Lifeline church right next door to the house we are staying in.  They have a worship team with all the instruments and a singer that sings REALLY loud.  Some of the songs we could pick out the melody and recognize the English version.  It was neat to actually have an idea of what they were singing.  One song was All in All…”You are my strength when I am weak, You are the treasure that I seek, You are my all in all…Jesus, Lamb of God, worthy is Your Name…”  Our good friend Celissa translated the message for us, which was out of Ephesians 6 and the importance of putting on the full armor of God in order to fight the devil’s schemes. 
After church we went on a tour of the Lifeline facility and then the village and up to the dam.  Village kids followed us around, climbing all over us the whole way.  For those of you who might remember the picture of me with the adorable tiny baby from a few months ago (it was my Facebook profile pic for a while), her mother, Milan, grabbed me when I was out in the village and took me into her house to see her mother, Monique.  When I went in there instead of staying with the rest of the group on the tour, I noticed I was being followed…Ryan had sent Corey to be my bodyguard.  Those guys are a bunch of worrywarts down here, ha ha.  Monique was in bed, in severe pain and couldn’t walk.  So I went back to Lifeline (with Corey in tow) to get Janet, the nurse from Kentucky, and Celissa to interpret.  It was determined that Monique has bad back problems due to her hard life of lifting large buckets of water in and out of the canal every day, which is her job.  So all they could do was give her pain medicine and a cane.
After lunch the majority of the team went to Barbancourt, to the orphanage property, and began work.  This group has a lot of various skills, from framing to electrical, so it is a blessing.  They already got a lot done in just one day.  They are beginning to sort out the pieces of the main large orphanage house that arrived in the container the last day of our last team’s trip, but we have a problem.  Everything is numbered and is supposed to be assembled a particular way, but the plans we have don’t go into that detail.  Please pray that we will be able to get the correct building plans from the company in New Zealand that we ordered the buildings from 2 years ago.
I stayed back at the mission and worked with Celissa on understanding the laws applying to the orphanage and filling out our licensing application.  Pastor Tommie (P-Tom) stayed back to prepare his messages for the revival he will be preaching at this coming weekend on La Gonave Island. 
Ernie stayed back and started his very own missionary culinary school.  He taught Candice and Michelle how to make homemade refried beans.  Then he taught Brittany and Victoria how to make homemade cinnamon rolls.  Victoria really got into it and even looked up a recipe for cream cheese icing.  So we had quite a dessert treat after dinner tonight!
Apparently, Doug Westmoreland, aka “Gray Squirrel,” has a tradition of christening every place he travels to with some trick entailing putting steel wool balls on the end of a wire and spinning it around fast so that it sparks and looks pretty cool.  So he and “Bald Eagle” Corey Clayton, Ryan and P-Tom went out on the soccer field tonight to have some fun.
P-Tom, for some reason, has also taken it upon himself to become my personal trainer, I’m not sure why…I think he is worried because I’m a wimp or something…so tonight he took me, a girl named Hannah from Kentucky and Celissa down on the soccer field with his laptop and we did the Insanity Fast and Furious workout video.  It had rained earlier in the evening so I thought I might get out of it, but it stopped, so I didn’t.  Thankfully, his battery went dead 5 minutes into the workout.  I thought I off the hook again, but then he just took over leading the class.  Three Haitian guys came to watch and laugh at us and Brittany and Victoria came to be our cheerleaders.  I survived, but I’m worried about what Trainer P-Tom has in store for tomorrow night.
Our internet has been giving us problems, so if you don’t hear from us, that is why.  Larry is our hero because he fixed the hot water heater last night.  J
We have so much to do on this trip that our heads are spinning, but it is nice to take a little time out here and there to experience the people in the village and also to fellowship with each other.  There’s truly no fellowship like mission team fellowship.  God has put together another GREAT team, we are blessed.
Thank you for continuing to lift us up in prayer.  You are just as much a part of our team by doing that.
Blessings,
Nikki

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