Monday, March 19, 2012
Today we got up and Ryan did a devotional on the great
missionary, the Apostle Paul. Then
we had breakfast burritos made by Chef Ernie, complete with homemade beans,
rice and eggs, and also homemade enchiladas. He is spoiling us – we are eating better in Haiti than we do
at home!
The team went to Barbancourt to work on building. Brittany isn’t feeling well so she
stayed back, it’s nothing serious, but pray for her.
Several people including (I think) Bill, Dee, Tommie, Kathy,
Linda, Victoria and Nichole got to serve the children lunch at the canteen,
Lifeline’s feeding center, next door to our orphanage. Then they sat and ate with the
people. They really enjoyed that.
I had the opportunity to sit in on a Lifeline staff
meeting. I met the principle of
the Lifeline school in Barbancourt, right next door to our orphanage. I got information I needed for our
orphanage license application because we have to be connected to a school, and
he is going to partner with us on the small pre-school we will have at our
orphanage – helping us find teachers, curriculum, etc. He also asked if he could send some
students there who aren’t in the orphanage and if we could take children into
our orphanage that he knows of. I
told him that it is up to my committee and the social services department here,
but he is excited about the partnership so that is a blessing.
Later, Osmy and Candice took me to what looked
like a
capitol building in Arcahaie to meet with the mayor. He wasn’t there
so we met wit his director. In order to get licensed we must have a
bank account and in order to open a bank account for the orphanage, we
must
have an official document from the Mayor authorizing us as an
organization. All he cared about was how much we were
going to pay him so Osmy negotiated and got the price down by 50% to
$187.
Next we went to the little Cuban hospital in Arcahaie so
that Ryan, Jeremiah and I could get physicals and official certificates of health
so that we can get our permanent residency. Ryan needs that to own land and I need it to do official
work for the orphanage. We had to
get blood drawn – that was an experience!
Ryan and I were big babies about it but they actually did a very good job.
After that I went back to the orphanage site and Ryan when
to Port to get more supplies. I
got to work with Greg and Brett from Corona on designing our kitchen for the
team hospitality house. Greg is a
contractor and both of them were very helpful. That was kind of fun!
Pastor Tommie was assigned to removing all the doors from the buildings
– they are pretty flimsy and aren’t holding up well so we are going to replace
them. Kathy, Gary, Bob and Linda
have been very frustrated with figuring out how to put the orphanage together,
since all the pieces are numbered but we don’t yet have the correct directions
for where they go. They had Pastor
Tommie come over and lead them in prayer over the project at one point. Then when I got there Linda asked me if
I would lead them in singing Revelation Song (I just happened to have my laptop
with the music on it to play). It
was actually quite special to be able to stand in the center of our property,
at our main orphanage foundation, and sing praises to God with all the workers
around doing their various jobs.
Bald Eagle, Gray Squirrel and P-Tom all returned early from
the worksite this evening. I asked
how they got back walking the back way without a guide to which Gray Squirrel
replied, that Corey used his Eagle Scout skills. I am SO impressed!
That is not easy, believe me.
You have to go over hills, around fields, cross a river, etc., etc. –
there is no way I could do that without a guide.
Victoria and Nichole were at the job site today and went
looking for the latrine (outdoor bathroom at the school next door) and got
lost. They ended up in someone’s
backyard, completely confused, thinking the doghouse was the school latrine,
lol. They were looking all around
and the people who lived there started laughing and invited them inside their
little house to use their toilet.
Don’t tell Ryan that or he will handcuff them to their beds and banish
them to staying at the mission for wandering off by themselves!
It was Joe’s birthday tonight so Ernie made him a cake and
cupcakes and we sang to him. It
was also Doug’s wife’s birthday at home so we sang to her over the phone. Joe is a software engineer (or
something), so he brilliantly got my computer to print the orphanage plans we were
waiting for from New Zealand on the office printer here that hadn’t been
working – yay!
A lot more than this got done today, but I think that’s long
enough for now. J Please continue to lift us up in prayer
as there is a lot of spiritual warfare.
The enemy is not happy about all the progress we are making!
In Christ,
Nikki
No comments:
Post a Comment