March 2012 Haiti Team Update #6

Monday, March 22, 2012

It has rained most nights we have been here and it is so loud, pounding on the tin roof, but it’s nice.  Thankfully, it wets down the dust but doesn’t make it a muddy mess.

All the walls of the orphanage are framed, but we haven’t been able to get the plans for how to put the roof trusses together, which is frustrating.  The team tried and tried to figure out how they go together, but it was impossible.  Please pray that the company will send us good plans for that very soon.  (Before sending this email, I got one from the company, Supaframe, with the plans – praise the Lord!)

They got the front and rear walls framed and up on the center part of the guest house.  They put up the center beam for the roof over that.  They made the beam out of 4 layers of 2x8s and it’s 28 feet long, and weighs probably about 500 lbs.  It took numerous Haitians, ropes and ladders and careful coordinating to help them get the beam up in place – it was quite an accomplishment and they were glad that Cal-OSHA wasn’t there to supervise how they pulled it off.

Larry got a new name.  He was jealous of Joe because all kids liked talking to him because they could say his name and none of them could say Larry, they kept saying things like, “Wawy.”  LOL.  So he changed his name to “Jay,” and now he’s popular with the kids.  The kids call Corey, “Cool.” Greg and his father-in-law, Brett, were having some bonding moments – they both claimed they the other was yelling at him all day, but they were laughing about it – I don’t know what was going on there, lol.  Bob was assembling lumber and Gary kept jumping up like Shreck scaring him.   I think people are starting to get delirious or something in the sun???

Victoria and Brittany worked with the Haitian kids Davidson and Roslande to pick up trash all over the property, bless their hearts.  They also spent time hanging out with the village kids and teaching them English and learning Creole from them.  Nichole was practically teaching an English class to the villagers hanging around the property. 

Several people sponsored Haitian kids so that they could go to the Lifeline school.

Nedy, one of the “Bobsons” would come around the house, waiting on the porch for, as he calls them, his “Mommy and Daddy and brother.”  Mind you, he is a very tall, older teenage boy, who probably has a family of his own.

The wall around the property is all done except for the top being capped and the rebar cut.  I designed a gate and Osmy got it ordered.

Ryan and I had to go to Port separately, but met up at the immigration building to get our fingerprints done.  The bank still wouldn’t give me a bank statement (it’s another world down here…) but they said they would give it to Candice tomorrow.  Once she gets that and gives it to Solane, our legal helper in the government office, we will have everything (and it’s A LOT) done for our permanent residency, which will be complete in about a month.  Praise God!  Ryan’s hunter/tracker skills sure do come in handy here.  Even our professional Haitian drivers get lost in Port in certain areas (it’s total chaos there), and somehow, Ryan drives around, even to difficult areas like where this office is, and he drives back out of the city or to other hardware stores, no problem.  It’s pretty amazing.

Dee noted that she is in awe of how God protected the team this week from any injuries, in spite of the conditions the team was working in.  It was a miracle in itself.

I was just thinking about how the last 2 times I’ve been here, there haven’t been mosquitoes, so this time I got lazy and didn’t take my anti-malaria meds or put on bug spray, and I bet others did the same.  Maybe it’s because of the rain or the season or something, but I am covered in bug bites this time, so please pray that none of us get malaria.

This afternoon, the majority of us went to Wahoo Bay to enjoy the Caribbean Sea.  Some went snorkeling, some went swimming in the ocean and the pool, some took naps on the beach, sat around the pool watching the sunset, played ping pong and more.  A young Haitian boy dove out in the water and caught a huge crab and smoked it for us and then seasoned it was spicy Haitian sauce.  We had a large seafood and steak dinner in the restaurant there.  It was a lovely way to end a week of hard work, with a little R&R in a beautiful place in this country. There were 6 men that refused to come though.  Ryan, Steve, Brett, Greg, Joe and Larry (the Corona guys!) all stayed back and worked until after dark, even a little in the rain, and we just brought them dinner back to the mission.  Bless their hearts!

Steve led the devotional this morning and gave a very personal testimony of God giving and God taking away and how God has totally put things in perspective on this trip – it was very touching.  Then tonight, Corey volunteered to lead the devotional, his first time doing something like that.  He thanked everyone for teaching him on this trip about how to have a closer walk with God and said he too, has a whole new perspective.  He taught out of the first few verses of James 4, about coveting, and then closed with the verse in Matthew about seeking first the kingdom of God and then everything else will fall into place.  It’s awesome to see people growing in their walks here, and I would ask for prayer that this fire that has been ignited within all of us would not simply be forgotten when we go back to our busy lives at home, but that it would blaze on and that we would truly go home changed.  We laid hands on Pastor Tommie tonight and prayed for God to fill him with the Spirit and prepare him for preaching at the revival this weekend, and we ask you to continue praying for him as well.

Tomorrow most of us leave to go home to California, some getting a tour of Port-au-Prince on the way to the airport.  Tommie, Nichole, Kathy, Gary, Ernie, Bob, Linda and Jeremiah will catch a fly-boat to La Gonave Island and spend 2 nights there helping with the revival and anything else Pastor Benis needs, like helping with his construction projects. 

Thank you for covering this team in prayer – God has been exceedingly faithful!

Blessings,

Nikki