Where He leads...: Time is flying in Haiti!

Time is flying in Haiti!

0 Comments

It’s been quite a whirlwind of happenings in Haiti these past several weeks. I apologize for my long gaps between posting updates. Although I am blessed to have the internet on my phone, I don’t use it for blogging. Not only can I not post photos that way, but typing on a tiny keypad is not conducive for story-telling. And while the internet café is only about a 15 minute ride down the road on a motorcycle taxi, I rarely have time to make the trip. It takes me at least an hour once I’m there, and I don’t often have a couple hours to spare on any given day. On January 19th, I posted a blog after I’d been here for two weeks. I’ve now been here for over six weeks and so much has happened! That blog gave a good overview of a typical day for me in Haiti, and now I will try to catch up on what all I’ve been up to this past month.

When I wrote that blog on the 19th, I’d only hosted one team at that point. I’m now on my fifth team. The last three teams, not counting the team this week, were all from Archbold, Ohio. Each team arrived on Friday afternoon and would depart the following Friday morning, leaving just a few hours time between teams for us to clean, shop, and prepare the house for the next group. Needless to say those three weeks were non-stop and time flew by! As I mentioned before, the Archbold crews worked on a new orphanage for Pastor NeNe. Through a partnership with a ministry called Eyes Wide Open, they are building a 40-bed orphanage on some land less than a five minute walk from the guest house. During those three weeks there was a lot of cement pouring and everything in between to finish up the foundation. They also made and put up the trusses for the pavilion roof. The crew on the ground at the site includes Greg, an American from Ohio, and a team of Haitians. They are all living in tents on the property. It makes this guest house seem like a mansion! They are troopers! I took Greg some brownies the other day. He was much appreciative.

I want to thank all of you for praying for David and his family throughout that tragedy. As many of you saw on my Facebook, David passed away on February 2nd. His wife Nicolle has been blessed by all of your love and prayers. Please continue to pray for her and her family during this difficult time. So many who have labored here hope that this project will be a great memorial to a life devoted to helping those who need it most, and most of all, one that will bring glory and honor to Christ.

It is a unique experience to observe the various teams who come through the guest house. The team make-ups are always a little different. The first Archbold team was mostly men with only two women. The second team had eight women and six men. The final team had 14 men and 6 women. Every team worked so hard on the project, though I must say that first team hardly even stopped to eat! The women on the second team were such a help to me at the house and also worked hard to organize all of the Christmas bags and donations that were brought down. The third team was very sociable and stayed up late every night playing cards, fellowshipping, and worshiping together. A guy named Isaac brought his guitar and led us in worship every night. That was a special treat! There were also a few people from Archbold who stayed for two weeks, so I really got to know them even more. Two of those ladies were Kelly Munger and her 14-year old daughter Libby. Kelly has nine children. She and her husband and six of her children came for three months last year and ran the guest house like I’m doing now. Kelly and Libby have SUCH a heart for Haiti. It’s a beautiful thing to observe. They put their time in with the rest of the team, but every chance they got they were visiting around the community, playing soccer, or just hanging out at the gate talking to the dozens of children who would come seeking their attention. Kelly is also in the process of adopting a one year old Haitian boy named Solomon. She admits that when God called her to adopt Solomon she thought He was crazy. After nine children, she assumed she was finished! But her heart was pierced and she knew she was supposed to care for this child. While she was here for two weeks, Solomon came to visit for a couple days. He is adorable! He has a biological sister in another orphanage, and another lady from Archbold is hoping to one day adopt her. This little girl, Ednashlie, has heart problems and Sarah has recently taken her into her orphanage until the adoption can go through so that she can receive better medical attention.

As you’ll remember, God’s Planet organizes a Christmas project every year where people in the States can pack a bag filled with personalized gifts, clothes, and shoes for a specific child. I came last November and went to five orphanages to gather information on the children who would receive these bags. So far, we’ve delivered the bags to three of these orphanages. One of those orphanages, called Family of God, I feel God calling me to help to an even greater degree. I’m not sure exactly what that’s going to look like, but I would appreciate your prayers as I seek specifically what God would have me to do. I know He has put that orphanage on my heart for a reason, and after speaking with the woman who runs the orphanage God clearly said, “Help her.” I trust that God will show me how I am to help and how some of you can even be involved in assisting Judy and her 40+ children there. For one thing, she recently lost a huge donor who provided staple foods each month. She also does not have any type of sponsorship in place for her children to consistently receive support for school fees, uniforms, hygiene products, medical care, etc. After my experience with Family of Hope Services in Namibia, perhaps I can help her come up with a plan and donor base so that she can properly care for the specific needs of her children. I’m planning to meet with her again soon to get more information about her and her children. Once I do, I’ll post details on here about ways you can get involved.

I’d say a good motto for life in Haiti is, “It’s always something.” Although I don’t want to paint a picture of my experience in Haiti as negative in any way, if I’m being honest I have to admit that things can be stressful. I’m blessed with a personality that doesn’t often become stressed, but the opportunity for stress is all around. I suppose it’s all in how you handle and respond to the circumstances around you. Seriously though, it’s always something. Every single day something “unexpected” happens, something breaks, something runs out, whatever. Car trouble here is a common and natural occurrence. Flat tires, random parts falling off and scraping the ground. You name it, it happens. And as far as the house goes, we’ve had a terrible time with the power situation… failing generators, our private transformer access shut off, and what not.

Here’s an example of something we recently had to deal with. Two or three times a year, the island runs out of gas. This is typically due to the ships being late for delivery. Such an event occurred last Wednesday. There’s little advance notice of this, so if your car is near empty, there is a good chance you will not find a station to refuel. If you do, there are probably already dozens of motorcycles waiting in line, and often appearing thisclose to the start of a riot. The ship was due Sunday, which means we probably wouldn’t see gas again until Monday. Thankfully the bread truck runs on diesel. And another thanks, our big generator had just been repaired the day before, so we were able to switch over to diesel for that instead of regular fuel for the back-up generator. All in all, we weren’t super affected by the gas shortage. We had to park Yves car for a few days. The limited gas he did find was about $10 a gallon!

After the last Archbold team left last Friday, we had one night off before the next team arrived. Northwoods, a church from Illinois, got here on Saturday afternoon. They are also working with Pastor NeNe, but on a different piece of land where he’s building a house for his personal family = wife and six kids. After this team leaves, I’ll have several days off then a team from Georgia will arrive on the 25^th. There’s a possibility of one more team after that, and then my work here at the guest house will be finished. Good chance I’ll stay and hangout for a bit after my duties here are done. I’m always up for cuddling up with Sarah’s kids or just seeing the sites. Not to mention I still need to get out to Leogane at some point and visit my precious kiddos at the Lamb Center and all of my sweet friends at the Samaritan’s Purse base. So my prediction of a return home around mid-March is still fairly accurate. At the most, I’ll be back by the end of March. But don’t count out another trip (or longer stay) in Haiti again before too long. I’m not quite sure what God has planned, but I’ll be up for whatever He reveals.

These first photos are from a Christmas bag delivery day at one of the orphanages. Oh happy day!

This is Clauvens, one of the little boys my mom sponsored. I helped her pick him out because when I visited this orphanage in November I had a picture made with him. I tried everything but couldn't get him to smile. I had high hopes that he'd sport a big smile when he opened his special bag.

Clauvens looking at a picture of our family.

Three of the five kids my family sponsored.

Who would've ever thought I'd be regularly cooking for 15-20 people every day?! This particular meal was enough meatloaf, mashed potatoes, corn and green beans for 24 people. Phew! :) No one has complained yet about my cooking... not to my face anyway! I'm blessed that God gives me the ability to accomplish all that I do.

Roland was one of the two-weekers. He was a big help all around, and particularly as our grill master. He also tried to give me a hard time but it didn't work. :)

Isaac was a blessing with his many talents, particularly in leading worship. This is him with some of Pastor NeNe's kids. One of Pastor NeNe's daughters was standing right in front of Isaac, belting out the words as loud as she could... not that she knew the words, but it was great!

Sweet Jayne and her husband Dean were such a blessing to me. She sat down with several of the girls and painted their nails.

Beautiful Kelly and adorable Solomon. Thanks for all your help, Kelly!!

Thanks to two generous sponsors, Yves and NeNe were able to start English classes last week. NeNe came back from class and rewrote all of his notes. He is excited and serious about learning English. Thank you again, Christy and Jordan!

NeNe uses oil filter seals, makes designs in them, and uses them for bracelets. Sarah and I wear them, and some from the Archbold crew loved them. He rounded up a bunch of them and sold them for $1. A truly unique souvenir!