Hello again from Haiti,
Here’s what’s been happening in week 3 and 4 of outreach:
Last week (week 3) we saw many accomplishments. On Monday we picked up
sledgehammers, shovels and rakes and demolished a small house, in
preparation for two new houses that will be built there. One of these
homes will be for the pastor whose church we ministered in on Sunday.
Every morning this week the work continued; clearing rubble, moving
blocks, digging trenches, and mixing and pouring cement. The tiring,
hot work was rewarded by having the foundation poured by Thursday and
the block walls going up Friday. Also, many relationships have been
built with the Haitians at the site, building not only physical
foundations, but spiritual as well.
A small crew stayed back at the house doing various necessary duties.
Two of these mornings they were privileged to assist in preparing the
soup for the afternoon feeding at the tent cities. Valter, from
Brazil, is the staff person responsible for the ministry he calls “The
Children Bread”. He has such a heart to show Jesus’ love by serving
the people food. He used our Gleanings’ soup mix as the main base,
adding beef (from the cow we helped butcher), fresh vegetables and
spices. It was quite tasty and nutritious.
Oh yeah, remember the pool you saw us hangin’ our feet in last time?
Well, Thursday morning we began emptying this pool of all its water.
With what, you ask? Believe it or not, 5 gallon peach buckets! Our
peach buckets are appearing everywhere, coming in handy for many other
uses, including washing laundry, mop buckets, a seat, and garbage
cans. Anyway, back to the task at hand. The house had been vacant for
some time and algae were growing in the pool. After more bucket
brigade on Friday morning, we began scrubbing the inside with soap and
bleach water. It was awesome to have the cleaning completed when the
water truck arrived at noon with the first of four tanks of water. By
5 the pool was full and we were enjoying swimming at “Fun Friday”. We
had a great time with games, swimming, music, cheeseburgers and fries,
concluding the fun evening with a movie. What an enjoyable conclusion
to a fulfilling week.
Fritz and Cindy landed in the hospital on Wednesday night with Philip,
their son, being treated for an allergic reaction to a “black, furry,
flying insect”, according to his description, that stung him the night
before. He slept soundly after receiving two injections to reduce the
swelling and pain that enveloped his right forearm. The Dr. kept him
in the emergency room for a few hours of observation and he was
released with two different medications, after we forked over a whole
$51.00, putting us home after 11 PM that night. He’s still recovering
from the reaction, with an itching rash, that is fortunately getting
better every day. No one has the faintest idea what the attacker was,
but Philip certainly doesn’t care to see one of those black, furry
things again! He also had something else plaguing him that the Dr.
thinks is an allergy, with different patches of itching rashes on his
arms and legs. This actually started before the dreadful sting. The
swollen arm was much better in a few days, but Philip continued to be
tortured by more unbearable itching and rashes that broke out even on
his face. I didn’t believe it was allergy and after finally getting
him to another Dr. he confirmed my suspicion of worms (parasites). One
dose of medication and within two days the itching was almost over and
Philip and Cindy were able to sleep again! God spoke to us about
suffering for the gospel of Christ, which was experienced first hand.
The “Tent City” ministry certainly hasn’t been forgotten about.
Ministry was in three different areas. The strategy was to go one day
with ministry time; dramas, testimonies, Bible stories and the gospel
and return the next day to feed them soup. That’s exactly what
happened in three different tent cities.
Delighted children came running to hug and play with us on Monday when
we returned to the nearby Bel Vil tent city we had visited the Friday
before. Karly, Haiti YWAM staff, taught us some Creole songs to sing
with the children; well, we did our best anyway. They also enjoyed our
skits; a Bible story about Jonah, and Suzi concluded with a testimony
and led many in a prayer for salvation. It was then announced that
tomorrow afternoon we would be bringing a meal and they received their
meal tickets. They were required to form lines, one line for women
with babies, and one for the children, when we returned on Tuesday.
Valter is unable to make enough soup to feed everyone, but our prayer
was that the food would be multiplied, and that all would be peaceful.
There have been occasions where riots have broken out at feedings,
showing the desperation of the people. All three soup and peach
distributions were peaceful, everyone was very thankful to receive
food and they responded with open hearts to the messages.
We were privileged to have Rick & Lynn join the team Monday night.
They are encouraging all of us, meeting and praying with each student
and participating in the outreach.
Our last day in Port-au-Prince ministry to an “orphanage” was
organized. Everyone was unaware that this orphanage was actually in a
tent city and we were shocked to see how these children lived. As we
gave the “mom” a barrel of soup mix she was extremely thankful. She
has such a heart for these children, and is also operating a school
and church for them. We brought a complete meal, along with chicken
and a grill to BBQ, and by the time we had the chicken grilled there
was quite a gathering of people from the tent city. Having realized
food was being served, they came hoping to also receive some and the
food we had planned to feed 150 with was stretched out to feed about
500, although we ran out of plates and served the last meals on wax
paper. And they heard the gospel too! Thank you Jesus! We also had so
much fun performing dramas and dancing and playing outside with the
children. A special miracle was a story relayed by one of the orphans
who had a dream a week before we came. She dreamt that white people
came to serve them a meal and there was meat. This was certainly a
special treat for them!
Thursday, the 27th, we traveled to “Ocean View Beach and Tennis Club”.
I know this sounds really exotic, and for Haiti it is! Actually, this
is definitely the nicest place we’ve ever stayed on an outreach and
during off times we are enjoying swimming in the Carribean. Miss Lynn
is a friend of Kim O’Dwyers, Rick and Lynn’s daughter, and the owner
of the resort. She is actually the contact through whom Kim has gotten
most of the children she has in her orphanage. She has God’s heart for
the people of the village of Carries and has also started an orphanage
by renting a very small house in the village and hiring a Haitian
woman to care for the six children she took in just two weeks ago. She
took us to visit them on Friday morning and we also toured the site
she has been given to build an orphanage. God has given her a huge
vision for not only an orphanage, but a community center for seniors
and youth, a medical clinic and school. John has drawn the plans and
we broke ground for the orphanage. We believe that we are here for
such a time as this and we are committed to do as much as possible in
the last two weeks of our outreach to get this building up and
liveable! We have already dug the foundation of the 30 by 60 feet
building and are in the midst of pouring the concrete. Since the
cholera outbreak Miss Lynn’s business has drastically shrunk and she
has limited funds, but is stepping out on faith to help the children
of the community who are in desperate need. There are many
malnourished, and countless have lost one or both parents and they
don’t have the necessities to care for them. Miss Lynn has also
sponsored many of the community children’s school fees. She’s and
inspiration, stepping out in faith believing God has called her to
Haiti for this time and purpose. She told us she has enough to get
started and if she never starts it will never get done. Just last
week, she accepted two more girls, overfilling the current house.
Saturday morning we loaded our backpacks with soup mix and headed up
and down the trails of the village to pray for and give soup to the
very poor and sick. She has led many of them to Jesus through sharing
food and ministering to them and tries to visit them weekly. What a
reality check as we saw how these desperate people live with next to
nothing. On Sunday we were honored to minister in Miss Lynn’s church
and feed the congregation rice and soup following the service.
Please continue praying for our team. Thanks so much!
With love,
Gleanings DTS team in Haiti