Our service this week is about Heaven’s masterpiece, gold tumors and rats. Don’t miss it! That said, I’d like to thank you so much for helping us go to Haiti. It’s hard to put a 10-day mission trip to Haiti into words. I'll print out some pictures- wish I could send the sounds and smells!! If you go to our Facebook picture page, we’ve been uploading pictures all week since coming home.
We are just learning how to put them on to our website at CottonwoodChurch.com, but they may not be up yet.
Our planes had a bit of trouble, so we arrived at Haiti on 3-hours sleep. That was probably a good thing, as sleeping in the intense heat can be difficult. The heat index the one day I checked was 110f. Knowing that made it seem hotter, so I quit checking. It does cool down a bit at night, but not like in the desert, as it is quite humid on the island. Actually, it’s just stinkin hot 24/7, but it’s amazing how you get use to it.
At first, Port-au-Prince looked pretty much the same as it did in 08. Everything rather grey, lots of concrete, trash, people walking around. Then you look closer and realize half or more of the buildings aren’t lived in. Some are 5 or 8 story buildings now sandwiched into a few feet of height, some leaning sideways, many reduced to looking like large cookie crumbs spilling out into the street. There are tents everywhere – in the yards of destroyed houses, in every vacant lot I saw, in large tent cities, even in the sides of the streets. How do they sleep in a tent on the side of the road in 100 degree heat? Many if not most of the tents are tarps duck-taped together and tied around poles or sticks. Camping tents that were donated just don’t last long when left up – over time the sun seems to lick them through like an old sucker. If a hurricane hits this season, they won’t have buildings to run into.
Our ministry was primarily two-fold. We worked at “English Camp,” and built a house. English Camp has been going on for many summers through Heartline Ministries. In it they teach children English using Bible lessons, skits, crafts (we made the derby box cars), swimming lessons, etc. It’s rather like a Vacation Bible School teaching English. Over the years many of these children have trusted in Jesus as their Savior. One of the boys my son Caleb worked with had come to Christ through Heartline and being adopted by a family in the States, and now was back as a 16-year-old working at English Camp. There were around over 30 children in the morning program, over 100 in the afternoon. At the end of the day we would walk them back to their tent homes. This is a hard ministry run primarily by sharp, committed High School and College volunteers wanting to make a difference.
Byron and Shelley, the couple whose house we lived in and who run the English Camp, had some friends who lost their house in the earthquake. Her name is Marie Noel, his I never could pronounce. They had lost 3 children in pregnancy (the last one in labor) before hearing about Heartline. Byron and Shelley were able to help them get the food, vitamins, and care needed in order to carry David to term. He is now 3 years old. We were able to build them a pre-fab house. It is 13X13 with a 4’ overhang porch and cement floor. It may just be a glorified tuff-shed to us, but when you see what they were living in, it is a bit of heaven. Marie and her husband worked tirelessly helping to get it up. They were so happy!! Much all the sand and gravel for the concrete they hauled in from 50-75 yards away by hand (1 bucket, 1 wheelbarrow). That we could make such a difference doing something so simple is overwhelming.
Thank you for letting us be a part of helping others. It was a ton of fun as well – Caleb learning to open a fresh coconut we got out of a tree, making new friends, riding on top of a huge truck around Haiti, going to the mountains, a flat tire with no spare in Port-au-Prince, and explaining our love for Jesus as the reason why we were there. Oh – almost forgot. When we finished the house there was a tarantula climbing up the outside wall. Then Marie saw it, she knocked it down with a stick, stomped on it, and twisted to make sure it was dead. She was barefoot.
God bless!
Dan
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