Thursday, May 24, 2012

Hit the ground running

Today we arrived in Haiti.  After a little delay in getting out of Miami, one of the panels fell out of the ceiling prior to take off, we made it to Port-au-Prince.  After a bit of an adventure in baggage claim, where Dave's black bag was lost.  Once we discovered that Dave's bag miraculously changed colors during the flight and was now blue, we were able to locate it.  We then ran the gauntlet to get to the van and enjoyed a nice ride to the guest house.  We had a quick lunch and went over to GOG.  What an amazing place!  We were greeted by swarms of smiling kids who just simply wanted to hug us and hold our hands.  We had a tour of the orphanage and Todd informed us that there have been many changes and upgrades since the last trip.  The apartments upstairs are now occupied, and almost complete.  The kitchen is almost finished and they now have 3 charcoal heated stoves, and a stainless steel sink.  We attempted to do some plumbing to finish the sinks in the apartments and the kitchen but were unable to due to lack of proper parts.  So instead we got to spend more time with the kids.  The highlights are that they clearly remember their friends from the October trip and were so excited to see the pictures from the last visit.  Todd was greeted by his hat being stolen and kids trying to wrestle him and rub his head.  Dave was the man of the hour as he was swarmed by kids looking at the pictures from the last trip.  He had kids all over him the entire time we were there.  It was so clear that these kids love Jesus and they couldn't help but sing about it.  I was able to connect with one of Lisa's friends from the last trip, Teddy.  Once he discovered who I was, he stole my sunglasses and only wanted to take pictures of himself to send back.  They all asked about the October team and wanted to know if they were coming back.  God is blessing us so much already with our interactions with the kids.  We are heading over to the new orphanage for painting tomorrow.  Thank you for your prayers!

Paul

8 comments:

  1. So laughing at my husband right now for forgetting that he took Jessamine's blue bag and not his black one! :-)

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  2. Their love for Jesus and joy are incredibly infectious! Please pass on many hugs. The apartments were just an idea when we were there-amazing progress given the circumstances of any building project in Haiti. Post some pics if you can please. God is doing a great work in the hearts of Haiti!

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  3. Your post made me cry, just bringing back memories and knowing first-hand what you're experiencing now. So cool to read this and hear how God is taking care of His babies in Haiti.

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  4. I was relieved to re-read the sentence about you guys being unable to plumb the kitchen sink and discover that it was not due to a lack of proper pants (which is the way I read it the first time), but a lack of proper parts.

    Thanks for the update!

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  5. I totally thought the same thing as Gypsy! So funny. I've checked like twenty-seven times today to see a new post. Can't wait to hear about what is going on. And, just for an update, Paul, Ella got the flu last night...I'll save the details. God is miraculously keeping me in good spirits, though.

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  6. Jessamine chatted with Dave on FB a little while ago. He said he is working on a blog post, but the internet is super slow tonight. I know that they spent the day at an orphanage a couple hours up into the mountains painting.

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  7. OK well this blog is driving me crazy, I cannot log in plus our wifi is having problems so I am just going to post my update from yesterday here quickly before it goes out again. Also I have uploaded a couple more photos. Photo upload is really slow so we cannot do many. But we will bring back tons of photos :-). Photos: http://s831.photobucket.com/albums/zz238/behindthewaterfall/Haiti%20May%202012/?albumview=slideshow
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    We did not have Internet service Friday evening so this is delayed, sorry! We'll post about today later...

    Bonswa from Haiti!

    We had a great day today (Friday). After Katia's wonderful breakfast we hopped in a van and a pickup and drove up, up, up to the Rivers of Hope orphanage to paint, paint, paint. Rivers of Hope is a new orphanage in a leased home that will be run by Rachel Danache. AGCI will coordinate adoptions from Rivers of Hope. This video from AGCI explains this relationship way better than I can: http://vimeo.com/42723806

    The house needed a lot of cleanup and painting. We painted all the black iron work (railings, bars over windows, etc.) as well as some new doors which needed to be painted. Others on the team also disassembled some bunk beds and started reconstructing them into cribs.

    To access the inside of the bars we had to remove all the glass louvers. We quickly discovered that each one is custom fit and it can be quite a puzzle to get them back in if you don't stack them in order. By the end of the day we had it down to a science. I poked a tiny piece of glass in my finger while reinstalling a louver which "Doctor" Paul cleaned and dressed with professionalism and flair.
    Paul is now the official team medic.

    Speaking of medicine, Renee, one of our team members from Nashville was out today with a stomach bug, but she met us at dinner so hopefully she is on the mend. Please pray for her continued improvement. Everyone else is healthy.

    On the drive up (2 hours) and down (1 hour) we got a good taste of Haitian commerce. There were people buying and selling the entire way, thousands of people crammed along the roadside selling everything among the piles of rubble, trash, and 5 foot deep by 5 foot wide gutters (with no curbs by the way). Most of the people looked to be quite poor.

    The traffic was intense, especially because the Haitian President was in the area so there were lots of police on ATVs & SUVs which added greatly to the congestion. Some of the guys rode in the back of the pickup so they had a very memorable ride.

    The Rivers of Hope home is close to the top of the mountain. As you climb higher, both the vegetation and prosperity change dramatically. We saw many beautiful flowering trees and vines, and fruit trees were everywhere. The houses were also much larger.

    Tomorrow we are going to finish the painting then head up even higher on the mountain to one of the Mountaintop Ministry orphanages (another AGCI partner, see video link above) to spend some time with the babies/kids there and learn more about what AGCI is doing with Mountaintop Ministries. Willem and his wife Beth were with us all day today and coordinated the work.

    Tonight we talked for a long time with Dan Jensen about the people and country of Haiti, and the work that God is doing here through the partnerships between FMI, AGCI, Mountaintop Ministries and others. We can tell you more about that when we get back.

    On Sunday we will spend the entire day at the Gift of God orphanage where the October team served, first in their church service, then just spending time with them.

    Well it looks like our Internet connection is out for now so I will have to post this in the morning! I probably won't be able to post any photos until tomorrow night though, sorry!

    Dave

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  8. Hey, Dave, I added you as an author so you should be able to post on the blog now. I sent an blog invitation to your yahoo account. Sorry about that! :) -Elise.

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