Another awesome day in Haiti!

We are having major problems posting to the blog, but email seems OK so Debbie/Jessamine/Lisa/Nicki/Elise are posting for us via email.

Saturday, May 26

Another awesome day in Haiti!

We got up a little early to see the work happening at several of the FMI projects nearby. First we toured the property where they are going to build small homes/apartments for the kids as they age out of the Gift of God orphanage. It is a 1 acre lot a short walk from where we are staying. There was a Haitian crew there digging the hole for the septic tank (by hand of course – 12 feet deep). So it was neat to see the 2^nd day of construction on that project. The kids will be able to rent one of the apartments as long as they have a job or are in trade school or college. I think they are going to call this site "Hope Village".

Then we walked over to the site where Brad Simpson & Todd worked in the mud on the plumbing in October. There is a whole complex of buildings there now, which are nearly complete. This project was originally going to be an orphanage and medical clinic run by Mike's ministry (Global Orphan Hope), but just recently Mike's organization decided that they were gifted in construction & development but not in running an orphanage, so they donated it all to FMI. FMI will use it in a similar way as they do the Gift of God orphanage. So FMI is raising funds to finish the construction of the buildings (including removing the medical office walls) and making plans for setting up an orphanage there. Some of the buildings will be used to train the kids in sewing, welding, woodworking, and other skills they will need to make a living in Haiti.

After breakfast we headed back up the mountain, on some crazy streets with crazy traffic and everyone selling things. The mountains are very steep so it takes some extremely skilful driving to make it up the twisting, crisscrossing roads which are frequently blocked by disabled vehicles, piles of building materials, and hundreds of people walking along the edges of the road. The drivers honk their horns every few seconds to communicate with other drivers and pedestrians, and though chaotic and a little scary, I did not see any accidents – but I am sure there are many. It is rare to see a vehicle with no dents.

Once we arrived, Frank gathered us together and had us walk around the rooms of the house, praying for the children who would soon live there, the families who will adopt them, the future nannies working there, the parents/relatives who gave up the child, etc. We then grabbed our materials and blasted through all the second coats and remaining unpainted items. We basically painted everything in the house that was dark-colored – including about 125 feet of decorative railing, the grates on about 12 windows, an interior railing, about 5 doors, 3 closets, 6 beds & bunkbeds, some walls, etc. We also removed, washed, and reinstalled all the glass louvers on about 7 of the windows. The house looks dramatically different than when we started.

We wrapped up our work at 2PM and headed still higher up the mountain to the orphanage that Rachel currently runs. Rachel has about 10 children, ages 3 months to about 4 years. All of them have been adopted and are waiting for the paperwork & process to be complete, except for Jasmin who was about 3. Jasmin was brought to Rachel's home by her father 4 days ago. His wife had died, and though he struggled to feed Jasmin and himself, he was just not able to. He came to the painful conclusion that in order for her to survive, he needed to give her up. As he handed her over to Rachel, he said "I have cried my last tear". Needless to say we were all deeply moved.

We took many photos there, but we are not allowed to post them online so you will have to wait for us to get back to see those.

Tomorrow, Katia is finishing the second day of a cake decorating seminar that she is hosting at the guest house dining area. The cake she is making for the seminar is gigantic – 5 feet wide and 4 feet tall. One of the ladies from the team is helping Katia with the seminar. Check the photos http://s831.photobucket.com/albums/zz238/behindthewaterfall/Haiti%20May%202012/?albumview=slideshow to see a photo of the cake.

In the morning we will tour the city to see the earthquake damage and tent camps. After lunch we will head over to the Gift of God orphanage to spend some time with the kids and to participate in their worship service at 5 PM (time changed to work around the seminar).

Please keep us in your prayers as we continue our work here. And speaking of prayers, today Renee was fully recovered and painted up a storm!

Dave