Haiti in words

I have returned from Haiti and am now back into a state where I can put my thoughts into some semblance of order.  So I will begin blogging about all the things that happened while I was there. I hope you find it of some interest and I will try to be coherent though words still fail me in some areas.

I must first and foremost start at the beginning of what the whole trip was about. What the people were about, what the mission was all about and what laid the ground work for going. So me of you have heard me say it before, its all about relationships. God provided and gave me a way to have $1100 to go on this trip. Thats a lot of money, and quite a few people wonder, wouldn't it just be better to send the money?

The answer is no. There is a team of 4 people living at the Foursquare compound everyday teaching and reaching and building. But how can 4 people teach and care for thousands? even with our team of 18 more people we were all strapped for time and the work load was far far beyond what we could accomplish. But we made a difference. To the clinic that had a mess of medications everywhere, we built shelves and cabinets that will save lives by organizing things so they won't go bad. To the church that was sitting on benches that were breaking, in the scrapped together hut that was their church, we provided benches that will last, that are amazing benches that will draw people to the Lord. Yes they will, because these people don't have things that nice and it is a draw when there is something so nice. People will come for the benches, and stay for the Lord.  To the team that will be there for 3 months we cleaned and prepared a room for them to stay and be dry and safe. To the English class we helped the teachers and the students practice their English to get jobs.

Those of us building benches, it seemed so simple, so easy, so unimportant. But it wasn't. The Haitians we worked with, side by side had families. They had kids to feed, they lived in tents and huts patched together with what ever they could find. Working with us and learning how to use the tools not only gave them skills but a pay check for working with us. The going rate is $3/day. We paid them $10/day. They were able to buy food and clothes and school for their kids. That is so awesome. They didn't know how to build benches and had our team not gone they wouldn't have known. We taught them, we showed them, worked with them. Now someone is hiring them to build 100 benches, that will provide food and shelter for many people for some time. All because a few American's took some time out of their "important" lives to teach someone how to use a paint brush. Because of that paint brush, a child will not go to sleep starving tonight.

Thank you for being a part of the prayer team it took to make that happen.