Houses for Haiti?

3rd Haiti Trip 

Bill and Jesse left today for a two weeks trip to Haiti.  A friend, Cody Moore, went with them.  He will be there for a week.  Another friend, John Padron, will join them on Friday for 10 days.

We have three main goals we hope to accomplish during this two weeks.  The first is for the village next door.  As we told you in accounts of the spring trip to Haiti, the houses in the village next door leak when it rains.  The guys hope to begin replacing some of the roofs so they won’t leak.

We have been building a prototype of a solar dehydrator to be replicated in the mountains of Haiti.  The people have no way of preserving food from one growing season to the next.  Bill took parts with him that we don’t think we can get in Haiti.  We hope to be able to get the plywood and some other supplies there and build one in the mountains.

Third, Sid Davis of Joplin hopes to raise the money and build 1000 houses in Haiti in the next five years.  He has asked us to oversee the construction of the first one.  The pastor and his family who are living in our house in Haiti lost their home in Port au Prince during the earthquake.  He says he owns a lot in Croix des Bouquettes, a “suburb” of PAP.  We hope to verify ownership of the lot and ascertain its suitability for a house.  If that is done, we might possibly even begin site preparation.

In all of this, we hope to be direct and open with people about why we are trying to help them.  To communicate the love of Jesus is the reason for all we do.  We ask for your prayers as we seek to love and serve the people of Haiti.

We want to let you know that we are now working with We-Go Mission Coalition and as such, any contributions you might want to give to help us in our efforts are tax deductible.  This development was a direct answer to prayer and we are grateful to them for letting us be a part of their ministry.

September 7, 2010

Bill and Jesse returned from Haiti on Tuesday this past week.  As usual, things in Haiti never goes as planned but God always has something for us to do.

We (Bill, Jesse, and Cody Moore) arrived in Haiti during the rainy season and at the beginning of the second planting season.  (John Padron arrived four days later.) There had been a huge rain in the mountains just after planting beans and the seed beans had been washed away which was devastating!  We were able to help the farmers we knew buy some more seed to plant again.

As it was planting season and not harvest, it was not a good time to teach the Haitians about the dehydrator.  It took two to three days to find most of the parts needed or substitutes for what was in the original plan and get started building it but it won’t be completed till the next trip.

The landowner of the village next door wants his land back and doesn’t want them to do improvements on the houses.  The thatched roofs are caving in and leaking.  Some houses are crumbling down and the rat infestation is so severe, the people are often bitten in their sleep.  They have one outhouse for over 200 people.

We asked the landowner to let us rebuild some of the roofs but he was not receptive at all.  We spoke with the magistrates of the “county seat” about it and they said since they had been there so long, having children and raising families, they could not be required to move.   The day before we left Haiti, one of the village people whose house we had hoped to repair came to us and told us the landowner had changed his mind and would allow repairs to be made.  We are grateful and hope to be able to start on that on our next visit to Haiti.

Pastor Goude and his wife along with some of the girls who are refugees from PAP staying in our house in Fonds Parisien have continued during our absence to go to the village to read Bible stories to the children and minister to the people there.

We visited Pastor Goude’s lot that we had hoped to build the first house on. Not only is his lot under water but the whole area is a mosquito cesspool in the rainy season.  Pa Bon!  (“No good” in Creole.)

We spent several days going around looking at land.  We found some lots for sale but we had hoped to get the land donated if Sid Davis’ group is going to provide materials and some labor.  After meeting with the magistrates a few times, the day before we left they took us out and showed us a large parcel of land up above Gantier they would give us for the housing project.  There is a spring below it that The ground was level enough to build houses on.  It was close enough to Gantier that the people could walk to market or town.   It definitely is a possibility for a settlement. We also found some solid possible building sites for individuals who own lots in Fonds-Parisien.

These are some of the practical matters we dealt with on the trip but the richness of the journey was in interaction with people.

Jesse met Sharika, a 10 year old girl whose mother sold food by the side of the road.  Sharika started asking questions about the Lord.  Jesse brought her out to the house several times and ended up paying for her enrollment in a mission school near by so she could go to school this year.

Cristila, a 15 year old who had been at Morel’s when we stayed there in February, had disappeared into the mountains. We traveled to Pine Forest hoping to find her at the market where thousands of people come each week.  It would be like finding a needle in a haystack but Cristila saw my Tilley hat, thus finding us instead. It was a joyous reunion! We brought her back down and enrolled her in school.  She is staying at the house with the older girls.

Jolius, the Haitian medical student who helps translate for us, is a very fine young man with a heart for God.  He and I are building a close relationship.  He is very grateful for our presence and encouragement in Haiti.  He is from the mountain region of Pays-Pourri and hopes to go back to serve the people.

On one of our earlier trips to Haiti, we had spent an afternoon in PAP clearing rubble away from an area near the rented home of Freda, a Christian lady we had met.  Her house was still standing but those of her neighbors had collapsed.  We cleared the rubble, pulverized some of the concrete blocks to make a sandy base, and set up several tents for the people who had lost their homes.

On our visit this time, we found that the people who owned the land where the tents had been set up had made them move the tents.  They had all crowded into Freda’s house.  However, the landlord wanted the house back and she had no money to continue renting it.  This group consists of four families, all single mothers but one with 14-15 children between them.

The ladies came out to the house to visit us a couple of times to talk about their predicament.  We finally decided the best thing to do to help them would be to rent their house in PAP for them as they knew how to survive in town, where to go to find food, etc.  until we have the possibility of building them houses.  That would be better than moving them out to Fonds-Parisien where they would be in an unfamiliar environment.

At the house, we continued to have many mouths to feed.  Relationships with the girls were deepened.  We took my itouch and a small speaker system and were able to play songs for them and talk about what they meant.

There is so much the Haitians don’t have physically in life that we so readily take for granted.  As we were all at dinner with the ladies from PAP, Pastor Goude and his family, and our “girls”, among others, I started talking with them about what they don’t have but that what they do have is the gift they have from the Lord of each other.

In 2 Cor. 4. 17-18 (RSV) Paul tells us

“For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not to things which are seen but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

It is the unseen things that we possess and share that makes us the light of the world!

The shared joy of playing on the roof in the cool refreshing rain after days of oppressive heat, the talks around the table where tears of sorrow and joy were mingled and our hearts turned to the God of comfort, dancing in the mud and sludge and refuse of a marketplace of thousands of people in the mountains declaring that joy in this lifetime is utterly free even while we were muddy and filthy, our joy in the cleansing rain from God, these and such as these were the unexpected and unseen things that God blessed us with.  The truth is that the mire of this world doesn’t have to cling to our feet.  It is only the unseen that allows us to play and dance in such conditions.  Haiti is a place where love can flow so freely from heart to heart.  I find myself frequently brushing tears from my eyes.

So perhaps like the unknown confederate soldier stated,

I got nothing that I asked for—but got everything I had hoped for.

Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.

I am, among all people, most richly blessed.

We are so grateful for your prayers and ask that you continue them.  We hope to return to Haiti in October.

May the God of all comfort bless and keep you and your families close to His heart.

Full text of the Unanswered Prayer follows below:

Prayer of the Unknown Confederate Soldier 

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve.

I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked for health, that I might do greater things.

I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.

I asked for riches, that I might be happy.

I was given poverty, that I might be wise.

I asked for power that I might have the praise of men.

I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life.

I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for—but got everything I had hoped for.

Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.

I am, among all people, most richly blessed.