{"id":808,"date":"2010-08-17T21:53:56","date_gmt":"2010-08-18T02:53:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/?p=808"},"modified":"2012-06-23T23:31:18","modified_gmt":"2012-06-24T04:31:18","slug":"land-for-houses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/?p=808","title":{"rendered":"Houses for Haiti?"},"content":{"rendered":"

3rd Haiti Trip\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Bill and Jesse left today for a two weeks trip to Haiti.\u00a0 A friend, Cody Moore, went with them.\u00a0 He will be there for a week.\u00a0 Another friend, John Padron, will join them on Friday for 10 days.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Village next door<\/p><\/div>\n

We have three main goals we hope to accomplish during this two weeks.\u00a0 The first is for the village next door.\u00a0 As we told you in accounts of the spring trip to Haiti, the houses in the village next door leak when it rains.\u00a0 The guys hope to begin replacing some of the roofs so they won\u2019t leak.<\/p>\n

We have been building a prototype of a solar dehydrator to be replicated in the mountains of Haiti.\u00a0 The people have no way of preserving food from one growing season to the next.\u00a0 Bill took parts with him that we don\u2019t think we can get in Haiti.\u00a0 We hope to be able to get the plywood and some other supplies there and build one in the mountains.<\/p>\n

Third, Sid Davis of Joplin hopes to raise the money and build 1000 houses in Haiti in the next five years.\u00a0 He has asked us to oversee the construction of the first one.\u00a0 The pastor and his family who are living in our house in Haiti lost their home in Port au Prince during the earthquake.\u00a0 He says he owns a lot in Croix des Bouquettes, a \u201csuburb\u201d of PAP.\u00a0 We hope to verify ownership of the lot and ascertain its suitability for a house.\u00a0 If that is done, we might possibly even begin site preparation.<\/p>\n

In all of this, we hope to be direct and open with people about why we are trying to help them.\u00a0 To communicate the love of Jesus is the reason for all we do.\u00a0 We ask for your prayers as we seek to love and serve the people of Haiti.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 This development was a direct answer to prayer and we are grateful to them for letting us be a part of their ministry.<\/p>\n

September 7, 2010<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Bill and Jesse returned from Haiti on Tuesday this past week.\u00a0 As usual, things in Haiti never goes as planned but God always has something for us to do.<\/p>\n

We (Bill, Jesse, and Cody Moore) arrived in Haiti during the rainy season and at the beginning of the second planting season.\u00a0 (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!\u00a0 We were able to help the farmers we knew buy some more seed to plant again.<\/p>\n

As it was planting season and not harvest, it was not a good time to teach the Haitians about the dehydrator.\u00a0 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\u2019t be completed till the next trip.<\/p>\n

The landowner of the village next door wants his land back and doesn\u2019t want them to do improvements on the houses.\u00a0 The thatched roofs are caving in and leaking.\u00a0 Some houses are crumbling down and the rat infestation is so severe, the people are often bitten in their sleep.\u00a0 They have one outhouse for over 200 people.<\/p>\n

We asked the landowner to let us rebuild some of the roofs but he was not receptive at all.\u00a0 We spoke with the magistrates of the \u201ccounty seat\u201d about it and they said since they had been there so long, having children and raising families, they could not be required to move.\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We are grateful and hope to be able to start on that on our next visit to Haiti.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

We visited Pastor Goude\u2019s 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.\u00a0 Pa Bon!\u00a0 (\u201cNo good\u201d in Creole.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Jolius, John, and Jesse with the magistrates of Gantier<\/p><\/div>\n

We spent several days going around looking at land.\u00a0 We found some lots for sale but we had hoped to get the land donated if Sid Davis\u2019 group is going to provide materials and some labor.\u00a0 After meeting with the\u00a0magistrates 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.\u00a0 There is a spring below it that The ground was level enough to build houses on.\u00a0 It was close enough to Gantier that the people could walk to market or town.\u00a0\u00a0 It definitely is a possibility for a settlement. We also found some solid possible building sites for individuals who own lots in Fonds-Parisien.<\/p>\n

These are some of the practical matters we dealt with on the trip but the richness of the journey was in interaction with people.<\/p>\n

Jesse met Sharika, a 10 year old girl whose mother sold food by the side of the road.\u00a0 Sharika started asking questions about the Lord.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Cristila, a 15 year old who had been at Morel\u2019s 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 She is staying at the house with the older girls.<\/p>\n

Jolius, the Haitian medical student who helps translate for us, is a very fine young man with a heart for God.\u00a0 He and I are building a close relationship.\u00a0 He is very grateful for our presence and encouragement in Haiti.\u00a0 He is from the mountain region of Pays-Pourri and hopes to go back to serve the people.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 Her house was still standing but those of her neighbors had collapsed.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 They had all crowded into Freda\u2019s house.\u00a0 However, the landlord wanted the house back and she had no money to continue renting it.\u00a0 This group consists of four families, all single mothers but one with 14-15 children between them.<\/p>\n

The ladies came out to the house to visit us a couple of times to talk about their predicament.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 until we have the possibility of building them houses.\u00a0 That would be better than moving them out to Fonds-Parisien where they would be in an unfamiliar environment.<\/p>\n

At the house, we continued to have many mouths to feed.\u00a0 Relationships with the girls were deepened.\u00a0 We took my itouch and a small speaker system and were able to play songs for them and talk about what they meant.<\/p>\n

There is so much the Haitians don\u2019t have physically in life that we so readily take for granted.\u00a0 As we were all at dinner with the ladies from PAP, Pastor Goude and his family, and our \u201cgirls\u201d, among others, I started talking with them about what they don\u2019t have but that what they do have is the gift they have from the Lord of each other.<\/p>\n

In 2 Cor. 4. 17-18 (RSV) Paul tells us<\/p>\n

\u201cFor 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is the unseen things that we possess and share that makes us the light of the world!<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 The truth is that the mire of this world doesn\u2019t have to cling to our feet.\u00a0 It is only the unseen that allows us to play and dance in such conditions.\u00a0 Haiti is a place where love can flow so freely from heart to heart.\u00a0 I find myself frequently brushing tears from my eyes.<\/p>\n

So perhaps like the unknown confederate soldier stated,<\/p>\n

I got nothing that I asked for\u2014but got everything I had hoped for.<\/em><\/p>\n

Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.<\/em><\/p>\n

I am, among all people, most richly blessed.<\/em><\/p>\n

We are so grateful for your prayers and ask that you continue them.\u00a0 We hope to return to Haiti in October.<\/p>\n

May the God of all comfort bless and keep you and your families close to His heart.<\/p>\n

Full text of the Unanswered Prayer follows below:<\/p>\n

Prayer of the Unknown Confederate Soldier\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve.<\/em><\/p>\n

I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.<\/em><\/p>\n

I asked for health, that I might do greater things.<\/em><\/p>\n

I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.<\/em><\/p>\n

I asked for riches, that I might be happy.<\/em><\/p>\n

I was given poverty, that I might be wise.<\/em><\/p>\n

I asked for power that I might have the praise of men.<\/em><\/p>\n

I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.<\/em><\/p>\n

I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life.<\/em><\/p>\n

I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.<\/em><\/p>\n

I got nothing that I asked for\u2014but got everything I had hoped for.<\/em><\/p>\n

Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.<\/em><\/p>\n

I am, among all people, most richly blessed.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

3rd Haiti Trip\u00a0 Bill and Jesse left today for a two weeks trip to Haiti.\u00a0 A friend, Cody Moore, went with them.\u00a0 He will be there for a week.\u00a0 Another friend, John Padron, will join them on Friday for 10 days. We have three main goals we hope to accomplish …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=808"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":814,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\/revisions\/814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}