{"id":813,"date":"2010-05-20T22:13:07","date_gmt":"2010-05-21T03:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/?p=813"},"modified":"2012-06-23T23:28:06","modified_gmt":"2012-06-24T04:28:06","slug":"813","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/?p=813","title":{"rendered":"Feeding the Village Children"},"content":{"rendered":"

2nd Haiti Trip – Vol. VII<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bill, Jesse, and I returned to the states on Tuesday this week. \u00a0We had had no electricity for a week so I’m behind on updating you and there is so much tell, it is not possible without going on longer than anyone wants to read. \u00a0I will try to touch on the highlights of the week with the story of our last evening in Haiti at the end.<\/p>\n

We did get to take one trip into the mountains, driving up a dry flood river bed which I finally realized was the place one of the torrents took place during the hurricane last year that swept away entire villages. \u00a0Remains of the old road high up on the side of the hill could be seen that had collapsed as the water swept away the mountain beneath it! \u00a0So now, driving up the riverbed is a difficult, bumpy, and time consuming task.<\/p>\n

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Vegetable field in the mountains<\/p><\/div>\n

We took several boxes of rice to Pastor Sylvio who has a church in Fonds-Varette. Then we drove on up to Pine Forest, a beautiful area of Haiti much like Colorado. \u00a0There were patches of lush corn, beans, and potatoes all growing together.<\/p>\n

One of the major problems we see is that the people in the mountains can grow much of their food but they don’t appear to preserve any of it so when it’s gone or spoiled, they go hungry!!! \u00a0We want to help them learn about dehydration. \u00a0They don’t have the water or supplies to do canning but they have plenty of sun for drying!<\/p>\n

We visited the Mennonite mission who are providing us with the water for our house. \u00a0They seem to be very open and helpful. \u00a0They gave us a Bible story book in Creole and also some individual Bible stories which they told us we could have in quantity. \u00a0We had gone to them asking about materials for the children in the poor village on the other side of our house.<\/p>\n

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Sherlie reading a Bible story to the village children<\/p><\/div>\n

We went over to the village a few times to meet the people and let them start getting to know us. \u00a0What better place to start helping people than with our neighbors? \u00a0 We would walk through the village calling the children. They would all sit down on rocks, some hauling some new ones over to sit on. \u00a0One of our girls would start reading a Bible story out of the book. \u00a0For the most part, they listened very well.<\/p>\n

Some of the children are able to go to school, but many do not. \u00a0We asked the girls to continue to go over each afternoon while we are gone and read another story to the children. \u00a0We hope that will develop into possibly teaching some of the \u00a0unschooled children (and adults if they are interested) to read and write.<\/p>\n

The village people live in concrete or mud and stick huts with thatch roofs. Bill got to talking with some of the women about their roofs leaking and the rats biting. We would like to improve their roofs to keep the rain out and do something about the rats. \u00a0Bill told them we could get them help to fix their roofs but they would have to help do the work. \u00a0We are not going to come and do it all for them. \u00a0We have seen the results in Haiti of all the “giving” and the mindset of many Haitians is expectation of being given something without working for it!<\/p>\n

It’s no wonder the city fell down when the earthquake hit!\u00a0 Bill and Jesse were tearing some concrete blocks off the unfinished building next to the house when Bill hit the first block with a 2 x 4 and the whole wall leaned out.\u00a0 He picked up one of the loose blocks and hit it with another piece of concrete and it just collapsed into dust.\u00a0 LOUSY CONCRETE BLOCKS!\u00a0 More like mud blocks.\u00a0 So poorly made!\u00a0 They are able to barely bump a block and it comes loose from it’s mortar.\u00a0 If they accidentally drop a block, it is no longer a block but dust with a few chunks.<\/p>\n

We decided to invite some of our neighbors from the village for supper on Monday night before we left on Tuesday. \u00a0As we wouldn’t be able to feed the entire village, we decided to tell our two “gardeners” and two “landscapers” that they could invite their families to come and eat with us.<\/p>\n

Jesse did the inviting and I told him to find out how many people would be coming. \u00a0He came back with a figure of about 20.<\/p>\n

The girls cooked all afternoon and made a huge pot of rice and beans along with chicken “sauce” as they call it. \u00a0We waited for the people to come but no one showed up till after dark. \u00a0A man with three children showed up first. \u00a0I was not sure who he was but I dished up four bowls of food and had them sit down at our table to eat. \u00a0When I looked up from dishing up the fourth bowl, at the foot of the table was a MOB of children!!<\/p>\n

The girls began serving and people kept coming! \u00a0Most were clean and dressed in their Sunday best. \u00a0We filled the table with probably 15-20 people. \u00a0The girls were filling the bowls completely full! \u00a0After that round finished, Pastor Goude, who will be living in the house with his family while we are gone, took the children outside to talk with them and sing Jesus Loves the Little Children. \u00a0Another round seated themselves at the table and were served. \u00a0This went on 3-4 times!<\/p>\n

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Feeding some of the village children at our house<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

After the 2nd time, I started praying that the food would last. \u00a0I did not want to send anyone away hungry! \u00a0The girls kept bringing in more rice and beans and heaping the bowls and plates full! \u00a0Finally the last of the company was finished eating. \u00a0Through an interpreter, I thanked them for coming, talked with them about how I hoped they would continue to come and hear the stories that the girls would read to them, how God loved them, and how Bill and I hoped to see them again soon when we returned to Haiti.<\/p>\n

After things were cleaned up the girls set the table for the 10-12 people of our group. AND THERE WAS STILL PLENTY OF FOOD TO EAT! \u00a0I was in tears thinking of hard the girls had worked all day and the graciousness and generosity with which they had served all those children! \u00a0Bill said he felt like the apostles when Jesus fed the 5000 and had food to spare! \u00a0God was so gracious and it was a delightful evening.<\/p>\n

We flew home on Tuesday the 18th. \u00a0Bill is scheduled to have surgery next Tuesday for a knee replacement. \u00a0The doctor thinks recovery will take 8-12 weeks. \u00a0Bill is hoping for six so he can head back to Haiti.<\/p>\n

I will be writing a little more next week to outline the different specific areas that we are hoping to work in when we get back to Haiti. \u00a0Please keep us and our friends in Haiti in your prayers and pray that the Lord opens the doors He wants us to walk through and provides the funding and sponsorship we need to do it. \u00a0We thank God for all of you!<\/p>\n

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2nd Haiti Trip – Vol. VII Bill, Jesse, and I returned to the states on Tuesday this week. \u00a0We had had no electricity for a week so I’m behind on updating you and there is so much tell, it is not possible without going on longer than anyone wants to …<\/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-813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813","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=813"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":867,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813\/revisions\/867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}