Haiti March 20,2012

This morning I had to get up and leave early to take our refrigerator in to Port to have it fixed and pick up some medications for the medical team. Everything went pretty smoothly. I had to leave the refrigerator, and they told me they would have it ready Thursday–didn’t say which month. Then I got the medications. This is the first time I’ve ever gone to Port and been back before 12.:00.

The medical team was just finishing up, and I was in my office. I heard someone say, several times, that there was no water. I went to check and–there was no water! This seemed impossible, because we had just filled the 300-gallon cistern yesterday. Someone had left a faucet on, and all the water had run out. We got some people together to fill 5-gallon buckets from the well, to fill up our 55-gallon drum, to pump the water up to the cistern; after about four 5-gallon buckets, the well went dry. We had some little boys walk down to another well about ¼ mile away to bring us some 5-gallon buckets, but that was taking forever because there were so many people around that well. Chuck had met someone walking one day who had a well, so we were able to drive down in the Ford and get twelve 5-gallon buckets of water. Then we checked our well again and were able to get about ten more gallons before it went dry. We will try again tomorrow to fill it up.

We were going to take Gabriel to get a 55-gallon drum of water, but it wouldn’t start–satan never sleeps! We put a battery charger on it, and after a while we were able to get it started. A Haitian man told Chuck where we could get some water, so he loaded up and the Haitian man took him to a creek where people were bathing to get water–Chuck said, “I don’t think so . . .” So the Haitian man took him to another creek. Needless to say, Chuck came back without water. During all of this, the VBS team taught over 100 children, and the medical team saw over 200 people. What a blessing!

After four hours of struggling to locate enough water for us to shower and for the toilets, it was time for dinner. Ginette found some goat for us, and it was delicious. We had it with potato salad, rice and beans, and Jell-O for dessert.

When we finished dinner it was time to get ready for the church revival at Jerusalem IV. Chuck left about dark to take Pastor Do and a group from the church up first, and then he came back to get some of the team. Chuck called me about 30 minutes later and said the lights were going out on the truck. I asked if he had a flashlight, he said yes; I said okay, and hung up. Chuck is learning that you have to improvise in Haiti all the time. He came back to the mission house and followed me back to the church. We put a battery charger on the batteries during church, working off their generator, hoping it would charge the battery enough for the lights to work.

We had a great worship service; I love the little churches in Haiti. I introduced the team and told the church that it was Mokell’s birthday, and they all sang ‘happy birthday’ to him–it is a birthday he will never forget! The people were Spirit-filled, and Pastor Lonnie gave a powerful sermon about Isaiah challenging the Baal worshippers.

When church was over I tried to start Gabriel, and it would not start–again. I have been in this situation more than once in Haiti. I told Chuck to have Simon and Pastor Wisney get all the people together who were riding, along with some people from the church, to come and push Gabriel. Now this is a 2-1/2-ton truck, in the mud. We had to push it back and forth to get it in the direction of the road, so we could try to push-start it. It was hilarious! We had some Haitians pushing, some pulling, some pushing from the back, and some pushing from the front at the same time, all wondering why it wasn’t moving. It was dark and sprinkling rain. After about 20 minutes, we got it headed in the right direction, I put it in 4th gear, and it fired up. No sooner did it start than 20 Haitians were on it, ready to go home. When we got to the mission house, Ginette had baked a cake, and the team had popcorn and balloons for Mokell’s birthday.

So our day was a typical day in Haiti–refrigerator quit working, well went dry, all our water drained out of the cistern, truck wouldn’t start and it’s lights went out, but our God got everything done that He wanted done. It looks like satan would learn he cannot hurt or discourage His children.

Thank you for your prayers.