I called Pastor Dorleon and asked him to meet me at the mechanic’s shop so I could see what shape Gabriel, the truck, was in. Again, as usual, it would not start so, while Pastor Dorleon and I talked while we put jumpers on the batteries. I just bought the batteries in November. Pastor Dorleon and his son are so excited about the conference. They said there are about 75 pastors coming now. We figured out how to transport them and how much food we would need for the four days. It is always more than you think. Everything has increased since I was here in January. Now, one bag of beans is $70.60 and a sack of rice is $47.56. We will need 4 bags of beans and 22 sacks of rice, as well as sugar, flour, corn, oil, etc. And then we have to transport it. We will also buy bibles and hymn books for the conference. The big surprise for the church is that we have a PA system with microphones and a keyboard. They have wanted this for a long time and Wes Ratliff, the worship pastor at Wright Baptist Church, found an old one for us. What a blessing this is going to be! After our meeting, I checked on the truck and the batteries would not take a charge so I had to buy two new ones again. Money seems to flow out of your pockets here.

After buying the batteries and installing them, the truck cranked right up. Then I was off to order all the materials for the foundation of Jerusalem II Church that other members of the mission team will be building. We will have to transport all materials (cement, rebar, plastic barrels, food, etc) up a mountain from Z’Orangé by donkeys. You cannot drive up this mountain. It takes over two hours to walk up it to the location of the foundation. Not only are we doing a foundation but Joshua Unger is building a shade house for the Jerusalem Baptist Church so they can have food year around. I ordered parts for that project, also. I arranged transportation for all materials to Z’Orangé because I won’t have enough time to make two trips before the team comes.

When all these arrangements were taken care of, I picked up Joshua Unger and Karl Leiber at the airport. The flight was late again; we’re in Haiti, what do you expect?! When we got to the CSI House, we began to make plans for Thursday.

 

March 20, 2008
March 18, 2008