Haiti March 21, 2012

Last night was a late night for me, preparing the entries and photos for the website. I was up until about 12:30 a.m., and then I couldn’t sleep–I have some sort of cold or sinus problem. I finally got to sleep about 1:30, then woke up every hour until it was time to get up at 4:30. Simon, Chuck and I left to go to Port au Prince at 5 a.m. to pick up a team from Cinco Baptist Church in Ft. Walton Beach, FL. We had charged the batteries all night on Gabriel, but I was afraid to use the lights when we left, thinking to save them for when we got to the main road to Port down the mountain. Chuck had a good flashlight, so we drove down the mountain with the light of a flashlight. When we got to the main road, I turned the lights on, and they worked fine all the way to the mission house where the team was staying. It rained on us from the time we got close to Port all the way to their mission house, and then it stopped. God’s timing is always perfect.

Dr. Mickey Hawkins is the Senior Pastor, and Justin Gambrell is the Student Pastor at Cinco–they both are here with the mission team. They had contacted me a couple of months ago about their trip, and wanted to come up and work with us. It was such a joy to have them! We arrived back at our mission house a little before 9 a.m., and after all the introductions to the Greater Little Rock Team, we headed up to Jerusalem I to start the medical clinic and VBS. It was a wonderful time, to watch these two teams work together to show the love of our Lord.

While the teams were doing the clinic and VBS, I decided to look under Gabriel’s hood to see if a belt had broken, or if there was a loose wire on the alternator. Pastor Mickey came and told me he used to work on big trucks and autos, so he crawled up there with me. We found some burned wires and so much corrosion on the alternator that the wire had snapped off. Pastor Mickey took charge, and Chuck and I became his gofers–in about an hour we were finished and back in business. Thanks, Pastor Mickey!

Around noon we stopped and had lunch. Ginette had some sandwich meat, chips, cookies and Kool Aid ready for us. After lunch we went down to Daniel’s voodoo village and set up the medical team and VBS. Everything ran smoothly, and after VBS the students played soccer with some of the Haitian kids. Altogether, the medical team saw 197 patients today, and VBS had a couple hundred kids. They have worked really hard, and I know they will be really blessed!

Chuck and the Cinco team had to leave about 3:00 in order for them to get back in time for supper and Chuck to get back to the mission house before dark. Chuck got them back about 5:30, and he got back to the mission house at 7:30, just in time to go pick up the people at Jerusalem IV to come down to Jerusalem I for church tonight. Pastor Lonnie has been preaching every night that it hasn’t rained. I love to hear him preach–you can feel his passion for the Lord.

Tomorrow Chuck and Simon will go to Port again at 5 a.m. and pick up the Cinco team, and we will spend the day at Jerusalem IV doing VBS and medical clinic; some of the Cinco team wants to go hut-to-hut. It has been a long, wonderful day with our Father. Thank you for your prayers.