Haiti May 26, 2012

Chuck G and I arrived in Haiti on Thursday afternoon. We went by the grocery for a few things to last us a couple of days, until we can figure out exactly what all needs to be done to get started. You never know when you have been gone for a month what needs to be fixed–things here just self-destruct. We were very blessed this time; everything seems to be working.

We have had many guests since the Lord opened the mission house here this year. We had a group come by from First Baptist Church of St. Charles, MO, and then we had Cinco Baptist Church of Fort Walton Beach visit us in April. These are groups that were in Haiti and just wanted to come and visit. Last month a very good friend of mine, Linda Blankenship, who is a full time missionary in the northwest of Haiti, was in Port and emailed me to see if we could accommodate a couple of young ladies from Canada. I told her that we would love to, but we were leaving the next day. Linda told me the young ladies had felt a call from the Lord to come to Haiti, and really didn’t know exactly what they were going to do. When they arrived they started helping in an orphanage in Port au Prince, but they wanted to get out of Port and see some of the country. She told me they were going to be here until June. I told her we would be glad to take them up to the mission house if they still wanted to go when we returned. When I got here I called them, and they were ready to come. I told them I would be very busy preparing for a team coming in Wednesday and I couldn’t spend a lot of time with them, but they still wanted to come. I asked them if they minded cleaning and they said they would do anything that needed to be done. At that point, Chuck G said he would drive down to get them right then–Chuck doesn’t care too much for cleaning. Long story short, Nelly and Irene are with us now and are such a joy, and Chuck is happy because he hasn’t had to do any cleaning. Nelly and Irene are from Winkler, Manitoba, Canada.

Today we had breakfast and my plan was that Simon and I would go into Port and meet with Ginette to buy our first load of groceries. We are blessed to have Rocky Bayou Christian School from Niceville, FL, take their mission trip with us. They will arrive on May 30, and will be with us until June 11. They have a group of 29 people–we are going to need a lot of groceries!

As we left the mission house, people were yelling at us to stop. They said a truck had turned over last night and the road was blocked. We drove down to where a bridge is being built and looked and, seriously, the large truck was upside down. You have to ask yourself how you turn a big truck upside down. Don’t know how you do it, but the driver did, and the amazing thing is that he didn’t get hurt. It happened last night; we were told the man had never driven on the roads up here. He went up a ramp where the new bridge is going to be, and went off the side. You couldn’t even get a motorcycle around the truck. We immediately started looking for another route. There was a path that we could make into a road to bypass the big truck, but we had to fill in a lot of holes with rocks. Several Haitians and Simon and I started carrying rock and, after filling many holes, we got two trucks through; about the time we were going to try to go through, this big truck tried to get through and got stuck. After half an hour passed with him still stuck, I understood that, though it had been my plan to go to Port this morning it apparently was not God’s, so I decided to get on His schedule–it’s less stressful. We returned to the mission house and started doing all the little projects that needed to be done before the team comes, and it was a really relaxing day.

Around 3 p.m., we took a little walkabout to Daniel’s voodoo village. Daniel wasn’t there, but we learned that the path was passable now, so when we returned to the mission house we got into the Ford and headed to Port. The reason we went this late was to pick up Dr. Rick from Kansas City, who was flying in at 5 p.m. Dr. Rick has been many times with us to Haiti; he is here now to look at some land he may be purchasing.

We made it through the path and around the big truck, and on our way down the hill we met a huge wrecker coming up to move the truck. Just a few years ago that truck would have stayed in the road for a month or two before anyone would have moved it. It is amazing how things have changed here.

You never go into Port to do just one thing. We took one of our big igloos and bought some block ice, went to the grocery, and had the Ford washed before we picked up Dr. Rick. Amazingly enough, his flight was right on time. We made it back up to the mission house around 6:30 and, to everyone’s surprise, Madame Do had cooked a Haitian meal for us. The timing could not have been more perfect. As usual, dinner was delicious–fried chicken, rice, red sauce, brown sauce, spicy slaw and fried bananas.

After dinner I took a nice refreshing shower–let me tell you it is refreshing when that cold water hits your head! When my heart started beating normally again, I started working on the website entry and planning tomorrow. Of course my plans are very rarely used here, but it gives me a direction in the morning. He said He will direct my paths, so I figure I need to be moving if He is going to be directing.