David showed up with the parts for the bunk beds. Hallelujah!!! I drove down to Tetayen to show him how to get to our–God’s–mission house. The first thing he asked was, ‘how did you ever find this place?’ I have been asked that question many times. I gave David a tour of the place, and then we started unloading his truck. We had 12 bunk beds to put together. Instead of the legs being made with 2x4s, these are made with 2x6s and have half-inch plywood where the mattresses lay, with five 2×4 braces–they are very sturdy. Again, a little larger than want I wanted, but we had to make them to fit the mattresses. We put together about half of them before lunch. I had asked Madame Do if she would make us a Haitian lunch and, boy, did she ever!–fried chicken, beans and rice with red sauce, pickles and fried bananas. So we ate lunch and then finished the rest of the beds by about 5 p.m. As we helped David load up it started pouring rain, which is such a blessing–it has been so dry here. The two creeks that you cross to get here have been dry for months. This is where the Haitians bathe, wash their clothes and get most of their drinking water. They have come from all over to get water from the well that we have thanks to David Heady of Compassion Outreach. Simon had to go home, so he rode in with them to Port. I was so tired–I took a shower, ate some peanut butter and jelly (yes, right out of the jar) and read a little. Then I was out for the night.
Thursday morning I got up about 5:30 a.m. and headed to Port to pick up Simon and do some shopping. The two creeks were full of running water from the rain coming down from the mountains. I had to thank God for such a beautiful sight.
I needed to go to Petionville to buy three more 5-gallon cans of white paint. I figure if I have people coming who want to work, I need to have plenty of projects and supplies. I also needed to get some papers for Gabriel to Edy (Haitian who takes care of all my paperwork in Haiti) so that we could get a sticker and be legal. I picked up Simon and, after getting the paint, we found Edy and gave him the papers, and headed to Eko Depot–a hardware store which has the same colors and logo as Home Depot. We bought some screws for the beds; David had not had enough to finish them. Also, we needed to buy a fan switch. One of the fans had quit; just one more thing to fix.
When we left there we went to cash a check at One Stop Grocery, and buy some groceries and other items: mops, brooms, cleaning supplies, etc. I have been blessed by meeting many people in Haiti that I have become friends with, and it amazes me the trust some of them have in me. For example, I can go into this grocery store and cash a $5000 check with no problem. There is no way I could do that at home, but I have been cashing checks with Taric and George for years and have built up that trust.
After buying the groceries, we left to meet Edy, and he actually had the decal I needed. It’s hard to understand, but that is like a miracle. It took 9 months to get papers for the van, and I just got my decal in about an hour and a half. Thank you, Lord!!
On the way home we stopped at an organization called CAM (Christian Aid Ministries) that has helped us for years with medicines, food, bibles and Bible story books for kids. I always buy our canned chicken there–it’s the best deal in Haiti, and it is delicious. Ginette cooks it in noodles, with dumplings, and sometimes she fries it. While I was there talking to Tim, the director, I asked him if he had anything he could give us, as we have some teams coming. He started looking in the computer and said he had several items. I told him the SUV was full, but we would be back in a few hours with Gabriel. He said that would give him time to see what he had. Simon and I purchased the chicken and went up to the mission house and made a baloney and cheese sandwich with chips and Coke–great lunch, I thought. Simon didn’t say much–I think he was just happy I stopped so we could eat.
After our quick lunch, we loaded up 2 gas barrels and headed back down to CAM. Tim gave us a pallet with 3 cases of bibles, which would cost $360. He also gave us 216 pairs of clogs, 50 hygiene kits and 450 children’s bible story books. It fills my soul with joy when we all work together to further the Kingdom.
When we left there we went to Cabera to get gas for the generators, and filled Gabriel up with diesel. The bill was $470–that puts a hurt on the pocketbook! Gas is around $5 a gallon, and diesel is a little over $4. We were going to purchase some lumber in Cabera, but it was too late, so we left for home
We got back after 5 p.m. and unloaded, ate another baloney sandwich and chips, and started the generator, thinking we would rest a little while. Wrong! The generator stopped running. It has been running great, but now the team is coming and it won’t run. We worked on it, got gas all over us changing the gas out, ran it for a little while, and it quit again. Praise the Lord we have another one. Again, just one more thing to fix. Tomorrow we will check the fuel filter and spark plug. It was dark, and Simon and I were just too tired to work on it. So I came in, took a shower, wrote this, and now it is time to go to bed. I have no trouble sleeping here, that’s for sure.
Tomorrow my brother Karl Leiber is coming in, and I sure will be glad to see him. I am so blessed to have brothers like him and Will Tiller, who come here and help me. With teams this large, I really need the help.
None of this would be possible without God being totally in control. There is so much that goes into one of these trips that you cannot foresee, especially in Haiti, but He always provides everything we need.
