IHOP in Haiti

It’s another beautiful day in Haiti. Our day started early with making breakfast for the girls. Many of us helped prepare the batter, pour, flip and count the 150 odd pancakes made today. Others prepared bacon. We rounded out the meal with cups of mandarin oranges. What a team. We worked like a crew of chefs from Chez Paul, with much more challenging accommodations. Yeah, they didn’t actually look like Chez Paul pancakes, but they were made with love. This was a very special treat, both for us to serve and for the girls to eat. What joy we had in all the elements of preparation, serving and watching the girls devour this rare treat. We were amazed at their respect and restraint to wait for everyone to be served before digging in. Their pray also touched out hearts. Unfortunately, not everyone got to join us in the fun. We had a few casualties from our long, hot day yesterday. Renee, Bridgette and Catrina were all struck with aliments that we all prefer not to mention. Renee and Catrina bounced back quickly and poor Bridgette was down for the count until later in the afternoon. No need to worry, there was plenty of fun to come. Due to the illnesses, we changed our plans the day and decided it would be best to stay close to home. Change is nothing new to this team. We have been incredibly flexible which needs to be noted as amazing since many of us are ‘schedule’ people. God is always growing us.) Our new plan consisted of assembling teams of girls to come over to Marie’s and make crafts. This allowed for a change of scenery for the girls, reprieve from the intense heat for us all and an opportunity to spend some small group time with the girls. We still had some prep work to do but shortly, we were ready to roll. Once again, we functioned like a well oiled machine. We gained an additional ‘cog’ when Bridgette was healthy enough to join us. We all have learned that time with the girls is the best medicine. All the girls made a quilt square that had their picture in the center. These were prepared by Patty who is a whiz with a camera and printer. Next, all the girls got a small backpack that was stenciled to color and personalize. As a special treat, each girl got to pick out a beautiful dress to keep. I can’t wait to see them all modeled for service tomorrow. The older girls also got to make a bracelet. This is a long, tedious project that required a great deal of patience to teach and monitor with the girls. Lori, who headed this project and her crew were a bunch of angels. After all of this, we were pretty wiped out and so were the girls. We took some time to do some bonding, bed bug removal and some crafts ourselves. Karen spent some time with Andi, our interpreter, to edit a college paper he wrote. That’s our team, always serving. The title of his paper sparked a great deal of conversation, “ Is God in Haiti.” Wow! What a topic.

Then, something amazing happened. God answered our prayers for some relief from the heat, a rain storm. What an amazing blessing. As we enjoyed the coolness of the rain, the Haitians kept working. These are the hardest working people I have ever met. They do construction in 100 degree heat as well as sweep out water from the back of a pickup in the pouring rain. They never stop working. And they are happy about it. Now, that’s gratitude! We wound down the evening with a delicious meal of goat meat, rice and vegetables. Of course there were sides of American pasta for those with weak stomachs, both from illness and lack of adventure. I must admit I was one of the less adventurous souls. Sorry Bob, maybe next time. I did try a mango though. (Wow, what STRETCH!)
We end the evening with devotion and more bonding. We thank the Lord for this wonderfully, perfect day. I think a fitting verse to sum up this day would be, “From the fullness of His grace, we have all received one blessing after another.”
Blessings to all! Diane