Why I Came?

Why did I come…?

After a “no pilot” delay leaving Chicago, and then returning to the gate after the plane engine sucked in   a bouquet of helium balloons, followed by weather issues causing yet another delay  - I made it to Miami with seven minutes to go before my connecting flight to Haiti was to leave.  I fell into my seat, throat dry from running and hauling my carry-ons – only to be delayed AGAIN!  But – once we landed and I felt the warm breeze and typical smells of Haiti – all of the trials of travel were gone.

Whenever I come back it’s as if time had stood still since my last visit.  The scenery, activity and seemingly no progress is always the same.  I still look out my window in disbelief – wondering how people can live this way day after day.  But then I remember my life of the past six weeks since my last visit here and could ask myself the same thing…Why do I cram so much into a day and keep myself so anxious and worrisome about “projects” and what to make for dinner!!   How do I CONTINUE to live that way?

When I drove through the gate of New Life Children’s Home and saw the handicapped children in their wheelchairs all around the shade of the huge mango tree with some of the other children off to the side playing, a peace came over me and it was if I left all my “flight frustrations”  and self induced anxieties behind.    A few girls ran to greet me and their hug explained why I came.  No real agenda this time – no planned events – just here to share God’s love and receive it back 10 fold so I CAN return home in 10 days and be recharged to handle MY LIFE – they all seem to be doing just fine.  Yes, their clothes are a bit tattered and mismatched.  Yes, they are probably wearing their only pair of shoes – being flip flops (I happened to bring SIX pairs of different sandals – SICK!)  Yes, they probably ate the same dinner they had four other nights this week…but food is eaten to sustain their body – interesting concept -  we spend more time reading labels, demanding choices and variety and complaining about long checkout lines than we  actually do eating!

I don’t know – it’s different this time.  Usually the first couple days when I get back I feel a bit depressed by how little things change and how “hard” life is here – but this time the simplicity and being free of the chaos of home brought me peace. 

I went to bed at 7:30ish – exhausted – and just listened to the night noises and waited for the fan to oscillate my direction as I laid still in the heat.  I was aware that I had seen three salamanders on the wall in my room earlier – and I’ve even grown used to those.  (I still don’t do rats well, however!)

After a good night’s sleep – no longer hearing the roosters – similar to living by a train track and no longer hearing the train – I got up early and read my devotions outside in the sunshine and beautiful morning breeze.  YES – all my mid-west friends – there IS something called sunshine and beautiful warm weather! I was even excited to take my bucket bath and pour water over my head.

I just returned from morning devotions with all the children where they sang one song after another with just fervor.  I didn’t feel worthy of all the love and hugs I received at the end as they each waited their turn to hug me….how could I ever explain to them that God uses THEM to bless and teach ME? When have I ever given God that amount of time in MY day, EVERY day?  I’m sitting here feeling so humbled.  I’ve asked God many times to remove my prideful ways….I guess that was HIS agenda for me this trip, beginning today.  Let not your heart be weary….you’ll miss the gifts He has for you today.

Patty M

I will see you again

It’s not a goodbye but I will see you again….

Last full day started as great as all previous days, with a magnificent sun rise. Had a conversation with a young lady in the computer room, turns out the she is a reporter for newspaper and was on the ground in Haiti one day after earthquake. She showed me some great pictures from that visit, I told her about our walk in Haiti. Rene and Frenzy showed up on time and started the prep work to mount the truss. Rene was welding overhand, underhand and in all different positions, I am very proud of both of their progress. Truss was mounted, two beams installed and it was time to say I will see you again in July….it was sad.

I was able to spend some time with Miriam, showed her how the iMac works and went over few of my videos (she was moved). The girls from the orphanage were working with a music teacher all afternoon, so we went over to the church to listen to them, they sounded great. At the end the boys joined them on the stage as well and all the kids sang. It was great!

After dinner, I was the support person for Miriam’s presentation of her vision. We met with two groups that are interested in rebuilding current New Life Children’s Home facility and interested in building a 36 bed hospital in Pistel, Haiti. We had a very productive meeting and I was honored to support Miriam in her vision. Due to this very important meeting I missed the devotional for the kids, so I could not say my “I will see you in 3 months”. I did managed to send the bubble gum with Sarah for the kids.

Why did God make leaving such a sad event when arriving is such a joyous one?

I will show up on these pages once again in 3 months, but this is not goodbye, I will see you later!

Just another Friday

Friday, just another day in Haiti, Rene and Frenzy showed up early and started to work on finishing fabrication of the truss. Frenzy had to leave at 9:30am to attend to some business, but Rene stayed all day. While Rene worked on the truss, I started to assemble bed parts (since boys were in school today0. By mid morning Bob was free to help me and we started to set posts for the truss. Posts are no more than an old rail from the railroad and it’s very heavy. Rene help us mix concrete in after lunch and both posts were completed before end of the day. I did ask both of them (Rene and Frenzy) to come back tomorrow to set the truss and beams.

I also was able with help from Windsor to preassemble all of the beds that are going into the other guest house. Beds could not be finished since the tile floor is not finished in that house.  

This afternoon I also had a talk with the girls that sing as a group (they did not want to sing another day). We talked about God and gifts that He gave us and how we use them. I don’t know if that talk worked or Miriam’s conversation with all of them later on but when they sang inside church later on, the whole neighborhood heard about our God! It was awesome. We have a tentative schedule to record them tomorrow (we will see how it goes then).

Friday night, just another night, but tonight after quite a warm dayit  is a movie night. First of all, Sherry and Danny are going home tomorrow (for a month), so they both addressed the kids (and it got emotional). Also, the kids have been so great helping out on the bunk beds and I wanted to thank them for all the help. Since there were so many of them that were involved, I had to recognize all of them. So we had ice cream as a treat. Sherry told me that last time they had ice cream was at Christmas, and few of the kids have never seen and tasted one. So once the single serving tubs were distributed, it was fun watching kids scoop up that frozen treat! An animated movie started right after that, but this old man was not interested.  

Tomorrow is a last full day at New Life Children’s Home, I am looking forward to see what God will put in front of me!

Very emotional day!

Turned out that last night we had 2 groups that stayed at New Life Children’s Home. One from Florida and one from Atlanta Georgia. I walked around the compound early this morning with a lady from the Georgia Group, showing her around the property and trying to get her interest in support of New Life.

Kids were back in school today so not as much chaos. I was able to put together two more bunk beds, and work with Rene and Frenzy on last beam fabrication for fish farm and we started to lay out and fabricate the truss. I have to admit that both Rene and Frenzy have pleasantly surprised me with their willingness to learn, how quickly they are picking up this fabrication and that they actually apply a thought process when working on fabrication. As this week progress, I let them work on their own more and more, and both of them stepped up to the challenge. What a great feeling when you are a teacher (just awesome)! This feeling is my reward for the daily heat, humidity, and dust!

In the early evening a group of us, including Miriam, Dr John and Pastor Max went to visit an orphanage that is located in the middle of “nowhere”. Lady that is running the orphanage received this plot of land from someone, put a very primitive fence up and called it home. A moon like surface is surrounding the area. A 1 inch of fine dirt covers the whole area, it is virtually impossible to keep anything or anybody clean. Pastor max is a young man called to serve the Lord in the near (relative term) by tent city. He has an overflowing plate of his own already, he sleeps on the floor of the make shift church, but yet he has no problem to oversee this orphanage as well. It was agreed that a pad will be made for storage tanks so they would have place to store water, tanks will be purchased and water delivery will be arranged. It was a heart breaking visit. A departure from (city) conditions, as bad as they might be, this is a 10-fold worse. The good news from this visit was (if there is one) that the kids were in a very good spirit and they looked healthy, unlike how they looked during Patty, Renee and Joan’s visit. Dr John was very encouraged about the health aspect of this visit.

Tired and hungry and emotionally drained we returned to New Life Children’s Home. Cold shower and some dinner were somewhat refreshing.

Days get better and better!

I don’t think I used awesome day yet (just kidding). Each day is better and better and more satisfying. This morning Rene and Frenzy had to go pick up Marie so they did not come back until noon. So in the morning I welded up first of the beams for the fish farm roof.  After that I made a cart with wheels for the welder so it can be easily moved around. By that time Renee and Frenzy showed up, we went over the job for the day, and they started to burn stick.

Barry was busy with boys painting bunk beds parts, but the paint seems to dry very quickly so there is no drying time involved. And the boys have done such a great job painting.

I moved (remounted) shutters in the first guest house from inside opening to outside opening and with help from Roberto we were able to build the first bunk bed. It came out just great.

Rene and Frenzy worked until 6:00 pm and finished 10 of 11 roof beams. Most of the welding was done by Rene but Frenzy did some welding as well. Those guys did a great job today, and as in the previous few days, they were smiling on the way out of the gate.

We have a group of visitors with us for most of the day, collage age kids from Florida. They were sorting container items in the church and join everyone else at devotional time. The girls from orphanage were supposed to sing tonight, but changed their minds when time came. Miriam gave them no choice in that matter and they performed after all. I can see after very short conversation with Miriam, that she is so full of vision and spark!

God has provided another awesome day and I can’t wait to see what he will bring tomorrow!