so the last few days have been somewhat quiet actually, interspersed with the occasional moment of chaos, of course.
organized travis' truck monday, and while it's not completely finished, it's not half bad. went up to the school yesterday and helped pepe and wilson continue work on renee's new office. stopped by hands and feet to drop off donations from the team, including a brand new guitar that they had brought for the kids. it was perfect, too, because they have a keyboard for the kids, but no guitar yet, and some of them had been asking about one. glad to see it will be put to good use. :)
headed back to militone for a while, played some soccer with nahomie and romy and aj, and watched the ocean for a while. it was literally washing right up to the beach perimeter wall - not really high or anything, but the highest tide line was right at the bottom of the steps. crazy! no church because it was raining(ish), so back to kai militone for movie night with Kera. we watched August Rush [great movie, by the way], and then not more than 10 minutes after, just as i was going to sleep, Kera comes running out of the bathroom in the dorms, literally unable to make complete sentences. all i got was 'spider' and 'bigger than my face'... translation: there was a tarantula on the floor next to the toilet in the first stall. after much hyperventilating (mostly on kera's part ;) and general freaking out, we woke up marieyve, who came to our rescue. she initially wanted to kill it with a sandal, until we showed her that it was way too big for that. her plan of attack then was to chase it out of the guesthouse with a broom, and then to throw rocks at it until 'fini'. however, upon inspection this morning, no dead tarantula was actually found out on the rocks, so this episode might have a sequel in the future... let's hope not, though. :)
today thus far has been spent fixing renee's broken printer (which works now!) and working some on the new office again. however, today it was just me and a few of the kids, so "working" mainly translated into kid management and keeping small children away from power tools. headed back over there this afternoon to attempt to get a little more work done today, now that the rain has stopped and hopefully the kids are calmer...
to Him be the Glory!
8.24.2011
8.21.2011
21 August 2011
thoughts from the last few days, in no particular order:
this trip has been great for a few reasons. i feel like i've been able to be a little more independent, mainly in small ways, like driving travis' truck to the hardware store to pick up more nails or paint for a project, or being able to communicate [somewhat] better with people. just little things that make me feel much more efficient and useful here, rather than waiting on someone else to go to the store and get supplies for me, or waiting for a driver to come get us, or whatever the case may be. don't get me wrong, it's wonderful how everyone at mission of hope takes great care of us, and i absolutely love that. however, it's nice to feel 'familiar' here [as kelley put it], and to feel like i can help get things done without being as reliant on other people or circumstances. obviously, i'm still very reliant on others in some ways, because that's how the body of Christ is designed to work, but it's nice to see how i can function well here in this capacity, how i do feel like i'm fitting a role and a need and it's working well.
on the other side, it's also been really good to be reminded of how life can be simple and laid back. our American mindset so often is "i have to get these 23 things done in the next 10 minutes", rather than "we're going to do this, then after that, we'll do whatever the next thing is." things get done when they get done, and while sometimes that requires a little more patience, in the end it is good. i have a tendency [subconsciously or otherwise] to value productivity above other much more important things, such as relationships with people or even my walk with Christ. without even realizing it sometimes, i slide into the mindset of measuring my current state of satisfaction by my level of productivity, by tangible ways i can see things moving forward in one way or another. however, it is most often the intangible things that we as Christ followers should value above everything else, whether that's spending time resting in the Lord, or having a conversation with the village kids at the gate, or listening to someone share about their life experiences. these empirically immeasurable things are what will impact our lives the most in the end, not whether or not we finished painting a wall or hanging a door, or whatever other project we happened to be doing that day. don't get me wrong, i love seeing the progress of projects being finished and necessary things being built or improved upon, and the impact that those projects can have on people's lives. however, as kelley said this week, i'm going to choose to love the child more than the building.
to Him be the Glory.
this trip has been great for a few reasons. i feel like i've been able to be a little more independent, mainly in small ways, like driving travis' truck to the hardware store to pick up more nails or paint for a project, or being able to communicate [somewhat] better with people. just little things that make me feel much more efficient and useful here, rather than waiting on someone else to go to the store and get supplies for me, or waiting for a driver to come get us, or whatever the case may be. don't get me wrong, it's wonderful how everyone at mission of hope takes great care of us, and i absolutely love that. however, it's nice to feel 'familiar' here [as kelley put it], and to feel like i can help get things done without being as reliant on other people or circumstances. obviously, i'm still very reliant on others in some ways, because that's how the body of Christ is designed to work, but it's nice to see how i can function well here in this capacity, how i do feel like i'm fitting a role and a need and it's working well.
on the other side, it's also been really good to be reminded of how life can be simple and laid back. our American mindset so often is "i have to get these 23 things done in the next 10 minutes", rather than "we're going to do this, then after that, we'll do whatever the next thing is." things get done when they get done, and while sometimes that requires a little more patience, in the end it is good. i have a tendency [subconsciously or otherwise] to value productivity above other much more important things, such as relationships with people or even my walk with Christ. without even realizing it sometimes, i slide into the mindset of measuring my current state of satisfaction by my level of productivity, by tangible ways i can see things moving forward in one way or another. however, it is most often the intangible things that we as Christ followers should value above everything else, whether that's spending time resting in the Lord, or having a conversation with the village kids at the gate, or listening to someone share about their life experiences. these empirically immeasurable things are what will impact our lives the most in the end, not whether or not we finished painting a wall or hanging a door, or whatever other project we happened to be doing that day. don't get me wrong, i love seeing the progress of projects being finished and necessary things being built or improved upon, and the impact that those projects can have on people's lives. however, as kelley said this week, i'm going to choose to love the child more than the building.
to Him be the Glory.
8.19.2011
19 August 2011
Bonjou from Haiti, where we have projects aplenty!
the last few days have been good ones here in Grand Goave. we finished painting the school/church building up at St. Etienne on Tuesday [Lex posted pictures on Facebook], and have spent the last three days [Wednesday, Thursday, and today] at the main MOHI school/church compound, working on Renee's new office there [adjacent to the church pavilion, with windows facing the school construction], and finishing painting the depot building. the guys have been hard at work putting in windows and a ceiling in the office - which is not as easy as it sounds, because of course, this is Haiti, and nothing is exactly square or straight. pretty close, but not quite. the electricians were working on installing light fixtures yesterday as well. we have some insulation for the top edges where the walls meet the roof [above the ceiling], but not enough for all the walls, so once that is figured out, we'll hopefully be able to work on hanging the plywood [instead of drywall] for the interior walls. While some were working on the office, the rest of the team was out in the hot sun finishing painting the yellow on the depot building and touching up all of the dark brown trim too. the yellow and brown on the depot was finished yesterday, and today we painted the outside of the new office [yellow and brown of course, to match everything else], as well as starting to paint the depot doors and window bars white. the boys have gotten quite a bit more done on the office too, although it's been a little bit of a slow process. the electricians were working in there today too, but i'm not sure exactly where things stand currently. i do know, however, that they cut out about 20 feet of wire that ran from everything up front to the sound booth in the back of the church, so the outlets up front [and most likely the lights and sounds equipment and such] don't have power. whoops. i'm sure that situation will get solved one way or another here soon.
seth organized a soccer game with some of the village kids from Militone [the area near the beach property] for tonight, so we're headed back now for that. the goal for tomorrow is to try to get the projects at the school finished as much as possible before the team leaves early sunday morning.
that's the nuts and bolts of what we've been up to this week. another post to come soon about non-construction related thoughts...
to Him be the Glory!
the last few days have been good ones here in Grand Goave. we finished painting the school/church building up at St. Etienne on Tuesday [Lex posted pictures on Facebook], and have spent the last three days [Wednesday, Thursday, and today] at the main MOHI school/church compound, working on Renee's new office there [adjacent to the church pavilion, with windows facing the school construction], and finishing painting the depot building. the guys have been hard at work putting in windows and a ceiling in the office - which is not as easy as it sounds, because of course, this is Haiti, and nothing is exactly square or straight. pretty close, but not quite. the electricians were working on installing light fixtures yesterday as well. we have some insulation for the top edges where the walls meet the roof [above the ceiling], but not enough for all the walls, so once that is figured out, we'll hopefully be able to work on hanging the plywood [instead of drywall] for the interior walls. While some were working on the office, the rest of the team was out in the hot sun finishing painting the yellow on the depot building and touching up all of the dark brown trim too. the yellow and brown on the depot was finished yesterday, and today we painted the outside of the new office [yellow and brown of course, to match everything else], as well as starting to paint the depot doors and window bars white. the boys have gotten quite a bit more done on the office too, although it's been a little bit of a slow process. the electricians were working in there today too, but i'm not sure exactly where things stand currently. i do know, however, that they cut out about 20 feet of wire that ran from everything up front to the sound booth in the back of the church, so the outlets up front [and most likely the lights and sounds equipment and such] don't have power. whoops. i'm sure that situation will get solved one way or another here soon.
seth organized a soccer game with some of the village kids from Militone [the area near the beach property] for tonight, so we're headed back now for that. the goal for tomorrow is to try to get the projects at the school finished as much as possible before the team leaves early sunday morning.
that's the nuts and bolts of what we've been up to this week. another post to come soon about non-construction related thoughts...
to Him be the Glory!
8.16.2011
16 August 2011
paint and mountains and thunderstorms and joy.
those are the highlights of today. :) We've spent the last two days painting the inside of the new church building up at the St. Etienne site of MOHI. it's similar to the tin roof/pavilion structure of the church in Grand Goave, except it has plywood walls with high screen windows all around. and let me tell you, this team is awesome - they are all such hard workers and just went to town. Now that we finished that project, tomorrow will be working on Renee's new office at the church/school property. right now, it's just a basic frame with plywood walls and cutouts for two windows and a door. not sure exactly what the vision is for it yet, but we'll find out tomorrow, since that's our project for the next day or two at least. we're also planning to finish painting the walls of the depot building [which the may team started our last few days here].
unexpected great experience of the day: walking to the office to get picked up for church, no vehicle there, so we decided to just walk to the school quickly before it started to rain. we got just past the hardware store [about two blocks] before the downpour started. but hey, this is haiti, so what else are you going to do besides keep walking? so we walked the rest of the way to the church [about another ten minutes or so], and find all the kids there, super excited to see all of us, drenched as we were from the walk in the rain. so in lieu of a church service [since no one comes to church when it's raining], we all just hung out. there was guitar playing and hair braiding and hand-slap-game playing and general chaos, but it was chaos exploding with joy, as only Haiti can do. one of my favorite parts of the evening was braiding Brittany's hair with a woman named Jodi, who helps take care of the kids at the orphanage. It was the first time that my Creole has been good enough to actually carry on a conversation more than "Hi, how are you?". granted it was slow and involved lots of patience on Jodi's part, but it was the first time I've actually felt like I could communicate well with someone here who knows very little English. A glimpse of a future of more conversations in Creole, which I am beyond excited about. :)
tomorrow will be spent working on Renee's office, painting the depot, and playing with the kids some more, i'm sure. also going to drive Travis' truck up to the school, since he has so many useful tools and such for us to use. easier than making ten trips back to the beach to get things and ending up with half the truck tools at the school anyway. haha :)
love you all! thanks for all your prayers for this trip and this team. it's been a great week so far, with more great experiences to come, i'm sure.
to Him be the Glory!
those are the highlights of today. :) We've spent the last two days painting the inside of the new church building up at the St. Etienne site of MOHI. it's similar to the tin roof/pavilion structure of the church in Grand Goave, except it has plywood walls with high screen windows all around. and let me tell you, this team is awesome - they are all such hard workers and just went to town. Now that we finished that project, tomorrow will be working on Renee's new office at the church/school property. right now, it's just a basic frame with plywood walls and cutouts for two windows and a door. not sure exactly what the vision is for it yet, but we'll find out tomorrow, since that's our project for the next day or two at least. we're also planning to finish painting the walls of the depot building [which the may team started our last few days here].
unexpected great experience of the day: walking to the office to get picked up for church, no vehicle there, so we decided to just walk to the school quickly before it started to rain. we got just past the hardware store [about two blocks] before the downpour started. but hey, this is haiti, so what else are you going to do besides keep walking? so we walked the rest of the way to the church [about another ten minutes or so], and find all the kids there, super excited to see all of us, drenched as we were from the walk in the rain. so in lieu of a church service [since no one comes to church when it's raining], we all just hung out. there was guitar playing and hair braiding and hand-slap-game playing and general chaos, but it was chaos exploding with joy, as only Haiti can do. one of my favorite parts of the evening was braiding Brittany's hair with a woman named Jodi, who helps take care of the kids at the orphanage. It was the first time that my Creole has been good enough to actually carry on a conversation more than "Hi, how are you?". granted it was slow and involved lots of patience on Jodi's part, but it was the first time I've actually felt like I could communicate well with someone here who knows very little English. A glimpse of a future of more conversations in Creole, which I am beyond excited about. :)
tomorrow will be spent working on Renee's office, painting the depot, and playing with the kids some more, i'm sure. also going to drive Travis' truck up to the school, since he has so many useful tools and such for us to use. easier than making ten trips back to the beach to get things and ending up with half the truck tools at the school anyway. haha :)
love you all! thanks for all your prayers for this trip and this team. it's been a great week so far, with more great experiences to come, i'm sure.
to Him be the Glory!
8.13.2011
another adventure begins....
I can't believe that it's already the middle of August! I'm leaving today for two weeks, hosting a team from Stow Alliance Church at Mission of Hope. The team is led by Stow Alliance's Youth Pastor, Seth Bisheimer, his wife Sara, and Kelley Parker [who has been on two previous trips with me]. So excited for all the life changing experiences that this team will undoubtedly have this next week, and especially to see everyone at MOHI again! We're leaving Stow at noon today, and flying out of Detroit at 735pm tonight, overnight in Fort Lauderdale, and then into Port Au Prince first thing Sunday morning.
Wish I could post more right now, but I may or may not have finished packing yet.... and by that, I mean I definitely haven't. haha. More details to come from long travel times ahead!
Love you all.
To Him be the Glory!
Wish I could post more right now, but I may or may not have finished packing yet.... and by that, I mean I definitely haven't. haha. More details to come from long travel times ahead!
Love you all.
To Him be the Glory!
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