Week ending Sunday 16th January

Prayers

• Praise for Brenda – we have been married 24 years this week – We would not have it any other way.
• Travel mercies as we travel around this week for meetings in Port, Leogone, Jacmel and here in Grand Goâve.
• The Jersey Village mission team – they are presenting their mission week to their church, this week. We pray that they will be able to impart the same enthusiasm they had while they were here to their church family.

 This week
 This blog is a short week but it is still worth letting you know what is going on in Grand Goâve. Having said goodbye to our last team we had Wednesday as a remembrance day, of the earthquake last year.

We do not get much news here, but what we do get seems to say that Haiti has so much wrong with it. What many people don’t report on – because good news does not make good reading – is all the things that have been done in the last year. Sure there is lots more to do, however, drive around our area and there are many, many, temporary homes. There are block homes built by Lifeline. There are rubble homes, built by our partners Haiti Housing Network. Schools have been re-opened, businesses are being restarted. There are many carpenters building home furniture that would not be doing so if there was not a market for it.

If you are looking for positive things in Haiti they are there. We need to keep that hope in the forefront of our work. We are on a marathon, not a sprint – some days we too wish we could do the 100 meter dash but we realize that this marathon is a long one – with the Lord in front, beside and behind we will get through it.

We have three praise worthy things for the blog, from this week –

Our car is now all taxed and insured for 2011. It was a bit touch and go for a few weeks but the right paperwork has been produced and Gesner had the car inspected, in Port-au-Prince, this week and we are A-OK.

Bondidias broke out a HUGE slab of concrete that was in the way of the new foundations of classrooms 10,11 &12. 4 to 5 feet round and the same depth into the ground. It had eluded our last team’s valiant efforts on Tuesday but on Thursday, within two hours of the start of the day Bondidias, with a HUGE smile let me know that he had sledged hammered it out! Bondidias rules!

We have the slab poured for Tikammie’s new home. His is currently living in a tent that is beginning to see the ill effects of sunshine, rain and daily use for 6 plus months. With the help of him and his friends we poured the slab and we hope, within a week or so we will have the sides and the roof on.

Friday night it rained – and it rain hard and long. It has not rained in weeks; thunder came in and about 10:30pm the rain started and while I’m sure it was welcome for many others would have preferred it not rain at all.

We were invited to Norgess church, today, for worship. It was a big church building with a small but lively congregation. Men and women separated down the center aisle, however, they did dance in the aisle during one energetic hymn. Moise preached and he too was very enthusiastic about it. While the details of the sermon still pass me by his theme was to always trust in God – he WILL be with you and he does care about you.


Comments on our blog site. Few people leave comments on our site. Until the other day I did not realize that you needed an account on one of four or five blog sites to actually add a comment; however, we really would like you to share your thoughts with us (and the rest of the world). How about a caption competition? Remember that I am NOT a mason. This was the final bit of the poring of the slab for Tikammie’s new house. Light heated – what caption should be put with the photo below?

Go on, add a caption for this photo!