Loving the Children

We often have one or two groups of people that we meet with right after service for specific reasons, youth, women, worship team, ushers…  I usually spend at least a couple of hours at my office, if not the whole rest of the day after church on Sundays.  Today, however, I left after church meetings were done.  We had a nice visit with Drex and Jo Stuart (Hands and Feet Project) and their guests, down at the mission compound by the ocean.  The kids all came down to go swimming.  We also had a “Missionary Care” staff meeting, so I didn’t get back to the office until almost 4 o’clock. 

When I returned to the office, I noticed two of our students, brothers, standing outside the gate, looking toward the vehicle I was in.  They had these expectant looks with little smiles.  When our eyes met and they knew it really was me, they started to dance, laugh and jump for joy.  Now, seriously, I’m not THAT exciting of a person to see, but I knew there was a reason for their excitement.

I usually prepare my own meals right in my office (I eat mostly raw foods, when I do cook, I do so in an electric frying pan).  I often make enough to share with staff during the week and on the weekends, with certain children that I know are usually suffering, hungry.  These were two of those boys.  While I don’t make any promises to always give them food, they’ve enjoyed enough of my food to know that I wasn’t likely to turn them away hungry.  I asked the older boy, “Did you eat yet today?”  He answered “No, my mother doesn’t have any money to make food.  I asked him when he would eat again.  He told me, “tomorrow in school,” with a smile on his face.  I proceeded to give him and his brother some high energy biscuits that I had nearby.  They jumped up and gave me a big “Mèsi, Madame!”  I later gave them some beans that I had left over in the fridge, so they could take them home to reheat them.  

I could have given them money to bring home, so they could buy food, but the sad reality is that their dad had worked for us all week.  He was just paid yesterday.   I’m so glad that we are able to feed these kids at school, because, unfortunately, this is not totally foreign to many families here.  Dad is the king of the castle (or tent, as the case may be) and his tummy has priority over the rest of the family.  Quite honestly, I was spittin’ mad!  Perhaps with less reason than I thought.  A Haitian proverb comes to mind: “The stone in the river doesn’t understand the misery of the stone in the sun.”

I had some “fun” days with some of the kids this week.  Mackenson had some cool glasses and he and Chrislove worked on making a Tinker Toy airplane with A. Jay.

Praying for Wilson

We continue to pray for Wilson, as we await the results of his latest biopsy.  He’s been suffering from high fevers from the pneumonia he’s had for several weeks now.  He’s recently changed antibiotics and we are hopeful this will help to combat this issue.

Wilson was at church this morning and also joined us at the mission house this afternoon.  As his brothers and sisters played in the water and on the beach, he chilled in the hammock under the choukoun (pavilion).  Now he’s fast asleep in Mama Jo’s room while Papa Drex attends our English service this evening.

Wilson is very thin and considerably weaker than he was just a couple of weeks ago.  Please remember him in your prayers.

Housing the Poor

Ground breaking 5/6/2012 on a new home for a family without one.

We are thrilled to be working with Kids Against Hunger – Tulsa to build a new home for a poor family here in Grand-Goave. We broke ground on it today and anticipate a short construction period, allowing the family to move into their new home asap. If you would like to help a family move out of a tarp or tent home into a permanent structure, please contact us today.

Paul’s Summary of BLB and MOHI

Paul Fallon, the Boston architect who designed both the BLB orphanage and the MOHI School and Church, has been spending a couple of weeks each month here with us since January.  He splits his time between both projects.  He writes a blog and recently shared some of his observations of the two work sites.  He titled the post “Twin Construction of Different Fathers.”  He talks about how one would assume the two projects would be very similar, and yet they are very different.  I thought his summary was great and would like to share it with you:

“As I walk home I consider these two variations on a theme – the proto-capitalist BLB site versus the Social Democratic MoHI site.  As management, whose salary (?) is independent of either system, I should be able to make an objective assessment.  But I cannot.  On each site I have enjoyable, productive days. At BLB I feel very productive; at MoHI I feel verygood; which pretty much sums up Lex’s and Len’s primary drive.”

 School Construction Update

Construction continued moving forward again this week.  As you can see in the picture, we are building walls above ground now.  Yippeeeee!!!!  I’ll tell you what, this building has more cement and rebar than I could ever have imagined.  We’re so grateful to the SGH Engineering team that has donated their services for the past year to BLB and MOHI.  We’re now anticipating the arrival next month of Alan Roseberry and his family.  Alan will be laying out the plumbing, after which we will be able to pour the ground floor slab.  (We have quite a few other projects for him while he’s here, as well.)  We’re grateful, as well, for Paul Fallon’s onsite direction these past two weeks!!!  And we are grateful to each of you who has given so selflessly to allow MOHI to operate in Haiti, assisting and bringing hope to the children of Haiti!!!