School Construction Progressing
“He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.” ~Luke 6:48
I used to work in construction, MANY years ago; roofing, siding, decks, additions… Although I’m certainly not a seasoned professional, I always felt like I knew a bit about construction. That is, until we started building the school in Thozin. This has been a whole new ball of wax! It seemed to take forever to get the foundation in place. Once that was done, the walls just flew up. That was enjoyable. Now the finish work is like returning to the foundation again. There are just so many details to take care of!
The team from One Laptop Per Child arrived today. We looked at the room that will be the library/computer lab and I got excited. Once Lex is back, we’ll sit down and talk about the electrical installation in that room and furniture that will make the best use of the room and computer storage.
If you follow up on Facebook (mission of hope international) you know that I’m all excited about the flower beds we built in front of the school. Yesterday we planted some plants, as you can see below.
Flower beds are planted
School Happenings
This past week our students were taking their exams for this period. Next week will be vacation for all but twenty of our students. Those twenty, ages seven to seventeen, will spend four days in a training seminar with One Laptop Per Child, learning how to use the new XO laptops. I spent some time with the training team today and I’m confident the kids are going to have a blast! We’re excited to have children from the Hands and Feet Project and Be Like Brit represented in the mix. Our hope is to find leaders among these children who will in turn help to teach others how to navigate this new tool.
A Haitian Story
Jon Brennan, “How Great is Our God!”
We had a wonderful time in church this morning. We’re grateful to the Hands and Feet Project for sharing Jon Brennan and Daryl Brown (BridgePoint Chruch, St. Petersburg, FL) with us this morning. Jon ministered to us in music. It was so wonderful to look around the church and see the people really engaged in the song “How Great is Our God.” Most of them knew the chorus in English and joined in singing with him.
Daryl is an American who spent years living in Haiti, so he is very fluent in Haitian Creole. His message to the church was significant and I believe we will be referring to it regularly as the years go by.
Daryl Brown tells the story of TiMalice and Bouki
Daryl read from Ephesians 4:17-32 and told us a Haitian story. Some of the people knew the story, but many (myself included) did not.
Ti Malice built a beautiful, strong house to live in. His friend Bouki came by to visit and was so impressed with the house that he felt he must have it. He offered to buy it on several occasions, but Ti Malice never wanted to sell it. Finally Bouki offered Ti Malice $40,000 for his house. Ti Malice calculated that he could build a new house for about a quarter of that price.
Ti Malice finally told Bouki that he would sell him the house, but with one condition. Ti Malice would have one nail in the house that would remain for him. The whole rest of the house would be fore Bouki, except for that nail. Bouki agreed, gave him the money and Ti Malice went and built another house.
After quite some time in his new house, Ti Malice became dissatisfied. He missed his old house. He wanted it back, but didn’t see how he could get it. Then an idea came to him. He found a dead dog in the street and put it in a sack. He tied the sack up and that night snuck into Bouki’s house and hung the sack on his nail. The next morning, Bouki awoke to a horrible scent. He searched until he found the dead dog hanging from the nail. Bouki couldn’t do anything about the dog, because that was Ti Malice’s nail and he had no right to touch it. Eventually, Bouki couldn’t handle the smell any longer and he moved out of the house. After he moved, Ti Malice went back to his old house. He took disposed of the dog, cleaned the house and moved back in.
Daryl used this story as a great example of what Ephesians 4:27 says, “Neither give place to the devil.” All it takes is one little nail to open the door for your life to be subject to unbearable stench. I imagine we will be exhorting each other all the time: “Don’t give the devil a nail!”
One of the things I love about going to church, is seeing all my babies!
Here are a few more pictures from this morning:
music and worship
UN Dinner
UN Peacekeepers in our area are mostly from the country of Sri Lanka. Over the years we have made many friends among their commanders and officers. The are usually stationed here for about 6 months. The current contingent will be leaving later this week. One of the majors came by to invite Pastor Lex to their a small dinner party they were throwing to say good bye to the friends they’d made here. Lex, of course is not here, so he invited me. I, of course, don’t travel alone – especially at night and all the way into Leogane. The major was happy to have us all come, so Alexis, A. Jay, Gama, Jordan, Anne and I all headed to Leogane for a very multicultural evening.
Just for the record, that’s apple juice that A. Jay’s drinking!
Lex heads back to Haiti this week. PHEW!!! Please remember him in prayer. Thank you!