Two whole weeks since my last update. Went to the mainland to see my daughter and mom since my last update and returned to Haiti on April 27th.
So much is continuing to happen here in Haiti. The next structural steel crew to help put up the church building arrived on the 27th and started right into work. Slowly the building is taking shape. It will still be a few weeks before we can use it, but soon we will be moving inside and worshipping in a brand new building! The church congregation is excited and people are constantly watching what's going on. Our Haitian crew is also learning some new skills erecting a steel building. There aren't that many steel buildings like this in Haiti and this is all new to the Haitians.
This past weekend was the Foursquare Haiti National convention and 24 pastors and church leaders from around the country came in to our church property to worship, hear excellent teaching and bond together as brothers and sisters in Christ. Aaron and I were able to attend one of the evening services and God really spoke to us both ! (and the speaker was an American so we didn't have to wait for the translation !) The Haitian pastors and leaders all stayed in the temporary buildings we built on the church property and enjoyed it tremendously. This was the first year they have been able to all stay in one place for meals and to sleep. The pastors all agreed that this was the best convention they've ever had. As a result of this year's convention the pastors have decided they want to meet four times a year as a large group and they also agreed to stop work at noon every Friday just to pray for each other. The pastors are from all over the nation and most only see each other once a year. Praying for each other once a week will do so much to strengthen the churches they serve in and to continue binding them together. We sent a number of the pastors home with our Mana-pak food boxes for their orphanage and school children - over 4,000 meals sent home with these men of God for the children !
At the Girl's orphanage we will be installing the razor wire later this month. I am especially excited about that !! But another exciting thing is that a mainland church has donated the money to dig a well on the Girl's orphanage property that will provide the same excellent drinking water we have on our National Foursquare church property. Currently the girl's get water out of a shallow well to use for washing, etc. I pumped some of it myself the other day and it comes out of the faucet slightly "brown". And their "drinkable" water that is in a large water tank elsewhere on the property is brought in by truck - but it's the same water we purchase that we consider to be only good for washing and toilets !! It will be so great to get these girl's some really pure drinking water that we can trust. At the same time, we will be buiilding a water distribution setup for the community around the girl's orphanage similar to what we did at the church property.
Next week Aaron, Jara and I want to have a birthday party for the girl's at the orphanage - for all the girls who have birthdays in April, May and June. Hopefully we can pull it off without too much trouble. Last week I gathered almost all the girl's names and birthdays so we can celebrate during this coming year. It was a little interesting as we asked when their birthdays were - I think they began to suspect something was up and some of the girls began telling us their birthdays were real soon ! I guess they figured if their birthday was sooner, they'd get presents sooner ! (we will have to work on their honesty about that !)
Yesterday we started work on grading the property for Pastor Bellande's new orphanage and church. Tuesday we went to the property to meet an engineer who will be helping us with rerouting the stream that runs through the property. When we arrived there were about 20 Haitians working on the property next to ours - a few men, numerous women and a bunch of kids. The men were working with pick and shovel to try to level the adjacent property they own. Come to find out, they were from a Haitian Assembly of God church and they are going to build a small church right next door to ours. But what was so interesting, they were leveling the property today because they have a big church party this coming Sunday and they have no place to meet unless they complete the leveling project. After meeting with our engineer and contractor who will be moving all the dirt on our property, we decided to assist the Assembly of God church and level their land as well. The backhoe started yesterday and we promised them we would have it done before Sunday - but only if they invited us to their party ! ha ! Without our help, I doubt they could have finished their project this week. I expect they went home thinking we were an answer to their prayer - ha ! How interesting are God's ways !!
Love to you all,
Uncle Mark
All the framing is up except for a tiny portion at this end of the building. Next week we start siding !!
These are the Foursquare senior pastors from around the nation having a planning session on the church property. In the background is our chicken "condo", the tilaplia tanks and our "guest house" where these pastors stayed. We just finished building the guest house a couple weeks ago.
Sorry - just had to toss in a shot of the grandkids. Behind me is Eddie (my son-in-law) who is feeding Vida and I am feeding Levi. Was so much fun seeing them !!
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