A Year Ago Today

A year ago today, an earthquake rocked the nation of Haiti and all that once stood. Today, we commemorate those who lost their lives and remember that there is so much to still be done. There is debris to be hauled, homes to be built, food to be distributed and thousands of little children who have been orphaned to love. Please join us in praying for this nation today and in the future, that God’s mercy and provision will continue to spread throughout this land, that this tragedy would be used as a new beginning for our Haitian brothers and sisters and that hope in Jesus will prevail. Hope can take on many different facets but today in Haiti it might look something like this…

A Glimpse of Life in Haiti This Past Week

Aloha ! - Just wanted to give everyone an update on what's happening here in Haiti

Aaron Harris arrived Thursday afternoon. Good to have him here working with me. Church this morning was great ! (again). This afternoon did laundry - dirty laundry in a large pan with water and soap, stomp around on it for a while with bare feet and then rinse - works great !! And you also have the cleanest feet in town !!

Tomorrow Aaron and I head off early to a recently started church near Les Cayes (about eight hours drive from here). We will be preparing projects for teams to work on when they go there over the next few months. Access requires a four-wheel drive vehicle and there is NO internet (what will we do ?!?! Ha !) We will be back very late Tuesday. Wednesday (the 12th) there is a huge church gathering in downtown Port-au-Prince that we are attending with Pastor Gee (our pastor here). January 12th is the first anniversary of the Haiti earthquake and many churches have combined together for this memorial service. It is a very somber time here, but also a time to thank God for life, and move ahead with continued relief efforts, rebuilding and bringing Haiti back to where it should be. I have included a few photos for you and also the Foursquare Haiti Relief Effort Communique that was sent out from Base Camp here at the beginning of December. Even though a month old, I thought you would like to see what was done this past year and what is being planned for this year of 2011.

God bless

Mark

Aaron and I showing our new friends the partially built chicken coop. Dressed out in Sunday Best !!

I'm standing in the partially completed Talapia ponds looking back over the Foursquare National church property. On the right (behind Aaron) is a large tent to house some of the future mission teams and a new set of "temporary" bathrooms and showers for workers. In the background is another recently erected building that is currently used for storage but possibly to use for our new bakery next month !

"Home Sweet Bunk" - pretty simple, but comfortable ! I love it !

I'm here!

Just wanted to say Happy New Year to my family. I arrived at 9:30 am this morning, got picked up by our local Haitian translator and drove to base camp. As we drove down the dirt road by the church building site, I was greeted with the view in the attached picture. If you can't see the photo very well, the logo on the top says "New Hope Diamond Head" ! What a blessing to me !! Felt just like home already. This tent is the tent that our church (thanks to Pastor Fernando) donated to the Haitian project last April, but it took until late November to get here. (things in Haiti go SLOW !!) The team here set it up in early December, but I didn't know they had received it until I arrived this morning. It's now part of the temporary church until the new one gets built and is absolutely perfect for their need right now ! God bless NHDH and Pastor Fernando for your generosity ! And I thank God for the timing to make my arrival so special and giving me the feeling of home in such a unique way !! And for those Levites among you, the local crew set the tent up pretty well ! Maybe I'll give them my Levites T-shirt !! Ha !

Have a wonderful New Year's celebration. May God richly bless you all in this coming season of your lives.

Mark

Photos!

Day 3

Aloha from Haiti,

Base camp and the church site are buttoned down and as ready as can be for the coming storm. The tent city that was close by us was moved a month or so ago so those people are not in the danger they were here. But there are still well over 1,000,000 completely exposed to the weather and with little options for places to go for protection. 

Please pray for the safety of the people of Haiti. Current predictions are for some heavy winds, but the possibility of heavy rains are far worse - 5 to 10 inches with up to 15 inches are possible in some places in Haiti. That could pose a huge problem with all the earthquake debris choking drainage ditches and streams. 

The two temporary missionary teams went home today and American Airlines has canceled all flights in or out of Haiti starting tomorrow morning. All that's left is the small permanent staff and Aaron Harris and I. We will see what the weekend brings !



God bless



Mark

Day 2

Another chaotic day in Haiti. We have a brand new grocery store out on the highway just beyond the turn off to our road. Went there today with John Booker. It looks just as nice as Times or Safeway, but much smaller, with almost no produce and lacking some things that you would think they would have. For example they had absolutely no sugar, but had 15 feet of shelving dedicated to liquor ! But at least it's new and clean - unlike many of the local markets (as you remember). Later that day, traveled around with some pastors from the mainland who are considering bringing teams here next year. We also went back to Mt Lazar (where all the houses collapsed near Pastor Rosinell's) Also spent some time with a team from Oklahoma working at the church site. They were a great team with a family atmosphere like we have.

The biggest thing on the horizon today is the possible hurricane coming. Right now it is supposed to hit here between Thursday night and Friday morning. Currently it's still a big tropical storm, but could become a full fledged hurricane between now and then. The Oklahoma team is going home tomorrow instead of Saturday since American Airlines is canceling all flights in and out of Haiti for Friday and Saturday, anticipating the weather being very bad. We have started the process of preparing the construction sites for the bad weather. Pray for us and for Haiti. Even a normal wind and rain storm will be bad for the tent cities, but a bad hurricane could be almost as devastating as the earthquake was. We will most likely be safe in the base camp house, but many, many others will be exposed to the full force of this storm. We will know much more tomorrow evening as the anticipated path and force of the storm will be more accurate by then.

Love you guys

Mark

Another Week in Haiti!!!

Please help us keep Pastor Mark and Aaron in prayer as they journeyed to Haiti yesterday for a week. They will be there for a week laying the groundwork, covering the base camp in prayer and helping set the path for Pastor Mark and the teams to follow in 2011. Their first blog entry from this trip is below:

Aaron and I arrived in Port-au-Prince this morning (2 am Hawaii time) and immediately jumped into the confusion and chaos we lovingly call Haiti - no immigration forms were available on the plane so we had to search for someone in customs with the proper form and then stand in the long lines to pass through customs. Finally found our luggage, but then were "chosen" (by God ?) to have our luggage searched. A young Haitian lady chose the first box and opened it to find just some of my clothes and personal items. She told us to wait right there and left - I assumed to find her superior. She was gone for a LONG time and I wondered if our first day in Haiti would start with a harsh interrogation in some private room at the airport !! She finally returned and in broken English apologized - all this time she had been looking for tape to help me close up my box !! Ha !! After that experience we walked outside into literally hundreds of Haitian "helpers" trying to help us carry our luggage, find a taxi, find a friend, find ANYTHING that would give them a chance to collect some money from us ! They're difficult to wade through but you can't blame them - they have to make a living. Finally found John Booker and loaded up for the short trip to base camp and church.

The church site is unbelievable ! The "leaning" church building that was damaged in the earthquake has been torn down and replaced by a beautiful concrete slab waiting for the structural steel framing to arrive and start the new church. The framing is in customs (and has been for the last few weeks) but should be released in the next week.... or two .....or four ! (if you know what I mean). The tin roof shed is still there for the church to meet under and on this normal work day for us, Pastor Guy and about fifty people were having a prayer meeting from 8 am until noon to pray for their nation - the "All Saints Day" and the day after are holidays here that go back to the heavy voodoo days and Pastor wanted to battle against that darkness with a prayer meeting. So he's having a prayer meeting under the tin roof in the heat, while another half dozen other team members and local Haitian workers are working on various projects around the site ! Pretty amazing to watch !!

Lots of other preparations are starting all over the property anticipating the new church building, the Bible training school and other small experimental projects to help the church and local community become more self sufficient - plans are moving slowly forward to start a tilapia "farm", a chicken and egg production facility and even a bakery - Yes, Jara, better get ready - "Baker's Without Borders" is REALLY coming to the Church community here in Tabarre, Haiti !! There is a commercial bakery up the road about five miles that John Booker wants to get into and see if they would be willing to help us get one started on the church property !! John specifically asked if you, Jara, would be willing to take a lead role in that endeavor - pray about it. I am sure there will be plenty of time for working with the kids, but this new bakery may be God's call for you this coming spring ?!!?

Security has become a much more serious issue in the last few months as the local community has been invaded by some thieves who are breaking into houses all around. The base camp was broken into numerous times and we now have an armed guard at night (yes, a REAL guard with a real gun ! - not just our friend Antoine). I understand the guard caught someone climbing over the razor wire fence a few weeks ago, fired a gun shot in his direction to scare him away, and in his attempt to get away, the potential burglar got injured pretty bad.

But with all that, it feels like home already, although I miss everyone in Hawaii. Glad I'll get a chance to come home again to say final goodbyes before leaving for the long haul.

More later ............ and maybe some photos too (?)

Love you all,

Pastor Mark