Building--Relationships and a Church--Continues in La Tremblay

The mission team from Virginia finished up a memorable week in La Tremblay. See their updated blog and photos to learn more about their stay at the La Tremblay school, the Haitians they worked with and the progress they made on the church foundation.

Helena-based Team Members Reunite for Haitian Potluck Dinner

The Montana Haiti gang and spouses gathered for a reunion dinner and sharing of stories at Gregg and Wendy's last night. It was wonderful to be together again, and we missed each of the out-of-staters!! We all brought a Haitain dish (or two), and had a feast! It really did bring back memories of our trip and the fantastic food we had - but best of all, the friendships we gained, with each other as well as with our Haitain friends.

It was a lovely evening!! Gregg and Wendy, a thousand thanks for hosting us all in your lovely home!! It was great fun!!!

Here's the evening's menu, with links to some of the recipes:

• Ceviche (Marinated Fish)
• Kibbe (Meatballs Wrapped in Couscous)
• Sitwonad (Haitian Limeade)
• Red Beans and Rice
• Spicy Pork
• Shrimp Creole
• Pikliz (Spicy Pickled Coleslaw)
• Tropical Fruit Salad
• "Guest House" Dinner Rolls
• Haitian Coconut Pie
• Carrot Cake

Blog entry by Dee (with assistance from Gregg).

Where in the World is La Tremblay?

La Tremblay is located east of Croix-des-Bouquets, approximately 10 air miles northeast of Port-au-Prince.

In the Google Earth image above, the placemark to the right is the Methodist Church; the placemark to the left is the school. The image was taken before the church was damaged in the earthquake (and, obviously, before the mission team removed the entire church). View in Google Maps

On the Road to La Tremblay

Although the team was looking forward to staying near our work site, we instead ended up commuting daily from the Methodist Guest House to and from La Tremblay, which gave us a glimpse of Haitian life in Petionville, Port-au-Prince and along the highway.

As we passed through the heavy gate of the security wall surrounding the Guest House complex and entered a narrow alley men were repairing and recycling electronics and building wooden furniture. At the corner where we turned onto the road in Petionville, a women were baking and selling fried plantains and fried chicken. From that point on the sidewalks are packed with vendors selling food: fruits (including grapefruit, oranges, guava, watermelons, etc.), sugarcane, nuts, roasted corncobs, live chickens and rabbits, flavored drinks; clothing (some sent over from the States and resold) and shoes; furniture; fuel (generally watered down); pills (probably expired); mattresses; charcoal; ...

Behind the street vendors are small shops (many painted in bright pastel colors), such as beauty shops and barbers; lottery sales; food markets; construction materials stores; …

Both women and men balance loads of produce, buckets of water and other items on their heads atop a wrapped towel (chapeau).

There are a few gas stations, but most vehicle repairs take place out in the open with limited power tools.

People waiting for tap-taps (taxis) peered at us as we drove by. Some saw our wheelbarrows and other work gear loaded on the top of the van, smiled, pointed to the top of the van, and called out "Thank you!" (Maybe they were actually thanking us for the commode we also had strapped down atop the wheelbarrows!?) We felt very welcomed by all the Haitians we met and received much joy from the many smiles and waves we received.

In addition to passengers, many of the tap-taps were loaded down with products headed to market. On several occasions we saw live goats trussed to the tops of tap-taps.

Children walk to and from school along the shoulder of the busy highway. We also saw mothers carrying small infants bundled in a blanket as protection from the sun walking quite a distance to a hospital.

The traffic on the highway, which is the main route to the Dominican Republic, included armored UN vehicles, dump trucks hauling rubble, flatbed trucks loaded with rebar and bags of cement, inter-country buses, tap-taps, hand-pulled carts, tractors pulling multiple trailers loaded with harvested sugar cane and workers, and motorcycles. Sitting in the front of the van was quite an experience--sometimes there were four vehicles abreast coming at us on the two-lane highway. Virtually at the last moment, after much honking of horns, one of the vehicles would give way (or overtake) with everyone proceeding with very little room to spare between each vehicle. Motorcyclists frequently drove in both directions between oncoming traffic.

With the hot, dry weather we experienced, there was quite a bit of dust and haze (from cooking over charcoal fires and some smoldering trash). We saw agriculture, including plantain trees, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. Mountains rise steeply from the flat valley floor.

People obtain filtered drinking water from a variety of sources, ranging from small, sealed plastic bags (not bottles) of packaged water sold by individual vendors to large Culligan jugs available at gas stations and other stores. A few community pumps provide unfiltered water.

At one point we made our way past a slow moving funeral procession with mourners walking behind the hearse. It was another reminder to us that life in Haiti, like elsewhere, comes to an end. Unfortunately, life can be particularly short for many Haitians, due to limited access to clean water, sufficient food and adequate medical care.

More Favorite or Most Meaningful Photos

I love this picture of Paul with the little boy.  Both are so peacefully happy - exactly where they want to be at that moment in time.  It says a lot about Paul.  Before this mission trip, he had been to Canada, but otherwise hadn't ever left the USA.  I had talked about previous mission trips with him at work, but I was more than a little surprised when he showed up one day to say, "My passport came, so I'm going with you on your next trip to Haiti."  It was a tremendous act of courage on his part, to make his first real overseas trip to a place like Haiti.  Paul isn't even a Methodist, he attends a Baptist Church just outside of Helena.  But he was willing to cross that barrier, too, and run off to Haiti with a bunch of people that he had never met before.  In no time, Paul was a competent and relaxed international traveler.  I was impressed on our first afternoon in Haiti to watch him (successfully!) go off on his own to order a dish of ice cream in a Haitian restaurant, unable to speak a word of the language or having any idea of what it cost.  He was a solid and wonderful member of the team, evolving spiritually and truly having a complete mission experience.

This next picture shows a shoeless little boy (4 or 5 years old?) carrying two bottles of water back to his home.  He had just filled them in the ditch that runs along the highway.  You can see how unclean the water is.  I can't imagine sending a little boy out to get the water, much less having nothing better to drink.  It reminds me that despite all the smiles and laughter and good times we had with the Haitians, most of them still have a very difficult and fragile life.

My next meaningful picture is of one of the many fabulously colorful buses that we saw so often.  Most have religious quotations or Bible verses written on the sides of them, and all over for that matter.  This one says on the flaps hanging off the sides: "Christ Is The Answer".  Around the back tire, is written: "With Jesus Everything Goes Good".   I can't quite make out the words along the top of the bus, but wish I could.  So many times during our week in Haiti we simply said to each other, "God is good!"  The painter of this bus seems to agree.  We witnessed poverty, illiteracy, dirty water, unemployment, and a neglectful government - but our overriding impression of Haiti:  God Is Good!

Favorite, or most meaningful photos

These are some pictures selected by team members as among their favorites.  This blog is full of information regarding what we did and what happened while we were in Haiti.  These pictures show a little bit of "what happened to us in Haiti".

Dee

The children, so eager to be with us, and so fearless.

Dee

Good times, new friends, an awareness of the grand breadth of the "Body of Christ"

Gregg

50% literacy rate, 70% unemployment - Haitians work hard to survive.

Gregg

Eager Haitian men, delighted to have a day's work, working alongside us.

Kathy

The only thought that comes to me is both images seem to be asking………..

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

   (what is left of it)   Mary Oliver

Kathy

Paul

We went to Haiti to build a church and built beautiful relationships with the wonderful Haitian people. This first picture shows Don with some Haitian children. The girl in the foreground is looking off into the distance but has her hand on Don’s leg wanting the closeness and security and comfort of being close to him. We felt this kind of easy closeness with the Haitian people all week long.

Paul

The second picture shows some of the Haitian work crew the afternoon of our last work day at La Tremblay.   I had brought a University of Montana Football hat and one of the workers wore it.  Before we left I had the interpreter tell him that I went to that school and asked if I could take his picture.  The reaction I got is more than I ever could have asked for.

We had several people who were really good with the children but I do not have the free spirit to play. Play is a hard thing for me to do. What I really wanted to do was build a relationship with the men I worked with.  I wanted to show them that I would stand with them on whatever needed to be done, to take my turn on the sledgehammer.  I didn’t just give them water;  I shared a water bottle with the men I respected.  Saying good-bye that day was an extremely emotional time. They asked if we were coming back the next day.  They were sincerely sorry to hear that we were not.  Even though they knew that another team would be coming to continue work, we had built a bond of companionship and respect that men develop by working hard together for a common goal.  I think about this every day and the depth of a relationship I had with men that I did not share a language with except that of being brothers and sisters in Christ.

God bless the people of Haiti.

Wendy

Wendy

We felt welcomed by the entire community.  They were happy that we came to work and visit.

Presenting at St Paul's UMC

At the 08:30 service and again at the 11:00 service on March 13, our Haiti Mission will be presented in 10-minutes.  You'd better be wide awake and pay attention!  The first minute or so will cover "where we went and what we did".  The next 9 minutes will cover "what happened to us", or possibly "what we felt and experienced". 
Each team member who can be at church that day will be able to display 1 or 2 favorite photos, and explain why the photo is meaningful to them.  In this way, our congregation can (hopefully) see and understand why this mission trip was such a powerful spiritual experience for us. 
We know that it's impossible to convey the full and remarkable impact that a mission trip has on a person (heck, we don't fully understand it ourselves!).  But perhaps we can touch the hearts of a few people, open the eyes of a few, and give some the courage to take that bold step and volunteer for a mission.  There's nothing like a mission trip to make you understand how blessed we are, how much God needs us, and how phenomenally rewarding it is to serve Christ by humbly using our spiritual gifts to make His world better.

(Photo provided by Kathy.)

Haiti Touched Me Deeply

I did not think that when I got back to my home in the country I would miss Haiti. Somehow the experience touched me more than I ever thought it would. At the risk of being repetative I need to say how I had serious misconceptions about the people of Haiti. I thought that they would be beat down from years of oppression, poverty and then the earthquake. But they have not given up in the least. I really don't know if I would show that kind of courage in the face of the trials that they have been given. I saw a number of tap taps with verses on them, most of them familiar like Romans 8:31 or John 3:16 but I then saw one with Daniel 3:16. Jon and I looked up the verse and following is how it reads in the King James version. Here are verses 16 thru 18:

Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

God bless the people of Haiti.

Back Home in Austin, Tx.

As I reenter the comfort and abundance of my home in America, I'm striken by the difference and the inequities of our countries - America and Haiti. It's a curious thing to think about our histories and the extreme differences in our lands. I just witnessed one of the poorest countries in the world and am seeking God's guidance on my next steps. It's a bit overwhelming, wondering what I, as one person, can do. Yet, as I heard from other team members throughout our time in Haiti, what we do does make a difference.

My experience in Haiti is filled with so many thoughts and emotions. And through it all, I was reminded over and over again, this is a God story, not a Jon story. It started with the distress of not having a passport book two days before leaving Austin. I had a passport card but that only allowed entry to Haiti by land or sea. The short story is that I travelled 150 miles to Houston on Thursday, Feb. 24, and obtained a passport book in what I consider as record time. I left for Haiti on Friday, Feb. 25. God is good!

In Haiti, in spite of the many hardships, God's presence was so apparent, starting with the Methodist Guest House and its staff. Tom, Beth, Deanna, Ruth, Eric, the kitchen staff, and others showed their servanthood. Our interpreters, Joseph and Karen, were true servants. I met other Americans in Haiti from many different states, serving the Lord. (According to Tom, 30 teams passed through in 22 days.) After the first night, I was concerned about sleep but God made sure we had enough rest to carry on. As we drove through the crazy traffic, I certainly had to put my trust in God (and the drivers, who were fantastic). We saw many references to God and scripture on the "tap-taps." I saw other Christian organizations at work (e.g. Haiti Baptist Mission, World Vision). I heard Christian music on the radio where we bought a wheelbarrow. I heard the pure and timeless voice of a Haitian woman next door to the work site, singing about God. As we worked on site in La Tremblay, there were times of uncertainty and doubt, but that was God's way of testing our patience and leading us to put our trust in Him. God provided the bread (and the guidance) that the team needed to share with children of the neighborhood. He even led me through the week, without a cell phone. God is good!

And as Don so wonderfully stated, God brought a team of missionaries together for a purpose. What a blessing!! Don, our leader (and what a great sense of humor). Paul, the Baptist connection. Dawn, the dancer. Dee, the energy and idea person. Gregg, the money man and packer extraordinaire. Wendy, the practical one. Kathy, the feeler. Jim, the history prof. I learned so much in such a short amount of time from each of these 8 servants of the Lord. Their positive and Christ-like attitude was amazing, and lifted me up at times when I really needed it. Thanks be to God!!

And now that we're back home, may we not forget Haiti in our prayers and our service. Our challenge will be to continue to seek and discern God's call in serving the "least of these brothers and sisters" of ours. God is good -- all the time!

Home Again - What a Difference

I drink water that comes from a faucet, anytime I want.
I brushed my teeth with faucet water.
I put toilet paper in the toilet.
I flush the toilet after every use.
The water in my shower was hot.
No roosters sang outside my window, not even once in the past two nights.
There were traffic lights at all the major intersections.
When the road said "two lanes", the traffic was only two-lanes wide.
I have been home for over 36 hours, and have not heard a car horn.
There's not a Digicell advertisement in sight.

Our Last Full Day In Haiti

It was different than the others, because the team got to see more of Haiti than the long, dusty, bumpy road between the Guest House in Petionville and La Tremblay.  We had a "tour day".  Johnny was our driver, Karen and Joseph came along as translators.  First was a drive towards Carrefour, near the epicenter of the earthquake.  For the first time, this team saw the scores of collapsed buildings and seemingly endless piles of rubble.  The Haitian Market was (as always) quite impressive with the cacophony of noise, chaos of activity, and extraordinary crowd selling EVERYTHING amid piles of garbage and dirty water running in the streets.  We were more or less in a stunned silence as the true devastation of the earthquake became more apparent.

We passed by the collapsed Presidential Palace, ruined National Cathedral, and dozens of very crowded tent encampments.  A stop at the National Museum permitted a review of Haiti's history, from it's "discovery" by Christopher Columbus, almost perpetual violence of occupation by foreign nations, the horrendous "slave years", and political difficulties while under the control of some of history's most ruthless leaders.  A highlight was the actual anchor from the Santa Maria, one of Christopher Columbus' original three ships.  Some superb artwork was in the museum, and our tour guide was excellent. (Unfortunately, no pictures allowed inside.)
Then it was upwards and onwards (forever?) to the Baptist Mission way up in the mountains.  The cool, green, terraced slopes are quite a contrast from Port-au-Prince.  The food there was excellent, and more than one of us enjoyed the ice cream.
Our last stop before returning to the Guest House was an overlook, from high up on the mountain where the entire bay and city below could be seen.

I'll encourage my team-mates to write on this blog.  They have had some wonderful things to say about this mission experience, but I want you to hear it directly from them.  Tomorrow morning we depart here shortly after breakfast, about three hours before our flight to Miami.  I wonder if the culture shock will be as powerful as it was when I returned from Haiti last time (Nov 2010). 

This group of nine missionaries was clearly hand-picked by God.  Every person had exactly the right talents and experience to create a marvelous tapestry of personalities and service.  I think each one ministered to the others in special ways, at special times, and in perfect harmony.  Our group cohesion has been simply great, and we will value this Haiti Mission experience for the rest of our lives.  Please pray for safe travels for the team!
God is Good!!!

Fist Bumps Haitian Style

The children of the La Tremblay school taught us this one.
First you bump fists and it means "We meet"
Then you touch your heart and it means "You are in my heart"
Then you bump fists again and it means "We come together"
Then your hands fly backwards and upwards with fingers spread, and it means "Magic happens"

Well, it'll bring tears to your eyes when a 7 year old little Haitian boy does it with you, followed by 200 of his friends of all ages and their teachers, too.

An especially memorable event at the school yesterday was when our people finally thought of a song that the kids could sing for them - their National Anthem.  They stood tall and sung with tremendous enthusiasm and robust national pride.  It was wonderful.

At the school, the blackboard had a huge crack running diagonally through it, with a gap of 3-4 inches.  It is a bit of an exaggeration to call it a "blackboard", as it is so weathered with age.  The teacher had one piece of chalk, and she guarded it like it was solid gold.  Most of the kids had books, but they were showing considerable age.  We learned that many of the teachers had not been paid in about three months.  They make approximately US$150 per month.

We had some mission team funds "left over" at the end of our week here, and were very pleased to entrust the school leader, Monique, with a gift of $425, to use as she desires for her school, teachers, and students.  It was a gift "with no strings attached", an act of faith that she will spend it in a way that pleases Christ.  We all have a very high opinion of Monique, and having this faith in her good judgement wasn't much of a leap. Our only regret might be that we couldn't give her a thousand times more than that.

3 March: Dancing and Digging, the Bond Grows Stronger

This Thursday of work was a mixed bag for the team. The big, tough men helped a group of phenomenal Haitian men set up a work site perimeter "fence", and begin digging the trenches for the foundation of the new church. The lovely ladies went to the school and visited each classroom, where they learned a lot and their hearts were touched by a new Haitian "fist bump of love". (I'll try to explain that later)  It's difficult to say who had more fun or who learned more.
For us men (big, tough, or otherwise) it was great to see that the truck delivering supplies was already at the site when we got there. Somebody decided that filling the ditch with rubble so the truck could drive across it was not necessary, so we didn't do that. Instead, the items were carried or dragged across the road to the work site.  Although it's only a two-lane road (one in each direction) in rather poor condition, it is still a main highway and carries a huge amount of traffic.  All of this traffic, including the zillions of huge transport trucks, motorcycles, and everything in between flies down the highway at breakneck speed.  If you or anything else are in the way, a loud horn is blown, there's no thought of slowing down unless perhaps a collision is imminent.  This makes crossing that road a perilous process indeed.  Fortunately, there were only a few trips needed before it was all safely at the work site.
The materials consisted of a dozen long boards (rough cut 1x5's) and about 2 dozen poles made of more-or-less straight branches.  The poles were cut in half and pointed on one end - all done with a machete.  They were used as stakes to hold the boards to make a perimeter fence around everything, with just one board making up the fence.  Once this fence was put up, and I must say that we had no idea why they did this, the architect spent an hour marking the perimeter fence with spray paint and laying out a cross-work of strings like a web.  Those strings made it difficult to walk anywhere, but they showed where we needed to dig trenches, three feet deep.
Some of those trenches (? all of them?) went straight through the existing concrete floor and foundation.  It was darn difficult to bust through the cement or tile to get down to the dirt below.  We saved a bunch of the shattered, pretty green tile from the floor, with plans to make it into a mosaic cross to give to the new church as a memorial from their original church. Kathy plans to make a picture frame for each of us, too, with a piece of green tile incorporated into the frame.

A bit about Kathy F.

Kathy joined us from Dallas, Texas.  Don't hold that against her, she's as sweet and tough as you can imagine.  During our devotional last night, she made a spontaneous and unselfconcious comment that made it clear that she fully considers herself to be a Montanan.  It was hilarious, as she naturally referred to herself as one of us from Montana.  Kathy, we accept you!
Kathy is a nurse, with experience in the ICU, on a cardiac transplant team, and currently in neurovascular surgery.  She follows orders well (as do all good nurses) and she instantly takes charge when necessary to prevent an injury or avoid a mistake (as do all good nurses). Her sense of humor is contagious, her compassion is absolutely palpable, and she has taught us many things about spirituality and self-awareness.  We really like Kathy, and we hope to see her many times in the future.  There's no doubt that God intended her to be with us in Haiti.

Photos from March 2, 2011

Building Relationships is More Important than Building Stuff

It was hot today, really hot.  And there was only a trace of a breeze, not the gentle cooling winds that we’ve enjoyed for the past 2 days.  Fortunately, we didn’t have to work too long and hard in that blistering sun, because we have finished removing all the rubble that was once the La Tremblay United Methodist Church.  

Tomorrow a delivery truck is supposed to arrive with building materials, and we have rumors that we will start assembling the forms for the new concrete footings.  It will be nice to construct something instead of just deconstructing.  When this truck arrives, we need to fill a ditch with rubble (piled haphazardly nearby for the occasion) into a ditch along the road so the truck can drive onto the work site.  After the truck leaves, we need to open that ditch back up again.  Curiously, the ditch was dry as a bone on Monday and Tuesday, but was full of flowing water today.  The flow ended by early afternoon, but if there is water running in it when the delivery truck arrives, things will get interesting.

Of course, as my team apparently understands very well, it is much more important that we build relationships than that we build stuff.  The “stuff” will get old and eventually fall apart and require replacements.  The relationships will endure, grow, and possibly change the world as much as they change our perceptions and character.  Let there be no doubt, the Haitian people are good people. It’s very easy to like them, very easy to sense their struggles and wish for their prosperity and happiness.  The children are truly delightful, and this team that YOU sent to Haiti is showing them every day just how special and important they are.  Their innocence, unrestrained laughter, and literal jumping for joy when we play with them is so rewarding to witness, and so purely splendid.  It’s easy to see why Jesus loved children.

We brought peanut butter and purchased 4 bags of fresh bread on the way to La Tremblay this morning.  This we shared with the children at lunchtime, and it was so nice to have something to give them.  We sat together under a modest acacia tree, more or less in the shade, and ate with laughter and joy all around us.  It was easy to see that they liked the bread and peanut butter, just as it was easy to see that they absolutely loved the Trail Mix with its peanuts, cashews, and M&M’s.

After work we stopped at the La Tremblay school, and confirmed plans to visit there tomorrow morning.  We also created a fair amount of laughter as we took turns pumping water into 5 gallon buckets from the well.  Dawn even tried to carry a full one up on her head.  She didn’t get too far, but the old ladies sure enjoyed her attempt.  Dawn then switched to carrying a big pan full of smaller pans on her head.  Those tired, dirty ladies had a great laugh – and relationships grew.  This was followed by yet another round of the Hokey-Pokey, which is evidently the most popular dance to ever hit Haiti.  Although he tried, it was discovered that Gregg W doesn’t know how to do the Hokey-Pokey!  In the future, I clearly need to be more selective on who becomes a mission team member.

Mid-Week Report from One of the Texans

Overall, such a profound experience. It's very humbling to see the poverty and the hardships that face the Haitian people. Interestingly, the commute to and from the worksite is some of the most revealing and eye-opening times. My heart aches but then as we interact with the children at the worksite, my heart is lifted up. A highlight was going around the neighborhood with children, doing the hokey-pokey during lunch on Tuesday.

Evening devotionals have been meaningful for me as the team shares its thoughts and experiences. What a gift to share this with folks I didn't know before this trip but am getting to know so well in a short time and in a very different and foreign environment. We have that one bond that can never be broken - in Him.

As with other mission trips that I've experienced, there is more to the trip than the work. Yes, it's exciting to be at the beginning stages of rebuilding a church for the area of La Tremblay. But, the interaction with the team and Haitians is so much more meaningful. I find that there are so many thoughts and feelings that I'm experiencing, I'm glad to have a journal and pictures to record them.

Finally, it's a big bummer that I lost my cell phone today. Not sure how, but I'm trying to remind myself that it's only a material thing and can easily be replaced. Yes, I feel lost without it, but maybe that's just another way that God is reminding me to focus on Him (i.e. passport book experience - maybe I'll explain that at a later date). God is good as we trust in Him each day.

Good People Working Hard

Pictures of the New La Tremblay United Methodist Church (Plan)

1 March - Clean-Up on Aisle Everywhere

Whoooweee - we moved a LOT of rubble today!  It was a scorcher, too.  But smiles were more in evidence than drops of sweat.  Everybody is tired and dirty and happy.  It may not get any better than this.  The kids were all around to play with, and we did so.  Jon, Dawn, and Dee took their traveling Hokey-Pokey show to the very homes of several kids.

Almost all of the rubble is outside the church area now, but there may be 5% left for us to work on tomorrow.  We need to take down a small toilet structure in the back corner, too.  The site engineer visited today.  He said that on Thursday he is bringing wood to make the forms for the footings of the new church.

Dirty, dusty, sore - and delighted

As the picture from Paul shows, we successfully demolished the United Methodist Church in la Tremblay today.  Isn't that ironic, as Paul is a Baptist!  Many ferocious sledge-hammer blows were needed to get those walls down.  Paul was surprisingly enthusiastic in this process. And now, those walls are mostly in small pieces all over the floor of the destroyed church.  Our job over the next 4 days will be to move those millions of small pieces out to the roadside.  We already broke the spokes in one wheelbarrow, and have to hunt down and buy a new one tomorrow.
Our first project when the day started was to put up a tarp so we could escape the Haitian sun from time to time.  The gentle breeze caught that tarp like a big sail and pulled down the corner of the wall where it was attached.  That was unexpected, and we were fortunate that nobody got crushed under it.  But, our translator (Karen) had her backpack there where the wall fell.  And within the backpack was her laptop.  It has a broken screen.  We'll help her replace it with a new one.

Met some nice new Haitians today, including a muscular young man in a thick wool hat and a "Dallas" tank-top.  His name was Nixon.

Day 4 - And the Walls Came a Tumbling Down

With the help of a fun team from Houston and a young, strong and motivated crew of Haitians, we successfully (and safely) demolished the former Methodist Church in La Tremblay. After the wonderful experience of the moving service in the school on Sunday we are really excited about being part of the congregation moving into a new church.

Blog entry and photo by Paul.

The UM Church in La Tremblay - before we demolish it.