First step: size up the job. Plans gets laid out, discussion on different understanding of the plans, decisions made (through prayer) supplies ordered.
Second step: well the first step actually took all morning so second step is lunch naturally. Our guests provided an excellent meal of beans & rice, and creole chicken.
Third step: well I believed at that time we were just waiting for supplies to arrive, so our guest played home videos from the church. We saw the last teams good bye speeches and the lead pastors 50th wedding anniversary ceremonies.
Forth step: I should actually add to 3rd step that it would involve Kelly falling asleep in his chair (he insists it was a head bob), which prompted 4th step. Naturally when their guests are tired, brother Durand quickly went to work on making his guests feel comfortable. He set a bed up in the front room and insisted Kelly lay down his weary head. Kelly seemed quite surprised by this coarse of action, and maybe being a bit embarrassed. And even though he tried to explain he was alright, our host insisted one of us rest (genuinely a very nice gesture). Art decided he would rather not offend our hosts, he took off his boots and layed down.
Fifth step: with our foremen resting we were to set off on a guided tour. Lucan and Brothet Durand lead us through the neighborhood. It was neat to walk the streets of Haiti again. So many friendly Bonswa's (good afternoon/evening) given back in return to us. Of course we Blanc's (white) received a bit of a following at some points. Little children laughed and smiled, trying out what English they knew "Good morning". At one point one little fella grabbed onto Tim's hand and walked with him. Such a different experience for all of us. They were proud to show us a water project, that had a public area where people come to gather water, wash clothes and themselves. Probably a bit awkward for our group, but not for them.
Sixth step: at this point I was starting to guess the materials would not be arriving soon, so I asked if the materials would come today. Well the answer quickly identified there would be no 7th step (it's good cause I didn't want to try to spell 7th). Our supplies will arrive in the morning (probably afternoon Haiti time) and we will hopefully begin construction tomorrow.
However God has a plan for all things, and he uses these "setbacks" for his purposes. Part of the morning we spent learning Creole from Lucan (I believe this would be his name) a plumber/tiler from the church. We went over items that we had with us; level-leval, key-kle, boot-bòt. So when they pronounce bòt, it sounds like boat. Being curious then, we wonder what is boat in Creole. Only problem was there were no boats around to point to. So now we start our charades; I'm making waves with my hands, Kelly is paddling his canoe and Dan is blowing the fog horn on his tug boat, all the while we are all yelling boat, boat, boat. This only produced a look of confusion on his face, pointing down at my feet he simply states "no, no, no...bòt". After we finished laughing at ourselves we finally figured out boat-bato.
Our main praise item for the day was the conversations. We had great opportunity in the afternoon to sit down with Brother Durand and Pastor Furnell. Curtis was a great help in this discussion and many of the important issues that we needed to cover were talked about. Please pray for this continued conversation. Durand shared his hopes and dreams of developing a congregation that serves others and goes to other areas to help and share the gospel.
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