There we were gone

Well, I had a whole post written up while we were on the plane, however I didn't save it. So here I am not wanting to rewrite this, however this is how things have been going the last couple days (this will be a compressed version of what I originally wrote). 

In Haiti our ride arrived late, but we told them an hour earlier on purpose.  A very chaotic airport lead to frustration and concerns about making our flight, only to find out our flight was delayed due to poor weather in Montreal. We arrived in Montreal after a turbulent (I now sympathize with anyone who gets airsick) and disgusting flight (enough said).  Our connecting flight to Ottawa was canceled and they rescheduled us on a much later flight direct to Calgary for the 17th. We tried to get home sooner, to no avail. So away we go to a very interesting hotel/apartment (only place place available). So we ended up knowing we had a day to kill in Montreal and more time away from our family.  

What do you mean we're not done!

Well as the title states, we weren't as done as we thought we were.  We had used up the last of the cement powder on Saturday and so figured we were finished our construction work.  So we'd head to the site one last time, take the forms off from Saturday's pour and clean up a bit.  Pastor Furnel had other plans however, he bought more cement powder.  He asked us to finish up one more vertical column, so what can we do, we formed and poured one more column. We ripped off the other forms, changed one to be the inside corner and Art, Kelly, Tim, Nick & Pierre placed and tied the form. Dan, Durand and I went to a Compassion International Site here in the Carrefour area. We had arranged this before we left, and got to see over 400 kids receiving care and education from what is a very reputable organization. Dan & I were very impressed. They had songs for us, poems and testimonials from the recipients. It was a great experience and very reassuring to see where sponsors funds are going. Meanwhile, the other guys had set the form and started pouring. We managed to do a very speedy visit with compassion and get back to help "finish" the work, or at least we thought we had finished. The form was filled, the amount of concrete mixed was perfect.....and Kelly says "We should put the extra concrete into a form to make a step for the stage". What extra!  "Oh, we should make more then." Thanks Kelly!  So we made some more, Pierre made a form and we made a step for them to get up on the stage easier. Then finially we were done/complete/fini. One last lunch with our hosts, then back to the hotel. 

We had talked about going to the ocean, however our hosts changed their minds on whether it would be safe. So we opted for some time by the pool, and we invited Durand's family to come when they got home from school. Durand stated he does not swim, and apparently his kids don't much either. We managed to get a couple of them playing in the pool, the funniest part was watching their teeth chatter with how cold the water was for them. I decided to show them how I could swim the length of the pool underwater. I did, however I apparently thought the pool was longer than it really was, because I ran into the wall at the end and created a giant creator over my left eye. Probably the worst injury of the trip, serves me right. It was great to see their kids have fun though. 

Tonight we are supposed to be meeting with the church leaders, at 7:00....it's now 8:00 and they've now texted us to tell us they will be late. "Haiti time" is a saying here, but it's also a reality. Cultural differences can be very frustrating, if you let it. We have gotten used to it, for the most part. That being said we are intentionally telling our ride to the airport, a time that is much earlier than our flights actually are.  We have learned much about our cultural differences, but that's not to say we can't appreciate our differences. There are things they do here, that we in Canada could learn to do better.  They celebrate life very well here. They make opportunities to display affection for one another, publicly. They live in community very well, four families in one house! They make efforts to give compliments publicly to their spouses and family members. There are many other things that make the Haitian people very unique and very enjoyable to be around. They have given us so many thanks already and tonight is another thank you from the church leadership. We have been blessed to be here and serve the Lord along side with this part of His Church in Haiti. 

Colossians 3:23-24;

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

Rest Day

Here we are at the end of a day of rest exhausted, in a different way than our work days, but exhausted just the same. The time away is starting to get to us all. We are looking forward to being home, but still prepared for what God has left for us to do. 

The Bon Berger (Good Shepard) Alliance Church celebrated with us all day. Making us feel appreciated and loved. It was a great experience, but a long (and loud) day. 

Finishing Strong

This morning Nick gave a great devotional about finishing strong. Nick's words were something like; "okay here comes the cliché devo on finishing strong" He read for us; 2 Timothy 4:6-8 "For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing."  Nicholas was referring to finishing strong on the project set before us. Even though we may be tired and all of this now feels like routine, we should pray for the ability to work diligently and complete the task at hand. "You may pray for added strength, and 10 seconds later you can't believe how frustrated you are." Nick explained, and that this is how he felt several times on his World Race mission experience. It was a well timed message, as it was a long day with much work to be done. 

We managed to finish up the areas that we set out to complete, minus one of the verticals columns. In the end we used over 600 cinder blocks, 63.5 bags of cement, 22 cages worth of rebar, 3/4 truckload of sand (which much of was sifted through a screen the size of a dinner plate), 2 rolls of wire and 1/4 truckload of gravel. We felt good about the work done, but you could tell everyone was tired, however Christ enabled us to perceiver. At the end of the day we ended up having a bit too much concrete mixed up, so we offered some to our one neighbour to make up for the trouble we caused yesterday. With the rest we made a small pad at the side door and etched "High River Canada" into the block, which they had asked us to do. I wanted to put our hand prints into it but was told that would be childish, Dan's a poo poo head.  We talked about heading back for construction again part of Monday to clean up a bit more, pull forms off and fix a couple other small issues. We'll see what works out, we will be there for sure tomorrow for church. Very excited about that, but like everyone else on the team, very tired right now. Very thankful to have a safe and dry place to rest tonight, as it has been raining off and on tonight. 

Good Neighbours

The walls are up higher and the pile of building materials is getting smaller. We are making good progress and might make our goals that we started with. God has blessed us with good health for the most part and we have been relatively low on injuries. We will see what the next few days before we leave bring us. As Kelly so eloquently pointed out "We will get done exactly what God wanted us to do", paraphrased version would be "we'll get done what we get done, and we won't get done, what we don't do". 

What we did get done today was create some tension with our neighbours on both sides of the church. Tim and the contractor were supposed to go into the neighbours yard on the south side of the building, in order to put up a ladder and help put up one of the forms. Tim said they went through the "front yard" (which is more like a small courtyard beside their house) then the contractor went to proceed up and over, or through a makeshift metal fence. Well the neighbours did not like this much. So Tim said they had to go around the house and through a back gate into the area they needed to be.  It took awhile and the South neighbour seemed quite upset.  Earlier on, Dan and I were filling forms on the North side of the church, it was hot and our concrete was drying fast. We were waiting on a new batch to be mixed to finish out that lentil. In order to prevent the concrete that had already been poured in the form, I was sprinkling the concrete with water. Well of course I decide I should sprinkle Dan as well, because he was drying out. Some of the church folks were there at the time and they thought this was so funny. Well now I have an audience. So what am I to do now, I must please the audience more. As I looked over at them I did an over the shoulder throw with the rest of my container of water. Well I missed Dan for the most part, but I hit the form and splashed watery concrete down into the neighbours yard on the North. Who just happened to have done laundry, their whites in fact. So they were not very happy with us. Actually I should just say Dan got the brunt of the frustration. After it happened he was the first one that looked over the wall. We apologized up and down (literally and figuratively, from upstairs and we went downstairs to apologize) eventually they took our apology, especially when Dan offered to wash the laundry again. So our neighbours around the construction site haven't had the greatest friendship with us. At the hotel however Dan and I have got to meet our neighbour and have good conversations. She is a older lady who is from Quebec originally, she has lived in Haiti for 35 years, and at some point in her life she lost both of her legs in a motorcycle accident in Canada. She is a very interesting lady, who has been trying to teach us Creole, and has told us about a friend from the community that needs help. We prayed with this lady and for her friend, and got the contact information for the local church to connect with this person.  Hopefully we can create positive relationships with all of our neighbours at some point. 

One of the things that Durand said to me one day, is standing out for me now. He said "You all have such big yards there. You don't know your neighbours. That's why at church on Sunday you stand far apart shake hands at a distance and never get to know each other". Here there is no personal bubble space that I like so much, and I'd like to say I'm getting used to it. Even their yards have no bubble space, the church building would be the lot border on one side and there may be 4' on the other side. Durand feels they have better relationships with others because of this closeness. In fact four families share the house that Durand lives in, and it seems like a very close community. 

Many of us in Canada do have good relationships with our neighbours, but  we should remember how Jesus answered when he was asked "Who is my neighbour". Luke 10:29 Jesus went on to tell the parable of the "good Samaritan" as an answer to this question. God wants us to serve all people without prejudice or resentment, even to those who don't like us. I pray that all of us can let the Lord change us, so that we may love our neighbour. 

Least of these?

Today I get the pleasure of sharing our experiences (Dan) 
So far our trip has been full of new and exciting experiences, that's what I love about being called to these trips. God is here with us and directing our paths and stretching our boundaries and perspectives. I want to thank everyone back home for checking in on us, through this blog and praying as well. I know that through your prayers God has guided this trip so far. 
I want to warn everyone before I start this blog it might be a mushy one, so heads up!
I've been given permission to share this with everyone, although some of you might already know about it. Mike and Rachelle have been great friends of ours and we are proud to say that they are in the process of adopting a beautiful little girl here in Haiti. Today we got to experience first hand as to how much need there is in Haiti.   You will have to ask them about the details as to how God led them to to take this step of faith but James 1 says;
Religion that God our father excepts as pure and faultless is this; to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself being polluted from the world.

Mike had been trying on his own efforts to try to get a ride and spend some time with his Daughter but everything he tried seemed to fall apart. Mike and I were even thinking about renting motorcycles to make our way up the hill to Petionville to the orphanage. (I know this wouldn't have been our wisest decision and I'm sure our family's back home would disapprove too). But God had a different plan. 

We have had a few God moments and one of them was meeting another servant of God here at the hotel. We were eating dinner when all of a sudden we hear "hey is that you Robert?" It was a friend that Robert had grown up with and he was here on his own working with another orphanage. He also happens to be a redneck Albertan from Edmonton! It's is funny the connections that you can still have around the world. God's timing is perfect and He lined up Roberts friend, Mike (yes, another Mike, i'll call him new Mike so that story doesn't get confusing) to be here while we were here. After chatting with him for a bit and getting to know him over the last few days he offered us a ride to M&R's orphanage. 
So, this morning New Mike, his driver, Mike and I headed out around 8 am and our first stop was at new mikes orphanage. I've been to a few of these types of orphanages over the past few years and have seen some tough living conditions for these littles ones but this one was rough. It's hard to describe my thoughts and feelings but I'll try; we were greeted (not with smiles) by dirty but beautiful little bare foot boys and girls.  We got a tour of the facility and it was very dark and dirty, an old sewage pipe sticking out of the wall and you can imagine the smell of human waste. We were told that the kids went without any food this morning due to no money.  There also were lots of adults around too (which didn't seem to fit) which made me question the management of the place. It broke my heart to see the way these little ones live. Are these the least of these the scripture speaks of?
We then headed off through Petionville which is a "nicer and cleaner" part of town. You can tell that there is more money in this area, not by much I'm sure. How about these people, are these the least?
We made it to GLA orphanage and I could tell by how swiftly Mike jumped out that he was excited and I could tell the anticipation in his voice!
The facility was very clean, well kept, smelled nice, organized and tidy. Well managed, well supported, I thought. 
One of the workers came out with a VERY cute Hatian girl, Mikes face changed, was filled with joy. 
We spent about half an hour with his little one on his lap, she was very comfortable with him, so much so she fell asleep. When it was time to go and Mike went to put her in her room she started to cry and grasped at Mikes neck with all her might, she just wanted to be safe in the loving arms of her father. It's no different than us wanting to be safe in the loving, gentle arms of our Heavenly Father! It was a tearful moment for not only Mike but also those witnessing it. Yes, it's true firefighters may look tough on the outside (some anyway) but we still can shed a tear with the best of them. It was a touching blessed moment and so grateful God allowed me to be apart of it. 

Mike and I also want to thank the rest of the team for graciously letting us skip out on work for the morning to do this. They were able to get a lot of bricks laid and the next concrete columns prepped and ready to pour, which Mike & I helped pour in the afternoon. 

God really showed us today that the least of these aren't only the dirty, hungry orphans, the healthy clean little ones but everyone who hasn't accepted Christ in their lives, wherever we are in the world. How are we as followers of Christ loving the least? 

Our intentions are good, our BO is not!

As I sit down to write tonight, the smell of smoke is in the air. Normally that could alert a firefighter, however here you get used to it. The normal practice here is to pile the garbage on the street, then burn what can combust. The rest that doesn't burn...well, stays on the street. They have no public systems here to take care of such things, so they "Debrouyait" (make do). And now, since I've walked to my room, to find out how to spell that word, I'm reminded of another aroma that that I've grown accustom to, the smell of sweaty stinky shirts. All of us have been doing our best to rotate shirts and wash shirts in the shower (or in the pool, thanks to Curtis). However the best attempts are not working out so well (especially for me). I watched as Dan grabbed a shirt from the pile of clothes we had dried. He got the shirt over his head, grunting loudly and making every effort to retreat from his newly found torture chamber, he pulled the shirt off and threw it on the floor. Looking up, he states firmly "that's not my brand". So in an attempt to make do, I filled the shower with water, by plugging the drain, added laundry soap (which my wife made me bring), and soaked/scrubed my shirts. Drying them in the sun I thought this will work well and I will have shirts of plenty. Well now I know why my wife tells me that she washes my work shirts in a separate load than all the other clothes, I still can't use them.  I would throw them in the garbage, but as you know already that's the side of the street, and if anyone decided to burn these shirts there may be a small explosion. I'll probably end up buying a shirt or two here, maybe I can get one like the one I saw today, with a superman symbol and the words "Super Mommy" written across the shirt. The big guy wearing it was obviously proud of his shirt (without knowing what it actually said). 

Our construction has carried along well today. We have 3 sections done with spots for windows, only needing the pillars poured in between and the top lentil above the window left to do in those sections. We also got allot done at the front of the structure and we got one pillar formed and poured. Along with more rebar columns being built it was a very productive day yet again. 

As today was still a holiday, due to carnival, the kids were at the construction site again. They helped again along with other members of the Bon Berger Church. We have built also some great relationships with this community of believers. One lady, Madina, from the church baked us a cake with the CMA symbol on the top. It was a very nice gesture. We have felt very loved by them and have seen their willingness to serve along with us, and into their community. This morning Durand had decided to have us walk to the church, which is only 1 Km away. On the way he pointed out different peoples houses from the church, and one lot that he said the house had fallen apart and they had helped demo. These folks are involved in helping their community, and teaching them the love of Jesus Christ. They have also been really great in trying to teach us Creole. At times I have been a bit overwhelmed, not just from the language, rather from my personal space issues.  I have been surrounded by people trying to teach me Creole trying to read me the book that I've been using to help me learn.  Very caring folks, but when I say "you're in my personal bubble", they just laugh. "What's a bubble?"  Plus with my fore mentioned problem, I'm not so comfortable with being so close to others.  Oh well they didn't say anything, in English or Creole (I think). 

Guess God is growing us in accepting other cultures here. We can look at the way others do things, and just reject them or try to change them. Or we can look at others, and love them for who God made them to be. Also remembering, changing someone on the outside does not matter. We need to share the good news of Jesus to others.  Then when God redeems them for His purposes, He will change them from the inside out. 

Romans 5:6-8

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.