No two ways the same, except 1

Well, we are here. Safe and sound, I guess. Montreal was as suspected this morning. 06:30 shuttle to the airport arrived on time and to the airport with lots of time to go through security and catch a breakfast. Flight took off a little late but arrived roughly when they said it would.....and then we touched down. I think Haiti is the only place I’ve ever been where they always chear when the wheels hit the ground. To be honest, I’m not exactly sure as to their reasons why; 

Whether they are thankful to be home. 

Whether they’re thankful to arrive safe back on the ground. 

Or whether they’re glad that they can shake off the restraints of domesticated society. 

I know I sound cynical here, but well, I am. My interactions with this culture have left me all out frustrated at times, so I figure cynical is a step back from there at least.  Lineups don’t really mean -line-up-, it really means try to get to the front however you can. A baggage carrasel is best used when everyone is crowded up against it with their wheely cart beside them. Traffic works wonderfully when you disregard lanes and regulations, and just drive however you feel best serves you. For those of you who know me, probably know I would love to drive however I want, push to the front of the line and not have anyone in my way when I’m trying to pick up my luggage. But I know that I can’t. Because if everyone were to do such, it would lead to...Haiti. 

Okay, well I should real this back in for a moment. As we exit the airport of mayhem, I spotted Durand in the crowd and we met up around the barricade. I don’t hug much, but really, there was no better way to greet this man. Durand has been our contact to this church family here for three years now. Dan and I receive text messages all the time from him; pictures, cheesy memes, Happy Christmas and Merry New Year messages, prayers, sympathies and encouragement. Durand has taken time off work yet again to look after us. He will have us in his home yet again and feed us our lunches every work day. He bends over backwards to show us hospitality and works hard to keep us safe. Durand has shown us true Christian fellowship. I respect that. I appreciate what he does to make our stay here smooth and I marvel at what he is & wants to do for his community. I would consider Durand a friend and would not want him to feel I don’t like his country or his people, I’m just struggling once again to adapt to the culture I’m facing. 

Haiti has a resiliency to it. There is a statute that we drove by today, called “The Standing Man”. It symbolizes back to when Haiti gained it’s freedom. Many in Haitian culture say it shows their ability; to overcome, to persevere, to adapt. I mean where else could we use a Rav 4 to fit 6 grown men and 5 sets of lunguge to the hotel from the airport (no there was no roof rack). I’ve sat in the middle of many of trucks, but I’ve never sat on the middle console hovering over the shift lever before. Haitians are very proud of their country, their people and even their culture. And maybe a simple redneck hick from Alberta shouldn’t be evaluated them on what he thinks he knows. But maybe we should all learn something here. All of us are fallen. All have come short. God does not look at any of us and say: Wow, they got things together.  Maybe as believers we should symbolize a different statue, the kneeling man. Our submission to God needs to be at the forefront of our lives, not how a line should properly flow. Christ Jesus redeemed us so that we could live different, to live set apart, Holy.  That means we don’t live lives wrapped up in ourselves, our projects, our ambitions, these things are of the world.  A good example of this is what Haitians are celebrating this week.  Once again we have come here during Carnaval, and I joked with Durand that we were just coming for the party. And just as seriously as he did last time, he scolded me that this was not “Our” party.  God has transformed us to a new creation, for the Party yet to come. So let’s consider how we can get ready for the party, how then should we live?

 Traffic from the airport was bad today, which made that consol feel great after it took roughly 90 minutes to travel 16 km.  I thought I was getting good at knowing some level of direction here, however Durand weaved and bobbed his way all over the place. I don’t know if I’ve traveled the same route to and from the airport. It always seems to be different. And just like the roads, their way of life here always seems different. But they are aloud to be different as we all are different and broken. Thankfully there is a right way to live, and it’s not “my” way or “your”way, the “Canadian” or “Haitian” way, it’s God’s way. And it is found in relationship with God, through His Son Jesus Christ, that is the only way to understand true culture and join the party. 

Time to take off, eh!

Well we’re on the plane about to take off for Montreal. We met up with Art and Kelly. No real hiccups so far, I was bored waiting for Tim at the check in so we ditched him. But Kelly met up with him so it all worked out. Now on to our first leg. 

Getting Ready

Today was send off Sunday. Our church family surrounded us this morning, figuratively and literally to pray over us for our trip. Yet again a mix of emotions surround the trip; It’s supposed to get cold this week so right away excitement to go somewhere warm. Hesitation on the traveling ahead: layovers, turbulence, security lineups, hot bumpy rides on the Haitian roads, smells/sites of Haiti and just the regular uncertainty of travel at times. Anticipation to see the church family down there and there’s a mix of anticipation/uncertainty to the work ahead. 

We were talking this morning about the job ahead and the preparation we need to do before we leave, mentally and physically. So far we have some tools prepped and some we’ll round up before we ship off. There’s allot up in the air yet, materials, consumables and large tools are all an unknown at this point. I trust Art has a plan for all this as he’s done several of these trips/buildings. Haiti has this interesting dynamic to it though. Everything seems to have to have a large amount of improvisation to it. So I think it will be a few days of juggling before we actually get down to work. As far as our mental preparedness, we have set our hearts to serve God wherever He takes us during this trip. Please pray for us; Mike, Tim, Morgan, Dan, Byron, Kelly & Art. 

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.