The House!

The Feeding Program and Worship Time

The Ravine, Streets

The Ravine

Streets

After a morning of painting at the girls house, I walked back to the guest house for lunch with Andrew. When we approached the gate to the guest house and a couple of boys, maybe around 8 or 9 years old, asked me for water (that's been really common this week with many Haitian street kids). I have a green Gatorade squirt bottle so I usually can squirt some water in kids mouths, but this time I didn't have any water. I told him I was out of water and then he asked for food, but I didn't have any. I gave him a hug and then he whimpered that his mom doesn't feed him. I've always seen video of beggars or people who were hungry on the streets, but witnessing it in person was more heartbreaking than I had expected.
About an hour later I was up on the 2nd story balcony of the guest house looking out to the street and I saw the two boys again. This time the neighbor across the road was out in the street and beating one of the boys. The boys ran off and the neighbor began throwing rocks at them. That was the last I saw of them for the day. I pray that God will make Himself known to those boys and the neighbor.  David Weller

Thursday

I think it is time to tell other stories about the trip, the very somber ones.  Each of us were stunned as we looked at the crumbled buildings, and saw people attempting to carve out a family home from rubble and stone structures.  Garbage litters the streets and children everywhere wander in the blazing heat, begging for any water we are carrying.  Yet it is the individual stories we heard this week that were so stunningly sad.  One baby, aged 8 months, was brought to the orphanage because the mother no longer wanted to care for him.  Another child in the area was found too weak to stand up, still vomiting and weak.  He was rushed to the hospital where he was identified as having cholera.  Another mother rushed her baby with cholera to the hospital where a  well-meaning but untrained person ran to grab the bleach diffuser and sprayed the baby directly with the bleach. Another expectant mother came to their clinic, complaining of pains and so malnourished that the poor baby came early and was dead at birth.  At the feeding program that is held here 3 times a week, we learned that for many children it is their only source of food.  These are the real stories we heard, and we have been here less than one week!  It just seems incredible what this orphanage, and school, and vocational training center can do.  The Manassero's are so part of the whole fabric of this community, and they are really serving people in situations of life or death.
Today we walked to the place where Haitians are building "our" house, which might surprise many of you.  We fund raised before we arrived, and thought we were paying for a house kit that we could build.  Little did we know that Haitians could be paid to do the work, which seemed like such a smarter way to use the money.  There were so many other jobs we could do that Haitians couldn't, so it seemed such a wise way to provide work for local Haitians and create a home for a tent family.  Plus it is being built in the area recently ravaged by flooding and there was much damage around the area!  It was obviously needed. 
Therese

Tuesday

Having an amazing time with our team in Haiti! Everyone's doing very well. The guest house we're staying in is great (see the pictures). We all worked hard again today doing many different tasks (building shelves, painting buildings, sewing curtains, playing with kids, laying tile, etc.). We're now enjoying our evening slow down, including cool showers. It's HOT and humid, so we'll all probably lose some weight. Did I say the cool showers are nice? And the food is amazing too! All cooked with fresh Haitian ingredients by our Haitain hosts. Such a gift! Thank you all for your prayers as we continue through this week. Tomorrow we'll do the feeding program again that serves about 150 kids. Quite an experience yesterday! We'll also do it on Friday as they do this 3 times each week. Being here is an unforgettable experience that we'll take with us for the rest of our lives!

With gratitude,
Pastor Mike

Photos from the Guest House!

Front deck facing the street

Circle where our meetings take place

View west from deck

Upstairs

View southeast from side deck

Side deck by staff and boys room

Tuesday

It continues to be very warm here in Port-au-Prince! Every morning we have done a devotional, starting with Isaiah 55, then Monday James 1, and Tuesday James 2. This morning we ate a great breakfast which consisted of pancakes, bacon, fruit, and bread. Our group has been spread out within the Maison de Lumiere area, we have some people working at the guest house, the girls and boys orphanage, the transition zone, the school, and the staff house. Lunchtime came by and we enjoyed sandwiches, fruit, cheese-itz, and leftovers.

Last night around sunset one of the staff members took some of us on top of the roof of the guest house (2 stories) and we were able to see a remarkable sunset over the city of Port-au-Prince. We were also able to see the mountains, ocean, and town life around where we're staying. When one is only walking around Haiti it may be difficult to see how beautiful it is outside the streets, but when we were on the roof it was a new sight for us to see. Haiti has beautiful mountains, green plants, and blue-green ocean.

More to come soon!!  Stefanie