The last few weeks here in Haiti have been nothing short of thrilling!
July 4th we took the DTS students to a beautiful beach and had a Brazilian BBQ to celebrate the day! That night we were invited to one our students, Rodberry’s, church in St Marc.. The church fed us a delicious dinner and welcomed us to run the service that night for them. It was so inspiring to see specifically our Haitian staff guys running this church service – dancing like nobody’s watching, preaching, and truly leading the congregation to worship our heavenly Father. The rest of the week we spent joined with the St Marc YWAM base – a beautiful base with green grass, soccer field, volleyball and basketball courts, swimming pool, and running water! Coming from living in our Belville house where 90 of us live without running water or the room to play anything but a , it was quite the treat! As beautiful as it was, within 24 hours of being at the base I had one of our students, “Big Z,” come to me saying “I’m ready to go home – to Belville. There I felt like I had family, here I feel alone all the time.” In 48hours almost all the students were ready to go “home” – so surprising for the staff who were Loving having space to get alone and rest.
By the end of last week several people were beginning to get ill, I included and by Friday night I had a fever and burning sinuses. Thinking it was a sinus infection, not uncommon to get here after a month without rain and dirt roads, we started me on some heavy medicine hoping to knock it out quick. Turns out I’m likely allergic to the medication and acquired some odd reactions, but for 3 days I fought with that infection which eventually fell into my chest, causing me to have a nasty cough all week. By Wednesday the school leader suggested I go to the other house YWAM Port-Au-Prince has to rest and recover. It was a wonderful 24 hours of near silence and so welcomed! Returning the next day I still wasn’t well and had my Haitian brother, Philipson, ready to take me to the hospital if I wasn’t improving by the next day. Praise the Lord I’m on the upward rise of this sickness and have not needed anything but a handy roll of toilet paper and bottle of water! Many others are getting sick which is the first time we’ve had a problem with it in the house, but it has also caused some extreme exhaustion and a dampening of spirits.
Even all that aside, this week was great as a team from the States- many of whom were in my DTS last year- with Water4Life, a water technology organization based out of Kona. The team has been teaching us how to build Water catchment tanks, filtration systems, and teaching the importance of clean water for communities. Applying hands on learning we have been building a tank up the road by the public well - and it has been met with such enthusiasm and participation that even the local community has been participating up at the well! The students and staff alike are really enjoying this teaching of practical mercy ministries and look forward to building a few tanks come this weekend!
Along with water we have 5 medical professionals ranging from anesthesiologists, pediatricians, and nurses, coming in to work along side us in conducting many clinics in and near Port-Au-Prince. Beginning with health care courses this week, taught by Connie Kline, we’ll have lessons on primary health care and have been blessed with boxes of medical equipment and supplies for the trip!
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Teddy, one of our student's children praying with Derose. |
Love Always
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Worship in the classroom - side view without most of the class in the frame ;) |
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