Flying through July

The last few weeks here in Haiti have been nothing short of thrilling!

July 4^th 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!

Teddy, one of our student's children praying with Derose.

This past weekend a few of the students organized a weekend "burn" of 24/7 prayer and worship in our prayer room (a gravel carport with makeshift benches and chairs pulled from the classroom). The time I spent with them over the weekend is probably one of my favorite moments here in Haiti with the DTS students. There have been other times, but seeing them take initiative to seek after the heart of God and beginning to walk into true intimacy with the Lord!

Each day has been packed with challenge, revelation, hardship, and GLORY! With God’s Spirit moving visibly through the house and those living in it. Praise the Lord for continued grace in living quarters as there are now about 100 people living in this one house. His grace is enough and no severe drama, fighting, problems have really come up in the month (plus) of our living together in such extreme circumstances. I could go on, but here is just so much going on here in the Port-Au-Prince, Haiti DTS it is hard to keep up to date on the going-ons during the school. My Jamaica team is doing well and finally growing into a family as we learn more about each other. 2 of our Haitians still have yet to get their passports but we're hoping to get visa applications sent by Sunday. The applications have to be sent to Miami because there is no Jamaican Embassy here in Haiti after the earthquake, and then they'll be mailed to our next speaker who lives in the states and can carry it here for us (the mail system is that bad). So we're just praying for favor, finances to cover the visa application, and timing to  work out for us to get the visas quickly! Please continue to pray for us all! We have been blessed, but need more of HIM in our lives!!!

Love Always

Worship in the classroom - side view without most of the class in the frame ;)