The Week Has Flown By!

Today started much like all the other days here this week.  Breakfast and on the truck by 7:15.  Today, however, Jim went along!  Yay!  He's still not 100% but is feeling better!  Also, the women stayed behind to work on a project here for Roberta.  There was not enough room for all of us to go to the clinic and school.

• Tom and Richard cut three steps into the hillside for easier access from the clinic to the incinerator.  Before it was just a rocky "path" which was not easily accessible.  They also scavenged for some of the glass slats for the windows that we've been working on all week.  They found what they needed and trimmed them down to size using a ceramic cutter (no glass cutter available).  They installed them in the office windows and I'm sure it looks great!
• Paul, Jim, Dave, and Chris worked on the incinerator.  They sifted sand to make the mortar.  Chris and Paul cut the metal for the grid in the incinerator.  The incinerator is about 80% done which is much more than Bert was expecting the team to get done this week.  He was only expecting them to build the base!  As usual, our team went above and beyond!
• Christine, Diane, and I worked in the storage room which was a mess!  We re-organized the room so that all the crayons were together, the glue, the erasers, and so on.  We also had to unpack gift bags that had been assembled for various uses but were extras and no longer needed.  It was much more work than it sounds!  I also installed a screen door closer on the storage room door.  I didn't have enough muscle to get the screws all the way in so when the men got back to the compound I asked them to help me finish it.  Next thing I know, Tom has taken it down and redone it.  I guess I didn't do as good of a job as I thought. 
• Lucien works for VoH and has known many of us for years.  He took those of us who wanted to, over to his house this afternoon to visit his kids and meet his new baby.  It was so great to see them all.  They are wonderful children!  It was also interesting to see how a Haitian family lives.  There are 2 adults, 4 kids and 1 baby in a tiny house with one bedroom, a room for a kitchen, an outdoor kitchen area, and a porch.  Amazing!

This evening we relaxed and enjoyed another great meal.  We had beef stew with root vegetables, salad, yams, and more bread!  For dessert, we had more ice cream and brownies!  As usual, our devotion was very fitting and uplifting.  It was lead by Jim, but as mentioned before, prepared by Liz.

The majority of the team will be leaving tomorrow while Richard (dad) and I stay til Sunday.  I get to go grocery shopping with Roberta!  Other than that, I think we'll do some relaxing!

Pray for safe travels home for the team, for Bert who is still not feeling well, and Paul who has the early symptoms of the cold.

Oh, and Mary L... Jim wants to make sure you'll pick him up at the airport tomorrow night.  7:50 p.m., I believe.  Comment if you have questions and we'll get back to you.  Jim is already in bed. 

God is All Around Us

We spent another day at the Village of Hope School and the Health Center.  Jim stayed back at Hope House again.   We are happy to report that our rat-proofing efforts paid off! There were no new rat droppings to be found this morning! 

The Health Center has a food distribution program for people with malnourished children, nursing mothers, and expectant mothers.  Several of the people were already waiting as we pulled up the school.  We carried in all the bags of rice and beans that we had packaged last night.  From there, we split into our groups for working.

Before lunch:

• Christine and Diane started the day cleaning the cloister blocks at the top of the exam room walls.  They then helped distribute the food to the people waiting.  They had an interesting experience as the crew ran out of rice and beans.  They aren't sure what the people were yelling at them, but they know that they were not happy about not getting their food!  It's a first come-first serve program so our understanding is that this happens every once in a while.   
  
• Richard and I fixed a screen to rat-proof the storage depot and then installed another window frame.  Then I went up to mingle with the masses waiting for their food.  I had been told that there would be many babies to be held but wasn't sure how to go about asking these women who don't know me at all if I can hold their babies. I needn't have worried!  Apparently if you just ooh and ahh over a baby, they hand them to you!  I snuggled with a few, made one laugh, and thoroughly enjoyed getting my baby "fix."
  
• Paul, Greer, Tom, and Christophe worked sifting the sand for the mortar mix while Dave, Chris, and Bert went to the Bloc Shop to get cement and cinder blocks. Then Dave, Chris, Christophe, and Populaire build four out of the 10 rows of the incinerator.  Christophe is the grounds keeper at the school but used to be a mason so he lead the building project.  Paul, Greer, Tom, and Richard then did some odd jobs before taking a break!

After lunch:

• Chris, Dave, Populaire, and Christophe worked some more on the incinerator after getting more cinder blocks from the Bloc Store.  
• Greer and Diane tackled the records room again and worked on cleaning out more rat droppings.  
• Paul and Christine cleaned more cloister blocks.
• Tom, Richard, and I walked up to the upper part of the school where the older classes are held.  We looked around for more glass slats that could be used in the office.  We also have experienced being rock stars with groupies as we were mobbed by a few end-of-the-day stragglers.  

After leaving the school and health center, we went to Little Children of Jesus.  For many of us, this is the highlight of our trips here to Haiti.  The 94 children (with some adults) at LCJ are mentally and/or physically delayed.  They love to have visitors!  We walked around and visited the children who aren't able to leave their beds before getting down to business.  Balloon hats were in high demand, as were hugs, smiles, and love.  Dave lead us in song, the kids sang to us, and we also blew bubbles.  One boy, Stevenson, who we all love (we see him every year), doesn't have any fingers.  He managed, however, to unwrap the balloon creations we gave him and tie them all together in a long line.  He then had the kids and adults jumping over the string of balloons!  It was another great visit!  As Josette, the new director of LCJ, told Dave, the kids there are all little angels. 



Dinner tonight was lasagna, salad, and bread.  We can't get enough of the french baguettes here.  Yum!  Dessert was three kinds of ice cream and "tablets" (little cookies).  We are all quite tired as we approach the end of our time here so most folks have already hit the hay!


Tomorrow the men are going back out to the school and health center to finish the incinerator and any other little odd projects.  The women are staying back at Hope House with Roberta.  Because of the truck being out of commission, and Roberta needing her car to go to the airport to pick someone up, we can't all go to the school.  The women will have a project here to work on and may get to go on an adventure with Roberta.  We will let you know! 


Continue to keep us all in your prayers, but especially Jim and Bert.  Jim is getting better but still not 100% and now Bert is getting sick.  Also pray for the children and staff at LCJ, the children and staff at the school and health center and all those in the food distribution program. 

Rice and Beans, but No Beanbags

Another dirty, hard day of work is coming to an end.  We spent the day at the school and health center again.  The one group finished rat-proofing the office, both upstairs and downstairs.  The women washed window glass slats and tried to fit them back into the window clips.  Not all the window widths are the same so it's like putting a puzzle back together.  Another group continued work on the incinerator project and raking trash into a pile.  Our hope is that our example of keeping trash together, throwing it away and cleaning up after ourselves will catch on with at least one person!  I know for sure that many of us will be sore tomorrow from all our hard work!

Jim made the trek out with us today, although probably prematurely.  He spent the morning helping a Haitian crew at the Health Center package food for a food distribution tomorrow.  Christine and I helped with that in the afternoon when Jim needed to rest.  I also showed my prowess with power tools and carpentry work when the men let me help them build a frame for a window.  We ate lunch in the cafeteria tomorrow eating the standard fare of rice and beans with a fish sauce.  It received rave reviews from a few members of the group. 

After leaving the school and health center, we stopped at the tin shops.  The new members of the group were impressed yet overwhelmed!  I think most of us made some great purchases.  We were unable to stop at the tin shop with the painted pieces of art due to road construction in front of the store. 

We arrived back at Hope House and took a short break before jumping back into the work.  We packaged 100 bags of rice and 100 bags of beans for the food distribution tomorrow.  Besides the rice and beans, they will also receive brown sugar, salt, oil, and cornmeal/soy cereal.  As part of the program, the babies will be weighed and checked for malnutrition.  We are all looking forward to seeing the food distribution in action tomorrow.  I hear there are plenty of opportunities to hold babies tomorrow so I'm excited! 

Dinner tonight was cornmeal (like polenta), meatballs, lentil sauce, salad, and an oatmeal craisin bar for dessert.  Devotions were lead by Diane and Chris. 

Tomorrow we will also be stopping at Little Children of Jesus to visit with the kids.  We will be blowing bubbles, Paul will make balloon creations, and we will definitely be showering them with love and attention!  Continue to pray for Jim so that he can feel better and join us in action in full force soon! 

Dirty Deeds Performed Joyfully

Greer just said, "we had a good day and no one is tired."  Only half of that is true!  We spent the day at the school and clinic again (minus Jim who stayed back to rest again).  We divided into 3 groups and got to work.  Dave, Tom, Richard, and Paul worked on "rat-proofing" the office.  They made frames with steel mesh on it to put on four windows, put steel mesh in all the gaps along the ceiling, and are putting pieces of steel grating on the bottom of the front door.  So now if they want to get in, they're going to need a key!  Christine, Sarah, and Diane started out the day weeding the exterior of the clinic.  The nice man who does maintenance at the clinic saved us from some nasty looking wasp nests!  Chris and Greer, with Bert's assistance, built a concrete platform for an incinerator to be built upon.  After the weeding was done, Diane went to help Chris and Greer with the platform...we heard she's really good at turning on and off the water!  Populaire and Lucien also pitched in by helping make the cement for the platform.  Sarah and Christine started the dirtiest of all projects.  They cleaned one wall of the records/storage room in the school admin office.  They pulled old books off the shelf, wiped them of dust and rat droppings, and then cleaned the shelves as well.  It was dusty, dirty work! 

Much work was accomplished but there was time for some fun too!  Dave ran around with the kids and let them chase him.  He also did his Tarzan impersonation through the window and had them in stitches!  Paul held court for a bit with the kids, as well, before they were chased off to go home. 

The truck is still out of commission so we are packed into two vehicles.  Dave has enjoyed riding in the back of the pick-up with Populaire.  On our way home today, we had 6 extra passengers - the clinic staff.  We saw a supposed fire truck complete with firemen in what looked like riot gear followed by two vehicles with flashing lights.  One was UN and we think the other was police.  We also saw a pack of mules, a man in a wheelchair begging in the middle of the road, and many other interesting sites, as usual.  Dave made it safely back to Hope House despite riding on the top of the cab for most of the trip. 

Upon our return to Hope House, more cornhole was played and more fellowship took place.  The tie-breaker game was won by Tom and Paul.  Dinner was scalloped potatoes with ham, militon au gratin (a root vegetable that tastes like cauliflower), salad, bread, and more mangoes and watermelon for dessert!  Paul did a great job leading devotions. 

On the schedule for tomorrow is finishing up some jobs at the school and clinic and shopping at the tin shops in the afternoon.  Any requests? 

Getting to Work!

Our first day of work is coming to an end.  We headed out to the Village of Hope School early this morning.  Jim stayed behind to rest up another day.  Hopefully he will be well enough to join us tomorrow.  (Mary, he liked your comment on yesterday's blog post!)  We were blessed to be able to see the kindergarten opening.  They are so cute singing and learning their memory verse of the week while sneaking waves to the visitors.  We sang to them after they sang to us.  Luckily Bert joined our make-shift choir because singing is not our gift!

After the opening, we had a tour of the school and the health clinic.  It was so awesome to see the clinic up and running after all the painting and work we did on it last year when we were here.  Then we divided into groups and got to work.  Christine, Diane, and I did some pruning and weeding at the clinic while the men debated how to construct screens for the principal's office and how to rat-proof the records room.  They eventually got some work done!  The women left the school a little earlier than the men so that we could run some errands with Roberta and Lucien, our driver.  We stopped at the grocery store, Culligan, and Little Children of Jesus.  While there, Roberta learned that Gladys is no longer working at LCJ.  We were sad to hear this as she was such a blessing to all who met her, especially the children.  Keep her in your prayers as she has been through a lot.  After the men returned to Hope House, they prepped for tomorrow's work.  They also played cornhole.  The championship game was put on hold due to the ringing of the dinner bell. 

Dinner tonight was Creole chicken, rice, and salad.  Great as usual!  I was surprised with a birthday cake after dinner!  My birthday napkins said, "Happy 40th" which was not quite right but as Roberta said, when in Haiti, you make do with what you have! 

Our devotions each night were prepared by Liz.  Since she is not able to be with us, we are taking turns leading them.  She must have been clairvoyant as they fit perfectly with what we are experiencing each day.  The same goes for Michelle, who prepared our prayer tents that hopefully you are all using as you keep us in your prayers.  We are so grateful for these two wonderful women who are here with us in spirit!

Good night!  We hope all of you back in the states enjoyed MLK and Inauguration Day!

Another Amazing Experience

I'm writing the blog by myself again tonight.  You know Jim is feeling rough when he goes to bed before telling me what to write in the blog!  

The highlight of the day was going to a Haitian church.  Village of Hope has a new addition to the staff, Fan-Fan (pronounced Fon-Fon) and he took us to his church.  It is connected with an orphanage which is where he grew up.  It was such an amazing experience.  Despite not knowing what they were saying (although Fan-Fan translated some), you could feel the energy and the love of God radiating from everyone in the room.  Dave and Greer did a great job as preachers!  Following the service, many of the people came up to shake our hands and thank us for being there!

Following church, we went to the Eagle Mart grocery store.  People bought vanilla, coffee, rum, and other treats.  After shopping, we headed to Visa Lodge for lunch.  We enjoyed a buffet including pork, seafood carnivale', rice, beets, and so on.  It was great! 

We then traveled back to Hope House and unpacked our suitcases of donations and did some relaxing.  We played cornhole, talked, drank some rum and beer, and enjoyed our fellowship time together. There has been a lot of laughing (Dave is with us after all) and enjoying each others' company.

Tomorrow we head to the Village of Hope School where we'll see the opening, sing with the students, and do some projects around the school.  We look forward to seeing all the kids and getting to work!  We've been practicing the songs Dave and Dee provided for us but we've had to eliminate some after our practice session.  Nevertheless, we're prepared! 

Thank you for your continued prayers! 

Safe and Sound

We made it safe and sound and are enjoying a relaxing evening.  We were impressed with the new terminal at the airport but were disappointed that "the truck" is out of commission (hopefully temporarily) and we had to split into 3 trucks for the ride to Hope House!  Tonight we enjoyed a delicious dinner of pumpkin stew, salad and bread.  The stew is traditionally eaten on the Haitian Independence Day.  Before the independence, pumpkins were only eaten by the elite and rich. 

Tomorrow we are attending a Haitian church followed by lunch out.  Dave is "preaching" at the service.  He has learned never to volunteer without knowing what he's volunteering for first!  We don't have much work planned for tomorrow but are ready to get at it on Monday! 

Pray for Jim, as he's struggling with a head cold. 

86 and Sunny

It's hard to believe but in two short days, we will be basking in the sun in Haiti!  The report we received today is that it's 86 and sunny.  Sounds great since it's cold and drizzly here in NoVA!  But of course, we aren't going to Haiti for the nice weather, we are going to serve and share God's love with others.

Our team is looking forward to another great servant trip.  This year's team consists of returning members Greer Putnam (leader extraordinaire), Tom DeMik, Paul Swicord, Jim Lofgren, Christine Payne, Richard Finger, and me (Sarah Finger).  Joining our team are Dave Siebert, and Chris and Diane Brody.

We ask that you keep us in your thoughts and prayers while we are away.  Below is a daily list of prayers to include in your prayer time.

Saturday, January 19, Day 1

Heavenly Father, we pray for the safe early morning departure and safe arrival of St. John’s Servant Team to Port-au-Prince and Hope House. Open all hearts and minds to the needs of others, that with eagerness, energy and joy your love may be lavished on the children and people of Haiti.
 
Sunday, January 20, Day 2

Pray that the churches in Haiti will be filled to capacity with children, their families, friends, and neighbors and that the word of God will speak to them.
 
Monday, January 21, Day 3

Heavenly Father, we pray for the safe early morning departure and safe arrival of St. John’s Servant Team to Port-au-Prince and Hope House. Open all hearts and minds to the needs of others, that with eagerness, energy and joy your love may be lavished on the children and people of Haiti.
 
Tuesday, January 22, Day 4

Pray that Jesus will help us to practice hospitality to strangers and that God may bless the prayers of his people and assist us to model Christ in humble service. Pray for the Little Children of Jesus orphanage, both for the severely mentally and physically handicapped children and their staff who care for them. Ask that the Lord would provide for their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs and that we will see the love of Christ working through them.
 
Wednesday, January 23, Day 5

Pray for the government and leaders of Haiti, that they will work to provide security, economic and political stability, and hope for their country and people according to the will of the Lord.

Thursday, January 24, Day 6

Pray for the donors and volunteers to the Lazarus Project, that they will pray for our neighbors in need in Haiti, and for them to understand the importance of sharing time, talent, and treasure.

Friday, January 25, Day 7

Pray for Haitian children and their families that their hearts will be opened to the Good News of Jesus Christ. Also, please pray for Bert and Roberta Anderson, the VOH Haiti Directors, and their staff.

Saturday, January 26, Day 8
 
Pray for the safe return of the SJLC group to northern Virginia and for good health for all.

T-6 Days!

Our suitcases of donations are packed and ready to go!