Catching up and coming home

We have all arrived safely home. What a rewarding week--filled with challenges, smiles, stories, laughter and sighs too deep for tears. 

Wednesday morning we met with the MPP leadership once again to clarify and contemplate and learn and consider. It was a good meeting. We have great partners and we all are working together for this project to be successful and the school to be sustainable. 

After the meeting we loaded all our gear and made the long trip back to the city. The roads offer great challenges and the trip was not "fun", but we were safe and we arrived intact. In Haiti, this is a triumph!

Thursday morning we reflected on our many varied gifts, how the range of those gifts worked for the good of our tasks, and how we will move forward. How will we answer the question "How was your trip?" Give us time if you ask that question!

And now we are home. It is good to be home. It is good to have hearts filled with the joy of sharing this week with each other and with our dear friends in Haiti. It is good to have minds filled with questions, so many questions. And it is so good to feel the Spirit moving wherever we go. 

  

Some assembly required

On Monday morning we split in two groups. Chris and Pat took the boxed up sewing machine to the community center in Village 1 and reassembled it with expert assistance from the instructor of the sewing class. Mike and Scott were there to observe and document. The last photo shows the presentation to the assembled members of the sewing class.

Notes on Day 2 from David

Well it is officially day 2 of Haiti.   We came in through the busy airport at Port-Au-Prince.   It has been a adventure to say the least.  This whole trip has been like drinking water through a fire hose.  I want to soak in every moment but they are coming fast and furious.   I went to sleep to the locals playing drums on a Friday night and woke up to a beautiful sunrise over the central Haiti.   With the sun grazing the topography with this wonderful warm light.  I shared this moment with my new friend as we both looked at God’s work.

While I have been here, I have not felt more blessed.  It will not be for the reasons a lot of you may be thinking.  I have not felt blessed with worldly possessions but truly blessed with some great people that have come into my life.  If it was not for this trip, I would not have meet some of the uniquely talented people I have ever come in to contact with.  I don’t even know where to start so let us start with first people who brought the idea of the eco-village to me Chris Calia and his wonderful wife Janine.  They have a deep faith in God and passion for service.   There is Mike Thurmond and his wife Loida who are great photographers and always on mission trips all over the world helping others.  There is Scott Grosse whose wisdom, insight and wry sense of humor is always appreciated in Creole and English!  There is  Patrick Murphy who every time I am around him, he shares some amazing story in his life and that adventuring man is amazing!  This passion for life and people is endless.  There is also Kristy Gordon who is my medical buddy and my wise and patient teammate and my partner in our art.  Then there is Mark our interpreter who is so patient with the blancs and has one of the most kind souls.  Then there is Nixon our driver who been driving his vehicle over the rough roads of this area and even getting his truck stuck on our first night trying to get our bags closer to where we are staying.  Then there is last but certainly not least Gordon French and his wife Carolyn.  They have such a deep conviction for the country and people of Haiti.  They are the ones with the vision for brighter future and making a corner of the world better.  Who could ask for more?

So yes I am tired and worn out but I am truly blessed with these people coming in my life.  I know at the end of the week I am going to go back to the love of my life my with Daphne and my great kids Dylan and Dan but I will come back a better person for knowing these people and sharing some time together.

I am looking forward to tomorrow and what it brings.  I am looking forward to worshiping with the people at the Haitian church.  I am looking forward to meeting the people in the eco-village.  I am looking forward to the seeing the ingenuity of the Haitian people.  Their passion for life and love they share with others.  I am looking forward to new experiences tomorrow will bring.

 
100% of your donation is tax-deductible and 100% goes directly to build and support the school. This PayPal link is provided by North Decatur Presbyterian Church, which acts as our banker.