A fun story from Haiti - Monday March 19, 2012

Hello again,

I heard from Mike tonight. The team had a great trip to Cap Haitien and back. Thank you for praying for them. Mike said it took them 4 hours each way. Looking on a map, it should have taken about 1 hour. I guess the roads are as bad as the road to the orphanage was 4 years ago. What then was a 6 1/2 hour drive, has now become about 3 hours. I read last night that only 628 miles of road are paved in the whole country of Haiti. Some of the roads have pot holes large enough to totally engulf a car or truck if they fell in. They said the scenery was beautiful on the way, but the city itself was like most other cities in Haiti, crowded and dirty and poor. Cap Haitien is the 2nd largest city in Haiti. The US Department of State web site says Cap Haitien has a estimated population of 250,000.

Since the beginning of the orphanage we have wanted to help the women in the kitchen. We have wanted to make their job easier and not so back breaking. It is hard for us to imagine how hard life is for the people of Haiti sometimes. The kitchen in the beginning was a small smoke filled hut. They cooked over an open fire and they squatted on the ground to prep the food. There was no water, no stove and no tables. To most of us a large pot would be about 8 quarts. I have a 18 quart stock pot and it seems enormous to me. Their pots make mine look small. When using these large pots  they are not able to use all of the burners on the stove top in the orphanage, because the burners are so close together. So, the January team built a new stove that has 4 burners lined up in a row that are spaced far apart. Perfect for their large pots. The March team was able to get the needed parts and get the stove hooked up and working. And the women love it.

On a fun note (and a practical note) I would like to share this story. Some of you have attended Rose's 'Mission Store' for our orphanage. This fall they helped to outfit our new kitchen. Our kitchen staff has one small prep table, but because of the quantity of food that needs to be prepared, it is not nearly large enough. So we asked Lynden Sheet Metal to build a stainless steel table top. This, along with most of the kitchen supplies arrived in the first part of February in the container Melissa helped to unload. The teams are usually working on something when they visit the orphanage. The women workers are usually so busy they are not paying attention to what the men are doing. So this time when the team started building an 8ft square table to go under the stainless steel top, the kitchen workers did not pay attention to what was going on. Today the team finished building the table and putting the top on it. They moved the table into the kitchen this evening after the kitchen workers had left the kitchen. For some reason a little while later one of the women workers returned to the kitchen for something. Mike said she saw the table in the kitchen and realized what it was and started screaming and laughing. By the time they got to her she was crying and dancing. She was fully over joyed by the thought that someone would think of them and try to make things easier for them. I would have loved to have her reaction on camera. Tomorrow I will see if the team can get a photo of the helpers and their new table to post on the blog.  Thanks so much to all of you that have helped to make life easier for the women working in the kitchen. Thank you for helping to bless them.

Tomorrow the team will travel to Peru and spend time visiting our school children. The team will also be able to see the new well that was dug. And they will be taking a care package to Yolin and Wadner, and will pray for him. Please join them in prayer for healing and provision for him and his mother. Please pray that the compassion and mercy shown to him will be an example to others in the village and Glorify God.

Blessings,

Chris