Before I begin, I’d like to describe the last week with a
verse from 1 Peter 3:13: “If with heart and soul you’re doing good, do you
think you can be stopped? Even if
you suffer for it, you’re still better off.”
How’s that for a little foreshadow?
We arrived at Fond Blanc orphanage last Saturday. We were told that no other WR team has
been that deep into Haiti before, which got us all excited. In the middle of the mountains with no
power (except during worship on Sundays and Wednesdays), water from a well,
living out of our tents right alongside some 35 awesome Haitian boys (a few
girls as well), we were officially roughing it over there. Sunday worship lasts at least 3 hours
here by the way… imagine songs that last 10 minutes and include dance breaks,
preachers absolutely screaming at you (in a good way… just loud), four or five
testimonies and, in my case, a shirt that gets completely sweated through
within the first hour.
I say “were
roughing it” because after a week up in the mountains (to get cell phone
service, it takes a 15-minute hike up a mountain to the most beautiful place I
think I’ve seen to date), team Crash was dealt some different cards. It began when Kameron and I contracted
some of the worst poison plant rashes I’ve ever seen or experienced. Kam has it around his eyes, on the
insides of his knees and up his calves while I have it all over my hands
(including between the fingers) and up my forearms, mainly.
This is where 1 Peter comes in because it was while we were
making one of the older orphan boys a ground seat that we carefully chose a
small tree, that we soon found out was very poisonous, to use as our support
beams for said seat. Within a day,
we were both in agony. Not gonna
lie… I feel like I have the plague right now.
At the same time, Lia and Lauren each became severely
dehydrated and team Crash was relocated back to Port Au Prince on
Saturday. Lia and Lauren to rest
and rehydrate, Kam and me to get to a hospital for a cordisone shot (which we
got for free from some awesome missionary doctors in P au P). I have to admit, I was livid when I
found out that our relocation was probably going to be for the rest of the
month because we were given no warning that we were leaving for more than the
originally planned couple of days.
With diseased hands, I had to pack up my tent and hiking pack in an
eventual rainstorm. It was
miserable, yes, and I was definitely questioning God’s motives on this one (I
see now that we’re definitely needed more in the city-so much devastation, it’s
heart-breaking).
Anyway, that’s where we are now… Port Au Prince, rejoined
with our main ministry contact for Haiti and working alongside the other WR
team that was stationed at his house in the middle of the city. They’ve been working with a local
school, some orphanage construction/renovation and some medical volunteer work
as well. Once the plague leaves my
hands, I think I’m going to dive into the construction work.
Team Crash has agreed to at least find our way back to Fond
Blanc orphanage for a visit to have a chance to say a real goodbye to the boys
before we leave Haiti to go back to the DR for month 2. I mainly want to get back to the
mountains to make sure one of the boys we’ve been giving medical care will be
OK. He’s not more than 5 years old
and somehow managed to cut his finger and it got infected to the point where it
was about twice the size it should have been and the skin was beginning to
rot. With some prayer, Neosporin
and a bandage, the infection was leaving, although I was having to cut off a
good deal of dead skin each morning and re-cover it with a fresh bandage. By the time we left, I had already cut
over 50% of the skin off, knowing the rest was going to need to come off as
well. Considering we’re the only
ones with the tools to help him, one last visit is really important to me.
This is Lixon, the boy with the messed up finger who also happens to be awesome!
In other news, please don’t forget that I’m not yet fully
funded! If you are feeling any
sort of calling to support me, please pray over it and act on where you
recognize the Spirit guiding you.
Right now, I’m in need of $5,000.
I’m going to try and post pictures from the DR and Haiti up
to this point on Facebook soon! Here
at the pastor’s house, we should have Internet much more regularly, although we’re
not planning on letting ourselves indulge much in it.
Love you guys.
Please pray for healing and direction for team Crash… it’s only week 2
and we’ve already been rocked, physically and emotionally. Fond Blanc seemed to be blessing us
more than we were blessing them, which made us realize that God had us there to
be poured into so that we could pour out in the city.
