February 24th, 2012 | Haiti February 2012 |
The good work that we began will be carried to completion. (L to R: Vernon, Sherry, Larry, Carol, Randy, Cheryl, Mike, Stephanie, Roger)
The Haitian team sends you greetings on their last night in Haiti!
It is with bittersweet emotions that we prepare to leave in the morning. We leave at 7:00 for the airport. It has been an incredibly rewarding experience for all of us. The house we came to build in as complete as we could make it. It is now up to the professionals to finish it. (See picture)
We then moved on to the incredibly HARD work of building sidewalks and pouring concrete all by hand…everything from trenching, mixing concrete and pouring one wheel barrow at a time.
Hard-working Haitians building a sidewalk.
The children at the school had chapel this afternoon. There was lots of singing and praying and more singing. Our group made a little presentation for them which was interpreted into Creole. After chapel we walked to the home of one of the community children. Oh my…it was clean but so tiny. The kitchen is outside as well as the outhouse. Water is carried from a community well.
This evening our group presented a business opportunity to two of the workers here…raising chickens for the eggs to sell. Things went fine until Mike tried to explain the chicken facts of life to them about how you get either baby chicks or eggs. He finally said…you’ll have to look it up on the internet!!
Stephanie making eyes at a new friend.
This will be our last blog…when next we speak it will be in Lawrence.
February 23rd, 2012 | Haiti February 2012 |
The start of the school day at the Kids Alive school.
Thanks to all of you who have been following our blog. Our team will have a lot to process when we arrive home, from beautiful countryside to needy families and children. This morning we started our day with joining the 120 children in the opening ceremony of their school day. Then on to the job site, where we finished putting the roof on the home we’ve been working on. This afternoon we built sidewalks around the three homes now under construction. Cheryl and Carol organized the shop on-site and sewed new zippers into some of the children’s uniforms. Later tonight, after dinner, two young ladies who are missionaries on staff with Kids
Making sidewalks is hard work.
Alive, spoke to us in regards to their journey with God in getting to Kids Alive. Their names are Kristen, from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Teri, from Aztec, New Mexico. Thanks again for all of your prayers! We have felt the Lord’s presence!
Randy, using his aviation expertise to make a toy plane for Haitian kids, using scraps from the foam panels.
February 22nd, 2012 | Haiti February 2012 |
Our scripture for the week is : “Do not merely listen to the Word and so deceive yourselves, do what it says!”
Today has been a day of doing. Praise God, the house is about 95% finished…only one panel left. We all worked really hard to finish it up. Tomorrow we will work on pouring sidewalks.
(Photos above, L-R: The crew putting up the final roof panels; the school children playing games; Medland, a neighborhood girl who likes to hang around the work site.)
The children have been on holiday since we have been here and today came back to the school. The school and the team house are at the same location. We had a chance to watch them play games, laugh and have a great time.
(Photos above, L-R: Vernon strutting his stuff; the Schaubs, taking a break to mug for the camera)
Our limo took us all the way back into town for a “night out”. Most of us had burgers and pizza! The trip home was an EXPERIENCE!! Remember earlier it was indicated that the roads were a suggestion? Well, at night it is more like “make your own.”
We don’t know for sure yet, but the computer we are using is going home to the DR and we may or may not have another. This may be the last blog post…we will try.
February 22nd, 2012 | Haiti February 2012 |
This message came to Pastor Carolyn this morning from Jeff Vandermolen, the Latin America Director for Kids Alive:
Sounds like the team is doing well, based on my report from Brian and Emily last night. I think the roof will be on today, and they will have the house finished by tomorrow. Amazing. You can send us Larry anytime you want! Thank you for the great teams you have put together.
February 21st, 2012 | Haiti February 2012 |
Hello to you all!
Again the day proved to be beautiful. Reasonable temperatures and no rain. Praise God!
(Photos above, L-R: The team makes breakfast; roof panels going up; Haitian children make cars out of Styrofoam scraps. Click on images to see them full-size.)
Breakfast today was an adventure. Some of the men (Mike, Larry, Randy and Roger) decided it was time for “Boy Scout Omelets.” Ever heard of these? You mix all the ingredients for your omelet, put it in a Zip-Loc baggie, and put it in a pot of boiling water
( theoretically) until cooked. Well…they did not plan on the baggies exploding as the air and the eggs expanded. It was interesting to say the least. All was not lost–we had very tasty scrambled eggs!
(Photos above, L-R: Results of the “dust storms” that Carol and Cheryl made yesterday; reinforcing the corners)
Work on the house went better today. Larry was pleased. (It is important that Larry be pleased!) They are making great strides on tying all the reinforcement rods to add to the rigidity of the structure. If you have never seen a house made of styrofoam you must know that this reinforcement is critical. Several more panels made it to the roof and we hope to get them all on before the end of the week. We are grateful for the expertise of the Haitians as well as the leadership of the Kids Alive staff.
Again Cheryl and Carol made a valiant effort to reproduce the Oklahoma dust storms in the second house that had to be cleaned. One of the children who insisted on helping us looked like a little old lady with all the dust turning her hair grey!
Thank you for continuing to pray!
February 20th, 2012 | Haiti February 2012 |
Hi, everyone!
The sun rose this morning and so did we, bright and early. By eight we had had breakfast and devotions (based on 40 Days in the Word, Pastor Bill!) and were on our way in the limousine to the work site. Things were a challenge today with the house. Metal trim went on around all the windows and then roof panels were started. Something about being plumb (or not) seemed to cause some dilemma. We think it will all come together tomorrow!
(Photos, above, L-R: Sherry working on the wall; Roger doing wire work; Carol and Cheryl painting the floor.)
(Photos, above, L-R: The guys working on the roof panels; one of the KA families at their home; some of the foam panels used in the building construction.)
(Photo, above: The building our teams have been working on, nearing completion!)
We are all still healthy….thank you for continuing to pray!
Cheryl and Carol cleaned concrete from the floor of one entire house, used an air compressor to further clean it and then painted it with Pepto Bismol (not really,but it looked like it!) In reality it was a bonding agent for future concrete.
The Haitians are hand digging a trench all around the property for the water line to come into the homes. Unbelievably hard work!
We visited one of the temporary homes of the children this afternoon. There are 21 children and 4 house parents in one house with approximately 1200 square feet on each of two floors. It is cozy! They are waiting for their homes to be finished…..we are working hard to make that happen!
That is about it for today…more tomorrow.
February 20th, 2012 | Haiti February 2012 |
The group before we headed into Haiti.
Greetings from Haiti!!
It is Sunday and we have just finished a dinner of mac ‘n’ cheese with boiled vegetables. (Just what kind of vegetables is a mystery!) Desert was yummy banana bread.
The day began with the trip into Cap Haitan in the open back of a 1-1/2 ton truck. The roads here are merely a suggestion…wherever there are the fewest potholes. We arrived at a lovely, all-concrete, Baptist church which seats around 2000. It was basically open-air (thankfully!) The music was pleasant but very different. The prayer before the offering lasted about 14 minutes. (Let Jonathan know that he has to get his act together!) Really, we couldn’t understand a word they were saying but the Spirit of the Lord really showed through. The scenery was interesting–lots of garbage, a goat walking down the street, people changing tires in the middle of the street; then, of course, there was more garbage!
This is our "limousine" to church!
It was so interesting to see the dress of the Christian people in church. They were all dressed up–white shirts and ties for the men, dressy dresses for the women, many with heels. They looked so great. The children were absolutely darling! And so different from the children in our homes. It was a vivid picture of what the Love of Christ can accomplish.
Keep praying–we are really depending on it.
February 20th, 2012 | Haiti February 2012 |
(This post is from team member Stephanie Temple, on behalf of the team.)
We all got here safe and sound this afternoon after a long day of travel. Everything so far has gone very well, our flights were all on time and we got settled in here tonight. We were able to go by the site before dark today to see all the awesome work the first team did this past week. The house looks amazing and we all can’t wait until we start on Monday to try and continue the great work they have done. We miss you all tons but are very excited to get started. We will update the blog this week and send pictures soon.
February 18th, 2012 | Haiti February 2012 |
We just received word that the first Haiti missions team has left Haiti and safely arrived on the island of Turks & Caicos, where they will spend the night before returning to the States tomorrow (Sunday).
The second Haiti team left the Dominican Republic earlier today, and has most likely arrived in Haiti by now.
Please pray for the first team’s safe return and for the second team as they begin their week in Haiti.
(Doug Heacock, on behalf of the missions teams)
February 17th, 2012 | Haiti February 2012 |
Larry with his sponsored children.
(Click on images for larger versions.) What a great day we had today! The semi-truck full of panels arrived this morning so our first order of business was to unload it. That took a couple of hours. After that, we spent the rest of the day putting up the internal walls, reinforcing the corners, tying the rebar and cutting the roof line of the internal walls, preparing the roof panels to be laid, and breaking off the forms from the sidewalks that were poured yesterday.
Our team next week will reinforce the windows and doors, finish tying rebar, and put on the roof. They may also have time to finish the sidewalks around the yellow and blue houses. The Kids Alive missionaries from Haiti also have some sewing projects they’d like any seamstresses from our team to work on.
Cassandra, learning to count in Creole.
Missions teams aren’t the only people working on the homes. After teams get the panel work done, Haitians and Dominicans install the windows and doors and then Haitians come back and plaster cement on all the walls. Teams or locals paint the houses, depending on who is available when they need to be painted.
While we were putting up panels on the third house, a team of Dominicans and Haitians were installing windows and doors on the yellow and blue houses. Those houses will be completely finished in just a few weeks and two of the eight Kids Alive families will get to
Rich working on internal walls
move in. It’s taken several years to get to this point and the children are very excited to see the houses go up! It will probably take two more years to get all eight of the houses built. Teams are such a pivotal part of the building process so we are hoping to bring a team back here next winter to help out with another house.
This afternoon we left the work site for an hour to participate in the kids’ weekly chapel service at the school. During chapel the kids sang with enthusiasm and joy and through an interactive retelling of John 8:1-11, they had a fun time learning that Jesus came to save us, not condemn us.
Vernon working on a wall.
Several of our team members decided to sponsor one or more children. After chapel, they had the opportunity to meet their kids and take pictures with them.
As I post my last entry from Haiti, a couple of our team members are already in bed, and the rest are playing a game with Emily and Brian, our Kids Alive team leaders from the Dominican who have been with us all week. It’s hard to call it a night, knowing it’s our last night here together.
Unloading building materials from the truck.
We’ve had an amazing week and are so grateful for all your prayers. In addition to accomplishing a lot on the house and seeing the good things that God is doing in this community, we have had a wonderful time getting to know one another better and we pray the same for next week’s group.
Au revoir, Carolyn
