Peter Pan’s Wild Ride November 30, 2008

This week we were in the village for 4 days. Great trip, except for a few glitches. Actually the outcome of those glitches were good, as we felt angels surround us and protecting us. 

Following is the story of our experience, one we don’t want to repeat.

We have to use a different mountain road since the hurricanes. This mountain road goes over a very high mountain range. But it is shorter in distance. It cuts about 2 hours of driving time.

On our way out, we were ready to start the grade up. We went down a small grade, then started up the other side. Patrick realized he needed 4-wheel drive to get up, so he stopped on the upward grade to put it in 4-wheel. When he did that, the brakes gave out, and the vehicle went backwards down the hill, very fast. There was no way to control it. It was rocking all over the place, over rocks, etc. We all knew we were going to turn over. We just kept rolling and all of a sudden we hit a rock wall in the back. It was going so fast, we couldn’t even make out where we were going, except backwards. ha. Anyway, we praise God for the angels that held the vehicle and kept it from turning over. The back end has some dents, but we have a heavy steel bar across to protect it from bumps, so it was good!!

On our way home, we were on the mountain again, and it had rained. It was muddy, and we “danced” all over the place. We were glad to get down off the mountain. When we got to the place where we had the accident, we couldn’t believe how short the distance was that we actually rolled down. It wasn’t far, but it seemed miles!!

We could have named this trip “Peter Pan’s Wild Ride”!!

Press toward the Mark November 18, 2008

Another holiday!! Honestly Haiti should get a Gold Cup for the most holidays in a year. We just had Nov 1 & 2 for a holiday. Now we have another one. Every thing is closed. School just opened beginning of October, later opening day because of all the hurricanes. Then Thursday and Friday were this past week was 2 days of mourning in remembrance of those who lost children in the school collapse. Yesterday was school. Today is a holiday again.

So it being a holiday, everything is closed. So it was a good day to keep plugging away at the office work. Others chose to go visit friends. 

Have you ever started your day, and not quite sure what it would take to give some energy and “push” to get in the mood to work? Well, that is what happened to me this morning. So first things first, I opened my Bible, and am reading Philippians. God knew what I needed…the all too familiar verse “forgetting what is behind, straining for that which is ahead, I press toward the mark”.

YES!! That did it. I can forget the problems of yesterday, and push through today and keep my eyes on the mark of Heaven and the Lord. Now that is a great multi-vitamin. I like that even better than swallowing the pills. At least Philippians isn’t a nauseating taste!!.

I hope you had a great day in Jesus. Keep pushing ahead!! We will get to our goal soon.

November 14, 2008

I always think life here goes on quite normally, at least, it seems normal. I mentioned to a friend that I would like to keep more up-to-date on our website, but just don’t know what to write. She reminded me what may seem quite normal, and hum-drum to us, is probably quite interesting to others who live in another environment. So I will try to keep a post going on our activities on a more regular basis. Maybe this is taking a New Year’s resolution early.

Yesterday the 2nd school building collapsed in a week’s time. This one wasn’t nearly as tragic. Only 10 were hurt, and no deaths. Comparing to the first one, 200+ died in this tragic accident. Many families lost more than one child. We heard one family lost 7 children, and another one lost 5 children.

Patrick returned from a 5 day outing in Mayette. The roads are passable, but still not good. The country road he usually takes, has some deep holes, more like caverns…the one place 50+ truckloads have been dumped in one hole, and it still isn’t filled.

He took another road on his return trip, which was much better. Still a dirt road, still a mountain road but much better. It cut 1 1/2 hours off his trip home. So you are all wondering about the roads. The community out in the villages banded together and worked on the road. Not a good job, but at least they are passable. An organization donated some rice, so they used it as a “Food for Work” project. Those who worked on the road were paid with rice. They loved it.

While Patrick is out in the village, Barb stays glued in the office with financial reports, emails, phone calls, translating letters, and attacking the piles of paper that somehow always find my desk!!
It takes the mundane along with the exciting to keep the work going.

Tragedy Strikes Again November 11, 2008

As many of you may have seen the news of the school collapse here in Haiti this past Friday. This a happened in Petion-ville in an area not far from us here in the city. The school has an estimate of 700 students. As of today there are still 200+ students lying under the debris. The school is located in an area where it is impossible for tractors/cranes to get in to help with the search of bodies. It has been declared a poorly constructed building which caused the collapse. This morning I heard that one family lost 7 children in this collapse!! And we know that probably many other families have also lost more than one of their children. 

What will be next for Haiti!! We pray for the families involved in this tragedy.