1 Weeks Worth of News

Wow, It's hard to believe I've only been in Haiti for a week! It already feels like an eternity has passed. First off, sorry I haven't updated this since last week. Let's see where did I leave off? Ah yes, Thursday. Thursday Matt and I went back out to the fifth section to put the finishing touches on the forms we worked on the day before. We were done fairly early and I really do not remember what we did when we got back. I think I went out to a restaurant with people but not really sure. Friday, Matt, Kevin, Alain, 2 Haitians doing pre-DTS, Chad, and I went out to start mixing the concrete. We got there about 9 o'clock and figured we would be doing about 27 batches of mixed cement (3 for each column). It takes 3 buckets of sand, 2 buckets of gravel, 1 bucket of cement, and about 2 buckets of water for each batch. Alain and I were covered by the time we were done, which was between 1 and 2! We definitely didn't think we would be done that early! We came back to the based and Kristian Snow and one of the Press guys interviewed me for Saint-Marc's Television Station. The interview was to show that YWAM was still having a presence in the 5th Section even with the earthquake. We got back and I think I helped a little with the construction of the upper apartment. Saturday we stayed on the base and I helped with cleaning up some of the grounds area around the construction site on the base (upper apartment) and also moving the refugees into the old UN building down the road that others cleaned up to make into a clinic. Saturday night Philipson, Bill, and I went out to KAY FOUNE again (my favorite restaurant here lol). Then Sunday a bunch of us went to the beach nearby for some nice relaxation and fun. Later, we had church at 6 and man was it awesome! The worship was sooooo energetic and the message was great! People kept showing up even during the message and it was packed! Then after church I felt God telling me to talk to Caleb (Freeman's 12 year old son) about why he stood up when someone was talking about a vision of a pot overflowing with God's love and tipping over and whoever stood up would want to receive that love. We chatted and then went and got the girl who had the vision and prayed for Caleb and he said he had a vision of that pot pouring over him and spilling out through him onto others! He is such a little blessing! After church we unloaded a whole truck load of MRE's to hand out to refugees! At about 10:30 pm Philipson and Alain and I took one of our friends motorcycles to Philipson's mothers house in St. Marc and had this drink made of sweet kernels, milk, and flour. It was very good! Monday morning I was late getting started and so I missed the bus to the clinic (they had asked if I would be a part of the children's ministry they wanted to start there). Oh yes and I can't forget, Freeman came up to me and said that morning "I had a word from the Lord concerning your future here". He had heard that I have been planning on staying here longer than the initial 3 months. Anyway, Freeman asked if I would think and pray about taking charge of the tool shed and 4 or 5 tool trailers since I will be here long term. It would mean that I have to reorganize everything to have a specific spot and then come up with some sort of sign out sheets to keep track of the tools and materials that are used everyday and make sure those tools come back every night so they are not constantly losing and buying more tools. This does mean that I would be tied down there almost every day and wouldn't be much involved in some of the other ministries. I am still praying and thinking about it, but I do have some good ideas if I do take the responsibility! Anyway, I missed the truck that went to the clinic so I decided to ask for permission to walk alone to the clinic (about 15 minute walk). They said yes! So off I went to go out the front gate. There's one problem though. We have been doing refugee registration on the base and there are about 40,000 refugees from Port au Prince in St. Marc. We register the victims who have at least some sort of proof they were from PAP and they go through this long line once through the gate where they fill out papers then wait about an hour or more to get processed and given an ID card with which they can then get aid, shelter in future tent cities, and possibly even jobs in the future. Now, we can only let like 100-200 in at a time so there are literally hundreds outside the gate desperately wanting to get in. So here I go trying to go out the gate and the security guard says go out this door out front. So they open the door for me and I see a big crowd but thought it was only about 3-4 people deep but very wide. So I step up on the step to step into the crowd and there was 100's of people! One of the security guards starts yelling at people to get back but that doesn't work so they send one ahead of me to literally push the people out of the way while one comes behind me to keep me safe. I step into the crowd and realize this is practically impossible. Plus, I start thinking about how I have money in my wallet, my iPhone and my camera in my shorts, and also food and water in my backpack. Then I start thinking what am I gonna do if they realize this? So I start yelling at the guards that we are turning around to come back and when we get back in so do like 20 people who push the security guards down. The guards start rushing over and yelling and the one actually hit a guy in the leg with his police baton. They got everyone back outside and closed the door but it was bulging from the pressure of all the people fighting to get in! So I went out the back gate and took a small detour down to the clinic then played soccer with the kids, and arm-wrestled practically all of them (like 30 to 40) then did random stupid stuff with them. Then Colton and I walked back for lunch then I helped with food distribution with the refugees getting registered on base. Then that night a bunch of people staying on the base for 1 night to get stuff off the ship at port the next morning went out with me and Philipson and bought us dinner at a restaurant above the new Deli Mart. Tuesday morning we went back out to the fifth section to get the columns out of the forms and then repair them and refill all 9 of them with cement again. We thought it would be till after dinner that we would get back (dinner is at 5:30) because of how bad the forms were we thought they would get destroyed when we took the columns out. Well we got there at 9am, and amazingly the forms stayed fairly nice! We got done at 12:35 and that was even after we had stopped to have lunch!! It was so awesome because alot of the people helped us after Alain had a long heart to heart with them about their role in helping us build the houses for the community and how our hearts are for God and we were not getting paid. We came back and then kinda just relaxed because of being very sore and tired. I was also able to have my first fresh coconut and oh my are they amazing! They are practically bursting with coconut milk (which is so much better fresh than store bought) and eating the coconut was heaven! Then I hung out with Caleb and Clay and played with Nerf guns with them and Colton joined us too. Last night was the first night I went to bed before 11! It was great to have all that sleep lol. This morning (Wednesday) I helped clean up the guys dorm then a couple of us went to the clinic to play with the kids and then Alain showed up on our friends motorcycle and I said I wanted to ask our friend when we got back if I could drive it sometime. Well, to my surprise, Alain said I could drive it back to the base! Now let me tell you something, I haven't driven a motorcycle ever, only a dirtbike and that was like 4 or 5 years ago. Also, I've never driven in Haiti, and if you don't know, it is utter chaos and practically no rules, anything goes. Plus the roads are very bad. Not exactly motorcycle material. And the last thing, I've never driven a motorcycle with someone on the back. Now even with all these factors, I actually did really good!! It was so much fun and can't wait to do it again! Then after lunch I helped with some more food distribution and then did some brainstorming about the children's ministry we are doing at the clinic. Well I'm finally all caught up on my journaling! Hopefully I will not let this go unattended for too long again. Later.