Sunday

After deciding to have a “day of rest”, we decided to call our blog post for today “Skipping Church with Pastor Kendra”.  She was sure to tell us we could not use that as the title.  Even though she gave us the option to stay home or travel out with her, we all ended up going with her on all the adventures for the day.

We started out by going to pick up her friend Carter who is a humanitarian for Haiti.  He has been working with Project Hope, but has recently resigned.  Carter’s parents named him after the US President Jimmy Carter because he was born after Carter was out of office and his parents felt he was a good leader for the United States.  While Carter currently splits his time between Haiti and the Dominican, it was fun for us to spend time with him and get another perspective on Haiti and the current election.  He has been so gracious to now spend the rest of his time here with us to help our project.

First, Kendra wanted to have Carter help us find two families from within the Delmas 6 camp.  We, of course, were elated to travel back to Delmas and this very “friendly” camp.  He looked for both families and while he found one, Carter was able to better understand the current situation there.  While talking to a woman who we invited to just come see the land, she informed him that she needed to “ask the committee first”.  This further proves the corruption and fear the people have from doing what is actually best for them as opposed to going against leadership that doesn’t actually even live in the camp.

Even though no one from the two families were able to join us to see the land, we wanted Carter to see the progress we have made.  He was impressed with what we had accomplished and was able to give insight into how we can acquire more funding and more connections with his network.  Carter seemed very excited and hopeful for the project and how it could help Haitians to become successful.

Carter lives on top of the mountain behind the UN Base Camp.  We drove up and up the hills to find beautiful homes that looked like they should be placed in Florida on the ocean…or even in Beverly Hills.  We dropped him off and drove a little ways down the street to see Kendra’s friends from FOHO.  Russ, Sherry, and Jack.

During our time with Russ, Sherry and Jack, Kendra updated them on the happenings of the Delmas 6 Camp as well as our current project in Croix-des-Bouquets. After, we listened to Russ, Sherry and Jack give us a few details on the day of the earthquake and the few days that followed.  It was amazing to hear how it affected their lives, but with God’s assurance have come back to Haiti to live out His mission.

By this time it was 6:30pm and Kendra’s friend Amaudo from Mali in Western Africa called to invite us over.  He works as a UN police officer for the minustah and had some very interesting things to say.  First, in his country, he is allowed to have four wives even though he only has one right now. He seemed to be very interested in discussing this with Emily and Alonda, if you know what I mean. But all in all we had a great time and he served us chicken, fries, and a sauce that was delicious! We were all very grateful for his hospitality. After a long day we found ourselves looking for our beds and yet wondering what tomorrow would bring us.  

Finishing Up

The last couple of days we have been trying to finish up the temporary houses. The houses are built but the tarps need to be stretched around the frames. We now understand why Hank and Royce really “loved” this job. So at this time we would like to say we miss Hank and Royce and wished they were here…hahaha… We’ve had several visitors to the camp like I.O.M that is putting in the latrines, Clear Blue that is digging the well and digicel that will be putting up security lights.

A Night In Paraguay

God has shown favor to Pastor Kendra in several different ways one is that she has been blessed to have a connection with the Paraguayan army that is stationed here as part of the United Nations. As Paraguay speaks Spanish she is able to communicate with them very well and they seem to enjoy their conversations together and in so they invited us to dinner at their base in the UN camp. So guess what? We got to travel along for the adventure!! It was so amazing and so much fun to have a personal tour by the gentlemen and to sit down for a real dinner in their mess house. You could tell they had such great pride for their country and pride to shows us around their camp. At the end of our tour they brought us into their education/media room to show us a slide show of their accomplishments in Haiti and their travel of staff and equipment to Haiti. Our project was a part of the show and our very own Danny was in it on top of one of the roofs of the houses.

WELCOME TO HAITI!!!

We were up and at ‘em about 8am with passports in hand for the border crossing. After Kendra came out of the Dominican building for the border crossing we sang Victory in Jesus, even JohnBern (our great friend and translator) knew it. We drove the quarter of a mile through the market area (market is closed today - whew!) to the Haitian side to be approved. This side is usually more difficult, but luckily we crossed with somewhat ease.

A few small towns after the border, we came across the Love a Child Village. Kendi talked about how she has passed this complex and the neighboring homes many times, curious about what they are doing and how the development is going. We drove up to the gate of Love a Child Village and as God's timing would have it, ran into the Project Manager Robert who was on his way back to the homes construction site. He invited us back and spent a lot of time giving us the details of this project. It was similar to what we are trying to develop in Croix de Bouquets but on a much, much larger scale. A multi-millionaire has funded the entire community of homes. There are three separate phases with 50 homes each.  They pick the people to live there based on the group of refugees who had moved out this far from the earthquake. You can see the refugee camp area from the new development, giving those families something to look forward to. They have created classrooms for schools out of foam core homes, have a jungle gym playground like one you would see in the US, a church, and wells for clean water. This group really has a solid plan for this model community.

All residents sign a contract to move in. They must pay 20,000 goudes over 5 years equalling 4,000 goudes a year or $100 US dollars a year. Even though each home costs $4,000 US to build, they wanted Haitians to have to contribute  so it didn't feel like a handout with the idea that you will keep something nice that you are a part of. Each family also had to sign a contract of rules that include no cooking in the homes, all trash must be picked up, no fighting, etc. Your first offense is your last and you will be kicked out.

There are already families living in the first phase of 50 homes. The wood has been treated for termites and will be retreated as needed. A table, 4 chairs, a bed, and bunk beds are the furniture items that come with the house. Each home comes on a cement slab and includes a beautiful porch for shade.

Following our tour by Robert (from Holland), his Haitian assistant Jean Pierre invited us to see his home. One small main room with two bedrooms (enough room to fit one bed).

Afterwards, we went back to the Love a Child Village to visit Pastor Rod Baker from Tulsa, Oklahoma as well as Andy and Erin Hoffman, their 4 small girls and Erin's sister Laurel.  Pastor Rod has been here since last April building homes for single mothers/widows with many children.  Andy Hoffman and his family joined him three weeks ago for a 6 month stay. Besides building these homes, they also have a traveling van with a stage to do shows and play games with kids. They were sure to let us know that was their primary focus as Rod was the Children's Pastor in Tulsa before coming here.  They showed us around the compound where they are living, the Hoffmans homeschooling their girls and Rod pointed out a truck and shared a story about how God had provided it to him for free.

All of the vehicles for their group were stuck in customs for five months.  They had been walking and getting rides to anywhere they needed to go.  God encouraged Rod to call his friend to ask if he could borrow a truck because he knew the friend had a truck and they needed to transport house sides to a worksite.  The man on the other end of the phone said “Let me call you back.”  Then, 20 minutes later, the friend called back and told Rod that when they hung up the first time his wife had reminded him of a dream he had 20 years ago.  The dream was that someone would need a truck, but the man thought the his dream was in Africa.  She reminded the friend that he needed to give Rod the truck and they have been delivering houses with it ever since..

We ended our time together with a word of prayer and Rod said our paths crossed for a reason. He also said he isn’t going to stay in Haiti a minute more or a minute less than God says he should.

Driving further into Haiti we stopped at Croix-des-Bouquet to see the land where we have been building, then stopped by HELP, INC. to drop off the plants since they had been cooking in the van for over 24 hours.  The children we had seen during our first visit were there for their after school program of lunch.  It took them a minute to get comfortable with us again, but then they were there same old charismatic selves.  We played games with them, jump roped with them, and sang songs.  It was fun to see them laugh and play with us.

Travel Day

The morning was spent packing, sorting and organizing our supplies for Haiti.  Around 11:30am our friend and translator JohnBern Thomas came to the Luna residents packed and ready to go.

JohnBern became our good friend during our first trip to Haiti.  While he is originally from Haiti, he moved to the Dominican Republic after the earthquake to play more jazz music as he is a drummer.  We have enjoyed learning more about the Haitian culture from him and appreciate his friendship.

The drive was just as we remembered it, but this time there were more stops.  Between Santiago and Santo Domingo there is a nursery where we purchased mango trees, lemon trees, orange bushes, torny bushes, and a tree for shade.  We had to fit it in the van with the rest of our stuff and five people.

The group didn’t make it in time to the border to cross, so we stayed in a small hotel near the border named Hotel Paradise and it was anything but.

Weekend Update

Samuel translating for Pastor Jeff as he preaches on Friday night.

Now that all of our theologies have been jacked up by Pastor Jeff and Pastor Frazier, we are sad to see our time with them come to an end for now.  They have become our friends and we are glad to have had the opportunity to meet them.  Spending time with them was a wonderful way to prepare our hearts for Haiti.  Because of our conversations with these hombres en Christo, we have found ourselves challenging each other with deeper questions and discussions.

During the day on Saturday, we had free time to explore Santiago and on our way back to the Institute ran into Pastor Frazier and his friend Pastor Christian.  Pastor Frazier asked him to pray for us as we decide the next steps in our lives.  Pastor Christian has a very rare and unique ministry of prophetic word, so after praying for us he began to have a prophecy about us as a group and then individually.  As a group, he said we have a "divine connection" and individually God gave him insight into our lives and was able to match our situations in life with a biblical reference having never met us before.  God is definitely using Pastor Christian in the spiritual gift of prophecy in an explosive and monumental way to change people's perspective on their own lives.

After watching Pastor Jeff preach a few times at the Pastors' Conference, on Sunday morning we ventured into Santiago to see Pastor Frazier speak at a Free Methodist Church.  He spoke in Spanish and we had a volunteer translator help us understand the major ideas of his message.  Pastor Frazier spoke on the prodigal son and how God doesn't change his plans, but we do.

The afternoon was filled with a big lunch back in Jarabacoa at the Luna household, then another round of two sermons for Pastor Jeff at the Luna's church.  He uniquely put how paradise and the love of Jesus is here on earth and within us as Christ followers.  Not just someday in Heaven.  Fifty people between the two services were impacted greatly by his message and renewed their first love.

Our last supper with the two Pastors was at a Columbian restaurant where Alonda and Danny ate an omelette/quesadilla mixture that looked...delicious.

We bid farewell to the Pastors early Monday morning and hope in the near future to venture to Oklahoma to see them soon!

Comunidad Cristiana de Restauracion

Doris explaining the mission of Comunidad Cristiana de Restauracion.

After hearing Pastor Jeff preach last night in a small facility in Santo Domingo, we stayed with a few of Samuel's lifelong friends, Doris and Rafael.  Doris has played a big role in reaching out to those less fortunate in a very dangerous neighborhood of Santo Domingo.  Here drugs, gang violence, and prostitution are very prevalent.  They have created a community center in which a variety of programs are available for women and children.  Public school in the Dominican is only a half day, so to keep children off the streets they have created programs to help with spiritual, physical, emotional, and vocational growth.  A small building has been purchased to house a clinic with a pediatrician, gynecologist, and dentist to help that demographic.  They are connected with the Willow Creek Church and are doing amazing things for the people in that area.

It is easy to see why Pastor Elbin is the leader of the Comunidad Cristiana de Restauracion.  God has gifted him with a vision, drive, and passion for his community of influence.  He has dreams that are beyond his own reach, but a calling that will reach those dreams and beyond.

Doris and Pastor Elbin showing us the map of their area of influence.

God is good!