Monday, August 8, 2011

ABCRM Mission Experience to Haiti - 8/8

Greetings from Haiti! The team is alive and well and we appreciate everyone;s prayers. We have been working hard - really hard and having a good time. We are staying at a great guest house and have flush toilets and plenty of food. the first couple of days because of the threat of heavy rains we didn't work on the rubble houses but at the Conservative Baptist Fellowship school project. We built desks, twisted rebar, dug foundation and moved a lot of rocks. We are physically tired at the end of the day but it is good to return to the guest house for a cold shower, filling meal and evening devotion.

Saturday another team arrived - a college group from North Carolina and 3 from Canada. Sunday, we went to church (over 3 hours all in Kreole) and then spent the afternoon at the beach. We enjoyed spending lots of time in the ocean and it was great to give our bodies a chance to recover. Today we moved 7 truck loads of rubble (picked it up from large piles that are on the streets with buckets and shovels into the back of a truck). It takes about 3 truck loads to build one house so we felt great that we gathered more thatn enough material for two houses.

Today was Becky Whitaker's birthday. We sang Happy birthday numerous times and even had cake - in fact we had four cakes so everyone could have some.

Please continue to pray for the team. We have one more work day then we travel home on Wednesday. Also prayer for Don & Lynn's daughter who is 17 and the person who was staying with her had to go to the hospital.

Blessings-
the ABCRM Haiti Mission Team

Thursday, August 4, 2011

ABCRM Mission Experience to Haiti - 8/4

We had a great day today. Tiga, our team coordinator was afraid that the Storm was going to pass through Grand Goave around 10 am so we didn't work on the rubble houses. Instead we helped another American Baptist mission team from Washington State build benches for a school. Along with an equal number of Haitians, a group measured lumber, cut the boards, assembled the legs, then screwed the benches together. the project started slow but once we saw the first one completed we kicked it into high gear. Plus, Emily stalled out before reaching Haiti and our temperature was milder than normal (another blessing).

Everyone is finding ways to serve. Robert uses his French, Lynn's Kreole is wonderful for recuiting workers and explaining things, Catey pitches in with any task, Haley has a great skill relating with the Haitians,and Becky works hard on individual projects or with a group.

The lodging and food has been great. Plus, we are inspired by all amazing people serving here.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

ABCRM Mission Experience to Haiti - 8/3 #2

Greetings from Haiti!

The team arrived this morning around 9:30am. After 2 -3 hours of sleep, the group took a shuttle to the Ft. Lauderdale airport for our 7:30am flight. God was with us because there were extra seats in first class and five of us got bumped up. God is Good! The skies were clear and we enjoyed looking out over the Bahamas and Turks and Kakos on our way to Haiti. We arrived but our luggaged didn't; the bags are due in at 1pm. Tiga, our boss for the week, and a driver were at the airport to pick us up. Tiga suggested we go to an air conditioned fast food restaurant where we can hang out for a few hours instead of waiting at the hot airport.

And in the same building as the restaurant is a small internet cafe. I handed them $5 US, they gave me 160 Gourdes Goud back and let me use a very old computer.The space bar only works if you hit it twice but I am thankful for the opportunity to email you on behalf of the team.

Flying into Port Au Prince you can see beaches, low tin buildings and areas of tent homes. Lots of traffic, horns honking and much activity. The team is engaged in soaking it all in and Robert and Lynn are using their language skills to learm more about the people.

Thanks for your prayers. We heard Emily will arrive tonight. We will be gratefully to have our rain gear which most of us packed in our delayed suitcases.

Blessings-

Karen Van
ABCRM Haiti Mission Team

ABCRM Mission Experience to Haiti - 8/3

It has been a hard day of travel for the Haiti team. Our flight out of Denver was delayed about 1 1/2 hours (late arrival then mechanical problems)so we missed our connecting flight in Dallas. There wasn't another flight to Ft. Lauderdale that night so they rerouted us through Miami. That flight also left late and we arrived in Miami about 1 am and then had to take a shuttle to Ft. Lauderdale. We hope to get about three hours of sleep then catch the hotel shuttle to the airport at 5:30 am to get our 7:30 am flight to Port Au Prince. Our luggage is still in Dallas and won't make it to Ft Lauderdale until after our flight leaves for Haiti.

Please pray for the team
* Safe travels
* our luggage catches up with us soon
* The tropical storm Emily doesn't effect our work in Grand Groave
* that we will be a blessing to the people we encounter during this adventure.
blessings to all-

Karen, Becky, Lynn, Catey, Haley, Robert and Don