Elevate-Haiti: Rusty gold, turkeys, and growth

Today I had the opportunity to go with another long term missionary and the Haitian advocate for our transition program. I didn't need to go with them except that the long term wanted someone to walk home with for safety sake and I love an excuse to be out in the community, so I went. The mission was to go check out a place in Titanyen, that had matresses we could purchase for our transition kids (we find out later it wasn't matresses we were looking at but was instead bed frames). We took a ride down our little mountain in the kabota (we hitched a ride with our elderly 'Meals on wheels' program) and were dropped off at an intersection by the main road, Route 1.

We walked a very short distance to a large area coordined off with barbed wire. As we aproached there was an older man sitting in a chair right outside of the entrance. He had a bright blue shirt on and faded old eyes and was so still that he didn't even disturb the 3 flies sitting on his hand. I'm not exactly sure what he said to our Haitian advocate but I do know he ended each sentence with 'no?'...very much like the Canadian's "ay?" After a few words he gave us leave to pass by him and a young woman came out of her home, a cement block enclosue, and led us behind to another enclosed space.

This space was awesome. It was filled with rusty pieces of metal...filled. There was an old bed frame, bed springs, long pieces of straight metal, the frame of a motorcycle, something that my fellow long term missionary said looked like a bowflex, a metal pully thingy, and a couple of little generators. At first glance, it was overwhelming and frankly looked like junk.

Our Haitian advocate was talking to the young woman and telling her that she wanted to talk to the man that makes the things. She told us that he was not there, but that she would call him. Our Haitian advocate cracked me up when she told the young woman to 'get her a chair since she has to wait'. There has to be some benefits to being older and knowing most people in the community.

After some time a young man came up, pants hanging, but with a kind smile. I thought we were getting somewhere until I heard the woman say, "No, he isn't Tony, this is Ally". I still have no idea why he came since he wasn't who we were waiting for. Maybe Tony was too far away and this young man was standing in his stead. It appeared to us that he was just coming to keep us company while we waited and since he was kind we didn't oppose.

He started to talk to us about how he had played soccer against our Grace Village boys and would we be interested in putting together another game on Dec 18th? The other long term let him know that they have school on that day and they are exams so that wouldn't work, how about the weekend? I have no idea why he thought that was such a silly idea, but it seems the weekends are not an option so the conversation about soccer ended.

As all this was going on I began to look around and I saw this beautifully simple hutch. It was simple straight metal pieces welded together and it was pretty raw, but it was beautiful. The other missionary and I looked at each other and I knew we were both amazed at this creation among this rubble. Because of this discovery, I began to look around and I saw a queen sized bed frame, a metal oval table frame, and four chairs. They needed paint, but they were pretty.

At this point, the social part of our conversation was over and they decided that 'Tony' was not going to be coming so they asked our Haitian advocate and the other long term if they wanted to see the catalogs. I talked to the other long term and she said how impressed she was that they had a catalog.

And then they brought out the catalog.

They had two, old, used, torn Sears or JcPenny's catalogs. To show us what we could have made they flipped through the catalog (past bedding, kitchen supplies, etc.) to find the metal furniture. They turned to one page and there was the hutch, the talbe, and the chairs that we could see in this rusty heap. It was amazing! They had found these ideas and had recreated it. All I could say was, "I love Haiti". I am just constantly amazed by their creativity, ingenuity, and never give up attitude. It was just like the buying the chickens. I kept thinking, "This is actually happening. I love this".

So I started to really look around because I knew I wanted to blog about this. So here are some other things I saw. One wall surrounding the enclosure was made up of the back of shipping containers which were facing the main road. The other two sides were made up of surogated metal sheets, many of them falling down and offering no safety. In one corner, there was a tarp hung on three sides. It covered the space the size of a small loveseat, and underneath was; a bed with a matress and sheets, a very small night stand made of metal holding someone's personals, and a small fabric being used as a rug to keep the person's feet clean when they get out of their bed. Someone lives there, in that little tarp covered bed. This too is really happening.

I said to another missionary the other day that I though being a missionary was about helping people and teaching others about Jesus. But what I am finding, is that God is using this to teach me more about Him and to help me.

I have been praying daily for a long time that God makes me more like Jesus. His answer is to make more aware of my lacking. I am overcome with my own shortcomings and lack of ability to control those shortcomings. I literally can not do anything perfect (I'm a first born so I am still trying to get this word out of my vocabulary). But even worse than perfect, I simply can't do things with a good heart all the time. My sin nature ALWAYS kicks in. It is incredibly frustrating!

Yet I am finding that as I become more aware of my sin, I become even more grateful for the grace that God always offers me. The more I understand God's grace, the easier it is for me to submit to His will.

"To learn, you must love discipline; it is stupid to hate correction" Proverbs 12:1

"Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowances for each other's faults because of your love." Ephesians 4:2

"We use God's mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguements." 2 Corinthinas 10:4

My God has got me; he wants to help develop me into something new, to teach me to love like Jesus, and to teach me to get out of the way and let him get to work.

Sierra and I jumped on a parent child trip for a couple of days this week. These are a few of the girsl from Sierra's first mission trip last year. We had so much fun!

Our beautiful friend Lisa Bless-Renstrom.

Video games is a universal language.

We spent Thanksgiving with the guesthouse long term missionary and her family, a board member family and the other long term missionaries from Grace, and a few different influential Haitians and their families. It was lots of people, lots of chaos and noise...just like home.

The food was wonderful but our favorite part was Turkey Bingo. It had prizes and when you got a bingo you had to say, "Gobble, gobble". If you forgot to say gobble and you said bingo you had to run around the table saying Gobble all the way. I forgot twice.