28 Jan...7:53p

Haiti said to tell all'y'all "A GREAT BIG HELLO!!"

So here goes...

H  E  L  L  O  !!! -- Haiti

We just got back from spending the afternoon at Matthew 28, followed by a short excursion to UCI (more about that in a minute), and then an extended time with the Bohoc Leadership Council (LC) at one of the churches in Bohoc.

Ummmm...just as a word of warning:  I'm going to be working on this post before and after dinner as well as during our evening debrief.  If ANYTHING seems disjointed or in any way [fill-in-the-blank], please just deem that a figment of the imagination.  I believe that if you do just that, this post may read a lot better and we'll all just get along just fine.

Okay...where were we?  Ah, yes...Matthew 28...

Maybe it was just me, but it felt to me like the population of Matthew 28 dropped by about half since last April.  In April, there were 90+ kids there; today, there were maybe 50.  At any rate (that's for a friend), we had a fabulous time singing (with all the kids) the English and Haitian versions of "Here I Am to Worship," teaching them the English and Haitian versions of 1 Corinthians 10:31 (In everything you do, do it all to the glory of God.), playing soccer, tossing the football and the frisbee, painting faces, playing Haitian Jenga and Uno, etc.  After a couple of hours, we were all pretty much wiped.  But it was a good tired.

After our time at Matthew 28, we dropped by UCI, a missional outreach of Pastor Jean-jean and his wife, Christy.  Jean-jean is Haitian and Christy is from the United States.  I cannot remember how long they've been married but it's been for quite a number of years now.  We visited UCI for the first time when we were here last April.  Unfortunately, Jean-jean and Christy were in PaP today so we didn't get a chance to see them.  UCI includes a church, a school, a large garden, and a bread processing microbusiness.  One of the cool things in the works at UCI is the development of a university, where four-year degrees will be offered in Pastoral Ministry, Teaching, and Agriculture.  The Bohoc LC is REALLY excited about the university coming.

Following our short visit to UCI, we met with six of the thirteen members of the Bohoc LC.  It was so cool, again, to hear from their hearts as they shared their vision for their village as well as their gratefulness to God and to The 410 Bridge.  In summary, the LC are particularly excited about expanding their water project (which will include installing a much larger water storage cistern (currently water is pumped from a spring box to a smaller cistern [this is the main source of water for the entire village as wells have proved largely unsuccessful]), completing some much needed water distribution repairs, and increasing the distribution of water points throughout the village) and the UCI university.  On a more personal level, Jerome Geffard, Vice President of the LC said the following (these are direct quotes):

My hope is to someday when yiou are visiting to be able to open my refridgerator and offer you a cold drink.

We want to live as God's children here on earth.  God has told us that we are His children and that we are to live accordingly--AS His children.  We believe this because we know that God cannot lie.  (Amen to that, Jerome!)

We want to create a community where our children choose to stay right here when they grow up.

Pray for Haiti to become A NEW HAITI.  Especially, right here in our community!

Provided below are a few pictures from yesterday and today...

CU later,

Dave (On Behalf of Team Haiti 2012)