I just finished posting all of the videos from our trip. You can view them by going to the Videos page. 500 Image Slideshow to come shortly.
I cried alot yesterday, and I know many others did too. It’s almost depressing to be home. To see how much we take for granted, how much we are ungrateful, how much we complain about not having the nicer house or most fashionable clothes. We have so much to be thankful for, but we fail to be content. My prayer, and this is a prayer we should all pray, is that I would be content, no matter the circumstances. In fact, Paul says the same thing in Phil 4:11-13:
“Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
This is a secret the Haitians have taught us: how to be content no matter the circumstances. Let it be so, oh Lord!
Sorry I didn’t post last night. I’m just going to do a double post tonight.
Yesterday we finished laying the block on the wall at the back of the compound. All of us “young people” had a great time hanging out with the younger Haitian guys who were helping with the work. There is a bit of a language barrier but we could understand each other for the most part. It’s wonderful to see how God has allowed us to communicate with the Haitians, especially cause Joey and Emily know a good bit of French. They’ve been pretty helpful when we don’t know how to say something.
We missed devotions on Wednesday cause everyone wanted to get to bed early because most of us weren’t feeling well, but our devotion last night was great. We sang, read from Provers 2, and laughed a WHOLE lot. 
Miss Donna took some Advil PM and couldn’t stop laughing. I learned so many more weirdly funny jokes from her than I EVER wanted to 
. It was great fun and good to see that she was doing much better.
As for today, wow, what an awesome day! We went back to Cite Soleil where we were going to build the house for the pastor and several church members. He decided to just have us build the house on the land they already own so in the pictures you will see us digging the footers in front of their church. On that note, we managed to get alot done. All of the footers are now dug; and cement, sand (a.k.a. dirt), and rebar were all delivered. The gravel didn’t end up coming until we were all packed up and leaving. So the next team, who is coming down tomorrow, will finish pouring the foundation and laying the block for the house.
The Haitians we were working with today are the same we were worked with on the wall. The idea is to train up a team who can build according to U.S. standards and then they can teach others Haitians to do the same. Our team members are: John (the foreman), Immanuel, Puchoun (pronounced Pooshawn), Michael, and Wilkins. They are some hard workers!
While the guys were out working, Emily and Donna were inside the church with the women and children, singing and sharing God’s love with them. It was so great to be working outside listening to them singing together in English and Creole. So cool! The Bullens also had some money that they used to buy these people some food–they hadn’t eaten for a couple days.
And today Miss Donna went a little camera crazy, but I can only upload a few of the images. So check them out below.
Our mission for today was to start laying block for the new wall at the compound. As always, we had about 5 or 6 Haitian workers helping us. So that allowed Miss Donna and Mr. Larry to teach them a few things about masonry. That was pretty neat to see the Haitians picking up little tricks that Donna and Larry would show them.
We kept sifting sand (or “dirt” as it should be called) to mix with the cement, while a couple of the other guys mixed up batches of mortar for the block. We (and by “we” I mean Larry, Donna, and the Haitians ) got 8 rows, or about 320 blocks laid. It’s looking great!
Also, Miss Donna’s starting to feel better. She said “well those prayers certainly worked.” Praise be to God! This bug isn’t pleasant at all, so it would be wonderful if she were over it tomorrow. Again, thanks so much for all your prayers.
Please pray for those of us who haven’t yet gotten seriously sick: me (Alex), Larry, and Luke, and continue to pray that the others would remain strong.


-
- sam 0842
-
- sam 0849
-
- sam 0863
Donna’s still struggling with sickness. She worked a good bit today on the wall, but she still has very little appetite. Please continue to pray for her recovery. We finished the wall today–the Great Wall of Haiti as Larry has named it.
