As if it wasn't amazing enough that we ran into Troy and Tara at the market when we went to pick up Lou, you have to read their comment to see how God really works all things out - He is just amazing. These things cannot be merely coincidences.
OK, now to our day: Our first night with Lou went really well. He slept all night (if you call getting up at 4 AM "all night"). Tina worked on getting the kitchen set most of the day and did finish it up. We have a number of things that we would like to get (food and otherwise), but we don't have anything that we cannot live without. I want to be careful, too, not to get caught up in materialism here. The things that I want/need are things like a mop for the concrete floor, a stopper for the sink (I am using a shaving cream cap), etc... Things that we should be able to get here, but just haven't had much time to go out yet.
I was invited on Tuesday to a devotional/Bible study time on Wednesdays. Because there is so much going on right now at the Mission, I was told that there were fewer than normal people attending. There were 5 people total including myself. One of the Missionaries, Len, led the study and there were three Haitian workers there as well. We went through part of one of the chapters in Romans. It was good and interesting to read various verses and see the differences in thinking between the Americans and Haitians. I was trying to observe the differences as much as possible to help me to understand things better. We closed in prayer after about an hour and said goodbye until next week.
Yesterday afternoon after speaking with one of the other missionaries (Chris), I headed up to the church to watch as they taught about 230 Haitian school directors a "walk through" of the Bible. This was so incredible to watch. There was a gentleman from Canada speaking English up front with a translator speaking French. What they were doing was showing how to put the Bible stories in memory using a physical, body movement method as a memorization technique. It took me about 10 minutes of watching (probably with my mouth hanging open), to realize that something like that is not dependent upon language - all the body motions apply to whatever language you are familiar with. Adam and Eve, Noah and the flood, David and Goliath. But it wasn't just the major aspectes of the Bible they were memorizing - they were talking numbers of years and locations around Isreal. They were memorizing a lot. And every once in a while they would get up and practice it. So you had about 230 people (mostly men) talking loudly and going through the motions. I brought Kayla with me to watch the walk-through of the Bible training and she seemed impressed.
This training was not only incredible from the standpoint of it being just cool to watch, but in addition, these 230 folks will be going back home and teaching these methods and Biblical accounts to the teachers and student of the school they provide direction for. This is what Biblical-based teaching is all about. These are the types of things that the Baptist Haiti Mission puts on that affects many, many people's lives. And this is only the beginning. Chris is running an accredited masters degree program here at the Mission as well.
On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays all the missionaries get together for dinner. We ate with the person teaching the 230 people, the translator, the photographer, and the coordinator of that event as well. It was a very good time! We had fried plantains (like bananas), beans & rice, bread, fried acra (not sure what that was exactly, but it was good), and banana bread for dessert.
Doing dinner this way is a great way to continue to get to know people and for the women to catch a break from cooking. They bring a cook in and each family is charged a small fee for each person eating. At the end we read a little from the Bible, took prayer requests and prayed to close the evening.
After dinner, I spoke with Pastor Baker, the director, and he was getting a sense for how we were doing. He told me of some things that he had that need to get done some time and that when I was ready to take a look and start working, that I should let him know. I am guessing that this will be pretty soon because I am struggling with not helping out when I know that they are all very busy with a number of things.
I have one prayer request that I would like to pass on: Carter has been having a little trouble paying attention and following direction (he is 8). It is for his safety and benefit, but I would like your prayers for both his understanding and mine on how we can get him to settle in here and focus on what his responsibilities are. Most of this is typical kid stuff, but I have been struggling with it the last few days. Thank you in advance!
The picture here is a full resolution picture of the house we are living in. We are in the lower level and Chris and his family is in the upper level. The internet connection is very, very slow so this will most likely be one of the few full resolution pictures that I will post on this blog.
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