Wednesday, May 25

HELP families stayed the night last night and we told them we would be out there by 5:30am.  Kendra woke me up at 5:15am, so we were, of course, late! Ran out to site - there by 6am (we made amazing time).

Put on doors we made from Samaritain's Purse beds - HELP families helped. Jodicleur, Max, Sandra, Marie, Bony, Dieusal. Got families ready for the Food For The Poor site visit.  I even taught Johnbern how to use a power tool!

Some of the Japanese UN even helped with the doors.

 

Johnbern using a power tool for the first time.

Johnbern and I went out for more hinges, nails, ice, and paint thinner in Croix-DES-Bouquets. I drove and we had to make a lot of stops. No Meijer or Walmart available.  He bought food off the street for lunch and was sure to let be know he bought me 2 hotdogs. I politely declined, but I think he was a little offended.

The UN Japanese were working on the road again today. I'm glad they can see how difficult it us to drive on after a good rain.

The Food For The Poor site visit was much quicker than we wanted. He literally only wanted to take photos and measure the perimeter. They will send a proposal to Florida for approval, this is a little different than what they originally said/offered but we are still feeling optimistic.

We thanked the HELP families for their time and asked them to make a decision one way or the other on whether or not they wanted to live there. This is because we got a call from Alain from IOM and they have 60 families who want to move to our village. The meeting ended in a little bit of a chaotic disaster but the families said they would let us know.

As soon as the meeting ended, Victory Compassion brought out a big group to work on the pavilion.

At the same time, a camp coordinator came to see us and said he has a list of 10 families ready to move today! Kendra told him she was only going to work through IOM. We called Alain and he assured us that they were one of the camps his team visited and it was ok.  A plan was made to visit them tomorrow with Ali from IOM. These are the families we've been praying for.

Meeting with 5 IOM guys to go to another camp in Noialles, but they realized it was the camp we had already been to and we have no interest in going back to see those families.

Back to land where we saw Pastor Rod's group leaving. He invited us to stay with him for the rest of our trips and tonight for dinner.  To the IOM warehouse for random supplies, then home for shower stuff.

Arrived at Pastor Rod's Victory Compassion after 6pm. Usually when we go the groups are small, but under the pavilion there were 80 people - 10 from Oral Roberts University, 14 staff of the team and their translators, and a giant Conneticut group.

We had an Italian dinner of spaghetti and meatballs. While we were in line I was near Mary, Laurel, and an Oral Roberts student, Hannah. We weren't even talking and I just started to cry. I couldn't control it. I was so tired, I hadn't eaten anything all day - not because we didn't have anything in Floyd, but because we were so busy. In that moment I was overwhelmed that this group would take us in and expect nothing in return. The last 4 days have been extremely emotional and I was just so grateful to have a hot meal, a bed with no bugs and cool air, and a cold shower with running water. Wow! The simplicity of those comforts that I all too often take for granted.

After dinner, we worked on the laptop in the van for an hour, then to bed. Thank you Lord for the blessing of our friendship with Victory Compassion.

Sent from my iPod