Chanté

Our last flight out of Fort Lauderdale was delayed 55 minutes. We landed in Port late, and adding insult to injury of a late arrival was the first ‘missing bag’ dilemma we have ever had on our travels to Haiti. And it wasn't even one of our regular bags. How does an airline lose a carry-on? Well, that’s an American question, to be answered later. Of all bags, it was Emma’s. It was located before we left the terminal, and made in on the early morning flight this morning. When AA called, our dear Claudy hit the bus terminal on a rescue mission and spent 5 hours on a retrieval mission. He was back by the middle of the afternoon with Emma’s lifeline in tow, and now we are all settled in for the week. Everything went well as we headed north in the dark last night, we arrived safely in St. Marc and pulled our first night sleep gear inventory in a few minutes and then spent the next hour looking for the ketchup because our Haitians love ketchup on their hotdogs. As I said in the blog I wrote Sunday, it was a delicious meal! And it was all the more special because of the company we were able to share it with. Morning broke early, Vladimir was up stairs to greet us and proclaim he was sick…he had a tiny cut on his finger…that a little bandaid by Krystle seemed to instantly be healed. What skeptic can deny the healing power of a well placed bandaid! Today was filled with many happy reunions, and our morning climb up the mountain behind the church brought lots of happy children out to greet and assist our team as we took the summit to gather pictures of the town, and to embrace our week of ministry here. We ended up with a bit later start that resulted in a pretty warm climb, but not without the fulfillment this climb always brings in seeing the city with only the filter of height turned on. Darlene made the climb at the young age of 78, and her reward was to get ride the return route on a motorcycle. If anyone claims age as a limitation, you should have witnessed this day on our team trek! She takes the heartiest climber award of the year! We came in all prepared to deck the upper story of the orphanage facility with a coat of paint, only to discover that the orphanage is in need of a refresher coat. So we contacted a painter who came and gave us the price of $4000.00 Haitian to paint not just the upstairs, but the whole of the house, top and bottom. In case your wondering, with an exchange rate of 10.6, that’s less than $400 US dollars. I called a quick team meeting to see how sad everyone would be to let the painter “bless us” as he called it, and it turns out we won’t be painting a thing this week. That’s okay because there are plenty of other things to lay our hands to and fill our short moments here this week. As we wrap up the day, and I sit here in my bug tent with weariness bartering for my undivided attention, gratefulness wraps it’s delicate arms around my heart and caresses my soul with deep affection for these amazing people and the goodness that abounds in their poverty. Madam Robert stop by late tonight and quickly Beth roped her into ‘chante’ (Creole for singing) with her. As their Haitian voices blended with her rich alto the music swelled the room, and even though the words were beyond my interpretive skills, the harmony of hearts seized my soul and a special beauty filled the atmosphere. It’s in part why we come here to serve, it’s really not so much about what we do, but how we do it, and why. With the power of the new series of flashlights hitting the darkness with astounding beams of penetration, so it would seem the hope we are sowing with each hug and each touch is being magnified 100 times over in encouraging these people to action, to spur them on to even greater works of faith, and to find the sowing reciprocated with our own hearts being fill to overflowing with joy and strength for the journey! Time to break and rest, morning is coming, and right early. Blessings to all!