A day in the life of a missionary...

Today I gave an orphan a T-shirt and a pair of shorts that I bought him when I was home. It is rare for him to get something with the tags on it. Frankly, in his case it is rare to get much of anything at all. He immediately put it on, and we put what he was wearing in a plastic bag. He spent the next hour trying to hide his smile, which he had no control over because it kept coming back. It felt really good to see his face. It's moments like that I live for. The rest is just the means to an end. Some would argue that this moment is not as important as a spiritual one like a healing or a salvation, but I think those people need to get saved. When a child is shown that someone cares when there is no daily reminder of this in his life, it is a spiritual moment. Who but God in heaven is responsible for that kind of love? The kind that takes of its own and gives to someone in need of a sign that there are good things to be had in this life. When your a kid, grasping the concept of a God in heaven is not usually a problem. When your an orphan, finding out that He wants to have something to do with your life is seriously good news!

Would you be my, Could you be my...

... NEIGHBOR?

All right! All right! By popular demand... Where in the world are the Dynamic Duo?

Let's see shall we. I have been told that you would love to see what it looks like here. Well, I don't blame you. Here is amazing! The following Blog is a photo library of the sights in this fair city. I can promise you that these are not enough to really get the full picture because it is so much richer than these pictures are showing, but I will do my best to give you an idea.

Welcome to Les Cayes...

In this shot you can see some of the architecture. You can also see what is know as a donkey cart. It is to the left of the image. These are used to carry heavy loads and are not pulled by a donkey but by a man. He uses his arms to pull the the two handles which are sticking up in the air since this cart is empty in the picture. A study was done on these men. They say their life expectancy once they pick up the cart and start pulling is seven years. That is seven years until doing this work kills them. The amount of calories they need to intake to keep up this kind of work is not available to them. Their bodies simply can't maintain their strength over time. They work hard. They have to maneuver through town on busy streets and make their way through the same traffic that the cars and trucks are moving through. These men brake my heart every time I see them toiling and sweating through the city streets. Here's another shot showing a donkey cart.

In this picture the man is pushing an empty cart, but you can see how he moves through the streets with everyone else.

Below are more typical street scenes. These are good examples of the flow around town. The place is full of color and there is so much for the eye to take in at any given moment. Note the selling of goods all along the road.

As you can see the streets are filled with activity. The sides are lined with people selling all kinds of things. The roads are full of people walking, cars and trucks driving and mopeds and bicycles weave in and out of traffic.

This is a common scene. Women are walking all over town with their wares on their heads. They are really good at this. It amazes me. I have seen all kinds of things moved this way. I even saw a man carrying an entire dining room set on his head like this. The table was the base and all the chairs were stacked on top of it. It was amazing. This particular women is carrying fresh baked bread.


Here is a shot of a gas station in town. This is actually used as a bus stop so this is not the best possible shot of this location. It can be flooded with buses and people at the right time of day.

Here is a shot of a round about at a four way crossroads. It is actually a little park inside the white walls. There is hustle and bustle on every side of this location, and it is a little hairy getting through because of the flow of traffic in and around the circle.

Below are some shots from the Wharf in town.

Above is a shot Troy took on a really windy day at the wharf. There is a cement pier that jets out over the water. Next to the pier is a grounded freight liner that is literally rusting away next to the pier. This shot was taken from between each of those. The boat is hauling what we believe to be charcoal. It is used for cooking by most everyone.

So... Could you be my neighbor?

What a wonderful world...

Here are some shots of Judy's beach. We hope to one day call it the view from Judy's Harvest House Haiti Children's Home. The home will be known as The Children's Village, this is where the orphanage will be when it is built. She owns the property, and it has been prepared for construction. The only thing holding it up now is the funds to actually begin construction of the buildings. I will add some more shots of the area so you can see how beautiful it is there. This will be a home for special needs children. They will be children who have been diagnosed with a terminal illness, children with birth defects or other physical limitations. These are the children that require special care and who have the hardest time surviving in other orphanages.

I have to say it is paradise. The entire property is bordered by this beach. The area is cool because it always gets an ocean breeze, and it is going to be an amazing place when it is finished. Judy has some amazing ideas about the layout of the buildings. She is going to incorporate the ocean as much as possible. She is even planning on doing physical therapy right there in the water. The benefits of water exercises are well documented and she can take advantage of the weather being no less than 85 degrees all year long.

It's about time...

Ok. Ok. Ok.

I realize that I have been totally horrible at updating this blog with all the comings and goings of the dynamic duo here in Haiti. Of course, I have a mountain of excuses. First, it took us a great deal to actually get up and running on the Internet, and even though we were able to blog it took some time to get our connection to be stable and consistent. Frankly, it still isn't either!

Second, these entries would be nothing without the pictures and that presented a problem in itself. Since Troy has been taking all of his pictures with the "mother of all cameras" that I mentioned in a previous blog, they were too good for the website. In plain English, they are too large and full of information to upload, so we have to fix them before we can.

Finally, in my list of excuses I would like to add that three months flew by and we were actually involved in many daily activities. It was sometimes just too hot to sit and sweat in front of the computer only to fight with it because the pictures would not load.

Ok. There are my excuses. Now that I have gotten those out of the way, I will be happy to start sharing what we have been up to. Thank you for your patience.