Cypress Family and Friends,
“God provides along the way”...if there is a theme to my trip to Haiti this week that is it: God provides along the way. As you go.
I am going to use my Friday e-note to you this week to give a quick report on my time in Haiti. If this interests you then read on, if not now would be the time to exit.
The adventure began on the drive to Miami Sunday night when my Haitian Pastor friend who usually travels and translates for me, called and cancelled due to a passport issue...not ideal, but not a show stopper. I made sure the guy traveling with me was okay with going in without a guide/translator and we pushed on. Then once in Port au Prince, a friend (Saul) who picked us up at the airport offered to go the rest of the way and help negotiate the trip and translate. Yea God
I’m happy to report that things couldn’t be much better with the chicken/egg micro business we launched...we will double our little farm in February. The limiting ceiling for this effort is the lack of steady electricity needed to have an incubator which will increase our supply of layers and create a market for fryers. Yet through a serendipitous conversation with a new friend I met this trip, we now have access to 24/7 electricity. This man purchased a generator because he needs steady electricity for a hydroponics project he is launching and we get to plug in!!! Some things only happen when you simply show up! Oh and if that is not enough, this man, like us, has been trying unsuccessfully for years to get a well dug so he has purchased a well digging rig put it on a truck and once it clears customs has put us third on the list!!!! Yea God, Yea God, Yea God. Will it be potable? We will see, if not...that problem can be solved with a purification system. God provides along the way.
One evening I met with church leaders and floated the idea of partnering together with us to do micro-loans to help church members start businesses which will help the community, help support their families and help support the church with tithers. They were very warm to the idea. I also meet with the teachers and administrators of the school to encourage and pour into them. An American friend of mine is arranging for a bonus to be given to the teachers for their efforts. Yea God!
Somehow I also got roped into teaching an ESOL class the church sponsors...which ended up being a blast. 30 Haitians now know how to say: “Douglas Poole is s-o-o-o-o-o cool”.
Another unexpected bonus, is that I invited an in country nurse friend I met on my first trip to Haiti 8 years ago, to visit our church/school/chicken farm/ and clinic. She was swamped and couldn’t visit...but as a consolation prize totally surprised us by giving me boxes and boxes ($5-10K) worth of meds for our clinic. I wish you could have seen the stunned faces, then the joy, then the tears and then hear the prayers of thanksgiving at the little clinic. Oh, and my nurse friend said there is more meds where that came from!!! Again, God provided along the way...simply because I showed up, 1000’s of doses of badly needed meds are going to be distributed in an area lacking in medical care. (Let me know if any of you people in the medical field are ever interested in doing a little good in Haiti with me.)
All along the way...God provided along the way. I wonder where in my life I think I am waiting on God when in reality God is waiting on me? I think I am waiting on God to provide so I can go forward...when really God is waiting on me to go forward so He can provide.
Please keep our Haitian friends in your prayers. Our in country translator this trip, Saul, is showing all the signs of heart issues but does not have access to medical care due to finances. We set him up to get some diagnostic work done and we will go from there. Our church partners do some of the most amazing work in some of the roughest conditions on the planet. I only step into the situation...then leave. I hope I leave God’s grace in my wake there. It feels like I did this time.
I look forward to seeing and greeting our Cypress family at the front door this weekend. See you Saturday night or Sunday morning as we launch a new series: ‘i-marriage’. Or I may see you this evening at the Marriedlife comedy night with Barnes and Minor. (You can get tickets at the door if you didn’t get them on-line).
Blessings,
Douglas
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