FOHO and further updates

Hello again, to all my faithful readers!

Now that the technology is working again, I can update you all on what has been happening!

Sunday morning the group of missionaries from Ohio, left for home.. They were an extremely good group of people! Every single one of them was more then willing to do any sort of work and I never heard any of them complain a single time. I had the pleasure of getting to know several of them well.. I had several really cool, deep conversations with a few of them. They quickly accepted me as part of the group, and we all got along, and worked together really well! Even though most of them battled sickness throughout the week, they were always in good spirits, which made for a pleasant week. :)


From left to right.. Pastor Scott, Terry, Shauna, Me, Tony, Pastor Ted, Daniel, Butch, Andy, Lauretta, Jim, Lucian, and some random guy on the street.


On another note, as I have already mentioned I have been helping clear the rubble from the FOHO building that collapsed. This is what the site looked like right after the earthquake...


This is what the site looked like right after the earthquake...



This is what the site looks like now.. What you see here is the garage, and basement of what was a 4 story building.



Here is another angle from on top of the old FOHO building.




This is the old FOHO building which stood next to the 4 story building.. It lasted the earthquake, but will be demolished due to structural damage.


Tonight God has laid on my heart a burden of compassion. As I write, in this moment there are people right outside this house which I am staying, that are living in tents lined all along the street.

Here I am...

Comfortable.

Dry.

I am equipped with everything I need right here, all the while there they are trying to sleep under a tarp with a dirt floor and water running through their tent... How this fair? Simply because I was born in the US, I am given a life full of everything I want, whereas they have almost nothing.

I pray so fervently that God will bring good from this poverty!

On a more positive note, I had the pleasure of handing out some of our extra ready-to-eat meals to one of the families that live down the road from Me and Larry. Between the last two teams of Missionaries, we were left with more meals then we knew what to do with.. I know that our contribution is extremely minute against the starvation in Haiti, however generosity is contagious and I pray that each Haitian will excel further to look after his brother.

As my trip is winding down to a close, I am constantly reminding myself to live in the moment and soak up every sight, sound, smell and memory. I am continually reminding myself to appreciate every person I am in contact with; for I don't know if I will see any of these people again... But I hope that again I may be blessed enough to return to this country.

Lots of love!


-Elijah

Good company.

Hey again y'all!

Our internet works again! The internet here has been down for several days, so for all my avid readers I hope to be posting a blog every day that the wifi here will allow. :)

Except for today, I have continued working in the FOHO building rubble this week. I have made a few friends with the Haitian workers. Since several of them speak english decently I have had many deep conversations about bible doctrine, politics and just just life in general. Though they are all very strong Christian men, many of them have a very different view of the world then I do, but nonetheless it is always interesting to understand different viewpoints and beliefs that might not fully correspond completely with my world-view. And that is okay, because I find that it is more important that in order to reflect Christ to the people around us that we don't get caught up in the little details that ultimately don't matter. 2 Timothy 2:23-24 goes into detail about this. Check it out.



This is Eric, Pierre, Me, and Jean. These three men grew up in an orphanage, and had the opportunity to go to college. Jean graduated from seminary and is looking to become a pastor here. Pierre wants to continue his education by moving to Canada, where he can go for his masters degree in science. Eric is probably one of the most good humored men here, he is always making people laugh. He graduated from bible school, and now wants to go back to school to study music.

Saturday evening Me, Larry and the Missionaries from Ohio all took another sightseeing trip through town, and up the mountain overlooking Port Au Prince. On the way back down the mountain it started POURING rain! And obviously since we were all in the back of the truck we all got soaked. I think that was the first time I have been cold in Haiti. Hehe! But as soon as it started raining everyone started laughing, and we all had a good time even though we were all soaked and cold. Good company is always important to making what could be a bad memory, a good one! =)



Here is Me and Larry on the overlook above Port Au Prince.

I will continue to pray for all you guys! I pray that God is ever present in your lives, always teaching, blessing, and healing you guys.

Lots of love!


-Elijah-

Preval and work in the rubble.

Here is a brief lesson on some of the Politics here in Haiti..

Today all over the city of Port Au Prince there was what is called a "manifestation" which slowed traffic in many areas considerably. My understanding is that it was organized to protest their current president Preval. Among the graffiti in the city, which is nearly on every building, you often will see "aba Preval" painted on the wall. While Dinecia was here, she explained to me that this means something along the lines of "Preval we don't like you". I am not sure how harsh this rebuke is intended, but nonetheless it is written seemingly everywhere, to show Haiti's ever growing distaste for its leader.. When I spoke to the Haitian, Emery a while back he mentioned their leader Preval. He said a lot of people don't like him because he is a known alcoholic. But he said many other people don't like him because his political stance is ever-changing depending on who he is talking to..

To give you all an idea how much the general public dislikes their leader, he is already due to complete his term in office in January, but the purpose of todays protest/parade was to get him out of office early.

I decided today that I would like to work right alongside another group of Haitian workers,(whom were also hired FOHO)to help cleanup of the "new" FOHO building which collapsed in the earthquake. The building stood 4 stories tall and was just completed only a few years ago. It stood next to the "old" FOHO building, which still stands intact. Anyways, it was a little confusing at first working with a group of guys that you don't understand but I adapted as best as I could. They had me cutting the re-bar on the cement support columns, smashing cement with a sledgehammer, as well as shoveling the rubble into a dump truck. It is certainly a sobering thought to be amidst the rubble where four good people gave their lives for the Lord.

I eventually discovered that two of the Haitians spoke decent English, and have even been to Michigan on occasion. The wrest of the men communicated to me through hand motions and facial gestures. I learned that several of the men were in college and studying to become pastors. Everyone in the group had high spirits and were often making each other laugh. They were also very accepting and respectful to me. One man even told me that I did good work and that I was like Samson! Haha!

I will try to post more pictures of everything for you guys in the future.

Thank you all for the millionth time for all your continued prayers and support! I appreciate every last bit of it. But more then me, pray for the missionaries who just arrived. Pray for the Haitian workers. Pray for the poor and the homeless in this country. And pray that lives will be brought to the kingdom because of the work that is being done here, since that should be every Christian's ultimate goal!

Lots of love!


-Elijah-

Work ethic and new faces.

Hello again to all my awesome readers!

Today me and Larry picked up more supplies for the Haitians working on the school. I have a lot of respect for those hardworking men! They get paid roughly 8$ US, a day for work.. Which is extremely good since the average income for a Haitian is 1$ US, a day.. And only 80 percent of Haiti is officially unemployed.

When we went to drop off another 300 blocks to the work site I unloaded the blocks from the truck and handed them off where each block gets passed from person to person and carried up some steps and stacked by the building. Now my hands are cut up, blistered, and callousing, and my back is as tight as a rock, but every one of the working Haitians has hands as hard as leather and back muscles that put Americans to shame! Some of the men work in shoes that are falling apart to the point that their feet are touching more ground then rubber. They wear the same clothes every day and hardly have much water to drink, yet they work a full day without a complaint(at least that I am aware of). Their work ethic is truly amazing to me.

This afternoon Me, Larry, and Jean went to the airport and picked up a new group of missionaries from New Point Community Church in Ohio. I have talked to a few of them, and they seem like a good group of people! All of them are very flexible and willing to serve in any way. I am looking forward to see all that God will accomplish through them.

I must thank you all AGAIN for the support and prayers. I don't think I could have asked for a better group of people praying for me. I have felt extremely loved and encouraged by you guys!

Finally, I would like to make clear that everything I talk speak of on here is fully to Gods glory. I am never seeking any kind of recognition for anything I do here. It is through GOD that there was even a way for me to be here. He moved mountains to send an insignificant 19 year old to Haiti, who will accomplish part of HIS mission here. Please praise HIM, not me for everything good that happens here.

I love you guys!


-Elijah-

A changing heart

Hey guys!

So the first half of today Me and Larry spent running errands around the City. First we picked up a load of bricks and brought them to the school for the hardworking group of Haitians to continue work on the school. After that, I am pretty sure God was just teaching Me and Larry a lesson in patience! Today was the second day this week that we have gone from hardware store, to hardware store looking to buy an air compressor.. Each place recommended another place which recommended another. I think air compressors may be as hard to find as white people in Haiti! ;)

After another failed attempt at that, we began work on the building across from our house. It is an International Child Care building, which handles sponsorships of the children in this country. We are going to be putting up horizontal support beams on either side of a wall which was damaged by the earthquake.

I have found myself extremely spiritually disturbed today.. I was not sure why I felt so uneasy in my spirit, so I spent a lot of time in prayer today, and read a lot of the word tonight.. I feel like God is moving in me a lot.

Changing me. A lot.

I have been reflecting on the person I was before this trip... I feel like so much of my focus before recently has been on fighting my "human" or "sinful" side. But now I feel like God is trying to change my focus to be more then that. Instead of simply trying not to do wrong, I feel like I should be striving ahead towards Christ and not accepting anything less then holiness. REAL holiness. I don't want to just be known as a good or kind person anymore. I want to be known as someone who contagiously overflows the love of Christ! I want to be someone, who doesn't need to explain where he stands, because all his actions scream exactly where he stands! I don't want to see and think about only the physical world anymore. I want to see beyond, into what truly matters, loving the souls and spirit of BOTH those who stand by me, AND those who oppose me.

I can feel my beautiful Savior taking me to the next step in our relationship..
I am humbled and amazed that the Creator of the universe would even give me the time of day to speak to my heart!

Here are some verses which have spoken to me lately.. I hope they impact you as well!


"Do not love the world, or ANYTHING in the world, if anyone loves the world, the love of our Father is not in him." 1John 2:15

"If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need and has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?" 1John 3:17

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope that we profess, for He who promised is FAITHFUL. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds." Hebrews 10:23-24

"Avoid godless chatter, cause those who indulge in it become more and more ungodly. Their teachings will spread like gangrene." 2Timothy 2:16-17

"Above all else, love each other DEEPLY, because love covers over a multitude of sins." 1Peter 4:7

"Finally brothers, whatever is TRUE, whatever is NOBLE, whatever is RIGHT, whatever is PURE, whatever is LOVELY, whatever is ADMIRABLE- if anything is EXCELLENT or PRAISEWORTHY- think about such things." Philippians 4:8


Once again thank you all for all your guys continued prayers! I am so excited for all the things God has yet to do while I am here in this country.

Lots of love!


-Elijah-

Beautiful Haiti.

Hello again everyone!

So today Me and Larry met up with Pastor Rick and his wife Cookie. They are missionaries that are permanently living in Haiti. All four of us went to Puits Blaine, the fastest growing Free Methodist church in Haiti this morning for service. Because Pastor Rick was preaching, we all sat next to the choir in front of possibly 900 Haitians... It was a little awkward at first! But eventually it seemed like everyone was staring at us less and it became more comfortable.. Pastor Rick spoke on forgiveness, and was translated by one of their church members.



Here is the church right after the service, from where we stood.



After church all four of us took a little road trip up the mountain by Port Au Prince to an extremely nice hotel/restaurant called The Lodge. It was so incredibly relaxing! The food was excellent and everyone there was very sophisticated and well spoken. Most of the food there was imported from outside the country.. Which is amazing since the Lodge is a very difficult place to get to from the city. Certainly it was a whole different side of Haiti. I almost felt guilty for having such a high quality meal, knowing people are starving just across the countryside from me.. But nonetheless, I gave thanks to God who for whatever reason has blessed me greatly!


Here is the front of the Lodge.


One of the things me and cookie talked about today was the tremendous contrast in Haiti.. There is the depressing destruction, and poverty side to Haiti, which I spoke of in my last post... And then another whole side of Haiti which is extremely rich, prosperous, and beautiful. There is not very many people in Haiti which are considered "middle class".

Here are some shots I took today while we drove up the mountain...



Almost ALL of the mountain sides are farmed somehow.. Even on insanely steep angles.



These pictures definitely don't do any justice to how amazing the view really WAS. But they at least give you all a taste!





I will continue to pray for you all! And I would like to thank all you guys that have stepped up to my last posts challenge.

Much love!


-Elijah-

Bondye ki gen bon kè (God is good)

Since I never got around to mentioning yesterdays events, I will try to cram the last two days together in this post as best as I can, though it would be impossible to talk about everything that has and is happening.

Yesterday morning we all woke up at 5:30Am to head down to the school that we have been working on. Because the sun rises much earlier here then in Michigan, it didn't seem very early at all! Anyways, I began by cutting re-bar for the windows, which are crosshatched instead of having brittle glass windows. After that I had the pleasure to talk to a very educated Haitian man by the name of Emery. He could speak 4 languages fairly fluently, which obviously includes English. He definitely impressed me with his knowledge of America, and American politics. He asked me questions such as what my thoughts were on President Obama, the War in Iraq, and why I agreed or disagreed with things happening in the government. We also spoke of racism, american rap music, soccer (or football), and the earthquake. He told me that he doesn't like to talk about the earthquake because it is something he will never forget, since he lost many friends. But he told me that he was in a school hallway when it struck, and that he was lucky that his parents survived.

After our long day of work we came back to relax. I spent some time and went out on the streets nearby where I am staying. I was able to take lots of pictures!

Today I woke at the same time, so we could go back and work another day at the school. I cut some more re-bar, and helped arc-weld the windows together. Also, a truckload of bricks arrived today to continue constructing the walls. I hauled them from the truck to where they were being stacked until I could no longer even grip the bricks. The heat today didn't seem as bad as yesterday (which was over 100)because there was a little breeze today.

It was also very strange, today while we were working, the city seemed overall quiet... But Suddenly, literally the entire town around us began to ROAR as people ran out from their tents. And I am certainly not embellishing when I say people were dancing down the roads. People cheered and yelled from everywhere around us. It sounded like a whooping cheer of a mighty army! I have never ever, ever, ever heard anything like it... Come to find out that it was because Argentina lost a game vs Germany in the world cup.. There is a great rivalry in Haiti. About 70 percent of the people here are MAJOR Brazil fans, while 30 percent are Argentina fans..

After we quit work around Noon today we came back here, and then headed out for a little sightseeing trip around Port Au Prince. I took almost 150 pictures.. So here are just a few of them...


This was the Presidential palace here in Port Au Prince



This was the biggest, and most beautiful cathedral in the city. It fell, but the cross still stands..



They were selling clothes, which they stacked in piles on the sidewalk.



This picture just doesn't do justice to how terrible the slums are here. The streets are lined with trash and feces. The people have constructed whole cities out of tin sheets and sticks and tarp.




One of the thousands of buildings in Haiti that still remain in rubble..




We drove to the top of the mountain overlooking Port Au Prince.. Amazing view! In the top left corner you can see the Caribbean sea.




Here is most of the team, minus Larry, with a few female soldiers from Nepal.. All standing in front of the amazing view of the city.

"Welcome to Haiti"...

These aren't exactly the words that greeted me as I landed in Port Au Prince today around 3:00 PM..

But lets rewind a bit.

I woke up this morning around 3:30 AM back in Michigan to my alarm which I almost slept through after only 2 hours of sleep. I wasn't as tired as you would expect, probably because of my growing excitement for the day ahead of me. Me and my older brother then left for Detroit metro airport to catch my flight at 7. Then I was off to Miami, where I waited out my 2 and a half hour layover.

After getting some cat naps in, and some chit chat with the other passengers we finally began to land in the Port Au Prince airport. As we got closer to the ground the rusty roofs on the crude cement building became clearer.

It was strange. My heart began to sink even before the plane touched the ground. The communities looked so impoverished from above that even down town Flint might look attractive.

We finally landed and left the plane. Seeing as this was my first experience out of the US, I had no idea where to go. So I followed everyone else down a flight of stairs, onto a bus, into a large warehouse looking building where my passport was checked and I picked up my bags.

As soon as I stepped past the desk and out the back of the airport I saw a Haitian man with one arm, holding a paper with my name on it. So i followed him past a TON of Haitians. I already felt like I was sticking out like a sore thumb due to my light skin tone. But beyond that, it was sad seeing so many people just standing around, (some with visible scars, and missing limbs) with no place to go.

My Haitian guide then led me to Larry Judy, whom I will be sharing a house, and spending the month with. We both got into his vehicle, and I watched as he navigated through mass chaos. People ran every direction, and there seems to be no rules on the road aside from stopping at red light. He promised to show me how to drive his stick shift later so I can go through town on my own. :O

Port Au Prince almost seems surreal to drive through. It seems like a city that you might only see in the movies. People clutter almost every foot of the streets and traffic is a resounding noise of car horns.

We then made it here to the house that we are both staying, which has been a missionary house for many years apparently. Then Larry took me to meet many people, both Haitian, and other missionaries, of whom I could only remember a few names.

There is a group of missionaries from New York, that arrived here on Monday. Me and Larry will be working with them tomorrow, and most likely until they leave. The plan is to wake up at 5:30 AM tomorrow, so we can go and continue the construction of a nearby school.

After many interesting, and humorous conversations with them, we came home for dinner which was actually normal food! Then, once he had answered all my questions, we went out for a walk through the surrounding area. Port Au Prince is not a quiet city! There are makeshift sales booths on both sides of the roads where Haitians sell everything from DVDs to shoes, to fresh mangos, to fried chicken. Did I mention the streets are crowded?

There are also many buildings through town which still remain in rubble. But the Haitians are learning to live around the messy streets and tent villages that they have created.

The atmosphere is odd. Overall the city seems jolly, and in high spirits, despite their rough living conditions.

On another note.. This trip is so different from any other trip I have been on. Because Larry has given me the freedom to do whatever I wish and go where ever I wish. So it is cool to just feel free to let the Spirit literally be able to guide my steps..

Please pray for me!:

-That my effort wont be waisted.
-That many peoples lives will be effected in a positive way because I came.
-That I would stay focused, and in tune with my sweet Lord.
-That I would work hard no matter how hot it gets or how tired I get.
-That I will keep a good attitude through the rest of the month... Cause no doubt things will get rough.

Anyways, it's getting late and the morning will come fast. For you A.D.D. readers, I will try to keep my posts shorter, and I will also try to post some pictures, so I don't have to describe so much!

Finally, last but not least I would like to thank EVERY ONE of you guys that supported me financially or emotionally to make this trip possible! I love you guys!

I will be praying for you all!

Peace, Love, and a Goodnight sleep!