Greetings from Haiti!
We hope your day was fantastic. Just wanted to give you a quick update...
The team of sixteen arrived Saturday morning as planned. We have 12 people from Greenwood and four people from Oregon. We are thankful that these guys and gal answered the call to come to Haiti and be a part of the Homes for Haiti ministry. The team had an enjoyable weekend, getting accustomed to the new surroundings and experiencing the Haitian culture, as well as getting to know each other. On Saturday afternoon, some of the team went out to the home building sites in Gressier, which is a small village about 20 miles west of Port-au-Prince. The two building sites are within a couple hundred yards of each other. We also toured a couple of the completed homes. |
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| We attended Sunday worship services at the church in Gressier, and it was a special time! Several commented that, although the singing and sermon was in Creole, people could follow along because of the familiar hymns and because of the preacher's expressions and gestures regarding his message on Genesis 22 (God testing Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his son, Isaac). Afterwards, the team passed out packages which contained hygiene items, candy, activity books and a Bible verse to all the kids at church. Close to one hundred children were present! Our host family, the Shaferly's, then took us to a nice restaurant for lunch. On Sunday evening, we had a briefing meeting to discuss the week ahead, and we also spent some time in prayer for Haiti, the families who will be living the homes, our team and all the Haitian workers, and for our families and loved ones who are supporting us from home. |
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Today was our first work day, and it was a productive day. First of all, John Burns got us started by sharing a nice devotion and prayer. We then divided into subteams to work on the two homes. We had a team building and installing door frames, teams supporting the work on the masonry walls (cutting and installing rebar, preparing and distributing building materials, pouring concrete, etc.), and a team working on the trusses. For home #14, about half of the block was laid up to the height of the bond beam and the five door frames were installed. Approximately one-fourth of the block was laid on home #15 and three of the five door frames were installed. The layout and cutting of all the wood components for the trusses was completed, and assembly was finished on nine of the twelve trusses (six trusses used per house).
Tomorrow, plans are to complete assembly of the trusses, continue construction of the block walls for both homes, and begin work on preparing and installing forms for pouring the bond beam of home #14.
A few pictures attached....
Thanks for your prayers and God bless!
For the team,
Tommy |
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