The Reformation and Rice

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, it’s back to the grindstone this week.

Tuesday, at ladies tea, I met two new missionary women who are serving in the Les Cayes area. Sarah is a guesthouse manager and Mandy is here with her husband, Rico (who is Haitian), working with SEED ministries. It was fun to talk about the wedding and dresses with the other women; the first team of the season returned from their trip out to the villages during tea. Everyone arrived safe and relatively sound although Tim earned a nasty gash above his eye during a fall on the worksite.

Pastor Jonas was injured in a motorcycle accident while I was away, so I’ve been learning his job this week. On Wednesday, I made one of the biggest mistakes at Childcare I’ve ever made anywhere! Pastor Jonas normally does the computer input into our Childcare program, but I didn’t want him to be behind when he returned to work. I asked Marie Lucie to teach me to do data entry for him, so we went through the first couple of batches together. I worked really hard on Wednesday doing all this data entry, only to find out on Thursday, that I had been adding these amounts to the children’s accounts instead of subtracting them! Needless to say, I spent all day Thursday doing everything over again – TWICE, once to make it right and once to actually subtract it. Lesson learned!

Wednesday night, Johannes gave us a lesson on the Reformation for church. Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to a church door 491 years ago this week. It was an extremely interesting lecture. On Thursday night, the work team, Reinhards, Sheila, Christophe, and I all went to the Nami to eat. It’s nice to get out sometimes and just enjoy each other and some different food. Before a team leaves, we often invite some local vendors to come to the Guesthouse and sell their wares. I bought a few paintings for my bathroom.

Friday night was a first for me. I told Doris I would help her with her son’s birthday party. Daniel turned 13 and invited about 20 of friends over for a party complete with games, food, and presents. Mandy and I were in charge of games and crafts in the backyard, and Mandy’s husband organized soccer in the front yard. We played “Pin the Nose on the Clown” and did crafts like make paper airplanes and color. Doris made pizza, dessert bars, and popcorn. In an effort to control the crowd, we put in a movie for the kids. Then, we got to spend some time chatting as adults, which was great.

Saturday, I worked on a missionary directory for the MEBSH administration all morning. Then, I got to play with Katie in the Wray’s pool during the afternoon. Saturday night, a few of us went to Luisa and Johannes’ house to watch the move “Luther.” Johannes had a printout with character descriptions and gave us a short history lesson on the movie and the timeframe. It’s easy to see that he loves history and is an excellent teacher!

Sunday, I was privileged to join the Wrays for their Sunday school lesson in Renault. Renault is an extremely poor part of Les Cayes. The Wrays began their outreach there in February; they have made amazing inroads into a community that has been ignored for years. Here in Haiti, church is big deal. It’s a time to dress up. Unfortunately, if you don’t have any nice clothes, or any clothes at all for that matter, you don’t go to church. Here, the idea is to come as you are and hear the Gospel, no matter how you look or what you wear or where you come from. Many children came with only a shirt; some came naked. But the point is, they came.

There is an incentive: food. After the Sunday school lesson, the Wrays have a feeding program. This may be the only meal the children can count on all week. Some of the youth leaders have been up since 4 AM cooking four huge pots of rice. This week, we fed about 525 children. Now, you’d think that if this were the only meal you were going to have for a week, you’d sit and eat every last bite of it in the safety of the enclosed area the Wrays have managed to provide you. Unfortunately, the cultural idea of sharing is so strong, the children often try to smuggle the food out in their shirts or pants, which makes for some interesting confrontations at the gate. Nevertheless, the children seemed to enjoy participating. They learn a new verse and song every Sunday, and if they can remember their song and verse from last week, they get a little toy. I was so impressed with the program and the energy and passion of the Wrays and the youth leaders. It humbled me to see the work, love, and dedication they have poured into this poverty-stricken area. The children are seeing the love of Jesus in action! If anyone is interested in learning more about this ministry, send me an email and I’ll see how we can assist the Wrays with their outreach into Renault.

Thanks for your prayers! Please continue to pray for my language and accounting skills. Both are lacking! Enjoy the pictures.

http://picasaweb.google.com/aheartforhaiti/Nov20081

In His service,
Abby