This week….April 4th – April 11th
It seems time is going fast….and this week went fast. I continue to teach my conversational English classes and lead a bible study for translators. My curriculum for the English classes is wide and diverse. The students themselves have given me two different books which are book one and book four. I know they rescued these books from the rubble somewhere. The difference between book one and four is rather wide so I need to reach waaaay back to my grammar/English classes. (What is a predicate pronoun anyway?). Overall I have seen change in just the short time I have been here. The student’s vocabulary and understanding has increased rather dramatically. Another curriculum source is the Bible. I read the Creole Bible(or try to) and have them read English. It’s been really fun. The conversations always turn to the Bible and God and most can understand when I share the gospel.
Schools are starting to open which is encouraging, but it also can be rather frustrating. Most of the schools are private and have their enrolment. The public schools are not up and running yet and the private schools only take new students if: 1 they have room or 2. They have room and have official papers to tell what grade you’re in and 3. Room, papers and money. Well, most official papers are buried in the rubble and jobs are hard to find so still rather frustrating.
MY Other Jobs: Between classes I have other jobs which I continue to chip away at. One such job was to build 20 desk/benches and 8 desks for a local school we are sponsoring. They are rather crude but I was reminded of my roots back in Grand Rapids Michigan. Grand Rapids and western Michigan is known as the “furniture city” and even now has a couple major office furniture builders/distributors. So who better to build school furniture than me, although my creation would surely be rejected by quality control at Stealcase.
I also have started to wire sheds for electrical. Our teams coming in are putting up 8 X 12 sheds, well I come behind the teams and put one light/switch, and one outlet. The owner then connects the electrical to the city power lines. The city has rolling power so the trick is to connect the power when it is off. Wiring electrical is a skill I picked up when I rewired my house back in Michigan.
Busy, busy, busy. Overall it is about relationships. I am really enjoying getting to know all the people in the neighborhood. From my students to the corner “drink lady” it is about relationship. I enjoy showing Jesus in practical ways, sharing the Gospel, the good news of Jesus by living side by side. I am learning a lot while I am here. I continue to lean in and press into God to hear His voice and steps He wants me to take.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Saturday, April 3, 2010
TWO WEEKS???
Two weeks….wow time has gone fast.
Spent the last week uploading antivirus to my computer…it can be a real pain when power/internet keeps going out….sorry about the lack of updates…a lot to do around here
I keep myself really busy, from construction, to rubble removal, to teaching. My latest project was to make 20 desk/benches for a local school that is opening up. Since the quake not many schools have opened, we are working with a school that was in our neighborhood and flattened by the earthquake. We helped clear some land, got some “big top” tents and started having class. The school is staffed by Haitians and we are helping with some of the logistics….like school benches. One great approach that Haiti Family is implementing is to get Haitians jobs…and helping a school like this helps get those teachers and administrators back to their jobs….it’s so fun to see the kids come to school, sit in their benches and learn…
Teaching: I continue to lead three different groups 3- 4 days a week.
Monday Wednesday and Friday I teach conversational English class to two separate groups of young people. The first group is a group of guys called the Yung Goddis (young God followers). This is a group of twelve guys who have changed their lives since the earthquake. Before the quake they were going after money, girls and getting into trouble throughout the neighborhood, now they have dedicated themselves to following God. They range from 15 years old to 21 and many are street kids. Every morning at 5:30 they meet for a bible study, during the day they work. A group of volunteers from Colorado donated some money to start a work program with these young men. So we have used this opportunity to build responsibility and leadership skills into them. For example, being on time for work is very important and how hard they work is looked at etc…etc…etc…Overall they have responded really well to the encouragement that they CAN rebuild their city and nation….both physically and spiritually.
A second group of young adults I teach (Mon, Wed, and Friday), are a group left over from a group that friends Wes and Clint had started. These guys are in their early to mid twenties and just hungry for education and knowledge. Most of these guys want to become experts at the English language to be, politicians, lawyers and leaders of their community. Now I do have a curriculum but Wes and Clint original curriculum was reading sections of the English bible along with the Creole bible.
The Third group I lead is the translators bible study. Our organization, Haiti Family ministry, provides translators for our own medical clinics and a local hospital. So Monday thru Thursday I lead a voluntary afternoon bible study on their break time. We are going through the Gospel of John, reading, discussing and applying Jesus’ principles to our lives (or at least trying). There are six to twelve students, depending on the day and the time has been encouraging and challenging.
The rain seems to hit either early evening or at night, my tent has been dry but it gets really hot and stuffy after the rain. The rain busts are 30 -60 min but can be really hard…and in this heat it does not take long to dry out.
We continue to have groups come in from all over the states. Last week a group from Pennsylvania, they worked on a property we are setting up as a second “base” for lodging and relaxing. The group had a couple masons so they built some cinder block walls, and poured concrete, I tried to help but this was their profession…(so I ended up getting in the way), well I like to say I played a supervisory roll. We also are starting to put up “sheds.” Another group from Penn. sent down 50 8x12 Sheds to use as temporary housing…there was a three man crew…setting up two sheds a day. It is hard to keep up as the land has to be cleared first..which is very hard work breaking up rubble by hand and removing this rubble on wheel barrel at a time. Much to say…thanks for reading and your prayers/support
Next week a group from Florida….
Spent the last week uploading antivirus to my computer…it can be a real pain when power/internet keeps going out….sorry about the lack of updates…a lot to do around here
I keep myself really busy, from construction, to rubble removal, to teaching. My latest project was to make 20 desk/benches for a local school that is opening up. Since the quake not many schools have opened, we are working with a school that was in our neighborhood and flattened by the earthquake. We helped clear some land, got some “big top” tents and started having class. The school is staffed by Haitians and we are helping with some of the logistics….like school benches. One great approach that Haiti Family is implementing is to get Haitians jobs…and helping a school like this helps get those teachers and administrators back to their jobs….it’s so fun to see the kids come to school, sit in their benches and learn…
Teaching: I continue to lead three different groups 3- 4 days a week.
Monday Wednesday and Friday I teach conversational English class to two separate groups of young people. The first group is a group of guys called the Yung Goddis (young God followers). This is a group of twelve guys who have changed their lives since the earthquake. Before the quake they were going after money, girls and getting into trouble throughout the neighborhood, now they have dedicated themselves to following God. They range from 15 years old to 21 and many are street kids. Every morning at 5:30 they meet for a bible study, during the day they work. A group of volunteers from Colorado donated some money to start a work program with these young men. So we have used this opportunity to build responsibility and leadership skills into them. For example, being on time for work is very important and how hard they work is looked at etc…etc…etc…Overall they have responded really well to the encouragement that they CAN rebuild their city and nation….both physically and spiritually.
A second group of young adults I teach (Mon, Wed, and Friday), are a group left over from a group that friends Wes and Clint had started. These guys are in their early to mid twenties and just hungry for education and knowledge. Most of these guys want to become experts at the English language to be, politicians, lawyers and leaders of their community. Now I do have a curriculum but Wes and Clint original curriculum was reading sections of the English bible along with the Creole bible.
The Third group I lead is the translators bible study. Our organization, Haiti Family ministry, provides translators for our own medical clinics and a local hospital. So Monday thru Thursday I lead a voluntary afternoon bible study on their break time. We are going through the Gospel of John, reading, discussing and applying Jesus’ principles to our lives (or at least trying). There are six to twelve students, depending on the day and the time has been encouraging and challenging.
The rain seems to hit either early evening or at night, my tent has been dry but it gets really hot and stuffy after the rain. The rain busts are 30 -60 min but can be really hard…and in this heat it does not take long to dry out.
We continue to have groups come in from all over the states. Last week a group from Pennsylvania, they worked on a property we are setting up as a second “base” for lodging and relaxing. The group had a couple masons so they built some cinder block walls, and poured concrete, I tried to help but this was their profession…(so I ended up getting in the way), well I like to say I played a supervisory roll. We also are starting to put up “sheds.” Another group from Penn. sent down 50 8x12 Sheds to use as temporary housing…there was a three man crew…setting up two sheds a day. It is hard to keep up as the land has to be cleared first..which is very hard work breaking up rubble by hand and removing this rubble on wheel barrel at a time. Much to say…thanks for reading and your prayers/support
Next week a group from Florida….
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