Well, I seem to have lost my audience. Oh well.....
If anyone is still interested, or just because I feel like talking.... an update.
My dad got home from this one..... but, sick as a dog! The RAIN has started over there, and things are going to get bad very quickly. But, there is hope.
He told me that halfway through the one week mission, several of the nurses took sick and wanted to go home. Flights were unavailable, so they kept them and treated them there. My dad got sick and was "preaching" from both ends! On one of his midnight dashes to the "latrine" (and we are talking wartime conditions and worse,) he tripped over a pile of rubble and fell against some metal posts holding up something or another.
So, now his backside is also bruised and painful. Payback is HELL for all those whippings he gave me as a child! :lol:
But, SO MUCH was accomplished on this trip! The building blocks, unfortunately, were needed to build a perimeter wall which they topped with barbed wire or broken glass to deter "raiders." But, at least the local minister and his orphan "girls" are now safe.
This local minister held "several" lands in the area. One was the girl's orphanage, one was a church and ?boy's home?.... and another had housing for the poor. (In Haiti.... that sounds redundant.) The Girl's orphanage building remains partially intact. EVERY OTHER structure on the other lands completely collapsed!
My dad asked the man what his greatest need was. The man said an orphanage for BOYS. My dad said give me one piece of land. He chose one on a main road right next to a U.N. Camp.
FEW of you might remember a thread long ago where I talked about a 10 yr old boy, son of one of the members of my dad's last church that I used to play golf with. A trucker slammed into their car at a stoplight and killed the young boy. (On a route I ran every day until the gorge was closed.)
Well, this boy's father, my golfing buddy and a staunch member of that church and supporter (and deacon) to my father.... was along on THIS trip. It was decided that my father would come back and "raise the money" needed to build that BOYS HOME and name it for my friend's son.
For the amazingly LOW price of about $25,000 a home will be built to house about 20 orphan BOYS. Small potatoes, I know. But, it's a START.
My dad has decided, finally, that he could be more useful HERE, at home, than onsite in Haiti. I praise the Lord that he serves for giving him this wisdom and "calling."
I immediately upon hearing his plans, made MY committment to a decent sized bite of that cost. He's probably thinking 250 people at $100 each. I'm thinking more like 50 people at $500 each. Some families, with more expenses, may opt for something like $250. That's good. I told him anyone who believes in him and what he is doing SHOULD be "good" for no LESS than that. I don't expect he will have to make too many phone calls! In fact.... I expect he may end up raising at least 4 TIMES that amount. [He could raise millions if he really tried!]
Now some humor for you military vets. The living conditions over there are horrific! If you've seen it on T.V. lately, the rains are causing rivers of waste and sludge flowing through many of the "tent cities" in which they are living.
After this LAST "mission," he has finally realized how difficult this type of mission is to any volunteer! He said he wanted to set up a "boot camp" of three days living in a Garbage dump, with a small pup tent, no showers, bad food, rainwater running through your campsite, only BASIC latrines, and being "on duty" around the clock!
If they PASS that?..... He said he would ask them if they
STILL wanted to go on a 7 day "mission" to Haiti! :eek2::lol2:
[His actual words were more like: I'll give you 7 more days of that in Haiti!]
I told him that wasn't such a great recruiting tool! Better to promise them a Carribean "cruise" for a week with extreme public interaction!
I'm pretty sure he is going to be concentrating on raising money to support this ONE Haitian Minister whom he TRUSTS, and "managing" the entire relief effort for this ONE area of need in this suffering country. Don't you know that this minister is looking skyward and saying, "Thank you Lord for meeting my needs."
I don't really HAVE a "skylink" these days. But, I still marvel at the mysterious ways that things get done in HIS name. And I never doubt the results when my Father is involved! This is "religion" at its BEST!
Just another DAY in my blessed world. Just another blessed day as my father's son. Just another reason to HOPE.
