Mission Blog

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Except for the dog from hell barking all night I got a good night sleep. This crib of Davids is right on. I am talking very cool. Literally cool, I mean with A/C. I know what Peter was feeling up on the mountain of transfiguration when he said, Hey Jesus let’s build some shelters up here and just hang out forever here. Well guess what in the A/C is not where the work is… it’s out in the heat and dust. Check this out though, when we are done for the day we get to go back to the glorious A/C, PTL!

Harry came by and we spent an hour or so talking and hanging out. We grabbed some grind at a local establishment and went over to Harry’s property to check out the progress on his house. Things are going very well and the bosses and workers are doing a killer job. I am so proud of him and thankful for the answered prayer that God provided through obedient servants.

After a little while we headed to an orphanage that I have visited several times in the past. Coats Little Angels Orphanage is located in the city and faces many hardships. We have been blessed in the past to give some support but have not been able to support it consistently. I wanted Jeff and Chad to see this place. It’s a hard place to see but it is real and it makes you know how blessed we are. Makes Fede’s orphanage look like a palace.

We made our way back to the A/C up on the high place and CHILLED. David showed up so we went to get groceries and some more killer grub. What a day. I was stoked to share this part of my Haiti gig with these two brothers.
Tomorrow will be a fact gathering day, happy happy joy joy!

Kenny
GMSM

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Well nothing changes for the Haiti trips. Up and out the door much earlier than I prefer but hey what’s a missionary to do. At least I did not have to worry about dealing with it all by myself, my brother Curt took me and saved Kim some much needed zzzz’s. Chuck from TEM was on the flight also and headed to Haiti to do some mission stuff.

Once I got to Miami I met up with Jeff Poland (my cousin) and financial director of Immanuel UMC in Kentucky and one of his Christian brothers Chad Simms from the same fellowship. We had some lunch in the airport and talk a little strategy for the next few days.

This will be a trip of accountability, trust, obedience and calling to a partner. This is the dirty stuff that the bible tells us and warns us about. How we deal with it is key to our own call. God has put me with two fine,strong warriors who will enter the battle with me. This has the potential to be a true bummer but I also know God has this totally under control. No matter what happens God is putting his hand to the plow and calling His people together to build a stronger coalition of believers.

Once we touched down in PAP we were met by a key component to the newly plowed field. His name is David and has been in Haiti since the quake. I have met his wife Nicole by phone only and she was so kind to turn us on to her husband. They also are working down here but under the umbrella of Eyes Wide Open. Great folks and I can’t tell you how stoked I am to find like-minded people to fellowship with and work with. He took us to his house and took care of us and offered us a place to stay for the rest of the week. Cool day, praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Kenny

GMSM

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Praise God from whom all blessings flow. I did get a pretty good night’s sleep and had the nectar of life to start the new day. Any day in Haiti that starts with coffee has the potential to be a good day. I studied the Bible for an hour or so and visited with Ashley for a little bit while I was waiting on the tap-tap to take me to Harry’s property.

On the way I found a car rental place that let me use their wireless to send off some website stuff. They were real kind about it. If we ever need to rent a car I will check them out. I spent some time with the workers before Harry arrived and then just chilled and had good conversation with Harry. It has been very nice to spend time with Harry. His time is always stress free. The work on the house is going so well and the worker dudes are doing a killer job.

I returned to the guest house and chatted with Ashley for a while again and then started my preliminary packing for the flight home tomorrow. I leave around 2:30 pm and should get to P’Cola about 10:00 pm. I will be praying for no cancelled flights. I finally heard from Fede. He said he has been calling me, I guess I never heard my cell ring at the time he was calling. He wants to come by in the morning and talk. ??? Oh well, we will see what happens. I am touching bases with Kim and calling it a night.

Kenny

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I got up way early this morning and read scripture, drank coffee and waited for my posse to awake. Deborah and Aiyana will be leaving this morning and it will be lonely not having my two new friends around to keep me straight. Aiyana kept me cool on the iPad stuff and Deborah just kept me in check. It has really been a blessing serving with these two.

Deborah hits work when she returns and Aiyana gets ready to leave for Washington State to enter college. They took off around 9:00 am and I waited for Harry to give me a call. I took a moto machine over to Harry’s property and hung out with the workers for the day and talked about future plans and ideas with Harry. I have not heard from Fede since yesterday morning which is kind of surprising in a way. He is a man of strange convictions. He keeps his plate way too full.

I really enjoyed the day with Harry. We never just have time to ourselves so it was cool. I hooked up with moto machine dude and got back to the guest house. I will say that this cat is a good safe driver. He is who Harry only rides with so I was cool with him.

Man it was quiet at the guest house. It is pretty much just Ashley, Nene, Emma and me. Nene and Emma are two Haitian people that work in the guest house and I am not really sure where they sleep. I think Emma may sleep with Ashley. Ashley is probably the sweetest young lady I have ever met. She is from Tennessee and you cannot mistake it. “Hi y’all prayze the Loward y’all got heyer sayf.” She is absolutely a pristine example of southern hospitality.

I will go back to Harry’s property in the morning and will hang with him for the day. I heard there was a little surf back home and hope it stays around for my return. It always gets the best of me and I end up calling the surf report just to torture me a little. I wonder if that qualifies as persecution. Praise God from whom all blessings flow, amen !

Kenny

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After a hot and not such a good night’s sleep we awoke to some hot coffee and pancakes. Shortly after breakfast I received a phone call from Fede who informed me that his vehicle had been broken into the night before and 95 dollars had been stolen from his wallet, and he now has a busted window. With limited gas in his vehicle he picked us up at God’s Planet guest house to take us to Harry’s church to meet Madame Fani and her son Michlet. On the way there we stopped and filled Fede’s car with gas and as far as we know he was going to take care of some more personal things and then head back to Peligre.

Once at Harry’s church Deborah, Aiyana, and I were let into the gate and we sat under the big mango tree to wait for Madame Fani, Michlet, and Harry to arrive. I was looking very forward to seeing Madame Fani and talking to her about how life in Corchi is and the progress on her home that we are trying to complete. I was also excited for Deborah and Aiyana to meet Madame Fani. We sat and talked for many hours under the mango tree.

We order some chicken from a little restaurant for everybody. Harry sent Adonis to pick up our food. After a long wait we finally got our food. It was fun eating with Madame Fani. Deborah and Aiyana were very impressed with Madame Fani they were able to see her strength of character and witness my relationship with her. Deborah was able to communicate with Madame Fani and Michlet and they spent quite a while talking.

During our conversations we had an impromptu focus group session. We asked what they would prioritize as the most needed between water, education, and health . Crochi is a small village in the mountains close to Z’Orange. Water is well over several hours away and food can be relatively nonexistent at times. The answer to the question we received from both of them was that they felt that education was a priority over water and health and that a school was much needed. When we heard the answer we all three looked at each other in agreement that the face of Give Me Shelter Ministries may be changing.

Out of the many people we interviewed on this mission trip all of them gave us the same answer as far as education being the primary need. Once Madame Fani and Michlet left the church, the three of us along with Harry and two other men went into Port au Prince and played tourist. Harry deposited us back at the guest house where we were met by our hostess Ashley and had a Haitian-American meal of grilled chicken, rice and beans, sauce, and pickles. Today may very well been one of the highlights of this trip, being able to spend time with Madame Fani and introducing her to my new friends. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Kenny

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We woke up very early and started getting our chum together to pack up and head out. We had an appointment at Partners In Health (PIH) at 9:00 am with a young man named Joel who has an administrative role at this organization. This was the first time I have been to Cange and to PIH. PIH is a free clinic in various parts of Haiti that was started by a man named Paul Farmer back in the 70’s. This is an important relationship to the Peligre school and orphanage that has been damaged for reasons that would be too much to try to explain. One thing for sure though, most of our professional (doctors, nurses etc.) folks we bring up here want to work through them for the good of the children.

So Deborah, Aiyana and I had a nice meeting and was able to gather some good info that may help to begin bridging the gap. We were given a tour of the compound. We were shown the school, hospital,and training centers. We were shown the production facility where PIH makes a protein supplement from their farmed peanuts to be given out to severe starvation cases.Over all we were very impressed with PIH.

From there we went back to the Plaza hotel in Mirebalais where we were able to send our emails and eat one of the worst sandwiches made by mankind. The Lord was truly watching over us because no one got sick.

After leaving Mirebalais we went to God’s Planet Guest House in Croix de Bouquet where we dropped our chum off and Harry picked us up in a Tap-Tap. We took Deborah and Aiyana to Harry’s property and church. I was happy that they were able to see what Harry has going on in his world. We met Harry’s wife Nadesh and his daughter Djina for a meal at a restaurant by the airport, then headed back to the guest house. Deborah and Aiyana’s flight back to the states on Wednesday was canceled, so they will be staying one more day in hopes that Thursday they will be able to leave. Although I know they are ready to get home for various reasons, I will enjoy their company for one more day. We are not sure what tomorrow will bring, but we will fill it with whatever opportunities come our way. Praise God for whom all blessings flow.

Kenny

 

Back in Haiti this month, read our reports here!

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Late to bed and early to rise that always seems to be the norm for me in Haiti. After oatmeal and some good breakfast conversation we were blessed with the opportunity to go to Malenchall. It seems like attitudes can change like turning on a light switch here. I guess I will never get use to the craziness of back and forth issues, but I do pray God continues to give me the patience I need to continue building a good trust relationship here at Peligre School of Hope.

I was very excited for Deborah and Aiyana to have the opportunity to take this hike. We packed water and snacks for the trip. As most know from my previous blogs Malenchall is a very isolated area with its own problems and setbacks in the game of survival. The walk there is tough, but beautiful.

Once there, Deborah and Aiyana got a firsthand account of what I had been trying to convey to them about this place. We were met by a small group of villagers both young and old. This was probably our first real attempt at a focus group. Deborah and I asked many questions and we got various answers. The primary need up here today is school building. The structure they have now is very close to falling to the ground. This is the third time I have been to Malenchall and nothing has changed. I know Deborah will take the information that we gathered and come up with a plan.

We left after an hour or so, and visited an old man that Fede knows. This is also a home that I have visited before with Fede. Before we left this home we were treated with fresh coconuts to drink and eat. This was very cool and we were all totally stoked to get the treat. We made our way back to Peligre down the long, hard trail. Darlene had prepared a very good meal of traditional Haitian grindage. The meal consisted of chicken, pickles, plantains, and gravy. I will always be forever indebt to Aiyana for her help and patience as she helped me in my new Apple world. Her techo-saviness was perfect and she taught me a lot about this new GMSM tool. Praise God for whom all blessings flow.

Kenny

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Pride usually comes before the fall of many mighty civilizations. That is also true when people try to work for a common goal as a coalition of visions and dreams. When the focus turns to self and the goals begin to evolve into selfishness that can only come from man. With that said, it was another very strange day in Peligre. We must keep the prize in front and continue to work towards the dream of helping a small group of children realize a better life through health and education. Deborah, Harry, Aiyana, and I had the opportunity to have a small focus group session with Deacon the patriarch of Malenchall. Our original plan was to go to church, but the opportunity presented itself to have this session which we all agreed seemed to be the most important thing at the time. Fede had left and returned to see us talking to Deacon to his unpredictable displeasure. He seemed to think we had no right to do this. After a very intense conversation which I am growing intensively tired of we turned our focus to the event of the day which was the graduation ceremony of the children at the school. This is the first graduation class of Peligre School of Hope. It was such a special time for the children and it really reflected the reason why most of us come here. It is not about one person, but a community of people. They really threw down a big party with many visitors. There was much singing and people speaking on behalf of the teachers and students. Deborah, Aiyana, and I also had the chance to address the group, it was very special. Afterward we took a stroll through the village and visited the small Peligre clinic. After showers Deborah, Aiyana, and I stayed up and had good conversations about experiences we had and about the potential remedies for current situations. Praise God for whom all blessing flow, despite many distractions it was a good day.

Kenny

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Praise God for whom all blessings flow, we had a great night sleep. After breakfast Deborah sat down with Fede and Darlene and showed them how to use the supplies in their medical kit.

After lunch we all went to Mirebalais to visit the new construction of the Partners and Health medical training center and also to see the CTC (Cholera Treatment Center). The CTC is where most people go in the central plateau area to be treated for Cholera. Deborah was very interested from a medical standpoint, I was interested from my community relationship with the Haitian people. There are smaller centers around, but this appears to be the largest. Although it is nothing more than a field hospital it seemed to be fairly clean. It had many people around along with lots of children. I cannot say how successful the center is (they have no antibiotics). They do get treated (if they are lucky), but after the treatment most seem to fall back into the sick cycle again due to sanitation and infected drinking water.

There was no cholera in Haiti before the Nepalese UN dumped their human waste into a river outside of Mirebalais. Even though the CTC seems crude it Is somewhat affective. Post treatment is probably the hardest part to achieve.

Once we retuned back to Peligre we had a great time with conversation and a good intro to each one’s life views. From my point I thought it went well and have an immense respect for Deborah and Aiyana. Tomorrow will be a busy day with church and a graduation ceremony for the children of Peligre Hope.

Kenny