Reclaimed my heart.....finally!

         In my first blog, I wrote " When I was in Haiti for the first time, God took my Heart and planted in fertile ground of Jacmel. I knew there would be a point in my travels in Jacmel the second time were I would meet God in a personal way. He would show Himself mightily and in the process I would reclaim my heart, to know without a shadow of a doubt, why God took this ordinary guy from Salt Lake City, and put him into Haiti for 6 weeks.
          Monday was the day God showed up, mightily, personally and in the process reclaimed my heart from Haiti. If I did't do anything else for the next month in Haiti, I know my trip was worth it.
         We had a Vacation Bible School for the kids of Raymond, about 100 of them, it was a awesome day. The day started at 8:00 am to set up 3 stations (sports. crafts, Bible stories and songs) and there was an excitement in the air, knowing 120 kid will be here running around within the hour, playing soccer, and leaning about Gods love. The first load of of kids came, as soon as their feet hit the ground, soccer balls and Frisbees were flying. It happen so fast, the only thing we could do was to jumped in and have fun. Then about 30 min later the next load came in, all I can say it was chaotic but God ordained to see all the children playing and laughing. I think the biggest change was, of course, was in  the team, it was hard to take in everything that was going on around us. Sara, for instance, she came up to me with a big grin on her face and a tear in her eye, and said "I am so happy, these kids are great". She had a Haiti moment, were God showed her the reason why she was here and the reason she will be coming back. You go Girl!
            I thought everything went smoothly, the sport was easy, soccer, and frisbees, the craft-- bracelets and beads Bible and singing was fun too. After everyone went through all the stations, we had lunch, rice and beans go figure, then packed the kids up in the truck, said all of our goodbyes and off they went singing a praise song in creole. The great thing is they will be back tomorrow, same time, same bat channel.
            After we clean up the site, we walked to the beach and relaxed and got sand in places sand should never be, GOT SAND?
            Tuesday------We did the same, we got there at 8:00 set up, and the kid came but only 160 of them, and boy it was steaming out there. We had the same drive as yesterday but the heat was so draining, everyone had to find shade and drank the contents of a  water truck by noon. I had a fun job, I took pictures of the cutest Haitians kids ever. They hung on me like glue, they love to have their pics taken with everybody on the team as you will see. I had a blast with the kids, same with the other guys on the team, no one will forget this day for a long time to come. I was proud to share in this experience and praise God for these people that he brought into my life.
              The kids went in the stations again, everyone had a good time but the heat got to us again, so we had the kids eat. This church had around 300 pair of crocs donated and made up 160 gift boxes filled with pencils, toothbrushes, toothpaste and other school supplies. So each kid got a pair of shoes, a gift box and a candy and off they went as we said goodbye for the last time, how sad, I will never, never forget the kids of  Raymond.
              Then back to the beach and Got Sand?

Sara her happy moment

A little surprise when we got there first thing 

 P.S.  I want to thank God for taking my heart and planting it in Jacmel the first time, so I had to come to Jacmel to reclaim my heart, it made me a stronger man' so I can rely on God more. Love you all, Scott

Blue lagoon

        Now, on Saturday we revisited the hottest place in Jacmel, the tourist trap of all tourist tourist traps, when people come to Jacmel this is where they go.........uhhh wait a minute, I was talking about about the fencing site and not the Beach....well the I guess the fencing site is the hottest place in Jacmel, and it is a tourist trap( the wasps lured you into the beauty of the place and they try to keep you trapped by buzzing around your head). This will be one of the places were people want to go when in Jacmel after the vision of Joy in Hope, and the community of Raymond in working partnership, develops their 15 year plan for Raymond.
       So in the morning 10 of us put 300 ft of fence, for the fun details of that adventure Check out "A fencing we will go" on this Blog site,  to much fun. In any case, all of our skin were shimmering in the the hot sun( that was a nice way we were dripping sweat) . The goats on the property were calling to us all morning, if you listen to them hard and long enough, some goats sounded human, or maybe it was a touch of sun stroke. The wasps were out defending their territory, the black and yellow caterpillars(poisonous if they bite you) doing what they do. All in all, it was a great morning,we got back to the Isaiah house and the rest of the team gave us a cheer and served us lunch, it was nice.
        Went to the beach in the afternoon, it was beautiful and very relaxing which I needed. It was interesting to have 20 white( blanc) people descending on a Haitian beach and within 15 minutes the souvenir vendors set up shop all around us, with the bracelets, necklaces, and the Haitian canvas paintings.
         The water was like bath water, which was better than the temp outside. We all had a great time playing with the mangines children and just chillin on the beach watching a soccer game, feeling any stress we had melt away.
          I had my first experience of drinking coconut juice from a real coconut. A Haitian boy came up with a wheelbarrow full of coconuts and sold a coconut for $1.00, then he took a machete and chopped and carved it into a point, with one more chop, he open a small hole to revel the juice. I gladly drank it, wasn't sweet, I still can't put my finger on the taste of the coconut. After the juice, he scooped out the meat of the coconut, It was white and rubbery, and had very little taste, good times.      
          Was other great day in Haiti.

                                                              Scott

A fencing we will go

        Today.........Today was one of the most labor intensive days I had since I got here. The team, their from a town north of Toronto,  Newmarket,( I've been working with since Monday) They have adopted me into their group and made me feel apart of what they stand for. I just want stop and say thank you for making my trip so much more memorable, I will never forget you. Back to Adventures of Fencing (not swords) I don't think no one was ready for this kind of adventure, it was the toughest but most rewarding and in some, character building.
      We went to Raymond,  it's about 20 min from Jacmel, to put up about 800 ft of fence. Now on a regular fence no problem, pull up with your pickup, drop off the material and go to work and your done. Now, as I am figuring out in haiti we do things different here, instead of of backing the pickup to the job site, we decided to carry ALL materials by hand 200 yds through a field and up a lava rock hill. When half the team hauled thefence the other half took machetes and cut down half the trees in the forest to clear a path for the fence line.
       When clearing the path, someone found a wasp nest in a tree, so we started a fire underneath the tree to get the wasps out of the nest, everyone sat around the bonfire in 90 drgree heat and 150% humidity, thinking it was cool burning up a wasp nest.
        We got done tying up fencing, everyone was hot and sweating no energy.  Finally lunch, at Isaiah house and the second half of the day, I went with Jeff up to a mountain village to talk to a pastor of this church of 45 people. This christian church was right across the dirt road from the voodoo temple.  It took an hour to get up to this village on a washboard road,. including just for fun, ruts! We interviewed the pastor and took some pictures and went back down the mountain to Jacmel.

Guess Who?

Going to the north 40

This kid was excellent at swinging a machete 

One of the many lava holes around the property

Hams for the camera

Some new friends

more hams

Do you know where Billy is?

comic relief

The awe of a good bonfire, wasp nest

The Fence

Hauling fence up lava rock

A Haitian reservoir, they like their fish 

The church

Jeff

The voodoo temple

   Supper......... All you can eat pizza at a  beautiful restaurant by the ocean, all I can say is good times,good times. Tomorrow the same, A fencing we will go. The end for now, thank you for your support and prayers.

Guess which one is the mask

   












     

"Moto" ing in the rain.

     Today was a washout, the team got up and had breakfast, we decided to go and work. There was a good chance of the back side of Irene was coming for us, dumping 5 gal buckets of water on the team. We got to the jobsite, I drove the moto through a path and parked it by the house. We started to get ready to do block on the sidewalls, it rained so much, there was a river of water coming down from the house in back of us. We needed to take block and line them up to divert the water, so the house we were working on didn't flood out. Since we stopped the flow of water into the job site, we still had to swim through 8" of standing water. At the same time when the flood was coming half the team had to get the truck unstuck, to say the least it was a hairy situation
      When the rain subsided and after the dove came back with the stick, we worked furiously to work on the house, we got a good 30 min of work done, then the heavens opened up again, we all got under a tarp, the water came down so hard we filled up a 5 gal bucket running off the tarp every minute for 10 minutes.

        The final time it let up, Mikey told everyone to get in the truck and get out of here while we still had a opening of the weather. Everyone got to the truck, except ME, I rode the Moto into the job site. You need to realized the soil in Haiti is clay and very slick when it get wet. So I was the last one out and I needed two Haitians to get the moto out of the trail, the mud was every where(sorry Tim I got the moto dirty). It started to rain AGAIN and the 4 mile trip back to Isaiah House was very wet and soggy all the mud I had on me and the moto was washed off and tonight I will save on water, no shower tonight.   Scott

Using a grave site to put water bottles on.

He likes to be wet

One of the Haitian river today

 Sing in in the rain

Haitian clay!!!!!

The flood

One of the times we actually work

The Bracelet

        This is the post I've been waiting to write since I visited Jacmel back in March. I was so moved in my spirit by Haiti, the people and the missionaries working with the Haitians, I knew it was God calling me back. In March, I knew coming back to Haiti was fact not fiction, everything was laid out by God, all  I needed the willing    heart.
          So when I was in Haiti I bought a bracelet for a $1.00, I made a promise to God, the next time I took this bracelet of was the next time I was in Haiti. The bracelet was the remembrance, God was in control, when I looked at it, I had confidence Haiti was in sight.
          I'm in Haiti, 6 months later sitting on the same couch seeing the same people and I glanced down at my bracelet..............  Praised the God who planted the seed of faith in my heart.  God has been FAITHFUL and never wavered, then the second the time I looked at the Bracelet I took it off my wrist and said to myself " I'm Home.
           I will be ready to pick up my next Bracelet in Haiti for the next trip!

My bracelet

  

A tree with beautiful flowers

The house that south mountain built

Views on top of Isaiah house 

The new patio at Isaiah house

more views

                               

First days in Jacmel

       Monday night, Cj and my son, Aaron drove me to the airport, 1:00 am flew to Atlanta,  Ft Lauderdale, then got into Haiti at 3:50 pm. The flight was uneventful and when I got to Port, Tim Weber and Jeff Brown were waiting for me at the airport. We got in the truck and off we went to the heart of Port-Au-Prince in rush hour.
         We went a different way through Port and I will never get used to going through that city after a year and 8 months, the devastation on lives and property is so real and vast, I realized it will be hard for Port-Au-Prince to  recover from the earthquake and my heart and prayers go out to the People of Port-Au-Prince.
         On the way through Port, it started to rain, Tim and Jeff got in the cab, and I decided to stay out in the
rain because I was coup up in a plane all day long. I liked the 3 hours of  rain, lighting and mountainous roads all in the back of a Toyota pickup.
         Wednesday, Tim and I went into Jacmel to get my cell turn on, showed me were to buy gas and most important, he showed me the money system. All in all,  the first couple of days was to get accustom to my surrounding, and to rest a tad. Stay tune for more, I'ts only 6:00 and I need to retreat to room, thanks for your prayers