A Haitian Saturday

Saturday:

We landed in Haiti and were picked up by Chris Lieb and other members of his family.  The Liebs have lived in Haiti for the past 7 years and work with Baptist Haiti Mission.  Pastor Baker also came with Chris to the airport, he is Chris's father-in-law.  Pastor Baker has been in Haiti for 8 years.  He works to train Haitian pastors and plant churches.  

Travel in Haiti consists of piling as many people as possible into a truck bed and driving as quickly as possible.  Trey and the men sat inside the truck on our drive and I volunteered to climb in the bed of the truck with Grandpa and Abby.  Below is a picture of Grandpa doing an activity I named "Air Surfing."  There are no speed limits in Haiti.  When riding in the bed of a truck the goal is to hang on and avoid getting flying objects in your eyes.  Grandpa has officially mastered this.

Grandpa Lenny was quite the gentleman and volunteered several times to allow me to borrow his mask.  I politely declined.  He said the only bad thing about it is when you breathe it tends to get foggy.

After about an hour drive we arrived at a camp property by the ocean.  I was very glad to first of all be on the ground and safe and also to enjoy the BEAUTIFUL Haitian waters.

Posing in the beautiful CLEAR Haitian waters!

Trey and I have spent SEVERAL summers at camp.  We have grown to LOVE everything about camp ministry.  We have both grown leaps and bounds in our relationship with the Lord through our times at camp.  It is incredible to see this same experience being brought to the people of Haiti.  There is a lot of work to be done on the property.  We serve a GREAT God who is able to get his work done in his timing and not ours.

Background Information:

Crossings Ministries has been camp home for ourselves and others for many years.  A primary focus of Crossings is Missions.  They take the call to go to the nations seriously and seek to equip students to follow in this direction.  They have plans to come along side Baptist Haiti Mission and provide summer camp for students in Haiti.  This goal truly captured our hearts and now months later we visited Haiti to find out as much as possible.

Left:  Trey is taking in all of the scenery at camp.  There was so much to see and it is very exciting to think about all God has in store on these grounds!

Right:  The Lieb family move from the mission in the mountains down to the camp property during to summer to host camp for two weeks.  This is a picture of the inside of the "cabins."

Left:  This is a picture of one of the grounds keepers standing in front of the home that the Liebs and other volunteers stay in during their time at camp.


There are about 5 buildings on the property.  Future plans include building basketball and volleyball courts.  They also plan to improve the conditions of the buildings on the property. A concern of the camp is the ability to provide fresh drinking water for the students on property.  There are wells on the property for plumbing and showers but not for drinking.  In previous years the drinking water has been brought out to camp throughout the week, this will get quite pricey and difficult if it must be done for several weeks of camp throughout the summer.  Pray that this issue will get resolved as plans for camp this summer are well under way.

Right:  After our tour of the grounds we were off to lunch.  However, the keys to the truck here missing.  This picture includes Pastor Baker, Chris, David, Trey, and Grandpa Lenny trying to break into the truck to get the key.


Side Note:  The key was not locked in the truck.  It fell out of Chris's pocket at the entrance to camp.  After a long time searching we borrowed a truck to drive to lunch and found the key when we returned.  I'm just glad it was not Trey or myself who lost the key.

Left:  This is Abby and I waiting on the side while the men "worked" on the truck windows.  They definitely worked hard to save the day.  In the end the grounds keeper found the key on the hill while we were gone for lunch.

Here we are riding in the back of the borrowed truck to go to lunch.  The pictures cannot capture this experience.  Did I mention...THERE IS NO SPEED LIMIT IN HAITI!


The remainder of Saturday consisted of an ocean side lunch and then a drive up the mountain to Baptist Haiti Mission.  After several hours of riding in the bed of a truck in Haiti I was left looking quite pink and found that my rear end was rather soar the following day.  There was car trouble on the way up the mountain which put us a couple of hours behind schedule.  From the beginning we were reminded that the key to a Haitian lifestyle is flexibility.


We were greeted at the mission with homemade pizza provided by the Lieb family and warm (ish) showers.  The sun goes down at 7 p.m. in Haiti.  By 8:45 we truly had no energy left and it was time for bed.  We fell asleep to the sound of crickets and something that sounded like a bird chirping right outside our window.  The Lord was good to us and enabled us to fall asleep quickly.  There were big plans in store for our Sunday in Haiti.  Check back in the Haitian Sunday will be coming soon!