Mesi anpil Jezi

I'm sitting here reflecting on the day, and what has been an amazing week. As always, we pray before we leave the guest house, for God's wisdom, guidance, and most of all, His protection as we are out and about. Jeff was driving today, and this is NOTHING like driving in the states, so we needed His protection today! We started with church at Grace Village with the kids and pastor Fan Fan. In addition to the 41 kids of GV, 31 street children from Titanyen came for the two hour service to worship and praise. Mesi Jezi. Kids on their knees praying for Jeff and all who help make Grace Village a reality is part of their daily prayers...Especially on Sunday. Following that, we had some time to play with all the kids before we had to leave. They all line up, smallest to the tallest, and come up to give us hugs. It is very hard to say goodbye to these wonderful kids. One little boy, John Jr., MayMay as he is called, (see photo) is the smallest of all the kids, so he's at the front. I start out on my knees for the little ones, and eventually stand for the bigger kids, when all of a sudden, there's MayMay again. So I am blessed to go down for another of his hugs. Standing again for the oldest kids, I hug Rose, Alex, Rinaldo, Dinixon, Dudley and the others until, there's MayMay again at the end of the line, this time coming up into my arms until it was time to climb in the back of the Tap Tap (bus) to leave...until next time. Mesi Jezi.

From there, we headed down the road to visit an artist's market. Unbeknownst to us, an eight foot steel post was tied to the top of our bus while at Grace Village, to bring back to the guest house. Haiti's roads are very bumpy to put it politely, and as we were traveling down the road, the post jarred loose at a 90 degree angle from the tap tap on the drivers side. Moving along at about 50mph the post hit an oncoming dump truck. In what could have been an extremely tragic event, all that was suffered was a broken side mirror on the dump truck, slight damage to our vehicle and a pole, now bent at 45 degrees. Mesi anpil Jezi!

After talking with the truck driver, and apologizing etc., we were on our way. The market is in the plateau region part way between Titanyen and Port au Prince. It's really not so much a market as it is going to where the artists create their work. It was fun talking (and haggling) with them. I inquired about a hammered metal bowl, made from scrap steel. He told me $50 at first, by the time I left (having already purchased other things) he told me $8. I didn't really need the bowl, so I passed.

It really has been an eye opening week. It's not hard to know that poverty exists, but understanding poverty is a whole other deal. My understanding of poverty is changing. It has names, and faces now. It's impossible to ignore. But the knowing, and the understanding isn't the burden I expected it to be. It's a blessing. Who doesn't find joy in sharing blessings and helping friends? Mesi anpil Jezi, Mesi.

Jim Rickard
Healing Haiti Team Member