The Adventure Begins!

All is well with the group that arrived in Haiti on October 15th. It's been a bit hectic and the lack of a good internet connection has kept us from posting. But now that we are in the Northwest, it is better.

Ken and Mary Challis along with Gail and I left Ironwood Michigan on Tuesday, the 14th. While spending the night in Chicago before our flight to Haiti, we found out that we couldn't take all of our luggage. So, with the help of Gail's son-in-law, (who lives in the Chicago area) we had to eliminate two checked bags. Hummmmm, what won't we need? Tough choice! Gail did some last minute rearranging and by the Grace of God we have what we have! We met up with Ken and Mary's daughter, Emily and her friend Aaron in Ft Lauderdale. The six of us flew to Port au Prince, Haiti on the 15th. There we met Steve, Terry and Jim from Global Compassion.

We all stayed at the Global Outreach facility just outside of Port for 2 nights. One full day was spent purchasing food, furniture and supplies. We attempted to purchase about a months worth of food for 10 people. Unfortunately, we found out later that we had lost a bunch of groceries. I'll (Chuck) take the blame. I loaded the truck and had some groceries sticking up out of boxes towards the back of the truck. When we got to where we were headed for the night, a bunch of the food was gone. We pray that someone that really needed it was blessed. The following day (Friday) was a Haitian holiday and the stores were closed. So we headed to the Northwest with the provisions God supplied. We are headed later today to a little market a few miles away to see what we can get.

Many parts of the road leading to the Northwest is a single lane. We were stopped about 1/2 hour away from our destination with a truck full of charcoal that was stalled on a hill. The next thing we knew, we saw their truck starting to roll backwards, then tip over. By the Grace of God, nobody was injured.  We had to 'create' a new road down an embankment in order to get around. When the guys from Global Compassion came through, they pulled the truck out with their 5 ton military truck. I can only imagine how thankful the driver was for them! That truck could have very well sat blocking the road for days before being moved.

The picture on the right is from this morning. We have been busy unpacking and getting settled in. We thank God for Global Compassion which hauled all our belongings!

This is our first full day and we got up running (so to speak). Denny from Living Water Ministries has been taking Ken around and showing him all the systems and layout of the campus. Ken and Aaron then started in on taking out the framing from the new septic system for the education building. It's hot today, so they worked hard until noon. We will get back at various jobs after a few hours when it isn't so hot!

We thank all of you for your prayers and support! We also pray that our Lord will use us for His will. Every day is an adventure with the Lord!

In His Service,
Chuck & Gail