Making It Personal: Tuesday

Tuesday February 10, 2015

I want to take a few minutes to paint the scene that I’m currently surrounded with while I write this entry. I am sitting in the living room of our team house with the front door wide open to the porch. The breeze is warm and I hear the buzz of insects, the crunch of truck tires on the gravel road, the roar of moped engines, the occasional intrusion of loud merengue music blaring from a passing truck, and the clank of bamboo shoots that are taller than the house waving in the wind across the street. Some of the team is sitting out on the front porch chatting with Karen Green who joined us for dinner tonight.

Another fun-filled, energizing, tiring, loud, chaotic day at Palo Blanco is under our belts. Jason and Chris Bennett finished up work on the guard house at Palo Blanco. They even installed a metal louvered window for air circulation. As they finished their work the Skim Ice man pushed his little freezer cart by the school gate and Chris Bennett purchased a bunch of cherry and apple skim ices (which are equivalent to flavor ice popsicles) to share with the team and some lucky children.

Jenna, Jason, Chris Russell and Rachel went on some home visits this afternoon. We walked past the houses closest to the road (which tend to be the nicer homes), down a little muddy foot path to some small shacks. At the bottom of the hill we encountered two Haitian children who were approximately 2 and 4 years old, by themselves. There was a fire burning in the outside kitchen (which was a little wooden lean-to) and no adult watching out for the children’s safety. We learned that it is not uncommon at all for children to be left alone to fend for themselves for the day. Many times children as young as 6 are left at home to care for infants while their parents are away – often without any milk or supplies to feed the baby. This reality makes the importance of a school program, such as Palo Blanco, much more evident. At Palo Blanco the kids are given a uniform, fed nutritious meals, educated, and taught about God’s love. We are all so thankful for this program’s existence and humbled to play a small part in the ministry and these kid’s lives.

Well, that is all I have for now. The team is going to head up the hill to Pizza Pepperoni for a snack and some WiFi. Good night all!