What are we seeing these past three days?

On this Sunday afternoon in a city where 300,000 (at least) died in the 12 January 2010 earthquake, there are 2 million homeless people, 1-1/2 million of those living in tents, and yet from where we now comfortably sit, we hear the cheering of a crowd of 1,000 or more locals gathered for a neighborhood soccer game. If that's not hope, I don't know what is...

Earlier today, while riding through the town of Port-au-Prince, we saw street vendors, enthusiastically selling homemade wooden art, colorful paintings, and a variety of crafts. Across the street were the remains of what had been a five-story supermarket, now folded in on itself. Even earlier this morning, while worshiping with our hosts--Jon, Florence, and their staff member Patrick--we saw hope as stories were shared about both the devastation and possibilities, the history and the future of this great nation.

Yesterday and the day before, we saw a school, an orphanage (where two of us fell in love with an unforgettable little Haitian girl, orphaned by the earthquake, who smiled at us with her whole face); we saw also a medical clinic being rebuilt, a community garden in a sustainable village, a temporary home for women amputees from the earthquake, and yet another school being enlarged to accommodate their growing children. In the second school--picture above--art is encouraged by the very well-educated founder and continuing sponsor, Marc Christophe.

After our full day of touring, talking, dreaming, riding in the heat and humidity (the air conditioner went out on the car!), of having our hearts and minds so filled, our hosts booked us into a lovely waterfront hotel on the north coast of Haiti. We gratefully swam in the warm, gentle waters of the Caribbean, and within an hour, were wading our way through the floodwaters of a tropical thunderstorm...what drama lies deep in this country!

Like Frederick the Fieldmouse (of children's literature fame) we are each collecting stories to share with you when we return...stories, I believe, that will lead us all to the cooperative ministry that Redlands UCC can do to assist in the rebuilding of this good country.

Bonjour!

Bonsoir!