Family and Friends,
Day 51 of our Haiti Adventure!
We are doing well here and hope to have regular internet access again, or at least fairly regular. We dream of the day when we can have it at home, but we know that will come soon enough. We hope you all enjoyed a great Christmas with family and friends. We heard you got some snow! Sounds like fun. We are looking forward to a great 2011, and some teams from our hometown of Sioux Center will be down here to visit soon. We'll be sure to keep you updated on everything that happens. Below are some adventures we experienced right before and after Christmas. Enjoy!
Dec. 23, 2010-
Today was a memorable day. We finished what we needed to do for homeschool yesterday and decided to take today off from school. It was also Elizabeth's turn to go with me to the market. She was excited to go, and we headed down to the road at about 8 o'clock.
Soon a tap-tap came along heading for the market. A tap-tap is a pickup truck with benches in the back for public transportation. I told Elizabeth earlier that day that we would probably be riding with 32 other people in the truck. I was wrong. There were actually 35 after we got in...and another four or five in the cab. Many of the people also had their produce to sell in the market stashed in various places. Amazing.
We arrived at the market and started looking for the supplies we will need for our Christmas dinner...potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, and some other items. Earlier this week someone came to the door and let us know they were slaughtering their pig...we agreed to buy a hunk of it, and that meat is waiting patiently in the freezer for the big day. Actually, we are preparing a big meal on the Sunday after Christmas. Patchouko and his wife, Jesoula, are preparing a Haitian meal for us on Christmas day.
There is always quite a commotion when I go to the market. Between the people just standing there gawking at me, the beggars trying to get my attention, and the various vendors trying to lure me in and rip me off, it is quite a scene. Then I took Kester to the market one day, and the hub-bub doubled. Today, with Elizabeth in tow, the response was even more remarkable. The people here are just fascinated by “white” kids, and especially by the girls. They love their hair and many come up and try to touch it. That drives Alexandra nuts, but Elizabeth handles it pretty well.
We found what we needed at the market and got ready to return home. One great thing you java-drinkers will appreciate is that the coffee here is actually very good. Before the US embargo of the 90s, it is said that Haiti's coffee was approaching the quality and reputation of Jamaican coffee, which today sells for as much as $50/pound in the US. So Haitian coffee is very good and it goes for around $2-$3/pound at the market. Just one of the many perks of being a missionary! I hope to one day buy a big bucket of beans which haven't been roasted yet and send them back to my brother Adam who has a coffee-shop and roasterie. I'll let you know if that ever happens and those are ever available to be sampled.
Later in the day we went to pray with a couple of families in the village. One is Starlan's family, whom Pam led to Christ recently (see the post "Here for a Purpose" from Dec. 13), and we have continued to meet with them and encourage them during their early days of following Christ. We were happy to hear that they attended church, and Starlan has been doing much better. They are always so pleased to see us, and the mother said something memorable. She was thanking us for helping Starlan, and she said, “My fingers weren't long enough to help my daughter.” I recognized right away she was speaking figuratively, and I always get a kick out of Haitian culture and how people here intertwine these language patterns and proverbs with everyday conversation.
Another key moment today was a walk I took with Patchouko. We went to look at an ocean-side property Pam had purchased this year for future development. We wanted to see if there was any fruit to pick there (there wasn't...people had stolen everything) and to look around at the land a little bit. The piece of property starts at the road and goes down to the ocean, where there is a pretty little beach. It is about 2 acres and one can only imagine and speculate what such a property would cost in Florida or other coastal regions in the US.
We began to wander down the beach toward a cliff overlooking the sea. I have always been fascinated with this little spot, because you can see it from the road and from anywhere in the bay. We climbed up the pasture and garden leading to the cliff and found it lined with bushes and trees. We followed the ridge to a small home and cooking shed near the road. If you have visited on one of the mission trips, this property I am describing is near the “Welcome to Ti-Rivier” sign.
It suddently dawned on me that this ridge leading to the cliff is almost perfectly level with the road. In other words, if someone had a vision to buy this property and construct a facility (let's say for a Bible school as an example), the main building could overhang the cliff and have a panoramic view of the ocean to the east and south and the mountains to the north and west. Not only that but the property could be easily accessible from the road for any students (or a professor's wife) who have limited mobility, and all of it could connect to the property already purchased by Pam for Mission Haiti.
It was just one of those moments when my imagination took over and I saw what “could be” with a little prayer and dreaming and perseverance. We'll see what God does with that, but all-in-all it was a very inspiring day.
Dec. 27, 2010-
We enjoyed a great Christmas here in Haiti. Tonight we will have one last celebration of food with our friends and neighbors. Yesterday we cooked a meal for Patchouko and Jesoula, our co-workers who live here in the Mission Haiti compound with us. We got our hands on some pork and put together a thoroughly American meal. The biggest difference was probably the portions of meat. Here you normally get a small portion of meat if you have meat, like maybe 5 people sharing 3 chicken legs or something like that, so it was nice to spoon several hunks of pork onto each person's plate.
Everyone really likes Lynn's homemade bread as well, and people want to learn how to bake it. She wants to perfect it a little bit more before teaching others. The dough has been very sticky here and has required more flour than normal. Also, even though the temperatures are high, the bread takes longer to rise before baking. To regulate the temperature on the propane oven takes some careful oversight as well. We are getting better at the whole process, and luckily Mission Haiti accidentally bought way too much flour recently (I was there when it happened but deny any and all responsibility for the mix-up) which needs to be used up before it rots. I guess we will be baking! Too bad butter costs about double in the US or we could stuff ourselves on cookies every day.
We hope your Christmas Adventure was great!
-Grimm Family Adventurers
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Busy About the Ministry
Family and Friends,
The following comes from Cory's journal about a week ago. It gives a picture of some of the work we are doing here...
Today Patchouko and I did the big hike. If you have attended a Mission Haiti trip and hiked to any of the schools, you will appreciate how far we traveled. We went to ALL of the mountain schools today! First of all we walked down the road to the market near St. John, confidently allowing the tap-taps to drive past us. Next we hiked up the steep mountain to the Jabouim school. I paused for a moment to take a picture of our sponsor child Katia, but soon we were on our way.
Our mission today was mostly to deliver a bunch of gifts from sponsors to their sponsor children, so Patchouko and I both had plenty to carry. After Jabouim we headed up the big scorched hill to Tousainte and stopped at the school. We dropped off some gifts and continued on our merry way. After that we travelled along the beautiful, scenic ridge toward the trail of death. I had forgotten how breath-taking it is up there, probably because most of the time you go up there you are literally out of breath, and the only thing you can concentrate on is how you are going to get down without dying.
We took a little break at a beautiful spot where you can see the ocean on both horizons. Pretty cool. Next came the trail of death. I won't say it is easier to go up the trail than down, but it is no picnic going down either. We finally reached the Baptist School, dropped off some gifts, and then continued on to the Mountain school. We arrived right around noon, so it was getting hot.
Yesterday a couple of women came down from the mountain and told us the director of the mountain school had kicked out all of the kids and told them not to come back unless they had more money to pay. We told the ladies we would go and talk to the director the next day, which worked out good because we were planning to deliver sponsor gifts anyway.
We began to talk to the mountain school director about the situation. Also present was Madame Saver, his famous mother, whom I mentioned in an earlier newsletter and/or blog entry. She is a prophetess of sorts whom many people respect and venerate in the area. She sees visions, and people believe they will come true. Anyway, they tried to explain the whole school situation to us, and I left there more confused than when I arrived.
Patchouko tried to explain the whole thing to me, but it still didn't add up. I have to admit I have plenty to learn about this culture. Patchouko reassured me that it is a complex culture to understand. I agreed. All I know is that the schools don't seem to be educating the kids all that well, and I wish we could do something to help. Pam has been trying for years to help, but it is a real struggle. Something to pray about.
On the way back we made two house visits. One was to a young family where the woman is a christian but the man is not. We want to help them talk about that and ideally lead the man to Christ. The husband was not there, so we made an appointment to return next week Tuesday. The other visit was to Aldoni, the young man who stole from Mission Haiti ealier this year and ended up spending three months in jail. He was the one I visited with Kiki and Patchouko and blogged about the experience (see "An Adventurous Adventure" written in October).
Aldoni had a hard time in prison, but God protected him. For one thing cholera hit hard there, and over forty men died. It probably didn't help that sometimes the guards don't give people water to drink for days at a time. Aldoni said there was one morning when he woke up and both of the men on either side of him had died in the night. Also, one time the prison flooded, I think during the hurricane, and everyone had to be relocated to the penitentiary in Port-au-Prince. The rumor is that when they transfer you there sometimes they forget about you entirely and your records can't be found. Then add to that the reality that many people in there are some of the hardest criminals on earth. Scary. Fortunately, Aldoni was protected again and was able to return to Les Cayes and be released on schedule on Dec. 14th. He and his family were so happy to see us and thankful for our earlier visit. We prayed together.
Patchouko and I finally arrived home at about 1:30. We had hiked around 6 ½ hours. Woo hoo! It was a good day. Tonight we will reward ourselves with pancakes and some little sausages (little smokies canned in the Netherlands) I found at the market. I hope they have real meat in them, but if it is even close to meat I'm sure it will taste good.
We hope YOUR adventure is going well!
-The Grimms
The following comes from Cory's journal about a week ago. It gives a picture of some of the work we are doing here...
Today Patchouko and I did the big hike. If you have attended a Mission Haiti trip and hiked to any of the schools, you will appreciate how far we traveled. We went to ALL of the mountain schools today! First of all we walked down the road to the market near St. John, confidently allowing the tap-taps to drive past us. Next we hiked up the steep mountain to the Jabouim school. I paused for a moment to take a picture of our sponsor child Katia, but soon we were on our way.
Our mission today was mostly to deliver a bunch of gifts from sponsors to their sponsor children, so Patchouko and I both had plenty to carry. After Jabouim we headed up the big scorched hill to Tousainte and stopped at the school. We dropped off some gifts and continued on our merry way. After that we travelled along the beautiful, scenic ridge toward the trail of death. I had forgotten how breath-taking it is up there, probably because most of the time you go up there you are literally out of breath, and the only thing you can concentrate on is how you are going to get down without dying.
We took a little break at a beautiful spot where you can see the ocean on both horizons. Pretty cool. Next came the trail of death. I won't say it is easier to go up the trail than down, but it is no picnic going down either. We finally reached the Baptist School, dropped off some gifts, and then continued on to the Mountain school. We arrived right around noon, so it was getting hot.
Yesterday a couple of women came down from the mountain and told us the director of the mountain school had kicked out all of the kids and told them not to come back unless they had more money to pay. We told the ladies we would go and talk to the director the next day, which worked out good because we were planning to deliver sponsor gifts anyway.
We began to talk to the mountain school director about the situation. Also present was Madame Saver, his famous mother, whom I mentioned in an earlier newsletter and/or blog entry. She is a prophetess of sorts whom many people respect and venerate in the area. She sees visions, and people believe they will come true. Anyway, they tried to explain the whole school situation to us, and I left there more confused than when I arrived.
Patchouko tried to explain the whole thing to me, but it still didn't add up. I have to admit I have plenty to learn about this culture. Patchouko reassured me that it is a complex culture to understand. I agreed. All I know is that the schools don't seem to be educating the kids all that well, and I wish we could do something to help. Pam has been trying for years to help, but it is a real struggle. Something to pray about.
On the way back we made two house visits. One was to a young family where the woman is a christian but the man is not. We want to help them talk about that and ideally lead the man to Christ. The husband was not there, so we made an appointment to return next week Tuesday. The other visit was to Aldoni, the young man who stole from Mission Haiti ealier this year and ended up spending three months in jail. He was the one I visited with Kiki and Patchouko and blogged about the experience (see "An Adventurous Adventure" written in October).
Aldoni had a hard time in prison, but God protected him. For one thing cholera hit hard there, and over forty men died. It probably didn't help that sometimes the guards don't give people water to drink for days at a time. Aldoni said there was one morning when he woke up and both of the men on either side of him had died in the night. Also, one time the prison flooded, I think during the hurricane, and everyone had to be relocated to the penitentiary in Port-au-Prince. The rumor is that when they transfer you there sometimes they forget about you entirely and your records can't be found. Then add to that the reality that many people in there are some of the hardest criminals on earth. Scary. Fortunately, Aldoni was protected again and was able to return to Les Cayes and be released on schedule on Dec. 14th. He and his family were so happy to see us and thankful for our earlier visit. We prayed together.
Patchouko and I finally arrived home at about 1:30. We had hiked around 6 ½ hours. Woo hoo! It was a good day. Tonight we will reward ourselves with pancakes and some little sausages (little smokies canned in the Netherlands) I found at the market. I hope they have real meat in them, but if it is even close to meat I'm sure it will taste good.
We hope YOUR adventure is going well!
-The Grimms
A Wide Open Door to Help People with Cholera
Family and Friends,
The following is a snippet from Cory's journal from a couple of weeks ago...just thought you would find this interesting...
Dec. 14, 2010- “A Wide Open Door” (I Cor. 15:9)
Today was one of those amazing days in ministry that only come along once in awhile. As you progress step-by-step through the day you are overwhelmed with a feeling that God is leading you at all times, and sure enough, at the end of our day a huge door for ministry was flung wide open. I'll get to that in a minute, but first I'll reflect on how we got to that point.
The last few days, as we have tried to recover physically and emotionally from helping the mission team that was stranded here and praying with them to be able to return home safely, our family members have all gone through times of “throwing fits” in the way the each of us does that. For Alexandra, she simply throws a real fit, like any preschool age kid. For the bigger kids it takes the form of disobedience and negative attitude. For us adults we are mainly just exhausted and annoyed with each other at times.
But we should have remembered that God always allows you to go through the desert in order to reach the promised land on the other side.
Today Patchouko and I needed to go to Les Cayes, the nearby large city, to get various groceries and supplies for our families and the orphanage. Both of our propane tanks ran out on the same day, which is actually kind of nice, because we went and got both of them filled at the same time. After that we went to a huge market and got fruit and vegetables. I really enjoyed doing that and wish I had more time to reflect on that experience. Sometime soon I will.
Next was a visit to the grocery store I mentioned in an earlier post. That place was pretty picked over after the recent political events. It seems people make a run on the grocery stores here when there are riots just like they do back home when a storm is coming. However, I was able to find some nice items to tide us over until the next teams come down with more food.
After that we went to look for a bike for Patchouko's son. He asked me to stay in the car until he was finished, because whenver a white person walks up the price doubles. He was able to get the bike.
Our final stop was at the general hospital to visit a sick girl from the village. The general hospital is run by the government for people who can't afford the “good” hospitals. I'm sure you can figure out from that statement that this hospital is not the best. I was there a week or so ago but couldnn't find the girl we were looking for at that time. We had the same problem today. You go around asking people in the hospital for information, but all they say is, “I don't know where she is. Why don't you look around in all the rooms and try to find her.” Gee thanks. The last time I was there we did look around in a lot of the rooms, and we stumbled upon so pretty grizzly scenes. We went into the ER and discovered several people sitting in pools of their own blood. Nice. I wasn't too anxious to repeat that experience again.
Pretty soon, though, we found ourselves standing outside the cholera ward, which turned out to be exactly where God wanted us to be. Zachary from Ti-Rivier had joined us at this point after running some errands in that area. The three of us decided we should pray for the sick people inside. At first I thought we would just stand outside the tents and pray for the people all at once, but pretty soon we decided to see if we could go inside and find people with no family to care for them.
We went to the entrance, and their was a guy stopping everyone who was going out or coming in to spray a mist of some chemical on them. We figured out that anyone could enter for no reason (which seems strange in retrospect), and soon we were standing in the midst of half a dozen tents filled with cholera patients. At first we were all a little bit stunned by the gravity of the situation. The smell was overwhelming, the traffic between the tents of medical staff and various people was somewhat frantic, and just peeking through the doors was enough to see that we better be emotionally prepared for whatever was about to happen to us.
We started at the back of the property and began looking for people to talk to. Right away we found a young man who was alone on a cot. He looked pretty rough. We talked to him for awhile and found out he had been there for almost three days but was given very little attention. He didn't even have an IV yet. The people without family members present don't get much attention, and the hospital has no program to offer them food. That is just standard procedure in Haiti in every hospital...if you don't have someone from the outside bringing you food and medicine and advocating for your care, you get nothing.
We gave him some bread and juice and helped him take his last three pills of pain medication. We prayed with him for awhile, and then Zachary and Patchouko started singing some well-known hymn in Creole. It was an inspiring moment...many of the staff and other patients and family members joined in and a kind of peace washed over the whole place for just a moment. After that I asked the guys to ask the young man if he had trusted Christ for salvation yet. He said he had and he thanked us profusely for asking and for sitting with him for awhile.
After that we went into some of the tents and saw many small children in various stages of dealing with Cholera. It was very sad and very difficult to look at. At one point I saw a couple of white doctors in a side room talking about something. I decided to duck my head inside and introduce myself. They said “hello” and we talked for a few minutes. One of the guys seems to be down here long-term, and the other one was on a mission team. I'm not sure if they are doctors or not, but they explained that they are the only ones working in the Cholera camp...the general hospital itself isn't the one working with these patients. Soon the mission team would be leaving, and that will leave only the one doctor. I would estimate that there was around 80 patients there with cholera.
We told the guys that we were there to encourage people, especially those with no family. They told us that most of the people don't have family there, because families are afraid to be in the camp, and many people have no access to any food at all. What the camp needed most was some food for the people, and he asked if we could help at all. I told him I would see what we could do to help. That was our wide-open door!
So on the way home Patchouko and I started scheming to find some solution to the problem. We have a whole depot filled with vitamin-packed rice and bean packets for the school program, so we coud dip into that resource quite a bit and still be fine. After all, the schools have barely met for the last month, so we have to be a little bit ahead on supplies. Of course the next step will be to talk to Pam and see if we can get the green light for doing that. Hopefully if we can tide the medical team over for a few weeks they can get some long-term program to help them out, such as World Relief. That is who they are trying to work with now.
Patchouko and I both agreed that whatever we may have been stressing about over the last few days, it didn't seem like such a big deal now. I hope we can help those patients with a little bit of food, and when we do we will go through family by family and make sure everyone hears the gospel message and has a chance to commit his/her life to Christ. God dumped this great opportunity in our lap and we are anxious to prove faithful.
Dec. 16, 2010-
Yesterday we went to the General Hospital to give the cholera patients some lunch. It went fairly well I think. About half of the people were able to eat. The other half were either too nauseated or unresponsive to eat. We saw some bodies off to the side, and a few others looked like they would be joining them soon if they didn't recover in the next day or so. The hardest to see, of course, was the children who were sick, especially those with no parents present.
The Doctor, a man named Patrick from the US, called us later and told us “Thank you” for the food. We left a whole 5-gallon bucket of rice for later, and he told me that at night more people were ready to eat, and it was a hit. He asked if we could continue to bring food. I told him I would see what we could do, but I had heard there might be more political demonstrations, and we are about 40 minutes drive away as well. Pam is contacting a large ministry in Les Cayes to see if they can take it from here. After that we are hoping a large international food relief program can supply the food until the cholera outbreak is over.
I will probably write more about that cholera experience sometime soon, but for now I think I'm still a little bit in shock over the whole thing.
To finish the story now 2 weeks later...
We never heard back again from Patrick, the American Doctor at General Hospital, and so we assumed he finally got a regular supply of food lined up. That was quite an experience. I was especially proud of the Haitian guys who went in there with me to do ministry. Everyone here is very scared of Cholera. That is why most of the family members don't even go in the hospital with their loved ones who are sick.
One other strange thing that happened...I was visiting someone's home recently and they had the TV on. The news was showing footage of the cholera ward at General Hospital, and I saw all the patients we had visited. The news report wasn't good, though. It seems they are just piling up the bodies of the victims and driving them in trucks out to who-knows-where. Sad. But it was nice to help out a little bit that one day. It kind of encapsulates ministry here...you can't fix everything but you can touch a few lives in the midst of the struggle.
God Bless,
-Grimm Family Adventurers
The following is a snippet from Cory's journal from a couple of weeks ago...just thought you would find this interesting...
Dec. 14, 2010- “A Wide Open Door” (I Cor. 15:9)
Today was one of those amazing days in ministry that only come along once in awhile. As you progress step-by-step through the day you are overwhelmed with a feeling that God is leading you at all times, and sure enough, at the end of our day a huge door for ministry was flung wide open. I'll get to that in a minute, but first I'll reflect on how we got to that point.
The last few days, as we have tried to recover physically and emotionally from helping the mission team that was stranded here and praying with them to be able to return home safely, our family members have all gone through times of “throwing fits” in the way the each of us does that. For Alexandra, she simply throws a real fit, like any preschool age kid. For the bigger kids it takes the form of disobedience and negative attitude. For us adults we are mainly just exhausted and annoyed with each other at times.
But we should have remembered that God always allows you to go through the desert in order to reach the promised land on the other side.
Today Patchouko and I needed to go to Les Cayes, the nearby large city, to get various groceries and supplies for our families and the orphanage. Both of our propane tanks ran out on the same day, which is actually kind of nice, because we went and got both of them filled at the same time. After that we went to a huge market and got fruit and vegetables. I really enjoyed doing that and wish I had more time to reflect on that experience. Sometime soon I will.
Next was a visit to the grocery store I mentioned in an earlier post. That place was pretty picked over after the recent political events. It seems people make a run on the grocery stores here when there are riots just like they do back home when a storm is coming. However, I was able to find some nice items to tide us over until the next teams come down with more food.
After that we went to look for a bike for Patchouko's son. He asked me to stay in the car until he was finished, because whenver a white person walks up the price doubles. He was able to get the bike.
Our final stop was at the general hospital to visit a sick girl from the village. The general hospital is run by the government for people who can't afford the “good” hospitals. I'm sure you can figure out from that statement that this hospital is not the best. I was there a week or so ago but couldnn't find the girl we were looking for at that time. We had the same problem today. You go around asking people in the hospital for information, but all they say is, “I don't know where she is. Why don't you look around in all the rooms and try to find her.” Gee thanks. The last time I was there we did look around in a lot of the rooms, and we stumbled upon so pretty grizzly scenes. We went into the ER and discovered several people sitting in pools of their own blood. Nice. I wasn't too anxious to repeat that experience again.
Pretty soon, though, we found ourselves standing outside the cholera ward, which turned out to be exactly where God wanted us to be. Zachary from Ti-Rivier had joined us at this point after running some errands in that area. The three of us decided we should pray for the sick people inside. At first I thought we would just stand outside the tents and pray for the people all at once, but pretty soon we decided to see if we could go inside and find people with no family to care for them.
We went to the entrance, and their was a guy stopping everyone who was going out or coming in to spray a mist of some chemical on them. We figured out that anyone could enter for no reason (which seems strange in retrospect), and soon we were standing in the midst of half a dozen tents filled with cholera patients. At first we were all a little bit stunned by the gravity of the situation. The smell was overwhelming, the traffic between the tents of medical staff and various people was somewhat frantic, and just peeking through the doors was enough to see that we better be emotionally prepared for whatever was about to happen to us.
We started at the back of the property and began looking for people to talk to. Right away we found a young man who was alone on a cot. He looked pretty rough. We talked to him for awhile and found out he had been there for almost three days but was given very little attention. He didn't even have an IV yet. The people without family members present don't get much attention, and the hospital has no program to offer them food. That is just standard procedure in Haiti in every hospital...if you don't have someone from the outside bringing you food and medicine and advocating for your care, you get nothing.
We gave him some bread and juice and helped him take his last three pills of pain medication. We prayed with him for awhile, and then Zachary and Patchouko started singing some well-known hymn in Creole. It was an inspiring moment...many of the staff and other patients and family members joined in and a kind of peace washed over the whole place for just a moment. After that I asked the guys to ask the young man if he had trusted Christ for salvation yet. He said he had and he thanked us profusely for asking and for sitting with him for awhile.
After that we went into some of the tents and saw many small children in various stages of dealing with Cholera. It was very sad and very difficult to look at. At one point I saw a couple of white doctors in a side room talking about something. I decided to duck my head inside and introduce myself. They said “hello” and we talked for a few minutes. One of the guys seems to be down here long-term, and the other one was on a mission team. I'm not sure if they are doctors or not, but they explained that they are the only ones working in the Cholera camp...the general hospital itself isn't the one working with these patients. Soon the mission team would be leaving, and that will leave only the one doctor. I would estimate that there was around 80 patients there with cholera.
We told the guys that we were there to encourage people, especially those with no family. They told us that most of the people don't have family there, because families are afraid to be in the camp, and many people have no access to any food at all. What the camp needed most was some food for the people, and he asked if we could help at all. I told him I would see what we could do to help. That was our wide-open door!
So on the way home Patchouko and I started scheming to find some solution to the problem. We have a whole depot filled with vitamin-packed rice and bean packets for the school program, so we coud dip into that resource quite a bit and still be fine. After all, the schools have barely met for the last month, so we have to be a little bit ahead on supplies. Of course the next step will be to talk to Pam and see if we can get the green light for doing that. Hopefully if we can tide the medical team over for a few weeks they can get some long-term program to help them out, such as World Relief. That is who they are trying to work with now.
Patchouko and I both agreed that whatever we may have been stressing about over the last few days, it didn't seem like such a big deal now. I hope we can help those patients with a little bit of food, and when we do we will go through family by family and make sure everyone hears the gospel message and has a chance to commit his/her life to Christ. God dumped this great opportunity in our lap and we are anxious to prove faithful.
Dec. 16, 2010-
Yesterday we went to the General Hospital to give the cholera patients some lunch. It went fairly well I think. About half of the people were able to eat. The other half were either too nauseated or unresponsive to eat. We saw some bodies off to the side, and a few others looked like they would be joining them soon if they didn't recover in the next day or so. The hardest to see, of course, was the children who were sick, especially those with no parents present.
The Doctor, a man named Patrick from the US, called us later and told us “Thank you” for the food. We left a whole 5-gallon bucket of rice for later, and he told me that at night more people were ready to eat, and it was a hit. He asked if we could continue to bring food. I told him I would see what we could do, but I had heard there might be more political demonstrations, and we are about 40 minutes drive away as well. Pam is contacting a large ministry in Les Cayes to see if they can take it from here. After that we are hoping a large international food relief program can supply the food until the cholera outbreak is over.
I will probably write more about that cholera experience sometime soon, but for now I think I'm still a little bit in shock over the whole thing.
To finish the story now 2 weeks later...
We never heard back again from Patrick, the American Doctor at General Hospital, and so we assumed he finally got a regular supply of food lined up. That was quite an experience. I was especially proud of the Haitian guys who went in there with me to do ministry. Everyone here is very scared of Cholera. That is why most of the family members don't even go in the hospital with their loved ones who are sick.
One other strange thing that happened...I was visiting someone's home recently and they had the TV on. The news was showing footage of the cholera ward at General Hospital, and I saw all the patients we had visited. The news report wasn't good, though. It seems they are just piling up the bodies of the victims and driving them in trucks out to who-knows-where. Sad. But it was nice to help out a little bit that one day. It kind of encapsulates ministry here...you can't fix everything but you can touch a few lives in the midst of the struggle.
God Bless,
-Grimm Family Adventurers
Monday, December 13, 2010
The Latest News and Merry Christmas!
Day 35 of our Adventure in Haiti!
Family and Friends,
This post will be somewhat shorter than normal, and it might be the last one for awhile. Adrian, the kind man who allows us to use his internet access, will be leaving tomorrow for a couple of weeks, so we will be out of contact until he returns. To make up for our lack of communication, I have posted a couple of journal entries from the last week for you to read..."Here for a Purpose" and "The Day After." Check those out below.
The mission team that was stuck with us was finally able to leave and travel safely to Port-au-Prince, where they will stay for a few days with Kiki and fly out on Wednesday. Those were some tense days, but it was also an opportunity to depend more on God for everything. Lynn and I agreed that we liked them more the longer they were here, yet it was a relief when they were able to go...both for their sake and for ours. Kind of like family at Christmas time, I guess.
Speaking of Christmas...we probably won't be able to be in touch until after that time, so we wish you all the best. We've heard about the hard weather up there, and we are praying that everyone drives safely and enjoys some quality time with family and a deep sense of God's love sent down to us through Christ in the weeks ahead.
Something else to pray about...
With the continued political situation down here Mike and Pam will have to make some hard decisions concerning upcoming mission teams, whether or not to change dates or go ahead as planned, etc... Please pray that God will give them and the leaders of those teams wisdom. There are three teams scheduled for January, including 2 from Sioux Center, so it will be a letdown if they can't come. However, God has the whole thing under control and will work it out in His perfect timing.
We will write again just as soon as we can.
Enjoy Your Christmas Adventure!
The Grimm Family
Family and Friends,
This post will be somewhat shorter than normal, and it might be the last one for awhile. Adrian, the kind man who allows us to use his internet access, will be leaving tomorrow for a couple of weeks, so we will be out of contact until he returns. To make up for our lack of communication, I have posted a couple of journal entries from the last week for you to read..."Here for a Purpose" and "The Day After." Check those out below.
The mission team that was stuck with us was finally able to leave and travel safely to Port-au-Prince, where they will stay for a few days with Kiki and fly out on Wednesday. Those were some tense days, but it was also an opportunity to depend more on God for everything. Lynn and I agreed that we liked them more the longer they were here, yet it was a relief when they were able to go...both for their sake and for ours. Kind of like family at Christmas time, I guess.
Speaking of Christmas...we probably won't be able to be in touch until after that time, so we wish you all the best. We've heard about the hard weather up there, and we are praying that everyone drives safely and enjoys some quality time with family and a deep sense of God's love sent down to us through Christ in the weeks ahead.
Something else to pray about...
With the continued political situation down here Mike and Pam will have to make some hard decisions concerning upcoming mission teams, whether or not to change dates or go ahead as planned, etc... Please pray that God will give them and the leaders of those teams wisdom. There are three teams scheduled for January, including 2 from Sioux Center, so it will be a letdown if they can't come. However, God has the whole thing under control and will work it out in His perfect timing.
We will write again just as soon as we can.
Enjoy Your Christmas Adventure!
The Grimm Family
Here for a Purpose
Family and Friends,
This blog post comes from Cory's journal entry on December 9th. It talks about the continued struggle of the mission team stuck down here and the adventures of our day. Enjoy.
Dec. 9, 2010-
What a day.
I'm so tired at the end of this day that I am walking around in a kind of fog. Here is what we did...
This morning we had a team meeting and talked through the possibilities for the next few days. In other words, the main thing going on here is that we are still trying to get this mission team home safely, and we discussed what we know for sure about the situation in Haiti, which is really not much. However, one key development today is that Pam spoke with a US Embassy worker who assured us they will help us in any way they can. Also, the embassy will be able to let us know when it is safe to travel, which helps a lot. They also told us that if we have an emergency, such as someone getting severely ill or the compound running out of food, they have ways to help us. That was nice to hear.
We had a lot of laughs this morning about the whole situation. For one thing we heard that one of the team members' mom blew the whole story up and even contacted the local news in Sioux Falls and told them things were really bad down here, which is not the truth, at least not for us. So we were making up all of our own stories about what is going on in Sioux Falls and comparing ourselves to the miners in Chile and other similar stories. Of course we really don't see it that way, but laughing has been a cathartic way for this team to deal with stress.
Knowing the team would probably be here for at least a couple more days, we made plans to do some more work projects and other ministry. I was impressed the team didn't just sit around and worry all day. Instead they said, "God has us here for a purpose." Inspiring.
First of all, we set out to do some home visits. One group went to visit Stanley, a young boy in the village who has a severe case of club feet and some other developmental issues. Pam is working on a medical visa for him, and the paperwork is getting close to finished. After that he may have some life-changing opportunities in the states. The team played with him and talked with his family. We'll keep you updated on that situation.
Most of the team went to the home of a young teenage girl who is fighting demon possession. I had met her earlier on another trip and immediately sensed there was something not right with her. We sat down with the family and Pam got to the bottom of what was going on. It seems the girl basically goes crazy about once a week and starts screaming at the voices in her head and trying to eat everything in sight, like grass and sticks and stuff like that. She is aware of what is going on and knows that it is a demon or demons tormenting her. Things had been getting worse lately and the attacks were more common.
Pam began leading them through a simple yet thorough time of discussion and sharing of the gospel. It turns out the family has been dabbling in both church and voodoo, trying to find help from any source possible. They even had some voodoo symbols in the house, hanging from the ceiling, which were believed to have special powers. This is very typical in Haiti. After the conversation the parents decided they were ready to trust Jesus alone for salvation and give their lives to him. Praise God!
They even told us someone in the community had a vision of their family all converting at the same time. After hearing that we decided to call in all of their children and get them up to speed on what was going on. Pam went through the gospel message with them as well (2 kids older than the sick sister, and one kid younger) and they too agreed to give their lives to Jesus. We led them through a time of prayer and repentence, and all of them asked Jesus to be Lord of their lives. All of them except the sick young girl, that is. She tried to pray the sinner's prayer with us, but she couldn't, so that was more evidence that evil spirits were controlling her. (As a side note several of the neighbor ladies were listening to the whole thing, and one of them decided to accept Christ as well!)
Then we did some other little ceremonies such as burning all of the voodoo stuff, anointing the house with oil and dedicating it to Christ, casting out any demons lurking on the property, and trying to cast out the demon from the young girl. Everything seemed successful except the final step. We prayed and prayed but couldn't get anything to happen. Sometimes I'm convinced that demons are under strict orders to just pretend they are not there whenever white Christians show up. They know that we don't have very much patience, so if they can just ignore a few minutes of prayer and worship they can stay. I don't know if that is true, but I suspect is has something to do with it.
So we are sending some of the Haitian youth soon to try again. They have a lot more persistence and intensity in their worship, so we'll see if God chooses to use that to free the girl. I hope so, because as I have blogged about earlier, sometimes I wonder about the peripheral damage we do as mission teams whenever we demonstrate powerful faith in God. That seems strange to say, but since the Haitians already think of themselves as inferior to us, I wonder what happens to their self-esteem whenever we do things for God they were unable to do. For that reason I hope God uses the Haitians this time to cast out the demon. Maybe I'm over analyzing the whole thing, but that is what I do.
Anyway, back to our day...
After that we returned back to the orphanage compound for a quick lunch of rice and beans...or maybe it was beans and rice...hard to tell. Soon we were ready to head out again and remodel the local soccer field. This is an idea the team came up with, and I really liked what ended up happening. The field is right along the beach, and people go and dump their garbage there. How sad. We picked up the garbage and then made a boundary to the field with rocks about a foot hight around the entire perimeter. I take that back...part of the boundary was made up of fallen coconut trees that were hauled into place. It really looked nice by the time we finished, and close to 100 people participated in the work, mostly kids. The team gave many of them soccer balls as a reward.
After that some of us headed to the home of the man who allows us to use his internet access. Unfortunately, today it isn't working. He has several family members visiting from Canada and the US, and they are in the same boat as our mission team. Their plan is to leave for Port-au-Prince tomorrow, but they also might have to miss their flights and wait for the roads to open up. We sat by the ocean for awhile enjoying the view and then headed back to the orphanage.
When we arrived home there were dozens of youth hanging out in the yard. By now it was getting dark, but we decided to do a short youth group meeting. How many youth pastors in the US have that problem? How many of them have their entire youth group showing up every night of the week just hoping to study the Bible and sing praise songs into the night? Not many. We had a great meeting, and a downpour started right in the middle. That only made the singing from the group grow louder. Love it down here!
Then it was time to get the kids to bed, and they were exhausted. Kester and Elizabeth helped with the soccer field clean-up, and they did a great job. Alexandra had another rough day, but we finally got all of them settled in for bed. Then the team had a meeting to sum up the day, pray, and talk about the day to come. Sound like we will be climbing the mountain to share Bible stories with the children up there. I'm too tired to think about that right now, but trusting that God will provide the energy when the time comes.
We asked for an adventure, and now we have it! Praise God.
missing everyone...
-Grimm Family Adventures
This blog post comes from Cory's journal entry on December 9th. It talks about the continued struggle of the mission team stuck down here and the adventures of our day. Enjoy.
Dec. 9, 2010-
What a day.
I'm so tired at the end of this day that I am walking around in a kind of fog. Here is what we did...
This morning we had a team meeting and talked through the possibilities for the next few days. In other words, the main thing going on here is that we are still trying to get this mission team home safely, and we discussed what we know for sure about the situation in Haiti, which is really not much. However, one key development today is that Pam spoke with a US Embassy worker who assured us they will help us in any way they can. Also, the embassy will be able to let us know when it is safe to travel, which helps a lot. They also told us that if we have an emergency, such as someone getting severely ill or the compound running out of food, they have ways to help us. That was nice to hear.
We had a lot of laughs this morning about the whole situation. For one thing we heard that one of the team members' mom blew the whole story up and even contacted the local news in Sioux Falls and told them things were really bad down here, which is not the truth, at least not for us. So we were making up all of our own stories about what is going on in Sioux Falls and comparing ourselves to the miners in Chile and other similar stories. Of course we really don't see it that way, but laughing has been a cathartic way for this team to deal with stress.
Knowing the team would probably be here for at least a couple more days, we made plans to do some more work projects and other ministry. I was impressed the team didn't just sit around and worry all day. Instead they said, "God has us here for a purpose." Inspiring.
First of all, we set out to do some home visits. One group went to visit Stanley, a young boy in the village who has a severe case of club feet and some other developmental issues. Pam is working on a medical visa for him, and the paperwork is getting close to finished. After that he may have some life-changing opportunities in the states. The team played with him and talked with his family. We'll keep you updated on that situation.
Most of the team went to the home of a young teenage girl who is fighting demon possession. I had met her earlier on another trip and immediately sensed there was something not right with her. We sat down with the family and Pam got to the bottom of what was going on. It seems the girl basically goes crazy about once a week and starts screaming at the voices in her head and trying to eat everything in sight, like grass and sticks and stuff like that. She is aware of what is going on and knows that it is a demon or demons tormenting her. Things had been getting worse lately and the attacks were more common.
Pam began leading them through a simple yet thorough time of discussion and sharing of the gospel. It turns out the family has been dabbling in both church and voodoo, trying to find help from any source possible. They even had some voodoo symbols in the house, hanging from the ceiling, which were believed to have special powers. This is very typical in Haiti. After the conversation the parents decided they were ready to trust Jesus alone for salvation and give their lives to him. Praise God!
They even told us someone in the community had a vision of their family all converting at the same time. After hearing that we decided to call in all of their children and get them up to speed on what was going on. Pam went through the gospel message with them as well (2 kids older than the sick sister, and one kid younger) and they too agreed to give their lives to Jesus. We led them through a time of prayer and repentence, and all of them asked Jesus to be Lord of their lives. All of them except the sick young girl, that is. She tried to pray the sinner's prayer with us, but she couldn't, so that was more evidence that evil spirits were controlling her. (As a side note several of the neighbor ladies were listening to the whole thing, and one of them decided to accept Christ as well!)
Then we did some other little ceremonies such as burning all of the voodoo stuff, anointing the house with oil and dedicating it to Christ, casting out any demons lurking on the property, and trying to cast out the demon from the young girl. Everything seemed successful except the final step. We prayed and prayed but couldn't get anything to happen. Sometimes I'm convinced that demons are under strict orders to just pretend they are not there whenever white Christians show up. They know that we don't have very much patience, so if they can just ignore a few minutes of prayer and worship they can stay. I don't know if that is true, but I suspect is has something to do with it.
So we are sending some of the Haitian youth soon to try again. They have a lot more persistence and intensity in their worship, so we'll see if God chooses to use that to free the girl. I hope so, because as I have blogged about earlier, sometimes I wonder about the peripheral damage we do as mission teams whenever we demonstrate powerful faith in God. That seems strange to say, but since the Haitians already think of themselves as inferior to us, I wonder what happens to their self-esteem whenever we do things for God they were unable to do. For that reason I hope God uses the Haitians this time to cast out the demon. Maybe I'm over analyzing the whole thing, but that is what I do.
Anyway, back to our day...
After that we returned back to the orphanage compound for a quick lunch of rice and beans...or maybe it was beans and rice...hard to tell. Soon we were ready to head out again and remodel the local soccer field. This is an idea the team came up with, and I really liked what ended up happening. The field is right along the beach, and people go and dump their garbage there. How sad. We picked up the garbage and then made a boundary to the field with rocks about a foot hight around the entire perimeter. I take that back...part of the boundary was made up of fallen coconut trees that were hauled into place. It really looked nice by the time we finished, and close to 100 people participated in the work, mostly kids. The team gave many of them soccer balls as a reward.
After that some of us headed to the home of the man who allows us to use his internet access. Unfortunately, today it isn't working. He has several family members visiting from Canada and the US, and they are in the same boat as our mission team. Their plan is to leave for Port-au-Prince tomorrow, but they also might have to miss their flights and wait for the roads to open up. We sat by the ocean for awhile enjoying the view and then headed back to the orphanage.
When we arrived home there were dozens of youth hanging out in the yard. By now it was getting dark, but we decided to do a short youth group meeting. How many youth pastors in the US have that problem? How many of them have their entire youth group showing up every night of the week just hoping to study the Bible and sing praise songs into the night? Not many. We had a great meeting, and a downpour started right in the middle. That only made the singing from the group grow louder. Love it down here!
Then it was time to get the kids to bed, and they were exhausted. Kester and Elizabeth helped with the soccer field clean-up, and they did a great job. Alexandra had another rough day, but we finally got all of them settled in for bed. Then the team had a meeting to sum up the day, pray, and talk about the day to come. Sound like we will be climbing the mountain to share Bible stories with the children up there. I'm too tired to think about that right now, but trusting that God will provide the energy when the time comes.
We asked for an adventure, and now we have it! Praise God.
missing everyone...
-Grimm Family Adventures
The Day After
Family and Friends,
This blog entry comes from Cory's journal and was written on December 8th. It is called "The Day After" because it was written after the mission team had to return to Ti-Rivier due to blocked roads and roving mobs of people demonstrating against the government in Haiti.
Dec. 8, 2010-
The current mission team is sitting in the eating area tonight, discussing the tense moments that occurred last night as they attempted to drive to Port-au-Prince for their flight and ended up having to turn back. I think it is good for them and a chance to process the feelings of fear and helplessness they must have felt in that moment as the rocks were hitting the bus and the windows were breaking. I'm sure that wasn't too much fun, but it is nice to see that they can already joke about it tonight. There is a lot of laughing over there.
What a privilege, though, to be able to share in some way with the Haitian people their frustration with corrupt governments and the daily struggle associated with living in an unstable land. I'm convicted today of every little headline I have read in my life and really not thought too much about...
“10,000 die in mud slide in China”
“Political uprising in Africa leaves hundreds dead”
“Unrest in the middle east could lead to increased violence”
"Child sex-slavery on the rise in Southeast Asia”
Headlines like these are always there in the back sections of the paper and at the bottom of the world news updates on whatever email site you use, but how often do they really hit home and cause us to feel the pain of the people affected by these tragedies? I have to admit that being in the middle of one of those situations today opens my eyes to my many years of apathy towards the situations people endure in developing countries on a regular basis. I've really missed out on a lot by not caring to look too far beyond the borders of the United States. I haven't really cared about what is going on, much less done something about it.
So maybe at least now we can actually do something to help the people of Haiti. After all, we live here! It is just like God to work like that...to give people like me, who consistently miss out on opportunities to care and serve, more and more chances to get it right. I'm so glad God is so patient with me. So the best thing now is to share the burdens of the people, to get it right, to look for those opportunities to help out and make a little difference in at least a few lives.
Lynn and I were frustrated with the kids this morning. The team tried to leave around 1:30AM, and they came back not too long after that. They got situated and tried to get some sleep for the remainder of the night. In the morning I could tell people were tense and exhausted, wondering what would happen next. I thought it would be nice to give them a hearty breakfast, so I started making pancakes.
I asked Kester to go out to the eating area and set up about fifteen plates with forks. He copped an attitude right away and didn't want to help. I said, “Fine, I'll ask someone who actually wants to help.” So I asked Alexandra, our 3-year old. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea either. She was willing to do it, and Elizabeth was willing to help her. About a minute later I heard them bickering out in the eating area. I went out there and saw them fighting with each other and yelling. To my horror I also saw the mission team about 15 feet away standing in a circle praying. So I quickly walked out there and tried to get the girls to be quiet, but instead they started dropping dishes and yelling louder. Meanwhile the crop of pancakes I had going on the griddle were getting nice and dark.
So we have some work to do on being servants to the mission teams that come down here. The kids are young, but I had hoped they had a better idea of what we are doing here and what is going on around them. Instead of being ready to help the team as they go through this trial, all they could think about was their own play time and fighting with each other. Sad. But I have to take the blame as the parent. I need to do a better job of carefully communicating to them, in ways they can understand, that we are here to serve people, both the Haitians and the mission teams that come down, and we always need to be on the lookout for ways to bless people.
On a more positive note, our kids have had a fun week playing with the kids that came down with the team. One family visiting here has a nine-year-old boy and a seven-year-old girl who have made friends with Kester, Elizabeth, and Alexandra. They spend time playing games together and swinging on the playground. I just hope there isn't too much of a barrier between the white and the black kids in the yard this week, but I understand their frustration at not being able to communicate as well with the kids in the orphanage. Complicated situations like these demonstrate how raising kids on the mission field is never simple or easy. However, we do enjoy many teaching opportunities and chances for all of us to grow in our faith. That is one of the big reasons we came here!
Some of the Haitians who visited today talked about being embarrassed and ashamed for their country. Some of the youth were genuinely sorry for the mission team, and they understood that the Americans miss their families and will have to deal with missing work and other responsibilities when they finally return. I never stop being amazed by the Highschool aged Christians here. Many of them are so much more emotionally and spiritually mature than their counterparts in the US. There is an upside to how many of the kids here basically raise themselves from a young age...they grow up fast. Of course that comes with both postives and negatives.
One reason growing up fast is bad is the atmosphere of rampant sexual abuse in Haiti, which I discussed in an early post. We touched on that in Youth Group again last night, because one of the mission team members was willing to share about being molested as a child and the process of recovering from that tragedy. It really got the youth thinking deeply, and hopefully it will lead to some opportunities to help kids get out of those situations. It is difficult for kids in the US to come forward and ask for help, and that feeling of shame is only multiplied here, but at least we continued to let people know last night that God has a better plan and there is hope for healing.
It is really quiet tonight in Ti-Rivier. One thing I have enjoyed doing lately is going up on the roof of the mission house and looking at the stars. As I mentioned earlier, they are building a little house up there for Sue, and they recently completed a staircase on the side of the main level, which makes it easy to head on up and take in the night sky. This would be a perfect night to spend a few minutes up there. All over Haiti people are rioting in the streets and doing who-knows-what. As we prayed with the kids tonight before bed, we simply prayed that God would move in the hearts of thousands of people and simply give them the idea to just stay home tonight. I hope that prayer was answered. And as I look at the stars I will be reminded that if God can create and arrange those enourmous balls of burning gas across an immense universe, He can surely find a way to work out this difficult and perplexing situation in Haiti for His purposes.
The adventure continues in the morning!
Good night.
-Grimm Family Adventurers
This blog entry comes from Cory's journal and was written on December 8th. It is called "The Day After" because it was written after the mission team had to return to Ti-Rivier due to blocked roads and roving mobs of people demonstrating against the government in Haiti.
Dec. 8, 2010-
The current mission team is sitting in the eating area tonight, discussing the tense moments that occurred last night as they attempted to drive to Port-au-Prince for their flight and ended up having to turn back. I think it is good for them and a chance to process the feelings of fear and helplessness they must have felt in that moment as the rocks were hitting the bus and the windows were breaking. I'm sure that wasn't too much fun, but it is nice to see that they can already joke about it tonight. There is a lot of laughing over there.
What a privilege, though, to be able to share in some way with the Haitian people their frustration with corrupt governments and the daily struggle associated with living in an unstable land. I'm convicted today of every little headline I have read in my life and really not thought too much about...
“10,000 die in mud slide in China”
“Political uprising in Africa leaves hundreds dead”
“Unrest in the middle east could lead to increased violence”
"Child sex-slavery on the rise in Southeast Asia”
Headlines like these are always there in the back sections of the paper and at the bottom of the world news updates on whatever email site you use, but how often do they really hit home and cause us to feel the pain of the people affected by these tragedies? I have to admit that being in the middle of one of those situations today opens my eyes to my many years of apathy towards the situations people endure in developing countries on a regular basis. I've really missed out on a lot by not caring to look too far beyond the borders of the United States. I haven't really cared about what is going on, much less done something about it.
So maybe at least now we can actually do something to help the people of Haiti. After all, we live here! It is just like God to work like that...to give people like me, who consistently miss out on opportunities to care and serve, more and more chances to get it right. I'm so glad God is so patient with me. So the best thing now is to share the burdens of the people, to get it right, to look for those opportunities to help out and make a little difference in at least a few lives.
Lynn and I were frustrated with the kids this morning. The team tried to leave around 1:30AM, and they came back not too long after that. They got situated and tried to get some sleep for the remainder of the night. In the morning I could tell people were tense and exhausted, wondering what would happen next. I thought it would be nice to give them a hearty breakfast, so I started making pancakes.
I asked Kester to go out to the eating area and set up about fifteen plates with forks. He copped an attitude right away and didn't want to help. I said, “Fine, I'll ask someone who actually wants to help.” So I asked Alexandra, our 3-year old. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea either. She was willing to do it, and Elizabeth was willing to help her. About a minute later I heard them bickering out in the eating area. I went out there and saw them fighting with each other and yelling. To my horror I also saw the mission team about 15 feet away standing in a circle praying. So I quickly walked out there and tried to get the girls to be quiet, but instead they started dropping dishes and yelling louder. Meanwhile the crop of pancakes I had going on the griddle were getting nice and dark.
So we have some work to do on being servants to the mission teams that come down here. The kids are young, but I had hoped they had a better idea of what we are doing here and what is going on around them. Instead of being ready to help the team as they go through this trial, all they could think about was their own play time and fighting with each other. Sad. But I have to take the blame as the parent. I need to do a better job of carefully communicating to them, in ways they can understand, that we are here to serve people, both the Haitians and the mission teams that come down, and we always need to be on the lookout for ways to bless people.
On a more positive note, our kids have had a fun week playing with the kids that came down with the team. One family visiting here has a nine-year-old boy and a seven-year-old girl who have made friends with Kester, Elizabeth, and Alexandra. They spend time playing games together and swinging on the playground. I just hope there isn't too much of a barrier between the white and the black kids in the yard this week, but I understand their frustration at not being able to communicate as well with the kids in the orphanage. Complicated situations like these demonstrate how raising kids on the mission field is never simple or easy. However, we do enjoy many teaching opportunities and chances for all of us to grow in our faith. That is one of the big reasons we came here!
Some of the Haitians who visited today talked about being embarrassed and ashamed for their country. Some of the youth were genuinely sorry for the mission team, and they understood that the Americans miss their families and will have to deal with missing work and other responsibilities when they finally return. I never stop being amazed by the Highschool aged Christians here. Many of them are so much more emotionally and spiritually mature than their counterparts in the US. There is an upside to how many of the kids here basically raise themselves from a young age...they grow up fast. Of course that comes with both postives and negatives.
One reason growing up fast is bad is the atmosphere of rampant sexual abuse in Haiti, which I discussed in an early post. We touched on that in Youth Group again last night, because one of the mission team members was willing to share about being molested as a child and the process of recovering from that tragedy. It really got the youth thinking deeply, and hopefully it will lead to some opportunities to help kids get out of those situations. It is difficult for kids in the US to come forward and ask for help, and that feeling of shame is only multiplied here, but at least we continued to let people know last night that God has a better plan and there is hope for healing.
It is really quiet tonight in Ti-Rivier. One thing I have enjoyed doing lately is going up on the roof of the mission house and looking at the stars. As I mentioned earlier, they are building a little house up there for Sue, and they recently completed a staircase on the side of the main level, which makes it easy to head on up and take in the night sky. This would be a perfect night to spend a few minutes up there. All over Haiti people are rioting in the streets and doing who-knows-what. As we prayed with the kids tonight before bed, we simply prayed that God would move in the hearts of thousands of people and simply give them the idea to just stay home tonight. I hope that prayer was answered. And as I look at the stars I will be reminded that if God can create and arrange those enourmous balls of burning gas across an immense universe, He can surely find a way to work out this difficult and perplexing situation in Haiti for His purposes.
The adventure continues in the morning!
Good night.
-Grimm Family Adventurers
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Urgent Prayer Request: Haiti Election Results
Day 30 of our Haiti Adventure!
Family and Friends,
I will make this brief, but we urge you to pray with us today for the difficult situation in Haiti. Maybe the political instability has not gotten much coverage there, but the whole country of Haiti is reacting to the announcement last night of the election results. There are manifestations everywhere, which are basically riots, where people are burning cars, blocking streets, attacking and burning government buildings, and demanding justice.
We are safe here in the little village of Ti-Rivier, so don't worry about us at all. Everything is really quiet here today, but in the bigger cities everything has come to a grinding halt. The biggest problem for Mission Haiti right now is that we have a mission team here from Sioux Falls who were supposed to fly out this morning. They tried to leave on the bus, but after only 4 or 5 miles they came to a roadblock they couldn't pass. There was an unruly mob there, and some rocks were thrown at the bus, breaking one of the windows and part of the windshield. The team turned around and returned to the orphanage. Everyone on the bus was fine, but a little shaken from the experience. Now they are hoping to be able to leave on Friday.
Right now all American Airline flights are cancelled until further notice, and the embassy and the UN are working to get Americans out of the country. There is a chance that the team will have an escort tomorrow during the day, which would be very nice. Pam and Mike are working on both sides to get that lined up. So please be praying for this team that would like to go home and see their families. They are holding up well, and we had a great time of prayer and praise this morning which put everyone at ease.
Again, our family is absolutely fine, and we have enough food here to last for years if it ever came down to something like that. We are in a secure compound, and outside the walls are hundreds of people who are on our side and would protect us from anyone who wanted to hurt us, so we are very safe. And of course God has us securely in the palm of His hand at all times. We are just praying for the country of Haiti to have justice and hope for the future, and we are praying that the mission team and other similar teams around Haiti will be able to go home safely.
What an Adventure!
I will make time to update the blog each day if possible for the next few days to keep you up to date on what is going on. Please join us in praying today!
God Bless,
The Grimm Family Adventurers
Family and Friends,
I will make this brief, but we urge you to pray with us today for the difficult situation in Haiti. Maybe the political instability has not gotten much coverage there, but the whole country of Haiti is reacting to the announcement last night of the election results. There are manifestations everywhere, which are basically riots, where people are burning cars, blocking streets, attacking and burning government buildings, and demanding justice.
We are safe here in the little village of Ti-Rivier, so don't worry about us at all. Everything is really quiet here today, but in the bigger cities everything has come to a grinding halt. The biggest problem for Mission Haiti right now is that we have a mission team here from Sioux Falls who were supposed to fly out this morning. They tried to leave on the bus, but after only 4 or 5 miles they came to a roadblock they couldn't pass. There was an unruly mob there, and some rocks were thrown at the bus, breaking one of the windows and part of the windshield. The team turned around and returned to the orphanage. Everyone on the bus was fine, but a little shaken from the experience. Now they are hoping to be able to leave on Friday.
Right now all American Airline flights are cancelled until further notice, and the embassy and the UN are working to get Americans out of the country. There is a chance that the team will have an escort tomorrow during the day, which would be very nice. Pam and Mike are working on both sides to get that lined up. So please be praying for this team that would like to go home and see their families. They are holding up well, and we had a great time of prayer and praise this morning which put everyone at ease.
Again, our family is absolutely fine, and we have enough food here to last for years if it ever came down to something like that. We are in a secure compound, and outside the walls are hundreds of people who are on our side and would protect us from anyone who wanted to hurt us, so we are very safe. And of course God has us securely in the palm of His hand at all times. We are just praying for the country of Haiti to have justice and hope for the future, and we are praying that the mission team and other similar teams around Haiti will be able to go home safely.
What an Adventure!
I will make time to update the blog each day if possible for the next few days to keep you up to date on what is going on. Please join us in praying today!
God Bless,
The Grimm Family Adventurers
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Queen Lynn Ascends the Mountain
Day 23 of our Haiti Adventure!
Fellow Adventurers,
We hope this update finds you doing well in your daily adventure with God. We are thriving down here in Haiti and looking forward to Pam and another mission team coming to join us tomorrow. They will do outreach in the schools and community, utilizing soccer matches as a rallying point to attract people. They are bringing over a dozen suitcases filled with soccer balls to give away! After the matches they will share messages from the Bible with the children who play and do other service and outreach as well. It should be a lot of fun and a great chance to meet some people in the community we don't know.
Do you remember that scene in various movies and books when missionaries or other westerners enter a village in some third-world country, and the natives think they are gods and carry them around on some throne? That happened to Lynn today...well, sort of. We were invited to visit a home in the mountains and have lunch with a family. So a few guys, including Cory, had to carry Lynn on her wheelchair up the mountain. It was quite the hike, and coming down was maybe even harder than going up. It made for some great laughs, a few tears from the kids, and unforgetable memories.
The hospitality of the people here is amazing. We are really spoiled any time we visit someone's house. They gave us an amazing meal and a desert of some amazing fruit juice, which we had been craving. The kids ate like wolves, and then we all went home and collapsed on the bed. It was quite the day.
Later on today or tomorrow I plan to go with Patchouko, the main leader of our ministry here, and the two of us will pray for another young woman with demon possession, so if you are reading this please lift up a little prayer for our safety. We aren't sure what to expect at this point, so we'll just go there and check it out. We may have to return many times, but we'll go with high hopes that God will change this little girl's life through the power of Jesus.
It may be difficult to update the blog when the team is here due to being extra busy, but please check back soon and continue to remember us in your prayers! We hope everyone's furnace is running properly back home...and we hope your Christmas season is off to a great start.
God Bless,
The Grimm Adventurers
Fellow Adventurers,
We hope this update finds you doing well in your daily adventure with God. We are thriving down here in Haiti and looking forward to Pam and another mission team coming to join us tomorrow. They will do outreach in the schools and community, utilizing soccer matches as a rallying point to attract people. They are bringing over a dozen suitcases filled with soccer balls to give away! After the matches they will share messages from the Bible with the children who play and do other service and outreach as well. It should be a lot of fun and a great chance to meet some people in the community we don't know.
Do you remember that scene in various movies and books when missionaries or other westerners enter a village in some third-world country, and the natives think they are gods and carry them around on some throne? That happened to Lynn today...well, sort of. We were invited to visit a home in the mountains and have lunch with a family. So a few guys, including Cory, had to carry Lynn on her wheelchair up the mountain. It was quite the hike, and coming down was maybe even harder than going up. It made for some great laughs, a few tears from the kids, and unforgetable memories.
The hospitality of the people here is amazing. We are really spoiled any time we visit someone's house. They gave us an amazing meal and a desert of some amazing fruit juice, which we had been craving. The kids ate like wolves, and then we all went home and collapsed on the bed. It was quite the day.
Later on today or tomorrow I plan to go with Patchouko, the main leader of our ministry here, and the two of us will pray for another young woman with demon possession, so if you are reading this please lift up a little prayer for our safety. We aren't sure what to expect at this point, so we'll just go there and check it out. We may have to return many times, but we'll go with high hopes that God will change this little girl's life through the power of Jesus.
It may be difficult to update the blog when the team is here due to being extra busy, but please check back soon and continue to remember us in your prayers! We hope everyone's furnace is running properly back home...and we hope your Christmas season is off to a great start.
God Bless,
The Grimm Adventurers
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