Our team was able to complete our original goal of two homes … and then some.
After completing our two homes two days early, we spent today dedicating the house to the families and then we moved up the road to do some repair work on other homes in a nearby village.
I’m continually overwhelmed with emotion as I watch these men — some as young as 10 — give so much time to build homes for nothing more than a free lunch. Not only that, but they all sit patiently and wait. They don’t crowd. They don’t beg. They work, then sit and wait. And when the food is given, they are quick to say thanks. It may be just a peanut butter sandwich for us, but for them it’s a blessing of another meal.
As I type, I heard a Baptist Global Response staffer tell a local pastor that the BGR’s mission here has built more than 1,700 homes in the village of Damien, which was once part of “tent city.”
That’s an amazing number. But I can only imagine what the impact the experience for the missionaries who have served has meant to their communities.
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Fredie, your trip to Haiti probably did as much for you as it did for the people you were able to interact with and serve. I’ve never been able to go on such a mission trip, but I thank God for folks who are able to do so. Your description of the mentally ill woman by the roadside will haunt me for days to come.