We're Going Bananas!!!

Yes, you read that right! We’re going bananas! Lampeter Church of the Brethren sent three people to visit us November 5-9, arriving Friday night.

Saturday morning/afternoon we went to Jaibon, about 90 minutes west of here to measure for a playground for that orphanage. The last 3 miles of the trip was extremely rough where the road has not been resurfaced; it has a washboard effect and reminded me of the roads that we traveled on in Haiti.

I then took Pastor John to the leadership training study that I have with a Haitian church. The university students in the Bible Study Methods course participated with many good observations about Ephesians 1.3-4. John gave a few pointers as I translated for him into English from Creole.

Sunday morning we attended church at La Yaguita. We then had lunch with Pastor Ramon Jorge and his wife Alicia; he shared his heart about the children’s center that their church started. Orly is a street kid, all of 6 years old; his mom is a prostitute, and he doesn’t get cared for. He said, “I see Ramon in Orly.” Ramon shared that he remembers going to school without shoes; he tried to leave school as quickly as possible so that the other kids would not see that he was barefooted. Orly has shown up at Pastor Ramon’s both naked and hungry. Another time Ramon had to hose him down and give him new clothes since he was so filthy.

The next day, the three attended the center and did a Bible story and songs for each of the three classes, including the banana song, which became the hit and highlight of their visit. After a late lunch, we then visited several places getting info on buying materials to make the playground for Jaibon.

Pastor John then did a Bible study on forgiveness at my Monday night small group that the group translated. The group appreciated what he had to say and they spent quite a bit of time talking to each other afterwards since several people in the study speak some English.

We got up the next morning at 2:30 am to catch their plane. The van driver slept in; when I called him, I woke him up! However, he got up, dressed quickly, and arrived at the apt at 3:05!