Building Community: John 13:34- A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
4:30AM- The wonderful smell of pancakes and sausage has awakened us and its time to get going! Day 1 of work is underway. Pack the backpacks, plenty of water, sunscreen and work gloves the team is ready!
Last night we sorted 400 dental items, nearly 1000 pairs of prescription glasses and suitcases of medical supplies… This is a first for our Operation Hope teams. We are super excited to be investing in the medical side of our outreach this week as we treat the physical needs of our adopted community.
The “tag” line for Operation Hope is “Transforming Lives… One Community at A Time”.. First a Church facility last August to worship and two fresh water wells for clean drinking water. Secondly in March the start of a school for a Christ-centered education and children’s ministry outreach! Today Team Med will introduce the next phase of the dream… To provide medical clinic services to this needy community… What a blessing to see so many volunteers giving of their time and talent to serve the Lord here in Haiti.. We couldn’t be more excited to be a part of this opportunity!
A beautiful sunrise as always as we made our way along HWY 1… onto Zoranje! Maxine as always dashing and dancing his way through hoards of people, around potholes and speed bumps with the proficiency of a skilled formula one driver…. And at some stretches it felt like we were traveling at those speeds.. but we relished the wind whipping through the cattle car… Did we mention it’s HOT, HOT, HOT here? Yes at 5am its already HOT!
Arrived at work and we immediately got stuck in… Team Med got busy setting up their stations to receive the injured, sick and hurting from the community. Dr. Thomas has set up four stations. Check-in, vitals/exam, Eye exam & prayer stations… The team wants to serve this community but we must also provide an opportunity to introduce the great physician!
Team roofers got busy putting together the main rafters that will create a canopy over the school and allow maximum wind flow to keep the kids cool during the hot sunny school days. Team sand and gravel has transitioned to Team cleaning (with straight gasoline- please don’t do this at home) and painting as they do all the prep work on the truces and beams before Team roof installs them.
Everyone functioning as a well oiled machine nearly 30 busy bees swarming around the work zone… What a treat to see the interaction, attempt at communication and the sound of laughter as we soak up every ounce of this marvelous experience… truly blessed to serve this community and see and accept their warmth and gestures of love and gratitude…
Team med takes the team of the day.. Seeing 40 people in the clinic portion.. Tomorrow they will see more than double that with the word surely being spread that the clinic is available.
TREAT of the DAY ALERT! We were overwhelmed today to present some framed pictures of a few families from our last trip. The looks of surprise and joy that washed over their faces was so awesome to experience… We were as excited to give them as they were to receive them… Just another small way Operation Hope is making an impact for the God here in Zoranje!
Finally, we were able to buy a cow and two turkeys for micro- business launch to go along with our rabbits and goats projects… Providing opportunities for families to have income producing businesses is jut the start for Operation Hope here in the awesome village.
Nearly 3 hour ride home and we are ready for food fellowship and an early night of rest… 4am comes quick.
Keep us in prayer work day 2 promises to be even more intense and the sun will be shining… stay tuned!
OPERATION HOPE - Haiti 