Breadfruit

There is a large tree across the street from us that produces a fruit that was unknown to me. I was told it is Breadfruit (or Labapen in Haitian Creole).

In 1787, a Commanding Lieutenant William Bligh, sailed his ship the "Bounty" to Tahiti to bring breadfruit trees to the Caribbean in hopes that the fruit would provide adequate food for the slaves working on sugar plantations there.
Of course this trip was unsuccessful due to the famous mutiny on the Bounty. Bligh and 19 loyalist were set adrift in a 23 foot launch ( row boat), they somehow navigated 3,600 miles of Southern Pacific Ocean waters to Timor. Which many consider the greatest act of courage and seamanship in history.
In 1793, now Captain Bligh sailed his ship, HMS Providence, to the Caribbean and successfully introduced the breadfruit tree to several islands, including Haiti.
I was told that Capt. Bligh landed right here in Jacmel.

Breadfruit are rich in starch, they are roasted, baked, fried, or boiled. When cooked the taste is described as potato-like or similar to fresh baked bread ( hence the name).

Today while working on a home for a family in Kaye Jacmel, the woman made for us, breadfruit.
I have to say it really tastes like boiled potatoes. It was very good.

Helpful words for the missionary or missions team member

We have been asked and have ourselves asked, how can we help the people here when the need is so great and our resources are very limited. It's the question that has reoccurred daily since being here.
A mission team is coming down in March from our home church, Sarasota Alliance Church, so we've been trying to put together some helpful documents to prepare them for facing what they will experience in Haiti.
One of things done for teams is the field training guide, it's a twelve unit study for preparing to go on a missions trip. Jennifer asked me to read it over before sending it to the team leader from our church.
This is written on the fourth page,
What is a missionary? "Jesus said to them again, As the Father has sent Me, I also send you"(John 20:21). A missionary is someone sent by Jesus Christ just as He was sent by God. The great controlling factor is NOT the needs of people, but the command of Jesus. The source of our inspiration in our service for God is behind us, not ahead of us. The tendency today is to put the inspiration out in front to sweep everything together in front of us and make it conform to our definition of success. But in the New Testament the inspiration is put behind us, and is the Lord Jesus Himself. The goal is to be true to Him, to carry out His plans.
Personal attachment to the Lord Jesus and to His perspective is the one thing that must not be overlooked. In missionary work the great danger is that God's call will be replaced by the needs of the people, to the point that human sympathy for those needs will absolutely overwhelm the meaning of being sent by Jesus. The needs are so enormous, and the conditions so difficult, that every power of the mind falters and fails. We tend to forget that the one great reason underneath all missionary work is not primarily the elevation of the people, their education, nor their needs, But is first and foremost the command of Jesus Christ, " Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations..."(Matthew 28:19). From My utmost for His Highest, 1963, Oswald Chambers.
These words just echoed my my head, over and over. Question answered, disciples first, needs etc. as God provides.
Wish I would have read these words along time ago, so I'm sharing it with you, hopefully, before you go out on the mission field.

Missionary Blues

Ok, I wasn't going to write about this, but I feel that to be transparent and honest about this experience, that I must.
We are very excited about being given this opportunity to serve God and the people of Haiti and really love being here, most of the time.
But there are times, when I just want to go back to Florida and be with our family and friends. Moving here was the biggest change to the Hancock family, we have always been together. Now Katie is in the states. We miss her so much. Something is missing without her.
Our biggest support has always been Doug and Linda, Jennifer's parents. They have been their for us through everything good or bad.
The hardest times have come recently, Thanksgiving and now Christmas in a few days. The holidays have always been a special time for our family and it's hard to not be with the rest of our loved ones.
And even though we are going home in January, we still have momentary bouts of missionary blues.
These are first set of important holidays here, I'm sure we will get through it, only with the Lords help.

Our Staph Infection

Another hazard of being in a third world country is all of the things you can catch, like Staph Infections.

We have since July, been working with twenty-eight people trying to make a good, clean, and safe place for Mission Teams to come and stay, while they visit Haiti. Everything that we have worked on like making sure only clean water is used in the kitchen. That House Keeping has each room clean for guests. Our Laundry girls have the sheets and towels cleaned on a regular schedule. The grounds are kept clean.
There was this hidden virus that none of us could see but it is there, the STAPH INFECTION. I know you all just gasped at the thought, staph infection, yuck! I have to tell you we all caught IT!

This STAFF Infection is the good kind, yes there is a good kind of Staff infection.
It comes from working with and getting to know our staff not just a working relationship, but being involved with them and their lives and getting to know them as individuals. We love our staff, they are a great group of people so yes we have caught a Staff infection.

Our head of the Kitchen, Nahomie, makes it her duty to know peoples favorite food and to cook it for them/us, yes she spoils us and is always more than happy to make our favorite meals. She will look at one of us and say in English "I cook for you" She has a great heart and her hospitality is unlike any other. As if she doesn't work hard enough she almost cried when we asked her if she would make extra food for Danny, so he could eat good food while in jail. The emotion she showed was that she was honored to be able to help Danny.



There's James, who was working as one of our security guards, he has shown great potential and would tell us things that were going on because he understands that what we are doing is to everyone's benefit, for the long term. James has been promoted to assistant manager of the Isaiah 61 House.

Olga, a single mom, with two sons, was making the least of the House Keeping staff, would come in everyday and work hard, when the other girls would slack off, she was finding things that needed to be done. She now is Head of House Keeping and makes the money that goes with it.

Everyday when we show up at Isaiah House, we are met by Bon Jou (good day) and hand shakes, hugs and a kiss on the cheek.

If we are working on a project there are always volunteers to help me. When teams arrive the guys jump right in and help carry the guests luggage. These are just a few of the many stories we have about our staff.
We hope to keep our case of Staff Infection for a long time.

Bucket List

Since I was young I loved Photography. In High School I was on the yearbook staff as a photographer. I took one semester of Photography at our local junior college. I even took an online course. Jennifer and I had a dream of having a business doing freelance and maybe even some studio work. We spent alot of time together shooting photos at the beach, zoo where ever.
A lot of time has gone by but something I always wanted was to shoot something that would be published, you know a shot in a newspaper story, magazine, whatever.

Yesterday our state side director for CCH sent an email saying that they had been contacted by NBC asking if any of their people in Haiti had photos of the violence thats going on because of the election.
I took one of my security guards and off we went on a moto to get some pictures. We were able to get into the middle of a large demonstration, and I shot several photos. Some people in the crowd were becoming irritated by my presence, more like they didn't want to be photographed, so we moved on.

We sent the photos to our Director in the states, she called this morning and said that CBS news wants to use the pictures and was that ok.Of course I had to think about it for 1/2 a second.
I just thought it was kind of fun, to finally check something off of the Bucket List thats been on it for so long.

Haiti water

I know how nice it is to walk over to a faucet, turn it on and have a nice flow of pressurized, clean water to wash your hands in or get up cup of water to drink. So the difference in how it works in Haiti is like you are on another planet.
The city water if you are fortunate enough to have it is only on every other day... or so.
So here's what you do, the water starts trickling into your cistern and you turn on your pump, To pump the water up to the roof to your other cistern or plastic water tanks.
When you turn on your faucets the water feds down to whatever fixture your using with the help of gravity.
Now the water you get from the city is not drinkable, we bathe in it, wash clothes in it but do not drink it.
The problem we've been having is running out of water. I've done my part as a team player, I've committed to not bathe for up to 4 or 5 days at a time. This has caused Jennifer an increased level of stress, I'm sure of this because she will all of a sudden look at me and say " oh I thought you were in the shower" or "honey whats that smell", shes so cute.
We have around 14 people that live here not to mention the ocassional visitor, and most of them are teenagers, so the water can't keep up.
So when we run out of water, we call the water truck! Sounds fantastic, doesn't it?
The water truck goes to the water plant and gets a truck full of clean refreshing water. Oh the water plant is the river that drains into the bay, and the water itself, just up stream from your truck is, people bathing, washing clothes and things that I won't mention now, use your imagination. And thats what they bring to your house. We love clorine.
Another problem associated with running out of water is the ONE FLUSH. The problem with the one flush is deciding when is the opportune moment to intiatiate the ONE flush. An early flush can be just as dangerous as the late flush. If your ever in this situation I can't tell you when the opportune moment is, everyone must decide that for themselves.
I was going to write some more but Jennifer just walked past me and said "honey what's that smell?". Think it's time for a bath,,,

The road less traveled

The road before us, has been an interesting trip full of twists and turns, not very smooth. Usually it's just like these Haitian roads uneven, bumpy, and full of potholes that can easily disable your vehicle.
We travel the same road every day. Then something happens and you find yourself on a road less traveled.
Which brings us to Jorel Printemp. Jorel volunteered his time before we came to Haiti at the Isaiah House doing manual labor. He was given food, drink and the ministry paid for his wife's surgery. Upon our arrival, Jorel was still a volunteer. Jorel is one of the happiest people I've ever met.
When we were placed into leadership of CCH and began filling staff positions, I called Jorel and offered him a job as one of our security. He accepted and has worked for us ever since.




The other night he came to me and said he has a problem. He told me that his house is "kraze", or broken. Then he said " Eske ka ou ranje kay la mwen?" can I fix his house?
He was working the night shift at our house and got off at 6am, so I got up at 5:45 and we walked to his house.
We walked up the same road we use everyday towards the hotel. I knew about where he lived, not to far from us. Then we turned and took a path between to houses, that led to a bunch of houses that you would never see from the street. There is no drivable road just the path. The homes back there are small concrete wall with tin roofs. Several have visible earthquake damage.
Jorel told me that they were sleeping in a tent after the earthquake, and the condition of the home still bothers him. He is concerned for the safety of his wife, son and himself.
The roof leaks when it rains. The wood trusses for the tin doesn't look to be in much better shape. The concrete walls have damage from the quake.
Then he invited me inside. They share the house with their in-laws, so their part of the house is just big enough for the bed on one side and some of their belongings on the other with a walking space in the middle.




They have no water, no electricity, and their outdoor toilet is "pa bon", no good. I made notes and Jorel allowed me to take pictures.
I told Jorel that we must pray for God to provide for him, so we can fix his house.
Then I started back to our house and Jorel wouldn't let me walk by myself. He walked all the way back with me introducing me to some of his friends along the way.
We said see you later my friend ( na we piti zanmi mwen) and I walked up the stairs to our apartment that seems like a penthouse, compaired to what I just saw.
I mean we have water and eletricity most of the time. Toilets all the time.
I was laying in bed thinking this is why we are here, to help the people God has put us in relationships with to really know them and be a part of their lives.



It's on my heart now to find out the living conditions of all of our staff and pray how to best help.



Before writing this we heard that someone on staff is living in a tent, still. I will find out tomorrow if this is true.

Dreams and Reality

I want to share some of our dreams. Things that we hope to do. Things we believe God brought us here to do. I want you at home reading this to see into our minds and maybe join us in dreaming.

We want to house these young men that stay with us, in a safe,loving, Christian environment and getting to know this boys, their hopes and dreams. To help give them skills that may help them in the future. We are living this dream.

We knew we would be leading teams when we moved. It is something we enjoy, to watch people as they are introduced to a new culture and to be able to walk with them through it. To share that know matter where you go in the world, people are the same in the most basic of ways, We are all created by God, the Gospel applies to the entire world, people want to be loved, they have hopes and dreams, laugh and cry, live and die.

Something that was thrust upon us that we never expected was to be put in a position of leadership for CCH, that we find ourselves in now. But our hope and dream is to be Godly leaders to show by our actions, not just words, that we live what we believe. We believe we are called to show God's love to our staff by being there for them. Not just, yeah I hope that works out for you, but to actually be there for them. We were very happy that when the hurricane Tomas was coming there were no teams and the staff and others that needed shelter were able to stay at the Isaiah 61house. Our daughter, Carrie was out at midnight taking money to one of our staff that was sick and in the hospital.

There are so many people in need all around us, everywhere, I'm asked several times a day for money, food and/or a job. One of the realities is we can't help everyone, then there's who do I help? God tell me who to help today, how do I be a good neighbor to everyone? We are involved with a group of deaf students that collect sea glass and make necklaces, we buy the necklaces from them and resell them to teams. The money gives them income and the rest goes into buying materials for more necklaces. We have another idea for something similiar with people with disabilities to create jobs for them.

The realities of Haiti is that it is hard, on your body, mind, and spirit. Everything takes two or three times as long to accomplish. One simple thing can take a whole day to do.
Since my last post, CCH's van was impounded in Port Au Prince because the temp tag had expired. We have to go through a bunch of stuff to get it back, so we've been walking back and forth to the Isaiah 61 house, I started taking motos (motorcycle taxi's) when alone to save time. CCH has three moto's of it's own, so I started driving one, the moto drivers are alittle wreckless for my taste. Needless to say another moto that was flying hit me from behind. The other guy was hurt pretty bad, I was banded up but managed to stay up on my bike so was not as badly hurt (body).
To see the struggles of so many for everyday necessities and the level of poverty (mind).
The combination of body and mind, coupled with the everyday stuff, beats down the spirit.

Yet I'm thankful for it all because I'm well aware of how much I need God, every moment of everyday.

And I'm are so Thankful for the family and friends God has put into our lives, that I know are praying for us daily.

The biggest dream, I think for all of us is to serve the Lord our God with everything we have and someday hear,,, well done good and faithful servant.

November 2010

It's now November 2010, into our fifth month in Haiti. We are working for CCH as the Directors of Outreach and the leaders of the Isaiah 61 house (team housing). Things are calm right now as their are no teams. We have worked hard to establish an order and gain the trust and respect of the staff. We have done everything from maintainance to writing job descriptions and contracts for staff.
We just dealt with Hurricane Tomas a few days ago. We asked our staff to stay at the Isaiah house if their homes were in any way questionable and bring their immediate family with them. We had 40+ people including a couple of girls from a nearby tent city and two men with physical disabilities. One of men Jean Robert has been in a wheelchair since the Earthquake in January. The earthquake broke his body but not his spirit. He is a very friendly person, everytime I saw him he was smiling. We exchanged phone numbers, I hope to get to talk to him soon. Thanks to God the hurricane wasn't bad. As always in Haiti, I heard of seven deaths due to flood waters, again Thankful for the low number.
As well as continuing on with CCH, we also are continuing the boys home, which is a sponsership program for boys from another town that come to Jacmel to go to school. We are also working with a group of deaf students buying Seaglass necklaces from them to sell as souveniers for teams.
The thing everyone wants to know is the status of the Pye Family. Danny is still being HELD, no charges just HELD sounds nicer than false imprisonment. Alot of people are praying for his release and alot of people are pushing the authorities to pressure the judge into releasing him. The affect is a judge who claims to be conducting an investigation, and doesn't want people to think he is being paid to release Danny. He prefers to hold a person for no reason, so it looks like he's being paid to keep him there, go figure. We were told that JIH dropped the complaint against Danny. Which why wouldn't they, they got everything they wanted from getting Danny thrown into jail, a distraught wife and family that would do anything to get her husband and their father released, including giving up the assets that were given to the Pyes because of their love for the Haitian people and what they are doing for the children, by people that support them not an organization.
As we continue to push forward, we pray that we can forgive our enemies, and keep focused on why we are here, to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Haiti. Please continue to pray for us as we travel down the road before us.

How this all started! Part 3

Once we were home the planning began we really wanted all three girls to go. Mainly Amber because she would be moving with us because of her age. At least for a couple of years anyway. So we told the girls that we wanted to go to Haiti for Christmas. Carrie was not happy she felt we were making her go (we were it was her Christmas gift) and she wanted no part of it. Katie couldn't wait to go back she was mad at us for going without her our 2nd trip. Amber wanted to go but was a little scared about the unknown. She had never flown or been to a 3rd world country. We also told the girls No electronics devices this didn't go over so well but we wanted them to experience it with no phones, computers, or ipods to distract them. We did give in and let them take their ipods for the flight and at night.

So our flight was booked, tickets were purchased, and 4 days after Christmas we would be on our way to Haiti all 5 of us for 10 days. I couldn't wait this trip was exciting because all of us were going. I wanted the girls to meet the kids and see, touch, smell and be a part of what Jon and I had fallen in love with. We arrived in Port Au Prince about 11 am and was met in the airport by Danny. We got all our bags all 10 of them, very large and 50 lbs each and headed out to the truck where we were met by Nixon and a couple of the boys from the boys home. We loaded our stuff and headed to Domino's the ONLY American restaurant in Haiti. We had lunch and headed to Jacmel where we would be staying in team housing with Nixon, sadly for us his wife Sandra was visiting her family in the States. I missed her that trip but Nixon was a great Host and we enjoyed staying up late talking to him and getting to know him better.

Jon, Danny, Nixon and some of the kids built 8 sets of bunk beds for team housing.






The finished product!

We got to attend a Christmas party at one of the schools that the Joy In Hope supports we passed out gifts to all the children and provided them with lunch. We also got to help with the Joy In Hope Christmas party that they have for the staff and their families each year. Because we are like family to the Pye's we had the privilege to have some of the kids come back to team housing with us each night for a slumber party. We loved having them and the kids loved it to. This gave us and opportunity to get to know some of the kids better. They danced, sang, played hand games, watched movies and ate. I can't begin to tell you how much I love these kids they are awesome. We walked the land so the girls could see it and always take a trip or two to the beach.


The Christmas party at the school.


Joy In Hope Christmas Party


Blanca I love that girl. The girls having a good time dancing.


Taking a break, people watching. The girls used to live here so they know the neighbors.


Girls on the land checking out the water. The ridge behind them is all part of the land.


The boys playing soccer on the land.

Of course in that time we also brought in the new year 2009. What a great way to start and end a year. They have a special church service that night. Haitian church can go on for a long time but I have 2 favorite thing about this service that I will always remember. First is the praise and worship I love how freely the Haitians worship. And the second is when they lined up 2 rows of chairs down the center of the church, they brought out small tubs of water and towels and people just started washing each others feet. OK I am not a feet person I don't like feet. But to see them serving each other in such a loving way was awesome. We watched this go on for quite a while, someone would sit in a chair another person would wash their feet then they would switch places when the 2nd person was finished they would give each other a hug. This just kept repeating. Except for one woman I watched her wash feet after feet just serving the people of her church. Haitian people are very strong and endearing people and I just love them.

This trip was awesome, we had a great time serving and loving the Joy In Hope team and the people of Haiti.

How this all started! Part 2

OK so while we were in Haiti for our 1st trip we got to see the vision that God has given Danny & Leann and how He is using them. I loved everything about it. The vision was to purchase 17+ acres of land and build 8 family homes that will have 20 to 25 children getting them off the streets of Haiti. It will also have a church, school for 800 students, community center, medical clinic and a source of clean water for the whole community. Among all the other things that the mission is involved with in the community.

In my last post (and I know it has been a while)I mentioned that I couldn't believe that the thought of living in Haiti was in my heart and my head. One reason is because I really like (I mean REALLY LIKE) air conditioning, cold weather, and hot showers, Haiti doesn't have any of these. The second reason is because I have never wanted to move anywhere before, at one time Jon wanted us to move to Georgia and we never did. I guess that is the difference in your husband wanting you to move somewhere and God telling you to move somewhere.

After we got home I found myself thinking about Haiti all the time and if I had a chance to talk to someone about our trip that was all I talked about. For those that have been on a mission trip this is not an uncommon reaction after the trip, but what was uncommon for me was that overwhelming feeling that I was suppose to move there. As I was praying about Haiti the feeling just kept getting stronger. I couldn't believe that God would want me to move to Haiti cause at this point I still hadn't said anything to Jon. But if that is what God wanted he would work it all out.

Unknown to me at the time this is what Jon was thinking: "When I got home, I was glad I went. I guess the only way to explain it, is that being in Haiti and seeing what God was doing it opened my eyes and heart to something new. I felt called to serve in Haiti. I began to pray about where God wants me but more importantly if he gave me an answer would I be willing to go where he was calling me to go."

A few weeks after we were home Jon came to me and told me that he felt he was suppose to serve in Haiti and had started to pray about it and wanted to know what I thought. Well the 1st thing I thought was God is Awesome! It was such a God moment that for the past few weeks we had been praying about something so life changing and didn't know that the other one was praying about the same thing. At that point we decided to keep praying about it. We had planned to take a vacation with Danny & Leann to Puerto Rico for a week and we would talk to them and see what they thought about us joining the Joy In Hope team. They loved the idea and we all decided that we would pray about it. Jon and I also decided that we should visit as much as we could so that we could get a feel of what it was to really live there and to make sure that this was God's plan and not just and emotional reaction of ours.

Our 2nd trip to Haiti was for about 4 days in August 2008 for the ground breaking of the 17+ acres of land that God provided Joy In Hope in July. The service was on the land over looking the ocean everything about it was beautiful.





After the ground breaking Jon and I had the opportunity to walk the land and stopped to spend some time praying. We prayed and cried together. It was then that we realized that God was calling us to Haiti. It was not only exciting but scary. As soon as we left we couldn't wait to go back and started planning our next trip.

A few pictures from our 1st trip

Riann, Danny, Leann, and Jabez Pye 2008

Tina, Katie, Jennifer, & Jon at the Pye's house

Vania, Tina, Katie, Elinda

Katie, Jon, and Jennifer view from our Hotel yes we stayed in a hotel our 1st trip.

Danny and some of the kids. This is the way they get around.

Katie watching a movie with some of the kids.

Beautiful Haiti - Basin Bleu

This is the market in Port Au Prince

Homes

This is a Tap tap, this is how a lot of Haitians get around - public transportation

Haiti's version of McDonald's

How this all started! Part 1

So I was talking to a dear friend and my one and only reader as far as I know, and she has been waiting on a new post from me for a while now. Anyway we were talking about Haiti and she ask me how we got involved with Joy In Hope and we agreed that it would be a good idea to tell our story from the beginning. So here it goes:

We have know Danny Pye for more than 10 years we went to the same church and he joined our cell group and anyone that knows Danny, well he quickly became a big part of our family. He treated the girls like they were his little sisters and to this day still does. He soon met his wife Leann and she became a part of our family too. They moved to Haiti about 5 1/2 years ago. I followed them and their journey and wanted to go to Haiti to visit them. But Jon had NO desire to go so we didn't. We kept in touch with them and they would visit us when they were in the States and tell us about their kids and the ministry. This only made me want to go more. Well I got my chance to go when about 2 years ago Danny ask me to be the Stateside Coordinator for the ministry, but in order for me to do the job he wanted me to go to Haiti to meet all 22 of their children and see Haiti first hand. So Jon, Katie, and I went it was Feburary/March 2008, this was an amazing trip getting to know the ministry better and seeing what God was doing through them was awesome. I fell in love with the kids, the people. and country of Haiti. This trip caused a lot of emotions for all of us. The biggest one for me was that I felt like God wanted me there. I wasn't sure what to think about this cause I knew what Jon thought about Haiti, and I couldn't believe that this thought was in my heart and in my head. So I decided that I would just pray about the feelings I was having and see what happens. I also decide that I wasn't going to say anything to Jon about those feelings.