Bon Bagay "Good Things"

I sat there on top of the mountain this morning, my eyes greedily taking in the exquisite tropical Caribbean waters glowing and sparkling in blues and turquoise far below the steep green slopes, my lungs eagerly sucking in the fresh breeze, my nose sniffing up the wonderful scent of...cow dung? YES! I thought...I'm in Haiti and there's no place in the world I'd rather be! As I looked down over the town of St Marc with my Danish, German, Canadian and American friends surrounded by our recently aquired Haitian brothers and sisters my mind was filled with one word. This word has been overwhelming me since I arrived...HOPE. Hope hope hope. This hope is anchored deep in Heaven and it's this sure hope that leads me to confident faith that this nation will be transformed in one generation. And this is the generation of reformation.

Coming down the mountain, the ocean water that once seemed so appealing now made me want to gag slightly as rubbish and sewerage floated and bobbed on the gentle waves. The air that was so fresh at the top now choked me with heat, sweat, dust and pollution. The bleating of fat goats, clucking of scraggly chickens and whining of skinny dogs mingled with the unrelenting horns of overloaded trucks and mopeds as we manouvered our way down the pot-holed dirt road towards the YWAM base. Worn out yellow school buses from the States tore by at frightening speeds with people packed inside and ON TOP! Beautiful, bright eyed children yell "blanc blanc blanc" at us and burst into fits of excited giggles when we laugh and wave. Rusty tin sheets, grey concrete bricks and miscellaneous findings make up most of the buildings - one half of which are falling down and the other half are only half built. Women walk down the streets skillfully balancing HUGE baskets of their wares on their heads, children do the same carrying buckets of clean(er) water. People just sit everywhere on the side of the road...just sitting and talking, chewing on sugar cane. Waiting on the world to change.

The poverty is beyond any other country I have experienced. Haiti is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. It's also known as a black hole for NGO's. It's known as a cursed land. People say it will never change. But I'm not listening to what people say - I'm listening to what God says. He says there is a hope and a future, he says he hears the cries of the oppressed and the fatherless, he says he will rise up with righteous indignation and holy zeal. He is the only salvation, the only solution, the only way, truth and life for this nation. He's moving, he's working, he's stirring, he's calling this nation to repentance. Haiti was once known as the Pearl of the Caribbean - Satan has stolen, killed and destroyed in this land for long enough. It is time for the treasures of this nation to be reclaimed and restored. Haiti will no longer be known as a black hole. It will be known as the LIGHT of the world revealing the glory of it's Creator.

In just one week we have been overwhelmed with opportunities. Our main purpose for the first two weeks is serving the YWAM base here in St Marc. They have served and loved and trained Haitians for 20 years and have had an especially draining year with the earthquake relief. So we have pulled out our machetes, paint brushes, mops and gatorade and got to work chopped vines out of sewerage drains, cleaned and painted on the base. We also worked all week with a medical team in a clinic out in one of the poorest villages - this included getting covered head to toe in clay mud as we pulled and pushed two trucks and an ambulance through a couple hundred meters of thick clay mud. We took over wards in the hospital going from bed to bed, loving on people and praying for healing. A few people spent some time at an orphanage. The most impacting time was at the prison on our second day here - but that will have to wait for the next blog...

Prayer requests:

- Health...couple people with minor colds and stuff. Gotta put our foot down now.
- Protection over our minds from spirit of poverty, hopelessness, etc
- Financial blessing for the prayer burn in November
- Right contacts for organising the prayer event as well as other activities
- Blessings for the base and leadership here
- Power and anointing for preaching, healing, deliverance, etc
- Faith and courage

I love you all and I thank you deeply for sowing into this in prayer and support. You're incredible.

xoxoxox
Kerri!