I have to start this story back in San Antonio, before this trip, when I got a phone call from someone who heard that I was working in Haiti. They asked me if I wanted to meet a Haitian living in San Antonio that wanted to start a project there? I said that I would be glad to meet with them and help where I could. While having lunch with this man, he mentioned that he was a good friend of a man that was very high up in the Haitian government, and whose name I was very familiar with. He said that this man’s wife was from San Antonio and he would be here in a few days, and asked if I wanted to meet with him? At that meeting, this high ranking Haitian official gave me his number and asked that I call him while in Haiti so that he could help me with Mercy’s projects. He said that he was familiar with the two mayors of Gressier and he could help me with that contact. But once I arrived in Haiti, I had trouble contacting him. I have been here three weeks and we still have not connected.
But today the two mayors of Gressier asked to see me. They arrived with their body guards in tow. After the usual formalities they asked me how they could help me with the village. I mentioned a road and some legal papers I would like help with. They agreed to help and are in the process of helping me with both of those projects. Certainly my new friend made a call to the mayors and asked them to assist me in the village project. They even offered me more land, if I would like. They then asked me to accompany them into some bad tent cities in Gressier, ones that would require armed guards to safely enter.
Over the next several hours they took me to a handful of tent cities that I didn’t know existed. The conditions were pitiful and they asked me if I could help with housing for some of these people. My heart was broken, so I told them that I would see what we could do but we still had to finish the final eight homes in our village first.
I have been deep in prayer trying to discern what the Lord would have me to do and I ask for your prayers for this situation. It has been very difficult raising enough funds to finish the village, so it is even more difficult to imagine pressing on with new projects.
