Availability of Land

Bonswa! I hope this post finds you all doing well and loving an adventurous life wherever you may be. I write to you this evening from the guest house of Medical Teams International (MTI) where I am staying with a wonderful medical team from Montgomery, Alabama who have come here to Haiti to run a free medical clinic for our friends in the deaf community. I must admit that even though I am only into my second week here as a resident of Haiti it is good to see many friendly faces from Frazer Church. For those of you who don’t know, Frazer United Methodist Church in Montgomery was my home church for the 18 months I spent in graduate school in the South. While my work down here as project coordinator will take me to many locations around Port au Prince and the entire country, I will be present for team trips to the deaf community as much as possible. Frazer has partnered with 410 Bridge to be a major community partner with the project with the deaf community.

 

For our work with the deaf community, one of the largest barriers in the way is the availability of land and a clear title to land. It is absolutely necessary that the option for houses, land and every aspect of the community end up in the hands of native Haitians.

 

With this said, I am ecstatic to share with you the results of an incredible weekend. Tara and I spent most of the day Saturday with 40 members of the deaf community at a potential site for the new development and sustainable community. Saturday was a chance for leaders in a potential partner organization to answer questions and give the deaf community the opportunity to view the land and present their own opinions and concerns regarding what would be a complete relocation of themselves and their families. The reactions from the deaf community were overwhelmingly positive and we will continue to pray that relationship building with this new organization will develop to a point at which we will seriously discuss the building of 150 new homes, a primary school, community center, and expanded church to accommodate around 400 new residents. Please keep relationship building and discernment in your prayers this week. The land is beautiful with incredible views of the mountains and a lot of room that is not currently available for any resident of the tent cities and other camps around Port au Prince. The picture included in the post is taken from the top of the hill on which the primary school would be built – not a bad view at all!! Plus, all of the homes have room to plant at least 6 fruit trees and cultivate small gardens. I will write more on the exciting developments as they occur. For now, please understand that I have shared all I can. I expect everything to move very quickly and look forward to updating you again soon.

 

Worship this morning and time together with the team has been a tremendous blessing. I will post again when we have a few minutes regarding a wonderful worship experience and time of fellowship.

 

Lord, we thank you for the blessing of friendship and fellowship with all of those who are a part of your beautiful and redeemed creation. To worship together in many languages with so many new friends is an incredible blessing. We thank you once again for your hands of provision and the blessing of the adventurous pursuit of your will for us. Amen.