Good morning
We are struggling emotionally and asking for prayer. This leaving thing is so tough.. we spent the weekend traveling to see many friends before a team arrived yesterday. David is working on the Cite Soleil work site to get things organized for the team to work all week.
We traveled to Petit Goave and were thrilled with all the building progress we saw along the way. There are far fewer tents in many areas and the park in Petit Goave, where we have held many medical clinics, is clean and neat. All the tents are gone! New clinics, churches and houses springing up everywhere. It's so encouraging. The "deviation" (detour) where all the traffic was routed through the riverbed is closed. The bridge has reopened and they are building what looks like a new road in the riverbed.
David and I stopped to visit the Wesleyan campground where we lived in the wooden shed for six months. The shed is empty and as we stood inside I closed my eyes and could see images of all the team members that had visited, the children running in and out, playing Skip Bo by candle light and the puppies born under the shed. Oh, "Lassie" is pregnant again and she immediately ran up to me and started nudging me. We visited with Auglide and Madames' daughters. Babu, Auglides' mother, came running up to me smiling and saying gwo, gwo, gwo... which means big, big, big...hmm I hope it was just the dress I was wearing. (Although in every country we have been, big or fat is a compliment:) Auglide is still the queen of the campground and cuter than ever.
Walked through the fishing village, Percin, that was the hardest. I can't set foot in there without children running up to me chanting "Thumbs up, elbows back etc. etc." Thanks to my good friend Kim in South Dakota, I will always be associated with that melody. Livensen is the young boy who captured my heart when we arrived and hasn't returned it yet. He clung to me the whole visit... Our good friends Josef and Magarit with a family of eight including adorable twins. The twins are dolls and crawling all over the place.
Next was DeCurtis where David worked on building the school alongside the Wesleyan Church our district helped build. He hadn't even stopped the vehicle when his three "girlfriends" came running shouting his name. We visited with Davids' namesake, he's about four months old now and getting big. David was so happy to see him and hold him. They never let go until we got into the truck...
We stopped at our favorite hole in the wall restaurant on the beach. Lots of missionary/volunteers from various countries go there, it's hidden away outside of Grand Goave and the restaurant is called Lamite. A sweet little Corsican man owns it and he's an amazing chef. He came running up asking where we have been, we had a wonderful salad and said our adieu.
Our last stop was the Baptist compound where we stayed for a few months while David was working on the clinic in Leogane. Wow, we pulled in and everyone started screaming and running to us, it was overwhelming but very heartwarming! Ginny and Ariel were tugging at our hands while all the ladies that cook pulled David into the kitchen "house", sat him down and shoved a big plate of food at him. He was grinning ear to ear. He spent a lot of time in the evenings when I was out with teams just sitting in the kitchen trying to communicate with the ladies. (I never got a plate of food...but I did get a fork to help him eat:)
Remember that Beatles song, "In My Life"? There are a few verses that just kept coming to me yesterday. To paraphrase part of the song "There are places I remember..All my life, though some have changed.......... Though I know I'll never lose affection For people and things that went before I know I'll often stop and think about them"... We will never forget.
We have met some of the most wonderful people, many who have become great friends, watched team members fall in love on a trip and get married (one is happening very soon... memories of Zambia), been humbled by Gods' calling to people on the field and been blessed beyond belief by all the hard working Haitians we've been honored to know and join in doing Gods' work. Your love, prayers and support to the Haitian people have made a huge difference, I wish you could see the progress that has been made and the encouragement provided to so many...keep it coming there is still so much more to be done!
Thank you all for being there for us, we hope you'll continue to share the next step of Gods' plan for us.
Blessings,
David and Beth
I just updated our website, www.thewattersfamily.blogspot.com and Facebook with some new photos..
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