Chapter 5
…and the bread begins to rise!

Today I will be giving a doughnut making lesson to Mita, one of the mothers from the most recent nutrition program at L'Acul. Mita is very smart even though she cannot read or write. I have chosen her as the one to create a business making doughnuts. She is clean and personable and I think she will find a niche in a world where few simple pleasures exist. A doughnut will be affordable to most anyone, and anything sweet and fried is almost habit-forming! I know you might ask, where is my "nutrition head?" Well, as my mom used to say, "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." So it is with all healthy food.

Making doughnuts and bread reminds me of the scriptures of the salt and the leaven and how important those small ingredients can be. Once I made a beautiful batch of bread but forgot the small teaspoon of salt. Although it looked great, it tasted terrible without the salt. So it is with our witness around L'Acul. I am beginning to see the difference in our neighbors because of the right amounts of love and education.

We had our 2nd vacation Bible school (VBS) in June with the 33 beach kids. They knew what to expect this year. They came on time and were ready to learn the 10 Commandments. It made for a good Christian base upon which to build. Our Haitian teacher/mentor did a wonderful job teaching and our American visitors added crafts, sports, and music to the mix to make for a fruitful three days. Since that week, we are all reminding each other when we see a commandment broken. The best thing for me that came out of that week was to watch a few Cadet leaders rise to the top. Earlier in August I asked Mari France, Roostania, Joubert, and Gregory to help me lead VBS in the mountains at the Siloe School. They didn't disappoint me! We all know you learn more by being a teacher than a student. My desire is to raise up leaders from within to keep the ministry alive when my time is finished here.

The nutrition classes ended late June. All of the children except little Jackie Chenn were in good health. He continues to suffer with a severe case of pinworms, malaria, and malnutrition. The moms and kids benefited not only from the food (eggs, milk, garden vegetables, rice, beans, peanut butter) but from the health, sanitation, and garden information. At least 2 families have small gardens now. I also selected one mother who can read well to return and be my assistant during classes. I hope she will learn enough to continue without me some day. In September I will begin a new class with 12 new mothers. The hardest thing I do here is to decide who gets to be helped. I can see why Jesus just had to get in the boat and get away for a while. Actually, I did just that myself yesterday. Rodney makes food money by giving rides in his dugout canoe to visitors at L'Acul. Since none of our visitors were interested in seeing the coral, I said I would go so that he could earn some money. It was about sunset time and the ocean was crystal clear and calm. Rodney took me far out over the corral reef. It was like looking through glass into the deep waters. The corral was unbelievably colorful; shades of yellow, red, purple, and white. I saw fish that were blue and green, yellow and black, and also silver. The gentle rocking of the little boat was just what I needed to relax my tired body. I was able to look back onto the shore at the mission and get a fresh perspective of why I was here.

In July, I arranged for all the Cadets to go to hear the Haitian symphony when it came to Léogâne. What an experience for them! They dressed up in their finest clothes. Pastor Gabriel arranged a private truck for transportation. He even allowed them drinks and snacks at the outdoor concert. Since I was in the US at the time, Pastor became the leader. He is such a blessing to us all. Now the kids are talking about flutes and violins, and oboes and cellos. Hopefully I can take them to the Christmas concert in December. That should blow them away!

The neighbors all welcome our guests to L'Acul with open arms, literally. They love for people to walk the beach and visit in the yards. They invite people inside their little homes and sometimes even offer a cool coconut to drink. We enjoy seeing how they live, and this really brings home to us all that we all have what we would call "normal life". Theirs is just different than ours. It works for them! We watch impromptu soccer games and count down sunsets with the kids. We sit for a while with the fishermen down the beach who are weaving their nets. We marvel at the homemade sailboats and love to see the beautiful coral from a ride in a dugout canoe. I love to sit and pass a few moments with the old women smoking pipes.

All these interactions are like the salt and the leaven in my bread dough. After a while, I begin to hear people say, "We know they are Christians by their love." God is laying a foundation for real ministry, not only to the body but to the soul. I read a scripture during church Sunday that struck a cord with me. It is in Romans 10:20; "And later Isaiah spoke boldly for God saying, 'I was found by people who were not looking for me, I showed myself to those who were not asking for me.'"

This week I will be starting English classes with the Cadets who are serious about learning English. I know that having this skill will help them in any job they might pursue later. I have one more year here at L'Acul and I am serious about getting a few people ready to lead. I am not sure my neighbors know what they are looking for in life, but I know for certain that God created them to seek Him. I pray that everything we do here in this small community in Haiti is leaven and salt in the dough that God is preparing.

School starts in September, which means hungry families who have to spend all their money on tuition, books, and uniforms. Rice is now $12 (Haitian) for a small can. Beans are just as high. I am not sure how they can survive this way. I am thankful everyday that I have a fund to work with so that I can help the most desperate. My hardest job is discernment. Whom do I help when everyday there are people in need? I must trust the Lord in all things. One day little Dutchi sat at the back fence waiting for a handout-she was hungry. I ignored her for a long time, reminding myself that I could not feed every hungry person at the gate. Then she began to "bah" like a little lamb (she learned that by being a lamb for 2 years in the Christmas play). I was suddenly convicted that God calls us to feed His sheep. I took little Dutchi some warmed up food. It was within my power to do so, and that God says to act if it is within your power.

Sunday afternoon is youth time from 2 until 4. Yesterday I was so blessed with the 14 Cadets. You can sense that the small classroom is their refuge from the outside. They are comfortable here. It's theirs. I taught them to play the card game UNO and we had a girls table and a boys table going. It got really loud as they yelled and laughed their way through almost 2 hours of fun. Then we sang and prayed and ate chocolate brownies and drank lemonade. It was like any youth group (at least like any from the 70's and 80's). Oh how I wish our American kids could just be kids again! Then we went swimming and had fun cooling off in the ocean.

They are so excited about an overnight trip planned at Siloe high in the mountains. They will be seeing the CODEP project and having some "team building." April Leese, our intern who lives there, will host the girls and Pastor Dures is opening the church for the boys. Pastor Gabriel will be going along too so that he can mentor and discipline. This will be the farthest most have ever been from home-14 miles. Some have never been into the mountains at all. Their world is expanding fast and my mission here is to get them prepared. I constantly tell them that "your generation can change Haiti."

…and the bread begins to rise!