We are happy to announce that we will in fact be providing brand new mattresses for the children. It has weighed heavy on our hearts and it feels good to know that they will soon have new beds to sleep in at night. We have had a little saying lately, which is, “It’s hard to do good…”
It seems like every time we go to do something with a heart of service and great intentions there is a roadblock….or twelve. We thought that finding 25 new mattresses in Haiti to fit the custom bunk beds would be the hardest part. We were wrong. That was actually the easiest part. Once we found them is when the real stress kicked in. We really want to make sure that we are here for the delivery of the mattresses. Mainly, to insure, that the kids get what we paid for, but also to experience that moment of excitement with them. We have prayed that we will somehow be able to stay another month, but just in case we can’t – we are on a time crunch!
To simplify things, we planned on using a credit card for the transaction, but then we were informed that the vendor only takes cash. This is totally normal here in Haiti. So – Okay, fine. We will wire ourselves the last of our mission money. Nope! Western Union and my bank have restrictions on wiring cash to yourself in Haiti. (Glad this wasn’t an emergency).
After hours of trying every which way possible, we eventually landed on a solution. It is as ridiculous as some of the airlines current flight plans where they make you go north just to return south, but it will work. We figured out that we could wire the money to a contact in the United States and then they could turn around and wire it back as cash to us in Haiti. (Did I mention that we are on a time crunch???) That just added 2 days to the process! Once we initiated that process we hit another snag. Our bank (who I truly adore) emailed us saying that they needed verbal confirmation. Well, we don’t have an international calling plan, nor do we have the finances to make calls at $3.00 per minute. Luckily, there was this guy – Steve Jobs who had this idea where you could video conference on your iPhone over WiFi. Thank you God! In this time when we are trimming down our THINGS and getting rid of STUFF, I will say that this device is one luxury that has proven to be very beneficial to us.
It might sound simple, but the process took almost an entire morning and part of an afternoon. I hope it all goes as planned. We are really disappointed that (as of now) we can’t stay another month and continue our work here. Not being able to pull off the new beds for the kids would be an additional heartbreaker.
We cannot thank everyone enough for your support of prayer and finance from the beginning – it is truly amazing! You all are as much a part of this as we are – and this work is impossible without you. We are NOT done! We have only just begun this life of service. We want to continue this mission. We have been working on some big plans and hope that we can count on you all again to support those efforts. This world is a hurting place and what most of us spend on coffee and other impulse purchases can make such a huge difference elsewhere. We have been so blessed by this experience and we have SO much more to give. We love these people and know that we are being used to His work. We are scheduled to go back to the U.S. next week. We can’t believe that the month is already over.
We sent out a fundraising email on Sunday in hopes of seeing a rally and allowing us the opportunity to stay and do more. So far, the response has been slow and we don’t know if it is going to happen this time around. We really hope it does, but also understand how the world works most of the time. Please continue to pray over us and if you want to see us continue this mission – then you can donate here.
If it is meant to be then anything is possible. I saw one group raise $8k for Haiti in 24 hours. We will not quit trying until we have to depart…. AND if not now – we WILL be back soon! That is a promise.
