Our good friend and fellow worker, Luke Wilkerson, had this to say about his arrival and first few days in Haiti:
Greetings from the lovely town of Laboulle, Haiti, just above the capital city, Port-au-Prince. As my dear cousin Jon says: “I’m loving ever minute of it.” I don’t know how in the world I was able to talk you people into supporting me to do this work but it really is a lot like paid vacation, so far. Today as I was walking through Petionville, totally surrounded by black faces, I had the realization that: “I just love being here in Haiti.” Seasoned missionaries would say that I am in the honeymoon phase of fieldwork. In other words, I haven’t yet gotten to the place where everything about this culture annoys me. But, I trust that I won’t ever get there.
When Julio picked me up at the airport and drove me up to his house, my first thought was that it was a little bit like what I would imagine driving through the Alps would be like. The views really are breathtaking up here. And the climate is surprisingly comfortable, too. I was very surprised the other morning to see my breath up on the mountain when Mario (Julio’s brother) and I went up to visit the Baptist Haiti Mission. It really feels a little bit like I am living in Gatlinburg. Only, it has rained a lot more than it does in Gatlinburg. By the way, please keep praying for me that I will not be bitten by any foul, Dengue-carrying mosquitoes. I have had really good luck in that I have been bitten very few times at all. Maybe three. But, it only takes one, you know. I am operating under the theory that missionaries that are living right wont get Dengue Fever.
Anyways, I am living with a couple of complete jewels. Julio and Lucienne are the greatest I have ever met. When I got here, I found that they had rolled out the red carpet for me like nobody’s business. They actually had me set up to be in their bedroom and in their bed and they themselves had moved into the storage closed but I wouldn’t have it and I told them to move back out and I could take the closet. They did this reluctantly but this gesture has been the model for the way that they have treated me the whole time that I have been here. They are both in their late 30s and have never had kids but there are many, many children here on the property. Julio’s dad and mom had 11 children, all of whom live here on this one piece of property. Most of them have kids. I would say that there are at least 30 kids running around here. All of them beautiful and very well-behaved. The whole family seems to love the Lord. Especially Julio and Lucienne who laugh constantly. They sing hymns at night together after they pray before going to sleep. The one big surprise that I got when I arrived was in finding out that there is no electricity. I brought this big inverter with me and had planned to buy some batteries but there is nothing to charge the batteries. Well, not yet, anyway. We are hoping to get the city power hooked up soon. For now, showering by candlelight and reading with old-fashioned lamps will have to do. By the way, I am once again bucket-bathing just like in the D.R. for now as Julio has not finished his bathroom just yet.
Things have really gone fast just in these first few days. I arrived on Thursday and on Friday I met with a guy named Chris Leib who works with the Baptist Haiti Mission. (The BHM has a wonderful facility a few miles farther up the mountain from here where I am staying.) He had a lot of advice to offer and gave me a lot of his time on Friday. He was very helpful. One of the interesting things that he told me was that the HBM is going to offer a course for master’s credit through a school in Miami . The class will be on History and Philosophy of Education and only costs about 90 US dollars per credit. The best part about it is that I would be interacting with some of the top Christian educators in the country and as you all know, I have something of an interest in education in Haiti . Also, I went to a good-sized English-speaking church on Sunday and found out that not only do they have a nice grand piano but that they are and have been looking for someone to play it. This is really exciting to me, as I have been hoping that I might be able to get involved in music somewhere while I am here.
Well, I must be on my way so this will have to just suffice for my week one news letter. Please, please keep praying. Oh, by the way, congratulations all on the money that we made at the pancake breakfast.
Will talk soon.
Luke
No comments:
Post a Comment