28 July

(Posted by Kirk McCauley)

Greetings friends at Wall Highway,

Thanks so much for meeting up for the Left Behind Dinner and pulling off the Skype session. There were lots of tears and homesickness on our end, but it was so worth it to see you guys. It's hard to describe how excited everyone was on this end to watch the rachety freeze-frame pictures for a glimpse at our loved ones.

Today was a great day. God gave us awesome weather, perfect for the work we had to do today. As Courtney and Stephanie mentioned, we are building a small 5 room house for a "family" of 12 Hatians. The house is being built on a slope, and has a beatiful view all the way down to the ocean miles away. The stone walls of the foundation were already built, so our objective today was to clear out some mud that had washed over the footings, and fill in the foundation with rock. The 22 of us worked very hard along side 4 of the teenage Hatian children that will live in the house. We completed the job in about 3 hours, although it seemed like 6 (and would have taken us 15 minutes with a "Bobcat"). May not sound like a long time, but 3 hours in the hot sun shovelling rock really wears you out.

I was really encouraged by how much we were able to do today with limited tools and skills. Thankfully God provided shade nearby, and a stiff breeze, which made the work bearable. Tomorrow we lay rebar, and pour a slab. Pray that we exceed our capability. Also, we will be feeding some Haitians at a dump, and the youth will be leading VBS.

Of note, parents and friends, you can be proud of the youth on our trip. There have been absolutely no complaints (from the youth, adults however... ). Nelson and Katie have been leading the worship at night. Crenshaw was an ox, pushing heavy wheelbarrows of rock up hill without any breaks (borderline nuts). Today, Sarah, Tara, Amanda, and Lorin entertained the kids at the job site, with genuine care and tenderness. Jacob helped lead the VBS team in the afternoon in the village nearby, Source Matles (Soo-SMAHLTESS). Courtney really connected with one of the girls in the orphanage with playing all kinds of different derivatives of the "hand slapping" game, and other things that I can only inadequately describe as "patty cake".

We miss you guys and really appreciate the emails, texts, and notes you wrote in advance.

Kirk