Tuesday, July 28, 2009

First Impression - Jason's parents

We arrived safely in Port au Prince on Tuesday, July 21. First impressions in a nutshell; a country and population in need, a population living with a day to day perspective rather than what goals they have for the coming month or years; a population, most of which quite unsure where the future sustenance will come from; and a population in need of the gospel message of Jesus Christ.

In our stay here so far, we have been able to fly with Jason into the small communities that MAF typically serves. MAF flies in teams of missionaries, medical professionals, supplies and people with urgent medical conditions needing hospitalization in Port au Prince in and out of these small and very remote communities.

On Wednesday we flew into La Gonave, a small airstrip along the coast of the island. This island is a twenty minute flight from Port au Prince. We flew out a work team that had been in the community working on a water purification project. Since Jason flies into this village on a regular basis, he was greeted upon his arrival by many children. They gathered on the airstrip as soon as they heard the MAF plane over head. Jason has developed a wonderful friendship with these children.



This runway is in Mole St. Nicholas on the northern tip of Haiti. Here MAF had to fly out a vehicle transmission belonging to a work team that had established a small hospital there. Since there are no mechanics there that could do the job, the only way the transmission could be repaired was to fly it to Port and Prince and from there send it back to Florida.



The runway.


Esther, Jason's sister, enjoying the copilot seat!



On Thursday we had the opportunity of flying into Pignon, the village where Jason, Will, and Jayden spent the first months of their time in Haiti.



Here we were able to distribute some Creole Bibles.


Here we are handing out dolls and pencil cases. Will had mentioned the day before to two little children that we were coming into the village the following day with some gifts. When we arrived the following day, we were greeted by about ONE HUNDRED children.




We went to the local market to purchase a large quantity of rice and beans that we distributed in bags for the children to take home.



We then traveled to a different community in Pignon to distribute gifts of clothing and to serve 120 children a good meal of rice and beans, that was purchased using the funds many friends had donated in Canada. There was sufficient funds for this organization to be able to do this on three other future occasions.





Just a specimen of the wildlife in the place where we were staying for the weekend.



Sunday worship service.


3 comments:

Andrew den Hertog said...

oh i love that tarantula!!! that is what that spider was right??

Chris and Judy dH said...

Hello to all you Kruls! great reporting and photos. good to see the joy on the faces of these children with their gifts and meals. Oma K. will be excited to see the dolls were happily recieved.
Take care, and wish you much blessing on the rest of the trip,

Judy

Robert-Sandra said...

Hello all - thanks for sharing! Must've been really neat to board Jason's plane with him and have your son as chauffeur! I can see that Esther is in her glories with all those little kids..(better make sure she comes home with you)!So thankful for you that you have this opportunity to see up front and close what Jason & Will's work in Haiti involves. Take care and God bless.