Friday, July 11, 2008

Working for Ministry?!?!?!?

In a couple of weeks Sherry has a team coming down to help her with the new school she is building. On this team is a soccer coach. Soccer in Haiti is BIG...HUGE...GINORMOUS (yes I made that last word up) :) The plans are to have this man teach and play soccer, along with having a Bible study with not only the school kids, but also the boys on the streets! No one in Haiti can pass up soccer, exspecially when there is an actual soccer coach involved! Everything is set and ready to go....except for one thing.....there are two big piles of rock sitting on the exact spot that the soccer camp will take place.

Sherry told the students about the soccer coach coming, and how great it will be to play soccer, and have a Bible study with this man. The students of course were super excited...now the catch ....... " In order to play, we need to move the piles of rock". Those were her words, and no sooner did they leave her mouth when the students spoke about getting the workers that help at the school to move them. She smiled and said that she would like them (the students) to help move them as a ministry. WHAT?!?!?!?! Work and not get paid (were their expressions)? After Mr. John and I explained a little more about the job, the students became a little more interested, but still not thrilled that they had to work.

Today was the day that we as a team were going to battle the heat, smoke, dust, and ROCKS! When the students came to school I handed them work gloves. This got them motivated! Then we walked over to the new school and they saw the pike of rocks that we were going to move today....there goes their motivation :) It wasn't that the pile was so big, but the rocks in the pile were HUGE! To get started we made a line. Mr. John was in the front grabbing rocks from the pile, and I was at the end of the line piling the rocks into a new pile! Things were off to a great start! The children were all in line, and laughing, singing (if I hear the song "This is the Song that Never Ends" again, I will throw up; sort of like the Titanic song!), and suddenly taking off their clothes! About every half an hour or so, I would look up and see more boys with their shirts off, work gloves, and some pants (they had shorts on underneath)! It was funny! At one point Sherry asked me who I thought was stronger....obviously I said the girls were stronger! This made the boys go crazy! One boy imparticular (Val) told me that I was mistaken. I told him that girls were so strong, that we could carry a rock with one hand! He did not believe me so I started to move the next several rocks with one hand (they were small rocks, ok..medium size, I told you, girls are wicked strong). This meant a lot because Val is a tough kid! When I first started working with the children he was hard to deal with; disrespectful, deceiving, and never seemed to be paying attention. Yesterday and today Val and I really started to click, and have been having so much fun! So back to me being super strong; Val passed me a rock and it had a spider on it, so I dropped it because I do not like spiders! He laughed at me and told me I was not strong, so I pushed him, and tickled him until he said I was the strongest person in the world :) I won! After I told him that I knew a guy who had big muscles, and could probably lift the whole rock pile himself (John). Val said he would like to see that (looks like you have to come back to Haiti John! We have one more pile you could move for us). Then I was telling them that God can make you as strong as a lion, and told them some Bible stories. Sherry added to that and told the children that because of their hard work, that some one may accept Christ at the soccer camp. She went on and told them how neat it would be if someone did and how when we are in Heaven, God would tell them because they did ministry they helped someone come to Christ! They all thought that was cool, and that gave them the motivation to finish the job, I mean ministry!
Three and half hours later, two water breaks, one bloody finger, and one HUGE pile of rocks moved....... we were DONE!

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Starting on the pile!

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This is Val.

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MacDonald showing off his muscles!

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This is Sherry (the white lady on the right), not a good picture, but we were all working hard!

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Taking a break!

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They are so much fun!

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Val and Mrs. Becca :)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i cann't believe you all moved them today!!! sooo many rocks, good thing the girls are strong! keep cool and see u soon! love michelle