The theme of this week has been refreshment as our team has been decompressing and enjoying some hard work on Haitian time. Amidst the important work that we do here, it’s important for us to remeber to rest and recharge to hit the ground running faster and harder a few days later.
It all started Saturday as we took the Stockelands to the airport. Mark has meetings and a full calendar for a month in the states, along with officiating the wedding of our very own Katie Steinour. We are all glad to see Kingdom work being done in the States, but it’s still hard for us to see them go, even if it’s only for a few weeks.
After a touching send off the rest of our team returned to the mission compound, where they received the news that Mark had mandated a few days of vacation. Everyone was touched and excited to begin some much needed down time. You don’t have to know our team well to know that they don’t just sit around for their down time, and this vacation was no different. None the less, everyone is feeling rejuvenated and in tip-top shape.
HBM staff enjoyed church in many locations this Sunday as our Assistant Director Casey and his wife Whitney went out to our country church in Tè Wouj. The church members welcomed them with open arms and after a very, very Holy Spirit filled worship service, everyone was still feeling well. Well enough for a dance party to break out as everyone enjoyed a very unique fellowship of believers!
Part of our vacation entailed going back to the airport earlier than usual. On Tuesday our Director of Haitian Ministries, Eldet went to Port-au-Prince for some very important meetings concerning the visa he’s working so hard to acquire. We plan for him to be in the States soon to spend time with our American family and to share what the Lord is doing from a Haitian perspective. We’re so glad he was able to spend some time away from his daily grind in Port and get some very important tasks checked off of his list.
Yesterday work recommenced and we hit the ground running as planned. Amongst other projects, we had a chance to sort five boxes of shoes, have a few meetings with key relationships in the city of Jeremie, and we sent a couple of employees out to put some finishing touches on the roof we built last week. We’ve already impacted the bottom-line of ministry since we’ve been back in full force and we’re looking forward to more of that today and next week.