Friday

God meets our needs even before we ask—and does more than we can imagine. On Friday at the Chambrun site, the forklift and a Bobcat (small bucket loader) that GAiN shippd over in a box truck had arrived. But with no dock, how do you get it off the truck?

The first plan included a dirt ramp up to the truck, but it was decided that the heavy equipment could possibly sink in the dirt and roll. What to do? A lot of the construction on the kitchen, warehouse, gate, and even hospital would grind to a halt without that equipment. Just then a flat tilt-bed truck came to pick up another piece of rental equipment. That was perfect! Now, if only the driver would allow us to use his truck to unload the forklift and bobcat. It turned out that he was a friend of Pastor Pierre and would do it for us. We had a safe way of unloading the equipment! I am not even sure we could have dreamed of that idea. Only from the hand of God.

The work progressed very fast on the kitchen area—electric was run, additional wall was built, even socket plates installed. This kitchen will be run by Mercy Chefs to feed the volunteers and the people of the Chambrun area.

Pastor Pierre himself ran the bobcat to dig post holes for a gate at the road. People have been driving through the area looking at all the aid and buildings. A gate with a guard will keep the area secure.

The young girl with the infected sore on her arm returned. The nurses used a needle to remove even more fluid from the site. She cried again during the process, but stopped as soon as the work was done. “The Haitian people are so resilient,” the nurse told me later. “They are strong.”

The medical team checked more of the school students. One nurse said, “When we first started coming here, we saw a lot of kids with malnutrition—reddish hair and distended bellies. Even with one meal a day, we see improvement each time we come.”
The pharmacist told me that each child also receives a deworming medicine (albednizole(sp)). “Worms can consume up to 20% of the food a child eats,” he said. “By giving a deworming medicine we can basically increase the amount of food they eat.”
“I love working with the kids,” another nurse commented. “They are so fun and show such love!”