R and R in the AC

Last saturday Bruce, Deb, and I left Passe Catabois and traveled to Port-au-Prince (PaP) for a two week rest and resupply trip. It has been fantastic so far. The first night we stayed in Tetyan just north of PaP at the Global Outreach Mission compound. With a view of the ocean and a constant wind which took the edge off the heat, I was already enjoying our "vacation." For dinner that night we at baby-back ribs. Wow, it was awesome. Don't ask me how they got bbq ribs in Haiti , but I was sure thankful.

The next day we made an uneventul trip through PaP and then continued up the nearby mountains to the Baptist Haiti Mission (BHM). Because of the high elevation, it is naturally cool (in the 60's) and so we call it the "AC." BHM is a little tropical paradise. They actually have GREEN grass because they get a good amount of rain! The first day there we had to just relax, read, write, and catch up on some email. It was great to not have any plans, but to just be. We also visited with one of the missionaries here that Deb is very good friends with, Elsa. Elsa is an Austrian women who is the definition of class. She is the kind of person that just being around her is a blessing.

After our day of rest we had two days of crisis management training with the Vice-president of Crossworld, Larry Sharp, who is also a member of my home church, COS. It was great to see a familiar face, fellowship with the rest of the Crossworld Haiti missionaries, and learn about crisis management. We did one excercise to define what are the primary risks that we face in Haiti and what are the probability that they will happen in the next year. One thing i thought was pretty funny: according to this group of 20 people that have been in Haiti between 10 to 50 years, it was more likely that there will be a civil war in the next year than any one of the 20 people get into a car accident in the next year! If that doesn't speak to the state of this country, i don't know what does. Mom, if you're reading this, DON'T WORRY! i'll be fine :)

After the crisis training we continued our trek up the mountains to a retreat center called "The Lodge." Every year the Crossworld Haiti mission has a retreat in order to fellowship and be challenged by a guest speaker. "The Lodge" is a like a piece of home, surrounded by a pine tree forest. After being here a couple days, you can literally forget that you are in Haiti. It is nice to be able to let your guard down a bit and relax. The speaker has also been awesome. He's really helped to open my eyes to some things that I need to work on in my life. Please pray that God would continue to work in my heart and the hearts of the other missionaries as we learn and fellowship.

Got to go, time for our next session! Love you all!