Guitar For Jonas

I'm not sure if anyone is following is anymore as Rachael and I are no longer in Haiti. However, if anyone does see this I just wanted to post a need. Jonas, one of the Haitians from our church who is in the beginning stages of starting a school, plays the guitar.

The day I left Haiti, he told me about his guitar. He had an American friend who brought down a guitar for Jonas and flew to the Dominican Republic and went across the boarder to give it to Jonas. Jonas also saved up and worked very hard to purchase this guitar.

Two years later, we come to present time, where he is using his guitar to help teach children through song. One day a friend of his came to him and asked to borrow his guitar. He was torn in the decision but he let him. A few days later the guitar was returned to Jonas. However, a few weeks later Jonas came home to find his guitar was stolen. The very sad part is that his friend he allowed to borrow his guitar was the only person who knew where it was kept. So, Jonas believes it was this person who took it as Jonas has not seen him since his guitar went missing.

In telling me this, Jonas was asking me to try to find a way to get him a guitar. Getting a guitar to him is easy as there are many teams from America going to Foursquare Haiti, and I would just send the guitar to where they live in America, then they could bring it with them to Haiti. However, I don't want to be the only person who can meet this need. I am planning on saving up some money and purchasing a more standard guitar and then sending that to him. If you would like to support me in accomplishing this, it would be greatly appreciated.

Let me know if you have any thoughts.

Last Day In Haiti

I made a joke today that I worked harder my last day in Haiti than my entire time here. This is definitely not a true statement; however, with the end in sight it made the work all the more harder. The Base Camp that we stay at is closed up for the rest of the year, as the missionaries and staff are all leaving for Christmas. There will be a Haitian family that will be staying in the "house" while everyone's gone. We had lots of supplies, equipment, and resources that we had to put away and store. Originally, a team from Beaverton was scheduled to help with the closing process, but because of the "Political Drama" their flight was canceled... which meant more work for us.


It was a blessed day as I received some money from a person in the states who wanted to pay for Huberman's hospital bills concerning his mother. I also gave Huberman one of my dress shirts so that he'd remember me, and he told me that he'd wear it to church on Sunday. (The one he's wearing in the photo is the one I gave him) His mother looked very healthy and she told me that she's eating and continuing to take her medicine.

In this next picture I grabbed a few of the kids who live in the tent camp to join us in this picture. It's an amazing feeling to recognize faces and see people smile when you say their name. On a walk between Base Camp and our church, a few kids from a neighborhood that I've visited often to hand out clothing, school supplies, and benches, walked towards me... I yelled one of the boys names, "Lilly!!!" and when he heard it he came running with the biggest smile.




I will definitely miss this place. It's always hard to leave something once you get in a rhythm and flow of things. Not to say Haiti is easy to adjust to, because daily you run into difficulties through language barriers, a slow moving lifestyle, hurt and broken lives... All the while dealing with the fact that anywhere you look you see trash, tent houses, run down businesses, filthy water systems, pothole filled roads, people walking in mud and dirt. It's beautiful really, because somehow these people continue to live, continue to dream, and continue to give thanks. They are a nation whose people model great and humble hearts. As I leave here and head back to my comforts of the American life, I envy these people's ability to endure, their passion to live, and how they make much out of little.