Tuesday

We arrived at the church early and were greeted immediately by more of the church members, ready to help with whatever was needed. All of the posts were in the ground, and the main objective of the day was to build the forty-foot center beam (along with cutting and placing all of the side beams). This would take all day. I was very impressed by our men; they were eager to work and to get things done.

While the building continued at full force, Poyis and I picked up the ladies from the compound and drove them to the Regency Home for another day of talking and connecting with the children. The kids were eating when we arrived, so to help maintain their routine, we walked across to the Mercy Home —I wanted to show the team some of the progress on the secondary school. The Mercy Home is almost twice the size of the Regency Home, because it will also include an area to raise farm animals. Our girls are supposed to move in any day now.

We got back to the compound just a little before dinner, and then spent the evening catching up. I asked the team to share highlights of their days, and then gave an introduction to John 6 before asking them to read it for their homework so that we could discuss it later in the week. God’s faithfulness is at the forefront of this chapter, and I thought it would be a special encouragement to each of them.

Wednesday

The next day, the two parts of our teams focused again on the church build and the children’s home, while I split my time between the two. The church was starting to take shape, with the posts in the ground and the beams in place. The ladies decided to visit the construction site in the morning, because this was the big day to lay the center beam. The team built a ramp and put a support structure in place so that a 500lb beam could be hoisted from the ground to the top of the building. It took a couple of hours to get this done. Around 11:30 a.m., our team and a few men from the church carried the beam to the right spot, and through these guys’ strength combined with the ropes, they got the beam in place.

Every construction project reaches a point when the build just comes together, and this was that moment. Everything after this would go quickly.

For information about the work in Haiti, visit Support Us.

Wiley Kennedy serves as Director of International Ministries with Connect 2 Ministries. To learn more about Wiley, visit Who We Are, and to learn more about how you can pray for the ministry, visit Pray.