Rain and Overcast

I guess the good Lord did not want me to be tempted to see this as a tropical vacation rather than a mission to help the suffering people of Haiti because since we got here we have not seen the sun and it has been raining almost non-stop. I just looked at the forcast for the next few days and each day it seems like there will be cloud and rain. In reality when I am training people all day long it is probably better that it is a little cooler than usual. But even the Haitians are complaining that it is cold and wonder where the sun has gone!

Today we decided to have bigger groups and just run two longer sessions rather than four shorter ones. It was a bit of a break not to have to repeat the material four times. Today with the Sunday School teachers I led an activity where half of the group had to write one of their fears about the future on a piece of coloured construction paper. The other half had to write down a promise of God from the Bible. We made a construction paper chain with one fear attached to one promise. With this activity the people could help children in their churches to see that God can meet our needs and respond to out fears. It was really interesting to see them shouting out their fears and respond with a corresponding promise. Afterwards I gave some of the people some construction paper, siccors and glue so that they could do the project with kids in their churches.

As I have been talking about grieving among children and how to help the many children who have had a parent or a loved one die, the participants of the seminars have been sharing their stories and those of people they know. There are close to 100,000 people in the Cap who were traumatized by the earhquake - close to 500,000 in the whole region. It seems like everyone I have talked with knows someone who has had a loved one die. Today a lady told me about a little girl whose parents had died and she asked me when it would get better for that little girl. Unfortunately I could not give her a date or time. I did reassure her that with time and with the support of loving people around her that little girl would learn how to go on with her life even though it would never be the same.

This afternoon José and Josianne, two of our team members are returning from Port-au-Prince. I am anxious to hear about their experiences there and to know more about what is happening there now - about 7 weeks after the earthquake.