During our time at the school, we did a few odd maintenance jobs, spent a large amount of time with the kids playing games and doing crafts and skits, hauled a bunch of food and a morsel of spiritual nourishment to a Haitian migrant worker camp, and took the director shopping for some school supplies.
On Friday we had the fortunate experience to witness a group of fantastically wealthy businessmen from the US and Japan stop by the school. If my facts are correct, they are from a world-wide multi-level marketing outfit and have made truckloads of money selling some manner of nutritional drink, and now use their time and resources spreading their wealth around the world a bit. One of the men in the group asked where we are from; when told "Pennsylvania" he responded, "Oh, that's where my golf course is. Uhhh... can't remember the name of the town right now." We were all very impressed by his obvious wealth. Later on, when shown the benefits a vo-tech center would provide to the community, he committed to providing the funds necessary to build such a center. The group as a whole provided the school with backpacks and the funds necessary to fill those backpacks with the textbooks for the upcoming school year.
The doctor told us of much witchcraft and demon posession which the center is battling with a measure of sucess thanks to a certain teacher who is able to by the power of Jesus release kids from the control of those voodoo spirits and free them to turn their souls over to the powers of the Gospel. He told us of a pair of 14 year old girls who decided their way out of poverty was to run away from home and live with their adult boyfriends. Amy became attached to some sisters whose father was murdered a year ago; they wanted to know if they could call me Padre and if we would be willing to stay. The doctor's son informed me that in the entire school of 150 kids, there are only three families with both the father and mother intact. Many kids live with an aunt or older sibling, and many more kids only have their mother. Please pray for these families in this community.
This blog post could go on for some length, but suffice it to say that the school/center is a place of much potential. The grade school is only a part of what could be accomplished, if only enough people could come along side with the resources necessary to make it happen. It looks like the Vo-Tech center to teach trades varying from plumbing and electrical and welding to sewing and cooking will happen, but there is more that the doctor dreams of. He would like to expand the school to all twelve grades, and on a vacant lot across the muddy pot-holed street the goal is a small hospital where teams could come for a week or two and perform light medical care for the entire community. My only concern is that the buildings will get built with no monthly support for the expenses necessary to sustain such a complex. We had originally planned to pour concrete this week, but the doctor made it known that he was running low on funds, so we poured the money into his hands instead. He will put it to better use than a fresh section of concrete would ever do. Its easy to say, "Oh, we'll come down and build this building or paint that one for you" and enjoy the experience and fulfillment of doing something; the need I sense in this ministry is simply pure cashola. There's no lack of labor or knowledge of what the needs are; the place is run by the guys in the middle of all of it.
