day one accomplishments

Hi everyone- This will be one of the rare times that I will post on this blog. Brenda wanted me to share what is going on from my perspective so I will, but I am going to write it more as a jounal for me so I can keep track of things when we return.
Our two objectives for this trip were to 1. plan for future team trips and 2. figure out logistics for "inside out" the GFA type mission we hope to see started here in the near future. It already seems though that these two objectives are linked closely together. I'll exlplain later.
First we visited heartline ministries, which I am very impressed with. There is a lot of team type stuff we could do there and I may even start integrateing teams together so we can put peple to work that want to do physical things, and others doing the evangelism stuff that so many are excited about. On our walk back from heartline we walked with a girl who is here for adoption. She came to Haiti when she was in school and it changed her life. Last year she went to Lifelines on a team trip and ended up in the adoption process. On the walk she was asking me about leading team trips. She said she has a lot of people asking about coming here so she is thinking about leading trips. Here is why this is cool. Recently, God has been bringing people together with this passion. They want to lead trips not only to help people here, but to wake up the chruch at home. One of my frustrations of leading trips is that we spend a week here and then go home. The next week another team might come with totaly different ideas and perspectives so there is no continuity with the teams. My hope would be to link teams up with the same vision and beliefs and build on each others trips and relationships so that we are all working together. I am starting to see how this is all starting to fall into place. Longterm would be the possibility of renting a full time team house together as a "base".
We also spent some time looking at guest houses. I felt like I was in the middle of an episode of "house hunters" The first place we looked at was in the middle of town, in a very busy, loud area. There were three buildings. The pool house, main house, and the villa. This place is $30 per night, they have great common areas, including a rooftop area with great views of the city and mountains. The bedrooms were nice, but a little dirty, and the whole place had more of a hotel feel.
The second place we went to was the methodist guest house. This is a place recommended by Lynda varner, another great "team" person God had brought into our lives recently. I actually have this place booked for this summer. This place is down an alley so is much quieter. It has a nice pool and a nice common area outside and in. The sleeping quaters are not as nice though, more beds per room, and they are bunk beds so less comfortable. This place is $50 a night, but with three meals a day instead of 2. The positive of this place is that it is run by a
GREAT lady named Donnette who is bubbly and very likable. They pride in making it a family atmosphere, which will be nice for those of us who have been spoiled by the Lifeline accomodations. There are no views here though and it is more money, so I have some praying to do.
Here is the part where it all comes together though. Wednsday we will be traveling to Petit Guave to look at the facilities where we hope to start "inside out". I saw on the website that this place had a house there so I asked Donnette about it. She kind of hesitated, then laughed and said, " well they do, but I have a house there as well that I would like to rent out that might interest you". So as we talked more we found out it is walking distance from the facilities. It sounds like a perfect set up. "God type perfect" actually. So Wednsday we will be looking at these facilities as well. Already things are falling into place. Very exciting.

I hope this was not all random. If it does not make sense, you'll have to wait until we get home and I'm sure we will have much more to share. I'll have Brenda put some pictures up of the houses. We agree which way we are leaning, but things might change after Wed. sooooooo keep praying and we'll see what God has in store!