Written by Russ Natelborg

I asked to write for the blog tonight as I feel I could type 10 pages of events that were so incredible I really do barely know where to start.

Jay and I (Russ),  along with Craig, helped with a distribution.  They have a big shipping container out there with food….Meals from the Heartland.  Some of you may be familiar with this program.  The three of us unloaded a portion of the crate and made 9 separate piles of 35 boxes.  Schools from all around,  including the Pella Christian School from Pignon, come to pick up their meals.  This is a soy, rice and bean mixture used to feed children 3 days of the week.  It was so incredible for both Jay and I to see the other end of this program and to see the food distributed.  The kids in Haiti literally are all around.  Many children came to help us and kids less than 25-30 pounds helped lift boxes that probably weighed as much as they did.  This was definitely a highlight for me.

Dawn and some new friends, as she is leveraging a common language – technology! Jay checking skin problems on the children. Jay did a little mobile nursing clinic in the area.

The rest of our group got to sleep in very briefly, but then were quickly off to a home not far away to help work on pouring a cement floor for another needy family.   I wouldn’t really call it pouring a floor, but rather using 5 gallon buckets to take in one-by-one.  But Haitians are clever and it was a new experience for me watching and helping.  Great to see everyone able to get involved as it was a lot of hard work.

The group did devotions with the entire workers before they started on the cement floor. One of the cement workers is the father of the newborn twins, whose mother past away in child birth last week. This job will help him support his family. The EMPTY bucket brigade. The FULL bucket brigade

The day just continues to get more amazing from there, as after lunch we again split into 2 groups.  Most of the men stayed around the dormitory to begin work on some trim that will help put some nice finishing touches on the wonderful home we are all able to stay in together.  Its really incredible how everything works out so well.  The group has been a perfect mix of people, friends, family and fellow Christians.  But anyway, back to the work.  Dawn and I worked on painting the trim the one color available in town at a corner hardware store, yellow.

Jay, Dave, Fran and Sheldon worked on making a bed frame for an elderly lady.  I think I heard she claims to be 110, but probably is more like 70.  But in either case, it was another highlight being able to deliver this bed to her today.  I think a previous group was able to bring her a mattress, as before she was just sleeping on the floor.  We were able to return later this evening to deliver her a meal, as she had said she was hungry.  We all felt that it would be nice to try to help her out, even if this was just in a small way by delivering her a meal.  There are so many needy, its so humbling for us who all know how much we have.

Fran testing the bed to make sure it is JUST right.
During Spring Break, the CORE team was able to buy a mattress for this elderly lady and then went home and raised the money for this bed frame. The team built it and delivered today!

During Spring Break, the CORE team was able to buy a mattress for this elderly lady and then went home and raised the money for this bed frame. The team built it and delivered today!

Tonight, we went to a Good Friday service at a church in town.  I cannot take the time, as Jay already told me I’m writing too much, but I just told him I don’t know how to stop.  There is so much to tell.  The singing by the ladies, then the ladies and men, then the ladies and then the girls…..so much singing that was just incredible.

Ok, I’ve been saying tonight that the least eventful thing of the day was hitting a cow on our way home from church.  I said if we were in Iowa this could possibly make the news but in Haiti this really was not that big of a thing….The cow, I guess it could have been an Ox, was unhurt and the dent in the truck was minor after using a plunger to pull the dent out.  Anyway, I may have to ask to do the blog again as one day has more than can possibly be shared.  There will be so much more to share when we do get home.

It’s been an incredible day.

Dawn was making videos of the kids and then they would watch it. Always a hit!