On the walls...

Hi all!

So, here I sit on the second story porch outside Nixon and Sandra’s house. It’s late, but there are still so many sounds on the street. Some Latin music, a motorcycle, people laughing…ahhh, the sounds of Haiti. I am in love.

I am also honored. Honored to be here to serve the servants. I love being around the kids at HCH, but I also really love serving Danny and Leann, Nixon and Sandra and now, Nick and Gwenn! Today we got to paint, paint, and paint some more. The first floor of team housing is occupied by about 6 boys (and one ‘nanny’) that Nixon and Sandra have sponsored from different parts of Haiti to come to Jacmel for school. We painted their dining room, bathroom, two bedrooms, a small (and I mean small) kitchen and a storage room. Yesterday we cleaned the rooms, scraped the old paint off the cement walls and ceilings (oh my, what a job!) and today we painted – with oil-based paint. Some of the rooms were a bit small, with little ventilation, so you can imagine the ‘fun’ we had!

One of my teammates (Ashley) asked us a question at devotions tonight that was pretty interesting. For thought, how does painting and cleaning show Christ? I mean, we’re not on a street corner telling people that Jesus loves them…can painting some rooms really be showing Christ’s love? Yes, I think it can. And does. Christ humbled Himself for us. The least I can do as a ‘blanc’ (white) American is to do the same. No task should be too menial, too beneath us.

Tonight, after coming home from saying goodbye to the Pye kids (which is one of the HARDEST things to do here), we saw some of the boys that live here…Jean-Robert, Whiskey, Franzi (not sure how to spell that….) and the smiles on their faces when we asked them how they liked their rooms were, well…priceless. I really hope that when they look in my eyes they see Christ, but if not I hope they see Him on the walls.

- Andrea

Pictured here is Mdm. Coco's room after scraping and cleaning, while before painting.