A Great visit to Cotes de Fer…

Recently I blogged about seeing raw need on a trip to Cotes de Fer.  Yesterday, I went out there again, only this time I took 2 guys with me.  Steve and Mark, from The Summit Church, Little Rock, AR, were on a scouting trip to check things out before bringing their very first team in February to visit their new Sister Church here in Cotes de Fer.  We had a great time.  We don’t normally do these scouting trips, but it just seemed to work out.

BTW, you can see many more pictures here.

I took Drew out with me for his first adventure into the outback.  He did great! It was so awesome for me to bring him along.  I can guarantee that he saw/experienced some things that he never would have seen or experienced in America!

We made it out there over the rough terrain, river crossings, etc in 3 hours.  First, we viewed the old church site.  The church building completely collapsed in the earthquake.  We greeted the children in a children’s service that was in progress and got to hear them sing.  We then went on and visited the town square and small port where the dugout canoes and sailboats used for fishing come in from the sea.  After this, we went up the mountain and visited the new church site.  They are moving the church and school up the road to higher ground out of the flood zone. The church is made of woven walls of palm branches, with a tin roof.  The Pastor’s home is made of sticks and tarps alone.

We walked down the hill once again to visit the sites where we are going to put up some homes.  Yup, raw need once again.  I watched as my Haitian staff member handed the “home” owner some money.  He told me that he has seen poverty, but this was tough to see.  This spoke volumes to me.

We walked down to the rocky shoreline to simply see the sites.  Wow.  Beautiful.

We talked with a farmer to get some answers on how Summit Church can come alongside of these local farmers to help them.  Summit is not coming in with any preconceived ideas/plans or grandiose ideas.  Good ole’ collaboration.  Listening, brainstorming, due process.  Very healthy.

I can’t wait to get the team from The Summit Church back out there in February for their first official Sister Church visit.

Rob