Thursday Update (Jacmel) "Finishing Up"

After completing our work benches yesterday, we finished staining them today. We got some help from the kids who were happy to do anything out of the norm. In the picture above, Beth and a young boy or working on several pew benches (which we sanded down and stained.)

We finished the roof on the back of the church which will be used as a cover for the rest rooms. The Pastor was VERY excited. After taking pictures of the church and making several notes, Dalton's textile industries could transform this church and I hope this is a possibility in the future. It is one of the few buildings it's size that was not destroyed by the earthquake. The give complete and total praise to God due to it still standing.

We handed out punch balloons today and literally every child in the area ran up to get one. Two kids helped pass them out and even gave their own punch balloons. It was another sign of selflessness within these beautiful people. We ended up having enough punch balloons for every single child. No one went home empty handed and we had none left to spare.

As we were walking back to our living area, several children approached Beau and I. They issued a simple challenge, "Play ball." Oh, the beauty of a simple challenge. Little did Beau and I know, we weren't winning this one. Two twelve year old's stood across from two adults. There was a 5 foot imaginary net which consisted of two cinder blocks. The ball was kicked...game on. The first goal was quick, Beau made an excellent pass to me coming around the corner and I hit the back left portion of the goal and it went in. 1-0 adults. This goal was quickly answered by a similar pass to Denny (12 year old Haitian) and he promptly exploded pass me (the goalie) coming up to clear the area. Goal. 1-1. The final score was something I'd never seen before. An 11 year old was playing (on rocks...) barefooted. He but squeezed the ball together with his ankles and look at me as sweat was dripping down both of our faces. This was it. He popped up behind him with both feet over his back shoulder and, believe it or not, over mind. I stood there spinning in circles. He raced behind me and caught the ball on his knee before it hit the ground, dropped it to the ground and smoked it past Beau. Game. Set. Match. As Beau and I walked back in our own self defeat we laughed. We've never enjoyed losing so much in all of our lives.

- Christian