From the city to the mountains

First of all, we as the Jacmel team would like to apologize for the lateness of our posting. The internet & power have gone out a few times here.

After leaving the airport, we drove for a good bit through Port au Prince. You can only prepare yourself for so much, and I was personally very surprised at what I saw. I only know of Haiti from the news & magazines, and it is obviously very different when you are completely immersed in the raw reality of poverty. We arrived in Jacmel after an interesting drive that was about 5 hours in total, and that I can only describe as a roller coaster in the mountains. I believe that the blog that Candace is composing will further detail the exercise that we got while inside the vehicle for 5 hours, and we will be posting pictures later of our fantastic 2 hour mountain adventure. I also believe that after this week my fear of roller coasters will have completely vanished. Where we are staying is very nice and security is not a concern, and it is very close to the pastors home and church. Pastor Dublessy and his family are amazing hosts, and his wife is an even more amazing cook. We have so far had two unbelievable meals provided to us by the pastor and his family. This morning we had the great opportunity to go to the pastors church and view his ministry. Although in French/Creole and I could only understand when they spoke about Jesus, the singing & overwhelming feeling of the love of God moved me to tears more than once. Even when faced with this amount of never ending poverty, it is evident that their faith and love of the Lord shines through. The church family came up to the front of the church and greeted us as if they had known us for years. I personally look forward to helping wherever needed throughout this week to improve the church and school that the pastor has established here, as well as get a chance to share the amazing love of Christ with these wonderful people.

Marie, Team Jacmel