We had a full day today. Started out with a stop at Grace Emmanuel School. This is the school that is supported by Jesus in Haiti Ministries. This school continues to amaze me. In just the span of a couple of years they have built several structures for classrooms and grown to over 300 students. Truly amazing.
These kids are welcoming and full of life. We got there around the same time as their break so we got to hang out in the playground with them. 
After we left the school, the plan was to head out into some villages to do ministry. Murph works with an organization called CHE (Community Health Evangilism) as part of what he does in Haiti. This program is designed to offer tools and trainings for individuals to be more self-sufficient. The cool part about CHE is it offers trainings to the residents of a community to then be able to go out and teach others. This takes the American's out of the picture and creates the opportunity for Haitians to rely on themselves and each other. CHE is all over the world but in Haiti they have started successful businesses, improved sanitation, and have provided scripture and education.
The village that we went into today is a brand new CHE village. So we drive up and park outside of the school. We split into small teams; a few Americans, 1 community member, and a translator and headed out to see who we could find to talk to. The group James and I were with stopped at 3 homes. To be completely honest, the conversations we had left me feeling defeated.
The first house we stopped at was the home of a young mother, holding her baby. The baby was a little fussy and turned out he was hungry. Immediatly we all handed over whatever granola bars we had on us. The second house we stopped at was the home of a single mother, I believe she had 5 or 6 kids. She had no job and her children had no job. When asked about why no one was working the response was there are simply no jobs. The third home we went to was an elderly woman's whose grandsons lived with her. One of the boys spoke English (when I'm over seas and I hear English it's like I don't recognize it sometimes it's so rare out in public). He was reading a DW book, said he was trying to learn more English. James asked if he was in school but he is not, I'm sure due to the lack of money to pay for school. We talked and prayed with each of these families and explained what CHE is and that they are going to be doing more work in the village. I can only hope that things will turn around for them.
My initial thoughts are why? Why does this have to be so hard? Why do these people have to live this way? Why isn't more being done? Why were we sent here and what can we do?
What struck me about today was the sense of hopelessness. This was the first time I got to really speak to adults in Haiti. The reality of life and the harshness of it hit us all like a ton of bricks today. Emotionally, were defeated. We're beat. I can only pray that we were able to offer some hope and support to our friends in that village.
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