Pettit Family

Another sad reality in Haiti-
Last week, while driving to look at a project about 3 hours away from Port Au Prince, I saw a bad accident. On the side of the road was a very large (U-Haul) style truck, commonly used to transport supplies AND people here in Haiti. Unfortunately, the truck had go off the road and rolled upside down, probably from speeding and or careless driving, also common in Haiti. When I drove by, no authorities were present but 30 plus passengers from the truck were standing and sitting on the side of the road while others were unloading all the big bags of supplies out of the upside down truck. Then I noticed 6 or 7 bodies laying on the side of the road with tree branches covering them as a sign of respect. I will not forget that one woman’s feet were stained green, probably from the wet grass she had walked in early that morning which would be the last time she stood on her own strength. I didn’t see any wounded or in need of medical help, only the dead and some others that appeared to be in shock.
I said a prayer for them and continued on my way to Saint Marc to meet with the District Superintendant .  As I drove, I slipped into thought about how blessed we are in the States, we have ambulances and helicopters that come to us at  moments request.  We can dial 911 and have help in just a minute or two.   Here in Haiti, they have no 911.  Though they do have ambulances, it can take hours for them to arrive.  Just this morning, I read a blog written by an American Doctor here in Haiti.  He talked about seeing a woman barely alive being pushed in a wheelbarrow.  He saw the little hospital she was in front of deny entry to her and the man pushing her.  The Doctor quickly helped them and discovered she was minutes from death due to dehydration as a result of cholera.  This is all to common here.

My story gets even more sad.  About four hours after driving past the accident, I returned the same way only to find something so unbelievable.  The truck had been up-righted and was gone, it had been hauled away, most of the people were gone, and only a few big bags of supplies remained on the side of the road.  I noticed 3 or 4 Haitians sitting with the few remaining bags but then I was horrified to see that the bodies were still there, laying under the branches in the sun.  Four hours had passed and everything of importance was gone except the bodies of someones loved ones.   Are you kidding me?  A truck and its cargo are more important than getting these poor innocent bodies to a morgue or even out of the sun?

Just another sad reality in this beautiful Country I now call home.

Challenge:  To stimulate by presenting difficulties.

Amanda “God gives her challenges” Pettit….. sounds right.

Steven “Has a challenge every day” Pettit……makes sense.

Life in general can be a challenge at times, add a different language, different culture and three kids (one a teenager) into it and it becomes CHALLENGES.  We don’t go looking for challenges everyday or get really excited when they come our way, but we try to roll with them by trusting our Good God.  Our latest challenge is home schooling our three kids while we try to do ministry.  Allie has left unexpectedly, leaving us to fill the gap until God shows us our next step.  We have applied for a new teacher, called the Christian school here hoping that the kids can do at least one class there next year and, we have PRAYED.  We trust Bondye (Good God in Creole).  Bondye has this.  Bondye wants what is best.  Bondye is able.  My arm may be to short, but His is not.

As part of our new homeschooling adventure the kids will be guest blogging with us.  My hope is that as you read their blogs you will pray for them.  Yesterday I asked Stevie if he would blog for us, he agreed and in typical boy style wrote five words.  So, today we will start with Jayden while Stevie adds another five words.

When you are driving through the streets of Haiti what do you see? When you are in church praising the Good Lord what do you hear? when you are meeting different pastors from different parts of the country what do you remember? These are not trick questions but thoughts that tend to change how you look, hear, and memorize things. When you live in Haiti you get a lot of questions and you hear a lot of observations.

To tell you the truth, when I first arrived in Haiti I was too tired to notice anything but the dark skin and the baskets on the sidewalks. But when you are totally emerged in a culture that is not your own for eleven months, you notice things the new arrivals do not. Like how every person you see on the the sidewalk looks tired and falls asleep when they can. Whether it’s on a wall or a chair, the ground, and even in wheelbarrows. How the children who earn their living by washing car windows with a dry washcloth,their lips are always dry and cracked.

How each Haitian seems to have their own unique skin color, and how they all do their hair in different ways. How the children with the same school uniforms kind of walk to school together, with the little ones in front and the bigger ones towards the back. To some of us, Haitians all look alike. I am guilty of it too, but after asking God to open my eyes, I understand that it doesn’t take a special person to notice the details. The details do matter because just like God created us all differently, he created the Haitians people that way too.

Sometimes it is hard to imagine that God knows not only the number of hairs on our heads, but also all of the hairs on the Haitians heads too. Just like in God’s house when we are all worshiping him together, whether it’s in the states or it is in Haiti, everyone has their own unique voices. Yet what some of us don’t realize is that we are all praising the same God. He does not care just for the rich people, or the ones with lighter skin, or the people with wavy hair. But all, whether black or white, tall or small, in the states, or out of states. To God we are all beautiful and all different, all unique.

Just like all the christian pastors in the world have a different relationship with the ONE who loves us. So it is the same with the sheep. No sheep is perfect, but they are all different, and they were all created by the same God. Thank God for differences, because I can’t imagine what it would be like if everyone looked the same. We Would live in a world of clones!

By:  The incredibly beautiful Jayden

We have a superhero that lives in our house.  His name is Mr. Incredible, but he uses his hidden identity name Steve mostly.  He has super strength, that even he is not aware of.  He has been know to touch something and break it.  When that happens he claims “I barely touched it”.  But, we know the truth…….he is a superhero.

A few months ago we were on our way to the store which sometimes can take 15 minutes and other times 2 hours.  It was one of those two hour days, traffic was backed up for a mile.  We groaned and did our usual complaining about traffic and came up random scenarios of why it could be backed up.  Most of the time it is a police officer directing traffic, in which he has no training to do so, but that is a different blog.

As we slowly made are way up the road we saw the problem, a LARGE truck was trying to back up in an alley when it broke down.  There were five skinny little Haitian men trying with all there might to move the truck up the hill out of the way.  This is when Mr. Incredible aka Steve said “I think I will help them”.  Well, okay……. he got out of the truck, walked over to them, I turned around to see all the action, they just stared with huge eyes at this “blan” offering to help.

With one major push the truck moved up the hill at a speed that the five little Haitian’s could not keep up with.  They all fell back and Mr. Incredible moved the truck by himself.  They all cheered loudly and gave him fist bumps and high fives, I could only laugh.  Traffic began to move and the day went on.  I still think that those men talk about that day.

In recent days we have started to notice that we have a Baby Incredible in our family as well.  She is disguised  as a cute little girl that wears dresses and climbs tree’s with her Barbies.

*Blan or Blanc is a term in which people of Haitian Nationality refer to light skinned Americans.  We hear it everyday and have even noticed when someone saves our cell numbers in their phones they put us under Blan.

First Medical Clinic of the year with the Oklahoma/ Kentucky team.

The man looking up at the camera smiling is one of our favorite Pastors, he is young and has a great heart and vision for his community.  We will be back at his church to build a new school in April with Chicago First Church.

This women was seen last, on the last day of our medical clinic, she had stood in line for two days with a wound almost to the bone.

Steve putting another roof on a church.  He has some “mad roofing skills”.

No, those are not safety glasses….they are her very cool sunglasses.

Can you find Stevie?