Going Back in Time
[image error]Ira works somewhere in the Kirkland AFB, Sandia Labs complex in SW Albuquerque. He is professional, educated, and can speak and read English, French, Creole, and Spanish fluently.
He comes from a time-warp.
He found out recently that his home town in Haiti is still without clean drinking water. Our church is trying to raise the money to put a well in his home town of Pierre-Brizare. Since some of us were in Port-au-Prince last week, three of us made the trek. It took us 4 hours to go back 4000 years – it felt like what it must have been like for Abraham - their dependence on water and the digging of wells for the health and safety of the people.
For us weird white people it was Pierre-Bizarre. They told us they had a white person there once before, about a year ago. It wasn't difficult to draw a crowd!
An hour's 4wd drive through the mountains from the nearest real town (Henche), this place is both primitive and gorgeous. The people are wonderfully kind, but stuck in a dangerously beautiful situation.
They have gardens, and cows; goats and tall trees with mountain views. There are no alarm clocks ringing, no electricity to go out, no laptops to crash, no dentist or doctor to give them bad news, no faucet to drip or toilet to plunge or money to deposit. But then…
They have no stores, no way to save money or move, no clean water, no clinic, and no Jeeps. There are roosters to get them up, the sun to give light, [image error]neighbors for the latest news, donkeys for travel, and dirty water to drink. They had a voodoo priest to lie and give them good news instead of bad, but he came to Christ about a month ago. Now the truth gives them both hope and fear, for the truth is - drinking dirty water can kill. Jesus brings both living and clean water. Ira's nephew, Pastor Mose shares the living water of Jesus with the people there. We'd like to come along-side and bring clean water in the name of Jesus too.
It's a bit crude, but in the airport someone in our group was overheard suddenly realizing what they had done and saying, "I crap in better water than those people are drinking." Sometimes the truth comes home more drastically when we come home than when we are there.
Somehow Ira's family made it from Pierre-Brizare to Henche. From there Ira made it to Mexico, through college, and to Albuquerque. Now, 4000 or so years in the future from his birth, we would like to help him bring fresh, clean water to the village he once called home.
There are more pictures here, and cottonwood church facebook. This one is taken at a stop on our way to Henche from Port-au-Prince. A beautiful drive!!
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