When we arrived at what we’ve come to know as the “center” of Chadirac, where the coffee trees are being grown, a couple of us realized that the bumpy ride had caused a “nature call” of sorts, and as a result, we got to be the first on our team to experience the community pit latrine.  Allow me to say it was a PLEASANT suprise.  It was incredibly clean, concrete, and had seemed to have no smell at all.  That may seem trivial to share, but believe me, when you are over an hour up a mountain and that is the only toilet, it matters!  Those who built it did their job well.

Our job for the day was to clear the space for what will eventually be the community coffee wash station.  This central location will allow all the families in the community to work together to process their coffee beans and prepare them for the drying process, after which they will be packaged and shipped to Land of a Thousand Hills in Atlanta. This meant that multiple banana trees would be cut down, their stumps removed from the ground, and all of the material used to create a retaining wall on the downhill side of the hill.  Then we would pull the uphill dirt down against it to begin to fill in and create a more level area.  Dirty work?  no doubt.  Tiring?  YES.  fun?  ABSOLUTELY.  We all hit the ground with picks, hoes, and rakes and it seemed like community members just started appearing from everywhere.  We worked solidly for 2 hours, and the hillside slowly began to transform.

Changing up the afternoon, we jumped back in the 4x’s and headed up the hill to the twice a week market day at Gwayavye.  As we wandered through the crowded marketplace on the top of a hill, the smells and sounds of the local vendors seemed to consume your senses.  It was an area awash with color, laughter, food, families, and excitement.  Then we headed over a few hillsides to the nursery where the second set of coffee plants is being grown.  As a treat, we took a hike up what looked like a goat trail to the top of a hill that provided us with an amazing view of Haiti’s surrounding countryside.  While the climb seemed straight up, the view at the top was worth it.

Upon our return down the hill to town, we ran our usual pre-dinner routine of cleaning up, then enjoyed our dinner of rice, pototoes, and a conch, fish, and shrimp combination that was delicious.  Post dinner, we began to share our stories for the day, and please believe me when I say that if you know any of the members of this team, you will want to ask them to share their experience with you when they return.  These evening debrief times have become a valuable piece of the trip, and something we all, I believe, look forward to every night.  Until tomorrow, adieu.

to see pictures of day 4, visit the Chadirac and Gwayavye set on Flickr

One of the specific challenges we have charged each member of our team with on this trip is to look for a specific story within each day that when combined will weave a tapestry picture of our time here collectively in Haiti.  More than just a visual, or a thought, the story allows us to re-enter the moment, to take it with us, and to share it with others.  At night, we share these stories with each other as a means of beginning to actively process what is happening around us and happening to us.

Tonight, while we shared stories about first airplane rides, first ocean swims, and some of the happier moments of the last two days, we also began to wrestle with some of the more difficult stories that are beginning to unfold as a result of some of the things we saw and experienced during our first full day in Haiti.  Wrapped up by a beautiful drive up the coast to Saint Marc, today was spent predominantly on touring the earthquake damage in and around Port Au Prince.  We saw the tumbled Presidential Palace and the destruction that consumed the Cathedral.  In contrast, we saw a beautiful, resolute, and enduring people, determined to see their stories continue.  Many of them now find themselves gathered in groups of thousands in ad-hoc tent cities where beautiful parks used to gather similar sized crowds for concerts or sport.  Their lives have changed.  As Ronald, our translator, said tonight – “The beauty of the city has disappeared, but not the people.”

As we talked, people began to voice thoughts they had fought through the day like “This seems so unfair” and “Do I really have to say ‘no’ when it would be so easy to just give a handout?” and “How can I communicate care and concern with someone whose language we don’t speak?”.  It would be a lie to say that we didn’t struggle today.  We’ve been asked to give no money, to leave nothing behind in charity, but rather to trust the 410 approach where Haitians are empowered to work together to move beyond recovery to long term growth and development and where we work along side them in that process.  We saw today people who have come to depend on  handouts.  While we trust that the hand-up approach is better for the Haitians long-term, believe me, it is not easy to say no.

Eager and ready were the two most common sentiments tonight as we look forward to tomorrow.  Tomorrow, we go to our 410 community and get to see the 410 model in action.  Tomorrow we will bring our encouragement to a people already set on seeing their story change for the better, and we get to receive from their gifts as we begin to build a relationship with the people of Chadirac, Haiti.

See multiple photos from days 1 & 2 in Haiti on Flickr here.

Prompted originally by our daughter Emily’s interest in Haiti following the earthquake, and because of her desire to either drill a well or otherwise help provide a water solution for those who she saw struggling on the news, we began to investigate serving in Haiti about a year ago.  Through that process, we found out that our friends at Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee were also looking into Haiti, and had found a community interested in working with them to develop a new coffee cooperative.  As their planning progressed, so did ours. When LOTH decided to partner with 410 Bridge to facilitate and service the logistics of bringing in teams, we were ready with our team of 12!

Now we are off to Chadirac.  The next seven days will be filled with new experiences, new sights, new insights, and new relationships.  For some on our team, it will be their first time out of the country.  For one, her first time on an airplane…ever… and she is in her 60′s.  Stretching your boundaries is good for you.  Its how you grow, and most assuredly, this next week will be a time of growing.  I just feel that in my gut.  I don’t know what God has for me in this next week.

What will it be that will stretch me?  I know it’s there.  I just won’t know until I am in front of it.  Perhaps it will be the abject poverty.  Perhaps the joy that some have in the midst of it.  Perhaps something I’ve not even considered.  I think that is what has my mind racing the most right now…

What lies on the other end of this journey that begins in four hours?

Join the SOC Haiti team as we grow, learn, and serve along with our new Haitian friends.  Stay tuned!

see updates on the SOC facebook page

-Chad Houck

As our drivers stopped on the dirt road about 30 minutes out of Saint Marc and shifted our 4 wheel drive vehicles into low, we knew we were about to experience a ride into coffee country.  The next 30 minutes were some of the most beautiful, green countryside we’ve ever seen while holding tightly to a car door handle or headrest! We climbed what seemed like several thousand feet, and all at once, the cars stopped. We had arrived in the community of Chadirac.

While I couldn’t seem to tell you exactly what I had expected, I can tell you that what I saw wasn’t it.  Almost as if out of nowhere, as soon as we stepped out of the car I realized two long, black awnings of shade netting that were the covering on the nursery for the ever-precious coffee seedlings that are being grown here.  Another team had helped construct the structures and build the terraces.  Yet another would sit in the dirt and begin the tedious, seemingly unfulfilling job of filling tens of thousands of plastic bags with dirt.  Today as we began our part in the story, by gently weeding and caring for these little 5 to 6 inch coffee trees, we can proudly say to those teams “Bon Travay” or good job!  Your work is paying off as the people of this community testified to through their obvious pride when showing us how to do our job.  There is an investment here that can be seen, and its more than just plants.  It has morphed into pride, honor, and dignity among the men, women, and children of Chadirac.

The day went quickly as we attended to the various needs around the community.  Beyond weeding row after row of coffee plants, more bags of dirt needed to be filled for additional plantings.  A new group of citrus tree seedlings, both Orange and key lime, needed to be moved in under the shade, several hundred of them.  It was slow, simple work, with an understanding that the value was soooo much greater than the sum of the effort expended.

We wrapped up the day with some relational time a short walk away at a small adventist church perched on the side of the mountain.  We shared a greeting, talked for a short while about how Solomon instructed his children to “Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart, and lean not on your own understanding” in Proverbs 3, and then broke to a crazy time of activity that included jump rope, blowing bubbles, painting finger nails, and throwing frisbees.  We even had a beach ball flying around for the better part of thirty minutes until the terrain got the best of it!

Almost as suddenly as it began, our time with our new friends had come to a close for the day.  We said thank you and good bye, promised to return for another day of fun and fellowship tomorrow, and loaded our vehicles for the descent back to Saint Marc.  On our return and arrival, the stories flowed.  Names we couldn’t pronounce or spell flowed with our best attempts to connect them to all the faces we had seen and hands we had held.  It was a day that in a word, was precious.  And another one would be shortly on the way…

Photos of today can be seen on our Flickr account here

Our surgical team, including Drs. Hobar and Sklar, OR Nurse Janet, Anesthesiologist John, and many others did their amazing work swiftly and skillfully, and we received hourly updates from the OR via cell phone, which allowed us to post the updates to waiting friends and family via twitter and facebook.  By the time the third update call came, it was interrupted by the craniofacial surgeon, Dr. Hobar, walking into the waiting room.  As his colleagues were closing, he was already out there to share the results with us.

The most comical comment of the day?  When Dr. Hobar arrived, Emily commented, “Did he already wash his hands?” daddy: “Well, yes Emily.  He had on gloves and a gown and a mask while he worked on Bethany, but I’m sure he’s washed his hands.”  Emily:  “Good.  I bet he had slimy, goopey stuff all over them.” (said with a slightly devious grin…)

About two hours later, Amy and I were allowed to go see her in ICU.  This is what we saw (see photo).  Fully bandaged, you could see very little, but you could tell her facial structure had changed.  Her eyes were not yet swollen, and a couple times she opened them and looked back and forth at Amy and I.

In the hours that followed, her eyes would swell shut, which is totally normal.  By morning, the doctors would remove her bandages.  Once removed, her head would begin to swell in the abscence of the compression the wrapping provided, but this too is part of the process they had prepped us for.

Morning would usher in a new day and by around 10am, Bethany’s cathater was removed, her arterial line was out, and the drain line on her skull was removed.  With nothing but her IV’s left, and her vitals stable, she was cleared for her move off the Ped ICU to the normal Pediatric floor.  This meant that Emily and Dillon would finally get to see their baby sister, something we had hoped would happen.  In fact, we kept the kids in Dallas an extra night just on the chance that Bethany would move off ICU the next day.

Prepped by the Child Care team from Med City, and after seeing photos of similar babies in similar swollen states, the kids got to see their sis at about 11:30 on Wednesday.  Her eyes were swollen shut, her head swollen to what seems like twice its real size (think Will Ferrel’s Blue headed character “MegaMind”), and they could clearly see the stitched incision that now runs from ear to ear on her head, but they still wanted to see their missing third.  As you can see, they didn’t care too much that she looked, as they said, “just a little scary.”

It is now late on day 2.  The kids have returned to Sulphur Springs with their grandparents to return to school and a somewhat familiar routine.  We wanted them to re-enter something familiar, and we are so blessed with great teachers and friends in Sulphur Springs that we knew it is where they needed to be.  Amy and I will be staying here in Dallas for a couple more days and nights.  Miraculously, after literally having her head sliced from ear to ear and having sections of her skull cut apart, repositioned, and reattached, our baby girl could be heading home as early as Friday night.

God is good because it is his nature.  He doesn’t have to work at it, He just is.  Skilled doctors are skilled because they have dedicated their lives to getting good at what they do.  In the weeks that passed, and certainly in the weeks that are yet to come, I am glad that both of those facts are fact. I love and serve a good God, who has given life to us individually, to my family collectively, and to my daughter specifically through the hands of a gifted, talented group of caring professionals that shared their gifts.  We cannot thank you enough.

Thanks to all of you who have called, tweeted, facebooked, texted, written, given, loved, cooked, driven, and even cried.  You have shared your lives with us and allowed us to share our struggles and fears with you, lightening our load.  We are well cared for, and for that, we are grateful.  Now – it’s time to go hold that little bitty hand and thank God once again.

Be blessed.  Share Well.

See all the pre and post-op photos on our Flickr account.

First the not so fun stuff- the surgery. To clarify, she is having a cosmetic surgery procedure on her skull, not brain surgery. Her premature fusing of her suture lines in her skull has caused the plates to both stop growing on one side, and grow atypical on the other. The results are seen in the uneven balance of her eye socket size and placement, the slight tip to the left of her nose, and an asymmetrical forehead shape. All of these things will be corrected by the surgical team using material similar to dissolving sutures in the shape of plates and screws that will be attached to her current bone. By separating different plates an securing them with these screws, removing some bone, then replacing and augmenting other bone with this material, the team will construct a more balanced facial and head structure that will allow her head and brain to grow in a more healthy manner. To do this, they will make a zig-zag incision from one ear to the other. Yep. That is all the tough parts. You can see more about the procedure and see some photos here. (note: due to advances in process and the use of the plates and screws, Bethany will likely never see a helmet.)

Now the good news! 1. Bethany does not seem to be having any further seizures. that means that her medication is working as it is supposed to. 2. Since moving “full time” to Texas to undergo this adventure, we have been able to enroll Bethany in the Texas healthcare system, and we have gained access not only to the phenomenal doctors and facilities like Children’s Medical Center and Children’s Medical City Dallas, but we have also begun working with an amazing team of Occupational and Physical Therapists. Bethany has about 6 appointments a month with them, and just completed a full 2 hour analysis last week.

She is meeting all of the expected benchmarks as far as social and neurological developmental stages, and seems to only be lagging by about 2 months in physical development, specifically her muscular tone in her stomach area (core) and left arm and shoulder. Considering that her left shoulder was impacted during delivery, and that her inability to push herself up on that arm to a sitting position is likely causing her lack of core development, both of those two issues should respond well to active physical therapy. She is not yet crawling, however she can stand and balance on her own on daddy’s hand… (yes, you heard that right…) in fact, that is one of the things building her core muscles! All in all, she is in great shape both physically and mentally to be going into this surgery. She is giggling in my lap as I type this.

So now we wait. We have just less than 3 more weeks before the surgery. We will go to Dallas the week prior for a final consult appointment with the Neuro team and for Amy and I to donate blood. Since we haven’t had her typed yet, we don’t know which one of us is the matched donor, so we’re saving her a needle poke by each taking one ourselves. Amy’s parents will be arriving around that time to help with transporting Emily and Dillon to and from school the week of the surgery, though we will all be at the hospital together during the actual procedure. They will probably come home with Grandma and Grandpa that night or the next day.

We appreciate your continued prayers. We have been blanketed with such a great peace about this whole process that we know you must be praying. We will continue to trust God for our expected outcome!

“You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.” -Isa 26:3

We first saw Pacific park during Sulphur Springs Work Camp, as 3 of the crews that I was supporting were painting homes for residents in that area.  One home was directly across the street from the park, and Emily and Dillon saw a few children playing in a great little water fountain area the first day.  I promised them that they could bring their swimsuits the next day and join in.

The next day, Emily and Dillon (along with about 12 hardworking highschool age student missionaries) took full advantage of the water in the splash fountain in the 104 degree heat.  Playing alongside them were several kids from the neighborhood.  Their faces shouted their their joy like a loudspeaker.

The faces of the parents, brothers, sisters, and aunts sitting around and watching them, however, told a different story.  The faces showed struggle.  The attitudes betrayed their thoughts.  You could tell we were outsiders, and they seemed to wonder why we were there.  We played anyway.

That day, as I rounded the corner of the park, I noticed how run down the sign was.  It looked like it was riddled with bullet holes, the paint was peeling, and it just generally looked as depressed as the faces I had seen earlier.  I remember thinking, “Somebody should do something about that.”

As you can probably predict, before the week was out, we realized that “somebody” meant “us.”  Using lumber donated by a local church, and with leftover paint donated by the grateful owner of one of the houses that we painted (the one facing the park), Amy, the kids, and I began the repair and re-painting process on the four signs.  I spent a day or two replacing rotted wood and getting rid of all the peeling paint.  Then we caulked all the joints and filled all the holes.  4 signs in all, one on each corner.  With each day, we got the same strange looks that seemed to ask “why are these people here?”  When kids would come up to talk to us, they wanted to know why I was getting paid to do this work, and how much.  I told them that I wasn’t, and that I just saw that it needed to be done.  I guess a few of them told someone about it.

By the end of painting sign two, we began to get into conversations with the adults in the community.  Since the lettering all had to be done with a fine tipped brush (each sign took us about 4-6 hours), we had lots of time to talk.  Bethany’s initial seizures and our trips to Dallas Children’s Hospital delayed our completion by a few weeks, but on the day I completed sign four, I had five cars actually stop to say “Thank You”. We met a  youth pastor from a neighborhood church who was shocked that he hadn’t seen the need right in front of him.  I told him that I now felt confident that I knew who would be maintaining the signs in the future.  He smiled, shook my hand in agreement, and headed on home.

Someone told me once that a revival doesn’t start because of great preaching or a nonstop prayer vigil.  They are all important parts, he said, but for revival to start, the true spark, is when the preacher pulls a weed in his own parking lot instead of stepping over it.

May we all choose to pull the weeds and meet the needs that are right in front of us this week.

See the rest of the photos, including a completed sign, on our Flickr account!

You agreed to support us, whether through prayer or finances or laughter or tears, and in return, we offered that we would share with you the ups and downs of our journeys and our life. As calls and contributions, emails and text messages came in over the last months, I saw that you held up your end of the deal.  I didn’t, and I owe you all an apology.  Not the kind of apology that you mechanically make when you accidentally burp at the dinner table.  More like the one you would make if you left the country and forgot to tell your mom…

I’m sorry that I seemingly fell off the face of the earth for the last three months and in so doing cut many of you off from your only line of contact with our family, our stories, and our life.  I’m sorry that I went from about 3 twitter and facebook updates a day to an average of 3 per month.  For some reason, re-entry to “normal” life just kinda kicked me off the grid.  But I’ll talk about that in upcoming posts.

So… for all of these things, I ask you to please forgive me.

Please.

Thank you.  I’ll try to do better.

I think I’m ready to start now. =)

-Chad

That said, we have decided to make a few adjustments to help us re-prioritize.  Some are short term, some longer, and all are subject to re-evaluation, but for the sake of communications, here they are!

First, since Bethany’s best care is here in Dallas, TX, we have decided to stay in Sulphur Springs, TX for what will likely be the next 9-12 months. It just gives us the most peace.  We are close to Childrens Medical Center Dallas for followups, the kids have started making friends here now, and we have a great community here as well.

Second, since we will be staying in Sulphur Springs, we are going to let Dillon and Emily go to public school this year. Sulphur Springs has a great school system, and if we were going to try it anywhere, why not here in the middle of a highly conservative small-town environment where they still pray publicly at high school ball games?

Third, we will be limiting our travel over the course of the next year significantly. This does not mean that we WON’T be traveling, but for the immediate next few months, we’ll be focusing our efforts here on our family and getting the kids ready for school and adjusted to a new environment.  Once school starts, we will shift some of that focus to more fully implementing the Share5 model here in Sulphur Springs, a process which we have already begun.

Finally, we are trying to find a real house (without wheels). While the RV provided us with a great method of traveling and living in the same space, lets face it… its tight.  Especially with 5 people.  If we are not traveling regularly, there is no reason for us to live in the confines of 282 square feet.  Lord willing, we will be moving up to at least three times that space.  =)

WE WOULD STILL APPRECIATE YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT!  We could NOT have accomplished the amazing things that have been done in the name of Christ over the past two years without your prayers and financial backing.  As we shift to this next season, we need them all the more.   We still plan on sharing well with others.  Book one is now out and Chad is working on the next. We have already identified several opportunities to “Share Well” in this community.  In fact, we are in the middle of one such project as we speak.  We will be continuing to do the ministry works that God has laid before us – We are just making adjustments in how we do so.  We hope you will stick with us through this season.
Blessings, and thank you for all the stories and memories both behind and yet to come,

Chad, Amy, Emily, Dillon, and Bethany Houck