Proclaiming Good News to the Poor (Isaiah 61)

This morning we headed out for a tour of Food For the Poor's headquarters in Port au Prince. The trip was an eventful one, encountering the largest traffic jam we had ever experienced. Six lanes of traffic on two lanes of street, traveling in four different directions, a gridlock that seemed to have no escape.

Liza K "Can't we just turn left here?"

 But, with the help of the Haitian police and the UN guards carrying semi-automatic weapons, traffic was weaved and turned until the mess was cleared. Rules of the road are optional in Haiti!

Food for the Poor is the parent organization for Village of Hope and the Lazarus Project and feeds 1,000 families a day. It is the 3rd largest charitable relief agency in the world, and the largest in the United States. It was sad to see the extent of the earthquake damage to the headquarters, still visible six months later.

Food for the Poor - Entrance / Chapel

Food For the Poor Worker Dining Area - Roof Collapsed

We toured the loading docks for the incoming containers and then followed the process into the warehouse where all the donations are stored. Kitchen duty was next, and we were able to see the production of the daily meal and help serve it to the hundreds of waiting people. It is safe to say none of us can serve rice with the strength and speed of the Food for the Poor kitchen staff and we were humbled by their operation.

The rest of the day was spent completing a variety of tasks. We divided and conquered, working on several projects that Debbie needed completed. Some stayed at the compound, building shelves for the main storage depot, ripping and organizing wood for desks for Village of Hope school. Others continued sorting out donations and delivering to other organizations. We met Roberta, a very impressive woman, orignally from North Carolina, who started an orphanage and school for lost children. Her southern accent and greeting were music to our ears.

Today was the second day without a tarantula sighting, but Hopie (Hope House dog) did catch a small rat. God is good!