Home Depot Help

I guess it goes without saying that going down to Haiti with 11 other "manly-men" requires, not only our services of passion, but also performing projects that "manly-men" like to do.  Of course we will be gracious and humbled when we help distribute our tents (tarps) and help to hand out food/water.  But a dozen guys need to get their hands dirty - particularly in an environment where there is so much to do..  When I talked to the Mission Director, Debbie Berquist, I let her know that we were willing to do anything to help during our time in Haiti, but were definitely capable of getting a little dirt under our nails - You know...Swing a sledge hammer, dig a ditch, or something sweaty. 

So she has the perfect assignment for us.  You see, the mission has a maintenance depot where they keep all the tools necessary to keep the school, clinic, orphanage, and Hope House running.  In the quake, the maintenace depot's roof crashed down.  Many of the very tools necessary to rebuild it and other assets of the mission are buried underneath.  One of our assignments is to hoist the up, rebuild the truss system, and reinforce the structure including a block wall that tumbled.  "Now you're talkin'!" 

Supplies and tools are in short supply down in Haiti right now.  We had to do some significant planning to know what we are going to need to do this job.  Debbie took dozens of pictures at different angles and email them to us.  We put the pictures on Paul Harris's laptop.  Joey Rojas, an expert builder, was our consultant.  We spent a bunch of time at church last night analyzing the photos (Paul and Joey more than me).  We figured out what needed to be done, but now needed the supplies. 

As I always do with a handy-man project, Paul and I headed down to Home Depot this afternoon - Laptop in hand.  We got helped by one dude who really knew what he was talking about, but once he mentioned that we were putting the materials together for a mission trip for Haiti, we were surrounded by orange aprons that wanted to help.  It was awesome!  So there we were.... a different bunch of manly-men....staring at Paul's laptop screen....engineering this project on the fly from a thousand miles away. 

We had to interpret the situation through photos alone.  We can only bring so much equipment due to the weight restrictions on the plane.  We don't have a huge constuction-sized budget since our buying power wass from portion of last Sunday's offering plate (Having said that, I must say I was overwhelmed at the generosity of the people at Palma Ceia United Methodist Church in Tampa).  The effort reminded me of one of those team building exercises you do on your corporate management retreat.  You know: 

"You are shipwrecked on a desert island.  You can only have 3 things from the list.  Work with your group to rank the items from the list that you will bring.  :>)"

The bottom line is that it was yet another great experience in my ramp up to the big Haiti Mission trip.  I am still amazed at the outpouring of love and care that normal, everyday people have for the country of Haiti.