Buenos Dias!!

It is yo Nico, on the eve of the next step in the adventure. Tomorrow evening I will be in Haiti for the project I’ve spent the last month/multiple years preparing for. I will leave Costa Rica early tomorrow morning and fly to. . . Miami hooray! And meet up with the other members of the project team. Then fly to Port Au Prince. From there we drive north along the coast four hours to the city of Gonaives. With a population around half a million it’s a busy place. I learned yesterday that 40% of the population there are 18yrs old or younger. This is significant when considering the scope of the ministry we will be working with and designing a retreat center for. Maula Jean Marie and his family are native Haitians and are missionaries with Youth With A Mission (YWAM), which operates in over 140 countries around the world. WYAM generally facilitates short-term mission trips to expose youth to need around the world through service trips. They also do discipleship training for nationals and assist the local church. The massive youth population in Gonaives suffers from intense poverty resulting in a staggering depression and lack of hope. The vision that the Lord has given Maula is to respond to that depression and develop a retreat center facility to better minister to the youth of the city. I am very anxious to meet him and better understand his hopes and dreams for this ministry. I think the potential is incredible. He has asked eMi to design a master plan with several stages of development. Our primary objective is a dormitory to house youth. Also we are developing a design for a large multipurpose building and kitchen. Our team includes structural, civil, electrical and water resources engineers, as well as a couple architects (like me) from several different countries (Canada, Haiti, Trinidad) besides the US. The week we will be on site will be intense. Our goal is to develop a site survey, collect water and soil test data, design a master plan, as well as build relationships with community that this building will ultimately serve. At the end of the week we present our design to the ministry and pray that it meets their needs sufficiently. Then we take the data and master plan back to Costa Rica and spend the next couple months developing construction documents to build from.

I’m getting so excited just thinking about it. The great thing about his project for me is that it will ultimately be for Haitians, not just a place for mission groups from the US to come down for a week or two and leave. Those trips are important don’t get me wrong. The reason I’m here has a lot to do with the two week trip I took to Ecuador in high school. But Maula understands the culture and its youth and has a big heart to give them hope. Im really thankful to all of you who support me so together we can support this man and his family better love as Christ would. Every year millions of dollar of aid is sent to Haiti, which is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. However it has very little impact due to corruption. That’s why I think a grass roots project like this one has great potential because it’s ultimately Haitians ministering to Haitians, particularly the next generation of country.

On a different note I think it is important to understand the intense spiritual climate of the culture in Haiti. The impact of Voodoo cannot be understated. I know several people who have been to Haiti and felt the spiritual oppression in their souls. Voodoo is satanic, and is the official state religion. It affects class structure, politics (leaders consult mediums), the church, (which either assimilates voodoo ritual or is persecuted by it). I’m sort of nervous. Not worried because I know that the God I serve will protect us, but it will be a challenge we must prepare for. I know that this is not the most comfortable thing to talk about in a blog, but it is real. C.S. Lewis wrote that the greatest lie the devil ever told was to convince people he did not exist. I know he exists and he loves to stop people (like me) from doing the will of God. So if you could pray with me about that I would appreciate it.

On a lighter note from what I understand of Haitian people, most are very warm. They speak Creole so all the Spanish I’ve been learning wont help so much. I’m going to have to remember French from 8^th grade. Children are children everywhere and I hope I get the chance to put down AutoCAD and play. We are taking several musical instruments like me harmonicas and I can’t wait to play music. We will be living all 14 guys in tight quarters in the home of our hosts. I’m glad I brought two sets of earplugs: one for my ears, and one for my nose. I’m packing pretty light because we have a whole lot of survey equipment/design supplies to take. This is going to be a whole lot like camping.

As I look back over the last couple years I really feel like the Lord has been preparing me in advance for this. For example I don’t think that it’s an accident that my thesis for architecture was a retreat center and I am now going to be designing one. I still remember some three years ago praying about why I was in architecture school when it seemed like the only work I would do was build big homes for rich people that didn’t need them. Not a week after praying my friend Amy told me about eMi and now I’m here in Costa Rica living it. I really think I understand what David was talking about in the Psalms when he wrote, “delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you desires of your heart.” I’m kind of overwhelmed. I know even before I get on that plane tomorrow that the Lord designed me for this. He put this desire in me to use my ability/joy to be an architect to serve people. And better yet this is only the beginning. I just have to keep being obedient and delighting in him and this sort of thing will keep happening in my life. I know it is rarely easy to do something good but I’d rather struggle knowing im in the right place then be confortable and be totally lost. Thank you Jesus, “I was lost but now I’m found was blind but know I see.” You made me for this.

In that spirit I have several prayer concerns that I would appreciate you all lifting up to the Lord with me.

-Pray for unity within our team, that the Lord would encourage our fellowship as we work to his glory.

-That the Lord would give me a servants heart and see/meet the needs of others.

-For safety and protection while traveling and working.

-For strength against evil

-For understanding the needs of the ministry and meeting them in our design.

-For the ministry and its effectiveness in this community

-For the lord to break my heart by poverty and give me a vision of how to better love the poor through out my life.

-For the health of all of us (I’ve been sick a few days but am better know)

-That in our work, play, words, and actions we would love like Jesus

Thank you all so much for helping me get here and I’ll do my best to keep you all updated. I’m not sure what the Internet situation over there will be. Today Tim (my project leader) said that the ministry has Internet but doesn’t always have electricity. (That the developing 3^rd world for you) So you all may have to wait to hear from me until I get back to Costa Rica.

Adios!

Mas arriba y mas en.