StephenByxbe.com

The alarm clock sounded – 5:15am…. snooze. Again at 5:20am… snooze. Again… no snooze.. just turned it off. Finally I got up and ate breakfast.. I didn’t get to finish breakfast. I had to go out to the gate and make sure all the workers were here and ready to go. When I got up I had a pretty bad headache, so I had decided I wasn’t going to the job site in the morning. They didn’t need me there anyways. I had worked out the majority of the problems yesterday.

So.. I returned to my room and finished with breakfast. I went back to sleep for a little while.  I didn’t get to sleep too much longer because we were shipping the group out for some touring of PAP. I sent the group off and headed to the depot… aka the soccer field. At the depot the guys were starting to put together groups of 1/4 rebar. They are tying it 20 pieces at a time to use for the foundations. They are also moving stuff around so we can build the storage shed for all of the supplies.

I then headed to Cite Soleil to check on the work that is going on. We are building 1 house and 2 roofs. The houses are starting to look really good. I was happy to get to see the workers in Cite Soleil. It has been awhile since I have seen them.

After C/S I took a nap to try to reduce my headache. It didn’t work very well. After the nap I went to the welder’s house and picked up some doors for the houses we are building. I brought them to the “depot.”

After lunch I sat down and started working on the numbers for the houses. I am trying to squeeze the budget a little bit to be able to offer a couple different things. I spent a good hour or two working on the numbers. I ended up going to Cite Soleil again to look at the work and saw one of the home owner’s. He was so happy. He is planning on bringing me some creole chicken when we are finished. These families are so nice. I love them all.

The day ended pretty nice. Some of the loudest thunder and craziest lightning I have ever seen. It was a fun time. I will admit I jumped a few times. The devotion was fun tonight. Talked about hope… hope for the Haitian people.

Tomorrow the team leaves. Always sad when a group leaves, but good news – BILL FUDGE is coming. FOR A MONTH! Bill Fudge is one of my favorites.

Anyways, thats it for today. Nothing crazy. Just a regular day in the life of an American-Haitian

Always with Love,

Stephen

Finally.. it will let me write. I think my blog wanted me to take the night off last night. However, I stayed up late trying to make it work. No worries. I didn’t disappear… I am still here.

So let’s see. What happened yesterday. OOoooo some randomness on the job site. One of my workers (Fredo) stops by the compound before work. He has a headache, but is telling me something about gang members trying to steal from him or from the workers and shooting at him or someone else. It didn’t really make much since, even after Byambison came out there. But, this alerted me that something was going on. After Fredo left, Ronic came by to give me an update on everything. He told me there had been some confrontation at one of the sites resulting in him only being able to take what they could use in one day. Where we are working now there are a lot of problems with things “sprouting legs” and walking off. There also seems to be a problem with people forcefully taking items… What I don’t understand is why someone would pull a gun on a worker for a bag of cement. Really… are they going to pull a gun… hoist a 100lb bag of cement onto their shoulder and expect not to get hit with a shovel as they “run away” with a bag of cement. This is just me thinking.. this has not happened.. so please don’t worry.

Anyways, I am pretty good about rambling on and on about all kinds of things. I wish I could stay on topic, but I think the blog would probably be boring then. Ok. So, yesterday. I am on foot in Cite Soleil all morning checking out job sites. At first I was with Ronic and then I saw Marconelle walking around so he joined. We scoped everything out, fixed a few problems, heard the real story about the “stealer,” and talked with some friends. The real story about the stealer was – a guy robbed the grocery store next to one of the job sites. The whole community started chasing the guy and he got scared so he pointed the gun behind him and shot, kinda up into the air. If it had not been up in the air it would have hit Rigo or Fredo. That was what Fredo was trying to tell me. I wasn’t as concerned after I heard this. I thought someone came up to them stealing from them.

After this, I had no transportation, so Marconelle and I took a nice walk back to Blanchard. It was kind of relaxing. We had a good talk. I love Marconelle, he is awesome. His new title is “Driver and Body Guard.”

After lunch, I hopped on the bicycle and peddled around Terre Noir checking on the roofing projects. It started to rain while I was riding around which made it kind of nice. I stopped by a friends house and said hello. I hadn’t seen him in awhile. By the time I made it back on my bike it was time to call it quits for the day. I ended up having to run some late errands with Ronic so I made it back to the compound around 8:30pm.

Now on to today. I think 75% of the staff woke up today with a headache and other sickly feelings. We all took a little longer to get going today than usual. Long story short… today was a little more of slow day. However, we finished framing one house and finished with the metal on 1 other. I had to make a bank run and then when I got back everyone, including me crashed. I was out until 6pm. Not sure what happened, but I hope everyone is better tomorrow.

This next week is going to be sad. We lose Ella on Tuesday & Lucy, Gracie and William on Wednesday. Half of our American staff gone in one week… It is going to be a hard time adjusting to life without them.

Well.. look at the time. 11:15pm – only an hour and 15 mins past my bed time. This 10pm thing is hard. Maybe tomorrow…

Goodnight for now.

Stephen

Most teams that come down to Haiti to serve are ready to work. Some more than others. When teams show up that REALLY want to work – we work them like crazy. We have so much work to do here. However, at the same time – we work ourselves to death with them, but we love every second of it. I don’t want to speak for all of the staff but I thrive on teams coming down. Seeing their enthusiasm is so refreshing every week.

This week we have had 4 different teams – 3 that are staying with us. We have built 6 roofs in 4 days and completed a lot of other work. We have been building like crazy! It has been non-stop. I love it when I am constantly on the phone ordering supplies.

So, besides the fact that I am exhausted I am having a great week. One of the teams invited me to go to the beach with them for 2 days, starting tomorrow, so it will be a relaxing break.

Tonight we set up the movie theater on the roof. We had a huge sheet stretched out and watched “Pride and Prejudice” with a lot of the team members. It was a good time.

O yeah. I have some crazy skin problem on my legs. I thought it was ant bites at first but it has multiplied to covering my left leg from the knee down… so I started getting a little concerned (as I did not want it to start taking over any more of my body). I had the visiting doc look at it and the best we could come up with was to treat it like lice, just in case it was some sort of little bugs living on me. I’m not really sure. Please pray with me that this will get resolved!!

I hope everyone has had a great week! It has been great having Nathan back. He was exhausted when he got here, which doesn’t give me a good feeling about when I get back in September :/

Anyways, have a good night.

Stephen

Sorry for not writing the blog last night… I know it probably threw everyone’s schedule off Anyways.. on with today.

Today was Sunday – you know what that means! Church and a Day OFF!! Wrong. We were out of water this morning so me and Jordan rushed to get water this morning before church, but it took us so long we missed most of church. One group was leaving at 9:15 anyways so I had to help them get out to the airport. After all of that jazz I took a nap. That was about the only relaxing thing at happened all day.

William and I left around lunch to go to Cite Soleil and finish the water filtration building’s roof. It has to be done by Monday afternoon because they will be using it on Tuesday – so we are on a time crunch. William and I worked on the roof until after 6pm. It was crazy.. so hot.. and nasty, but we are almost finished.

Around 4 o’clock the coolest thing happened. I am standing on the roof in what is supposedly a fairly dangerous place, where everyone is not just poor but extremely poor. Everything is dirty, sad and feels like there is no hope… when all of a sudden I hear a single voice singing Amazing Grace – in English. I couldn’t help but stop everything I was doing and sing along. As I stood there I thought about all of the people who have nothing but are sitting in this church praising the God of the Universe and crying out to Him saying how amazing He is, how thankful they are for His love an grace. Every time I see this, it reminds me of how small I am… how NOTHING I am.

After Amazing Grace they sang “Who Am I” by Casting Crowns.. hearing this song.. knowing what the Haitians have gone through.. I don’t even know how to explain it. Some things just don’t make sense. I know I wouldn’t be handling this situation the way that any of them are. They are such strong people. I love how no matter what happens.. no matter what is thrown their way, you will continue to hear them singing praises to our Mighty God.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week. God Bless.

Stephen

This morning was the beginning of the shoe distribution at Terre Noir with Soles 4 Souls. Before they started all the kids in the school sang us a special song and did sign language with it!! It was great.

The shoes took awhile to get here in the morning so the group was sitting around waiting but once the shoes arrived it was all business. They ended up seeing all the students 1st – 6th grade, all teachers, school staff and construction workers on site. They really did an amazing job today and they were worn out.

I helped them get started and then I was off with the Mama and Aunt again. I dropped them off at Wahoo Bay Beach and then headed on up to the Port at St. Marc to try to find a truck that was shipped down. St. Marc is about 2 hours away from the compound. It was a fun trip up there.

When we pulled up 4 guys swarmed the truck saying *translated in to english for you “White, white, white we will help you.” As usual, I don’t need help. I took Marconelle with my as my security guard and another driver. The 4 guys insisted on following us around. I did not ask them or offer them anything, but it was pretty fun to have this entourage following me around.

We finally figured out where we were going and I opened the door, followed by 5 big Haitian guys, and said/shouted the guys name that I was looking for. He was standing behind the counter. I forgot to mention I am dressed like Haitian Mafia – Black dress shirt, dark jeans, dress shoes, aviators with a not real happy look on my face. Anyways, the guy freezes. He has a really worried look on his face. I say his name again and he quietly says “Yeah that’s me.” I walk up to the counter and tell him I need to find my truck and it looked like 1000 lbs was lifted from him shoulders. I then realized that it looked an sounded like I was coming to get him with my Haitian crew. He came out from behind the desk laughing, saying he thought I was coming to kill him. We all started laughing.

Long story short for his office. He could not find any paper work for me. The truck was non existent. I call the guy in the states that shipped it and we talk back and forth trying to figure out what is going on. No luck. They find the same tracking number and say the truck has already been picked up. I say there is no way. I talk with the guy in the US again. He is calling Monarch. I am sweating to  death inside this place. The port guy says he can’t wait forever. I tell him to show me where to go look for it. He points out the way. I tell all of the volunteer “helpers/mafia members” that I have no money so unless they want to help for free to disappear. They didn’t like that very much, but all of them left except one. He continued to show us where to go. We go to the dock but they won’t let us out there without the papers. They tell us how to get to the parking lot so we hop in the tap tap and ride off. We are almost there when the guy in the US calls and says that he talked with Monarch and it hasn’t even been shipped yet. Craziness. How did that even happen. So we drove around for nothing all day, but it was a lot of fun. O yeah, by the way, I thought Cite Soleil was the most dusty place on earth. I was WAY wrong. St. Marc is AWFUL. You could reach out and grab the dust in the air with your hands and tie it in a knot. If you were to turn on a Hoover vacuum it would explode in 5 seconds. I was so nasty after hopping out of the tap tap the first time. So imagine spending 2 hours in it. St. Marc makes me think of the adventures of Huckleberry Fin. Some sort of 1800′s port in dirty Mississippi with some random architecture and people EVERYWHERE. It was a pretty neat town though… except I always felt like I was being watched, but I think that makes everything more fun – a different level of excitement.

We finally loaded back up and head to Wahoo Bay to pick up my mom and aunt. I was able to jump in the pool for an hour and then head back.

It was a really long day… and those are only a few details from the day! Never a dull moment down here.

I miss everyone so much and can’t wait to see you all in September. I am working on my detailed schedule now, so hopefully I will post it soon.

Always with Love,

Stephen

I had a headache for the greater portion of the day… and have been up all day long, so this is going to be short tonight.

Up early this morning dealing with workers and broken tools.. maybe that’s where the headache came from. Also, from workers not going to the job site but thinking they were riding with me.

Made it to Cite Soleil around 7am. Took the workers to the new site and then walked my mom and crew around to see the houses we have built already. They really enjoyed it. Especially being in Cite Soleil – the kids are amazing there.

After C/S we drove out to Mission of Hope to pick up some pallets and tents. My head hurt so bad by now that I just laid down on some pillows in the back of the big tap tap. I slept the whole 30-40 min drive. We picked up 35 pallets and 25 tents and then came home.

Lunch was amazing grilled cheese sandwiches and a nap. I was supposed to go to the bank and the airport but the guy at the bank didn’t answer the phone and the flight was delayed. I was able to take a 2 hr nap and slightly reduce the headache. 4 o’clock rolled around and off to the airport I went. Autumn accompanied me to the airport. I am in the middle of reworking my deal with the administrators at the airport so I couldn’t use the easy gate today. I had to use different procedures, but it all still worked out pretty nice.

On the way back to the compound, we were following the tap tap with the bags and all of a sudden the wheel/axle broke on the tap tap. It just kinda flopped off in the road. Pretty sad… Marconelle wasn’t happy. Hopefully he will have it fixed soon.

The group that is here now is going to be great. They are passing out shoes to all of the students/teachers/workers at the Terre Noir and Cite Soleil compounds.

Only one more day with my mom. I think I am taking them to the beach while I go to the port and do some business, then I will join up with them. It will be sad when she leaves.

Off to bed. Talk with everyone tomorrow.

Always with Love,

Stephen

I was pretty sure I typed a blog last night… but it definitely isn’t online now. I even think a few people told me they read my blog… not sure what happened.

Anyways, let’s recap on the last two days. Yesterday I was continuing my fast. I had a few things that I have been praying about and I wanted to take it to the next level. Also, I have been slacking on doing my quiet time and personal devotion so I wanted to take a few days and focus completely on God and get back on track. Wow… let me tell you. I am back on track and focused. I wrote a few blogs and a devotion about God’s strength and how we can’t do things on our own. Lately I have been saying how exhausted I was and going into this fast I figured I would barely be able to function. However, during the two days that I was fasting I had the most energy of the past few weeks. The times when I was starving I was staying awake. I was constantly praying for God to give me His strength and energy. He did. It reminded me that God provides. He makes promises and He keeps them. That He loves us unconditionally and when we ask we will receive. I guess I felt a little like God wasn’t as present in my life as He was before, but times like this remind me that He never moved or changed… I did.

After my fast was over at 5am this morning, I enjoyed the BIGGEST breakfast ever. Almost to the point of making me sick. I had pancakes, fruit, eggs and ground beef, yogurt, bread, juice and coffee. It was awesome… I was stuffed.

Today was pretty laid back. We got the teams working. They were building one new roof, finishing doors on another house, teaching English, painting murals, feeding the children, playing at recess with the children and all kinds of things.

Today I spent a lot of time creating a detailed schedule for the next month and getting details from team leaders. Pastor Leon got back yesterday so he came by the compound today. It was good to see him. I missed him. It’s just not the same when he leaves.

Tonight was the last night for White Memorial. They have been amazing this week. They have really wanted to serve in any way possible. Tonight we went to La Reserve and had a great dinner with everyone. It will be sad to see them leave, but good news is I will see them all in September when I go home!

Anyways.. I am off to bed. Thanks for all of your prayers over the past few days while I was fasting.

Always with Love,

Stephen

The last few blogs that I have published have supposedly been a little depressing & discouraging. I apologize for that.. however, you are getting to see exactly what is happening and how I am feeling. Sometimes I feel limited as to what I can share because I don’t want to scare anyone or give the wrong idea. Over the past few weeks we have had some amazing teams come in and work. Great teams every week – that was one thing. We had large groups for the last month. Back to back to back – no breaks. Large groups aren’t bad.. they just required more attention and work sometimes especially when they are accomplishing a lot.

During the last few weeks we had a few more people get sick than normal. It is my responsibility to take care of the teams while they are here so when GI problems are popping up left and right it gets a little stressful. After almost everyone was well, the girls dorm passed around a stomach bug. There was one day where the clinic was closed due to the fact that we had no workers. So this is where my stress has come from over the past few weeks.

On a good note. We finished all the houses in Repatriote and they are all ready for roofs this week. We are started 9 houses in Terre Noir this morning and made some amazing progress. The workers have been doing such a great job. They love what they are doing just as much as I do.

During this whole time I have been constantly reminded, by you guys, that my strength is found in the Lord. That I can do nothing on my own. I completely agree. We can only make it so far when we do not stay in the Word and draw close to God. When everything around you is so difficult and needs answers immediately and there is tension and pressure – it is hard to stay focused and rely on the Lord for strength. That is where we become weak and He is still strong.  A good friend of mine shared this with me, “There’s a fine line between doing something for God because we can out of our own talents and abilities, which is fine to do of course, and then doing what we do because of His empowerment and presence….doing those things which we immediately admit we could and would never do own our own…that’s when we see his presence and power displayed.”
I pray that I can live a life of service that isn’t based on my abilities but it is based on my willingness to be used by Him. I pray that everyone down here working will strive to be Godly people so that when people see us they see Christ – that all the glory goes to Him alone.

All kinds of things… but one quote in particular is, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” I definitely didn’t have that in mind when I was thinking about coming down here. I just thought this was where God was leading me. I wanted to help people who needed help. I wanted to give to people who had never been given to. I wanted to be broken by our Almighty God for a people who love Him so much. I wanted to be changed.

I have experienced a lot of things in my life, so far, thanks to wonderful business partners, friends, family and all kinds of other reasons. However, throughout all of these life experiences I have never been forced to struggle, suffer, fail or lose. Until now I was never the change that I wanted to see. I only wanted to change people to the way I thought things should be.

After being here for more than three months I know that change I would like to see in the world. It has nothing to do with building houses, running clinics, repairing roofs and anything like that. What I would like to see is people of all nations loving each other. It doesn’t require leaving the country. Love One Another. We all make it a lot harder than it really is. When we build a house for someone, I want them to know we built it for them out of love.

I pray that God will give me the ability to love everyone unconditionally, just as He loves us, so that I can be the change I wish to see in the world.

————————————–

Today was a simple day. I tried to take it easy – but who am I kidding – I knew that wasn’t going to happen. I got the team started on a roof with Nathan and then stared a new foundation with Pastor Luc for the water filtration building. After that I headed to the store for some supplies.

Bill Fudge is almost ready to pour the bottom beam for the new wall at Repatriote, so I brought the cement mixer out to him. After that I crashed. I just laid on the floor and passed out.

Tomorrow I am taking a vacation. Hopefully for two days. We’ll see if it actually happens or not.

I am off to get some sleep. So I will talk with you soon.

Always with Love,

Stephen

I have been in transition mode with the workers, slowly moving some of them from Cite Soleil to Repatriote. So this morning when I arrived. I had random workers in all kinds of random places. It took a good 10 minutes to sort out where everyone was supposed to be working and  then I had to go drop them off in all the right places. Also, we beat the supply truck to the job site so we were waiting on cement to get started.

I finally got everything situated in Repatriote then headed to Cite Soleil. We are completely finished in C/S other the stuccoing one house and maybe a small punch list of things to do. So the trip to C/S was quick today.

I had to run back to Terre Noir before going back to check on the team at Repatriote. I picked up Byambison and a few supplies and then headed out again. The team was laying block for the foundation today so I left them with Byambison to get started.

It was time to make another bank run. My favorite trip ever :/ Last time I was there the guy told me not to wait in the 8hr long line, but to just walk in and ask for him. So I tried it today. I called him in advance and then just waltzed right in. Once again… the people in the long line weren’t very happy. It took a little longer this time because the lady who was helping me was really busy.. but still 1 hr is better than 8.

After the bank I made a few rounds to the sites and the tried to find some IV fluids for the clinic. I ended up spending all afternoon searching for drugs and fluid and never found much of anything.

On the way back from the last pharmacy it started to rain. It didn’t seem like much rain but then I noticed the streets up on the mountain backing up with water. That means that C/S (the bottom of the mountain) was about to get a lot of rain. That is an understatement. When Marconelle and I got down the mountain and into Cite Soleil there was 2.5 feet of water in the streets. We could barely drive through it. There was water up to the bottom of the car doors and water coming over the hood as we drove. It was so sad to see all of the businesses and homes that are on the side of the road getting flooded. I wish I could do something major and help with building the roads and or something that would help the masses. However, I know that I must take it one by one – day by day.

Well it’s only 10:30 pm and I am extremely tired… sooo I am heading up to the roof for some sleep!

Always with love,

Stephen