“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

A bad day in Haiti can be a good day.

For example, December 23 some Haitians piled 160 two-by-fours into the back of a truck. The plan was to use the wood to build benches for the school at Fond Baptist. There’s a village called Bataille in the valley not far from Fond Baptist. While they were going to Fond Baptist to drop off the bench materials, they also brought 25 bags of cement, 85 rebar rods, 100 sheets of metal (12 feet long), and some other building materials. The plan was for the people of Bataille to meet them at Fond Baptist. They would carry the additional materials by hand for the two miles and start to put a roof on the first cement building in their community.

This is the truck that had troubles.

The truck, packed and heavy, left at 6 a.m. It can take at least an hour to drive to Fond Baptist. However, half way there, the clutch went out on the truck. In America, we call for a tow truck, we call for help, and we wait for the mechanic to let us know when the repairs will be made. It’s inconvenient, but manageable. Sometimes we leave the project for another day. In Haiti, when a vehicle breaks down, someone walks to town. They buy a clutch, and come back. Then the day is spent repairing the clutch yourself. At 9 p.m. that night, the truck started the trek it began 15 hours earlier. However, the headlights went out. So someone kicked on the generator and held a light over the cab of the truck for the driver to see the road.

At 1 a.m. the next morning, the truck was unloaded. There was a light meal, light sleep, and a return trip back home.

Meanwhile, the people of Bataille still haul the concrete bags and other supplies for their roof: one step at a time.

The Haitians do not loose hope. Even after struggling with a broken clutch, they say that “January is a big month and the joy is so big.” A momentary trouble did not ruin the joy. Now the people at Fond Baptist have at the opportunity to sit inside. They are excited to have benches to sit on at school and at church. Even carrying heavy cement down a mountainside is light when your heart is happy. The people of Bataille are excited to start working on the roof. They will have help from an American team traveling to Haiti tomorrow (Friday, January 17).

A bad day in Haiti can turn around into a good day.