Progress on the Ministry for Christian Development Conference Center

In Haiti, roof pouring is done by means of a small cement mixer and a lot of guys with buckets on a ladder.  As you can see, the wet cement is scooped up and handed up to the roof of the building, where it is poured, bucket after bucket, on plywood forms and rebar.  The guys on the ladder handing the buckets up take a "cement shower" as the contents of the bucket spill on their heads and backs.  If you have ever worked with wet cement, you know that such a shower is not good for your skin!

In January and February of 2014, progress was made on the Ministry for Christian Development Conference Center (MCD).  The roof on the building was fully poured (as of the departure of our last work-team in June, 2013, only about 1/3 of the roof had been poured) and a lot of progress was made inside the conference room on concrete finishing work.  There was a bit of a hiccup when one of the project foreman fell off a defective scaffold (a young man named Lyonel or "Lele").  After a visit to the hospital, it was determined that he had no broken bones, but he did need a few weeks to recover.

The vision for this project is to assist our partner, MCD, to have facilities at its disposal that can help it pursue its own vision for training Haitian leaders and can help it gain more financial independence.  Once finished, it is our hope to use the Conference Center for our own training programs like Timothy Leadership Training.  Also, we see the center being rented by other organizations for conferences, weddings, graduations, and other activities.  Financial sustainability is the "900-pound gorilla in the room" of Christian ministries in Haiti like MCD as beneficiaries don't provide much compensation for ministry received.  Pray that this building can soon be completed and put into service for the benefit of MCD and its ministry.