Planting Light

     I went back to Sodo (Saut d'Eau) on Tuesday, the voodoo capital of Haiti and some say the world.   Last time I was there I had a life changing experience to say the least; I couldn’t get out of there fast enough, an evil place.  We don't talk about evil very much back in the states, but here it's out in the open.  Voodoo is evil. I've personally witnessed how awful it is. It's not some "culturally" different ritual or some legitimate form of religion, it's the worship and practice of evil.  The best way I can explain it is by giving examples: children will come for the treatment of cholera but will be beaten from head to toe because their parents took them to the voodoo priest first and he tried to beat the sickness out of them.  We had a mentally ill lady who had been severally burned with a hot iron, they tried to burn out her sickness, unfortunately there was nothing we could do and she passed away. Horrifically, these are not unordinary. The challenge isn't if you or I believe it or think it's crazy, it's that they believe in it and until they stop believing it, this country will never change.

      A few years ago a gentleman came down to Haiti and visited our mission and during his time here he fell in love with the Haitian people.  Tragically that man passed away recently, but his family remembered his love for the people here and has raised the money to build a church and I am honored to help in the process.

    So Tuesday we traveled out to Sodo to drive some stakes and mark where this new church will be planted.  We joined in prayer that it would be a beacon of light in that area, a place where people would be loved, a place of refuge for the hurting and a place of strength to those that are willing to stand and face evil. We'll be heading out there everyday over the next few weeks, please keep us in your prayers and I promise to post some updates.

We also started a new well in a pretty rough place on Wednesday.  A couple weeks ago there were some land disputes, lots of tires burning/gunfire, but we're hoping that's all past.  It's in one of the new villages that have popped up after the earthquake, thousands of squatters move in so fast they kind of take ownership.  There is no water there now for the thousands of people living there so please pray that we get clean water for them.  It's a sad place to be while you are there because it's right next to one of the mass graves located near us, if you look at the picture below you can make out the fencing blocking people from building on it.  But maybe someday soon, with clean water, schools, soccer fields and the love of Jesus Christ ,this can become a welcoming place. 

Grace & Peace,

Barrett

I share the story my experience in Sodo in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGHMuKGD5Ms

 

The old makeshift tent church we are replacing.

 

 

Fellow Missionaries Chris Brumley and David Heady as well as Pastor Kelly 

 

 

 Some of the church members were waiting to meet us

Love that they came to worship regardless of the conditions, soon they will be in their new home!

 

Footers for the new church all dug out!

 

Beginning to Drill

 

the field is one of the mass grave sites

 

loading up to head to church, thank you to all of our sponsors for helping us have a safe vehicle!

 

 

Braxton helping put out the brush fire next door

 



heading back to Sodo up the mountain, no guard rail (only about 1,000 ft. straight down)

 

the fire truck (yes, we have a fire truck, water transport and to help Braxton fight fires) needed a little jump start.

 

 

New blog coming soon with some exciting soccer news!

Hint. It will include the word...bulldozer!

 

 

Christmas Letter, Prayer Magnets and Addresses

Merry Christmas from The Todd Family! 

Below is the Christmas letter and prayer magnets we sent out. 

If you didn't get one, you must not be on our mailing list or we don't have a current address for you! 

If you'd like to start receiving our mailings please email us with your address.

toddfamilyhaiti@gmail.com

One Body with Many Parts - Thankfulness

 

 One Body with Many Parts

 

 

 

This post is about thankfulness.  The pic below is me twisting a piece of wire around a cross section of rebar.   The wire itself isn’t that strong, but once it’s twisted, doing its part in connecting the whole flooring section of rebar and then incased in concrete as part of the floor we just poured in our first of several youth camp dormitories, it became a part of something incredibly strong.  When I’m in the hot sun sweating, seeing the drops fall down on to my glove as I twist another wire I can't help but begin to think about all of the men and women we all need to be thankful for, how many teachers, coaches, Pastors, family members, friends and strangers were and are a part of our lives that have helped us along the way.   More than likely none of the thousands of children that stay a night or a week in one of these dorms while attending our camps will ever think about the sweat and love poured into that building.  They won’t know about my friend, who is pouring concrete for a living back in the states, who is twisting the wire or laying the rebar and at the end of the day is sending financial support so I can do it here.  They won’t know about my friend who is retired military, living on a fixed income, suffering from multiple health issues but still, at the end of the day she sends us financial support so I can get a drink of Gatorade so I don’t cramp up while sweating in the heat.  They won’t know about my great grandparents who prayed constantly for me before I was even born, that I would put God first in my life. 

Yes, this post is about thankfulness, there is so much more going behind the scenes of our everyday life we miss.  I’m thankful for every one of you who prays for us, works hard every day and finds a way to support our mission financially and I’m thankful for every one of you who I’ll never know about. 

God Bless!

Barrett

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

¹² The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ.

 

1 Corinthians 12:12

 

 

A Baby Boy & a Father's Love

 

A Baby Boy & a Father's Love

 



Happy 16^th Birthday Braxton!!  It’s really hard to believe that 16yrs ago today our first son was born; we are so proud of him and love him with all of our hearts. What an amazing gift from God! When I was thinking about Braxton’s upcoming birthday I couldn’t help being reminded that his birth and existence was one of the most pivotal points in my life.  You see when he was born, I wouldn’t have considered myself a Christian at that point. I really didn’t believe in God.  Looking back now on my earlier life I could honestly say there were times I thought “maybe” but verbally I had more of a “scientific, I need proof” mindset. It’s funny how God reveals Himself to us, some of us know Him all of our lives, others have our eyes opened by friends/family/church and then there are us who God speaks through in unconventional means…

I don’t know about all men but I’m pretty comfortable saying that most of us are pretty clueless on what’s about to happen when our wives are pregnant.  You see, a woman carries the baby, the whole time having that constant connection, that relationship with their child…she “knows” her baby.  Us guys (at least I was ) are like “yep, we’re having a baby, that’s cool huh?”  Yes, I knew Carrie was pregnant, I felt the kicks in her tummy, I witnessed the morning sickness, the birthing classes with the hippie lady, but I didn’t “really” know what was about to happen. 

On Dec 4, 1997 Braxton Ayers Todd was born at Mac Dill Air Force Base in Tampa Florida and I got to meet him for the very first time.  I was overwhelmed, here is this little baby that I never met and I loved him more than words can explain and I loved him instantly and unconditionally.   I didn’t understand how that was possible, but it over took me.

As a little time went by and we settled into being parents I came home from work one day and Carrie handed me Braxton.  Like most nights he just laid on me and slept as I watched TV or a movie but this time it happened to be the movie “Contact”.   I don’t remember much about the movie except Jodie Foster is a scientist and her father had recently passed and that her father was trying to develop a machine that reached heaven? Matthew McCaughey was a Preacher that played opposite Jodie.  As I was watching the movie with baby Braxton sleeping on me, a scene came on where Jodie and Matthew were on a balcony discussing the existence of God.  Jodie said that she believed God was made up by man so we wouldn’t feel all alone and if there was an all-powerful God why didn’t he leave any proof? Then Matthew said he couldn’t imagine living in a world without God, she replied how can you be so sure & since she was a scientist she needed proof.  After a pause, Matthew asked her “Do you love your Father?”  she was caught off guard and said “what?”,  he then again asked her “do you love your Father?”  Then Jodie very strongly and heartfelt said “yes, very much so” he then replied “prove it.”   That two word statement from Matthew just turned my world upside down.  Here I was, laying here with my son, whom I loved more than words can explain and I couldn’t prove it.  The most powerful, sure, true thing that I had ever known and it was basically unprovable. This was when my relationship with God began, of course He always had a relationship with me, I was just to blind to see. I used to say “show me a miracle…part the sea, etc”,  now I see God’s existence in everything, there are miracles literally happening all the time just so we can continue to breath. 

I am so thankful that 16yrs ago today that God gave my wife and I our baby boy, he is now growing into an incredible young man, we are so very proud of you Braxton!  I can't wait to see all of the things God has planned for you!

God Bless!

Barrett

Abbi's Week Blog -Nov. 11

Abbi's picture of the beautiful plant she's been caring for

This is a blog post from Abbi (13)
She continues to amaze us with her insight to living here, her compassion for others, her maturity, her ability to "mother" her three brothers and her zest for life. She helps in the burn clinic almost every day.
We love her anpil!

“We” were forced to write a blog - Abbi

We were busy this week, but then again what week aren’t we busy. Me, personally, I love being busy. Every now and then, that couple minutes of down time we get I am up on my feet asking what we are going to do next.  

    This week we were guest housing several groups of people and we had a team of our own. We had a several new burns at the clinic this week and a hand full of school kids with fevers and coughs. We also have quite a few people with infected fingers and one person has it on his leg. I really enjoy being able to work in the clinic (infected fingers and all). I enjoy the medical experience, but what I love even more is to be able to make friendships with all the people who come in. To be able to know them and be able to remember them when we see them in town. We also went to our schools and measured, weighed, gave them a worm pill, and a pack of vitamins to the kids. They were so sweet.

    We have been doing school this week. We now kind of have it down. I think we will have it down to a T pretty soon .

    My favorite thing that I did this week was go to the crusade. I loved seeing all the kids and the people. My chair was covered in kids. I love that we are getting to know the people better and that they are recognizing us and us them. When we got there a little girl came up to me and said she saw me at the Saturday school. I really love it here in Haiti and don’t want to go anywhere else. And thank fully I don’t have to.

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the worlds deep hunger meet.”-Frederick Buechner

                                                     This is where my deep gladness is, here in Haiti

I was forced to write a blog before I could go out to play - Brodie

This week I went to our gran moun program, gran moun is where we hand out food to the elderly. I had lots of fun, there were a lot of people too. I started to grow a little tree that I fixed it up and decorated.  I might paint its pot.                                                                                                                                            

I did some school the science projects are really fun, like when we made a jello cell (with candy in it). I played a lot with Xander and Ellie. I defrosted the walk in freezer that was fun (cool too). When my dad was digging he found a thread snake. It died an hour after we caught it.                                                                                             We caught a couple of tarantulas but they all died. I also learned how to drive the gator.

A another good week in Haiti!

Edible Jello Cell

 

My tree

Post some pictures already!!

We've been trying and today I was able to post a bunch! :)

Dropping Tonka at Agape before we fly out of the US. So thankful for them!

A Great Welcome Home!



Hatching on our floor. Uck!



Catching wild chicks

Do we really need to keep these?!

After the rain

Fixing the road after the rain

Generator Building 2-60's & 2-100's

Painting at one of the schools

 

Fun at recess time.

 

So cute!

Fixing a well

 

Next to the well

Praying over the well

Well Parts

 

Largest moth I've seen!

Footings for youth camp chalet. So exciting!

Rain coming again

 

Making friends

 

She's still not sharing babies

This little cutie stole Anders sucker right out of his mouth

Saturday school

Cowboy Brodie in front of the baptismal tub in the mountains

Lots of help

 

Love this picture.

No adults dropping them off or picking them up. Babies caring for babies.

We are so blessed to be able to love them.