Participants: Kyle Fiess
Series Code: MMS
Program Code: MMS000135
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00:06 More on that later in the program, but right now,
00:09 we want you to be among the first to see what just happened 00:12 in Haiti in the past few weeks. 00:15 Pastor Ted Wilson, 00:16 president of the Seventh-day Adventist World Church, 00:19 and his wife, Nancy, made a special visit to Haiti 00:21 and were able to participate in celebrations of dedication 00:25 and recommitment in key places where Maranatha Volunteers 00:28 International has had the privilege to serve. 00:32 One of the first stops the Wilsons made was at 00:34 the Christ-Roi Church in the hills of Port-au-Prince. 00:37 Where this One-Day Church stands, 00:39 a large concrete structure once stood, 00:42 a church that had only just been dedicated when the earthquake 00:45 destroyed it. 00:47 Maranatha's president, Don Noble, 00:48 and our vice president for Latin America, Darrell Hardy, 00:52 were at the church prior to the Wilson's visit. 00:55 Darrell, our first visit here to the Christ-Roi Church 00:58 in Haiti was very different than it is today. 01:01 Today is a day of celebration, and that was a day of 01:02 devastation and heartbreak as we came here and saw this 01:06 brand-new church in a heap of rubble. 01:10 Yeah, the members have told the story that they finished 01:13 the church about a month ahead of time, 01:15 eek 01:15 and they had a mid service, a Sabbath service, 01:18 and a Sunday service, and the earthquake came. 01:20 So their brand-new church was used very little. 01:23 So they basically had one Sabbath in the brand-new church 01:26 and the devastation of it coming down. 01:29 Right. 01:30 We saw the pictures out there that they had taken ahead of 01:32 time and the rubble resembled--I mean, 01:34 you couldn't even imagine it was that nice. 01:36 Exactly. 01:38 And fortunately, God bless, we were able to send One-Day Church 01:42 structures down. 01:43 The church hadn't met for another two months, 01:45 as I understand it; is that correct? 01:47 Yes. 01:48 They worked two months without any meeting, not in a home, 01:50 anywhere, zero. 01:52 When we came to do it, they told us. 01:53 We were not aware of it, but it was a huge--they were 01:56 so excited. 01:57 It was done on a Friday afternoon. 01:59 And Sabbath, they had church service. 02:00 Fifteen members from the community, just neighbors, 02:02 came to be with them that day to celebrate 02:04 having a place to worship. 02:05 Yeah, it's great. 02:06 And you can see here that they've expanded off to the side 02:09 of the One-Day structure here, because so many people 02:11 are showing up. 02:12 They're excited. 02:13 They're doing well. 02:15 On both sides. 02:16 Actually, this One-Day Church we put three extra bays on it, 02:18 because that's what would fit, because they had a large 02:20 congregation, so this is a One-Day Church, a larger one. 02:22 And a growing congregation. 02:23 And a growing one. 02:25 And their commitment is to be the first church here in 02:27 Port-au-Prince that rebuilds like their original church. 02:33 That's super, because it's great to see the One-Day Church 02:35 soon going to have its use--it's going to be done with the use. 02:39 We'll take it down and put it up somewhere else, 02:41 so another church can benefit from it. 02:43 And they'll find a way, because God knows how to do it, 02:46 but they've got the energy. 02:47 They made the decision, the determination 02:49 that they're going to do it. 02:50 So that's a good share of the battle. 02:51 The Wilsons arrived to a Pathfinder greeting, 02:54 shared a message of encouragement, 02:57 and then laid the ceremonial first stone for the permanent 03:00 church building that the congregation has determined 03:02 to erect in faith. 03:05 We're here at the Christ-Roi Church, 03:10 which means Christ the King. 03:12 And they were without a church after the terrible earthquake 03:14 for about two months. 03:17 Maranatha Volunteers came and provided them with a One-Day 03:21 Church and it has made the difference between literally 03:25 life and death. 03:26 Spiritual life has now been given to this community and 03:30 it's given them the beautiful opportunity of now 03:33 reconstructing their permanent church because of the sacrifice 03:38 and the ingenuity of Maranatha Volunteers to help them 03:43 in a great time of need. 03:45 Thank you so much for what you've done for Christ-Roi, 03:49 Christ the King church, here in Haiti. 03:54 When we come back, you won't believe the transformation on 03:58 the university campus. 04:00 And if you have friends or family that want to see 04:02 this program but don't subscribe to this network, 04:05 please send them to our website, maranatha.org. 04:09 Everything you see here, you can see there. 04:16 [music] 05:21 [music] 06:17 Soon after the earthquake, the Adventist University in 06:20 Port-au-Prince became a temporary home for 06:23 thousands of displaced people. 06:25 This is the university today. 06:27 Early in February, Pastor Ted Wilson spent 06:30 the better part of a day on the campus. 06:33 He encouraged the students to prepare not only to serve their 06:36 neighbors, but also to prepare for Jesus soon coming. 06:42 Although the wall surrounding the university wasn't part of 06:44 the world church president's tour, 06:47 the added security it brings to the campus was felt. 06:50 Don Noble spoke with Darrell Hardy about this mammoth 06:53 construction project. 06:55 Darrell, I'm looking at an incredible project that you and 07:01 your guys have done here at the university in Haiti, this wall. 07:05 Wow. 07:09 I mean, looking down here, it is How long is this thing? 07:11 How much have you built? 07:12 We built eight-tenths of a mile in total, 07:14 divided in 19 sections. 07:16 Because of the way we worked and different things and time frame 07:18 and then seasons, in those 19 sections, 07:21 there's been 9 sections that have actually ended up 07:23 being together. 07:25 So it's a continuous wall of 4,220 feet, of which this, 07:27 what we see in each direction is a part of that. 07:29 So that is the largest section now of full wall 07:32 at the university. 07:33 All fallen walls have been rebuilt, 07:36 so the university is totally enclosed now. 07:38 Well, that's great. 07:40 It also seems like it's pretty high. 07:42 It ranges from 10 feet to 14 feet in height. 07:46 And I was watching earlier when you were constructing it, 07:50 you've got quite a bit underground, too. 07:52 There's a lot of steel in the pads. 07:54 I poured concrete grade beams, so all the block are above 07:57 grade, above the dirt. 07:59 The columns, rebar in it, horizontally, vertically. 08:03 There's a lot of steel in this wall. 08:05 The foundation is 4 to 5 feet underground. 08:08 So if another earthquake came of the same magnitude 08:11 as the last one, do you feel confident in this wall? 08:15 This will still be standing when the earthquake is over. 08:19 Yeah, it was engineered, right? 08:21 It was engineered totally for that, 08:23 for that what happened and a little more. 08:26 Yes. 08:27 And in terms of its impact here for the university, 08:31 you've been here quite often and watched. 08:34 I know that they had a lot of people, up to 08:36 25,000 people on the campus. 08:38 They were able to get their campus back partially 08:41 as a result of the wall, I would say. 08:43 But what other impact do you see of the wall? 08:46 I see the impact in the administration, 08:49 of people just being able to relax in the security. 08:51 They know that they're not going to get anybody walking on campus 08:54 any time of the day, any night of the day. 08:56 They feel comfortable and safe inside it again now. 08:59 They have a wall that they know it's not going to come down if 09:02 they have another earthquake. 09:04 It's just created a sense of this is our place, 09:06 this is our area, and we have it back now. 09:09 And your students feel comfortable and safe, too, 09:12 I assume. 09:13 Sure. 09:14 There was a lot of question of when there was 09:16 the 25,000 people on campus living, and the children, 09:19 their children coming to school, especially kindergarten or 09:22 primary school, you get that many people living here 09:24 who a good share of them are not Adventists, 09:26 and people have access in and out. 09:28 The parents were really concerned about that. 09:29 So now the parents can send their students. 09:31 They come here to school in the morning, 09:32 pick them up in the afternoon. 09:34 They know they're in a safe environment the whole day, 09:36 which it should be. 09:37 You know, Maranatha usually uses a lot of volunteers in 09:39 projects like this. 09:41 Here in Haiti, we have determined that probably wasn't 09:43 the best idea. 09:44 So who built this wall? 09:46 The wall was built with workers that we've had that have 09:49 worked for us in other places. 09:50 We have 11 workers, some from Peru, Honduras, 09:53 the majority from the Dominican Republic. 09:55 All of them have worked for us before, 09:57 and the university provided 18 workers. 10:01 So we had a crew of 28 workers at times, maybe 20, 10:06 that worked on that wall. 10:08 So everything was done by those, by excavation through finish of 10:11 the wall. 10:13 A lot of the Haitian workers ended up being--taking 10:15 responsibilities and have learned quite a bit, 10:17 so it's a training for us, too, in weeding out some and it was a 10:20 pretty efficient crew. 10:22 You know, you've used 8-inch block here, good solid block, 10:26 and let me just divert for a second off the wall. 10:29 Most of this wall is built with 8-inch concrete block and where 10:35 did you get 'em? 10:37 The university had a block factory before the earthquake. 10:40 When we got involved and started doing it, 10:43 we checked some of their block. 10:44 We actually took some back to the United States to have them 10:46 crushed and have them tested. 10:48 We found that the range between the quality varied a lot. 10:51 So what we did, we decided we needed to step in. 10:54 Control the material, amount of cement used, the vibration, 10:59 the measurement, everything. 11:01 So all the block that were done on the wall was supervised by 11:03 a Maranatha supervisor who was there checking to make sure that 11:05 the right amount of sand, the right amount of cement, 11:07 made sure the heights were the same, 11:09 so their quality control block to get the quality of the block 11:12 we needed for the wall. 11:13 You've trained these guys in their own industry, basically. 11:17 So what's happened there? 11:19 Well, they continue making it. 11:21 And towards the last 4 or 5 months of the project 11:23 when you were doing the wall, they had such a demand, 11:26 at one time they couldn't keep up. 11:28 So I haven't checked with them lately, 11:29 but that would be interesting to see. 11:31 If they still can't keep up, that would be great. 11:33 So Maranatha typically builds a church, school, 11:39 multiples of those, sometimes housing, sometimes clinics. 11:44 Very rarely do we do a wall. 11:46 In fact, we've never done a wall this big. 11:49 We didn't even send volunteers to do it. 11:52 How does this fit in with the mission of Maranatha 11:56 and a mission project, period? 11:59 Well, I think it's a total missionary project, 12:02 because that's what we do. 12:03 We go out in the mission field and we do projects 12:05 so the church can grow. 12:07 The churches and schools we've built, 12:08 previous to the One-Day Church, have walls. 12:11 Why do they have walls on 'em? 12:12 To protect what's in. 12:14 To keep the weather out. 12:16 This is a big wall that's protecting a school which has 12:18 its mission to reach out and educate children, 12:23 but also teaching about God and about learning about him 12:26 so they can come to him, understand him more. 12:30 So I think it's a total mission project, 12:32 because we're providing an environment. 12:33 Just like the churches and buildings we do, 12:35 we provide an environment where the laypeople can continue on, 12:37 preach the pastor's Adventist campaign, schools teach, 12:40 so we're just fortifying a mission outreach, 12:44 which is this university, 12:45 so I think it's a great mission project. 12:47 Out in front, at the entrance out there, 12:49 when we started our first section of the wall, 12:51 there's a company in back that makes mattresses. 12:54 And the guy come over and we were talking about the wall, 12:57 and they had redone a part of his wall. 12:59 But they had done it exactly the same style of construction it 13:01 was before the earthquake. 13:03 So that--till another earthquake comes, 13:05 the same thing is probably going to happen, 13:08 where this wall was done totally different, 13:11 and that hopefully will reflect on the people and understand 13:14 that the education that's given here at the university is a cut 13:18 above, because God is present in that education. 13:21 Feel the excitement as a new One-Day School campus 13:24 is inaugurated when we come back. 13:31 The idea of a $10 church started in 1879. 13:35 Hi. 13:36 I'm Dick Duerksen with Maranatha Volunteers International. 13:38 The Battle Creek Tabernacle was built with dimes given by 13:41 thousands of people, including many children. 13:44 The 10 Cent Tabernacle idea was proposed by a son of 13:47 Seventh-day Adventist pioneers James and Ellen White, 13:50 and that gave Maranatha a similar idea. 13:53 Since 1988, we've built more than 250 churches worldwide 13:58 using donations of $10 a month from viewers like you. 14:03 This strategy provides new churches, 14:05 but it also helps build strong community 14:08 as we all work together. 14:10 Each month, your $10 donations help build nearly 14:13 three churches. 14:15 I want to encourage you. 14:17 Join us in the $10 church program. 14:19 It's easy. 14:20 Join us by visiting tendollarchurch.org. 14:24 Partner with people from all over the world. 14:26 It's only 10 bucks. 14:31 One of the most gratifying aspects of Maranatha's efforts 14:34 to help the Haitian people recover from the 2010 earthquake 14:37 has been providing classrooms for thousands of children. 14:41 Our efforts have been multiplied in a joint project between 14:45 Maranatha Volunteers International, ADRA, and ASI. 14:49 Working together, we will build 100 classrooms, 14:53 of which 27 will be located on the university campus. 14:56 By God's grace, 14:58 may this building be a wonderful blessing. 15:05 [applauding] 15:09 This school will be used for primary children to begin with, 15:13 and they really need it. 15:16 They'll use it in the morning for those young people, 15:19 and then they're going to use it in a double way, 15:22 because in the afternoon, they'll adapt the furniture just 15:25 a little bit and they will have adults in here 15:28 for adult education. 15:30 And I think it is absolutely marvelous what the university 15:33 here in Haiti, the Adventist University, 15:35 is planning to really help Seventh-day Adventists and 15:39 certainly the community as they use the results of a lot of 15:45 very faithful donors who have provided funding for this kind 15:48 of a school. 15:50 Imagine an adult that says all my life, 15:52 I've wanted to go to school, and I haven't been invited 15:56 on that university campus. 15:57 It's only for special people. 16:00 But yet, this school now is going to open its doors to 16:02 the community and allow moms and dads to come in and further 16:07 their education as an adult. 16:10 When that happens, everything changes for the family. 16:13 The economic indicators, the kids are more dedicated 16:17 to school. 16:18 They might have more resources after finding new jobs. 16:22 It's a real wonderful way of supporting the community. 16:27 And in fact, this little beginning will be 16:30 all over the country. 16:32 So again, we're very proud to have this partnership between 16:35 ADRA and Maranatha in favor of the community and the young 16:40 lives here that are yet to be transformed by this gift. 16:45 To give perspective on the project, 16:47 Don Noble spoke with Darrell Hardy at the site 16:50 just one day prior to Pastor Wilson's visit. 16:52 Well, Darrell, it's really good to be here in 16:55 Port-au-Prince at the Adventist University on the primary school 16:57 campus that is really looking good. 17:00 What do we have here? 17:02 We have a primary school complex. 17:04 We have 22 pads done. 17:06 In the end, we'll have 27 on this campus just for the primary 17:09 school here at the university. 17:11 So if I calculate that right, that means there's a lot of 17:14 students that are going to be going to school here. 17:16 There's currently this year about 850 and they expect 17:18 they can bump up over 1,000 with this new complex. 17:20 And right now they're meeting in One-Day Churches? 17:23 One-Day Church structures. 17:25 So now they can move into One-Day School structures. 17:27 Permanent. 17:28 Permanent. 17:30 Boy, that's really great. 17:31 You know, I noticed over here also that you have restroom 17:35 facilities that you're preparing for the students. 17:38 They're going to have a playground out here, 17:40 and it's going to be just an excellent place for them 17:42 to go to school. 17:44 Certainly a lot better than what they have right now. 17:46 Sure. 17:48 And that's what they really wanted is school classrooms 17:49 that don't have concrete roofs on them. 17:52 Yeah, my understanding was that the parents would not send 17:54 their kids, especially the young kids. 17:56 They didn't want them to go to a school that had a concrete roof. 17:59 That's right. 18:01 And the primary school is basically--most of it has been 18:03 condemned, so there's no way it should be used anyway, so. 18:05 And these schools are actually an upgraded version, 18:09 as I understand it, so that they can handle up to 18:12 a Category 4 hurricane. 18:14 Yeah. 18:15 They'll be upgraded and the structure will resist 18:17 140 mile-an-hour wind, which is just above Category 3, 18:20 which is what the educational department requires now 18:23 for Haiti. 18:25 Now, even in this primary school, 18:27 I think we're doing some computer rooms, too, aren't we? 18:29 Yeah. 18:31 Actually, there'll be two One-Day School buildings built 18:33 continuously for the computer room. 18:36 There'll be one for the offices 18:38 and there'll be two bathroom units. 18:40 The rest will be classrooms. 18:42 So why do we just have pads? 18:46 Well, we're waiting for the structures to come in, 18:50 the new structures, then we can start putting them up. 18:54 So we had to rekey, redesign, reengineer, 18:57 and tool up and they could be fabricated to be sent. 18:59 We have one container in the Dominican Republic 19:01 and one on the water. 19:03 So once they get through the exoneration process, 19:05 then we will have them to be able to start putting 19:07 these buildings up. 19:08 So you're ready right now to put these up quickly. 19:10 If we had the containers tomorrow, we could start. 19:12 Well, we have one school up. 19:15 This is just actually a sample so people can see what it is 19:18 that they're going to be getting. 19:20 Right. 19:21 This is not the upgraded steel system. 19:23 This is just a standard One-Day School structure. 19:26 The new structure from the outside will look 19:28 exactly the same. 19:30 All the upgraded trusses and their reinforcing and stuff 19:32 will be on the inside. 19:34 Now, this project remains a combined project with Maranatha, 19:39 ASI, and of course the major funding on this project right 19:43 chool project 19:43 here and the 100 19:43 here in Haiti is from ADRA, 19:48 through hurricane relief money. 19:49 So that's a real blessing and it's going to be wonderful for 19:52 the people here in Haiti and all that children that are going to 19:55 be going to these schools. 19:56 If you start looking at the number of 100 classrooms, 19:58 that's going to take care of a lot of students. 20:00 Yeah, for sure. 20:02 The university president said the other day--actually 20:04 yesterday we met with him for a little while. 20:06 He said that they're expecting that they want to expand 20:08 the university and use these in the afternoon for university 20:11 classes, because the school gets out at 12:15, 12:30, 20:15 so they can have a full shift university. 20:17 They can increase their capacity in the university. 20:19 They're just going to use--make mid-sized desks that work for 20:22 primary and university students. 20:24 So that's going to double the capacity and the use of 20:25 these buildings. 20:27 They are very resourceful. 20:28 That's excellent. 20:30 And this is a good location on the campus, too. 20:32 It's just inside the main gate so the parents can bring their 20:36 children in and they can come right on into the campus. 20:39 And the other thing, too, is it's spacious. 20:40 It's taken a lot more space than they normally would have done. 20:44 Let's walk around a little bit here. 20:45 They've got the playground and there's space between each 20:47 building for airflow, sunlight, so they're going to be in better 20:50 conditions than they would. 20:51 And the noise? 20:53 Well, that'll be there, too. 20:54 The classrooms get very noisy, 20:56 so separating them was helpful. 20:57 Yes, yes. 20:59 Now, will this be a playground? 21:01 Yes. This will be a total area. 21:02 The whole area around here will be a playground. 21:05 One of the remaining school classrooms goes there to fill in 21:07 that space there, which they're currently using to bring trucks 21:09 in, materials and stuff for the remaining classrooms. 21:12 So this is going to be a huge play area. 21:13 Well, the value here, too, is that the administrator can take 21:16 a look at virtually the whole campus from the headquarters 21:19 in the office. 21:20 Right. 21:22 The office will be right there at the end. 21:23 He can see this whole circle and he can also look out the window 21:25 and see at least one of the other seven pads. 21:27 Yeah, there's another seven pads down over the edge to 21:30 complete the entire campus. 21:32 Right. Exactly. 21:34 Well, that's great. 21:35 And how many guys have you had working on this 21:37 and who are they? 21:38 Well, we have a crew here. 21:39 There's a supervisor of the country. 21:41 That's Pastor Amador. 21:42 We have a total of 11 people from--some from Peru, Honduras, 21:47 the Dominican Republic right here, 21:49 and we've had a total of 18 workers that the university 21:53 is providing, local workers that have provided here. 21:57 So we've had--at times, we've had about 20 workers 22:01 on this one site. 22:03 As I think about the potential for what will happen 22:06 right here on this ground, with all those children, 22:11 it's pretty phenomenal. 22:16 Laura Noble was also at the primary school campus. 22:19 She's been in Haiti several times and as you can see, 22:22 she finds great joy being with the children. 22:29 We are right in the middle of this huge school project. 22:34 Came on campus today. 22:35 I was shocked to see how many pads there are. 22:40 That means on top of every pad is a school building, 22:44 is a school classroom, and inside every school classroom 22:47 there's going to be a boatload of kids. 22:52 Can't tell you how grateful that makes me feel, 22:54 because just a few months ago we were here, 22:56 and there are kids oozing out of everywhere. 23:00 And, you know, you start thinking back on your own 23:04 personal experience and thinking what did a Christian education 23:09 do for me? 23:12 I have to say I'm standing here today because of 23:17 a Christian education. 23:19 So it's very personal and I think that to educate these 23:25 kids, not just to learn math and science, which are so important; 23:29 not just to learn how to read and write and get ahead in life, 23:33 but to learn about Jesus Christ and for his love for them and 23:37 what he did for them and that there's something better than 23:41 just this planet. 23:43 So today we're looking around at school buildings and we're 23:49 really thinking about kids. 23:52 Last time I was here, there was all these little girls 23:54 and of course, who doesn't love a little girl. 23:58 So, you know, there's always a ringleader and of course, 24:02 this one ringleader happened to remind me of a girl 24:06 that I went to school with. 24:08 And she ran up to me and in what I thought was pretty good 24:14 English, she looks up at me and she says do you love Jesus? 24:20 And I was shocked. 24:22 She said it in English. 24:24 And I looked at her and I thought about my whole life, 24:29 you know, lot of ups and downs. 24:32 Maybe you've had some of that, too. 24:34 I thought about where I am right now, you know, 24:38 how the love of God has made such a difference for me. 24:41 How my education as a little girl made such a huge difference 24:46 for me. 24:48 And I'm so grateful that this school is full of kids that are 24:56 learning about Jesus Christ, and when they run up to an adult, 25:00 that's the question they ask. 25:03 I mean, that--that was amazing to me. 25:06 And it's so hopeful and I really believe that is the primary 25:12 reason why these schools are important and why these schools 25:17 are going to make a difference. 25:21 When you see children in school, happy children, 25:25 safe children, children learning, 25:29 children meeting Jesus, it gives one a new perspective. 25:38 One-Day Classrooms are changing the lives of children 25:41 all around the world. 25:43 Please partner with us in any one of our church 25:47 or school projects. 25:49 Learn how you can be involved at our website, 25:52 or by calling the number on your screen. 25:55 We welcome your participation. 25:57 For Dick Duerksen and the entire Maranatha family, 26:01 I'm Kyle Fiess. 26:03 Join us again next week for another episode of 26:06 Maranatha Mission Stories. 26:28 [music] |
Revised 2013-06-29