Cults & Dictatorships

In recent years, I have witnessed the inception and growth of various conservative
political groups. 

These groups were born out of passion. They were born out of the American people’s disappointment with politicians repeatedly saying one thing while running for office and then governing in a completely different fashion once elected. They were born out of an intense concern for our current state as a nation and the sense that enough is enough.

I fully understand and empathize with all those reasons and feelings! And I also believe these groups have an important and necessary role in keeping our elected officials accountable while raising up new conservative voices to run for political office.

However, I am deeply saddened when I see the good intentions of groups such as the Tea Party hampered by some in the local leadership who oppose strong conservative elected officials and candidates who do not perfectly align with the public stances of the party leadership. And in some cases, their opposition is beyond disconcerting.

Take the last race for Speaker of the Texas House. There were a number of very good, strong and principled elected officials who cast their vote for and endorsed the candidate that many, if not all, of the local Tea Party groups opposed. Personally, I am not a fan of Speaker Joe Straus, and I understand the reasoning held by some conservative groups who wished to oust him as Speaker. However, I also do not believe Scott Turner was a good candidate for the position, and there wasn’t a viable third option. But because of the local Tea Party’s unwillingness to stand behind a candidate they didn’t agree with 100%, it led to unnecessary drama surrounding the race.

This was especially evident in the case of Rep. Giovanni Capriglione:

• Rep. Capriglione had a 94.4 score on the Fiscal Responsibility index from Empower Texans (2013).
• He had a 100% on CWA’s 83rd legislative session score card.
• He also scored 100% on the Young Conservatives of Texas House Budget score card for 2015.
• Texas Right to Life also scored him at 100% for 2015.
• He won "Courageous Conservative" award from Texas Conservative Coalition (2013)
• 95% rating from Texas Eagle Forum (2013)
• "Fighter for Free Enterprise" from Texas Association of Business (2013)
• This past session he passed conservative legislation such as: Ethics Reform, Gold Bill, Stopping 10 fingerprint scans by DPS, allowing the use of CHL wherever DL's are used.
• ...you get the point.

Needless to say, Rep. Capriglione is a strong and consistent conservative vote in Austin, and as one of his constituents, I know I can confidently count on him to represent me. But despite his outstanding record and consistent conservative stances, he was immediately demonized by his local Tea Party leadership when it came out that he was voting for Straus for Speaker. I was completely unprepared for and shocked by the level of vitriol spewed at Rep. Capriglione. He was vilified as a turncoat, a traitor, and even worse.

Why on earth was there such a visceral backlash? Not only is it disappointing, it is also self destructive for the future of the party. We need to all heed the advice of Ronald Reagan who once said, “My 80% friend is not my 20% enemy.” -my own paraphrase 

I admit that I was initially a Turner supporter. Because of that, I asked to speak with my representative in Austin to discuss his vote for Straus. Without hesitation, Rep. Capriglione immediately agreed to meet with me over coffee. When I broached the subject of the Speaker’s race, he sat back in his seat and said I was the first person to allow him the opportunity to discuss and defend his vote.

Needless to say, his response took me aback quite a bit considering the immense amount of character assassination I had seen take place on social media at that point. It upset me that not a single one of the leaders sending out their attack dogs on Rep. Capriglione had even once had the tact to sit down and discuss the vote before attempting to lynch him in their meetings and via social media. 

Zero. Zilch. Nada. No one had bothered to act with class and dignity. 

In the end, here is my point: The demand for complete submission and acquiescence of personal conscience in legislative decisions, thereby leaving no room for honest disagreements, smacks of dangerous precedents set in organizational structures antithetical to the American principles of freedom. In fact, this type of behavior is far more in keeping with two other types of organizations—cults and dictatorships.

I am still a strong supporter of Tea Party principles on paper. I, however, am no longer  able to support groups whose leaders are starting to resemble the tyrannical and manipulative government structure they were set up to oppose. I urge you, my fellow conservatives, to challenge any organization or leader demanding this type of compliance in order to maintain relationship or support.

Words Matter

Words Matter

 “Zeal: a strong feeling of interest and enthusiasm that makes someone very eager or determined to do something”

 “Wisdom: knowledge of what is proper or reasonable : good sense or judgment"

      If you’ve been around me recently and engaged in any sort of deep conversation you probably have heard me use the term, “Zeal without wisdom,” when referring to certain political groups or people. The reason I’ve been using this term is because it is something I have felt that I have needed tempered in my own life and so I feel particularly sensitive to the phenomenon when I see it in play around me, and lately I’ve see it a lot.

      Before I start I realize there may be readers who don’t know me so let me preface this blog with a few disclaimers:

1. I’m a Christian conservative

2. I believe in traditional marriage…strongly

      Now onto the subject matter that has been bothering me for the last week since my participation with the Texas Republican Convention and the platform that was just adopted.

     Where to start?

      I remember in 2012 being blown away at the discovery of some Christians, and some that I even respect in leadership, deciding to just not vote in the Presidential election because they, “…couldn’t vote for a Mormon (Romney).” Thereby giving their vote, by abdicating their responsibility, to a man who has since spit upon our faith, our Constitution and our founding (Obama).

 —Zeal without wisdom.

      What they, and others, couldn’t seem to understand is that we were not hiring a pastor, we weren’t electing someone to the board of a seminary, we were not deciding on a head of a religious organization. We were electing the President of the United States of America. The Commander in Chief of our armed forces and the leader of our “executive” branch of our equally distributed branches of government. I focus on “executive” because ones theological leanings should not necessarily be a disqualifying factor for the position. And, I’d like to take a moment to point out, the Mormon faith is a lot more in line with mainline Christianity, as far as the conduct of ones character, than what we see in the White House now, this is a perfect example of well meaning people cutting off their nose to spite their face.

       Unfortunately, I experienced this same “zeal without wisdom” this past weekend when first reading the horrendously worded portions of our temporary, and what would become our permanent, platform.

       After a conversation last night with a fellow leader in the Young Republicans over the language of the document I felt a tearing in my heart because I could see why the words were chosen, and I could also see how they should never, ever have been included in our platform.

       I know that many who read this will disagree with me if you are upset with the platform, but I’m going to ask you for a moment to put aside your frustration as I will ask the same of the other side here in a little while.

       This is the exact language that was adopted into the platform:

       “Reparative Therapy - We recognize the legitimacy and efficacy of counseling, which offers reparative therapy and treatment for those patients seeking healing and wholeness from their homosexual lifestyle. No laws or executive orders shall be imposed to limit or restrict access to this type of therapy.” 

        I know that the words concerning homosexuality were chosen out of a place of love and not necessarily of judgement, specifically “healing” and “wholeness.” If you truly believe that someone is leading a life that is harmful to themselves and others, I ask you, what is the most loving thing you could do for that person? You call them out and let them know that you think their lifestyle is harmful and you want to help them, wouldn’t you? Would it not be cruel to do otherwise?

       Ok, that being said, they should have never, ever, ever been allowed into the platform. Other that the last sentence underlined, everything else was unnecessary and hurtful to the entire party and could, in the long term, hurt the very goal of this amendment. The Republican Party platform is not a place to disseminate specific personal ideological agendas. It is not a mission statement for a religious entity or a pulpit for dogma. For example: I found it repulsive that the Log Cabin Republicans were not allowed a table at the convention. You want to talk about behavior that is antithetical to Christ? I say, it is the alienation of an entire group of those who you say need Christ, while using the platform to preach to them about their lifestyle. I’d rather the authors of these amendments try doing that face to face, but they are probably too “busy.”

        By denying them their ability to be heard at the convention, and then decrying their lifestyle to the nation we have become no better than the atheistic demigogs who are trying to forcefully wear away the Christian foundation of our country. WE have become the thought police we say we so despise.

       There is a huge difference between strongly coming out in support of “reparative therapy” and its validity as an option to those who are seeking it, I support that 100%, and outright endorsement, that I can’t support. The amendment should have started and ended, with a statement strongly opposing government infringement upon the private decision of an individual to choose or not choose the treatment(s) they so desire. To come out strongly in support of traditional marriage would have been great, but to bloviate on as if the platform was a blog upon which you could merely give your own opinion was unnecessary, and I’ll go as far as foolish. This was not the time nor the place to discuss the morality of a lifestyle and the intricacies of whether or not it is a chosen lifestyle or not.

 Here is the amendment on homosexuality:

        “Homosexuality - Homosexuality is a chosen behavior that is contrary to the fundamental unchanging truths that have been ordained by God in the Bible, recognized by our nations founders, and shared by the majority of Texans. Homosexuality must not be presented as an acceptable alternative lifestyle, in public policy, nor should family be redefined to include the creation of special status for homosexual behavior, regardless of state of origin. Additionally we oppose any criminal or civil penalties against those who oppose homosexuality out of faith, conviction, or belief in traditional values.” 

        I mean, in all seriousness, this is as bloated as the federal government. All we needed to say was we support traditional marriage and oppose the persecution of those who hold traditional values, both personally and professionally. But instead we have become the very demon we are trying to fight. We must stop demonizing every left wing group that demands synchronicity of thought or destruction if we are going to do the same.

        I do not support the end goals of the LGBT movement, I do not. But this is not the way to a stronger party, this is the way of destroying our party. And if our party goes, our country goes with it. 

“Zeal: a strong feeling of interest and enthusiasm that makes someone very eager or determined to do something”

without:

“Wisdom: knowledge of what is proper or reasonable : good sense or judgment

       In other words, foolishly flailing about. We will draw attention to ourselves by doing it, but I doubt it is the attention we want.

Haiti Relief Trip day 7

Had the day off today. Woke up, had breakfast and headed to the mountains to one of the church plants that IMO has to attend church, that was an experience. The ride up there took us through Petionville which is where the orphanage is that I had stayed at 8 years ago on my previous visit. On the way up the mountain we passed by Fort Jacques and the Baptist overlook, also places that I had visited last time I was here. The road to the Robin church was about as narrow and crazy as you could imagine, there are pics on facebook showing it. Straight down drops with no shoulders or forgiving edges for slips, a driver has to stay on his toes.

After church we drove back down the mountain to have lunch for the last time with the West Virginia crew before they flew back to the States this afternoon. After seeing them off we headed downtown to see the damage to the government sector and grab a few souvenirs from the market. The downtown area of Port-au-Prince is pure devastation like nothing we've seen anywhere else on the island! I mean, it is beyond comprehension. They lost their entire government and legal sectors, there's nothing left. I mean, literally, there's nothing left but rubble. Their equivalent to our Supreme Court building was 4 stories tall and is now barely 6-8' of rubble with a 100% mortality rate within the building and the bodies within have yet to be claimed, it remains a tomb. The Presidential Palace looks like a bomb went off within it, every entrance is collapsed on itself. The Records building is gone, the prison is half gone but a total loss. The saddest part was when we drove up to the ruins of a large Catholic church, the first church ever in Haiti. What was its roof is now its floor, only the walls remain, and barely at that.

We got out at a side market and decided to cross the street to one of the larger "Tent Cities" that we had seen and just walk through it, I was amazed by its relative cleanliness considering its context, put it this way - New Orleans should be ashamed of itself. To draw a comparison of the disasters and its peoples reactions to them is to shame the city of New Orleans and it's people...and that's coming from someone who is from there. I wish I could get the aid that the spoiled, bratty, government subsidized babies of New Orleans whined about to these people who would actually cry with appreciation instead of spitting hate and spitefulness, its embarrassing for me. Rant done...

Well, we get to go home tomorrow and I'm happy and sad as I usually am. I do hope to come back and help more...I'd blog more, but I'm tired...

I may regret the emotional opine about N.O....so if you come back later and find that gone you'll know why...

Haiti Relief Trip day 6

Today was our last work day, our extra mile since it was originally going to be our day off, by we’re all happy that we went and finished the project for the Hanson’s.
Got an estimate on the homeless around Haiti from the earthquake, it’s 1.2 million! Not sure how to wrap my head around that number. One of the men who work here at IMO is living in a single room that’s left from his house. His testimony is that when the quake started he huddled his family into that room and started praying and the entire house fell around them except for the room the were in, they were kept safe, wow…
I asked John if the stories that we had heard were true, that the earthquake was causing people to turn from Voodoo and other religions and towards Christianity? He said in ways that we wouldn’t believe. The weekend following the quake they had over 500 salvations and hundreds since then. Another interesting fact is that people are starting to turn to Christianity because the Voodoo priests and temples are doing nothing to help the people while the Christian ministries are spearheading the distribution of aid and helping the communities get back on their feet. At times the Voodoo priests are actually hindering people by telling them not to return to undamaged homes because they are “cursed.” How they come to the conclusion that a home is “cursed” because it is undamaged is a bit daft to me, and I think the people are seeing that contrasted with the faith in action through the incredible ministries here and drawing the same conclusion.
Today we finished early because we had some extra help. We finished around 2pm. We basically did the same thing we did yesterday on the other side of the same building, but this side was a little worse. We had to knock down three more walls whose integrity was compromised through the quake and clean those up as well. We finished three buildings and made them ready for whatever IMO needs to start setting them up to do. John has a vision for the property that he believes God gave him a few years ago even before the land was miraculously given to him. He wants to start a youth outreach program, a facility where he can host youth camps and retreats as well as outreaches focused on the youth of Haiti. It’s a very aggressive vision and it’s a great perfect place to set it up. It already has basketball courts and hundreds of thousands of dollars of buildings on it that have either remained undamaged or merely has cosmetic damaged to interior walls, but the integrity of the building has remained intact.
As I was walking around the building today I saw a paper heart from the school that we had cleaned out laying on the ground among the rocks. It had scotch tape around the edges that had aged to a milky white and faded crayon coloring scribbled on it. It looked so haggard just lying there on the ground, and yet it hinted at it’s original intent: a heart. I thought of Haiti. I took a pic of it and I think it’s one of my fave’s of the week so far.
On the way home we pulled over next the U.S. Military encampment and threw two footballs over the barbed wire to some servicemen that were playing volleyball on a crudely constructed net, they were super stoked when the saw us offering them the footballs! So, we got out of the truck and asked if we could grab some pics of them, they said OK. When we hopped out of the truck we started chatting with them, Andrew pointed out that they seemed starved for interaction with other Americans, I tend to agree with him, they were very eager to just shoot the breeze with us and talk about their deployment. I thought my heart would burst with pride just being that close to them, they are without a doubt the heroes around the globe and I could never express my gratitude and appreciation for the sacrifice they make everyday…thank you, thank you, thank you!
Today we had a moving moment with Frank, our contact, which I won’t share here because it was too sweet a moment to share outside and intimate conversational setting. Needless to say, it was very moving. I only mention it so to remember it when I read this in the future.
The weird thing about reflecting on the past week is that I’m not filled with foreboding or anxiousness at the future of the Haitian people, but rather with hopeful anticipation that this is the beginning of a new day after a very long night.

Until tomorrow…

Haiti Relief Trip day 5

Four days in and the tent cities still shake me. I’m not sure what the estimate is as to the number of people that are in them across Haiti but I’m sure it’s astounding. We hear that the town nearest the epicenter is 90% destroyed; I can’t comprehend that. The first day we were here we were approached by a man on the sidewalk who tried to talk to us in broken English while we were stopped in traffic. He saw the boxes and sledgehammers and asked, “Have you come to help,” with a smile. I said, “yes,” he gave a large toothy smile and said, “thank you, Haiti is broken,” and gave us a thumb up, I asked him what his name was and he said Simon and I gave him my name and we drove off while I returned his thumbs up sign. The next morning we were driving down the same road to the place we were to start working and I heard, “hey, Jon!” and I looked and saw Simon waving and giving a thumbs up at me and I yelled back, “Simoooon,” this has happened on the way out and the way home everyday until today, I missed Simon today.

Today we started work on a third building that had a lot of interior walls destroyed in the quake. It was a metal building on the outside so it held up really well. By the end of the day we had broken up and filled 4-5 dump truck (I forget exactly) loads of concrete and blocks by hand through a back door, we’re tired. We only got half of the building cleaned and swept out before quitting time. Large trucks here have to be off the road by 6pm or the will get fined so being that we’re working a good 45 minutes commute from the compound where we’re staying, we have to be off by no later than 5pm everyday.

Tomorrow was originally planned by our hosts for us to be a day off to see the city, but we decided tonight as a group to go the extra mile and go finish the building that we had started and were unable to finish instead. I think they were a little taken back, but seemed genuinely appreciative that we’d actually opt to work instead of exploring the area.

I think the plan for Sunday is that we’re going in the mountains to experience one of their services, half of me is excited the other half is thinking, “Um, I’m not going to understand a single thing that’s said/sung,” but you never turn down an invitation from your hosts, especially hosts as gracious as the Hansons. We should have a few hours of down time to sight see Sunday afternoon and grab any souvenirs for our ladies back home;)

Laura went to her first opera tonight without me and I’m wishing with everything that I could have experienced her first opera since I love it, but I wouldn’t trade this opportunity for anything.

This trip has reminded me vividly of life’s brevity and beauty.

Please visit the host ministry’s website at www.imohaiti.org

Haiti Relief Trip...

Yesterday was a fairly non-eventful day. Andrew and I finished off the roof while Dad, Manny and Jimmy started cleaning out the massive mess that was inside the building. Andrew and I started tearing out the rafters when we noticed the walls beginning to move and realized the quake had caused massive cracks in the corners causing most of the interior walls to become free standing, and without the support of the rafters attached to them they decided they wanted to move. We notified the missionaries that the building might be in worse shape then originally thought. While Andrew and I were climbing along the 2x6 rafters and “wire walking” the walls the guys were inside working hard at cleaning up the second mess that we had made behind them by knocking down the ceiling into their newly cleaned rooms. The last half of the rafters were a bit tricky because of the wires running through them and the fact that they had bolted two lengths together and the bolts were rusted tight, so Dad joined us up top with sledgehammers and knocked them loose while walking on top of the newly exposed walls. Luckily there were no injuries as there could have easily been.
It was a much longer day than the day before and we were all pretty drained when five-o’clock hit.

Today we woke up to a wet morning as it had rained fairly hard all night and must have stopped right before dawn. We had another great breakfast and got our needed tools together for the job that was ahead of us for the day. We arrived on the job site and jumped right on it, demolishing and cleaning up fallen walls inside a chapel-like building. Originally we had tried to save whatever blocks we could by cleaning them up with a hammer and a chisel….this lasted about 20 minutes. Whoever had built the walls had decided to pour cement through the majority of them making them virtually solid; to those unfamiliar with construction concrete block walls are not solid, they have hollow cavities inside of them. When we realized this we just decided to make it a full on demolition project rather than a salvage project and out came the sledgehammers. We backed the large dump truck up to the main entrance and started a smooth process of shoveling, sledging, wheel barrowing, loading truck with literally tons of concrete and cement block. At the end of the day we had broken up, shoveled and hand loaded 3 large dump truck loads of debris. When we left the building it was swept, empty of trash, straightened up and ready for use.
John Hanson, the missionary we’re here serving, showed up toward the end and gave us a tour of the next project…it’ll probably take us the rest of the trip.

John Hanson has been here for 35 years with his wife and started with a school of a little over 100 kids and preaching from a front porch of a friend they had met here. He now oversees a ministry that draws 120,000+ people to church across Haiti every week in 43 churches, 175 “outstation” churches and leads 310 pastors not to mention the approximate 7,000 grade school students the ministry educates. He is one of the hardest working missionaries I’ve ever met and the best way to describe him is “jolly”, may sound funny, but it’s so fitting. He’s a loud, jovial, large man that is serious about his work and can fill a room with his laughter. His wife came in to dinner tonight with John absent as usual, because he was still out at one of the churches working somewhere, telling us that today she had treated over 115 children at one of the school/clinics. This couple is simply amazing.

It was brought to my attention by my lovely girlfriend that I had failed to really introduce the team that I’m here with, so let me remedy that oversight.

Andrew Bailey: He’s our team leader and owns a remodeling company in the Dallas area; he’s been a Gateway member for almost 2 years.

Garry Gaspard: He’s my father and does roofing in South Louisiana for his “day” job but is praying about going full time with a ministry he started 10 years ago called “Infinity Ministries” that goes around the globe basically doing what we’re doing right now, helping local ministries and pastors with whatever they are in need of.

Jimmy Hedge: Has owned a floor and window company for the past 23 years, he’s been a member of Gateway for 4 years.

Manny Martinez: Home builder in the Southlake area for the last 6 years, has been a member of Gateway for 3 years.

And myself…

Until next time…

Haiti Relief Trip...

Hello from Port-Au-Prince! I'll try to catch you up on the last two days...

I found out that I had the opportunity to go to Haiti with Gateway's relief effort about a week before we hopped on the plane. I had a busy week before so that I hardly had a lot of time to really think about the trip, but so begins our excursion to bring some semblance of help to a disaster of unimaginable parameters.

We (Dad, myself, Andrew Bailey, Manny Martinez and Jimmy) met at DFW at 5:30 am with all of our clothes, etc., packed in our respective carry-ons for the whole week;) This was because we were checking 7 bags/boxes of tools and 3 jackhammers...yes, jackhammers...
Mark Jobe had met us at the airport and we prayed before heading out.
American Airlines were great with working with us in not charging for any of the bags except the overweight charge on the jackhammers (98lbs!) and off we went to Miami to catch our connection to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. We were unable to fly directly into Port-Au-Prince because of oversold flights, apparently it's the place to be this time of year.

MIA (Miami International) was MIA, except less annoying than usual. In about two hours we were off to the DR for the night before an early morning to begin our trek into Haiti. Oddly enough our U.N. contact, for transport out DR happened to miss his earlier flight and was on our plane. After landing immigration was a breeze even with our odd shaped and extremely heavy cargo, may have been the presence of our U.N. guy helping us along, which was great. He and his brother escorted us to our hotel in a very, very old part of Santo Domingo, which happened to be Christopher Columbus' first stop before the "New World". They have an amazing memorial to him which I was dying to go in! Our hotel was an extremely historic building that had been turned into a very nice place. We went and ate dinner at a restaurant on the coast with a deck hanging over the water, I know what you're thinking, "Wow, some rough trip," but just wait!

So, after we ate Dad, myself and Andrew went with our contacts in search of a SIM card or phone that we could use instead of paying the ridiculous international rates on our phones, alas, to no avail.

I set my alarm for 3am...yes, 3am! OK, so it was 5am our time though:) Still, felt really early. We loaded up our heavy cargo and headed to the small airport in Santo Domingo. We pretty much got there before anyone who worked there...not very helpful except the owner of the airline we were using happened to walk in before all his employees and checked us in and gauranteed our cargo all on the one, small, tiny airplane...which really was a good deal, we were worried we'd have to make two trips because of the weight and the size of the plane. I assumed he'd cut back on passengers or the plane was relatively empty and that's how he could do it...uh, no...

He called our plane and we walked outside...with a crowd...umm...uh oh. So, ya, every seat in the tiny plane was sold. Yes, they got all of our luggage on the plane. How? I'm glad you asked. They got it all on the plane, after filling up the cargo hold AND the extra storage in the rear of the plane by putting one of our boxes and Andrews carry on in the aisle of the plane, at this point I looked at the trees at the end of the runway, and further to the peaks of the mountain range ahead...and prayed.

We took off with our plane sounding, at least to me, like the little train who refrained, "I think I can, I think I can!" An hour later we are landing in Port-Au-Prince...whew.

As soon as we landed we helped unload the jackhammers and tools off the plane and the damage was instantly recognizable from a ominous crack down the entire facade of the main airport that was completely shut down. We walked across the tarmac to an AA storage facility that had been made a makeshift immigration HQ. Everything went incredibly smooth, we walked outside to meet Jack waiting to take us to our home for the week. Along the way I got to grab some images I'd rather not describe as remarkable or incredible because they are neither.

The destruction here, even after a month of cleaning up is unimaginable if you weren't standing in the middle of it. We're told that there are still bodies in the rubble even in the neighborhood where we are staying. After being here 6 years ago I was trying to draw a comparison to what I saw today, and astonishingly enough there is very little difference in the peoples attitude and what would seem to be normal day to day happenings, and if not contrasted by the massive physical damage surrounding them, it would seem nothing happened.

After having breakfast we headed out to work, which we were antsy to get to after a long trip and not doing anything for two days. We get to the building and find it in horrible repair and evidence of damage. We decided to remove the entire roof system as it was very obviously a massive failure. This turned out to be one of the most difficult roof tear offs I've ever done...not only did they put a stupid amount of screws in the roof, they tarred the slats of corrugated sheet metal together on top of that they put the rafters and the lathing too far apart making for a severely precarious surface to work on since the metal was seriously compromised in areas with rust and rotten lumber underneath...something I found out first hand.

So, the interesting part of the day came when I...fell straight through the roof into the room underneath barely missing a metal cabinet. And by straight through, I mean I was told I looked like a magician disappearing in front of them by one of the guys on the roof. Yes, I'm fine, shoulder is a little sore from where I reached out with both arms to attempt to grab the rafters on either side of me to slow me down, which I did. I landed flat on my feet and heard the yelling on the roof and Manny calling for my Dad to run inside to get me...at this point I wanted out of the building quickly to gather myself and was outside in the yard walking around before they could even get off the roof and Jimmy grabbed me and hugged me, lol, it made me feel good. Honestly, it boils down to experience, if I hadn't been comfortable in that situation I could have really been hurt, and by God's grace that I came straight down in one of the few spots where there was no furniture or on the metal cabinet which would have sliced my back open, or worse, contorted my fall where I landed in a way that I could have broken something.

So, we finished up there and came home for an amazing dinner! Was hoping to lose weight and tone up on this trip...ya, this food is ridiculous...that's all I have to say about that! :)

Well, that's it for tonight, tune in for more updates from the isle of Haiti...love ya!!