Our morning started off early today, our final day in Haiti.  Ashley decided she would like to be baptized before we left for the airport.  So we all met out on the beach at 6:45 this morning to hear her testimony and how God has been working in her life.  Her faith and total dependence on God was amazing to hear about, especially from someone her age (Ashley is 11 1/2 years old).  Initially, Ashley wasn’t real sure exactly why God was pulling at her heart to come to Haiti.  But this morning she shared that being there had given her a whole new perspective and humbled her heart.  Her dad had the honor of baptizing her in the ocean and she said that he had really encouraged her by telling her that God has a plan for this trip and reminded her that he was in control.

After breakfast it was time to go say our goodbyes to all of our friends at the orphanage.  This is never the highlight of the trip.  The more we come on these trips, the more these kids become like family to us.  It isn’t unusual to see several of our team brought to tears at this point, but today was even harder than usual.  The children clung to us in tears not wanting us to leave.  We joked with them and tried to put them in our empty suitcases… but in our hearts, not one of us was really joking about wanting to take them home to our “la kye”.  The children have learned however that we are coming back... so they look forward to our return.  They have told us before that it’s not “goodbye”… it’s “see you later.”

We all came on this trip with different expectations and ideas.  One of the questions in the minds of our team upon arrival was “are these people happy here in the middle of their circumstances?” We found out that in the midst of their poverty, what they really crave the same things that we all want – to be loved and accepted, to feel worthy and valued. And in some small way, we believe that when we show up to serve these people, the poorest people in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, they feel loved, valued and worthy. When we come to provide them with an elementary school that they can be proud of, a medical clinic so that we can care for their children, jobs for their single moms, and all the other ministries that are in process in Montrouis - and when we establish friendships with warm smiles and hugs, we are opening the doors for them to believe and to understand that they are valuable to us and to God. And like us, when they can come to a correct understanding of who God is and how He feels about them, how much he loves them, then all of those other circumstances become just that – circumstances.

We drove away in silence today, but each of us were already conceiving ideas as to how we are going to come up with the estimated $10,000 to rebuild the school in Kalalun when we return in May, and how we can continue to minister to the people of the village during that trip.  We have been sharing our ideas and making plans already and we can’t wait to have each of you be a part of our big plans.  We know that God can accomplish his will down here and we can’t wait for the next chapter! 

We are sitting in the airport (flight delayed of course!) tired, but excited to see what He has planned for us. 

 

Job titiles we earned while in Haiti!

Hair stylist and manicurist

Concrete batch plant workers

Womens health technician

Optometrist

Teachers

Moto/bus driver

Women at the well

Candy man

Interpreters

Construction foreman

Judge (don’t ask)

Exterminator

Snake whisperer

Best man

Fisherwomen

Today a few of the girls went down to the fishhouse to prepare meals to feed the elderly. They got to know all of the women and men associated with the program, sharing their names and learning a little bit more of Creole. A couple of the teachers and workers from the mission came to help the ladies with the program too, so they helped translate ALOT for them. :D The teachers brought nail polish with them, and the fishhouse women (and men) were so excited to try all of the colors on their fingernails. After the manicures, the women showed a few of them how to prepare the seasoning for the food. The Haitian women are gifted in the art of cutting onions and peppers as thin as they can get. Seriously, their slices are transparent! They showed the girls how to cut the onions and peppers and left them to finish the job. After the Hatian women cooked and prepared the food into the to go boxes, they offered the girls some food to eat. They felt bad for eating the food when others didn't have any, but they did not want to be rude-so they shared a plate. After a heated discussion over the food distribution from the Hatian women, they set out to deliver the food boxes. The girls were not able to go with the women, but they sent their love and prayers.

For the last eye clinic while we still had the chance, there were about 15 people who came and most of them were small kids wanting to get checked, along with their moms. It was really awesome doing the exam and having the kids try and listen to Dr. Wayne and myself give instructions to them to look at the "E" chart and some of the kids we were able to help with having them leave with a new pair of glasses! Awesome!! We also helped one of the nurses who came and she had her eyes checked by Dr. Wayne and he was able to get her dialed in and boy was she happy once she was able to see the eye chart. It was like I CAN SEE AGAIN and she yelled so loud it kinda scared us a little really cool. The last guy was a Driver, yes I said driver that brought a bunch of these people to the clinic, yes today. The guy looked to be in his early 20's and he sat down and when we started he could only see and make out letters on the top two rows, you gotta be kidding, is this a joke you're the Driver I was thinking to myself,  outloud to Dr. Wayne and Ashley, really that's all he could see, crazy!! So the Doc did his exam and we searched high and low and by the grace of GOD we were able to find him a pair of these older glasses. The Driver could actually see the entire chart after getting his old but new glasses, as we were giving the glasses to him we noticed the glasses were dirty! So we went to clean the glasses up and we used what someone said to use and that stuff would work great, NOT the glasses fogged up and we tried to clean the glasses over and over, they were not cleaning up and the driver and everyone at this point is waiting to get a picture with us and wanting to show off their new glasses. We were scambling to fing something, anything at this point, we found some hidden cleaner and finally the glasses were clean. The whole time we didn't have the heart to tell the driver we just messed up his new glasses and thank God we didn't because he left with his glasses and the nurse who came with him was so happy he could see behind the wheel, because no one knew his eyes were messed up from his group, except his crazy, scary, driving...

Thats it for now....we are falling asleep and have to be up at the crack of dawn....Ashley has asked to be baptized in the ocean in the morning before we leave...

We are getting sad about our trip ending so soon, but sat tonight talking about our trip in May!!

Love you all....pray for safe travels

I know we are a few days behind on our blog...but we have been so busy, and by the time we get home we are either exhausted or there is no electricity or internet service! 

Just want to share  a few thoughts about our Sunday.  We got up together and had breakfast and decided as a group that we would not only go to church at the mission with Dr. Kerry, but we were going to attend a church service of Franz, a Pastor that has been working along side us at the construction.  He was thrilled to have us visit his church and made us feel extremely welcome. We all had to get up in front of the congregation and introduce ourselves.  In creole I might add.....I was very impressed with the team effort!   The service was a traditional Haitian church service and was several hours long. (He said he would end service early since we had another service to attend....so it was only 2.5 hours long....) I have to say on behalf of all of us.....to see the Haitian people praise God in the midst of their circumstances, was a blessing to be a part of.  Their authentic joy and love for the Lord was so evident you could feel it through out the service.  We had the opportunity to pray over one of their sisters in Christ who was struggling with her disabled little girl and knowing how to take care of her.  This was such a touching thing knowing the culture.  In Haiti, they believe that if your child is disabled, you can bring them back out into the ocean and leave them.  Having a disability makes them feel that the child is not even that....a child. So they can "throw them out in the ocean".  So knowing those beliefs and seeing this young mom praying for help for her child was a very emotional thing for many of us.  She sat in a chair at the front of the church to be prayed for and you could see her heart...she immediately went to her knees and started praying herself.  There also was a little old woman  in their church who did not have a home.  This church in one of the most impoverished areas of the world, where they do not even know where their next meal comes from, but they pulled together their very limited resources and rented her a home.  I asked how old she was and they told me nobody knows.....that even when you ask her, she doesn't know. 

Our second service for the day was at the Mo-We International Fellowship Church.  This is the church that Dr. Kerry is the Pastor of.  Heather had the opportunity to play the keyboard for the worship part of the service.  It was nice to be able to sing worship songs in English!  This is part of why this church started, to be able to minister to those missionaries and their teams from all over the world. There is no other English speaking service in the area.  One thing that really sticks out in many of our minds would be the Missionary we met named Heather.  Heather and her family sat in the back two rows of the church....yes I said two rows!  She has 17 adopted children, both American and Haitian.  Dr. Kerry reminded us that we need to completely surrender our lives ....even that one thing that we really want to just hang on to.  So many of our team were so impressed with the faithfulness of the young misisonaries who work with Dr. Kerry.  Their hearts are so pure and all they want to do is be obedient to God and do his will.

We came home after church and rested for a while and ate dinner.  After dinner, we went back up to the International Fellwoship Church for their first ever prayer meeting/worship service.  Those of you who go to "The Call", this was just like a service from there!!  It was one of the favorite things for many of us this week.  We had the chance to pray with others for the leaders and pastors in Mo-We.  We met many other missionaries, visitors to the area and others from the community that came to the service.

We ended our night with some girl scout cookies and headed off to bed for much needed sleep! 

Please pray for our continual good health and good spirits.

Nou renmen ou!!!

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1.       The big cockroaches do bite when you try to hold them

2.       Did I just drink out of an IV bag?

3.       Parenting is not much different than in American……unless you think we should throw rocks or chase them with sticks like they do?

4.       Maybe there is a reason the Haitian didn’t want to get in the water when we were out fishing…..

5.       When Nick tells you there is only 30 boxes left on the bus…..have someone else count!

6.       The 5 second rules is a 2 minute rule in Haiti!

7.       Did you know that mango skin can act like poison ivy?

8.       Our coffee each day cost more than what the average daily salary is in Mo-We.

9.       Michelot does not like sharing Ashley with the other kids!

10.   Julie drove the bus!!!

11.   When the Haitian workers request you by name…..you know you’re a hard worker…Rock on Tom R.!!

12.   O How do you get out of moving 33,000 lbs of Kids Against Hunger food? ……..Become that requested hard worker….. or go fishing!

We are not sure if today is Friday..but pretty sure! We have been up since the crack of dawn doing manual labor the entire day.  We started at the construction site….left for a few hours to unload 1000 boxes of Kids Against Hunger Food (33 lbs a piece I would like to add) Getting the kids against hunger food was an event in itself.  The food arrived in Cap Haitian on the 15th.  The truck that we hired to go pick it up, got not just one flat tire, but two on the way there.  Cap Haitian is about 7 hours from here.  So, the truck gets two flats….but the jack to fix them is broken…..Minor detail!  So once that is fixed, they finally get the food loaded on the truck, head back to Mo- We only to get stuck in St Marc with the police not letting the truck through.  They kept saying the food wasn’t ours…..so after Dr. Kerry telling them basically…..My truck…My food….they finally let them through.

On the construction site today we poured the columns for the new Medical building.  So lots of concrete…lots of rocks….lots of sand…. oh yeah…..lots of sun!!  After moving the 33,000 lbs of food, we moved another  15,000 lbs of concrete….if we weren’t buffed before we left….we are now!!  Very cool to have the team working so hard together.  The Haitian men are really impressed with the American women and how hard they worked!  I think the women from the fish house started to feel a little guilty and about half way thru the day came and started helping us.  The village of Kalalun is becoming really familiar with the entire team…..and learning the name pretty quickly.  So it is fun to walk thru and hear all the children and adults calling out to them!

A few of our team decided to stay back at the mission after lunch and help out with the eye clinic. We helped the Doctors with the eye glasses. There were two huge boxes of donated glasses and Dr. Wayne had us separate them into piles of bifocals and regular ones, we had to check each pair to see if there were scratches on each of them to prepare for the next eye clinic. Also helped with the medical supplies, loading and unloading supplies. One of the boys at the Mission had a 104.1 degree temperature, had to find a store with ice, God was with us on this the store clerk gave us just about the last he had, Amen.

Torie, Sabrina, Heather and Rachel decided they would try out the fishing ministry today.  They had curbside pick up at the beach set for 6:30 am.  Of course we are on Haitian time, so they didn’t get picked up until around 8:00am! Love the kick back lifestyle…..sometimes it takes time to get used to just sitting down every once in a while not having to rush to school…soccer…appts….work… So once they were picked up, they were driven out into the middle of the Caribbean.  With 2 completely non English speaking Haitians and a translator to accompany them (thankfully), they baited the jugs and released them into the water. They waited…and waited… but nothing was nibbling at the bait. There were no catches at first, so they decided to drive around to hunt for the fish themselves. Finally, as they came across a tree branch, the Haitians found and scooped up their first fish in a net. They all watched it flop around the boat until they saw a huge swordfish out in the distance caught on one of their jugs, about 4 feet long. They waited for the fish to tire out, motored over to the jug, and tried to pull in their best catch of the day. It took a few tries to pull it up, but it ended up in the boat as a prize of the fishermen. They waited for anymore fish to hook onto the jugs and then decided to go back. They drove around-in garbage-trying to catch any last fish for the day, but they ended up with nothing. Burnt and exhausted from the sun, the girls came back to the beach with a proud story to tell the others.

Internet is hit or miss……so we are thinking and praying for all of you.  Miss you and love you….see you soon.

 

Things we really think you want to know...lol

1. Haitian kids like to strike a pose......only if you show them the results after!
2. The green bugs are bigger than the brown ones
3. If you are the "lookout" you can not forget to tell someone there is a branch approaching
4. Never give the last cookie in the package to a Haitian.....
5. When paper flies in the window from outside, not a good sign
6. Pants are optional
7. When teaching about the devil and the serpent......don't be surprised to hear "snake" the rest of the day
8. When the Haitian children tell you to stick to English.....something's wrong...lol
9. Working on a construction site, you learn the Haitian slang words
10. We really do miss you....really....seriously