Westgate to Haiti

Days 4 through 7-ish :)

2010-07-21T07:43:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone,

Sorry it has been so long, but we have had weather conditions that have turned off our internet!

So here is an update on our past couple of days....

Day 4, Sunday:

We were able to sleep in past 4 am!! Praise God!! We all jumped in the bus after breakfast and visited JeanJean and Kristie's church. It was so amazing to see the church packed and everyone praising and worshiping God! We had the opportunity to sing "Blessed Be Your Name" to the congregation and listen to JeanJean preach on John 3:14-21.
The Haitians hold the Sabbath as a day of rest therefore we had a wonderful and hilarious time cooking our meals for the day. Jim and Stan did a great job cutting fruit while Dana and Jen cooked pasta for lunch.
In the afternoon, we went to the second church service where Ryan had the opportunity to preach. He spoke on Isaiah 6 and what it meant to meet God in his way instead of our own where we look upwards, inwards, and outwards.
That night, our group had an amazing night with worship and testimonies. It started with words of affirmation towards our fellow group members. This led into a time of testimonies by Jim, Lauren, and Stan. This night served as a break through moment for our group. For the first time, we all cried and held each other and shouted out praise and cries to God. This night was all about God and it was refreshing to see what singing to God really looks like.

Day 5, Monday,

Right after breakfast we had a chance to hand out clothing to the mens and women's choir. From there, we walked to the market place. Since this is the only time where the Haitian community can come and buy food and supplies for the week, it was a awesome experience to see how they lived and interacted with each other. There was everything there, from beans and rice to hair products and shoes, to an animal market. Yes, there were men selling cows, donkeys, goats, horses, etc!! Also, we met at the bread bakery where we were able to try fresh baked bread! SOOOOO GOOD!!!!!
On the way back we stopped by the ram pump, which is the water project made by UCI... United Christians International. This pump is gravity fed which means they do not need any electricity to supply water.
After lunch, we had a VBS for the kids. We put together a skit that talked about how God fed the Israelites after they came through the red sea! Then we had a time of arts and crafts! Everyone on the team loved this time of playing with the kids and being able to serve them! They were so excited and happy to make things and receive shoes and clothes.
After VBS, we hand delivered rice and beans to the poorest part of the community. Some amazing stories came out of this! One being, Dana had slipped in the mudd and the family she was on her way to bring food to brought out a tub of water and washed her feet for her. This was such an amazing act of humility and showed our group the love and thankfulness the Haitians have.
After dinner, we worked as a team to pull wire through the trenches we have been digging! This turned into a really cool team bonding experience where we could all have a chance to help in this awesome project of supplying 8 times the amount of electricity through the campus than they currently have. Side Note, the girls decided to randomly start an arm wrestling tourney out by the trenches. Ryan and Dave's arms served as the table and Jen, being the personal trainer that she is, dominated all the girls!
Later that evening, we were again blessed with an ex-witch doctors' testimony. His name is Zourel, and he is such an amazing man of God now. His story startes when JeanJean had overheard a Vodoo ceremony and decided to go out there and talk to them. When JeanJean arrived, he saw about 50 men all drunk and worshiping Voodoo. They looked to him and asked why he was there. JeanJean shared about God and bluntly told them the good news of following Christ along with the bad. After this, the drums stopped and everyone left the ceremony. Zourel was one of the men there and the next day came to JeanJean and wanted to know more about God. About 5 weeks later, Zourel accepted Jesus into his life and completely left Voodoo! PRAISE GOD!!!! Also that night, we listened to our brother and sister in Christ, Karen and Carl, share their testimonies with the group! Again we were blessed by God's presence and grew closer as a group!

Day 6, Tuesday:

Started the morning as a work day immediately following breakfast, where part of our group went to pour cement and assist in the housing project UCI is currently working on, part of us worked on trenching, and Ryan speaking at UCI's pastors' conference.
The group pouring cement got to work on a house with five rooms, and got to pray with the woman who was going to be living there. The men (and Karen) back at the compound continued to trench, and Ryan says of the pastors' conference, "It was super humbling. These pastors... some of them walked 11 hours to get there."
After lunch, though we heard the thunder rolling closer, we hopped on the bus with the youth group and made our way to the marketplace to pick up and burn trash. Unfortunately, the rain pulled in a lot more quickly than we expected, so our time was cut short and we jumped on the bus to get back before the roads were too muddy to drive in. Another unfortunate circumstance (I guess it depends on how you look at it) was that the bus was too heavy to make it all the way up a steep incline with all the rain. Therefore, the majority of us got off the bus and ran the rest of the way in the most crazy downpour of rain EVER!! We couldn't see, like, more than 5 feet in front of us, were slippin' in the mud everywhere... but it was fun. Cold, but fun. Despite the thunder and lightning, the boys decided to play a pick-up basketball game with the youth group boys. This was SO funny to watch, because the way that they did teams was shirts and skins. Obviously, our boys being the skins. We got pictures. They'll be up later.
In the evening, we had another powerful and amazing night with God through the testimonies of Tim and Emma. Emma is our youngest girl here at the age of 15, and has a heart of gold. Keep her in prayer, that she will draw closer and closer to God in these next couple of days. We were reminded of how personal and how much protection God puts over his children, and once again were blown away by the power of God's divine appointment and timing.

And that was last night. This morning we got to slow down and spend an hour on our own just in prayer, spending time with our personal Savior, and now we're gonna go back to work. Hopefully we'll be able to blog again before we leave to Puerto Rico, but if not... We all love you. Keep our group in prayer in these next couple of days. We look forward to seeing you at the airport on Sunday!

Love to you.

Lauren & Karen

Haiti Day 3: Making Music with the Heavens

2010-07-18T09:57:00.001-07:00

Last night we were blessed with the joy of sharing music with the local men's choir and another local church's choir. The church choir had walked 9 miles (women in heels and beautiful white dresses) from the other side of town just to share their gift of music with us, and there's something about hearing people sing to Jesus in a different language that is simply beautiful. We got to experience the uniting element about music that draws us together as brothers and sisters in Christ in a way that penetrates straight to the heart. The men's choir that's been around for more than 30 years was led by one of the most passionate and joyful men we'd ever seen with the BIGGEST smile and loudest clap, accompanied by an accordian player and 22 other men from ages 8 to 75... It was amazing. Both choirs shared six songs each, many of which were composed by the leaders. We were able to share a few songs of our own, serve them with snacks/drinks, and give them another set of shirts for their choirs.

It was such a reflection of the beauty of the body of Christ last night. One thing that Dave shared near the end was that though we may never see one another again, we have the hope and faith in our Lord and Savior, giving us heaven to look forward to so we can sing and praise God together, in one language, for eternity.

We finished off the night singing Amazing Grace together, each in our own dialects, and then joining hands and praying together. Not gonna lie -- brought me to tears.

Yep, and that was last night.

PTL.
(Praise the Lord.)

Haiti Day 3: Holy Guano, Batman!

2010-07-18T09:20:00.001-07:00

Hey hey hey! Karen and Tim here (:

So we got up before the crack of dawn at 4:30am this morning (for some, 2 days in a row) for a great opportunity to see the countryside of Pignon, Haiti. We took a hike (about 3 miles each way) through corn fields in the mountains to visit a bat cave. The views were spectacular and in terms of difficulty, it was definitely… not Rancho San Antonio. We basically had to make our own trail and all got pretty cut up, but it was SO much fun.

When we entered the bat cave, there was a snake hanging, we could hear the bats hissing, and the rocks were ridiculously slippery. We thought it was slippery due to mud, but what was actually causing it was a layer of bat guano (poop) over everything. Once inside, with our lights we could see thousands of bats swarming around in circles, eating the bugs by our heads. We also got a chance to check out this corner of the cave that had remains of voodoo sacrifices of animals. This was when the more adventurous group went further down into the bat cave and found they had to cross a river of bat guano. Luckily, no one fell in, or else they would’ve had bat guano up to their waist… Anyway, we went back down the mountain on a different route, and some of us got some fresh mangos from a tree to snack on. (The mangos here are aaaaaaaaamazing.) It was incredible.

After lunch (and a nap), we had a chance to sit down with the board of UCI (United Christians International) and hear about their vision for their organization. It was refreshing and encouraging to see their passion for the glory of God in Haiti and their excitement for the future. God is working through their ministry in such powerful ways and the impact they’ve made on this community in the past 5 years alone is just the beginning of what is possible here through God’s people and His grace.

After the meeting, we were supposed to accompany the youth group to clean up the marketplace, but the weather made it so that it wasn’t possible to go. It had started pouring, so instead we had a chance to distribute clothes and shoes to the youth group. The kids were so polite and excited about it, and seeing the joy on their faces as they got to pick out their new clothes and shoes was, as MasterCard (or Jim) says, priceless. Dave even got some of the boys to get ties to wear to church tomorrow.

JeanJean then took us down the road to a sugar cane press. We learned about how they took raw sugar cane and ran it through a homemade press consisting of a large wooden crank and two oxen in order to produce sweet sugary syrup.

We could go on forever, but… Today was awesome, it’s time for dinner, keep praying for God to move, aaaaand that’s it!

P.S. The food here is BOMB.

Bye!

Haiti Day 2

2010-07-16T14:07:00.000-07:00

Hello to All,

This is Lauren here to tell you all about our Day 2 here in Pignon, Haiti.

First off, I want to talk about some things that we did last night :) When we arrived, our amazing cooks had a meal for us which was awesome because we were famished after our journey to Pignon. They cooked goat meat and plantains along with fresh baked bread. YUMMY! After our meal, we had an orientation meeting with the Mompremiers and they gave us a tour of their land. Let me share.... not at all what I expected. We heard that God was doing amazing things to the compound, but they have a beautiful home along with a worship center, nutrition center right there on their land. Also, they are in the process of building a school, which will be ready for the school year in September, and thanks to team 1, there is a newly constructed basketball court. There is a garden and soon to be water tower where the communities around the compound can come and get fresh water! About an hour later, we helped the nutrition center hand out food rice to the kids. They were so thankful and thrilled to eat food!!

That night after dinner, we gathered together and had an amazing worship night. Ryan led with the guitar and we just sang song after song. Tracy and Dave were the first ones to tell their testimonies to the team which were so encouraging. It was awesome being together as a team for one purpose... to honor and glorify our God! Also last night, Ryan and Dave encountered one of Haiti's native creatures.... TARANTULA!!! We were all about to go to bed and all of a sudden we hear screaming for the guy's room! Apparently, Dave yelled at Ryan when he saw a very furry tarantula climb on to Ryan's bed and on to his pillow! Jean Jean came in with a broom and heroically got the spider out of the room! Whew... What a day!!!

Okay, now let me just say this has been such a great day full of activities and some awesome times with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. This morning we had the option of waking up at 4 A.M. and attending a morning worship and service with some of the Haitians in the nearby community. I along with Jennifer, Bonnie, Dana, Palusa, Ryan, Stan, and Tim all sat and listened to the Haitians sing at the top of their lungs to God! Seriously, what I have noticed so far is that worship for them is a constant, ongoing act. When they sing it is loud for everyone to hear! When they work, it is with passion! It is so encouraging and amazing to see! After our church service this morning, we met for breakfast and got ready for our first day of work!
The tasks today....One- digging trenches for the electrical wires which was handled by Carl, Jim, Stan, and Ryan. These guys we have to give props to because they planned the whole layout around the compound and started to dig in hot hot weather!! Good job guys!! Two- laying out concrete and painting doors for for this new house. Here, Bonnie, Jennifer, Catherine, Tracy, Dana, Brandy, and myself painted and played with the kids! The guys, Tim, Dave, and Kris helped out the local guys shovel and carry the concrete! Our two translators, Crazy Animal and Frito were so nice to break the communication barrier with us and the kids! Thanks guys!
3- Organizing and laying out all the donated clothes and shoes for the distributions! Props to Karen, Leslie, Taylor, and Palusa for organizing that for the kids! There will be more to come on how the distributions went!

Well, dinner is almost on the table so that is all I can do for now. There is still so much to say but we will save some stuff to tell in person! I do have a prayer request at the moment though... please pray for physical healing since she has been feeling sick since we have arrived. We have been praying here for her and she is doing better today which is a praise!!

Until next time.... Lauren

2010-07-16T09:51:00.000-07:00

So hey this is Tuba Tim signing in for first post of the Team 2 Haiti trip. I'm pretty sure that words won't even come close to being able to describe what we've experienced so far, but I will try. We started out arriving 6 hours early to the San Jose Airport in order to make sure all of our bags got through. This gave us a great chance to hang out with each other, play the name game (at which Ryan excelled) and even learn to play spades with Carl's oh so exciting "electrical supply special edition" playing cards. The rest of our flights were uneventful, save for a few noteworthy things worth mentioning:

-In Miami I cut ahead of Selena Gomez (yes, THAT Selena Gomez) boarding onto our plane to Miami and I didn't even know it was her and that she was on our flight untill after.
-Jim made us a mascot out of a paper bag that would make Jim Henson jealous.
-Tracy survived without any meltdowns .
-Ryan did work and got us 7 carts for our luggage in Port Au Prince for $14 instead of $40.
-Kris was a trooper and flew with all of our luggage by himself on the last leg of our flight in the smallest plane ever.

Upon reaching Port au Prince we were greeted with our first major challenge as the airplane company that was supposed to charter us told us that we had never paid. Our fearless leader Davey came through big as he worked the counter with Jim and Ryan. Our amazing girls at one point all gathered around for an intense prayer session in the middle of the busy airport. Needless to say God (and Jim's Visa Card) came through big in the end and we were finally on our way to Pignon.
Upon touching down in the grassy field that serves as Pignon's Airport, we were greeted by an amzing welcoming committee made up of Jon Jon, Kristie, and a bunch of wide eyed children who seemed just as curious to see us as we were them. We then all piled onto the school bus, or, the Mompremier-mobile, and headed down the road to what will be our new home for over the next week.

Ok I've written enough for now, probably too much...untill next time...

Tuba Tim

Final Blog From Haiti

2010-07-14T06:55:00.000-07:00

This is it
We are leaving in two hours to head to the airport. This will be the final blog from Haiti. We cannot wait to see our families and friends, yet we will miss the new family and friends we will leave behind.

Yesterday was finishing project day. Jason and Amy painted lines on the basket ball court. The basket ball court is done and Pastor Larry, Donovan, Peter, and Jason played a few games with the boys. Others help put the roof on the house that was in need. Brittany, Karen, Kat, JC, Jessica and Aissa all washed the walls in the worship center and did some much needed painting. Debbie A., Debbie B., Pat and myself organized the church library and got things ready for when the school year starts. Kim, our artist in the group, painted a mural on the roof of the bus.

We had an chance to help the local community. They had a market, just for us, where we could buy hand made things to bring home. At night the boys youth choir came to sing for us.

To all who have been praying, THANK YOU! God is doing great things in Haiti. We will be heading to Miami and debriefing before we come home to San Jose. We will not be returning the same way we left. God has done a work in our hearts and we need time to refelect before we go back to our everyday lives.

Team 2,
We are praying for you. We know God will use you in a mighty way. We trust Him to keep you close as a team and to God Himself. Thank you for your servant hearts.

Signing out,
Kathy

The Market

2010-07-13T04:34:00.000-07:00

Good Morning,
Praise God for letting us see another day that He has made. Yesterday we went to the weekly farmers market. Quite the experience. You have vendors on both sides of a dirt road. You will see rice next to soap for sale. You will also see goats, cows, donkeys, pigs and chickens. They had a food court of people cooking so you could eat while you were shopping. They had a bakery where you could buy hot bread on the spot; many of us did. You spend much of your time trying to stay clear of animals and motorcycles, yet we complain when there are more than 3 people ahead of us at Safeway:)

We met with the UCI board members yesterday and that was eye opening. The board shared with us what the ministry vision is and how they are going about accomplishing it. How they are empowering people by partnering with them and not just giving hand outs. They shared how God is their sole provider; there is no government assistance. We also learned that the Hation government has sold it's rights to it's natural resources and therefore exporting is not an option.
Many of us left the meeting with heavy hearts, because we see how God is using UCI and how this ministry is making a difference in the life of the people, but sad because so much more could be happening, but the government is a stumbling block. Our team prayer is that God would change the heart of the government officials in Haiti. Despite what is going on in the government our trust is in God and we know that He is in control.

Brother Bob did devotion last night and he shared from 2Timothy 8-12. He reminded us that though we do not have all the answers and often wonder about things going on around us, that it is not about circumstances, but about who we put our trust in. OUR TRUST IS IN GOD ALONE!

Today we will work on a home that needs roof and we will go to another local market. This market will benefit the local community where we have been staying.

We are almost home, see you all soon.

Kathy

Praise and Worship

2010-07-11T15:50:00.000-07:00

Bon Jour,
The men's choir last night was phenominal. There are 32 men in the choir and 27 came last night in the rain to sing for us. We had a wonderful time worshiping together. We went around the room and got to know eachother. The men's choir has been together for 30 years and has had the same leader for the past 29 years. The leader was sharing with us that he had 10 children, but one died in the earthquake so, now he has 9. The amazing thing is to know what he shared and watch how he praises God.

We went to 2 church services today. The first one was this morning at 8:50 am. We packed in the bus 3 people to a seat. It was great! We sang for our Hation brothers and sisters and the Holy Spirit spoke through Pastor Joel on salvation. The church was packed out with everyone in their Sunday best. Then we came home. I am sharing this because today is the sabath and the lovely women who usually cook for us are resting. We made our own fancy lunch; peanut butter and jelly sandwiches:) We then attended an outreach service(or a come as you are service), here at the compound. The service started at 2pm. People just kept pouring in. Bob and Pastor Larry brought in every extra bench and chair we had and still people were sitting around on the ledge of the building and others were standing. The youth boys choir sang, the youth girls choir sang, as well did we. Pastor JonJon delivered the message and at the end there was an altar call and 5 people gave their lives to Jesus. Yes one was the woman I mentioned a few days ago, the former witch doctor's daughter. Thank you for believing with us. This siter has stepped out of darkness and into the light. THANK YOU JESUS! When service was over we spent sometime in fellowship getting to know the people. Pastor Larry grabbed his guitar and Debbie A., Debbie B., Kim, Pat and Karen all spent time doing fun songs with the kids.

There was a soccer game this afternoon and they wore all the uniforms we brought. Thank you Rolling Hills. Jason and JC played with the boys and the community gathered to watch.

Amy volunteered to make dinner. She has been spending lots of time in the kitchen with the ladies this past week, so she really knows her way around. Karen and Aissa are helping her. I think we are eating fried rice tonight. Lets just say we can't wait for the ladies to come back tomorrow.

Tomorrow we will get back to work on the basketball court and finish it. We will also visit the local market where we can but goats and pigs and things of that sort. I will let you know more about it tomorrow.

We miss you all A LOT!

Kathy

Gifts

2010-07-10T06:56:00.000-07:00

Good morning all,
Praise God for new day and that His JOY comes in the morning. We had a very sucessful VBS yesterday. We saw our brothers and sisters really using their gifts. Stevo, who has served our country in the military has much medical experience and did infection control yesterday. He took all the kids with cuts and open wounds and cared for them. He removed a bot fly from a boys leg.(for those who don't know what that is, because I didn't either, until yesterday, it's a fly that plants itself in your skin and lays it's eggs and then they eat away at your flesh) Pat showed much patience helping the younger children with their craft. Pastor Larry, Debbie, Jessica, JC, Karen, Kat and Stevo also demonstrated their acting abilities as they did a skit for the children based on the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. It was hilarious. Kim, Amy, Jason, and JC took one for the team yesterday, they stayed out in the sun throughout the entire VBS and did sports with the kids. The sun in Haiti is no joke, their gift of compassion and kindness tword their team mates did not go unnoticed.

Jessica delivered a message last night at devotion time about the gifts God has given us and how we use them to serve him. She shared about the arm and the leg and how we need both, but that they are attached to one body, God's body of believers. She did GREAT! Jason piggy backed off that with Romans 12 and Karen brought in Phillipians and reminded us not worry or be anxious for anything, which was an ontime word. God's love is so amazing!

This morning a group of us started our day at 4am and we hiked to a voodoo cave. It was a very different experience. The hike was physically challenging(at least for me). We saw snakes in trees, bats and stuff left over from sacrifices. It did not smell nice in the cave. We made it back 5 hours later and now I am blogging with you. We have a choir coming to sing for us tonight. Stay tuned for tomorrow because it's Sunday and we are going to CHURCH!!! Please keep Pastor Joel lifted as he will be delivering a message of salvation tomorrow.

Thank you for loving Jesus and thank you for your prayers.

Kathy

LOVE

2010-07-09T08:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we did shoes and clothes for children and women. We did food distribution as well. We met a woman who used to be a witch doctor and of course passed this down to all her children. She has one daughter who still practices activley and she is here visiting her mother. We prayed for her and she is coming to church on Sunday. We are believing that she will receive Jesus as her Lord and Savior, please join with us on this and be praying.

Sister Aissa was suppose to do our devotion in the evening, but God used her in a mighty way to preach His word last night. She had the honor of sharing the message in church this morning with our Hation brothers and sisters. TO GOD BE THE GLORY!

God loves us so much He won't leave us like we are. Last night, as a team, we had a God encounter. For some it was painful, for others joyful, for some prayerful. God spoke out loud! He took us off auto pilot, we are so driven and focused about what we came to do for Jesus in Haiti, that we forgot we are human. He reminded those who now run, how to crawl again, and those who are crawling how to stand up. GOD IS SOOOOOO GOOD!

Brother Peter followed up with a word this morning from Ephesians, it was POWERFUL.

We are now half way done with the basketball court and we have VBS this afternoon with a different group of children.

We are approximately at the middle of our trip and some are getting physically tired and others are missing their families. We find renewed strength in HIM daily, but we want you to know your prayers make a difference. Please keep praying and let the Holy Spirit guide you as He knows the needs of each memeber on the team. Thank you for all your love and support!

Kathy

God is soooooooo good!

2010-07-08T11:03:00.000-07:00

Hello friends and family,

Thank you for all your prayers. As usual change in plans since I last blogged. We were suppose to work on a house for a family that needs a roof and a floor, but we have had rain so the weather did not permit. We did continue on the basket ball court, mixing cement by hand and carrying it in buckets, we got about one sixth of it complete. We are believeing to finish it before we go home.

We did VBS with the nutrition center children yesterday and that was BEAUTIFUL. Debbie put VBS together and we followed her orders. Our big manly men were stringing beads on string. Bob, wore his soccer mom shirt and had a team of children holding his hand. Karen sneezed the kids into laughter, Pastor Joel danced like we have never seen before, Jason held a little girl in his lap and gave her his undivided attention. Aissa, and Debbie Albright made sure every child left there with something that belonged to them (crayins and a coloring book). This was harder tha you think because the children kept trying to give them back, as if we were only letting them borrow them. Overall VBS was a sucess and the children felt the love of JESUS. We will do another one on Friday for another nutrition center.

We have learned so much from our Hatian brothers and sisters in Christ, yesterday when were carrying the cement to the basketball court, we had the priviledge of listening to our Hatian family have a worship service from 8:30 to 12:30. They do this every Wednesday and they are fasting too. As we were reflecting in the evening, we realized as a group that many times we struggle to sit still in church for and hour and a half, or if we do more than the usual amount of songs it could be a problem. Never the less, those who have loved ones on this trip, we will be returning home to you still a work in progress for the Lord, but with a new appreciation for just who GOD IS IN OUR LIVES!

Last night Mr. Price, a former witch doctor, came to give his testimony. Remember, we have had rain with thunder a lightning. They don't have a car or umbrella or shoes for that matter, but it was so important to him and his family to come and share with us what God has done for them and how God had turned his life around. Mr. Price shared about the darkness and evil that he served for over 40 years and how that gets passed down to the next generation. Mr. Price is now blind, but is so happy because he can see the light of Jesus in his heart. His son, Kelli, now wants to be a Pastor when he grows up. Mrs. Price stuck it through, many times he would beat her and be cruel to her because of his practice of being a witch doctor, but yesterday they shared how good their marriage is now. She infact has to take care of Mr. Price because he blind, do to his former practices. Some of our men walked them home last night in the rain and mud, over some steep hills to house with no light. This morning Mrs. Price came back to wash the shoes of the men who took her family home. I think everybody cried this morning when we saw her here.

Make room in your hearts and your homes for your new family because this 2010 Haiti Team 1 has truely become a family and we now have a Hatian family too.

Thanks for your love and support. We will blog again tomorrow:)

Kathy

What a night last night!!!!!

2010-07-07T06:17:00.001-07:00

Much to share this morning.

Pastor Joel and Pastor Larry, had an awesome time with the Pastors. They met a Pastor yesterday who can not read or write, he does not even recognize his name on paper, but when he opens God's word he is able to read it. This is a testimony of just how MIGHTY our God is.

We handed out clothes and shoes to the children yesterday and the look on their faces was priceless. We did not just hand them out we took time trying them on and finding something they liked. It was a humbling experience.

Yesterday we had the priviledge of making food bags and delivering them to people in the community. We brought food and prayer to the surrounding area. Seeds had already been planted before we arrived. The church had laid a cement foundation for a man and his wife. Yesterday we brought them rice, beans and oil; the man just could not understand why we were doing this and when the team prayed with him he gave his life to the Lord! ALL PRAISE AND GLORY BE TO GOD!!!!!

This is a very hot time in Haiti and without the rain their crops will not grow. God was so good that we had some rain yesterday, just as we were finishing up our community prayer walk. We got back on the bus just in time. We were traveling back to the facility when our bus could not make it over the hill because of the road being so wet, our tires would just spin. We let the bus roll back to gain some momentum before we went up the hill again, but that didn't work. We tried putting everyone at the back of the bus, I'm not sure why, but that didn't work either. Finally we all got out of the bus, waited off to the side and sure enough the bus made it over the hill. This made for a great team bonding experience:) Needless to say the rain did not stop and we had thunderstorms all night. This caused the group to have devotion and reflection time inside last night and what a time that was. We did praise and worship and the POWER and PRESENCE of the Holy Spirit filled the room. God really does inhabit the praises of his people.

God has taken 19 people who met 3 or 4 times before this trip and made them a FAMILY of servants for his kingdom.

Today we have VBS for the wellness center kids, and we will work on a house for a family in need. We will also hear the testimony of a former witch doctor.

Keep praying,
Kathy

2010-07-06T08:35:00.000-07:00

Pastor Joel shared with us in the begining when we left that plans never stay as planned. Today's plan was to build a basket ball court; needless to say it is not even 11am Hatian time and we have squared a basketball court, filled the foundation of the school that is being built, dug trenches and removed weeds from the field. We have been productive physically, but above all we have built relationships with our Hatian brothers and sisters. We have worked side by side with one another and sometimes don't understand eachother, but we know that we all love the same GOD and that Jesus is making a difference in all of our lives.

Mito, one of our translators, has asked for prayer, he just got married 10 days ago. His wife, Rosemani, is in the choir and is a leader at church. They do not have a house yet and would like to have a baby. Keep them lifeted as well as our other brothers and sister.

Pastor Joel and Pastor Larry are sharing in a pastorial gathering today. Pastor's walked upto 11 hours, not miles, HOURS, to get here for this today. I can't wait to hear what they have to share.

I am going to recruite some others to blog now too.

Kathy

Haiti 2010 Team 1

2010-07-06T04:43:00.000-07:00

We made it!!! Yesterday we had safe travels. Challenges started in the US with the airlines and luggage, but God worked it out. We landed on a grass field in Pignon and were greeted by many beautiful Hatian children as well as the Mompremier's.

We visited our first feeding center yesterday, many children from surrounding neighborhoods; older children caring for their younger siblings. They sang songs of worship, lead by their beautiful teacher, and then we were able to share in serving a healthy meal to the kids.

Time to go, today we have a project I will fill you in on later. KEEP PRAYING

Kathy

Barricades: Haiti July 2009

2009-09-01T12:26:00.000-07:00

Nutrition Center

2009-07-27T15:26:00.000-07:00

Brittany shares about the Nutrition Centers in Haiti.

busy last 2 days.

2009-07-23T13:00:00.000-07:00

Today we've started to pack out bags and clean up as we prepare to leave. Many feel tore between wanting to leave and wanting to stay and do more. yesterday, we have the wonderful privilage of distrubuting food. (thank you to those of you that prayed for no rain it was on of the hottest days yet!) We were able to feed over 20 families for a week and all it cost was $150. Many US families spend that in a week just for a family of 4 or 5. The 5 house we went to was locked no parents home. When the door finally opened there were 4 malnutrition girls standing there ages 4-12. JeanJean told us this is really bad, the girls are left alone for hours on end and not feed. We left with them bags of rice, beans and cooking oil, most of us on the team were so moved we handed over our trail mix for the girls to eat right away. JeanJean said he had spoken to the parents before about the girls attending the nutrition center but they declined. JeanJean went back this morning to speak to them again, asking them to send their kids. This afternoon I'm pleased to say they all showed up and ate at the nutrition center and they each recieved a pair of shoes.

This morning we woke early to head down to the river and baptise a few people from the team! What an awesome exxperience... more photos to come.

We had another clinic this morning and treated another 30 people. Kristie does such a wonderful job working with these people. Her pharamancy always needs new supplies, but everything seems to come right when it is needed.

Yesterday we had our last VBS... what they didn't tell us about this one as that it was basically 80 two year olds! yes, you read that right 80 2 year olds! So come 11am it was melt down time followed by nap time. It was a true joy though to be with these little ones and hold them as they slept. At the end we gave them all of our remaining shoes... which were all small shoes. So it was prefect.

Before Lunch today we went and prayed for Andre a witch doctor. He asked us pray for him and to keep praying for him. In voodoo you sign a contract and if you break it before your committement is up their is fear that someone will kill you. Fear is a big thing here. We explained to him that Christ has already paid for his contract in full by his Son. JeanJean was telling us that fear is a HUGE thing here. So we ask you on behalf of Andre to pray for him, pray that God will break the strongholds in Andre's life that he will trust the Lord and not fear.

We ask for your prayers again as we travel back for safety. We also ask for you to pray that we hold on to what God has taught each of us here, that God uses each of us on the team to share this journey we've been on and what He is doing here in Haiti.

PS for those of you wonderful people that are picking us up at the airport: American Airlines arriving SFO at9:59pm from Maimi (sorry don't recall the fligt number)

Tuesday in Haiti with lots of photos!

2009-07-21T17:18:00.001-07:00

Today was a busy day! We had VBC with around 100-120 kids, followed by shoe disturbution and clothes. We found out today that it is a requirment for all kids to have tennis shoes to go to school. Often times kids dont' go to school for one to two months due to their parents not being able to afford to buy tennis shoes. What a blessing not only these kids but for the parents. We meet with the Haitian board for UCI this evening and they said that they have parents coming up to them saying "thank you for the shoes" all the time now. It's amazing how God provides!

For the past two days we have had some very heavy afternoon/evening rain showers. It down pours for 3-5 hours straight. If you can pray because of the rain we have been unable to go and distrubute the food we have to give out. Please be praying that tomorrow and thursday between the hours of 3-7pm it stays dry, allowing us to go and deliever not only food but prayer to these people.

Thank you each so much for your prayers! Keep them up!

Enjoy the photos that will give you a glimps into what God is doing here! If you have it I suggest looking at the photos with the song "mighty to save" on as it seems to be our theme song here, we keep getting asked to sign it every where we go!

ps: on Thursday morning Elise & Tracy & Christe and others are going to be baptized in the river! The men's chore are joining us to sing, along with the local pastors and community! Photos to be posted!

VBC - Crafts

VBC - Drama time!

VBC - Sports Duck Duck Goss aka drip drip squeez

Photos

2009-07-20T19:42:00.000-07:00

The Rodericks in Haiti, Day 5

2009-07-20T15:17:00.000-07:00

Well, this has truly been an amazing trip so far. We're all being eaten alive by mosquitos - thank God for our malaria medicine. We built walls for a house for a family who's mud and stone house was in a state of great deterioration, and we mixed and poured a concrete floor for another family who's children have suffered greatly from parasite infestation and disease. It's amazing to see how the community pulls together to help one another. The truly amazing thing is that just four years ago, that would not have been the case as this area was dominated by voodoo and fear. What little resources the people had was extorted from them by voodoo witch doctors under threat of a curse. Now, the people sing and laugh and come out to help and support one another. It's an amazing transformation! One local resident who left the area and moved to Port au Prince for work a couple years ago could not believe the transformation when he returned.

As others have already mentioned, we left at 4:30am for a strenuous hike to a voodoo cave in the mountains where sacrifices are still performed - bones and a skull from the most recent sacrifice still present. The entry to the cave was guarded by a couple of Pythons (or Boas), but they were too high in the tree to catch - those who know me know I tried. Anyway, we went as deeply into the cave as we thought safe given the slippery muddy bat gauno covered surfaces - it's rumored to go all the way through the mountain, but we chose not to find out. We then prayed through the cave before starting our hike back in the blistering heat of the morning.

We spent Saturday afternoon with a local youth group and had a great time putting on activities for the local kids (anyone 13-30 years old). There was a torrential downpour during our time with the youth group, which today we learned destroyed the former home of the family who we were building a new home for (we helped build the walls).

On Sunday we attended two church survices - one in Pignon at the church JeanJean grew up in, and another at a new church the Mompremier's started only 6 weeks ago - attendance was at least 300 which was amazing. Brooks delivered a brief message which was very well received.

Today we ventured to market, poured another concrete floor for a "dirt poor" family to help them overcome the constant illness and parasite infestation their children are suffering, sorted our craft supplies for the VBS programs we will be doing over the next 3 days, and provided a medical clinic for locals - we served 45 people today - we just wish we had more medication to serve more.

Anyway, we're about to deliver food to starving families, so I need to sign out. The sky is rumbling with thunder so we may get drenched. But a little inconvenience is nothing compared to the need here. We're honored that we get to help those who's needs are so much greater than our own. Thank you for your continued prayers.

Sunday's Update with Photos!

2009-07-19T10:22:00.000-07:00

Balloon game with the youth group!

Nutrition Center

Group shot before church this morning.

Watching Yesterday's rain storm from inside the worship center

THIS IS TRACY AND ELISE BLOGGING TO YOU FROM HAITI!!

2009-07-18T11:11:00.000-07:00

Tracy and Elise here! Hey family and friends, we are adjusting to life here in Haiti very well. We're super sweaty, no makeup and our hair has seen better days, but we are LOVING it! The food is awesome. We have discovered the yummy Haitian treat, spicy peanut butter and we are bringing some home for you! You should see us at night in our bug nets, that are sealed shut, no bugs allowed. Another day taurantula free, in our room at least.

God is doing amazing things here! Last night we met an ex witch doctor (Zourel)who told us his testimony. He shared with us about how he came to know Christ and how he used to live in darkness and now he is sharing his faith with other whitch doctors. Yesterday, we played with about 60 kids at the food distrubution center. The room was full of laughter as we played with balloons and crafts. They are so amazing and joyfull little kids! We are going to miss them. We (tracy and I) painted 3 benches for the worship center yesterday! We feel like so much was accomplished, the other part of our team worked on a house and laying cement! yey.

Today...was eventful, even though it's only about 12:30 right now. We started off our morning at 4:30am!! (yes, that's 2:30am at home) with a hike to a bat cave. This was no easy hike. It took us about 6 hours total. The scenery was beautiful, green mountains, corn fields, and grass so tall it was above all of our heads! We saw some baby goats and cows. We stopped to rest, eat and gaze at the view over the whole city of Pignon. Then we arrived! At the mouth of the cave there were 2 boa constrictors curled up in a tree. AHH!!! They didn't come near us, thank goodness! The whole inside of the cave was covered in guano (bat poo) and we needed flashlights just to see our way. There were bats flying around our heads. So then, I (Elise) decided to venture deeper into the cave with others. To get to the next area, we had to JUMP over a muddy/guano filled pool. Thankfully i made it...on the way there...on the way back, I wasn't so lucky...I jumped and my left foot sank THIGH DEEP into a hole of guano. Yes, that is the picture you are seeing above. My bat poo covered leg. On the way down the mountain, Tracy had a little spill into a bush when she lost her footing on some loose rocks which is nothing new for her. Into a bush she went and her pants got a nice big hole in them. It was more of a tipping over then a fall really.

Other than that, we are doing great! Excited to see what God will do through our team. We LOVE and miss you guys tons, and we are loving the letters. Until our next update! Tracy and Elise, signing off.
LOVE YOU!

Day 2

2009-07-17T19:19:00.000-07:00

Hi, Cambri again.

We just had our evening devotional. Some are still worshipping, some have moved on to getting ready for bed... and some are blogging.

This evening's devo was led by Ms. Tracy Buchanan who shared with us the first of a series of noted her mom wrote for her to read on the trip. She wrote about how we will be seeing many things that we have never seen before. She compares it with a thought form the book "Crazy Love" in which the writer talks about all the different kinds of laughter. "What a cool reminder," Tracy's mom writes, "of how creative God is!"

Indeed, we have seen many beautiful things. Here are some of the favorites of the team:

1. Everyone here laughs. In spite of the language barrier, our team has used the universal languages of laughter and play to connect with this community. A moment Garth shared with us that he says says blessed his heart was when we were playing with the kids from the nutrition center in the worship center. Some were running around with their balloons, some were tossing beach balls around, but all 30 children were laughing.

2. Today, one of the projects we helped with was the building of a house of one of the men who built Zouel's (the former witch doctor's) house. Again, only two of the men were being paid to work, but about seven gathered to volunteer their time. We shared some laughs with them as well :)

3. When serving the children in the nutrition center, there was absolutely no shoving, pushing, or bickering for who went first. Indeed many of the kids helped pass out the bowls and plates. We sat with them and watched them interact- for instance, one girl helped her small brother eat his meal, blowing of the steam so that it wouldn't be too hot for him. Many took a few bites and packed the rest away to share with their families.

As we shared these stories and others with one another, Kristi shared with us a thought that makes these so much more precious. She told us about how once in this area, one could always hear the chanting, singing, and drum beating of voodoo rituals. Haitians would say that nothing good came out of this area. Praise God for the work He is doing here that such love and joy, evidenced in the constant laughter of the community, is alive!

As a close to the evening, Zouel shared with us his testimony. It was such a blessing to hear about how Christ's love changed his life. Before shaking everyone's hand (and receiving a few hugs) we asked how we might pray for him, and he asks that his six children don't remember what he used to be like. Please keeps him and his family in your prayers.

Tracy's mom shared Isaiah 30:17 with us: "Your eyes will see the king in all his splendor, and you will see a land that stretchs into the distance."

We have truly seen God's greatness and as we sang tonight "greater things have yet to come and are still to be done in this city." Praise God!

UCI Tour part 2

2009-07-17T18:02:00.000-07:00

UCI Tour Part 1

2009-07-17T14:25:00.001-07:00

The Adventure Begins

2009-07-16T18:50:00.000-07:00

Well, the adventure has begun! It's been 37 hours since I've had any sleep so I'll try to keep this brief.

The team got off to a great start and lots of laughs as I was selected by the TSA for screening/searching as we went through security in SFO. Incriminating pics to come. Thankfully, no cavity search was required. :) We flew through the night to Miami and met a team of folks from the Santa Rosa area headed to the Dominican Replubic to build homes for the poor. They were taking a total of 50 students, although I think the majority of them were on another flight or were there already. None the less, it was encouraging to meet others who share our heart of compassion and were going to serve our Haitian friend's neighbors. A few of us also had the pleasure of meeting a woman who is an evangelist from Brooklyn, NY; she was born in Haiti and came to NY to serve the Lord. And now she was taking a team back to Haiti for a project, and to visit her family. Again, it was a great encouragement to meet our fellow brothers and sisters and share our stories.

We arrived in Haiti without incident, although collecting our luggage from baggage claim was an adventure - many of our bags lost their bright blue laminated WestGate tags intended to ease identification so, it took a while to identify all our "team" bags - most of which happen to be black, like just about every other suitcase going around the carousel at luggage claim. We ventured into chaotic, crowded, bustling city and took a brief but exciting (what traffic laws?) bus ride to another airport to catch our flight to Pignon, which was another adventure in itself. Did I mention chaotic and crowded? Well this is Haiti and that describes the small airport we arrived at for our puddle jumper to Pignon. Our flight out was delayed, and then further delayed when the airline informed me they could not take all of our luggage - this after they assured me they could take all the luggage we checked and had already sent a chartered cargo flight ahead of us to take additional luggage/supplies beyond our weight limit for this flight. So, we spent 4 hours there waiting for a larger plane that could take our entire team AND all the checked luggage.

Despite the heat and general fatigue of most of the team, it was an adventure. Brooks broke out his guitar and immediately became the center of attention with a number of the men working at the airport. He let one of them play and they bagan singing praise songs in Creole. Then, despite the language barrier, they tried to teach him how to share the gospel story with his fingers. Very cool. Others played an exciting game of Yatzee with microscopic dice on the floor, while still others managed to doze in and out of sleep waiting in the one room terminal.

The flight from Port au Prince to Pignon was uneventful, but hot and a little bumpy. This is a beautiful country from the air. We enjoyed a bumpy landing on a grass landing strip and were warmly greeted by our hosts, JeanJean and Kristie Mompremier. It was great to see them again! The drive from the airport was only 6 miles on Haiti's Highway #3, but it takes about 30 minutes because it's a dirt road; a rutted unmaintained dirt road. But everyone enjoyed the ride standing in the back of the pickup truck taking in the sights - try that in California and you'll get a ticket, or thrown in jail. Did I mention this is a beautiful country? It's even more beautiful from the ground.

We had a wonderful meal of rice, black bean sauce, pork, and fried plantains, then took a walk to see the new home Team 1 built for a former witch doctor. We couldn't believe how much they accomplished. Tomorrow we will begin our projects and I'll post further updates. Right now, those on our team who haven't passed out from exhaustion are enjoying some lively worship. It's good to be here, and we're anxious to see all that the Lord is going to do in the coming days.

Please pray for continued good health, safety and protection for our team; that lifelong bonds of friendship would be formed, that we'd be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit, and that the Lord's will would be done.

Hellooooooo San Jose!!

2009-07-16T17:25:00.001-07:00

We bring you [somewhat] LIVE coverage from Pignon! Cambri Love reporting.

Praise the Lord, Elise Gire made it in one safe piece. (She says "Hi Mommy and Daddy!) The rest are questionable. [for those worried family members, just kidding :)] Actually, everyone made it without sickness, although bouts of fatigue and sore anatomy swept the party.

This just in: we just had our first tarantula sighting! One unlucky individual was outwitted by one sneaky arachnid who made it into the bunk before reinforcements were put up. It took a leap at its prey... And Dave just screamed and ran. But it's okay, he warned us this might happen.

In all seriousness though, we're safe and so excited to be here! After arriving, we were fed a delicious lunch (soon to be chased by a dinner of popcorn and brownies!) and were able to make the small walk to the house team numero un (workin my high school French skills) began for the former witch doctor. Did they mention they finished it!? Yeah, we were surprised as well! Kristi says that there was an amazing support from neighbors who came just to help as they would be helped if they were in need. It was starting to get dark just as we got back to the compound so exploration ended and fellowship began.

So I'm off to possibly get beaten in Go Fish one more time by two seven year olds. Everyone says good night! Tomorrow starts bright and early with a 430 am prayer time!! Stay tuned!

America!

2009-07-16T13:57:00.000-07:00

We have all safely arrived in america. We are waiting for our final flight to SFO #1705. We will arrive via America Airlines at 10 pm. We look forward to seeing family and friends. Our prayers are with team 2 who have just begun their grand adventure. Bonjay Benny Yu :)

Passing of the torch

2009-07-15T16:14:00.000-07:00

In a little less than 8 hours Team 2 will be boarding a plane at SFO bound for Haiti. Some where between here and The Mompremiers the two teams will pass each other. In fact the flight Team 2 takes into Haiti is the same flight that Team 1 leaves on. Tomorrow, July 16th is a day we ask for your prayers for travel safety and protection. Pray for Team 2 and all the team luggage that it all gets there safely and in one piece. Please be praying for team 1 as they re-enter the US that the revelations of God's love for them and the people of Haiti is not lost. For Team 2 as they enter the only 3rd world nation in the North America that God prepares their heart, their minds, and their bodies for the work He has prepared for them there.

Thanks for your prayers!

Coming Home

2009-07-15T13:45:00.000-07:00

It is with a mix of grieving and excitement that we will head for home tomorrow. Many would like to stay longer (don't worry - it is not an option at this point :). We look forward to seeing our family and friends, but will miss our new friends and colaborers in Christ here.

Haitian Pastors

2009-07-15T13:42:00.000-07:00

Joel met with these pastors for two days. They come for two to three days a week, walking as far as 15 hours away, in order to learn more about the Bible. They work for the gospel for little pay and much persecution, but have a great joy for the Lord.

Camp

2009-07-15T13:39:00.000-07:00

Debbie helps some kids out at a vacation bible camp. At the end of the one day camp the team gives each child a new pair of shoes. For some kids it will be the only pair they have. For others it will mean the will have shoes that actually fit.

Feeding those in need

2009-07-15T13:35:00.000-07:00

Here is some of the team posing with some cooking oil we handed out to folks in the community. Besides the oil we handed out bags of rice and beans. Food is already scarce here, but July is the worse month because of lack of rain and the harvest doesn't start till next month. Our visit for many folks was the difference between eating and starving.

Building for a former Witch Doctor

2009-07-15T13:31:00.000-07:00

This is the home that we helped to build here in Haiti. We hauled the rocks you see in the walls by hand. They were dug right out of the ground. This new home belongs to Zouell. He use to be a witch doctor. He shared with us his testimony of how he use to scare and trick people into giving him their money. Now he is one of the greatest evangelists for the church.

Hi! This is Loriann reporting from Haiti!

2009-07-12T18:17:00.000-07:00

Wow - where do I start?! I'll start by saying we are all doing well and are healthy! :)

When I first got here I could not stop thinking about how lucky I was to live in the US and have all the things I have. On the third day I spent time with Haitian women during a bible study led by Cathie. It was incredible to hear their stories and how Christ has changed their lives and the community around them. God opened by eyes and in an instance I was able to see all that they have, how blessed they are and how rich they are in the their relationship with Christ. It far surpases any thing I've seen in the U.S. Their spirtual wealth is abundant and leaves me speechless.

The other night we delivered beans, rice and cooking oil to homes. We prayed with each family we delivered food to and I was able to pray over a former witch doctor. It was so so incredible to hear his testmony and how Christ transformed his life. As we came to another house a lady shared with us that she had just ran out of food and had no idea how she was going to feed her children and then we showed up. They have to depend on God in ways I have never had to and it is so beatiful and moving to see the faith they live by and it is such a gift "to be the blessing."

I could go on and on but will leave it at that. Thank you ALL for your prayers. Please keep praying for our team, that God will continue to use us to touch their lives and open our eyes to see Him more clearly.

Blessings,
Loriann

Trees

2009-07-11T11:31:00.000-07:00

Lyn and Troy are helping plant some trees. The only fuel available in Haiti is wood and charcoal. Haiti is suffering greatly because of deforestation. Part of the work the local churches do is to help the community replenish their natural resources.

Nutrition Center

2009-07-11T11:23:00.000-07:00

Chaz is spending time with a small child at the nutrition center. We spent one afternoon playing and doing crafts with the 80 kids who have been saved from starvation. Through the nutrition center they get one meal a day for four days of the week. It's not ideal but it is enough to keep them decently healthy. There is just two many kids in need to do more. Between 5 nutrition centers they are caring for over 250 kids. They could easily be caring for a couple thousand if they had the resources.

Carpentry

2009-07-11T11:18:00.000-07:00

Anthony brought some power tools and with the help of a generator is helping them build some the benches they need for the almost 400 people now using it on Sunday. There is no Home Depot to buy wood. The wood is fresh cut and smoothed by hand saws. Needless to say the locals are having fun with the new tools.

This is Chaz coming to you from Haiti!

2009-07-10T18:32:00.000-07:00

Bonswa!

Much love coming to you from Haiti!

First off, thank you for all of your prayers. Keep them coming! Recently we have had a few members of our team get sick, so please pray for healing.

Man, I thought I was sweating a lot down in SoCal... the heat there is nothing compared to the humidity in Haiti. People keep asking me if I just got out of the shower, when in reality I just finished tying my shoes and was sweating from that...LOL.

These past few days have been amazing! I can't even start to explain how God is moving in our group & the local Haitians around us.

So, for those of you that know me. Know that I am not a morning person, at all. But I had the opportunity to lead a 4am service this morning. That's right, I said 4AM! Every Friday morning people from the local community meet under a little straw hut gazebo to praise God & to hear God's word. I taught on John 13, Love & some personal things that God was challenging me on. It was different having a translator, because I could only speak one sentence at a time then had to wait for it to be translated into Creole. I think that I preach better when I don't have too much time to think, because it forces me to depend on the Holy Spirit to speak through me more & not get my own human-self adding stuff that doesn't need to be said. It was such an amazing time just worshipping God that early with people that are just crazy for Him.

Most of the rest of the day was spent riding on an ATV through the country side to go help teach an art class to some local kids. Although a few of us did continue to help build a new house for an ex-witchdoctor. Let me tell you... those Haitian men can work HARD. They put me to shame, I gas out after 10mins working under the Sun.

I'm really excited for tomorrow. I have an opportunity to teach martial arts & self defense to the on-site security guards. Boo-ya!

It rained tonight during dinner, which was such a blessing. There was a cool rainbow & the lightning here travels horizontally. Oh, and we had fried chicken & mashed potatoes for dinner, yum yum, I was in my happy place!

Tonight we had the Haitian Church board members come over & explain how they view ministry & what God has been doing out here. It was so good to hear these men of God talk about how they just want to further God's Kingdom & how God has guided & blessed every step in the process. I wish there were more men like them in this world.

Well, it's about that time for me to go get ready for bed & let the mosquitoes dine on me. Let me leave you with one of my favorite quotes by, John Keith Falconer: "I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light."

Peace, Love & may God bless you,
- Chaz

Trina's Perspective- July 9

2009-07-09T18:45:00.000-07:00

Already there has been so much going on that I didn't want any of our friends and family to miss out on it! We are all alive and well in Haiti- some of us learning to be more alive here than perhaps even in the States. There is something about this beautiful place- the simplicity and honesty of the tropical countryside & its people- that just gets under your skin, cutting through the the superfluous things I spend my mind on in the States. When we first flew into Pignon, I was surprised to feel "home". I saw many familiar faces and am surprised at how my modge podge of communicating in creole, french, spanish and English is all coming back quickly. With an eagerness to match or even surpass my own, my old and new friends are trying just as hard to communicate with me.

I have had two days and three classes so far with the boys art club. Yesterday I arrived to hugs and blushes as I was reunited with the boys and surprised to see how much the club has grown. Wilnot, one of the boys, brought me a large painting of a huge house (by Haiti's standards) and in little letters it reads "Trinas House Haiti". Think he's trying to tell me something? There are no locks on the doors, he tells me, because everyone can just come and go out of my house. Barb and some of the boys started to pick out their bedrooms! A little later a woman came to visit with a just born baby. The mother was mentally insane so this woman had taken it until it could be decided where he should go. I asked if he had a name and they said, "no, would you like to name him?". Oh man, I was absolutely floored- name a baby and give it an identity it will carry with it for the rest of its life? I thought about it for a few minutes and named the little garson "Dieu Bon Andre"- "Dieu Bon" means "God is good" in Haitian and "Andre" after my dad (Andrew). Never thought I'd be naming someone else's kid after my Dad! Why did I pick that name? Well, I was preparing for my devotional and was reflecting on a quote by John Piper that says "Missions exist because worship doesn't". My friend wisely told me that it is not my purpose here to change things, my purpose is to lead people into a deeper worship of God. I hope this will give little Dieu Bon Andre a good start... I think it may be the coolest thing I have yet done. My first afternoon in Haiti and already I have a house and a baby! LOL! I feel more like a woman already! =P

I have started the boys on very simple excercises like drawing animals or still life objects from shapes. What I'm learning is how literal the culture is here. It is hard for them to think in abstraction, as all their education is rote memorization,and hard for them to step out with their own artistic voice as their only artistic training has been to copy the marketplace and tropical scenes the tradesmen sell in the big cities. I am giving them excercises to find their voice and examine how they "see" (sometimes with our eyes, sometimes with our heart, head, imagination, spirit, etc...). Today Chaz gave his tired muscles a break after spending a day as a rockstar hoofing heavy limestone rocks in the heat to build Zouel's house with Anthony, Don, Nai Wei & Lindsay to be my "assistant" and was quick to share with them how what they are doing reflects being creating in the image of a Creator God.

We got to give Wilnot his guitar this afternoon, which was no small thing after the Tortuga Airline debacle (I was in tears and about to give up my clothes to make sure he got this darn guitar!). I have not seen him show that much emotion. He began to play it beautifully and we know we have already given him something to lead him into deeper worship of God that will bless others.

Well, what else can I tell you? The Mompremiers now have stocked the dorm with flushing toilets and mosquito nets and Lindsay, who has what we've been calling the "princess net" found a new friend last night- a tarantula! The nets can keep out these bitty mosquitos, but how in the world did that sneaky tarantula get in there? Oh my... Chaz came to the rescue and took it outside.

Some of the team has been working on projects: painting the doors of neighboring houses to protect them from rot in the hurricane season, painting and stenciling in the worship center, Anthony has been leading the locals in creating benches to sit on in the worship center, Zouel's house nearly has its walls and roof on after only TWO DAYS, and we had our first nutrition center assessment. It was AMAZING to see the Josefs (the kids who JeanJean and Kristie had seen eating ashes) because they are so BIG praise God! They had energy and were running around keeping up with all the other kids. It was just incredible to see! The King kids even helped sort all the vitamins and pills today for Kristie and Cynthia helped her weigh and assess the children.

There is much more to say- God already is doing amazing things in our hearts. I'd say we still need prayer that God will transform us and lead us in leading others into a deeper worship of Him.

I've re-fallen in love with Haiti & its people and the space to hear God's voice.

Haiti Time

2009-07-07T17:06:00.000-07:00

We are all here safe and sound. However, we have defintely entered a different culture. Things went pretty smooth on the red eye to Miami. We knew something had changed though when we sat down at our gate to wait for our flight to Port-a-Prince. We were surrounded by folks who looked different than us and spoke different than us. When they announced that they were boarding everyone went rushing toward the gate It was a little chaotic. It took about three times as usual to get everyone to find and stay in their seat,which really wasn't a big deal because the plane left one hour late (we had definitely entered Haitian time).
The flight went well until the very end where the landing was a little rockier than usual, but for the Haitians that wasn't a big deal as one lady had decided to get up from her seat and walk down the aisle as we were landing. She had made her way right up to the stewardess when the plane touched down. Needless to say most everyone was up and getting their things before the plane had stopped and the "fasten your seat belts" sign went off. The crew didn't even bother asking people to sit down. We were in Haiti now.
It was hot out but there was a decent breeze blowing so it wasn't to bad. It took almost another 45 minutes to hunt down all of our bags. They took a long time coming and some seemed to be taken off the luggage belt and set aside for no apparent reason. We were in Haiti. We then fought our way through the hundreds of taxi's and luggage handlers to the bus that would take us 15 minutes down the road to another airport where our charter flight was suppose to be waiting. Of course we had to rehaggle over the price and wait for them to be ready for us. When we finally were ready to leave they informed us that we had too much luggage and couldn't take it all. At this point we just chuckled, after all we are now in Haiti. We finally negotiated that all our personal bags would make the flight and the rest would be trucked to us the following day.
We got on a small hopper plane (It had 18 seats but because some of the luggage had to go in seats, the King kids doubled up in seats). We finally landed on a grass landing strip about 4 hours later than expected. One rocky bus ride twenty minutes up the mountain and we were home. Everyone is in good spirits and looking forward to a good nights sleep. Who knows what adventures tomorrow might bring. After all we are in Haiti :)

Leaving on a jet plane

2009-07-06T21:37:00.000-07:00

Our adventure has begun. We got all 18 of us to the airport and through security. We are short a couple of tools but all and all we got through smoothly. So far the plane looks like it will leave on time. Everyone is excited about the trip and hopeful that they will be able to sleep on the plane as we fly through the night. A note for team two: check in at American Airlines domestic flights :)

I'm going back

2009-05-07T09:33:00.000-07:00

Haiti was a great experience and has had a profound impact on my life. One of the challenges was to translate that experience to those close to me, especially my family. So I am returning to Haiti this year, but I'm not going alone. Lyn will be going with me along with our four kids Brittany (9), Jesse (7), Hailey (7), and Troy (6). I'm sure it will be a different experience than last year, but I am hoping it will be just as profound. This time though, it will be a family experience. Please pray for us. You can follow our family journey on our blog site kingfamilygoestohaiti.blogspot.com

photos trickling in

2008-07-11T21:29:00.000-07:00

Heidy takes some really awesome photos.

I don't.

But none the less, our photos are uploaded for the world to see.

And hopefully more will be posted from other members.

Heidi's pics.

Charlie's pics.

Fear not, we have returned safely.

2008-07-10T09:20:00.000-07:00

But not until we had:

Rode in the back of 2 trucks 4 hours up-country on a rocky dirt road, which they call Hwy 3.
Never before have I seen a highway that runs through two rivers and everyone's okay with that.
This is not to say it was incredibly fun and a gorgeous drive.
It totally was.
My backside was worse for it. Especially considering that when we arrived at the Citadelle, we all rode horses up the mountain to see it.

I won't say much about the much there is to say about the horse/horseman conundrum we all experienced. Only that for a country that struggles to bring in tourists, those guys...not helping. Somebody call PETA.

If you're like me, and you've never pondered the greatest fortification in all of Hispanola, I'll give you the skinny on it. (If you're a history lover like me, you can just click here)
It was built by a crazy general of the Haitian army who was convinced that the French would attack him and he would need protection.
Alot of protection.
So he enslaved many many people to build this huge castle-like structure only to never be attacked and later killing himself.

The best part of the tour was the lack of safety.
In the US or even in Europe, if you visit a major site like this, they'll say you can't go here and you can't touch that, and they'll have all kinds of ropes and guardrails to keep visitors in line.
Not so at the Citadelle!!
All of us could have fallen to our doom several times-- and it was great.

After our full color history lesson, we got back in the truck beds and checked into our hotel in Cape Haitian.

This is what the city really looked like as we drove through town.

And then from out of nowhere, our hotel popped up, that looked like this.

Which to me, was BIZARRE.
And made me feel squidgey.

But I was tired and incredibly dirty, so I just rolled with it. I felt cowboy solidarity that day because I, and everyone else, had never had so much road dirt caked on my face and hair, and eyelashes and braces ever before in my life.

Even though, our shower didn't work and our toilet didn't flush.
No complaints.
I was happy because there was a pool.

Even though, the food took two hours to come out of the kitchen,
No complaints.
I was happy because there was food (in a country which has serious food shortages).

Even though, right after we went to bed, the power went out and the A/C turned off.
No complaints.
Kevin and I had our own room, our own separate beds (50's style!) and there was so much to be thankful for otherwise.

We all swam in the pool, hung out with Kristie and JeanJean and their kids once more and then loaded up to go home the next morning.

Funny tidbit: The airline that we had scheduled our flight with went out of business between the time we booked our tickets and the time of departure.
So! JeanJean in his infinite and amazing resourcefulness transferred our tickets to TortugAir .

(Turtle airlines, they're slow, but they'll get you there!)

We flew on the big turtle plane (19 of us, Joel went ahead on another flight, poor guy) to Port Au Prince, then bussed over to the other airport to fly the friendly skies back to Miami and then finally to SFO at around 10:45 last night.

Most of us were running low on health-angels on the final flight home. Poor Stacy got the brunt of it, but Tom and Kevin and Kacie and probably several others that I didn't talk to were feeling ill.
I was only sickened by the completely terrible and horrible movie that I couldn't stop watching.

I wish I could express to you all the internal spiritual stuff that bumped around inside of us during the week and the culmination of it all.
I can't speak for anyone else, because we all respond in different ways.
I know that I have to go out again, whether in Haiti-- or in Sri Lanka, or Pakistan, or Mongolia or Jakarta.
I know that we lived in REALITY for those 10 days. Our american lives here are a facade or illusion or scrim that keeps me out of the loop.
I wish I could say definitely that I know I'm supposed to pick up our family and be an overseas missionary
or
that I'm positive my calling is here serving who I serve now, doing what I do.

I really don't know. I'm waiting on God to give me a big sign, I guess.
Kacie said she thinks God takes volunteers in addition to those he gives big signs. And I think she's right, and I don't know what to think about that now.

But I know that it felt really right to be in Bohoc, feeding the hungry kids rice, giving them clothes, and showing them that I love them the best I can (which comes out awkwardly I'm sure).

I'll try to keep my ears and mind open, and I'll let you know...

closing up shop (day 8)

2008-07-07T15:00:00.000-07:00

We're packing up and readying ourselves for our 4am departure. In the process we're sorting through our clothes, deciding what to leave behind, and sifting through the choice ones to present as gifts for our dear translators. I have to shake off the societal norms I'm used to, where secondhand clothes cannot and should not be regifted. In actuality, our throwaways are of better quality then any of the clothes you can barter for at the local market. Yet I feel guilty, because what we will offer is really our worst, the tossouts of yester's fashions, at least for me anyway. I tell myself, I wish I had known these clothes would be gifts, because I would have brought clothes of finer material and design. Further down from my altruistic front, I know I wouldn't truly do so. I'd limit myself to what they would be cool with, thus bringing us back to our current sifting. I could probably fault the hefty consumerism I'm used to in the States, or maybe burrow myself in my pillow and wallow in the guilt of brutal truth. I'll settle for an appreciation for our God who doesn't hold back His best in redeeming us for Himself - a standard of giving only He can truly attain. What a blessing we can cling to eternally.

Day 7: Get Me to the Church on Time...

2008-07-06T18:53:00.000-07:00

"There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. For you are all Christians - you are all one in Christ Jesus." Galatians 3:28

Tom: Today we were blessed with the oppurtunity to join our brothers and sisters in the church service at the Church Maranatha which in English means Church of Jesus is coming.

Kacie: Well, we actually went to two church services today - the first one at the church in town and the second one the "Come as You Are" service here at the compound.

Tom: Fine, you coulda let me finish as I was going to say that next but yes, we did attend two services today. The second service is intended for the locals who can not travel into town or who can not afford to dress up for church.

Kacie: Our fearless leader Joel gave a message at both services (translated by JeanJean), taken from Romans 5:1-5. I was especially touched by the worship we experienced alongside our Haitian brothers and sisters - such enthusiasm, joy, and passion in their singing.

Tom: Today the beautiful, amazing cooks that have been preparing our meals this week and washing our dishes had the day off. So we were left to our own devices for food. We all pitched in and washed the dishes and then we began preparing lunch. Let me just say that i'm glad that we had those cooks this week.

Kacie: After lunch a family came to the compound with a little boy (maybe 4 years old) who had just burned his hand. The little boy, Woobie, had bad 3rd degree burns to one of his hands and on his arm. As a theme from this week, it was once again overwhelming to be a firsthand witness of the needs here in Haiti and our own inadequacies to meet those needs. As we have all been learning, we give or do what we can and commit the rest into the hands of our loving, just and merciful Father God. Woobie left the compound with a bandaged "boxing glove" hand, medicines, and love and toys given from the team. We'll see him tomorrow to check up on his burns.

While we were in the midst of our 2nd service, JeanJean recieved word that a local witch doctor, Price, who we had given food to on one of our previous prayer walks wanted us to come back so he could pray to recieve Christ. We once again made the 20 minute trek to his house and found him ready and eager to pray with us. It was an experience I will never forget. Price has been a witch doctor and worshipper of voodoo for 40 years now. His wife knows Christ and has been a witness to him by going to the "Come As You Are" services and his children are fed at the Mompremier's nutrition center. As a short cultural lesson, when you become a voodoo worshiper it is said that satan "mounts" you and is able to comtrol you as a master controls a horse with a bit in its mouth. The beauty of the Gospel is that is a message of love, mercy, freedom in Christ. For Price, today was the day he was freed from the chains of sin and became a son of God. He asks us to continue to pray for him and his family: for food and clothes, for his eyesight (he is almost completely blind) and for his new faith in Christ.

Tom: I have to say that on this trip this team has been amazing. God has placed people that work fantastically together on this team. Everone has an amazing heart for God, seeking to do his will wherever that may take him. The compassion that fills the hearts of my team members amazes me. We all work together to help these kids, and put a smile on their face with Kacie working on little Woobie with his 3rd degree burns and Chaz carrying little peter in a game of limbo. who suffered from protein deficiency and so now he has the limbs of a 1 year old though he is 5 years old. I can not fully articulate the compassion that fills the hearts of this team. As I was sitting and thinking about how much i will miss being here in haiti I realized that it is not only being here in Haiti that i will miss. I will miss this team. I will miss the way we work together as one body in Christ working for the will of the Lord. I will miss the way we constantly watch out for eachother. I will miss this team.

Day 6, elective courses

2008-07-05T19:27:00.000-07:00

Joels salutes incorrectly on July 4th.

We hike up to mountain to see the voodoo cave.

Stephanie showcases the voodoo skull altar.

Trina Merry here today... reporting to you LIVE from Haiti!

We just got totally spoiled. Some guys from the Jean-Jean and Kristie's church came by in their scrubbed best to sing and play accordian for us tonight. Many of us tried to clap or sing along, but we got some amused smiles in return. They told us to send our love to you all and convey their greetings. They have given their Haitian promise (which means its absolute) that they will pray for us and our families when we return and appreciate the work that we are doing to share love in Haiti with the Mompremiers. I find it humbling to have such a promise given to me. Their songs were filled with joy and the hope of heaven which is something I see on many of the Christians faces. The Haitians have so little yet they are very generous with their spirits and the little they have.

As team filmmaker, I had the opportunity to capture our "elective project day". Myself and 4 others teammates (Kacie, Holly, Katie A., and Tom) began the day ESTATIC to plant grafted orange trees alongside Haitian farmers at Jean-Jean's mother's house. Those of you in Cali know how much fruit a single orange tree can produce. We planned to plant 30, but, out of our enthusiasm, we started digging more holes with this long iron stick and our orange camo gloves. We planted all the orange trees they had grafted. You can imagine the amount of fruit and, God-willing, money that will bring in for the family. The ground used to be curse so it was wonderful to have the privellege to bless it to grow.

The other teammates worked very hard all day. Stephanie and Katie W. were picking up rocks and Stephanie ended up with a HUGE tarantula on her flip=flop wearing foot!!! She has been such a rockstar worker on this trip! She has earned the name "boss lady" from the locals as she keeps pushing hard to do the most good. Donalyn discovered yesterday that she is passionate about rocks. Sounds weird I know, but it is a way for her to connect with a few boys over a long period of time and invest in them. Ashley and Joanna also got to bond with D and they boys by picking weeds and carrying rocks to the worship center. Shawna, Heidy and Joel made an assembly line and were throwing rocks into the worship center foundation so the Haitians can save money on concrete (very expensive). *Joel says "HI ALL!* Nate helped Charlie paint a mural in the dorm. Stacy and Cathie helped Kristy do some data entry. Chaz, Kevin and Laura worked on a few random projects. (Kevin is a SUPER handy engineer of pretty much anything). They put up rain gutters on the dorm. The water didn't come today so we "fasted" from showers until the evening. I saw Chaz carry water pink bowlful by pink bowlful from the cistern to test the gutters. He gave a moving devotional this morning telling us all that he came to Haiti with the mission to tell each and every child "ou bel" (you're beautiful). But God's been telling him (Chaz) the words "ou bel" and that he should individually tell us all that. The girls have all been hitting their "feeling ugly mark" and it was a well timed message. When he walked around touching each of our faces and telling us, forehead to forehead "ou bel", we all shed many tears. So, seeing him all day taking pink bowls of water to test the gutters reminded me that beauty comes in many forms and I can honestly say the people on this trip have shown just how beautiful they REALLY are!

People also showed their beauty today by buying some of the local artisans crafts. The art is very inexpensive for us- a painting is only like $20- but the money goes to give these people's familys food, medicine and tuition money (depending on the story- most of which are SO moving and we will have to share some of them when we return). One of the paintings I bought was by a boy named Fredlyn who prayed with me yesterday to accept Christ. He moved to an orphanage next to Jean-Jean's church after his dad died because his mom was too poor to support him and his brothers. Its got to be a hard reality to be orphaned by poverty. I had him paint Jesus into the market part of the mural (pics later) and I asked, do any of this boys know Christ? Only one did and Fredlyn spoke up and said he wasn't but that he would like us to pray with him so he could become a Christian. I was like "that's it? Uh... ok!" Like many on this trip, I don't consider myself to be a evangelist whatsoever, but I now see why God had me take him under my wing and teach him to paint.

Yesterday we hiked to the mountains to hand out beans and rice to extremely poor houses (POOR!) and at the end we hiked to a cave where there was a voodoo altar and a rope with a skull that I'm sure has some sort of spiritual significance that I'm unaware of (see pic with Steph).

Right before dinner today (almost forgot this!) many of the ladies got their hair braided by the local ladies in braids and cornrows. Kacie who is sitting next to me says she feels cooler and more ethnic. I think I've given up on looking in a mirror, but I'm sure its a vast improvement! Thank you ladies!

(btw, I apologize for spelling errors, but we have limited electricity and I am opting to pass on the lengthy spell check...)

and

2008-07-04T18:11:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/v/KkZyVK36MMs

I had to post this video that Nathan took too. :)

-really Charlie

Day 5, Greetings from Haiti

2008-07-04T12:09:00.000-07:00

Greetings to all of you who are keeping up to date on all of our adventures. This blog post is being written by Stacy, for those of you who asked...I was one of the "barfers" on the small plane from Port au Prince to Pignon. Poor Holly followed suit and was as thankful as I was when the plane landed. I am sure the pilot was thankful that he informed us of the "air-sickness" bags, even though we were "confident" that we would not need to use them.

This is our 5th day here is Haiti and every single day it is amazing to see how God is working in each of us and through us. Each morning generally starts with big daddy Joel being our time clock stating that is is time for either our, "spiritual feeding, or or physical feeding." Although it may seem that I am being sarcastic, both are important for the day that lies ahead of each of us. Shortly after our morning feedings we take a bus to a location where we will do a VBS for who knows how many kids. They have told the pastors to have no more than 100 at each, but if you could see the look in the kids eyes that we see, your heart would break like ours does and you would not help but know that God brought them to this place and we will adjust accordingly. These kids are so hungry for so may things that we take for granted in the states. For you to hold a child, means the world to them. Their smile tells a story of joy, that we can't understand, because the conditions they live in, to our standards, are so heartbreaking. I must say that I know I was not fully prepared for what I would encounter here, yet the hearts of the people are so open and their love for one another is so abundant. Today we made "wordless book bracelets" that tell the gospel story. You can tell these children cherish the piece of leather with beads on it, and they listened intently as I explained to them what the beads stand for. Since it costs 8 dollars American to buy a bible in Creole, very few have one. I was so thankful that I took the time to translate verses into Creole before we left. Thanks to Joanne for making the copies, and thanks to biblegateway for the translation. This scripture may be all they have written down from the bible.

Each evening just before dinner we do a "prayer walk." We walk the village area passing out food to the houses that we pass. A typical "house" here consist of 4 walls made out of plywood, a dirt floor or concrete if you are truly blessed, and some curtains to divide the living areas up. I would estimate that the living space is no larger than my 700 sq.ft. condo, yet 12 people will reside in it. As we walk, and talk with the people the joy and thankfulness that the people in Haiti show for a small bag of rice and a small bag of beans is at times more than I can comprehend. All I keep saying to myself is that I am a spoiled "white-girl." I have made a list of "I will think twice before..." and although is is somewhat comical to us team members, it is a reminder of how truly "blessed" each one of us is, yet we often fail to recognize it and give thanks each day for what we have. In Isaiah 55:11-12, it says "My word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you and all the trees of the fields will clap their hands." This verse is what we see here. God has revealed himself to these people in so may ways, and I have witnessed first hand the validity of this verse. Where there seems to be no hope, there lays great joy among a people whom we would declare have nothing....but I must say that they have a richer joy with their "little" than I can say that I have had for my "everything."

I hope I was able to express in part what God has been doing here. If you would like to pray for us, you can pray for: continued health, continued unity among our team members, if you are zealous..maybe rain :o) as the heat here gets old pretty fast.

I will close with a final greeting that Paul left the church in Corinth. "Finally, brothers, good-by. Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you...All the saints send their greetings. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you."

Day 4 photos

2008-07-03T19:22:00.001-07:00

Joel's freakish bus driving.
Prayer walk.
Food Distribution Dance.
joyous haitians.
Kindergarten Promotion.

Day 4, church in many forms

2008-07-03T19:10:00.000-07:00

My camera is officially in a coma. So Heidy was kind enough to offer her photos from her really really nice camera. See her post above! Hooray for Heidy, she's one of my favorites. :)

We went to Kindergarden and 6th grade graduation at the church this morning. It was an entire service.
First of all, who knew other countries did Kindergarten graduation?
Second, I love that they made it into a whole motivational church service.

I'll be honest it was hot.
And it was long only because it was all in Creole and we only caught the words "Bon Jour" and "Jezu" from time to time. But it was great to see the church in action, after seeing it more or less empty all of yesterday. They bring everything in, the music equipment, the microphones, the choir (obviously) and any accessories.
Our team brought them festively wrapped graduation presents, everyone was proud of them-- and then we got out of that hot church!

After lunch we had another round of VBS at our second location, down the very bumpy road in the big yellow schoolbus. We will all need chiropractic care after braving "Hwy 3" everyday in the bus, ha. The location was not as predicted and we, as usual, switched alot of stuff around without the kids being any the wiser about our scramble.
But when they walked out, they had heard the Gospel, four had responded to an "altar call" and everyone had a piece of origami to play with or mangle, depending on the kid. :)

Then we got back to the "compound" and had enough time to load up with more beans and rice to hand out around the "neighborhood." It was good to visit the famous [to us and the locals] ex-witch doctor's house and meet his beautiful family. His kids even walked around with our group to deliver the rest. His son, Wilkinson held mine and Kevin's hand, and Edison held Kacie's hand.
Such good kids, and I loved knowing that their home is a safe place for them to live now, now that their father has turned his life around and become and new man, thanks to God. He came by late last night to speak to us and tell us the extended story of his transformation. Very powerful. Truly anything is possible.

The last house we handed food to, was a current witch doctor. If you want something to pray for (well there's plenty, but...) pray for him and his family because the future looks very bleak for them if he continues down the path he's on.

Day 3, they just let us do this stuff

2008-07-02T18:56:00.000-07:00

Today's post will be heavy on my side of things, since Trina and I spent the whole day at the local church painting murals on their walls. I really can't believe they let total strangers that don't even speak their language, just walk in with a bucket of paints and go-to-town on their church walls.

I kept looking over my shoulder waiting for someone to stop me. Especially since people that lived nearby would walk in with the "what is going on in here?!" face, and then look me over with a raised eyebrow.

Well either way, I finished mine by 5pm but Trina's got more to go later this week. I kinda cheated because I made my painting kinda coloring book style, and all I needed was one kid that spoke english and 5 of his friends with paintbrushes to do the work for me!

It was like having an automatic mural machine.

I wish I could show you the final work, but my camera has been in critical condition lately, and it fritzed out. So when I'm not too lazy to track down Trina's camera, I'll post the results.

This is how we traveled to the church. Yes, my family, I shared an ATV with two other women (the driver is taking the photo here) . It was more crazy than riding a horse. It was like Mr. Toad's wild Haiti Ride. I held on with my death grip to the back luggage rack, while donkey and goat poop was flung up onto my skirt and shoes.

Hot.

Trina on her right-hand wall.

Here I am with my "machine." Very helpful.

As we were taking a water break in the heat of the midday, we heard what sounded like a parade coming down the "highway."

(And by highway, HWY 3, that is about two cars width and rocky and potholed like you wouldn't believe)

I managed to conprehend, with my stupid charade gesturing to one of the kids, that the sound was comign from the school next door.

The photo above is an undercover photo of us crashing their dance rehearsal. Lion King Musical, eat your heart out, these kids were awesome. We thanked them with a bag of RedVines, which was totally against the rules, but hey, too late now.

The others got alot of stuff done today. Another VBS session, some sort of construction. There was much sweating and probably some more crying.

I promise to be more diplomatic tomorrow.

Day 2, we get started

2008-07-01T16:56:00.001-07:00

Here's a photo from yesterday that I meant to post.

Thi

This morning was our first real day of work.
Our VBS began here at the Momprierre's place, because access was blocked to the original location by lots of sticky mud from last night's storm.
If some of you aren't familiar with what VBS stands for, it stands for "Controlled Chaos of Children that Learn about God and Play like Crazy" Yes, it should be called "CCCLGPC"
As I mentioned in my other blog, I took it upon myself to plan tye-dye for the kids. We *had* a plan. But around here, "plans" are really just basic ideas. And there was alot of alteration. :) They tye-dyed and then rushed off to play sports and jump rope and Sheep Sheep Goat (duck duck goose).
We had tons of extra kids and I can't wait for them come back to make more crafts, espcially since tomorrow's craft won't be insanely messy and complicated.
Beads. Very tidy.
This afternoon we walked around the village and gave big bags of rice and beans to families. 'Highlight of everyone's day I'm sure. One family told us that we were sent by God because they had absolutely no food and had been praying all day long for God to feed them. And then we arrived this afternoon! Hooray!

Here we are walking through the brush to the houses.

This is JeanJean Momprierre and one of the families we gave rice and beans to.

The little boy followed us to the rest of the houses.

I picked him up to carry him for a bit, and then his brother made fun of him and he wanted to get down. ha.

The children of this family were eating ashes from the firepit because they were so malnourished, before they met the Momprierres. Now the mother helps cook and clean for us messy and needy vistors. What that woman cooks on a cement fire pit puts all my food to shame!

There's more to report but we're having a meeting outside, and I'm supposed to be out there! I'm gonna get in trouble! ;)

Day 1 all in one "peace"

2008-06-30T18:07:00.000-07:00

We have arrived safe and sound in Haiti! Bags and bodies!
From SFO, to Miami International.
From Miami International, to Port Au Prince.
And finally from Port Au Prince to the Momprierre's place near Pignon.
The final planes were unnervingly small. I'm talkin' one propeller, 5 seat'ers. We had a few barfers, but luckily, not on my plane! We landed on a grass airstrip. I admit, I was gripping the fiberglass door upon landing.
The Momprierre's UCI "compound" is such a jewel-- beautiful buildings that are so well suited to their purpose of serving the community and making all of us visitors feel welcome. Tomorrow I will try to post photos, tonight it didn't work for me. As we were listening to our orientation this afternoon, a dramatic thunderstorm rolled over the mountains and poured down onto the tin roofs. And as Kris and Jean Jean were opening the packages we bought for them, some of us scampered outside to drench the afternoon heat. I wanted to see them open the tetherball sets, so I stayed inside.
Today's theme seemed to be "just when you think you can't go on on 2 hours of sleep (which is about the average amoutn of sleep that we got on the flight down), something amazing happens and you wake up." It happened over and over in the last 24 hours.
I have a feeling that this theme may continue throughout our stay here.

preparing for the trip

2008-06-28T18:35:00.000-07:00

Doubtless, we've all been scurrying around preparing for the trip.
I look at everything in my home and at stores through the lens of "can/should I bring that to Haiti?"
I've been fighting the very American attitude of buying and acquiring = preparedness.

In my packing and readying, I needed to pull out a few songs for our team's worship sessions.
It seemed like a passionless, route part of my to do list: copy the songs, and play through all of them once for practice.

But I found myself crying as got to the words of this song...

But the harder I try the more clearly can I feel
The depth of our fall and the weight of it all
And so this might could be the most impossible thing
Your grandness in me making me clean...

...So here I am, all of me
Finally everything
Wholly, wholly, wholly
I am .... wholly Yours

'Guess it wasn't just part of my to-do list.

Prayer Calendar

2008-06-26T18:30:00.000-07:00

This is our day by day calendar for our trip of things to pray for us.

Prayer is a really easy thing to overlook.

So we hope that this list will help remind everyone to keep praying for us and the people we connect with.

Those who are already there

2008-05-19T23:08:00.000-07:00

I picked a few really moving videos to give everyone an idea of the atmosphere and community we're entering next week.