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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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 :)

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 :)