Thank you again for the awesome messages.
Yesterday the men in our group worked on the hottest day to help build a home for a family in the community that lost their house in a fire. When I say house, it is something that would be considered a shed where we live. There are 9 kids ranging from 12 to 1 month old, plus the mother that were living here when it burned down. They were renting, and the owner was asking them to continue to pay rent for the slab they were sleeping on. The oldest son saved the tin from a roof, and built a lean to for them to sleep under. Our guys started around noon- working on the hottest day since we have been here, with very little water. They were able to dig holes and get 2 of the 4 walls up in 4 hours. Today they returned to continue work on the home.
After we worked in the school, the ladies went to House of Hope. House of Hope is an orphanage inside of a hospital. It houses around 80 kids ranging in age from newborn to 28. We had the opportunity to hold the children and brought diapers, beach balls, candy and a bible to the kids. For the time we were there we did our best to share what love we held in our hears with them. They laughed and jumped rope with us. It was hard to walk away, knowing what we could do felt so limited, but the woman that ran the school seemed to love the children immensely. 15 of us rode in the back of a pick up truck about 30 minutes each way to make the visit. It was a good opportunity to see a different hospital and see some of the more beautiful parts of Haiti.
After dinner we worshipped God on the roof of the school and discussed our thoughts on the day. I think Everyone has been touched and changed by this journey God has put us on. Many of us have sponsored a child and got to meet with kids this week, and take photos with them.
Today we continued to work in the school, take class photos, teach in classes, and work on houses. Today some of us will visit children
This will probably be the last chance we have to update you before we begin our journey home. We will post some pictures here and look forward to sharing with you all what this journey meant to us. In most cases we feel as though we gained more than we gave.
Thank you for following us.
Blessings~The Haiti Team
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Hot in Haiti!!!
Today has been the warmest day of our trip. We are all drinking a lot of water and Susie is nursing all of us to make sure that we are all staying healthy and so far...so good!
Today the Medam (women) have been serving at the school with the teachers and students....grading papers (including French papers), taping book covers, playing with glitter, cutting out die cuts for the children, tutoring, listening to students read, helping with math. We have all realized how much we have forgotten since our own school days!
School photos were done today. Each individual photo with great smiles and happy faces. Then a group photo for each class room that included the teacher, aid and the mission team members that were serving this week.
The M'sye (men) are helping with construction projects and today they are working on the home of a neighborhood child that caught fire.
We are all looking forward anxiously and nervously to visiting "House of Hope" this afternoon. It is an orphanage that is about 15-20 minutes awy in a "tap tap". We look forward to loving on the children and playing games with them.
In closing, I will share a few "Words of Wisdom" from the 7th grade class...
"God is my boss"
"An easy way to love is to help people"
"You should never eat poison"
"Go take a shower"
"There are no doubts in Christ"
"There is no escape from sin, only forgiveness from God"
I believe we are learning more from these children then they will ever learn from us.
Today the Medam (women) have been serving at the school with the teachers and students....grading papers (including French papers), taping book covers, playing with glitter, cutting out die cuts for the children, tutoring, listening to students read, helping with math. We have all realized how much we have forgotten since our own school days!
School photos were done today. Each individual photo with great smiles and happy faces. Then a group photo for each class room that included the teacher, aid and the mission team members that were serving this week.
The M'sye (men) are helping with construction projects and today they are working on the home of a neighborhood child that caught fire.
We are all looking forward anxiously and nervously to visiting "House of Hope" this afternoon. It is an orphanage that is about 15-20 minutes awy in a "tap tap". We look forward to loving on the children and playing games with them.
In closing, I will share a few "Words of Wisdom" from the 7th grade class...
"God is my boss"
"An easy way to love is to help people"
"You should never eat poison"
"Go take a shower"
"There are no doubts in Christ"
"There is no escape from sin, only forgiveness from God"
I believe we are learning more from these children then they will ever learn from us.
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Tuesday October 21st
Hello friends and Family:
Thank you for following us and leaving messages! It's the teams favorite part of the night, so please take a moment to say hi!
On Monday after we had lunch and about 19 (we are here with 2 other groups this week) of us took a trip to the market. God, and our leader had other plans. Our first destination was to the local Port-de-Paix hospital. Port-de-Paix is a city of about 175,000 people. There were only about 25 people checked into the hospital. It was hard to be a group of people walking into a hospital and looking at the ill. We had the opportunity to have conversations with some of the patients, and we also had the opportunity to pray for them. We felt very helpless as we walked through the rooms. The rooms very much resembled an old WWII hospital that was worn down. All the beds are in one large room. No sheets or pillows are on the beds- patients must bring these on their own. There is no health care system, so they must pay cash for every service they need. All we could offer up were prayers that The Lord would watch over them and heal them.
We went to the maternity ward in the hospital. Five of us(only one person from our group) were in the room, but the mother and the midwife gave us permission to come into the room. We were able to see the baby being born, and pray for the baby, and family right after it was born. This was the only room in the hospital that seemed to be well equipped. It was a bright room- a stark contrast to the rest of the rooms in the hospital. The father was not in the delivery room, but according to Norma, men are not a part of the birthing process. They usually do not attend the birth and in many cases do not go to the hospital. Most mothers give birth at home with a midwife. It was an incredible experience.
After the hospital we went to the Catholic Church in town. We took pictures and admired the woodwork in the building. Some stopped to pray and others sat and reflected. Next. we were off to the market. I wish I could even begin to describe the sensory overload that we experienced. All the "stores" are bunched together and line the streets. Many have their wares on the ground, just lined up. As we stood by a store, we also witnessed our first Haitian funeral. There was a marching band, followed by young girls carrying paper mache wreaths. Then the pick up truck holding the casket- which had glass on part of it so you could see the deceased. Behind the truck were the mourning family and friends. We were told they often hire professional mourners to wail as they walk down the street to the church. So in one day, we witnessed life and death in Haiti.
Our rooftop discussions were full of discussions of the events that unfolded while on our market trip. We also read the notes from our loved ones, sang worship songs, and reflected on our daily tasks.
Today it seemed that everyone was a bit more settled in their tasks. We work up and had breakfast at 6.45am. Daily Devotional with the staff at 7.30am and class at 8am. Rob spent the morning chasing kids while we watched and admire his ability to play.
Today we have the chance to see Haiti goods at a smaller market and a little bit of down time.
Right now we are scheduled to work in the schools till Thursday. Friday mid morning we have to start the process of traveling home. We will need to split into 2 flights to get back to Port-au-Prince, then Miami, them Home.
We welcome your prayers and well wishes!
Blessings~The Haiti Team
Thank you for following us and leaving messages! It's the teams favorite part of the night, so please take a moment to say hi!
On Monday after we had lunch and about 19 (we are here with 2 other groups this week) of us took a trip to the market. God, and our leader had other plans. Our first destination was to the local Port-de-Paix hospital. Port-de-Paix is a city of about 175,000 people. There were only about 25 people checked into the hospital. It was hard to be a group of people walking into a hospital and looking at the ill. We had the opportunity to have conversations with some of the patients, and we also had the opportunity to pray for them. We felt very helpless as we walked through the rooms. The rooms very much resembled an old WWII hospital that was worn down. All the beds are in one large room. No sheets or pillows are on the beds- patients must bring these on their own. There is no health care system, so they must pay cash for every service they need. All we could offer up were prayers that The Lord would watch over them and heal them.
We went to the maternity ward in the hospital. Five of us(only one person from our group) were in the room, but the mother and the midwife gave us permission to come into the room. We were able to see the baby being born, and pray for the baby, and family right after it was born. This was the only room in the hospital that seemed to be well equipped. It was a bright room- a stark contrast to the rest of the rooms in the hospital. The father was not in the delivery room, but according to Norma, men are not a part of the birthing process. They usually do not attend the birth and in many cases do not go to the hospital. Most mothers give birth at home with a midwife. It was an incredible experience.
After the hospital we went to the Catholic Church in town. We took pictures and admired the woodwork in the building. Some stopped to pray and others sat and reflected. Next. we were off to the market. I wish I could even begin to describe the sensory overload that we experienced. All the "stores" are bunched together and line the streets. Many have their wares on the ground, just lined up. As we stood by a store, we also witnessed our first Haitian funeral. There was a marching band, followed by young girls carrying paper mache wreaths. Then the pick up truck holding the casket- which had glass on part of it so you could see the deceased. Behind the truck were the mourning family and friends. We were told they often hire professional mourners to wail as they walk down the street to the church. So in one day, we witnessed life and death in Haiti.
Our rooftop discussions were full of discussions of the events that unfolded while on our market trip. We also read the notes from our loved ones, sang worship songs, and reflected on our daily tasks.
Today it seemed that everyone was a bit more settled in their tasks. We work up and had breakfast at 6.45am. Daily Devotional with the staff at 7.30am and class at 8am. Rob spent the morning chasing kids while we watched and admire his ability to play.
Today we have the chance to see Haiti goods at a smaller market and a little bit of down time.
Right now we are scheduled to work in the schools till Thursday. Friday mid morning we have to start the process of traveling home. We will need to split into 2 flights to get back to Port-au-Prince, then Miami, them Home.
We welcome your prayers and well wishes!
Blessings~The Haiti Team
Monday, October 20, 2014
And yet I will show you the most excellent way....
We had an amazing time on the rooftop last night. As we discussed 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, we discussed what will make up a team this week and what each of us would bring to the team. We know that if we listen, God will show us His way this week. We joined together in worship songs and prayer as our school week gets started. We also discovered the chatty people on our team :-) I think maybe most of us had already identified them but I will not mention any names....
We were up bright and early this morning, breakfast is served at the Alexander's at 6:45AM. We attended morning devotionals with the teachers, teachers aids and Sonlight staff members then it was off to Rob's (and most of the rest of the team) favorite part of the entire week.....Time to meet and play with the children!!! We welcomed the children to school and played with them until it was time for them to go to their classrooms. Lot's of running, tag and "gotcha's".
Our day at the school will end about 1PM and we will enjoy lunch with Norma and her team. Following lunch we are taking "taxi"s" to the street market. This will be an adventure as the "taxi's" are mopeds...hop on and hold on tight!!!
I am looking forward to the roof time this evening so I can share all of your messages with everyone. We have all been eager and waiting to hear from home!
We are keeping each of you in our prayers this week....
Blessings from the Haiti Mission Team~
We were up bright and early this morning, breakfast is served at the Alexander's at 6:45AM. We attended morning devotionals with the teachers, teachers aids and Sonlight staff members then it was off to Rob's (and most of the rest of the team) favorite part of the entire week.....Time to meet and play with the children!!! We welcomed the children to school and played with them until it was time for them to go to their classrooms. Lot's of running, tag and "gotcha's".
Our day at the school will end about 1PM and we will enjoy lunch with Norma and her team. Following lunch we are taking "taxi"s" to the street market. This will be an adventure as the "taxi's" are mopeds...hop on and hold on tight!!!
I am looking forward to the roof time this evening so I can share all of your messages with everyone. We have all been eager and waiting to hear from home!
We are keeping each of you in our prayers this week....
Blessings from the Haiti Mission Team~
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Made It!
Hi!
The Haiti Team made it safely to Haiti. Our trip went extremely smoothly from Chicago to Miami and Miami to Port-au-Prince. Once we arrived in Port-au-Prince, our team split into 2 groups to get on a 9 passenger plane to Port-de-Paix. We landed and took a bus to safely arrive at SonLight. Praise God, all of our luggage and supplies made it with us!!!! Is was a huge blessing to have all of our clothes and all the supplies with us to give to SonLight. After we arrived we had a snack and then went in for orientation. Everyone was assigned a classroom or task/tasks for the week and we look forward to sharing Gods word and seeing how God will chose to use us during this week.
This morning we had the opportunity to attend Sunday School in English with Haitian kids and then we attended service in the new Son Center. this service was entirely in Creole. The pastor was very energetic and gave service with his hands in the air and arms moving everywhere! It was awesome. Julie had a birthday and the entire service sang Happy Birthday to her in Creole and in English!
Today after lunch we will be going on a hike to see more of Haiti and take in the culture. At night we worship on top of the school roof and praise God while we look up at a million stars.
Thank you for keeping tabs on us and praying for us while we are on this journey. Please pray that God will use us as he see's fit during this week.
please leave messages here and we will relay them to the team.
Blessings~ The Haiti Team.
The Haiti Team made it safely to Haiti. Our trip went extremely smoothly from Chicago to Miami and Miami to Port-au-Prince. Once we arrived in Port-au-Prince, our team split into 2 groups to get on a 9 passenger plane to Port-de-Paix. We landed and took a bus to safely arrive at SonLight. Praise God, all of our luggage and supplies made it with us!!!! Is was a huge blessing to have all of our clothes and all the supplies with us to give to SonLight. After we arrived we had a snack and then went in for orientation. Everyone was assigned a classroom or task/tasks for the week and we look forward to sharing Gods word and seeing how God will chose to use us during this week.
This morning we had the opportunity to attend Sunday School in English with Haitian kids and then we attended service in the new Son Center. this service was entirely in Creole. The pastor was very energetic and gave service with his hands in the air and arms moving everywhere! It was awesome. Julie had a birthday and the entire service sang Happy Birthday to her in Creole and in English!
Today after lunch we will be going on a hike to see more of Haiti and take in the culture. At night we worship on top of the school roof and praise God while we look up at a million stars.
Thank you for keeping tabs on us and praying for us while we are on this journey. Please pray that God will use us as he see's fit during this week.
please leave messages here and we will relay them to the team.
Blessings~ The Haiti Team.
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Leaving Tomorrow!
Hi!
Out Team leaves from West Ridge Community Church for Haiti tomorrow afternoon. As we travel, please pray with us for safety as we journey to Haiti and that God will fill us up and use us as He see's fit on this journey.
I just love this saying that was hanging on the walls of the school during my last visit.
Thank you to West Ridge and all our friends and family that have supported up on this trip both through prayer and financially.
We will update you as soon as possible.
Blessings~ The 2014 WRCC Haiti Team
Out Team leaves from West Ridge Community Church for Haiti tomorrow afternoon. As we travel, please pray with us for safety as we journey to Haiti and that God will fill us up and use us as He see's fit on this journey.
I just love this saying that was hanging on the walls of the school during my last visit.
We will update you as soon as possible.
Blessings~ The 2014 WRCC Haiti Team
Friday, August 15, 2014
Back to Port-de-Paix! October 2014
HI!
We have a tam returning to Haiti to work and share our gifts at SonLight again this October. We are looking forward to our trip and working diligently to raise funds for supplies. We will keep you posted here as our trip progresses. Here is one of the songs we are using for worship:
Thanks all!
We have a tam returning to Haiti to work and share our gifts at SonLight again this October. We are looking forward to our trip and working diligently to raise funds for supplies. We will keep you posted here as our trip progresses. Here is one of the songs we are using for worship:
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