Leaving Desire

I am writing this as we are traveling back to Gonaives from Desire. We had a wonderful time of worship with the children and now have to leave them as we begin our journey home tomorrow. I wish I could say that leaving after many visits gets easier each time but it doesn't. It's as hard as the very first time. The only difference is that we are comforted in the knowledge that they are better off than they were two months ago , 6 months ago and a year ago. And things continue to improve for the children each week as the homes are completed and furnished and the next phase of construction begins.

We also now know their names, and we can begin to have basic conversations with them without the need of a translator all the time. A great example of this was with our teaching English on this trip. The children are putting their trust in the Lord to provide when times get difficult. Many children have come to know and accept Jesus as Savior and relationships with the community continues to grow. Praise God for all these things. It is truly freedom in Christ when we allow Him to work through the individuals on our teams.

Well we made it back to Jumecourt, a stopping point before heading home tomorrow. The excitement for the road trip was getting stopped by the police at a random checkpoint. The police must not quite have liked the answers our Haitian driver gave so they wanted to see everybody's passport and confirm that we all matched our passports. After several minutes we were underway again. That was a new first for our trips!

All is well and we will return tomorrow night. Please pray for our safe travels.

A Simple Touch Brings Peace

Today I was reminded of a very powerful thing. This is my 10th trip to Haiti in just over two years and it's easy to get caught up in the busyness of a trip- from making sure the team is prepared for their activities and how they are doing on a physical level and spiritual level and trying to learn some simple creole phrases- you can accidentally miss one of the most important things- the power of a touch. Sometimes all a child desires is a hand to hold or a lap to sit upon. And today I had a very young boy seek me out, grab my hand, wait for me to sit down so he could crawl into my lap and fall asleep. I think for a moment all he needed was a place to rest his head to find respite from the difficult life he lives.

I then think of the image of our heavenly Father beckoning us to come to Him, crawl into His lap and put our trust and all our cares on Him. So while I became a big human pillow for a small child, I rediscovered the peace our God provides us when we rest in Him.

Today was the last full day with the children of Desire as we played, held them and shared to gospel story with the orphans and community children. Tomorrow we worship with them and hear a message from Pastor Jeannot and Pastor Steve. We then begin our journey back to Port au Prince and head home on Monday. Pray for our team because as always, good-byes are very hard after spending a week deepening our relationships with the children and Pastor Jeannot.

Last day of school

Today is Friday and our team completed their last day of teaching English in school. Our goal was to try and implement English into the children's school day and it was a very successful week. The team did an awesome job preparing and executing the English lessons. Each day in the afternoon the children would practice the things they learned in the morning. That brought a "good job!" from every team member and a smile to their faces.

We are not quite finished in Desire. We have a full ministry day tomorrow and we will have the children from the community join us for the full day tomorrow.

A side note for me today was the opportunity to see a part of Haiti I had not yet visited. My pastor friend Arnie has joined our team for the trip to Desire to see ministry and partnership opportunities with The Global Orphan Project as he seeks an outreach/compassion opportunity for his new church. We traveled to Marmalade to see a future GO project getting ready to be started. Marmalade is located on the top of a mountain chain that separates Gonaives from Cap Haitien on the north coast of Haiti and is a beautiful town. It's very lush because they get rainfall year-round and have many different crops clinging to the mountain sides. I am excited to see where the Lord might lead Arnie and his church.

Overcoming Spiritual Warfare

I know the title sounds ominous but the reality is that there is a constant spiritual battle no matter what you do when serving the Lord. Today Pastor Steve was bringing a message and sharing the gospel with over 100 kids from the Desire community. In the midst of the teaching, the rain began falling on the metal roof, extra noise from the bus as it was being repaired, and a phone call to the translator in the middle of the gospel. All of these things could have derailed the gospel being shared but our God is awesome and despite these distractions, the gospel was shared and the children's clearly understood the message.

In addition to the Bible teaching, today was another blessing. Teaching English continued today with great success. Members of our team spent a great time with the mommas sharing Scripture, prayer requests, and hearing life stories of the mommas. And Rich, our doctor investigating medical mission possibilities with his wife Kathy spent the day visiting clinics, visiting with nurses, and local pastors and missionaries working in and around Gonaives. I am excited for what the Lord might reveal to us as a church and the direction He would have us go.

The team is doing very well, staying healthy, and serving with every ounce of energy! This is a great team and the Lord is doing wonderful things through them!

English in Desire

Today was a great day and a first for our short term teams in Desire. We taught approximately 65 kids English in school today. The team did a fantastic job getting the older kids to continue what we started back in October as a pilot program, and introducing the younger kids to phrases of introducing themselves in English and learning colors and farm animals.

Then this afternoon we went back up to Desire to play, sing, practice English, and practice our learning Creole. This evening we closed out our busy day by visiting an American missionary woman who runs an orphan home in Gonaives. The highlight of this visit was listening to the children sing to us and for me to see a young boy who has AIDS who I met this past July and have him say "of course I remember you!"

The team is doing very well and growing very close to one another which is always one of my favorite things to witness and be a part of each time I come to Haiti with a team.

Enjoy the couple of pictures below of school, the inside of a finished container home and the new propane stove the church helped to purchase.

Reunion in Desire

We made it safely to Gonaives Haiti this afternoon. After getting settled at our hotel, we made a late afternoon run up to Desire to see the kids. The reception was overwhelming- kids jumping up and down and cheering as we pulled into the project. I can never get used to it because I feel so unworthy yet I know they love us as much as we love them.
Tomorrow we begin teaching English as a part of their school day. Already we can tell that they will have fun because they are anxious to continue what we started on the last trip.
Keep praying for health and safety. This team is a fantastic and I love to watch a team bond and grow closer to each other.
So much has changed since my last trip less than two months ago- two of the four homes have been finished, there is a new latrine and shower and bed frames and mattresses arrived at Desire just ahead of us.
Can't wait for tomorrow!

A New Year- A New Adventure

2011 was a great year as we found our partner in Haiti through the local church in Desire and the orphan project.  With four trips to Desire in 2011, God has done a great work in transforming our own congregation as we sought His will do serve the local church and orphans.  In almost two years there have been 80 different people from Faith that have stepped out to follow the Lord's call on their life to serve on a short term mission team in Haiti.  God is good.

This coming Monday on the 16th, another team from Faith will be making the journey to Haiti to serve the local church and orphans to kick off another year in Haiti.  This team will be teaching English to the orphan kids as well as community kids who attend the school at Desire.  Almost a year and a half ago, I felt a call that we should try to teach English to the kids of Desire.  In a country where around 85% of the population is unemployed, I heard statistically that if a Haitian can speak English, they would have 10 times better chance at getting a job than those who do not speak English.  Our vision is to help make a difference in the lives of the orphan children- sharing the gospel, discipling them to grow closer in their walk with the Lord and to set them up for a fruitful, productive life as they grow up- and one of those helpful things that we can do as a congregation is to teach English.

So as we finish packing our supplies, we ask the Lord to guide us, to give us direction and to be flexible.  We ask the Lord to give us His eyes to see, to love, and to continue to build strong relationships with the children, Pastor Jeannot, and the staff and community of Desire.  I am excited for this team!

At the end of 2011, we finished a project to help make our Desire kids more known to our congregation.  In August we took pictures of each child and in October we had them paint a frame that later we would put their photo into.  The pictures are up on a wall at Faith and each frame has the name of the child on their own frame that they painted.  Now people from our congregation can take the time to study the faces of the 63 kids and learn their names so that one day- they can go to Haiti and meet these kids in person!