We Are HERE and ready to go!

Bon Jour from Haiti!

It feels so good to be here.  We had a wonderfully smooth travel day and are thankful that all of our 13 donation suitcases and personal luggage arrived safely too.

Our spirits are high and we are ready to start our week of service.

Here we are God use us! This morning we are off to serve at the Home for sick and dying babies and Dare's Home for special needs children.  This afternoon we will witness hope for Haitians at the Apparent Project through job creation.

More to come.....

Serving Beautiful Kids

Started day #4 of serving in Haiti by attending Church on the Rock at 6 AM. Service was mostly praise and worship, majority in Creole, but some worship/hymns in English.  Very moving service, some of us saw familiar faces from previous attendance there.  Haitians worship with great expression & emotion, very friendly to us and welcoming.

We then ate a great breakfast again, and drove to the Home for Sick & Dying Children.  Spent our time holding sick babies, changing a few diapers, and got to feed them as well.  Great to see that most of the kids had parents who visited them today, including several dads as well as the moms.  Several of the babies’ faces will be hard to forget.

Stopped back at our Guest House for a lunch snack, then drove through heavy traffic to Dio’s Special Needs Orphanage.  Saw many smiling faces of kids with physical and/or developmental disabilities.  Tried to pay attention to each child with various activities including blowing bubbles, chalk drawing on the concrete courtyard, playing with a colored parachute, and kicking around a soccer ball with those able.  Saw kids helping each other out and very thankful for our visit.  Again multiple faces and smiles that will be remembered.

Traffic heavier today as people are arriving in Port-au-Prince for Carnival which begins Sunday for 3 days, ending by Ash Wednesday.

Tom & John

Elders

        Today was more of a laid back day than yesterday, but just as powerful. We got a full tour of Grace Village, got to visit Healing Haiti sponsored elders, and we went to see the Mass Graves Monument for the 2010 Earthquake.

        This was our second time going to see Grace Village and we have been very impressed both times. It is beautiful. The directors and staff there really seem to have it figured out. One of our words of the day that we picked was “progress” because it was amazing to see how much Grace Village has expanded in just two years. They have added a bakery, a restaurant, and have done a great job at strengthening the families in the local areas.

Our second item on the agenda for today was visiting Healing Haiti’s “elders”. We got to come and worship and spend time with these people. It was very powerful. Another one of our words of the day was “respect” because I can not even imagine all of the things that those elders have seen and been through over the years.

The last thing we did was go to the Earthquake Mass Graves Monument. We were told all about what happened on that day in January of 2010, and none of us could even imagine what that would’ve been like. The monument is very beautiful and was made on top of the mass graves of over three hundred thousand people that died in the earthquake.

That was about it for today. We are super excited for what God has in store for us over our last few days!

- Tanner & Chase Freeburg

Water Truck Day

We stopped at three districts in Cite Soleil, which is the poorest slum in the western hemisphere. There we delivered free water, carried water buckets to people’s “homes”, and most importantly, gave the kids attention. Since most parents are more focused on finding food or any kind of work, they don’t give their own kids the love and attention that all kids need. At ALL times, there was either a bucket or a kid, or both, in our hands and arms. We also visited Haitian Initiative, an organization thats provides over three hundred kids a day with a Feed My Starving Children meal, schooling, and soccer skills.

I also enjoyed our time at the new Hope Church and school.  Transforming this former dump, burial ground and bathroom into a vision of hope for Cite Soleil kids to attend school and for everyone to learn about our God’s amazing love and grace is breathtaking.  It is exciting to think about how this ministry will develop.

I must also say that not only I (Sam's mother) was thinking that Sam (our in country co-leader) was a rock star. Everywhere we went we heard “saam, saam, saam” and he was swarmed by kids, adults, and many beautiful Haitian women who consider Sam their boyfriend.  What a day to meet make new friends including Sam’s Haitian family.

Danny & Lynn

True Meaning of Appreciation

Today was our first full day in Haiti.  We started out at 9am after a great breakfast.  Our first stop was about an hour away.  The drive there was a great way to see the city and the Haitian people.  We arrived at the home for the sick and dying for the elderly run by the Sisters of Charity.  This is my first trip to Haiti, I didn’t know what to expect so I was nervous.  We walked up to the building and everyone there was so happy to see us.  We split into men/women groups.  The young girls ran to us with their huge smiles.  I ended up painting fingernails and toenails.  They all loved it.  I couldn’t help but think, “we come from such different places but we all love the same things.”  Who doesn’t love to be all prettied up with nail polish!  As we were leaving a nun came to our “tap tap” (Van) and said that we have touched the lives at the clinic more than we know.  She said even if someone dies tomorrow they had someone there today that cared and wanted to spend time with them.  They weren’t alone.  We provided them with comfort and gave them happiness.

Once we left there we headed to the Haiti Museum.  Wow, did we learn a lot!  We were able to see a priceless crown from a king (literally, millions and millions of dollars) and really pretty artwork.  We learned how the island split many years ago and the history of the slaves.  It was really eye opening.

Our final stop was to an orphanage.  Right when we stepped off the tap tap the kids surrounded us grabbing for our hands, tugging for us to pick them up and hold them. They wanted love, touch and hugs.  The guys acted out a play that all the little ones were super excited for.  Then we brought out the paper bags, glue, color crayons and paper and they went wild!  We stayed just over an hour helping them make their puppets and color.  It was a lot of fun seeing how excited they were over something so simple.  You could tell they were grateful we had spent time with them. They did not want us to leave.   

Tomorrow is our day to deliver water.  We are all looking forward to another adventure filled day!

Doreen

This was my first full day in Haiti. I was nervous for our first stop at the home for the sick and dying for the elderly because I had no idea what to expect or what was expected of me. We immediately split up into gender specific groups. The male group offered to give massages with lotion or give lotion to the men if they preferred. It turned out to be much better than i had envisioned, it was a fairly clean environment and the men were very appreciative of us being there and doing things for them that they couldn’t do for themselves. 

The next stop was the Haiti museum. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable about everything in the building. My favorite thing to see was the anchor of the Santa Maria. 

The third and final destination was the orphanage. I thought it was a really powerful thing to see the kids run out to the tap tap and be so excited to see us and have some people to love and care for them. The language barrier with the children was difficult. The kids loved to climb on us and play around. after they made puppets out of paper lunch bags and colored their pictures, I showed them how to make paper airplanes. As we were leaving they were throwing the airplanes at the tap tap. I am still nervous about tomorrow because everyday will bring different things, all of which I have yet to experience. 

Mason

Day 7 - Grace Church and Haiti Deaf Academy

As our week on this island comes to a close, our team of 12 continues to glorify God for the experience He has given to us.  What a gift to be able to be His hands and His feet this week, and we don’t have to do it, but we get to do it.

This morning after breakfast, we traveled to Grace Church in Titanyen for the first part of the church service.  There was singing in Kreyol, and we were able to get the songs translated into English for Meredith so she could interpret for us.  During the service, there was a dedication of a child, probably about one year old, to the Lord.  It was very cool to witness this in a Haitian church.

We headed straight to Haiti Deaf Academy, and met Bob who gave us a tour of HDA and then shopped in their little gift shop while the kids were still in Sunday school.  We were sitting at the table out front playing Tenzi while waiting for the kids to arrive.  Our Tap Tap driver, Derival, joined us in the fun and even learned a couple of signs!  As soon as the kids arrived, they bombarded us with hugs and smiles!!!  The kids were bundles of energy and we spent the afternoon playing with them, including lots of tic tac toe using chalk on their board!  Activities we did were jump roping, writing and drawing on white boards, drawing on the chalk board, and just simply chatting.  The kids enjoyed remembering some of the goers who’ve been to HDA in the past and meeting new goers.  They loved asking us our names and name signs.  It was overwhelming hearing everyone’s names and trying to remember their name signs.  We ended our visit by telling stories from the Bible and had long hugs and goodbyes.   Our team also passed out Valentine’s candy to the kids.  Their eyes lit up big and they were so thrilled to have some sweets.

We had our word of the day and many had wonderful good explanations for their words.  Words included Valentine (the children are my Valentines), runneth over (overflowing heart), turning (turning the jump rope), fulfilled, content, funny, tic tac toe, energetic, precious, smiles, bicycles, and one step closer.  One person said turning because she was fascinated by how the kids were very creative with their rope jumping antics, like the movie, “Jump In”.  Even the kids who were jumping rope with single ropes wanted us to count how many times they jumped and they hit over 100 jumps!

We concluded our evening with a special worship with the other two teams here at Healing Haiti.  Grace sang songs using her guitar – Called Me Higher by All Sons and Daughters, Good, Good Father by Housefires or Chris Tomlin, and All in ALL.   Another team member played and sang How Great Thou Art.  We closed our evening sharing our experiences from the week.  It was great to hear/see how God works in each one of us.  God is good!

Day 6 - Montfort Institute Visit

After a morning devotion, hearty breakfast, and prayer for our safety for traveling, we piled up in the tap tap and took off for the Montfort Institute for the day.  We were able to view another part of Port au Prince, and it was busy with people selling things, buying things, and bartering.  When we arrived at Montfort Institute, our team met the students and they welcomed us by asking our names (over and over!). They were excited and curious about us and asked us many questions.  They also asked us over and over if we were deaf ("soud" in Kreole), and if the two team members were hearing.  They were just amazed that deaf and signing people from America would come and visit them.  The students also taught us a little about their culture - one of the married couples on our team was asked for their ages and they were surprised to find out that the wife is older than the husband and they thought the wife was the "head of the house" because she is older.  We later found out that in the Haitian culture, if the husband has a job, the wife submits to the husband.  If the wife has a job and the husband stays home, he submits to the wife.  If both of them have jobs, they are equal.

One of our team members loves dance and shared her dance moves with some of the students and the students shared their "Haitian" dance moves with us.  Some of us played the well known deaf game - the Elephant Game!  Our team brought activities - white boards for writing, blowing bubbles, sidewalk chalk, a parachute, jumpropes, and soccer balls.  One student loved the white board and constantly drew pictures and drew a beautiful picture by copying the design on our Healing Haiti T-shirts.  A couple of the kids jumped as the staff swung the jumpropes. We had two different sign languages there - American Sign Language and Haitan Sign Language - so communication was a challenge at times, but we made it through!  When the students interacted with the team, we used a lot of gestures and learned from each other different signs in ASL and Haitian Sign Language.  When it was time for the students to eat lunch, we left saying "I love you" as they lined up for lunch.  God is so good, giving us the opportunity to spend time with His children.

We are grateful to have had the opportunity to meet and visit with the students at Montfort.  The feelings we had in that environment were beautiful, priceless, hopeful, and joyful.  The team prays that the students continue their growth and education so they can become successful in the future.  We (and the students too!) look forward to when we will see each other again.

On the way back to the guest house, we also had the opportunity to shop for beautiful metal art.  The different designs on display by the vendors were gorgeous, creative and mind blowing.  There were many pieces of art that had beautiful Bible verses, words, images and symbols.  Creating such art from metal oil barrels takes great skill!  We had to find the perfect pieces of art for our friends and family back home.

During tonight's devotion, we discussed God's Vision from the book of Revelations. Our devotions have been on God's Story from "Sticky Faith Service Guide".  We had already discussed Good, Guilt, Grace, God's Family, Gratitude and now it was God's Vision.  The fact that we "get to" be a part of what the Lord is doing in this world is a wonderful truth to ponder.  We commented that we are a great team and have been working collaboratively this week.  The word of the day was shared by each team member and every word of the day from today is underlined in this blog.  Enjoy the pictures!

Tomorrow, we go to Grace Church in Titanyen, and then visit the children at Haiti Deaf Academy.  We truly appreciate your prayers and thoughts.  We feel God's guidance this week.  Please keep your prayers coming!!