Water Truck & Haitian Church Service Day

Can you bench press 200 lbs?  Can you squat 400 lbs?  Can you run a 6 minute mile?  As a male, these are some of the questions that we ask each other to show our strength.  But is physical strength the only type of strength that we should be pursuing?  What if true strength came from inside us, from our soul and the connection that we have with God?

Today was the day that I really felt God giving me a clear sign of at least part of the why I am on this trip.  In the previous couple of days, I have struggled to understand what I was supposed to be getting out of this trip.  Don't get me wrong, the last couple of days were absolutely amazing and in many ways very difficult days to experience but today was completely different from start to finish.

The day started with my normal bible devotion but I really did not feel that I was completely connecting with God.  So instead of trying to force it, I grabbed another devotion out of my bible.  This devotion came out of Mark 6:30-56.  This is the story of when Jesus feed 5,000 people with only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish (a story that I have taught many times) and later when the disciples were out in the boat and Jesus walked on water out to them.  What I had previously missed was the in between time and why Jesus was not with his disciples.  Jesus was spending his time up on a mountainside connecting with God to build up his soul.  Something that Jesus did a number of times in the bible, where he would serve others and then he sought solitude to connect with God.

"Strength", it was clear that this was to be my theme for today.

A couple of group members and I attended a Haitian church service this morning.  Even though I was not able to understand many of the words, I was moved just by watching about 200 people (varying ages 3-65) praise God.  I was in awe that this was a Thursday morning service and that so many people were attending.  I can only imagine the connections that these people were making with God.

Today was water truck day and I had heard so many good things from people that have experienced this in the past that I was excited to get this opportunity to serve the people.  We started off at the water filling station and got to see as our water truck was being filled.  Then it was off to our 3 stops.  What stuck out to me at every single stop was the kids that were so excited to see us and they seemed to come out of nowhere when we arrived at each location.  Being one of my strengths, I felt right at home playing with the kids and holding them all day long.  Helping carry water for people in buckets, jugs and barrels also really gave me a purposeful feeling.

Stop 17 was first.  Towards the end of the cobblestone street was a ditch just filled with a mixture of water and garbage.  It just broke my heart to see first hand where these people called home.  A little boy with a Super Mario shirt was my side kick the entire time here.  But it was great to see a couple of members of my group playing soccer with many of the kids here.

Stop 21 was next.  This too was a cobblestone street with shacks built as far as the eye could see.  While holding onto the little girl that ran up to me right away, I carried water for as many people as I could.  Once, I was able to go a little further back into these homes to bring the bucket of water to this girl's front door.  It was a very moving experience to walk through that narrow walkway.  This was also the stop that someone was playing music at so we all got to dance to "Wrecking Ball".

Before we headed to our last stop, we got taken out for a beach walk to the seashell beach.  This was extremely difficult, because this was the farthest we went into these homes and really were able to see life here.  Once we got out to the beach, the view was incredible in the distance.  But the beach was made entirely out of seashells which were beautiful but also covered in garbage.

Stop 26 was last.  Before the water truck arrived, there was a near-bye pier that we got to walk out on to watch the fisherman pull in their nets while the people on the pier were cleaning the fish.  The last stop was a long street with homes built up on both sides.  A little boy latched on to me instantly so I ended up putting him up on my shoulders for most of the time here.  This allowed me to really help others carry buckets of water and many times found myself carrying 2 buckets with the little boy still on my shoulders.  I saw much of the same from my other teams members here and can honestly say that I was wore out towards the end of the time here but knew that we would only be there a short while and pushed on.  Many of the team members voiced a very similar feeling  at that time here.  At the end of the day, I think we all agreed though with group members saying "today was the most fulfilling day yet" and "today was the best day so far".

This was a day that pushed my physical strength to the limit.  My body right now is telling me that I have seriously neglected it physically with all of the uncomfortable signals of soreness and pain, but even after spending the entire day serving others and doing good work, it was time for me to strengthen my soul and connect with God.  Remembering that even Jesus took time of solitude to connect with God and let God fill his life. 

All 3 groups here joined together for an evening worship service lead by Grace.  This was an absolutely incredible experience as we all sang songs together and praised God in our own way.

My soul gives me signs during times that I am neglecting it as well.  Times like when I give in to obsessions, addictions, imitations or even my broken relationships.

Today, God gave me a gift.  And that gift is that I see now what "True Strength" really is and that it comes from inside my soul and with my connection with God.

Mark

Words of the Day:
Ben - Faces
Jason - Authentic
Jeff - Eyes
Jeremy - Water
Josh - Peace
LT - Tre
Mark - Strength
Ryan - Hug

Day 3 - Children of Haiti

The story God has been telling me since I've been here is not the story I expected to hear. Amongst the rubble, the pain, the hungry, the heat, and the suffering, I saw something beautiful. I saw God. In the smiles of the children, in the service of the volunteers, in the beauty of the mountain side, in the laughter of the babies, and in the resilience of the people - God is here. Working to bring something beautiful out of rubble and dust. Working to bring life out of death. I came here expecting to see the devil at work, but if you look close, you can see God's hands. Here - as in life - you can choose to see only the negative, or you can choose to see God. I saw God today, and it was so fulfilling to be an ever so small part of the beautiful work he is doing here in Haiti.

It was a very hard day for much of the team. I think at one point or another we all did our best to hold back tears. And I think that's saying a lot considering we are a group of 8 guys who are not supposed to cry (especially around other guys). Today we spent a lot of time with kids - some who were disabled, some who were sick, and some who were forgotten. This morning we visited a home for sick and disabled children. We pushed wheelchairs, sang songs, and did our best to show them God's love. From there, we drove down the road to a school where we got another chance to play with more kids and sing more songs. I'll never forget their beautiful smiles. After a quick stop back at the guesthouse, we got an opportunity to tour Papillon which stands for "butterfly". Papillon is a local business that more-or-less turns garbage into jewelry and provides jobs for 267 Haitians. Our last stop was at another home for sick children. There we had a chance to cloth, feed, and play with more beautiful children.

It was certainly hard to see some of the children in the state they were in, but it was so beautiful to hear their laughs and see their smiles. I thought I came here to minister to the Haitians, but I can't help but think God had something else in mind.

"Let the little children come to me and do not try to stop them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matthew 19:14

~Ryan

Word of the day:
Jeremy - Darkness
Jason - Numbers
Jeff - Heartbeat
Josh - Faith
LT - What
Mark - Glory
Ben - Love
Ryan - Beauty

Day 2 - Men's Home, Orphanage & Haitian Traffic

So not a steller day for the leader 1st forgot hand sanitizer, 2nd totally stunk at Bags, 3rd forgot to do the blog entry. Everyone is in bed and the computer is locked so a really long Facebook post will have to do. (I'm doing this on my phone so please forgive the grammar errors.)

Today started off with an amazing breakfast. Over my many trips to Haiti I have fallen in love with the kitchen staff. They are selfless and take such good care of us.

Then it was off to a ho...me for sick and dying elderly. As you can imagine for most men the thought of rubbing lotion all over another man doesn't rank that high on the want to do list. But when we got there every team member jumped right in. Many of these Haitian men lay on a bed with out any physical touch or conversation for days at a time. The smiles and thank yous told us all how much it means to have some one show they still matter to God.

The next stop was an orphanage were we spent time playing with about 20 kids all below the age of 5. The parachute games were a huge hit but the number one thing these kids wanted was to be held. As I watched my team I was so proud how they did everything they could to make sure every child felt loved. Sometimes this would mean holding two kids while a 3rd held your leg and the 4th was waiting for you to blow more bubbles.

The drive home was not ideal. The drive should have taken 45 mins but Haitian traffic is no joke so 2 hours later we arrived back home.

Finally we took a quick trip to the Delimart to grab some snacks. Devotions was a great time of conversation. We ended the night with a Bags tournament. See first paragraph for how the leader did.

Words of the Day
Josh: Contrast
Jeff: Smile
Jason: Abnormal
Ben: Cuddle
Ryan: Relief.
Jeremy: Laughter
Lt: Trust.
Mark: genuine

Travel Day

I have been waiting for this day since November of 2013.  On my first trip to Haiti there were two teams that came down.  Between the two teams there were a total of 3 men.  The lack of men going to Haiti really stuck out to me . 8 months later I went on my second team; out of the 16 people there were 3 men.  God started to work on my heart; pushing me way out of my comfort zone.  Finally, last April, I decided I was going to follow His lead.  It was time to lead the 1st All Men team through Healing Haiti.  So without having a clue who would join, I applied to lead a team. I sent out a few texts to friends, I posted on facebook.  The response was less than ideal.  I started to wonder if this would even be possible.  Then out of the blue I got my first response, then another and by July it was clear we would have a team. 


The day finally came and we woke up this morning at 2 am to head to the airport. (Huge thank you to our two UBER drivers Andrew and Pete Carlson...Even though some question AC's driving methods... we all arrived safely ;)  It was an amazing site to see 8 men walk through the doors on a mission from God with 16 50lb bags of donations in hand.  In my 8 trips, I have never experienced a smoother travel day to Haiti.  We grabbed a little bite to eat in Atlanta then boarded the plane to Haiti. 


When we arrived at the guest house, I gave a quick tour. It didn't take long, this group was ready to get to work. We started to separate the donations and got them stored away in their proper place. Grace (one of the fulltime missionaries) made the comment, "how the heck did you guys get so much stuff!"


During devotions we talked about how God knew this team would be here long before any of us. We were all chosen by God for this specific team.  We discussed how we would all need to have "Open Palms" as we went through the week. Allow God to give us all he had planned.


Tomorrow will be one of the most difficult days of our week long trip. We will be visiting a home for elderly people who are sick and in some cases very close to death.  Please pray that we are able to be hope filled lights of our great King. 


Words Of the Day:


Jeremy: Return
Ben: Anticipation
Mark: Anxious
Jason: Boat
Josh: Familiar
Lt: Love
Ryan: Unreal
Jeff: Trust

Mens Team Blogging

This will be our team blog.  Follow our team as we spend a week serving God and the people of Haiti.  Each day we will try to put in to words what we experienced that day. 

During the next week if you would take time each day to pray for our team it would be much appreciated.  Here are a few prayer requests for tomorrow: 

Safe and Easy Travel

All team members to stay healthy 

We are so excited to see what God is going to do with this team. Stay tuned to the blog for updates.

Coyle & Bower Family Trip Day 3 (Sweet Home Orphanage, Rebuild Globally, Gertrude's Orphanage)

Today our team went to two orphanages and one non-profit organization. Because my mom has been to Haiti many times before, and I have been there once, I came into this trip believing I knew what to expect. I have never been more wrong. The two orphanages we went to were opposites on so many levels that it was difficult to look at each one and not compare. I will go into each one, but I feel like it was important for our team to go to each one and see the different conditions, and I feel like they prepared us for the rest of the week.

Sweet Home Orphanage is by far the nicest orphanage I have ever been to in Haiti. The rooms had air conditioning, they had a grassy area to play, they were adding on to the compound, and they had a little pergola area that was shaded for different games. I feel like it was the stereotypical orphanage in the sense that they were all cute. You wanted to hold them all and you felt very comfortable. As my mom put it, the day was like a rubber band being progressively stretched more and more as the day went on, and we started with a very loose rubber band. There was one kid who stood out to me and a few other people on my team and that was Zach, or Zach Attack. He was such a cute little boy and you could tell he was taking it all in. He was constantly moving and looking at his surroundings, which did complicate things a bit when you were holding him. He was young and could not walk. Zach also had a lung issue and had been hospitalized many times. I felt so bad that he, at such a young age, had already gone through so much and there was only more to come for him as he grew up so I spent most of that visit loving up little Zach.

Rebuild Globally was the organization we visited and it was such a cool place. They made shoes, bags and jewelry out of recycled leather, tires and tire tubes. It was really cool to see all of the people they had employed and how they had impacted their lives. They had not only provided these Haitians an income but had taught them a trade and that will serve them well in the future. Laura, our guide, said that there hope was to double the amount of employees by the end of 2017 so they could increase their productions. Rebuild Globally's main sales are in Orlando, Florida where they have somewhere to sell their items, but otherwise they have people in the US working on sales and you can see them at different pop-up stores. It was really cool to see how these people were impacting the lives of these Haitians. 

Finally, we went to Gertrude's. This was where our rubber bands got pulled hard. We got to Gertrude's at 2:00 only to learn that we were an hour early; the kids had their rest time at 2:00, not 1:00. So we were faced with the choice of going to the Guest House and then coming back later, or going to Fleuri Farms for a tour. Majority chose to come back later so we went back the Guest House. This is where the stretching started. Not only had we just had to rearrange our schedule but we were all tired and this would mean we would be having a longer day. Luke started to fall asleep on the bus, and we were all pretty exhausted. But we piled into the truck after a little resting time and headed off to the orphanage. 

Because my mom had been before and I had seen pictures, I felt pretty prepared walking in and was convinced I would have no issue pushing myself. Wrong again. I walked in and was so uncomfortable. I spent a good 5-10 minutes just standing their awkwardly trying to figure it out, and I felt bad because I came in wanting to love them just like I had to those kids that morning  but I couldn't. Some kids were not disabled so a few kids on my team and myself all gravitated towards them, something familiar. But soon we were taking the outside to play and I started to warm up to them; I kind of grew into spending time with the kids with more serious disabilities. Then I got to the point where I felt myself being impacted more and more by those who had a stronger disability. The kids I had avoided in the beginning because they couldn't walk right or drooled I found on my lap or holding my hand, and they were just as sweet if not sweeter than the kids that morning, and it made me start to question how I acted at home. 

I started to wonder why we judged everyone by appearance. Why could I so lovingly hug and hold all those kids that morning yet be so uncomfortable just because they looked or acted differently? And, to be honest, I have no answer for that and I am now certain it is not right. Something I did on the regular, subconsciously, was something know that is making me so frustrated. And then that brought me to an even bigger question: Why, just the day before, did I pick up a naked child and hug them and play games with kids who may have had infectious diseases, and push myself away from the disabled? That one stopped me, because now I had no excuse. For the previous question I came to the conclusion that because they were normal, it was more comfortable and that's why I was more open, but now? I had nowhere to hide.

This experience pulled the rubber band farther than I expected to be pulled on the second day, but I am so grateful. It made me really examine myself and some of the things I was doing wrong that God was definitely telling me to change. And I am so glad we did what we did today because it prepared us so well for tomorrow, where we will be going to another disabled orphanage. God was bringing things out of us now so we can apply what we learned and saw to tomorrow and I literally cannot wait to see what God does in the hearts of our team tomorrow. 

- Lilliana

Coyle & Bower Family Trip Day 2 (Cite Soliel Water Truck Day)

Today was the water truck day. Just the bare heat was enough to make a person fall over. I woke up to the sound of the team waking up, the AC about to turn off. I thought today would be nice. Maybe some mild heat, cute kids, and maybe a little commotion. No way did that happen. It was a beautiful day, and I stared at the cloudless sky as I filled my new water bottle. I heard dogs barking, and the rumble of tap-taps as they fired up. Breakfast came hot and fresh. Toast, banana slices, mango, and various syrups and spreads were laid beautifully on the dining table. 

After some malaria pill frustration, I strolled out the door.  My new found friends, two eight week old puppies, greeted me as I walked down the gray steps. I referred to them as Rosie and Jax. Jax has big brown eyes, a boxy muzzle, honey-mustard fur, and some white on the tip of his tiny little snout. Rosie, however, was the opposite. Instead of more light brown, she looked like a baby Rottweiler. The only thing making her less like a mini guard dog was her floppy ears and big, hazel-brown eyes. 

My friend, Willow, and I waited at the back of the tap-tap. Jonas was yet to oped the squeaky rusted door. White paint, once fresh and spotless, was now chipped and revealed plenty of rusty chunks. A rainbow of colors proudly stated a Bible verses in Creole. Patterns and colors, I soon learned, were popular for cars, public tap-taps, even school buses. I kept my eyes open for two little girls who had danced and sang for us the night before. I can still remember their big brown eyes, white smiles, and pink dresses. My daydreams of the cute twosome disappeared as the loud creak of the tap-tap doors opened. I searched for a shady seat. The breeze felt nice on my skin, blowing my messy bun. 

As we rumbled out of the property, I stared at the many guard dogs. Proud parents, Gracie and Boaz, sat side by side. A dog that I didn't know, pale cream-and-white patched, slept under a truck. The fattest, white-faced Bacon lay on his post by the higher ledge. The dark-skinned men and women stared at our colorful ride, waving, smiling, or maybe leading a few goats back home. A chicken waddled past, his red comb waving in the dusty wind. 

Before I knew it, we were at our destination. We all crowded out the doorway. Practically slo-mo, I stared into the bottomless eyes of a little girl, wearing a white-and-yellow striped dress too big for her tiny body. I skipped down the small stairs, straight for the tiny little girl. She grinned so broadly I thought her fragile, sweet face would break. She said, "What is your name?" in crisp, but slightly accented, English. "Rachel," I replied to her. "What is your name?" she looked up at me. She was probably four, wearing cute sandals any grown woman would die for if it was in their size. "My name is Ashi." she said. I thought, What a pretty name! No average American would name their kid that. She asked me, "Potem, potem." Pick me up, pick me up. I swept my arms under her fragile body, lifting her up so we were eye level. "Go away!" she yelled in  her sweet-toned, high pitched voice to a little boy asking me to pick him up. Instead, I grabbed his chubby toddler fingers. 

After a blur of other kids, we had to go. I sat out of Stop 2 and 3. The hot, windless day had definitely put a number on me. As soon as we got to the guest house, I changed in to my flowered swimsuit. We swam for hours, ate dinner, had Pit Devotions, and then, after a bit of technical difficulties, I started writing this blog.

--Rachel