Bonswa from Haiti! Today was another beautiful day of worship and hanging out with the girls. Many of us started off the day at 5:00 am (a new experience for some) and went to church at 9:00. We joined the girls in their Sunday School class where we were immediately surrounded and had them fighting over our limited lap space. After listening to them repeat words back to their teacher, they all went up front and sang a couple of songs for us. It was incredible! Those little girls were louder than our whole congregation at home… and they sang beautifully. I kept thinking of Mom (Bonnie) and how much she would give to have a children’s choir like this! After the two group songs a few of them went up alone to do solos (which seems to be common to their church services – they did it later in the day at the Youth (young adult) Service we went to at 3:00). Then there was a time of more group singing and a lesson. Rod closed the time in prayer.
Around 10:00 we joined the adults in the regular service where Marie interrupted the service to introduce us to them. We each had to introduce ourselves while Andy interpreted for us. The sermon was very exciting and passionate… even if we couldn’t understand it. It was about Jesus’ second coming. Every once in a while Andy would squeeze in a few words of interpretation for us.
After church we went home for a lunch of crackers and summer sausage, tuna and pistachios. We hung out for a while with Andy and his friends Stevenson and Johnson who help with the English Youth Service at 3:00. At the service, we once again had to introduce ourselves to everyone, and Sharon and Mae and I led the singing, I prayed, and Angela read Psalm 150. After church we got to play with the girls again and also presented the completed painting they worked on a couple days ago.
When we got back to Marie’s, Shannon, Hannah, Angela, Maria and I taught Andy, Stevenson and Johnson how to play UNO. It was a fun time… and Angela and I have mastered a few more Creole phrases: “Se tou paou” = “It’s your turn” and “Se tou mwen” = “It’s my turn”. We also learned some numbers and colors. The Haitians are much better at picking up English than we are at picking up Creole… we blame the American education system :P For dinner, Ethan and Toni made tortellini and garlic bread. Andy, Stevenson and Johnson joined us for dinner after some persuading by us.
This whole trip has been amazing as far as experiencing unity as brothers and sisters in Christ. Praying and worshipping together with our Haitian brothers and sisters has proven that the message of the Gospel of Jesus transcends races, nations, cultures, and languages. It is extremely humbling to hear them pray for us, speaking of how we have given up and left behind everything we have to come here… when in reality it is nothing for us to come here. We will quickly return to all of the comforts and excesses of home and life in America. They will remain here, where even in the midst of unbelievable poverty and tragedy, they are still full of joy and love for their Savior. We can learn so much from them… more than they will ever learn from us. I think each one of us will be sad to leave… it is easy to fall in love with Haiti. Especially those precious little girls. It’s hard to believe we will have to go in just two days! It’s amazing how fast the week has gone by when the days seem to float lazily by. Thank you all so much for your prayers… please continue to pray for our team, that we will be aware of and obedient to God’s will for us in the next two days, and that the love of Christ will guide all of our interactions.
Tomorrow we go for our tour of Port au Prince and the Hospital. For now, it’s time to wind down and get ready for bed at this late hour of 8:30 pm :)
Orevwa!
Love,
Joanna and the Team
7.04.2010
7.03.2010
Haiti Saturday July 3
7-03-10 blog
We started the day preparing to go to the Wislet orphanage. It is about 5 miles away which in PAP can take an hour or more some days. We got on the road around 9:30 and actually got there by 10. Our purpose was several fold. First since Ethan and I were the only team members to have seen the other orphanage or meet Pastor Wislet it was an opportunity to see another example of God using his faithful people to do his work. Pastor Wislet doesn’t speak any English so we used two interpreters which made the visit incredible. Andronic speaks French, Creole, Spanish and English. Maria (Hannah’s friend) speaks Spanish and English. The meeting went very well and Pastor Wislet shared his story and his faith for over an hour. It was amazing. We finished our meeting by praying over Pastor Wislet and his wife. We then delivered 10 bags of assorted supplies from the Impact for Jesus people and gave three of the children gifts from their sponsors. One of the most moving times came when Joanna gave a book of photos prepared by the Faith Church youth group to Stecy their sponsored child. Joanna showed her the pictures one by one telling her each of their names. Stecy just kept looking at each picture and really seemed interested in the pictures of the youth group sledding. Before we could leave one of the girls sat Maria down and braided her hair. In about 30 minutes Maria had a head full of rolls of braids.
The trip back took much longer. We got out of there about 12:45 but didn’t get back to Marie’s until 2. I believe that the temp was 99 when we got back which shot the rest of the afternoon for us. We needed to drink lots of water and stay inside for a few hours. We have gone through over 20 gallons of water since noon yesterday but no one has had any problems with the heat. It was good to take the trips these last two days. I got to see firsthand the rebuilding that is going on. We haven’t been in the worst area yet, that is coming on Monday, but there is obvious rebuilding going on. I was here in the end of March this year and in the areas we have been in many of the damaged buildings have been rebuilt or repaired.
Once the sun went down a little we went over to Grace House of Hope and spent about an hour singing with the girls. Sharon has brought a guitar and several of the girls just love to sing praise and worship songs with us. They know several songs in English but it is so sweet when they sing the same songs in French. After getting back Jenna our cook made a great stew out of potatoes carrots plantain and goat. Everyone seems to enjoy the goat. Maybe it is the hunger and the humility of realizing how well we are being treated just to have any meat at all.
It gets dark here about 6pm and is now about 8:30 so we will all be headed to bed soon. I know this seems early but the roosters will start working at waking us about 3am and we will be going to the church service at the orphanage at 9am. Several of us will be joining the younger group for a service at 3pm. Sharon and Joanna will be leading us in a few songs and based on how some of the orphans sing should be wonderful.
Good night and keep praying for our trip. It is Sat. night and I am sure we will soon be hearing the Voo Doo drums.
Rod and the team
We started the day preparing to go to the Wislet orphanage. It is about 5 miles away which in PAP can take an hour or more some days. We got on the road around 9:30 and actually got there by 10. Our purpose was several fold. First since Ethan and I were the only team members to have seen the other orphanage or meet Pastor Wislet it was an opportunity to see another example of God using his faithful people to do his work. Pastor Wislet doesn’t speak any English so we used two interpreters which made the visit incredible. Andronic speaks French, Creole, Spanish and English. Maria (Hannah’s friend) speaks Spanish and English. The meeting went very well and Pastor Wislet shared his story and his faith for over an hour. It was amazing. We finished our meeting by praying over Pastor Wislet and his wife. We then delivered 10 bags of assorted supplies from the Impact for Jesus people and gave three of the children gifts from their sponsors. One of the most moving times came when Joanna gave a book of photos prepared by the Faith Church youth group to Stecy their sponsored child. Joanna showed her the pictures one by one telling her each of their names. Stecy just kept looking at each picture and really seemed interested in the pictures of the youth group sledding. Before we could leave one of the girls sat Maria down and braided her hair. In about 30 minutes Maria had a head full of rolls of braids.
The trip back took much longer. We got out of there about 12:45 but didn’t get back to Marie’s until 2. I believe that the temp was 99 when we got back which shot the rest of the afternoon for us. We needed to drink lots of water and stay inside for a few hours. We have gone through over 20 gallons of water since noon yesterday but no one has had any problems with the heat. It was good to take the trips these last two days. I got to see firsthand the rebuilding that is going on. We haven’t been in the worst area yet, that is coming on Monday, but there is obvious rebuilding going on. I was here in the end of March this year and in the areas we have been in many of the damaged buildings have been rebuilt or repaired.
Once the sun went down a little we went over to Grace House of Hope and spent about an hour singing with the girls. Sharon has brought a guitar and several of the girls just love to sing praise and worship songs with us. They know several songs in English but it is so sweet when they sing the same songs in French. After getting back Jenna our cook made a great stew out of potatoes carrots plantain and goat. Everyone seems to enjoy the goat. Maybe it is the hunger and the humility of realizing how well we are being treated just to have any meat at all.
It gets dark here about 6pm and is now about 8:30 so we will all be headed to bed soon. I know this seems early but the roosters will start working at waking us about 3am and we will be going to the church service at the orphanage at 9am. Several of us will be joining the younger group for a service at 3pm. Sharon and Joanna will be leading us in a few songs and based on how some of the orphans sing should be wonderful.
Good night and keep praying for our trip. It is Sat. night and I am sure we will soon be hearing the Voo Doo drums.
Rod and the team
7.02.2010
Haiti on Friday July 2, 2010
Friday 7-2-2010
Another “warm” day with temp near 100 and a couple of hours spent with mid day sun frying the tops of toes, nose and ears as the 11 of us travel to and from our destinations in the back of a pickup truck. The sun is north of us overhead- too strange, and I’ve lost any sense of direction since arriving. We listened to much shouting as the soccer was broadcast, little pockets of fans huddled around someone’s TV or cell phone amongst the street vendors. Unfortunately, many were Brazil fans and were a bit disappointed. And now, since the game is done, our turn for getting electricity today was only 15 minutes instead of a full 6 hours like yesterday, when people were treated to a little more power in honor of the games. Battery backup is still OK so far, so we may keep the fans working so we can sleep tonight.
Took a trip to the metal works to haggle with vendors for some beautiful artwork. All are pounded out of 50 gallon drums, but you would never know it from how the pieces end up looking. As Marie reminds us, Haitians re-use absolutely everything, and for good reason, when there is so little to start with.
We also spent the afternoon with the girls at the orphanage. Yesterday we painted a 30 ft parachute with them (some budding artists there too) and today we unfolded the parachute and tried to show them how to grab the edges and billow it up and down and throw bean bags up in the air with it, “tried” being the operative word. Immediately the girls were screaming with laughter and running underneath it and hiding and pulling it down and rolling around under it on the rough concrete floor. Competition must be universal with children, because when the 8 beanbags went onto the center of the parachute, all 30 kids jumped into the middle, diving onto the parachute with concrete below to get them. No casualties from the repeated skirmishes, but those of us “adults” still trying to hold onto the edges were dying of laughter. When some of the little ones slowed down enough to do a fake nap rolled up in the fabric, a couple of us pretended to join them and promptly got barrettes removed and hair braided. The little ones were bit confused by straight blond hair that didn’t stay too well in little braids, but one of the older girls, Roseland, took pity on me and redid them for some of us. By that time I was also covered with fingerpaint handprints all over my arms and neck, left by the girls as they ran by to wash the paint off their hands at the pump, paint from Hannah’s great poster-art project. We now have a poster of the flags of both of our countries painted in a joint project by the kids back in Elmhurst and the girls here. They have an identical one that they will keep too. We also exchanged a video hello between the 2 groups. A beautiful exchange between the girls and our kids back home.
But the highlight of the afternoon was capturing a video of the 4 and 5 year olds teaching our "_ _-something" Rosie to dance the pika-pika as Sharon and I sang “I Will Call Upon the Lord” and “Jesus Loves Me”. And she was doing pretty well too! God’s universe is filled with such odd and amazing expressions of love and joy.
Mae and the team.
Another “warm” day with temp near 100 and a couple of hours spent with mid day sun frying the tops of toes, nose and ears as the 11 of us travel to and from our destinations in the back of a pickup truck. The sun is north of us overhead- too strange, and I’ve lost any sense of direction since arriving. We listened to much shouting as the soccer was broadcast, little pockets of fans huddled around someone’s TV or cell phone amongst the street vendors. Unfortunately, many were Brazil fans and were a bit disappointed. And now, since the game is done, our turn for getting electricity today was only 15 minutes instead of a full 6 hours like yesterday, when people were treated to a little more power in honor of the games. Battery backup is still OK so far, so we may keep the fans working so we can sleep tonight.
Took a trip to the metal works to haggle with vendors for some beautiful artwork. All are pounded out of 50 gallon drums, but you would never know it from how the pieces end up looking. As Marie reminds us, Haitians re-use absolutely everything, and for good reason, when there is so little to start with.
We also spent the afternoon with the girls at the orphanage. Yesterday we painted a 30 ft parachute with them (some budding artists there too) and today we unfolded the parachute and tried to show them how to grab the edges and billow it up and down and throw bean bags up in the air with it, “tried” being the operative word. Immediately the girls were screaming with laughter and running underneath it and hiding and pulling it down and rolling around under it on the rough concrete floor. Competition must be universal with children, because when the 8 beanbags went onto the center of the parachute, all 30 kids jumped into the middle, diving onto the parachute with concrete below to get them. No casualties from the repeated skirmishes, but those of us “adults” still trying to hold onto the edges were dying of laughter. When some of the little ones slowed down enough to do a fake nap rolled up in the fabric, a couple of us pretended to join them and promptly got barrettes removed and hair braided. The little ones were bit confused by straight blond hair that didn’t stay too well in little braids, but one of the older girls, Roseland, took pity on me and redid them for some of us. By that time I was also covered with fingerpaint handprints all over my arms and neck, left by the girls as they ran by to wash the paint off their hands at the pump, paint from Hannah’s great poster-art project. We now have a poster of the flags of both of our countries painted in a joint project by the kids back in Elmhurst and the girls here. They have an identical one that they will keep too. We also exchanged a video hello between the 2 groups. A beautiful exchange between the girls and our kids back home.
But the highlight of the afternoon was capturing a video of the 4 and 5 year olds teaching our "_ _-something" Rosie to dance the pika-pika as Sharon and I sang “I Will Call Upon the Lord” and “Jesus Loves Me”. And she was doing pretty well too! God’s universe is filled with such odd and amazing expressions of love and joy.
Mae and the team.
7.01.2010
Second Day in Haiti
Some of us who took Benadryl and two guys who claim mosquitoes seem to leave them alone slept pretty well last night. The rest are planning on catching up tonight.
We` started the day with unpacking and rearranging stuff to distribute, while Hannah, Maria, Angela and Mae were gearing up for the kids’ activities. Andy, our interpreter came and very easily got warmed up to our company. He was so delighted to open his American presents from Karen. What a treat!
Seeing the girls and couple of boys at school before and after school highlighted our day. Toni definitely won the “MVP” award for sewing quite a few dresses for the kids and women who work there. How wonderful to see their faces beam with gratitude!
While we were visiting with the little girls, the construction the orphanage is making progress.
The day was hot and breezy. We’re thankful that the World Cup is not going to end until the 10th of July; so far, we have been blessed with “city power” all day, afternoons and evenings. Fans are going and drinking water is cold. How we take things for granted in America!
Dinner- Gina prepared pressure-cooked beef (not goat), vegetables, and black rice and beans.
Our team seems to be hitting it off; we should be thinking of a team name. Marie spent some time talking to us. Fascinating stories… we encouraged her to really write a book about her life experiences and stories about each child that has stayed in grace House of Hope. We even thought of one Christian journalist who could do a good job write her story beautifully.
Sharon, Rod and Mae have been asking me if I was done with my blog. I have trouble typing without a mouse.
God is really good!
Rosie and the Team
We` started the day with unpacking and rearranging stuff to distribute, while Hannah, Maria, Angela and Mae were gearing up for the kids’ activities. Andy, our interpreter came and very easily got warmed up to our company. He was so delighted to open his American presents from Karen. What a treat!
Seeing the girls and couple of boys at school before and after school highlighted our day. Toni definitely won the “MVP” award for sewing quite a few dresses for the kids and women who work there. How wonderful to see their faces beam with gratitude!
While we were visiting with the little girls, the construction the orphanage is making progress.
The day was hot and breezy. We’re thankful that the World Cup is not going to end until the 10th of July; so far, we have been blessed with “city power” all day, afternoons and evenings. Fans are going and drinking water is cold. How we take things for granted in America!
Dinner- Gina prepared pressure-cooked beef (not goat), vegetables, and black rice and beans.
Our team seems to be hitting it off; we should be thinking of a team name. Marie spent some time talking to us. Fascinating stories… we encouraged her to really write a book about her life experiences and stories about each child that has stayed in grace House of Hope. We even thought of one Christian journalist who could do a good job write her story beautifully.
Sharon, Rod and Mae have been asking me if I was done with my blog. I have trouble typing without a mouse.
God is really good!
Rosie and the Team
6.30.2010
Haiti Blog 6-30-10
We made it! We started the day bright and early with a check in at O’Hare that ended with our 2 pounds of fake, fake cheese (Aldi brand Velveeta) being confiscated. Evidently it looked too much like C4 and we looked too questionable. Actually, they were sad they had to take it away from the Impact For Jesus people but rules are rules. The flight to Ft. Lauderdasle was uneventful and we finally adjusted to the fact that we would be cheeseless for the week. Our layover in Florida was longer than expected due to inclement weather a few hours earlier but we were finally off.
Ethan was at the airport in Port Au Prince waiting for us when we arrived. I thought getting our baggage went fairly well after all the stories I’d heard about everyone trying to get money. Everyone except Mae, Toni, and I rode in the back of the truck. Angela says it was fun. Rod said it was because the back of her head was to the dirt. Joanna got the dirt full face.
We arrived at Marie’s and unloaded. It took us a while to get things sorted out but we all eventually sat down to a meal of Gina’s brillion, which means stew. Yes Diane it was made with goat meat and yes we ALL ate it. After supper we sat down to do a little planning – all subject to change of course, based on how the Spirit leads us.
Well that’s all for now. Our beds are made and Je suis tres fatigue! More tomorrow. One with you all in His Spirit.
Sharon
Ethan was at the airport in Port Au Prince waiting for us when we arrived. I thought getting our baggage went fairly well after all the stories I’d heard about everyone trying to get money. Everyone except Mae, Toni, and I rode in the back of the truck. Angela says it was fun. Rod said it was because the back of her head was to the dirt. Joanna got the dirt full face.
We arrived at Marie’s and unloaded. It took us a while to get things sorted out but we all eventually sat down to a meal of Gina’s brillion, which means stew. Yes Diane it was made with goat meat and yes we ALL ate it. After supper we sat down to do a little planning – all subject to change of course, based on how the Spirit leads us.
Well that’s all for now. Our beds are made and Je suis tres fatigue! More tomorrow. One with you all in His Spirit.
Sharon
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