Hello to our Prayer Warriors

Fearless Leaders

God has been so good to us. We have overcome some frustrations the last couple of days that can only be credited to our Lord and Savior. After going after supplies yesterday, we headed to the airport to get our renegade bags of supplies. Who knew the airport closes at 4:00? Today, Mark left bright and early and was able to bring all of our supplies. Yeah! Today was another great day in beautiful Haiti. Sunny and 88. :) Two different groups were able to go and teach today. One group went this morning to Dupin and the other group went to St. Marc this afternoon. Another group went to the nursing school this afternoon as well. All three visits were a huge success. Some of the things that were taught were; CPR, checking vitals, abstinence, hygiene, and ultimately, glorifying God. The construction crew had another successful day at the mission center. No injuries, and a great deal of work got done. A new project sprung up last night as well. One of the dorm rooms was problematic with a certain varmint-so we removed the drop ceiling, patched many holes and began to paint the ceiling black. Steve A. thought it might be cool to paint the floor tile black too so he dropped a gallon of paint. You would think that going to Haiti on a mission trip would cause one to lose weight. Well, Chef Liane has other plans. The food has been amazing. (No goat so far) Thank you for all of your prayers. We can definitely feel them. God is working in Haiti! On them and especially us! Blessings to you all.

January 30, 2014

Hello from Haiti! We arrived safely; some of our luggage…let’s just say that’s a different story. However, we have hopes that it will show up eventually. As expected, Mark has made several trips to Port au Prince and we don’t anticipate that changing any time soon. The team had a productive first day! Anne and Sheri went to the nursing school to teach the students basic nursing skills such as taking vitals, prenatal care, and delivery. The students were very receptive and asked great questions. Most of the men began the renovations on Rachel’s Inn. The plan is to add a metal roof in the next few days. Heather, Lauren, Megan, and Steve A. went to Chardene (one of the Mission Possible schools) and held two sessions with students educating them on abstinence, STDs, and God’s design for marriage. They were greeted with a refreshing beverage…check out the photo below! Finally, some team members stayed at the mission center cleaning and organizing. Katie organized “team shelves” stocked with items like sunscreen, soap, etc. for team members to use while serving. Jeff H. and Krystal tackled the organization of the tool shed making it much easier to locate appropriate tools for the construction group. Jean is officially our housing and accommodations hostess/specialist/guru. Thanks to her, everyone will have a place to sleep and sheets to sleep on. Despite our lack of food, Liane organized our kitchen and whipped up fabulous meals from nearly nothing. Don’t worry, we won’t starve! All this to say: we’re safe and excited to see God moving in Haiti. Keep praying for the team. We wish you could all be here to see what we’re seeing and experiencing. God is good. Katie and Heather

January 20, 2014

It's hard to believe that today is our last full day here in Haiti. We really did have a full day! We loaded the truck early this morning and traveled to the school in LaHatte. It was a rough ride, to say the least, as we drove over a dry, rocky, narrow, curvy river bed to get to the school. Words cannot adequately describe the terrain! It was wonderful to see the school though, and to watch the students learning in their classrooms. We also led some games and songs with the students in their classrooms and at recess. In the afternoon we went to MPCA to present to the students in the Teacher Academy. We taught them about the importance of movement in brain development and academic performance. We then demonstrated numerous simple movement activities that can easily be used in their classrooms with their students. Since 90% of students come to school knowing Creole and are then taught French, Patti taught an English language lesson using gestures, movement, and acting out a story. The Teacher Academy students learned very quickly and had fun doing it! We came back to the Mission Possible Center and had another delicious meal of beans and rice, plantains

, chicken, and juice. The meals have been wonderful! Now it's time to pack our bags and prepare to leave the 90 degree weather of Haiti and return to cold, cold Ohio. We are anxious to return to our families, yet we will leave a bit of our hearts here with the people of Haiti. This trip has been a blessing and a privilege for all of us!

School Initiative Team - Sunday

Happy Sunday from this beautiful island! It’s hard to remember that it is January and Ohio is covered in snow when I am writing this at the Mission Center, listening to the ocean waves lapping on the beach! Today we went to St. Marc for morning worship. Tracy was going to give the message while Herve translated. Before the service, Herve showed us the school that is on the first floor. He said that before he began the church in this area 17 years ago, there was a lot of voodoo influence and a witch doctor lived right next to their property. (He has since left!) Once a month the church gathers on a Sunday morning then goes into the city to clean and work and brings back buckets of fresh water for the people in the neighborhood. There is no safe well water in the area. The people need to go to the main road just to get water. The service was wonderful and the spirit of God was evident in the songs, beautiful faces, up-raised hands and their total worship, even though we don’t share the same language. They are our brothers and sisters and it is a joy to worship together with them. Tracy’s message was from 1 Corinthians 12 about being one in the body of Christ. Her message was about working together to encourage and build up the body through having a servant’s heart. After the service, we went to the hospital in St. Marc and Herve took us through the wards. It’s hard to even describe what it was like and seeing the medical needs they have there. He asked Herve to pray aloud over the patients before we left. After going to the adult wards, we went to the pediatric units. Wow… that was difficult to see the sick little ones in there. We saw a premie baby in an incubator and asked Herve if he could pray over the mother and baby before we left. It was an experience none of us will forget. In the afternoon we relaxed and took inventory in the kitchen. Late afternoon we headed back to St. Marc to be a part of their youth group. Tracy spoke to them about the importance of abstinence. Since it was a mature topic, Patti and Becky took some of the little children outside for bubble blowing. Tracy fielded some great questions and the teens were very engaged in the teaching. A majority came up front to commit to purity. We came back to the mission center and enjoyed the ice cream that Herve bought us. It has been another full day. Good night to all of our loved ones!

School Initiative Team - Saturday

What a perfect day on the island. Today the principals from all the schools gathered at MPCA for a time to share their thoughts. We were able to discuss where they felt their schools excelled and concerns. The schools in Haiti have so many different issues, maintaining clean water, teaching hygiene, yet some are exactly the same as home. Discipline is universal :). After several hours, we returned to the mission center for amazing Haitian leftovers. Our afternoon we filled with conversation with the Director of the Mission Possible teaching school and Madame Marc, who is the superintendent over all our schools. Their hearts were full of ideas and a vision for the students and schools. With their hope for the future and passion to lead, it is a joy to share in their journey. Our evening has been a time to share our hearts and stories among each other while enjoying evening devotions listening to the tide roll in........time to rest and gear up for a full day tomorrow. PS~ the hammock is amazing

School Iniative Team - Friday, January 17th

Wow !!! What an incredible day. After getting some rest from the travel, we rose early, said goodbye to the men (Kurt, Mark, Trace, Darren), had our morning coffee, and took off for a full day. Yes, we did ride in the back of the truck over very bumpy roads, but actually I enjoyed getting to have the experience. Our first stop was at the school in Chardene. We sat in on their chapel service and then visited classrooms to observe education in action. What adorable children! It was so interesting to see that teaching is universal and many of our teaching techniques are being used in Haiti too. We moved on to the school at Degeance. By the way, to get there we rode in the truck part of the way and then hiked up the rugged path for about 1/2 hour to reach the school up in the mountain. There is only one permanent building at this school and the other classrooms have walls made of woven coconut branches. This visit was so very enjoyable. I got to actually teach a sixth grade math class through a translator. What fun it was to see the huge smiles and hear the laughs of the students. How rewarding for me. I must comment on the joy that seems to bubble out of many of the students here. They have the biggest smiles and are so very, very friendly. They loved us being there and we loved being there. Our next stop was at MPCA where the vocational school is located. We munched on our granola bars for lunch and then got to experience a high school chapel service. The singing was awesome to hear. Following this, Patti and Becky went to watch an

English class and Nicole and I had the privilege of giving a seminar on the different learning styles to teachers who are teaching elementary classes in Mission Possible schools. They were very receptive to our suggestions and had a good time "moving" to the music and trying some of the techniques we discussed. Once this was finished we loaded back in the truck and headed back to the mission center. We were hot and tired, but very, very fulfilled. We freshened up and then had a delicious Haitian meal. I cannot accurately express how blessed I feel at being given the privilege of being here. God is so good and is faithful in giving these Haitian students hope and a future. How wonderful it is to be able to be part of this ministry.

School Initiative Team in Haiti - Thursday Night

Just wanted to post a quick blog to let everyone know that the team made it here safe and sound. They were all a bit tired from their day of travel, but are ready to start this journey tomorrow. We will be visiting 2 schools and then some will be teaching at our teacher school in the afternoon. Pray for God's guidance and for open hearts from us and those we will be working with.