Gateway Team and Teachers' Seminar - Day 2

Today we were able to worship with locals in a Haitian church at MPCA.  As songs, psalms and prayers in Creole resonated throughout the open air building, we were little more than spectators. Steve Bowlin admits he was amazed by the sincerity of the worship as we witnessed the young and old with closed eyes and raised hands, praising their heavenly Father. The Haitians frequently echoed Merci Seigneur!  Merci Seigneur! Merci Seigneur! (Thank you Lord!) While most of the thirteen team members know Spanish, none speak Creole, and only a few can recognize French. In fact, one of the concerns expressed in our first team meeting under the pavilion by the ocean here at the mission center was the ability to communicate.   In that first meeting veteran team member Pastor Herb Codington mentioned that many try to serve from a posture of strength, but true service comes from a posture of weakness.  In the worship service today, David Rath was able to expand on that idea of weakness by speaking on the story of Gideon and how God told Gideon, “You don’t need men, you need me.” Though we are not facing a battle this week, we are like Gideon’s men.  We have ten from our group who will be working with around 150 students each day.  They will be teaching how to be the hands and feet of Jesus.  Four of our group along with two Haitian teachers will be training approximately other 120 Haitian teachers.    Given the language barrier, those odds are a bit worrisome. But with the promises of the Lord and the prayers of His people, the Lord will be victorious.

                                                                                    -Jeanette

After church and a delicious Haitian lunch, the team started getting ready for the week of
Church Camp at different churches in the community.

Gateway Team and Teachers' Seminar

Just wanted to let everyone know that we arrived in Haiti safe and sound.  We got to the Mission Center (tightly packed in a van with luggage under our feet - see photo below) and had a wonderful dinner, unpacked supplies (see photo below), and then relaxed by the ocean (see photo below).  We ended the night with devotions and debriefing about the day of travel and first impressions.  Tomorrow we head to church at MPCA and then spend the rest of our day preparing for VBS and The Teachers' Seminar.  Please keep us in your prayers as we look forward to the week God has planned.

May 28, 2015

Today we traveled back to Port-Au-Prince to stay at the OMS facility.  We left early from Deyemon and arrived around 12:30pm in Port-Au-Prince.  The rest of the day we will spend reflecting and getting a little rest at the OMS facility before we make the long trip back to Ohio.  Everyone really enjoyed the trip while being very flexible.  We will miss Haiti, but are looking forward to travelling back to the states to see our families and friends.  Please keep us in your prayers as we journey home and make the transition.

May 27, 2015

We (at the home office) heard from the team.  Things are going very well!  The students are all fine.  They have been a great team, being flexible as needed.  They have been learning a different pace of life and life in another country.

Tuesday they had different sessions in the classes at the school.  They reviewed the information about germs and hand-washing.   They also taught a bible lesson from Matthew 18 (and Luke 15) about parable the 100 sheep and if 1 wanders, Jesus cares about the 1.  The lesson highlighted that each one is important in God’s eyes.  Pastor Wilfred encouraged a response, an invitation, and several wanted to reunify with God.  There are about 8-9 students that Pastor Wilfred will follow up with based on the responses.

Last night, some kids came to the area and the team played soccer and Frisbee with them.  Today, Wednesday, they will be doing some teacher training since the Deyemon teachers are not able to attend the teacher training in Montruis.  Brittany and a couple of the education students will be leading that (Megan and Kristen).   They will cover different teaching techniques and lesson prep ideas.  The other students will be interacting with the kids during that time. 

Tonight the team is going to go on some prayer visits with Pastor Wilfred. The team is still in Deyemon today (Wednesday).  Tomorrow they return to Port-Au-Prince and Friday they will fly home.  The weather has been good and they have seen God at work every day.  Thank you for your continued prayers!

May 25, 2015

Sunday we had a great day at Deyemon.  We went to two church services in the morning and the evening where we heard messages on Nehemiah.  These services were both several hours long and included music and a lot of energy.  The message in the evening was on repairing relationships. There were several people that agreed they needed to work on or repair relationships.  Many of these people came up and requested prayer.  Also on Sunday we spent a lot of the day relaxing and had some down time to play soccer and jump rope with the kids.  

Today (Monday) in the morning we did special seminars in the school on hand washing and hygiene.  First with the preschool to 3^rd grade students in the morning where they asked a lot of good questions.  In the afternoon we did the same presentation for the  4th through 6^th graders. The older kids will get a more interactive presentation since they’ve probably heard most of the info before.

Everyone is doing really well though and the weather up in the mountains is much more pleasant. It's still warm, but not as hot as Port-Au-Prince.  We are having a good trip though and everyone is chipping in to help.  We are looking forward to a good week, but we miss everyone back at home.  We will hopefully blog again later this week.

May 23, 2015

We had another really good day in Haiti.  Today we traveled to Deyemon which is about 7-8 hours west of Port-Au-Prince where we were staying.  We arrived with only a few wrong turns along the way, but we are all doing well.  The kids were playing soccer as we arrived and seemed excited to see us.  The weather is cooler since Deyemon is up in the mountains.  We are getting situated and will be getting ready to eat dinner soon.  All is well though!

May 21, 2015

We've had a great time at HIS Home for Children the past couple days! The team has been able to interact with the 1-6 year olds pretty regularly and we were able to visit the three homes which are part of the orphanage (girls home, boys home, and home for special needs children). The experiences we have had with these children and the first-hand situations we have heard about demonstrate how loved by God these children are. Another activity we have been able to do with the students is to help them complete a coloring page for the HIS Home 300. This is a 300 mile bike ride that serves as a major fundraiser to support the children at the orphanage. We are so greatful to our hosts for providing us this experience the past couple days. The experience has formed some great memories that will stick with us for a long time! We're all safe and healthy and look forward to the experiences we will have over the next few days!