Transition of Teams

Today was the day of transitions! Team 1 left this morning after Marcia & Jackie did a fantastic rap performance about their ear flushing experience. It was sad to see them go and we will miss laughing together, but we know they're all excited to get home to their families and friends! Six of us are staying for both weeks, so we enjoyed a day of relaxing and preparing for the upcoming week. Later this afternoon, the second team made their appearance and we enjoyed some spaghetti together! Now we're all unwinding and enjoying playing some fizz-bo together! Last night we took some time to pray over Pastor Herve and the ministry that is happening here. Please be praying for a busy week coming up! :)

Last Day for Team 1!

Today was Team One's last day in Haiti, and it was a bittersweet feeling for everyone! The majority of the team went to MPCA to begin doing physicals on the 700 students that we have there. We were able to see grades 4-7th, which is a big accomplishment! Everyone was very busy, very hot, and very tired... but we were gifted with cold bottles of soda, which was a wonderful surprise!

The Community Agents and our four faithful team leaders for that group completed their last day of their training. They took an exam and received the last bit of their supplies that will equip them to start their clinical practice next week! They were SO excited, jumping up and down in celebration of their supplies!

Tonight we got together as a group one last time to share who we were praying for throughout the week, took time to hear Pastor Herve's testimony and pray over him, as well as do some shopping from the vendors. We have had an incredible week together and have become more like family instead of just a group of people who met for the first time a week ago.  There have been so many great things that have happened throughout the week, and so many ways that we've seen God show up and be faithful. Be sure to ask us about it when we get home! :)

The Spirit's moving in Haiti! :)

Joanne:  Hello everyone following this blog! Today mom and I have been away from home for one week and oddly I feel caught in a bit of a time warp. This is such a different world that on some level it’s hard to imagine life back home. Tomorrow is the last day for most of the team but those of us staying the 2 weeks will be greeted by a whole new team on Friday. The upside is we get a day off to re-coop but it will be difficult to say bye to our new found friends and have to make new ones, and to learn working with new people again. I have no doubt, however, that all will go well J. 

       Today we got to sleep in a bit later which for me was about 6:30. Then the breakfast bell rang earlier than anticipated so I had to rush just a bit. We left for St. Marc at 8 and unfortunately no hike involved today. Despite the humidity and the heat, hiking is a highlight for a lot of us! The scenery is amazing and when I say there’s never a lack of things to feast your eyes on, I'm certainly not exaggerating!! It goes completely without saying that no one reading this blog could live the way these amazing folks do! I’ve been taking a lot of pictures and even though they often don’t do reality justice, I’m willing to show anyone interested! For me the day was filled with assessments on junior and senior high students. Dressed in their tidy, all-matching uniforms, socks and hair accessories, each school is unique in their own color and style.   I’ve learned a bit of creole that I can greet and ask the students a few questions. We encountered a few heart breaking scenarios and a few of us shed tears when faced with the harsh reality of what some of these children endure on a regular basis L.  A mother also brought in her little girl off the street (she wasn’t part of the school) to see if the ‘white people’ could help her. She had stuffed a substance of some sort up her nose and her local hospital had turned her away after telling her they could not help her. The girl did fight as children do, but with  the help of God, this amazing team was able to relieve this sweet child of this obvious discomfort!! I had an amazing conversation with my translator today during some downtime and learned more amazing info on Haiti! Heart wrenching!! It's been an emotional week!! I'll stop rambling! Others waiting to add! Goodnight! Hi to all my loved ones! Ernest and Cammi can you please cook some chicken or beef or something meaty for when I get home LOL? LOTSA CARBS HERE!! It's all good. I'm not complaining! Goodnight!!

Deb: Writing to give an update on how the community agent education training is going.  Belinda, Shari, and I are forming relationships with our students, which is the most rewarding part for me. They are very sweet and gracious and are working hard to learn each day. Today we had them pack the first aid kits that will be taken to each school. The students received their very own stethoscopes today, and they were so pleased. Tomorrow is their final exam, and we are all hoping that they do very well. Over the weekend there will be a few more classes with them here at the mission center, then on Monday, I think we will begin to go to the schools with our students where they will be serving. It will be like a “clinical” experience for them. I am very excited to take them to the schools and actually have them start doing the skills that they have learned this week. Thank you to all of you who are praying for us. We feel them and are so thankful.  Miss you, but all is going well.  So far, the experience is a 10 out of 10.

Johanna: Had another great day loving on some sweet Haitian babies!  Mom, Dad, Nathan, love you so much!  Thanks for all of the prayers!  Little miss Stella May, I love you so much and can’t wait to see your sweet face! XOXOXO  Family and friends, thanks for all of the prayers!

**Side note: The bottom picture of the man kneeling on the floor with some of our team members is from last night. Check yesterday's post for the scoop! Such a sweet moment! Also, as Joann mentioned, a momma brought her little girl into our clinic at the very end of the day to get something taken out of her nose (as seen in the first picture of Mary holding the girl). As the team was working on the little girl, another one of our team members & a translator prayed with the mom. She accepted Christ! WOW! Pastor Herve later said that many people in the Haitian culture only know of voodoo-- a religion & practice that is NOT one of love and empathy. When this momma saw the way we loved and cared for both she & her child, she wanted to be a part of it. Herve's confident she'll start coming to church now. Awesome! The Holy Spirit is moving here in Haiti, friends!! :)

Awesome day!

We're all very tired, it's been a long & beautiful day, but we wanted to report a few praises really quickly before we head to bed!
-- We got to hike the long route to Dupin this morning and enjoyed the beautiful view!
-- We saw 5 different classes today for physicals, and only a handful of preschoolers screamed bloody murder and cried their eyes out! ;)
-- A lot of follow-up was done from students that we've seen on previous trips, and we were encouraged by what we saw in the majority of them.
-- Community Health Agent training went extremely well; the students enjoyed learning how to do basic first-aid, putting on splints, and even carried Shari right out of the gazebo!
-- Our day ended in in the most beautiful, celebratory way. We saw a little boy at Dupin that we felt needed a minor surgical procedure done, so we talked with his parents and decided to bring him back to do that. Belinda, Jack, Ted and Pam worked on him while his father soothed him until finally the procedure was finished. Afterwards, the little boy's father was talking to us, and the most incredible thing happened. He said they had gone to several different hospitals to get it looked at, but he never thought they'd have enough money to get this done for their son. But, he saw something different in us. He said he wanted the Jesus that we had and that he wanted to become a Christian! He dropped to his knees right then & there and the rest of the group around him followed suit as he became a brother in Christ! I can't explain how awesome this was; everyone is still trying to wrap their mind around it but hopefully we can share more of the story tomorrow. Please just join us in celebrating with and praying for our new brother! God works in awesome, awesome ways and we witnessed the Holy Spirit moving in this place tonight! :)

Goodnight!

Monday at Chardene!

Joanne: Greetings from Hot Haiti J! Today was a fairly early day but no mountain hike. The school we went to was accessible by truck! That’s a big truck where we all load into the semi enclosed back and some sit at a picnic table on the back and some stand! Not too long of a ride but certainly no lack of surroundings to absorb!! My job today was assessing children and asking what they needed to see the Doctor for. The children definitely have a way of tugging on our heart strings and even though were hot and sweaty all day, the blessings and fulfillment definitely over ride that! The children’s faces light up with their bright smiles when we speak to them which in turn brightens our day! The highlight of my day today certainly was meeting my little sponsor girl of about a year and my sponsor boy of about 7 years. I met him 5 years ago when I was here but today I noticed he had come out of his shell a lot more and  we had a nice chat! He was so happy to see me and I was thrilled!! When your sponsor child hugs you, kisses your cheek, thanks you and shows his gratefulness for your assistance and then tells you he loves you, well, I'm sure you can only imagine what you feel! Beyond words! It was a good day!! Stew, beans and rice for supper. A refreshing cold shower and now an early bedtime. Tomorrows another early day, with a mountain hike! Love You All! Hi Ernest, Cammi, Matthew and Christie!

Deb: I’m writing the blog tonight to share about what we did with the community health agents today.  Shari and I taught this morning and Belinda joined us for the afternoon session. We taught about nutrition and demonstrated hemoglobin with a gown with red balloons taped all over it to represent healthy red blood cells. The students really liked the visual and had fun popping all of the balloons, which meant no hemoglobin left – and I fell to the floor (dead).  At the end of the morning,  we had the students act out scenarios to demonstrate what they should do in situations when they start working at the school. In the afternoon, we taught the students vital signs, and they all took turns checking each other’s weight, pulse, respirations, and temperature.  The teaching stethoscopes borrowed from Rhodes were very helpful. Our translator this week has been excellent and he is enjoying learning all of the medical content along with the health agents. Tomorrow we will continue lessons on first aid and dehydration.  Thanks for all your prayers for us while we are here.  

First day adventures!

Hi everyone! Today was our first full day here, and what a busy day it was! Even though it is a Saturday, we still started doing physicals on our students at Degeance. The principal arranged for them all to be there, and we were able to see all of the preschool-3rd graders! Next week's team will finish the 4-6th graders. The team all commented on how well behaved and polite our students were, and I think everyone found at least one student that they just fell in love with. :) We were all huffing & puffing by the time we hiked up to the school, but it was well worth it!

Shari, Deb and Belinda started off their day by locking themselves in their room after the rest of the team had left the mission center. Oops!!! Once they figured out how to get themselves out, they kicked off our Community Agents program today with 14 people (2 from each of our school communities) and were so encouraged by how it went! The group had great questions and are all very excited to continue learning about how they can help our nurse Anite take care of our students. Deb offered to write more about it, but it seemed she's gone to bed... I'll let her tell you more about it tomorrow! ;)

Overall, it was a great day. The first day is always a little bit chaotic as everyone tries to get in the swing of things, but I think we developed a really great rhythm and we're all enjoying learning together! We're looking forward to going to church at LaHatte tomorrow morning and visiting with the community members there.

Thanks for praying!

We made it!

Hi everyone!

Just posting really quickly to let everyone know that we made it safely! We had team members coming from 4 different locations, and on two different airlines, and we made it! It has been fun getting to know each other! Tonight we enjoyed some infamous Haitian spaghetti and then spent a lot of time unloading bags and getting organized for tomorrow!

As I'm sitting here right now, I can overhear some of our team members discussing what their first impressions have been and how God led them to be here on this team. I can't wait to see what this week brings for all of us!

Thanks for praying for us... keep them coming!