Sunday adventures!

To say today was an adventure, would be quite the understatement!  It started with a wonderful breakfast prepared by Monita, and then the real journey began!  Riding in an open truck down Highway 1 is exciting enough but then to turn off into a “dried up” river bed to trek up to LaHatte school and church is a ride you will not soon forget, especially when the truck gets stuck and you then need to walk the rest of the way.  There were no complaints or grumblings just much laughter as certain members of our team repeatedly lost there shoes to the mud!

Then as we drew closer to the church, we saw man after man dressed in their Sunday best walking out to aid in the rescue of our truck.  Let’s just say, that too is an image we will not soon forget: a suit clad gentleman with a pick axe slung over his shoulder.

We knew we had made it when the sound of a hymn came wafting out across the heat of the morning air.

Mud caked shoes were taken from us and cleaned to shine like they did when they were new!  Pastor Herve insisted on washing our feet, such a humble deed for “the boss” (the Field Director here in Haiti) as well as a humbling experience for the team.

Church was inspiring... a hymn in a different language still feeds the soul.

Following church the medical pieces of our team evaluated children and our PR team, Shelby and Rene, gathered footage to help tell the Mission Possible story. Mary taught the leadership team about proper cleaning and maintenance of the Life Straws which is the water filtration system providing water for the school and community.

The team was so glad to look out and see the truck had reached the top and would soon carry us back down the mountainside.

Back at the ranch....or the mission center as it is called, the Community Agents patiently waited for further training.  Belinda and Pam spent time talking with them, getting suggestions on what they need, how things are going and introductions to new capstone projects while Mary continued her personal mission of teaching them about the Life Straws.  Crystal did further training with Anite who is completing her Bachelors in Nursing this Friday. Congratulations Anite!!

The next adventure came for our PR team, heading up to Degeance to video the current school with the hope and vision of the new school in the horizon.  The children of Degeance had fun with Vanessa....lets just say a pair of sunglasses and an ipad can go a long way in entertaining beautiful children!

That pretty well brings our day to a close with a wonderful, gentle storm and inspiring sunset.

Keep up the prayers....you are all a very valuable part of the team.

We arrived (but posted late)!

We made it!!!! All seven of us girls and Herve made it from MP to Cleveland to Atlanta to Haiti and then to the Mission Center! It has been a long day, but we are so glad to be here is Haiti. We had an eventful morning checking all of our luggage in once we got to Cleveland, but it was smooth sailing from there. Both flights were fine (we even saw a rainbow from the plane) and collecting our luggage was a breeze. When we got to the cattle truck and were loading our luggage, we heard a scream from Mary who had just seen Dr. Ted and Mariel. The two, and Dr. Ted’s mom, waited for two hours in traffic just to see us! After we said our hellos and goodbyes, we left for the Mission Center. The drive was nice and not too hot, because of the rain. Once at the center, we unpacked and waited for dinner: Haitian Spaghetti, a first night staple. We gobbled up dinner and relaxed the rest of the evening. Mary took a swim, which she was itching to do from the second we arrived! The sunset was gorgeous, as always. It was a long, great first day. Now, everyone is off to bed so that we will be well rested for an early morning of church at LaHatte! 

Thank you to all of you who are praying for us on our journey this week. We know God is present and we are just waiting to see how He moves in us!

Friday!

We've had a great week and are ending on a high note for our last day... here are a couple of practical jokers locking some team members in the showers!

 We had more preschool time this morning while two team members finished the last of our painting projects. We also had our last day of VBS where Pastor Kevin and Pastor Moise shared the gospel and invited students to give their lives to Christ. After three sessions, a total of 16 students accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior for the first time, and 6 more re-dedicated their lives to Him!

For game time, we tried to teach students the "over-under" game and "ultimate frisbee" but neither of those seemed to translate well. In the end, volleyball and basketball were huge hits! The students also made origami cats and colored sheets about the days of creation in the craft session.

We ended our meals in the DR with the popular corn pizza and some soda with ice! After cleaning and packing, we are ready for our long day of travel tomorrow... but not excited about having to load the bus by 6:30am. Thanks for your prayers this week -- we'll see you all back in the USA!

Thursday!

Oops! This is Rene, still doing the blog for the team that's in the DR right now, and I accidentally noted that yesterday's post was about Wednesday AND Thursday, when it was actually just about Wednesday's activities! Sorry about that! The following post is about what the team was up to yesterday (Thursday) ....

The team's biggest project on Thursday was washing, scraping and repainting the entire school yard wall. We couldn't believe we were able to get it all done and finish a couple of other painting projects as well!

For our VBS craft, the students made bead bracelets that showed all the colors of God's creation.

The students learned about the first four days of creation, and really loved playing wiffle ball!

DR Trip- Wednesday & Thursday!

On Wednesday we had our first preschool time in the morning. The team read stories to the students in Spanish, played with hot wheel cars and geo boards, and colored some pages about the days of Creation.

Josh was reading a book about zoo animals!

Our preschoolers napped well after we played with them!

Lots of coloring fun!

On Wednesday we also started several painting projects, including two classrooms, a mural wall, and the large wall surrounding the school property.

After school, we started our three-day VBS program about the creating power of God. Our time includes a scripture lesson, a craft, and a sports/game time.

DR trip- Tuesday!

On Tuesday morning, the 4-8th grade students split into boys & girls and learned about the benefits and blessings of sexual purity and abstinence.

Afterwards, Josh gave a talk to both groups about the dangers and warning signs of human trafficking.

We traveled to the villages of Cristoble and Las Salinas to visit churches that some of our team members had helped build a few years ago.  At Cristoble, we spent lots of time playing with the kids and took a prayer walk around the village. 

The picture below is a view in Cristoble.

In Las Salinas, we attended a worship service and the team performed a skit for the congregation. It was a long, hot and exhausting day- and there is a lot more coming tomorrow!! :) Thanks for praying for us!!

DR Trip- Monday!

This morning we started our day with a tour of the school facilities. Here is (most of) the team in the computer classroom!

We spent the rest of the morning teaching English to 1st-8th graders using worship songs!

After lunch with the Ebenezer students, we took a trip to the beautiful beach for some time in the water and sun!