day 7

today (thursday) was a busy day at the village! the screens were finished and installed, we painted the front gate and entrance to the orphanage, and we did our concrete pour. it was our last day of working and we are tired, but we really believe we are leaving the village with some noticeable improvements, and we hope they are pleased with our service.

when we went back to the village for dinner, many of us went up to where the concrete was poured. there is a nice view from that point, and we were also able to see a sunset. i think that might have been a first, since we havehad many rainy evenings.

the medical team had a great day! their clinic was at a different location today, they were actually working in a clinic rather than a church building. so, they had an exam table, a desk for triage, and an actual pharmacy with shelves. they treated about 60 patients, who were generally healthier than those they had seen in previous days, but had some different sorts of problems. they also came back with a very encouraging story, which i will share with you here.
earlier in the week, there was a day when the medical team was driving and a boy approached the car with a letter. the letter was given to darby, and explained that this boy was 14 years old, had lost both parents in the earthquake, and he was requesting to be adopted. he even included a graduation photo to prove that he had been to school. the letter was passed to darby's dad, and darby got the boy's phone number as well, hoping that there might be some way to follow up with him. this boy really stayed on kristen's heart especially, and she continued to pray for him. today, the team just happened to make an unexpected stop at one of darby's dad's offices, and that boy just happened to be hanging around outside. this was a different area from where they saw him before, and it was not a planned meeting. so, darby and kristen took about half an hour to talk with this boy. they shared the gospel with him and he ended up praying to receive Christ into his heart. so, in our understanding, he ended up getting adopted today, into God's family!

tomorrow we are headed to the beach and then to darby's parents' house for dinner, as i shared earlier. we plan to go to the village in the evening to try to print out our boarding passes, and that is when i hope to get this entry posted to the website. please pray that there are no complications at the airport. some of us don't have our plane tickets anymore, so we are hoping that pre-printed our boarding passes helps us to avoid problems on saturday afternoon.
thank you again for the way you have participated with us through this blog, and through your prayers. we are excited to be coming home to you soon!

A quick note from Steve

Hi Everyone!
On behalf of the Haiti2010 team, thanks so much for following us on this blog as we have the incredible honor of serving in Haiti with both Pastor Liberius and ROTH. More than that, thanks for your prayers and kind words as we seek to do the works the Lord has prepared for us here. It really has been a great time of learning to serve in the Lord's strength, especially since ours dries up so fast in the heat and long days!
I can tell you that for the mission that we've been given, there couldn't be a greater team! These men and women are fantastic witnesses for Christ, hard workers beyond imagination in these circumstance, and just a lot of fun to hang out with...I am blessed to lead such a team.
I wish I had the time to tell you the details of the love that they have expressed to sick and dying patients, the great physical strength and 'construction' wisdom with which they have blessed the orphanage and the deep commitment to personal holiness I have observed. We've cried together, we've prayed together and we've had fun together...and I fully believe many on this team will be affected for a lifetime. Mercy ministry has been done with an excellence that I am so very proud of...and you would be too!
I can't wait to brief the church on all that has been done and all that God has done. However, before we even leave Haiti in the coming days, I want you to know how very encouraged and proud I am to call each and everyone of these saints my brothers and sisters. They have done well!!!!
Please continue to pray (as we can tell you are), it makes a huge difference for us...and by God's good grace we will see you back in the Baltimore area on Saturday night.
Love in Christ to all, who is the reigning King of ALL the nations,
Steve
Col. 1:9-18; Acts 20:24

day 6

today was again very similar to the past couple of days. our team was split in three: the village team, the medical clinic (at the same location) and the vbs, at a new location. carie and anna swapped roles for the day, but the teams were otherwise the same. here are some of the highlights:

construction

the guys at the village continued to make progress on their block work. i think they also took down some forms inside one of the houses. dave and allyson continued to work on building the screens for the guesthouse, but ran out of some materials before they were able to complete the job. rachel spent her day straightening out nails that had been used, so that they could be used again. a new team arrived at the village from new mexico, and they will be staying and working there through tuesday. one thing worth mentioning is that the guys really feel like they
have made some good relationships with the haitian concrete crew. they can't communicate much with words, but are able to find ways to joke around with the guys and are seeing signs that the men are trusting them with certain portions of the work. to the left is a picture of lisa, dave and matt doing some work in the village.

medical

the medical team met at the same location, but kristen also did a small clinic where the vbs was located, working with a haitian doctor. yesterday, the medical team treated a young boy who was nearing diabetic coma, and blind, and had to tell him it was very likely that he did not have long to live. he was back again today with his mother, and was able to receive another treatment. when they left, the mother was expressing to steve how sorry she was to see them go, and how thankful she was for whatever amount of time they were able to prolong this boy's life. the people here really do not receive much medical care at all. they will come to clinics like ours and wait for hours just to be able to leave with some tylenol. it is a stark contrast to how much we have easy access to at home. to the left is sarah treating a baby whose mother passed away very recently. her aunt is caring for her the best that she can with the limited means that she has.

vbs

the vbs team met at a school today, not too far from the church where they had been meeting. the group at the school was very welcoming - they even greeted the team by singing a song for them! the teachers at the school stayed engaged with what they were doing, and treated the vbs almost like a school assembly. it was really helpful to have their participation and everything ran very smoothly. to the left is a picture of some of the school children showing off the crafts that they made (their necklaces).

there is a rumor that tomorrow (thursday) there is supposed to be some sort of a protest in port au prince. we have spoken with the us embassy and with darby's father, and it seems like there really is no concern. apparently these types of things often amount to nothing. we have been advised that it is safe to leave the village tomorrow, as long as we are back by dark. so, we are going to send out our medical team (sarah, kristen, rachel and lorri, with darby)
to the same place one last time. however, the vbs team is going to stay back at the village. that is not because of a safety concern, but because tomorrow is going to be another heavy labor day. we will be pouring concrete again like we did on saturday, only it will be even higher up. because of the amount of work, and with people being more fatigued at this point of the week, it will really help to have the extra hands around.

on friday, we are not working. we have been encouraged to take a rest day instead. so, we are renting a "tap-tap," which is sort of like a large taxi/bus with benches, and we will be riding out to a beach resort for a few hours. our ride will take us through the heart of port au prince, which we haven't seen yet. after the beach, we will head up the mountain one last time, because darby's parents are hosting us for a wonderful haitian dinner at their home. along the way, we hope to stop and do some shopping.

since we won't be at the village on friday, this may be our last post. we hope to be able to get something brief out on saturday morning before we leave, but i'm not sure if we'll be able to. in light of that, i thought i'd share a couple more things while i have the chance.

first, our return flight (on saturday): we will be on delta 692, departing port au prince at 12:50, and landing at jfk at 6:05pm. this will put us back at church some time between 10 and 12 midnight, depending on customs and our bus ride back.

second, i would like to highlight the men on the team for the ways they have served us. they are all leading and working tremendously well in their appointed roles. but aside from that, they are really caring for the women on the team. we can't walk anywhere, not even from the village to our guesthouse, unless we have a guy with us, so they have been escorting us back and forth and also watching over the teams that have been traveling in the mountains. our power here runs on a generator during certain hours, and sometimes it stops working, even in the middle of the
night. the guys will get up at any hour to fix it when it isn't working, or turn it on when we need lights early in the morning, etc. for the first few days we were here, the guys were helping the girls get set up in their rooms. dave p in particular was very kind to help several of us hang our mosquito nets, inflate air mattresses, etc. when we first arrived, darby took a morning to scrub the bathroom floor for us. the toilets here do flush normally, but you can't put toilet paper in them, so there are little trash cans full of used toilet paper in the bathrooms. they are really nasty, and matt b has been faithfully emptying those cans for us all week. and most importantly, all of the guys are regularly asking us how we are doing, and looking for ways to encourage us with the gospel. most of them are husbands and fathers and we know their families miss them, but we have been so thankful to have them here with us. it would have been a much harder trip without them. thank you for your sacrifices in allowing them to come.

lastly, i realize that we have not said much about what darby is doing, but he has been a great help on this trip. he often spends the evenings making phone calls, trying to get information and figure out logistics for the following day. it seems like he is pulled in many directions, because of his translating abilities, his knowledge of the area, and of course the connection with his father. he has been driving us through difficult roads and traffic for hours every day, and helping to keep control and watch over the girls at the medical clinic. even though he is always busy, he always seems joyful and happy to be serving the team. to the left is darby enjoying a pancake breakfast before heading out this morning.






i'll leave you with a couple pictures of the sights that we have been seeing every day. first is the street that we walk down to get to the village. we often encounter dogs, goats and pigs along our way, and we enjoy the view of the hills in the distance. second is a group of homes in the ghetto along the way to the medical clinic.














thank you again for reading and praying and commenting. hopefully we will write one more time. if not, we look forward to seeing you all when we are back home again!

day 5

before i even begin, let me express a special thanks for all of your comments yesterday. your thoughts, and the verses and quotes that you are sharing, are more helpful than you can know! we were in tears as we read them and are really looking forward to encouraging the rest of the group with your words.

our team was split up again today, in pretty much the same way as yesterday. one switch was that tracy stayed back at the village, and mike went to vbs. also, pastor steve went to the medical clinic to handle the pharmacy and kristen went with the vbs team. both the vbs and medical teams returned very excited and encouraged about their days. God really answered all of the prayers that we had after the previous day's experience.

medical

the medical team returned to the same location that they were in yesterday. it sounds like they maybe did not treat quite as many patients, but for those that they did see, they were able to care for them more completely. they even had time to pray with many of the patients. they saw some very serious cases again, but also had some wonderful encouragement: there were two girls who were brought to them yesterday and were almost as limp as dish rags in the arms of their caretakers. they were treated and given medicine, and returned today dressed in their sunday best and were skipping all around! the team was really blessed to see how God worked to restore their health so quickly. that was definitely one of the highlights for them. pastor steve also enjoyed some time to teach some of the children american football. to the left is a picture of sarah, our nurse practitioner, treating one of the patients. sarah has also done a great job attending to the medical needs of our team. nobody is terribly sick, but there are some small complications that she has been treating for us, or at least advising us on.

vbs

the vbs team also returned to the same location, darby's father's church. they did not have the same issues with controlling the children today. they had a slightly smaller group, maybe about 90 children. this is probably at least partly due to the fact that it was raining most of the day. they also had more effective translators, and the kids were better behaved. the skit that they did went great, and so did the craft. ryan and mike got a chance to play soccer with some of the kids outside. at one point after the gospel was shared, they asked for a show of hands if any children would like to pray to be saved. there was one child who seemed to at least show an interest, and there could possibly have been others just not brave enough to raise their hands. so, the team did lead them in a prayer to accept Christ. there won't really be an opportunity to follow up on that, but we are asking that God would have granted salvation to at least some in the group. to the left is a picture of mike playing soccer with some boys.

construction

the work at the village was a very similar pace to yesterday. the guys doing the block work on that second story room made a lot of progress. at the end of the day, they also were able to take down the wood framing around the concrete that we poured earlier in the week. to the left is a picture of the concrete team, and the haitian contractors that they have been working with all week.

matt b spent most of his day doing a variety of odd jobs. he fixed one of the vehicles that the village owns, and alsospent a lot of time working on some plumbing repairs at the guesthouse where we are staying (the creche). to the left is a picture of matt working on the truck.

dave p and allyson started working to create screens for the windows at the creche. several of the windows don't have any, so we were asked to build some to help with mosquito control... and to add a layer of rat screen as well. we took measurements and cut all the material fort he frames, and tomorrow we will probably finish up constructing and installing the screens.

because things were a little slow, especially in the morning, a few of the women on our team asked the haitian women to show us how to do the laundry. these women work all day scrubbing clothes, linens and towels, for about $10. it seemed like a good opportunity to get to interact with them.. but for those of us who tried it, i think we are all feeling very thankful for our washing machines back home! to the left is a picture of anna and allyson working with the laundry women.

last but not least, here is a picture of robin cleaning out some dishes in the village. robin serves us tirelessly with food prep, and we are so thankful for her. please be praying in particular for those serving at the village as they continue to try to serve with joy amidst some unexpected difficulties. for some people especially, it seems to be getting increasingly challenging as the week goes on, and so we are asking that God would change things just as He did for the vbs and medical teams, who both felt extremely challenged yesterday and really experienced God's grace today. please also pray for the health of the construction team. several of the guys have felt a little light-headed at various points. it is very hot and we are doing our best to stay hydrated and eat healthy snacks. we hear that the heat index issupposed to be near 140 tomorrow (wednesday) so we would really appreciate your prayers all the more.

as an interesting sidenote, a reporter arrived today who will be staying at the village for a few days. she was in haiti the day after the earthquake and is now following up on some stories. she works with an nbc affililate out of florida. who knows, perhaps we will be able to find some of her stories online after we return.

lastly, we loved getting our little care packages from the pastoral team last night. it was a great surprise and we all appreciate the thoughtfulness in finding out what each of our favorite snacks are. thank you so much!

to answer the question about child care at the village... some of the kids are the children of the women who live in the village, but most of them are orphans who live here. there are kids ages from probably about 4 months up to 6 years old. the women here will bathe the children and change diapers, but our team helps out in many other ways during the day: administering daily vitamins and some prescription antibiotics, watching out for the ones old enough to be running through the village, making sure babies get fed and just providing general stimulation.

tomorrow (wednesday) we will again have a team at the village, a medical clinic, and vbs. the vbs will be in a different locationwith a different group of kids. a few people are being swapped between teams, because there are some who would like to experience the areas they have not been involved in yet. we don't know yet what all of the changes will be, but we are as always praying for God's help in adjusting our attitudes and expecations, and having the humility to serve in whatever way is asked of us.

thanks again for all of your prayers and comments. we are happy to be here serving, but also missing our loved ones at home, so we really appreciate hearing from you all.

day 4

Well today was our first day doing the VBS that we had planned, and it was an interesting day to say the least. The day got off to a late start, due to traffic, so even though we had planned to leave at 7:45am we didn't actually leave until around 9am. The team split off into 3 sections today, all in different locations: construction at the village with Barb and a few of the ladies to help with cooking and childcare, a medical clinic that was located at Malik, and the rest of the crew at VBS up in the mountians. We'll do our best to give you a summary of every location...

VBS

After we finally left the creche at around 9am, we settled into 2 of the trucks along with the medical team. We drove for a while and after dropping them off at their new location, the rest of the VBS team crowded into one truck and began the long 2 and a half hour trip up the mountain. The ride in itself is not very comfortable, especially for such a long distance with limited space avaliable. The truck we used today was even smaller than the truck we used before, so we had to pack in even tighter. We usually pack around 6-7 people in the back of the truck and around 5 more inside of the truck along with the driver if we're in for more of a tight fit that day. Today, the VBS team was tracy s., lisa s., jaclyn, ryan, carrie, kristina w., and mary. We took a break about half way up the mountain to stop at a store that we have been using to purchase cold drinks for the rest of our day, since there is no water for us to drink at our VBS locations outside of what we bring ourselves. During this rest stop, our car overheated, and when we went to restart the car the radiator blew and hot water started pouring out of the car, and we could not seem to start the car up. We began rolling backwards down the mountain with random men and children pushing us, until the car got enough momentum to start itself up. During this time, ryan in his attempt to serve, decided that since we all were sitting in the truck (adding weight to the truck being pushed) that he would jump out and push too. This did serve the team, only Darby's father who was driving the truck did not know ryan jumped out to help. This meant that when the truck finally started, ryan had to chase down the truck and dive over the edge, landing the back of the truck on top of everyone else. Thankfully no one was hurt from this, but it definitely made us all laugh and was the begining of our adventures for the day. The truck delay put our team even futher behind by about an hour, so we did not arrive at our location until around 12:40pm. We did not get to start our VBs until around 1:30pm. above is a picture of ryan as he landed in the back of the truck.

there had been a miscommunication regarding the vbs and medical clinic, and the people at the vbs were expecting medical treatment, even though our medical team was not there. since steve has pharmaceutical experience, and because the people had been waiting for hours, he decided not to turn them away, but to treat them with the help of a translator who was also a doctor. he saw 80 patients in 2 hours, and gave away a lot of non-prescription medications. we are going to try to do a "real" medical clinic up at that location later in the week. to the left is steve working with a translator, jeanette (in the red shirt), handing out medicine.

while steve was running his clinic, the rest of the team set up their vbs. they started out with about 20 youngkids, but by the time they were done, between 150 and 200 kids had trickled in. they all really enjoyed the craftthat they did and seemed very attentive to the skit that was performed (about esther) also. they had 3 men helpingthem translate, but the kids tended to be very rowdy, and everyone, especially our people, seemed to have a hard time keeping control of the kids. when they started acting up, ryan took most of the boys outside to play soccer,which they were excited about. to the left is tracy being swarmed by children who want the stickers she is handing out.

meanwhile, the girls started a game of duck duck goose, which got changed to duck duck chicken, because the children had no idea what a goose was. they had never heard of the game and really enjoyed playing it with the girls from our team. all of our girls fell while they were demonstrating or playing, because the tile floor of the church was so slippery. the kids were especially entertained by all of the falling, even though the team was really embarrassed, since even the adult translators were laughing at them. they thought the game was going well, until a point when there was some confusion about who tagged who and two of the girls got into a very aggressive fist fight. it actually got really vicious and the girls had to be pulled apart, and one of them was removed because she would not calm down. this shocked our team, because they weren't prepared for that type of thing to happen. they didn't realize that the game would be that important to them, and it was obvious that the kids just don't live by the same kinds of rules that we are used to in our country. above are lisa s and jaclyn playing duck duck goose.

they closed up the vbs with a song, which one of the haitian women demonstrated with the kids. because the kids interact so differently than what we are used to, the team is going to try to make some adjustments to their plans to try to accomodate the kids better, and insert the gospel more boldly. please be praying for their efforts in that. it will take some time,which we don't have much of, and the team is returning to that location tomorrow (tuesday) afternoon.

the team then drove the 2 and a half hours back down the mountain in the back of the pickup truck. however, the ridetook longer, because they had to wait to pick up the medical team. when they finally returned around 7, they headed straight to the village to join the rest of the team for a late dinner.

medical

the medical team (sarah, kristen, rachel m and lorri), along with darby, split off from the vbs team and continued driving in another direction towards the church where they were to have their clinic. after driving, they had to actually walk another 15 minutes, carrying the suitcases full of medical supplies. their walk took them through alleys, a ravine, a dump and a tent city. there were no roads leading to the place where they went. when they arrived, there was someone with a megaphone who had been going through the area like a town crier announcing the clinic. they saw about 50 patients and had to turn away about 25 more because they ran out of time. however, the people they saw had a lot of serious conditions. they were in extreme poverty; one woman had not eaten since the previous day, and even that was only a little bit of rice, because she could afford nothing more. that was probably typical of most of the patients. it was a chaotic experience, because the people were so desperate, and also because the pastor and other church leaders who were supposed to help with control were not all present. the team is planning to return there tomorrow, provided that there is a guarantee of those other leaders being able to be there, both for safety and for organization. the patients who were turned away were told to come back, and i'm sure there will be many others who will also show up. please be praying for their safety, and that those men would be there. we are learning how much plans change around here, but we hope that at least that much will go according to plan. above is lorri treating one of the patients in the clinic.

construction

while the vbs and medical teams were off having their adventures, the construction team spent the day at the village. lisa g. and anna were with us to do childcare, and robin was also with us to work with the cook. the pace in the village was much slower than what we were hoping for. we did get work done, but there were also various projects that couldn't be completed, or took much longer than they should have, for logistical reasons. the team did a great job of taking those frustrations to God in prayer, trying to seek his will and find ways to demonstrate the gospel. we also used our down time to pray for the other teams, which it seems like they really needed! we were able to do some block work on the second floor of one of the buildings. dave p. and dan installed some new shelves in the food depot, and the girls organized baby formula and food and stocked the newly completed shelves. dave n., matt b. and matt s. also spent some time working back at the creche, fixing the second shower, which did not work. it wasn't quite ready to use tonight, because some caulk was still drying and there are concerns about water pressure, but i'm sure we will get to try it out before the week is over. that will really serve us well, as we currently have a long sign up sheet for showers every morning and evening. there are 25 of us sharing one bathroom. to the left are dave p and dan working to install the new shelves.

we were able to share all of your comments with the team, and they were greatly encouraged to hear from a lot of you. it really is very meaningful to get these messages from home - we can see it on the faces of people as we tell them, or let them read for themselves, what you have said.

kristina asked us to tell her parents that she has not forgotten you, but she has forgotten your phone number, which is why you haven't heard from her!

for those of you asking about robin, she is doing well. she has learned that she can't tolerate the heat very well, but has been able to adjust and work within her means. she is really doing a great job serving our team - she is responsible for our meals, often rising very early to prepare breakfast for the teams that need to leave first. she is also staying very flexible, as our plans for meals often change. like, for instance, when she opens the pancake mix and finds it swarming with critters. she always comes up with a backup plan to see that we are taken care of!

please continue to share your comments, or even to ask questions if you like. and please keep praying for us as we continue to adjust our schedules and plans. things never seem to function the way we expect, time-wise. at least according to our plans, tomorrow should look very much like today, but of course we don't know what will really happen.

day 3

we had to get up early for church, because darby's dad was going to pick us up around 7:30. when he arrived, he informed us that all of the women needed to be in dresses. well, many of us were not, and had not even packed any skirts. fortunately, some of the women had brought extra, and we were able to use what they had. that left only one person without a dress... , so tracy s decided to use her bed sheet to make a skirt. we wrapped it around her and pinned it to make a lovely striped skirt. to the left is a picture of all the women dressed for church.

we all piled in to two trucks to make the 90 minute ride up into the mountains. one truck had guys on the back and on the roof, and the other truck had girls in the back. to the left you can see dan h, mike v, dave n and ryan r sitting on top of the truck, against a backdrop of one of the towns we drove through.

it was very easy to tell when we started ascending into the mountains, because the climate changed noticeably. it was much cooler, and very pleasant. the views of the mountains were beautiful. at some points we were literally inside of the clouds. we stopped once to pick up some cold drinks and were able to take some pictures, like the one here.

when we got to the church a little after 10, the service was already in progress. there was a place in front (facing the congregation) for all of us to sit. they were singing songs and reading scripture. we couldn't understand what they were saying, but we could tell it was a joyful and heartfelt expression of worship, and we were able to join them in some ways. there was a group of men who did an acapella musical performance, complete with hand motions and harmony. they really were very good. shortly after they were up, we had a chance to be introduced and to sing 3 songs. we were not nearly as good. in fact, we were very bad. our guitar was out of tune, and so were we. but we had no rhythm without it. the congregation was kind to us and applauded our efforts, and pastor steve then explained that while we love to sing, we are really here to work and not to sing.

steve preached an hour long message with darby translating. he was preaching from john piper's booklet, For Your Joy. he shared the gospel very clearly, and somebody later expressed to him how good it was to hear biblical truth. thank you for praying for his message.

when the service ended, we had an opportunity to pray for anybody who wanted to come forward. we didn't all have translators, so we didn't know what requests they had, nor did they know what we were praying, but they seemed genuinely appreciative of our ministry to them. to the left is a picture of lisa s and jaclyn k praying for a haitian woman.

we left promptly as soon as we realized that a storm was approaching. this was a concern because of all of the people sitting on the outsides of the trucks. we started out, but the storm became so heavy that we had to pull over and take shelter in the front of a small building. we stood there, soaked and cold, for nearly an hour. the haitian men with us graciously ran through the rain to get us some large tarps for the truck beds and roofs. here is a picture of ryan attaching the tarp to one of the trucks.

the storm never did pass, so we set out again when the rain was much lighter. to the left is a picture of kristina w, carie b and lisa g huddled under a tarp. it turned out that the tarp was collecting exhaust and making it hard to breathe, so we couldn't use it. so we rode down the mountain in the rain, making the best of the situation. at one point we had to pull over because there was a problem with the brakes of one of the trucks. they were overheated, so we let them cool off, and splashed some water on them, while we ate our packaged lunches. after 10 minutes or so, we set out again and finally made it safely back "home" around 5 or so. thanks again for your prayers for safety! we have been uncomfortable at times, but have been spared so far from any really serious situations.

today, monday, we are split up. the construction team is working at the village, with robin v cooking and lisa g and anna b doing child care. the medical team is about halfway up the mountain, doing a clinic. the rest of the group is going all the way back up by the church. they are doing demolition and cleaning in the morning, and will be doing a vacation bible school in the afternoon. yesterday we learned that many people who attend the church were saved during vbs camps hosted by missionaries when they were children. this really excited our team about the potential impact they could have.

please keep praying, and sharing your comments. we love to hear from you!

day 2

we apologize for the delay on this post. apparently the internet connection doesn't really work in bad weather, and it rained all day yesterday (sunday). so, i'm just posting saturday's update now (monday morning), and i will post the update for sunday's activities as well.

this was the view from the second floor of one of the buildings in the village as we were working yesterday. you can see the area where the construction team was preparing to pour a concrete second-story floor. the main "road" runs the length of the village and is lined with houses for various women. we had a productive day, completing the concrete floor and also running a medical clinic inside the village. and of course, there was time to play with the children, as they love to join in with whatever we are doing.

construction

the concrete job required many hands! the men spent some time working with haitian contractors preparing the surface. there was a large cement mixer, which needed to periodically be filled with concrete, water, and/or stones depending on what step of the process we were in. so, we had people filling buckets with concrete, people filling buckets from a stone pile, and people pumping water from a well at the other end of the village and moving it (with a cart) back to the mixer. once the conrete was mixed, the guys were putting it in buckets and created an assembly line to move it up a ladder to the floor. (on the left you can see mike, dan h, and matt s, along with some of the haitian workers) it was a lot of hard physical work, but by the end of the day, the floor was done. some of the other teams staying at the village, as well as the haitian workers themselves, kept commenting on what a great day it was, both because of how joyfully we served but also how excellent of a job we did laying the concrete. here you can see lou troweling it out at the end.

clinic

the nurses (lorri b, sarah, rachel m, kristen w) spent the morning preparing their supplies and getting organized for the clinic. they treated a few people from the village, and then opened the gates for the community to come in at 1pm. they served everyone who came through - 43 patients - in about 3 hours. from the road, you could see the crowd of people being treated, watching, or waiting. (to the left is rachel m treating a child) the patients were mostly young boys and girls, but there were some women and even a few men. a few others got pulled in to help as well: darby (for his translating abilities, rachel b, mary n, and tracy s). here you can see darby, kristen and mary working by the pharmacy.

the children at the village are very playful, but they also like to help. many of them were pumping water and helping us cart it back and forth. we had brought some bubbles with us, which provided lots of entertainment. (carie blowing bubbles for a small audience outside the clinic) when people weren't busy working, they could often be found holding babies or young children. a lot of the women who live in the village have multiple children and because they are single mothers, they just don't have the time to play with them or hold them. they are often working as well, doing laundry or other jobs around the village. they are more than happy to have people walk around with their children, or even take them outside of the houses while they are working. here is jaclyn with betta, one of the girls who lives in the village.

tomorrow we are attending darby's father's church. pastor steve will be preaching with a translator, and we will be singing songs for the church. ryan r will be leading worship for us. we hope to be able to get to the computer in the afternoon, so by the time you read this, that will already be done. sorry for the time delay, we just aren't able to gather pictures and our thoughts to get them online to you as fast as they happen.

please start praying for the vbs teams, as they plan to start on monday with their ministry. they may possibly be paired with a clinic in the same location, up in the mountains. thank you so much for your comments - it is very meaningful for us to be able to hear from you, and a blessing to report your comments back to the team.

Day 1

Greetings from Haiti! We arrived safely in Haiti yesterday around 11:40am and were warmly greeted at the airport by Barb ( seen on your left standing by the truck) and Darby's father. By God's grace, we arrived with all of our bags and nothing was damaged. Praise God, and thank you to everyone that prayed for this! We have already begun to feel the result of your prayers for us during this time.

We crammed all of our team (24 people plus the staff driving us, and around 100 peices of luggage of various sizes) into 2 trucks ( like the one seen with Barb on your left) and a car, along with all of the bags we brought with us, and drove a half our to the place we're staying at called "the crech" and unloaded all of our bags. We then drove over to Barbs place called "the village" and ate a nice lunch of spaghetti- O's. In true Barb style, she then put us right to work cleaning out her food room, that we called the food depot, and transferring everything over to the new food depot. God gave us the grace to not only serve joyfully with no sleep, but also the grace to encounter lots of large bug, spiders, and even a live mouse. We are all enjoying so much this experience of the bugs, dirt, and living conditions as it continues to stretch us.

Sarah also arrived at the airport on time and made contact with our team soon after we landed. Thank you to everyone who pray for her and her flight in!

We eventually went back to the crech (pronounced kresh) and settled in for a good nights rest and some good showers. (picture of the crech seen below)

This morning we returned to the village and are working some more on construction for some of the buildings inside the village, and helping some more with the food depot.

Also, this morning some of our medical team ( Rachel M., Sarah, and Pastor Steve) were able to visit a tent community to treat a man who was suffering from heart failure. I can tell you honestly, seeing their faces and hearing them tell our team the story of that visit to the tent village, that they were deeply moved by what they saw there. The devastation here from the earthquake is everywhere around us. The streets are made of the rubble from the destroyed buildings and cement blocks are everywhere. Nothing seems "whole" here as far as buildings go. Members of our team have already been moved to tears several times over this.

There are a few other teams down here helping in the village along with us and more coming last in the week. We are enjoying the extra company, and spending time with Barb very much. Barb is a character, and runs this place in a way that you would have to be here to experience. She is straight to the point, and works hard at what ever she does. She is a blessing to our team in many ways and I'm sure will continue to be a blessing to us as we continue our adventure here along with her.

Our teams schedule is still very much "up in the air", but our medical clinic is starting today at 1pm. Please pray for our team as we seek to best serve the people coming into the village to be treated, and for our teams hearts to stay strong as they prepare themselves for what they may see and encounter today. Also pray for Robin V., as the heat is starting to make her feel ill. She is being well taken care of by our clinic, but your prayers would be greatly appreciated along with our own.

We are planning to attend and help lead the church service tomorrow at Darby's Father's church ( he is a pastor here). Please pray for not only our team as we lead the service ( pastor Steve is teaching), but also for grace being it will need to be translated as he teaches, and the service is 3 hours long. Also, there has been some radio advertisements announcing our presence here and trying to get people to come to our clinic, VBS, and church service. Please pray for a great turn out for all these events, and grace to help us effectively provide for all of the people who come out.

We will try and update again as often as we can, so check back daily for more updates. Please comment on the blog if you want to tell us what you think, if you have any specific questions about the trip, or anything encouraging to share with the team. We as bloggers for the trip would love to have encouraging things to bring back to share with our entire team to build them up while we are here.

Haiti Blogger out! :)

off we go!

well, the time has finally come! we are meeting at the church at 1am to head to the airport. so, in less than 12 hours, we will be on our way.

we are flying delta, flight 699 out of jfk. i believe it departs at 8:25am and lands in port au prince at 11:40am (12:40pm, our time). there is a one hour time difference between haiti and home.

please continue to pray for us. we are asking that our bags would not get lost, and that everything would make it through customs. people from the orphanage are meeting us as the airport and taking us back to ruuska village. we will probably spend the afternoon getting oriented and set up, etc. at this time, the plan is to start clinics, camps and construction on saturday.

we will write again as soon as we are able. feel free to leave comments, we will try to communicate them to the rest of the team. thanks for all of your prayers and support!

our team

it's hard to believe that in about a week from now, we will be on our way! i don't have our flight information, but i do know that we will leave early in the morning on friday, july 16th. we are being bussed to jfk, and should arrive in port au prince around 2pm that afternoon.

as promised, here is the tentative plan for how our team will be broken up. pastor steve is leading the entire team. we will most likely have two ministry teams (so that we can run overlapping vbs/outreach programs), one construction team and one medical team. some people will also rotate in and out to help with cooking and care giving at the orphanage.

ministry team a: ryan r, tracy s, robin v, lisa g, anna b and steve b, with tracy and robin rotating cooking duty, and lisa and anna rotating orphan care

ministry team b: darby l, mary n, lisa s, jaclyn k, carie b, and kristina w, with lisa and jaclyn rotating orphan care

construction team: dave n, dave p, matt b, lou c, dan h, matt s, mike v, rachel b, and allyson w

medical team: rachel m, lorri b, kristen w and sara p. our medical team includes a nurse practitioner, a doctor of pharmacy, and two nurses. we hope to be working with haitian doctors.

we may also do some demolition work, and we may do some evening revivals. as i said before, we have to hold our plans loosely and be flexible to the needs and arrangements that we find when we arrive.

hope to see some of you on saturday for our packing party!

our location

while we are in haiti, we will be staying at Ruuska Village, which is a facility operated by an organization called Reach Out to Haiti. they will be hosting us for the week, and our construction team will be working inside the village, where 80% of the buildings were damaged or destroyed. Reach Out to Haiti uses this community as a "safe haven for single mothers and children fleeing unsafe enviornments." the organization also facilitates adoptions, provides pure water to surrounding communities, distributes clothing, medicine and various supplies to those in need, and much more. we are excited to work with them for these reasons, but even more so because they are a faith-based organization and strive to show God's love in all that they do.

our medical and ministry teams will be working with Reverend Liberius, a haitian pastor (and darby's father). they will travel outside of the village each day to run medical clinics, run vbs for children, and share the gospel in other ways as well. additionally, our entire team will be with Reverend Liberius on sunday, attending his church. pastor steve will be preaching and our team will be providing musical worship as well.

in the next post, i will tell you who will be serving on which teams. of course, our plans are subject to change, so we will do our best to adjust to the needs we find when we arrive.

reminder: our team is having a packing party this saturday, 7/10, at 10am at the church. if you are free and would like to help out, feel free to join us!