Saturday, June 15, 2013

We started off the day going to the mass graves site where a majority of the people killed by the earthquake on January 12, 2010 were buried.  A rock monument, consisting of the words “we will never forget them” and the date of the earthquake, and crosses were placed as memorials in honor of the victims of the horrible tragedy.  Some of the Haitian staff of Healing Haiti shared testimonies of where they were at that day, what they saw, what they did, and how they survived the earthquake.  We prayed as a group with some of the Haitian children for the people of Haiti who’ve lost loved ones and for healing for them from the tragedy.

We, then, went back to Grace Village to play with the children on their beautiful playground equipment and taught them a lesson about how God purifies/cleanses our hearts from our sins.  One of the team members taught the children a science experiment on how water gets cleansed as it passes through gravel and sand, as the rest of  the team members help the children physically do the experiments.  The science experiment was followed by splitting the children into two groups based on ages to do a Bible lesson from Exodus 15 (which was acted out) and share a testimony.  All of the children were gathered together again to work on memorizing 1 John 1:9, which was taped to water bottles filled with water that was given to each of the children.

Before heading back to our amazing guesthouse for the evening, we went to another orphanage to sing and play with the children there.  We went into an area where there were some old benches and school tables and sang some songs with the children.  Then, we played two structured games with them and played a little basketball as well.

Every night during our group debriefing time, we each talk about a word that came to our minds during the day and why we thought of the specific word.  The word I shared today was “enough.”  My explanation of the word “enough” is as follows:  Grace Village is a beautiful, well-run orphanage that takes excellent care of the children, and they get a great amount of food.  It is exactly how an orphanage should be run.  The other orphanage we went to was pretty run down with not a lot for the children to do.  It was dirty and the food was being prepared in an area that did not look like a kitchen.  I wanted to see the positive in the day about both orphanages.  I am grateful that both places have space for the children to play, be fed, learn, and sleep.  They may be very different from each other, but God is meeting their immediate needs.  Comparing both orphanages to some of the tents in tent city and some of the homes in the slums, I am grateful the children in every orphanage have what they have (even though it is not much according to our U.S. standards).  God is giving them “enough” to survive each day.

God is really breaking each of our hearts for what breaks His in Haiti, but He is showing us what He is doing to heal Haiti as well!  What a blessing it is to be here!

Erica Dirks

Friday June 14, 2013
Our team made two water truck deliveries today.  As soon as the truck pulled up the line starts to form with hundreds of people with buckets all coming to get clean water, and young children running to be held/played with.  It is so unbelievable to see what a bucket of water means to them and how much it provides for them when we just take it for granted that it is always readily available and fresh.  Our team was all helping out in different ways.  Some were playing and holding the children, others helping the people either carry their buckets back to their homes or help place them on their heads.  Bryan and myself were filling the buckets.  He had the hose which was continuously running pouring the water into the buckets and I continued to move the buckets of the people forward to get filled and then taken to their homes.

Later in the day our team split into two groups.  My group and I went to Gertrud's, a special needs orphanage.  This is/was my favorite part of the trip.  We are playing with kids of all different disabilities.  Seeing their smiles just puts a smile on my own face.  I feel it is such a gift to be able to serve/interact and play with them.  They showed me that words are not needed to convey love.  I spent most of my time with a girl in a wheel chair.  She, herself did not speak but her laugh and smile said it all.  I would rub her feet and head which just relaxed her and tickled her/grabbed her nose. When it was time to go it was very difficult to say goodbye.

Our entire team returned back to the guest house where we all sat down for dinner together and just enjoyed being there with one another.  Following dinner our team gathered for word of the day.  My word was spectacular.  I chose this word because it was how I felt today on our teams two trips.  Today was a great example to me of how God's love works.  He showed me what love is all about and how strong his love is for all of us.
-Kelsey

Today started off with a visit to Grace Village.  Grace Village is a campus built by Healing Haiti centered around an orphanage, which is home to 56 children.  Grace Village also contains a school for 300 children from the area, a multipurpose facility that hosts Sunday services, a clinic and an aquaponics facility.  It was amazing to hear the vision for the future of Grace Village, and the focus on expanding Grace Village’s ministry to the local area.

After our time at Grace Village, we traveled to the homes of several local elderly people.  Healing Haiti has a ministry in place to provide for some of the most basic needs of these elderly people, however our primary role was to minister to their spiritual and social needs. We had a chance to sing with them, pray for them and hear some of their needs.  One of the elderly ladies we visit was over 100 years old and was still living in her home and not lacking any spunk.  When we asked her about her prayer requests, she simply asked us to pray that God would continue to provide for her.

After finishing our visits with the elderly, we took the truck to a local orphanage.  This orphanage was home to 16 children and was far different from the orphanage at Grace Village.  Where Grace Village was blessed with beautiful, clean buildings, this orphanage was lacking in some of the most basic items.  All of the children were living in one small building that looked to be in need of repair.  There were no toys or play sets in the yard, but when the truck pulled up, we were greeted by 16 smiling faces who were so excited to greet us, they made it difficult for us to get out of the truck J.  Each kid seemed to have an adult picked out as we got off the truck and they were eager to tell us their names and find out ours.  At first we weren’t sure what to do with the kids, with the lack of available “kid stuff.” 

The kids started out by singing us a song, partially in Haitian and partially in English, expressing how happy they were that we were there.  It was a beautiful moment, seeing the kids thank us simply for being there.   After a few songs, we started a couple games in the yard and much laughter and fun followed.   Even the members of our team were getting competitive with each other and the kids were taking sides J. This was one of the most joyful experiences many of us have had on this trip, and for the moment, these kids just seemed like kids, not orphans who were barely having their most basic needs met.

We left the orphanage to return to our home for the week and enjoy some delicious Haitian food.   After dinner our team discussion centered on the joy of the day.  The joy the elderly people expressed in spite of their years of difficult circumstances and the joy of the children living at an orphanage with almost no earthly gifts.  It was beautiful to see that even though God has not provided these people with an abundance of earthly gifts as he has us, he has provided them with an abundance of joy and faith to sustain them.

Katie Walt

Thursday

Today started off with a visit to Grace Village. Grace Village is a campus built by Healing Haiti centered around an orphanage, which is home to 56 children. Grace Village also contains a school for 300 children from the area, a multipurpose facility that hosts Sunday services, a clinic and an aquaponics facility. It was amazing to hear the vision for the future of Grace Village, and the focus on expanding Grace Village’s ministry to the local area.
After our time at Grace Village, we traveled to the homes of several local elderly people. Healing Haiti has a ministry in place to provide for some of the most basic needs of these elderly people, however our primary role was to minister to their spiritual and social needs. We had a chance to sing with them, pray for them and hear some of their needs. One of the elderly ladies we visit was over 100 years old and was still living in her home and not lacking any spunk. When we asked her about her prayer requests, she simply asked us to pray that God would continue to provide for her.
After finishing our visits with the elderly, we took the truck to a local orphanage. This orphanage was home to 16 children and was far different from the orphanage at Grace Village. Where Grace Village was blessed with beautiful, clean buildings, this orphanage was lacking in some of the most basic items. All of the children were living in one small building that looked to be in need of repair. There were no toys or play sets in the yard, but when the truck pulled up, we were greeted by 16 smiling faces who were so excited to greet us, they made it difficult for us to get out of the truck J. Each kid seemed to have an adult picked out as we got off the truck and they were eager to tell us their names and find out ours. At first we weren’t sure what to do with the kids, with the lack of available “kid stuff.”
The kids started out by singing us a song, partially in Haitian and partially in English, expressing how happy they were that we were there. It was a beautiful moment, seeing the kids thank us simply for being there. After a few songs, we started a couple games in the yard and much laughter and fun followed. Even the members of our team were getting competitive with each other and the kids were taking sides J. This was one of the most joyful experiences many of us have had on this trip, and for the moment, these kids just seemed like kids, not orphans who were barely having their most basic needs met.
We left the orphanage to return to our home for the week and enjoy some delicious Haitian food. After dinner our team discussion centered on the joy of the day. The joy the elderly people expressed in spite of their years of difficult circumstances and the joy of the children living at an orphanage with almost no earthly gifts. It was beautiful to see that even though God has not provided these people with an abundance of earthly gifts as he has us, he has provided them with an abundance of joy and faith to sustain them.

Katie Walt

June 12^th, 2013, Port Au Prince, Haiti

After a thunderstorm cleansed the air the night before we began our Wednesday morning with a big breakfast! Oatmeal, pancakes, fresh and dried mango, white pineapple, scrambled eggs and plenty of hot sauce. After breakfast, I went with 8 other people to an orphanage for sick and dying children. Our job for the morning? Care for as many or as few children as we wanted. To simply show love for these children was all we were asked to do.

The child I primarily cared for was a girl, about 2 years old in a green corduroy dress with little Christmas bears on it. She was a little malnourished and had a cold, her teeth were rotten and she didn’t speak any Creole but she was a little bucket of fun. We played around the compound, riding the swing and going down the slide, and just chilling in the shade. This morning was a taste of fatherhood for me, and I can see how much joy a child can bring into someone’s life. I had to set her back in her crib for lunch and I never saw her after that, but I hope for the best and am praying for you, little girl.

After the orphanage we went back to the guesthouse for snacks and water, and prepped for our trip to the general hospital about 30 minutes away. Driving through Downtown Port Au Prince was exhilarating. All the foot traffic and vehicle traffic, the congestion, and the shortcuts we had to take to get to and from the hospital made the ride to and from very intense and interesting.

The hospital, though, was a different story.  We pulled in and I saw a fairly large 3-story hospital building but we didn’t go in. Later I was told that most of that structure was completely trashed on the inside because of the earthquake. But as we walked through the compound we arrived at these two long, one-story buildings that I only know to describe to you as someplace we would keep our livestock in back in America.

What we found on the inside was two wings; on the left side were children, from 2 to 13 years old, with varying levels of injury and sickness. On the right side were newborn babies. When I walked into those rooms I knew that I was powerless to intervene, to help these kids in any tangible way. And it hit me so much harder because I knew that I had at least been able to impact the orphan’s lives for just a few hours earlier that day!

But after a bit myself and Brian began to sing worship songs to the kids and the parents and just seeing their smiles was enough for me to know that I had helped bring change and a little sunshine to what had become a cloudy, rainy day.

Alec

Today we visited the General Hospital in Port au Prince.  As we drove in, you could see the ruins of what looked like a main area of the hospital, left over from the earthquake. In my mind I imagined that we were going to minister to people in a big white building with white walls, dirty floors and busy doctors and nurses running around, with one to two patients in each room.

When we walked down the sidewalk between two green structures made of wood, you could see in the open air windows the mothers and fathers with their children who looked like new born babies.  We learned that most of the babies were anywhere from about one to five years old and were either sick, malnourished or dehydrated or all three.  There were maybe 24 children crowded into the one large room.  Doctors and nurses were walking from crib to crib talking gently with each mother and father as though they were ministering to the families.  I felt like I was walking in a sacred area. 

One boy I noticed was sitting up on his crib bed; he was very weak and barely had his eyes open and was very malnourished.  I went over to him to hold his hand and touch him.  His breathing was so heavy and he had an IV hookup to his hand, but he looked into my eyes so intently, almost like he couldn’t believe I was there.  I held his hand and just kept stroking it, praying for him quietly that he would feel Jesus’ love for him.  It almost seemed like when I prayed Jesus’ name, he looked straight into my eyes like he was looking at Jesus, and I knew Jesus was there.  Jesus hadn’t joined our team when we walked in, He was there all the time.   And we were joining Him.  This sweet little boy kept wanting me to touch him, to rub his hand and arm; he held onto my hand so I wouldn’t let go and began to rub my thumb with his thumb.  I know Jesus was with this little boy.

On the other side of the room, there was another boy named David who had meningitis.  Laura had been with him the whole time and I joined her at his side.  She was rubbing his leg and shared with me that he had been abandoned.  As soon as I walked up to him, his eyes just connected with mine and he would not look away.  We talked to him and rubbed his legs and loved him.  Laura prayed for him, for the other children and their families in the midst of this room with so much need for hope, for healing, for food and water and peace.  And in the moment when Laura prayed, we felt Jesus presence there, knowing that He felt it all – the need, the hurt, the desperation.  It was amazing to be a participant in His grace for these people, for their willingness to let us into their lives, to touch and say hello, to encourage with smiles and words to feel His love for them. 

Julia