HAITI 2011 RECAP
PICTURES
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
3\10\11 : Hey! This is Mariah (Mayah- they cannot say Ma-RY-ah)! We had an eventful day today, as im sure you can imagine,from the others` blogs. Today we tried out somewhere new to serve. We took a bumpy, but quick, drive to a church and we had a backyard bible school. ( mini- VBS). As we walked into the church we noticed how beautiful rustic-looking church. We looked around for a while and we noticed that there wasn`t much space to act "crazy" with the kids! So, the pastor, Pastor Judd, walked us down to the basement. The basement was divided into large sections, almost like large cubicles. It worked out perfectly for our plan to teach Bible stories, have arts and crafts, and also play various 'Crenglish' (Creole\ English) games! We had SOOOOOO much fun! We taught the kids: Head, shoulders, knees and toes; God is so good; and attempted Simon says-its was tough. Haha. Some of the kids had uniforms on, which were precious!( check out the pics). We stayed there for about three hours. After we left, we came home and had some grub. Speaking of which, was ALWAYS delicious!- Sorry mom, your food is still the best. ;) Then, we packed up, loaded into the bed of the truck( our main form of transportation) and headed for a smaller tent 'neighborhood'. As we were driving through, we passed MANY beautiful, smiling faces. We were excited; they seemed so kind! We unloaded the truck into a quite well made tent- may have to look into that next time our family goes camping. Before we could even have everything set up in the tent, there was a crowd outside\ in the front of our tent. The pushing crowd passed up the infants and toddlers. That was kind of cool to see them decide to do that. We gave out nearly all of the clothes. As you can suspect, it got a little out of hand( everyone was fine) But, there was obviously just a dire need for clothes, toys, and shoes. So, we decided to leave. It was overall a very successful trip to the tent city. Also, God was able to speak through some of us to encourage some of the residents. We were all happy to be able to be a vessels for God`s work. After the rather intense hoo-rah, we came home, relaxed and took showers. This was a blessing, considering the shower situation at the youth camp. ( the rain) haha! I`m sorry we got behind on our blogging! We will see you all soon! Please pray for our safety. I hope that you have felt as a part of our mission trip as we have been thinking of you all. We love you guys! Thank you for all of your prayers and support! May God Bless you all! Bonje tre bon!( God is so good!) ~Mariah
3\11\11 : Hey guys! This is Erica writing from Haiti (ayiti)! I just wanted to give you a little update on the our last day here in P-a-p. Yesterday morning and this morning we taught some kids bible stories at a church here in Pap. They were such beautiful kids and I'm pretty sure we all fell in love with them! After teaching and acting out the bible stories we played frisbee and soccer and colored with the younger kids. We were able to fit in a little shopping today. We drove up a mountain ( 6 inside the truck and 7 in the bed of the truck) It was pretty fun! At the top of the mountain, we were able to take some amazing pictures at a beautiful view point. The shopping happened right there, at the top of the mountain. We had to pull out our inner bargaining skills to make sure that us, " whities" weren`t going be ripped off. Then, we went out for some Haitian ice cream and had some good bonding time. It was interesting to see the different statuses in the small area of Haiti that we have seen. Once we got home for the evening, we met another team that came in today, they all seemed very nice! We all feel truly blessed for our experience in Haiti and feel honored to witness God at His best work. Tomorrow- off to U.S.A. God Bless! Erica
3\11\11 : Hey guys! This is Erica writing from Haiti (ayiti)! I just wanted to give you a little update on the our last day here in P-a-p. Yesterday morning and this morning we taught some kids bible stories at a church here in Pap. They were such beautiful kids and I'm pretty sure we all fell in love with them! After teaching and acting out the bible stories we played frisbee and soccer and colored with the younger kids. We were able to fit in a little shopping today. We drove up a mountain ( 6 inside the truck and 7 in the bed of the truck) It was pretty fun! At the top of the mountain, we were able to take some amazing pictures at a beautiful view point. The shopping happened right there, at the top of the mountain. We had to pull out our inner bargaining skills to make sure that us, " whities" weren`t going be ripped off. Then, we went out for some Haitian ice cream and had some good bonding time. It was interesting to see the different statuses in the small area of Haiti that we have seen. Once we got home for the evening, we met another team that came in today, they all seemed very nice! We all feel truly blessed for our experience in Haiti and feel honored to witness God at His best work. Tomorrow- off to U.S.A. God Bless! Erica
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Unconfessed Bitterness
Bonswa from Haiti! Today God turned what seemed like an ordinary day into an incredibly spiritual night.
When we first arrived to our guest house in Haiti we learned that two Canadian pilots would be staying with us as well. Little did we know they would change our outlooks as well as our lives for ever.
Today we arrived back at the guest house after spending the past three days at a church retreat in the beautiful Haitian mountains. We spent the day planning, resting, and debriefing the trip this far. After dinner Rick, one of the pilots, approached us after dinner and asked if we could have a small worship service tonight... in all honesty what happened tonight can't be put into words. After singing three songs Rick stopped us and said that he felt the Holy spirit leading him to speak to us about a certain topic, he also said that the Lord was telling him more than one person in the group would benefit from the topic.
Rick spoke to us about forgiveness, but more specifically the forgiveness of unconfessed bitterness and resentment for our parents. As he revealed to us the topic of his talk my mouth dropped... normally I do a great job of shutting off thoughts and focusing on one particular thing, I'm in Haiti serving others therefore I was solely focusing on that and nothing else; however, literally minutes before worship began I had a strange feeling come over me, I started thinking about my family and the different obstacles we are facing and have faced and like any normal human the feelings of bitterness and frustration began to build. As the talk began one by one everyone in the group opened up and shared their story, it was truly amazing to see how everyone's story related.
God is a very mighty, powerful, creative, and all knowing father, he created each and every one of us in this guest house for this very moment. We all now share a bond and will forever carry a piece of each other with us in our hearts. Though we may never see each other again on this Earth we have created an eternal family. Tonight many hearts were broken and then repaired by the Lord himself. We let go of a lot of negative feelings that for some of us have been growing for years. Tonight was an awesome experience that none of us will soon forget. I would like to ask for those of you reading this blog to say a small prayer of thanksgiving and encouragement over us as a team. Confessing and releasing bitter feelings is only one part of the process, we now have to abstain from falling back into our old ways of resentment and anger. We've already given it to God but now we have to leave it there and move on.
"May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you." - Psalm 33:22
-April Kirby
When we first arrived to our guest house in Haiti we learned that two Canadian pilots would be staying with us as well. Little did we know they would change our outlooks as well as our lives for ever.
Today we arrived back at the guest house after spending the past three days at a church retreat in the beautiful Haitian mountains. We spent the day planning, resting, and debriefing the trip this far. After dinner Rick, one of the pilots, approached us after dinner and asked if we could have a small worship service tonight... in all honesty what happened tonight can't be put into words. After singing three songs Rick stopped us and said that he felt the Holy spirit leading him to speak to us about a certain topic, he also said that the Lord was telling him more than one person in the group would benefit from the topic.
Rick spoke to us about forgiveness, but more specifically the forgiveness of unconfessed bitterness and resentment for our parents. As he revealed to us the topic of his talk my mouth dropped... normally I do a great job of shutting off thoughts and focusing on one particular thing, I'm in Haiti serving others therefore I was solely focusing on that and nothing else; however, literally minutes before worship began I had a strange feeling come over me, I started thinking about my family and the different obstacles we are facing and have faced and like any normal human the feelings of bitterness and frustration began to build. As the talk began one by one everyone in the group opened up and shared their story, it was truly amazing to see how everyone's story related.
God is a very mighty, powerful, creative, and all knowing father, he created each and every one of us in this guest house for this very moment. We all now share a bond and will forever carry a piece of each other with us in our hearts. Though we may never see each other again on this Earth we have created an eternal family. Tonight many hearts were broken and then repaired by the Lord himself. We let go of a lot of negative feelings that for some of us have been growing for years. Tonight was an awesome experience that none of us will soon forget. I would like to ask for those of you reading this blog to say a small prayer of thanksgiving and encouragement over us as a team. Confessing and releasing bitter feelings is only one part of the process, we now have to abstain from falling back into our old ways of resentment and anger. We've already given it to God but now we have to leave it there and move on.
"May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you." - Psalm 33:22
-April Kirby
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