Final Thoughts

Where to begin? We have been silent for a few days, somewhat expectedly at first and then unexpectedly as some of you know. Just as the kids said on the plane today “this was an amazing trip until we got sick.” Everyone is okay and recovering as we sit in the Fort Lauderdale airport awaiting our final flight to Dallas but it has been an adventure over the last two days. We contacted only those that needed to be communicated with regarding decisions until now. 

We left Port-au-Prince on Wednesday morning bound for Montrouis. We spent the morning and afternoon with Jhud, a Haitian missionary in Montrouis, his family, and a YWAM (Youth With a Mission) team that is stationed in Haiti. It was a great “down” day to spend time in fellowship and getting to know more about the missionary’s day-to-day life in Haiti. He took us to a neighboring spring that they are working on and revitalizing into a tourist attraction. We prayed over the site and sang worship songs in Kreole and in English. Our own John even led some of the songs.

Late in the day we arrived at our hotel in Montrouis, which was a lovely resort. We enjoyed a swim in the warm Caribbean Sea. It was beautifully refreshing after a hot (97+ degree) day! We enjoyed dinner on a patio on the water and devotions on the beach. 

The early morning hours brought us a surprise. Holly and Courtney woke up with symptoms of either the flu or food poisoning. Nick, Rebecca, and Linda also had minor symptoms but our other team members were fine. After they didn’t improve we decided to return to Port-au-Prince to go to a doctor. Without getting into too many details here, Holly, Courtney, Nick and Rebecca spent the night in the hospital getting re-hydrated and pumped full of antibiotics. Everyone was steadily improving throughout the next day. They released three of us the following evening. Holly spent one more night to regain her strength. We left this morning for the airport with everyone feeling better – Praise God! 

The upside-down turn of this trip has been challenging, and not one we would have chosen, but FULL of blessing. People who go on mission trips often say that they enter in to try to serve others and leave more personally encouraged by those they came to serve. John even mentioned that in his devotion Tuesday night. We experienced this firsthand in the overwhelming outpouring of love and support from our Haitian brothers and sisters. From those that spent the night at our bedsides, made phone calls on our behalf, helped us navigate Haitian procedures, drove us from one place to another, to the students of Good Shepherd that walked miles in the heat to come visit and pray with us in our rooms – we have been blessed.

We prayed diligently to establish relationship with the Haitians for our school program and this set of circumstances made us a family. The students that were not sick inspired us also by their servant attitude and their commitment to carry on the trip. They packed suitcases, held devotions, ate cliff bars for a meal, and spent long, hot hours at the hospital.

  

It was hard to leave Nicole after she spent so many hours caring for us. Please keep praying for her. She spends four more weeks in Haiti. After the experiences of this trip that have brought us closer, I am sure we will all be having a hard time saying goodbye to each other in Dallas. Our first reunion is already scheduled.

We don’t really know how to close this because our experiences have been so vivid, dramatic, and intense in the last day but so has our confidence in the grace of God and His provision. 

Thank you again for supporting this trip and giving us the opportunity to share this experience with your children. We have been blessed by it.

Signing Off,

Linda, Rebecca, and Nick

Hanging with Haitians and Babies.... LOTS of babies!

Sak pase! Where to begin?! Today has been filled with so many new experiences. The day started out as a follow up to yesterdays painting. We painted a classroom with the help of the students at Good Shepherd. The interesting part about the painting was that they still held class while we painted! In the midst of making brush strokes, the geography teacher taught students the differences between the essential needs of Canada, the United States, and Mexico.  We really didn’t know what he was saying, but we could tell what he was teaching from the pictures that he was drawing on the board and a little help from Jean Enock.  Chalk and talk! That’s education in Haiti. In the mean time Marcelin, Junior (students that lived in the first two homes we visited on Sunday) and the video team were more than excited to work with cameras again, so excited in fact that they planned a special interview for later in the day. As the day carried on, they documented the painting and everything else that happened around the school through video. At around 10am, we and the students took a break for recess! Holly, Sarah, and Courtney took a few girls to go paint nails; Mr. Weiss, Zack, and John organized an intense game of soccer in the courtyard. Mrs. Weiss and Nicole floated around taking tons of pictures and videos which we can’t wait to share with you! Mrs. Isbell spent the entire morning catching up on the situation in Haiti and Good Shepherd with Pastor Bernard. Following recess, Zack and Mr. Weiss went with Marcelin and Junior to go film their special interview where they asked each other questions like: “what would you do if you were rich and what does Jesus mean to you? ” Their answers to all the questions were very profound. They give credit to God for everything and if they were to get rich, they would build an orphanage or figure out a way to help their friends, very selfless.  While the interview was happening, the rest of the crew finished painting a classroom and hung out upstairs in the church with some other students to sing songs. John has become quite the worship leader!  An hour later we left the school to spend a wonderful lunch at Leonard’s house.  He invited us in to eat a meal consisting of chicken, fried plantains, beans and rice, and potato salad with red beats!  It was SOOO good. After the meal, he showed us his animals, 10 goats, 21 baby ducks, 15 adult ducks, and several baby chickens and pigeons WHOA! Once we finished seeing the animals (don’t worry we didn’t touch them… customs forms in mind) Leonard busted out his accordion and played us a bit of music with his friends before we left for Mother Theresa’s Orphanage.  On the way to the orphanage, Nicole and John taught us some songs in Creole.  Some bystanders on the street thought we were pretty hilarious when they saw us singing and dancing in the land cruiser. Upon arrival at the orphanage, Leonard let us out of the car and we walked inside not really knowing what to expect besides babies and lots of them.  We walked inside and were greeted by rows of beautiful Haitian babies, some contently staring at us with big white eyes, some crying for attention, some with IV’s on the verge of death, and some sleeping.  The interesting thing about this place is that when you walk in the door, it’s assumed that you’re there to help so without asking, you’re put to work.  Before some of us knew it, we were holding babies, feeding babies, changing babies, and playing with you guessed it… BABIES! We carried on with this for about an hour and a half until it was time to go. Some people come here for a month and do this 8 hours a day. It’s truly a selfless act of service to work at this orphanage. Leaving there was an incredibly emotional experience. Something about putting them back down in the cribs just rips your heart out as they cry to be back in your arms.  We left Mother Theresa’s orphanage very somber.  With tired legs and hearts, we drove back to Walls Guest House for another great night of devotions, discussion, and planning for the next day’s adventure. Tomorrow, we travel to Montrouis to visit Nicole’s friend Jude and the ministry he’s doing there.  We’ll take a little time out tomorrow to worship with them and go to the beach, a much needed break after the whirlwind of emotions we experienced today.  Since we’ll be staying in Montrouis tomorrow night, we may not be able to blog tomorrow.  We’ll blog if we can, but if not you’ll hear from us again Thursday evening. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers! Spread the word about the blog and the Facebook pictures for others to enjoy. There are so many good things happening here this week.  Au revoir!

Relationships 101

God could not have blessed us with a better or more fulfilling first day at Bon Berger! After months of planning and emailing Pastor and discussing how to establish a relationship between two countries, two schools, and people who speak two different languages, today we saw all the barriers fall down in the first thirty minutes. Our day was filled with: joy, laughter, singing, conversation, questions, dancing, acting, learning and speaking Creole. Relationship has been established.

We arrived early so that students would have a chance to see the campus. We walked around, shared hugs with students we remembered and Mrs. Isbell popped in with a little French conversation into many of the classes. We were thrilled to find the computer lab that POPCS supported last year up and running and even got to see the students using the computers today.

At recess, all of the students, from grade school to high school gathered to welcome us and we shared with them our greetings and our purpose for traveling here. We presented the banner that was designed and painted by our team members Courtney and Zack. When we revealed it, there was a collective sigh of amazement from the students.  

After this, we began to work only with the 11^th and 12^th grade students. We had designed an ice-breaker name game that would help us to learn their names (knowing they would already know each other’s name). It was a challenge! We were learning names as Wilens,  Wydline, Largeat, Seide, Kettia, Markelly. But it was also incredible fun. There was so much laughter in the room that you could literally feel the culture barriers beginning to fall.

The team made a very intentional decision that we would follow this with an activity where these students would take the opportunity to teach us Kreole. We want this trip to be about relationships and the team was very decided that our goal is to show that we care and are curious. We designed an activity where the Haitian students were given a scenario (i.e. an older brother giving advice to a younger sibling, etc.) And then they would be asked to write a brief conversation or dialogue in Kreole. We would then practice our Kreole with our students who would coach us and help us. We presented our skits to the group. What a riot it was and the Haitian students seemed to absolutely love our attempts at Kreole and certainly had no trouble laughing at us as well!

For lunch, our team ate in the classrooms with the students as they do each day. We shared rice ane beans with a tomato sauce. Our POP students were TREMENDOUS at chatting and visiting throughout the meal . In fact, afterwards many new friendships were forged between our students and their’s.

The afternoon was filled with visiting, painting and community-building. Our students helped to paint the interior of the church alongside Haitian students. Mrs. Isbell taught English classes for other older students allowing them to ask questions about English and the questions were deep! Mr. Weiss spent much of the afternoon with his “video team.” He worked with a teacher and four students to teach video skills and to present them with a few cameras as an opportunity to film school and church events and also as a tool for our POP students to connect with Bon Berger in the future.

At the end of the day, we are exhausted! But it was a remarkable day because everyone found a way to engage – music, technology, language, etc. It was beautiful to watch a our team worked together in the days and weeks before now – preparing, planning, and even last night in devotion’s brainstorming and revising. And today, each student was  bold and creative in seeking out ways to communicate and demonstrate Christ’s love without language. One student remarked to Mrs. Isbell, “This has been a truly wonderful day.”

We have been so blessed by your prayers and have been strengthened by them! Thank you for this! We are so grateful for the team that is here. We, Mrs. Isbell and Mrs. Weiss, have been reflecting often on the way that this team supports and encourages one another and how each student is really gifted in a distinct way. For this, we are so grateful and so excited to see what tomorrow and the coming days have to bring. Gloria a Dios!

Mrs. Isbell and Mrs. Weiss

For photos from today, please visit the POPCS' facebook page found here. 

Today started as any typical Sunday – going to church!  We were welcomed with stares and smiles as Pastor Bernard greeted and guided us to the front row.  Nicole and Mrs. Isbell addressed the church in French and Creole articulating our mission in Haiti to the congregation. Though we didn’t understand the message linguistically we still felt the power of God through the passion of the people’s worship – so different and much louder than what we’re used to at home!  The focus of the message remained steadfastly giving thanks for Jesus’ sacrifice and for what they have.   As the people left, we stood at the door and had the opportunity to shake hands and exchange “bonjou’s.”  Then we headed out to take Pastor Bernard’s family to Epi d’or where we had a fantastic lunch.  Back in the Land Cruiser, we bumped along the road to a tent city where we were able to meet Junior and his family.  He is a 12^th grade student at the school we are partnering with, Good Shepherd.  Despite the stifling conditions that he lives in, he expressed that Jesus is all that he needs.  He also emphasized the importance of family to him.  Then we moved on to the next home in the tent city and interviewed Marcell, who is living with his uncle in order to continue his education.  We left the tent city and met an alum from Good Shepherd who welcomed us with big hugs and cheek kisses.  She expressed her gratitude toward the school crediting it for where she is and who she is today.  She’s now preparing for her university entrance exam and aspires to pursue journalism.  As we wrapped up our day with our feet in the pool, we discussed our role in evangelism and the necessity of boldness in our prayers and actions.  Thank you for your continued prayers.  We are stoked to begin establishing a relationship between our schools.

Courtney, Holly, and Sarah

We Made It!!

Greetings from Haiti! After a long day of traveling, we’re finally sitting safely in the WALLS International Guest House.  Thank you for your prayers.  God was gracious in getting us to Haiti without a hitch! Everyone still has their passports, Leonard was right on time to pick us up from the airport in Port Au Prince, and Mrs. Isbell continues to rattle off French left and right. She simply cannot contain herself, and we are SO thankful for her and Nicole’s gifts of language. The hardest part of the day was honestly waking up at 4am. If that’s the worst of our problems, we’ll take it! The team has bonded together quite nicely. Everyone here is ready to work, but anytime you walk into a city like this, it’s easy to get overwhelmed in thinking you can’t even make a dent in the problems here. Since we had a bit of free time upon arriving to Port Au Prince, we decided to drive around the city to see if anything had changed since last year. We were greeted by many of the same things, endless trash in streets, the smell of sewage and exhaust, blank stares, and poverty.  At the same time though we saw a thriving marketplace, solar lights installed in various places, shrunken tent cities, and a very busy, vibrant atmosphere. After sitting in reflection this evening at Bible study, dwelling on what we had seen and heard just in the few hours we had been in Haiti, we all agreed that spiritual warfare was very real and very present. We reaffirmed as a team our mission of empowerment; coming along side Haitians to enable them instead of doing everything for them. Please pray for us, that we would die to ourselves every day this week and that the love of Christ would shine through our individual actions so that this land can see the glory of God in the midst of the rubble. We are super pumped to have this opportunity of ministry and we hope and pray that we will be worthy carriers of the gospel to which we are called.

- John and Mr. Weiss