Welcome Home!

Back safely to Texas!

Bienvenue aux Etats-Unis!  Our team has safely arrived back at DFW "sans" Jhud...he arrives late tonight from Miami and we all came home through much easier Fort Lauderdale.  Everyone else is happily reunited with anxious parents after a completely uneventful day of flying...a nice, calm change after our 4 days of Crazy Creole Chaos!

I thought you might be wondering why we haven't mentioned Mr Weiss much in our blogs on Monday and Tuesday...so while we were all in the church working with the high school students each afternoon, Mr. Weiss had his own set of challenges as he spent 2 hours each day with the Bon Berger staff in teacher training.  With Jhud as translator, Mr. Weiss introduced the Haitian staff to various learning styles, classroom management, and even a bit of Bloom's Taxonomy (big pedagogical words for teaching techniques and styles).  The sessions were so appreciated that we had to drag him away 30 minutes after the lessons were scheduled to end.  We have dreamed of being able to do this with the staff...and Mr. Weiss finally made it happen!

Other times during the day when we couldn't find "le grand" (the tall one), he was usually out with excited Haitians who were learning how to make and use a solar cooker.  His expertise in this project from teaching it at Prince of Peace amazed Marcelin, Junior and Hudson as they saw pasta and eggs cooked to perfection...with no charcoal! Haitians spend 40-50% of their income on charcoal.  Mr. Weiss generously gave them tools they will eagerly put to use in their own homes...and we're excited to see what other creative ideas they come up with to help the people of Haiti!

We are an exhausted bunch...with lots of stories to tell when we have the energy....a trip to be remembered and lots of desire to return.  We love you, Haiti...bonne nuit

Linda

Orevwa Ayiti

Leaving Bon Berger for the last time in 2015

There is no way I can do tonight's blog justice...we have simply had the most amazing wrap-up day we could have imagined!  And quite honestly, it didn't start with much promise.  Our driver's wife had a baby last night, had to go by the hospital to pay the expenses, got stuck in traffic, and hence...30 minutes late on arrival at Bon Berger.  But as we know, all Haitians are "flexible" in all things, on all days, in all ways...and Madame Yvette and I mapped out all the changes to the schedule for the day, notified teachers, and finally set off to work with the elementary school students on art projects.  Grades 1-6 cut, pasted, drew and taped their way through 2 different projects that reflected on their uniqueness as a child of God, the value of their family and friends, God's beautiful creation and how important prayer is.  Glitter, crayons, markers and cotton balls all used by small Haitian hands to better understand their heavenly Father - tellement mignon (really cute!).

Next out came the sidewalk chalk and a large group of Haitians had fun drawing their country and its flag, as Courtney drew the state of Texas.  Other students finally decided the state flag was white on top and red on the bottom and committed to draw it that way(is that the way it is?), and everyone shared in hopscotch of different sizes and shapes.

Despite Pastor Bernard's insistence that he sneak off and buy us sandwiches at Epi d"or (he simply does not think the rice and beans we eat at school can satisfy the American palette) I convinced him that our desire to eat in the school cafeteria with the students was more about "solidarity" than food - and he relented.  So once again, we squeezed into the tiny cafeteria, talked and ate our way through 30 minutes of "dejeuner" and moved on to English with the middle school.  Without doubt, English has been our biggest stresser...imagine sitting in a group of a dozen Haitians, one translator (awesome!), and yourself trying to speak, teach, share numbers, days of the week, months, weather, food, clothes...parts of the body.  Lots of creativity and lots of laughs, but honestly lots of hard work on the part of our team.

Our last 2 hours were ones we had waited patiently for since our arrival in Haiti - our time with the high school students to actually share faith stories, challenge them to think through being on the narrow or the wide path, what temptations they face and how God gives us all we need to follow His ways.  Under Mr. Littlejohn's direction, sixty 17+ year old students sat in 5 groups with team members and translators and we actually had amazing spiritual conversations.  God abundantly blessed this time for all of us and it led to an impromptu praise and worship songfest with the team starting at the microphones and the Haitians wrapping up with memorable renditions of their praise songs and an arm-in-arm performance of "Break Every Chain" with our Haitian friends.  Lots of "remerciers" (thanks) and prayers followed by teary goodbyes, and we came to the end of our time with Bon Berger.

We wrapped up the afternoon with ice cream at Epi d'Or and a sweet rest at Wall's.  After dinner, Nicole and Jhud led our devotion time, our Haitian hosts prayed over us and vice versa, we prayed for each other's countries, and another teary goodbye.  We cannot imagine this trip without our six sidekicks - Kisnel, Hudson, Marcilen, Junior, Jhud and Nicole.  The trip was bigger, brighter, wider, deeper all because of what they brought along with them - amazing faith, lots of laughter and a spirit of adventure every day.  Major blessing of our trip!

Our team has repeatedly told us today that they have lost their passports - their way of saying they don't want to get on the plane to leave Haiti...not that we don't want to come home, it's just hard to leave this experience that has deeply affected each of us.  We will each have treasured memories, stories to tell (please listen!) and thoughts to process.  This has been a journey held up by prayer (thank you!), encouragement from home, ministry by our team that was above and beyond our expectations, and God's very real presence to sustain us.

Aurevoir...a demain!  We are excited to see everyone at home, even though we have a tear in our eye over leaving Haiti.
Linda

Crazy Creole Chaos

Alex and Lauren practicing English with Haitian students at Bon Berger (Good Shepherd)

CHAOS! Nothing horrific happened today, only the will of God changed what WE wanted to happen. We had exciting and lively circumstances through our first day with the students at Bon Berger. We arrived on time to the school and saw many changes. One big improvement to bless the school is the addition of an administrative team. The team, without our knowledge, had their own plans on how the day was going to go. We rolled with the adjustments and learned to stay flexible with the challenges. Another major improvement to the school was seen in the completion of the third floor of classrooms. A bonus to the third floor was not only more rooms, but a library with the banner that was presented as a gift from us last year. Mrs. Isbell greeted the entire school in French and introduced all of us to the kids. We passed out the notecards, handwritten by the POPCS high school students last year. Then we broke up into groups and played the Name Game. Long story short, the Americans had to speak in Creole and the Haitians had to speak in English. This game was a chaotic way to learn more than sixty Haitians students' names at one time. But it was fun and all had a great laugh. The next game we played was Ninja. If you don't know what that game is, well you should. We can explain that game to you one-on-one. Even with all the chaos, this game created a relaxed atmosphere to deepen our growing bonds with the students. We had lunch consisting of rice and beans. Of course it was delicious! We got to enjoy this meal with the students in their new cafeteria room. After lunch we did a free for all. Some POP students braided hair, made bracelets, played the cup staking game, painted nails, and just talked. It was a great time to enjoy the company of international peers. Some of the advance English speaking students got to spend a hour with Mrs. Isbell to practice the language. Mr. Weiss worked on his solar cooking. We made cooked pasta in two hours! Hudson had the biggest smile on his face because he got to help in creating the solar cooker which was made from a card board box and foil. Mr. Weiss also did his teacher training. He said it went really well. We were all exhausted, but sad to leave the kids. Mr. Littlejohn or (Peitijean)  led our night time devotions. He did a fab job. No, really he spoke with great words of wisdom and reminded us all of the real reason why we are all on this trip. He spoke about Haitians and Americans are different in many ways, but we have Jesus as the one thing that connects us all. We had a great prayer that was led by Courtney and finished by Karlie. Chaos was the word of the day. So when we pray, God loves to remind us that he controls our chaos. He sent the LARGEST MOTH IN THE WORLD to come and interrupt our prayer. It was a great reminder for all of us and all of you back in America. We love you all and wish you a happy, chaotic day tomorrow.
With love,
Madelyn and Courtney :)

Mountaintop Experiences in Haiti

Back: (left to right) Kenson, Hutson, Nicole, Courtney, Lauren, Katelyn, Karlie, Junior, Mr. Weiss, Marcelin
Front: Mr. Littlejohn, Alex, Madelyn, Mrs. Isbell

Bonsoir,

Today started like any other, waking up early, eating breakfast, and heading out for the day's adventures. Our first stop was church at Bon Berger. As we were ushered to the front of the building, we noticed the children from Josie's Orphanage the day before. We smiled and waved at them as we took our seats and church began. While we couldn't understand the actual words of the sermon, we were told when to stand up and sit down. We recognized a few of the songs and sang along in English. After the service we greeted the people leaving and headed in to watch the children's choir practice. Soon after, we hopped on the bus and left for Epi d'or, which is kind of like an American food court. We enjoyed pizza, burgers, sandwiches, and french fries. After lunch, we toured their houses and asked them a few questions about life in Haiti. We thought we would see houses that were like tents, but all the houses we visited were made out of concrete and were very solid. As for the interviews, we were surprised by some of their responses to our questions. When asked about what they liked to do in their free time, a lot of them said "read," or "read the Bible." When asked about what their dreams are for the future, they said they wanted to become a doctor (orthopedist) and a linguist (knowing English, Spanish, Kreyol, and French). Following home visits, we traveled up windy roads and experienced breathtaking views of Port-au-Prince. We were interviewed there by one of our Haitian friends, Marcelin, for a video for the school. On the way home we saw a parade for Carnival, which was kind of like a group of people led by a band dancing through the streets. Jhud called it a "ra ra." We finally arrived to Wall's, ate chicken and potatoes, and headed upstairs for devotions. Courtney talked about not over-thinking our decisions and just letting things happen, especially with tomorrow's endeavors. To end the night, we prayed and planned tomorrow's activities. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day!

Bonoui!
Alex and Lauren

Where's Waldo, I Mean...Where's Jhud?

Back to Front: Mr. Littlejohn, Madelyn, Karlie, Courtney, Katelyn(Behind Hudsen's head, Yes she is still alive),Alex, Jhud, Nicole, Lauren, Junior, Hudsen, Marcelin, Mrs. Isbell

Bonsoir,

Wow, what an exciting first full day in Haiti! The morning started off with our wonderful Haitian friends picking us up to go to the Delma's Supermarket. We had such an amazing experience learning about the Haitian culture by being in their grocery store. We got to learn how to convert goudes to dollars. After the grocery store we began our journey to Josie's Orphanage... what a journey that was. Getting to see the everyday life of the people on the road was interesting. They set up shop on the side of the road selling any goods they could like fruit, shoes, clothes, meats, live chickens, perfume, and cooked foods. Our journey up the mountain was a long one because of the traffic, but it ended up being a blessing because when we would sit in traffic Jhud would jump off the bus and go run down the street and bring back some different foods to eat. Our team's favorite item was the plantain chips. It was crazy because the first time Jhud jumped off the bus we never thought we were going to find him again because he would just run into a crowd of people, but every time he would end right back on the bus with no issue. After our long trek up the mountain we finally arrived at Josie's Orphanage.  It was such a beautiful sight seeing the joy on the children's faces when we arrived. We played with the kids with all the different activities our team members brought. All the children were extremely grateful for everything they were given. At the end of our time at Josie's, all the kids gathered together and sang beautiful worship songs. It was heartbreaking to leave all the kids. We all just wanted to take one home with us. When we made it back to Wall's there were vendors selling jewelry and paintings. Jhud helped us bargain with them, so that we would not get ripped off because we were all Americans. Thankfully, Jhud helped us to get lots of trinkets for not too much money. Our day ended in a group dinner with many of our Haitian friends, and some team devotion and worship time. As today is coming to a close our team is filled with excitement for what is to come tomorrow. We cannot wait to meet more Haitians and experience Haitian Church.

Signing off, Bonoui-
Katelyn and Karlie

The Plane That Didn't Go to Port au Prince

Bonsoir (Good Evening)!

At dinner. From left to right around the table: Lauren, Madelyn, Katelyn, Karlie, Marcelin, Junior, Courtney, Jhud, Nicole, and Alex. Not pictured: Hutson and Kenson (Leonard's Nephews), Mr. Weiss, Mrs. Isbell, and Mr. Littlejohn 

The last time our team blogged, a few of us we were just getting over illnesses and returning to the states. A year and a half later I am thrilled to announce the safe and healthy arrival of our team at Wall's Guest House in Port-au-Prince! We have come to joke that our lives are all about flexibility, but we found much truth in that statement through our adventures today. God has clearly demonstrated His Provision in our plan B's that could have been His plan A's. After departing from Dallas we landed in Miami with no problems. The second leg of the trip proved problematic after having to deplane and board another plane (mechanical difficulties with the first plane). Arriving three hours later than scheduled, we were greeted with huge smiles from five of our wonderful Haitian friends at the PAP airport. Due to our late arrival, our regular driver, Leonard, was unable to pick us up but graciously made other arrangements for us. Leonard's nephews Hutson and Kenson, POPCS Alum Nicole Russel and her Haitian husband Jhud, Hutson, and our dear friends from last year Marcelin and Junior were their to take us to Walls. Our new navigators weren't quite sure of the best way to Wall's... so we ended up asking for directions a couple times. Let me tell you, listening to Hatians banter about directions in Kreyol/French is quite the dynamic experience. Our journey ended successfully about 30 minutes after leaving the airport. We unloaded our luggage and enjoyed a lovely breeze through dinner on the patio. Everyone was more than ready to sit down and enjoy comforting rice and beans after a tiring day of travel. We then headed upstairs to "our" devotion spot to learn a quick Kreyol hymn and dwell on thought provoking questions posed by our lovely Mrs. Isbell.  Our cups overflowing with excitement for the days ahead, we unraveled the game plan for our day at Josie's Orphanage tomorrow.  We are ecstatic for the experiences our awesome God has planned for our week, although they may not be our original plans.  We are greatly appreciative of your thoughts and prayers 1,800 miles away. Stay tuned for our next blog tomorrow night.

Bonoui (Good Night)!
- Courtney

Allons-y! Tout le monde!

The team is on their way!!

The group is returning to work with Good Shepherd Church and School in Port-au-Prince. We have built great friendships and relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ there and look forward to being reunited!

Please keep them in your prayers and check back here for updates!