Day Three!

I’m sorry that I was slack and didn’t post this last night. I was so tired! Day three was better than day two, and day one. If each day just keeps getting better I don’t know what we’ll do by Thursday. I figured out that I still really don’t like coffee. I tried it again this morning, and it wasn’t nearly as good. It must have just been that I was running on empty Friday morning and my body was willing to try anything. Haha.
I woke up about 6:30, took a shower and ate breakfast (which was delicious, per usual). Serge got here about 9 and we all piled into the truck to head to the girl’s home. Actually, I rode in Pastor Maxeau’s truck instead of with Serge. We spent the entire day again at the girl’s home doing several activities with them.
The first was to get them all upstairs to get ready for their pictures. I didn’t help with that because Ms. Fran, Smith, Joe G. Mr. Jack and I took the time alone downstairs to prepare for our puppet show. More about the puppet show later, because it was absolutely hilarious! After the pictures, some of the team members took the girls outside to play a game. I’m not sure the name of the game that they played but I have seen people play it at the beach and tailgating. I took some video footage of it, because the girl’s got so excited with their ball/role went around the rod. Following the game, Smith and I did a picture story with the girls. We did the story of Lazarus. They all seemed to enjoy, and understand it. After the story they colored a picture about Lazarus.
This is when my “moment” for the day happened. I was very, very tired at that point in the day so as the girls were coloring I sat down in the middle of all of their tables. As I was watching them all color and practicing my Creole by telling them “good job”, one of the girls climbed into my lap. You have to understand that it is nothing out of the ordinary for a girl (or five girls) to be in your lap. Nahomi, who is twelve, was the girl that was in my lap in this particular occasion. As she sat there I rocked her pack and forth, and sang (in English, so I’m sure she didn’t completely understand it). After a few minutes she turned around and asked me if I was tired. I told her that I was. What she did next blessed me so. She started scratching my back and playing with my hair, just like I had been doing with her, until I fell asleep! Yes, I’ll admit that I fell asleep on this little girl while everyone was finishing up their pictures. What Nahomi did just blessed me so. I know that I am here to give to these girls, but for her to give back to me (even though it was such a small thing as letting me rest my head on her) blessed me.
After coloring, and my nap the girls lunch was prepared and they ate. I chose to sit at the table to eat lunch with the girls, which was interesting. I enjoyed watching them interact, even though I couldn’t understand a thing they were saying! Haha. Once lunch was over Smith, our translator and the girl’s tutor, cut the radio on so the girls could dance. The might have been the cutest thing ever! I now wish that I had videoed it. It touched my heart to see the girls dancing around and with Smith. You can definitely tell that they all love each other.
After that fun we did more activities with the girls. Two of our team members (Mr. Jack and Mr. Joe) did flannel board Bible stories with the girls, which went very well. Ms. Fran, Smith and I did a puppet show, our very first puppet show actually! Smith did great! Again we did the story of Lazarus. The story line was basically how Lazarus went back to the funeral home and asked for a refund for his funeral since he obviously wasn’t dead anymore. Ms. Fran and I just moved the puppet, and Smith did all of the talking. He differentiated the voices between the funeral home director and Lazarus very well, and the girls laughed the whole time.
Once the puppet show was over, we taught the girls about the Salvation dolls and allowed them to make their own Salvation necklaces’ with different color beads. I do think they enjoyed the activity but at this point they were tired and so we were. As I type this our day doesn’t seem that long, but believe me – it was!
We left there about 4:00, and came back to Dottie’s. For dinner last night we had a Haitian classic, beans and rice along with chick and various types of Salad. Mr. Donald did the devotion and then he told us the story of Pastor Maxeau’s church. What an amazing God we serve! That story just shows how incredible God is! I’ll make a special entry about that – I just don’t have time right now.
Yesterday I went off on a “bunny trail” about how much the girls love having their picture taken. Today though my “trail” is going to be about the language barrier we have. The girls speak French/Creole, and I can only speak English and some Spanish. Communication has been mostly done through people translating and body language. I have tried to learn some simple phrases like “good job”, “I love you”, “write your name”, “see you tomorrow” and so on .. . I am really paranoid that I say them wrong because each time I say something to the girls in their language they giggle! Maybe I am just that bad with pronunciation. Haha. You know what though, I am so thankful that you don’t have to talk love – you just feel it and love is what I feel from the time I walk through the gates at the girl’s home to the time I leave!
Tomorrow we are going to church at Pastor Maxeau’s and I am so excited! I can’t wait to worship with these people and see what God is going do to in the service. I also am excited about the meal afterwards. Have I mentioned that I love the Haitian food?! I’m sure I have, because it is just “that” good. I’ve just realized that I haven’t taken pictures of any of the food yet so I’ll be sure to do that tomorrow.
Please keep praying for us!
Love to you all.

Blessings,
Han