Sparkler fun!

Church on The Rock and Lifesaver.

Today’s Haiti adventures started a little earlier than usual. This morning Mom, Serge and I went to Church on The Rock for the morning prayer service. I could not think of a better way to begin 2013 than spending my first hours worshiping with the Haitian people. Today is not only New Years in Haiti, but it is also their Independence Day, so the atmosphere has been festive. It has been a wonderful experience to be here for the holidays – especially celebrating independence in a place that Jesus has brought such freedom to my own life.

A scripture that the Pastor of Church on The Rock read this morning really impacted me. Jeremiah 17:14 says "Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved; for you are my praise." Let us begin this new year with an attitude of thankfulness and praise. 

We traveled with the girls to Lifesaver Orphanage today. It is our goal for them to begin doing outreach work. They are very blessed in comparison to many of the other children in Haiti living in orphanages. I have to be honest at this point, and tell you that I hate the word “orphanage.” Many children who live in them are not orphans. Their parents chose for them to live there, so that they could have a better life. Most all of the girls in our home have some type of family that is still living whether it is a parent, an aunt or a cousin.

Some of you may remember my previous blogs about the Lifesaver children. They are very musically talented, so I was not surprised at all when they began to sing for us as soon as we arrived. They did several songs in several languages. It was very impressive. Our girls did their performance next, and they did a great job! I was so proud. After the singing we feasted on cookies and Haitian cola. Then we played. We brought balls, jump ropes and sidewalk chalk so the children had a lot of fun.

One child caught my eye, and tended to stay rather attached to me the entire time. Her name was Sema (say-mah). Sema arrived at Lifesaver about three months ago because her mother died, and he father could not care for her and her two siblings. She was very sick, and both her brother and sister were in the hospital. She eventually fell asleep in my arms. Please pray for this precious child that God would restore her body. She also has these scores all over her body, so pray that those are healed quickly.

After we arrived back at MFGH, we all relaxed for a few hours, had dinner, and now we are about to leave to do sparklers with our girls for Independence Day. I am very excited! Will probably not post a blog about it, but will at least come back and do some pictures.

Blessings,

Hannah 

Fun day of babies and baking in Haiti!

Today was much less intense than yesterday. I try to purposely plan my trips to blend the tough days in with the fun ones. We started the day with a trip to Eagle Market with Gerritt to buy supplies for cookie and cupcake baking. We brought what we could from the States, but needed cold items like eggs and butter. By the time we left, I felt like I had been in Wal-Mart for hours. I like to grocery shop in Haiti, but doing the conversion math while trying to figure out the labels is confusing. The best part of the trip was discovering the chocolate bars! I splurged and purchased one. While we were waiting in line Gerritt handed me his keys and pointed to a “bonus card” looking thing. Yes, folks, they have those here, and I saved 5%!  How cool is that?

After we got back to MFGH, we packed a bag and headed to Miss Dorothy’s baby rescue. I’ve visited Miss Dorothy’s place on my previous two trips. Some of you may remember reading about a sweet boy named Claudine. He was not there today, because he has been transferred to a different orphanage to be eligible for adoption. I was bummed that he wasn’t there, but I am praying that he soon finds his forever family. I instantly bonded with one of the newer babies. Her name was Milanda. She has TB, is two years old and weighed sixteen pounds when she arrived two weeks ago. She is gaining strength, but still has a ways to go. Please pray for both of these precious children.

We stayed with Miss Dorothy for maybe two hours before we headed back to MFGH. Tomorrow we are traveling to Lifesaver Orphanage with the girls, so we did some planning for that. We are taking cookies, singing songs, and doing a puppet show Bible lesson. We went to the girl’s home to make cookies, and to practice their performance for tomorrow. We decided that we could handle doing the cookies without a translator. I began to feel a bit weary when we first got there – but it went wonderful! I think my Creole is better than I thought. Or maybe I’m just really good at sign language. Or maybe the girls were lying when I asked them every five seconds if they understood. Regardless, the cookies turned out lovely! We had a great afternoon together.

We have a busy day scheduled tomorrow starting at 5:30am when we leave MFGH for the prayer service at Church on The Rock. I am so looking forward to this. We will be going to Lifesaver around 10am, but chances are it will be more like 11am. Gotta love Haiti time. :) Tomorrow is Haiti’s Independence Day, so we have plans to do some sparklers with the girls tomorrow evening. It should be a great day.

Everyone have a happy and safe New Years! 

Blessings, 

Hannah 

Imagine Me.

Yesterday we attended the church ours girls do (Mission Outreach), they also attend school there. The service is completely in Creole, so most of it I do not understand. As I am sure you can imagine, I get really excited when I do understand a phrase the pastor uses, or when I recognize a melody to a familiar song. The service itself was a basic Haitian church service - lots of clapping, hand waving and singing. They passed out gifts for all of the church volunteer for this year, so that extended the service quite a bit. Following the awards ceremony, the band began to play a song that I recognized. I was a bit surprised by the song choice, but was so thankful to be able to hum along with a melody that I know. The song was Imagine Me by Kirk Franklin.

I'm not sure how many of you know Imagine Me, but I'm sure that if you do, you are just as surprised as I am that it was being played in a Haitian church. As I began to think of the lyrics, the Lord started to speak to me. The song starts with "Thank you for allowing me to see myself the way You see me." The concept of seeing ourselves the way that Christ does is honestly a hard thought for me to wrap my head around. To Christ I am without flaw. To Him I am intelligent. To Him I am beautiful. To Him I am a servant. To Him I am His child, and He loves me with an unconditional love. How amazing is that?

I love worshiping with Haitians. They are so spirited in their praise, and yet so passionate in their worship. They give thanks with humble hearts knowing that even though they do not have much, God is faithful to meet their every need. That is the attitude that I want to live my life with - knowing that my Jesus is faithful. He is faithful in the times of plenty, and in the times of need. Let us always remember to give thanks in all things, because regardless of circumstances His love endures forever.

Blessings,
Hannah

PS - Posting a link to Imagine Me in case anyone wants to listen - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRA4vNs2r3c

Tent City Outreach.

I have no clue how to even start writing about the day. My heart is overwhelmed. I may end up breaking this day into two blogs. I don’t even know how to put parts of it into words. I don’t know whether to weep or smile. To be happy because of the resources I have to help these people, or to be brokenhearted because of the conditions that so many of them live in.

Yesterday my blog was about going outside of the “four walls”. I feel safe inside of this guest house. I feel safe at our girl’s home. I feel safe at the Valley of Hope. By safe I do not mean away from danger, but rather that those places make up my comfort zone in Haiti. Today I stepped out of my box. Tonight we spent hours doing tent city outreach - praying for people, passing out balls, loving on children, giving away toothbrushes and band-aids to different families.  

There is one thing that I never want to be in life, and that is a “sight-seeing missionary.” Someone who comes on a mission trip to smile for a few photos, pass out some candy, and then walk away. I never want to be a person who won’t snuggle the child covered in their own waste, or who refuses to kiss on a baby because they are HIV positive, or even to not walk into a tent because I don’t want to be around the smell or the heat. I want to love like Jesus. Jesus reached out to those that others would push away. He loved the “unlovable” – the dirty, the smelly, and the sick. He loved them all, and He loves with the greatest love that any of us will ever know.

Our friend John, his daughter, and her boyfriend went with us to the tent city. It is maybe a half mile from the guest house.  The major concern with doing an outreach in a tent city is being “mobbed.” We found a quiet area with some of the women that John knows to pass out the items that we brought. We gave out soccer balls, baby stuff, and toothbrush/toothpaste at that location. John then guided us to a tent where 13 children live with their parents. We visited with the family inside of the tent. Words do not describe the conditions that this family lives in. There were only three “beds”. One was made out of crib rails and a washing machine box. The other two were made of plywood stacked on top of cinder blocks. The tent was smaller than my bedroom. 15 people live in this tent with no electricity, no water, no kitchen, and a bathroom that is literally a pot behind a sheet.  We gave away more hygiene items and toys. Before leaving we prayed with the family.

 

Words do not do the tent city justice. I will be posting photos on Facebook so you all can really have a mental picture of the living conditions. I walked away from that tent city feeling so blessed, but not understanding why people have to live like that. Lots of prayers due to a heavy heart tonight.

Blessings,

Hannah 

Why, hello Haiti, I've missed you.

At this very moment there doesn't seem like very much is going on around me. I am laying in my bed, watching the shadows that the ceiling fan is making all around the room. The room itself is quiet, but outside of these four walls, I know that more is going on than I could ever imagine. I can hear faint sounds of music from what I would assume to be some sort of church service. I also hear a baby crying, a rooster crowing, and horns honking. Outside of these four walls is Haiti. A place that I would call a second home filled with some of the most loving people I have met in my entire life.

As I lay here tonight, I am thinking about my life and how often I have chosen to say inside of the peaceful, quiet and safe "four walls" that I have built up around myself. I feel confident in saying that at some point we have all pondered the idea of saying safe inside of the walls that we have built up. We have had to make a choice of whether or not to step out of the box. I feel like Haiti is one big out of the box experience. Each time I travel here, I experience new adventures. Tomorrow will be no exception. We will be touring a tent city, and giving items (soccer balls, baby wash, medical supplies ,, ) to the people living there. I've been to tent cities before, but have never physically participated in the outreaches. I will also be taking my Evangecube, so I am praying that God will place the right people in our pathway to minister to. 

Today was basically a travel day. Our flight was delayed out of Charleston, so we did not arrive in PAP until nearly 5:00pm. We ate dinner, and then went to visit with the girls for a while. It was so good to see them! The girl's home is still beautifully decorated for Christmas. I took several pictures that I'll post later. They even had a Christmas tree! Oddly enough I spent a really enjoyable evening singing Christmas songs with them. Anyone that knows me well should get a chuckle out of that. 

Tomorrow morning we will go the girl's church, and then leave for the tent city outreach around 3:00pm. Please pray that God uses the outreach time to touch many lives. 

Blessings, 

Hannah 

Pools and Planes.

Today we took the girls on a surprise trip to the Caribbean Lodge pool. We had a blast! Even though sometimes they can be a challenge, I love those girls. We swam for maybe two hours, and then had lunch together. It was a day full of laughter and smiles. On the way back to the girls home, I laid my head down on the seat in front of me. I think the girls thought I was sleeping, because they would all take turns poking me and giggling. I just let them do it, because at that point I was hot and tired. I did enjoy listening to their giggles as they played their little game. The laughter of those girls is one of my favorite sounds. It’s infectious.

Tomorrow I return back to the States. This is always bitter-sweet for me, this time though, it is much more bitter. A part of me doesn’t want to go back. In trips past I’m okay to leave, but tonight I honestly don’t want to. I haven’t been “home sick” like I have been before. Adjusting back to America isn’t always easy for me. I know it sounds silly, but it’s tough for me to leave Haiti and fly in to the billion dollar Miami airport. I love this country, I love these people, and I love the Hug A Child girls. To be honest, I’m not looking forward to going back to my typical life. I feel like that sounds horrible, because if anything, I should be so thankful for what I have to go back to. Please do not think that I am not, because I am beyond thankful for all that God has blessed me with. My heart is just very heavy tonight about leaving tomorrow. I know that God has a plan for my life, and I have faith in His plan, but for some reason I feel much more at peace about it when I’m in Haiti.  

Thankfully my flight is in the afternoon, so I will get to spend the morning at Hug A Child. I’m also hoping that we can visit a baby orphanage down the road, but I’m not sure if that will work out. Tomorrow, at 3pm, I will board a plane and say “goodbye” to Haiti … but I know that it won’t be a forever “goodbye.”

I usually don’t ask for prayer on my blog, but I would really appreciate it tonight.

Love and blessings,

Hannah