Tuesday, April 10
First full day,

This is team member Willi Pederson.  It was wonderful to start this day seeing all of our team members finding little corners to do their own personal devotions.  I love the hearts of my team members and it is a privilege watching them living out their personal time with the Lord.  After breakfast we headed out in the TapTap to Teen Challenge.  Riding the TapTap is an experience in itself!  We all pile in the back of a Fed Ex size truck that has benches on the side and wire mesh up to the roof & hang on for the ride!  Roads are very rough and bumpy and we are hanging on for dear life as we look out and see the Haitians "doing life".  I saw a woman balancing 8 dozen eggs on her head walking up a steep hill.  The physical strength and balance of Haitians is amazing!

At Teen Challenge we were introduced to the students and the programs.  It is a 18 month program for teens who have come out life challenges hard to imagine.  Most have been sexually abused and many orphaned.  They grow up in an environment impossible for us as Westerners to comprehend.  At Teen Challenge they learn what it is like to live with a roof over their head, protected physically, and learn to know Jesus learn life skills.  They will stay there for 18 months and then go back to their communities to be the light of Jesus.  Their joy was undeniable.  I gave my personal testimony of redemption through an interpreter.  The girls were on the edge of their seats & applauded when if finished.  I wanted them to know I had made plenty of bad decisions in my life and how redeemed we all are.  We are all, indeed, sisters in Christ.

Afterwards we treated the girls to manicures, pedicures & facials and the braided our hair.  It was a sweet time of international sisterhood we will take into eternity.  My heart was full as we left.

In the afternoon we went to orphanages where we fed & held babies and played with the older children.  They had health issues - many very malnourished and so small for ages.  Most are orphaned or abandoned.  Touch is universal and all of them longed to be held.  One particular little girl attached herself to me and called me mama.  It made me weep - I physically could not be a mother, so to be called mama was a bigger gift than that little girl will ever know.  At one point she crawled up my back & just wanted to play with my blonde hair.  When I became overwhelmed, this sick little girl patted me on my back to comfort me.  A moment in time etched in my memory forever.

At evening devotions we each shared memories of the day.  Journeying with these sisters in Christ is another indescribable memory.   For the first time since arriving, I slept soundly tonight after my cold water shower.  I am blessed beyond my wildest dreams.

We've Arrived

Larson/Olson Team

We have arrived safely and settled into our place we will call home for the next week.  We have come from all over, from Florida to Minnesota, Colorado, Michigan and Canada.  16 Women who love the Lord, and want to serve with open hearts.  It has been a great day getting to know one another, and giving praise to our Lord.  Great start.   Pictures coming.........

Everyone is exhausted, stay tuned....

First Lutheran Church Day 8

 Travel Day.

We made it safely to the United States!! We are waiting for our next flight home to Minneapolis! We leave Atlanta at 10:20pm and arrive at 11:58pm to Minneapolis!

We have had such an amazing and moving week that we cannot wait to share our stories with all of you!

Thank you from the bottoms of our hearts for praying for our team and following our blog. Stay tuned for when our trip photos and videos will be presented.

God Bless you all!!!

First Lutheran Church Day 7

Sunday, April 8th, our last full day in Haiti! 

Today, we started the morning with Worship at Church on the Rock.  They asked that we not take pictures (even Lisa obeyed the rule this time) so I will describe it the best I can.

The auditorium was filled with local Haitians and visitors with so much energy! It was addicting and moving. All were dressed in their Sunday best, and all were welcomed.  You would look up and see so many hands and hearts reaching up praising and worshiping our Lord together. I think I saw Jane raise her arms. (and a tissue) It was a moving morning as only God can do.

After Church we rode out to Carries, Haiti for some fun in the sun at Wahoo Bay. It was a great opportunity to replenish our bodies, mind and soul for our trip home and the days ahead of us. A well needed renewal, and God gave us a perfect day for it!   Hallelujah!

Brandi showed us her "can do" attitude once again as she ventured out of her comfort zone and did some snorkeling with the team.  Just the fact that 13 of us all went on one old fishing row boat is enough to gather one's courage.  (Josh, I sure hope you got the glue off your foot from the boat.

Another lesson learned; remember to check out the equipment before starting to barter the price.)

I think I saw a mother-daughter kayak race; Kara& Lori definitely earned first place and took the hardware home!  Elise requested a new partner. J   Bodi was “King of the Raft” until Emily& Rachel joined.  Nothing can stop those two when they are together. 💗

 

First Lutheran Church Day 6

 Day 6, Second Water Truck day and Dio's Special Needs Orphanage!

We started out our day by heading to the water truck station to watch our water truck get filled. While there we watched the Haitians take showers in the water trucks that were overflowing and dripping. We say a little boy that had a VIKINGS Jersey on so we had to get a photo with him!

Off to our first stop where we saw a few things that stuck out and were heart wrenching. There was a bunch of kids fighting or rioting in the streets. One little girl in particular was getting beat up and bullied. The kids would rally around here and she would lay on the ground and lash out! It was terrible to see! The discipline here is so much more harsh than back home which is another hard thing to watch, they use belts, cut off parts of pants to hit the children when they disobey.  While these fights were happening, some of us gathered together and said a prayer that the spirits that were causing these fights would go away. We were all holding at least 2-3 kids and one little girl shouted out " in the name of Jesus"! If that doesn't give you goose bumps! It was amazing within minutes of our prayer the fighting stopped!!!

Our second stop was really moving also. We connected with a lot of children and families that were in need. We carried many heavy buckets of water down the streets to their homes, sewage running in the gutters, kids naked or half naked, but smiling from ear to ear!!!! The famous saying from the children here in Haiti is "Hey You" and the kids start chanting that! It is sound to our ears!!

We headed back to the guest house to shower and get ready to go to Dios, the special needs orphanage!

When we pulled up to the orphanage we saw kids of all kinds! Some were Walking, some were using walkers or canes and others sitting resting!  We brought out the toy bin and the kids went nuts! To see what those kids can do even WITH their disability is absolutely amazing!!! To see the joy that our team brought to their faces was humbling! These kids haves so much to give to us that we loved every minute there! We were jumping rope, playing soccer, coloring, braiding hair, using chalk, playing tic tac toe and snuggling!!! Just what Jesus ordered us to do with them!!!

God has blessed us in so many ways on this trip and I pray that we as a team and as we come home and share with others can be the CHANGE here in Haiti!!!

First Lutheran Church Day 5

Day 5! How does that even seem possible!

We started our day out by attending Church! What an experience, to see the holy spirit alive in so many people here was amazing and a lot of us felt so much relief. Relief knowing that God is changing lives here right in front of our own eyes. We walked back to the guest house from church, which was fun to see the "streets" of Haiti.

We headed out to go to Titanyen. A little town where Healing Haiti built Grace Village, Grace Church, Grace Shool and Fleri Bakery and restaurant. On our way we stopped at the mass grave site which is a large area at the foot of the mountains where 100's of thousands of people are buried from the earth quake that happened in 2010. They have a large memorial and then up on top of the mountain in the distance stood a bunch of crosses! How amazing!


We headed to get a tour of Fleri Bakery where they make bread and wholesale it to the community to sell on the streets. They also sell the bread in retail.. The whole theory behind the job creation is so great. They employ 26 people alone at the bakery and the restaurant employs the Haition teenagers to wait tables and serve the food!

We had 4 elders ( Older adults in the Titanten Community) that we got the pleasure of visiting  today.  When we visit them we bring them a hot meal, a water bottle with cold water, juice, and a care package with some personal items and some snacks. We sing to them while they get their feet  and hands washed. We sang songs like, this little light of mine, amazing grace, O My Soul and Jesus loves me! Mollee was a excellent leader at this! Before we leave we ask them for their prayer requests and pray over them!

 We started with Marcia. When we showed up she was raising her arms in the air  and was so happy to see us! She said she had been waiting for us to come and was quickly finding a chair to sit down on so that we could wash her hands and feet and massage her back with lotion. When that was finished we painted her nails and toe nails! While doing all of this we sang songs to her!!!! Marcias prayer was for her family, kids, grandkids and for her spirit!


We then moved to Edmund, this sweet man oh my soul! He is blind and almost all the way deaf but he was so happy we were there! The best part about this visit was when we gave him the cold water and he took his first drink and said "ahhhhhh" it tasted soo good! Edmund's prayer requests were for less pain and to not be bored. He lays in bed because he cannot see or hear and he gets bored. He expressed he was in a lot of physical pain.

We visited two other elders and then headed back to Grace village to get a tour of the school and orphanage! All the work that healing Haiti has done here is amazing and the views are a bonus for sure!!!!

Tomorrow is our last water truck day along with our visit to Dios Special needs orphanage!

First Lutheran Church - Day 4

Bon swa from Haiti!

Today we celebrated a birthday of a lifetime for Rachel. It was her fourth 30th birthday. :) Homemade signs were hung up with bandaids next to latex glove "balloons", birthday songs, hugs from children, a video from her kiddos and a delicious cake were just the jist of her special day.

Lisa taught us a fun diddy for our breakfast prayer. By supper, we were ready to be YouTube sensations.

 

On the drive to the first mission of the day we went through a more maintained area with large architecture and homes. We learned that a lot of these were probably occupied by someone who works for the government or are vacation homes. It was quite the difference from what we’ve seen people living in in Cite Soleil.

Our first stop was at Papillon – a company started by an American couple who was trying to adopt a Haitian child until they realized their mother still wanted and loved it, but couldn’t afford to care for it. Instead of taking the child away, they created a place where she and other Haitians could work to provide for their child(ren).

At Papillon the Haitians make beads and jewelry from clay and cereal boxes, they form mugs and bowls out of pottery and sew dolls and stuffed animals. This business also has a daycare for its employees's children.

Papillon has its own café upstairs - where if you ask Bodie – you just have to try the Mario smoothie (peanut butter, strawberry and banana). Every meal or snack we have had here in Haiti has just been incredible.

From Papillon we went to For His Glory orphanage. This orphanage had some children with special needs which really hit home for many of our missionaries.

One boy, Wilson, stole the hearts especially of Kara and Lori. Wilson has cerebral palsy. We can’t say for sure, but because of the lack of education of how to care for a child with CP, Wilson was missing out on a lot of attention and proper care. To a lot of us, it was intimidating to pick him up out of his wheelchair because we didn’t want to hurt him. Kara made that little guy’s day, and probably his week or even his year. She carried him out of the nursery to go outside, and he was smiling the biggest smile he could possibly smile and waving in excitement.

 

 

Our hearts strings were pulled in other ways in that same nursery. A maybe four-month old baby was just waiting to pass away. He had hydrocephalus – fluid on his brain. His head was about double the size of a normal baby’s head, and will continue to swell until he passes.

Emily held a child with the best laughter. I think most of us can relate that nothing gets much better than the sound of that. Josh played with a little lady who couldn’t live without her sunglasses. She was a little movie star who kept him on his feet.

Like on our other orphanage visits, we pulled out bubbles, jump rope, Frisbees and even made bracelets with the children. Another young lady – maybe 12 years old – made sure to greet every missionary and give them hugs. She was curious about every activity that was going on.

When we left For His Glory, we went straight to  La Pherre’s Orphanage. This orphanage was nothing like the last four we’ve been to. This orphanage is owned by a pastor and his wife. We were greeted by the wife at the entrance, and the husband began setting out any chair he could find so we all had a place to sit.

We played musical chairs – first the children, then the adults. And the kids taught us a song. We did a craft with them and then played a game of duck, duck, gray duck – or if you ask Lisa and Elise – goose. (Please forgive them. They really are sweet women.)  

Those children knew three different languages. They were probably 7 to 15 years in age. We could just tell they were safe, loved and fed. The children greeted each missionary and the boys shook our hands. Unlike at other orphanages, the pastor (caretaker) stuck around and observed our visit. He took photos of the group and encouraged the children to sing different songs and not be so shy.

We closed with a prayer ­- first from the pastor – who prayed for us missionaries, too, and it was followed by a prayer from our missionary, Josh. Both were translated respectively. It’s safe to say there wasn’t a dry eye when we departed. Unlike with the babies and younger kids – these kids could understand emotion, and they had made connections, too. A lot of our interactions with the children in Haiti have shown us the older ones are more shy because they can't jump all over us like the littles. But, they snuggled right in here.

We are all so thankful to be finding peace and comfort with one another, even though days ago  we didn't know much about each other, other than we were people on a mission.

After we got back we were blessed with a meal of traditional Haitian foods, visited the grocery store, celebrated Rachel’s birthday one last time (for the evening) and had a powerful team meeting.

It’s so hard to put into words the things we are seeing and feeling, but we are so happy you’re following the journey we have been able to share thus far.

Until tomorrow!