Schauer/Kittleson Team Day 5

Hello all,

You may have already or may start hearing the news of the demonstrations  happening in Haiti right now. The team and I are safe.

Today we were in Titanyen, a rule city in the northern part of Haiti, visiting orphans and elders. On our way back, we hit traffic and lots of people walking on the streets. We turned around figuring it was a bad traffic jam. As we turned around our Haitian staff found out it was a demonstration and roads were blocked off. We took side roads through neighborhoods to find another route. What we found out was that there were protests because the gas prices are rising.  This is a country where the people have so little, often no water, so to raise the gas price is a huge burden to those who require travel to get to work.

We stopped at an orphanage to wait on one of our staff members to find the best way for us to travel. There we got to play with the kids. Our Haitian staff got us all home safely and we are all in the guest house. We are waiting to hear about our plan for tomorrow. It will all depend on if our Haitian staff believes we will be 100% safe and not run into any issues tomorrow. Our Haitian staff is doing everything to keep us safe and our guest house is very secure.

We will update you as soon as we can tomorrow. Please understand wifi can be spotty and hard to upload blogs.

Thank you for all of your continued prayers!

-Gabby and group!

Schauer/Kittleson Team Day 4

Today is the 4^th day in Haiti.  I have been wondering why am I in Haiti? Why did God bring me to this place?  I am used to ministering by praying for people and for counselling and using the gifts of the Holy Spirit; so I really thought God was sending me for the usual type of opportunity.  When we got here on Monday, I was actually disappointed because the mission trip was opposite of my expectation.  I thought we would be doing so much hands on; just doing some major labor, like building or fixing things; however, it turned out to be way more laid back, with the exception of the water truck day – which was amazing by the way.  I really did not understand why we are here as a team, but today, I understood, with the help of Darren’ s explanation, that we are here to get a feel of what Healing Haiti does and we are to take the message of all the work the organization does back home and that way, ourselves and others are given the opportunity to participate in what Healing Haiti has already established. I really appreciate being here with awesome leaders (shout out to Dare Bear and Gupgup) and an amazing team.  I just feel so much connection and relationship between our team.  It feels good to understand why we are here and Healing Haiti is doing fantastic work in Haiti.  I cannot wait and see what God will do even more within this organization; I know that more projects are to come and more expansion will take place.

The one other thing I want to mention is how we tend to think of mission in terms of impacting the people we are being sent to, but the irony is that they end up impacting us.  In the very few days, I have learned so much from the Haitian people and the team.  There is just so much resilience and ability to cope with the situation and even to be and to enjoy the moment.  I am so grateful to be here!

We are all safe and having fun. Hope to let you all know more tomorrow!

-Abang and group

Schauer/Kittleson Team Day 3

Hello, Ford here.

            Today I woke up and practiced karate. I think I will be able to move up to orange belt. We woke up and had eggs, toast, banana. I drink mango water. We headed out at approximately 2 hours after 7:00, 9:00. We went to the first water stop. I find many children.  They approached me with hugs. I give back hug. Just so you know I am 10 + 3=13 (I am 13). Like I was saying when we got to the first stop I gave lots of hugs and helped others by carrying water. The second stop was the same just a different area. Some people there I remember from the first stop. In the tap tap I practiced some more karate. I didn’t really I just imagined myself practicing karate. By the way I know karate. Between different water truck locations we stopped at a place called hope church and school. After our last time at the chool (church and school combined into a word) we went and visited elders in there homes. We introduced ourselves, sang to them, prayed, and at the end gave them a gift. Today was a good day. We had pasta with meat and veggies. The rest of the strangers went over to the pit of soccer. When there I put acorn in someone’s shoes. We come back inside and have team time. We look photos from the day. They then glued my hands to this computer to talk to this thing called the blog. Goodbye now. BTW we made it back safe. Just so you know I am very good karate.

-Ford Arant

We are all doing great and having an awesome time. We hugged lots of kids and carried lots of buckets today. We are feeling so blessed to be the Hands and Feet of Christ this week. Thank you for all of your continued thoughts and prayers!

-Schauer/Kittleson Team