Alleluia Youth Team - Day 7 - Relaxation, Relationships, and Rejuvenation!

Mesi Jezi! (Thank you, Jesus!)

    What a week it has been! We all can't believe that it is coming to an end already.

    Our final full day in Haiti was full of relaxation, relationships and rejuvenation! After starting the day at Rendezvous Church worshiping, we traveled out to the country side to Wahoo Bay Resort. We were overjoyed when we walked down and saw the stunning view of sandy beach and mountain view. We were able to cool off in the water and have some fun on the water trampolines. All of the youth decided to venture out on a small boat and do some Haitian snorkeling as well! For lunch, we ordered some burgers, fries and sandwiches and got to enjoy some cold, refreshing frozen drinks. We all enjoyed a nice day on the beach and spending time all together as a team.

As we prepare to leave this beautiful place we have all fallen in love with, we ask for your prayers for safe travels as we return home to our missed loved ones. 

Bondye beni ou! (God bless you!)

Abbi and Jen 

Alleluia Youth Team - Day 6 - Elder Day!

Sak Pase Zanmi yo (what's up friends),

     We started our day with a wonderful breakfast made by our Haitian staff, Abbi and Hailey. Then we loaded the Tap Tap to go to Grace Village. We then received a tour from our leaders around Grace Village. Grace Village is located in Titanyen, which translates to "less then nothing". At this village kids in the community get to attend school, it houses orphans in family-style housing, and it allows kids in transitional housing a place to stay. They also have a clinic that is affordable for people in the community to use. They have created a space that makes this community more then nothing. This picture below is taken on the deck outside of the clinic.

     After touring Grace Village we went to spend the morning with elders from the community. They met us at Fleri (the Healing Haiti restaurant). We got the opportunity to wash their feet, moisturize  their bodies, massage their shoulders, and pray over them. It was an amazing opportunity to hear the stories of the elders and feed them a good meal before we left. Here is a picture of some of us praying over Madam Monique.  

     Then, we took a short break and traveled over to Rosie's to have some ice cream and do a little shopping. We then returned back to Fleri for a tour of the bakery by Peterson who passionately told use the story of how the bakery came to be. We also picked up some goodies to eat for breakfast Sunday morning. Here is a picture from our tour.

     Lastly, we had some pizza and appetizers at Fleri. The long-term missionary Katie and Ash from the Innovation lab had dinner with us. It was very cool to hear how they got were they are now with Healing Haiti. After pizza we headed back to the guest house to enjoy some group and pray partner time. Here is a picture of our group at Fleri!

Words of the Day

Hailey - Holy Spirit 

Madi - Undescribable 

Abby - Confusing 

Emily - Hard 

Tori - Decades 

Abbi- Connected 

Nate - Age 

Chris - Conversations 

Jordan - Guided 

Kari - Pray 

Jen - Passion 

Carol - Prayer 

Bondye beni ou (God bless you), 

Madi and Hailey 

Day 5 - Alleluia Youth Team - Glwa Pou Bondye

Today we had an early start. Our alarms went off at 5:30 to head to morning service at Church on The Rock. It was a very interesting but spirit-filled experience, it was very different from the way we worship at home. Instead of everyone packing in towards the front, and sitting down to wait for service to start, worshiping began the second you walk in the doors. Everyone was walking around praising God with open arms, letting the Holy Spirit fill them. The whole service was a moving experience and something no one will forget.

After the service we had our second water truck day. We only had time for two water truck stops today, but both moved us in its own way. The first stop, N'ap Boule, was a rebuilt neighborhood after a fire burned down a portion of the area. There are small apartment buildings in place of the shanties. Our second stop was near Hope Church, it was the second time we did the stop this week. This stop  was a lot more chaotic, because there were so many kids that wanted attention. At both stops everyone was able to make more connections with the residents of Cite Soleil.

Our evening consisted of dinner with our friend Germain and his family.  Germain has been an employee of Healing Haiti for five years and was very excited to get to meet us, we were also very excited to meet him and his family. On the Tap Tap ride there, we invented a new game called "Tap Tap Soccer," which consists of playing soccer, while sitting down, on a tap tap! At Germain's, we were given a tour of his house, which we prayed in, over his family. After we prayed, we went outside and ate pizza and chicken. Towards the end of the meal it started to rain so we all ran into a small building on their property. While we were in the building, we started singing as one of Germain's kids played the guitar. Before we left we made sure to take plenty of pictures with them. The day was filled with moving, and eye-opening experiences, which filled our souls and will never be erased from our memories. 

Jordan and Nathan 

Day 4 - Alleluia Youth Team - Shopping!!

Hello Friends!

Today was a pretty laid back day. The trip is officially halfway over :(  After a pancake breakfast we went to the Delmas 31 artisan group market. We had to bargain with the artisans for their items. It was pretty hot, but we stayed a while and bought a lot of stuff.

Then we went to the Croatian Orphanage. When we walked in, all the kids sang a song in Creole to us! We performed our VBS skit for them and sang the Hippopotamus Song. Wet tg played our partner animal game, and the kids had a blast. We all just hung out for about an hour playing soccer and basketball. There were some kids playing with frisbees too. A few kids had some chalk or bubbles. Emily got a "sad face out of ten" for her flower chalk drawing, and Tori got 2/10. Some kids played with a rainbow parachute too. After a while we tried a craft and made animal visors. 

We went to a boutique/cafe called Papillon. We bought some more Haitian market items. Abby finally got her Creole tea cup/mug! After shopping we got some tropical smoothies. We took an "ice cream" picture for Pastor Jackie because you can't have a youth trip without an ice cream stop and smoothies are the closest thing to ice cream that we will get in Haiti. Emily finally got her chicken nuggets she wanted too!

The traffic today was pretty long, so our conversations were pretty interesting. We created the official TapTap Evacuation Guide in the case of a tropical storm or if we tipped over. We took a pit stop at a grocery store and bought some goodies. We came home to a hot authentic Haitian meal. We had fried chicken with rice and beans. After dinner, some of us went to the pool to cool off after the long hot day outside. Then we came back for team time. We're all super excited for our water truck day tomorrow!

Orevwa!

Emily and Abby

Alleluia Youth Team - Day 3 - KIDS KIDS KIDS!!!

Bonswa Zanmi yo, (Good Evening Friends)

     This morning some of us got up bright and early (Abby, Madi, Hailey and Kari) and cooked breakfast and made sandwiches for our team and the kids we served today.
     After breakfast we loaded the Tap Tap with all of our goods and headed to Le Phara's Orphanage to do a mini vacation bible school day. There we performed a skit based on the creation story, made play-dough, did a animal craft, watched animal capsules grow, danced with the kids and provided them a sandwich for lunch! Below we have attached some pictures of this fun experience.

     Once we returned to the guest house we all changed into our nice clothes to head to the house of sick and dying babies and children. When we arrived the sisters directed us to the toddler room. As soon as we entered the room each of the team members instantly found a child to love on as we were waiting for their dinner to be cooled down. We all got the opportunity to love on many children while we fed and interacted with them. This was an experience that touched all of our hearts and gave us a new perspective.
     Dinner was ready for us when we got to the guest house and we enjoyed our lasagna with a Hatian kick! After our meal we cooled down at the pool up the street, before we came back to the house to end our night.
Jezi renmen ou (Jesus loves you),

Abbi and Hailey

Alleluia Youth Team - Day 2 - Water Truck Day

Hello!

Day #2 of the Alleluia Youth Haiti Mission trip was a success! We started our day with an amazing breakfast cooked by some of the Healing Haiti staff. We then lathered up in sunscreen and bug spray for our day of distributing water. Here is a before picture of our day:

We had three stops on our water truck day with two tours in between our stops. Our first stop was outside Hope Church and was an eye-opening experience for us. We held children, filled water buckets, and helped the Haitian people carry then back to their homes. More pictures to be shared when we arrive home! After Stop #1, we had a tour of Hope Church and Hope School. These as well as Hope Clinic are established and ran by Healing Haiti. During our tour we got to visit the Innovation lab; which is a place that children can learn how to think critically, be creative, and problem solve on technology/resources provided to them in the lab. Like today, they were teaching them the importance of brushing their teeth! We then walked to Stop #2 and distributed water to another part of Citi Soleil. We held more children and continued the process of helping the Haitian people carry their water. On our second break we visited Fleri Farm and toured their fields. They grow hot peppers, coconuts, egg plant, sugar cane, papayas, lime trees, bananas, okra, cassava, and a few other things. We learned about the struggles of growing crops in the Haiti weather. At the end of the tour, we got to drink coconut water and eat the meat from the coconut. We then went to Stop #3 which was by the pier. It was the most chaotic stop of them all. Their was lots more kids and lots more water to distribute. After the water was distributed we went down to the pier and took this wonderful picture with some of our new zanmi's (friends). Here is that picture:

After the pier, we loaded back into the Tap Tap and traveled back to the guest house. Here is our after picture:

We finished our day with some showers, a wonderful meal, pray partner time, and group time. We also planned our VBS day for tomorrow, which I am sure you will hear about in tomorrows blog post. Overall, it was a day we will never forget. We can not wait to share more with you when we return home.

Thank you so much for the support you have shown our group! Bondye Beni ou (God bless you)!

Orevwa (Goodbye),

Madi and Tori :)

Alleluia Youth Team - Day 1 - Arrived!

We made it! After a long, exhausting day of travel, we were greeted by our Haitian brothers and sisters and enjoyed a delicious meal of Haitian tacos.  It is very hot, but we are loving every minute and looking forward to what God has in store for our team this week.  This team is awesome!