DAY FOUR | God's Grace

This morning with open hearts we headed to Titanyen for another day of doing God's work and looking forward to the lessons he had in store for us - and what a positive day it was!  With smiles we toured Grace Village - witnessing first hand the impact Healing Haiti has had on this little village.  Our hearts were full watching the children play in the courtyard, and taking in the view from the Clinic balcony.  

With great joy we were able to have some time with one of the Grace kindergarten classes - excitement was high, children's laughter was higher, and the blessings each of us felt simply being present in that moment with them was even higher!  

God's holy spirit and love was everywhere as we visited our Elders.  We were honored when they invited us into their homes - introducing their families to us with such pride, along with thanking us for lifting them up in prayer.  It was such a pleasure singing worship praise songs - in English and hearing their voices join ours in Creole.   

Fleri in Creole means to flourish - and how rewarding it is to see how much God's love has flourished in this gorgeous place.   I can't wait to see what He has in store for ALL of us.

lessons  |  flourish  |  present  |  praise  |  positive  |  holy  |  rewarding  |  full 

(Kristi)

Alleluia Healing Haiti Team Day 3

This day touched my heart in a special way. We were able to go to a special needs orphanage and play with the kids. During this trip, it has been really difficult for me to interact with people because of the language barrier. Today, I was able to find a way to communicate with the kids, even though I wasn't speaking in a way they would understand. I learned how to talk to them without actually using my words, and that was a special moment for me.  My Word for the Day went along with the way we played with them, language. Showing a little girl how to play hopscotch was definitely a challenge, but I shortly learned, completely doable. I watched as she not only taught other kids how to play, but managed to draw one herself. Stepping back and watching her have fun and laugh at my game, was the moment that stuck with me. For that moment she was completely joyful. 

Shannon said something in our devotional tonight that especially stuck with me. She said that the purpose of us being here isn't to fix everything in Haiti, but to bring and share joy and love with others. We are here to be Jesus's hand and feet, and to serve as he would. I think that today we did just that. I am so proud to be here to serve and love the people of Haiti. As Randall said today, there is no place I would rather be right now. 

-Becca

Following the special needs orphanage, we went to the Home for sick and dying babies. This touched not only mine, but everyone else's heart that served there. As soon as we got there, the babies large eyes opened wide in excitement that we arrived. While there, we saw a 10 week old baby with a cleft lip. Shannon right away said that she hoped this baby was loved and cared for. Only about 10 minutes later, the mother of this beautiful baby came down and was so proud to call this baby hers! We fed the babies there and showed them God's love just by holding and tickling them. Their eyes were constantly twinkling. Troy's word of the day was community; this really showed how it does take a village to raise a child. I was honored to get the chance today to love on these beautiful babies and maybe we changed something in the life of just one of these babies.

-Nikki

    When I was in 10th grade I remember hearing a line in Brooke Fraser's rendition of "Hosanna" that stuck out to me

    "Break my heart for what breaks Yours"

    But more recently I wondered, "Is that biblical? Does God desire for our hearts to be broken for the same things that break the heart of Jesus?"

Psalms 51:17 says

    My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.

    Today, I am so thankful for the assurance of God's Word in that verse because I feel as though my heart is broken in the best way. I am also very thankful for the opportunity to serve the people of Cite Soleil by helping to provide water here on Day 2, Water Truck day. So many tears and smiles and teary smiles were shared here today that I know in my heart that I will remember these moments forever.

    I can't speak for anyone else but I know that if I'm honest, many times in the past I have asked myself "Where is Jesus?" I mean, I know He is in the hearts of so many and working in and through all things but "Where is He right now?"

    I may not know exactly where God is at all times (and thankfully not because that would be a lot to know) but I do know one thing. 

Christ is here in Cite Soleil, Haiti. 

When you're eating breakfast with family, He is there. 

When you're touring a school built in His name, He is there.

When you are dancing and splashing with more family, He is there. 

When you're praising His name on a pier, He is there. 

When you are walking on land subdued for the purpose of bringing food to His people, He is there. 

    This evening we each chose a Word of the Day to sum it all up. Here's a little sum-up of sum-ups.

    We are all so very thankful for God's love shown in and through His people. We are also thankful that He empowers every one of His children so that they may embody exactly who they need to be in each moment. We are in awe of His beauty, woven into the reality that He sets forth; one that we are honored to experience. And although sometimes it may be hard, we thank God for the pivots.

-Randall

 Alleluia! Healing Haiti Team Arrival Day - We are here!

The anticipation for this journey has been a bit different for each of us. God knit this team together and chose us and this week, and we are READY! And we are ready with arm and eyes wide open to serve and love this week! In the words of Bob Goff and our evening devotion, "Love is never stationary. In the end, love just doesn't keep thinking about it or keep planning for it. Simply put: love does."   We are READY to do.

-Shannon

Day Seven | Until Next Time

Our time has finally come to an end here in Haiti. 

Today we spent the day worshiping, reminiscing and enjoying our last moments together. 

 

We had our final breakfast together and then headed to Rendez-Vous Christ Church. It was such an amazing experience. Rendez-Vous Church began with a small group of young adults meeting in a room at Haiti Teen Challenge with a dream of planting a church to reach the unchurched. They launched the church in 2016 with about 40 people and three months later they needed to expand. It has grown to 1,300 people.

Revndez-Vous Church has a wonderful blend of styles. The songs alternated between Creole and English. They even had headsets for us to hear the translation of the message. The music filled us up and lifted us up. Hands raised up high as we worshiped together and sang at the top of our lungs. 

Pastor Julio Volcy was giving a sermon series called “Nothing Divides Like Politics.” With a lot of unrest happening in Haiti, this was a very bold topic to be touching on. The message was also incredibly applicable to us as well. His main message was about when we choose to carry someone’s burden, what once divided us diminishes. He reminded that we need to choose to love our enemies and love one another. No matter how different they are. We were encouraged by the message and the music. What a wonderful way to start our week.  

We then went back home to begin packing up all our things. We gathered for lunch and went around and shared the one word that summed up our time here in Haiti. Words that came from our team were: Love, Changed, Gift, Relationship, Refreshing, Remember, Prayer, Grateful, Holy, New, Honored, Simplicity, Blessed and Peace. Our team was emotional as we all shared how this trip has moved us. We’re a family and this experience bonded us forever. 

Our time here in Haiti had us go deep into what God was doing in our lives. And we also wanted to celebrate our time here. We decided to go to the Elite Hotel and swim in the pool and enjoy these last moments together. We played pool games, card games and talked more about what amazing work God has done during this week. 

A trip that was planned a year ago, and seemed so far away, and was uncertain during the time of Covid, has now come and gone. Every moment seemed so bitter sweet as we realized it would be the last time we would experience this together. 

We ended the evening with dancing and games. Kat and Katie organized a bean bag tournament. And then we finished our evening with salsa dancing taught by Jean (who is the Director in Haiti that we met earlier this week). We laughed really hard as we learned new moves and even how to dip. There may have even been some crashes. :)

Our scripture for our time here helped us see where the fruits of the Spirit were growing. Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” 

We each have felt those moments of the Spirit moving through us. Moments of joy with laughter. Moments of peace with stillness in the chaos. Moments of gentleness as we cared for children and the elderly. Moments of faithfulness as we followed what the Lord asked of us to do each day. 

Christ had gone before us as he prepared his plans for us in Haiti and Christ goes behind us as he moves us to the next thing that he is calling us to do. 

It was a privilege to document our time here in Haiti and share our experiences with you. 

Until next time…

Vanessa Kimball

Day Six | Feels Like Home

It’s hard to believe our week is coming to an end. Our week in Haiti has gone by quickly, yet we feel like we’ve been here longer as things slowly become more familiar and friendships start to form. The streets no longer seem new to us, but more familiar. We are even starting to recognize how to get back home. It’s starting to feel like home. 

Today was our final day of serving. 

We made our way to Titanyen to visit Grace Church. Grace Church is part of Healing Haiti’s Grace Village. They wanted to offer a place of worship for the children at Grace Village, but God had a different plan in mind. And they opened up Grace Church for anyone in the community to come and join.

Once we arrived, we organized stations for the kids to explore. We offered crafts, colored hearts and had a sticker tattoo station. It was wonderful to sit alongside the kids as we created art together. We performed our skit about Peter again and also led the children in song – we even fit in some “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.” That always turns up the energy in the room. Smith helped us translate our skit and some of our songs.

Afterwards we went up the Matheux mountains in Haiti to go on a hike. After a very steep climb up the mountain in the Tap Tap, and a rugged walk to the top, we arrived at the beautiful view on top of the mountain. We took in the majesty of the ocean, the mountains and community around us. 

We then made our way back down to Grace Village where we created another opportunity for the kids to play new games. We brought out chalk, jump ropes, a giant parachute and music. During our time together we had lots of laughter and dancing. There were so many moments of hugging and embracing each other as we enjoyed our time together.

We then made our way to Fleri for a late lunch where we ordered pizza. Fleri serves up a fresh and exciting menu in the heart of Titanyen. We enjoyed Street Taco pizza, BBQ Chicken pizza, Pork pizza, and Pickles & Pepperoni pizza. All were amazing to taste and enjoy as the team celebrated a wonderful week in Haiti. 

We then made our drive home for the day. We all piled in the Tap Tap and went through the busy streets of Haiti with the loud noises, harsh honking, hard braking and accelerating, dirt flying and wind whipping around. But this time, for the first time, we all closed our eyes and rested. The noises of our loud drive still surrounded us, but it was still and quiet around us as we all took time to rest. It all started to feel like home.

The last thing we needed to do was go to the airport to take our Covid test to be cleared to fly back to the U.S. This was something our team uneasy about at times, because if someone did test positive, they’d need to stay back and quarantine for 2 weeks. The unknowns always stir up anxiety. But we prayed for God’s peace and that we would trust in him to protect us. All of our tests came back negative. We were so relieved and thrilled that our prayers were answered. 

That evening we gathered for circle time again to reflect together. Some of us shared testimonies of how God is working in our lives. Everyone shared their Word of the Day. Words ranged from: Mountains, Thankful, Familiar, Sweet, Comfort and Flourish. 

Tomorrow will be our last day to take in the beauty of Haiti – our new home away from home.

Day Five | God's Goodness

Our God is such a good God.

Today the team started the morning really early. 6:00 AM EARLY! We all visited the local church called Church on the Rock. This church offers a 6AM service every week day. We experienced the vibrant and loud sounds of worship. Our Haitian brothers and sisters walked around as they sang, moving to the sounds of the music and praising God. They also took pauses in between their praises to kneel on the ground and pray. We were so curious and excited to worship alongside them.

We were fully immersed in the experience with no understanding of what was exactly being said. Words that did stand out to us were Hallelujah, Jezi (Jesus) and Gloria. But during the middle of the Pastor's preaching, the Pastor started saying words in English. Talking about how the Good Lord is our Shepherd, he is our provider and we lack nothing. That Jesus will never leave us and that we praise God for our day.

Our team began to throw our hands up, clap, and shout Amen as he spoke to us. Though language was a barrier, we still felt unified as we worshiped together and we also felt the warm and welcoming love of Jesus as the Pastor spoke to us. It was an amazing way to begin our day. The team left feeling vibrant and full of life. 

Afterwards the team had the opportunity to visit a couple of local companies that are bringing job opportunities through beautiful design, fashion, locally sourced materials and handmade goods. 

Our first stop was to Haiti Design Co. Their goal is to bring sustainable development through design, training, and job creation. What started out as a small workshop grew and evolved into a training and production center employing over 150 people. 

Jerry, who is one of the designers, gave us a tour of the studio and talked about the importance they have in their ethical work environment. He walked us through the 15 different Code of Ethics. The number one code of ethics being “N’ap priye chak jou” which means “We pray every day.” It’s the most important part of their work day. They don’t begin any work until they have prayed. 

Next we visited Deux Mains which means “Two Hands.” Deux Mains is an ethical fashion brand that offers sustainable sandals, bags and accessories. We got to meet Sarah who is the Vice President of the company. She shared about Julie, the founder of the company who came as a volunteer to help in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake. Her intentions were to give relief by handing out water and essentials for people. One woman commented to her “I don’t want water, I want a job.” That really struck Julie and she realized that the Haitian people wanted more than anything a way to provide for themselves and not be given a simple hand-out. 

That’s when she began working with Haitians to create sandals out of tires to find way to produce something to sell that is locally made in Haiti. What started off as a challenge soon grew into possibilities as they continued to refine their handmade goods into great, high-end qualities of work. It was incredibly inspiring to hear their stories.

We then toured the building and they shared how excited they were to finally see people coming back into their shop. It’s been over a year since they could experience that exciting energy of people shopping their store. One of the co-founders of the company mentioned to us that "it felt like her birthday today to see us." We felt the same. 

After we wrapped up at Deux Mains we then made a stop to Rebo Coffee to enjoy a drink and reflect on our day.

Our final trip of the day was a second visit to the Hospital for Sick and Dying Babies. The team was more familiar with the experience as we all got to visit the sweet faces we saw earlier in the week. We enjoyed feeding and taking the children outside again. Some of us try to get little smiles and giggles out of the babies, and sometime we see those moments happen. But for the most part we held, rocked and spoke words of encouragement and love over them.  We also enjoyed watching some older children take out small plastic trikes and ride down a ramp with big smiles and laughter. It was great fun for the smaller children to watch in wonder. Our goodbyes were still difficult, but the moments we were able to have together is what settled deep into our hearts.

During our team’s circle time we reflected on the last fruit of the spirit which is “self-control.” A verse Kat shared with the group really summed up what God is calling us to do. 2 Peter 1:5-7 “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith GOODNESS; and to goodness, KNOWLEDGE; and to knowledge, SELF-CONTROL; and to self-control, PERSERVERANCE; and to perseverance, GODLINESS; and to godliness, MUTUAL AFFECTION; and to mutual affection, LOVE. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

With every interaction we have, with every opportunity to serve, with every moment of prayer – we are building up the qualities God is asking us to possess. It is in these moments that we are in the progressive process of becoming more like Jesus.