April 27, 2017

Hello Friends and Family,

We had an event filled day today. We went to Grace Village and toured the orphanage, school, library, and medical and dental clinic. There are 4 Healing Haiti volunteers at this site. All of the teachers, cooks, maintenance, doctors, nurses, etc are Haitians. This is a great organization that has really become the heartbeat of what Healing Haiti is and does. They teach and feed 350-400 students every day, and the children are so social, extremely respectful, and beautiful in every way. Recent new additions to Grace Village include a farm for growing fresh produce to feed the children/community, as well as a new bakery and restaurant that employ several local people and have also created small business opportunities for people to sell baked goods back in their neighborhoods. Next, we visited a man in his 20s who is bedridden and cared for by his mother. Our group helped position him a bit and prayed over him and his sweet mother who is literally keeping her baby alive. We also visited a sweet 76-year old lady who was so kind and gentle. We sang songs, washed her feet, and prayed over her for her family and their safety. We learned the disparity of healthcare is powerful…we are so blessed to have the healthcare that we have. Most of the world does not have it at all. Then, we went to the mass grave site where over 300,000 were buried after the 2010 earthquake. It is very powerful to consider what happened that day, all the dead, all those who lost their loved ones and how the ones left behind had no choice but to go on. These are resilient people! Our day concluded with a home-cooked Haitian dinner and an exciting trip to the local supermarket. Imagine 11 Caucasians and 1 "Blanco Noir" (African American) wandering around and giggling as if we’d never seen a grocery store before. Thank God for our Haitian friend who accompanied us. Thanks for all the prayers! We are all holding up well. God is good – all the time.