EBC Haiti - Day 4

EBC Haiti - Day 4
We woke this morning, enjoyed our team breakfast, had our team devotion and prayer time and then loaded up our water bottles and snacks for the day ahead.  All aboard the tap tap .... we were off.  Our first stop was at Citi Soleil stop 26 for water truck stop.  We were able to mingle with the locals on the pier, watching the children try to catch the gulls to eat.  We then walked into the heart of the village to assist with delivering the water, hold and love the young children, and observe the minimalistic dwellings these people live within.  It is amazing to see the smiles of the children and how they run to us to be held and engage with them.  We don’t speak their language (French/creole), but a smile, a hug, a loving touch - appear to be universal language.
Our 2nd stop for the day was a visit to Fleri farm which is a fairly new addition to the Healing Haiti organization’s efforts to create sustainable, supporting, value-add  stimulation for the Haitian economy.
Stop 3 was at Hope Church and School and what will also soon be the site of the new Hope Clinic.  This place was a literal garbage pile only a few years ago.  The builders had to dig down 60 feet in some areas to get to the “ground” .  Our Haitian guide, Valerie, was so appreciative of the efforts and God’s hand in providing this wonderful facility for them.
Stop 4 was only a block down the road at the Four Coffins water stop.  This stop was even more impoverished than Stop 26, which is hard to describe.  Barely clothed children, primal dwellings, aggressive need for the thing that we may take most for granted - water!  Yet, in each and every child you can sense the hope and internal joy they possess despite their impoverished surroundings.  Their smiles - bright.  Their eyes - innocent, kind, loving.  There was a small group of children taking a cup and pouring it over their heads and laughing and dancing and soaking in the joy - the water of life.
After the final water stop, we returned to the guesthouse for a 15 minute break to hose off, change our clothing and return to the tap tap for our journey to the Croatian Relief orphanage.  We were able to spend an hour playing in the courtyard with the children.  Upon seeing us, they welcomed us with a song, “This is the Day that the Lord Has Made”... “i will rejoice and be glad in it”.  And rejoice they did.  We played jump rope, soccer, basketball, bubbles, bouncy ball, catch and some just observed and we were able to meet them where they were.  These children appeared to be a little bit older than the previous orphanage we visited on Day 2 of our trip - i would guess they were 7+ years old ??
We returned to our guesthouse, feeling truly tired and yet full hearts from sharing God’s Love with so many precious lives.
To unwind, cool off, and decompress we walked to the nearby hotel pool for an hour of laughs, floating and sharing our experiences before returning to the guesthouse for our evening activities.  Dinner at 5PM, dishes, devotion, prayer, “word of the day” team share and our favorite part - the slideshow!  :). Today our leaders captured 400 pictures to recap our day.   Very hard to choose just one to share with today’s blog as they all speak volumes to us.
We now take time to give thanks, reflect and ready ourselves for our venture tomorrow.