Revealing

Revealing. Today God removed a blindfold from my eyes. We visited Cite Soleil and distributed water to the people there. Cite Soleil is a city in Haiti that lives in great poverty. It was astonishing to see all the people there just simply get water and all the little kids who were just seeking attention and love.

We live in a society that has all essential needs that we acquire and we get without even having to ask. While we go into our kitchen to get a glass of water or snuggle with our family on the couch watching a movie, the Haitian people not only in Cite Soleil but all over Haiti are considered lucky to even get food and attention each day.

We went to three water stops through the course of the day; getting off each one of them was a completely different adventure, but each time we got off there were little kids surrounding us with their arms raised in the air. I always immediately had a child in my arms from the age of one to seven, maybe even older.

Going back to Kelly’s blog yesterday where she said her word was simple. The Haitians were all so happy to just see us and for us to just simply hold them and help them grow. That makes me think about how difficult Americans make life. How amazing it is to see the happiness in all these kids even with the bare minimum. They don’t fret about the little things because they don’t have the opportunity to have the stuff we do, yet they are still content and make a good life out of what they have.

Something that really stuck out to me was walking down a pier looking on to the ocean and see how beautiful it was and then looking back at the city and my heart dropping.  For me this is the perfect metaphor for life. All of us see the beauty of the world and everything we want to see, but that is only a small portion of reality. We all need to take the time to let God remove that blindfold from our eyes and look out at the rest of the world; to see all the imperfections. Nothing and no one is ever going to be perfect no matter how hard we try, but with every imperfection we uncover and accept there is a new awareness revealed.

It took today seeing all the happiness of the people throughout Cite Soleil and what they made of life even though they only had what we consider the bare minimum for me to realize; maybe we are the ones who lack happiness because of everything we materialize and the fact that we need to take a step back and thank God for the clean water and comfort we get from people every day. Beni Sousa Letenel.

Team Member Maddie

Simple.

Simple.
If I have to use one word to describe our day, the word I come up with is "simple."  Not in the sense that it was an easy or unimportant day, but in the sense that all that was asked of us was to simply be present. Simply smile.  Simply love.

Today our team of 13 spent the morning playing with children at an orphanage.  Their playground consisted of a tire swing, small merry-go-round and slide, and a little playset. However, they were much more interested in reaching up to be held, holding our hands, smiling, simply being recognized as a beloved child of God.  None of them spoke English, and most of us don't speak Creole, but the universal language of simply caring was what was spoken.

One little girl who appeared to be about 3 years old was standing off to the side.  No smiles.  Very serious look on her face.  Not interested in playing.  She started whimpering and tears started forming.  I reached my arms out to her and she came to me.  I held her and she put her head on my shoulder.  I found a quiet shady area, and as I stood there I found myself instinctively rocking back and forth.  She coughed a few times, and I heard a rattle in her chest as she was breathing.  Her eyelids started to get heavy and eventually closed.  I continued rocking her as she slept and I watched my team as they interacted with all of the other children.  It was pretty simple.  All we were doing was being present and loving these kids the best way we knew how.  I looked down at the child I was holding who was sleeping in my arms and I was surprised at the tears that started forming in my eyes and the lump in my throat.  All I could think of is that every child deserves to be held and rocked -- particularly when they aren't feeling well -- and if that is the one thing that I could do for her, then I would gladly do that until my arms fell off.  Pretty simple.

We also spent some time interacting with children with special needs.  We were outside with no play area whatsoever.  But they all had smiles on their faces as we sang and clapped to songs and giggled as we gave them rides in wheelchairs.  One little boy in a wheelchair would motion to us, and as we would lean our heads in to him to see what he wanted, he would put his little hands on either side of our face and give us a kiss.  Wow.  These beautiful children were singing praises to God and showing US how to love the only way they knew how.
Simple, right?  Not really - in fact I really don't think there are words for that.

Bondye Beniou!

Kelly Branch

We are HERE and ready to go!

Bon Jour from Haiti!

It feels so good to be here.  We had a wonderfully smooth travel day and are thankful that all of our 13 donation suitcases and personal luggage arrived safely too.

Our spirits are high and we are ready to start our week of service.

Here we are God use us! This morning we are off to serve at the Home for sick and dying babies and Dare's Home for special needs children.  This afternoon we will witness hope for Haitians at the Apparent Project through job creation.

More to come.....

Day 6: God's Plan

Another beautiful day of serving in Haiti! We started the day off on a rough note with three of our team members not feeling their best. Kathy and Raena stayed back at the guesthouse to care for our other members of our team as the remaining 8 of us headed off to Grace Village in Titanyen. Located in a city meaning “less than nothing”, Grace Village truly showed the locals that they were so much more than the name of their city. A long term missionary showed us around the grounds where we saw their gardens, family style homes, school, library, clinic, and kitchen. The family style homes provided the children with a family and gave them a sense of responsibility. The clinic has two doctors, who treat around 100 people during the days that they are open. It is an incredible blessing to a place with little access to health care. While touring the grounds we got to see the amazing view that Grace Village had since it is overlooking the city, mountains, and ocean. After the tour we visited our first elder who was currently living at Grace Village. The man had battled leprosy earlier in his life and had lost a leg, but that did not stop him from being filled with joy. As we cleaned his feet and put on lotion, we were helped by a young girl who had been living at Grace Village for only a week. She was wise beyond her years and truly had a heart full of compassion. She took up every opportunity to help serve our team while we were there.

We then left for Fleri to take a tour and see their cooking facility.  Fleri is a new restaurant who employs older orphans as a transition to integrate them into their community. Seeing how everything is made from the start made seeing the final product that we ate the previous night so much more impactful.

Following Fleri, we had the opportunity to visit and serve the other three elders of the day. All of the elders welcomed us into their humble homes with welcome arms no matter the conditions they were in. They made it very clear that their way of life was much different from ours seeing that the conditions of their homes did not cross their mind when welcoming us; they were simply glad to see and feel the love that we were going to provide them. When washing the elders feet, we overcame our own personal boundaries and were able to love them in a more intimate way. Along with that, we were able to worship alongside our Healing Haiti guys who played guitar and keyboard. We had the opportunity to lift them and their families up to God by prayer as we left each of their homes.

To end our day, we made a stop to the Mass Grave Memorial of the 2010 earthquake. The earthquake took the lives of an estimated 300,000 family members and loved ones largely due to the lack of knowledge on how to protect themselves during natural disasters. Some of our staff shared their personal experiences during the earthquake which made the event much more emotional instead of statistical like many textbooks today.

Although we wished our entire team could have participated in today’s events, we knew it gave others an opportunity to step out of their comfort zones to serve in new ways. While many circumstances we endured were difficult to understand, it allowed us to see the world through God’s eyes and to change our own perspectives.

-       Jordan, Sydney & Annie

Day 5: Wrecked but filled

This morning our team woke up at 5:30am to attend a local church called “Church on the Rock”.  My gosh was it so powerful to witness their worship.  Although it’s different than what we do in the states, the beauty is that we all worship the same God.  The fact that we were all in the same building worshipping the same God even in different languages, it was all to give God the Glory.  After church we walked back to the guest house to have breakfast with the team and get prepared for another day of water truck delivery. 

“What if God really is at work in every moment, in every place?  What if your job is just to jump in?  What if your job is just to figure it out from one moment to the next, how to stay in the flow, how to keep yourself aware and submitted to Gods spirit so that rivers of living water flow through you to the core of your being”- John Ortberg

As we headed out on another water truck delivery day in Cite Soleil, these thoughts run through my head.  To be in the moment and to see the Haitian people through the eyes of God and to be reminded of how similar we all are. Not just the basic need of water, but of being loved. So as we head out again with three stops, we ride in the tap tap as a group going over our strategy of filling buckets, staying in line, helping to carry buckets to homes (these are walls/roof of galvanized steel with dirt floors) we think we have this down to make the process move faster.  However, we find out every stop is different.  Some stops have many more children who are needing and wanting to be loved and some stops have more of a need to help carry buckets.  At no point are we without buckets to carry and children to love.  When people ask “what did you do in Haiti” it will be hard to put into words these water truck days of bringing water to people who have no running water.  How do you describe the hugs, smiles, and love from the children…all I can say is that we are all uniquely and wonderfully made and loved by God the Father.

At our first stop, we got out of the tap tap (our bus) and kids were all around excited to be picked up and loved.  I look over and I saw another team member holding a little infant and instantly started beating faster.  Here is the “big” sister, about the age of 5, carrying her little baby brother around who looked to be about 1 month old, maybe.  I could hear his little cry that to me sounded scared and needing comfort.  I myself have kiddos, the youngest being 5 months old so this really hit home for me.  I walked over and asked to take this precious little baby and as soon as I took him, his little cry stopped.  I just held him, comforted and loved him.  It was so hard for me to give him back.  This broke my heart so much.  When it was time to head to the next stop, it was really tough on me, honestly, I broke down and just wept thinking about this little maybe 5 year old taking care of her little newborn brother.  Thinking to myself “how will he get his next meal?  Who’s going to comfort him?  What if his sister drops him?”  These are just a few of the things that wrecked my heart.  I wanted to bring him home with me.  On a beautiful and heart filling note, at one of our stops this child maybe around 4-5 came up to me with his arms just open desperate for me to pick him up and hold him.  After I picked him up, he wrapped his arms around my neck and placed his head tucked into my shoulder and stayed there.  Its such a heartbreaking and heartwarming feeling that none of us can really ever explain, it can only be experienced and felt from your own heart.  This has put such a different perspective in our minds and hearts, how precious water is to these families and how to be even more present with our own children and families. 

To end the day we took a tap tap ride up the mountain to Fleri for pizza.  Wow, who would think that you would have the best pizza ever in Haiti!! We finally got back…9:15 time for BED!

-       Leah & Steph