Kennebec Community Church - June 2nd 2017

Heartbroken, but yet so much joy. 

We started our day off at 6 AM by attending a worship service at Church on the Rock. It was powerful and humbling to be blessed to witness the expressive and dedicated faith that the Haitian people have for God. It was an excellent start to our day! It brought us so much joy to be able to witness their faith. 

Today was also an emotional day for our team. Torn between heart break and overwhelming joy... Today was our first and only water truck day. We delivered 12,000 gallons of clean drinking water to Cite Soilel, the poorest slum in our hemisphere. The joy is overwhelming because of the smiles and thankfulness... But the brokenness is deep knowing the depths of their circumstances. 

We want to do so much, yet we can't do anything. By partnering with Healing Haiti we are helping their mission and therefor helping and healing Haiti.. But our hearts crave more! We desire to be able to serve more and give more. 

"Father, we come to you and ask for your peace. We ask you to wrap us up in your comfort where we can trust that you will supply for the beautiful and precious people of Haiti. We know that you are God, we know that you know the depths of their despair and every need they have. You know them by name and you know their hearts because you are the Creator of all. We ask you Father to make your presence so apparent in their lives. Keep their faith strong. Keep them close to your heart. Thank you for blessing this team with the opportunity to love these people with all we have. Thank you God for breaking our hearts for what breaks yours. Our hearts are truly broken for our brothers & sisters in Christ here in Haiti. Please continue to pour out your love and compassion over them. We love you Father, thank you for watching over them and continuing to move mountains in their lives every single day. In Jesus name, Amen." 

Our words of the day were: Love, possibilities, reliance, blessing, Holy Spirit, supplier, thirsty, hands, hungry, humbly, stinkin', dedication, worship, and caring. 

~ Danika & Stephanie

Kennebec Community Church - June 1st 2017

Today was a relaxation, take-a-break sorta day for our team.

We were blessed to be able to visit Peace Cycle today first off. Peace Cycle is a business in Haiti that is recycling the plastic water bags, and turning them into truly beautiful things such as place mats, purses, wallets, and so much more! In Haiti, on average there are 15 MILLION of these bags used and trashed each day. This business is really doing something that God has already done for us. Like Peace Cycle, God has picked us up from the dirt, washed us clean, and transformed us into beautiful works of art with a purpose! We want to encourage you to check them out at www.peacecycle.com! 

Next we took a beautiful drive up the mountain, overlooking all of Port-Au-Prince. At the top we were able to spend time together as a team, and barter with some of the vendors. It was a great day to be able to be outside and just spend time together as a team. Our team, in only 4 short days, has already established a deep bond. We really consider ourselves like a family now... 

There were several words of the day that were very powerful, yet one resonated more then others; The word that was chosen the most was 'family'. Without a doubt, with Gods sufficient grace we have formed a family. A disfunctional, yet loving, uplifting, and forgiving family. With God as the center of all relationships, we have been able to serve one another in compassion and in love. What a joy it has been to share experiences, trials, emotions and sadness with such an amazing group of people. God has presented Himself through each and every individual on our team, and we have been blessed as a result. Our words of the day were family, perspective, persistent, passion, ingenuity, awe, craftsmanship, valuable, peace, pride, and commitment.  

We are SO blessed!

~Danika & Stephanie

Kennebec Community Church - May 31st 2017

Sometimes God's plan aren't our plans. That includes the planned daily agenda in Haiti...

Today we visited the Home for Sick & Dying Babies, Gertrudes (an orphange/home for disabled children), and Papillon and the Apparent Project. Since our team consists of 14 people, we all weren't able to go serve at once. Half of us went to minister at one place, half to the other. At first it seemed as though our plans for the day were all over the place, but God knew our needs and our hearts and had other plans for our team.

It was an emotional day for everyone. Between holding babies who are very sick and could die, to loving on kids with cerebral palsy... It was emotional. Our team felt tired and drained after our first stops, even though all we were doing was loving on children. Sometimes on these trips, its the most simple things that drain us. It drains us emotionally when our hearts are so broken for the people of Haiti and their circumstances. For the kids who are sick. For the disabled children. For the people who don't know the incredible love and forgiveness that Jesus Christ has to offer.


The Apparent Project and Papillon was inspiring. Job creation displayed in a beautiful way! Where local Haitians are empowered, employed, and educated all in the same place. One of our favorite aspects of Papillon is that the mothers are allowed to bring their children to free self-sustained child care, for ages new born to 3 years old. These mothers are allowed to be with their children throughout the day for breast feeding and to spend time with them. The beauty behind this is that these mothers no longer have to send their children to orphanages because they can't support them, but instead these families are given a second chance at providing for their families. Apparent project is a non-profit partnership with Papillon that educates these mothers, empowers them and gives them practical skills to make it in the real world. What a blessing it is to see these developing corporations bringing education jobs, and empowerment back to the people.

Our words of the day were: Created, innocent, loving, joy, uplifting, inspirational, humbling, good, sovereign, reason, unique, love, loved, and different.

~ Danika & Stephanie

Kennebec Community Church - May 30th 2017

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. 

Today is day two of our Haiti missions trip! At the end of the evening as we collect ourselves, our thoughts, our emotions, experiences, and see God moving in every which way; we breath in and take in all of what God is doing.  Which leads me to the significance of the phrase "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". Because we have the Holy spirit resinating inside of us, we behold the Holy Spirit and we are in tune with seeing and feeling God in real ways; in very practical ways, very simple ways. Through our acts of service, God is in turn blessing us with humility. We are blessed to see what God is doing through us. Seeing this in very raw, beautiful ways through the elders we served with tears in their eyes. Its never been so beautiful to wash someones feet and serve them in very basic ways. Just like Jesus Christ, we were able to wash feet today, sing to, and pray over the elderly. Such simple things but so powerful! Seeing them light up warms our hearts. Being obedient to God's call has never been so beautiful. God is doing a wonderful work in Haiti through us and what a joy it has been even on the very first day of service. 

As we dig into the day collectively, we are asked to choose one word that spoke to our hearts. For various reasons these words resinated with us: smooth, obedient, simplicity, uplifting, moving, privileged, remember, reality, practical, similar, compassion, smile, reaffirmation, and vision.

How beautiful and amazing it is to hear God speak to you loud and clear even in a place called Titanyen! Which is where we served today, which translates to 'little nothing'. But we are privileged to see what big things God is doing with not only this city, but this country, our hearts, and beyond. Making beauty from ashes, as He always does and will continue to do. 

~ Stephanie & Danika

Kennebec Community Church - Arrival Day - Monday, May 29th 2017

On God's Mission into Haiti

We want to thank our friends and family that will be following along with us this week in Haiti, but most importantly thank you all for your support and prayer. It is our honor to bring you all long with us through our serving, experiences, and the way God will move in our lives.

As we sit here under the star-filled Haiti sky, singing and worshiping the King of Kings, we can't help but think about how we are letting it echo.

"Let it echo, from this city
To the nations, the sound of praise
Let the windows of the heavens
Open wide and let it rain"

We are taking the love of Jesus from the little state of Maine, and letting it echo to the impoverished country of Haiti, with one mission - Love Jesus, love others, help others love Jesus! This next week we will be loving on the people of Haiti, serving them and meeting their basic needs such as delivering them fresh drinking water, or just loving on people and showing them compassion through simple acts of kindness.

We are excited and blessed to be able to serve on this team, spreading the love of Jesus Christ to Haiti.

~ Stephanie & Danika

Got a Little Crispy

How was church today for you? Could you hear the children sing? Because I can tell you, the children in Haiti, know. How. To. Sing.

Today was a full day of pure joy. We all woke up bright and early this morning either to watch the lovely sunrise, or take a run through Port-au-Prince.  The day started out nice and hot.  The whole team dressed up very nice for church at Grace Church in the city of Titanyen.  The service was beautiful.  It was two and a half hours long, but it was worth it all.  The first 45 minutes of the service was all worship. Every voice in the sanctuary was belting out the words to every song.  There was a section of kids in the center of the room with their hands raised, singing with passion.  It was a beautiful thunder of angelic voices.  You could pick out every child’s voice that sang freely. There was no fear.  

Many of the children we visited last Wednesday reunited with our team at the church service.  Lots of them fell asleep in our arms.  We also had the whole team go up on the stage to lead the song Holy Spirit all together.  Kara also gave a powerful message on four stages (that she used chairs to demonstrate on stage) of our faith and relationship with Christ. The first is coming to meet God, the next one is when we continue to learn about Jesus, the third was becoming fishers of men, and the last was baring fruit.  Her words not only impacted and inspired the Haitians, but also her team.  She has been such a blessing to all of us this week in countless ways.

After church this morning, the whole team hopped into the tap-tap, and drove up to Wahoo Beach.  We spent a majority of the afternoon cooling off in the ocean, entertained by rafts and trampolines on the water.  At one point, all 16 of us laid down in a circle on the trampoline, tanning under the sun… or so we thought.  Some of us applied the sunscreen, and others may have “forgotten”.  But it didn’t matter if you had or hadn’t, for all of us got a little crispy.  This Haitian sun is aggressive, I tell you. But sunburn didn’t take away any of the fun.  The sight from the beach was absolutely stunning. You could stand on large rocks and stare off at the endless ocean next to mountains reaching the clouds.  I couldn’t think of a better way to end the week.  

When we got back to the house, we settled down and dipped ourselves in sunburn cream.  We sat on the balcony and reflected our day as usual with pictures, words-of-the-day, and lovely worship.  This week has been so real, it’s just unreal.  There are no words to explain the experiences we’ve had.  Pictures, videos, and stories are only a taste of how Jesus moves through His people.  From holding the sick and diseased children whose smiles bring deep joy, to rubbing the tender feet of the well-lived elders.  They touched our hearts once we touched their faces.  The Lord moved our hearts once we opened our eyes to what He had in store.  Although garbage and broken down homes filled the streets, Haiti was unbelievably beautiful.  It’s what makes Haiti beautiful! When driving in the tap-tap, we would see the day-to-day life of so many Haitians for only a few seconds.  We would laugh with the girl who made her new bracelet, and cry with the boy who was malnourished and diseased with no doctor to see.  So many were oppressed by hell itself.  Yet with all the joy they overflowed with, it would be hard to tell.  The Holy Spirit is so alive in every part of this country.  No one knows how big the world is, until they actually see the whole world.  But do you know who does see the whole world? Our Heavenly Father.  He moves through every inch of the air.  A friend once told me that it’s easy to see God as an American idea.  But God is Haitian, Guatemalan, Ethiopian, Chinese, Brazilian, and all of the above.  The Holy Spirit is flowing through Haiti just as much as He is in the United States and everywhere else.  Yet He is so personal and close to each of us.  What a privilege it is to serve such a sovereign King.  Although this week has ended for us in Haiti, there is SO much more The Lord has has planned.  

It is only the beginning. 

Sincerely,

Allison Eide

Kara & Karen's Team - Day 6: Abundance of Sunshine

We are coming close to the end of our trip here in Haiti and I am incredibly amazed by how today was exactly what we needed after such a hectic, emotional, and chaotic week.  It’s silly though, as the way God works should really never surprise me.  I have seen how He works and this week, He has shown once again how we are just a small part of His plan, and only pawns in His game.  We are not running the show.  He is the teacher and we are the students.  

Today, we visited two orphanages.  After having seen several orphanages this week, we noticed a difference today.  Almost all of them have the littlest of resources available to their children, but the ones before today seemed to have a stronger sense of desperation and survival in the air.  We’ve struggled with not having enough arms to hold the children who were wanting/needing our love and with not being able to give them the physical things they needed to survive.  But one of the hardest things, was saying goodbye.  The feeling of making a child feel abandoned again in their lives was heartbreaking. 

The orphanages we visited today felt different.  There was more hope in the air, especially in the last one.  The children weren’t as starving for attention as in the others.  They seemed so much more content and eager to learn.  It just proved to me how much leadership and a little hard work can do.  Okay, a lot of hard work.  But still, it brings hope.  The man in charge at the second orphanage is also a pastor and he had such a sense of peace about him.  The children could definitely feel it and I could too, from the moment I stepped in those doors.  It was a great way to end the day.  Having the ability to see that we can make a difference and WILL continue to make a difference as the years go by.  We also were blessed with the gift of visiting the church that was located at the second orphanage.  We sang a song, said a prayer, and then walked around the room saying a prayer on the seats for the future church goers.  It was beautiful and the main reason why it felt so beautiful to me is because we were able to do all of this with the orphanage’s children right there with us.  They not only heard us praying for them and the people in their community, but they could feel God making changes right in front of them. That brings hope to the future generations of Haiti.

After our last orphanage visit, we went to a very special dinner at a restaurant that served delicious pizza (woohoo!), and then back to our guest house for some prayer and worship music.

All in all, a great day.  God knew what he was doing with this one. The whole week has been life-changing…and I’m not talking about the kid’s lives, but ours.

Hope everyone is well at home.  Sending you all love. (I am missing my kiddos so much and so am going to give them a special shout out now- also I have the computer so who is going to stop me? :-) — I can’t wait to see you D, T, & B and give you all extra hugs and kisses when I get home, love you so much. Sleep tight. xoxoxo)

Mikenzi