Friday, April 6, 2012

Haiti

I want to start by saying thank you to all of you who made my trip to Haiti a possibility. It was truly a humbling and life changing trip. Some of you might not know, but Tot was not able to come with me on the trip due to some circumstances that took place right before we left. This was a little bit of a bummer for me, but I was still very thankful that I was able to go.

I could talk forever about all the cool things that happened and all the things that I learned while in Haiti, but instead I will just layout the events for each day and provide pictures so you can get a glimpse of what we did. However, if you dont have the time to read everything below I will give you the cliff version of what your money helped provide in Haiti...In a nut shell we were able to build one home that allowed a long separated family to reunite; we built garden beds and planted gardens for a community of people that struggle to find any food at all on a daily basis; we poured our love into orphans every single night; and we cared for little Haitian special needs children. Thank you so much for providing the money to make all this happen. Trough your money Gods love, grace, and encouragement was poured out on the Haitian people. Please continue to pray for all those in Haiti; that they would hold fast to the truth of the Gospel and the hope that it provides! Love you guys!

Here are some pictures of the orphans that we got to hang out with every night!




















Sunday: Our team headed up the mountain with to worship with a church in the village called Calabasse. This is the same city where we would building the house for Mr. And Mrs. Masalese. The worship service was beautiful, even though I couldn't understand a single word. It is amazing how hearing people worship in another tongue makes you realize the greatness of our God. After church we spent the rest of the day organizing supplies(toothbrushes, soap, socks, tuna, baby stuff, etc) that we would be giving away later in the week.




















Monday: On Monday our group split into two smaller groups; one going to the ocean to help set up a camp, the other to the mountains to help build a home. I went with the home building group. We mixed a ton of cement the old fashioned way, moved a house worth of cinder blocks, wheel barreled sand down a hill, and did whatever else required a ton of sweat and minimal skill.




















Tuesday: On Tuesday a few of us returned to the Masalese's home to continue construction. The rest of the went to a special needs camp called Wings of Hope. There they poured there hearts into the men and women. The blessed the staff by helping them wash clothes, feed the men and women, play games, and mainly just poor out tons of love on the them.




















Wednesday: We all hoped in a bus and bumped our way on a 3 hour bus ride to a place called Double Harvest. This place was absolutely amazing. They have invested over 30 years in the land of Haiti. Their facility included huge crops of veggies as far as the eye could see, thousands of egg laying chickens, fish farms, medical facilities and so much more. We were there to assemble raised garden beds for a desert city called Canez. We spent all day carrying bags of dirt, cutting wood, drilling screws and stapling fabric. It was definitely one of my favorite days.




















Thursday: We made the long trip to the very dry and terribly poor city of Canez. And even though their land was dry, their hearts were not...I have never felt so much joy in a place in my life. In Canez we put together the garden beds we made the day before and installed a drip watering system for the plants. Many of you might not know, but I love gardening, so this was my favorite day by far. Not just because I got to get my garden fix, but because of the joy these people had in what seemed to be the lowest of circumstances. It was a beautiful place.




















Friday: This was our last day in Haiti, so all of us loaded up and went to see the house that we had been working on. The Haitian construction crew had almost completely finished everything. The only thing they lacked was the concrete floor. As a house warming gift our team brought Mr. Masalese a rocking chair. It was so cool to see him sitting in in on his front porch with a huge smile on his face. The reason he was so happy, he told us, was because all his children had to move away after the earthquake, but now that he had a home they could come back home. Beautiful! As we left we prayed for him and his new home, hugged all our Haitian friends goodbye, and went back to get everything ready for the trip home.