(July 27, 2012)
Apparently I was a very restless sleeper last night. I slept-walked out to the kitchen and Mom had to come get me. I was having some type of dream. I felt rested when I woke up, though. I got up a little later than usual, around 6:45 a.m.
After I cleaned up, I went on the roof with Mr. A and the twins to do devotions and pray over the compound. Psalm 127 was very applicable to all the children and families here as well as to the building of the church.
We went downstairs and visited a bit before our breakfast of pancakes and omelets. But before all that we had team devotions. I’m so sad that this was our last one! We broke up into groups of two for a special exercise. We wrote down one or two things on a sheet of paper that are holding us back from serving God radically. K and I went onto the back porch to talk and pray. Then we joined the rest of the group to destroy the papers.
After breakfast I chatted a bit with JC. He shared an amazing personal testimony. He was on the 3rd floor of the university building in Jacmel when the earthquake hit. He went out the window and survived without any injuries. Praise the Lord! Sadly, the man who sat next to him in class was crushed by the concrete. God has big plans for JC!
I did a bit of packing after breakfast. It feels good to give away so much stuff! Then we went outside to do VBS one more time with the children. I’ll miss them so much!
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| J and JC were such a tremendous help to us during the week. They really did a good job of keeping the kids under control. |
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| We gave out some more toys to the kids today. Apparently we are the first missions team who has ever brought toys for these children. They were thrilled with their little trinkets! |
We were going to go on our hike of the day, but decided to eat lunch first. We had soup with grilled cheese sandwiches. After lunch we left for the hike—our most challenging one yet. It was definitely strenuous, but I loved it and could have gone again.
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| Do you see that little trail snaking through the middle of the photo? That’s the trail we were on. The interesting part was maneuvering the steep trails with two or three children holding onto you. |
We climbed up to a church/school up on a mountain. The view of the surrounding mountains and the ocean was stunning. The natural beauty here in Haiti is abundant, despite the misconceptions.
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| This was the view from the mountaintop church. Isn’t it amazing? |
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| On our way back, I snapped this picture of the church (with the red roof on top) |
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| On our way back up to the compound, we met the lady in the above picture. More than half of her home lay in ruins due to the earthquake. She wasn’t there when US Aid came through building homes, and so she has lived in this tiny room as a single Mom with three children. |
After our hike we relaxed upstairs a bit. Mr. A played some songs on his guitar and ipod and some of us sang. After awhile, we fed the children. It would be wonderful to start a feeding program here. For some of these kids, the simple meal of rice and beans given to them here is the only meal they will have that day.
After that we all went to say goodbye to Mrs. F who was returning to the states. She is such a precious lady with a huge heart for the Haitian people. We will miss her a lot! We took some group photos by the new well as she was leaving.
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| Our family with Mrs. F. |
For dinner we had a feast of fried chicken, rice and beans, salad, French fries, and Haitian macaroni and cheese. Then we cleaned up for the movie night and helped set things up.
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| We used some of our white bed sheets and duct tape we had brought to make a movie screen. Watching a movie under the stars was lots of fun! |
Before and after the movie, Mr. A showed pictures from our trip and played some music. All the Haitians loved that, especially when they saw pictures of themselves. The movie attracted over 200 people! The “Jesus” movie really captured their attention.
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| I had a little guy sleep on my lap for about an hour before his Dad took him. |
Then another little girl sat on my lap for awhile. I had to get up and stretch a few times because I was getting stiff. After the movie, I held little D and danced before helping Mr. A pack things up.
We all went up on the roof for awhile to look at the stars. It was so cool and peaceful up there. I would have loved sleeping up there! After everyone had called or texted home with Mr. L’s phone, we went back downstairs.
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| I had to snap a picture of my shoes before I put them in the “leave in Haiti” bag. I don’t think the red Haitian dust completely left our bodies until about a week later! It was literally coming out of our ears by the end of the day. |
I was thankful to shower in the light before going to bed around 12:15 a.m. Hopefully I won’t sleep-walk tonight!
To be continued. . .
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