Home at Last!

We all made it safely to GR this afternoon! Even though our team was split into two separate flights, we ended up arriving within 15 minutes of each other. Thank you for all of your prayers!!

Making the most of it...

We're stuck in the airport in Miami overnight... yuck. We all had tents and sleeping bags along with us because we had planned on sleeping in the mountains overnight Saturday to go to church there in the morning, but that never happened. Since we had all our camping stuff, and we had to spend the night in the airport, we found a good spot to sleep in and set up our tents. We have a 10'x14' tent set up by a wall next to a baggage claim thing. About all of the workers have walked past and laughed at us. Lots of people walked past too and were taking pictures. Our guess is that we are going to end up on YouTube or the news or AFV or something like that. That would be so cool!! Here is a picture of us tenting it...



(P.S. This is Tori and Chad and John updating this crazy thing just so you know that!! :))

Newest update

Most of the Haiti team will be flying to GR tomorrow via Chicago at 2:00pm
Flight 4006 American.

Aaron Bonk, and The Gates family will be flying into GR tomorrow via Dallas at 3:05pm
Flight 3693 American

Thanks to everyone who prayed for them today.

Haiti team

Update for the Haiti team. Flights from Miami to Chicago and Chicago to GR
Have been cancelled. Will let you know anything more when I hear it. I was able to call Haiti and let them know before they boarded their flight.

Last Full Day

For our last full day here, we tackled the remaining jobs. Once again, this primarily involved the medical clinic and Aline's house. The painting, chair setup, and cleanup for the medical clinic is now complete. Woo hoo! For Aline's house, the remaining rafters were put up. The rest of this project will be completed by a group of people from the village. We also put up a basketball hoop for the the Livesays and countless others to enjoy. Finally, we installed a water heater in the house that we are staying in. There's a funny story for that job, but we'll save that for Nate to tell sometime. :)

At night, we were able to attend part of a revival service at a church in the village. This was awesome. They had a similar service last night as well. The churches in the area are holding revival meetings during the time of Mardi Gras, which is typically a dark time down here. These meetings go on for hours with all kinds of singing and preaching. The singing literally makes your ears ring and gives you goosebumps! Once again, we were able to witness authentic, heartfelt worship and it was humbling to be a part of it. John was also able to share a song and Rick shared a few words with the people. This was great way to round out the week!

This should be the last post until we are home tomorrow. We have had a great trip but we are looking forward to seeing our families. Our prayer request is for good weather and no delays!

Work and Fun in the Sun

On Monday, nearly everyone spent the morning working on the medical clinic. It's really starting to come together now. We weren't able to continue with the trusses on Aline's house because there was more cement work that needed to be done. A group of people from the village have been doing this part of the project. Hopefully, they will have this done by Tuesday so that the truss work can continue.

In the afternoon, we headed to the Wahoo Bay resort for some sun, snorkling, and a delicious dinner.

On Tuesday, we will be finishing up the medical clinic and Aline's house. Thank you again for your prayers! They are making a big difference!

Mountain Trek Pictures

Mountain Trek

(NOTE: We have had some internet connection difficulties, which is making it a challenge to update the blog and really hard to add pictures.)

Well, yesterday was a big day. Bright and early (a little after 6:00 a.m.), we drove to Barbencourt and got on mules for our two hour journey up the mountain to Bwa Dom. If there was no elevation change, it would be a three mile journey as the crow flies. With the change in elevation, it is about a 2000 foot climb. It was an absolutely beautiful morning with great visibility to...uh...see the donkey in front of you. :) Seriously, with the turn of your head, a large portion of the coastline was in view.

We arrived at Pastor Fritznel's house and were served a delicious breakfast. (By the way, Pastor Fritznel and others traveled down to bring the mules even brighter and earlier in the morning.) After breakfast, we headed to church. There was a wonderful time of praise and worship along with some special music from various church members. These Haitians really know how to worship the Lord--it was awesome.

Nate gave a brief message, which encouraged all of us to be the true body of Christ. In response, we spent time praying with each other. This included praying for those that were sick as well having all of the children gather for us to pray for. Finally, most of us traveled further up the moutain to visit five people who were sick and needed prayer. After lunch, we headed back down the mountain. It was a day to remember for all of us.

Rest of the Day

In the late afternoon, we went to market. There are no pictures to show because it is not advisable to take any there. The market is indescribable unless you've been there; but suffice it to say that this place really illustrates the poverty of the country. Just outside the market is Charcoal Beach. We then went to the Cabaret Berci Orphanage to spend some time with the kids there. Finally, we wrapped up the day with an authentic Haitian meal (complete with goat).

Early tomorrow morning, we will be heading up the mountain on donkeys
to go to church there. (We are not staying overnight as originally planned, but we are looking forward to a great time of worship.)

Pastors Training

Rick and Nate led Pastor's training this morning. There was around
fifty pastors that attended. Rick gave his testimony of how he was led
to become a pastor. This transitioned into a message on discipleship and
reaching out to identify people whom God is calling to spread the
gospel.

We weren't really sure how they were accepting the message when
suddenly a pastor spoke from his heart. He said that there was a
conflict between the pastors, and if the pastors were in conflict with
each one another, then they wouldn't be able to disciple others. If they are
going to lead others to repentance, then they would first need to repent themselves. All of the men knelt on the floor, put there arms
around each other, and prayed for repentance and revival with tears.

Then, Nate spoke and asked for repentance because, as missionaries, we have made the Haitians rely on us instead of discipling them and sending
them out. He then exhorted the men to identify two people
in their congregations and disciple them for one year. Then at
pastor's training in February of 2009, we will have a commissioning
service for 100 new missionaries. They were very excited about this
and most willingly agreed to this challenge. One pastor then stood up
with tears and said he had never heard a missionary say this and he was
convicted that they were the ones that needed to go out and preach the
gospel--they should not rely on foreign missionaries, which was the
point of the day. At the end, they all shared in time of heartfelt
prayer. It was an awesome, Spirit-filled day.

More Work Projects

Today we began putting a roof on Aline's house. Aain, she is the head cook at Lifeline. This is going to be a challenging project because the blocked walls are difficult to work with. But at the end of the day, we had three trusses up, which cover about half of the house. We will resume this on Monday. The rest of the team continued working on the medical clinic.

Work Day

Today began with devotions at the prayer rock; it was the perfect start for the day. Then we got to see the kids in school (the one on the grounds of the mission compound) and, best of all, to hear them sing!

We then went to work on various projects. The main emphasis was on the medical clinic. There was electrical work, plumbing, painting (even Isaac and Noah helped out), chairs to put together, and equipment/supplies to sort and organize (with Jenn giving direction). Another group went to a school in the village to take child information (height, weight, etc.) for potential sponsorship. Other tasks included putting together some baby furniture for the Livesays, unloading a truck with supplies, troubleshooting a solar power issue, etc.

There was a bit of excitement when a garbage burn pile got a little out of control. But Lance was quick to respond with a big bucket of water. We are thankful that it didn't spread because it was close to the buildings and everything is very dry. There was also some excitement in the medical clinic when a mouse was running around. Debbie took a great whack at it but it somehow survived; then it ran around the feet of some screaming girls and finally got away. :)

In the evening, we enjoyed a nice sunset, a delicious dinner cooked up by Tara, some singing at the cross, and more hanging out together. The weather was beautiful today (sounds like it is much nicer than back at home :).

Tommorrow, the current plan is to work in the village on Aline's house (the head cook here at the mission). It was a treat to tell her about it tonight and to pray with her. Thanks again for your continued prayers!

Up at the Cross

Last night, we went up the hill to the cross--always a fun thing to do.